Stephanie Gotts:
"Wh-what are you doing asking him stuff like that?!" The poor sixteen-year old girl asked while blushing profoundly as she cannot believe that Catherine actually asked Gabriel if they had sex last night.
"Wait, did you two actually do it?" Jonas asked in confusion.
"No!" She denied, even though she certainly wouldn't complain if they did.
"I asked because a guy in his twenties, sleeping in the same room as a sixteen-year old girl is really fucking suspicious, Steph." Catherine was quick to respond, even though the two slept in the same car. "Especially after our conversation yesterday."
"What conversation?" Jonas asked in curiosity.
"N-none of your business!" Stephanie desperately tried to keep that subject between her and Catherine.
"Girl talk, best not to get involved." Catherine told him in order to avoid embarrassing her even more.
"Okay...?" The confused Jonas responded.
They all made their way to the stairs since they had no reason to stay down there without the RV around. Especially since the monsters could show up at any second.
Dakota's father was there with his rifle at hand.
"Come on up, you guys better see this." The former Police officer told them with a tone of voice that immediately caused concern.
"What's wrong?" Catherine asked.
"Whatever it is, it is not good." Mr. Shelby replied.
Hearing that, made all of them look at one another in visible fear. So they all quietly made their way upstairs to see what Mr. Shelby was talking about.
While they climb the stairs however, Stephanie remembered a piece of information that she heard earlier. Gabriel Castle.... That's a really nice name.. Stephanie was going to try to guess his last name, but thankfully, it wasn't necessary. Castle... It really suits him... hmm.... Stephanie Castle.... Maybe...
"Steph." Catherine called her attention.
"Huh?" Making her snap out of her daydreaming.
"Do you still have that gun that Gabriel gave you?" Catherine asked her.
"Umm..." She actually checked her vest's pocket. "No..." Remembering that she left the gun on top of the trunk.
"Dammit... I left the one he gave to me in the RV as well." Catherine admitted in frustration.
"We... Should be alright until he comes back." Stephanie decided to say it, since they had a hidden spot to be.
"If he comes back." Catherine corrected her.
Stephanie widened her eyes at the possibility, and it terrified her. To the point of making her hands shake a bit, but she held them tightly so Catherine wouldn't notice. "He-" She tried to deny that he would just ditch them like that. But before the outburst could escape her lips.
"Holy shit!" They heard Jonas saying something out loud that caught their attention.
Both the adult woman and the teenage girl rushed to see what caused that reaction in him.
They noticed that everyone else was standing near the edge of the unfinished building, looking at something from a distance.
However, when they reached the edge of the building as well, they were greeted by a horrible sight.
"My god ..." Stephanie spoke as she widened her blue eyes upon seeing it.
Gabriel Castle:
"Who made all of this?" Garner asked Gabriel as he was visibly impressed by the setup of the RV.
"It's a long story and I am not in the mood to tell." Gabriel bluntly replied as he continued to drive. "Umm... What military branch are you from anyway?" He decided to ask.
"Army Reserve." He responded.
"Are all of the soldiers that you listed to me earlier Reserves too?" Gabriel decided to ask, because he really needed to know the level of competency that he would be working with.
"No." Garner responded. "Any military, police or whatever that came looking for shelter during the first days were welcomed into the bunker." He decided to explain to him. "We cooperated to keep the place in flow."
"I see... So, these missing soldiers that you mentioned..." It was better to inquire.
"Umm... Cooper is an Army staff member ." Which begs the question why was he the one going to find supplies. "Rickson and Andreas are Marines." The ones that know the location of the community that they are seeking. "JB is a paratrooper ." The one that might have Catherine's nephew, a trained paratrooper would increase the kid's chances for survival. "Reynolds and Prekley are coast guards."
"Hmm..." Gabriel analyzed the information. The priority is finding either Rickson or Andreas and trying to extract the information from them. Finding Catherine's nephew is also a priority but only if I can find any clues otherwise it is going to be a wild goose chase that I can't afford with Hive Babies running around. He had to be pragmatic about this, because this entire mess is becoming more trouble than it's worth it. I need to refill my medical supplies and maybe get my hands on another assault rifle, and since there is a considerable number of military personnel, I might get a chance of snatching one. He was very much hoping to get his hands on a M16 or an M4. Since he was still a little annoyed that this little misadventure cost him his G36K.
Despite being deep in thought, he was paying very much attention to the road ahead of him. Which allowed him to notice a few things, mainly that there were signs of the Hive Babies being there. It was painfully obvious because he could see the bodies of several Hive Zombies there and they were all gutted and slashed to death.
