04/13/2022: Ch D is currently de-canonized in its current state. Feel free read on regardless. :3

The Survivor's Guide to Surviving the Infection

Chapter 4: D is for Danger

As if this topic cannot be stressed enough. The zombie world is really quite dangerous. Every step taken only leads you closer and closer to danger. Even crossing the street has become more dangerous. While lacking cars that move, there are zombies as their replacements. As soon as the Infected hear, see, or smell you, you know that it's time to book it. Danger lies everywhere. From the most pitiful of Commons, to something a hell of a lot bigger.

Four weeks after first infection

She only wanted to close her eyes for a few minutes. Just lie down and relax, to take a breather. Divine let out a sigh of content, the couch below her feeling like a cloud to her aching back. She could have been there all day, resting and fuck it, maybe a nap? A nap sounded wonderful at that moment, and she easily could have taken one. Except for the fact that she was in a house with two Infected who never left her the fuck alone. Like a certain man in a hood who's soft growls sounded louder and louder to her ears.

A few moments later, hot air blew into her face. She wanted to tell Zachary to go away and leave her alone, but she was stopped when something warm and wet slid across her cheek. Divine froze, gasping as Zachary's tongue slid up to her forehead. His breath smelled terrible, and just having him touch her like that was totally gross!

"…..Salty…" Zachary murmured, retracing his tongue to lick his chops.

"Oh yes, that's what every girl wants to hear" Divine said, snapping her eyes open to glare at the Hunter. "What the hell was that for?" she asked, ready to smack her friend in the face.

"Tasting" he replied as if it was so painfully obvious. Turning around, he let out a short series of barks to the other side of the house.

"I'm coming, I'm coming" Ryan answered back, walking over to them. "What do you want?"

Zachary excitedly told him something in their zombie talk, constantly pointing to her. Ryan listened with interest, staring at curiously. "Really? Let me try"

"Oh no, don't you fucking da-ah!"

The Smoker's tongue shot out of his mouth to slide up the side of her face that wasn't covered in Hunter slobber. Divine shut her eyes, tensing at this new, foreign feeling.

"Eh, yur ight, sheh iz saliee"

Alright, playtime was over. To show how seriously serious she was about being tasted, Divine sucked in a big breath, then exhaled it in the form of a loud scream. Her scream agitated the Infected, who let out cries of pain about the shrill sound pounding their eardrums. Divine screamed until she felt lightheaded and needed air. It was good enough, the damage had been done. Her pair of Infected was on the ground whimpering, hands covering their ears. She sat back and watched them smugly, a smirk on her lips.

"Don't do that to me, ever again. Kay?" she asked. Ryan's one eye opened to shoot daggers at her. Divine was pretty sure Zachary was doing the same underneath his hood. Grinning, the girl jumped off the couch and headed to the kitchen. She pulled open the freezer door and pulled out some watery meat looking things. The power in the house had gone off weeks ago, so now everything in the freezer was melting, and probably needed to be eaten.

She found steak looking things and threw them into the living room, where Zachary and Ryan pounced the meat. She would have cooked them, but the girl was afraid the smells would attract unwanted attention. Not like the boys really cared, raw or fresh, meat was meat. They weren't too terrible picky about what they ate.

But it would be nice if they just told her they were hungry instead of licking her face. Zombie cooties, ew!

As dangerous as it was walking around at night, Divine very dearly wanted out of the neighborhood and out of the city entirely. A few days ago, her little team had finally left the city proper and into the suburbs where they had been looting houses for food and shelter. So far, they had only found one with a red steel door. Not like it mattered, not a lot of Specials had taken residence out here. Even the commons were oddly scarce; clusters of them every other couple of houses, but so far, nothing.

This was so unnerving. Divine almost expected something to jump out at them and maul her face off. It was just so damn dark. The only sort of light they really had were her flashlight and the glow from the parts of the city that still had running electricity. This wasn't right, there should have been something out here to bother them, a horde or two waiting for their next meal to come running by. But there was nothing, just the quiet moans of the Infected hiding behind bushes or milling about on lawns.

The only noise to be heard was Ryan's hacking coughs, the small occasional growls from Zachary, and the sound of their feet hitting pavement. Then they heard him, a scream echoing off the rooftops. The trio paused, searching for the source. Zachary's growl increased, moving closer to Divine as if to shield her. He snarled at something, sounding like a challenge to the girl. Oh, it was him again.

Ever since their little fight a while back, the green clad Hunter had been following them, popping up to swipe at Zach, and try to pounce Divine. They could have killed him a long time ago, but Divine was far too intrigued by this sort of behavior, so she didn't really do anything about it. Actually, knowing their stalker was nearby was sort of comforting. At least someone was making noise and not pretending he didn't exist. Hell, she wished he'd come out for a scrap, anything would be welcomed right now.

As they rounded the corner, Divine flicked off her flashlight as she heard sobbing nearby. Fuck, a weeping girl! She couldn't see the crier, but her sobs were growing louder with each step. A hand touched her arm, and Ryan led the survivor away and across the street. Good, he knew where she was. Divine seriously did not want to find that crying bitch the hard way, mostly because there weren't any safe rooms to run into if the crier gave chase.

Suddenly, the crying stopped. They all did. Zachary and Ryan froze, not even daring to breath. She could hear the crier stiffing her sobs, and a scuffle on the concrete told her that the weeper had gotten up, and ran. What the hell was going on? These guys were some of the baddest zombies out there, what could possibly scare them? And like that, they were off. Ryan, still holding onto her, dragged her along, Zachary right at their heels.

Looking around, Divine could see other shapes moving down the road with them. The commons were running like hell too, but not at them. She didn't understand, what was wrong? What's happening? For once second, she thought it might have been the military. Maybe a helicopter or something big like that was coming, and they were afraid of it! But the hordes were attracted by noise, and they were damn nosy. So what could be big and noisy that made them run away in fear?

