"Deckeeer, wake uuuup" Lilith cooed gently, shaking his shoulder with her hand as his cap still covered his eyes, Decker however continued to sleep peacefully, "come on Decker get your ass up" she said a bit louder into his ear, but Decker just brushed off that attempt as well, Lilith who at this point had gotten a bit cheeky, then grabbed and yanked at one of his earlobes, this caused a sudden pained exclamation from him, "ow! Okay, okay I'm getting up!" he whined, he opened his eyes and pushed his cap backwards, the sudden flood of burning yellow light into his retina made him squint his eyes tightly, after getting used to the sudden burst of photons he found himself in the tarps which he had put Lilith in, speaking of her, she was lying on her side next to him on his right, propping her upper body on her left elbow and twisting it to face him, "how did you sleep?" she asked, "I've slept better" he responded, "I'm glad for that, but I wonder who put me in these nice comfy sheets" Lilith then teased, Decker gave a bit of a grin as he was the one to put her in them last night, Lilith smiled back, "well thanks for being so considerate sweetie" she cooed back at him, then she leaned over and pecked him on the cheek, with his smile getting larger with that contact, "I see that you're up now" they then heard Lennox say, they turned to see him standing there, with Misty beside him with a smile on her face as well, probably after witnessing that kiss on the cheek, "aww so you two are in love with each other aren't you?" she asked them both, Lilith who had been caught off guard however was a bit embarrassed, "Misty, that wasn't…" she began to say, "Decker and Lilith sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G" Misty then sang cutting her off, Lilith just rolled her eyes, "okay Misty, do you want me to tell Marlton how much you want him to plow you?" she then said deviantly, Misty's smile then went away and she now had a blush on her cheeks, "err, no! I don't want… him knowing that right now!" the farmer stammered, "okay you two do you want to have breakfast with most of your secret's intact?" Lennox chimed in, Decker stood up onto his two feet, "I don't know why you're so embarrassed Lily, didn't you say back at the resort you didn't care who knew?" he brought up, Lilith cast her mind back to that thought.
"Decker you're right I'm gonna finally say it, I love you!"
"Shut uuuuup"
"And I don't care who knows it! now let's shoot some fucking zombies!"
"Oh yeah, well, maybe I was being sarcastic back then you know?" Lilith admitted, Decker however just kept smiling, "I don't think you were, do you want me to tell all of them?" Decker dared, "if anyone's doing the talking, it's going to be me, and I'm keeping my mouth shut" Lilith deadpanned while getting up onto her feet, "well the thing is…" Decker then said, rubbing the back of his head, Lilith gave him a serious look, "...I kinda mentioned to Dempsey you were my girlfriend now" he admitted, and just on que, Dempsey had walked over to them all, "how are the two lovebirds?" he asked them both, with Lilith now looking rather annoyed, "were great Dempsey but I think you got us at the wrong time" Decker replied still rubbing the back of his head, Misty just leaned in towards Dempsey, "Lilith wanted to keep it a secret apparently" she said with a slight giggle, with Dempsey then letting out a bit of a snigger seeing the awkwardness of the situation, then Lilith grabbed Decker by his collar and pulled his ear towards her mouth with a large amount of authority, "if you embarrass me like this again, I'll rip your heart out" she whispered with a very threatening voice, but Decker smirked again, "I think you already did with that smooth voice of yours Lily" he flirted, she was caught off-guard by that rather romantic comment and couldn't hold a blush back as she let him go, "you coming for breakfast or not?" Lennox interrupted, "yeah, sure" Lilith squeezed out, still trying to get over the shock of Decker's comment, "what is for breakfast anyways?" Decker questioned, "well that Russian drunkie fell into a few boxes and a whole lot of food cans spilled out, just saved us as Stupinger was considering even eating one of the corpses" Misty explained, a bit of an unnerved look on her face on that last point in the sentence, "well I'm starving, where's the food anyways?" Decker said while walking off to search, Misty turned to look at Lilith with a suggestive look, with her blowing a raspberry in response, "whatever" she scoffed while walking away from her, Lennox and Dempsey, Misty just smiled, "thinking of candidates my fat ass" she grinned.
