Chapter Three: real big plans and such bad thoughts

Caroline doesn't really know why she ever agreed to going along with this madman. This mad British man with an eye for getting her bitten or killed. Or something equally life-threatening because that's the only reason why he would ever suggest that she make a run for it to the closest tree, which is a good forty yards away from the front door, and climb it since she's so goshdarned good at climbing trees. When she draws them all away, he'll run to the truck, hop in, drive by the tree, and she'll hop on the roof and slide in through a window.

After Nik explains this through gritted teeth and a sweat covered brow and splinter laden fingers from the damned door, Caroline is still very wary. What's stopping him from just leaving her up in that tree? He said that he'd come back for her, but can she really trust him? Especially when he's so stuck on having her act as bait?

"We're running out of time, sweetheart," Nik grunts, pushing harder on the door with his back.

Caroline's eyes dart from the shadows coming closer to the front door and the thudding behind her back. If she stays here, then they're as good as dead. If she runs, then there's a good chance she'll be the one dead. So does she really want to risk it all? What does she really have left to lose?

"Promise me something," she says suddenly.

"I don't think now is the time to be making promises-"

"Just listen!" she yells, narrowing her eyes at him. "You've talked enough. If...if I get bitten, you have to promise me that you won't let me come back as one of those. You have to kill me right then and right there on the spot. Just do it."

Time seems to stop in this moment. She isn't sad. She isn't angry. She isn't distressed. She is determined. She knows what will happen to her body if she gets bit. If she gets so much as a tiny scratch from their fingernails. If the tiniest drop of their blood enters her system somehow. That's the end. It's all over after that, and anything seems better than to die and come back as one of those flesh eating demons. She's accepted this fact, though, over time. If push comes to shove, then she can die with no regrets. Nothing on her shoulders and nothing in her gut because she's whispered everything to the wind. She's confessed her deepest secrets to no one but the lonely world because that's all that's there. That's all that was ever left. She can die a free woman now. No sins, no transgressions, nothing.

"You didn't have to tell me something I would've already done," Nik says, and he doesn't even think about it. And the way he says it, it's like he's been anticipating that it will come to that. That he's eager to just put a bullet in her head just to shut her up. Like she's so fucking annoying and such a goddamned liability.

But, despite the anger and betrayal that she should maybe be feeling. Fuck maybe. She should be feeling it. She just smiles brightly and answers back, "You can count that I'll do the same for you. And just know that I don't know how to shoot, so it'll hurt."

He grimaces.

"Gotta run!" she yells and trots off to the front door. She stands in front of it, her hands on both of the handles and shuts her eyes tightly. They're just outside the door, waiting for them to just open. They can smell her. They can smell her fear.

"Any day now, love," Nik quips from behind her.

"Shut the fuck up."

She grips the handles hard, her palms are sweaty and her skin is clammy. This could very well be the end. Oh hell, who is she kidding? You can't just run into a horde of infected and expect to make it through. This is goodbye, she decides. Goodbye to whoever.

There is sunlight and there are clouds and there is a sky the lightest shade of blue you can imagine. It's almost a slate color. There are trees covered in green and a flowing fountain and a nice brick driveway. These are simple things that Caroline cannot marvel at.

There are dead bodies walking, crawling, dragging their way towards her. There are dead bodies on the doorstep reaching out their arms and hands to her, extending out their necks and widening their jaws for a taste of that delicious skin. Just a little nip here and maybe a nice chunk of skin right there. These are things Caroline cannot help but to be afraid of.

She runs, pushes. Her feet can't move her quick enough, her arms cannot flail the right way. She's going to get her hand stuck in a mouth and it's going to bite and it's going to hurt and she's going to see the blood pour out from her wound and she's going to fall and die right there on the fucking driveway like a true loser. She won't have saved Nik. She won't have even saved Rebekah if she's still out there, because she will have destroyed the one person that she's probably counting on.

Her lungs feel like they're about to collapse one at a time. She feels dead on her arms, pulling on her, latching on to her hair. She screeches as it pulls her back into its body and she's digging her nails into its face while others see that she's trapped. Her belly is exposed as she continues to dig her fingers into something. Anything. The eyes. But she's pushing and suddenly she's trying to kick while keeping her balance, but it's not enough.

She calls out for her mother, tells her that she's coming to be with her again and she won't dare talk back to her again and she won't ever leave for college because that was the one thing Liz was always nervous about. She calls out for Bonnie, apologizes for being such a shitty friend when Jeremy broke up with her for some weird girl with a flat face. She calls out for Elena, explains to her that if she really loves Damon, then go for it. She's not going to hold what he's done to her over Elena's head anymore. Caroline tells her that she's completely over it.

