Chapter X: Location-Location-Location

AN:

Hey there, Fan-fic-folks!

Another two-chapter update today. This is the second of the two, so check back if you missed the first.

Thanks for reading and, as always, please review.

No matter how quietly they try to move, a crowd of twenty-four people attracts attention. It ended up more of a running flight, as zombies at the rear of the horde tore away to give chase, slavering and desperate.

They fled to one of the nearby buildings, which had a double door across from a single little bridge. There'd undoubtedly be other entrances, but as a place to fort up and fight the horde, it'd work.

The moment they entered, David took command, filled with energy and vigor. "You three, check for other exits. Secure what you can. Pull these tables up to the door and get behind them, we'll slow them down enough for us to take them all."

After a moment, they jumped to obey. Between their party, the doctors, and the veterans, they managed a solid defence just in time for the horde. A couple of the veterans had bags of ammo that they passed around, patiently preparing as the horde slammed up against the windows.

Then the windows shattered.

A couple of the infected fell in, landing in a heap on the floor before clawing towards the nearest people in the room. All of whom immediately re-aimed their guns and blasted the fuckers. Which gave the next wave time to stumble around, using their comrades as undead shields, and get even closer. Another two of them went down, but it only took one to make it through. It buried its teeth into the throat of one of the veterans before we could even blink. The man went down screaming, but it was enough for his partner to the side to draw a fucking machete (and where he'd been keeping that was an utter mystery) and behead the thing.

It joined the dying veteran on the ground.

And then the door shattered. Damned modernist architecture was not designed to repel zombies. The infected poured in like a flood.

The Veterans seemed somehow to get more grizzled as they formed up and laid down a hail of gunfire. Just over a dozen automatic weapons could put a lot of bullets down range, and they had the skill to use it well. Even the doctors were contributing, firing handguns into the horde.

For a moment, they all thought they'd make it. But the room was only so long and the dead had been inching their way closer and closer, each wave building on the previous. It wasn't one of those that broke them though - a crawling zombie that had fallen through the window had fallen under their notice, pulling itself through the horde and enduring the trampling of its comrades until it reached their tables. One of the veterans suddenly swore as it bit into his leg.

The moment of distraction was the first domino to fall. The Doctor next to him screamed, drawing more attention - that was enough for the dead to push the other wing and make it right up to their little barricade. The four veterans and three doctors manning that side were buried in dead, screaming and gone.

David cursed. "We have to move! Full retreat!"

He quite literally picked up the table he'd been using for cover and laid it down like a riot shield. "Grab the other one and get behind us."

One of the Veterans, a large man who looked like Old Man Logan, picked it up and joined him. They quickly shoved into the horde, knocking zombies to the side like cows off a snowplow. Another one of the doctors fell, grabbed by a zombie and dragged out from their convoy, but they kept going.

And they made it - David threw open a side door and he and the veteran covered it while everyone retreated down the stairs. "We'll hold the door, find a way out!"

They ran down - and boy did a dozen people moving make a lot of noise, even over the ravenous horde upstairs - and quickly found a way out.

"We've got something, come down!" She called up.

"Understood!" David called back.

There was a moment, then loud footsteps and louder zombies.

There was a loud scream. "Shit, Rose!" Chloe whirled, finding her best friend/maybe-more's mother cringing back from an infected. She didn't even think, just launched herself forward and shoved the fucking thing back - a quick blast of her pistol took care of it. She grabbed Rose's hand and dragged her to the lower exit. "We have to go, now!"

As more and more of the dead found them and the horde out front swelled, they all quickly escaped out the back. Juliet took the lead, guiding them through the trees and streets down to her family home.

—

Lowell Lane was a small stub of a thing, sticking out from the main road. It seemed almost untouched, aside from the corpse at the end of the street and the burning vehicle crashed into the treeline across from the turn. It was all relative.

Juliet and Chloe lead their little group down the street and up to an impressive looking house. It had a distinctly Asiatic design, from the Torii-topped side gates to the full hip-and-gable resting hill roof. As they clumped together by the garage doors, Chloe even spotted a red lantern hiding in some of the plants beside the road.

Juliet strode forward without stopping, along a little bridge to the left of the garage and right up to the door. She tried pushing it open, then resorted to an almost desperate knocking when it didn't open. Chloe could hear noises from inside, voices grumping about Juliet's attention grabbing efforts.

Then the door slid open and a kindly-looking, portly and balding older man was frowning out at them. "Sweetpea? Why aren't you in school?"

Juliet scowled at the man, then pushed her way in, motioning the others to follow her in. The whole party tromped in, half trying to be considerate of this man and his home and half far too tired and injured to care.

