Outbreak


9. The Coincidence


It was a crisp, early morning in quiet Albuquerque. The cold sky was a pale blue dotted with soft white clouds. The air was fresh and chilly. The streets, as usual were still and lifeless. There wasn't a sound except for Chad's hushed and pleading voice as he crouched over Troy at the top of the flight of black stairs.

They had managed to escape from their home, though far from unscathed, and now sought a moment of refuge atop the entrance stairs just outside their apartment door. Inside, the remaining Savages whom they hadn't had the energy or power to kill could still be heard ransacking the empty rooms for any sign of meat. Ignoring the wails of disappointment that managed to break through the steel door, Chad continued to visually inspect his friend.

There was so much blood it was hard to tell where it stemmed from, or even if it was Troy's at all. They were both covered in it. Both had contributed to it. Though thankfully, it was mainly of the Savages. Things had gotten messy. Quickly. The two of them against such a large number of dangerous enemies was a clearly unfair disadvantage. And they had little to work in their favour. It had been a miracle that they'd been able to get to the door. But the miracle was flawed. All was not well.

Troy was in a bad way. He sat on the floor, propped up against the railing bars of the banister. Although he was trying hard not to show it, he could not hide the pain in his eyes. And Chad had seen the beating he had suffered from the Savage; the creature repeatedly smashing his head into the ground out of an abnormal fury. He was struggling to keep his eyes open, even as he used one of his socks as a cloth to wipe the blood from his skin. He was rubbing against the red liquid so fiercely that it must have stung. And, no matter how much attention he paid to a certain area, a few moments later it would be as blood-stained as it had been before. Rather than wipe it off he just seemed to be rubbing it in. That didn't stop him. He needed the poison off his body.

"Dude, let's go." Chad urged, yet again. His desperate request fell on deaf ears. Begging to be noticed, he bent further down to Troy and took his friend by the elbow. "Come on, man, we gotta-."

The words he'd planned to say were forgotten.

Troy continued to scrub fiercely at his reddening skin. His insane cleaning focused now on the spot that had made Chad's heart stop beating. The feeling of his sock being dragged across his bare flesh went ignored as he scrubbed at his open wound. His open wound, which tarnished his relatively-hairless hand where his thumb and index finger met. His open bite wound.

Chad released his grip on Troy's arm and took a step back. He let out a sound that is only possible to make when one is at their most devastated. A quiet cry of pure despair. A long whimper of anguish. He found himself overwhelmed with distress, so much so that he couldn't stop himself from clutching his head with both hands, his fingers so tight that his nails dug into his scalp. His line of sight never left the injury that meant the end of his best friend.

He'd been bitten. Troy, who had always been there, invincible, had been bitten. Which meant undeniable infection. And only one possible outcome; eventual death. The bacteria was already pulsing through his veins. Changing him on the inside. Poisoning his blood. There was no way of reversing it. No way of curing him. He'd soon be just like one of them.

The idea of leaving his dying friend there alone was unthinkable to Chad. Although he knew the dangers of being in the company of an infected person and he knew that Troy could kill them all, he couldn't bring himself to abandon his best friend. He leant down again and grabbed Troy's unbitten hand, though just as he attempted to pull the other boy upright, a wave of nausea knocked Troy back down.

His eyes were barely open now as he groggily blinked their heavy lids. He struggled to keep control of his wilting limbs and found himself shaking terribly. Maybe the infection was already affecting him. Or maybe it was the repeated head wound he had sustained. Either way, he no longer had control over his body and was swimming unsteadily in and out of consciousness.

The screech of tyres was heard below as Gabriella pulled up at the foot of the stairs in a black car. She jumped out immediately and bounded up the stairs, not bothering to shut the door behind her. The sight that met her at the top of the steps took her breath away.

Both boys were drenched in blood. It was on their skin, in their hair and stained their clothes. Troy lay on the small area of floor, his eyes hooded and body wracked by gentle convulsions. Chad had his hands under Troy's armpits and was attempting unsuccessfully to pull him upwards.

Gabriella instantly bent down to help. "What happened?" She asked, not taking her eyes from Troy's face as she threw one of his shuddering arms over her shoulder.

Chad did the same and they were able to lift him, though Troy's occasional tremors made it difficult for them to carry him down the narrow flight of stairs. Chad didn't even consider mentioning the bite. There was too much to think about right now and he hadn't even come to terms with it yet. He answered the question with one of his own. "Where's Taylor?" He took his gaze from the step in front of him for just an instant to look Gabriella in the eye. A flash of remorse crossed the girls face and set dread in Chad's heart.

