Preface: Ada Wong and Ellie decide to go on the hunt for Tampons. Ada is badly injured, but-as Ellie discovers in this chapter…very skilled in the arts of killing infected clickers and piercers.

Content Heads-up: Creature Feature; tentacles and tongues oh my!

They walked out of the church over dismembered mushroom covered carcasses in the parking lot and crouched next to a van, checking across the street. Ellie no longer had her backpack, just her uncomfortably damp jeans and shirt. What struck her now-as they were two young women alone-is that she was taller than this woman by a few inches even though the woman was definitely a few years older than her.

"Ellie check, ehem, your gun. Is 't load…ed?" Ada instructed quietly in Ellie's ear. Her voice even whispering sounded strained from her injured throat.

Ellie nodded yes, but she put it away and brought out her knife.

"Check the safety, make sure it's on, Ellie."

Ellie's eyebrows raised and her head bobbed a bit while she pulled out the gun and doublechecked. It was indeed locked, but she didn't understand this woman's fuss over such a trivial detail. Ellie put it back into her jacket pocket.

Even before they left the parking lot, a crazed piercer was running in fury very close to them towards the demolition noises down the slanted hilly street.

Ada pointed to the big two story house across from the church. It had a small broken-down fence enclosing a patchy front lawn.

Ada pressed her hand against her chest and coughed up dirt. She put some asphalt debris in her oversized coat pockets.

The two of them waited as a steady stream of infected Piercers ran past them in a frenzy.

'CRAWL', Ada signed clumsily and her finger traced in a path straight across the street to the house. Ellie got flat on the ground, and Ada lay beside her. Ellie began low crawling slowly for three feet and stopped. Ada was sliding along with her, a hand over Ellie's upper back, and was looking everywhere. Ada pointed at an infected piercer coming out between houses about 400 meters slightly curved to the left in front of them. She grabbed Ellie's collar and pulled it back lightly; a signal to stop. The infected piercer disappeared, and Ada looked around again.

Two infected clickers had appeared behind them at the top edge of the church parking lot. Ada chucked a rock far beside them and squeezed Ellie's shoulder. They inched along another four feet. Ada started falling asleep, her head falling onto Ellie's back, and Ellie nudged her.

"oops." Ada breathed, picking up her head slowly. Ellie let out a quick breath, trying not to laugh. Ellie moved again and Ada high crawled to catch up and again rested her hand gently on the middle of Ellie's back. It was a huge comfort to Ellie, to have this constant contact in such a dangerous place. It somehow made the danger seem less overwhelming.

They had now crawled across the street and still had 100 meters to go.

That piercer reappeared in front of the house and bumbled toward them, while the two infected were right beside them where Ada had thrown the rock. Ada threw another rock in front of themselves, and the two infected scrambled beside them, panting with gaping maws. Ada gathered her strength and got to her knees, gently moved over Ellie's back. Ada slammed her head into the backside knee of one, then kicked the leg as hard as she could. Ada was now fully separate from Ellie. It lost its balance, wobbling. She threw another rock. Both infected went after it, but Ada was crawling on top of the wobbling one and trying to pin its writhing stinking mass with her body. Ellie pushed herself up as she saw Ada's calm focused tackle, and shivved its head over and over again as it itself was stabbing the asphalt and clumsily trying to turn around. For Ellie, it was like holding onto a strong bucking bronco, and choked its skeletal neck tightly to keep stabbing, as it finally fell down. She put a hand out to break her fall and rolled. The second clicker turned.

Ada crouching, ran expeditiously two feet away from Ellie, making her own clicking imitation noise. It ran at Ada, but Ellie dived under it, grabbing hold and making it fall and collide with Ada. It lay atop Ada's side thrashing, biting her coat over and over. It's left bony wrist stabbed at Ada's hand and barely missed. Ada rolled back and then, crouching, leapt on top, forcing it to lay flat. Ellie crawled up and stabbed it. Finally it lay still. They both just lay close to each other for several minutes.

Ada high crawled back over to Ellie's side and signed the letters, 'you ok?' Ellie saw those eyes, piercingly lucid and present now, staring hard at her with concern. The panic in Ellie's eyes turned into thrill. She nodded her head towards the house, and grabbed some rocks.

They made it inside the house's three foot high picket fence. Ellie smiled at her as they both sat up against it. Ada picked up some rocks, showed Ellie, and put them in her pocket. Ellie did the same. They went around the house, throwing rocks at the windows and waiting. Four clickers were trapped in this one. Ellie shook her head no at Ada and pointed to the next house. Ada didn't agree, and wanted to remain at this spot. Ellie could kind of see why; the house had a large 3 car garage, a front and backyard-surely this family sized house would have stacks on stacks of feminine hygiene products?