"What the hell happened here?" Garner asked.
"Hive Babies have a deep disdain for humans and go around slaughtering any that it can find, even the ones that were turned into zombies by it's mommy." Gabriel explained to him.
"Jesus Christ..." It was his response as he watched the corpses that were ripped to shreds.
"On the bright side, it saved us the trouble of having to deal with them." Gabriel pointed out, since the only bright side of having the Hive Babies roaming around, is that they will probably diminish the number of Hive Zombies in that city.
Driving a bit more ahead, while avoiding the corpses in the street. Gabriel observed his surroundings for any sign of danger. But was greeted by a different sight entirely. "Hmm..." Noticing something that stood out in that street. "Look." A little bit ahead, they noticed a crashed vehicle that seemed to have collided with the wall. It was nothing out of the ordinary, except for the fact that the car was still running.
"You think maybe Cooper took that car but crashed?" Garner suggested.
"No." Gabriel was quick to shut that suggestion down. "Look at the tire marks." He signalled towards the tire marks that were on the street, indicating that it was driving in the same direction as them. And since Cooper was supposed to be bringing the supplies back from the hospital, it made no sense for him to be driving towards the hospital. "The crash probably happened because they were driving too fast and something clearly jumped on the car." The tire marks indicated a loss of control and there was a considerable amount of damage on the car's roof which was obviously made by a Hive Baby. "I can only make an educated guess, but I don't think Cooper was driving that car." He was in a hurry to get the supplies, so he wouldn't have been searching for a car, much less find one in drivable condition without wasting a considerable amount of time checking it.
"Maybe it was one of the others." That suggestion made more sense.
Gabriel slowly drove the RV near the car in order to check it out. He grabbed the Ithaca 37 and got up from the driver's seat, signalling Garner to follow him. The Army Reserve followed him with his M16A4 in hand as he slowly opened the door and stepped outside. "Watch my back, and keep your head down." He instructed him before moving forward.
Without wasting any movement, the two quickly made their way to the car in order to check for any clues of who might have been driving it. Only to find the answer as soon as they reached the driver's seat.
"Oh no..." Garner was quick to say. "It's Andreas." There was a dead man in the driver's seat, in his late twenties, with olive skin, short and shaggy dark brown hair and large ears. He was wearing combat fatigues that were completely worn-out.
Gabriel inspected him closely through the car window, by touching his head and looking at the head wound closer. "Hmm... He bled to death from a skull fracture." The head wound was very deep and there was blood all over his head and clothes.
"Dammit..." Garner was visibly upset but there was nothing to be done.
Gabriel inspected the interior of the car. Realizing that the backdoor in the opposite direction was open. So he made his way on the other side of the car to check and noticed some things. There were a few drops of blood on the ground right outside of the car door, and there were a few pistol bullets as well.
"It's probably Rickson's." Garner realized it too and was quick to point out.
Moving his head up, he realized that he could see the hospital from there. "If I was injured from a car crash, that would be the first place that I would go." Gabriel was quick to point out the obvious before turning around and walking back to his RV.
Garner saw the hospital too and understood what he meant before following behind him.
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The next course of action was simple. Continue their journey to the hospital and search for the Marine. However, Gabriel couldn't ignore the signs of the Hive Baby attacking the car and since they saw no sign of a dead body wearing Marine Corps Uniform, they can only guess that Rickson was able to evade it.
"Okay..." Gabriel parked near the entrance of the hospital. Britann Hospital was it called, a large, multi-story hospital that was completely falling apart because there was a helicopter that lunged into the building right in between the third and fourth floor. This place looks like something straight out of a John Carpenter's movie, and that is not a good sign. That was Gabriel's immediate opinion when he took a good look at that hospital. I am almost half-expecting that a Hive Baby will be inside searching for the Marine and that I will have to fight it... He was practically expecting that to be the case. Whatever, I already wasted my time coming here, might as well go through with it.
"What's the plan?" Garner asked him as he watched the entrance through the window.
"We go in quietly and search." That was the simplest course of action. "Don't call anyone, don't stray too far and if you do see a monster, don't blindly open fire at it." He stood up from the driver's seat, removed his trench coat and placed it on the seat, then he removed his glasses and placed them on top of the coffee table. "We will search for the Marine and the Staff Member but only until we find the medical supplies, afterwords, you either search by yourself or leave with me." Gabriel made that part abundantly clear as he placed his sword in his hip.
"Okay, okay... I get it." Garner didn't argue since he understands that the possibility of them being alive was small.
"Good." He then lifted his hood up and covered the lower half of his face with the balaclava. Then he held his shotgun with both hands as he walked towards the exit. "Watch my back and keep your eyes open."
