CHAPTER TWO

ALLIES

"Shit," Alfred cursed under his breath, hearing much of the same sentiments from Ivan. "We aren't going to hurt you."

"I clearly am not worried about that," the girl said, he could hear the smile in her voice, "and you should at least look at me if you are going to talk to me."

Alfred cursed again before turning his head to look at the woman…damn, she was barely a woman, young woman then. She looked to be in her twenties, he knew better then to guess however, her skin was the color of cocoa, her lips were set in a firm line that lead his gaze eventually up to a set of hard brown eyes. Her hair was in braid, pulled back in a way that looked like she had done so in the past few minutes. A tee shirt, green, with a tree on it that lead down to some sort of dark jeans, but none of that was his concern. What was his concern was the pair of well-maintained shotguns that she held in each hand and was pointed at each of their faces.

"At least you didn't stare at my breasts," she said approvingly, "What are you all doing out here?"

"We are trying to find shelter and a car, we thought it was empty, we meant no harm," Alfred explained quickly, knowing that it would be simply easier to over power the girl but she had the guns.

"Then step back," she ordered, shifting the gun slightly.

Both men did, sharing a look of frustration through the car windows. They were both clearly thinking if it would be easier just to capture her and take the car, capture because Alfred couldn't think of leaving one of his own citizens out in the forest alone. A swift sigh escaped Alfred's lips, this was all about to become very messy and very loud.

"Char!" another voice made them jump, though the girl with the guns just smirked, her gaze not wavering from Alfred and her aim not faltering.

"Still in the truck!" she called back, clearly she had allies and this was not something Alfred wanted to deal with.

"And who are these guys?" the other girl hissed and suddenly he saw a blade at Ivan's throat.

She was the same, a young woman, in her twenties, too young to be out here worrying about this foolishness. Her hair was a mess of red-brown curls that were tied back in a similarly messy bun sticking out from her head. Her skin was pale or rather he guessed it was because at the moment she was sporting a hell of a sunburn that turned her face more red then any other color. Her blue…no green…no they were blue matched the hardness that was in the first woman's, Charm? He guessed was her name. Then the was the band tee shirt she wore, that was too faded to read clearly and jean shorts that lead to a pair of tennis shoes. She had a bag thrown over one shoulder, a burlap sack that Alfred didn't even know existed anymore was filled to the brim with something he couldn't see.

"Stragglers, I'm guessing," Charm shrugged, "they needed a ride and thought ours was empty."

"Well clearly it isn't," she said firmly, "I would suggest you take your leave."

"So you are just going to leave us out here…"

"Wait, where's sissy?" Charm broke into Alfred's plea for humanity with a question that suddenly set her spine straight, "Why isn't she with you?"

"We caught a few stranglers in there too, just not the human kind," the girl answered, "She is taking them out as we speak."

"And you left her alone in there?" Charm snarled at the other girl, her hand tightening around her gun ominously.

"I didn't have the hands to help and there were only two…you know Storm, she wanted to get rid of them quickly," the girl shrugged casually, as if this was a normal conversation between them.

"Well go ahead and put the stuff in the back," Charm sighed, looking away from Alfred for just a moment, that was all he needed to take the gun and throw her out…but he didn't move. He didn't know why, but some part of him couldn't justify stealing everything that these girls had at the moment.

"You guys aren't alone, are you?" the second girl asked, not even looking up as she took the knife away from Ivan's throat (which was immediately replaced by Charm's gun) and walked quickly to the back of the truck, tossing the stuff inside the large area.

"What do you…" Alfred started, attempting to deny the accusation when Charm looked up at him sharply.

"The big guy behind me keeps looking in the corner," Charm sighed.

"She sees everything, don't question it," a third voice broke in right when both Alfred and Ivan open their mouths to speak.

Ivan was confused, he was sure that the woman's complete attention was on Alfred the entire time they were 'being held captive', but apparently he was wrong. It was at that moment he caught her eyes in the side view mirror of the truck, a smug smile tugging at her lips. Ivan said nothing however, turning quickly to the new woman entering the picture.

She was short, shorter then he would expect by a woman that looked around the same age as the others. Her brown hair was cropped short to her head, a pixie cut if Ivan remembered the American term correctly, her skin was pale as well, and with another set of brown eyes, though her's seemed to be dancing with some sort of energy. She wore a shirt, a white button up, much like the ones that the countries were all wearing, with her sleeves rolled up to her elbows. Blue jean shorts…it seemed as if that was all the American's had left to wear and a brown pair of boots of some kind. What drew his attention however was none of these things, but the blooded baseball bat the girl had slung over her shoulder and the small gun at her hip.

"Sissy!" Charm's held a note of scolding as she glanced over at the girl harshly, "You shouldn't be killing these things by yourself."

"It was only a few!" Sissy/Storm whined.

"A few? Bee said it was two," Charm's voice went cold, eyes narrowing at both of the girl's who put their hands up in defense.

"A few is two right?"

"Dude, I don't know you and I can tell you are lying," Alfred broke into the conversation suddenly, his voice exasperated. He was tired of standing here, if these girls weren't going to help them, he would like to move on already, "And no, we are not alone we have a group of people over there. We are all hungry, lost and unarmed. We wondered here from Frankfort, Kentucky."

All three of the girl's turned to him sharply, "Dude, you know you've only walked 64 miles, right?" Storm laughed, looking at him strangely, "How long have you guys been walking? You must have a pretty small group."

"Guys?" Alfred called out to the others with a sigh, waving his arm to tell them to come up to the truck.

The girls' eyes widened comically as they took in the larger group, Alfred and Ivan couldn't suppress a chuckle. They were probably shocked, they most likely hadn't seen a group of twelve people in at least a month, and less likely a group this large that would stick together through this. "They are our friends," Ivan said smugly.

"You guys have a lot of friends," Bee choked out, finally breaking out of the shock.

"Why is one of your friends crying?" Storm whispered not so subtly into Ivan's…probably was as close as she could get to his ear.

They all looked at Feli, knowing immediately who would be crying in this situation. "It's because you are all so bella and so scary! Like the women in Germany only not German."

The girls stifled the laughter, Storm giving a triumphant grin as she mumbled something about proving she was really German. "I…" Storm opened her mouth to speak again, when the sudden groan like noise came from the bushes, "have to go."

"Come on," Charm ordered, watching as Bee ran to the front jumping into the seats along with Charm, who had finally lowered her guns and started the truck.

Storm jumped in the bed of the truck tossing in a bag that she had apparently had hidden behind her legs. Then she looked over expectantly at the group that stood awkwardly next to the truck itself as another moan, louder this time, echoed through the thicket. "So what are you guys waiting for?" she questioned, her face pinched in confusion.

"Wha…" Feli opened his mouth to answer when Charm cut him off.

"We aren't leaving all of you to die!" she snapped, "none of you have weapons that we can see and knowing my sissy she drew a crowd."

"So get in before we change our minds!" Bee snapped, then her eyes sliding over the group with a smile, "The one with the polar bear has to sit up front though!"

"You noticed me?" Matthew asked, his head perking up at his mention and a grin on his face.

"You heard her bro, let's go guys!" Alfred declared, quickly helping the others in while Matthew climbed into the front seat and Storm, because she declared there was no room left decided to sit on the lap of Alfred himself when he jumped in.

"Okay! Hold on!" Charm shouted, just as the first zombies came into view, "This is going to be bumpy!"

"It can't be that…" Arthur's voice was cut off with a mild howl as the truck took off almost leaving him behind after the take off.

"It get's worse! I would hold on!" Storm grinned, waving goodbye to the zombies as they went.