On the second floor, just outside of Lily and Alice's apartment, Jason paced back and forth in front of their door. He was currently agonizing over how to thank Lily for saving his life.
"What do I even say? A quick 'Thanks' and fuck off like some inconsiderate douche wad?" He mumbled to himself, thinking no one could hear him.
Unfortunately, behind the door, Alice and Lily were listening to every word. They silently giggled to each other while they watched the big gorilla that could tear someone in half with his bare hands, struggling to say a simple thank you.
"But then what? It's not like I have a gift equivalent to my life. Then there's another fucker I have to thank. How do people even do this?" Jason grabbed his head and ruffled his long hair roughly.
"Fuck it! Stop being such a fucking pussy! We'll do this fast and rough! Like pulling off a band-aid!" Hyping himself up, Jason decided to just go balls to the wall and do it.
Stepping up to the door, he knocked loudly with one fist. But since he was hyped up, he used too much strength and hit the door so badly the wood cracked.
"Ah shit!" He had no idea what to do know and panicked slightly.
"Hahaha!" No longer able to contain themselves, the two sisters laughed so hard their stomachs hurt and opened the door.
Jason stood there gobsmacked and felt some embarrassment. Coughing slightly to clear his throat, he questioned them.
"So uh... how long have you been there?" With a grin, Lily replied.
"The whole time." Then came an awkward silence. Well, awkward for Jason as the duo continued giggling a little.
"I, uh, just wanted to say thank you for saving my life. I'm sorry I don't have a gift to give you or something. And... sorry about the door." While saying all that, his eyes looked everywhere except for Lily's face.
'Such a bitch. Just man up.' Jason thought of himself as a loser and finally stared at her eyes.
"Hehe, it's fine. I don't need a gift. But I will take a favor. And don't worry about the door." She didn't mind the dent. It would remind her of this interaction every time she saw it from now on.
"Favor?" He asked, confused.
"Yes, a favor. Something I will use later down the road." She said with a glint in her eye.
When Alice heard her sister, for some reason she felt a little nervous. But shrugged it off as nothing.
"Okay, no problemo! Anything you need and I'm your man!" Jason said enthusiastically as he pounded his chest with his right hand. This worked out much better than he hoped. With that, he happily went down the hall to Kevin.
Lily and Alice's watched him walk away with smiles.
"Your boyfriend's kinda cute." Lily said, eyes trailing towards Jason's ass.
'Nice. God, I'm so pent up.' She thought, biting her lip a little. Ever since the world ended, she hadn't gotten any form of release.
"What do you mean by that?" Her sister got defensive.
"Oh? Jealous?" Lily glanced at her little sister and teased her with a cat-like smile.
"You-" They walked inside their apartment and continued 'fighting'.
While the sisters bantered, Jason learned his lesson and knocked lightly on Kevin's door. Within a few moments, the door opened.
"Yes?" He asked dully, not really happy to be speaking with Jason.
Picking up on his lack of interest, Jason gritted his teeth a little before speaking.
"I just wanted to come and say thanks for saving my life. I owe you a favor." Once he said that, one of Kevin's eyebrows raised up slightly.
"Oh. Well, no problem I guess." He gave a little smile, a nod, and closed the door to continue his conversation with Zach who was shocked as he had heard every word.
Jason started leaving to go back to Killgore but suddenly, Bill called out loud enough for everyone to hear.
"Hey! Get your asses in here for the news!"
A few minutes later, the group surrounded Bill and his radio. Only after smacking it on the side, did a voice finally come through.
"-your host! Crazy Seven! I know you've missed me terribly, but we have no time for that. We got a lot to talk about today. Big things afoot. First and foremost, the weather. You might be asking yourselves why this matters. I'll tell you why.
A massive thunder and lightning storm is coming that will blanket half the U.S. and is going to arrive in a week, give or take. Usually, this wouldn't be a cause for concern. But not in these crazy times. We have it on good authority that when the storm hits, those pesky Nightmares will be able to roam during the day."
Everyone in the group got nervous at that. They had been lucky thus far with only having one incident. But who knows how long they could last?