Garner nodded as he also held his assault rifle with both hands.
Slowly, Gabriel opened the door and stepped outside, searching their surroundings for any sign of danger or survivors.
The air outside got relatively colder and the fog became thicker. Not a good sign, especially when they had to be on high alert for monsters. "Mmm..." His eyes locked at the hospital entrance, where he saw the reception from afar and it was not pretty.
So he signalled Garner to follow him slowly with their sights ready. Walking as quickly but quietly as possible to reach the hospital's reception.
"Sweet Jesus..." Garner spoke in a very low voice when he took a good look at the interior.
Not that Gabriel could blame him. That entire room was the scenario of a bloodbath. There were old corpses, blood all over the wall, destroyed furniture and a damaged floor and walls.
Obviously, those bodies were from people that died in the first days of the apocalypse. Probably mauled by a monster while they were waiting for their medical appointments. It was a depressing sight though, dying randomly when you were just going on with your day. But Gabriel can't say that the alternative was any better.
Moving his green eyes around, he searched for any clue that someone has passed through there recently.
The clue came in the form of several empty cartridges on the floor. "Hmm..." Gabriel grabbed one to check and it was in good condition, which stood out in a place where everything was either rotten or broken.
It all led to a door that led to the stairway. Judging by the number and how close they are to one another, he was probably running while firing at something. Which became clear since the door was chopped into pieces and the wall and door frame had large slashing marks on it.
Gabriel sighed, before turning his head around to look at Garner, who justifiably looked terrified. Much more so since he probably didn't see a Hive Baby yet, just heard about it.
On the other side of the door, there was nothing but darkness. Forcing Gabriel to put his shotgun in an off-side drop and pull out his USP Tactical, which had a flashlight attached to it. Taking a step forward while holding his pistol in a Center Axis Relock stance as he illuminated that stairway that showcased a considerably damaged area that seemed like it was going to collapse any second.
Moving the light up, he saw the reason behind that. The helicopter was launched right above them, pretty much blocking the way for the fourth floor. Meaning that they could only search the second and third floor.
His gaze immediately moved towards the stairs, a square spiral stairway which the steps were damaged, clearly by something very heavy stepping on it. Alongside a few more empty cartridges. If the other Marine is dead, I am bouncing as soon as I get the supplies. He was quick to decide as he began to climb the stairs with Garner following behind him with his M16A4 ready, although Gabriel was expecting him to pointlessly open fire on the noise he heard.
Slow steps were practically mandatory, because he felt like one wrong move could cause that entire stairway to collapse under them. The blockage only leaves two floors to check, which is a good thing, but still not ideal if we need to make a run for it. It didn't take long for them to reach the second floor, no signs that someone went through there but they needed to be certain. So Gabriel slowly approached the door, turned off the flashlight and opened a very small gap to check the interior. Getting down to one knee, he reached inside of his trench coat's pocket and pulled out a very small pocket mirror. Using it to check the interior without opening the door too much.
There was a small corridor on the other side of the door, filled with medical equipment, wheelchairs, hospital beds but no bodies, which was extremely suspicious.
Looking behind himself a bit, he searched for something that would make noise. Finding a very small bit of rubble that fell from above due to the collision. After picking up, he slowly widened the gap of the door, just enough to fit his hand, before he tossed that small piece of rubble into the second floor. Hitting a wheelchair chair and making a considerable amount of noise before closing the gap and looking at the pocket mirror again.
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After a short wait, nothing happened. So Gabriel took that as a sign that the floor was clear, so he slowly opened the door with his pistol ready. Stepping inside Garner followed behind him with his M16A4 ready for any sign of danger.
"Let's search the floor for any sign survivors or supplies." Gabriel instructed him in a low voice. "Stay silent."
Garner nodded and prepared to move to inspect the rooms on that floor.
Gabriel, on the other, searched for something out of place. Like something or someone that passed through there recently. Staring down at that corridor in search of something that could indicate that someone has been through there recently. "Hmm..." That came in the form of something right at the end of that small corridor. Moving forward, Gabriel decided to move forward and the closer he got, the more obvious it became. "Mmm..." It was a boonie hat, a camo one.
Slowly, Gabriel moved his head around in search of the owner. Checking the room on his left and the room on his right. Only to find him the second he turned his head to the right. "Shit..."
Right inside of the room on the left. There was a dead body wearing military fatigues. Or at least what should be military fatigues.
A sigh escaped his lips before he turned around and said. "I found your buddy." He spoke in a somber tone.
