Chapter VIII: Hearth

AN:

Hey there, Fan-fic-folks!

This is a double-update and this is the second of the two chapters. If you haven't read the first, go back to chapter 7 and check it. :)

Thanks for reading and, as always, please review.

The area immediately outside the courthouse was weirdly empty, but Chloe caught the movement of a horde out the corner of her eye - they were turning towards the back, near the parking lot. A fair distance away, but still too close for comfort. The midst of that crushing swarm of them was not a place they wanted to be. She stopped, mid-walk, and watched them push and shove and snarl forward toward the back door.

She realised. The lobby. The blood, the guts, the bodies. She shuddered. They'd left the doors open. The breeze had probably drawn them in.

Rang the dinner bell.

Chloe turned away and followed the other two away, down the road towards the river. Dana fell back to walk alongside her. "So, you and Rachel, huh?"

"What?"

"I knew you two were close, but chasing the vague mention of her across the state during an apocalypse is a bit more than close." She observed gently. Chloe's hackles almost rose, but something about Dana felt less obtrusive than the many, many, many other times Chloe had been asked that question.

Nobody had ever really gotten it. What Rachel had seen in her. The dropout. The druggie. The- honestly, every slur unimaginative teens could scrape up. She'd heard them all. Even Chloe hadn't seen all of it. She got pieces, here and there. Moments when Rachel would just get this… this look on her face.

"We're not together. It's… complex."

"It's complicated?" Dana almost grinned. "I didn't expect you to be one for the kind of cliche. Besides, if it's so difficult, why do you two-""

"No, complex." Chloe interrupted with a groan. "Not fuckin' complicated. I hate that shit. Complicated means it's difficult, with a lot of obstacles and stuff in the way. Complex just means there's a lot to it. And honestly, it's never been hard. Just… easy. Like breathing."

Her voice went soft. "Both of us got how… shit other people could be. And we brought all that shit with us - we couldn't fuckin' not - but we could be ourselves. No bullshit." She shrugged, eyes going distant as she thought back. There was a lot of history. "We fought a lot. We're both that kinda fucked, but still. Honesty's worth a lot. Y'know?"

"I don't know." Dana shook her head, laughed a little. "I think complex is definitely the right word though."

(AN1)

—

The Marriott Hotel was another artsy monument to old world indulgence. Pale white, laden with balconies and open glass wherever possible. The area outside was filled with corpses that were riddled with bullets. The people here had put up a fight.

Chloe avoided the revolving doors and pushed open the one manual door with a quick hush to the others.

The inside was no better, strewn with blood and bodies. Only a couple of the couches alongside the windows were still in place, everything else scattered and destroyed. A few of the zombies remained - feasting. Chloe waved again, more urgently, and the three of them dropped into crouches, sneaking up behind the couches.

Chloe tried a smattering of hand signals, indicating they should try lure one of the zombies away to kill it.

Dana and Juliet looked back at her with no comprehension.

Chloe called them over and hissed her plan at them. They nodded. At that, Chloe picked up some random bit of crap from the floor and chucked it to a corner of the large reception space. Luckily, not all of them cared. Unluckily, two of them did, slouching up from their meals and shambling over to see what the hell it was.

Chloe, Dana, and Juliet exchanged a shrug, then crept out to deal with them.

Unfortunately, Dana's metal pole made an uncomfortably echoing clank as it broke through the first zombie's skull. Chloe quickly finished off the other one and the three of them turned as the other four zombies in the room turned to spot them.

That was when they found out the sneaking had been a better idea than they thought, as pre-warned and hungry zombies charged them at a run. Chloe quickly looked back over her shoulder, and took a note from the zombies. "Run!"

She lead them in a sprint over to the stairs. They took the stairs at a full sprint, the others making to keep going. Chloe stopped at the first landing and turned. Dana and Juliet, surprised, turned to stand by her. "What are you-"

"Shove the fuckers back down."

Chloe's voice was grim. She knew it was a risk, but they needed to clear the reception. That was the point of being here.

Chloe was closest to the bannister, so as the first zombie closed on her, she braced herself and planted her boot in its chest and shoved. It fell back into one behind it, sending the two tumbling back to the bottom of the staircase, where they twitched and spasmed painfully.

Dana stepped forward and jabbed with her pole. The momentum of the zombie carried it straight onto the pole and it got about halfway up the thing before it slowed. All three of them stared at it in shock.

