"So if you're lonely/ You know I'm here waiting for you/ I'm just a crosshair/ I'm just a shot away from you/ And if you leave here/ You leave me broken, shattered a-"

"HOLY ABSOLUTE FUCK! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?! NO NO NO NO NO-"

A muffled crack split the night. Less than a heartbeat later, the common infected's eye was obliterated and the round exited its head in a spray of brain and bone fragments. It sagged bonelessly barely a foot away from the screaming man tied to the post, within the thirty-foot perimeter of a chalk circle etched onto the pavement, joining the rest of the felled infected within the kill range. The man wheezed, still trying to scrabble back on his shattered kneecap. It was only once he seemed to realize that he was not being ripped up that he cursed. He looked every part the grizzled survivor, clad head to toe in heavy gear aside from the fact that he'd been stripped of all of his weapons, and sporting a gnarly five o'clock shadow. Now though, he was visibly drenched in sweat, even his hair saturated with it.

Far up above in her vantage point, nested inconspicuously at the window of a tiny apartment, the sniper eased off of the scope and removed her headphones. The young girl brushed a bit of blonde hair out of her face, rolling her eyes, and leaned herself slightly out the window.

"Ah come on now," she called down. "I haven't let you get killed yet, have I? You don't have to wet yourself over it."

Honestly. This guy was a real baby for someone fancying himself some kind of bandit, wasn't he? Going around trying to rough up girls for their supplies, making himself look all tough. The aesthetic didn't land him any credit if he couldn't back it up. She highly doubted he even had any prior shooting experience, at least from what she'd seen. What was it with these sorts and thinking they were cut out for the long run?

Well, at least he was loud, which was exactly what she needed. Incapacitated, loud, and smelling like a full-course meal. These things sure seemed to like a screamer, but she couldn't blame them. It did seem to make things more fun. Ha. Innuendo.

Cat really never could have guessed that being sent off for schooling would have worked out like this. She hadn't been all that interested herself but mum, ever doting and concerned, had been insistent on ensuring that her daughter's higher education was pursued, in memory of dear old dad. It had been about five months since the start of term and already what as far as she could tell was an apocalypse had gone down. Pretty classic in terms of movie apocalypses, too. Cities burning, cannibal mutants devouring people in the streets, the whole nine yards. She'd seen all of it happen, been more or less in the center of it. Her new classmates that weren't disfigured into whatever the hell these things were died in droves even as she herself had turned out to be immune to the disease. The term "orgy of violence" came to mind, and seemed to fit the bill pretty well.

A slow, nostalgic smile started to curl her lips. Maybe she'd made the right choice showing up here, after all. She'd never been more ready in her life.

Really though, this here was just a waiting game. As much as she might complain, watching what's-his-face lose his shit every time a normie infected got close was pretty funny, but this was small time. It was only a matter of time until something else came along.

She rested her arms on the windowsill, observing her turf below. By now her captive had sagged over onto his side, likely none too happy about having sat there with a crippling injury for a while. As of now, everything around was still, although she knew there were likely eyes on the action beside her own.

"Hey, you. Down there. You still with me?" she chirped questioningly.

A few moments passed before the man shifted and she managed to make out a low, "Fuck," though whether or not it was directed at her she wasn't sure. Good enough for her, though.

"Cool, cool. Hey, you know what I call this? A honeypot. I mean, kind of neat, right? Like. You know they've got to see all their dead buddies in the range, but they just keep coming, don't they? Wonder if they're that hungry, or if they're just so ready to kill you they don't care. I just thought that was neat." She pulled out a pack of gum from her vest pocket and popped a couple of sticks into her mouth.

Faintly she heard ragged panting. Slowly he shifted to stare up at her. At this point, though, he hardly even looked angry. More defeated, really.

"Oh you bitch," he half-gasped up at her, voice obviously pained, almost pleading. "I was only ever gonna… gonna take your gear."

Cat tilted her head, bird-like.

