For readers who were asking for me to post on AO3, Bulletproof is now up on there! Thank you all for being so very patient with me and thank you so much for all your reviews and favs/follows . Anyway as always all mistakes are mine and enjoy!

PREVIOUSLY

"Alicia, what the hell are you doing?!" Mom tries to block my path but I continue to trek forward and I try to fight the urge to raise the bat at my own mother.

"I'm going in there and I'm bringing Elyza back, something you failed to do."

"Alicia, don't be crazy-"

"YOU LEFT HER! I'm going in there and there isn't nothing you can do to stop me!"

A gunshot sounds out from somewhere inside the garage, the echoing sending a ring through my ears. Mom turns back in search of the source and I take this moment of distraction to run through the stairwell doors, taking two steps at a time.

Elyza, you better be okay!

Chapter 12: Get The Bat, I'm Going In Part:2

I almost regret throwing on the leather jacket over my own, the adrenaline coursing through my body adds only more heat to my double layer of clothes resulting in small trails of sweat to drip down my face.

Fuck whoever created stairs! Although i'm taking two steps at a time, it feels like I've been going up forever and passing by more and more levels of this underground I hadn't taken notice to the massive size of the structure of the place before we entered it, my mind too preoccupied with other pressing matters.

"Fuck my life," I stop for a moment to catch my breath and glance up over the stairwell railing. Thankfully it seems that I only have 3 more floors, " note to self: Kill Elyza after I find her."

With energy I didn't know I had left in me, I race up the remaining stairs. There is a burn in my calves from such exertion but I power through with a promise that after this whole thing was over I would have more leg days rather than just arm days put into my workout.

Finally reaching the top I freeze, placing my ear against the cold steel and praying for my heartbeat to calm down enough for me to hear the telltale sign of life on the other side. There is still sounds of the battle happening, but it's distant.

Well atleast I hope it is. Okay voice in my head I could really use your psychic abilities right now!

There's nothing. No reply and no swooping in and knocking me unconscious.

This could either go really well or I end up getting eaten. Yay me.

Enough with that, it's time to move. My bat is raised and ready just incase one of those infected are just outside the door, my other hand holds the stainless steel knob. I make sure to grip the bat tighter as the sweat on my hands make the act a tad more difficult. With one last inhale of breath I ease the door open as silently as I can, my breath catching at every creak the door makes as I open my point of entry.

The hole I make is just enough for me to stick my head out. Glancing around I can see no living or undead nearby so I cautiously push the door wider, though not all the way but enough for my body to slip on through.

The stairwell has brought me to the parking lot of this building. A very empty parking lot aside from a mysterious pile of what I assume to be dust and a construction loader. Overall my path to the building is clear and with a few more glances I can confirm that there is actually a separate fence alongside the lot , meaning that getting from the building to this door will be a piece of cake. It's the surviving in the building that is a bit 'iffy'.

I throw caution to the wind and begin my jog through to the door, I'm just passing by the first dust pile when something in the pile catches my eyes. It's a hand.

These weren't dust piles these were piles of ashes, some bodies and limbs are not even fully burned. I don't stop, I continue my jog. It's a horrible sight to see and I want to throw up what little is left of my meal from before, but Elyza needs me.

I push open the glass doors to the building, from all the directional signs I can see that this place was once a hospital but the growing moss tells me that it's been abandoned for a long time.

I make my way to a long corridor without running into any signs of life, the silence is as eerie as ever and my heartbeat drums angrily in my ears. There are so many doorways that lead into so many other hallways and at this moment I wish I had Lexa in my ear telling me what to do and where to go.

Ok Lexa, please tell me you are there

…..

Lexa, I could really use some help about now damn it!

It's completely silent in my head besides my own thoughts, no scary clone me to tell me what to do.

Advancing forward I make it to a center point, three hallways are spanned out before me. I study the path ahead of me, finding carts and supplies scattered across the floor. The hallway on the right is covered in blood -stained plastic covers on the wall and bullets left astray. On the left, similar to the path ahead, there are medical supplies scattered around. I'm lost.

My feet pace around in circles in the center of the three hallways, uncertainty and fear overwhelm me and the bat in my hand falls heavily to my side.

Had I already lost? Is Elyza already gone? I didn't know what to do.

Overcome with emotion I crouch down, wrapping my arms below my thighs and bring my forehead down to thump against my knees. I was wracking through my brain for any information that could help me.

