Survivors

This chapter was really broken up into two separate chapters, so sorry if it seems weird in the middle.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"You're a fucking idiot," Rick scowled, as they looked at the familiar 'Welcome to Las Vegas!' sign. The sign that used to twinkle and sparkle with lights was now barren and dead. Pike thought he was even able to make out the chew marks on the side, from where an infected had been gnawing on the metal. He assumed it had attacked the sign when there was still power. The lights probably drew it over.

"Calm down Rick, it was an honest mistake," Gavin said.

"No, he's right. I probably killed us all," Pike said bleakly.

"Don't think like that. Most of us will stay out of city limits and only one or two will go in for supplies. It will be fine." Gavin smiled and rested a hand on Pikes skin. Mongo licked his fluffy paw before running it over his one good ear. Pike picked him up and turned him onto his back, scratching his belly as the cat purred and shut its eyes.

"I'll go. It's only fair. I'm the one who messed up on the guestimation of how many supplies we would need to bypass a major city," Pike nodded.

"Then I'll go with you. You have the sneaky thing going for you, and I can probably carry more supplies than anyone else here," Gavin said, and Pike knew he was right. He had to pull his gaze away from Gavin's tight muscles before he was caught staring.

"If we both go and something happens, then we're screwed. The group will be left alone," Pike waved to the rest of their little clan of survivors. He couldn't leave them without a leader. As much as he didn't hate some of them, they weren't capable of leading.

"Then there's only one other option," Gavin said. "We all go," he finished, when everyone stared at him waiting for the 'one other option'.

"What?!" Rick shouted.

"Are you fucking crazy?" Pike shouted at the same time. "Bringing all these people into a major city will kill us," Pike said. "There's no way we can move through the streets without being caught."

"More people means less time in the city since we can carry more supplies. Less danger because we'll be able to fight off a few Drained if they come anywhere near us," Gavin reasoned.

"And if one of those big ass mother-fuckers comes for us again?"

"Then we're fucked anyways," Gavin replied, a little pale at the thought. There was a silence in the crowd.

"He's right," David said from the back of the group.

"Emma will be quiet, she knows how to survive." The little girl blinked with wide eyes as her mother stroked her hair lovingly. Pike sighed.

"Okay. Lets go then, we're wasting time. I want to be out of here before sunset." Pike put Mongo down.

"I can't believe I'm fucking doing this. You're going to kill us," Rick said again.

"Then you're free to stay here. Alone," Gavin didn't even look at him as they headed into the city limits.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The city suddenly didn't seem so bright and full of life like it had before the shit hit the fan. Cars, and buses, and other vehicles lined the street. Corpses nearly outnumbered the cars. They walked as quietly and as carefully as they could, stopping at any gas station, store, market, or anything else that might carry supplies they needed.

"Pike." Gavin whispered, nodding his head to a large grocery store. Pike nodded silently, and motion for the group to follow Gavin, who entered the building first. He stepped inside, and scanned the dark isles. Grocery stores were never safe. Just like Police stations, hospitals, and churches. Those were the places people flocked too when something happened. That's where they died, and normally that's where they would stay. Once they had 'turned' users weren't much into moving unless it was to chase something. It was almost eerie the way they could stand stone still. Most drug users, of any kind, were twitchy and jumpy. But they had a predatory air about them, stay perfectly still and your prey won't see you until you're already on it.

It was ironic that this should happen while Gavin thought of the very thing he was afraid of happening. He didn't even see the 'corpse' as he stepped past it's head. That is, he didn't see it until it wrapped his hand around his ankle. It roared loudly, and tugged him to the ground. He couldn't help but let out a very unmanly yelp as the once business man crawled up his torso. He clawed frantically at his body, tearing at the clothes at pale thin skin underneath. He shoved at the roaring man above him, his nails breaking from malnutrition. A shot rang out and he looked up to see Pike holding a gun. The drained collapsed and Gavin groaned. Pike knelt by him.

"Hold still," he said, and quickly tore open Gavin's shirt. He revealed the thick red lines of blood where the drained had scratched at his skin. He groaned as Pike touched the wounds. "You'll be okay, but it's going to hurt like a bitch for awhile." He gestured down to where the drained had scratched through his pants and onto his thighs. "I'll let you keep those on," he winked, and stood up. Gavin grunted and stood, blood dripping onto the ground.

"Maybe we should go back, he's not at his best he could put us all in danger."

"Dana," Pike frowned.

