:)
Not going to lie guys I really procrastinated on this one, every single friday I told myself that this was the day I was gonna publish it but then i got lazy so this might feel a little rushed and sloppy (God knows it feels that way to me) but still I hope you will enjoy it.
Also Happy Valentine's day to you lovebirds and also to my fellow singles who can at least read about people in relationships lol. I've made sure to drop this chapter on Valentine's day even though there really is no romance in this chapter. It's the thought that counts. 3
Chapter 3: The Fall
She didn't sleep a wink.
For the remaining night hours she had sequestered herself into her room more specifically on top of the bed where her knees were pressed under her chin with her arms wrapped around her body, her phone laid before her so she could see if there were any calls or texts from her parents.
There had been none.
The sun had already peaked above the clouds and shone directly on her, blinding her eyes and stinging her skin but she didn't move, she was catatonic not moving from her position in the past several hours.
They were definitely dead. Her father was someone who was scared of his own shadow and bawled like a child when anything mildly scary happened in a movie. He was no Huey Freeman, he would be the first to die.
Her mother was a quite bit stronger than her dad, Jazmine followed her mother on her mile long runs, and her hours in the gym or in pilates classes so that might account for something although she wasn't fully assured that her Sarah DuBois' rock hard abs would protect her from the zombies.
She wasn't so certain about Robert Freeman either, an eighty year old man should be the first to die being smaller, frailer, and weaker than everyone else but maybe he, like his grandson, was able to rip someone apart with relative ease and with no guilt.
Her mind flashed to Huey's bloodied self and flinched. This was all so unfair, she couldn't even think of him anymore without that popping up like a flashbang in her mind. Twenty-four hours ago when she thought of him all she would get was blush on her cheeks and a tingling sensation in between her thighs but now all she felt was a pit in her stomach and goosebumps.
A knock was sounded on the door and Jazmine's green eyes darted out heart beating harder with fear instinctively. Sensibly she knew those monsters wouldn't knock politely to eat her.
There was another knock and this time she answered.
Her quiet and cracked voice sounded out a "Come in."
The door creaked open and surprisingly and somewhat sadly it wasn't Huey at the door. Instead it was that one guy.
She still didn't know his name.
He shuffled at the door awkwardly, his large, and very pretty, brown eyes darted around the room but they didn't focus on her for more than a few seconds.
He finally spoke. "Hey." he had a nice voice, it sounded younger than his face but still quite nice to listen to.
She didn't say anything, instead waving half-heartedly.
"I'm Ryan by the way, I didn't get to tell you my name because of what happened last night."
"Yeah. Well it's nice to meet you Ryan." It actually was.
He smiled and like everything about him it was a rather cute smile. White teeth, dual toned pink and brown lips and a pronounced dimple on his right cheek. He was really nice to look at and Jazmine felt herself become nicer.
"So why are you here?"
It looked like that comment knocked some sense into him. "Oh yeah, Huey called for you."
She really perked up at that although the stomach turned with anxiety. "Huey? Why?"
Ryan shrugged. "Not sure he just asked for you and here I am."
"And you just did what he told you to do?"
"I wouldn't usually but after finding out that he could rip my head apart I'm too scared to say anything to him anymore." he chuckled but there was no heart in it.
They all remembered the scene that happened only hours ago. The blood, the pained shrieks, and that single snap that made her body go limp.
"You should probably hurry up, he's never been the patient type."
As he led her to wherever Huey was, her eyes flickered nervously at every surface of the rooms she walked through. Her stomach dropped at the pronounced puddle of dried blood on the living room carpet even after a previous attempt to get the blood out there it was almost mockingly obvious. She remembered when she was eleven and unluckily wore a skirt during her first period and she bled on everything. Her mother eventually had to burn her carpet as the blood refused to leave.
They would have to burn this one too. She shook her head choosing instead to focus on Ryan's broad back.