Garner, who just walked out of one of the rooms he was checking, heard what he said and rushed towards him. "What are you-" He took a look inside the room the second he approached Gabriel. "Oh god!" Before running away and vomiting on a corner.
Not that Gabriel could blame him, as the one who he assumes to be the one called Cooper was mauled to the point that he didn't even look human anymore. The only thing even indicating that it used to be a person was a piece of his torso that still had his top on.
"Huh?" Among the remains however, there was something that immediately called his attention. Jackpot! The "something" was an assault rifle that was on the floor, a few steps away from the body. So Gabriel immediately stepped into the room, which had a foul smell that was thankfully reduced by his balaclava. Wasting no time, he grabbed the assault rifle and upon close inspection, he saw that it was a M4A1. Well, this little misadventure already paid off.
Gabriel inspected, it was a standard M4A1 with no add-ons or modifications to it. But it was in perfect condition, which was all he needed. "Hm..." He inspected the magazine. Empty, but no empty cartridges on the floor or holes on the wall. Which probably meant that he wasted all his ammo on something.
Moving his head to inspect the room a bit more, he didn't see anything else, which meant that he probably died before even coming close to get the supplies.
"Okay..." The man in black slinged the M4A1 to his back before walking out of that room. "I'm sorry about your friend, but we really need to keep going." He told Garner, who was still recovering from the awful sight.
"Just... Fuck..." Garner responded as he leaned on the wall and coughed due to the vomit.
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They tried to inspect the other rooms of the second floor but found nothing of value. So their next course of action was obvious.
So they made their way up to the third floor and Gabriel repeated the same process. Open a very small gap in the door and use a small pocket mirror to check the interior.
The corridor was way clearer than the one below, with nothing of value. Other than a light machine gun that stood out like a sore thumb in that empty corridor. That's a M249 for sure and I doubt that someone would just leave it behind.
However, the presence of that gun there could only mean one thing. So Gabriel decided to confirm by removing the empty magazine of the M4A1 and unceremoniously tossing it inside to make some noise.
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....
Fuck... His gut feeling proved to be correct. Because a Hive Baby came from one of the rooms searching for the origin of that noise.
Gabriel immediately stood and stepped away from the door. Signalling Garner to stay quiet and follow him. The two moved as far away from the door as possible.
"It's on the other side of that door." Gabriel whispered.
"What do we do?" Garner asked while looking at the door in visible fear.
Looking up, Gabriel realized that checking upstairs was impossible due to the helicopter blocking the way. Not to mention that, if that Hive Baby was chasing someone, they were probably inside with it. Taking a good look down down, an idea came into his head. A terrible idea that he decided to go through with it due to a lack of better ones.
Letting out a deep sight, the man in black placed his pistol in his holster and signalled Garner to climb the stairs as much as he could until he reached the helicopter. The confused Army Reserve did what he said, climbing up slowly. Once he was high enough, Gabriel turned around and unceremoniously kicked the door open. " H-Hey everybody!" Before yelling at the Hive Baby with a Mickey Mouse impression, who immediately turned around and stared at him with it's multiple eyes. "Wanna see my head come off?" He asked while placing both of his hands under his chin while making a very cutesy face.
It definitely did, since it charged at him right away with it's blades ready to decapitate him. With Gabriel closing the door behind him and walking backwards towards the handrail, before he jumped over to the other side and hung on it. It only took about three seconds before the Hive Baby crashed through the door, giving Gabriel a split second to jump away into the steps that were right above him. Managing to grab on to the edge right in front of where Garner was standin as the Hive Baby collided with the handrail and fell down all the way to the first floor.
"Holy shit!" It was Garner's immediate response as he looked down to see the fallen Hive Baby.
Gabriel immediately climbed up and looked down, seeing the Hive Baby on the floor.
From a distance, they could see that it was still moving, but the fall damaged it's body considerably.
"Go see if the Marine is in there." Gabriel instructed Garner. "I'm gonna finish it off." He pulled out his sword after saying that.
Garner was visibly confused, mainly because he saw Gabriel's sword and could tell that there was something off about it. But Gabriel wasn't in the mood to explain anything and just wanted to get that over with.
Alec Rickson:
"Shit... Umm..." Rickson was in a very precarious situation. He had to hide himself inside of a room in an attempt to escape from the big monster that was chasing after him.
"Mrmm!" After the crash, he sustained a considerable amount of injuries. He definitely broke a rib because of the impact as the pain was all too familiar. He definitely dislocated his left shoulder and he sustained a cut in his arm due to the broken glass that went on him after the crash. The pain on his ribs made it hard to breathe, he could barely move his arm because of his dislocated shoulder and the cut was considerably deep, forcing him to improvise a tourniquet to stop the bleeding.
