Chapter Text
Past
More than one person protested, calling the leader insane. A discussion started between the civilians, such turmoil escalated and started involving cops and the cult’s individuals. Once another shot was heard, screamings started.
They carefully stepped through the corridor, lowering themselves as they approached the intersection where there were less civilians, where another shot was heard, people ran, cops and cultists started to shoot, and zombies were released.
Once they passed by the intersection, Karen was grabbed from behind.
“Where do you think you are going?” The cell’s guard voice.
“Let her go!” Angela let out.
Karen thrashed against the man’s hold, one of her hands trying to free her neck from pressure as her opposite one tried pushing him away, yet she was pulled to a corridor, Angela and Soledad tried to pull her back, yet the man kept his hard grip on her.
“Come on!”
Karen blinked while gasping for air, her free hand found the guard’s belt, his gun in the holster. She pulled the trigger, the shot got in his leg and he screamed in pain, which gave her a second to fully take the gun and shot him in the abdomen before turning towards him and shooting him in the head.
“Karen?”
Whoever's voice it belonged to, Karen could not identify, her hands shaking as she put the gun down and kneeled on the floor, searching on the guard’s body, where she found two keychains.
“Karen!”
She looked at her own bloody hands, the blood pooling on the floor and soaking her knees.
Karen's eyes wide as she looked up, there were more people coming. Karen handed the gun to Soledad, and a car keys, “Get out of here.” She whispered, “I will distract them.”
“What about you?” Angela interrupted.
“No, you are coming with us.” Soledad spoke in a low tone as well.
Karen opened her mouth, yet she heard steps approaching, “Go.” Her voice almost soundless, she stood up, made herself half visible.
“Hey, What are you doing?”
Karen ran away in a straight line, the cops followed her as Soledad and Angela took another path behind. She crossed a corridor, turned left, and got in the only door she knew exactly what key to use, the one of the cells' area.
The door was locked and a chair was placed in front of it. Karen took a breath and looked down at her hands, feeling like ants crawled on her skin until she noticed the undead guttural sounds.
Karen slowly stepped ahead, Poindexter looked up in alert, and returned to his regular mood once he noticed Karen, “Where is the guard?” his voice neutral, his noisy breathing controlled.
“Dead.”
“What is happening out there?”
Karen's eyes slipped to the zombie cuffed inside the cell, her hand gripping hardly at the keys of the bars and cuffs.
Poindexter's eyes empty as he stared at her, no begging, no fear, only hollowness as she stood in front of the closed bars.
She should leave him there.
She wanted to leave him there.
If not killed by the cultists and cops, he would be eaten by zombies, or die from starvation. Yet Cobalt wanted him alive, back to being healthy as soon as possible-
The cell was open, Karen cursed herself of every single name of the book as she approached Dex, who stared at her in blank eyes, watching.
“Who shot you?”
“Does it matter?”
“Answer the fucking question.”
“Members of “The last wave”.” He spoke lower, his breathing heavy, “A cult.”
“Do they wear black hoods and keep zombies on leash?”
“Are they here?”
“Cobalt is one of them, he wanted you alive and healed. Why?”
“I don't know.”
Karen stood, “Yet you do have an idea.”
“Finishing their job-.”
“Then why would he want you alive?”
“I don't know, they infect or kill injured people.”
“I got complaints over the fact you were not healing fast enough.”
Poindexter took a wheezing breath while staring at her, “They made an ambush, killed the assent I was escorting, I lost-.”
“And only you got out of it alive, not suspicious at all.” she rubbed her forehead.
“You opened the-”
Both of their gazes went away as they heard a click from the door, and the chair being moved.
“Take these off.”
“Fuck you “ Karen thought, her shaking hands reached Poindexter's wrist, what was she doing?
“Hey!” Someone's voice coming from the corridor, followed by approaching steps.
The key reached the other cuff.
“Hands up! Step away from him.”
Karen could feel her own nape pulsing as her hand turned the key.
“I said move!”
She looked up at the cop who pointed her weapon at them, yet the keychain was taken from Karen's grips, her hands slowly started going up as she took a step ahead.
She blinked, barely catching the view of a key hitting the bar of the zombie's side and going directly into the cop's head.
More shots were heard, from the outside, the zombie in the cell was killed by another key.
Karen turned back to Poindexter, he stared at her as if nothing happened.
“Don't look at me like this, she was about to shoot you.” He briefly placed an arm over his chest.
Karen’s lips curled in disgust, even though she couldn't tell if that cop was part of the cult.
Poindexter grimaced while standing up, supporting himself on both walls while keeping his head and spine straight, rubbing his middle back, making circular movements with his side’s arm, he tried to take a step, standing without support, yet both attempts were failed.
Karen watched in silence, using his brief reaction from pain to grab the rest of the keys he held before approaching the fresh corpse.
“You need me.”
“You mean the opposite.” she took the fallen gun, soon finding the extra ammo and a small holster, in which’s knife was smeared with a brown fluid.