Signing, 'Bait', Ada made a diagram in the mud. She would be standing three feet away from the door, hacking loudly, and Ellie would be crouched, kicking out at their knees or grabbing their ankles and making them fall, one atop the other. Ada lay down, pretending to wrestle something, and motioned for Ellie to lay on top of her. Ellie gingerly put some of her weight onto Ada, who grimaced. Ada gave an awkward thumb's up. The weight of the two of them could more than likely hold an infected mostly motionless, since that would be slightly over 200lbs of deadweight. And even though they had just successfully taken down two infected, Ellie was glad to practice again since she felt that it was clumsy.

Ada drew again, a stick figure with an arrow down, and then made a stabbing motion.

She went to the front of the house and Ellie jimmied the locked door with her knife.

The clickers inside screamed. Ada threw a rock at the side window hard. The clickers went towards the sound, as Ellie tried to get the door open. Ada shook her head no and then made a circle with her finger. Ellie agreed.

They went around the house, looking for another entrance. Ellie cautiously opened the grey high picketed backyard fence. Nothing in the yard except for a doghouse and a child's slide.

The back of the house had door with a small doggydoor. Ada pointed to herself and Ellie raised her eyebrows in question. Ada nodded harder. Ada used her elbow to open the doggy door. Something was there. Ada peered through the door and saw a moldy small corpse with moss on it. She silently asked for a mask from Ellie, and then when it was given, put it on. It was a perfect fit. She pushed the corpse away the slightest bit with her foot and then she checked again through the door. The clickers were still on the other side at the front door. She motioned to Ellie to distract while she tried to open the backdoor soundlessly.

Ellie went out of the yard and threw another rock at the side window, running back. Ada gave her a thumbs up and went halfway through the dog door, opening it from the inside. She got back out and handed back the mask.

She made sure that the backyard fence was closed-locked, and she placed the slide on the side of the door, tipped upward a bit. 'Can I have pistol?' Ada signed. Ellie easily handed the pistol over. Ada double checked her pistol; locked and loaded.

It was extremely painful for her to move the pistol barrel back, but she mewed through it. She signaled to Ellie, four of them would pile up, and Ada would shoot their heads while Ellie would trip them.

'Maybe…2 kids.' Ada signed. Though she was silent, her hands were emphatically moving, and her face portrayed her own self-doubt to Ellie. She motioned at the possible height and at the slide. 'Father… we need to pile ON, if it comes.' Her palms slapped together lightly for emphasis.

Ada raised her eyebrows at Ellie. 'Ready?'

Their small traps were set.

Ellie nodded and jabbed her knife at the air in acknowledgement.

Ada opened the backdoor and it creaked loudly. The clickers bolted from the front door over towards them, and somewhat tripped over the corpse. Then the first one tripped on the slide.

It was about 5 feet in height, and could have been a teenager.

Ada put her hand out to Ellie and whispered quickly, "Wait! Fortherest."

As it struggled to get up, the second one toppled over the first, and Ada shot point blank at them both, twice. She cried out in pain again, softly. It could've been a father and son that she killed. They lay still but the third tripped, lunged and Ellie knifed where its head was, but missed.

It crawled, then got up and ran after Ellie as the fourth one toppled over the rest, and the pistol in Ada's hands jammed. She launched herself on top to hold its body down. Ellie ran in a chaotic circle with the clicker chasing her. She didn't realize it, but she was saying "Aaaaah" somewhat under her breath.

She went behind the dog house while the clicker lurched over it. She knifed its head successfully and went back to Ada. Ada had the head pushed into the dirt with shaking arms, but the body was rising up, making her fall off. Ellie knocked the clicker with her whole body and Ada quickly grabbed its ankles, making it fall again. She again put her whole body on top of it. Ellie jumped on top of her and then knifed the clicker in the head.

Ada sat, heaving with her eyes closed and a smile on her face. Ellie fished out her med pack and water, giving it to Ada. Ada shook her head and grimaced. Her eyes looked pleadingly at Ellie. Ellie caressed Ada's face, "I got you!" Ellie put the aspirin on Ada's small tongue and then held up the water bottle to Ada's full lips. She grabbed her gun from the ground in front of Ada.

The demolition noises in the distance had stopped completely.

"Wow we got them all! I can't believe it! Holy shit!" Ellie's grin was so wide it hurt. Her, a fourteen year old girl with this barely 5 foot tall slender woman-who probably couldn't have been more than 25 years old.

Ada's eye glinted with fierce pride. She was in too much pain now to move. But she continued to smile over at Ellie.

"Three teenagers and a dad here-why the fuck is there a child's slide?" Ellie asked.

Ada signed, 'tampons'

"Nah, I think these were all men. But I can check."

