:)

Not going to lie this update was helped by my wifi being fucked up because it really forced my ass to sit down and stop procrastinating but hey it worked and I am very greatful.

This chapter is pretty big for me as this is the first fanfic I have that has published four chapters. I usually falter at chapter 2 so even though it's small I am extremely happy so yay me!

Chapter 4: The Smoke

The drive to the local Woodcrest Pharmacy felt as if she was driving through the twilight zone. She sat in the passenger seat of the cop car that Huey insisted that they took as the red vintage car and the impromptu coffin of one Erica Kincaid trailed behind them and she felt ridiculous.

It had been less than twelve hours and everything looked like a war zone. She could see billowing pillars of gray black smoke in the far distance which turned the skies a sickly and ugly gray.

There were no factories in or near Woodcrest, it would ruin the scenic reputation of the town. She's seen the pamphlets and brochures describing it as a 'little slice of heaven' and 'the garden of Eden made real' but this is no longer heaven.

Where there was smoke there was fire.

She averted her gaze, blaming the tears that prickled in her eyes on the heavy smoke driftung through the open car window.

"You alright?"

She felt herself jump slightly, she had forgotten that Huey was next to her. Seated in the driver's seat of the police car he insisted that they took and dressed in blood stained tank top and sweats with no shoes on his feet he looked completely unperturbed at everything. He looked like he was doing something as mundane as driving to school or going on a grocery run, how could he look so normal?

He had to be a psychopath. Or a sociopath or whatever the word was he had to be that, there was absolutely no way he was normal and a well situated person after what he did in these past twelve hours. The images of Erica's bloodied body, her skull ripped apart and her dismembered body stuffed in a truck of a car and the cop with his crushed throat and bulging eyes and she felt palpable fear. He could rip her to pieces without breaking a sweat. He could rip her to pieces and go on his merry way not even remembering what he did to her.

Was he always like that? Was he gutting squirrels or ripping the wings of butterflies like those serial killers in those documentaries her mother always watched?

"No I'm not okay, how the hell am I supposed to be okay after what just happened?" she bit out turning her gaze away from him instead focusing on her feet. She was barefoot, how did she not know she was barefoot?

"You're yelling again." he stated blandly, she didn't even need to look up to know that he was raising his eyebrow in that condescending way he always did.

"Yes! I am!" she exclaimed purposefully raising her voice to irritate him.

"That's not something I would expect from you. Words from your mouth would be more effective in a softer tone."

"That's an incredibly weird thing to say you know that right?"

"Is it?"

"Yes!"

"Maybe it is a strange thing to say but its true. You're not built for yelling you're too delicate and small that's something to use tp your advantage especially since ypur practically useless in fighting which is pretty necessary in times like this. Its best ti know your strengths and weaknesses so you don't end up looking up like a fool."

There was a small pause after his small monologue. Jazmine clenched her hands at her side. She wanted to punch him, the only reason she wasn't throwing left and right hooks was because she would probably shatter her bones because apparently he was superman.

She settled for saying in a incredulous tone. "...psycho."

"What? Psycho? Me?" he sounded actually surprised at that.

"Yes you." she looked back up at him. His face showed some actual emotion for once, both full eyebrows were raised in a way that she would have thought was utterly adorable yesterday. But sadly, it wasn't yesterday.

"...I'm not following."

"Really you don't understand how brutally murdering two people in front of everyone makes you crazy!"

'Well both were self defense so I apologize that I couldn't talk down the zombie and the cop who was an actual psycho by the way to make you feel warm and fuzzy inside. Next time someone is trying to kill us, maybe I'll just sing them a song." he mocked.

"Okay don't act like you crushing someone's windpipe and ripping someone's head in half is purely self defense. It is freaking maniacal and cruel what you did! Huey, they're human beings!" Jazmine shrieked eyes wide and angry.

Jazmine would cry every time her mothet would spray pests in their house and she would run to defend defenseless little animals when the neighbourhood kids would get too rough with them. She just could not wrap around someone not valuing life, even though those people weren't victims they didn't deserve those kindd of deaths either.

Huey stared at her, his posture relaxed and his eyes cooled. If he was a normal person she would expect a sneer on his handsome face but he looked as stone cold and robotic as ever even his hands that clasped the wheel were steady as he continued to drive without looking at the road.

Finally he turned his head back onto the open road and spoke. "Your little cheerleader friend was more animal and like any rabid animal she needed to be put down, was the method I put her down with was a little cruel? Probably but I wasn't ready to risk it and for the cop," he paused and smiled but there was nothing warm about it was both cold and humorous, like he was laughing at this dark joke that no one would get "I've never considered any of them humans anyway."

She didn't speak for the rest of the drive and he didn't seem too torn up about it either.

Huey decided that they didn't need six people wondering about a small pharmacy and so Riley, who realky didn't have a choice, along with Cindy, Nina, and Ryan would stay in the car while he and Jazmine would go inside.

The Woodcrest Pharmacy looked as pristine as ever, a single story of sterilized white brick and clean glass that gave a person a perfect idea of what was inside and it was empty.