"Now I understand I have new listeners coming in everyday to hear the news. Don't worry, I'll always repeat the weaknesses of all infected found for you newbies. Today, we got The Nightmares as it seems most appropriate. You got only one way to survive them. Two if you're feeling ballsy.
First, you need UV lights. Lots of them. Burns them bad enough to ward them off for the moment. But don't get cocky. They have lots of weapons in their arsenal to hit you from afar if they can't get close and personal. The second, is risky. You see, these things love to look down on everything they come across and are extremely arrogant. Makes sense when you figure they can slaughter pretty much anyone. Maybe, you could use that to set up a trap for them. Anyway onto other-"
Then, Crazy Seven went into a bunch of news that the group didn't much care for. What concerned them, were the UV lights.
"Has anyone found any?" Tyrone asked, hopeful they might get lucky. But he was disappointed when all he got were a bunch of no's and a few shakes of the head.
"Well, me and Alice could take a little trip to WalBlart." Jason said lightly with crossed arms.
"What? But that's-" Kevin began, but got cut off by Jason.
"-a good few miles away. I know. It would probably take us a few hours to walk from here to there and vice versa. If alone I could maybe cut that down to thirty minutes."
"I sense a but coming." Bill raised an eyebrow.
"But... why not bum rush the refugee camp? The distance is almost identical and we could find a hell of a lot more there. Maybe even a working helicopter? Problem is, we'd have to leave either tomorrow or the day after if we want to beat the storm." Jason finished, waiting for their thoughts.
"It almost sounds like you want all of us to come with." Zach jokingly said.
"I do. Me and Alice only have one pair of hands each. There's only so much we can carry."
"Then I guess we better start preparing." Tyrone agreed with what Jason said. Besides, he felt it was high time they started carrying their weight at least a little.
As they were talking about plans for the trip, Crazy Seven shut them up by speaking about something interesting.
"So here's something weird. My contact in the government was able to get some top-secret information about one of the Carriers. You know, the giant ships carrying a boat load of refugees. Anyway, he said they lost contact with a Carrier on it's way to a secret base for offloading. Thing is, they lost contact not only with the Carrier but the surrounding ships as well. It's like they were wiped off the map. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to get anymore.
Bouncing off that, let's get to the government seemingly abandoning multiple cities. Apparently, as my contact said, it was too dangerous to stay in the air. What does that mean? Maybe some mutated birds or something being attracted to the helicopters? Supposedly, they will be trying their rescue missions again but on the ground this time. Well, let's pray that goes well.
Oh no! It's that time again for me to get off. Sorry everyone for cutting it short today, got some things to take care of in the studio. But! Be sure to tune in tomorrow for an update on some special infected. There seems to be more and more of them popping up huh?" With that, Crazy Seven's voice stopped coming through and was replaced by static.
"Sure is a lot going on huh? Maybe the plan to escape via air isn't gonna work so well." Bill said.
"Still, going to the refugee camp is in our best interest for the moment." Tyrone said as the group began splitting up.
Soon, only Jason and Bill were left inside.
"Something you need boy?"
"Yeah, guess you could say that. I've got a bunch of alcohol I've been saving up. Wanted to turn them into molotovs but I'm not really sure how to go about it. I could try myself, but will probably burn the whole building down. Think you could teach me?" Jason asked with a smile.
"Sure could. But why the hell would I? We ain't friends."
"You can see it as repaying me for trying to kill me." He replied with a smirk.
'Damn. He's not wrong.' Bill sighed, then agreed.
"Fine, go get your shit. I'll teach you here."
"Thanks!" With a pep in his step, he happily went back to his room to fetch his alcohol.
A few minutes later and Jason returned with booze in hand. Bill began looking through them while explaining.
"Now, molotovs can be made using alcohol but it has to have a certain amount of proof. Usually though, we make em using gasoline." After separating them into two piles, he pointed at one of them.
"See these ones here?"
"Yeah?" Jason asked, confused as to what he meant.
"They can't be used. Don't have a high enough proof."
"You're kidding?!" Jason was shocked. Since over half of his alcohol was put into that pile.
