I like to start this by giving a big thanks fluxxay who always has the nicest things to say and by the way if it weren't for that last encouraging review on #11 this chap probably wouldn't exist at the moment. I really mean it. You always say the nicest things and it just makes me want to keep writing :)
Anyway gonna knock these out over the next few weeks and see about a part 3. I really hope you enjoy this one I've been pulling my hair out trying to find the right balance on everything. It's hard when my OCs emotions go way deeper then I could ever describe.
Anyway enjoy! And please leave a review that love helps me.
Oh one more thing you gotta love those moments when Sully gets pissed when someone fucks with Angel.
Chapter 12- Strays
Dragged down. Rubbing my face in the ground.
No time for the undecided.
I wanna know why I've always felt alone,
And I wanna love. Why am I untouchable?
Yeah, I'm gonna do it again!
Paralyzed. Nothing's getting through to me.
Hypnotized from all my surroundings.
"So what do you think happened after you left that place?" Sully asked referring to the base. He rubbed his knife down carefully with an old dirty rag. He kept his eyes glued to what he was doing avoiding eye contact with Angel.
They hadn't spoke to each other in hours, not since the last conversation ended with Angel not being able to come up with something to say to ease the open wounds she had made in the first place. No the music spoke for them better then they ever could to each other probably ever again.
Every time their thoughts became real through the loud guitars and emotional singing blasting out the car speakers, they'd tap their feet and maybe even sing a few of the words. It was ok like that almost normal. That was until Sully shattered the familiar melodies and comfortable understanding that neither one of them wanted to talk to each other. She believed he did it just out of spite.
"No idea," she replied calmly taking a pull off the cigarette she had clenched in her fingers at the sound of his voice. "Hell there could be nothing." She relaxed her grip on her smoke and the steering wheel. She gripped her bottle tightly. "It might just be a wasted trip."
"Huh." He shrugged dragging the blade across his thumb lightly. He gave a small smirk as it drew a faint trickle of blood. His face became numb as he wiped his finger clean and then the knife once more, he showed know sign of caring. She cocked her eyebrow at him hiding her orange eyes with a pair of shades. She brought the bottle to her lips taking a drink. As her lips puckered she set the bottle back between her legs replacing the cap tightly.
"You know," she began. "You never did tell me what happened to you and Sammy at the beginning."
"Of what?" He raised his eyebrows looking over at her with a downcast face.
"The outbreak jackass."
"Crashed my bike into a car. Impact slung me all the way over the damn thing . . . I was hurt but I didn't give a hit I was pissed . . . jumped up to kick the guy's ass that pulled out in front of me. Slung the door open and the bastard tried to eat me. I finally put two and two together that something was wrong . . . really wrong. I jumped in the car and went to where Sammy was working." He paused sleeving his knife. He closed his eyes leaning back in the seat kicking his feet up on the dash falling back into the memories. "Well everyone was cooped up in a shed at the construction site listening to what the emergency broadcasts where saying . . . we listened went home packed up a few things and headed to Atlanta. Shit hit the fan and we got out . . . End of story."
There was a long pause. Angel was left having nothing to say once again. So she just pulled something out of her ass like any other time. "You know . . . you're not that different from Daryl."
"What?" he yelled pushing up in the seat angrily. He sent her one of his famous dirty looks and she shrunk back a little. "I ain't no fucking inbred redneck!" He spit on the last word and Angel hid a smile with the top of her opened bottle. The only thing that kept her from laughing was the alcohol numbing her throat. She took a minute to let it settle before trying to talk again and waited for him to fall back into the seat once more.
"How did I abandon you?" she asked. He turned to her with sober eyes uncrossing his arms. Those sad eyes made her feel like a total bitch and she felt guilty for it. He looked away pulling out the CD case. He picked one and switched the CD in the player with the new one.
The poetic singing of Chad Gray blasted out the speakers with loud drumbeats and distorted guitars. "How bout this Angel?" He said with a fake smile acting like he had a great idea. "Lets go back to listening to music ok."
"Better pop in a Korn CD if you want to shut me," she retorted. "Mudvayne makes me question everything." She smiled trying to make him do the same. He grimaced instead.
"Too bad I don't want to hear them whining like a bunch of little bitches."
"Like they aren't?" she questioned loudly pointing at the CD player with an accusing finger. He sighed rubbing a hand down his face.
"Limp Bizkit it is." He switched the discs quickly and the deep bass it contained thumped the whole car in rhythm.
"I can work with that." She grinned and bobbed her head up and down to the beat getting caught in the moment the song had tucked away secretly.
(( I dare you to put on –Limp Bizkit_ Nookie- and play it with this next scene. Go ahead I'll wait . . . . . -_- . . . ok not waiting anymore ha.))
