Looking down on the now rather filled parking lot Logan and Akane worked with the supplies they brought up to start clearing the hoard. sitting on a table were a few buckets, multiple glass containers of varying size, and the ingredients to make some homemade napalm. Akane was slicing up some cleaning rags they found in the janitor's supply closet before dunking them in gas and then stuffing them in the slowly filled jars and bottles. Logan was mixing more batches as the morning sun slowly drifted up for the day. The dawn of the second day in the apocalypse of rage zombies looked good as the couple had fixed some stress points in the survivors.
Luda was not infected, the guards were cooling off still in a locked down section of the mall, and Logan had gotten started to make up a rooftop hydroponic farm on a section of the roof. right now they were preparing for the next wave of survivors by cleaning up the dead down below before they crashed in. Akane looked up and saw Andy, the gun shop owner, walk out in the early morning to take stock of the situation outside. She elbowed her husband and he looked at her before looking over where her gaze landed. He stopped mixing and grabbed the sign he pulled from an office store and wrote out a greeting.
Andy read it with his binoculars and seemed to take note of the work we were doing and asked why. Logan simply said burning the dead with a ;) at the end of the sentence. Akane shook her head with a giggle at her husband's use of old text emotes, but then realized that they were back in 2004 and that meant this was the texting lingo at the moment.
"Wait, when did the first mainstream smartphone come out?" she asked as she lit one of the jars and gave it a good chuck into the hoard. The sticky and ever burning substance shattered on a zombie and his fellow dead around him igniting due to the lit rag sparking a powerful flame that had the dead screaming and shaking at the sensation of contact and flame on their bodies. Logan went back to stirring as he answered.
"Around this year I think, why?" he asked. Again another jar was lit and thrown striking more undead and causing a bigger fire.
"Nothing too important, just a wandering thought" she answered while throwing a third Molotov into the hoard to light up another patch. At this point the fire was spreading nicely to the tight group of walking dead and the two finished up making a few more cocktails and leaving them covered up in a box. As they watched the slowly growing fire together Akane smiled while Logan turned on the boombox and played the CD they grabbed from the electronics store. Early 2000's pop rang out and the two started to sway slowly as they watched the hoard burn away. Andy on the other roof watched the pair with his binoculars and visibly flinched at the calm and happy expressions on their faces.
"Are they fucking dancing?" he mumbled to himself as he watched the two slowly sway side to side. The act gave a clear look at the psyche of the two and it wasn't healthy. Strangely though the man also grew sad at not having someone like that with him. He dropped the binoculars and just gazed at the growing fires of the dead to help clear his thoughts. high stress could warp a mind to think and feel strange thoughts he supposed.
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With a crash a green colored rig blew into the parking lot of the mall, tracked by a small crowd of dead. The driver, a woman in her late forties to fifty's, one handed the rig while aiming a snub nose revolver outside her shattered window. Her driving arm was gripped in the hand of a particularly aggressive undead who was inches from her flesh. The force applied to the arm forced her to swerve back and forth, making her gun sway unsteady. Still, she got lucky as her panic shot killed the dead and allowed her to steady the rig.
On the roof stood the out of place couple, who watched the struggle for mere moments until the roof door slammed open to the group looking panicked. They ran up and gazed at the truck's struggling drive.
"We need to help-what the!?" Ana started to plead before her brain caught up with her eyes. The rest of the group also caught up as well and noticed the Burnt remains of the massive hoard that existed the last time they were outside. The smell hit them next as cooked pork wafted into their nose, disgustingly eliciting a thought of hunger for breakfast. The couple meanwhile got started as Akane grabbed a mega phone they got from a toy store, while Logan picked up the scoped hunting rifle and took aim.
"Head to the loading dock out back, will meet you there" Akane shouted out through the phone. Her words were punctuated by the crack of Logan's rifle picking off the following crowd of dead one by one. The truck heard the command and swerved to head to the back with Logan handing the rifle to the cop.
"Cover us from up here" He commanded and the Sgt. nodded while rushing over to the other side. The rest of the group ran over with the man to morbidly watch while Logan, Akane, Andre, and Michael ran down stairs to meet up with the truck.
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As the truck made it to the back with a still decent crowd of undead running along, Logan and Akane posted up at the back entrance door. Michael and Andre, who showed reluctance to help, were behind them.
