Russian Roulette

Pass it on.

Ellis was the first to open his eyes, most likely because he'd been the first to close them. It was still quiet and dark in the barracks and appeared as if everyone was still asleep. He saw this as an opportunity: the showers would no doubt have shorter lines, if any. The downside was that he was hesitant to leave his friends – especially after hearing about Dave's fate. He didn't want to lose anyone else.

He sighed. That was just paranoia talking. Nothing was going to happen. They were safe now. They could help each other out and get through this. The military had plenty of weapons.

Glancing at his precious few friends for a moment, he felt his heart skip a beat. These were the only friends he had. He didn't know where anyone else was or if they were even alive. His whole family could be drooling lunatics, out there eating those who hadn't been fortunate enough to find shelter. No, no, he couldn't think of things like that – he shook his head to clear his thoughts and turned quickly away, exiting the barracks.

The sun was just starting to rise over the horizon, throwing hues of yellow and orange and pink across the sky. It was worthy of a painting. As Ellis stared at the scene for a few moments, he wondered how there could be something still so nice in a world so cold and cruel. Poor Dave hadn't deserved that. He should be here, watching the sunrise, part of their trio-turned-family. Ellis considered them family; they were all they had left, after all. He thought of these things over and over as he took a long shower – there hadn't been a line because everyone was apparently still asleep, and no one was telling him to get out so he took his time.

After he finished his shower, he dried himself off with an old towel that was hanging over the makeshift stall. The towel had no doubt been used by many people – who knew how unsanitary it was? – but he couldn't complain. It felt nice to be even a little cleaner than before. He pulled on his clothes and stepped out of the stall. It was still silent and the sky was turning into a grayish color, highly contrasting what it had been just a while ago. Ellis made his way back to his barracks and wove through all of the cots, finding the area he, Nick, Rochelle, and Keith were in. Nick and Rochelle were still sound asleep; Keith was sitting on the edge of his bed staring into space. He looked up when Ellis approached and smiled an empty, sad smile. "I was scared," he said. Ellis stared at him for a moment – he had never expected the amazing Keith to admit to fear. Keith was the one that would do anything just for fun and come out of it bruised and laughing. If he was scared, then this really was the end of the world. "I was scared when I saw you weren't here when I woke up," he continued, "because I thought seein' you might have jus' been me goin' crazy. I thought that maybe I had lost Dave an' you. I tried ta be all happy an' such when I was with Dave, but the truth is that I was tired an' frustrated, too. I ain't ready for all this apocalypse stuff, El. At first it seemed like a game, but now that Dave's gone, it's serious."

Ellis swallowed hard against the choking feeling in his throat. He didn't want to hear this – he didn't want to know how weak Keith felt, because he felt weak himself. "Keith, it's not-" He began, but stopped mid-sentence when he heard a strange noise. A strange yet familiar noise. It was a sort of guttural groaning sound, unmistakable and blood-chilling. It came from nearby, probably just a row of beds or two over from theirs. He instinctively leapt to action, shaking Nick's shoulder violently to wake his sleeping form, and then continued to Rochelle after Nick started to sit up and curse under his breath.

"What is it?" Nick demanded. Then he too heard the sound and reached for the gun he had set beside his cot the night before – only to find that it wasn't there. He looked around and noticed all of their weapons had vanished. "They took our stuff!" he said loudly, waking up a few nearby people. "Our medical supplies are gone, too! God damn it!"

Rochelle had also been reaching for her weapon, but looked between Nick and Ellis in alarm when she also saw it was gone. "What do we do?" she asked frantically.

"Run?" Keith suggested from the background. He looked in the direction of where the noise had come from, and gasped when he saw that there was a single Infected standing in the back corner of the barracks.

"Holy shit!" Nick exclaimed. "I wanna know who let that thing in here!" He turned and headed for the exit while Rochelle, Keith, and Ellis followed without hesitation. "Get your asses up," Nick spat at random people as he passed their cots. The Infected was chasing them, doing a horrible job of weaving through the beds, and people started to scream and run every which way. The four of them ran out of the barracks and drew to a halt. Nick looked left and right, wondering where the hell their weapons had been stored. Why would those idiots take their weapons in the first place? He was about to run in the direction of the army base when more screams erupted from further away and soon there were people bursting out of every barracks.

