CHAPTER EIGHT

AGREEMENT

"How much further until we, ya know, get out of the middle of no where?" Alfred groaned, bending down slightly to duck under a fallen telephone poll in the middle of another town in their path.

"It's only an hour walk, don't complain," Ludwig sighed, attempting to crack his neck again to relieve the tension that had taken a permanent place between his shoulder blades.

"I used to have to walk this long to school every Monday and Wednesday and then the same way back!" Storm called to him from the back of the group.

"You were just training for this," Bee chuckled, sneaking glances to the surrounding area in the most inconspicuous way she knew how.

"And yet I am still not fast," she groaned dramatically.

"We are almost there now," Charm answered, ignoring the others and her eyes not wavering from straight ahead of herself, though the Yao could see her hand had never left the butt of her only small gun that she had ever kept on her person.

"And from there we need to be focused, correct?" Frances spoke for the first time since they had left the armory.

"Yeah, because that is where we are going to hit all of the rough stuff," Bee answered, pulling a face of pure disgust.

"We have to make sure to stick together," Charm added, " a larger group might be more visible and louder but with that many zombies in one place we will need all the back up we can get."

Storm moved forward suddenly, pushing herself through the group and stopped a few feet away from the edge of an outcrop of concrete. The others paused, watching as the girl dropped to her knees and pulled a lighter and another small object from her pocket. She flipped the lighter smoothly before making the small flame appear and lighting up the end of whatever the other object was.

"Look alive," Bee hissed, her gun already at the ready as she stood next to Charm whose own small handgun was out, both of their eyes watching the edge of wherever it was that Storm was bending over.

Storm threw the object quickly down, backing away and flipping a hunting knife open and ready. The countries stood in confusion, unmoving for a moment, until a loud crack echoed through the air. A firecracker, they cursed that they failed to realize what was occurring before she had dropped it.

However, there was not much time to think about anything before screams were echoing through the air from the inside of what they now understood was the sewer pipe that they were supposed to be crawling in to get to the larger city. Watery stomping and noises were steadily growing closer as they scrambled for weapons. The creatures were scrambling up the concrete to get to the source of the noise with jerky movements before the countries had been ready to aim.

"Storm, take down the Clicker and we'll take care of the normal ones!" Charm called out the order as the Clicker had scrambled over the edge followed by several other infected.

Storm didn't hesitate to shove her way through the suddenly rushing zombies aiming for her own target as steady hands and sharp eyes took down the zombies that had teeth aimed at her neck. "You guys are going too slow," Bee said sharply, moving her gun to take down another that had jumped at Storm when she had finally gotten close enough to shiv the single Clicker in the steadily growing crowd of zombies.

"Might wanted to clue us in on what you are doing if you want help," Gilbert snapped back, leveling his gun with the head of a zombie that was just getting over the edge. He smirked as he landed a perfect shot, only to be brought back to earth when two more followed, "How many of these guys are there?"

"They were the ones at the mouth of a cave," Charm explained, taking down another to her ever growing total of dead…well really dead, "Did you want to walk in and get attacked before we could turn on our flashlights?"

"Less talkie, more shootie!" Storm shouted, moving away from the finally dead Clicker (which had a shiv sticking firmly out of the center of his head) and drawing her hunting knife again to take out a infected that had turned to face her.

"Couldn't the close range people move in?" Ludwig asked, taking down another that was moving towards their group instead of the kicking and clawing woman in the center.

"Do you want to accidently shoot them?" Charm asked sweetly, "Because we know how Storm is going to move, if they get in the center then it'll be a free for all that will probably end up with one of us dead."

The other grimaced with the truth of that statement and continued to shoot down what they could without getting too close to the one girl in the center that was apparently too stubborn to move out of the crowd of creatures or at least that's what the countries got from the grumbling come from her friends. Though they were making good leeway with the zombies themselves it seemed like the multitude of sewer zombies (at least what Alfred had been yelling about) where not going to disappear…until suddenly there was one that was left standing with a hunting knife in it's throat.

Yao watched as the zombie crumpled to the ground like paper left in the rain for too long, though it lay on the ground twitching, strange noises close to wet groans emitting from it's throat. Storm stood beside it long enough to yank the knife from it's throat before backing away and allowing Charm to come and shoot it again in the head. The twitching and noises stopped.

Yao felt his stomach clench and as he looked to the group he could tell they felt no better. The girls were still callous, cold, calculating and found the killing easy when it came to the infected…zombies…it made him nervous. They didn't seem to care that these people were once human, that they had families and people that cared about them.

A cleared throat drew the attention to the back of the group, were Bee was re-belting her gun before looking up at them coldly. Yao knew in that moment that whatever he was feeling, what they were feeling was clear on their faces. "If you don't like how things are done you can leave, but either way…" she paused, shaking her head as she pushed her way through them, "either way, this attitude will not help you survive in that sewer. If you are going to think of them as humans…"

"They were humans," Yao said firmly.

"The key word there is were," Bee sighed, moving toward the other two.

"Are you coming? Or are you guys going to split off now?" Charm asked, trying to keep her voice indifferent as she stared the men down.

"We are coming," Alfred ordered, looking to the others with clinched fists, "I just need to…"

Storm smiled softly, giving him a slight nodded, before smiling at the others and declaring that they needed to go down first either way. Yao shifted his gaze back and forth between the girls that were disappearing past the ledge and Alfred that was looking at them with fire in his blue eyes. "Alfred, you can't…" Yao tried to speak first and was cut off by him raising a hand in his direction.

"They aren't going to be fixed, Yao," Alfred's voice was wavering, pained. Yao felt the pain from the boy as if it was his own, Alfred had always been the most hopeful of them, begging for a cure instead of killing…him admitting this was huge, scary, it felt like he was ripping away his own hope. "Those people are gone, gone for good. There is nothing we can do about that. How can we possibly judge those girls for doing what they need to do? How can we leave them because we feel bad for killing people that are trying to kill us? How could we leave…leave living people…because they are surviving?

Alfred's eyes were wide, his voice loud and he looked on the verge of tears, the others were silent, "And if we kill these things that used to be part of us, mistakes we made, things that were our fault, we can help other people survive too."

Yao stared at him with wide eyes, shock covering his features, and if he could find it in him to turn his head he was sure that the others would look much the same. The speech, what he just said, his plan…it was exactly what Ivan had said before this all had went to hell. He was willingly agreeing with Russia…Ivan, the man he had hated and tormented for as long as either of them had been world powers. The plan was right; they couldn't deny it anymore.

Ivan moved forward suddenly, his face solemn, creases on his face from his furrowed brows and tight mouth. Alfred look away from him, his hands clenching again and his shoulders shaking slightly, Yao knew he was waiting for the same thing that all countries were when they admitted defeat to an enemy; the I told you so or the final strike to take them out of their misery or out of this world completely. Ivan's hand landed firmly on Alfred's shoulder, tightening slightly instead, "We will take care of them, we will stay with you," Ivan agreed.

The others stood in shock for a moment, no hostile energy was there…it was almost as if they were allies in that moment. Alfred looked up and even Yao could see the relief flicker across his face as he sent Ivan a blinding smile that the others hadn't seen since this began. "Then we should go before the others think we have left, shouldn't we?"

"Da, we should," Ivan agreed, patting his other arm with his free hand, "let's go."