"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Jonas asked him.
"Probably not, but there is simply no other way." Gabriel replied to the man as he put on a black pull-up hoodie. "The only way we can properly search is on foot."
"He's right." Catherine agreed. "They probably hide inside a building or something."
"What about the monsters?" Jonas asked.
"If we're lucky, it's only the Hive and the Hive Zombies." Gabriel pointed out as he moved towards the drawer that was besides the TV. "The Hive is very dangerous but is also very slow, so we can outrun it if necessary."
"What about the zombies?" Jonas was concerned about that.
"The Hive Zombies aren't really special or anything, they die just like a regular person." He responded as he loaded his assault rifle. "I'm sure that a G36K, a USAS-12 and an M1 Garand are more than enough." Stephanie assumed that those were the names of the guns that they were carrying. "But we don't really know how many of them are there so we should really avoid confrontation if possible."
"Jonas and I barely have any ammo left." Catherine pointed out as she checked her rifle.
Gabriel responded by opening the second drawer of the drawer that was beside his trunk. Revealing that it was completely filled with shotgun ammunition. Then he opened the third drawer, where there was a bunch of rifle ammunition.
"Holy shit..." Jonas immediately grabbed a few shells in order to reload the magazine of his shotgun.
"Where did you get all of that?" Catherine asked in visible surprise since ammo was hard to come by.
"It's a long story and I'm really not in the mood to tell." Gabriel was quick to reply.
Stephanie just stood there, watching the exchange between the trio.
While Jonas and Catherine reloaded their weapons, Gabriel moved towards the trunk once again, where he picked up more stuff. An utility belt, his balaclava, a tactical harness, tactical fingerless hard-knuckle gloves. By the looks of it, he was putting on the same outfit from before.
Stephanie actually thought his outfit was super cool, even though most people would call him an edgelord because of it.
Gabriel attached several pouches to his belt, but the thing that stood out was the knife. A nice looking silver double edge knife with a black handle.
"Umm... Stephanie?" The girl was so distracted with Gabriel, that she was startled by Catherine calling her.
"Umm... Yeah?" She turned around to face the older woman, hoping that her staring of Gabriel went unnoticed.
"Listen, I really think you should stay here." Catherine suggested in concern.
She genuinely didn't feel comfortable leaving the RV, but she didn't want to be alone either. She had that gun that Gabriel gave it to her inside of her vest's pocket, but she would much rather not use it.
"Is that really a good idea, that giant lobster could be roaming around the area looking for another victim?" Jonas was quick to counter Catherine's suggestion.
That monster didn't really look like a lobster, but she understood why Jonas called it that.
"You heard him, that thing is very slow and easy to run from it." Catherine reminded him. "But if we get into a shootout, I would rather her being as far away from it as possible."
"What if those zombies come after her while we are away?" Jonas pointed out that possibility.
"The RV is bulletproof and if we lock it with some heavy chain, none of those things could get inside." Catherine reminded him that the RV was armored.
"What if we don't come back, is she gonna get stuck in here until she starves to death?" Jonas asked her since that was a possibility as well.
"Jesus Christ..." Gabriel rolled his eyes as he spoke. "Do you want to stay or do you wanna come along?" Before he actually asked Stephanie what she wanted to do.
"Ummm.... I... " Stephanie really didn't want to be alone there. "I'd rather go with you guys."
"There." He spoke to Jonas and Catherine while gesturing to her with his hands, since their arguing clearly annoyed him. "You two deciding things for her like she isn't even here is incredibly condescending by the way." Before sarcastically commenting that and going back to his trunk.
"We are just worried about her, dickhead." Jonas was quick to rebuff.
"He's right though, I'm sorry Stephanie." Catherine agreed with the sentiment though.
"I don't actually wanna go out there, but I really don't like the idea of staying here alone." Especially with that big monster roaming around.
"Either option is gonna be dangerous no matter what." Gabriel stated as he put on his trench coat.
"I'd rather just stay close to you guys then." Stephanie responded as she watched Gabriel adjust his coat.