But then she's on the ground standing up. She reaches back and her fingers touch the back of her neck and it's wet with...saliva. Not blood. She spins on her heel and sees that the zombie is lying on its back, a fresh bullet wound coming straight through its forehead.

"Three in one," she hears from the distance. "That's a new record."

She sees Nik standing in the doorway, but then he abruptly shuts it. She hears another shot fire within the walls.

She turns back around to face another five zombies headed straight her way, so she decides to use her feet again. She looks at her arms as she picks up speed. No scratches, no tears, no open lacerations. Nothing. She reaches back and touches her neck again and feels nothing. She hasn't been bitten. She's still alive. For now.

She extends her arms out and pushes the weaker infected who have no sense of balance and direction when they lunge at her. It's like they're drunk on some unknown substance and can't even walk straight. She grunts as the lower part of her palm connects with one of their chins and the head surprisingly snaps clean off the neck like a doll. She looks down at it for a split second, marveling at how easy it was. She's never killed one before.

That was her first kill.

Her first kill.

That used to be a person.

She killed an ex-person.

Which is kind of like an actual person.

Oh god.

Now is not the time to be feeling guilty. It's not murder, she thinks to herself. It's not murder. It's...self-defense. Or something like that. These are monsters. Brainless monsters. Ruthless killers. A different breed of cannibal.

Her legs feel weak. Numb. Like they're going to give out from underneath her. She's lost so much weight and strength from the past week that she can feel it in her bones. She can feel it in her bloodstream. The struggle it is just to take one more breath, how her heart races so fast that she's sure it's about to stop beating at any second.

But refuge is so close. She's closing in on it. The more her feet slap against the hot brick, the more she shoves infected away from her as they pull at her shirt and arms, the closer the tree gets. She just has to reach out for it.

She leaps up and grasps onto a lower branch, kicking her legs back and forth furiously. She pulls the upper half of her body all the way up and manages to stand tall enough to hook onto the next highest branch. The bark tears into her hands, opening sharp lacerations into her palms and she squeaks as she catches sight of the bright red rolling down her forearms.

Caroline looks back down at the horde closing in around the tree. Gathering around it's a fucking mosh pit and she's the star they've been waiting to see since forever. One tiny slip-up and she could go tumbling down and it would really be the end then. Nik wouldn't be able to save her. There was no amount of headshots that would save her from the inevitable.

Caroline climbs higher and gets a better view from the scene at the highest branch. She can't see overtop the home, but infected are coming from both sides and they're all coming for her. She stuffs her hands in her pockets leans against the trunk, trying to stifle the scent of her blood. But it's too late. It's already in the air and it's like a drug. It's an aged wine, perfected over years and years of sitting in a cellar. Their screeches are battle cries, a symphony of harmonic hunger pains in a deadly hunger game. This place isn't a world anymore. This place is just a game. It's a struggle. It's the storm after the clear. The nightmare after the dream.

It's the end.

Nik is on his last bullet and he's not going to waste it on a damned zombie in the house. He runs back to the front door and slips out and discovers that his little blonde distraction has made it safely (well, at least she's alive) to point A and she's perched atop said point looking down and possibly weighing her options. If she jumps, then that's all on her. He's certainly not going to risk his life just to save her suicidal ass. She's collateral damage. Nothing more, nothing less.

A few stragglers follow him as he jogs his way over to the vehicle and slips inside. He reaches into the backseat and pulls his shotgun up, chambers a round, and places it the passenger seat. A straggler fists at his window and the other couple stand in front and climb onto the hood and claw at the windshield. He sticks the key in the ignition, turns it, and slams his foot down on the gas pedal and makes a sharp U-turn.

And goes right past Caroline.

"You bastard!" Caroline yells as she watches Nik drive off the estate.

Unknowingly, tears fall from her eyes and land on the tops of her shoes as she realizes that she's fucked. This was her own damn fault. She should've known better than to trust him. He was Rebekah's sister. Anything that had to do with her couldn't have been good. Much less trustworthy.

Foolishly she had believed for a brief moment that he actually did enjoy her company for some strange reason. She certainly did enjoy his, because it didn't matter if he was rather unpleasant. He was a person. An actual person who could speak and didn't have clouded eyes and only thought about eating people. And, perhaps even dumber for her, she actually thought that they could be friends.

