Ken Warren's Story

Devan looked over at Zara, a slightly confused look clouding her face. Don't cry. Don't cry? Devan thought Zara's words, completely confused at the statement. She's never heard those words used in a phrase together before and now here's Zara, a badass that can use a bow and arrow telling Devan this phrase so...calmly. "I don't know about the rest of you but there is no where else I would rather be during the apocalypse than with you guys." Zara continued, Devan in a state of shock despite the numbness she felt from the alcohol. She could vaguely feel a smile make it's way across her face. Sure, she missed her brother a lot, but he wouldn't have made it here anyways. No, she liked it here with these people. She only wished she could be better for them.

Devan's brow frowned slightly as she thought. She can't recall knowing any of these people before Z.A., but now their basically her family. It's weird, in a way, that the world had to basically come to an end for their group to be made and for then to turn to the people they are. After a moment of this blankness, she heard shuffling around from Zara and looked over to see her with her sketch book out. Devan's seen her with the thing many times, but has never seen inside. No one has, really. Carefully, Devan leaned over to take a peek, her eyes glancing up to Zara's face then back to the sketch pad every few centimeters until she could see it. It'd be an understatement to say she was amazed. She paid little attention to Tori leaving with the kids and had full eyes on the paper.

Noticing what the people in the picture were doing and who they were, Devan cocked her head to the side slightly and a small sweet smile made it's way across her face. She then stopped looking at the sketch and looked at Zara with the smile still on her face, almost like she was seeking Zara's eyes out. After a moment, Devan finally decided to speak up. "That's a really good sketch you're working on." She said it quietly. Just then, she heard a loud shattering sound and looked over to see a painting that had smashed on the ground. Not long after, she heard the mini alcohol bottle explode. "What the fuck is this? Poltergeist?" Devan swore, confusion and irritation on her face. "Just when we were having a good time-" She added before getting hit in the ankle by something and letting out a curse. "Goddamnit! Third time today!" She said, tallying up the many times she'd already been hurt today.

Looking over, Devan saw someone crawl in the air ducts. Anger was just boiling inside her at the moment. She was okay with getting hurt when it was her own fault, but someone else doing it? No. No, no, no. Devan wasn't putting up with that. She stood up and put the foot that was hit with something up on the chair. It was a metal shard. Someone had just throw a metal shard at her ankle. "Motherfucking bastards trying to fucking make me lose my ankle." Devan muttered as she reached down and barely touched the thing. She let out a hiss as she winced in pain. "Yeah, that's gonna' have to come out." She said through clenched teeth. She carefully grabbed hold of the shard, whispering to herself "I can do this, I can do this." They as quickly as possible, she pulled the thing out and winched at the pain a moment before putting her foot down and walking back and forth a moment. "I'm okay, I'm okay. It doesn't hurt, it doesn't hurt." She said before looking down at it. It was bleeding, really bleeding. It wasn't a lot, but it was still bleeding.

Looking over at the air ducts again where she had seen someone go through, she decided something. "Okay. I saw someone go in through there. I'll go in, see if I can get to them, then try to get them out. It I'm not back in...five minutes, send...I don't know...Zara. Yeah, send Zara in after me." At that Devan ran over to the vents and climbed in, paying little attention to her now bloody ankle that was leaving a small trail of blood behind her. Climbing through the vents, Devan stated thinking what if it's a ghost! Holy shit, I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die then Zara's gonna come in her and see me dead! Or worst...she see me scared! Oh, shit. What have I gotten myself into? Her thoughts went on like this as she carefully and quietly made her way through the vents and heard the faint sound of breathing. Then she heard muttering. "What to do. What to do." She peeked around a corner and could vaguely she a figure. Devan let out a small huff of a laugh before saying "You could apologize for hitting me in the ankle with a fucking shard of metal!" She said with a mix of nonchalant and anger. Realizing that this person most likely had a weapon, Devan peeked around the corner again, her eyes staring right in the eyes of this girl. In her mind, Devan was thinking please don't hurt me, please don't hurt me... when outside she did something incredibly stupid. She crawled over to the girl and sat beside her in a way she could look the girl in the face straight on without turning. "I'm Devan." Devan said, it was more in a calmed down tired voice now and she held out a hand to shake before saying "Girl, you messed up my goddamn ankle. Not cool." Then she crossed her arms over her chest and looked the girl straight on.

Jace listened to the rest of the stories with crossed arms and a scowl. Zara and Kens stood out the most for him, as they resembled his so much. Dysfunctional, horrible parents that should never have been allowed to repopulate the Earth. Jace looked around the group as William finished up his tale, his eyes roaming over the faces of his new family.

He had never been close with his blood relatives, as they had always been asshats to him and he couldn't stand the lot of them. But these people that he had somehow stumbled across....he could honestly say he considered them his family. He would do anything for them, even allow one of those fucking soulless freaks rip his head off if it allowed them to stay alive. Jace's plan of staying unattached was a failure, but, well....he didn't seem to care. He had finally found something important that he wanted to protect, and that was enough to live for.

A uncharacteristically large grin spread across the dark haired mans face, morphing his usual scowl into that of a normal teenagers. With the alcohol rushing through his system, Jace felt care free for the first time in a very very long time. He wanted to do something, something fun, though he wasn't quiet sure what yet. Jace watched Tori leave the room with the kids, off to take them to wash up like he had with Devan and Zara, which brought his mind back to the girl across from him.

Zara. Jace brought his gaze down to her, for the first time noticing that she had a sketch book out. Of course he was interested instantly and wanted to know what was hidden away in those pages she was scribbling on, but just as Jace stood to stumble over and take a look, a painting crashed down to the floor from its place nails to the wall.

He wasn't proud of his reaction. Instead of his normal, straight to his gun routine, Jace let out a yell and stumbled backwards off his chair. The result caused him to crash to the floor in an unattractive heap, where he lay swearing and blushing furiously. Just as he was about to right himself and look to see if the others had seen his embarrassing stunt, pain flared up in his ankle.

He screamed, rolling to hold onto his bleeding ankle with a horribly pained expression. Had he been shot? Cut?.....Bite? Just as his mind began to work through the pain, he soon realized it was only a flesh wound. Nothing broken too deep, but the cut had hit the sensitive muscles that worked his ankle. Not something to be taken likely, it is called the Achilles Heel for a reason.

Jace rolled onto his side just in time to see Devan leap up into the vent shaft and chase after what he was guessing was the attacker. He felt no need to chase after her as well, Devan would take good enough care of the asshole. Instead, he rolled up onto his knees and lifted himself with the help of the table and sat back in his chair with a huff. Without a second thought he reach for a bottle of vodka, unscrewed the cap, and took a swig of the strong liquid. Then he pinched his face and poured the alcohol on the cut, ripped the metal shard that had been used to attack him out of his foot, and dosed it once more. He then leaned back in his chair and finished off the bottle, glad that all that was over. Now all he had to do was stick the damn shard in whoever had attacked him's eyes and he could call this a very successful night.

After staring restlessly into the wall of metal in front of her, she noticed a four screws on the square of metal she was sitting on. Rethinking the A/C vents and floor plan Eleanor realized she was directly above the glass welcome desk in the lobby. A plan formulated in her head while unscrewing the first screw discreetly still clutching the gun in her hand so it looked like she was resting her hand on the metal with the gun. Her hand holding the knife was just about to unscrew the second screw when a voice interrupted her. "You could apologize for hitting me in the ankle with a fucking shard of metal!" Eleanor's expression went blank and her thoughts went haywire. In other words, she began panicking internally with a serious face on.