Inside was a veritable fortress of interior design. Features clearly intended for smoothness and flow made for a comfortable home, but everything was carefully curated and collected to create a very specific impression.

"Okay!" The man started, just as a tall woman in a dressing gown entered the main area from a side-room. "What the hell is going on? Juliet, who are all these people? What are you doing here? And- oh my god, is that blood?"

Juliet blinked at him. "What are you- do you not know? Dad, haven't you seen the news?"

The woman came over to stand beside Juliet's dad - probably her mom, Chloe guessed - and clutched at his side. Both of them were starting to look really concerned at this point, which was kind of concerning in and of itself. "The news? What? Did you do something, Juliet?"

"Wow, thanks Dad - international manhunt for me is your first thought?" She looked back to Chloe and the girl could see the empathy in her eyes. She guided them to one of the sofas. "Sit down, this is a lot."

It took a while, but eventually Juliet got through it all. Dana was by her side, offering wordless support.

There was a beat of silence, and then Juliet's dad jumped to his feet. "I don't know what's going on, but you're going to tell me the truth right now young lady. Are you in trouble? Are these people a danger to you?" He gave the whole room a warning, suspicious look. Oddly, he gave the same look to Chloe, the armed veterans, and the visibly uniformed doctors. Chloe's opinion of the man's intelligence dropped significantly. She guessed Juliet had gotten her mouth from her dad and her brains from her mom.

"I am telling you the truth, Dad. If you turn on that TV, you'll see the news talking about a virus released in Oregon turning people into monsters."

"Juliet-" He grasped her by the hands and lifted them up to hold between them. "There's no such thing as zombies."

And proving the universe does have a sense of humour, that was precisely when the horde attacked.

The door shattered inward almost immediately and an unbroken wave of zombies stumbled in. Juliet's mother screamed. "But they're- but they're-"

"Zombies, Mom." Juliet responded with an eyeroll, as the Veterans charged forward and laid down a torrent of fire into the infected. "Like I said."

"I, I-"

"What the hell?!" Juliet's dad finally decided to add to the discussion.

Then Chloe seized on an idea. "Look, you two should get upstairs. We can cover down here. Hey doc," She called, to disguise the fact that she had absolutely no idea what any of them were called. "Can you get Jules' folks upstairs and keep them calm?"

"Fine by me." The doctor said. "Come on, you two. It'll be fine, I assure you. We're very practised-" They gently but firmly guided the two towards the stairs. Then windows along the back wall smashed in as the zombies had apparently made their way to the back garden. A couple of the doctors, still shakily clutching their handguns, joined David and another veteran (the same Old Man Logan looking guy) in protecting that angle.

None of them noticed the small side door by the stairs, and none of the Watsons were in a place to mention it. So, when another infected stumbled in, it had a clear path. It lurched forward and clawed at the Watsons, knocking Juliet's dad back and colliding with her mom into a pile on the floor. The woman tried desperately to kick it off, screaming for somebody to help, but it was too late. The zombie tore into her like a prime steak.

Juliet's dad stopped mid-charge and just stared. The doctor was less concerned, stepped in and planted her gun at the base of the zombie's neck and pulled the trigger in one surprisingly badass motion.

Then she grabbed the man by the scruff of his neck and bodily dragged him upstairs.

Across the room, a zombie knocked one of the smaller tables, sending the contents to the floor - including a radio, which flickered on as it hit. A voice spoke out, powerful and professional. "The world is reeling, after the United States Government locked down Oregon State yesterday with no explanation, images of startling violence have been sent to us from within quarantine. They seem to show people attacking each other, and several include people eating the bodies of the dead. We are not sure of the cause of this yet, but several experts have verified the images. Our hearts and prayers go out to the people of Oregon. God bless, God speed, and God-willing, you'll make it through this. I-" The professionalism faded. "I need a moment. We'll be right back."

Then the radio started playing some empty-minded advertisement jingles. "It's good that the people finally know about it." Juliet called, swinging her wrench into another skull.

"I know you're all into freedom of the press, but pretty sure them knowing ain't gonna help us." Chloe drawled. A zombie swept the bat out of her hands, and she simply scowled at it, pulled out her pistol, and blasted it in the head. David gave her a look, but was too pre-occupied with his part of the horde to do much else.

Chloe twisted out of the grasp of another zombie and rolled under it, scooping up her bat with the motion before pulling back to her feet and clubbing the zombie in the back of the skull. She had a moment of calm to scope things out - and they weren't looking good. At least half the veterans were dead, twitching on the ground as the infection progressed through their system. There were only three doctors left. And still more of the horde was coming. They'd have to hold. They'd have to.