"Look," Once he was done getting ready, Gabriel spoke to everyone. "I'm going to help you guys search for your people but I'm getting back here before it gets dark, understand?"
"Why?" Jonas asked, although sarcastically. "Are you afraid of the dark?"
"I think I'm afraid of the dark after yesterday." Stephanie ended up speaking, not at all liking Jonas' choice of words. And she was planning on following Gabriel back to the RV before it gets dark as well.
"And you should be afraid of the dark too, because the worst ones only show up at night." Gabriel pointed out, with the three of them clearly feeling uneasy after hearing it. "Is everyone ready?" He asked with his assault rifle at hand.
Jonas and Catherine looked at each other and held their guns up.
"Yeah." Jonas responded.
"Ready..." That was a lie, but Stephanie wasn't going to hold them back.
Gabriel nodded and opened the door of the RV. Signalling everyone to follow him.
Stephanie was the first one to follow, while Jonas and Catherine followed behind her.
Once they were all out, Gabriel closed the door of his RV and locked it up with some very thick chain.
It was really cold outside and the fog only got denser. Giving that mysterious city an even more dreadful atmosphere.
Stephanie lifted her hood up to protect her head from the cold.
With his assault rifle at hand, Gabriel moved away from the RV. They parked it at the entrance of an empty alleyway that was covered in very bizarre looking graffiti. That alley was the closest spot from where the car that Catherine's brother and nephew were, so it was the place they decided to check.
"Look." Gabriel pointed at something on the ground. With them looking at it and seeing empty cartridges. "Those are commonly used in assault rifles."
"You think they went that way to get away from the giant lobster?" Jonas asked, still wrongfully claiming that the monster looks like a lobster.
"No... Probably to get away from the Hive zombies." Gabriel responded.
"There are no dead bodies around." Catherine pointed out as she searched for them.
"The Hive eats the bodies afterwards." Gabriel revealed to them. "Mostly to retrieve those little parasites that it used to turn them into zombies."
"Ahhh...." Stephanie grunted in disgust after understanding that those weird tentacles were parasites. "It just keeps getting worse."
"And it will keep getting worse." Gabriel declared as he aimed his assault rifle towards the alleyway and moved forward. "Stephanie, you stay behind me." He instructed her.
Stephanie, almost instinctively, followed behind him.
"Jonas, you get the rear guard." He instructed Jonas. "Catherine, walk beside me and keep your weapon ready to shoot."
Jonas and Catherine looked at each other for a second, apparently contemplating whether or not they should do what he said. Until Jonas nodded and signalled her to move past Stephanie.
Slowly, they all entered the alleyway with their weapons ready. Each step gave her a very uneasy feeling, with the cold and dreadful silence adding to it. Her blue eyes simply moved around to look in every direction in fear as she had the feeling that something would jump out at any moment.
Stephanie just stood as closely as it was humanly possible to Gabriel. Despite knowing him the least, she felt the safest when she was close to him. Not because he already saved her life but because he gave off a strange air of confidence. Like he knew what he was doing and that gave her a feeling of safety that she never got with the others.
Jonas tried to portray the same air of confidence but anyone could tell that he was faking it. It looked like he was on edge and ready to shoot anything at the first sign of trouble. Which honestly made Stephanie uncomfortable because it felt like he could shoot something or someone by accident.
Catherine was laser focused, but she was completely focused on finding her family. Stephanie was actually afraid that she would end up making some mistake and hurting herself or worse because she really risked herself earlier when she ran to check military vehicles.
Stephanie had no idea whatsoever what she was doing and what she was supposed to do, but she really didn't want to be left alone in that RV.
Suddenly, Gabriel lifted his left hand in a closed fist. Signalling them to stop. Then he pointed at his ear and looked around.
After a second, she understood that he meant that there was a strange noise.
"What's that noise? " Jonas asked as he looked around.
"Sounds like..." Catherine seemed to recognize.
"Someone bashing something." Gabriel answered before he moved forward with the clear intention of following that noise.
The trio followed behind him as he followed that strange bashing noise. Walking further down that strange alley. As they did, Stephanie noticed that not only was the noise getting louder, but also the air seemed to be getting heavier as well. The cold was also increasing, and each step simply made her feeling of uneasiness get worse.