"No, she's right. We should leave and come back another day, or I could leave and you all keep scavenging," he said.

"We're already too deep to go back. We'll stay here tonight and at least let your wounds scab over," Pike said. "There's a warehouse across the street. You all stay and look around here. I'll go scout it out and we'll stay there. This place has too many nooks and crannies," Pike stood, grabbing his pistols and heading back out the way they came in.

~~~~~~~~~~ "This sucks," Rick complained as he followed Pike into the empty warehouse. Pike allowed Gavin to lean on him as they stepped into the plain building.

"Get to sleep. We'll be up at down to move out," Gavin said, grunting from the pain. Pike agreed, and set himself and Gavin up to get some sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Pikes eyes were wide open. He couldn't fall asleep, all he could do was listen to the steady breathing of Gavin next to him. The air was cold and crisp, and he couldn't help the small but repetitive shivers that ran up his spine every four or five seconds.

"I swear to god, Pike. Swallow your pride and come snuggle. It's freezing," Gavin mumbled, half asleep.

"W-what?" Pike scowled at himself when his teeth chattered through the word. "Ugh, fine." He scooted over, his back resting against Gavin's chest. Instantly he was warmer. He smiled to himself and sighed.

"I want to say thank you again, Pike. For sticking with us. I think without you we would have died in that stupid store," Gavin mumbled into Pikes ear, making him realize how close the other man really was. Close enough for him to feel the small twitch in Gavin's pants.

"It's no problem, really." Pike felt his breathing begin to speed up. He felt Gavin's hand snake around his waist.

"I mean, thank you for staying with me. Not just leaving me," he continued.

"G-gavin," Pike went to sit up, but Gavin held onto him tightly.

"Please, just wait," Gavin whispered, and Pike froze at the intense sadness in Gavin's voice. "Please, Pike. Don't reject me. I know that in this kind of time, it's not the first thing on everyone's minds, but it's been so long," he laughed bitterly, though Pike could still hear the sorrow.

"We can't, Gavin. I don't know if you forgot, but we have a crowd of other people in the building. They could wake up," Pike said. He couldn't believe he was even talking about this.

"Please, Pike. I just need... something," Gavins voice was hardly above a whisper, but was filled with desperate need. Pike turned onto his other side, so he was facing Gavin in the darkness.

"Okay... but be quiet about it, huh?" Pike joked, but even behind his nonchalant tone, his voice was drenched with just as much need as Gavin. He let his hand slip down and grasped at the bulge in Gavin's pants. Gavin whimpered and thrusted into Pike's loving embrace. He grinded his hips against Pike's hand, through his thin pants and annoyingly thick boxers. He wished he could just strip and bend Pike over to fuck him right there, but he knew it was out of the question. He bit his lip as he felt his dick surge with pleasure. He felt Pike move against his leg, feeling the hard dick hidden by the sweat pants Pike wore. They both breathed heavily, but tried to stay quiet in the dark and silent room. Gavin grunted, and let out a high pitched whimper. Pike, somehow understanding the intense language of need, reached his hand inside the waistband of Gavin's pants. He felt Gavins cock immediately slip into the O-shaped ring of his hand and thrust in and out. Gavin gasped silently as his cock began to cover Pike's closed hand in his seed. Pike finally pulled his cum-soaked hand out of Gavin's pants as his dick began to go flaccid. Without a word, Gavin pulled Pikes hand to his mouth and cleaned it off quickly, lapping up the last drop of cum from Pike's fingertips.

"Please, my turn?" Pike begged, Gavin nodded in the darkness and moved to let Pike hump into his hand. Pike brought himself to orgasm quickly, filling Gavin's hand with seed. Gavin brought his hand up, expecting pike to lick his fingers clean as he had, but when Pike simply wrinkled his nose, he smiled and cleaned his hand by himself.

"More protein," he joked. Pike grumbled and let his head fall back down.

"How can you joke after you just came? I just want a sandwich," he mumbled. Gavin groaned and laid down with him.

"I haven't had a sandwich in so long," he replied, feeling sleepiness take over him.

"Isn't it just the little things you miss? You know what I want?" Pike asked.

"What?"

"A coke," he groaned. "It's been so long since I've had a nice cold soda I would kill for one. I'm not even kidding. If we come across a drained that was an original user, and it had a coke clenched between it's teeth, I'll fight that shit to the death."

