Alec Rickson:
"RAAAAAHHHH!" A battle cry escaped his lips as he opened fire at the hostiles that were pursuing him.
As the night arrived and the cold became so much worse. A former Marine decided to take his chances and try to make his way back to the cars. Unfortunately, it backfired and now he was being chased by a bunch of crazy people. Thankfully, he had a M249 in his hands and they were all coming at him through a narrow path. With bullets flying at a rapid speed and bodies dropping dead on the ground.
"Come on!" Eventually, he heard a voice calling him and he noticed a car stopping right behind him. A red SUV that was clearly in barely drivable condition.
So after firing a few more shots, he turned around and rushed towards the car, entering through the back door. Only having time to watch as the remaining of those lunatics came after them, and they all had guns.
"Go! Go! Go!" The former Marine yelled as he pulled out a Beretta M9 from his holster and proceeded to fire.
Thankfully, before they could fire at them, the driver hit the gas and they were able to get away from that area and into an open street.
"Goddammit..." All he could do was look back and see, thankfully, they were far back.
"You okay ?" The driver asked. The Driver was a man in his late twenties, with olive skin, short and shaggy dark brown hair, big brown eyes and large ears. He was wearing combat fatigues that were completely worn-out and there was a Beretta M9 in his holster.
"Yeah..." He sat up straight and inspected his machine gun. "Where did you get the car?" He immediately asked.
"I just found it." The driver responded as he focused on the road.
Alec sighed as he sat straight in the car. "Andreas, this is stupid!" He yelled at him. "We're out of food, water, meds and ammo!"
"Don't you think I am well aware of that!" Andreas responded right away. "But we have no choice but to keep looking for the others."
"No choice my ass!" Alec was quick to rebuff. "We could get the fuck out of this cit-"
"Then go your own fucking way, I ain't leaving until I find the others!" Andreas made it abundantly clear. "You still don't get it that we need to stick together, because those fucking things would have teared us to pieces otherwise."
"We are sticking together, but this damn search is pointless!" Alec yelled back.
They don't even know how long it has been since the group was separated after bumping into that monster and the crowd of psychos that attacked them. Since then, however, Andreas insisted on searching for everyone non-stop despite the fact that they were just as screwed as them.
"Where are we even going?!" Alec asked since he was clearly driving aimlessly.
"There is a hospital not far from here, maybe they went there to try to get supplies." Andreas explained.
"And how exactly do you know there's a hospital?" Alec asked since they weren't able to find a map of that city.
"I-" Before he could answer however, Andrea was startled by something. "Holy-"
The "something" jumped into the car's hood. "What the fuck!?" Startling the two of them with six red glowing eyes.
The sudden impact caused Andreas to lose control of the car and it took less than a second for him to involuntarily drive off the street while trying to stabilize it. With The SUV going straight into a nearby story and smashing through the display window.
Stephanie Gotts:
Her blue eyes slowly opened as she laid in a fetal position with a really soft blanket on top of her. "Hmmm...." A soft groan escaped her lips as she lazily sat up.
Rubbing her eyes slowly, Stephanie realized that she was still inside Gabriel's RV. Widening her eyes as she realized that she fell asleep there. "Umm..." It was morning and she was on top of the couch. Did I... It was obvious that she fell asleep there.
She noticed that there was a blanket and a pillow there. Causing her to immediately assume that it was Gabriel that put it there. A smile appeared on her face as a result of it.
But then she looked around searching for him. Immediately noticing that the door that leads to his bed was partially open.
Prompting Stephanie to slowly get up. Her shoes and her vest were off, the floor was cold but she ignored it, taking very slow steps towards the door.
Taking a peak on the other side, she saw that Gabriel was actually sleeping on the bed. He was sleeping on his belly while hugging the orange Pokémon plushie that he was drooling on.
You look so cute... Stephanie thought as she watched him sleep. Having to resist an urge to get in there and take that plushie's place, because she genuinely wanted to be embraced by him.
