Well, shit lmao.
A lot has happened since August. I started up my last round at a uh, temporary halloween store that's quite popular in the states, you may have heard of it. it uhm, rhymes with "birit balloween". anyway it ended up being a really busy season, especially since i got promoted to assistant manager right in the middle of it haha. in addition it was like... there was only 7 of us at the start to run the entire store so were kinda struggling. anyhow, that ate up my entire august - october, and then before i knew it, november was here. and it was the holidays. and i had this chapter started but i just...
-clenches fist- this was a really hard one to actually write. because it's one of those chapters that i've been planning for years, and i wanted it to be good, especially since this is like our big "finale" showstopper chapter before we officially start winding things down. clocking in at 9,918 words uhm, i sincerely hope it doesn't disappoint haha.
my first, personal goal of ending the fic alongside 2021 uhm, didn't work out but that's okay! my secondary goal of ending it in time for the 11th anniversary is still a go. and hopefully the last 4 chapters will be a lot easier to write than this one c:
i hope everyone had a safe and healthy holidays, let's start 2022 off with a real bang.
and a big shoutout to my boo, t-virus rose, for betaing this chapter for me 3
(ps if you havent read the chA and chB rewrites you totally should whoooaaaah!)
Zach released the Screamer's head and stumbled towards the steps, and Divine and Toni rushed towards him to prop him up. He didn't appear any… More injured than he already was. Just very tired, probably extremely dehydrated.
"Where did you go?" Divine asked, anger and concern evident in her voice. "You could have gotten yourself killed!"
He replied with shallow panting and heavy breathing. They gently helped him sit down on a step.
"You went all the way there?" Toni asked. "And back? No Tank?"
Zach wearily shook his head.
"You're loco, man," Toni shook his head as well. "Full crazy."
"You're so stupid sometimes," Divine sniffled. She could feel all her emotions rushing back in. "Don't you dare run off on us like that again. You could have gotten hurt! You could have been killed! And we'd never know! Do you understand me, Zachary?"
He didn't answer, just continued to breathe heavily. And then he hissed softly with a small flick of his head towards his dropped bundle. They both looked over to see the Screamer stirring, moaning in pain as he finally came to.
The Screamer managed to lift his head up and look right at the three of them. He squinted at them confused, but then the recognition started to set in. His mouth began to open-
She moved so fast.
The Screamer gargled and gasped for air as her hands clamped down around his windpipe. Dirty fingernails dug into her forearms as the Screamer attempted to free himself. But Divine didn't notice.
It was like this all encompassing rage. Like her blood boiled so hot, it hurt her veins. Her vision practically blurred, like the air was tinged with red, as if her fury seeped out from her eyes. A harsh, niggling voice whispered in her ear, do it.
Do it. Do it. Doit.
Killhimkillhimkillhim.
"What the fuck?" was the voice in her other ear, from which of the Hunters she couldn't tell. It didn't matter. In her world, from her perspective, it was just her and the Screamer.
"Don't even try it," she said to the infected in her grasp, her tone cold. "I'll squeeze the life out of you before you can get one peep out. Do you understand me?" The Screamer whimpered, shooting her a desperate look. He was starting to look a little purple.
"Do you get it? Do you? Show me you understand. Show me," she demanded.
The Screamer closed his eyes… Then with another whimper… He quickly nodded. Her grasp on him loosened, just enough to let the air back in. He gasped and wheezed, panting shallowly. Divine realized she had been holding her own breath without meaning to. She exhaled slowly.
Okay… Okay… Okay she could do this. Rationally. Diplomatically. Maybe.
"Now let's… Start over," she suggested evenly. "How about… Name? Mine is… Divine. And yours? I know you have one. You remember it, don't you? Your name?"
His eyes narrowed, regarding her cautiously. Was it a trick? A game? It was clear he didn't know what to make of the sudden change. A wariness, fearful she might kill him after all. And he was probably right to be worried. She felt his throat move under her thumbs, his lips working slowly until he finally croaked out-
"T... Ta...Tarran."
"Hi Tarran," she greeted him cooly.
He did not greet her back, just bit at his lower lip in anticipation.
"I'm not very happy with you right now," Divine said. "Do you know why?"
"Yes," he hissed softly.
"Do you think you're going to die right now, Tarran?"
His eyes squeezed shut, his whole body tensing. Like he was waiting for it to happen.
"That's a reasonable fear to have huh? That you're going to die, at any moment? That I'm only a second away from killing you?"
His lip quivered as he breathed shallowly. She could smell it. Raw, a little sweaty, but powerful. His fear. Like it was stuck right under her nose and it was all that flooded her senses. Feeling him, underneath her, helpless, completely at her mercy.
It was exhilarating.
It was terrifying.
"You called me a monster before," she continued. "Is that what you see me as? Is that what you saw us all as? Monsters ready to get you?"
Tarran cautiously cracked an eye open, the terror still etched across his face. Where was she going with this, he probably wondered. She wondered that too.
"Maybe you're right. And I get that. I understand being scared of the monsters too. And look at me now. Look at me, Tarran. How much of a monster am I now?"
She gave him a slight shake, and both his eyes popped open wide. He panted frantically, but he dared not look away from her. She could just barely see herself reflected in his eyes. The last thing Divine wanted to do was actually look at herself. Too scared she wouldn't recognize herself anymore, definitely this time.
"I'm not the only monster around here though, am I?" she asked. "You're scared of him too, aren't you?"
"W-w-who?" he stuttered out.
"You know who," Divine said. "Maybe you don't hear him, but I do. I hear him talking. I know what he wants. And you do too."
"No," Tarran shook his head. "No no no-"
"How do I get back to that fucking Tank?"
Zach growled, low and consistent as he stared down their guest. Tarran cowered in the corner of the room, shaking so hard he might clip through the floor at any moment. The Screamer wrung his hands over and over, doing his best to meld with the wall to get as far away from Zach as possible. Which was only a little futile, considering Zach was splayed out across the bedsheet nest, incapable of moving, but still menacing him all the same.