"I'll back you up, if I get a sip," Gavin mumbled, and before Pike could answer, they were both asleep in each others arms.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Emma woke suddenly, soft sounds coming from somewhere nearby. She frowned and stood up. The little bit she remembered before the outbreak seemed nice. She remembered going to soccer, and watching T.V. with her parents. She even remembered school. But it was like it was all something that somebody had told her about. Not something she really remembered. She had grown used to the dark, and the angry howls of users. She had grown used to the sight of blood, and the dead men twitching at her feet. She knew not too much longer and she would be needed to fight, too. There was always talk about how everyone in the group needed to pull their own weight or they were only dragging the group down. She didn't want to be dead weight.

She stood and walked over the sleeping forms of the rest of the group, heading towards a small door in the side of the building. A shadow passed by and she frowned. Were there more people here? Maybe they weren't alone, maybe they-

Her thoughts stopped when she pulled the door open and was faced with four drained.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The high pitched childish scream pierced Pike's ears like a bullet. He was on his feet before his eyes were even open, his pistols drawn. Gavin was up quickly next to him, axe in hand. All over the warehouse people stood, readied.

"Who was that?" someone shouted.

"Is everyone here?" Gavin asked.

"Maybe it's an outsider," someone else offered.

"Shut the fuck up," Pike shouted, and all went quiet. The tiny pitter patter of feet broke the sound, along with the heavy thuds of running drained.

"Emma!?" Dana shouted, realizing her daughters spot was empty. As the little girl came into the dim light that the moon allowed for, through the single window up near the ceiling, she was quickly followed by three drained. Gavin swung at the first one, axe connecting with the man's skull as he fell to the ground. He pulled at his axe, trying to wedge it out of the screaming and flailing man's head. The second drained ran to him, arms outstretched. Pike aimed carefully, and fired. Gavins ears rang and his legs throbbed as he was reminded of the cuts on his body.

The third tackled Pike before he could aim again, and he landed hard on the ground. His head hit the concrete floor of the warehouse as he was thrown back. He jammed his pistol in the drooling drained-woman's mouth and fired. He rolled the still corpse off him and was met with the groans and gags of the rest of the group as the woman's brains rained down on them all.

"Gross, Pike," Gavin grumbled, as he sat back on the ground heavily, blood beginning to seep from his wounds again. Pike opened his mouth to say something, when the chilling sound of a shotgun cocking pierced his mind.

"Shut your mouth, faggot," Ricks voice floated to Pike's ears.

"Wow, how did I know this was going to happen." Pike rolled his eyes without looking up, but felt the stab of pain as the barrel of the gun was pressed against the back of his head.

"I said shut your mouth," he snapped. Pike did as he was told.

"Rick, put the gun down. We don't even have any ammo for that," Gavin rolled his eyes.

"Wrong, cocksucker. I picked some up a couple of towns ago. Kept it to myself," he smiled. Gavin glared at him.

"Put the gun down, and we'll forget this ever happened, and you won't be booted out with the drained," Gavin said.

"I don't think you're in any position to be giving orders," Rick spat, "Everybody against the wall." They all moved silently over to the wall, held at gunpoint by Rick and Mel, who had taken Pike's pistols. Even Mongo happily skipped over with Pike, meowing the whole way.

"Shut that cat up," Rick hissed.

"Mongo!" Pike snapped, and the cat happily jumped onto his chest, latching his claws onto his shirt and digging into the skin. "God damn it, stupid cat," he mumbled and hissed at the pain as the tabby tried to pull himself up. He helped him up and allowed him to sit on his shoulder, though it bent his head at an uncomfortable angle. He tried to stifle a laugh as Mongo began licking his ear.

"You, where did the drained come from?" Rick asked, pointing the shotgun at Emma.

"Don't point that thing at her!" Dana shouted.

"I swear to god I'll blow your head off, bitch. Get back," he said, aiming the gun at Dana instead when she stepped away from the wall.

"I heard a noise, and thought it was people. I opened the door and they chased me inside," she answered.

"Did you close it?" Rick asked, frowning. When she looked confused, his face turned red and he shouted. "THE DOOR!" She went pale and looked towards the shadowed spot that the door was hidden in. As soon as they all turned, two more drained came charging in, the sound of more footsteps following. Rick scowled and cocked the shotgun, turning it onto the drained, and blowing ones shoulders clean of a head. The other was hit in the chest, and stumbled back. He had aimed too far away and the bullet only tore up the mans chest, as he began to slow down, before he picked up speed again. Mel watched, not moving the pistols away from the rest of the group, as Rick took out the flow of drained one by one. As soon as he realized the crowd wasn't getting any smaller, he ordered Emma over to the door.