A blush appeared on her face as she remembered what happened yesterday, how her prayers were answered and he came to rescue her and Catherine, slaying that gross looking monster with a sword like a knight in shining armor.
Stephanie was still shocked how he managed to kill that monster with that strange looking sword, especially after she was forced to witness how easily it killed Malcolm.
The thought of Malcolm's death makes her want to vomit. It was an unbelievably gruesome way to die and poor Catherine had to watch her brother being ripped apart like that.
A sigh escaped her lips. Mostly because Gabriel told her that there are more of those monsters. One of them was bad enough, so several are just unbelievable.
Taking a deep breath, Stephanie ended up opening the door and entering the bedroom. Slowly approaching Gabriel's bed, getting on her knees and leaning on the edge of the bed in order to look at him up close.
Looking at his face as he continued to sleep peacefully, sensing his smell and hearing the sound of his breathing. Her gaze was focused on his lips, primarily the saliva that was falling on top of the stuffed toy's head. She bit her lower lip and almost instinctively extended her hand, carefully placing it above the stuffed toy's head. Watching it as Gabriel's saliva fell on her fingers, after a few seconds of it, she pulled her hand back and without any hesitation whatsoever, began to suck on her fingers that were covered with his saliva.
Ever since Stephanie left the shelter, she was constantly scared, worried , cold and a bit depressed. Feeling like a monster is going to show up at any second and kill her. But she wasn't feeling any of that right now. She felt safe, calm, warm and very happy.
Once she swallowed Gabriel's spit, Stephanie rested her head on top of the bed to take a better look at his face. Observing his features up close. His eyes, ears, nose, lips, cheeks, forehead, jawline, chin, forehead and eyebrows. His dark hair was really messy, and now that she took a closer look, she could tell that it was actually dark blond hair.
Mmm... Now I wonder what your last name is...? Stephanie asked herself what Gabriel's last name was. Maybe- She was about to try to guess just like she did with his first name.
But before she could.
"Mmmmm..." Gabriel grunted.
Causing the girl to widen her eyes and immediately drop down on the floor to hide since she has no way of explaining why she was watching him sleep.
"Ahh..." She heard him grunting as he sat up on the bed, prompting Stephanie to actually crawl under his bed to hide. Down there, she saw a few things under it. A guitar case, tabletop games (Dungeons and Dragons, Magic: The Gathering and Warhammer), a tool box, a cardboard box that was completely covered with duct tape, a small pile of laptops, a basketball ball that had UCLA written on it and a duffle bag.
Gabriel moved to sit on the edge of the bed, right where Stephanie was and she saw his feet from under the bed. He was wearing white socks, but there was a small hole on the heel of the left sock.
"Mmm..." He stood up afterwards and stretched himself a bit. Before he slowly made his way to the bathroom, closing the door behind him.
The second the door of the bathroom closed, she quickly crawled from under the bed and made her way out of his room, sitting on the couch and quickly laying back on it, completely covering herself with the blanket in order to pretend that she was still asleep.
It took about two minutes for him to get out of the bathroom and he immediately made his way to the kitchen where he opened the refrigerator. Stephanie watched him from the couch and saw him pulling out a bottle of water from it and gulping it down. She also noticed that he adjusted his hair.
Then he moved towards the stove, where he grabbed the same pot that he used to heat the water for the noodles that they ate yesterday and proceeded to fill it up. Then he turned on the stove and began to heat it.
As it did, he walked back to the bedroom, stood beside his bed, where he stretched himself in the way people teach you gym class. Then he turned around, placed both of his hands on the floor, placed both of his feet on top of the bed and began to do push ups. Not regular push ups, but clapping push ups with his feet elevated.
Stephanie laid there and watched as Gabriel did push ups.
One, two, three, four, five... She actually counted for some reason. Twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven... Her curiosity began to peak as she wondered how many could he do it. Forty-nine, fifty, fifty-one... It was actually quite impressive, especially considering the fact that Stephanie herself doubts she could even do three. Ninety-nine.... One hundred!