"He's gonna break his motor if he keeps that up," Divine commented, grinding up half a bottle of painkillers into a dust atop the kitchen counter.
"Can't he just go home?" Toni whined, half slumped across the table. "Why'd ya bring him in here?"
"I'm not done with him yet," Divine answered, as if that explained everything. Toni shot her a suspicious look.
"Yeah 'cause earlier was so much fun," he snorted. "What was that anyway?"
"You were right there."
"And I got like, half of it," Toni said. "You're up to something."
"Yeah, making Zach a snack," and she flashed him a smile. He frowned deeply at that.
"I don't like this," he mumbled. "Don't trust either of you right now."
"Aw come on, what happened to us being buddy buddy, huh? Best friends forever?" she asked. "Are you mad I didn't give you a kiss?"
"You're being weird," Toni growled. "More than normal. Something changed. I know it did."
"Nothing changed," she scoffed, defensively.
"You flew at him. I blink and you're on top of him. You were killing him."
"I only considered it a little," she lied. She took the pill dust and dumped it into a heated up bowl of re-hydrated mashed potatoes, and stirred it in. "God, Zach better fucking pass out this time."
"Ay, Elisabetha-" Toni started, and she swiftly cut him off with a harsh glare. She loved him. She hated him. She regretted ever feeding him in the first place.
"Everything's fine, Antonio," she insisted harshly. "I have everything under control," Divine added in a more calm voice as she breezed past him, the bowl of mashed potatoes in hand. She could feel his judging stare follow her into the other room.
"Who's my hungry booooy?" she switched to a sweeter, more cheery voice as she approached Zach in the pile. "My big strong boy, home from his adventure?"
The growling ceased as Zach looked to her with a tired grin.
"I'm still mad at youuu~" she sang, stirring the bowl once more.
"I know," Zach sighed.
"You made Toni cry ya know."
"I'm sorry," he frowned.
"He was devastated."
"Shut uuuuup," Toni hollered from the kitchen.
Divine smirked as she spooned up some potatoes and held it out in front of Zach's face.
"Open up," she ordered. "Gotta eat all of this."
Zach obediently dropped his mouth open, and she stuck the spoon in. He sucked the potatoes off the spoon… And immediately made a face.
"Swallow it."
Reluctantly, he did after a few unhappy chews. He stuck his tongue out in severe displeasure and shook his head.
"There's more where that came from."
"Oh maaaan."
"Well this is easier than shoving the whole bottle down your throat normally. Would you like that instead? Taking pills whole?"
"Nooo," he groaned. He sighed dramatically, then left his mouth open for another spoonful. Victorious, Divine cheerfully gave him another helping. Maybe if he was a good boy, she'd reward him with a spoonful of peanut butter later.
Over her shoulder, she could hear Toni stalk into the room. From the corner of her eye, she could see Tarran's greasy head of hair whip around to watch him.
"You're both gross to watch," Toni mumbled. "Asqueroso."
"You're just jealous I don't do this for you," Divine teased.
"I couldn't be less jealous if I tried," he rolled his eye at her as he crawled onto the couch. "Also you took my bed."
"You can have another turn later," she said. "After Zach's done eating.
"I wanna be done now," Zach muttered.
"But there's still soooo much left," Divine said, and scooped another helping. "Eat up!"
Zach groaned as she shoved the spoon into his mouth again.
"D- I- Dshrv dis?" Zach asked through his chewing.
"Yes," both Divine and Toni answered. The taller Hunter sighed, but nodded in acceptance. It's what he got for running away unexpectedly, another long conversation they were going to have after this. She was still rattled from it, waking up to find him gone without a trace. Or rather, still rattled from the way she practically fell apart.
She cheerfully spooned Zach his mashed potatoes, but deep down, she just wanted to scream. So loud and so painfully, everyone in California would hear it. She wanted to bite, and rip, and tear. She wanted to make something dead dead dead dead.
But instead, Divine kept feeding her pet Hunter, who risked everything to try and make her smile one more time.
("In love with you… You… Didn't know?")
"Last biiiite~" Divine cooed at him, and Zach whined tiredly, but still opened his mouth one last time. "What a goooood boooooy you are, ate your medicine all up. Mary Poppins wishes she was me."
Zach made one last face as he swallowed the chalky concoction, and sighed loudly in utter relief when she set the empty bowl aside.
"Never want that again," he said.
"Don't go running off when you're sick then, okay?" Divine replied sweetly, gently pinching his cheek. "Otherwise I'll just keep finding new ways to make you better."
"Uuggh," he groaned, his face scrunching up. Regardless of his feelings on it, hopefully it'd help actually knock him out this time, and keep it that way. She wanted to rant and scream about how scared she'd been, how she wouldn't know what to do if he never came back and died out there alone in the streets. But she kept those thoughts to herself and leaned in to kiss his forehead as she tucked him into bed.
"Get some sleep," she ordered. "I gotta deal with your rabbit."
"Brought for you," Zach mumbled with a yawn.
"I know, and I'm gonna have so much fun with him."
As she spoke, Divine turned her attention towards their unwanted guest. Huddled in his corner, Tarran looked like an utter mess. And yet, he met her gaze, and seemed to stare back at her in an almost… Challenging way. Like he was daring her to do her worst to him. Like he wanted her to fight him, but also not really because he would lose. She would crush him. Epically. And it would be pretty great for her, but really embarrassing for him. If he lived.
"Whaaaat will we dooooo with Tarrraaaan?" Divine asked out loud in a sing-song voice. "What can we make him dooooo since we have him alllll to ourseeeelves?"
"Head in the toilet," Toni suggested.
"And take his lunch money," Divine nodded.
"Pants him," Zach suggested, wiggling comfortably under a blanket.
"Wh-hha-hat?" Tarran stuttered under his breath from the corner. His challenging look turned suspicious, as if he anticipated them lunging at him at any moment. The thought of bullying him like they were middle schoolers was pretty amusing, and honestly the least harmful thing they could actually do to him right now.
(Because the alternative was Divine wrenching every inch of life out of him until he stopped breathing or bleeding, whichever came first, and that was an alternative she wasn't looking forward to seeing that she was capable of.)
