An Interactive Fic: THE FINAL /Ch.1D

THE FINAL
An interactive Walking Dead experience.
Rated T.  Warning: Explicit language.
Pairings: Felix & Marzia, Red & Russ. May be hints of slash.
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You and 42.3% of the readers chose C:
_{b) "I'll do it for you." - 25.9%
d) "Okay, I'm outside if you need me. (Hands over gun, waits outside.)" -  22.1%
a) "He's not Nate anymore, he's dangerous. (Don't hand over gun)" - 9.6%}

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Chapter 1, D: At Crossroad

Cry appreciates your concern.

Felix nods, and hands over the gun. Cry takes it with heavy, shaky hands. "Are you sure? I can wait here with you..." He shrugs, picking up the knife Cry had dropped on the floor earlier. "Just in case... You know."

"I'll be okay." Cry smiles weakly, "Thanks."

Pewdie smiles back, and exits the room. He gently closes the door behind him, hearing it click, then went back to complete silence.

Time was numb, and painfully slow. Pewdie paced back and forth in the corridor, rubbing his hands, toying with his knife, looking out of the window impatiently. He pressed his ear up against the door at one point, and thought he'd heard shifting sounds, drowned out by his heavy breathing and racing pulses.

Another minute passed, the deafening silence continued to roam the house. Pewdie was growing more and more restless. What if he's hurt? What if something stopped him from yelling out for help? Then he'd remembered seeing the wreckage of the room reflecting in Cry's tearing eyes, his broken heart almost audible. It was a painful sight.

And of course... Nate. For a second, staring at his withering, young body, Pewdie almost saw Marzia. And it was that which scared him more than anything. The very thought stabbed like a million knives. He sighed, and sunk to the floor. Waiting for the something, anything.

Just when time began to unfreeze, a loud, muffled shout and a thud sounded from the door, followed by several rushed gunshots. Pewdie stumbled to his feet and slung himself at the door, calling out his name, horrified.

Cry was okay. There he was, in one piece, trembling against the corner of the room. Shaky hands holding on to his gun, pointing at the foot of the bed where Nate's dead body hung. Blood trickled down the rigid, rotting claw reaching out towards him, and down the remains of his head.

Drip, drop.

Drip, drop.

The man took a sharp breath, then slowly lowered his gun. He looked up at a speechless Pewdie.

"What..." Words struggled to escape from his mouth, "Why's Nate... What happened?"

Cry groaned, and got up uneasily. "I ... " His back was arched with pain. Pewdie rushed over to lend him a hand.

"Why is Nate on the bed?"

Cry recollected himself and spoke with that calmness his deep voice wore so well. "I moved him." He said. "He deserves better. So I lay him on the bed..." Cry turned, and looked at the body on his brother's bed. "... then he..."

"It's okay. I understand." Pewdie interrupted. "Are... you okay?"

"Just." He replied after some thought, and added a smile. "I flinched and took a hard fall, but I'll be alright, friend."

Pewdie watched the smile on Cry's face die down.

"The car's in the garage." he said as he limped towards the door, his voice was monotonous. They left the room, and without so much as another glance, Cry slammed the door behind him. His hand lingered on the handle.

"Let's get the gas, and get the fuck out of here."

~*~*~*~

"Where the hell could they be." Battlestar mumbled to himself, ruffling his dark curls anxiously and marching about the room. "How did we manage to lose two grown men??"

"Calm down, will you?" Red rolled her eyes, "They are two grown men, I'm sure they can take care of themselves. You're scaring Marzia." She pets Marzia's shoulder with a smile, she stops sobbing and gives her a timid smile back.

"I'm gonna kill him." Russ mumbled through his hands, cupping his face.

At the very sentence, the back door banged open, and rushed in was Cry and Pewdie. Cry stood bold against the rising crew, while Pewdie rushed to Marzia as he broke in the door.

Russ glared at him, then stood. Hands closing into a trembling fist. Ken pulled him back before he charged at the tired man. "Do you have any idea how worried we were?"

"Hey, chill man." Pewdie began.