"Afriad not. Now let's get started." Bill grabbed an empty bottle from nearby and held it up.
"First things first, the bottle. You need something just thick enough that it'll break on contact when you toss it. Understand?" Recieving a nod from his student, he continued by grabbing some of the good alcohol.
"Haa. What a shame. This is a damn fine one too. Anyway, next up is to fill it with fuel. You want to go up to about 3/4 of the bottle. Once that's done, you need your wick."
"Wick? Like John Wick?"
"What? No you moron, just some cut up fabric. It's used to light the fuel and not burn our faces off." Saying that, he grabbed a rag and cut it into pieces before shoving it inside the bottle.
"Don't wanna go too deep now. Just enough to touch the liquid. Get it? Next part is easy as pie. Just stuff some more shit into the mouth of the bottle, wrap a rag around it and add tape, and you're done." Bill said, finishing his work.
Jason clapped with excitement watching him finish.
"That was awesome. So it's my turn now?"
With that, they began making molotovs out of the rest of the usable alcohol. When Jason made his first one, he held it up to Bill for him to check.
"Not bad boy. Oh, this right here could've been better." He showed him where he went wrong with a tiny smile. Although he'd never admit it, he was enjoying himself.
A little while into the process, Bill spoke up about something.
"Uh... sorry about trying to, you know, kill you. Didn't want you coming up and taking a bite out of us."
At Bill's weird apology, Jason replied nonchalantly.
"Not a problem. Really. I would've done the same thing. No hard feelings." Though, that was a little lie. He even had the slight urge to snap his neck here and now, but he waited. For now at least. At his words, Bill sighed in relief.
For the next few minutes, they chatted together as they created more molotovs and slightly 'deepened' their relationship. When they were finished, eight bottles were sitting in a line waiting for use.
"Can't believe I can finally burn shit down." Jason said enthusiastically with a smile to his face.
"Thanks for the help." He said, extending a hand.
Bill, glad he wasn't called 'old man', gladly took Jason's hand in for a handshake.
"Not a bother. Went better than I thought. You weren't terrible to be around."
Chuckling, Jason grabbed the molotovs and walked out.
"You can keep the rest of the booze." At his words, Bill felt joy and instantly gained 2 stars of favorability. It had been far too long since he had a drink.
After Jason placed his molotovs safely inside his room, he went back downstairs after petting Killgore. It was time to find Usain Bolter. Beartrap in hand, he walked up to Alice and Lily's room and knocked on the damaged door. Only a literal second later did the door open to show a happy Alice.
"Hey Jason! What do you need?" She didn't know how, but she knew it was him at the door.
"I was gonna go out to search for Usain Bolter. I remember you saying you wanted to come with. So, wanna come?" Without hesitation, Alice replied.
"Yes! I'll go tell my sister then we can go." She closed the door and headed back in to inform her sister. If she didn't do this, she knew Lily would throw a fit about it.
Inside the room, after telling Lily she would be leaving with Jason, Alice found herself being hugged by her big sister.
"Be careful okay?"
"Yes Mum." She replied, rolling her eyes. Although it might seem like Alice disliked the constant worrying from Lily, she in fact loved the care she received from her.
Walking to back to Jason together, Lily noticed the beartrap in his hand.
"Where'd you get that thing anyway?"
Being asked that out of nowhere, Jason replied unconvincingly.
"Just... found it. You know?" Lily looked at him strangely, then asked something.
"You didn't... step in it... did you?"
"Pfft, what? Of course not! I'm not an idiot!" But Lily wasn't having it and started laughing.
"Whatever. Just tell the others I'm gonna set this up in front of the lobby doors. It'll be hidden under a pile of trash." With tears in her eyes, and holding her stomach, Lily teased him with a smile.
"Is that how you fell for it?"
"Oh fuck you asshole!" Jason stormed off with Alice trailing behind who was giggling at their interaction. They kept hearing Lily's laughter as they went down the stairs.
"Are you angry at her?" Alice asked, genuinely concerned if there were problems.
"Nah it's fine. Kinda fun even." As he said that, he moved the barricade out of the way and put it back into place when Alice crossed over.