In the end, they left him guessing instead. Divine managed to soothe Zach to sleep, then focused on just… Getting ready for the day. She had to coax Toni into stretching out comfortably across the couch and giving him some stale crackers she scrounged up from the kitchen cabinets.
"You're still burning up," she commented, with the back of her hand pressed to his forehead. "Ya know, more than usual."
"So nothing new," Toni murmured. Frowning, Divine went back into the kitchen, and returned a minute later with a wet dish towel in hand. She folded and placed it across his forehead, and Toni sighed in relief. If only they had some ice. The best she could do was steal a free blanket from the pile and drape it over him.
"I'm just gonna be over here," Divine said, picking up her little red kit and walking into the other room with it. "Holler if you need me."
She got no response. Divine set her kit on the table, opened it up, and started unpacking it. The outside was dirty, but the inside, everything looked… Really beat up. Which of course would happen, since she dropped it in front of an advancing horde that came flying in to turn her into paste.
Luckily she didn't have much in there, most of it had been left behind in the safehouse or put into her bigger travel bag. A tiny box of first aid had held up. And so had a spare lighter of Ryan's that she always kept on hand. A pack of cigarettes had been totally squashed though. And so had a power bar, and a baggie of granola. The water bottle had been dropped forever ago, so at least nothing got soaked. Everything else was just bits of junk that could be thrown away at this point.
Divine was fishing out the last bit of lint when she felt another presence in the room, and she looked up to see Tarran ghosting the other side of the kitchen table as her. He wrung his hands over and over, still visibly shaking, but he stared down at the table intently, as if he was watching her work.
"Didja need something?" she asked him.
"...Sister?" he asked back, hesitantly. She looked at him quizzically.
"Me?"
"Sister?" Tarran repeated, and then turned his head towards the other room. "Sister-ly?"
"Am I their sister?" Divine guessed. Tarran looked back at her expectantly. "No? We're just-"
(Pack. Family. Friends. Companions. Lov-)
"We're just together," Divine finished. She didn't elaborate on what that meant, nor was really sure if she could explain it. But Tarran seemed to accept that answer as he looked away from her to stalk across the kitchen towards the refrigerator. The previous owners had an assortment of magnets and pictures pinned to it. He reached up and traced his finger across a magnetized chrome cow.
"My sister… Loves pretty shiny," Tarran said softly. "I bring… Pretty shiny for her."
He snatched the cow off the fridge to admire it up close.
"You wanna bring that to her?" Divine suggested. Tarran cooed approvingly. "Where… Is she anyway?"
Divine actually looked at him now. Look-looked at him. And that's when she started to see the resemblances. Not just the long, black hair. But the features of his face. The shape of his nose, and the almost stilted way he moved. Oh yes, she could tell now.
"Home," Tarran replied, wistfully. "Back… Where I came from."
"Then let's not keep her waiting then," Divine decided. "Lemme suit up and we'll get going."
Toni perhaps had the most unpleasant scowl on his face that Divine had yet to see. Arms folded over his chest, and his single eye narrowed into a glare. She could feel him tracking her through the room as she threw together a fresh kit and pulled on her shoes.
"I promise I won't take long," Divine said, like a liar. "I'm just gonna drop Tarran off."
"He can't walk himself?" Toni grumbled.
"Well I need to go apologize to our friend that we kidnapped her brother," she explained simply, as if she was just talking about going next door to ask for a cup of sugar.
"You're kidding me."
"Do I look like a jokester to you?" Divine asked, looking over at him. "Am I a tee hee funny person to you?"
If looks could kill, she'd be dead on the spot with the venomous, withering glare he gave her. She responded with a toothy grin. Toni continued to glare before he finally let out a tired sigh.
"I can't stop you?" Toni asked.
"Nope," Divine shook her head. "I won't bring anyone else home if it makes you feel better."
"I'll never feel better ever again."
"Aw, that's the spirit!" she cheered as she finished lacing up. She rose off the floor and picked up her jacket from the arm of the couch. "Just get some sleep. Zach will be out for a while, so at least he won't be running off again any time soon."
"What if you don't come back?" Toni asked. "Then what?"
"I'll be back," Divine promised. "One way or another. Trust me."
He didn't argue back, but he still didn't look like he truly believed her. Because she knew that he knew she was up to something. And it was a really hare-brained plan to begin with. She was sure he would stop her. But maybe he had given up, or was just too tired and broken still to fight it. Eventually, he just rolled over and closed his eye.
"See you soon then," Toni mumbled. And that's all the blessing she needed.
Divine took Tarran and ran.
It was somewhere down the street when Divine decided it was time to open a little about her plan. Clue her unwitting accomplice in. Get to the root of the issue here.
"So Tarran, let's talk," Divine started sweetly, sliding up next to him.
"O-Ookay," he stuttered, nervously.
"The Big Guy in town, you know him," Divine went on. "Looks like a shaved gorilla? Always acts like he just stepped on a lego?"
"S-Sure?"
"You two friends? Good friends?"
"Nuh-uh!" Tarran shook his head. "He… He's…. He kills monsters though…"
"Like me?" she asked, innocently, batting her eyelashes at him. "Scary monsters with our loud boomsticks?"
Tarran looked away from her with a quivering lower lip.
"Is that what he did?" Divine continued, her voice gradually becoming more cool. "Did he kill all the monsters here?"
"Yes," Tarran answered quietly. And then, hesitantly added, "A-and… And the Grabbers… And the Jumpers… The Bloaters… The Criers and the- Th- Th-"
And the Screamers, that went unspoken. Tarran halted suddenly. Divine practically crashing into him. He was shaking harder than before. He breathed in and out unevenly. He could have fallen apart at any moment, it felt like. He looked at her-
Not through her or around her. Not in her direction like a skittish deer.
But looked at her. As if he was actually seeing her for the first time. And he looked dead serious.
"My s-sister," he said evenly. "Is all that's left. If I lose her… I lose myself… And I lose everything."
Divine blinked at him.