“I don't know why the cult is here.”
“Do you think I believe it?”
They both went still as another sound came from the door.
Poindexter stretched an arm towards Karen, “Give me that.”
“No.”
“Hey!” a male voice.
“You keep the next one.” He grimaced as he lowered himself, suddenly gasping as he threw himself on his knees, “Get down.”
Karen opened her mouth as the gun was snatched from her hand, she lowered herself as steps approached, Dex shot once, one cop was down, then a second, on the third shot the bullet ricocheted before fatally hitting the man’s chest.
Karen took a breath, her hands still shaking as she approached the bodies, soon she noticed the third one had a small knife, its blade smeared in dirty.
Her gaze slipped to the side as she took a corpse’s gun.
Poindexter took another body’s weapon, reached their pocket, found another extra ammo, which he held up in her direction.
Karen barely stared.
“Take this one-.”
“What the-”
“It is better balanced.”
Her raging eyes turned to him.
“We need each other.” he grimaced while sitting up.
“Fuck off.”
“How many targets can you take down with one bullet?”
She stared while standing up
Dex tried standing as well by himself, “Then why did you come here?”
“I was cornered.”
“See? We-.” he supported himself on the wall taking a pause before standing fully straight as Karen snapped.
“Fucking shut up.” she rubbed her forehead, her eyes slipped away as an explosion was heard, and more approaching steps.
“Karen?” His voice monotone.
Her jaw clenched as she put one of the cops’s belt around her waist, she should leave him there, maybe even kill him herself, yet it would put him would be putting him out of this reality-
“Come on!” an unknown voice
And she didn't know who many people were coming.
Karen placed the locked gun and put it on the belt’s holster, she held Poindexter by his waist, helping him to get closer to the bars just in time for one bullet to hit two cultists at once, another bullet got placed in the forehead of a cop. Dex placed the arm of his bad side over her shoulders as they passed by the fresh corpses, her eyes slipped to a just fallen cultist as they stepped in the corridor, another two cops and a fast zombie as they turned on an intersection that led to a corridor with larger width and louder screams and groans.
“Marciel, wait. Wait. No-” the yell was followed by an explosion, which threw away both.
Karen slipped on the floor until friction made her spontaneous stop, Poindexter's injured side hit a corner, his ribcage took most of the blow.
Karen's ears ringing as she crawled towards him, turning briefly as a fast zombie approached while taking the gun from the belt, unlocking and shooting three times at the undead, on the chest, collarbone and head, thanks to the awkward way she held the gun.
Karen rocked Dex’s shoulder, “Wake up.” And slapped his face, her gaze catched a cult member approaching, a gun in his hand, yet she shot him before he could raise it.
Poindexter opened his eyes, his wheezing and shortness of breath got worse as Karen placed his arms around her shoulders to help him stand up.
“Come on.” She spoke it like a curse while pulling Dex harshly, his free hand briefly touching his chest as the fallen cult member held up a dirty knife and cut his own neck.
Poindexter stood in a curved posture while supporting himself on Karen, opened his mouth and left out a rasping sound, gasping for air as they stumped to the opposite direction of the shots. They both looked behind themselves for a second as Dex positioned himself properly on Karen's support, the cult member started convulsing.
“Shit.” Karen let out, the last time she saw a dying person convulsing on that way, they became an agile infected.
They stepped down the corridor, Karen blinked as Dex shot three times, and three people fell dead, his wet rasping breathing seemed to get worse as they increased their pacing.
Five shots, three people, two zombies.
Karen stretched a hand towards one of the exit doors, her eyes going behind herself as she touched the doorknob, a zombified cult member ran in their direction, until Poindexter shot on its head.
The door was open and they walked into the freezing outside, stepping ahead towards the block's back street, a few more shots were made by Dex as Karen led the way, her eyes going up to car that unexpectedly stopped right in front of her, its light lights on, illuminating the zombies down on the road, slowly moving, approaching to each other while heading the path to the unnecessary chaos at the dp.
“Come on, Karen, get in!” An urge from a famíliar voice, the car’s backdoor was opened.
For a second, Karen looked behind herself, as an undead from the forming horde was shot in the head, such a deafening sound was followed by screams, more shots from both the dp and the murderer she held, the man whose breathing hot louder wet and rasping. Karen threw herself into the car, Dex going in with her and failing in an awkward way until she pulled his legs in, closing the door just in time for the car to start moving.
A larger explosion was heard, Karen used her hands to support herself on the backseat as her spine was pressed against the front seat’s back, her eyes at the fire coming from the dp, and as they got deeper in the road, more buildings on fire were seen, and the number of zombies decreased.
Her gaze went down, Poindexter was gasping for air, he was already losing movements from his body, the gun failing down from his grip until Karen took it herself as his eyes started to close.
“What is-”
“He can't breathe.” Her hand touched the side of his neck, yet they had to drive until there were trees high enough to hide the car. Karen pulled his shirt up, which showed his spine surgery's scar, his body limp as she pulled it off.
