I'm on a roll!
Chapter 8: After the fall
"Hey Cindy,"
"Yes?" The Witch was pulled away from her trance, turning back towards the man behind her, whose legs rested firm upon the boat's floor, arms over its steering wheels. He appeared rather serious, and it did strike Cindy as odd. Her impression of Louis was of a young man with his lips full of jokes and head full of positivity, so it was rather strange to see him so grim.
"What have you been looking at?" He was simply curious of her doing. To be fair, she had been staring at the general direction from where Zoey and Francis had disappeared out of sight for the last twenty minutes or so. Her body movements were indicating that she was just about to jump at any possible movements. It was quite evident that they were able to hear the convenient store's alarm as well, and they were not sure of how to react. There were some infected being called towards that general location which did cross in front of them, but Louis held on to his gun. He knew that should he try to help by taking them down, it might draw attention towards the boat, and that was something nobody would ever want.
"I was hoping for Zoey to come back." Cindy's response was of utmost innocence, and Louis could not help but smile at it. From what he had learned, she and the teenage girl had been able to develop a strange bond that he never thought was possible, let alone between a human and an infected, among other things. He never really took Francis' fantasy to heart, but he had been contemplating about the possibilities as well. Sure, they might not realize it, but it was not totally out of the question whether it was true or not. "They have been gone for a while."
"Well I'm worried too, kid." That was just blurted out of Louis, but he really did not feel like taking it back. If anything, Cindy was seen as a little girl to him. She certainly had a body of a teenager, but anything else was just pure innocuity, much difference from what he have expected, and seen, in a Witch. Really, her very existence was fascinating. He wondered what she had gone through so far though. He never really had raised a family before, so no knowledge about dealing with children ever rubbed off on him. Still, he could imagine it being rather harsh. "How did you turn into this?"
"I don't know. I don't remember anything." Cindy sat back down on the side of the boat, the lower half of her face buried within her arms. She was showing a rather dismal expression, and it really did not help lift the mood. However, no one could really blame her, as her memories left a void within the mind that was hard to fill. "All I knew was waking up some time ago, in a house. Everything outside was destroyed and I was alone."
"That must have been tough." Cindy only replied with a nod. Louis pondered in his place for a moment. He had given up his best look out position, but it was not like anything was crossing their paths anymore, fortunately. Her conditions reminded him of his parents. The two were vacationing somewhere out up on New York, so they hopefully could have been rescued. However, the chances were abysmal; as it was obvious humanity itself had not been able to react to this breakout in time. It was a strong possibility that he might have lost them forever. It was a sad thing to muse about, but it was a reality that was hard to face yet impossible to be ignorant of. There was simply no reconcile with the truth, and he just had to live with it. He also lost Bill along the way. It did not crush him as much, since the two of them only knew each other for a few weeks, at least not as much as his death did Zoey. Still, he felt helpless, and that bothered him a lot. Sighing, Louis decided to stop thinking about it, and continued. "What happened then?"
"I roamed around for a few days, trying to find something or someone that could have helped. There was no luck." The Witch's reminiscence of her earlier days was not of particular uses, but it was just something to pass time between the two of them. Really, there was not much to do but wait at this moment, and waiting in silent was a horrible feeling. Cindy did not sound too fazed about reminding herself of those days, as Louis thought was mostly because she had nothing to miss. He was envious of that, but also guilty of even thinking that it might have been better that he had not a past to start with. "I eventually settled down in that warehouse where Zoey later found me, to cry. I do not know why, but I was simply overcome with the urge to sob through the times. It did not make me feel better, as if I was weeping over my own pointless life."
"So how did you and Zoey meet?" It had been something that he had been meaning to ask. Sure, the teenage girl had explained that it was within the warehouse where Bill's body was found, but nothing more than that. Louis was quite split on whether he wanted a seemingly coincidental kind of too-good-to-be-true moment or not, but he was willing to not let himself be disappointed.
"It was yesterday's morning, right?" It seemed quite apparent that the Witch had lost her track of time long ago, but it was also clear that she was still holding her knowledge for when she was human, attributed to her proper knowledge of the English language, as well as being able to correctly handle most of the tools she had come across. Her ailment was similar to that of amnesia, which was understandable as far as side effects of the infection went. "I think I was crying then, before I hear something being thrown in the distance. As I approached the object, I heard someone from behind me, talking. I honestly was very scared. People whom I have met before were not kind to those alike me, while those alike me were not quite able to speak. Zoey was really… sweet though."