"Close it!" he shouted, as he covered her with the spray of shotgun fire. She screamed and cried as she shoved it shut, nearly getting caught by several different drained in the process. Mel screamed as a hidden drained bit down into the soft skin of his neck, and began to tear him to pieces with nails that had long since flaked and chipped away to form sharp claws. The woman beat him furiously, biting and scratching between screeches of anger. Rick aimed, and fired, hitting both of them purposely in the head. They both fell still, and Rick grumbled.

"Poor old fuck." He picked up the dual pistols off the ground and admired them, before making Pike pull off his holsters and carefully fumbled them around his waist, trying to keep one gun aimed at the group the whole time. Emma hugged her mother's leg while she sobbed, her father standing not far.

"What the fuck do you think you're going to do now, Rick? You're partner in crime is dead, and you can't do shit without that gun on us," Pike snarled.

"Easy, butt-boy," Rick sneered. "I take everything I need from this pathetic little group, and I'm on my way out of vegas," he smiled, and backed up towards the small piles that held everyone's possessions. Almost everything in the group was owned by the group, and distributed evenly. However people still carried with them individual purses or backpacks for the few private items they had left. Rick went through the group bags first, loading up his own backpack with food, water, and ammunition. Pike gulped when he began rummaging through the bags of the individual members of the group. The screeching of Drained could be heard from outside, Pike doubted he thought about how he would be leaving exactly, with the warehouse apparently surrounded.

"You hear that? They're all over the place out there, the longer you wait to leave the more there will be. You should take off now," he said, as Rick tossed Gavin's possessions aside after he turned his backpack inside out, making the other man scowl.

"Shut the fuck up." Rick ignored him, and picked up Mel's bag. After finding nothing of worth, he reached for Pike's.

"Stop!" Pike shouted, stepping towards Rick, who raised the gun.

"Pike, just let him go through your shit!" Gavin said, when Rick rested his finger on the trigger.

"Just leave, Rick!" Pike said, as a few drops of sweat fell down the frame of his face. Rick turned his head and narrowed his eyes.

"There something in here you don't want us to know about, butt fucker?" Rick asked. Pike swallowed.

"I just want you gone," he said, his voice unusually calm. Rick picked up his bag and Pike shut his eyes, waiting for the rain of terror and hatred to fall down upon him.

"The fuck?" Rick mumbled, he held up the small glass vial of gray liquid. He dropped the backpack and a few more vials rolled out. Everyone in the group froze. The air was so still and silent it felt more like clay than air.

"Is that..." Dana's voice trailed off.

"Oh my god," Gavin whispered.

"You're a user. What the fuck!? I knew I should have left a long ass time ago," Rick raised the vial to smash it on the concrete ground.

"Don't!" Pike shouted, and dove for the falling vial. He caught it in his hands and sighed with relief and Rick aimed the gun at his head.

"Get away from me you fucking drained piece of shit."

"I'm not like them! I'm fine, look at me! We've been traveling together for a long time now and you didn't even know! I'm fine!" Pike shouted frantically, looking back and forth from the group to Rick and then back to the group. Even Gavin looked pale and sickened by the realization. Pike clutched the vial to his chest and began scooping up the others that had rolled away from the back pack.

"You crazy mother fucker. Those shit heads out there turned just from drinking the diluted shit, and you're here chugging it like it's goddamn Gatorade!" Rick swore.

"Pike how could you lie to us like this? You put all of us in danger!" Gavin said, growing more furious by the second.

"I'm fine, look at me. I don't look like them!" Pike pointed at one of the dead drained.

"No, you'd look like that big ass mother fucker who attacked us back in L.A.!" he screamed.

"That won't happen to me!" Pike shouted.

"Why the fuck not!?" Their screaming had aggravated the drained outside, who continued to beat on the door and walls.

"I don't know!" Pike said, with a sigh. "I don't know, okay. I drank tap water back when all of this started and I never got sick. When things got really bad I needed something to take the edge off. Hon-..." he choked back a sob. "Honestly when I found the first vial I thought I might as well go out with a bang. I was hoping I would just get sick like the others and it would all be over," Pike sighed. "I didn't change and I just kept using it to take the edge off of all of this crazy bullshit," he mumbled. "It helps me cope with this 'Night of the Living Dead' shit."