Russ snapped, "You stay out of this." He looked back at his friend, the burning anger in his eyes began to melt into pain. "How could you? You could have died, you could have..."

"I'm sorry."

Russ ripped away from Ken's grasp yanked at Cry's collar. "How can you leave us like that? Huh? Why didn't you tell me?? "

"We're your friends." Scott pulled Russ back, and faced Cry. "We would have gone with you if you said. We stick together."

"Come on guys, lay offa him." Pewdie rose to his feet, but was stopped by Snake before he could engage. Snake shook his head.

"They have every right to be mad at him." He calmly explained, nodding towards Cry, who stood in blind silence. "Cry knows that."

"What would we do if anything happened to you?" Russ' voice echoed.

Red rose to her feet. "Stop it Russ."

"Do you even care?"

" Russ!!"

Russ stopped. He slowly backed away from Cry and took a deep breath. Cry was still in the same place, his silence the most deafening out of all of them. Red puts an assuring hand on Russ' back, then looked back at Cry.

"Did you find Nate?"

The room was now suddenly muted. Everyone turned to face the man, and nine pairs of eyes burnt through him like lasers. Cry's shaky voice shattered the silence.

"He's turned."

Silence. Disbelief, anguish, grieve, all stood in the room with heavy hearts and wordless, gaping mouths. The eyes on him began to fall, but Russ' out of all of them, stayed. He tried to speak, but his throat was too tied up.

"Sorry to interrupt." Raven's quiet voice, previously drowned out by the fight, suddenly pierced the room. "But we've really got to go."

It was only then, the growing buzz of groaning walkers and increasing bangs and thuds of the door slowly giving in began to come into everyone's focus. A sudden panic rushed into the room. "They're coming from the school!" Raven repeated, peeking out at the swarms of zombies heading this way. They pounded violently at the door, Ken and Battlestar rushed over to barricade it.

"Shit!" Pewdie exclaimed, "We must've led them here!"

"This place will hold." Snake said coolly. "We've spent the past 2 days securing this place, we'll be fine. I say we lock ourselves in and hold out until then."

Cry yelped, grabbing his left wrist tightly, and cursed under his breath. He got up.

"What's wrong?" Russ got up with him.

"I don't know, I ..." Cry's hands trembled. "I must have sprained my wrist when I fell."

"There's a first aid kit in the storage room."

Cry nodded, and headed over. He turned midway and called out for Russ. "Will you come with me? I uh..." He coughed. "I want to have a word with you."

Russ understood, and walked over to join his friend. The door closed behind them. Red snorted and smiled at Pewdie's worried expression. "Give them some time to make up. It'll be fine."

"We went eastwards while you guys were gone," Scott continued. "Nothing. Not a single drop of gas."

"Me and Snake hooked up a car though." Ken said proudly as the door creaked against his back. "It's short on fuel, but should be working."

"Should." Snake repeated.

Pewdie talked over the growing noise. "We've only brought back enough for one car."

"I say we stay." Red said. "Lock ourselves in like Snake said, until the horde dies down. Then we can find more petrol, enough for both our cars."

Pewdie looks at Ken and Battlestar, dews of sweat rolling down their faces with evident effort to keep the door from giving in while Raven patched the door up hastily. "I don't know." He murmured.

"Red is right." Scott agreed. "The cars aren't fit to run."

" Guys!!" Ken shouted, "Locking down or what?!"

"We are definitely not locking ourselves in." Russ and Cry marched out from the storage room. "We've got the cars, we can share the fuel."

"Doesn't matter where it takes us," Cry took over, one hand grasping his newly bandaged wrist. "We have to go. The city is not safe anymore."

Red narrowed her eyes at Russ inquisitively, "When did you become so anti-city all of the sudden?"

"Trust us." Snake growled. "We know what we're doing."

"Do you really?" Russ glared back.

"Yes." His cold voice replied. "Lock down, Ken."

"Don't you dare!!" Cry cried out. "Do not lock down, Ken."

"Ken!!"

You're playing as CinnamonToastKen / Ken for this Chapter. Your decision will decide what happens and who you'll meet in the next chapter.

Choose your action:

<- Lock down        Get out of here ->


To be continued...