Chapter 14: Sven

Kristoff narrowed his eyes. He glanced at Astrid and Sandy before looking back to Anna.

"Why would you need my help?" he asked cautiously.

"You have a horse," Anna said rather bluntly. "A horse can move a lot faster than any of us can. It can walk on the sidewalks and can cover a lot more ground a lost faster. It'll make finding her easier."

Kristoff glanced as Astrid again, only to find an unreadable expression.

"How long's she been missing?"

"Three days."

Kristoff's gaze shot back to Anna.

"She's dead," he said without even thinking. It wasn't like he had to. Three days on your own in a city crawling with dead-beats, there was only one outcome.

Anna shook her head. When she spoke, it was with a certainty that even Kristoff found difficult to disbelieve.

"No she's not. I know she's alive and we have to find her."

"How'd she go missing then?" Kristoff asked.

"She up and left us," Astrid butted in before Anna could say anything. "She packed up and ran off while we were sleeping."

"But she didn't realize what she was doing," Anna countered. "Please if we could just find her—"

"Oh-ho, ho, no," Kristoff said, raising his hands as he shook his head. He'd heard enough. Enough to know that this was something he did not want to be getting involved with.

"If you think I'm going to help a merry band of murderous menstruaters find the fourth member to their—"

"But Elsa hasn't killed anyone—well," Anna quickly amended, "anyone alive."

"Doesn't matter," Kristoff said, throwing his hands in the air. "You guys just killed a man, and that's not something I can easily forget."

"We've been over this," Astrid muttered in not too quiet undertones. "He wasn't a man."

"Man, monster, whatever," Kristoff said as he turned around to leave. "I can't help you."

He'd had enough of this circus show for one day. He began making his way towards the alleyway he'd come from and away from these crazies as fast as possible.

"We'll help you out of the city."

Kristoff froze. Damn it. He'd forgotten that he was still clueless as to how the hell to get out of the city and back to Sven.

"We know the city," Anna continued. "We can get you out, but only if you help us find my sister."

Kristoff refused to turn around. His mind bounced back and forth. If he didn't help, he was surely going to die wandering around this labyrinth of a city. If he did help, these crazy lunatics would probably just kill him in his sleep anyways. At least then, he might have a chance at seeing Sven before he died. Plus, he couldn't be completely sure they'd kill him. Unlike the certainty that he most definitely would die if he was left on his own to find his way back to Sven.

Kristoff sighed. It didn't really look like there was much of a choice for him.

Three hours.

That's how long they went before running into a group of hungry, drooling, rotting dead-beats. Three, stinking short hours.

"WHY DO YOU NOT HAVE A WEAPON?!" Astrid screamed as she sent her axe flying through the air to land in the skull of one of the dead-beats with a wet thump.

"I left it with Sven," Kristoff hollered as he ducked out of the way of a charging zombie, its hands out and grasping for him and just missing. "I didn't think I'd need it! The city looked empty!"

There were about eight of them in all. Eight dead-beats. There had been more at first, but the girls had cut that number down considerably in the last ten minutes alone.

The group had made their way out of city and had been traveling along the out limits, which, as it turns out, they'd been a lot closer to than Kristoff had thought. They had been following the boarder with the city on their right and the woods on their left, when a horde of dead-beats suddenly emerged from the dense collection of trees, right on top of them. They'd barely had time to register what was going on, much less make a run for it.

Kristoff couldn't help but be grateful for Astrid's instincts, otherwise, they'd all be zombie happy meals by now. She'd been to one to smell them, right before they came charging at the four of them from out of nowhere, and the first to attack.

It'd been terrifying. One minute, there they were, walking along, making tense conversation, Kristoff still sore about being black-mailed into helping these lunatics. The next thing he knew, all he could see was chomping jaws and all he could hear was the inhuman screeches of the charging beat-beats that just about shredded his eardrums. True, the dead-beats could only shuffle, but damn, it was a fast shuffle. And for being dead, it was one hell of a surprise at how incredibly strong they could be. Once a dead-beat had it's grip on you, the only way of escaping to freedom was to take the whole dead-beat arm with you, which was entirely possible considering their rotting joints. They came at the four travelers, fast and strong, all rotting flesh with open wounds, rolling eyes, and biting teeth.

"Wow," Astrid said, somehow managing the effort to use sarcasm as she took on the next dead-beat with the knife she'd had strapped to her thigh. "You actually are as stupid as you look."

"Christopher!" he heard a scream. He spun around, just in time to see a lute connect solidly with the head of a dead-beat that had been less than two steps from taking a bite out of him. Despite the situation, Kristoff took the few seconds to appreciate that the guitar-like instrument was a lot sturdier than it looked.

"It's Kristoff!" he shouted as barreled passed Anna and her medieval instrument to tackle the dead-beat that had been coming at her from the right.

"Really?" Anna hollered as she took out another dead-beat while Kristoff struggled with his own on the ground. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah," he yelled back as he wrestled with the infected human clawing at his face while. "Pretty sure." God, this had been a bad idea, he realized as he did his best to hold the screaming dead-beat down.

In the next second, he was hoisted up and thrown to the side. The next thing Kristoff saw was the Sandy girl lunge at the dead-beat Kristoff had been handling. She attacked, butterfly knives spinning with nothing but her shorts and big, puffy gold jacket as protection. With a few flicks of her wrist, the zombie's hands were gone, leaving it defenseless as she jammed a blade deep into it's eye socket. The effect was instant as the zombie froze and went limp.

Silence fell as the last dead-beat fell still, everyone left breathless and covered with blood and sweat.

