An Interactive Fic: THE FINAL /Ch.2E

THE FINAL
An interactive Walking Dead experience.
Rated T.  Warning: Explicit language.
Pairings: Felix & Marzia, Red & Russ, Minx & Krism. May be hints of slash.
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You and 78.8% of the readers chose A:
_{b) "Deaf does have a point..." (side with Deaf) - 15.4%
c) "..." (Remain silent) -  5.8%}

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Chapter 2, E: Secrets

Russ will remember your loyalty.

Russ discreetly left the conversation, and wandered to the other side of the stairs. Cry watched as his restless hands stroked the lighter anxiously. "We... can't leave our friends." Cry replied, smiling towards Russ.

"But they-" Deaf began, but was swallowed his words half way as he was reminded of the consequences. He scratched his head, and gulped. "I suppose."

Thanks, Cry smiled. Deaf smiled back.

"Let's say, we go ahead to the forest first to look for them. I... know where the crash was. We'll just follow that. At least find the car. If they aren't there..." Russ crossed his arms, eyes averting the two's awaiting gazes. "If they aren't there... fine. We'll go ahead."

The British man agreed, and patted him on the back as he passed the them and retreated back into their godless shelter. Leaving the two standing in dead silence, facing the dawn of a cruel new world.

~*~*~*~

"We'll be back soon." Ken smiled at Minx, her thin, worn frame stood at the gate of the church. She gazed back with weary eyes. Marzia kissed Pewdie on the cheeks, and watched him gallop down the stairs to catch up with the other guys, waving back at her as they began to fade from their vision. Marzia held Minx's hand gently, but tightly, as she led her back into safety.

The five men continued down the deserted highway quietly. Russ lead the team. His mind was swarmed with her fiery hair and sharp, beautiful green eyes. Somewhere in his heart, he'd known not to get his hopes up. But clenching tightly to the worn lighter, all that was keeping him from insanity was the thought of her.

His Red. His living, breathing, safe Red.

"We should be nearly there." Pewdie panted, looking forwards at the corner where the car had toppled over and was lost beyond the thick, menacing woods. The Walkers' battle cry began buzzing louder, putting them all in unease. Ken cocked his gun, and nodded towards his comrades as they did the same. "Let's go."

Pewdie investigated the dirt trail that had swerved, and led into the forest. He tested the rubbles that lay on the steep hill, and slid down it. "It's safe." He waved, the others followed cautiously. Pewdie stood with his weapon at hand, staring into a void in the dark forest that seemed to lead to no end.

"Shit," Deaf cursed, inspecting the scene. Greenery that were uprooted and thrown around the tracks, hard slashes that engraved onto the tree trunks. Bits and pieces of wrappers and food that were thrown from their trunks littered the place and seemed to lure the men into the gaping jaws of the forest.

Deaf contemplated picking up the rations, but saved that thought for later.

"RED!!" Russ cried, his voice echoed between the trees and were lost beyond the visible radius. Cry leapt at him and muffled his shouts before he'd given it another try. "Don't do that!!" His whisper was sharp and alarmed. "This isn't that ghost town, there will be walkers roaming around."

Russ snapped away from his friend, and began walking ahead. As the noise of the zombies began to surround, his walk began to break into a light jog, then into a full-on run. The others tried their best to follow. "S-Slow down!!" Deaf panted, but it was too late. Russ was lost into the woods ahead of them.

Ken and Pewdie stopped and took deep, tired breaths with arched backs and Deaf plopped down beside them onto the dirt ground, they gasped and sputtered for breath. Cry, who wasn't far ahead of them, began to falter and waver on his feet, before collapsing onto the forest floor. Pewdie rushed over in alarm to help him up.

"Cry?!" He called with panic, looking at his worn blue eyes as he coughed between short, weak huffs. He smiled at his friend reassuringly before making a failed attempt to leap up from where he knelt, crashing onto the floor again like a bird with broken wings. Pewdie threw his arm over his shoulder and pulled him to his feet, blue eyes ridden with worry. "What the hell? Are you okay?"

The man laughed as he brushed Pewdie's arm away from him casually. "I'm fine. Sprinted too quickly... too soon, and... got a little dizzy."

Pewdie almost believed what came out of his friend's pale lips. But he'd let it slip anyways.

"We... should probably... catch up." Ken swallowed as he began to walk again, Deaf followed him with a moan. "He'd be following... the trail. Let's just follow that."

Pewdie nodded in agreement and looked back at Cry. He rubbed his face with sweaty palms, then snapped up. "Let's go Pewds."

The track began to carve a little deeper with every step they tread further down into the forest. Woods began to tower over them and finally strangled that last streak of sunshine until they were no more.

"Look!"

There was Russ, standing as if frozen. Looking down at the wreck that was what was left of their other half. Scratches tattooed on its metallic sides, with a sturdy, gigantic tree between the car's crumpled hood. Russ looked past the cracked window where Red would have been seated, and saw a blood-stained reflection his own broken self.

