LEFT 4 DEAD: HOMEGROWN
Chapter 4: Monsoon
"Fighting the storm, into the blue, and when I lose myself I'll think of you…"
Excerpt from Monsoon, by Tokio Hotel
"Speech"
'Thoughts'
Narration
Sound effects
INFECTED
Important/Exaggeration
WALL WRITING
"That… would be a safe room." John looked to the door as if it were a long lost friend. "Remember the hacker that broadcasted all those tips on survival? This was one of those ideas of his. He showed people how to make safe rooms into nothing short of a bunker from the undead."
Henderson stared at the safe room, slightly confused. "When did anybody have time to do this?"
"Don't know. Don't give a fuck. As long as it means we get to sleep safely I don't care how it got here. Just roll with it, or it might decide to leave." Sadie walked into the room, leaving two slightly confused men outside. For a few moments they wondered why they were not already inside.
Just a few.
(^(00)^)
"But you're coming back soon, right?" She looked up to him, she was a full head shorter and he loved the way it made feel like he could protect her. Her blue-gray eyes were filed with worry and her pale face twisted into an expression closely resembling pain. Her red hair was that usually reflected the sun so beautifully was now a dull brown from the gray clouds above them.
He chuckled at her expression. Unlike the smaller girl, John didn't see the danger. "I'm gonna be fine hon, I'm just going to Corsicana. I'm gonna go to the college and pick up the refund for my classes. After that I'm coming right back to you." With his family's plans of leaving, they needed all the money they could get, just in case.
"But why do you have to go. It's safer here and… and…" She was at it again. The girl could be so stubborn when she didn't agree with something. She sat on the hood of his gray Chevrolet Blazer. The small van had been cleaned out and repaired, putting it near perfection. After three days they had made enough room for the pile of supplies that were carefully prepared in the garage for easy loading, just in case.
John cupped her cheek in his hand. The small girl couldn't help but look up into his eyes. "I'll be fine." He explained to her. "There hasn't been a zombie sighting within a hundred miles of here. Nothing will happen in the next two hours that will keep me from coming back."
Her face slowly turned from worried to annoyed, as it always did during the few times she actually lost an argument. "Fine, go endanger yourself even more. You think that you understand what's happening, but no one does babe. Just promise me you'll be safe, ok?"
"Adrienne Donaldson," he whispered her name into her ear, "I promise you I'll be back soon. I also promise that I will do nothing reckless."
"Damn right you won't," she hopped down from the hood of the Blazer and looked up into his eyes again, "and you better not break that promise or I'll…!"
John leaned down and caught her lips, effectively cutting her off. Adrienne grunted in annoyance at first, but soon she responded with kissing him back. After a few moments he broke the kiss.
"I'll see you soon love."
"See you too… love you."
"Love you too."
(^(00^)
"Adrienne…"
John woke up to an excruciating amount of pain; it felt as if someone had taken a sledgehammer to his ribs. Rolling over to his left side he still couldn't find comfort, so he gave up on any chances for sleep. The plastic sickroom bed that was left in the room had been enough to help him sleep with his bruised rib, but it didn't help towards the morning pain.
"Boy, I told you it would hurt." The sound of popping joints filled the air as Henderson rose from his chair. The older man had been chivalrous enough to let his younger partners the better beddings. After the pain left him John could hear rain. A light shower seemed to have descended on the outside world.
Sadie slept in a sleeping bag in the corner furthest from the large metal door. The girl had gone to sleep muttering about perverted old men and horny teenagers and now she was snoring loudly as far from the other two as she could be.
Henderson walked over to the plastic bed John was using and helped the younger boy up. John bit his lip as the pain returned, but after a few moments it faded away. Henderson had been right; the pain was not so bad, but after staying in one spot for a while, getting up was a bitch. He smiled at the older man, hiding the pain, but his growling stomach gave way to a new problem.
"Hungry, eh? Well, thanks your daring heroics yesterday you get to eat the food that got crushed in your bag."
Henderson poked fun at the younger survivor, giving him a 'you know you deserve this' look. John liked that about Henderson, he was tough but fair. He had to agree that after his stupid stunt with the fucked up zombie there had to be a consequence besides some pain.