"Yeah, she's like that." Louis chuckled a bit. He recalled the moment when he first met Cindy. If it was Francis who was bringing back the Witch he might have just shot them both. It was a pleasant surprise, at the very least. Besides, if Cindy was not found then Louis would be sitting on this boat alone at this moment, and all of it could be attributed to nothing but pure luck. Perhaps it was Bill that caused this turn of events, and everyone owed it all to him. "You two sure look close, though."
"I think so. I do like her very much." That was just about as unsullied as it got. Louis simply smiled at that. He knew that as Cindy was right now, she would be far from what a person would call a consenting adult, but it was not like that had ever stopped anything either. He might have to live in frustration for the rest of his life, but he was not really complaining. Still, the Witch appeared to be not as comfortable with the situation as he was. "I just hope she likes me too…"
"If there is one thing I can say for sure in this crazy world as it is, Cindy, it would be the fact that Zoey definitely likes you." His assured complexion did do a good job at cheering her up, and he actually did believe it. Of course, his definition of "like" might not be of a total match to hers, but the idea was there. It was simple that there was simply no need for anyone to worry about Zoey's care for the little Witch, if only the two of them had seen it for themselves. "You're special and she knows it."
"Hopefully, but why?" She only raised her face to ask that question. It was not quite a pervious question though, considering how Louis was quite not sure what he should be answering. Still, Cindy's quest for the truth did not stop, and she must have what she came for. "Zoey is so kind to me. She has been taking care of me ever since she met me, and all I ever did for her was whine. Why does she like me?"
"I…" The man really did not expect that. He was never a good public manager, regardless of how ludicrous that may sound. If it was up to him; he would straight up tell Cindy that Zoey would never really care what she does and would stay with her in spite of what she might think. However, he really had no hope in trying to explain it to the Witch in her current state. He deliberated by himself for a moment. "She likes you because you are special, Cindy. You are someone who we could never hope to match to her. You're the best friend she could have asked for."
"Really?" Louis had nothing else in him but smile and nod. There literally was nothing else which he could have hoped to accomplish with that. To be fair, he himself was not sure of what Zoey thought, because she was a lot more adult and harder to read that the Witch could ever be. Who knew what she could be hoping to get from Cindy. As it was then, Cindy had cleaned up and had herself closely resemble that of a normal teenage girl, if it was not for the claws. She was actually pleasant looking. "That is good to hear."
"Let's just wish them luck, alright?" He decided to end the conversation at this point. His mind had been trying to ignore the bad possibilities, but he knew it could always happen. Moving his leg, he was aware that even though it was still far from peak condition, it was at least reliable enough to let him walk slowly paced, but running was out of the question. That was why he wanted to wait until he absolutely had to leave to do so, all the while keeping what he was thinking from the Witch, for she might act to irrationally for it to succeed. He just wished everything would go according to plan and he would not have to think about using his last resort…
"Molotov coming!" Francis yelled loudly as he signaled his teammate to keep moving forward. The Tank had finally broken through the door and was chasing after them, which none would have liked. With the fire out, they would hope to keep the distance from the beast and keep running upwards the stair in order to wait until he is burnt to death. However, Zoey could do nothing but cursed as the store's emergency fire system rang its alarm, letting loose the stored up water and extinguish the flames on the Tank, as well as drawing in all infected within a hundred feet radius. "Holy crap that was a bad move."
"Come on, we need to make it to the roof." Zoey gritted her teeth as she was the one in front, trying to shot down all of the infected before her with deadly precision, yet they just kept on coming relentlessly, as one would expect. She was getting tired of it, but it was far from her choice. They were able to access the higher levels of the store through the emergency exit stairs they were travelling on, but she decided against it. "Just keep going up, Francis!"
"Why aren't we using the elevator?" The biker knew that all of his firepower was needed in order to bring down the incoming Tank. They could not stop for even a second, for if the giant was able to close the distance then the two of them would be in deep trouble. He just had to trust the girl to be able to hold the front lines. Still, he must admit that even though his shot gun was not the best thing to use against such a thick-skinned entity, the close range of which he was firing from made it much more ideal than Zoey's Assault Rifle. "It would save us the trouble of breaking through the upper levels."
"Are you really saying we should count on the Tank not simply ripping the thing in half?"
"Good point."
With that settled, the two kept on moving. Francis knew that both of them were running low on ammo, and even if he was able to kill off the Tank who was to say they would have enough to get out. Besides, none of them even thought through how exactly they were even going to escape yet, as all they have been doing was running further and further away from the ground, their destination. Their feet were obviously wearing out, and they need to kill this Tank and find a safe room; before things get too out of control. Of course, that would be if it were not already.