Eleanor turned around with her face paling to see the tipsy drunk girl she had thrown a metal shard in the ankle at. She knew she had nicked the ankle right in one of the veins, the drunk girl was suppose to get medical treatment soon and fast. What the hell is this chick doing!? She's suppose to be bandaging that wound up. The girl scooted up closer facing El with the girl's arms crossed. "I'm Devan. Girl, you messed up my goddamn ankle. Not cool." The girl spoke glaring at Eleanor, if looks could kill right now she'd be dead instantly. Eleanor had her raised her pistol toward the girl but then remembering she was still drunk she lowered it. She didn't like killing people at all especially when they're drunk and cannot function properly well with alcohol in their system even if one had killed her parents. But El knew if she show'd her fear that the Devan girl could use it to her advantage even when she's drunk. This chick is insane. I just had to throw one at her!! Eleanor mustering up the meanest scowl ever she spoke softly trying to not to seem scared, "Sorry. You guys are technically...Well, trespassing on my property. Took me days to do all this stuff." Eleanor wouldn't call it her own property but she had gotten here long before them. It was the first time in a while since the apocalypse started she had stayed in one place for this long. Always traveling, on the run away from zombies, all just to survive. Her face turned soft, looking more sad at the moment. "Anyways," She spoke shaking her head, "If you must know who I am, I'm Eleanor Avery Jow. Call me El, Jow, Avery, El Pow...Ehh, whatever works for you."

Eleanor lowered her hand holding pistol down to the surface of the metal feeling the screw under her finger tips. Maybe my plan will work. Making up her mind she stated, "To the guy who looked like he was ready to kill someone, sorry. To the guy who was the last one to tell his story, Oh-So-Perfect except for his sister that ruined his life? Huh? At least he..." El stopped herself from saying anymore, memories of her parents flooded back into her head filling her eyes with rage and teary. "And to you, Devan," Eleanor whispered turning her head sideways smiling sympathetically with hints of sadness, "You may not be the only who was in that room drinking, but you just so happened to appear the most drunk to me. And well, I don't like drunk people or alcohol. It's a shame really." Eleanor paused her hand slowly unscrewing the screw discreetly while laughing a bit. "I would've liked you a lot if you weren't drunk. Maybe next time when you're sober... Well. I just wanna let you know, I only did all this to scare you guys. Hopefully it worked! Cause I did not just go all through this for nothing."

Feeling the screw nut completely lose, with two kicks down the whole metal plate she's resting on will collapse. "Imma put my weapon away now. You seem harmless." Eleanor spoke looking up and down Devan while tucking the knife and pistol on her belt. Then tugging her backpack closer to her while shivering like she felt a breeze come through. Making it seem she's a bit cold, since after all they're in the A/C vent. "It was nice knowing you. Don't follow me. Tell the others I was just trying to scare them. Don't follow me. DO NOT FOLLOW ME. Your ankle needs attention immediately. Follow me your ankle will get infected or worse. You'll attract more zombies from the blood you're bleeding out. Nice knowing you hun." Eleanor rushed out quickly making it seem like random blobs of words hoping to confuse the drunk girl. This better work. Then kicking down hard on the metal plate three times making it collapse underneath her bringing her along and her backpack thanks to gravity. "Shit! Shit! Shit!" She cursed out when her two feet landed on top of the now shattered welcome desk. Pieces of glass went flying everywhere at the impact. Eleanor glanced up to the hole in the ceiling yelling, "Glass + Previously Already Bloodied Ankle = Infection Or Zombies! DO NOT FOLLOW!"

Eleanor turned around toward the doors and stepped out of the shattered welcome desk glass limping slightly. "Shit. Just my luck." El muttered and limped toward the front doors with her back pack on her back feeling pain shoot up her leg. Skipping the most important step of all time, checking your surroundings. For all she knew someone could be right behind her. Feeling her steps were a bit slow due to the strange limp, she drew out her knife and stabbed the wall pulling her upright completely. Then yanked the knife out again and stabbed the wall again a few feet ahead pulling herself forward. Then repeated the same steps rapidly as if someone were chasing her. Of course, she had to be fast. Eleanor had just pulled a slight "prank" on part of the "lame survival group" there could be more chasing after her this instant.

El raised her right leg once more feeling even more intense pain from before shoot up her leg. Which caused her slip down and lean against the wall yelling out in pain, "FUCK!" She could just almost see the door in front of her, making her frustration and panicking increase. Glancing down at her foot she could see trails of blood bleeding out from a big shard of glass from the welcome desk. "Motherfucking glass, dammit!" Cursing out loud El used her free hand to yank out the glass out of her leg. Adjusting all her weight on her good leg, El tried pulling herself upright again with the knife stuck in the wall. Feeling the pain once more she looked down again to check if her leg was alright. It was the exact opposite of alright. The jeans she had been wearing on were now soaked partially around the wound in blood. Blood. No. I don't like blood. She thought to herself feeling herself feeling weak and helpless. "I'm almost there!" She croaked out trying to take another step but failing tremulously by falling down on the floor. Her fall was so heavy, her grip on the knife on the wall ripped out from the wall landing down on the floor right next to her. "So...maybe that was a bad idea." She laughed softly making a joke out of the whole situation. A habit she often did to lighten the mood, but nothing can help her way out of the situation she was currently in at the moment. Sitting upright she used one hand clutching her bloodied ankle then the other grabbing the knife. Cursing out loud for the millionth time she stared at the doors right in front of her, "Fucking glass. Karma, man."

Devan stared at the girl, eyes narrowed ever so slightly. She didn't look like much of a threat. But, then again, this is Devan. She hardly sees anyone as a threat, even before Z.A. She could manage to pull up a few names of the people that she found sketchy, but never a threat. Well, except for... Pushing that out of her mind while she listened to this girl speak. Devan's expression went from a slightly pissed off one to a blank one in what seemed like only seconds. "Sorry. You guys are technically...Well, trespassing on my property. Took me days to do all this stuff." Devan cocked an eyebrow slightly and nodded just the same, unsure of how to respond. What was she suppose to say? Oh, well thanks for not killing us all? Oh, hell know.

"Anyways," The girl started again, drawing back Devan's attention. "If you must know who I am, I'm Eleanor Avery Jow. Call me El, Jow, Avery, El Pow...Ehh, whatever works for you." Devan just merely shrugged at this. She'd probably just call her different things before one stuck. She even had the nickname of bastard before Devan sought eyes of her and decided almost instantly to change it to bitch, though now it seemed to be girl. She'll just have to wait and see what comes next.

"To the guy who looked like he was ready to kill someone, sorry. To the guy who was the last one to tell his story, Oh-So-Perfect except for his sister that ruined his life? Huh? At least he..." El had started speaking again, making Devan raise an eyebrow, especially when she had stopped suddenly. At least he what? Devan thought, stopping herself from questioning and waited for El to continue speaking. "And to you, Devan," El has whispered, smiling over at Devan causing her to give the girl a strange look. "You may not be the only one who was in that room drinking, but you just so happened to appear the most drunk to me. And well, I don't like drunk people or alcohol. It's a shame really." This, though it was true, bruised Devan's attitude at the moment a little bit. Yeah, Devan knew it was a shame, but to have someone just point it out so bluntly like that? It hurt. Turning her head away and looking down the vent, Devan let out a sigh and a quiet voice. "I know." She said, almost ashamed.

"I would've liked you a lot if you weren't drunk. Maybe next time when you're sober... Well. I just wanna let you know, I only did all this to scare you guys. Hopefully it worked! Cause I did not just go all through this for nothing." El continued on, drawing Devan's blank expression back to her. "Imma put my weapon away now. You seem harmless." El went on then started saying all this stuff while adding don't follow me at the end. At first, Devan looked at her like she was crazy before little red flags started going off. Then the girl kicked down on the shafts causing it to fall. "Oh shit." Devan managed to stated with a sad expression on her face before the whole thing went down, breaking on top of a glass desk in the front of the motel. Devan, of all places to land, landed on her back on top of now pile of broken glass and metal. She didn't even let out a cry, just a gasp as she caught her breath back from being knocked out of her by the fall and a hiss as she felt the pain of glass sticking into her back and reopening the bandages that she already had on her lower back.

After the pain of it all passed rather quickly, Devan felt numb. The way she felt when she'd pass out. But this was different. She could vaguely hear the girl, El, say not to follow her. But Devan was least than worried about the girl. She managed to cough out a "fuck you" at the girl. For a moment after that, Devan just laid there motionless looking at the gapping hole now in the ceiling. It seemed like minutes before she gasped for air again and swallowed. It took all her effort for her to roll of her back and get on her hands and knees, hurting her evermore by sticking a few shivers of glass into her knees and hands. Whimpering slightly, she managed to push herself up and stand up. She had no way to look at her back and see how bad it was, but she knew it had to be horrible as the pain was starting to numb through everything. Out of everything, Devan knew the tank top will be ruined, but she couldn't care about that. Her idioticness had just gotten her into a hell of a mess, and she had to get to the others before she bled out or something.