"Can't you have burned this less Edward?" a sitting Stuhlinger whined while looking at a piece of burnt food, stuck on a makeshift fork, Richtofen just turned from the scrapped together stove he was at and looked back at him, "I'm a doctor, not a gourmet chef may I remind you, now are you going to eat in silence?" he said back at the conspiracy theorist, "whatever, at least this isn't as bad as that IT person" Stuhlinger then muttered to himself, Kahn who was at the table looked at him with curiosity, "who? Lilith?" he asked, "yeah, she's just sounds like a spoilt brat if you ask me, she's cosying up to Misty whom has been giving me shit all this time, if you ask me, she's just another bitch who's too big for her shoes" the conspiracy theorist smeared, but then a hand grabbed his shoulder from behind, Stuhlinger tensed as he saw the red painted nails and knew immediately who it was, his face going pale in shock, "what were you saying about me Stuhlinger?" Lilith's voice came from behind him, Stuhlinger just whimpered as she then came into his view, "talking shit about me behind my back?" she then said with a killer smile, Stuhlinger just sat there not saying a word, "well I am a professional in IT and hacking, so you know what I could do? I can just track your movements across the globe using the internet of things which you can't hide from, and just relay all of that to all of those men behind those conspiracies you are so afraid of, for them to deal with you in their own time, how would you like that?" she hummed, Stuhlinger was having a mini panic attack at this moment, which Lilith loved to see, "I'm sorry, did I make you uncomfortable?" she chimed, Stuhlinger just nodded with his face looking rather pale, "hmm… good" Lilith then chided, finishing her roasting of Stuhlinger, who was wishing he was in a better place now, she went and sat at the table and looked at Kahn who was slightly unnerved, she just smiled at him, "are you glad you didn't fire me now for those emails Kahn?" she asked, Kahn just looked away, not really wanting to answer that question.
"Is that the city?" Lennox asked Russman who both were standing on the battlements, in the morning sun the city was now clearly visible, some of the light reflecting off some of the glass surfaces and creating a few sparkles in the distance, "sure is, hey Marlton!" Russman then shouted, "what?" Marlton called, "get your ass and rifle up here!" the old man then responded, within a few moments Marlton had climbed up the stairs, holding his DSR, "what the hell is it Russman?" he said rather annoyed, Russman then grabbed and yanked the scope off the rifle's attachment rail, "what the?" the nerd spat out, shocked by the sudden action, "now I can actually see shit now" Russman scowled, holding the scope up to his eye and looked through, the magnified image allowed him to pick out a few more features, such as a few tall brick buildings, a highway overpass and the fact that the city looked completely deserted, there was no movement in any of the buildings, on the roofs, nothing in the air, just, nothing, Russman then stuffed the scope back into Marlton's hand, "I have just the suggestion of what we do next" he articulated.
"Go into the city?" Misty responded to the suggestion, they were all now gathered around the table, some sitting and other standing, the two predominant couples being next to each other at the table, "yeah, what else do we do? just sit here and die of old age?" Russman responded to her comment, he then leaned on the table surface, "my suspicious are, if where going to survive and make any progress, we're gonna have to into those buildings and find our materials, place, whatever in order to beat that little girl and janitor" he continued, the others looked at each other, "and how many freak-sacks are we gonna run into there?" Dempsey then asked, messing with his Thompson in hand, "I don't know, but I guess it will be more than out here" Russman voiced his opinions, "just like in the movies eh? like those zombie, apocalypse, vigilante types?" Decker then brought up, everyone looked at him, the originals and the Tranzit group with weird looks, "what? You don't watch movies? My other dream job other than being a soldier was a movie actor you know" he defended himself, "maybe in some other universe Decker" Lilith than chimed, a bit of sudden awkwardness came across Decker, like that statement was somehow kinda true, "he has a point, if humans conglomerate around cities for food and other resources, then zombies would do the same, so why wouldn't they not go there?" Richtofen supported Decker's statement, "I think it could be a goddamn death-trap as well" Marlton also objected, "but companions, does it matter where we are? Even if we stay out of the city, what is stopping Samantha and Oz from sending more dishonoured at us? If we go in the city we may have more supplies, more buildings to fortify and have a better chance of survival" Takeo then spoke, "see, Takeo has just hit the nail right on the head, if you look at it either way, we have a better chance in the city than out of it, I'm making the decision to go there" Russman voted, "I can't really argue with him" Kahn then said in favour, Richtofen thought for a second, humming as he tapped his chin, "ahh why the hell not? I can kill more of my children there anyways" he beamed, "its settled, any questions?" Russman then began to conclude, a familiar hand then came up, and Russman rubbed his eyes as he knew who it was, "yes Nikolai?" he muttered, "is there going to be vodka there?" the Russian asked in a stupid way, "is vodka all you care about you drunkie?" Misty chastised, turning to face him, "what? What's the problem in likening vodka? I get lots of it, especially from second wife" Nikolai just said back, taking another swig out of his current bottle, "if there's a liquor store Nikolai, I'll let you personally rummage through it by yourself" Russman conceded, Nikolai then smiled, "that's all I need" he resounded, getting up and walking to the gate, Russman also stood up, "okay, you all have thirty minutes to grab supplies, clean weapons, organise, take a crap, whatever, just be outside by then or we'll leave you behind, clear?" he bellowed out to all of them, everyone agreed and they all went off to do their business.