Suddenly, like I was just struck with lighting a thought runs through my head, not just any thought, but rather what Lexa had said to me earlier. She was giving me directions! I spring up and slow my breathing in order to calm myself down more, helping to concentrate on remembering the exact directions she had given me.

Left….

I run down the left hallway as soon as the thought crosses my mind. Personally I wouldn't have chosen the creepiest of the hallways to go down but so far Lexa hasn't strayed me wrong. Soon enough I make it to another split in my road but this time I'm not alone.

There is a limp body in the hallway on the left and right above it is an infected, chowing down in the gaping hole of the body. I don't make a sound but my bat is raised just in case there is any sudden movement. There is none and my thoughts continue.

Right,...right…

My feet are as light as feathers as I sneak my way into the right hallway, away from the all you can eat buffet scene. Another split and I turn right again.

Loud groans follow behind me announcing the presence of more infected and I'm taking off down the hallway, dodging fallen items and obstacles. The voices are picking up their pace as well, but I'm too afraid to turn around and see how many are chasing me but from the groans there could be about ten or hell maybe even twenty of those things.

I focus on the road ahead and making sure that my feet don't catch on to anything below it.

This hallway is larger than the rest with several doors lining the walls, my body wants to stop and barricade itself but my head is telling me to keep going.

Not too far ahead of me is a dead end with one lone door straight ahead, the bodies piled up against send my legs into overdrive and I'm running faster than I had ever run before. I'm hopping over the dead infected getting closer and closer to the pile of even more of them. I don't think as I climb over the pile blocking the door, taking in the sight of bullet holes in their heads, and I'm pushing through the door and slamming it hard behind me.

Elyza is in front of me struggling with just a flagpole in hand, holding off three infected. These one are soldiers, bigger and stronger than the civilian ones that were outside the door. Their backs are to me giving me the element of surprise and immediately i jump into action, hitting the one closest to me over the head with the bat.

I'm on him in seconds, my bat coming down several times until his head burst open in a mess of blood and brain matter. The blood splatters onto my face but I have no time to wipe it off as one of his friends seems to have noticed me.

The second soldier lunges for me and I almost trip over my own feet to get out of the way of his clawing hands, I take a few more steps back drawing him away from Elyza. As soon as we're far enough, I raise the bat and take a swing but he catches it in his hands.

The bat is yanked from my hands and thrown halfway across the room, out of reach of both Elyza and I. My body reacts on it's own and I suddenly find myself crouching down and pulling out the dagger I had left tucked in the waistband of my shorts.

The blade is taken from the sheathe faster than I ever imagined was possible and I'm no longer in control of my body, I jump up wrapping my legs around the soldier's waist and plunging the dagger straight into his forehead. He falls back and I fall with him, legs still locked and knife still wedged all the way to the hilt.

He's completely lifeless. I yank the knife out with little struggle, sending another wave of blood right onto my face and clothes but I don't spend a second thinking about it, instead I glance up at Elyza.

The last infected man has her pinned down against the office desk behind her and his large hands are wrapped around her throat. Elyza is gasping for air and pushing at his chin, trying to avoid his bites. She's purple and her arms are shaking, she's on the verge of passing out.

Without too much of a glance at the man I'm drawing my arm back, adjusting my grip on the dagger and I'm throwing it right at the back of his head. It embeds itself there and his entire being just drops flat against Elyza.

Untangling myself from my second kill I rush to Elyza, throwing off the body that lay on her, she immediately gasps for air as soon as I remove the weight from atop her.

"Damn sweetheart..that..was some serious..n-ninja shit right there.."

"Shut up. Are you ok? Did he bite you?" Sitting Elyza up, I frantically run my hands over her face and body, " Are you injured? Did any of them scratch you or-"

" Don't worry I'm fine, no bite or scratches. Though I'm pretty sure I'm going to have one gnarly bruise on me tomorrow."

Tears well in my eyes and I throw myself against the blonde, wringing my arms tightly around her neck. Elyza does the same and we just stand still, soaking in one another. I can't fight back the sobs that wreck through my body as I bury my face into her neck, finding her scent is even stronger in this spot.

"Don't you ever do this again...If you ever do something so stupid, as to sacrifice yourself, I will….I'll save you and kill you myself!" I mumble.

Elyza just nods into my shoulder before pulling away just enough so that our eyes meet.

"If I don't do stupid stuff than how else am I supposed to get your attention? I would have to put in actual work in order to woo you and that is just..ughhhh work."

"You're an idiot."

