Perry swung a worn out shoe at a zombie, before quickly kicking the creature down. She then caught up to the group which was slightly ahead of her.
"What took you guys so long?" Lorrell asked, leaning against the wall beside the store door, as the group approached.
"Oh, so it's us who were late, huh?" Axelle crossed her arms, looking completely unimpressed. Ty tilting his head in slight confusion, as if Axelle was trying to gaslight them.
"What do you mean?" Ty asked, as if they weren't the ones who were 30 minutes late before.
"You guys were 30 minutes late to the rendezvous spot, so we just took a short trip around together to search for Dave and Darren." Ruby stepped forward, raising an eyebrow.
Lorrell scratched her head. "Right… I— no, we forgot. Got a bit carried away with something." she explained.
Perry just sighed. "Whatever, did you guys find anything? Any clues?" Perry asked, walking past Lorrell into the store. Ultimately, the group behind her followed, but that was before Perry came to a stop, hearing Lorrell's answer.
"...Possibly, yeah." Ty started, "You said one of them carried a metal bat with 'DAVE' written in red, right?" Lorrell added. "We found it near the underground subway railings."
Perry turned around a bit abruptly, almost bumping into Waylen in the process. "You…" she paused. "You found Darren's bat?" she asked again, just to reassure she heard correctly.
"Yes."
"Where is it? Why didn't you take it and bring it back?" She immediately asked, her tone less accusing, more… demanding.
"We thought you'd want to see it for yourself." Lorrell replied.
Perry had already turned back, her gaze shifting to Lorrell, then Ty, comically slowly. They didn't seem to be joking.
Perry then proceeded to ask something else. "The metro system near that odd building? That one?"
Ty nodded. "That one."
•───────•°•𐦂𖨆𐀪𖠋•°•──────•
"Why am I in the lead?" Maverick complained, holding the flashlight, leading the way through the underground subway station. He looked as if he was going to piss himself if someone else didn't take the lead sooner or later.
"Chill out, dude. We've got your back." Waylen replied, smacking Maverick's back for emphasis.
Maverick jumped at that, fumbling with the flashlight, miraculously not dropping it. "Dude, I do NOT wanna do this." Maverick was walking half a step every 2 seconds.
"Mave, you gotta lay it down. It's not that scary. We're all like right behind you."
"Yeah, you hear your words? Behind, BEHIND. That's so different from beside."
"Thank the lords you know the difference. Don't know what we'd do without you, Mave." Eli remarked sarcastically.
Maverick just rolled his eyes. Finally, Perry took the lead, snatching the flashlight out of his hands, and walking in front of him. Maverick kept his mouth shut, knowing that thanking her would probably just piss her off more.
"Perry, look out!" Ruby called out from a few paces behind. But before Ruby or Perry could react, Christian stepped forward and held the top of a trash can against the zombies chest to prevent any further proximity, and pushed it away roughly.
"No need to thank me," he cockily uttered.
"Wasn't planning to." Perry grit her teeth, getting impatient at his confident attitude.
"What? Oh so you've lost the decency to thank someone who just potentially saved your life?"
"I could've handled it just fine. I'm not defenseless."
"Yes you were."
"No, I wasn't."
"You literally were."
"Stop arguing with me."
"I saved your life."
"You didn't."
"I did. You saw it."
"I would've been fine."
Christian just rolled his eyes, before shoving his hands into his pockets and retreating back behind Perry. Ruby just let out an exasperated sigh, as if raising two siblings that do nothing but bicker constantly (the bickering part was obviously true).
"So where's the bat even supposed to be? Isn't that what we're here for?" Waylen interrupted the silence.
"They didn't say," Eli answered. "Did they?" he asked— mainly to Perry.
"They didn't." she replied bluntly.
As they weren't that far in yet, Perry and the rest assumed that the bat was still farther in through the station. So, they kept on. Perry observed around her even while looking around for her brothers' bat. One important and keen observation she made was that the zombies around; mainly dead ones were all in one place. On the train railings. The floor above was partially clean from bodies.
"This place would make a good place for a horror movie.." Maverick mumbled.
"We live in one, Maverick."
"No we don't."
"Technically…"
"We. Do. Not." he replied, as if in some sort of denial.
Axelle just scratched her forehead, and gave up trying to argue with the group's biggest dumbass. Waylen snickered at the side; as if he wouldn't feel the same if it was him arguing with Maverick.
After another moment of silence, Maverick couldn't keep his mouth shut by any means, so,
"Did I ever mention that Lorrell and Ty were the couple I spotted in the van a few days ago?" he randomly spat out.
"...Seriously?"
"I'm not joking…?" he replied, acting as if he was confused at why Waylen sounded so done with him.
"Hey— guys, isn't that the bat?" Rexine interrupted, pointing at a certain direction, flashing her flashlight over that way. Perry's head snapped over in that direction, and, indeed, it was Darren's bat.
Perry sped up her walking there, crouching over it and observing it. She then moved onto picking it up.
There was blood on it— fresh blood, that smudged against her thumb briefly. She raised an eyebrow, and then stood up.
"Mate, where are you going? Don't lose us." Eli mumbled over to Christian who was eyeing an employees-only door at the very far right.
"We have the evidence. Let's get the hell outta here." Perry said, as she turned back. She concisely glanced at Christian, taking note of the way he seemed to be intrigued by the door. But she paid it no mind— instead took the lead as they started heading back.
"...Lorrell and Ty are waiting for us back at the store, right?" Axelle questioned.
"Well, they didn't directly state it, but, probably." Rexine answered.