(Present):
Gabriel had pragmatic reasons to be doing what he was doing. If the possibility of a community that he could hole-up for the winter was true, he had to take it. Last winter was really bad and he barely survived it, so he definitely wants to avoid the hardship of it if it was possible.
So his objective was helping a group of barely competent people that he saved in a spur of the moment decision in finding the rest of them.
A group that was composed of three people.
Jonas, a former security guard that was probably a bodybuilder or simply into doing roids. That conclusion came from a few observations. His buzz cut was clearly to hide thinning hair and the stubble was to hide acne scars. He also noticed some loose skin in his arms when he took off his jacket inside the RV, alongside acne scars in his shoulders. He also noticed that his chest was a little prominent even with the shirt on which indicated gynecomastia.
Catherine, a former gardener that clearly hides some kind of troubled past. Because those scars and eye patch of hers and the fact that she handles that battle rifle of hers a little too well were indication that there is more to her than she lets on.
And Stephanie, a former middle school student that had been a victim of abuse written all over her forehead. It wasn't hard to figure it out since unlike the other two she didn't seem to be at all concerned for her family and she shrinks like a scared puppy every time they are mentioned. The extent and severity of the abuse is still a mystery though, but he could tell that there was at least some physical abuse since he noticed some marks in her arm when he was carrying her into the RV.
There was also the one called Malcolm, who was beaten to a bloody pulp for unknown reasons. It was definitely done by a human with the intention of causing pain.
"Are you sure they came this way?" Jonas, who was in the passenger's seat, asked him.
"No, I ain't sure but considering that this is the closest thing to a trail that we found so far..." Gabriel replied as he observed the area.
"He is right, this is the only trail on sight." Catherine agreed as she grabbed ammunition for her M1 Garand.
"Ummm... What are we going to do?" Stephanie asked as she stood behind Gabriel, with her hand touching the driver's seat.
After driving away from a session of tentacle hentai. Gabriel drove around the neighborhood in search of anything that could indicate where the rest of their group might have gone. In the end, they found a strange trail of blood and bullets, indicating a fight.
"Okay..." Gabriel turned around to face them. "Since we need someone to keep an eye on him," He pointed towards Malcolm with his index finger. "I think you and someone else should stay behind in the RV while me and one of you check the trail." That was his suggestion.
"Yeah, you should stay here with Stephanie and Malcolm while we look for the others." Jonas agreed with the suggestion and said that to Catherine.
Catherine opened her mouth to try to argue, but immediately closed it again before turning her head to look at her brother, probably because she realized that it was probably for the best. "You're right."
Gabriel stood up from the driver's seat. "My best guess is that they were running away while trading gunfire with the Hive Zombies." He presented his theory as he moved towards his G36K. "Since there is blood, some of them are probably injured."
"Since there is blood?" Stephanie asked in confusion.
"Hive Zombies don't bleed." Gabriel once chopped one up with an axe and no blood came out of it.
"What?" Jonas was confused. "But I saw that guy bleeding after you shot him."
"That was because he just transformed, so that thing that turned him into a zombie had no time to feed on his bodily fluids or whatever the hell it does." It was his personal theory that the little parasite actually feeds on the host's bodily fluids, but he cannot confirm it.
"It doesn't matter, we got to see if they went that way." Catherine was quick to state.
Gabriel picked up his G36K and inspected the magazine. The gun had an adapter to accept STANAG magazines, which were easier to acquire. "This spot seems secure enough for now, but if you see any sign of the Hive, just drive as far away as you can." That was his only warning.
They were parking near a small garage that had several abandoned cars near it. Which would be difficult navigation due to the size of the RV, but the trail of bullets and blood indicated that they went that way, so continuing on foot was the only thing they could do to check.
"Wait, if they are armed..." Jonas began to speak as he stood up from the passenger's seat. "What if they shoot at us by mistake?"