It lasted until they reached a corner that made them turn to the right. With Gabriel immediately lifting his fist up again to make them stop. Before he took aim with his assault rifle.
Stephanie, who was right behind him, was the first one to see what caused his reaction. To her shock and horror, there were several of those Hive Zombies standing there. They all looked like normal people from afar but Stephanie could tell that their skin looked different.
"What are they doing?" Catherine asked him as they all hid in the corner with their weapons ready.
Gabriel just looked through the sight of his assault rifle to check them from a distance. "Look." Before actually pointing out the reason.
Right above that strange group of Hive Zombies, there was a Fire escape and to their surprise, there was someone there. They couldn't see who it was from that distance but it was clear that the person was unconscious.
"Shit..." Jonas cursed in response. "Who is that?"
"Can't say." Catherine couldn't tell because of the distance.
"What do we do?" Stephanie asked.
Gabriel answered her question by stepping out of the cover and unceremoniously gunning down all of the Hive Zombies with his assault rifle. Stephanie had to cover her ears because of the loud gunfire. But she kept her eyes open to see as Gabriel fired in small bursts until all of them were down.
"Fuck!" Catherine cursed in response. "A little warning first?!"
Gabriel just gave her a sassy look before moving forward.
Stephanie just followed behind him and Jonas did the same while lifting his shoulders in response to the exchange that the two of them just shared. Catherine just sighed and moved as well.
As they all approached the dead bodies of the Hive Zombies that Gabriel just killed. Stephanie realized that at least three of them were still moving. But Gabriel reached for his knife and proceeded to stab the ones that were still moving right in the head.
Stephanie looked up and tried to take a good look at the person that was in the fire escape. It was considerably high but from there they could see that it was a man, wearing a blue button-up shirt over a white long-sleeved t-shirt, dark blue jeans with white stripes. He was barefooted for some reason and seemed to be injured.
"Hey?" Jonas tried to call him. "Can you hear me?"
"He probably passed out because I doubt anyone would fall asleep in a place like that on purpose." Gabriel pointed out as he put his knife back on the sheath.
"He's right, but how do we reach him to check?" Catherine asked since the fire escape was considerably high and the ladder was up.
"Like this." Gabriel slunged the assault rifle to his back and took a few steps back. With the three of them watching, he ran directly at a wall and did a few fast running steps up the wall before he pushed himself off and reached the ladder of that fire escape.
He's so cool... Stephanie thought as she watched him climb on the ladder and reach the fire escape.
Once he was up there, Gabriel pushed the ladder down before moving to inspect the unconscious individual.
Jonas signalled them to wait down there as he decided to climb up to check if the individual was one of their people.
"I don't trust him, so be careful around him?" Catherine whispered to Stephanie as Jonas climbed the fire escape.
Stephanie just looked at her in confusion.
"There is something off about him." She explained. "I don't know what it is but I get this uneasy feeling when I'm near him, so please, be careful."
"I will." Despite her response, Stephanie had an urge to roll her eyes in response to what Catherine just told her. You never had this "uneasy" feeling around my father, what exactly did Gabriel do to make you uneasy?
"Ah shit..." They heard Jonas cursing from above them.
"What is it?" Catherine asked.
"Cat...." Jonas looked down with a sad face. "You better get up here."
Catherine just looked confused for a bit, before giving Stephanie a worried look and rushing towards the ladder. Stephanie followed behind her and climbed the ladder to get up there. As Catherine reached the top, she moved towards the individual and gasped. "No!" Before rushing towards him.
Once Stephanie reached it as well, she watched as Catherine got to her knees and lifted the individual's head up. It was a black man in his late-thirties, with a broad nose, wide lips, a shaved head and a heavy stubble beard.
"Malcolm!" Catherine desperately tried to wake him up. "Malcolm!"
"Is that...?" Gabriel realized what was happening and asked Stephanie for confirmation.
"That's her brother, Malcolm." And she confirmed right away.
"Shit..." Gabriel cursed in response. "If he's here, what happened to the kid?"