Devan had carefully stepped around the glassy bloody scene, not even wanting to look at it, and made her way over to the doors to the conference room where everyone else would be, probably wondering what that loud crash was about. Opening the door, she slowly pushed the door in, her face just holding a look like a sad puppy dog, but in a way that she looked like she was about to bust out crying. She went to the nearest chair and leaned on the back of it with her hands, standing herself up. "I hate that bitch." Devan said sourly, trying not to sound like she was going to just cry from the pain, but it was obviously clear due to the look on her face. She casted a glance at everyone individually, but just stood there, not knowing what else to do and not really feeling all that talkative.

“I don't know about the rest of you, but there is no where else I would rather be during the apocalypse than with you guys.” William looked up at Zara as he heard her words. It was slightly odd to him to hear Zara say something like that, or really anything at all. She was usually the quiet keep to herself type, that silently watched the groups back. But then again they had all been drinking the liquid disaster that could easily cost any one of them their lives.

"I agree." William finally mumbled under his breath after a couple of seconds, resting his elbows on his knees his mind slowly drifting to Tori a little more than common thing he did. Casting a quick glance over his shoulder, Will stared at Tori her vibrant red hair now having a story. One he wished he had never found out about. A sigh escaped William's lips as his eyes turned back to the floor beneath him. He knew he had no right to be sour about Tori's past, that she obviously was not that person anymore and didnt want to be. She had even confessed her love to him for Christ sake, so why couldn't he let it go? Maybe it was because she hit a sore part of his heart just thinking about all the other guys made Will crazy,...or maybe because it was so far from the perfect background that he had hoped she came from.

Will picked up another drink hating to think that way. Why couldn't he be like everyone else with a little grime under his nails from his past, other than his sister becoming a total nut job he had the perfect life. Two parents that were in love and loved him, nice siblings, good grades and even a free ride through college. It was a picture perfect life that he guessed anyone of the teens before him would love to have. He shouldn't be upset about her past he should be happy that she hadn't had a worse life.

“I'm going to take the kids so they get a shower, I'll be back in a bit.” William looked up catching Tori's gaze and reading her apology through her eyes as she left the room with the kids.

You know she shouldn't be apologizing for her past Will thought jabbing at himself. You should be with her right now telling her, her past dosent matter that you fell in love with her and that means all of her, bad past and hopefully bright future.

Done with his inner pep talk Will decided to chase after Tori.

Standing Will was about to run after her when out of nowhere a painting crashed to the ground making Will jump at it's suddenness, and randomness. Everything else happened in an blur as he stood watching metal shards fly around the room before he was hit in the ankle and fell back into the chair he had been previously sitting in.

A slight stinging pain came from his ankle, indicating to him that he had been hit. Looking down at his ankle he notice a metal shard sticking out of it, it didnt seem too deep, but he was defiantly going to have Dusty look at it.

"Okay. I saw someone go in through there. I'll go in, see if I can get to them, then try to get them out. It I'm not back in...five minutes, send...I don't know...Zara. Yeah, send Zara in after me." William look up from his wound to see Devan jump through the air duct.

"Devan! Wait!" William yelled as he tried to get to the air duct quickly, but being dramatically slowed down by his injury.

Crap not again Devan, William thought as he stared into the air duct not seeing Devan or the attacker. This situation was scarily similar to the one that had just happened yesterday. With Devan running blindly towards their attacker, whether it was to get a long lost group member or just to catch their attacker it was a horrible idea, that was destined to go wrong sooner or later.

Hearing a loud crash William winced hoping that it didnt involve Devan getting hurt, but knowing her luck he knew she probably did.

"Devan?" William called his voice echoing through the duct. This is what happens when you bend your rules, William thought thinking about the alcohol sitting on the tabłe not that far away. "Devan?" He called again sizing the air duct up, he needed to see if she was okay, he could probably fit into the thing if he squeezed.

"I hate that bitch." William turned hearing Devan's voice and watched her walk back into the conference room. Relief flooded through him before being replaced by worries and anger as he looked at her she had blood all over her and not just from her ankle, she looked pretty beat up.

"Where's Dusty when you need him." Will grumbled limping over to Devan, almost forgetting about the metal shard in his ankle except for the ongoing sting.

"Are you okay?" William asked waiting for a response before continuing. "Devan you could have gotten yourself killed, you know?! Plus we already talked about this, we're suppose to work as a team not individually, especially not without any thought to what we're doing! You could have gotten yourself killed!"

William pinched the bridge of his nose, trying not to become too worked up.

"Devan the bottom line is you have to think before you do things." William stated calming down. "Where is this person anyway?" Taking out his crowbar William look around ready to take care of the problem his mind a bit rash thanks to the alcohol.

"Girl. It's a girl. Said her name's El or something. She took off out the door after the fall and looked liked she was injured. Bitch probably didn't get too far." Willaim raised an eyebrow as Devan spoke. Girl?

Great, their attacker was a girl. William sighed loosening his grip on the crowbar. Even if it was the end of the world Will could not bring himself to even think about hurting a girl, even if she had almost crippled him.

“Will, you are not in any position to go after her. Devan either for that matter. Jace? Do you think you're okay to track this bitch down?”

"Guys we're not getting revenge. And I'll be fine for the time being...I'll have Dusty look at it later, but first I... we, need to handle this." William sighed after hearing Zara's and Jace's conversation. Replacing his crowbar William tried to make eye contact with everyone in the room. He could feel a headache coming on and felt ready to crash. Slowly massaging his forehead he continued to speak. "The rational answer would to be just to talk to her. After all it looked like she had a pretty good aim and could have killed us, which she didnt so she's probably not too crazy. Also if she wanted to scare us off it's probably means she's been here longer than us. Devan also said she was injured so it will be easy to talk to her so we should try, if it doesn't work out....." William trailed off looking at Zara's bow and arrow. "I'll let you guys handle it."

Wincing as he began walking again William limped out of the door Devan had previously walked in from. Slowly but steadily making his way to the front door in search of this El.

He hadn't dared to wait for anybodys approval before leaving, knowing the group would be a little more than unhappy with him. I mean come on they seemed like they wanted to tear a hole through this girls heart, but he couldn't stop himself. Sharing his past had reopened a wound.

He became leader to help save lives, not to end them. He wanted to help people survive like he had hoped he could do with his sister. He had promised himself the only thing he ever was going to kill was those flesh eating monsters that messed up the world.

"El?" He called out hoping Deavn had gotten her name right. Stopping infront of the motel's door he caught sight a girl sitting in front of the door clutching her ankle.

"Hello." Will called raising his hands in the air to show her he ment no harm. Taking slow careful steps he stopped in front the girl his hands still raised.

"My names William Darnoi, you may recognize me." He smiled a bit making a slow motion to his ankle, which still consisted of the metal shards.

"It's nice to formally meet you, your names El, correct? Sorry if we scared you. I'm guessing this is all your work, I mean the electricity and almost zombie free zone. My group and I are umm, just passing through we don't mean any harm or really mean to stay long. We're just planning on staying the night and leaving in the morning, I mean if that's okay with you of course." William paused and waited for her answer hands still raised.

"We're actually pretty friendly." Will added on quickly.

Moon didn't seem care that Rain didn't like the motel and she silently refused his second offer to head back to the rest of the group. She opened a door to the of the many rooms in the weird building and stepped inside.
Rain was more of a 'stick with the group, without the group you're probably gonna die.' kind of person. Moon wasn't like that, obviously. Rain also had a suspicion every eight seconds that something terrible would jump out at them and they'd both would die a horrible death.
Rain followed Moon into the room and watched as she searched the place. "Are you sure you don't want to go back? There coul-"
"A shower! Hopefully these people left something wearable." Moon said excitedly as she handed him her gun and began digging through a woman's suitcase.
Rain sighed and looked around the room. It was ordinary... abandoned and a bit creepy, otherwise fine and had no dead bodies stuffed under the beds.
He looked back at Moon as she spoke, "Well, I'll be a quick minute. Pick something fun out." she ordered, then entered the bathroom.
Turning towards the second suitcase, Rain unzipped it and began rummaging through the clothes. This also counts as stealing. He thought as he searched for something suitable to wear. Whoever the clothes had belonged to certainly hadn't thought to bring anything other than shorts, t-shirts, and flip flops and didn't even consider that a seventeen year old would need them in a zombie apocalypse.
At least they were clean.
Rain chose the only things available for him, a pair of shorts, a t-shirt, and no flip flops. The beat up shoes he was wearing were just fine.

