Snippet #1765183

David Ramirez and Brittany "Candy" Murphy
Day six
Uptown- Westbrook Avenue

They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.
They were not allowed to kill them but only to torture them for five months.
And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes.
During those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die,

but death will elude them.

Candy let out a long bored sigh as she looked left and right before lifting her right hand to check her manicure. She was bored. There wasn't a zombie or whatever in sight. David was slightly ahead of her looking like he was ready to attack and she just wanted to go back to the gas station now, or even better - the mall.

"Davvvvy..." She whined. "Come on, nothing's out here. Can't we go back? I need to go get my pom poms. I left them back at the gas station." It wasn't the first time she'd brought up the pom poms. Numerous times she'd complained that she'd left them behind. She'd refused to have a decent weapon, choosing to be glued to David's back and practically grazing his ankles with her feet each step.

"Come on. We can go back now." Candy sighed. "And I need a few things from the mall. We need to find a shower. I wonder if the gym's showers work. We could head there." She sounded optimistic as she looked for David to see what he had to say.

David stopped for a moment, a hand plastered to the visor of his helmet. This had to be his punishment for some ungodly sin he'd comitted in a previous life. Those damned pom poms were begining to become the bane of his existance. He could not bear more hatred for an inanimate object if he tried. With a sigh he turned to look over his shoulder at Brittany.

"Brit. I told you while we're outside you have to be quiet." He hissed silently. "We'll head back soon, we aren't far from Main street now, as soon as we reach the old memorial park we can head back."

He turned to continue walking. He wasn't even going to try and argue with her about the mall again, or showers. When they got back he'd let her wash herself off using one of the sinks in the bathroom.

They were only about forty yards from their objective. David had been smart and decided to use Westbrook, a smaller street that usually was empty, even before shit went to hell. He knew that it met up with the civil war memorial park, a small patch of grass and trees really, not much of a park.

"Are you even listening to a word I say?" Candy stormed after him. "Actually ignore that, you can't be. You don't even call me Candy. See, this is our problem... You never listen to me... This is why I finished with you. At least Samuel listens to me. At least he cares enough about me to listen."

She sighed and followed him, making herself get close enough to press herself up against his body once he'd stopped walking. "Come on... I miss you... We're right for each other. All you have to do is listen to me... Call me Candy... Is that so hard for you to do?" She asked, wrapping her arms around his shoulders - not even trying to be quiet while they were out in the open.

"Now isn't the time for this Brittany." David said soberly as he pulled himself away from her. "Look right now I have to focus on protec-...getting us both through this. We can talk about this wehn we get back to the gas station but for now just stay quiet ok? Just trust me."

He resumed walking on ahead. He had to stay concentrated on the situation, there was no time for...sentiments. He knew Brittany would probably dislike his reaction to her words, but he had to focus on doing what he had to keep them safe. Maybe when, if, they ever got somewhere safe, he'd be able to reconcile with her. But that was a long way off.

Candy huffed and stopped. "You stop right there, David. You stop right there." She shouted at the top of her voice. "I will not move until you start listening to me, and I will not move until you start calling me Candy, either." She snapped.

And she stood there watching, and waiting, waiting for David to come running back to her saying that he wanted her, wanted her back in his life, wanted to listen to what she had to say. When she'd walked out on him for Samuel, she'd expected him to get jealous and fight for her. He hadn't. In fact, he'd completely ignored her until now.

Well now she was going to face it and get David to stop ignoring her too. She had her angry face on. Her angry, stubborn face. She wasn't going to move. Not until David came back and apologised for everything.

David had to stop, what choice did he have? Here he was trying to avoid attracting attention and the girl that's following him around decides to start screaming as loud as she possibly can. As fast as he possibly could he turned around and clamped a hand over her mouth. He removed his helmet with his other hand and glared at her for a moment. When he thought he'd made his point he took his hand away from her face and sighed.

"You want to talk? Fine." He said quietly. "You are putting not only your life in danger but mine as well. You think I want to do any of this? You think I'm doing this just to annoy you? I do what I have to do in order to protect you ok? I'm just trying to keep you safe during all of this, and right now you are making it pretty damned difficult to do so. You need to stop this foolishness and learn to do what I say, because I'm looking out for you."

With another sigh he return the helmet to his head and turned away from her. "And for the record, it wasn't easy for me." He'd have to assume she knew what he meant, he wasn't going to start bringing up the past now. "Now come on Brittany, we can finish this talk when we get back to the gas station." He still refused to call her Candy, they'd had that argument too many times.

Candy was shocked as David moved and covered her mouth so suddenly she didn't get a chnace to finish what she wanted to. She had a fit of rage into his hand, trying to pull away, but she couldn't. When he finally let her go, she was glad that he was finally wanting to talk. Finally. But even when he did speak he didn't say what she wanted to hear.

Candy tried many times to wrap David around her little finger. He was one person that she couldn't wrap around her finger though.

She wanted to say something in reply to his words but she didn't know what to say. What could she say? For a moment she felt something that felt like pain at his words. She had no idea what to say, but she felt like she was just in the way. Her way of dealing with this was to ignore it and pretend it wasn't happening.

Finally, she started to follow him. At least he'd agreed to talk once they were back at the gas station. That was a start.


David was grateful that Brittany had decided to cooperate....although he rather regretted speaking out at her like he did. He shook his head to clear his mind, he needed to focus. The park was coming into sight now, and that meant they were close to main street. As he continued to get closer, David pressed closely to the buildings, hiding in their shadow. It wasn't as quiet anymore. The sounds of low groaning and shuffling feet grew more and more audible the closer he got.