As soon as he did one hundred, Gabriel stopped, got back on his feet and picked up his glasses. It doesn't even look like he broke a sweat. Once that was over, he moved towards the stove where the water he put there was already hot. Then he checked under the sink, where he grabbed something that looked like a coffee pot, before grabbing a bag from a cabinet that seemed to be filled with grinded coffee.
Stephanie's curiosity reached an all time high now. Because she wondered how he got his hands on all that stuff. The shelter barely had access to basic necessities and there was a lot of people working hard to keep the place afloat, yet Gabriel had all of that stuff even though is highly improbable to find it
Gabriel finished making some coffee. Once it was over, he grabbed a cup that had Gameboy written on it and filled it up with it. Then he opened the cabinet once again that had a pot, that he opened and picked up what was inside with a spoon. She realized that it was sugar, putting two spoonfuls in his coffee.
As soon as his coffee was ready, Gabriel looked at the couch noticing that Stephanie was staring at him. "Ummm.... Good morning..." She shyly greeted him.
"I'm pretty sure this morning is going to be crap, but thanks for the sentiment." Gabriel replied sarcastically as he blew in his coffee. "Why exactly did you come here yesterday?"
That question caught her off guard, but she was quick to give an explanation. "Well... It was very cold and I really didn't feel safe up there." That was the truth, but the major reason was because she wanted to get close to him.
"And they just let you leave just like that?" Gabriel asked.
"I don't think they even noticed." Stephanie was sure of it. Catherine was completely devastated, Jonas was too busy discussing a plan with the others and everyone else was way more preoccupied with themselves.
"Considering that nobody came looking for you, that's probably it." Gabriel added.
Suddenly, someone tried to open the door of his RV. When they realized that it was locked, they started to knock on the door.
"Who is it?" Gabriel asked as he puffed his coffee.
"It's Jonas." He announced.
Gabriel moved forward and unlocked the door of his RV. "What do you want?"
"Look, me and the others have been talking about our next course of action and-" Jonas was talking but then he stopped once he saw what was in his hand. "Is that coffee?"
"Yup." He confirmed as he took a sip of it. "Again, what do you want?" Then he asked again.
"Me, Mr. Shelby and Garner talked about what we should do next and we-" Jonas began to speak, but he was interrupted by Gabriel.
"If you're going to ask for ammunition, food, meds or any of my stuff, the answer is no." Gabriel was quick to make that abundantly clear. "And if this "course of action" involves me doing something dangerous, fuck off." He turned around and moved back to his kitchen.
Stephanie had to cover her lips to hide her giggle since she can't believe he actually said that.
"Oh, so it's going to be like that now?" Jonas was obviously angry at what he said as he followed him inside.
"Did the roids affect your hearing or something?" Gabriel asked sarcastically as he made his way to the couch. "I'm bouncing out this damn city, so deal with this shit yourselves."
Hearing that made Stephanie widen her blue eyes. "Wait, you're leaving?!"
"Huh?!" Jonas made a surprised face when he saw her. "Why the fuck are you in here, Stephanie?!"
"Did you seriously only realize that she wasn't up there with the rest of you idiots now?" Gabriel asked him in fake disbelief. "I guess whoever hired you as a security guard was cutting corners." He sat down right besides Stephanie and placed his feet on top of the coffee table.
Jonas was about to say something in response, but Stephanie spoke first. "Are you seriously going to leave?" Stephanie asked in fear.
"Did you see that thing that killed Malcolm yesterday?" It was a rhetorical question. "Well, that thing was one of six and it's siblings are probably not gonna be happy that I killed one of them."
Hearing that made Stephanie immediately frightened. The prospect of five more of those and even more by the fact that Gabriel wouldn't be there to help them was beyond terrifying.
He moved his head to look at Jonas. "Look, the chances of finding the rest of your group just decreased exponentially now, and I really don't see any reason for me to keep looking because the risk outweighs any benefits." As much as Stephanie felt bad about it, Gabriel was right. They don't even know where to even start looking for the others and those monsters may find them at any moment. "Especially since I already wasted ammo and meds, alongside the fact that I lost my assault rifle, so I'd rather just cut my losses and move on."