A few more flicks, and the knives spun closed as she stuck them in her back pocket and rose to stand over the lifeless corpse, her chest heaving. She walked over and held a hand out to Kristoff, scowling slightly. He glanced behind her at the dead-beat that had come this close to ripping his throat out.

"Thanks…for that," he said, a little breathless as he realized he'd almost died. "Nice jacket by the way," he added as he looked back up and grabbed her offered hand. Her face softened and she let out a silent laugh as she hauled him up. She gave him a single pat on the back before leaving him to check on Anna. Kristoff didn't follow. He could tell from a glance, the others were alright. Instead, he started walking around and gathering up the luggage the others had dropped in the sudden attack.

He dropped the bags with a wump! next to Astrid as she planted her foot against the shoulder of a dead-beat and proceeded to try to yank her axe out of its head. She glared at him quickly before focussing back on the zombie head with her axe trapped in it, not uttering a word. Looked like she was still sour about their exchange from before.

Kristoff swallowed.

"Ah, thanks."

She cast another glare at him.

"For what?" she said with another yank on her axe.

"For, uh, protecting me," he said, rubbing a hand over the back of his neck. "You guys could've left me for the dead-beats."

She let out a grunt as she gave another tug on her axe, not giving any sign she'd heard him.

"Here, let me," he said stepping forward. Astrid gave him one last glare, before stepping aside to let him wrap his hands around the handle. With one, strong yank, it came free.

"Ah," he said hesitantly holding the axe out from him as it dripped with blood and brains. He held it out to Astrid.

"Sorry about before," he said. "I just…I was scared was all."

She shot another glare at him, though it wasn't quite as hard as the other looks she'd been giving him since that scene in the alleyway. She reached out a grabbed her axe. She squatted to start wiping it off on the grass.

"Yeah, well," she said without looking up. "I might have been a little…rude," she said, her voice a little raw. Almost as if wasn't used to giving apologies. She stood up with her slightly less bloody axe and wiped her hands on the brown shirt tied around her waist. She let out a sigh as she cast a a thoughtful look at the woods.

"We need to be more careful," she said. "They sometimes like to hide in the woods. Creates a good cover for when they hunt."

"What, the dead-beats?" Kristoff asked.

Astrid cracked a smile.

"Is that what you call them?"

He gave a shrug.

"It was Sven's idea."

She contemplated him for a second before giving a slow nod and turned back to look at the woods.

"I like it," she said. "Lot better than what we've been calling them. 'Moaners' isn't exactly unique."

"Yeah," Kristoff said with a chuckle. "Kinda reminds me of my ex-girlfriend. She was what you'd call a moaner."

Astrid laughed. It was sort of weird, to be honest. Kristoff would've never pegged her for the laughing type. More like the scowl and chop your head of type. Still, he appreciated the tenseness that seemed to have disappeared between them.

"Yeah," she said lightly as she picked up one of the bags at Kristoff's feet and turned to go meet the other two, her smile wide. "So was mine."

"What. The hell. Is that?"

"Sven, buddy!"

Kristoff dropped the bag he'd been carrying as he left the others behind to run ahead.

They'd made it. It was six hours and a mob of bloodthirsty zombies later, but they made it. Following along the outside of the city, they managed to find the off ramp Kristoff had left his "trusty steed", supplies, and afore mentioned weapon of an ice pick axe. The group only had another hour or so of daylight, but they'd made it. Kristoff had made it back to his best friend and Anna had made it to her best chance of finding her sister.

"Okay, I could pick up you're Canadian," Astrid said, following Kristoff cautiously, "but you've got to be kidding me."

"Sven," Kristoff said, speaking to the large, furry creature he'd ran ahead to meet. "These are friends," he gestured towards the approaching girls.

"A moose?" Anna asked in disbelief as the three of them neared the giant, antlered creature Kristoff was hugging and scratching the neck of. The large creature let out a grunt as it reared away from the four of them. "I thought you said you had a horse."

"I never said he was a horse. And look," Kristoff said as he stepped around to face his furry friend. "You hurt his feelings."

"I hurt his feelings?" Anna asked.

"Well how'd you like it if i called you a moose?" Kristoff asked as he turned back to the the large mammal and proceeded to mutter things to it as if he were talking to a baby.

"But that's what he is!" Anna countered.

Sandy set down her bag and carefully approached Kristoff's "trusty stead."

"Not even close," Kristoff said. "He's a reindeer."

He stepped back as Sandy took a careful step forward and held her hand out to the reindeer.

"So, he's an elk?" Anna asked.

"They're the same thing," Astrid said with a roll of her eyes.

The reindeer named Sven sniffed at the small girl's hand held out to him before giving a happy snort and jumping forward to lick Sandy's face. She let one of her silent laughs as she wrapped her arms around his giant neck. Anna and Astrid kept their distance.

"No, he's a reindeer," Kristoff emphasized as he reached up to scratch Sven's shaggy head. "And," he added, "he's family."

Astrid and Anna gave each other a look as Sandy enjoyed the reindeer kisses from her new friend. Anna's was a cry for help, while Astrid's was simply one that said, It was your idea.

"He's a lot better than you people, anyways," Kristoff muttered as he ignored them and wrapped his arms around the reindeer he had thought he'd never see again.

A/N: AAAAAAYYYY, an actual zombie fight scene, with actual zombies, you know, cause it's the zombie apocalypse, and you only had to wait thirteen…chapters…yeah…(Sorry) Also, in case you haven't noticed, I am a strong advocate of diverse and creative weapons being used in a zombie apocalypse. X3 P.S. anyone got ideas for Elsa's weapon of choice? D: I'm thinking sai's or a really big kitchen knife? but I'm not sure -.-