"I'm out, Francis." Zoey clucked her teeth as she put her Rifle on her back pulls out her machete. There really was nothing else to give from that gun anymore, and this was where it got hard. Her melee weapon would have been fight, if it were not for the fact that they were being chased. Still, it could at least get the job done without having to sacrifice her Pipe Bomb too soon. Of course, nothing would be too soon if they were killed. "How close is that thing going down?"
"I'm saying ten shells or so." Francis had to run backwards now, considering how his effort of running and turning before gunning had not been working out well so far. However, at least they were getting somewhere. The problem with Zoey's blade, however, is that it requires her to be in close quarters with the infected before able to take them out. This would mean corpses of the undead piling up the floors before Francis could reach her position. Considering how everything was wet after the fire alarm went off, slipping was a very real problem. Having fired all eight left in his gun, Francis began to reload his gun. "Two, now if only-"
"Francis?" Zoey turned around in horror. Her fear had come true, as the biker lost his footing backing up against a dead body and landed back first onto the stairs. He was not severely injured, but the Tank approaching dangerously close was setting its mind on changing that. The shells were not loaded yet, and he was defenseless. In that split second of haste, knowing that the Tank was brutally wounded as well, she made a decision. "Damn it to hell!"
Zoey jumped off the stairs, machete in hand, thrusting her weapon as hard as possible straight into the hulk's head, dropping its massive bodyweight down the flight of stairs. As the ginormous monster plunged into the abyss below, Zoey was able to land back up onto the stairway, albeit badly bruised and lost her weapon during the process.
"Holy crap." Francis had no words to describe what he just saw. If that was not action movie material he would not know what was. However, he soon realized that the both of them were in a state of danger like this. Reaching for his side pockets, he grabbed firm of his two pistols. "Zoey, catch!"
"Got it." The teenage girl, fire arm now in hand, stood up immediately and blasted the heads off of a few incoming infected, while Francis was busy reloading his shotgun again. It was a hell of a fight, but they got through it this time at least. "Come on, this way, I think I saw a safe room."
The two abandoned their plans to go up the emergency stairs and went through the wrecked exit door, which the Tank broke down on its way up, and into the inner halls. It turned out that the entire building only had the first floor as a convenient store, while the rest of the levels were an office complex. It turned out to help their cause, as the safe room which Zoey spotted before was conveniently located to cover the elevator. The two of them basically leapt inside it, as both of their weapons had depleted their ammo after a minute run through the wholes crawling with enemies. Francis shut the door behind him and barricaded it, just to make sure.
"Damn Zoey, you were like Angelina Jolie back there." The biker needed to keep his dose of comedy right now, or else he would kill himself with the stress. Zoey knew that though, so she just smiled along with it, even though her body was hurting all over. Francis tripped on the stairs, but she basically flew off and landed on it. Her entire back was cracking, and she was not even sure her bones were holding together. However, they still had a shot at this and that was enough for her. "You were flying everywhere, stabbing monsters and all that jazz."
"Just what movies have you been watching?" The teenage girl chuckled at the apparent humor. It was a bit ironically that she was watching a zombie movie before all of this had broken out, but right now it was not her place to worry about poor taste. Her gun storage was now sufficiently reloaded, and she had given Francis back his pistol, while taking up a baseball bat in the room as her choice of secondary weaponry. She still had what they came here for, and the elevator was right behind them. "Alright Francis, we are going down, alright?"
"Are you crazy? The lift on the first floor opens to a space crawling with those things, remember?"
"Yes, but it is also our only way to the exit." Zoey gritted her teeth and trying to fight off the pain as she patched up with the first aid kits they have brought with them, while stocking up those they found within the room. Francis was stocking up as well, but it did not seem like they had a lot to get. "There is nothing up there for us, Francis, and unless you want to go through that emergency stair case down, we're taking the elevator."
"Right." He readied himself as Zoey did as well. "Why are we not taking a break though?"
"We need to get back soon. If we're gone to long those waiting for us might get worried." Zoey, cocking up her Assault Rifle with her finger on the trigger, had no plan to stick around and wait. She was coming to her own terms with something as well. She did not want to make those who cared for her wait. They had to be separated this time, and she was never going to make it so again once this was done. The biker started up the elevator as it presented itself prepared to go. As they expected, the lift was vacant. "I know what Bill felt like now. However, I do not intend to do what he did."