His question, like Gabriella's, went unanswered. And out of fear and apprehension, he did not ask again.

Their shoulders aching and legs worn out, they finally reached solid ground. Troy's toes dragged across the pavement as they struggled to lift him to the car. It was a difficult manoeuvre but eventually, Gabriella sat in the back with Troy's head on her lap as he lay across the entire backseat. Chad would have felt grateful or even accomplished had it not been for the dark reality that hung over their future. They'd managed to get Troy to the safety of the car, but he was still in a bad way. And even if he did wake up, he would probably be a changed person.

The other awful thought that could not be shaken from his mind was dampened slightly as he caught sight of Taylor sitting in the passenger seat. His relief at seeing her quickly vanished however as he climbed into the drivers seat beside her. She was hurt. Her eyes were tightly shut as she inhaled and exhaled shakily. The angle of her head; tilted back, supported only by the head rest, revealed her sore and grazed chin. A small amount of blood was dripping from her jaw down her neck. The sleeve of her leather jacket was torn, as was the skin of her wrist and palm. Where her denim shorts did not cover her leg, the side of her knee and calf were scratched and an unsightly blue bruise was forming. The bruise seemed to intensify the lower it got on her leg and by the time Chad's view had met her ankle, he could see nothing more than a purple, swollen mess.

"Tay…?" His voice was uncharacteristically childlike as he reached out to touch her hesitantly. Before his fingertips could make contact with her skin, her eyes snapped open suddenly and she turned her head to him. He pulled his hand away.

"Drive, Chad!" She ordered, banging her unscratched hand on the dashboard for emphasis.

He instantly complied. Gabriella had kept the car running when she had gone to help with Troy, so all Chad needed to do was put his foot on the gas. The car went as fast as it could as they careened through empty streets with no particular destination.

In the backseat, Gabriella cradled Troy's head in her hands, gently stroking his cheeks as his eyes fluttered open and closed. "We need to get to a hospital." She declared. She didn't know what was wrong with her boyfriend, or how they would treat him, but he needed medicine. And fast. She'd never seen him so pale. So fragile. And at the back of her mind, although she tried to shut it out, her brain was telling her to prepare to lose him.

Chad nodded in agreement but had no clue which direction to go. To make matters worse, the sound of the car was attracting unwanted attention from the Savages that roamed aimlessly through the streets. Soon, a cluster of the unnaturally fast creatures was trailing behind them. And, though they were relatively safe within the locked metal doors, they would ultimately have to leave the car when-or if- they reached the hospital. There was no telling how that was going to pan out.

"I think it's that way." Taylor pointed left, immediately regretting the movement of her throbbing arm. She winced and pulled it back to her, clutching her aching wrist to her chest.

Chad turned the corner, but the road had little of his attention. "You're hurt pretty bad." He mentioned to Taylor with worry. Her agony was clear in the way her facial features were twisted into a hurt grimace. "How did-?"

"I'm okay." She shot him a weak but reassuring smile. "Really, it's just a scratch." She looked back at the road, encouraging Chad to do the same and drawing an obvious line under that discussion.

Chad followed her line of sight back to the road ahead but he'd only been focused for a few seconds when the purr of the vehicle slowly faded into nothing. The car rolled for a moment. Then it stopped.

Gabriella tore her gaze from Troy for the first time and looked around. She was surprised and confused to find that they had not reached their destination. "What are you doing?" She asked Chad who repetitively turned the key in the ignition to no avail. "Why have we stopped?" She continued.

Her questions went ignored as Chad pounded the steering wheel with his fist. "I don't believe this." He muttered under his breath. He leaned forward and rested his head on the wheel with defeat. "We're outta gas."

Taylor shut her eyes again and turned to face the window. She didn't want Chad to see the sadness on her face or how close she was to crying. Everything had gone wrong. Being reunited had been the best thing to happen to them but they hadn't even spent twenty-four hours together and it had already fallen apart. They'd lost a home, her ankle was close to broken, Troy was hurt and now they were stuck in the middle of nowhere in a broken down car that would soon be surrounded. There was no hope.

"We can't be." Gabriella refused to believe it. There was too much at stake here for the car to let them down. "Troy needs a hospital." As if for reiteration, Troy groaned from where he lay. "You have to get us out of here." She demanded.

Chad lifted his head from the steering wheel and turned in his seat to face Gabriella. "I'd love to, Gabriella," he said through gritted teeth, his irritation evident. "But unless you want me to go out and push, there really isn't much I can do." He hated feeling so useless, especially as Troy suffered right in front of him, but the sad truth was that they had no options.