"I'd rather have you killed… If it means keeping her. Every. Time. Do you… Understand?"
Sacrifice dozens, hundreds, thousands, if it meant keeping the one person who mattered left in the world safe, and leave the rest for dead.
Divine blinked again… And then gave him a small, wordless nod. Tarran stayed focused on her for a moment longer… Then with a heavy sigh, turned back towards the road and wobbled forward.
"My sister, dear sister," he muttered to the air. "Find… Find sister…"
Divine remained still, and watched him go… Then slowly followed after. He seemed to know the way, and didn't need her to lead him around. "Escorting" back home was just a formality, after all.
When they finally crossed the bridge, Tarran's pace quickened. The sun was kissing the horizon, the surrounding warehouses casting long shadows across the street. But Tarran knew just where to go. Down the block, around the corner at the stop sign, and hunched under a light, yet to flicker on-
Sister.
Tarran raced away to the Witch, babbling excitedly.
"Oh Sister, oh Sister!" the Screamer crooned, pulling her close and nuzzling her lovingly. "So scared, so very scary! Traitored by bad Jumper, so bad bad bad. But here I am! See me? Here me, me me me~"
The Witch sniffled under his embrace.
"I-I kn-now," she warbled out. She gently reached up and slowly slid a single nail down his cheek, comfortingly. "Safe n-now… Brother…"
Divine sucked in a breath of air as she casually approached, hooking her thumbs through the loops of her jeans. Oh boy, this was gonna be hard to explain.
"Whhhyyy?" the Witch asked out loud with a shudder. A pair of burning, ruby eyes peeked out at her from under the cascade of black hair. "Whhy do… Do… Do this?"
"I didn't tell my guy to do anything," Divine answered. "He was hurt. And angry. And blamed the wrong person. I'm sorry, really. He didn't hurt uh, your brother there. Just kinda roughed him up a little. He's fine."
Tarran shot her a look over the top of his sister's head. Liar liar, pants on fire, said the look, but he didn't verbally protest that.
"Again, sorry about that," Divine continued. "I'm just gonna uh… I'm just gonna get going. Got stuff to do," and she turned to start going further down the road.
"Ssstupid," Tarran hissed at her. "Stupid and angry…"
"No one asked you, Tarran," Divine shot angrily over her shoulder.
"W-where? Going?" the Witch warbled at her. "Wrong… Way?"
"I just got something to do," Divine said with a pause in her step. She turned to look back. The Witch had turned in her direction as well, her spindly limbs dangling at her sides. With her long hair draped over face and shoulders, nearly standing stock still, hell she looked like something that had crawled out of a TV not too long ago. "I got… Someone to go see real quick."
"She looks for him," Tarran said to his sister. "His blood she wants… Took her precious..."
"I never said that," Divine scoffed.
"But why?" the Witched sniffled. "W-why… Try so hard to live…" and her shoulders started to shake as she asked, "Just to go back…. To die?"
Divine let out a long, puff of air as she looked up at the sky. It was streaked orange and purple as the sun started it's descent towards the horizon line. Funny how they always ended up here. Maybe if she was fast she'd get there before dark. Probably not. But it was worth a try.
"I dunno," Divine eventually answered. "I'll let you know when I get back."
And she looked back at the siblings, gave them a half salute, then turned back on her heel to keep going. Behind her, she could hear Tarran sputtering about something, and the Witch's sobs echoed down the empty road after her. They probably thought she was going out here to legitimately die. They weren't wrong to worry.
Not one bit.
For the first time in-
Oh, what?
Five months at this point?
It was just her.
Alone.
Almost, anyway.
The walking dead shambled past her and paid her no mind whatsoever. Their empty gazes glossed right over her. They looked miserable, many of their faces contorted in misery. Some clutched at their stomachs, crying tearlessly, sobbing to themselves.
She heard them, sniffling, begging-
"Hungry… So hungry…"
"Can't… Find… Where? Oh where, where…"
"Home? Home… Home?"
"My head… Hurts… So hurt…"
Over and over again.
As the darkness crawled in, so too did they crawl closer to each other, gathering in small huddles on the street. They shivered and shook, their breath coming out in puffs in the growing chill of the evening. She felt it too, but she didn't care enough to stop. Street lamps flickered on, and some of them half-reacted, like they were blinded by the shock. But the surprise quickly faded, and they fell back into their miserable stupor.
But still she walked. Down the street, around this corner, along the invisible lines that she had drawn on the map back at the safehouse. And then before she knew it, there was the bus stop, and lying in the street, glinting off the street lights was her shotgun. It hadn't moved an inch since she had dropped it the other day.
"Hello beautiful, miss me?" she chuckled as she picked it off the ground. "Sorry I took so long, things have been crazy."
She holstered it across her back, snug against her pack.
One more stop to make.
Things sure looked a lot different on the ground than they did in the air. From the rooftops, everything had looked so small, yet still terrifying with the horde running after her. But now, everything felt normal, if not a little more empty. She stood there a moment, soaking it all in, then went back on her way.
It… Was this way, wasn't it? Past this building, across this one, and through that alley into the next street… Aha, yeah, crushed cars that had been swatted aside to clear a path right down the center. She was getting close. Just had to find the one that had the Tank sized hole in the center of the wall… No… No…
There.
It was like a lightning bolt had struck down and paralyzed her on the spot. Like deep dread and fear lanced through her and ground her to a halt. An oppressive air seeped out from the hole in the wall. She knew what was in there. She knew what she was going to find. So why did it feel impossible to go in? The reality was clear, wasn't it? Toni had said so before. The most serious he had ever been in his whole life. She had no reason to doubt him.
And yet…
She was still scared. She was scared to see. She was scared to really find out. She was scared of seeing it with her own two eyes. She was scared of having the cold, hard reality slap her in the face. As if everything else up to this point hadn't done it. But she owed him this, didn't she?
She had promised.
Swallowing her fear, Divine stepped shakily into the building. It was dark inside, at least on this side of the factory floor. Her eyes itched, and she frantically rubbed at them, careful to keep her fingernails from making contact with any skin. She blinked a few times, and slowly… Slowly the lighting changed. She could see- The light from the streets and further inside bouncing off the walls and flooding in with a blue-green tint.