After a few minutes of Rain searching the room again, Alicia stepped out of the washroom looking like she was ready to go to the beach.
In Rain's words -though he'd probably never say them out loud- she looked stunning.
"... It's all yours." Moon said as she walked away from the doorway and sat on the bed.
As he picked up his new set of 'stolen' clothes, Rain noticed the small bit of pink on Alicia's face. There was no way she was actually blushing, right? It was probably the lighting.
Rain decided he'd ignore it and headed into the washroom. It was nice, once again no dead bodies laying around. Plain and simple. He closed the door behind him then turned on the shower.
As he took off his clothes and stepped into the running water, all Rain could think about was how nice it was to finally get the grime of his skin and out of his hair.
It's nice not to smell like you just rolled around in a sewer.
When he was done, Rain turned off the water, quickly dried himself off, then put on his new clothes.
After a failed attempt to dry his hair, he gave up and left the washroom.

"Pretty spiffy, huh?" Rain asked as he walked up to Moon, a broad smile on his face, "We'll be the best looking ones in the group!"
In complete honesty, Rain felt like the new clothes were a few sizes too big for him. If he by any chance happened to stumble across a belt, he would take it no matter how much he hated taking things from the dead.

Because he acted like the guy who had a fear of disturbing the dead and honestly was, Rain zipped up both suitcases and put them back in their original places before switching his attention back to Alicia.
"If the others weren't wondering where we are before, I think they are now." Rain said, already opening the door. He held it open as Moon walked out and as she passed him, he added rather quickly, "You, uh, you look nice, by the way. The new clothes look good on you."
Although she'd probably freeze if there just so happened to be a massive temperature drop, Rain had to admit that he liked Moon's new outfit.

Until they found their way to the rest of the group, Rain remained completely silent. He had managed to give Alicia a compliment, which for him, was a huge accomplishment and as impressive Bayes' theorem.
When they got back to the main room Zara had just begun speaking and, hoping that no one had noticed his absence, sat down on the floor and listened like everyone else.
When she was done, Rain realized that they were sharing their pasts... what their lives were like before the whole zombie apocalypse and massive amounts of death thing.
"I was hoping you guys would miss me out but I guess it would be rude not to say something." The military man Ken announced, stopping Rain from wondering what he was going to share for his storytelling moment. Should he lie and say he wasn't a big nobody who's closest thing to a best friend was a girl who didn't even talk to him?
Rain forced himself to stop thinking and instead pay attention to Ken's own story.

When Ken fell silent, Rain took it upon himself to actually say something for once,
"So, I guess it's my turn." He said before letting out a nervous cough. Despite running for class president numerous times, Rain still failed at public speaking.

"Well.. I was originally going to be Ryan. Apparently."

"He's wonderful, don't you think?"
"Absolutely handsome, Isabella."
"He looks like you, Phillip."
"Nah, his eyes are too much like yours."

"He looks ugly." Rain said, staring down at his younger brother with a weird expression, "Why does he look like that?"
Phillip smirked, "You used to look like that, too. Small, ugly, and just a tad bit weird. Your mother thought about handing you over to the orphanage."
Rain's eyes widened, "Really?"
Isabella laughed, "No! Of course not! Your father just likes to joke, Rain."
Rain folded his arms, "You should have named him Cloud."
Both Phillip and Isabella blinked in confusion.

"You know, so we'd be Rain and Cloud. Get it?"
Isabella smiled, "Well... we were thinking about it. But just like with you, we changed his name at the last second."
Rain raised an eyebrow, "What was my name going to be?"
"Your grandpa really liked the name Ryan and for the longest time that's what we were all planning to call you. Your aunts and uncles already made cards and blankets and everything with the name on it." Phillip explained.
"So why'd you change it?"

"You're brilliant father spelled Ryan wrong."


"And then there was this one time I tried to ditch Jonah in the park..."

"I'm telling you, Phillip, he was going to leave Jonah there!" Isabella said in a frustrated voice, "Why would he do that? It's bad enough that he doesn't even make an effort to socialize, but trying to get rid of his brother? Phillip, I'm telling you there's something wrong with him!"
Phillip put his wife's hand in his, "I think he was just trying to bond with Jonah, Isabella. The park is a fun place for kids! He meant well."
Isabella glared at him, "He did not mean well, Phillip! There's something wrong with him! Why don't you care about that?"
"Because it's nonsense!"

As his parents argued about whether or not their son was crazy, Rain listened from the living room.
'If we don't do something, he'll end up insane!'
'Why do you insist on making it look like he's the bad one?'
'I don't trust him around Jonah, Phillip!'
Every word they shouted at each other had it's own little place that would be stuck in Rain's memory. It was like they didn't even care that he was only in the next room over and could hear every word, they just continued shouting.

Finally after a good thirty minutes of listening to their endless arguing Rain got off from the coach and walked into the kitchen. The moment he entered the room both parents immediately dropped what they were saying and looked at him.
"...Hey, buddy." Phillip said slowly.
Isabella just shook her head.
Rain looked at them through stinging eyes, "I'm sorry." He choked out, then left them alone to go to his room.
"Bud, wait!" Phillip called, but Rain was already halfway up the stairs and didn't turn around.

After that I just... tried not to get them mad again. The whole Jonah and the park thing was a huge mess up on my part, and from them on I tried to never do anything like that again. I even tried to impress them by running for student body president when I was fifteen."

"I decided that I'll run for student body president."
Phillip looked up from the newspaper and at his son in surprise, "...That's a big responsibility, buddy. You sure you're up to-"
"Yeah, positive. Plus, I already found a few people who'll vote for me. They're getting tired of Marcus being elected every year." Rain said as he sat down down at the table.
"Where's mom?"
"Taking Jonah to day care."
"Oh."
Phillip lowered an eyebrow, "What?"
"Nothing, I just wanted to tell her."

~ ~

"You, running for student body president?" A girl named Ashley asked, a look of disbelief played across her face.
Rain nodded, "Yeah, I-"
"Look, Rain. I'm sorry, but the only thing you're president of is the Spaghetti Club and that's only because Darcy moved away. Just give up." Ashley said, a small bit of sympathy was actually in her voice.
"I'm actually really trying to-"
"Drop it, Rain. Both Marcus and Gina have you beat."
"This is really impo-"
"You're not gonna win."
Ashley walked away with her words still hanging in the air.

Even trying to be something, Rain still found himself as just the president of the stupid Spaghetti Club. Which reminded him, he really should have that closed.

~ ~

Fling.
A celery stick went flying past him.
Fling!
Oh, look. A superman carrot stick flying to save the poor celery.
Whack!
And the evil pizza slice doesn't fail to attack the back of Rain's head.

"Can you stop throwing-"
Fling!
Another celery stick flies past Rain, hits the wall with a small thud, then drops to the ground.
"Marcus that's not funny."
Marcus, who was a lot taller and a grade older than Rain, looked back at him innocently like he hadn't done so much as to even touch a piece of celery, carrot or pizza. "I wasn't doing anything, Lang."
Rain sighed, "If you could just stop-"
Whack! Another carrot stick comes flying at Rain, except this time the difference is that it actually hits him in the face.
Marcus laughed, "You need to work on your reflexes. You're a bit slow."

After the fifth celery stick went flinging past him, Rain got up from the table and ate the rest of his lunch by his locker.
The basement wasn't bad. It was empty, stuffy, and only had one air vent, but otherwise not bad.
Rain had actually tried to get a good locker in the beginning of the year, but thanks to his luck the sheets had gotten messed up and Rain's main floor/right by the fountain locker had gone to some other guy while Rain had gotten stuck... well, here.

So much for the student body president role.

"And to save everyone's time, I'll skip two boring years and go to the day when the disease hit my town."

