ZRP-2 Chapter 7: Mutation

"Well," James said. "Eve and I are looking for a new bow for her. Feel free to grab anything that looks interesting though." Before he made for the gate, he stopped. "Oh, one last thing: the dead. They've mutated. Some of them can run now, so be careful."

"Any arrows you can find would be pretty helpful, too." Eve added.

Jen frowned. "Run? Great. Whats next, they become armored and throw explosives sacs of skin at us?"

"Let's hope that running is all they do." God help them all if there were other mutations out there. Walking to the gate, he nodded up at the two guards on the wall, who returned it and opened the gate enough for them to walk out. "Stick close, and don't do anything risky."

Jen followed as Eve stayee close to James. "I like being alive, thanks." She chuckled. "Tyler might play hero but we'll be ok."

"They can run now? What in the..." My face takes a grim expression. "Alright, so sports stores, gotcha." I walked forward with them.
"Unless I have to, I won't be doing anything stupid." I reassured her. Or maybe myself.

Walking down the empty street was oddly....normal at this point. Even now, two years after the outbreak and the fall, an empty street wasn't strange to James. It was normal to him. And that frightened him.

Eve had drawn her handgun, walking with it at the ready.
It was just too quiet for her tastes.

It was strange, everything being this quiet. "I wonder what it looks like, seeing one of them run." I thought out loud.
Then I pop open the safety belt on my holster and just let my hand rest on top. I was jumpy with this new knowledge, I didn't want to accidentally hurt someone.

"It's scary, I'll tell you that much," James said, though his voice was quiet as to not attract any walkers....or runners. "The ones I saw even screamed. Not really a scream, but just some kind of loud snarl or something." He had no idea how to describe what he heard, but more importantly he had no idea where to go. "Anyway, keep your eyes peeled for a gun shop, or a sport shop. One of the two has gotta have what we need."

Eve looked around. "Nothing." She reported. "Lets move onto the next block."

Jennifer stayed near Tyler, the rifle she had been given held at the ready.

As they moved down the street......the dead occupiers began to wander, as if sensing the presence of the living. From within broken stores or vacant alleys, they lumbered into the light. "Let's pick up the pace people. Don't fire a shot unless necc-" he was cut off when he heard a loud, all too familiar sound. It wasn't a scream.....more of a shriek or high pitched rasp. But he knew very well what it was: a runner. Turning his head, he saw the new form of the dead, already breaking into a run for the group. "Fuck! Fire at the runner!" And without further ado, he aimed his pistol and fired.

Eve snapped her pistol up as Jen raised her hunting rifle. A trio of shots from Eve and two shots from Jen slammed into the Runner's chest.
"We should start running." Jen said.
"Throw a flare!" Eve replied to that.

"Not sure I have any!" James shouted, planting his firmly on the ground in a stance, pistol in both hands. His next shot nailed the runner between the eyes, and it went down. But the shriek alerted other walkers, who were now lurching towards the group. "Just move! Move and keep your gun ready!"

Eve scooped up a rock and chucked it at a store window, shattering some intact glass. She motioned them to move quietly, and she herself headed for a fire escape at the side of a building across the street.
Jen blinked and looked to James questioningly, wondering if a kid always did stuff like that.

"Dammit Eve!" James yelled as he ran after her. The sound of glass shattering drew out even more walkers, even two runners. As James ran for his daughter, he was closely pursued by one of the runners, an emaciated looking corpse that was once a woman, but was still agile enough to keep up. Hands outstretched, fingers curved into a claw-like shape, they raked at his back, over the material of his jacket. Despite never breaking through his eyes went wide with fear, as he stopped and turned to confront the danger.

It was his own damn mistake. He had the right stance, but he was still not prepared for the tackle the runner dished out, as she rammed into him, forcing him to the ground. Her fingers continued to rake over his clothes, almost desperate to find his tender flesh. Her jaws kept biting at air as she tried to get lower to his face and rip apart his cheek. "Get off me!" James yelled, praying Eve would help him. Or Tyler and Jennifer if he was lucky.

Habit caused me to turn towards the sounds of more runners, their screeches forever burned into my memory.
Somehow, over their sounds, I heard James yelling. I look over at him or at least the monster on top of him trying to eat him.
"Shit!" I ran for him and with the added force, kicked the beast of him. Then curb stomped the bitch. I offered him a hand. "C'mon!"