Once her eyesight fully adjusted, the Survivor continued on. Every step was heavy, like her feet had suddenly turned to lead. A weight started to press down on her chest, and she was scared she'd stop breathing at any second. It was eerily quiet inside. She had visited livelier graveyards in the past. Her ears strained to hear something- Anything. A sign of some sort. But she heard nothing.
Her nose, on the other hand…
It twitched, and she could smell it- Awful and vile.
The path was clear, and it led her right to him.
What was left of him, anyway. It was so dark in this corner that she had trouble seeing him. But that was okay, she figured. She stopped in her tracks, not wanting to get closer. This was enough for her. By now, after all this time, the smell of a dead body decomposing should have been sickeningly familiar.
But this time it was different. This time it made her sick. It made her chest ache. Her eyes burned. Her whole body shook. It was different because it was Ryan.
(Divine had promised him once. That she'd stay with him. When he was sick and delirious, could barely string a thought together. And he looked so scared, and held her hand so tight, and he made her promise. And she did. But what could she do when it was him who left her first? Now what was she supposed to do?)
She coughed, gagged really. Like she was going to be sick. She felt sick. She was sick. A fever that hadn't gone away. Chills she had been ignoring. Physical aches that weren't getting better. Barely healed lacerations across her arms where glass had sunk through her skin.
It was coming. It was here. So much worse than before. And it hurt. God, it hurt so much.
Painpainpainpainpainpainpain.
"I'm sorry Ryan," she whispered into the air. "I can't pretend anymore…"
The tears fell without warning. They streaked down her face, and her shoulders shook from the hard sobs that wracked out from her. She knew it was going to hurt. To turn. To become one of them. She just wished it hadn't come on like this. Anything else would have been better. She clutched her arms, pulled them tight to her chest, letting her nails dig into the denim of her jacket. Her knees buckled under her, and she collapsed to the ground.
"How am I gonna do this?" she asked between sobs. "That thing is gonna kill me… I'm gonna end like up paste on the concrete… Just like you… But if I don't go… I'll never move on. Isn't that silly, Ryan? Aren't I stupid? Haha… Hahaha aren't I the biggest idiot ever?"
She cried. She laughed. Everything still hurt.
"Everyone's out there dying. Everyone. All of them. And only I know it. I'm the only one with a fucking brain around here! They don't know it yet! And they're the lucky ones!"
Her hands moved from her arms to her head, digging into her hair, curling into the scalp painfully.
"If we stayed in Belton, you'd be alive! If we stayed in Belton, we'd all be dead anyway. There's no winning! There's no running from this. There's no hiding. There's nothing after this. We'll walk, and we'll walk, and for what? Where are we going? What is the fucking point?!" she screamed. And she screamed some more, a wordless scream intended to blow her voice out. She didn't care who heard it right now.
(Why try so hard to live just to go back to die?)
Good fucking question.
"I don't know why I'm here!" she cried. "I don't know why I got magically selected to get this far just to fall now. I-I don't understand anything about this stupid fucking flu. I've been writing it all down for what?! So someone can one day use it as reading material when they take a shit? Is that my life's purpose now? To be here until I'm not? I-I don't get it! I just- I just- I ju-"
Her vision was swimming. It felt like the world was spinning, like a big wave had taken hold of her and she was sent tumbling around. It just made no sense. Nothing made sense anymore. What was the point? It had all been held together by a thin, fragile string that was threatening to snap at any moment. She was a moron for thinking it was going any other way.
'Maybe I should die here after all,' she thought. Just sit there until her body wasted away. Or her mind. The boys would find her wandering the streets, another mindless Common amongst a sea of many. That would have been better. Let her forget. Just let it all go and not even remember it all happened to begin with…
"Sssaad?" a voice broke out. "So sad?"
Her eyes, previously squeezed shut, snapped open. For a moment, she feared that the Witch had followed her. But then there were more footsteps, and a small chorus that echoed behind them-
"Sad?"
"Who sad?"
"I'm sad."
"So sad…"
And before she knew it, they stumbled in, surrounding her. Without really looking at her, they started sitting down, huddling up, all pressed together.
"Die?" a voice asked.
"Someone died," another voice stated.
"So sad," a third agreed.
Someone's back leaned against hers, and the group of Commons, fresh off the streets, settled in. They seemed to chirp and mumble amongst themselves, not really speaking to anyone in particular. It was hard to tell distinctive features apart in the dark, her new vision wasn't that good after all. But there was a good handful of them, just sitting there with her. Had they heard her crying, attracted by her screams, and came in to investigate? They didn't seem aggressive by any means, and it sounded like they… Expressed genuine concern and sadness as they came in.
The once quiet factory floor was now filled with the sound of uneven breathing, sighing, and the occasional sniffle or cough. They didn't seem to care that the corpse of her once-a-boyfriend-maybe was right there next to them. But maybe they didn't care. They were probably really used to it, and to be fair, they didn't know who he was either. Just another casualty of the Green Flu.
Divine still sniffled, wiping her snotty nose against her jacket sleeve, and wiping her face with the other. She was still crying, but the sudden arrival of company had broken her out of that pit of despair she had been in moments ago. God, what a close one that had been.
But now what was she supposed to do?
She had a mission still, or so her heart was telling her. The rational part of her brain, which felt like it was getting smaller by the second, screamed at her to just go back. Turn back now, go back to her boys, and move on. But the irrational part, growing bigger by the second, encouraged her to keep going. Look at what had already happened. Make that bastard pay.
And then there was a third part of her brain, somewhere in between, telling her to just wait a little bit longer. Just rest a moment. So she did. She leaned into the body behind her, and just sat there, staring up at the ceiling. And she just waited, and waited, until she was all cried out. And weirdly enough, she didn't feel lonely while she did.
After a while, Divine cleared her throat, and asked in a soft voice, "Sad?"
"Sad?" echoed back at her. And another one. And another one, until the whole group was hooting it back at her.