Jonas sighed and rubbed his head in response. Probably because Gabriel had a point and since he doesn't know anyone from the shelter besides them, he has no reason to risk himself looking for them. "Look..." Jonas put his hands forward. "Garner wants to go to the hospital where the other soldier went to search for him." He began to speak and Gabriel listened closely as he continued to drink his coffee. "I know that is going to be dangerous, but you could find meds to replace the ones you used."
"That's an interesting idea, but I'm more curious about why are you asking me instead of going yourself?" Gabriel asked him in curiosity, and Stephanie was also curious about why Jonas wants Gabriel to go with Garner to search for the missing soldier.
"Because you're the only one here that actually knows how these fucking monsters operate." Jonas pointed out that very important detail. "An-" Before he could continue, someone else came into the RV.
It was Catherine, who clearly didn't sleep at all last night.
All three of them immediately looked at her and there was a very uncomfortable silence.
"This is the worst possible time to ask this but we might not get another opportunity later..." Until Gabriel broke it. "Would you like to recover your brother's body to give him a proper burial?"
It was indeed the worst possible moment to ask that, but at the same time, he was right about the possibility of them not getting another opportunity to do it.
...
...
...
Catherine didn't answer and gave him a look. But after a few seconds, she replied. "Yeah..., I would like to do that...." She spoke in a very weak voice, but it was understandable.
Gabriel nodded before he gulped down the rest of his cup. Before placing it on top of the coffee table and moving towards the driver's seat.
"Are you going there right now?" Jonas asked.
"Yes, if you're not going to help, bounce." Gabriel spoke as he sat on the driver's seat and turned the car on.
Jonas looked at Catherine and stopped talking before closing the door of the RV.
xxxxxxxxxx
It took less than twenty minutes for them to drive back to the spot where Malcolm was killed and for Gabriel and Jonas to recover his body. They wrapped his body around an old blanket and brought him back to the RV. Jonas was startled when he saw the Hive Baby and seemed to be on edge due to knowing that there was more of it around.
They drove back to the construction site right after. Where Gabriel and Jonas began to dig a grave for Malcolm. There was a lot of construction equipment left around and after some search, Gabriel found some shovels.
Stephanie, despite her fear, just stood there and watched as the two digged. They were doing it in a spot that was only a few steps away from where Gabriel parked his RV, so they didn't stay in the open.
Her blue eyes moved to look at Catherine, who was kneeling in front of her brother's body. Saying her goodbyes and weeping, she also took something from him. A nice looking golden watch, that she placed on her own wrist.
She also noticed that Mr. Shelby and Dacotah were watching it from the stairs. The rest were probably too afraid to descend from above, not that Stephanie could blame them even though she herself felt safer near Gabriel.
After a while, they both finished digging and Gabriel went to Catherine. Who, despite her crying state, allowed him to wrap his body up again after she gave it a kiss on the forehead, and take it to the newly dug grave that they made.
Stephanie walked towards it as Gabriel and Jonas lowered the body into the grave and proceeded to cover it. Catherine approached and stood there, watching as they buried her brother. It didn't take long for them to finish, once it was done.
"Réquiem æternam dona ei, Dómine, et lux perpétua lúceat ei." Gabriel began to speak in another language. "Et lux perpétua lúceat ei." But none of them interrupted him. "Requiéscat in pace." Then he made the sign of the cross. "Amen."
"Was that prayer?" Jonas asked in curiosity.
"The Eternal Rest prayer." Gabriel confirmed. "Sometimes, the best you can do is hope that the ones that went are in a better place now."
"Yeah..." Jonas agreed sadly. "Listen, I understand that helping us is against your best interest but..."
"I'm gonna go to the hospital to replenish my medical supplies and maybe search for this missing soldier." Gabriel declared. "After that, we'll see."
Stephanie sighed in relief, but the lingering fear of him leaving continued.