Huey was in the garage, his back turned to her focusing instead on what was in front of him. Jazmine took one look at the bloodied floor, garbage bags, and buzz saw and quickly averted her eyes and swallowed the bile in her throat.
Ryan squeezed her shoulder gently before leaving her alone with Huey.
"You're here." he stated plainly, not even bothering to look at her.
"Yeah I mean you did summon me." she said dryly or at least she tried to the stench of blood had her even more on edge.
He grunted in response to her mild sarcasm.
She stood up straight though she was pretty sure that made her look even more ridiculous. Ginger hair like a rat's nest and in her childish pajamas. "Why did you ask for me anyway?"
"You were locked up in your room for hours, this is not the time for that."
Jazmine's eyes flashed and her head snapped around to meet his figure. "Excuse me! My parents could be dead or worse-"
"Which is a possibility for my grandfather and everyone else's parents here." he finally turned to face her, his eyes dark and tired. "We can't all just stay in our rooms, there's some weird unexplainable shit happening outside and America and probably the entire world went to shit in one night!"
His tone went louder and louder but he forced himself to calm down turning to his side. He spoke again. "Jazmine, I need you to be out here…with me."
With him?
Jazmine's face reddened and she wanted to kick herself in the ass, blushing like an idiot schoolgirl during this situation was just embarrassing. She lowered her head hoping that he wouldn't notice.
Her shoulders sagged and she whispered out a pitiful. "I'm sorry."
He sighed. "Honestly this is probably the only situation where I could possibly be right so don't take it as hard." he paused before speaking again, his voice slightly more gentle than his normal monotone. "Are you okay Jazmine?"
She nodded before saying "Yes."
The garage fell in a comfortable silence before it was broken by the recognizable sound of police sirens. Police sirens coming closer and closer.
Jazmine thought it but Huey said it. "Fuck."
There the two stood looking extremely guilty. Huey and the floor were stained with blood and the garbage bags with dismembered human remains weren't helping their case.
Moving on instinct Jazmine picked up the cleaning supplies Huey apparently and luckily had the thought process to have.
In any other situation she would not consider what she was doing cleaning and if anyone had shone a blacklight here they would be caught immediately but she scrubbed violently even when the bleach started to sting her skin and eyes.
Huey moved behind her, piling the bags into the trunk of the cherry red vintage car she's seen him drive before to school.
Looking down at her handiwork the blood was mostly gone only leaving behind residue of obvious rabid cleaning but at least to the naked eye there was no blood she even managed to avoid the telltale signs from hands and clothes. Huey was not as lucky but at least he didn't look like he was bathing in it, they could easily lie that it was paint whether anyone would buy it was another story.
The two raced from the garage to the living room where everyone else was and just in time to see Ryan open the door to welcome their 'guest'.
The police officer was almost too stereotypical to be taken seriously. Overweight with pasty white skin with a ruddy face and a shiny bald head, if he had a box of pink glazed donuts he would look like a cartoon character.
Instead of donuts he had a firm grasp on the gun that sat nestled into his holster. Jazmine saw Huey's entire body tense up at the sight of it.
The cop looked around his beady blue eyes staying on her for a few more seconds than necessary and she wondered if he could smell the blood on her.
He finally spoke. "You've seen the craziness out there?"
"Oh-um-"
"It's been anarchy out here," the cop interrupted, "it's incredible this once great nation went to shit in one night."
Jazmine furrowed her brows and unwittingly took a step back. Something was wrong with him.
"I spent thirty years in the force trying to help people," he started to laugh, it was a harsh, rage filled guttural laugh and this time everybody took a step back, "and this the thanks I get, some message from the boys in Washington telling me that we're all fucked!"
"Yeah that's pretty fucked up and all but-"
Ryan seemed to say the wrong words as the cop's eyes narrowed even more than she possibly thought they could have. "Fucked up?"