"Very sad," she said. And then came back a chorus of concerned sounds.
"Not good…"
"So tired."
"Hate sad."
"Too bad… Too bad…"
"Yeah, too bad," Divine agreed. "Would… I really be making a mistake? Going anyway?"
There was a ripple of confused and unsure noises amongst the group. They didn't understand that much all at once. But that was okay.
"It's my fault we're all here anyway," she continued. "I think I owe it to everyone to get there. Right?"
"Right?" they all echoed in varying levels of assurance. The corners of her mouth twitched upwards into the faintest of smiles. They were all really something else, weren't they?
"I think I will," Divine decided. "Just so I can say I did something. That something was worth it after all."
With a heavy sigh, she slowly stood up, leisurely stretching, shaking the feeling back into her limbs. A few heads raised to watch her, but no one moved to follow.
"I'm gonna go," she declared. A few pairs of eyes blinked at her. "Thanks for the pep talks guys, appreciate it… Stay warm."
She carefully picked her way through the small cluster. They watched her go. They offered no farewells or any "good luck"s. She left with them staring holes into her back. They would probably forget she even existed within moments, back to being lost in the fog of their infection. By morning they'd surely forget why they even walked in there to begin with.
(But their moment of compassion would never leave her.)
From there, it was all unfamiliar territory. Divine navigated through examining street signs in the dim light, sorting through her memories of the map back at the safehouse. She knew she was going the right way when she finally started to see signs of a former military presence. Barricades, jeeps, and arrows and signs spray painted on the side of buildings.
Seeing the safehouse tag, a giant one in the middle of the road, almost felt like a slap to the face. She was only a few streets over from the factory where Ryan had been killed. It had been this close the whole time. If they hadn't bumped into Tarran, they likely would have found it sooner.
…
And they would have ran into the Tank sooner as well. Because it was clear that he had been through this way. Just further down, it looked like there had been a blood bath. It was like an impact crater from a meteor. The further out, the less to see. The further in towards the epicenter, the destruction just got uglier and uglier. Broken vehicles, with equally broken bodies still trapped inside. Mass piles of corpses that had spent all winter slowly rotting away. Pieces of buildings had broken away and fallen into the street, some of the rubble clogging up the alleyways in between. It felt like she was being funneled down one narrow path towards her destination.
The safehouse from hell, it felt like.
It was half lit up, on the border between warehouses and factories blending back in with regular shop fronts, not too unlike where the other safehouse was back on the other side of the river. It almost looked as if it had been abandoned just yesterday… If it wasn't for the giant, gaping hole in the wall where the door used to be. She was almost scared the whole place was gonna crash down on top of her, but Divine thankfully picked her way in unscathed.
Despite the damage in the front, the rest of the safehouse remained sturdy. It was like the inside had remained relatively untouched. Down a hall and into a wider room, lined with-
Oh man.
Everything a struggling girl from California could ask for.
A fine selection of rifles, with piles of ammo ready to go. A row of pipe bombs and molotovs on a counter. Provisions of all kinds, practically falling out of some cabinets. And on the table in the center of the room, a single light bulb hanging over it… Blueprints? A map. Plans. It didn't take a genius to figure out what this was for.
Some sort of assault? Or no, looking closer… A trap? There were a lot of lines, little squiggles and arrows, going this way, and that way and… Was that supposed to be a position of some sort? She knew how this worked, right? Maybe?
'I was never really that big on Call of Duty,' she mused. But it had to mean something. What were they trying to pull off here? A quick and easy way to kill the infected? She recalled the cars back on the bridge. They had all been empty. But the cars one the way into the town? Some had bodies still inside. Who had the chance to walk out of here peacefully, and who had to lose their lives to escape? Considering who all she had encountered already-
Only two "rational" infected left. Tarran and his sister, the Witch. The rest were Commons.
And then the Tank was here.
The Tank.
This wasn't a final plan, or an escape route.
This was a trap, with the express purpose of killing one thing in particular. But everyone had died trying before they could set it off. Or worse, died in the middle of attempting to pull it off. And the Tank killed them for their troubles.
Which is what she didn't quite get. Back when all of this had started, less than a month in, they had encountered a Tank head on. And they brought him down with only a little trouble. So why was this one such a pain in the ass to kill? Divine rested her elbows atop the table, staring down at the papers under her inquisitively.
A whole squadron- presumably- Of men couldn't bring this bastard down, even armed to the teeth. So what the hell was she supposed to do about it? What did she have that they didn't?
Hm…
Well…
The Tank didn't know she was here right now, at least.
Right?
How much time had passed? It was hard to say. The nights were still long, even with spring right around the corner. She wouldn't be getting back before morning, that was for sure. This was going to be an all night endeavor. And lucky for her, the previous team had done most of the work. She just had to add the finishing touches. Or, er, what felt like the finishing touches.
A gas can here, and there, and ooh maybe behind this car. There wasn't any way to set up a tripping hazard of any kind, it'd get mangled up before he even got there. What would even trip a Tank? Okay, out of the question then. But that wasn't the only thing she could do.
With plenty of rifles and ammo to go around, Divine quickly found places to stash them around the perimeters of her soon-to-be arena. She grunted as she shoved a crate under a fire escape, down the one alley that wasn't choked up with rubble. She climbed up it, her pack bulging with some of the explosives from inside.
It looked like she hadn't been the only one with the same bright idea. A corpse was slumped against the rooftop, the other side of it, anyway. A soldier that must have been standing too close to the edge when a Smoker had snagged him. He was trapped against an air conditioner unit, a long tongue wrapped around him, a machete sitting only a foot away from his outstretched hand. He had most likely suffocated, or had his neck snapped from the force of being snared, unable to cut himself free before it was too late. But looking from where he was stuck, and towards the side of the roof…
Oooooooh!
Sniper rifle.
Divine walked over and scooped it up, holding it up into position, and peered through the scope. This was pretty fucking cool. Too bad she found this now, right at the gates of hell. She set the rifle down, and her pack, and started unloading. This was going to be a last minute, contingency plan. If all else failed, she'd get up here as fast as she could, her last stand. Hopefully it wouldn't come to that.