Well, look how wrong she was. Her naivety had gotten her in a spot that she couldn't so easily escape from.
She could stand up in this tree for hours and they still won't be able to get to her even though they are persistent enough. Caroline could just jump down and get it over with. She's already accepted it, so why not just get it over with?

Nik's laughing his head off as he speeds down the road until he eventually slams on the brakes. Caroline must be scared shitless. Wow, he's such a dick for leaving her there like that.

He doesn't even care.

Okay. That's a lie.

He does care, but only to an extent. She's annoying and doesn't know when to keep her mouth shut, but he...well, he enjoys Caroline. So far, anyway.

He turns back around and heads back to the estate. The tree she's in is swarmed with infected and she's-wait. Is she swinging her legs over the edge?

Caroline isn't thinking.

She has her eyes closed. She's on the lowest branch. Her legs kick out back and forth, slamming into a few fingertips in their wake. If they could just grasp her ankle and pull her down, then maybe it wouldn't count as suicide. She would just be caught.

But it'll take forever for them to reach her.

She slips off the branch.

Dead skid across the lawn as Nik slams on the brakes in front of the tree. A loud thud comes from the roof and a pale body rolls down the hood of the car, seemingly lifeless and unconscious.

An expletive leaves Nik's lips as he hops out of the car with his shotgun and runs over to Caroline. Her eyes are closed and a thin streak of blood runs down the left side of her forehead. He doesn't think when he lifts her up and throws her over his shoulder, forgetting that maybe she could possibly have a spinal injury. But that isn't going to matter if he doesn't get her in the car soon because infected are coming right for him and he can't shoot a shotgun with one hand with a human body over his shoulder.

He backs up and stuffs her in the backseat gently, but then slams the door shut. He takes out one, two, three zombies not even two feet away from him. But there are more still coming. A swarm of soulless corpses wasted off the scent of a pretty little girl's blood. He won't let them get to him. He won't let them get to her. The last thing he needs is another murder on his record.

He trades in his shotgun for the M16 and locks the rounds in at the bottom. He stands next to the SUV and swears he's fucking Tony Montana unleashing his wrath on Sosa's men. But the thing is, he doesn't really know why he feels so angry about Caroline getting hurt. Partially, he figures it is his fault. If he'd just stuck with the plan, then they would've been driving out of Mystic Falls by now, but of course he had to act on impulse and try to be funny. Which it wasn't.

Zombies fall down like dominoes. Some get their limbs blown off, others drop instantly with a bullet to the head. The consistent and unrelenting shooting of the gun going off makes Nik's eardrums feel like they're about to burst, but he can't stop now. Not when he's almost finished. Not when there's only one more and he needs to end this monstrosity for Caroline's sake. For Rebekah's sake. For Kol's sake. They should never be on this land, tainting it with their death. They shouldn't be here at all. Ever.

He puts the last bullet in a fat ones head and it drops to the ground instantly. There is a pool of black blood splattered across the brick, collecting in the little crevices between them. Nik lowers his rifle and surveys all the bodies. All these disgusting things that he just rid this place of. But for every ten, there is another fifty, and for every fifty is another five-hundred. And a thousand and a million and a billion. He knows the world must be overrun with these things. If there is even the tiniest bit of human left, it's in the single digits percentage. There probably aren't even enough to populate a small country.

He opens the backdoor and checks on Caroline. She's still passed out, but she's breathing all right. A quick survey of her body doesn't give him any sure signs of broken bones. Just a few bruises here and there. She probably has a concussion.

He goes around to the other side and clears out the other side of the seat and places everything in the very back seat and trunk. He stretches Caroline out on the seat, wipes the blood off her head with a cloth, and props her head up on a blanket. He buckles her in and looks at her one last time before closing the door and getting back behind the wheel.

It's time to leave.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

A/N: Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing! I didn't think that this would be as popular as it is, but you guys totally proved me wrong. So thank you for boosting my confidence because I so needed it.

Sigh. Nik is such a douchenozzle, isn't he? Well, we'll see how this plays out. Caroline won't take this too well, will she? Yikes.

Oh, and I know close to nothing about guns, so if something doesn't sound right and you feel you know how to better reword it, then please tell me because I'd like it to fix it.

Anyway, thank you so much guys! I really really appreciate it!

And if you're not already, check out my good friend liar. faker's fic Killer Instinct. If you aren't reading it, then I suggest you go hop on the bandwagon before it ends in August! Get ready for feels overload! And read the rest of her stuff too because it's all. Freaking. Perfect.

Toodaloo!