'WAIT', Ada signed. Ellie smoothed Ada's white hair back and rearranged her own hair back into a ponytail.

"Errr…sorry" Ellie said abashedly as the woman scowled at her. Then the woman smiled at her teasingly again. They sat up against the wall of the house for 15 minutes, and Ada could feel the painkillers kicking in. Ellie kept side-eying the bodies, thinking she saw movement. She checked them a few times, shivving them all.

Then Ada got up and went inside the house. Ellie followed right behind, holding onto Ada's shoulder lightly.

The kitchen where they stood now together, had untouched granite countertops. The tiles of the kitchen still looked relatively undisturbed by wildlife, albeit dusty and dirty. The wooden flooring of the house had been overtaken by moss, vines, and all kinds of beetles. The ceiling was noticeably sinking low, like a bowl. Ellie let out a huge sigh, as she plotted their looting festival.

"Ok! Here we are!" Ellie danced in a circle with her arms out wide. "Bathrooms and storage closets."

The air inside of the house was stale, but because the weather was cold, the smell had sunk and was quite bearable. Ellie's hands went to her hips when she saw the brave woman mimic her, adding some Hawaiian luaus flair into the dance. The red dress peeked out beneath the coat.

"Nice touch!" Ellie went into the bathroom to the right of the kitchen, and Ada Wong checked a few doors, finally finding a storage closet.

Ellie braced herself as she opened the bathroom sink cupboard. Masses of cobwebs greeted her in the dimly lit room.

"Uh…nope. Nah." Ada went over and tapped her shoulder. Ellie jumped slightly and looked up. Ada had her face scrunched up adorably and her tongue was poking out playfully.

"Pffft-what?!" Ellie started chuckling as her eyes looked questioningly at the woman. Ada kneeled down beside Ellie, took off her coat, and swung the sleeve over Ellie's shoulder to get rid of the cobwebs.

"Thanks!"

There were old cleaning bottles and trays in the cupboard. Ellie made sure her jacket covered up her hand as she swung half blindly into it, pulling things out until she found a grime coated mossy box in the very back. A metal grenade was engraved on the top, and when Ellie opened it, a single plastic tampon was inside, with the words 'YOUR WELCOME' in black sharpie. It looked like this all-male family-or group- had at least one person that catered to the female gender.

The woman tapped her again and signed 'YOURE' in the air, rolling her eyes dramatically.

"Ok so you're a grammar nazi. Got it." Ellie said to her. The woman motioned to her to get out of the bathroom, and whispered, "Storage closet has, ahem, a ladder to upstairs."

They walked together over to the kitchen where Ada had found the storage closet. Ellie tapped on the woman's shoulder, who turned questioningly.

Ellie signed, 'Yur'. The woman instantly got into a crouching combative stance and hissed at Ellie. She dropped her coat to the mossy floor and now stood in the red dress, stunningly beautiful and lithe. Her arms were still mottled green and purple from the elbows up to the hands, but she curved her hands into horns on her head and kicked out at Ellie. Ellie dodged but managed to capture the woman's leg. Ada's eyes widened as Ellie pulled it slightly and let go.

"That was just luck Ms. Ellie. I'm very practiced in hand-to-hand…combat." Ada whispered.

"Yea….sure." Ellie quipped. Suddenly Ada's leg swung and hit Ellie in the side, making her stumble sideways. Ada captured Ellie in her arms and -with her flat palm-rubbed it in a circle on Ellie's hair, causing it to get staticky.

"Alright alright!" Ellie squirmed out of Ada's arms. Ada whispered to her again, "I can show you how to incapacitate any man-wanna see?"

"Uh…kick him in the nuts and run-amiright?" Ellie re-did her ponytail.

"No no, that will just make him angry-vengeful." Ada whispered sternly. "You must shame him into, ahem… giving up the fight."

Ada Wong gently raised her open palms to slap Ellie, who brushed the attempts away easily. Then Ada's palms raised up and flat, pushing at Ellie's solar plexus. Then aimed two more times at her kidneys.

"You can make them shit themselves if you manage to punch hard enough." Ada smirked at Ellie. Ellie nodded appreciately, "Fuck yea!"

Ada continued instructing, but now she put her coat back on and walked to the closet, "So the goal is not to anger the opponent, but to shame him into quick retreat."

Ellie started practicing as she walked behind Ada. Ada whispered to her, "I bet there's more tampons up here, help me up!" Neither of them could hear any movement above them, nor any other noises besides themselves.

"Dude! Do you not see that huge dip? The floor is probably just gonna break."

"I'm going to pretend you did not just call me fat." Ellie pulled down the ceiling door for Ada and held a hand to her back as Ada used her legs to climb up.

