AN: Aha! I knew the msgs would work XP Anywho, thanks to everyone who put this story in their faves, on alert, and/or reviewed. You guys are awesome! ^^

Left 4 Dead is property of Valve.

Happiness Is Not a Smoking Gun -3- Baking a Plan

Sophie licked her lips, trying to sort it out in her head. The plan was only half finished—half formed. She didn't have specialists, proper weapons, transportation, or a proper geographical understanding.

"It's half-baked, really," she started. "But I've been looking up safe places. Now, chances are that if this community base was doing something stupid with the zombies then the other areas are as well. This could mean that if we head there, our chances of survival are cut back enormously." By now, she was pacing the length of the room in-front of a captive audience. "Basically, there's a cluster of islands a little further south. Beyond those islands is an unnamed crescent of land known only as a wildlife preservation centre. The land should be rich enough to live on and, seeing as it's an island, it's a fortress of sorts. The only things we'd have to worry about are the swimmers or floaters, and natural disasters."

The rest of the group pondered this, going over their options (as if they had any).

Brandon grinned, nodding gleefully, "I like it!" he proclaimed.

"I like this more than the original plan!," agreed Lillian.

One by one, everyone pronounced some form of agreement, leading Coach to stand by the small girls side with a hand on her shoulder.

"A'ight, little one. You gon' lead us this time."

Silently, two groups slinked through the shadows to gather supplies. Cas, Ellis, Sophie, Nick, and Coach occupied one group, Lillian, Brandon, Chelsea, and Keith were in the other. Sophie's team was headed out to gather weapons from the military base and Lillian's team was out gathering rations and other supplies.

Peering around the corner and seeing nothing, Sophie motioned for her group to scan the area. They filled the rooms and grabbed as many guns and as much ammunition as they could. With several fire arms strapped to their bodies, the group fled the scene and moved to the rendezvous point.

Upon arrival, the other team was nowhere to be found—only a note remained.

Had to leave; walking witches in the area. Meet up with you guys soon. – Lillian

Sophie scowled and turned to face her team. "They've gone ahead. We've gotta go."

"Of course," Cas grumbled.

Naturally, they didn't find their friends later. They were nowhere in the community and weren't waiting outside of the city walls (now just piles of rubble). There was, however, the carcass of a Tank left behind which was more encouraging.

About to move forward, the small girl quickly realized she had no idea where she was headed.

"Uh," she said in a small voice.

Nick quickly leaned down to whisper in her ear, "the ocean's that way."

Nodding and shooting him a thankful look, she started forward, with the rest of her group in tow.

It didn't take them long to realize that the safe rooms there were this far south were few and far between. By now the sun had risen, and the hot light beat down on all of them. Not even Cas had the will to pitch a fit underneath the glare of the sun. The infected would come in waves—in some places it was hard to breathe, in some places there were none at all.

It was currently a little hard to breathe.

"Boy! Get Cas into that car!" ordered Coach.

Ellis ushered Cas into the car with lightning speed, giving her a pistol and shutting her in. Through an open window, Cas shot as many zombies as she could. It wasn't like she was incapacitated—she was pregnant.

According to Sophie, it meant the same thing.

The other four danced around the infected (common or otherwise), trying not to get hit or carried off. Already Coach almost got pounced by a hunter and Sophie was dragged a few feet away by a smoker. The swarm died down in due time, leaving them in disarray and without energy.

"Okay," panted Sophie, "I vote we sleep in the cars for tonight. We'll get moving again when everyone's well rested."

They shuffled their way down the highway to find suitable vehicles to rest in. Eventually, they stumbled across a few working vans whose only windows were in the front. Breaking them open and pulling all the unnecessary bits out, the group made an impromptu camp. The two vans sat side by side and a ladder was fixed in the middle, giving the person on watch full coverage.

"I'll take watch tonight, y'all," said Coach, "the rest of you look worse for wear."

Unable to argue the couples shuffled to a van each and shut themselves in.

Cas and Ellis lay together, neither of them talking. Ellis cradled Cas from behind, rubbing her growing belly in small, lazy circles. She sighed and leaned her head back to rest on his chest. Neither of them had to tell the other about their greatest worry.

They lost their best friends again.

It wasn't as if they didn't have their friends there; quite the contrary. Sophie and Cas grew closer together during the time they spent sharing a house. Their relationship was rather sisterly. Ellis and Nick had put aside their differences and decided to work with each other. They found themselves to be easy friends when prejudice wasn't an issue. Still, neither of them could forget their best friends. Cas had Chelsea and Ellis had Keith.

"They'll be okay," she said aloud to reassure herself.

"Yeah," Ellis drifted off.

Silence overtook the couple again. Ellis played with the ring he gave her—the engagement ring. He smiled at the memory. She had been so happy!

"Hey," he said, tilting her chin so he was looking at her, "we'll be okay."

In the other van Nick and Sophie were in a similar embrace, only they chose to face each other. She didn't talk, so he didn't, and he didn't try, so she didn't either. There was too much to say and no way to say it. Sophie knew Lillian and her team would be fine; there was no way they couldn't be.

She just didn't know about her own team.

"Is this how Coach always feels?" she asked.

Knowing what she was implying, he hummed in thought. "Nah. I bet it's second nature to him by now." He shifted so he could look her in the eye. "But you know, I think leading is first nature to you."

She smirked and playfully shoved him. "I have no idea what I'm doing."

"You're keeping everyone safe," he shot back. "And you're getting us to a safe place. Now, don't ask me, I wouldn't know, but I think that's the stuff of a true leader."

She bit her lip in thought, then grumbled, "you just want in my pants again."

He chucked, "You're my wife. When don't I?"

By late morning they found a relatively deserted variety store outside of a small town. Breaking in, they obtained snacks (which kept Cas very happy) and a map (which brightened Sophie's spirits a lot more).

"Alright!" Sophie announced. "Does anyone know anything about deserts?"

Coach raised a hand and an eye brow.

"Good!" she cheered, "Then you're in charge of getting us across this desert," she pointed to a spot on the map, "right here. For now, we're approaching a city. After we get out of suburbia, we're going to have to be…careful."

"You know, this one time Keith and I were walkin' through this city, an' there were like, a million sky scrapers and stuff. This one guy jumps off a buildin' an—"

Coach cleared his throat, seeing the small girl pale. Ellis took in the situation and muttered an apology.

"No one's going to be jumping off roofs unless it's a zombie," Cas cut in, trying to ease her friends pain.

"That's what I'm worried about."

Getting through the jungle of backyards, play parks, sedans, and mini vans was like walking through a circus with the infected around. Each group member was reminded vaguely of the town they had to go through during their trip through the sugar mill. It put all of them on edge.

Cas spotted a pile of abandoned ammunition down the road. Unfortunately, it seemed that there was a Hunter guarding the pile. Using it as bait was likely. Nudging her friend, she gestured to the pile. Sophie pursed her lips in a plan on luring the infected away from their prize.

"Hey Nick," she said casually. When he looked over she continued, "go get that ammo over there for me."

He looked over and spotted the pile…and the hunter. "There's a hunter over there."

"I know."

"No."

"Go get it or our marriage is over."

Grunting, Nick pulled out his gun and walked casually towards the threat. This was a common trick his wife pulled.

He fell for it every time.

The buildings became denser—less personal property appeared. They knew they were in the city when the pavement went from well maintained, to cracked and littered. Coach glanced up at the first sky scraper on the outer edges of the city limits.

"Now what?"

FN: Out of the pan and into the fire? Questions? Comments? Criticism? Concerns? All are welcome ^^