Uh-oh
"You know what's fucked up the end is near and still expected to protect and serve low life brats like you who'll probably end up in jail anyway-" Jazmine's eyes followed his hands and they widened as they saw him reach for his gun.
"-that's whats really fucked up!"
He shot.
He missed.
The gun blast sent the wooden debris from the stairs flying everywhere. Jazmine laid onto the floor, her ears ringing violently and her eyes filled with tears from the stinging pain.
Suddenly she was dragged up to her feet. It was Huey, his hands firmly on her arms. He was saying no yelling at her but she was muffled as if she was underwater. His eyes widened and he pulled her closer to her and another shot landed shattering a vase into pieces and splashing water onto her. Close. So Close. Too Close.
Huey's words suddenly became all too clear. "Run!"
And she did, her legs felt slower than they really wore as if her entire body was stuck in jello. She tripped on something but Huey's firm and almost painful vice grip on her wrist kept her standing.
Another shot rang out behind her but by then they had broken through the backdoor, her bare feet touching the grass and the morning sun beating on her skin. Huey's fingers slipped from her hands.
Another shot and this time Riley fell to his knees clutching his stomach.
Jazmine halted a scream bubbling up in her chest and he took that as opening and aimed his pistol.
He pressed the trigger and nothing.
Click
Click
Click
Huey said what they were all thinking. "You're out of bullets." he said as he stalked over to the now unarmed cop, his voice deathly cold.
Jazmine turned around, she didn't want to see what was going to happen to him. Even as the piggish squeals of pain turned into coughing and wheezing. She only turned back when it went silent.
The cop's face was no longer pale; instead it had turned a frightening mixture of reds of purples, his bloodshot eyes bulging like a frog out of their sockets, and his fat pink tongue lolling out of his mouth. A quick glance at his throat made what happened to him even more obvious but the brutality of it still shocked her.
He had been strangled. No that was too mild of a word, his windpipe had been crushed, his neck red and bruised, bloody and sunken in.
Huey stood over him, his hands loosely at his sides only the telltale blood and scratches on his arms gave away what happened.
Riley's groan of pain shook her out of her thoughts and everyone ran towards him, all except Huey of course who seemed non concerned at the sight of his brother shot and bloodied.
"He's not going to die…is he?" Jazmine asked, her voice was barely above a whisper. Both Cindy and Nina looked like they were going to throw up and Ryan's face had gone pale.
With his body strewn onto the grass moaning in pain, t-shirt soaking up his blood it was very obvious that he was not going to be able to shrug off. Huey didn't answer, instead he knelt down beside Riley and ripped his shirt clean off his body before moving Riley's body so he would be laying on his side, using the shredded pieces of the t-shirt to wipe away as much blood from the area as possible. After that he spoke.
"It's not that bad, it's barely embedded into his skin." as if to prove a point Huey yanked out the protruding bullet out which Riley responded with a resounding.
"Fuck! Shit! Pussy! Motherfucker!"
"He's not going to die but the wound might get infected." He spoke evenly now using the strips of the shirt to put pressure on the wound.
"So we have to go to the hospital. Right?" Cindy asked blue eyes wide with worry for her boyfriend.
"Wrong." Huey responded dryly. "There are zombie-like creatures roaming around and the hospital is probably the place where they would most likely be."
"Why exactly?" Nina asked.
Huey gave her a pointed glance. "Because if you see your friend or family member or some rando start to act strangely the first thing you think of doing is either to call an ambulance or call the police so I think it's obvious where we should avoid."
"So where do we go?" this time Jazmine asked the question.
"The pharmacy, get something for the pain and to prevent infections but after that," he shrugged looking bored, "we just don't die."
Just don't die.
Easy for him to say.
Chapter 3 is finally completed.
A bit more action this chapter and some gore. I'm really into seeing Huey as this superhuman being that can just end people with ease. It's very fun.
We might see Riley like this later on too, maybe, maybe not. We'll just have to go with the flow.
Hope you enjoyed it :)