The chips in John's bag had been reduced to crumbs and powder. It was a sad sight seeing the boy gag on powdered Fritos and wash it down with warm water, but he took it none the less. Food was food, and John was glad to have at least something to eat.
Sadie's snoring finally ended as the lone female survivor arose from her sleeping bag, hair in a mess "Would you idiots keep it down, I'm sleeping!" She glared at her companions, who were laughing at her state of being. She cocked her head to the side, listening to the rain outside. "Fuck! I hate rain." This caused the boys to laugh once again. As John's laughter died down, he reflected on last night, the safe room had done wonders to raise the group's spirits.
(^(00)^)
Sadie had been lucky when they found the room; a small supply of clothing had been found, along with other supplies. She used this opportunity to fix her state of dress. After sorting through the pile (and kicking the boys out for a few minutes), she found a small black t-shirt her size. Other then the beddings and clothes, there was little else in the room. There had been a bit more food and some medical supplies, but otherwise nothing.
When the inevitable dilemma of… bodily functions arose, Henderson offered a can that previously was filled with food. Sadie promptly slapped the older survivor and left the room to use a restroom three doors down the hall. The group came to an agreement that if one left for the bathroom, the other two would stand guard. After three trips, and clearing out a handful of zombies each time, the infected stopped appearing in that area of the hallway. The survivors believed that there were no more creatures in the immediate area to attract at the time and left it at that.
The walls of the safe room were covered in notes left behind by other survivors. They ranged from notes to other survivors to morbid kill counts. It seemed they had been left during the time John and Henderson had been hiding.
The weapons and extra supplies were kept near the door, and all extra food was used to replace the food that they would eat while in the room.
After a dinner of assorted snacks and food found in the safe room, Henderson started the conversation. "So John, do you think your family is still in Hubbard?"
"So that's why we're going there." Sadie exclaimed, proud she figured it out.
"Yeah, that's why." John responded. He turned back to Henderson to answer his question. "Nah, I doubt it. If the Zombies got here this fast, I bet they already moved on to the smaller towns nearby."
Henderson nodded in agreement, "I see what you mean."
John slowly began to let his mind wander; he must have looked depressed to cause the worry of the other survivors.
Sadie leaned over and laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry kid, I bet they got out in time."
"I know they're fine. Out of the whole town, we were the only ones prepared." John gave the older girl a determined look. "We live on the edge of town on a road heading towards Hillsboro. I was going to head here to pick up the money from my class refund and then we were gonna leave. We were going to head north to somewhere cold, using the freeway as little as we could, but I guess they probably left already."
Henderson decided to move the topic away from John's family. "Well, my wife took our kids to Washington about a week ago. Her parents live in the mountains so it seemed safe. We couldn't afford all of us to go at the time so I was going to follow them the next day, but that was when all this started. I managed to call them before things got too bad though. About eight that morning my family made it to Washington and were driving, a lot of people were heading to Canada, but she found a nice couple to ride with." He ended his story with a small smile, the man loved his family very much.
"You never did tell me what that call was about when I came to your room." John said slyly.
"Sorry, it wasn't at the front of my mind after the attack, sorry."
S'cool man, I don't blame ya."
Henderson turned to Sadie, who had been listening with little interest to his story. "What about you, what did you do when all this started?"
Sadie leaned against the wall as a serious look crossed her face. "I was in my apartment.
My roommate came in screaming bloody murder. I looked outside and some fucker was running straight to the door. Slammed it right in his face." A victorious grin crossed her face.
"She said he bit her and she began to freak out. She didn't calm down for hours, and by the time she did…well…" Sadie's grin disappeared. "She was cool, but she wasn't my friend anymore. Took a while and she got a chunk outta my arm, but I did it. I put two, the zombies outside, and two together and figured what was going on, nearly freaked out too. Waited for a while, left when it got quiet, stocked up, and found you guys."
John felt the need to say something, but nothing good came to mind so he stated the obvious. "Sorry 'bout your friend… but… I think she's much better off now."