How he managed to force himself to run for that thing that caused them to crash was a miracle. Everything since him dragging himself out of the car and running away until he reached that hospital was a blur since he was so focused on getting away that he didn't even notice reaching the hospital. In the blur, he ended up dropping his light machine gun and now only had a Beretta M9 to defend himself.
His good arm was extended towards the door, with his finger on the trigger ready to shoot at the first sign of trouble. He was probably hallucinating because of the blood loss or something like that, because he swears to god that he actually heard Mickey Mouse's voice asking if he wanted to see his head come off. Or worse, maybe that monster can mimic voices or something and was taunting him.
A noise came from outside and his hand began to shake. His breathing started to become erratic and his heart was pounding. He could tell that it was getting closer, as a shadow appeared under the door. Grinding his teeth, he prepared himself to shoot.
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"AAAHHHH!" Releasing a battle cry as the door opened and he began to fire at it.
Gabriel Castle:
"Huh?!" The second he reached the first floor, Gabriel finished the Hive Baby off with his sword. Thankfully, the fall did enough damage and it wasn't able to get up afterwards. But as soon as it was dead, the man in black was startled by the sound of gunfire coming from upstairs. Prompting him to put his sword back in his sheath and rush back upstairs to see what was happening.
He ran as quickly as he could until he reached the third floor once again and went to find Garner. "Ahh shit..." Only to see him bleeding on the floor. He held his shotgun and prepared to shoot at the first sight of trouble. Moving forward slowly, he realized that Garner was shot in the chest multiple times by whoever was on the other side of the room on the left.
"I'm just gonna ask this once," Gabriel said calmly. "Is your name Rickson?"
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"Ahh..." A grunt is heard from the other side of the door. "Identify yourself..." He demanded.
"I'm the guy with a twelve gauge shotgun that just watched you gun down one of your own guys." Gabriel replied by pointing out the current situation. "Mind explaining to me why exactly you just filled Garner's chest with bullets?"
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A short silence ensued, until Gabriel noticed the door opening slowly and a man stepping out. It was a handsome guy that seemed to be in his mid-twenties. He had a fair skin, sharp, well-defined facial structure with a strong jawline, dark brown in a mullet style and a lean but muscular build. He was wearing a battle dress uniform that was identical to the dead Marine they encountered earlier but without the top as he only had a dirty white T-shirt on. He was holding a Beretta M9 in his right hand and his left arm was visibly damaged.
"Oh Jesus.... Fuck!" Rickson clearly just realized what he had done and was automatically feeling guilty for it. Then he moved his Blue-gray eyes to look at Gabriel with visible confusion. "Who the hell are you?"
"Long story short, I bumped into some of your people on the road and decided to tag along because they said that you might have a location for a community that I would like to go to before winter comes to freeze my ass." Gabriel summarized before taking a good look at his arm. "That doesn't look so good."
Rickson made a ugly face that indicated that he was in deep pain.
"Look, we came here to look for medical supplies and it seems like you are in desperate need of some, so how about you just sit tight while I-" Gabriel was going to search the floor for anything that they can use, but before he could finish his words, he heard strange noises coming from behind him.
The noises sounded like several people running up the stairs at the same thing.
"Fuck!" Gabriel immediately rushed towards the door that led to the stairway. Where he saw a mob of Hive Zombies climbing the stairs at a rapid speed. So Gabriel immediately turned back and ran.
"What-" Rickson was about to ask what was wrong, but then he widened his eyes when he saw several Hive Zombies reaching the door. Armed Hive Zombies.
"Watch out!" Gabriel shoved him into the room once again as the Hive Zombies opened fire.
A rain of barrage of gunfire from several different kinds of weapons came, with the two of them barely evading by getting into the room where Rickson was originally hiding. With Gabriel immediately shutting the door and pushing everything he could towards it in order to barricade it.
"Ahh!" Rickson fell hard on the floor after Gabriel shoved him.
Thankfully, he was able to block the door completely, before the Hive Zombies made their way to it and began to try to bash the door to get inside. Gabriel immediately stepped backwards and sighed. Thankfully, their common sense doesn't extend that far. Because shooting at the door would have been the most logical way to end their lives.
The man in black turned around and realized that they were inside a surgical room. A surgical room with no windows and the only door inside was completely barricaded with a mob of armed Hive Zombies on the other side that were ready to shoot as soon as they spotted them.
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"Fuck my miserable life..." That was his reaction upon realizing the kind of situation that he was in.