"They don't know me but they know you, so I'm the one with the bigger risk of getting shot." Especially considering that his outfit makes him stand out like dog's balls. "Which is why you will walk in front of me." Something that will allow him to take cover in case of a gunfight.
"Are you fucking kidding me?!" Jonas really didn't like that idea.
"Or you can just go alone and I stay behind, because I'm already risking my ass quite a lot for a bunch of people I don't even know and I'm supposed to take extra risk because...?" In reality, Gabriel was contemplating ditching them and bouncing the hell out of that city. He is just waiting for them to give him a good reason to leave.
"Jonas, you know he is right, so don't make a scene." Catherine was quick to speak up in response. Understanding that it is less likely for them to shoot Jonas since they actually know him.
Jonas sighed. "Fine." Agreeing with it despite not being in favor of it. So he picked up his USAS-12.
Gabriel slinged the G36K to his back, lifted his hood up, took off his glasses and lifted the lower part of the balaclava up to cover the lower part of his face.
"Ehhh... Why are you covering your face?" Stephanie asked in curiosity.
"Three reasons." Gabriel responded.
...
...
...
The blond girl waited for him to actually tell her what the three reasons were. But he didn't because he wasn't in the mood to explain it. Instead, he made his way to the bedroom where he placed his glasses inside of the drawer besides the bed where Malcolm was sleeping. "Come on, we need to get this search going before it gets dark." He told Jonas to hurry as he returned to them.
"I'm going, I'm going.'' Jonas zipped up his jacket and prepared to head out.
"Be careful, okay..." She then touched Jonas's shoulder in concern.
"I can handle myself, don't worry." Jonas assured her.
"Ahh..." Stephanie opened her mouth to say something , but seemed to be clueless of what to say. "Please... Try to come back in one piece." She said while everyone looked at her.
"Don't worry, babygirl," Jonas replied right away. "I'll be back before you know it."
"I was talking to- Nevermind." Stephanie looked away embarrassed after saying that.
Jonas and Catherine gave her a strange look, but Gabriel didn't really care about that. "Just don't touch anything unless you absolutely have to, okay?" That was his only request.
"Fine." Catherine accepted his request.
"Come on then." Gabriel called Jonas as he made his way to the door. Slowly opening the door to check his surroundings. Pulling his G36K from his back, he slowly stepped outside while aiming around for any sign of hostility. "Let's go."
Jonas held his USAS-12 and also stepped out of the RV.
As soon as they were both outside, Catherine closed the door behind them.
"That way," Gabriel pointed towards the direction of the trail with his index finger. "Go." He instructed him.
Jonas sighed in visible reluctance, but he obeyed and moved forward with Gabriel following behind him.
Stephanie Gotts:
Stephanie just watched from the RV's window as Gabriel and Jonas disappeared into a garage with their weapons at hand.
Leaving her and Catherine alone inside the RV with an unconscious Malcolm.
Did I do something wrong? Did I say something weird or anything? Stephanie was wondering why he left her hanging when she asked him about why he covered his face. That really made her upset, even though it wasn't really a big deal.
"We gotta be careful." Suddenly, Catherine began to speak. "I don't know about you, but I'm half-expecting him to leave us behind and go his own way at any second."
Stephanie moved her head to look at her. "Who?" She asked. "Gabriel?"
"The only reason he is helping us is because of the possibility of a safe place to stay for the winter." Catherine pointed out the facts that they were all aware of. "But if things get too dangerous, he is probably going to think that is not worth the risk and just leave."
"But he can't leave!" Stephanie unintentionally yelled in response.
That caused Catherine to fold her arms and give her an apprehensive look. "And why not?" She asked in a semi-serious tone of voice.
"B-because..." She fumbled in her words.
"Oh my god... " Catherine just rubbed her eye with her thumb. "Please tell me that you're not crushing on him."
"Ehhh..." Stephanie blushed in response, not being able to let out the words to deny it.
The older woman sighed in response. "Stephanie, you're sixteen and he is at least twenty-three." Then she pointed out their possible age difference even though they don't know how old he is.