Sadie looked mad for a second, but soon agreed with him. "Guess you're right, can't be helped." With that she left the group and retreated to her sleeping bag.
After a few minutes of silence Henderson went to bed. John couldn't sleep right away, though; the conversation had left his mind racing.
'Did they get out in time? Where are they now? Are they safe?'
He couldn't get the thoughts out of his head, no matter how hard he tried. So for the next hour John resigned to reading the notes on the walls.
Mark
I'm leaving this note hoping you'll pass by. I'm ok and I'm with others. We're heading west. There are reports of the infected leaving New Orleans. The military is going to set up a massive evacuation while the city is empty. I'll wait for you.
Beth
John quickly turned from this message.
I killed 7
23!
82 just in Wal-Mart!
52,873 and counting FUCKERS!
BULL-SHIT!
It was good to see that someone was having fun… One message caught his attention.
Ignore the crying! They are infected too! Don't even shoot it just run away.
John felt a sense of déjà vu wash over him. Crying… why was that so familiar? These thoughts were soon forgotten as sleep finally overcame the tired boy.
Every few hours an infected would stumble across the room and scare them awake. Sadie personally… disposes of each unlucky zombie, leaving John and Henderson fearful of the small girl's brutality.
(^(00)^)
The morning's breakfast was passed in silence while the rain outside kept the room peaceful.
"What's on the agenda for today oh fearless leader." Sadie looked to Henderson for a response.
The older man pulled himself off the floor and brushed the crumbs from his clothes. "I guess we keep heading to the east. We're about half way through the building so it won't take much longer."
John rose beside Henderson, trying to ignore the pain in his side. "From there, freedom. We find a car and leave town, stocking up where we can."
"I like that plan, easy, simple, and hard to fuck up!" Sadie rose from the floor and joined the other survivors by the door. The hallway was still mostly empty. During the night a few zombies had wandered in, but nothing too dangerous.
"Say bye to the room, because we ain't coming back." Henderson lifted the metal bat that kept the metal door wedged shut.
As they left John turned and looked back to the room, seeing the same strange message as last night,
Ignore the crying!
(^(00)^)
After eliminating the few zombies awaiting the survivors in the hallway, the group was met with a strange predicament.
The building was empty.
Sadie was the first to voice her concern. 'Where the hell do a few hundred zombies disappear to? It just doesn't make sense."
John agreed, before now there had always been at least a few undead creatures, but now… "I don't know, but let's not let this go to waste, ok?"
"Agreed, let's pick up the pace." Henderson jogged ahead of the group, prompting them to follow.
The main Hallway didn't last much longer; once all the offices where behind the survivors the hall ended in two large doors leading into another smaller room. This room was the entrance into the Dawson Auditorium, Navarro College's theater.
"See anything?" Henderson quietly called to John as he peered through the doors.
"Nope… still nothing." He pulled his head away and looked back to his fellow survivors. "Hey, ya' think someone came through last night and killed everything for us?" He started to chuckle until Sadie smacked the boy over his head.
"Yeah, keep thinking like that and we'll think you're going crazy." She said, rolling her eyes at him. "You know very well we're the reason for the lack of zombies!"
"Cut it out you two, we need to keep moving. Who knows when more creatures will take their place?" Henderson moved between the two younger survivors and opened the doors. Sadie gave him a mock salute and stuck her tongue out at his retreating figure.
With out ever turning around, "You better stick that tongue back in you're mouth young lady, or something's going to come and bite it off."
"Why you old…"
"Whaaaaah!" (1)
Henderson turned back to Sadie, "Um… I didn't think that would hurt your feelings so much… sorry?"
"Shut up! I ain't crying!" Sadie looked back to him. The look on her face made her seem almost insulted.
"Whaa-ha-ha-haaaa…"
"SHHH!" John silenced the other two survivors. It was not just crying; it was the most pitiful moaning the boy had ever heard. It was easily feminine and the weeping seemed to be coming from the auditorium.
"It's from in here… you think it's another survivor?" Sadie put her ear to the theater's door, trying to determine if the noise was friend of foe. She reached to the door, ready to save whoever was behind it.
"Wait! Just… hold on…" John grabbed Sadie's arm to prevent her from entering.