Gabriella was about to answer when something slammed into the rear window behind her. They'd been found. Within seconds, the car was surrounded. Savages were at every side of them; clawing at the doors, banging on the windows, shrieking through the metal, crawling over the bonnet. They were merciless, pounding at the car with all their strength, so desperate to get to what was inside.

Inside the, they were engulfed in semi-darkness as the bodies that encircled the car blocked out the morning sunlight. Shrill screams swelled all around them and the windows misted with breath and smeared with dirty handprints.

With another groan, Troy turned slightly and buried his face in Gabriella's abdomen. He was confused. Everything hurt. And it was too noisy. All he wanted to focus on was her smell. So he sank further into her, inhaling her and revelling in her soft touch as her fingers combed softly through his hair. He allowed himself to be swallowed by her hold and let the rest of the world disappear.

Gabriella curled downwards uncomfortably and planted a quick kiss on his neck. She hovered by him for a second, with her lips an inch from his skin and whispered that she loved him before pulling back. She smiled slightly as the pained frown on his face eased.

Taylor whimpered as the window beside her began to crack. A jagged white line spread across the glass where it was starting to shatter. Several other lines branched off it. She reached out for Chad's hand, finding it almost at once. He squeezed reassuringly and, although it stung her raw skin, she felt loved and comforted.

The collective heart-rate of those in the car was well over natural speed. The hot air seemed to be thinning as it became increasingly hard to breathe. The car was shaking, being tipped from left to right. The growls and cries were intensifying into a menacing climax of success. Tiny shards of glass began to crumble into the car where the windows were giving way to the pressure on them.

Bang!

There was an explosion of red across the back of the car. Gabriella screamed and Taylor and Chad's grip on each others hands tightened. Even Troy jumped slightly. They hadn't a chance to think up an explanation for the deafening noise when it sounded again.

Bang!

Bang!

Two more bursts of crimson splashed over the windows, obscuring the sight of outdoors. The dark shadows of a pair of Savages disappeared under the red sheen. The bangs continued until the only view from every window was blotted out by blood. When the echoes subsided, there was silence.

"What the hell was that?" Gabriella whispered.

Her question was about to be answered. A quiet tapping alerted them to the heeled footsteps approaching. A silhouetted shadow was cast over Chad's window. They held their breath in anticipation. A small fist knocked on the glass.

As Chad slowly rolled down the window, the first thing he noticed was the guns, still smoking in the manicured hands. It was strange, but he knew at once who he was looking at. Even from his seated level, all he could see was her baggy-shirt clad torso and jeaned legs, but there was no doubt in his mind that it was her. His suspicion was only confirmed when she bent down to peer through his open window, her blonde hair blowing in the breeze.

Contrary to Taylor and Gabriella's reaction at seeing her, Sharpay didn't seem at all surprised at who she'd found. In fact, with the haughty smile on her face, she seemed to have expected them. She scanned the car interior with her eyes, quickly looking at all of them.

Then, she tossed her hair back and leaned nonchalantly on Chad's open window. "Hey guys." She greeted as if they had never been apart. "Long time no see."


A/N: There she is! Sorry if I didn't make it clear last time (or if I'm just pointing out the obvious now) last chapter was a flashback…. I'm a little crazy with timelines :P Anywho, I think now would be a good time to share some long awaited special thanks, don't you?

So, on the legendary wall of reviewer fame are;

PerfectxSweetheartx, bex sharpay tisdale-evans, lilmissmonique, HisDelilah, sd freek, chaylorXtraylorlover101, sunnycouger, ChaylorTwilightQueen10, ashleytisdalerockss, XxMusicalFreakxX, Moar, benny, xAdorkablex48, general wildcat, corbinsbabygrl1, ChocolatexChicaxCasey95, Pandora147, MUW D'Bellegirl and 2pinkstar and 7blackberry.

And thanks also to anyone who's added me to their favourites or alerts. You really have no idea how lovely it makes me feel. I hope you continue to read my story and don't hesitate to drop in a quick comment with whatever you feel like saying! I just feel honoured that people read and enjoy the nonsense I write!

Love you all.

xX M Xx

(P.S.- That all sounded like a bit of a conclusion. The story isn't over, don't worry, I just realised I don't say enough how much it all means to me so…. Yeah!)

Next Time; This wasn't my bedroom. Instead of being pink with a large, silver, swirly 'S' painted on it, the ceiling above me was plain white. And the sheets I lay within weren't the silk I was used to. When I attempted to roll over to look around, I found myself overwhelmed with pain that spread through my midsection. After getting my breath back, I tentatively touched my abdomen, only to find it bandaged all around.