"So?" Stephanie didn't see any problem with that. "My mom was fifteen when she got together with my father, and he was twenty-five." Despite the fact that her parents are a terrible example, the point still stood.
"Are you-" Catherine seemed to be shocked with that piece of information. "I thought your mother was around the same age as your father!?" That was a pretty common reaction since her mother is younger than she looks.
"No, she is ten years younger than him." And the age difference between her and Gabriel is probably smaller, so she doesn't see anything wrong with it.
"Jesus Christ..." That piece of information shocked her a bit. "Listen, I know that you're probably having these weird feelings of butterflies in your stomach or something similar." She was not wrong, Stephanie does feel like that when she is near him. "But you need to be careful, because you don't know anything about him and for all we know he could be some kind of-" Whatever Catherine was going to say, it was interrupted by something that she saw. "Get down." Causing her to immediately grab Stephanie and making her get on the floor.
"What is it?" Stephanie asked in fear.
Catherine signalled her to be quiet.
The confused Stephanie could only obey her, with an expression of fear finding its way to her face as she heard a strange noise coming from the outside. Not just noise, but he could also feel the ground shaking, with really heavy steps coming their way. As it got closer and closer, she ended up looking up to see something from the windshield. Widening her blue eyes when she saw the face of a creature through the RV's window.
It had a massive circular mouth rows of teeth with five glowing gray eyes. It was very similar to the monster that Gabriel named the Hive, but much smaller.
Catherine and Stephanie just stood still, waiting for any sign of aggression. But it just stood there, in a creepy and disturbing way with those bizarre looking eyes looking around. She was shaking in fear while Catherine was contemplating whether or not she should reach for her rifle that was on top of the coffee table.
Gabriel Castle:
Gabriel and Jonas proceeded with their plan of following the trail of blood and bullets. Leading them into a parking garage that was filled with broken down cars. By the looks of it, the damage was the result of people freaking out and crashing into one another during a desperate attempt to escape. However, there were also cars that seemed to have been stripped out of parts.
"I have a bad feeling about this." Jonas commented as he looked around with his semi-automatic shotgun ready.
"I had a bad feeling since we got into this damn city." Gabriel replied sarcastically.
Looking around, Gabriel noticed something off. "Look." He signalled towards a car on their left.
"What is it?" Jonas asked.
"Look at the ground." There were tire marks on the floor, the marks were fresh.
"Did someone move that car?" Jonas got the same idea.
"Maybe..." Gabriel decided to inspect closer, slowly moving towards it with his assault rifle ready to fire.
The two of them got closer and it was obvious that the car had moved recently. Because it was way too perfectly placed in comparison to the other cars that either crashed or were stuck. Making Gabriel assume that they actually went that way. "Come on." He climbed the car hood and made his way to the other side of it.
Jonas did the same and followed behind him.
Upon reaching the other side of the car however, they came across something. "More blood." Several drops of blood on the ground.
"Whoever this blood belongs to, he probably didn't get very far." Gabriel pointed out, because that was a considerable amount of blood to lose.
"Do you think he was shot or something?" Jonas asked.
"No idea." Gabriel couldn't tell.
Moving forward, both of them reached one of the ends of the parking lot. "Look." Jonas signalled towards something at one of the open windows.
Gabriel approached to see what it was and it turned out that, right besides the parking garage, there was a construction site that seemed to have been halfway into it's construction before it stopped.
"Give me a break, a construction site?" Gabriel commented since this would be a terrible place to take refuge.
"Yeah... Way too open for my taste." Jonas shared the sentiment. "Camping in the opening was a terrible idea but we didn't really have a choice but this..." He pointed out his own mistake which led to the death of most of his group.
"They were probably desperate to get away." Gabriel is starting to think that they are probably looking for jumped past the window in order to exit the garage.
Jonas followed behind him.