It would be dangerous to get much closer. David looked around for some way to get higher in order to get a better view of Main street over the low trees that were in the park. His eye caught the sight of a parked, or rather, abandoned semi.

He turned to face Brittany, putting what happened moments ago from his mind. "I'm going to climb up on that truck so I can get a better look at the situation on Main Street. I need you to keep an eye out, but if the situation gets too dangerous, I want you to run understand?"

Candy stayed silent. She hated staying silent. Staying silent meant that she was thinking over their situation. Thinking over their situation meant that the reality of it was all sinking in. She didn't want it to be real. The situation being real meant that they were living a nightmare. It meant they were going to die.

She stood quietly listening to David's words before frowning. "Where do I run? What if I'm followed?" Her tone for once was scared and nervous as she looked around. Her arms wrapped around herself in hope of some form of protection. She didn't want to be left down there while David was safe on the truck. "Can't I come up there with you and watch out from there?"

"Well...yeah, I just thought... nevermind." David had misjudged her willingness to stay safe. He turned to observe the truck once more. He figured he could climb up the side of the driver's cab and jump to the trailer. It'd be easy for someone who spent time conditioning his body regularly like himself, and Brittany kept in fairly good shape what with cheerleading so he guess she'd be able to as well.

He walked up to the side of the cab and turned to face Brittany, fingers interlocking by his waist. "Come on then, I'll give you a boost."

Candy was surprised when David said he'd give her a boost. She'd expected with his first words to just ignore her and leave her there. After a moment's hesitation, she came up to him and put her foot where his fingers interlocked before letting him boost her up onto the truck. She chipped a nail, and scraped her knee in the process but she bit her tongue of complaints for now, and instead muttered a thanks.

"Do you need any help getting up?" She asked.

"I'll be fine, thanks, just hold on to this for me." David said as he handed her the crowbar. After she had it well in hand, he proceeded to climb up the side of the cab, using the rear view mirror as a foot hold to pull himself up onto the roof. He took a moment to balance himself before hopping onto the trailer of the truck.

"Ok then...you alright?" David asked Brit as he steadied himself.

Examining her nails, she shrugged returning to her old ways easily. "Yeah... I broke another nail. I'm going to have to go to the mall and get it sorted. I cut my knee too. I think there was something sticking out as I climbed up."

"What now? Do I just stand here and watch for anything wrong?" She asked, slightly confused as to what she was looking for. "What if I see a person coming to us? Shall I wave them over so they can see us?"

David smirked under his helmet at how easily she had gone back to complaining about useless things. He'd never admit it but it was this side of her that kept him sane. Without her he'd probably turn into a cold, emotionally empty shell.

"I'm just going to take a look real quick, if you see anyone walk towards us,just let me know before you do anything alright? I'm depending on you." He gave her head a slight pat before turning and laying flat on his stomach. He then started to crawl across the trailer using his elbows and feet.

"I'm not a dog. Don't treat me like... what's that word? Um...Condensed? Condemn? Con something or other, anyway..." Candy told David. "And you'll mess my hair."

She watched him crawl over the trailer and turned her attention to watching. Her attention wasn't watching the area for long. She sat down on the roof so her legs were over the edge while she examined her finger nails and hummed a popular tune that had been over-played on the radio.

David sighed as he reached the edge, shaking his head slowly. Honestly...try and be nice and you get snapped at. His worries however, turned to more pressing matters once he looked towards Main Street. It was crawling with them. David's heart sank lower then it had ever before. Main street wasn't far from the highway...but if it was like this here....christ. the odds of the higway being completely overrun were significant.

"God help us..." David muttered quietly as he stared in disbelief.

Suddenly his ears caught the sound of something other thenfaint groaning and shuffling feet. It sounded like...a car alarm? David tried to figure out where it was coming from. Was that the direction of the college? could it be someone was alive?

His thoughts were interrupted when the sound of an explosion ripped through the air. He wasted no time in hopping to his feet and quickly returning to Brittany's side. He took her by the shoulder and shook her to get her attention.

"We're going back now, come on." He said hurriedly, eyes darting around like angry bees.

Candy heard and ignored the car alarm going off as she sat in her own little bubble trying to ignore everything. The explosion was what rocked her, and what made things worse was when David was back by her side and saying that they had to go back.

"Why, what did you see? Did you see anyone?" She asked getting to her feet on the roof. She saw an easy way to get down, so slid down the windshield of the car onto the bonnet and then jumping down the front to the floor. "Are we going back to get my pom poms? Or what?"

David simply jumped down from the top of the trailer to the ground, hand sliding along the side of the trailer as he fell. He landed with knees bent and quickly took hold of Brittany's wrist. "We're going back to the gas station, so we can rethink the situation. I'll tell you what I saw when we get there, but for now we need to get out of here as fast as possible."

He knew that the explosion would cause that mass of shamblers to become active, causing them to begin searching the area. Even though he knew they would head towards the noises, he thought it was best to take shelter until the activity in the area died down. Walking quickly, with Brit in tow, he hurried to try and get back to the safety of their makeshift safe house.

"David, you're scaring me, now." She admitted as he pulled her along by the wrist. She was still denying that there were such things as zombies despite seeing David pummel a couple of them. She tried to slow him down and just walk, but his grip on her wrist tightened as they continued back the way they came.

"What did you see? What's going on? Why is this happening?" She continued with the constant questioning, again refusing to just be silent. The noise would bring out the zombies wherever they currently were - drawing them to the sounds that were still going in the background which would drag them out. If there were any zombies in the area they were in they'd soon be drawn out.

"We should call the cops. I tried before you found me but they were engaged. I tried again afterwards and got this moaning sound. Maybe they'd pick up now and come help us."