And after those thirty minutes, the entire group had set off on their exploration, walking across the fields away from the compound, heading north and uphill until they came across a slightly cracked, sunbathed tarmac road, weaving down the hill and onto a highway bridge in the distance towards the east, with a few buildings on the way, they started to walk down the tarmac, as the sky was staying a bright yellow colour, like there was some dust high up in the atmosphere.
They eventually came across a fuel station, coloured in the shades of red and white, everything was run down, watermarks running down the walls, rusted bodies of cars sitting in the lanes and dust covering the half-broken windows, the group went around the building and tried to find a way into it, with the door being boarded up and everything, Russman who had gotten impatient just told everyone to get back and then shot a grenade at the boarded up door, the wood exploded into splinters and flew into the confines of the building, Russman, Richtofen, Lilith and Takeo walked in, only to find an old dusty environment, the shelves bare and the cahiers kiosk void, "well that was a waste of a nade" Russman huffed, "unfortunately, no honour in here" Takeo reinforced in his own way, however Lilith walked over to a large, opaque refrigerator, "hold on, there's probably something in this" she said, she pulled the door open and a tall, dusty object then fell onto her, she looked away and felt what she thought was old rags as she tried to hold it up, but when she looked back, her blood froze as she saw the face of a skull looking back at her with the dark void of its empty eye sockets, she let out a short, high pitch scream and threw the body off to the side with it crashing on the floor and some of the ribs coming out of what remained of its shirt, she stood there, looking at it with wide open eyes and covering her mouth with her hand, "that's fucking gross!" she shouted in her shock, trying desperately to wipe off any trace of it on her jacket, Russman and Takeo were rather unnerved, but Richtofen was the opposite to what Lilith was, going to the body and looking at it with curiosity, "hmm, I wonder how you passed away my friend" he said to himself, there was a sight whoosh of air from the door as Decker came darting in, probably after hearing his girlfriend in distress, "Lilith? You okay?" he asked her in worry, "no! I just had a fucking body fall on top of me!" she replied still in disgust, "calm down Lil, it can't hurt you even if it tried" Russman tried to calm her down, Takeo came up behind Richtofen, "doctor, leave this body's soul in peace" he asked, the doctor in response got up and turned around to face him, "this does prove one thought I have had, this was a living place before this all happened" he hypothesized, that thought went through the minds of everyone in the room, "so you mean there where people here before us?" Decker questioned, "very much so" Richtofen finished.
"Ugh I wished there were some undead to kill right now" Misty said rather board, while standing at the edge of the station, Marlton was next to her, "I kinda like the peace, at least I ain't getting chased all over the place now" he just shrugged, she looked at him closely, "is someone getting tired?" she then joked, "no I slept rather well" Marlton answered blankly, "no silly, I meant emotionally tired" Misty then joyfully corrected him, "oh, well I really wish I was in a different place, but…"
Before Marlton could finish his sentence, there was a large gust of wind and a large sheet of paper, which was travelling through the air at some velocity, hit and wrapped around Marlton's face, Misty gasped and dropped her shotgun as he shrieked at the unwanted contact, "AARG! GET IT OFF-GET IT OFFFFF!" his muffled voice screamed as he clung at the paper with his hands, Misty reached for one of the edges and managed to get it off his head, now free from the burden, Marlton was wiping his face repeatedly, "ugh fuck! Jesus how many germs and bacteria where on that piece of trash!" he cringed like the nerd he was, but Misty out of curiosity looked at the paper and saw it wasn't just some rubbish, it was a printed map, "err, guys!" she shouted to the rest.