[i] "Rain, you're mother and I are going out for lunch." Phillip announced as he snatched his car keys from the kitchen table.
Rain didn't look away from the TV, "Have fun."
"You have to watch Jonah."
Rain picked up the baby monitor from the coffee table and waved it in the air, "You can count on me, dad." After a few seconds of silence he added, "You can tell mom I won't go to the park."
Phillip sighed, "She's over that, Rain."
"Hmph."
"Please just check up on Jonah every half hour?" Phillip pleaded as he walked towards the door.
Rain turned off the TV and turned around to look at his father, "Dad, we'll be fine."
Phillip fumbled with the keys, "It's just, there's been these weird warnings all over the news about people-"
Rain got off from the couch and put a hand on his dad's shoulder, "We have the big bad and scary Maya to guard the house, dad. No one's getting in."
Phillip nodded, "I'm worrying over nothing."
Rain smiled, "Have fun."

~ ~

"I don't care what mom and dad say, you're still ugly." Rain said as he walked away from Jonah's bed where he was sleeping. It had been exactly two and a half hours since their parents had left.
Normally it would take an average person only an hour or so to order and eat lunch, but for the Lang's it takes no more or less than three hours exactly.
Pretty impressive, them being able to manage their time like that but still can't get out of bed on time.

With still a half hour left, Rain lay down on the couch and closed his eyes. He'd sleep the time away.
Or, that was his plan.
Not even a minute after Rain's eyes closed he heard a frantic scratching at the door followed by multiple whimpers and whines.
"There's a dog door, Maya. Use it." Rain called.
At the mention of her name, the dog's whining grew louder, then she yelped, and suddenly it was quiet.

Too quiet, actually.
For some reason the silence bothered Rain, it was just... silent. Completely. Opening his eyes, Rain once again got off the couch and walked over to the front door.
"You're not allowed in the house but I just want to make sur-" As soon as he opened the door Maya shot past him and bolted into the kitchen.
Rain closed the door and curiously followed her.

"Maya!" He called, "You know you're not allowed in there!" He walked up to the golden retriever and immediately noticed something different about her.
He didn't know what set it off, but somewhere in Rain's brain Maya didn't look right. There was something that was just a bit too... odd.

And then she attacked him.

Growling and snapping at his legs, Rain tried to get her to calm down for atleast five minutes using dog treats to bacon strips to king size squeaky toys. It took Rain longer than usual to figure something out. Maya was seriously trying to hurt him.
"What's wrong with you?" Rain snapped as Maya stalked him from the other side of the couch. He, not being very brave to begin with, was on the near edge of having a heart attack.
And then he clued in.
The warnings in the news about people going... well, cannibal crazy. It was some sort of disease, wasn't it? Rain hadn't even thought if any animal other than humans could get it.
But there was only one solution, he knew that.

Running to the dining room, Rain picked up a chair and charged towards Maya.
"I am so sorry, girl..."
Rain shuddered. His parents had bought Maya when she was a puppy only a few months after Jonah was born. Although Rain had been slow to like her, the dog had grown on him and she was finally just learning that bedrooms were for people and not pets.
Killing her, even in the state that she was, had been terrible.

Right after Rain was certain that Maya wouldn't be making an unexpected visit, he ran upstairs to his brothers room, took Jonah out of bed and put him on the floor for a second.
"Where are you going?" Jonah asked tiredly, "Rain?"
"On a trip." Was Rain's reply.
"Where?" Was Jonah's question.
Rain looked out the window and was horrified by the sight, "Uh... where would you like to go?"
"Home!"
Rain took a few pairs of Jonah's clothes out of the dresser and quickly folded them so they would be easier to carry.
"How about we go see mommy and daddy?" Rain suggested, making sure to grab Jonah's favorite stuffed toy hippo as well.
"Mommy!" Jonah shouted with glee.
"And dad."
"Daddy!"
"Let's go." Rain picked Jonah up of the floor while still holding the extra clothes and toy hippo.

"Is that Maya?"
"Yes."
"She's sleeping?"
"She's very tired, yes."
Jonah blinked, "She come too?"
"No, she can't."
Jonah looked at Rain with a sad expression, "But she'll get lonely!"
Rain sighed, "Dogs don't get lonely." He said as he opened the door leading into the garage, "Besides, if wants to visit, she'll find her own way to us."
"Okay."

Rain's parents had taken Phillip's truck, which was good because Rain was best at driving Isabella's car. He took the keys of the hook, opened the door, strapped Jonah in his car seat, closed the door, and then got in the drivers seat.
His brain was set on panic mode and in complete honesty, he had no clue what he was doing.
As soon as the car started up Rain was out of there in less than two seconds, much to Jonah's horror.

In five minutes, they were at the restaurant.
Ten minutes after that, Rain was back in the car driving with blood splattered clothing and on the verge of crying.
"You okay?" Jonah asked.
"Fine." Came Rain's mumbled reply. Because killing the people who raised him was absolutely, fantasticly, wonderfuly fine. Seeing them attack everyone they saw... and the dead look in their eyes when they stared at him...

"Where are we going now?"
"To get groceries."
"Why?"
"We need food, Jonah."
"Mommy buys food."
Rain parked the car and took Jonah out of the car seat, "I know. But she can't right now, so I am. You're coming with me."

The following thirty minutes where complete hell which consisted of Rain almost losing Jonah, Jonah almost losing Rain, both of them getting chased by a god awful infected creature, and Jonah witnessing Rain stabbing that god awful infected creature with a curtain pole until she no longer moved or made a horrific moaning sound.

Back in the car, Rain cried.
He had killed three people plus one dog in one day. All four had tried to kill him first, but taking four lives was still taking four lives. Two had been his parents, one had been his dog, and one had been some random lady that still had a life before she turned into... well, whatever she was.
And Rain still had no idea what had exactly happened.

"Rain... you okay?"
Turning backwards in the seat, Rain nodded, "I'm fine, Jonah. What about you?"
Jonah looked at him with weary eyes, "When do we see mommy and daddy?"
Rain sighed, "Soon. They're a bit busy right now."
Jonah nodded, then yawned, and closed his eyes, "Okay."

After starting up the car again, Rain drove around for a bit and watched others flee the town. Good for them, they knew what to do in this situation. They probably had some place to go.
Rain didn't know what to do. Rain had no place to go. Rain glanced in the mirror and saw Jonah sleeping.
Jonah had no place to go either, which somehow made everything seem a whole lot worse.
And then, a miracle.

While driving around Rain spotted Mrs. Vandize, one of his neighbors, loading countless items into the back of her truck. Parking behind behind the vehicle, Rain scrambled out of the car and ran up to her.
"Mrs. Vandize!" Rain said in relief, a smile on his face, "You have no idea how glad I am to see you. I need help."
Mrs. Vandize, with her long face and dull eyes, gave him a sad look, "If you want hospitality, I can't help you."
"What about my brother? Can you help him?"
"Jonah?"
Rain nodded, "Please? Mrs. Vandize I really need this favor from you, he does too."
Mrs. Vandize nodded slowly, "I'll take him with me, Rain."
Rain felt like hugging her, "I-..Thank you!" Was what he settled for.

Quickly taking Jonah and his car seat out of the car, Rain returned to Mrs. Vandize.
"Where are we going now?" Jonah asked, watching Rain curiously.
"You're going with Mrs. Vandize."
"You come too?" Jonah asked.
"...Later."
"When?"
"When I can." Rain promised.

"So, long story short, I was a goody-two-shoes student who had dreams of going to Harvard. And then my dreams were brutally crushed." Rain finished, glad to be done with the public speaking. Re-telling his life made Rain realize how incredibly boring he was. Literally, he had done absolutely nothing except have high hopes and say his brother was one ugly little kid.
He had also made a false promise.


(OOC: I ended it here because... wow is it long. I'll fast forward to present time in another post)

"Nope. You are absolutely wrong. My name is Avery. And the other Devan chick didn't have a very nice approach like you here." El, no Avery said throwing her backpack on the ground. Will instinctively flinched, his hand drawing near his crowbar until he watched her pull out bandages.