Catherine widened her eyes as she actually realized that horrible fact now. "Oh no!" She spoke in clear desperation. "REGGIE?!"
"Stop yelling." Gabriel told her calmly as he approached them. "We already made too much noise." It was true, between the gunfire and the yelling, she was surprised that they didn't actually attract more monsters.
Slowly, Gabriel unbuttoned Malcolm's blue button-up shirt and lifted white long-sleeved t-shirt. Revealing several nasty looking hematomas in his torso. His foot seemed to be very twisted and there seemed to be broken glass in it.
"Someone beat him up with a blunt weapon." Gabriel points out after examining him a bit. "He likely has internal bleeding and broken ribs, which would explain why he passed out in a place like this."
"Dammit, we need to get him to the RV." Catherine spoke in deep worry as her brother was clearly in very bad shape.
"Look." Jonas called them while he pointed up.
There was actually a window in the floor above that appeared to be broken. Which pretty much confirmed that he came from there due to the broken glass in his foot.
"There might be some clue of where your nephew is up there." Gabriel informed Catherine.
"What do we do then?" Jonas asked him.
"You two see if you can figure out a way to get him back to the RV." A considerably difficult task since they were in a Fire escape that was considerably above the ground with a ladder. "I'm gonna go look for clues." He started before moving away from them.
He walked past Stephanie in order to reach the ladder that led to the floor above. Jonas kneeled down to inspect Malcolm alongside Catherine.
Her blue eyes moved to look as Gabriel climbed up the ladder. "Umm..." Stephanie didn't know whether she should stay with Jonas and Catherine to help with Malcolm or go with Gabriel to help him look for Reggie.
A decision that she ended unconsciously making when she realized that Gabriel reached the floor and approached the window. Causing her to climb the ladder and follow him. When she got there, she noticed that he was attaching something to his pistol. A small flashlight that he used to illuminate the other side of the window. "Ahh..." A grunt escaped his lips alongside a look of disgust that genuinely frightened Stephanie.
"What is it?" She asked him as she approached.
But Gabriel simply signalled her to stop. "Have you ever watched the movie, Braindead?" He asked her with a face that could only indicate that what he saw in there wasn't pretty.
"Ummm.... No..." Stephanie couldn't really watch many movies since her house only had one television and her father didn't let anyone watch it unless he was watching as well. She did enjoy watching movies though and wondered if that movie was good.
"Basically, there is a scene where one of the protagonists kills a group of zombies using a lawn mower." Gabriel described a very specific scene from the movie as he took another look at that window. "And this fucking room looks like a perfect recreaton of what it looked like after he killed all the zombies."
"Umm..." Stephanie could only conjure a mental image of what Gabriel just described and it wasn't really pretty. "Are you saying that there are dead people inside?"
"More like people quartered into pieces." Gabriel clarified to Stephanie's horror.
"Do you... Do you see any children there?" She asked while sparing a look at Catherine, who was desperately trying to help her brother.
Gabriel sighed. "Don't come near the window." He instructed her.
Stephanie was confused for a second, until he actually passed through the window and went inside.
As he did, someone touched her shoulder. "Eh!" Which startled her.
"It's me." It turned out to be just Jonas. "Did that baby-faced emo go inside?"
"Baby-faced emo?" First is Edgelord and now is Baby-faced emo? Stephanie wasn't a fan of either nickname and she showed by giving Jonas an apprehensive look.
"What?" But he didn't seem to see anything wrong with it. "It's probably why he uses that balaclava."
Stephanie was confused by that comment.
"With the balaclava, he looks like a guy you don't wanna mess with." Jonas explained and Stephanie agreed because she was expecting a gruff looking tough guy before. "Without it, he's basically a baby-faced pretty boy that you would wanna mess with because he looks like an easy target."
"I just heard all of that." Suddenly, Gabriel spoke from inside the window. "You look like what a roided up gym bro becomes after he stops taking steroids by the way."
Stephanie giggled in response and Jonas frowned while looking away embarrassed. His reaction made her wonder if it was true.
"What the fuck are you eve-" Jonas approached the window.