"Huh. You know? That's kind of funny. Because I was planning on killing you this whole time."

Oh! Wait! Movement somewhere at the edge of her vision, something stealthy and hardly noticeable. Ah, now that looked promising. Excitedly she pressed her teeth into her lip in a half-grin, crouching down as low out of sight as possible and raising her rifle sight back up out the window.

"What have we got here," she breathed to herself, fingers gleefully stroking over her rifle stock right around the little ":3" that she had etched on.

And… there. Creeping closer, between and around the abandoned cars that lined the street, just about as far out as she could make out, probably thinking that he was being stealthy. From the pose and movements, it had to be one of the jumping ones, albeit a pretty small example of one. Likely just on that edge of being old enough to stand a fair chance at surviving the change.

Cat's heart raced. Her grin grew. She'd been waiting all day for this, and now it was finally paying off. It was a little harder to lure out the special ones, which she was pretty sure owed something to them having at least a primitive understanding of what a trap might be. Now, the bitty one wasn't quite who she was looking for; there wasn't a lot of fun in the less defensible ones. But he was a sure sign that they weren't far behind. Now that would be worth a fair amount of points on the imaginary scoreboard she was keeping.

"Come on now," she whispered, tongue glazing over a front tooth in focus while watching the hooded face as the bitty leaper stood up, going still in order to sniff in the direction of food.

A trace of movement. Yes! Her finger flexed.

It was quite literally a split second before she squeezed the trigger that, faster than reaction speed, her target snagged and dragged the kid out of the way. By the time she got a clear view of a second, larger Hunter, her shot had gone wide. This one was familiar, and unshockingly had been more careful to remain out of view, still gripping the back of the younger's sweatshirt. They immediately jerked their head in the direction that the bullet had come from, bared teeth into a hiss, and gave a sharp pull on the first before darting away into cover, quickly tailed by the other.

Ah, hell. Well that meant that her entire setup at this point was useless. She was unlikely to manage more than picking off normies if they'd caught onto her, and that was shooting fish in a barrel. She groaned, shaking her head in disappointment.

"Did you see how close that was?" she bemoaned to what's-his-face, who unappreciatively said nothing before sighing and giving her rifle stock a little kiss. "'S not your fault, Baby Girl. I'm not mad at you." After replacing her weapon in her back holster, she poked out once more to call down. "Just wait right there. I'm headed down."

She was a little put-out as she headed out of the apartment and towards the stairs, already cleared out when she'd taken up post. Although, she supposed she didn't have much to be sour about. This was the chase that she knew well, and sometimes the more it drew out, the better. Long games could be especially rewarding in the end. Yeah. That was a little better, now.

With that in mind, there was a slight bounce in her step again as she exited the complex, striding out towards her honeypot. She had to muffle a chuckle when she saw that, in the few short minutes it had taken her to get down there, the bandit had already done his best to limp off out of her boundary and untie himself from his post.

"Now that was a stupid idea, wasn't it? I mean, come on now, man. It took me like two minutes to get down here and I've shot out your leg. What'd you think was going to happen, for real?"

"Oh jesus fuck," he choked out, looking back over his shoulder, apparently only alerted to her presence then and going entirely still, like he was staring down a predatory animal. Cat shrugged her shoulders. "OKAY, OKAY! FUCK! I'M SORRY I TRIED TO ROB YOU! I'm sorry-" This time she really could see something wet spreading down the leg of his pants. Heh. Gross.

She held up a hand, shaking her head and locking eyes. "Listen, dude. I'm not buying it. You tried to get the jump on a schoolgirl, after all. That's just wrong. Have you thought about how you might deserve what's happened?" A long pause passed while what's-his-face gaped at her. Eventually though, her straight face crumbled and she couldn't help letting out a snort.

"Pffh. Kidding! I'm kidding! Oh, man. I wish you could see how you looked right now. Nah, I just like killing people."

Cat drew her bowie knife and spat out her gum with a grin. She began closing in and the screaming started up anew.