Grabbing Tyler's outstretched hand, James hauled himself to his feet, pistol still firmly gripped in the other. Raising it quickly, he shot the walker coming up behind Tyler. "Thanks, but watch your back!"

"Too busy saving your's!" I grinned despite the hell spawns chasing us. Then I started running again.

Jen was by the fire escape. "Less talking more climbing! We need to get to higher ground!"
A liece of concrete sailed from the roof, shattering a car window further down the street. Walkers and runners paused to change directions.
"C'mon!" Jen urged, her hand not quite on the trigger of her rifle.

He couldn't see Eve. That was all that was going through his head right now; there were walkers and runners everywhere, and his daughter, adopted maybe but daughter nonetheless....was nowhere to be seen by him. Didn't take a parent to imagine all the worst, most horrible possibilities of that simple fact. "EVE!!!!!!" James nearly screamed as he tried to find her, though his attempts were limited; with the dead surrounding them, he couldn't drop what he was doing (namely keeping himself alive) to play hide and seek.

"WILL YOU CLIMB THE FUCKING LADDER DAD?" Eve screamed, throwing rubble. It distracted a few walkers and runners, and Jen bashed in two skulls as she tried to keep the ladder clear. "Sir I think we should go to higher ground like the kid did!"

Hearing where his daughter was and glad she was okay, he made for the ladder. Though he planned on yelling at her for not actually saying anything about her plan. However....there were a lot of walkers now between Jennifer, him, and the ladder. "Fuck..." he said. "Dammit Jen, make for the ladder and I'll try and distract them!"

Jen turned and started to scramble up the ladder, rifle clinking a bit. Eve fired a brick down into a car, and a group of walkers descended on it.

Turns out there wasn't much need to try when it came to distracting the walkers. All James needed to do was be the loudest person there and flap his arms around, and they came for him. He kept out of reach, working on a way to get to the fire-escape, at the same time wondering where Tyler was. Last he had seen, the guy was running. But he couldn't worry about Tyler now, as the dead were starting to surround him. Some seemed drawn by the bricks Eve threw (a fact he honestly could not understand aside from the noise) but the rest were clearly focused on the tasty morsel that was him.

Raising his gun again, he focused on clearing a hole, blowing out the brains of the nearest walkers and giving him room enough to run through the crowd that was forming. This is why I should start carrying around a bat. Or a golf-club. James thought, as he made for the ladder of the fire-escape.

A brace of gunshots cleared the way, Jen aiming with her rifle.
"Move faster!"

"I'm moving as fast as I can goddammit!" James yelled, grabbing onto the bottom rung of the ladder and hauling himself up. Climbing to the first landing, he made his way up the stairs of the escape to the roof, finding Eve. Instead of yelling at her, or even moving over to her.....he sat down, slumped against the edge of the building's roof.

Eve crawled over.
"Are you ok daddy?" She asked.

Jen panted, checking down the ladder. "Uh...can these things climb?"

"Just....just could have used a little warning about what you were doing," James said, before rising back to his feet and peering over the edge. "Hey, where's Tyler?"

I was running faster than I ever thought possible and only barely staying out of their grasp. "Shit shit shit shit shit shit!"
I turned to run inside one of the buildings everywhere but one of the grabbed my shoulder. I just twisted out it and kept going.
Jumping up and through the broken window and running to the back door, getting through it and slamming it behind me.
There! The stairwell was right there. Without giving myself a breath I ran to it and did the same with the last door.

It wasn't even 'til I got to the second flight I heard the door below me burst open. It pumped me to go faster.
I ran past a few walkers who I just pushed out the way, who were probably trampled on by my entourage.
Once I made it to the roof I slammed the door shut. There wasn't even enough time to bar the door shut, so I backed away.
My pistol raised, I prayed it had enough ammo left for this. The door busted open with the dead pouring out of it.

The gun clicked empty but I didn't care, I was having too much... fun. I drew one of my knives and grab the first's throat.
I thrust the blade deep into it's skull and yanked it back out, letting the corpse fall. I flip the knife around so it was backwards.
The second one was already in my face so I had to be fast. I slam the knife into it's head and push it off with my other hand.
Then I threw it at the third one. I'd been practicing throwing, so it wasn't much of a surprise to see that it landed in it's head.