Juliet entered the fray, copying Chloe's move and kicking the zombie down the stairs. The fourth and final zombie dodged, but Dana's jabbed zombie fell unmoving. Apparently, she'd severed its' spine.

The last one lunged at Chloe, only to stop midway as a fire-extinguisher clubbed it in the side of the head and knocked it to join the others at the bottom lobby.

Dana and Chloe looked at Juliet, who was breathing heavily. "Thanks." Chloe said.

She took a few moments to breathe deep, then nodded. "Anytime."

They looked down at the pile of still twitching bodies. "We... should clean that up, then check for the room registry. Unless you wanna kick in a couple hundred doors?"

Dana smiled. "No, I think we'll try the registry first."

They headed back down the stairs, stamping and whacking skulls until the bodies stopped moving. Everyone knew that zombie rule - you had to destroy the brain. Or at least disconnect it.

The rest of the reception area was clear of life, leaving them easy access to the offices in the back. This hotel was big enough that a paper registry wasn't viable, so Chloe had had to search around for a computer that could access it. She found several in the offices had been logged in when the zombies had hit, so she just... picked one.

It took her far longer than she'd be willing to admit to find it. Computers were not her forte. But find it she did. Rachel's room. She did not bother looking for James'.

"Room 334."

—

The elevators had apparently stopped, so the three had taken the stairs. Unfortunately, the staircase had been blocked at floor 3 and a part of it even removed, so they stepped off at floor 2 with a grumble of annoyance.

The moment they stepped through into the floor lobby, they heard the gunshots and the moans of the infected.

Chloe was almost excited. Guns meant people and people meant someone to ask if they'd seen Rachel or David. Hell, they may even have been Rachel or David. Always potential, until the reveal. Chloe had liked that cat in the box thing they'd always talked about in physics. The endless possibility, until you looked.

This time, she'd have to look sooner than later.

She felt the comforting weight of her own gun at her side, and motioned to Dana and Juliet. The three of them crept forward along the hall, heading towards the sound. The carpet was something she'd always remember, this odd mix of fleur de lis and half-sketched ribcage. Some artist had gotten paid a lot of money to design that... unique combination.

They turned right to see what looked like a line of function rooms. Several doors down, an heap of furniture acted as a makeshift barricade for several uniformed security guards and police officers fighting off maybe two dozen of the infected.

Chloe dodged back, dragging Dana and Juliet with her just in time for another barrage of gunfire to level the zombies. Dana squawked as she fell, loud enough for one of the guards to notice. "Who's there? Say something, if you're not one of those things!"

Chloe called out "Something!"

The survivors chuckled. "Anything that can tell shit jokes like that isn't one of them. Come on through."

Chloe bristled, "You just have no funny bone, asshole!"

Always prickly, that girl.

Dana rolled her eyes and dragged Chloe around the corner. Juliet followed at a stroll, and the three of them headed up to the barricade and got through. One of them actually hugged Dana, and she squeezed him back with a grin and a laugh. "You guys have been holding out all this time?"

One of them shrugged. He took on the carefully unaffected look of the deeply traumatised. "We were on duty when it happened. Those things- they were so fast. Most of the guests were killed, but we managed to get as many of them up here as we could. All the exits are secured, this is the only way through. We've been doing what we can."

"Well, you're doing better than out there. We came in from Tillamook and... it's fucked." Juliet said.

"Tillamook?" The guy asked. "You came halfway across the fucking state? Through zombies?"

Chloe shrugged. "I have a bat, she has a big metal stick. Jules here has her biting wit. We're badasses, dude. But yeah. Fought through hordes of shit to get here."

"What, did you really want to try the restaurant downstairs?" The man grinned.

"Uh, no. Good segue into why we're here though - we need to check a room. We're trying to find someone. Oh, and has an older dude with a creepy moustache and a middle aged woman with weirdly stereotypical middle class jewellery turned up?"

The man blinked. Thought. "Um. No? Nobody but you and the zombies has turned up since this all started, sorry. If you wanna check a room, go ahead. No company around to care, and any of the guests that are still here'll be in their rooms. Which room are you wanting?"

"334."

He nodded. "Right. You'll want to head up two floors - take the maintenance ladders. Should be quite far from the door. I'd offer someone to help, but we really can't spare anyone from here."