Keith had supposedly gotten the same idea as Nick; he ran to the east towards the army base and waved a hand to instruct them to follow.

"It'll take too long!" Rochelle called. "By the time we get there everyone here will be…" She trailed off, unable to finish. Keith glanced back at her, replying, "I know."

From there they were quiet – aside from panting and heavy footsteps – as they ran. All of them were tired and their legs ached, but none of them wanted to fall behind and stall the others. It seemed to be a miracle when they reached the army base, and immediately the soldiers that were outside pointed their guns at them.

"Put those down!" Nick shouted, unfortunately sounding more winded than he did angry. The four of them stopped in the middle of the field of cement and soldiers rushed towards them, still aiming their guns despite Nick's command. He looked up at them and scowled. "Infected," he explained breathlessly. "In the camp. We woke up… and it was there. Either it's having a feast or it's making babies."

The soldiers all looked at each other, then ran off to shout at their comrades.

Rochelle frowned at Nick. "'Making babies?'" she repeated with a rather humorless chuckle. "That place is full of Carriers. They're all immune."

Nick crossed his arms over his chest and raised an eyebrow. "Well, how else do you think that thing got there?" he countered. "Either it snuck in during the night – which it didn't, because it would have attacked someone and we'd have woken up – or someone… somehow… changed into it. Maybe… something happened and their system couldn't take it anymore. I think it was a Carrier that lost control."

"How could that even happen?" Rochelle asked. "Don't you think… one of us might have changed by now…?" She looked at the three men; it was hard to imagine any of them turning into one of the Infected. They all seemed so concentrated, like they knew what they were doing, and she felt so uncertain.

"Dunno." Nick shrugged simply. "All I know is that I want my gun and I want to get the hell out of here. I think they took our weapons for themselves. These guys don't know what they're doing." With that, he jogged towards the barracks that the non-Carrier army folk stayed in. All of them were so caught up in running around and making a big fuss that they paid no attention to the four citizens sneaking around. Nick found a metal crate full of weapons – recognizing a few of them to be the ones he and his group had carried previously – and handed them out. He turned to face the other three and smirked. "Now we're in business."

"AK-47!" Keith cried, petting his gun like one would an animal. "I missed you, babe."

"Make love to it later," Nick said. "Right now we've gotta get out of here." The base was surrounded in a chain-link fence with sloppy electric coils around the top. Luckily enough, there was a hole nearby in the fence close to the ground, possibly left over from an attack early in the Infection. "Come on!" Nick said, leading the others to the hole. He ducked down and almost had to crawl to get through it, also managing to rip his suit in a few places as he did so. Ellis, Rochelle, and Keith followed quickly after him.

Rochelle hesitated. "Nick," she said, making him pause in his walk towards the nearby forest. "What if there's a lot of them out there? That one in the base could very well have gotten in this very same way."

"I told you, it was probably someone that was already in the base." Nick reasoned. "And besides, we're used to hordes."

Rochelle nodded and didn't say anything else; that second part was true. She was just so exhausted, sick of fighting for her life all the time. She wished things could go back to normal. She wished she could make breakfast in the morning without having to hold a katana in her other hand. Hell, she wished she could eat breakfast at all – most of the time their group had to keep moving and didn't have enough time for a real meal. Instead of voicing this opinion like she so desired to do, she kept quiet and followed Nick through the trees. Ellis and Keith both gave her a look of concern and she couldn't help but smile at how similar they seemed. Somehow they looked almost like they could be related, and their personalities made them even more alike. Their bond was obvious. She was glad someone still had something to keep them going. All she had was her own advice that she was tired of giving and Nick's cold facts that always kept everyone focused. Sometimes she wondered if she'd have made it this far without hearing Nick shout orders every time something went wrong, or if Ellis hadn't told his stories, or if Coach hadn't been so brave.

She had occupied herself so deeply with these thoughts that she snapped back to attention when the screeching of Infected was heard from ahead. The four survivors readied their weapons as they trudged forward. "Look out behind us, too," Nick called – once again stabilizing Rochelle's emotions… for the time being.