Then... then that was it. That was all that followed me. I laughed, here I was thinking I had a horde of them after me.
But it was just three. I sat down on the little cement railing they always had on the roof. I threw my fist in the air.
"Yeehaw!"

James couldn't help but blink at the spectacle he saw.....as it happened across the street from the roof he and the others were currently on. "Tyler! What are you doing over there?"

Jen looked ecstatic. "Tyler! You're ok!"

Eve slumped. "Sorry to ruin the timing and mood further, but daddy? I uh. Moved my shoulder really badly...uh...I'm bleeding again. I could use some help rebandaging..."

"Fucking hell..." James muttered. Mostly because now was a bad time to be bleeding, since walkers could smell better than see, and the smell of blood would bring even more out. Getting up, he opened his pack and removed some bandages though he was already in short supply. "Come on Eve, let's get this changed."

Eve motioned for Jen to turn around, then took off her shirt. She slipped the bloody bandages off, then took a bottle from her bag and used a rag to clean up awkwardly. "Ready." She said.

Sighing, James bent down and began the job of changing the bandages. "You know," he said as he exchanged the dirty old rags for new clean cloth. "This isn't the kind of thing a father would expect to do on a regular basis with his daughter."

"Yeah, well. Welcome to Hell's Waiting Room. The exit is locked but there's ice cream." Eve sighed, wincing. "We can use the bloody bandaids to draw the walkers away. Where should we go for a new bow?"

"First thing's first: distract the walkers," James said, standing up with the bloody bandages in hand. He walked to the edge of the roof, looking around down below. There were a lot of walkers, and three....no, four of the new runners simply scrambling around. "Okay, if I leave bait on the other side, we can climb back down the fire escape."

Eve stood slowly.
"Sounds good. Its safe Jen."

The girl turns around. "Ready."

Still standing by the edge, James dangled the bandages in the air and looked back at Eve and Jen. Okay, I drop them and we wait a minute before going down. Clear?"

Eve and Jen nodded, both reloading their guns.

And then he dropped the rags, heading for the fire escape to wait by Eve and Jen. A minute went by before he went down first. "Stay as quiet as possible."

The two girls nodded and as quiet as they could, began to follow.

I couldn't hear what James had said, so I just shrugged and slumped down against the railing. It took me a few minutes to catch my breath.
It's not everyday you run up a few dozen flights of stairs. Which I'm pretty sure I couldn't do without adrenaline anyway.

I stand up after I felt like my like wouldn't fall out underneath me. I look back behind me at the others across the street.
It looked like they were leaving already. "Looks like I rested too long." I mumbled to myself, then went and collected my weapons.
I look around for the fire escape since it was probably less dangerous than going back the way I came.

James, being the first to descend, was the first on the ground. The dead were gathered around where he had dropped Eve's old bandages, some even on all fours as they sniffed at the air, breathing in the scent of her blood. But for the most part, they didn't notice him as he crouched down behind a car, knife out and ready to silently kill any curious zombies. He motioned for Eve and Jen to hurry, in the blind about Tyler.

Eve and Jen hurried up, sticking close to James.
Both had knives out and ready as well.

Looking around, James picked a destination: an alley across the street. Moving first, he went as quickly as possible, hoping he didn't attract any attention. Getting to the alley, he crouched behind the corner and looked first at the dead, then at Eve and Jen, motioning for them to follow.

Eve and Jen quickly followed, being as quiet as possible.

He should have kept an eye out for Tyler. Made sure he was safe. But all James could focus on, was keeping Eve and Jen safe. And that meant keeping an eye on the immediate area around him. So far, the way forward looked clear though that was no guarantee that the dead behind them wouldn't see them. So they would have to run. "Okay....two of you, run as fast as you can to the corner, turn and just keep running. I'll cover you, but don't look back."

Without pause the two ran, although Eve in fact did pause long enough to grip James' hand.

The two ran.

Grinning at the gesture his daughter gave him, James hanged back, drawing his pistol and turning to face the dead. Not all of them noticed, which was good. But there were still a few that saw both him, and the girls. He didn't fire a shot though, since it would alert the rest. Instead, he walked backwards, gun raised and aimed his gun at the walkers who saw him, waiting to fire only when they got close enough to be a threat.

They ran, doing as they were told.
"He'll be ok, right?"
"yes. Daddy is strong." Eve replied.