Her resolve strengthened, she tightened her grip on her bat and threw herself back into the fray. Another three fell to her bat in moments. The adrenaline beat in her ears - she'd found her talent. Maybe she should've gotten into softball like her mom wanted.

And then she caught a glance of something terrifyingly familiar out the corner of her eye. She'd thought the explosions and bus crash had killed them, but no. One of the monsters was still on their tail, and now it was here.

Chloe gasped as she spotted the damned thing striding through the horde, shoving zombies out of its way and leaving them stumbling in its wake. Its leather trenchcoat was shredded, revealing rugose skin that was half burned and coated in flaking scales. Even hurt as it was, it was still seven feet of pure muscle and menace.

It was taller than she'd thought, having to stoop to get through the front-door. One of the Veterans holding close to the stairs blasted the creature with a shotgun, taking chunks out of its arm. It whirled towards him with surprising speed, moving towards him with a striding charge. It never ran, giving the veteran time to pump a few more shots into the creature, fully blowing off its arm.

The creature's head suddenly twitched. Once, twice, thrice. Then the stump of its arm exploded into bile and viscera. By the time the mess cleared, the creature had a brand new arm, grown in the remnants of the other. But it wasn't a human arm. This was far longer than the other, and tipped with three long, pointed claws. Though they were thick, like a rhino's horn.

It pulled back the arm and jabbed it into the stomach of the Veteran, twisting with an almost casual cruelty - it pulled back and let the body fall, innards leaking onto the floor.

Then it turned to the rest of them, striding through the horde with a single-minded focus. Chloe could see it, that intensity, burning behind this monster's eyes. Again, one moment of distraction was all it took. A couple of the Veterans, turning to blast this creature, left themselves open to the other dead, and they fell.

And then the thing turned its eyes to Juliet and Dana - they'd gone back-to-back, Dana's metal pole and Juliet's actual katana she'd found somewhere keeping the ring of dead around them at bay. They'd spotted the creature, and both were wide-eyed in fear, but they'd kept control and kept fighting.

It started toward them, slow and inexorable.

As it passed the stairs into the main room, a shape launched itself from the stairs and onto the creature's back. "Not my little girl you fucking freak!"

"Dad?!" Juliet blurted.

The man had the shorter twin to Juliet's katana and raised it high, plunging it into the creature's neck. The thick arms of the creature were unable to strike back at him, which gave him the room to stab and tear into its neck again and again. Until it stumbled back into the wall with a thunderous crash. It knocked the fight out of the old man, and he dropped the sword and his grip on the creature's neck. Enough that a spin knocked him loose and he fell to the ground, clattering noisily across the kitchenette.

The creature looked up at Juliet, then stabbed into her father's stomach, scooping him up with it and slamming him into some of the appliances. Juliet screamed.

Lucky for her father, the creature made it quick.

It took a silent moment of shock, but everyone in the room quickly re-found their footing, fighting off the still pressing-in dead and sparing a thought for the giant monster thudding about.

The three doctors still standing had gone back to back, but one of them had fallen out of their little spinning defence and was now just standing. Staring. The creature's burning intensity seemed to latch onto him, and it thundered towards him with that same loping, unbreakable stride.

Juliet, somehow, threw a kitchen knife with unerring accuracy and form, embedding it to the hilt in the creature's neck. It whirled on her, and approached, raising that spiked arm. She threw again, and again, burying another two knives into the creature. But she never ran - couldn't really, it was between her and the rest of the house, only the stairs to her side available. As it closed on her, all that cold fury burning down, another shape jumped from the stairs. It was the other doctor - she jammed some kind of metal prong covered in wires into the creature, grinning as it suddenly spasmed and cracks spread across its skin - it couldn't move, just twitched impotently as the electricity surged through it. "Booyah! Thank you Mr Radcliffe!" She quickly grabbed Juliet. "Run!"

They ran, bursting out the back door of Juliet's childhood home. The place was destroyed, her parents dead. They would run. She guided them to jump the barrier of the back balcony and down into the garden, some of the less nimble veterans and doctors circling to the stairs down. They made it down to the street before Juliet stopped, turned. She stared back up at the house, an expression Chloe had never seen on her face. Then she plucked a gun out of someone's hands, took aim, and fired.

The house exploded into flame, chunks of the walls blown free and other parts collapsing in on themselves.

Chloe looked it over. "Shit."

Juliet shrugged, pushing past them. "I couldn't bury them. A cremation will have to do."

Dana and Chloe shared looks, half concerned, half impressed. As they hurried away, the pyre spread. A fitting monument, Chloe thought.