Angel slammed her foot down on the gas with a wicked smile cradling her lips. Sully grinned beside her pushing up in the seat. "Dirt road time!" she laughed loudly. She made a sharp turn onto a scenic route on a wide, sandy dirt road. Not once did the thought of easing off the gas ever cross her mind.
She drifted around the sharp, slick curves locking the wheels in the opposite direction the road turned. She pulled back just in time to catch the straight road before she ran off into the deep ditch.
"Wooh!" Sully chanted throwing his arms up laughing while fist pumping to the song that now blasted. All the while she sung louder she conquered each curve banging her head to the melody.
A roadblock jumped out as she made a hard right. "Shit!" she yelled as her heart jumped into her throat. She slammed on brakes turning the wheel and the car spun around before hitting the horde of walkers. She paused and looked in the rear view mirror at the crowd. She turned and Sully seemed unfazed.
"Hey check it," he said looking in his side mirror. "There's someone fighting them." She looked back to the rearview mirror seeing some of the rotting bodies dropping closer to the left side of the curve. Whoever the fighter was, was slicing heads off as they rolled out onto the ground. "They got a damn sword! Cool!"
"Think they need help?" Angel asked looking back to him.
"Maybe. There are enough corpses for everyone to carve up."
"Well then this is what we do." She threw the gear shift in reverse and slammed her foot on the gas. They both drew their pistols and leaned out the windows aiming backwards. They plowed through bodies and shot clear through heads spraying the car with a nice little blood splatter down the sides on the black paint of the car.
Angel slammed on brakes when she got some distance and caught a little attention from the survivors. "It's a fucking chick!" Sully exclaimed seeing the fighter trying to get out of their way. He scratched the side of his head with the barrel of his gun with a shocked expression on his face.
"Ain't hard to believe." She threw the car back into drive and kicked up dirt as she slammed the gas. She drove through any survivors from the first run and new ones that hadn't had the chance to taste the bumper on her car. Both of them still shot reloading when it was possible.
She backed up again. "Get in the back seat," she ordered Sully. He complied jumping through the middle of the seats. He stuck his gun back out the window shooting. Angel honked the horn trying to grab full attention from any survivors left. For the most part it worked. 'Shit please be there,' she thought reaching down beside her seat searching for a round metal object.
She slowly rolled back trying to get away from the fighter who was chopping down some of the last of the horde. She still searched frantically. Finally she grasped it in her hands with a wide satisfied grin. She clenched the grenade in her hand and laughed at the walkers drawing closer. "Hey Sully check this out." She held it up for him to see before she gripped the safety pin in her teeth and ripped it out.
"Fuck that!" Sully yelled diving in the floorboard. "Fuckin' chunk it!" She let it tick four beats before she aimed and threw it into the middle of the crowd that was closer now; only a few feet away. She slammed the gas backing up and the grenade blew up the corpses. Blood and rotten flesh sprayed across the front of the car like shrapnel from a bomb explosion.
Angel laughed putting the car in park and shut it off. "And if you can go away . . . I'll just stay here and always be the same so just leave me alone," she sung the last line from the song and the music faded away. She watched the girl closely now. She was finishing off the last of them, which wasn't many. From what Angel could gather the girl seemed about her age but total opposite on looks. Her fiery red hair was cut neck length with white highlights here and there. She was built like Angel but much taller and her skin was dark cooked by the sun over years. Cuts covered exposed skin, which was a lot. She wore something a stripper would where except it looked medieval much like her sword did.
"You almost killed us!" Sully bellowed pushing himself off the floor. He glared at her reloading his gun. She however turned around with a bright grin.
"It was pretty fucking cool though." He shrugged and let his hard face soften pretty quickly. He gave a small smile.
"Yea . . . I guess." He sleeved his pistol and crossed his arms waiting for the next move.
"Stay here," she demanded letting all the humor in the moment die. He relaxed into the seat with no objections as she jumped out.
She walked to the front of the car and froze sleeving her gun quickly. The girl starred at her stabbing the last walker in its head. Angel couldn't read her face and that worried her a bit. "You good?" she called out watching her closely. Her face soften and she walked closer towards the car stopping a few feet away.
"Yes . . . thank you," she answered.
"Eng. It was fun for me." Angel grinned but it quickly faded away back into a frown. "You aren't scratched or bit are you?"
"No!" Angel cocked a brow studying her face carefully. A long awkward silence passed and she finally decided the girl was telling the truth.
"You need any help?"
"I . . . would like to get away from here . . . please."
"Are you alone? There anyone else?" The girl's face darkened.
"There was. But he's dead now." She looked down at some of the remains of the grenade and tried to hide tears but a few fell.