Back down the escape to the ground, Divine took one last look around. She reminded herself that once she got started, there was no going back. There was no easy way out. And for what? Was this for Ryan anymore? For everyone else who had died trying to fight this monster? For everyone who died to this stupid flu?
Or was she just doing this for herself at this point because why not?
Well she supposed everything to this point had been a big case of "why the fuck not" so why do anything differently now.
Taking a deep breath, Divine walked into the safehouse one last time to drop off her belongings, then re-emerged a few moments later, with an air horn in one hand, and a megaphone in the other. What would have once been used as crowd control in the past, would now become a siren's call in the present. She turned the megaphone on, heard it crackle to life, the classic feedback noise emitting from it.
Nothing came running yet.
Wishing she had earplugs for this, she held up the air horn, and pressed down on it.
Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaomp went the horn. She held down the button for as long as she could, until above the ringing in her ears, she heard it.
The howls and caterwauls of the horde, ripped from their nightly sleeping piles to rush through the chill of the air to find the culprit of their interrupted evening.
Here they come…
Only when the first bodies began to appear did she finally drop both the airhorn and the megaphone, and pedaled away for cover. They all came running, out of every single nook and cranny possible. Some wore military fatigues. Some didn't. But they all came just the same. She couldn't see if her "friends" from earlier were a part of the crowd. Her heart still reached out for them anyway. It reached out for all of them here, running in with that wild look in their eyes. They had no idea what they were getting into.
They all ran in, piling onto each other in mass confusion. Some even stopped right next to her, but with nothing in her hands, they looked elsewhere. She mimicked their aggressively beweirdled behavior, pretending to be just as shocked as they were. What was the point of running all the way here for nothing?
But it worked nonetheless.
The ground started to rumble and shake.
A loud roar echoed down the corridor.
He was here.
Divine melted away into the edges of the crowd, waiting.
Some of the Commons had the sense to move out of the way, and others were pushed aside as the Tank came thumping in. He panted and grunted, slowly to a stop as he too came in to see nothing there. No aggressive military men shooting on sight. No guns of any kind right away. No bangs, no explosions yet. Just a mass crowd unsure of what to do and where to go.
She moved between them with ease, picking up her first molotov from behind an upturned truck. She lit it up and tossed it out onto the road behind the crowd. The glass shattered upon impact and the street went up in flames. It caught everyone's attention, including the Tanks.
The Commons screamed and snarled in a mixture of fear and anger. But no one moved towards the fire. The Tank looked too-
And Divine's heart sank when he started to laugh, punching down on the ground beneath him.
"Haaahaahaaa!" he bellowed merrily. "Little beast still lives!"
She pressed her back to the truck and inched alongside it, waiting for an opportune moment to slip back into the crowd.
"Little beast, playing little beast games," the Tank chuckled. The ground rumbled as he pushed his way through the crowd, towards the side of the truck from where she threw the molotov. It wasn't until a meaty hand started to reach out for the side of it did Divine finally duck and crawl away. A moment later, the Tank twisted the truck around to find nothing but air. But he wasn't deterred.
"Little beast stronger than thought," he mused aloud, turning back to the crowd. She kept her back to him, swaying and stumbling with the confused Commons. "Little beast… Strong maybe?"
"What does that mean?" she called out, hunching down.
"Little beast lives where others die," the Tank explained. "Big beast lives because little beasts weak."
Fuck.
The Tank began to crunch his way over, and she quickly crawled away. He moved slowly, methodically, like he could pick her out from the others. Divine pushed a Common into another, and the two, already wired up, started fighting over the perceived slight. She crawled away from them in another direction, letting the Tank take interest in their fight to give her time to move.
"Big beast lives because little beasts stupid. Little beasts play games. Little beasts run, never fight. Little beasts known if little beasts fight… They die easy. Is that why you come, little beast?"
Her hand wrapped around a hidden rifle, the ground vibrating as the Tank grew closer. She undid the safety.
"Little beast craves death?"
"Not mine, pal," she growled. "Just yours."
With a roar, the Tank swatted away a group of Commons that she had been hiding behind. As soon as his ugly face was visible, she pulled the trigger and unloaded bullet hell. It only seemed to piss him off more, and a meaty hand came swooping in for her. Divine rolled out of the way and was up on her feet in moments as the Tank crashed into the open air she left behind.
Divine held down the trigger on the rifle until it clicked empty, not that it was stopping the Tank anytime soon. She ran, dropping it behind her, and the Tank still gave chase. She dove into the crowd of Commons, using their numbers to hide once more. Some screeched indignantly at the intruding Tank, a few bold enough to tackle him themselves. The Tank was hardly bothered, crushing him easily. But it was enough, just a little.
From behind the wheel of a parked jeep, she found her next weapon- A little something for some extra oomph. From the depths of her pockets, she fished out a spare cigarette lighter, and flicked it on.
"Beaaaaast!" the Tank bellowed. "Coward!"
"Sorry everyone," she muttered as she lit the molotov. "This is gonna hurt."
"Beast!" the Tank called for her again. Rolling her eyes, Divine used the wheel well as a step onto the hood. The Tank turned towards her, and started to move when she made the pitch. The molotov bottle soared through the air, and exploded onto the first living being it hit, engulfing the middle of the crowd in flames. The fiery Commons screamed in agony, flailing wildly in pain with others trying to rush away. But the Tank didn't seem to mind, because he just kept trucking and the next thing Divine knew, both her and the jeep went flying.
'I'm dead,' she thought once her body had stopped spinning. Her vision was still going in circles, and when it finally settled, she realized that the jeep was on top of her, wedged up against a building, creating a small space between her and the wall. The jeep suddenly groaned and started scraping down the wall. She dully thought about how she had seen Jurassic Park way too many times to know where this was going. She quickly crawled out of the way in time for it to crash to the ground. 'Fuck.'
"Little beast thinks its clever!" the Tank laughed. "Little beast forgets its way. Weak. Puny. Pathetic."