Upon leaving the parking garage and approaching the construction site. Gabriel and Jonas slowly walked towards the unfinished building, with Jonas leading the way in case of someone keeping watch. It was clearly supposed to be a four floor building, and the construction was going smoothly until it got interrupted judging by the state of that site.
Gabriel's green eyes focused on the building. His vision wasn't really good without his glasses but he couldn't risk breaking them since there was no way he could get another pair. But it was still good enough for him to notice small details, like the glint of a scope on the final floor of that building. "There is a sniper aiming at us, so you better put your hands up."
"What?!" Jonas was surprised by that revelation. "Where?!"
"Fourth floor, and they clearly have a clear shot, so put your hands in the air." Gabriel rushed him as he slinged his G36K on his back and put his hands in the air.
"Fucking hell..." Jonas put his USAS-12 on the ground and put his hands in the air.
Once they both had his hand up, they waited for a few seconds. Gabriel was obviously a few steps behind Jonas in case they did decide to open fire since it would give him an opening to escape. Although, he genuinely hoped that it didn't come to that.
After a short wait, they noticed that someone was coming out from the building. It was a soldier, wearing dirty combat fatigues that had the sleeves torn and carrying an assault rifle. "Keep your hands where I can see them." He ordered the two of them.
The soldier was a short and stocky, tan skinned man with brown eyes, an aquiline nose, a narrow face and thick eyebrows. He was holding a M16A4 with a carry handle.
"Garner?" Jonas recognized him. "It's me."
"Jonas?" Once he got closer, he recognized him as well. "Shit, you're alive." He put his rifle down and approached him. Before noticing the suspicious looking guy dressed in black that was right behind him. "Who is this?" He asked in suspicion.
"This is Gabriel." Jonas introduced him as he kneeled down to pick up his weapon.
"It's just you and the sniper, or are there more people inside?" Gabriel asked in curiosity.
"Yeah, we saw some blood and empty cartridges on the way here." Jonas added.
Garner sighed and signalled the two of them to follow him. Which they did without question. "We were ambushed by a horde of crazy people that began to shoot at us for no reason." By "crazy people" he probably means Hive Zombies, and the reason is to capture them to place them into the symbiotic mass, to turn them into more Hive Zombies or kill them and feed their corpses to the Hive. "We fought and fired at them, but then this massive monster showed up and the people got hysterical and began to run like crazy." Understandable, considering the size of it. "That caused the rest of the team to scatter around in order to try to reach the ones that ran away."
"How many of you are there?" Gabriel asked in curiosity as they entered the unfinished building.
"Not many." Garner responded sadly. "The majority stayed behind to try to fight against the bastards that invaded the shelter, while some of us decided to get the civilians out." He was clearly bitter about that. "There are only eight of us in total."
"Seven." Gabriel decided to inform him.
"What?" He stopped after Gabriel said that.
"We... Found one of your guys." Jonas said it. "Phil."
"Fuck!" Garner did not take the news well. "What the hell happened?!"
"That monster got him and he was fatally wounded." Gabriel gave him the truth while omitting the part where Phil became a Hive Zombie and Gabriel was forced to kill him. "There was nothing to be done." That part was the unfortunate truth.
"Goddammit!" That piece of information clearly made him furious.
Gabriel looked around that building, the construction materials were still around and the walls seemed to have been finished. However, the entire place seemed like a safety hazard due to being unfinished and he genuinely didn't feel comfortable walking around that place because it felt like one wrong step and the whole thing could collapse. So he would rather avoid being there for longer than necessary.
"Come on." Garner, who was negatively affected by the news of his comrade's death, called them to keep moving. Reaching a set of stairs that looked considerably unsafe, so Gabriel waited until both of them climbed before he followed.
"Why the hell are you hiding here?" Jonas asked the important question.
"Because some of the people got wounded and this was the closest place we could reach." It was basically what Gabriel expected, but that was still a pretty terrible spot to hide due to how open it was.