The answer unfortunately came to her. The ground began bouncing beneath her feet, and Divine thought an earthquake was happening. But earthquakes didn't roar.

"Fuck!" Ryan cursed, and in one smooth movement, scooped her up and threw her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. The ground was bouncing even more, and through the Smoker's gas cloud, Divine could see something big moving their way. And in the city glow, she could see exactly what was coming.

The fucker was huge, looking like a giant shaved gorilla. If The Thing and the Incredible Hulk had a baby, this thing would be it. Roaring, it stopped long enough to pick up a car and throw it at the retreating horde. Several commons screeched as the automobile crushed them, causing the survivor the cry out.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT THING?" she screamed, earning her the attention of the massive thing.

"SOMETHING REALLY, REALLY FUCKING BAD!" Ryan screamed back, picking up speed. The giant roared again, charging straight for them. Thankfully, Divine remembered she had a gun in her hand, and began awkwardly shooting at the beast. This in turn, only pissed it off even more. Divine put together a string of colorful words as her rifle ran and out of bullets, and she struggled to reach into her pocket for another clip.

The giant was relentless, swiping aside straggling commons and bashing anything in its path. Divine stopped trying to get more ammo, and instead opted to watching their doom advance upon them. No, it couldn't end like this! She didn't want to die by some gorilla on steroids. If there was a God, oh please save them! Someone, anybody, help!

And then, the answer to her prayers arrived. An ear piercing scream sounded, and something flew out to latch onto the giant's shoulders. The giant let out a great bellow, shaking itself to dislodge its attacker. Another scream sounded, and Zachary joined in on the attack, his claws raking across the giant's face. Ryan came to a halt, torn between helping or getting her to safety. Divine was suddenly hoisted off and pushed towards a house.

"Hide" he commanded, giving her another push before turning around to help. Divine stumbled back, but did what she was told. The survivor threw herself in a hedge, finally getting a chance to pull a clip out from her pocket. She clicked it in, and took aim. Zach and the other Hunter were busy with the giant's backside, causing the roaring beast to try and beat them with his big, meaty fists.

Ryan helped by latching on to a fist, and reeling it back in with his tongue, giving the other guys one less hand to worry about. The giant's whole front side was open, giving Divine her chance. She opened fired on the beast's chest and legs, running through the clip until it clicked empty. Throwing away that one, she jammed in another, after that clip, the beast finally gave.

It let out a mighty roar, and then fell to its bloodied knees. The Hunters bounced off its back, and Ryan bit off his tongue, the rest of it sitting under the dead body. Divine crawled out of the hedge, joining the Specials to take a better look at their attacker. It was grosser up close, muscles and veins popping out of the skin. Jesus Christ, the Infection really turned some poor guy into this?

"No one wonder it was so quiet. Everybody was hiding from this…this…thing!" Divine concluded, looking back down the street at the carnage it caused. And it finally occurred to her, this is what she had heard at night right after the Infection broke out. This was that thing that roared and shook the ground at night. That one thing that sounded like a big ass, scary mother fucker. What else was out there then? She only hoped they'd never run into something his horrible ever again.

"Are we all okay?" she asked, looking around the small group.

"Yeah"

"…Uh-huh…."

"….."

It was him, their little stalker in green. He just sat there, not making a sound, acting like it wasn't him that bothered them for the past week. But thank God he came, or else they would have been toast. Smiling, Divine walked over to him, crouched down, and gave him a hug.

"Thank you" she murmured into his hood. He still said nothing, and she let go of him. As soon as Divine did that, he backed up and bounced away into the darkness. He'd be back soon enough, she was sure of it. The survivor turned back to her friends, giving Zachary a pat on his head.

"And thank you, too" she told her Hunter. Zachary gave her a toothy grin, rubbing his head against her knee, purring. "You guys sure you're okay? It didn't hurt you, did it?

"We…we fine. It…it dead. All…good" the Hunter informed her. He was getting better at speaking English again. That was good.

Thus concluded their first encounter with the Tank.

They found another safe house farther down the street, deciding it would be better to keeping going during the day, mostly so they hopefully wouldn't run into another giant, gorilla thing. But it was still nice, the safe house being in an actual house. Thankfully, small lanterns were at the ready, so at least the trio wouldn't be trying to find the bathroom in the dark.

There was even a bedroom with a real bed, so that meant no sleeping bags on the floor tonight! And the cabinets had real food in it, which was a big change from the rations that were usually found in safe rooms. And ooh-la-la, the freezer had meat in it still! What a score, a well-stocked house! She could have food, and the boys could eat and….there would still be a little leftover…..hm…..

Once she had the boys gnawing at their own food, Divine walked out to the back porch with a plate of hamburger meat. Glancing around, she spotted a small table off to the side. She set the plate down on it, hoping he would find it okay. Divine walked back into the house, barricading the door behind her.

When she came out the next morning, she was pleased to find the plate empty, and licked clean.

Danger comes in all sorts of different shapes and sizes. Some dangers are easy to avoid, while others come straight for you. Don't go looking for trouble, because trouble likes to do the hunting itself. The best way to avoid it? Hide. If earlier warning signs are detectable, get out of the way. Take cover until the danger passes. Because a gun won't protect you forever.

Like I said, it was short. BUT IT'S A CHAPTER, IT'S AN UPDATE, SO BE HAPPY! As usual, thanks for all the reviews and favs I've been getting!

And now, I must ask you all a question. Chapter 5 will begin with the letter E, but unfortunately, I have no idea what that "E" should stand for! Anyone have an suggestions? Feel free to voice them!

Until next time!