Raising an eyebrow he tried to regain his calm composure, it didnt seem like something Devan would do, approach someone in a manor like this Avery chick was describing. But then again the girl had thrown a medal shard in her ankle, Devan had the right to be pissed off as did Will.

"Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. You trespassed on my property and now you're asking for a night here?!" The girl laughed sarcastically making Will re-think his statement about her not being crazy. She quickly bandaged her leg making Will self-consciously shift his weight to his good foot.

"We're really sorry." Will tried again trying to throw an apology in his sentence without sounding like he was pleading. He just needed to gain common ground and talk her down he reminded himself watching her as she played with her knife.

" A night?" Avery looked in deep thought, only giving Will a split second to breath before she glanced down at her knife and threw it.

It flew past Will's head the sound of the knife cutting through the air echoing in his ear as it passed before it landed safely in the wall behind him.

"Of course!! You could stay for however long as you like. Just as long as you guys don't kill, break, or annoy me. Sorry! Sorry! Sorry, if that little knife stunt or stunts scared cha. You guys didn't exactly bring a house welcoming gift

"I think I just saw my whole life pass through my eyes." William muttered before taking the girls hand and offering a smile of his own.

"Well glad we're on the same side now," Will said hoping she wouldn't pull the same stunt, again. As she had just done with him, because it certainly wasn't helping her case.

"Anyways, to formally introduce myself I'm Eleanor Avery Jow. You can call me El, Avery, Jow, or whatever pleases you. No negative things please. If you haven't noticed, I have a bit of a thing for knives and doing little pranks. Sorry again. No hard feelings or do you want the fancy smancy forgiving stuff."

Will's eyebrows furrowed as she continued speaking, so her first name wasn't Avery.

"As I said before I'm William, but you can call me Will. It's nice to formally meet you Eleanor. And there's no hard feelings, I don't need any apology, I understand we were on your territory and you didnt know if we were dangerous, but I'm not the one you need to worry about forgiving you." Will finished casting a glance over his shoulder at Zara.

"Well come on time to formally introduce you the rest of the group." Will motioned her to follow him offering a reassuring smile to put her at ease.

Zara laughed making Will stop in his tracks.

“Listen El, you don't get to just cast what you did aside. You don't get to pretend like hurting people is just a prank, something you can just push aside. This may be your property, but these people are mine. We have done nothing to hurt your hotel but you have hurt MY people. If you ever even look at one of MY people with a malicious intent. I will kill you.”

Will's eyes widened and he looked over at Zara, just in time to see her shoot an arrow at El's head just missing her. With that she walked.

Will knew he should stop Zara, scold her for what she had just done and pull her to the side later and explain to her the danger she could have just put the whole group in. But the pain in Will's ankle was getting the best of him and the little bitterness he had towards El kept his mouth closed.

After a few moments of just standing there he coughed before motioning her to continue following him. Opening the door he held it open for the walking death thrower and quickly introduced her to the group.

"Everyone, this is El. I expect you to be nice to her." With that Will plopped down on the nearest chair and lifted his ankle to look at it.

Sighing he held onto the metal object and swiftly pulled it out, biting his lip as he did it so he wouldn't cry at the pain it had just caused as more of it shot through his leg. Tearing off a piece of his new shirt he wrapped it around his bleeding ankle, deciding on just saving it for Dusty to look at.

Where were he and Billy anyway, they were the only ones who hadn't shown up for the meeting. William thought glancing over at the door.

In response to El's little joke, she had gotten a threat and an arrow flying past her head by some random chick from the "lame survival group." From Frank Sinatra's singing to an arrow whizzing past her head, today had been the most eventful day she had since her dead best friends in Kentucky.

Will responded back at her joke, "As I said before I'm William, but you can call me Will. It's nice to formally meet you Eleanor. And there's no hard feelings, I don't need any apology, I understand we were on your territory and you didn't know if we were dangerous, but I'm not the one you need to worry about forgiving you. Well, come on time to formally introduce you the rest of the group." Hearing a laugh interrupting William, Eleanor looked up from Will to see an outraged chick that had been the conference room.

"Listen El. You don't get to just cast what you did aside. You don't get to pretend like hurting people is just a prank, something you can just push aside. This may be your property, but these people are mine. We have done nothing to hurt your hotel but you have hurt MY people. If you ever even look at one of MY people with a malicious intent. I will kill you.” El's eyes glistened with guilt while listening the outraged girl's rant ignoring what Will had just said about meeting the group. MY PEOPLE. MY PEOPLE. MY PEOPLE. The two words echoing in her thoughts as if her mind was a cave and the girl was yelling into it. El frowned at her thoughts feeling worst and worst by the minute.

She has people she cared about. Maybe they cared for her too. At least. She. Had people. Pushing her sorrowful thoughts away, El opened her mouth to respond but an arrow flew past Eleanor's head interrupting her. It landed right behind her and the outraged girl stomped away. You'd think a normal person would flinch or yelp at a flying arrow advancing towards them, but once again El isn't exactly "normal." In fact, the first thought she had was "Good aim" standing still while staring at the girl with amusement. Although El was impressed, she was pissed off that El had spared the girl's ankle but the chick still had the nerve to shoot an arrow at her. Eleanor did slightly "injury" them for a joke, but she could've thrown knives at all of them and ended their life right then and there.

The girl was extremely outraged at her prank, she would be too. Except, the girl threatened her life if she even looked at them, Eleanor wouldn't go that far in threatening people. Watching the chick stomp away, Eleanor analyzed the girl's threat to her. My choice of people weren't very good then. You would kill me if I looked at them again with bad intentions. Who would kill another person by just a look they did. Hmmm..Maybe enough if she had a soft spot for one of them. El glanced over to Will eyeing him up and down. Could it be Will? Could it be Devan? Or could it be that other lame guy. Or maybe the girl was just outraged I hurt the people in the group in general. El ended her analyzing/over-thinking moments just in time to hear Will awkwardly cough motioning for her to follow him. Sliding on back her backpack, she slowly followed William absentmindedly.

El froze in her steps when she they were a couple feet away from the conference room. You're fucking kidding me. Recalling back to what Will had said, she realized he was going to introduce her the "lame survival group." Yanking out a gigantic knife from her backpack that was sticking out for easy excess and her gun on her belt; El walked a couple steps back bracing herself nervously for what to come. William not noticing she hadn't followed him all the way, opened the door and introduced the group to her. Then sat down at one of the chairs bandaging up his ankle with a piece of shirt he tore. Shaking her head at the sight through the door, she stepped right in front the door to where people in the room could see her amused to see their reactions. El gripped her knife prepared to stab someone in case someone was going to jump out at her and start stabbing her eyes out for what she did.

"I'm Eleanor Avery Jow. Call me El, Eleanor, Avery, Jow they all work. Bitch doesn't." El introduced herself with her signature line adding in the bitch part. Avoiding eye contact El stared at the door in front of her. "Anyways, you guys have ONE NIGHT. Sorry for the metal shards. I wanted to pull a little prank to scare you guys away. Unfortunately, you guys didn't leave. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. I thought you guys would be one of those extremely scaredy cat survival groups like in the movies. Sadly, just a lame survival group. Kidding. Kidding. Kidding. I won't be bothering you guys anymore..unless you piss me off again." El smiled at her little quirky joke ignoring the fact they may just attack her that instant. Always adding in her spice of sarcasm and dash of jokes to lighten the mood no matter the situation. El had lowered her knife but was still gripping her knife and gun tightly feeling a bit nervous for what to come. Mustering up her braveness, she look away from the door toward the group shyly. Meeting people wasn't always El's thing, adding in the fact she threw shards to three people in the group didn't help El at all at the moment.

Ken didn't really listen to the rest of the stories after his own, his mind was full of different thoughts, he couldn't get the memory of his friend Lance out of his head and on top of that there was someone out there, some crazed butcher of people. Kens mind was a mess at this point he wasn't thinking straight at all. Then out of no where a smash of glass, Ken quickly grabbed his rifle looking around the room he couldn't see anyone and then objects started flying low across he room, Ken was lucky not to have his leg ripped by a piece of shrapnel.