'Ignore the weeping.'
The message from the room still rang through his head. This could be what it was warning about, or he could be leaving an innocent survivor to die.
"What's your damage man? Someone could need our help." Sadie twisted her arm out of John's grasp and walked back to the door.
"No, he's right." This time Henderson stopped her. "We don't know who or what's in there."
Sadie was starting to get upset. "Are you saying we abandon them?"
"No! I'm saying we're going to be careful." This time he reached for the door. "Stay alert, don't let your guard down, and I'll do the talking." Henderson opened the door into the auditorium and was met with a horrifying sight.
The room was large, large enough to fit a small house and still have room. After about thirty rows of seats there was a stage.
On the stage was a small figure sitting alone, obviously the source of the crying. Around her was blood. It covered the stage, the walls, and the first few rows were covered in blood. There were no bodies, but piles of gore were strewn in with the blood smeared areas. The lights above the stage had somehow been destroyed, giving very little light to the room. The girl sat in the middle of the scene, still crying for unknown reasons.
As the survivors neared the girl they could make out her features. The girl sat on her legs as she cupped her own face and cried into her hands. She was pale, deathly so. She had long black hair which obscured her face from the group. Her clothes were in tatters, leaving somewhat of tank top and ragged shorts. The rain outside gave her crying a strange melody to it, finishing off the horrific setting.
The warning signs were going off in John's head, everything about that woman screamed danger. Why was she there? What made all this blood? The others didn't seem to feel the same as John did. Henderson slowly walked down the isle to the stage, trying to grab the crying woman's attention.
"Ma'am… are you ok?" He called out to her. "Miss… are you alone… are you hurt?" He stopped halfway; the woman was beginning to give him an uneasy feeling. "Ma'am… please answer me."
Henderson began to tighten his grip on his bat, an action that was not lost to Sadie. She ran up to the stage and called to the girl. John stayed behind still feeling uneasy with the crying woman. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't seem to voice his concern.
"Hey… HEY! Listen to me…"
As Sadie passed Henderson and came to the bloody isles the woman's head suddenly snapped to attention. All crying stopped and the woman slowly began to rise. An inhuman growl came from the figure.
Grrrr….
John finally found his voice, "Sadie! Get away from her." He ran up the isle and pulled out his shotgun in just a few seconds.
"What the…." Sadie began to retreat from the woman.
GRRRR…GRRRR... GRRRR…
After putting more space between them, Sadie turned and raised her guns to the strange woman. The woman was nearly roaring at Sadie now. As she rose to her feet the survivors noticed more terrifying things about the girl.
Her skin was turning as red as the blood surrounding her. The eyes that had been hidden behind her dirty hair were red, nearly glowing in the dim light. Her hands were the worst part; the bones had grown straight through her fingers and bent into jagged claws.
RRRAAHHH…….RRRAAHHH………
Henderson realized the danger now too. "SADIE! COME BACK!"
The cries from before were now screams of rage. The woman…. no… the infected stood on the stage, still glaring at Sadie. Her arms were raised, almost challenging her to shoot.
So Sadie shot.
The bullet hit and the screaming stopped. Sadie had shot the infected right between her eyes, causing its head to whip back.
Sadie smirked, believing she had won. "Hah, serves you right bitch!"
KYYYYAAAAAAAA!!!!
Its head snapped back into place as it screamed louder than ever before. And with that one warning it charged. It leaped from the stage and ran at Sadie. Its arms were raised and it kept screaming.
"Oh Fuck!" Sadie abandoned any ideas of fighting back and ran from the banshee
As she came closer Henderson raised his bat. He looked to John, who understood his plan right away. As Sadie passed by, the two men split; Henderson jumped to the right and John to the left. Henderson reared the bat back, like a real batter, as the screaming zombie neared him. Its intent was to keep chasing Sadie, but when he struck the bat right across the infected's face. The force of the strike knocked the banshee back down the isle, eleven rows to be exact. Realizing her pursuer had been halted, Sadie stopped running.
The creature stopped its momentum and rolled back to its feet. Its attention switched from Sadie to Henderson now, and the chase began again. As Henderson took off through the rows of chairs, the Infected followed.