"Did anyone ask Garner about the other soldier that might have her nephew?" Gabriel asked Catherine and Jonas.
Both of them gave Gabriel a look that pretty much answered the question.
Her glasses wearing saviour rolled his eyes and sighed, before moving away from the grave and walking back towards the stairs.
Stephanie ended up following behind him. "You think he might know where they are?"
"Nope, but he can tell us if he's either capable or dangerous." Gabriel bluntly responded. "I'm almost certain that he was the one that beat up Malcolm, and the reasoning might be because he knew that he was going to turn into a Hive Zombie."
"Wait a second?" Catherine heard that and followed him. "Did my brother actually turn into one of those things?"
"She told me that he just got up and attacked the two of you." Gabriel reminded them. "He shouldn't have been able to do that with his injuries, and why would he attack his own sister willingly." Those were the facts that made Stephanie realize right away. "But the thing is, the transformation is almost instantaneous, so why did it take so long for him to turn?" That was a doubt that he had. They did see that other soldier transforming and it was right away, so Malcolm was out of the ordinary. "And we should have seen signs when we were patching him up, so transforming him just like that makes no sense." After saying that, Gabriel continued to make his way towards the stairs.
Gabriel reached the stars where Dacotah and her father were standing. But he ignored the two of them and simply climbed the stairs.
"Did something happen?" Dacotah asked them.
"We... We're simply discussing the details of Malcolm's death." Jonas spoke as he stepped a little too close to her.
"And what's the deal with the Christopher Reeve looking kid?" Mr. Shelby asked, with Stephanie wondering who exactly Christopher Reeve is.
"He wants to leave because the city is too dangerous, but I convinced him to help us a bit more." Jonas stated, despite the fact that Gabriel was mainly doing it for the supplies rather than them. "I'm hoping that maybe we can get the cars from that street and move everybody out."
Stephanie just walked past them and climbed the stairs after Gabriel.
Gabriel Castle:
All you had to do was get in the RV and bounce, but no... You had to continue to take unnecessary risks for a bunch of people that you don't even know. Gabriel scolded himself internally for his idiotic decision to continue to help. The hospital thing might be a good idea on paper, but if the soldier didn't come back, it was probably because he died. And what killed him is a cause of concern.
It didn't take long for him to reach the floor where everyone was. They were eating some canned food that Gabriel provided, mostly the stuff he would only eat if he absolutely had to.
He noticed the soldier sitting near what he assumed to be a family. So he approached him. Everyone noticed him right away with very confused looks.
Garner noticed him as he approached. "Wait, who are you?!"
Gabriel could not believe that level of ignorance. "Take a very wild guess, sir."
"Oh... Um... You're the guy that came with Jonas." Garner immediately figured it out. "Sorry, umm ... You look completely different without the outfit."
"Which is why I wear it in the first fucking place, now, can you answer me a question?" Gabriel wasn't actually asking. "You said that there were other soldiers with you, besides the one that didn't come back and the one that died, who are the others?" He asked as bluntly as possible. Then he heard steps coming from behind him and realized that Stephanie followed him up there.
"Well... Besides me and Cooper... There are JB, Rickson, Andreas, Jackson, Reynolds and Prekley."
"Okay, which of these guys were transporting civilians in a Humvee ?" Gabriel asked as he heard a few more steps coming from behind him. But he didn't even bother to look.
"I think the only one that went alone with a group of civilians was JB." Garner responded.
"JB?" Catherine recognized the name. "JB was driving the car that had Malcolm and Reggie?"
"I saw him getting in a car with a few others, but I didn't see if your nephew and brother were there. " Garner couldn't give them a straight answer.
"Well, I got the answer." Gabriel commented, there was a high chance that this JB actually had Catherine's nephew. "You can ask further questions if you want." He told Catherine as he was about to walk past them.
"Wait a second, Mr..." Garner spoke as Gabriel was about to walk away.
"Castle." He revealed his last name. "Gabriel Castle."
"Oh..." Stephanie smiled after hearing that for some reason.