"Pfftt yup but you like it. I do have something to make it up to you though," she gently pushes me away and make her way to the other side of the desk, she bends down and rises back up with a grey and black fur ball in her hands, "Lookie what I found while I was running!"

The furball is a fist sized little plushie raccoon with huge, rich green eyes and it's tiny black paws are grasping a tiny red heart. It's absolutely adorable.

"You were running from a horde of infected and decided to stop at the gift shop to get me a stuffed raccoon."

"Yup! As you can tell from the eight bodies outside it was quite the task so accept this as my means of apology. Or if not i'll just take this-"

I grab for the plush before Elyza can pull it away, earning a chuckle from the blonde. My hands are still covered slightly with the blood of the infected so i wipe them on to my shorts, not wanting to get any stains on my raccoon.

I'm stopped from taking a step away when Elyza spins me around before pulling me back towards her. Now she is sitting on the edge of the desk with me between her legs, my back against her front and her forehead laying heavily on my shoulder.

Her bare arms remaining tightly around my waist and I allow myself once again to get lost in Elyza's arms, my own clutching loosely onto hers with my little raccoon tucked between us.

"I just need to hold you one more time before we go..is this ok ,Alicia?"

I don't know what to say. On one hand more infected could burst through this door and kill the both of us with very little effort, but on the other all I want to do is be held in these arms. I want to soak in the fact that this is happening, that I didn't lose Elyza.

Silence is the only answer Elyza needs and she slowly retracts her hold on me, releasing me from the cocoon of comfort and warmth.

"We need to get out of here before any more of these fuckers get here," she gestures me to move forward allowing her room to hop off the desk, "well c'mon babe, lead the way! By the way, you really need to show me some of those moves sometimes. I wasn't kidding when I said you were like a fucking ninja,"

Pfft like I know how I did that? I had no control, it was like someone else was doing it and I was just watching it play out.

Nothing else is said as I lean over infected #3 in order to retrieve my dagger from the back of his head, and Elyza goes on to retrieve the bat from the middle of the room. With weapons in hand, we're out.

Elyza follows closely behind me as we sneak by the group that was chasing me before, they must have lost me when I entered the room because they turned around and walked back to the general direction they were at before, and we make it out of the building with no incident.

I noticed that as soon as the doors open and cool night breeze grazed her skin, Elyza begin to shiver. I had totally forgotten that I was wearing her jacket, leaving her in just her tank.

"Here Elyza, take your jacket back." The jacket is off and I extend it out to Elyza, who happily takes it and quickly covers herself up with it. She zips it all the way up and digs her hand into the pockets.

"Thanks babe. Remind me to give it back to you when we're not about to freeze our asses off,"

"What? Why?"

"Because you look hot in my clothes," My cheeks heat up even in this cold weather and I have to turn away to avoid stumbling like an idiot in front of this idiot of mine, " though then again you'd probably look even better out of it."

*SMACK*

"Ow! Damn it!"

I drag the blonde beside me by her uninjured arm, the arm I didn't just smack the shit out of, and we make it to the stairwell door with ease.

When we arrive at the very bottom the door before us is yanked open before we can even reach for it and mom and Nick appear before us. Suddenly I'm being wrapped up in a tangle of arms and studied over by both members of my family.

The blood on my face must have startled them, as it rightfully should and it takes quite a bit of explaining to get them to stop running their hands over me to look for injuries.

A loud feminine groan catches my attention and I quickly turn away from my family in order to find the source of the noise. The painful groans are coming from Ofelia, whom is being huddled by both her father and Raven. Even from my spot across the garage I can see the blood soaking into Ofelia's shirt from a wound on her shoulder.

Glancing around a bit more I find the soldier man that was travelling with Travis and Daniel, the one who mysteriously disappeared when we got here, is laying dead on the ground with a gun in his hand.

I'm trying to pull away from mom and Nick but their protective hands are still clutching at my clothes.

A blur of yellow crosses my view and I watch as Elyza takes off into a sprint toward the injured latina. I assume she is as worried about the woman as I am but instead of stopping and checking on Ofelia, Elyza completely ignore the woman on the bed of the truck and throws her arms around Raven.

I'm thrown for a loop, especially when Raven returns the hug.

My blood boils at the sight of my blonde in the arms of someone other than me and the fact that I'm being held back from ripping the two apart just makes makes me even more angry. I can't tear my glare away and for the second time today I feel the urge to retrieve my dagger from my side, the only thing preventing me from doing so is the soft faux fur of the toy in my hand.

TBC