"Shoot it!" John yelled to Sadie, "It'll stop chasing him if we distract it." John ran up to the stage, trying to get an angle where he would not accidentally hit another survivor with the buckshot.
Sadie took aim and fired at the banshee. As the rounds found their mark, it abandoned its chase and once again focused on the female survivor. As John leapt to the stage and faced the fight.
Sadie fired three more shots and began to run gain. "What the fuck are you waiting for!?! For the love of god, SHOOT IT!" Sadie ran to the stage with the screaming zombie close behind. As the infected jumped onto the stage, John raised the barrel and shot the monster square in the face. The shot destroyed its face, and finally ended the screaming.
John dropped the gun finally tired despite being asleep not two hours ago. All the fighting, all the running, all the infected-- it finally caught up to him. "I can't take this anymore." He collapsed onto his knees and stared at the blood covered stage.
"Easy for you to say." Sadie walked over to the dead body, poking it with her foot to test its dead…ness. "You didn't have to run from this bitch." She kicked the corpse once she knew it couldn't fight back. "At least we know what happened to all the other undead bitches; she killed 'em!" She turned back to John to find him still knee deep in gore.
John looked back at her. "It's not just that… thing, it's all of this. Zombies aren't supposed to run. It's bad enough there jumping and tackling and-and-and… screaming!" He waved his hands at the body lying on the floor in front of him.
Henderson finally reached the other survivors to hear the end of John's cries. "He's right."
Sadie turned to the older man, dumbfounded. "What, now you're gonna get all depressed too?"
"No," He defended, "I mean that yes the infected are changing. We saw something like this a few days ago… it's evolution."
"Now you lost me." A confused expression crossed her face.
Henderson went into full lecture mode. "Think about it. After running out of non infected humans, the zombies are running out of food. What ever sickness caused the initial transformation must be helping them evolve so rapidly. Who knows what the will begin to do?"
Sadie rolled her eyes at him and pulled out Ebony and Ivory. "Don't matter to me, they die and I've got the guns to kill it." She shot the banshee's corpse in the head to prove her point.
"I agree, but we're going to have to be more careful, understand?" Henderson tried to reason with the excitable girl.
"Yeah, I guess." Sadie walked over to John and slapped the back of his head.
"Wha!?" John was awoken from his gloom by an angry redhead with her hand on her hips glaring at him.
"Oi, you listening? It don't matter how tough they get, we're still gonna kill any zombie that gets in our way. So suck it up, what happened to the determined kid from last night? Your family is out there worried about you and you're just gonna sit here and mope? Lame!"
Henderson nodded his head in agreement, "She's right, if you stay there covered in blood you'll never find out what happened to them."
John watched the other two survivors try to raise his spirits. From this angle Sadie almost looked like…
'Just promise me you'll be safe, ok?'
'Adrienne Donaldson, I promise you I'll be back soon.'
John looked her in the eyes, swearing he could see his own red head. "I promise…"
"What did you say?" Sadie was beginning to question the boy's sanity.
"Nothing, just that ya'll are right." He pulled himself from the floor. "There's no way I'm staying here."
Henderson smiled at John's newfound fire. "That's the spirit, let's get going before something bigger comes along. There's a back door that connects to the Liberal Arts building, that's our last stop before leaving." He made his way to a fire exit that led out through the back.
"Finally, the dead smell is starting to get to me." Sadie glared at the gore covered walls of the theater and followed Henderson to the back exit.
John looked at the survivors. Sadie, strong and courageous. Henderson, logical and tactical. There was no way he could survive this nightmare without them.
(^(00)^)
And… wait for it… DONE!!!
Alright, I wanted to write a witch fight for a while. The only thing was that I couldn't think of a good way to type out how they cry, so don't hate on the lameness please.
I was originally going to make this chapter all about the safe room, but it would have felt too short.
Next, I would like to thank Sanima and The Golden Echo, my two reviewers. It's there two that are keeping this story going.
In other me related news, DUDE ALMOST 200 HITS!
That's all I got, hope you enjoyed it.
Guardian Shotgun
(^(00)^)