“Hold his arm above his head,” Soledad instructed while putting the gloves from the box they found in the car’s dashboard compartment, these weren't the sterile type, the ideal for this procedure, but better than nothing. “I will make a incision-”
Dex opened his eyes, yet he did not move as Karen held him while Soledad used a scissors shaped tool with her finger to punctuate in the clean cut she just made.
Poindexter gasped air as the pressure on his lung got relieved, his gaze going up to Karen as his wound was sutured
“This may fail as we don't have a chest tube.” Soledad explained while placing a gauze on the new cut before returning to the front seat without leaving the car.
Karen placed Poindexter sitting up, his good side leaning on the locked door, soon he paced out as she leaned her head on the seat’s supporter.
Present
Karen wondered what her past self would think, in this situation, or even her company. Killing was a last resort, done once no other options were available, she had thought like this her entire life, even if the action itself did eat her up on the first time it had to be done. A kill or die moment, in which she chose the first option, and ended up pulling the trigger seven times.
Now depending on who stood in her way, she shot without thinking once, such an act had become a past life luxury, from a broken system dynamic, in which could always be corrupted at some point by the right person with enough power.
“He was telling the truth, it seems.” Dex spoke lowly, pointing to the half smashed, still moving zombie on the asphalt, “We are walking into a trap, and there is a mole in the school.”
She took a breath, her gaze went up to the gray sky for a second, “Or maybe they started to use that place to take supplies recently.” Karen looked behind herself, keeping a hand close to her gun as they walked between the trees beside the road.
Dex looked behind, “It is a squirrel.” He signed away.
Karen looked up to the oddly moving leaves, catching a glimpse of the furry animal, soon her attention returned ahead.
“We should go back to the shelter.”
She eyed him with a sneer, “If we are lucky we will arrive there late at night, so then we are suspected of being a mole.”
“Not you, they will suspect me.” he signed to himself
“Guess who will have to spend hours convincing them of the opposite?”
He let out a laugh, it sounded almost like a bitter complaint, yet it was just the odd way he laughed, “I thought you would have me as suspect as well.” he looked behind briefly, just in time to catch Karen rolling her eyes in annoyance.
She crossed her arms, looking up to the heavy darkening sky, dry freezing wind hitting her face as they walked ahead, stopping by once the radio tower became visible, close to it there was a small house, and a bit far away there were three barns visible from the position they were.
The closer one had one hooded guard roaming, who was soon put down, Karen and Dex approached, soon noticing strange sounds coming out of it.
“Where Theo?” The low voice coming from inside it awakened undead groans and pulling chains, someone complained, yet the exact words were muttered.
Karen and Dex hid behind a horse cart, watching as two hooded figures headed towards the house at the entrance, yet their attention was drawn to a sound made by a small rock’s impact hitting the agricultural truck’s window close by, once both were close enough, they approached the half open barn, its ground stained with dirty and rotten, on the outside there was a kind of antechamber, in which four bodies ranging upside down above the ground, a bucket had been placed under each of their head, that still dripped blood.
Karen grimaced, recognizing each of those limp bodies ranging far away, there was no movement, no breathing… Dex look behind his shoulder, she returned to her pace as they sneaked beside the wall, ignoring the high amount of guttural groans on its internal side, she followed Dex until what seemed to be a large garage, empty from anything except for their two cars and the trucks that had been spotted earlier.
One person walked in a truck, turned it and left, another person closed the garage’s door, once the truck was far enough, they approached, which made a wooden church visible. A cultist almost caught them as he passed by the corner they hid, yet Dex quickly buried a knife on his neck as Karen checked behind them, the corpse was left close to the wall.
“Where are the keys for this car?” A voice coming from inside the makeshift garage.
“Sister Haine got them.”
Karen and Dex approached the entrance.
“What for?”
The two cultists were visible.
“So we leave only if she allows it.”
“Same for the map?”
“Yeah-”
A third cultist approached the door, Dex pushed a knife on his neck up to the head.
“What the-”
Another two knives and the cultist were dead.
Karen looked around as Dex checked the inside while still using the cultist’s body as shield, his elbow bumped Karen’s arm and they both stepped in the garage, where the fresh corpse was dumped on a corner, before they headed to the church, where three more cultists were silently eliminated.
“What is-” another cultist before receiving a fatal blow, she wore a golden necklace, had a long keychain around her right wrist and in her robe’s pocket, there was a folded map.
Karen took the map carefully, her eyes landing on the parts colored in red, New York City was fully painted, and a few x’s around, the storage they went earlier had been marked. She looked around, searching for more clues, the place was just like a regular church, yet poorly built, the floor’s old wood cracked with each step, the map was placed in her small bag hidden between her shirt and coat.
Dex took the keys as her eyes landed on a decayed zombie, chained to the altar.
“Karen?” Dex called as she stepped ahead.
Her eyes wide as she approached, “No-” she let out before getting suddenly pulled back.