"Wait." Stephanie tried to stop him but it was too late.
"AH!" With Jonas looking inside the room and letting out a loud grunt as he looked away. "Jesus!" Before he rushed towards the edge of that fire escape and vomited.
Stephanie looked away in disgust, with her imagination running wild over what the inside of that room looked like.
"What the fuck is that shit?" Jonas asked before spitting one more time to get the remaining of his vomit out of his mouth.
"The corpse of a guy hanging on the ceiling fan with his entrails hanging like decorations." Gabriel bluntly responded to Jonas's question.
Stephanie could only make a horrified face in response as the horrible image now appeared on her head.
"I can see that, but how the fuck did that happen?" Jonas moved back to the window, turning his face away for a second. "I mean... Did those things do that?!"
"Nope." Gabriel was quick to deny. "The Hive Zombies either just kill the person or place them in the symbiotic mass." Then he passed through the window once again. "There are four bodies in there, none belonging to a kid." And delivered them some good news. "Whoever did this, that guy was running away from them."
Whoever? Stephanie noticed his choice of words.
"So what do we do?" Jonas asked him.
"Get him back to the RV, try to patch him up and wait for him to wake up to tell us what happened." Gabriel stated as he signalled Jonas and Stephanie to follow him back to Catherine and Malcolm.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Thankfully, they managed to take Malcolm back to the RV without much trouble. Getting him down from that Fire Escape was considerably difficult but they managed.
Malcolm was unconscious in the bed, with bandages over his body that Gabriel and Catherine wrapped on him. Whether or not he was going to be okay was the real question since Gabriel wasn't really a doctor. Not to mention that they had no clue what exactly killed the people inside that room. Jonas unfortunately recognized some from the bunker and Catherine confirmed that they were the ones in the car with Reggie and Malcolm.
"What do you think actually happened?" Jonas, who was standing on the other side of the coffee table, asked.
"My best guess?" Gabriel replied as he drank a cup of coffee with milk and sugar. "He tried to fight whoever killed those people in that room."
"Whoever?" Jonas noticed his choice of words just like Stephanie. "Are you saying that it was a person that did that?"
Gabriel placed his cup of coffee down and lifted his hands up. Displaying five fingers in his left hand and three fingers in his right. "That car is designed to carry around eight people." He decided to explain. "Two in the front and six in the back." He put his hands down. "There were four dead bodies in that room, one heavily injured guy in the Fire Escape and one missing kid." He lifted his hands up again, with his left hand displaying five fingers and his right hand displaying one.
"There is also Abigail." Stephanie, who was sitting besides Gabriel, understood where he was going with this and reminded him that there was one that died near the car.
"Which leaves one more person left." Gabriel showed his index finger with his right hand. "I didn't see any soldier inside that room so that probably means that he's one."
Stephanie and Jonas looked at each other for a second before someone else spoke.
"You... You think he took Reggie?!" Catherine, who was sitting near her brother before moving towards them, asked him in visible confusion.
"It's a possibility." Gabriel made that part clear. "Your brother's wounds indicate that there was either a struggle or fight between him and whoever attacked him."
"But, but why?" Stephanie asked him in visible confusion.
"It's a theory, I don't have an explanation but it's a possibility." Gabriel picked up his cup of coffee once again and took a sip. "Only he can actually give us an answer."
Poor Catherine could only sigh in response. God knows what the poor woman is going through at that moment. Her brother beaten to a bloody pulp and her nephew missing with the possibility of kidnapping involved.
Gabriel drank the rest of his coffee. With Stephanie wondering where he got coffee and milk since that was rare to come by back in the bunker.
"So, what do we do?" Jonas asked him. "Just wait until he wakes up?"
"No." He calmly places the cup on top of the coffee table. "We continue to search for other survivors and if we're lucky that might lead us to the kid since there is also the possibility that the soldier simply took him to save him from whoever did that to him." Gabriel pointed towards Malcolm with his thumb after telling him that.
"He's right." Catherine immediately agreed with his idea. "We need to keep looking." Wasting no time, she moved towards the driver's seat.