"Mr. Castle, I want to go search for my partner and Jonas said th-" Garner was speaking but Gabriel interrupted.
"We're going in my RV, meet me there when you're ready." Gabriel stated before walking away, since that conversation was pretty much pointless.
xxxx
"Dammit..." As soon as he made his way downstairs, Gabriel immediately put on his usual outfit minus his trench coat and picked up his weapons. His G36K was completely ruined, leaving him without an assault rifle which was bad. Thankfully, he had other guns.
His weapon of choice for this search ended up being the Ithaca Model 37. This one was extensively customized with an extended magazine tube, a duckbill choke, a heat shield, a recoil pad and a buttstock shotshell holder.
While the most practical choice to search a building would be the MAC-10, he was half-expecting to find another Hive Baby there. While not ideal either, a shotgun blast will at least cause some degree of damage.
Gabriel also picked up his USP Tactical to check. The pistol was loaded with overpressure hollow point bullets. Designed to cause the maximum amount of damage. Just like his shotgun, the USP Tactical was customized with a hogue grip sleeve, a recoil reduction system, a night sight, a match trigger, a threaded barrel and a rail adapter. He also equipped a flashlight and a suppressor to it.
Last but not least, he grabbed his sword. He doesn't enjoy bringing it around, but it's his only reliable option to deal with a Hive Baby at the moment.
Once he was ready, all there was left to do was to wait for the other soldier. So he made his way to the driver's seat and checked the RV's condition.
Suddenly, the door opened and Gabriel moved his head to look behind him to see who it was. It was Catherine.
"Where is the other guy?" Gabriel asked as he moved his head back
"He's talking to Jonas and Mr. Shelby." Catherine informed him as she approached the seat.
"Hmm..." Gabriel was almost certain that the conversation somehow involved him, the degree which it does is a mystery. "If this is about your nephew, I'll keep my eyes open but I doubt that we will find him on our way to the hospital. "
"That's not why I am here..." Catherine stood behind his seat. "What exactly happened between you and Stephanie last night?"
"She knocked on my door, I let her in because she was standing in the middle of the cold, I gave her some homemade instant noodles and we ended up watching a movie." Gabriel bluntly told her about what happened the previous day. "Then she fell asleep on my couch and I went to sleep in my bed."
"Is that really all that happened?" Catherine pushed the point and Gabriel immediately realized where she was going with this.
"Are you trying to ask if we fucked or something?" Gabriel looked back to ask that.
"To put it bluntly." Catherine calmly confirmed.
Gabriel opened his mouth to respond, but before he could, he noticed Jonas, Garner, Mr. Shelby and Stephanie approaching the RV. "Here they are." So he stood up and moved towards the door, with Catherine doing the same. As he stepped outside, the first thing he said was. "Took your sweet time."
"I was just inspecting my gun." Garner held his M16A4 up, the gun looks like it is not in the best of conditions, so Gabriel can't blame him for being careful.
"Let's just go, the sooner we get this over with, the better." He told Garner while signalling him to get in as he turned around and faced Catherine. "And no, Stephanie and I didn't fuck last night, so you can drop the interrogation already."
"HUH?!" Poor Stephanie was immediately startled by Gabriel's words, with her face turning red in embarrassment.
"Oh boy..." Jonas uncomfortably scratched his head in response.
Garner didn't react, he just cleaned his throat and made his way to the RV.
"Really?" Catherine was clearly annoyed by Gabriel's announcing the subject of their conversation out loud.
"Really." Gabriel showed no shame whatsoever. "Now, will you excuse us?" He stepped to the side to make way for her to get out of the RV.
Catherine had a slight frown in her face, but she complied and left RV.
Garner quietly got inside with his weapon ready. "Let's... Just get going."
"Agreed." Gabriel unceremoniously walked towards the driver's seat and prepared to drive away. Taking a final peak to the trio, where he saw Stephanie frantically arguing with Catherine about her little interrogation about what happened between them last night. Gabriel just ignored it and drove out of that place.