As they reached another end of those stairs, Gabriel observed the second floor, which looked considerably worse and unfinished in comparison to the first one. But they continued to climb all the way to the third floor.
Upon reaching the third floor, they came across something. It was a small camp, with tents and camping gear around. However, he noticed that some of it was in really bad shape which indicated that it was a pre-existing camp before they showed up. There were about ten people in there, five men, three women and two teenagers. Most of them sitting around the tents, giving both Gabriel and Jonas looks as if they were new faces that just showed up. The looks were mostly Gabriel because of his edgelord outfit and the fact that his face was covered. However, he also realized that one of them was laying down and was not moving while another was sitting down shaking with a blanket covering him.
"Holy shit..." Suddenly, Jonas noticed one of the women that was sitting near the camp and immediately rushed towards her.
"Jonas?" The woman stood up and was immediately caught into an embrace by the former security guard.
It was an native-American woman around her mid-twenties who had long black straight hair, high cheekbones, slanted shaped dark brown eyes and light brown skin. She was wearing a light blue denim jacket with matching jeans and cork brown moccasin boots.
"I was so worried, I thought you were killed or something." Jonas declares as he touched the woman's face, even though she didn't seem to share the same joy of seeing him again.
"How did you find us?" She pushed his hands off of her and immediately asked him that.
"We... Followed a trail of blood and bullets and ended up getting here." Jonas informed her as he kept inspecting her.
"Oh great..." Suddenly, Gabriel heard a voice coming from his right. Where he saw a man descending from the fourth floor while carrying an Ruger American Rifle equipped with a scope. "Of everyone that could have showed up, it had to be the damn steroid junkie again." He spoke spitefully at the sight of Jonas.
The man was middle-aged, with average height but a hefty build. With fair skin, a shaved head and face, with noticeable wrinkles on his forehead and frown. He was wearing a flannel shirt under a brown cruiser jacket, dark blue jeans and desert boots.
The man moved his light brown eyes to look at Gabriel. "Who the hell is this?"
Gabriel just looked at the men for a second before turning his head to look at Garner. "What is wrong with that one?" He asked him about the man laying down.
"He got shot in the stomach." Garner answered. "The bullet was a low caliber one, so it didn't go through, but we didn't have the supplies to take it off, so we had to leave it there." Leaving a bullet in the body can be safe, even necessary, if its removal poses a greater risk of further injury or if the bullet is in a harmless location.
"And him?" He pointed towards the man covered in a blanket.
"He hurt his arm and I'm pretty certain that it got infected." The middle-aged man responded. "If that scrawny little shit doesn't hurry back, we might have to dumb their bodies down there."
"What?" Gabriel asked in confusion.
"We had another soldier here, Cooper." Garner began to explain. "He offered himself to go to a hospital that we saw on a map to get the supplies to treat those two."
"And how long has it been since he left?" Gabriel asked.
"A few hours ago." The man with the rifle explained. "The hospital is just a few blocks from here."
"Mmmm..." Gabriel heard him loud and clear. So he moved towards Jonas to speak to him.
"Are you serious?" The woman seemed to be annoyed with him. "You wanna talk about that now?!"
"Listen, I've been thinking a lot about what you said and you were right, I wa-" Jonas was clearly trying to have a conversation about their relationship. Only to be interrupted by Gabriel.
"Are you fucking serious right now?" He asked in annoyance. "This isn't the time or the place to have this kind of conversation."
"Piss off, I'm tryi-" Jonas was about to angrily shoo Gabriel away, but was interrupted.
"You're trying to restart a dead subject that I have no interest in, so excuse me." The woman was quick to rebuff before walking past him.
"Dacotah," Jonas grabbed her arm. "Babe, com-"
Dacotah yanked her arm off his grip and said. "I ain't your babe, Jonas." Before walking towards the middle-aged guy that gave Jonas a frown that screamed that he wanted to shoot him.
"Wow, and I wonder why she ditched your ass." Gabriel commented sarcastically as he clapped at him.