"But where do we look now?" Stephanie asked him.
"That street where the cars are is our best bet." Jonas spoke as he took a seat on the passenger's seat while Catherine turned the RV on.
With Gabriel just leaning back on the couch with a bored expression. Unlike the three of them, he didn't seem to be seeing this situation as anything more than an annoying nuisance. They couldn't exactly blame him for that since he doesn't really know anyone and is helping them without complaining.
As Catherine drove the RV, they all quietly sat there, waiting until they reached that street.
Stephanie just stared at Gabriel while he rested on the couch. Wondering what was going through his head at that moment. Was he regretting helping them? Was he thinking about how to search for the rest of their people? Was he wondering if Malcolm was going to survive? Was he wondering why she was staring at him?
The last one was probably the correct one since he moved his head to look at her with his green eyes. She almost looked away embarrassed, but for some reason, she didn't and ended up awkwardly staring at him without saying a word.
Until Gabriel just turned his head away and went back to looking at the ceiling.
Causing Stephanie to finally look away embarrassed. What the hell am I doing?! She asked herself in deep frustration since she practically made herself look like a creepy weirdo in front of him.
"Ah shit!" Suddenly, they both heard Jonas speaking. Causing the two of them to move their heads to the left to look at Jonas and Catherine. "Go back! Go back!"
Gabriel and Stephanie stood up from the couch to see what the hell was going on. However, once they both took a good look through the windshield of the car, they were greeted by a horrible sight.
"Oh my god!" Stephnaie screamed in response.
"Fuck my worthless life..." Gabriel spoke in a low voice.
The reason for that reaction. Was because the moment the RV reached the street where the cars that belonged to the people from the bunker were. They were greeted by an absurd number of Hive Zombies that were just standing there. They could also see the so-called Hive standing there, being surrounded by them.
"What the hell are they doing?!" Catherine asked in visible fear.
"You probably don't wanna know." Gabriel moved back to the couch and sat there as if nothing was going on.
Leaving the three of them very confused. So they moved their heads to look at the monster again. Only to see the sight of it opening it's torso again and revealing it's strange looking tentacles. The Hive Zombies simply stood there, motionless as the tentacles spread it around and began to wrap themselves around random Hive Zombies.
Stephanie, who was standing behind the driver and passenger seats, watched everything with morbid curiosity. Until she actually felt Gabriel gently grab her wrist. Causing her to move her head to look at him. When she did, he gently pulled her away and made her sit besides him on the couch once again.
"Why ar-" Stephanie was about to ask him why he did that.
"AH!" But she was startled by Jonas screaming in horror and looking away.
"Oh god!" Catherine did the same covering her eyes and closing the windshield curtains.
Stephanie looked at their reaction with fear before looking at Gabriel again, wanting to ask what was happening.
"Don't ask." Gabriel was quick to tell her that.
"Wha-What the-" Jonas tried to look again. "AH!" Before looking away again, looking completely horrified.
Gabriel rolled his eyes and stood up. Touching Catherine's shoulder and signalling her to get off the driver's seat. Which she did, then she ran to the bathroom and by the sound she made, she actually vomited.
Leaving the already very confused Stephanie even more confused.
Gabriel sat on the driver's seat and drove the car backwards to get away from that street.
"Can someone please tell me what happened?!" The teenage girl desperately asked.
Jonas just shaked his head in response, not really wanting her to know.
Gabriel just pressed a button in the RV stereo.
It's the hard knock life for us
"It's the hard knock life for us." And a song started playing with him singing along to it.
It's the hard knock life for us
"It's the hard knock life for us" Stephanie and Jonas just looked at him in response to that.
Instead of treated, we get tricked
"Instead of treated, we get tricked." But he ignored the two of them, adjusted his glasses and opened the windshield curtain.
Instead of kisses, we get kicked
"Instead of kisses, we get kicked." They were considerably far away from the street now, so Stephanie couldn't see what actually happened.
It's the hard knock life
"It's the hard knock life." He continued to sing along as he hit the gas and drove even farther away from the street where the monster and the zombies were, although they were unsure where exactly he was going.