Lennox had the map laid out against a wall, holding it up by one hand on one corner for everyone to see it, it described all of the roads and streets which where interwoven through the city's layout, consisting of many big and small, commercial and residential buildings, the map even showed a metro line which circled through the underground areas, even connecting to some of the larger buildings, but what stood out was the name, in bold letters in the bottom-right corner, "welcome to Starshot City" Lennox read the words out loud, confirming what the place was called, everyone looked with a small amount of interest, "doesn't sound familiar to me, a city's never had a name like that back in my time" Dempsey sounded, all the others seemed to share his opinion, "so it's a city which was never built in our times?" Kahn asked, "looks like it" Russman answered him, "so does this mean, where in a different universe or something?" Misty questioned, everyone was now concerned, "maybe, but if it turns out to be true, no amount of teleported usage will get us out of it, we will have to beat that little brat and janitor" Richtofen implored, giving his theory on the situation at hand, "well then, enough of this doo-hickory, let's keep going" Russman then just snapped, shoving aside all of these thoughts and continued to walk towards the city, but he then turned, "and keep that map, we'll need it for sure" he added on, Lennox just folded it up and shoved it into one of his suits pockets, "you heard the old man, let's go" he added on,
Everyone was now crossing over a white, concrete, three-lane highway bridge which went over the river, where the emptiness of the city limits on one side ended and the built-up parts started on the other, the bridge wasn't barren, it did have the odd car abandoned on random parts of it, they seemed to still be in some good condition, probably being only abandoned a short time ago, Lilith was thinking about something while looking over the guardrail into the waters below, "Decker" she then asked her companion, "yes Lily?" he replied, with the exact statement she wanted to talk about, "about that, why did you start calling me that?" she pressed, "well, you know your name is a bit, you know? Cramped and, I thought that was a good nickname for you, kinda fits something like a lily pad" he came up with his reason, Lilith in response blew a raspberry in humour, "lily pad?" she grinned with a smile on her face, "well, I see you as a person who's light and beautiful, like a lily pad you know" Decker continued with his reason, Lilith blushed a bit by those romantic comments, even though she would consider herself light and rosy on the outside, but tough as thorns on the inside, "well Decker, do you want to know what Lilith means?" she hinted, Decker continued to look in interest, "it's derived from an Akkadian word meaning 'of the night', which does fit me as I see myself as a night person, sitting in a dark server room all day" she explained, Decker smiled, "that's interesting, but I do feel kinda jealous" he confessed, "what? Because Jimmy doesn't have some biblical meaning behind it?" Lilith smirked, "yep" Decker just flatly responded with Lilith giggling in response to his disappointment.
Once they had crossed the bridge and walked down the street more they came up to a T-junction, the white cladded building in front of them seemed to be the side of a bus depot, with brick buildings taking the other corners, the road and pavement outside the depot seemed to be in bad shape, cracks ran through the ground and where coned off, some members of the group decided to take a short break, sitting down on some of the kerbs or leaning against some of the brick walls, however Misty walked up to the wall of the depot, ignoring the cones as she saw a few posters, "hey Lil!" she called over to her friend, after some time, Lilith came over to her side, "what is it?" she asked, Misty just pointed to the poster, it was an advertisement for what looked like some kind of boy-band, complete with colours, instruments and a stage to go with it, even showing a date and ticket prices and the place where it would be held, at a stadium somewhere else in the city, "hmm, I'm not really into that kind of thing" Lilith shrugged it off, "yeah, but some of those guys look rather cute" Misty bubbled, "Misty, all these things are is just a bunch of pre-pubescent teenagers singing out a bunch of crap just so they can get some hot girls in their bed" Lilith objected, "girls like you?" Misty then said, "pff, until pigs fly" Lilith just scoffed, however when she turned she felt what sounded like a few pebbles falling, but she didn't think about it too much as Decker presented himself in front of them, "you two okay?" he asked them, "yeah Decker we were just-" Misty then tried to say.
But suddenly there was the heart wrenching sound of concrete and stone coming apart, Misty felt the ground quickly fall out from beneath her feet, she saw Decker with a shocked look on his face go up her vision as she fell downwards into a hole, her panic hit the roof as she shrieked at the sudden deadly situation which had come about her, she felt weightless as she continued to fall, feeling her limbs contacting the stony walls which kind of slowed her decent, but she was now disorientated, just watching stones, metal, and a glimpse of her friend falling with her, not really knowing what to do, and the next thing she knew, was seeing the ground of the revealed cavern come up towards her…
And everything went black.
"Ugh, where the hell are we?"
"I don't know, ask that crazy brit where we are"
"What the bloody hell? This isn't the damn Humberside station!"
"I'm waiting you crazy bastard!"
"I don't have a bloody clue where we are you new-Yorker idiot! Give me a second"
"What? I though…"
"I SAID GIVE ME A BLOODY SECOND YOU TOSSER!"
"Looks like a storage room to me"
"Motherfucker, isn't that obvious?"
"Just saying Joh…"
"I swear to god if the next words which come out of your Canadian cunt mouth, isn't instructions to get us back to the station, I will give you a bloody vasectomy with my goddamn L85!"
"Calm down my friend, you don't need to get so angry, what's the worst that can happen?"
"Yeah what the worst that can happen, a bunch of zombies come and kill us you moron Russian? who gave you your mercenary licence?"
"Hey guys! I found a door, should I go through it?"
"What the hell do you think I'm gonna say you stupid twat? Of course!"
"Just saying"
"Just, you wanking, piece of, ugh never mind!... god give me strength"
Well I think you've just heard some glimpses of the new group, also sorry for the delay, a mixture of writer's block and procrastination, anyways see you in the next chapter, where Misty and Lilith find themselves in a 'hole' world of trouble. (please fucking kill me for that crap pun.)