"Alright, me and Logan will head out and deal with the dead while you two help the survivors get in" Akane directed while Logan chambered a round in his shotgun. He loaded a fresh round before posting up behind Akane who had an assault rifle in hand. She chuckled as they waited for the truck to get ready, "finally putting our date nights to good use." Logan huffed out a smile as he remembered the live combat training his lovely little wife considered a weekend date night. She always craved chaos in every form to the point her family nearly sent her to a psych ward before she met Logan.
Logan wasn't much better, but his late father tempered it with hunting, martial arts, and backbreaking labor at his uncle's farm every summer till his eighteenth birthday. As the two got lost in memories the truck banged at the loading door and everyone tensed. With a push they popped open the door and rushed outside. The crowd was a bit of a ways back but a few were near the door. With trained, yet inexperience, movement Akane started to put down the few near with single rounds to the head.
Logan followed, shotgun up, covering her back, earning a kill from a hidden dead behind a dumpster. The two rushed forward and past the rig to cover the survivors.
"Shit, where are they?" Andre said before both he and Michael looked up to see the driver and passenger climbing a ladder up top.
"Get back inside, we're fine here" Ana yelled as Akane started to pop the dead one after another as Logan kept an eye on their surroundings.
"There's people inside the trailer!" The rig driver shouted as she climbed up to the roof of the mall. Hearing this Logan tapped Akane who was in a crouched firing position, signaling to move back. She rose and continued to send round after round into the rapidly approaching crowd. Andre and Michael had already ran back inside and were holding the door for the two as they quickly backpedaled into the mall. With a final pop of gunfire from one of the remaining dead they shut the door.
Clicking the safety back on their guns the group breathed out in relief. That relief however differed as the two survivors were glad to be back inside, while the couple grinned in satisfaction at finally putting the drills to use. The fact that their actions were unnecessary never crossed the two's minds.
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Meeting back up with the group of both old and new survivors and were greeted with seven new faces. Three of which were injured to different degrees with a lady in a wheel barrel the worst. Akane and Logan eyed the two out of three that were clearly bitten but didn't comment as it was better for the nurse to work it out. As much as they wanted to take full control they also didn't want to come off as quick to kill the group, given they would be living together. Luckily the firing session outside and Molotov morning scratched the itch of her trigger finger.
Logan took her hand in his as they watched everyone split up to rest and Akane gripped it lovingly. she pulled it up to her lips to kiss before breaking off and spinning to face him.
"I'm going to take a sink shower and get rid of this stupid uniform, you help the nurse," Akane said while smiling and walking away. Logan watched her go, his eyes watching her purposefully swaying hips that told of her rising libido. with the mundane world behind them in this new reality of theirs her control on her wants had started to fall away. He wasn't much better as he turned and followed the group heading to a furniture store in the mall. as he walked his mind wandered to the thoughts of this new life and how long they would last before getting bored.
When he entered the store Ana was checking the highly infected woman with the youngest security guard looking over her shoulder. Everyone turned to him and the young guard flinched as Logan stared at him.
"He's better helping then locked up with the other two" Ana said. Logan looked at her and then the guard before nodding and posting up on a wall to watch. The nurse got back to assisting the woman before checking on the bitten father. during her checking of him the woman gasped out a few more times before she passed fully. Ana checked her pulse and breath, nearly ending her life then and there before declaring her dead. "did anyone know her name?" she asked the few who came with her. no one answered and looked saddened at the death. A moment later the woman's body rose up and Logan watched on with chuckle. he reached down and popped the safety strap to his knife holster while watching the dead walk again.
"Oh SHIT!" the security guard said while running past the nurse and Logan. Ana tensed as the dead locked on to her and screamed raspy murder while getting up to run. she didn't make it a step before twelve inches of tempered steel sunk into her head, dropping her in an instant. Everyone paused before looking over to Logan whose face was hidden due to his raised arm.
"Bullseye" he whispered before hiding the smile on his lips and looking stoic as he walked over and pulled his knife out of the dead woman's head. He cleaned it carefully before turning to the nurse. "You good?" he asked and she nodded. He nodded back before walking out of the store to find his wife. the others could handle the rest as far as he was concerned.