After he placed the trap down in the middle of the lobby doorway, Jason grabbed some trash from nearby and piled it on top of the beartrap.
"Does it look convincing enough?" He asked his partner in crime.
"Hmm." Alice thought about it and rearranged a few things.
"It's gotta look more natural. Not all clumped together in one pile like what you did. It'll make people suspicious." She said while throwing trash all over the place. It looked far better than before.
"Huh, you're right. It does looks better. Nice work." Alice felt good hearing his praise.
"Do I win a prize?" She asked, looking up at his eyes with her arms behind her back.
"What do you want?" He had a feeling, but asked regardless.
Instead of saying it, she tapped on her lips with her index finger and waited. Smiling, Jason bent down and kissed her deeply on the lips. Wrapping her arms around his neck, Alice stepped on her tippy toes and leaned in. After a few minutes, they separated with heavy breaths.
"Happy?" Jason asked, feeling some arousal.
"For now." She replied, feeling the same way as Jason.
"Alright, enough dilly dallying." Calming themselves, they walked into the street and immediately saw a few infected there.
"Already? It's been day and there's already a dozen out here?" Jason asked confused. For a split second, he truly believed they spawned out of thin air like mobs in a game.
However, even after standing there for so long, none of them moved.
"Are they all blind?" At his question, Alice tilted her head and wondered the same.
Walking up to one of them wearing a green shirt, Jason noticed the infected make way for him. Thinking of something, Jason chased after this poor victim for the next minute. No matter what he did, the infected tried his hardest to get out of his way.
"Got ya!" Jason used one hand to grab him by the collar and easily lifted him up. The strange thing was, the green shirt infected went limp when caught.
"What? Are you playing dead?" Jason asked with an amused look and a chuckle. But the infected refused to move, even as he was shook roughly by his captor.
Feeling some boredom, Jason finally left the innocent soul alone and returned to his lovely partner. As for the infected, he stayed limp on the ground for several seconds until Jason had moved far enough away.
"Are they scared of you now or something?" She asked once he was next to her.
"Guess so. It's clear they see me, but it's like they're afraid or something. Kinda reminds me of the birds."
"Birds?" Alice was 50/50 sure this might be another insane rant, but unfortunately it wasn't. The last one was entertaining.
"When I woke up this morning some infected birds were fighting over something. I made a little too much noise and they noticed me, but they immediately ran away from me."
They both thought on it until they spoke up at the same time.
"I got it!" "I got it!" They looked at each other and laughed.
"Probably because of me eating the Juggernaut right?" Jason said first.
"That's what I was thinking. Maybe they are starting to see you as one of them? Or perhaps as one of the special infected? They know they can't beat you so they try to get out of your way." This was the only explanation that made sense to her.
"Should I be worried about turning into one of them?" Concern was all over his face. He definitely didn't want to lose his mind and his sense of self.
"Hm. Well, maybe? If that's the case then you'd have to stop eating them."
Remembering the incredible changes, Jason refused to quit. He needed more.
'Not like I'm addicted or anything.'
"I won't stop. Besides, what if they get stronger through eating as well? I'll need to become as powerful as possible."
"Just... be careful." Alice grabbed his hand and squeezed lightly. Jason gave her a smile and together they walked towards the same alley Usain Bolter use to frequent. Hand in hand.
The other common infected lingering on the street saw the whole interaction and were extremely confused. Why was the monster talking to thin air? Was he insane?
But it had nothing to do with them. They were just glad he was leaving. Especially the green shirt one. He even had the urge to cry in joy.
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In a secret underground base underneath the White House, dozens of people were sitting at a large round table. Above ground, the countless refugees had no idea a meeting was taking place with the highest authority within the country under their feet.
President Jones looked around the room, as these 'dignified' people argued like children, and sighed. The situation with the world was far worse than what people believed, even that Crazy Seven person was ill-informed.
"Oh quit your nonsense you little shit! We need to kill them all, not study them like lab rats!" One of the generals, named Larry, shouted in rage as he banged his fist on the table. A few veins were bulging out of his bald head, showcasing his anger.