Divine blinked, looking for a way out of this now. She spotted the fire escape. Just had to make it…
There was a loud crack of concrete splitting, and a second later, a large chunk of the street blew a hole in the wall above her, debris raining down. She quickly scooted away, shielding her head with one arm. She crawled along on her hands and knees as fast as she could. By another crate, with a dead body dressed in camo slumped over it, was another one of her stashed rifles leaned up against it.
Her fingers had just wrapped around the stock when a giant hand wrapped around her leg and pulled her away. Divine squawked out as she came face to face with the Tank, albeit upside down. His beady eyes were sunk deep into his skull, blackened with soot. Or rather, she could just make out the shape of his forehead between bulging muscles, and even his lower jaw had been practically absorbed by the muscles, only his tongue flopping out.
(Quite the articulate speaker for someone with no lips.)
"Little beast cannot run," the Tank panted. "Little beast cannot hide. Little beast will die… Like all the rest."
"Fuck you!" Divine spat, and then started shooting into his stupid face. This close up, it was enough to do something- Make him angrier. With a face full of lead, the Tank bellowed and roared, and dropped her unceremoniously to the ground. Divine grunted loudly as her back hit the pavement, but that didn't stop her, she just kept shooting until the clip was empty. The Tank covered his face with his meaty hands, wheeling away from her protectively.
The second rifle clattered to the ground as she dropped it and ran, scrambling for the fire escape.
"No!" the Tank roared desperately. "Back!"
Shitshitshitshitshit-
Even blinded, the Tank still proved a nuisance. He was uncoordinated but he still crashed and wobbled around her like a giant spinning top. Divine leapt onto the crate, and then jumped up onto the fire escape ladder when the Tank plowed into the building it was attached to. The metal scaffolding shook hard enough to nearly throw her off, but she held on tight, and started climbing despite it. She reached the first landing when there was a loud, metallic squeal.
Looking down, she saw that the Tank had grabbed the ladder and was pulling it down towards him. And then, much to her horror, he grabbed it with the other hand, and started to lift himself up. It became a mad dash as Divine hurried up the rest of the flights, trying to keep herself from being flung off as it buckled under her as the Tank came closer.
As she reached the top, she could see that the bolts securing the fire escape into the wall were buckling and pulling away from the brick. Without even thinking, she jumped, barely catching herself on the lip of the roof, struggling to find a foothold to pull herself up from.
"Graaaaaaah!" the Tank screamed as the fire escape gave way, and fell with him still on it. Divine hauled herself up and over as she heard the crashing below. She flopped onto her back, panting heavily. She could still hear the Commons down on the street hollering in excitement over the commotion. She could hear the fire escape collapsing into a scrap heap. And she could hear the Tank tossing that all aside.
It just didn't fucking end with this guy, did it?
Groaning, Divine got to her feet and hobbled towards her set up. Fishing the lighter back out, she grabbed a pipe bomb and went back to the side. Looking over, she could see the Tank assessing the situation, sizing up the fire escape presumably as a projectile. And sure enough, she ducked down in time for a piece of it to crash into the side of the building.
"Eat shit," she muttered, lighting the pipe bomb and tossing it over her shoulder. She covered her ears as the bomb beeped loudly, falling to to the ground, and then a few moments later, KABOOM! Now the building really shook, the roof under her lurching dangerously. Oh fuck-
"ROOOAAARGH!"
There was another loud BOOM as the building shook, like something had slammed into it. Two guesses as to what, and the first one didn't count. Divine started to scramble for the other side, to put as much distance between her and the crumbling edge. The sniper rifle was in sight, perfectly undisturbed from where she left it. But she could see it, a crack forming on the rooftop only a few feet in front of it, and everything between her and the crack rose upwards and started sliding down.
And she was going with it.
Below, brick and wood was being stripped away as the Tank literally pulled the building down, fist by first.
'Oh god, this is it,' she thought. 'What a stupid way to die.'
The machete, dropped by the ensnared soldier, clattered down alongside her. She dove for it, getting her hands on it as the edge came rushing up-
And without even thinking-
She jumped!
And fell through the air-
Towards the Tank's dumb, ugly face.
'We'll die stupidly together,' she decided, raising the machete up with both hands.
There was a lot of crashing. A lot of noise all together. The Commons howled at the spectacle- In delight or awe, it was hard to say. A cloud billowed into the air from the dust and debris. It was dark. It was so dark. And everything hurt. Oh god, dying hurt so bad.
So bad.
So, so bad-
And just kept hurting.
Wasn't it supposed to fade after a while?
Then Divine finally cracked an eye open. And then the other. And the cloud slowly dissipated. Her hands were still wrapped around the machete's hilt, which was embedded into the top of the Tank's skull. They were half-buried in rubble, only the top of the Tank with her on it stuck out. The Tank, which normally breathed laboriously, hardly did at all. She could just barely feel the rise and fall of his chest under her.
"...Beaaaasst?" the Tank hissed out. "Ffffaaaaaallen…"
She didn't reply, just dug the machete a little bit further into his brain. The Tank let out one final exhale of air, and then stopped moving completely. She held onto the machete for a little bit longer before she was able to wrench herself free of it, her knuckles aching.
Everything ached.
The Survivor crawled off the Tank and down the debris pile. At the bottom, a hundred pairs of eyes stared back at her. She wiped the dust off her face and coughed harshly into her elbow. No one moved towards her. No one made a sound. They just watched as she stumbled past them. Groaning and muttering to herself, Divine retrieved her stashed belongings from the safehouse room, then stumbled back out.
"Show's over folks," she grunted. "Thanks for audience participation."
She trudged through the crowd, the watchers shuffling out of her way.
"I hope everyone enjoyed that, 'cause I'm never doing that shit again," Divine continued to grouch. "I'm going back to my hole… And taking a nice, long nap with my boys. Tip your damn waitress."
The sky was beginning to lighten, long shadows returning as the sun began to rise. Slowly the crowd started to disperse, some shambling away to start their days, others perhaps to catch up on all that sleep they missed.
And Divine trudged on back-
To the Witch's den.