Ken quickly looked down to the bottom of the walls and there was an air duct. Ken almost opened fire and was ready to put as many holes in the air duct as he could. However Devan decided she would crawl into the duct herself, Ken couldn't believe what she was doing, it was idiotic, she didn't really know who or how many people were down there. Ken kept his rifle trained on the duct just in case someone came back through. All he could think that the culprit could be was the person who left the bodies in the dumpster. Kens head was becoming more messed up as things kept going from bad to worse. Eventually someone entered the room, it was Devan. Ken was happy she was okay but was angry at the same time because she just left without thinking. She mentioned some girl called "El" who was the culprit. Ken was filled with anger that someone just attempted to kill him and the others.

Will then started to speak about not getting revenge. What was he thinking, someone just tried to kill them and in turn had already done some damage, even to Will himself. No. Ken wouldn't let this go so easily, if he got his hands on this person they wont know what hit them. Ken followed Will out of the room. They got to the entrance of the motel. There she was, this "El" Ken wanted to put a bullet right into her skull there and then but Will started to speak to her. What was he thinking, there was nothing stopping her just killing and already injured Will who would still be feeling the effects of booze. This girl kept going on about "her property" maybe thats what happened to the people in the dumpster, maybe they came here and met a horrible fate. Ken didnt trust this girl, she was bad news. Then a golden moment came from Zara, she wasnt taking any shit, it almost made Ken smile when she fired and arrow near her. It was that sort of attitude of Fuck with me or my friends and you wont live long. Ken loved that. El started trying to give ultimatums about having one day to leave. Ken almost pulled the trigger there and then, nobody gives Ken ultimatums. Ken knew he could kill this girl right now but he respected the rest of the groups wishes, but this wasnt over he was going to find out who she was and if she knew what happened to the people in the dumpster.

Devan looked over at Tori with a slightly raised eyebrow at the girls frantic question that would translate to what the hell is going on? After letting out a sigh, of needing to explain what was going on, Devan slowly, not wanting to explain shit again, said "Some girl came in through the air vents shooting pieces of metal at me, Will, and I think Jace got his too. Long story short, I was being an idiot and went in after her and now I'm back and Will, Zara, and Kenny-boy went after the chick." Devan explained, slowly yet nonchalantly, just as Will came back to home base with the others, El following close behind.

Devan raised her hands and placed them lightly over her ears and looked at the ground as she listened to Will and El's muffled voices of introductions and ground rule of only being allowed to stay one night. She was just plain tired of introductions and the like. That, and her head was starting to hurt, but she was able to easily push past that and get on with everything. First thing's first, she had to get something that will at least help her fight past the pain in her back that she could honestly say was her own fault. Standing up from the chair she sat in, she walked over to the chair she sat in earlier, before all the food and metal shards. Reaching down to her bag, she reached in and pulled out her last bottle of tequila before taking a big swig of it then placing it back into the bag. Devan then made her way over to the picture El had knocked down before and carefully picked it up and looking at it.

Meanwhile, Dusty and Billy were by themselves in a hotel room. The perfect combination, right? They were just finishing up their showers, Dusty was now waiting on the bed in the room waiting for Billy to come out of the shower so they could head back to the room. Billy, though, was getting completely distracted by the big piece of missing flesh and muscle out of his forearm revealing a nasty sight of gross blackish-red goo and purple-red veins that were dripping blood. He knew then and there he was defiantly going to turn. And not in as many days as he thought. More like soon. Very soon.

Out of all the shitty things he's done in his life, this is possibly the worst. He's 'put birds out of their misery' with a stone to the head. He ran over a kitten with his bike and not just once. Multiple times to make sure it was dead. He even tried drowning his twin brother once when they were kids and went to the pond because Josh had caught the turtle Billy was after. He even stuck a firework in a turtles shell that still had a turtle in it and lit the firework, of course this was with his friends influence, but Billy liked it nonetheless. But out of everything he could have done, he's going to end up killing at least one of the group members who so blindly took him into the group.

Billy, thinking it would actually help the situation by punishing himself, closed his eyes as he stood in the shower and slowly yet hardly pushed his index finger into the middle of the bite. It hurt as fuck. You wouldn't even be able to imagine. It stung and twitched, he even lost feeling in the hand on the forearm of the bite. He keep pushing in the hole in his arm, his muscles twitching and aching every millimeter. After feeling something hard, Billy gasped and quickly snatched his arm up, pulling his finger out of the bite. He looked at the bite just in time to see the muscle go back together slowly and cover what was most likely his bone.

Billy was breathing heavily now, he didn't know what to do. He felt like he had just saw his life flash before his and at the same time he felt like he'd just seen an unreal entity. He felt like he knew how those poor people in every horror movie felt after the were almost killed by the goddamned thing that's killing them all off. Or better yet he felt like the poor people in the horror movies who always end up seeing their best friend all bloodied up and ripped to shreds. He felt like that black chick from Freddy Vs. Jason who had to give Jason mouth-to-mouth so he wouldn't drown. He felt like all those people in the Scream movies who found out who the killer was. Hell, he felt like Kirby Reed from Scream 4 when she saves Charlie's ass then he goes and stabs her out of nowhere.

He head twitching sharply to the left, Billy stepped out of the shower and threw on the clothes, happy to see the shirt still covered up his bite. But something was coming through the sleeve. It was blood. But not our normal red blood. No, this was aged blood. The type of blood that you'd see tearing out of the eye sockets and dripping out of the nose and corner of the mouth of none other than a person. A dead person. A nasty black-red blood. Looking up, Billy looked in the mirror and was horrified at what fast him. The face of a dead boy. His eyes were blood shot and yellowing. His mouth had a black-bloody color instead of pink. His skin was a pale yellow-green color and his veins were darkening. He knew what was happening. He was turning. No, not just turning. Turning. The breaking point basically. He was at that point, the point before a person turned completely insane.

Knowing he was probably going to get killed by the group after going after the group, Billy didn't want to go without giving back the switchblade Devan had gave him. Taking a breath, Billy opened the blade, looking at it with a look that resembled puppy-dog-eyes. He glanced up at himself in the mirror, he shook his head slightly before letting out a breath once more. Then, without a second thought, he jammed the knife into his side and twisted it a couple times before looking back at his reflection. He didn't feel a thing. Not a thing. Hopefully, once he was completely turned, the knife in his side would slow him down some.

Deciding he might as well leave the room, not thinking about Dusty's safety, or anyone's safety, as usual. As he exited the bathroom, he saw Dusty stand from the bed, a wide grin on his face. That was until he noticed the way Billy looked. Then that grin wiped off his face completely. "I-I'm-m-m S-sorr-r-ry-y." Billy said, his words dragging out without his knowledge. At that, Dusty walked up, tears in his eyes, and they hugged. Hugged. The most dangerous thing they could have done. Hell, the dumbest thing anyone could have done. But, Billy liked it. He wanted to smile and hug back, but it was too late. All he managed to do was peck Dust on the check, back by his ear, before he completely turned. Well, he wasn't completely gone. He could still think and feel emotions and all, but he couldn't control himself. He could yell for help, for someone to come and save Dusty. He couldn't do anything. He was a prisoner. A prisoner of his own body, as cheesy as that sounds.

In less than a second, Billy bit down hard on Dusty's neck. His teeth pushing in with no mercy until he bit down all the way and pulled his head up, pulling a big chunk of Dusty's neck out while pushing him down to the ground and straddling him. Dusty was crying and screaming and screaming the whole time, trying his best to push Billy off of him. But every thing Dusty did, just got another bit from Billy. Eventually, Dusty gave up and went quiet. That's when Billy torn out his stomach with his own zombiefied hands. Though Billy was completely horrified at what he had done, he realized just how easy it was to kill a person with your bare hands. After a while of the zombiefied Billy raffling through Dusty's inners and making a complete mess out of him, he stood and left the now dead Dusty on the ground, his blood and guts literally all over the place, then out the open door Billy went, and he went to the place where the noise was coming from.

Meanwhile, after Devan was finished looking at the picture of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of the Mona Lisa and setting it down, she took a seat on the ground next to the pile of glass. Mumbling "I hate glass", she one by one picked up one of the bigger pieces of glass and threw it against the wall, well enough away from the group to not hurt them, yet close enough for her to actually hit it and hear it shatter, like there hasn't been enough shattering today. After a couple of nice sized pieces were brutally thrown against the wall, Devan just stopped and stood up and glanced over to the kids. Her eye widened as she saw none other than Billy. In bloodied mouth zombie mood. As soon as she saw that, she pointed at him and said in her normal loud mouthed voice "Zombie-Bill!"