"What nonsense?! We need to figure out how they operate! It is vital if we want to find a solution to both beat this virus, and the mutated infected!" The short, but handsome, young man who was arguing with him was one of the top virologists in the country.
Opting to ignore this midget whose entire existence is meant to infuriate him, Larry instead turned towards the President.
"Mr. President. Please, give the order to launch a tactical nuke on the city of Seattle." His loud voice silenced the room. Some widened their eyes, while others nodded their heads in agreement.
This was one of the things people didn't know. The reason why they had abandoned Seattle, is because it is already lost. The entire city was declared a dead-zone filled with only infected. Their last mission into there was met with complete disaster as they had encountered a new type of infected.
"I can't." President Jones said softly.
"Mr. President, I'm sure-"
"I said... I can't. No one can." His words shocked the room, until Larry spoke up.
"What do you mean sir?"
"Ever since Chinna dropped their nuke, no one has been able to launch their own. Even the dictator of Germany tried, but failed. And I already have a theory about why." He didn't say anything further, but instead pointed up at the sky.
Some were confused, until they released something.
"You mean, those aliens are stopping us?" President Jones nodded his head at his question.
"Yes. You've seen the level of technology they possess. Stopping us from activating our nukes must be child's play to them." He paused for a second before continuing.
"There's nothing that can be done, for now at least. We'll figure something out later. For the moment, let's listen to Melanie." Everyone turned their attention to a beautiful woman in a black business skirt.
Melanie, who was holding documents, cleared her throat before speaking.
"Thank you Mr. President. Now, I'm sure everyone here is aware of Carrier 413 and surrounding ships suddenly disappearing." Many nodded their heads at this.
"Well, we have new information that has come to light. First, we have confirmed that all the ships have been destroyed. All hands were lost." Before she could continue, Larry asked a question in a solemn tone.
"How many people died?" At that, Melanie sighed lightly.
"If we are going off the last time they reported the number of passengers aboard across all ships, then the amount would come in at around 20,000 people at a minimum. With the majority being refugees." Her words stunned everyone, while a few even cried at the loss of life.
"Moving on. The second and last thing, was their last transmission. I will play it now." Melanie nodded her head at a person sitting close to her, who pressed a few buttons on his computer. Soon, everyone could hear a frantic voice echo throughout the room
"Holy hell! There's a massive goddamn shark in the water! It fucking capsized one of the Destroyers! Jesus Christ! Here it comes again! Get dow-"
When the transmission ended, the short virologist from before spoke up.
"This is incredible!"
"I know right?" A marine biologist said.
"A spectacular find. What else can this virus do I wonder? If we can harness it's power for our own..." At this scientist's words, several people in the room became excited and even licked their lips.
Larry, outraged, stood up and shouted while being held back by multiple people.
"You pieces of shits! I oughta break your fucking jaw!"
"I wouldn't expect an inbred moron like you to understand!" Again, the midget pushed his buttons. This time however, it was past his breaking point.
"Oh that's it you son of a bitch!"
And once again, arguments began flying across the room. A few even came close to throwing punches at each other.
President Jones sighed as he looked upon them. Instead of uniting against a seemingly extinction level threat, they found it more prevalent to fight amongst themselves. He brought his hands together, and prayed.
'Oh Lord, hear my prayers. Please save us from these dire times. We need you now more than ever. Where are you?'
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Underneath the sea, consuming thousands of frightened humans trying to swim away, was a gigantic shark of around 100 meters long. The sheer size of this monstrosity would send chills down even the bravest of men's spines.
All across it's extremely durable skin were giant spikes designed for both defense and offense. Inside of it's mouth was an assortment of razor sharp teeth meant to deal as much damage as possible. Even it's fins were outfitted as weapons, being able to slice through metal as easy as cutting paper.
As the shark happily finished off the last human who had drowned to death, it heard a loud roar coming from the dark and void depths below. Quickly, the seemingly very dangerous creature swam away in terror. There was a reason it stayed closer to the surface. Monsters far more terrifying than it, lurked below in the darkness.