As they walked through the door there was no one, no customers perusing through the rows of flu medicine, cough drops, and birth control even the pharmacist who usually stood at the register with her pristine white coat, circular Harry Potter glasses and oily dirty blonde hair pulled into an ugly ponytail was gone. Maybe it was the air conditioning but she felt her bones chill.

Huey didn't pay any mind to the strange atmosphere instead strutting behind the mostly glassed off , and likely bullet proof, register. The inner goodie-two shoes in her slightly panicked at that but then she realized they were in a pseudo zombie apocalypse and Riley who was shot and she quietly zipped her mouth.

While he was busy sniffing out opiates and antibiotics she found her eyes wandering around until they landed on condoms - chocolate flavored, she quickly averted her eyes face red and suddenly finding gut health medicine to be incredibly interesting.

She continued to peruse the rows of medication and while she was focused on finding something to help Riley's pain she felt herself step into something sticky and she shuddered with disgust, looking down she expected to see some spilled cough medicine and her heart got caught in her throat.

Blood. Dark red blood spilled across the floor, her eyes followed the spill towards the trail of blood towards the source. A body, a man probably middle aged that was all she could tell as a woman in a once pristine lab coat straddled him her face nuzzled deep in his neck.

Like she heard Jazmine the pharmacist looked up and Jazmine froze in fear, face covered in blood and mouth filled with human flesh. She was like Erica.

Either sensing fear or just wanting more to eat it let out a deep rumbling growl and her body in a strange jagged motion began to move. A split second too late Jazmine realized she was going to pounce.

It lunged.

Out of nowhere huey yanked her away the two tumbled onto the cold floor unable to catch a breather before she lunged at them again Jazmine scrambled away her heart dropped to her stomach when she felt clammy and bloody hands grip her ankle.

She flipped over and came face to face with her, hair a mess and face covered with dried blood, her eyes weren't a normal color instead they were the color of spoiled milk. Her breath was hot and rotten and her teeth stained and worn down.

She wanted to scream but her throat was dry and chapped so she settled for the second best option and kicked her atracker square in the voice ignoring the crude feeling of her bare foot against someone's face she kept on kicking again and again until the pharmacist zombie let her other leg go.

She quhckly scooted away and for good reason as the zombie had shaken off her attack with ease and lunged again by then Huey had thankfully rose to his feet and stopped the zombie in its tracks by grabbing their dirty blonde ponytail and roughly yanking her back towards him.

The zombie let out a strangled yelp of surprise that was caught off by Huey slamming her head into the cold white floors.

Using its ponytail he lifted its head before once again slamming it against the floor, dark red blood sprang from its injured forehead and it let out a shriek of pain but of course Huey wasn't done.

He lifted its head again and slammed it down again and again again until its yells were drowned out by the blood gurgling in its throat and broken jaw. By the seventh time Jazmine couldn't look anymore turning her head away and tightly shutting her eyes.

The of flesh and bone became less and less pronounced instead devolving into a disgusting squealching noise. Against her better judgement Jazmine opened up her eyes and almost throw up.

It had no face left only bloodied pink flesh that looked like ground meat, she could make out shards of white bone and chunks of gray brain matter mixed in with the pink of its skin.

Her eyes darted up slightly to see Huey looking down at his creation with mild dusgust in his eyes like he was looking at some unappetizing food.

As if he sensed her eyes on him his eyes found itself to her as well, his cold gaze softened a smidge which really only meant his eyes changed from icy to chilly.

He finally spoke. "Third time."

"...what?" she asked her voice barely above a whisper.

"Third time I'm saving you, is this one of those scratch off ticket things. I save you enough times and I get a prize?"

That was the first ever joke she ever heard him say. She had expected him to be the deathly serious type but apparently when it comes to her he could find humour in that.

"That's not funny."

He frowned. "I thought it was pretty funny."

"You're not funny."

He made a face which she thinks would be his version of pouting, well she thinks the only real difference between this and his normal deadpan gaze was slightly drooped brows and the barest hunt of puckered lips. It was moments like this where Jazmine hated how goodlooking he was and hated even more ger pesly crush that refused to go away. She fully understood why movies and tv shows would make the villain ugly, if they had looked like him it would be easy to forget what they've done.

Like now she practically forgot the corpse a few feet away from her along with the corpse in the Freeman backyard and the other in the trunk of a car as Huey strode over to her and stretched out his hand fir her to get up.

She grabbed his hands, his large, firm, and masculine hands.

She had already forgotten about the blood on them.

Chapter 4 is finally completed.

Some more small action for you. This looks like a ling way from my OTP Huey x Jazmine but I think we can see something happening lol.

More characters are coming up like Caesar and Ming maybe we'll have more canon characters maybe we'll have more OCs we'll see.

Side note: I kind of changed a few ages even though its not really a big deal but here is the defined list of character's ages:

Jazmine Dubois - 16 years old

Huey Freeman - 16 years old

Riley Freeman- 14 years old

Cindy McPhearson - 15 years old

Nina York - 16 years old

Ryan Shaw - 15 years old

Michael Caesar - 16 years old

Ming Long-Dou - 16 years old

The

When we see more characters I'll try to make sure their ages are more consistent.

Hope you enjoyed it :)