"Fuck you." Jonas cursed at him before shoving him with his right hand.
"Look man," Gabriel calmly spoke to him. "When things calm down, maybe you can have an actual conversation with her but right now, we are in a very precarious situation that needs our complete focus." He pointed out that fact.
Jonas folded his arms looking like a butthurt child. "What do we do?" But he saw sense and asked that.
"I'm going back to the RV to warn Catherine and Stephanie that we found some people, you stay here and see if there is anything you can help with." Gabriel proposed to Jonas.
"Y-yeah, good idea." Jonas replied while he continued to give looks to Dacotah, who was speaking to the middle-aged guy. Causing Gabriel to roll his eyes because he could tell that he was going to continue to try to speak to her.
"Just.. Sit tight." Gabriel saw that there was no point in even bothering to advise him to give the woman some space. So he just unceremoniously made his way to the stairs in order to get out of the building.
"Hey, where are you going?" The middle-aged guy asked him as he realized that he was leaving.
"Back to my RV." Gabriel bluntly responded to the man.
"You got a working car?" Garner asked him as he stepped on the stairs.
"Yeah, and he has food, meds, ammo and even electricity." Jonas unnecessarily revealed that piece of information to them. And they all gave them surprised looks in response.
"That I don't really plan on sharing anymore than the bare-minimum, so don't get the wrong idea." Gabriel was quick to point out that fact to them as he continued to descend the stairs.
Stephanie Gotts:
Slowly, the scared girl lifted her head up to look through the RV window. Where she saw the creature with glowing eyes standing there. It had a humanoid body shape with a strange smooth looking and gray flesh. It's bulky torso supports two massive arms each ending in five long claws that look incredibly sharp.
Moving her head to look at Catherine, she simply held her rifle tightly while standing in front of the door.
They were both unsure of what to do and too afraid to even try anything. Catherine wanted them to stay silent and hope that the monster leaves. Stephanie, on the other hand, wanted to turn the RV on and drive away from there but she didn't know how to drive.
So she had no choice but to sit under the window and do what she always does when she is afraid. She hugged her legs tightly and buried her face on her knees.
It was almost identical to the times where her father would get home drunk and she would lock herself in her room. The only difference was that, instead of yelling, she heard a loud noise that resembled a grunt mixed with weeping. That noise made her shake just as much as her father bashing her door. Just like those times, she silently prayed for something, anything, to make it stop.
Gabriel Castle:
You got to be fucking kidding me... After passing through the parking garage to make his way back to his RV to warn Stephanie and Catherine of the survivors. He was unfortunately greeted by the unfortunate sight of a monster. I was kind of hoping to not encounter a Hive Baby, but I should have known to not bet on my non-existing luck. He thought in deep annoyance as he observed the creature that was standing a few steps away from his RV. Taking five steps back and hiding behind a wall, Gabriel began to think how to better assess the situation.
Okay... I need to get to the RV since the only thing that will be killing that thing is either the sword or the grenade launcher. Two things that he decided not to bring along due to weight and because he thought he would only be facing Hive Zombies. I need to get it away from the RV, so I-
"EEeee!" Any plan that Gabriel could have conjured at that moment, was immediately destroyed by the sound of someone screaming inside of his RV. "AARRRRHHHH!" The scream was obviously from a man, indicating that Malcolm woke up.
Gabriel touched his head in deep frustration as he stuck his head out of cover and saw the Hive Baby charging towards the RV while making a disgusting and painful sounding hiss. As soon as it reached the RV, it began to push it in an attempt to flip it over.
"AAAHHHHHH!" And the sound of Stephanie screaming following it.
Gabriel sighed in deep annoyance before he walked out of the cover. Where he let out a loud whistle that attracted the Hive Baby's attention, with those creepy eyes looking behind him and seeing Gabriel there. Turning it's body around and letting out it's very unpleasant sounding hiss.
"You're one ugly motherfucker."