"I'm sorry . . . we've all lost. The world today huh?"
"Yea." She wiped her eyes trying to smile a little.
"Hey listen. I'm heading somewhere that should still be safe . . . you can come with us and hey if you don't like it there I'll give you a ride half way back to here . . . I warn you now though if you show any sign of being a threat to my company I'll blow your head clean off. Understood?"
"Y-yes I understand."
"One more thing," Angel said holding a finger up.
"Yes?"
"Sword's gotta go right now until we can trust you." She hesitated looking down at the sword. Finally she threw it over with a pained looked on her face. Angel picked it up surprised by the weight. She returned to the car and fell comfortably back into the drivers seat as the girl followed cautiously from a distance.
She turned around handing Sully the sword. "This is cool as hell," he grinned having a look you only saw on a kid at the candy store. He gripped it in his hand turning it over. Too bad Angel was going to piss on his sunshine.
"Put it up," she ordered.
"Fine." He quickly placed it on the floorboard. As he did the girl got in the car slowly as if debating to back out and just go on alone. She finally slammed the door shut and Angel turned the radio off shutting her own door.
Angel cranked up the car giving it a little extra gas to make the engine purr before she put it in drive. She slammed down on the gas turning the wheel hard making it spin back around in the way they were originally going. She grabbed her bottle off the floor. "So what's your name?" she asked looking over to the red head taking a swallow out her bottle.
"It's Serenity," she answered lowly in a skittish tone.
"Well Serenity nice to make you our company. I'm Angel and that's Sully." She took yet another swallow making Serenity look at her questionably.
"You shouldn't be drinking and driving." Angel almost sneered at her but stopped herself quickly letting Sully solve the problem.
"Best to leave that alone," he said quickly leaning on the back of the driver's seat.
"Sorry," she said faintly and began twiddling her thumbs together.
"It's fine . . . I'm not going to wreck or anything . . . not on accident anyway," Angel laughed but the girl didn't find it amusing as her blue eyes glazed over with fear. "I was joking." She gave a faint smile trying to not seem so scared.
"So what's your story? Might as well ask the most common question these days," Sully said smiling over at her trying to make her feel better.
"I . . . I don't remember." They both grimaced at her.
"What?" Angel asked in disbelief with narrowed eyes.
"I don't remember . . . people were screaming and running and . . . And I woke up wearing these clothes . . . a man gave me that sword and told me I had to leave." She rubbed her face with both her hands as if she were in agonizing pain. She teared up.
"How long ago was that?" Sully asked with a pure interest in his question.
"It was . . . just a few weeks ago." Again they starred at her with the same looks. Angel shrugged it off by taking another drag off a cigarette and another swallow. Silence fell in the car for a mile or two.
"When is the military coming?" Serenity asked with hopeful eyes to Angel and she pit out the swallow she was trying to take.
"Military?" she asked coughing. "Do you even know how long the world has been like this?"
"Three or four months right?"
"I hate to tell you this but . . . shit I can't even do it," Sully said falling back into his seat pulling on his hair a bit.
"What?" she almost cried. Angel sighed as her heart sank a little for the girl.
"It's been almost two years since this started . . . with this disease. It's almost wiped us out . . .The military is gone, no government, no laws, no . . . No shit."
"No. No. NO! You're lieing!" She snapped glaring at Angel hatefully hoping she was just trying to be funny again.
"Why would I lie about that?" she retorted angrily. Serenity sneered at her and snapped once again snatching Angel's gun out it holster and pointed at her head. Angel laughed taking a pull off her cigarette as the barrel of her own gun pressed against her head. "Ain't gonna make anything better for you." She cocked the gun.
Sully pulled out his pistol and wrapped an arm tight around Serenity's throat. He pressed the gun hard against her head. "Pull that trigger you stupid bitch and I promise it'll be the last thing you'll ever do before you burn in hell," he warned angrily as he squeezed her throat tighter. "Fucking put it down or I'll shoot you."
He pushed his arm forward and yanked back making her head bang hard against the leather seat. She handed the gun back to him defeated and he let go of her throat snatching it away quickly.
"I'm not in the god damn mood for this drama queen bull shit today," he said clenching the barrel of his gun tight in his hand. He pulled back his arm gaining some momentum before he slammed the handle against the side of her head. She went limp closing her eyes. He'd knocked her out.
"A little uncalled for," Angel said taking her gun back and un-cocked it.
"I thought it'd be funny," he said sarcastically sleeving his gun. "Shut up and pull over so I can tie this delusional bitch up . . . I miss the front seat anyway."
"Why?" She caught herself in deep thought and snapped her fingers after a few seconds. "You miss playing with the radio."
"Exactly." He grinned making her laugh.