In the backyard, a lengthening brown and red tendril snaked its way under the closed fence through the grass, until it found the dead bodies scattered close to the backdoor. It felt along the remains, touching and searching for wounds. Then a bright red long serrated tongue wormed itself alongside the tendril, using it's canine incisors at the two tips to burrow into the heads. The thigh thick tendril wrapped around the four bodies, crunching them together, and threw them a few streets away.

Ada found herself in another closet, with something falling onto her arm. The darkness was stifling enough, but the dead air made the room feel like a vacuum.

She kicked out, but again something landed and seemed to chew on her coat. She finagled with it, dropping it down into the hole she had just come from.

Ellie groaned, "Ahhh that's just gross."

Ada let herself out of the closet.

The doors were closed, so she carefully peaked through each one and then fully opened it.

Ellie called out to her, "Hey! Gimme a sec while I pull this infected down alright?"

Ada let out a quick 'Mmm hmm." And went into what appeared to be a game room attached to a sister bedroom-an open door connecting them. A pinball machine and a sofa were on opposite walls of the room. A big broken window was letting in light from the sun outside. She went and sat on the sofa, feeling herself sinking.

Ada saw her surroundings start to fade and get pushed into a type of funhouse mirror, as infected rushed on top of her from the other room. The one infected had slipped over the couch and pinned her onto her back before she could even react. She threw a rock instinctively from her coat.

She was in a store now, the two infected now looked like an impatient barista and an overly enthusiastic burly customer.

The customer went to the counter, and the barista ran from behind to catch up, apologizing to no one in particular.

In the mirror, the bodies were conjoined, with the smaller one attached to the back of the much larger body.

The pinball machine had become a kind of countertop, and Ada was waiting in line for her coffee.

The burly customer's hands were making wild motions as he spoke, "Put a Starbucks in Afghan and the war would be OVER. OVER! Howard Schultz is my boy! I had his name tattooed above both my nipples see?! SEEEE?! President Schultz make me your sluttt I need to be your sluttt for your machiatto venti supremo overlords."

The barista had picked up a venti cup and started writing on it, but then stopped, looking up at him expectantly.

He knocked the cup out of her hands and ran in spurts, searching frantically along the floor. Finally he picked up a wide needle.

"I need it in this, so I can inject it straight into my neck."

"Sir do I have to call the Starbucks Mobile Response Team for you?" The barista was slowly going around the unevenly floored room, kicking the cup accidentally and then finally picking it up and heading back to the counter.

"No no they made me normal I'm normal now!" He jumped onto the counter and the barista pushed him back. He started dancing and repeating, "I'm a normal guy now thanks to Howard Schultz!" Ada looked to her left and saw a line curving around her with impatient morning risers.

A young Indian couple went over beside the burly man to see the pastries, but as soon as he started dancing, they went together to the open window, looked at eachother, and then leapt out of it.

The burly man turned towards her and roared, "BEeeeeeeEETO! BETO!" She looked around him to see the barista sucking up a coffee mix from the cup into the needle, and then flick it. There were three other ones already filled with espresso shots.

The burly man then toppled sideways in front of her like the statue of Saddam, silent and motionless. She was thrilled but as she started to get up- someone in line behind her cut ahead and started ordering. The barista started falling asleep in front of the affronted customer.

Ada rolled her eyes in exasperation. Then the sun went out so she looked to the window. A ginormous sloshing cup of coffee was peeking with red eyes at her. The label had her name on it. Ada's face lit up as the red eyes again peeked for another split second.

"Did I?" She whispered hopefully, "Already order the nitro cold brew, ahem, grande-8 shots espresso, with vanilla bean powder and whipped cream?"

The cup giggled and a deep rumbling "Mmmm-hmmm" came out of it. She got up from the sofa as the motionless body moved out of her path.

The cup was in her hands with beads of water dripping down it. She walked eagerly towards the window.

In the funhouse mirror she saw a red tubular tongue, resting atop her palm heavily. The canines at the tips of the split ended tongue were each three inches long, moving like chopsticks up and down her fingers.

"Wow this cup is sweating!" She tried to reach over to the massive holy cup of coffee, as it continued explosively giggling at her. The tongue was wrapping around her hands now, and a tendril was invading under her coat, feeling along her arms.

"Excuuuuuuse you?!" Ada whispered haughtily. The tendril now wrapped around her legs, feeling like a suctioning hot hand.

"That is so! Rude!" She exclaimed in her hushed voice, unable to move her captured arms to bat the tendril away. She was starting to see the funhouse mirror expand, and the coffee filled cup was completely gone.

The tendril relinquished its hold, receding into Troy's palm.

Ada was pulled out the window onto Troy's chest. He climbed down the house, but as he did so, Ada pushed away from him and fell into the bushes.