It all happened so fast. First Devan's reply and then out of no where zombie Billy came out of the room, switchblade in his side. She knew Devan could take care of herself and ducked inside each of the hotel rooms to grab the kids. First was Avalon, the girl was just coming out of the shower when Tori put her fingers to her lips in a sign to stay quiet. She grabbed the girl by the hand and quickly darted to the next room. She did this room by room until the only child left was Aaron.

Zara heard the commotion but the alcohol swirled her in her brain, mixing with the anger from her confrontation with El. She tried to run down the hallway to Devan but found herself stumbling a little. This is what she gets for trying to enjoy herself, for goofing off. She was supposed to be trying to keep these people alive and she could barely make it down the hall way in time help Devan. She heard a gun shot from down the hall.

~

Tori had sent all but Aaron back to the conference room. She quickly pushed herself through the door to the room Aaron was in and froze. Dusty. He was hunkered over a whimpering Aaron. Dusty had been missing most of the day.

“Is he okay?” She asked Dusty. It didn't occur to her right away that Dusty had probably been with Billy. That there was a good chance that Dusty wasn't actually helping Aaron. The thoughts went through her head to slowly. She pulled her gun right as the sickening chomp filled the air. Aaron screamed and Tori fired her gun.

Dusty fell to the ground in a sickening thud. She ran immediately to him, noticing the bite from his neck she shot him again, just to be sure. Aaron was crying now and Tori bent down to look him over. The bite was prominent against his pale flesh, bloody and mangled. His arm was gushing blood. She ripped the sheets off the bed quickly trying to make a tourniquet. As Zara barreled in the door.

“What happened...” She cut off at the sight of Dusty's head exploded against the hotel floor. A slow moan escaped her lips. Someone had lied to them. They had been bitten. There were no zombies in the hotel. Someone came in infected.

“Dusty...” It pained her to speak his name. She let out a slow sigh and came back to reality, watching as Tori frantically tried to tie up Aaron's arm.

“Was he...?” Tori shot her a glare that told her to shut up. Zara complied. Once Tori was sure that the boy's bleeding had been stopped she stood.

“Aaron, I'll be right back okay. I have to get some more supplies.” She grabbed Zara by the arm and took her outside the door, shutting it behind them.

“Dusty got him.” Tori choked out the statement. “I was too slow...” painful tears welled up in her eyes. He was a kid. A child. She was there to protect the kids. She had failed. Zara stared at the ground, not knowing how to comfort the red head in front of her.

“What are we going to do?” Zara asked slowly. Tori let out a slow sign through her teeth trying to keep the tears from falling. She was stronger than this. But damn it.... this was a kid.

“He's going to turn soon. The bite is deep. I've seen lesser wounds change someone within hours. We need to talk to Will.”

“I don't think there is anything to talk about. Our options are to leave him here and let him become a monster or to put him ...out of his misery.” Zara gave Tori a hard stare. Tori knew she was right. But he was a kid! He couldn't have been more than five or six. How could anyone here live with the death of a child on their shoulders.

“You're right... but I can't ask anyone to do that for him. We are barely older than kids ourselves Zara.” Tori gave her a motion to hang on and went to find Will.

She found him, tears clinging to her eyes as she tried desperately not to let them fall.

“Will!” She ran to him, needing some sort of comfort, even if it made her seem weaker than normal. She loved kids, this was tough stuff.

“Dusty's dead. I had to put him down.” The words croaked out of her, her normally stable voice cracking. “But.. He got Aaron. Aaron has been bitten.”

Zara watched the display and knew what she had to do. She was the only one who could. This was her fault. Everything was her fault. If she hadn't been drinking, if she hadn't been so stupid she would have been ready. She would have thought to look for Dusty. No one would be hurt especially a kid. A kid that looked to them for protection. Zara bit her lip in anger to the point of drawing blood.

“Tori!” She called out to her. Tori turned to look at her. “I'll do it.” Tori shook her head.

“Zara I can't ask that of you.” Tori responded knowing what the girl was implying.

“You're not asking. I am telling you. I'll do it.” Silence filled the room as the weight of what Zara was talking about settled in.

“But I can't use my bow...” she said finally, her voice getting small and weak. “The arrows won't pierce a human skull. It only works on the dead because the bones have deteriorated. I don't want him to suffer and I don't want to use my machete.” She took a long breath, blowing a stray curl out of her face.

“Can I borrow your pistol?” Tori's eyes did swim over then, silently and slowly the tears fell. She had failed them and now Zara was going to have to clean up her mess. How would her group treat her now that she had let someone die. Let two people die, one of them being barely a kindergartner. Wordlessly she handed Zara her pistol from the holster on her thigh.

“You don't have to do this.” She said again.

“I do. I can't let him suffer, I can't let anyone else get hurt.” What buzz that had tried to linger was gone now. She was as sober as a judge. She took the gun in her hand and resisted the urge to flinch at it. She hadn't held a gun since her incident. Since she was Aaron's age. She could almost feel the vibrations of the power at her finger tips as she held the machine.

She had been around guns her whole life, her dad being a marine and all. This was different. She could be around them, but holding one made her both feel empowered and terrified.

Zara made sure the safety was still on and stuck it in the top of her pants. She took a deep breath and headed for the door, trying not to think about that day so many years ago when she swore to never pick up a gun again.

So, this is what it comes to? This is what happens when you allow someone into your little group? Before anyone knew it, three of the original group was gone, and two of those three were new. And it was all because some dick decided he wasn't going to tell the group he was bitten. But, who would? Hell, nobody! Nobody would say 'oh yeah, by the way, I was bitten by some rabid homeless guy who looked like he was already dead!' No! No one what so ever would say something like that. And yet, when someone does it to there own group, the group is sure to be upset with the now undead Billy who had Devan's switchblade stabbed into his side.

Sick bastard.

He obviously didn't think about the work Devan is going to need to go through to get that damn thing back. But, if it was him that put it there that was, he wanted to return it. Those this way is just messed up. Supposedly, she could do a little fighting and yank the blade out of his side, stick it in his skull, and kill him that way. But she's still a little too beat up for that kind of shit, so she has to do it all another way. She'd shoot him. But her gun, that she hardly ever uses and frankly doesn't even remember where she got it, is in her bag which is...somewhere. So, she'll just have to impro...

Wait a minute. What's this?

Moon had come out of nowhere, her pistol in her hand. She walked right up to Billy, ready to end this all. Billy launched at her in a surprisingly fast jump. It was probably due to the effects of being bitten and being able to go so long due to the small level of immunity in his blood. But, of course, the group wouldn't no this and probably never would. They would, however, figure out it was Billy who was the first to be bitten in the first place, if anyone gets the guts to examine the bodies that is.

Billy stuck Moons hand, the same one holding the pistol, deep into his mouth and bit down. Just as he did, Moon pulled her trigger and a bullet went clean through Billy's spinal cord, killing him intently. Knowing she was bit, and was obviously not going to live, Moon walked off and went into one of the hotel rooms. Devan heard the gun shot and knew exactly what happened, as will the others eventually. Moon had ended herself, not wanted to cause anymore trouble with someone else killing her off. After the slight shock of all that just happened, Devan ran over and yanked her knife out of dead Billy's side and ran off to meet the others.

She came to a seen of...saddened chaos. A state she knew was to come sooner or later. At fist, Devan didn't know what was happening, but then she got the gist of it. Dusty had been bitten, by Billy most likely, and Dusty had bitten the new kid, Aaron. And now someone was going to need to put Aaron down. And who else was going to step up but Zara? To Devan, it almost looked heroic. But she knew this was obviously going to be a hard thing to do. She fought the urge long enough. Devan ran up to Zara and hugged her. She didn't cry. She didn't make a joke. She didn't even look the other girl in the eye. All she did was say:

"After you do this, please don't give up."

Devan just thought that if anyone of them ever had to do something like this, they'd end up giving up. After all that, Devan finally went and sat down and waited for whatever shit was going to happen neck.