Cry rushed over, and stared into the muddled car windows. The airbags were sprinkled with glass shards and blood, the driver's seat had a large rip in it, and the metal coating was dented in multiple places. The back seat windows were severely cracked and obstructed by mud. Blood still dripped from the passenger seat doors, and dyed the dirt around it scarlet. Pewdie and Ken stared at Cry and Russ anxiously.

"They're not in there." Cry concluded, moving his head away from inspecting the front seats. Pewdie and Ken sighed in relief as Deaf began. "What? Where could they be?"

"I don't know." Cry simply said as he lowered his eyes onto the floor, finding the lighter that Russ had previously so tightly held on to dropped and abandoned beside his foot. He crouched down to pick it up.

Deaf searched around the cars curiously while Pewdie and Ken kept an eye out for any passing walkers. Their buzzing cries and groans slowly drowning out their thoughts. A few of them blindly walked past gaps in the dark forest, unaware. Pewdie felt shivers riding up his spine as more of them began to appear. "Guys...!!" He murmured under his breath.

Cry opened Russ' stiff, closed fists with some difficulty, and placed the cold lighter back into his palm. The light in his eyes lit again.

Deaf cupped his hands around the his face as he attempted to look through the cracked, muddled back-seat window. Something seemed to wriggle beyond the rippled window. He squinted his eyes and looked closer, hoping to make something out of that mere shadow.

Russ flinched. "DEAF GET AWAY FROM TH-"

Deaf turned to face Russ, glass glittered mid-air as the back window shattered and a dark, corrupted hand reached out and seized Deaf's neck. He yelped in shock as a horrid, rotten stench and a menacing hiss came from within the car.

"FUCK!!" Pewdie cried, shaky hands instinctively aiming his gun at the man being attacked. Deaf flailed in a panic, "DON'T SHOOT!!" He struggled as he tried to push away the attacker's powerful grip, but with no luck. A decaying face emerged from the window, veiled by long, mangled dark hair with tips that were once golden. She stared at Deaf with horrifying, blank eyes.

Russ rushed over and attempted to free her tight hold, but her sharp jaws snapped at his fingers when he'd gotten close. Cry and Pewdie stood frozen with their useless weapons in hand at a face so familiar. Deaf attempted to stifle his own screams as her monstrous breath fell on his shoulders.

"WE NEED TO KILL HER!!" Ken yelled, attempting to aim.

"NO!!" Russ blocked him. "She's too close!!"

Ken pursed his lips, then marched up, shoving Russ out of the way. He looked down at the growling walker they once knew as their friend, and came down with one hard blow with the grip of his gun. Violently attempting to break her.

"FUCK!!" Deaf swore, body still vigorously resisting the zombie. And with one last hit, he was freed from her grasp. He fell forwards onto the mud, and panted in pain, wriggling away from the monster that was still reaching and growling at him. Ken backed away, and aimed his gun at her.

The decaying woman clawed her way out from the window, and landed on the floor with a thud. Gurgling and hissing at her prey as she dragged her stump of a torso towards the man.

With a loud bang, Ken ended the creature's miserable life. She fell to her front, and was left to bleed there at the scene of crime with a hollow head.

"WH-WHAT THE FUCK?!" Deaf shrieked, his hand tightly gripping his shoulders - ridden with scratch marks and blood. A sharp pain drained the blood from his face.

Russ grabbed the back of his head as 4 pairs of questioning eyes pierced through him.

"She was... I didn't..." Bits and pieces of a sentence stuttered out of his mouth, but his restlessness suddenly seized as his eyes fell on Deaf's pale, scared eyes.

The british man choked as he buried his face in his hands, then looked up with red eyes. There, entwined with the countless scratch marks on his shoulder, marked a bruised, swollen bite wound.

"Oh my god..." Cry stared in shock. Deaf covered his wound and struggled to stand up with weak legs. He stood, back against the team and took a deep breath to recollect himself.

"Deaf-"

"We can not tell Minx." His spoke with trembling assertiveness. One hand tightly griping where he was infected.

"I don't know..." Pewdie said, "It's always better to break the news earlier than later. Don't you thi-"

"You've seen what she can do." Deaf cried through clenched teeth. "If you tell her now, she is sure to crack."

"We shouldn't risk pushing her." Ken agreed. "She's too close to the edge for that."

Deaf grunted, the infection already beginning to swell up painfully. Cry took off his jacket and threw it on the man, masking his bite. "My biggest worry is the bite." He spoke nervously, inspecting it. "It's near one of the main arteries."

"I don't give a flying fuck." Deaf scowled. "We have to keep this from Minx, at all cost."

Russ tensed his shoulders uneasily. "I... I don't know..."

"Please, Promise me." Deaf's eyes were suddenly welling with a sort of desperation and despair that just stabbed at his heart.

"Please..."

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

Choose your reply:

a) "We should tell her, she shouldn't have to find out like that."
b) "Okay, I promise I won't tell Minx."
c) "I'll keep my mouth shut, but you'll need to tell her someday."
d) "..." (Remain silent)



To be continued...