"Unless the third floor is full of zombies, I'm pretty sure we can handle it." Chloe responded dryly.

He chuckled. "Right, right. Okay. Go on through. Good luck with your search."

"Thanks."

—

The room was exactly where the guard had said it would be. Thick wooden door with a fancy 334 engraved into it. It was locked, of course, but they dealt with that quickly - it would surprise you just how versatile a heavy metal pole can be.

The room was nice. That was about all Chloe could really think about it. And it was. James Amber would spare no expense in showing the voters him and his child out on a valuable learning expedition.

It was also a mess, like someone had grabbed a bunch of stuff in a hurry and not bothered to put away what they weren't taking. It filled Chloe with some hope: Rachel wasn't here, that much was obvious, but a prepared Rachel could survive a lot.

The three of them filed in. "Split up, look for clues?"

Juliet snorted. "I am not dressing up like Velma."

"Pfft." Chloe grinned back at her. "You're definitely Fred."

"Uh, guys? We really need to search quickly - the more you fuck about, the further away they get." Dana pointed out.

Chloe couldn't argue, Juliet didn't care enough to argue, so they split up and looked for clues. There was still a lot left. Rachel had left most of her clothes, a couple of piles of schoolwork, her laptop, and a note.

Chloe picked it up and brought it to the others, read it out. It was a confirmation of all Rose had told them. The city and other settlements in Oregon were going to be destroyed. It would eliminate the biggest concentrations of the infected and the army could sweep through and pick off the stragglers.

But there was no mention of where Rachel or her dad had gone to.

"Fuuuuck." Juliet said.

"Yep."

"We should show this to those guys downstairs." Dana nodded, determined. "They need to know."

Chloe shrugged. "Shit, no objection here. They know the hard-to-believe zombie shit already, the bombs should be an easy sell."

—

They found the same guy pretty quickly - the guards hadn't moved from their posts. Looking closer, a lot of them seemed more tired than they'd first thought. Deep bags under their eyes - the kind even sleep wouldn't actually shift. "Thanks. Nothing in there, but we're gonna get back to it."

The man nodded. "Right on. Sorry that you didn't find anything. Seems like that's gonna be going around a while."

"We did find something you guys should see though." Chloe added, handing over the note. The guy blinked blearily at it for a few long moments before cursing. "Yeah. It's fucked."

"Right? Luckily, there's a pretty decent shelter in the basement here. Some charity helped a lot of the places around here build them for earthquakes or floods or some shit. We can probably hide everyone down there, right?" He looked around at the others, who all seemed to agree. "Cool. Thanks for letting us know. We'll go around the guests, see if they wanna make a run for it or just bunker down."

Chloe actually felt a nice buzz at being able to help someone, at getting someone to listen. Her cynicism had been rewarded several times thus far, this was the first win her generosity had gotten.

—

Portland was quiet outside - aside from the distant screams of the dead and dying. The three of them weren't sure about what to do next, other than continue looking. For David and Rose and for Rachel and her father.

They walked out, weaving through the abandoned cars, and headed towards the water. "So, where to now, Chloe?"

Chloe shook her head. "No fucking idea. Can't hang around here too long or we'll get blown the fuck up, but-"

Something across the river blew up, and the screams intensified. The three of them looked over the river to see a horde of infected burst out of a building that was already on fire. One of the motorway bridges by the building fell as the horde collided with one of the supports, sending the whole situation careening from horrible to worse.

The three of them looked left to the one standing bridge and watched in horror as the horde started to approach it. "We should-"

"Run."

"Yes."

"Now."

"Yes."

"Fuck."

"Yes."

They ran south, along the river and away from the encroaching tide. As they left, Chloe spared a thought for the people in the hotel. They seemed alright. She hoped they made it.

—

AN1 - I tried to balance this out, because Chloe always seems very reticent to talk about her feelings and be open in fanfic, but in the original game she's always expressing something loudly and openly. I wanted to try strike a balance between her loud, angry, genuine but also camoflaging game version and the kind of person who'd talk openly about what Rachel means to her. Not sure if I hit it here or not - let me know!

Psychologically speaking, anger is generally considered to be a camoflaging emotion. It's what we resort to when we're uncomfortable with something else, and we use the anger to hide it. Don't get me wrong, sometimes anger is just anger, but it can be a useful sign of a deeper concern.