*Chapter Six: Surviving as a unit - Are you hitting on me?*
"Watch my back while I take a piss, will ya?" Cash asked walking around the back of the van, waving his hand in my direction. I shivered at the thought. Ugh, such a guy.
"Yeah, I've got ya back," I chided back to him. We had gone about 75 miles out of the way since the main highway had been jam-packed with abandoned vehicles. Numerous cars were smoldering from crashing into each other and exploding on impact. It was odd to think that there was actually someone else out there like me. Someone for once that wasn't anting to kill me. It seemed that everything was turning out to be alright. Certainly worth surviving for. Well, surviving as this - this abomination.
But our peaceful life wouldn't last long. Typical. I hit the back of the van. "Hey, hurry it up. I know you gotta drain the lizard but hell, we've got inbound.. Specials.." I pulled out a pistol we had gotten a few miles back and took aim. From my senses, there weren't any normal zombies out there, so the sound wouldn't cause any issues. We were out in the open and everything would be just fine if we just headshot the sons of bitches.
"I'm coming, damn.. With this fucking infection, it makes my whole damned body work out of whack." He came around from the back of the van, giving me a smirk - just staring at me. It was making me uncomfortable.
"Hey, what the hell are you staring at? Those are the things you need to be staring at," I mentioned pointing the gun towards the specials. They were making their way at a pretty fast pace. It was certainly odd how the tall ones were dripping acidic ooze out of their mouths and the small ones had to have been children at some point. Either that or they were grown men and the infection just deformed them to the point of being back-humpers.
He shook his head as he chuckled. "Oh nothing. I had just forgotten how hot a chick is when she's packing heat.." He pulled out his shotgun and looked around. "So, we should be able to headshot them yeah?"
I couldn't believe what I had just heard. Was he hitting on me? Nah, he couldn't be. I shook my head as I looked to the infected. "Yeah, Cash. We should be able to use only a few bullets and then hit the road before any zombies come our way." I took aim at one of the infected and pulled the trigger. The bullet shot left the chamber in a flash, leaving sparks and a trail of smoke as it blasted from the end of the snubnose point, making its mark right square in the middle of the special's forehead. Ooze spilling from the point as it collapsed to the litter covered ground. "Fucking A!" I smirked as I blew on the end of the gun, my raspy breath chasing away the smoke left at the end.
Cash could only hoot and holler. "Ohh fuck yeah. I've got such a boner right now!"
He pulled the trigger of his shotgun while making his way towards the special infected. "Another one bites the dust, oh yeah!" he shouted out loud as he dropped another one. And another. I was firing off single shots into each one of their heads. The blood spattering from some while others were collapsing in a puddle of acid. Almost like spitters. Then it hit me. These weren't normal mutations. I'd seen them before.
Once the last one was dropped, I looked to Cash who was kicking the face in of one of the infected. "Cash.." I said reloading the gun.
"Yeah?" he asked turning around wiping his boot on the grass to rid it of the brain matter.
"Don't these mutations seem...familiar?" I asked him. They should anyway. Of all the hours he and I played Left 4 Dead, he should know them as well as I do. The acidic goo is totally Spitter shit. The deformed ones are really back-humpers. They're jockeys. And the women from before. The one was a fucking Tank. I knew it. I felt it within me. Something was certainly up with this.
Cash stopped midway, looking back at the bloody remains of the corpses and then continuing on to meet back up with me. "Nah, they couldn't be, could they? They're not really specials.. That's just in video games."
I shook my head and shrugged my shoulders. "I'm not sure. But hell, with all that has happened to us in the last few weeks, I wouldn't put it past the universe to throw some more bullshit towards us.." I moved towards the van and checked the gas tank. We'd have about 20 more miles before we'd have to fill up and by then, it would be dark.
"True that.." he said getting in the driver seat. It felt odd enough that we thought we would need to get somewhere before dark. I wasn't sure if we'd be able to see some of the specials by nightfall. Then we'd be truly fucked. Some of these damn fuckers would certainly destroy us if we were to ever let our guard down.
Soon enough, dark was upon us and we couldn't see two fucking feet in front of us. Well, that would be what it would normally, but we were infected and could see everything. Well, not everything. Not the fucking tree that miraculously was thrown in our path by a Tank. Oh, don't worry, the Tank was taken care of with ease, but the van was - well, it has seen better days.
Cash could only shrug his shoulders. "Beats me. I guess we could pack what we can into the backpacks and hoof it to the nearby town.. But that's not so bad, is it?" he asked.
There was that damn charm of his again. Was he really trying to hit on me? "I guess not," I responded. "But we should do it quickly. I don't want to deal with another one of these fuckers." I kicked the body of the Tank who looked almost more human than zombie. I turned to the back of the van and began packing shit that we would need. This would be a hard time without a working vehicle, but it would be worth it in the end.
Every now and again, I would catch Cash looking in my direction. He was becoming a bit odd, but I didn't think much of it. He was the only survivor that hadn't tried to kill me - hell he was like me. Anyway, keeping my mind on track. I pulled the satchel over my shoulder and started walking. He was close behind. We could hear the moans and groans of several infected moving in our direction. We'd have to hoof it fast.
We made it to the edge of the town and it was smoldering as well. But what wasn't nowadays? I looked to Cash and sighed. "Hey, I've been meaning to ask you - have you been trying to hit on me?" I stopped short as he seemed to freeze in place. He turned to me, his face as red as a face can get when it's filled with the infection.
"Um, no - I haven't - ahem...um...Well," he was stumbling over his own words. It only made me laugh inside.
"I'm not meaning to put you on the spot - but the comments. They're kinda hard to miss." I winked at him as I continued walking.
"Well, wait - was it that obvious?" he asked, his voice changing tones to a higher one.
I laughed. "Oh god, yes. It was very obvious. I say we should find somewhere to camp out. We'll have to find a vehicle come the morning or we won't make it out to California or wherever in the fucking hell we are trying to get to."
Cash seemed embarassed but he continued on. This was nice. Having someone to tease, to talk to, to survive with. It's like we were living our favorite zombie game and it was nice. Growl. "Fuck, I'm starving!" we both screamed out at the same time.