Category : Adult

Sub Category : Horror

The journey to Briarville was going to take at least twice as long as previously expected. With a weary man and an excited dog now in tow, Danny knew that it was better to make their trip in the morning. Convincing Ferris to take the first shift at sleeping would be the hard part tonight. 

"I'm just saying that if you were to lock yourself into the back room, I wouldn't be able to try something, even if I had wanted to. You need to rest. If your eyes aren't as alert as mine, they are worthless watching my back." Danny had learned to take a more... blunt approach when it came to Ferris. Beating around the bush didn't seem to be a theme with him, and the best way to get him to trust her was going to have to be with outright honesty.

He seemed to process this for a moment, his hand rubbing a bit at his fresh stubble. It still amazed her how fast his five o'clock shadow had grew in. It did suit his angular face, though his hair needed a touch-up. Having your hair whipping about was dangerous in times like these. It ruined your peripheral vision and could get you killed by the dead or otherwise.

"Ya sure your little pack of food'll last ya? It's pretty far to the next town. And sleeping is goin' to drain your li'l timeframe." He glanced over at the map that was tacked into the cork board on the far wall, polka-dotted with multi-colored push pins, various generic photographs of families smiling and rest stop paraphernalia. 

"There's nothing here to re-supply on besides whatever you have in the back. We can handle a little extra hunger on our way, so long as we have a good night's rest." Danny knew full well that she wasn't going to sleep, her trusting conscience aside. After he got some much-needed rest, he'd be a valuable asset, and better suited to make a move out to the next town.

Ferris made a pinched face of contemplation, back to rubbing absently at his scruff. His eyes seemed a little unfocused, the mention of the possibility of a safe sleep was probably heaven to this man. Danny decided to take advantage of his immense want and didn't let him talk himself out of it.

"Come on, get back there and get some rest. I'll take Leah so she doesn't bother you." Danny pat her leg and Leah flew to her side, mouth dripping with saliva. Ferris looked ready to protest, but heaved a heavy sigh instead. He slipped back into the back room and closed the door in response, locking it behind him. 

"You sneak up on me 'n I'll-"

"You'll shoot me. I know, Ferris." Danny quipped back before he could finish his statement. She knew better than to poke a sleeping bear. Especially a sleeping bear with a gun.

Danny opened the front door and walked through, Leah tagging along beside her. Leah's poofy, matted fur rustled slightly as she walked, the clicking of her nails on the concrete giving Danny a sense of comfort that she wasn't completely alone. Inside, there was a brief sound of snoring before the snoring stopped, Danny could only assume that Ferris had found a more comfortable sleeping position. She had often wondered about her own snoring when she had slept in larger trees or high places. How many corpses had trudged by and heard her? She wasn't sure how loud her own snoring was, and had only been woken by herself a few times in her life... But it was a terrifying thought to think that her snoring could have killed her when she had been sleeping alone.

Danny and Leah wandered around the Gas Station for a little while longer, keeping a watch over the area. It was eerily quiet in this place, no sounds of life outside of the brief snores, clicking and panting from Leah, and the sound of her own heartbeat. The sun was lowering under the treeline, and it would be dark in an hour or so. Danny assumed that she would hear... crickets. Or maybe the sound of a bird. There was no birdsong in this place, no chipmunks... She was even a little spooked knowing that she hadn't even seen one of the dead in awhile. After a decently long watch, she rested her metal pipe onto her shoulder, taking a seat on the half-broken bench out front. 

The air was getting cooler as the sun set, but the breeze had picked up a bit since her jog earlier. Dust and dying leaves wafted by on the air currents and scratched across the ground, one of which seemed to catch Leah's attention far more than the other ones. She bounded after it, nipping at the air around it and smacking at it with her paws. Danny smiled as she watched the dog amuse herself for a while, feeling the chilly air raise goosebumps on her arms. Her hair was starting to fly free from her braid in the breeze, so she pulled it free from her hair tie fix it.

CRACK!

Before she could fix her hair back into a neat braid, she heard the snap of a branch somewhere beyond the shadows of the trees. The sun had set and had cast a purple and orange glow over the entire skyline, making it hard to focus on any one thing in her vision. She squinted at the shadows, making out an figure, slightly hunched and twitching. Danny slowly got up, moving to the door before sighing. turning back to the figure. She would be able to put this thing down on her own without Ferris.

She held the pipe out at arm's length, ready to crack the creature across the face when she got herself close enough to strike. As she approached it, Leah whined and pressed herself against the gas station door, obviously wanting to go inside. Danny ignored her whines and kept moving toward the corpse, before stopping dead. The corpse snapped its head toward her and dropped its jaw, a fountain of blood pouring from its open mouth. A chunk of chewed flesh rolled off of its rotted tongue, and landed with a raw SPLAT on the ground.

Before Danny could call Ferris for help, the corpse twitched and started running full-sprint toward her. She let loose a yelp of surprise before swinging her pipe, but was tackled to the ground by the corpse. The man looked like he had once been wearing a firemen's uniform, but was now down to the rubber-like pants and a singular black rubber boot. The white tank top he wore was burned, as was his face and hair, like he had been mid-firefight before being turned into one of the dead. The corpse was gripping her arms terribly tight, but it wasn't trying to scratch at her flesh and the bubbling lack of facial structure kept it from being able to properly bite at her. Her hair was caught between his fingers and her own arm, pulling painfully against her scalp.

Danny propped a leg up to plant her boot against the monster's chest, keeping it off of her while she scrambled for her knife. She winced as her hair was pulled more, tears stinging her eyes, she wished she had tied it back before she had investigated. Her leg muscles screamed as the corpse pushed back, grabbing and squeezing her leg as if to crush it. When her hand finally found the handle of her knife, she felt her muscles cramp tightly, forcing her knee back into her face. She turned her head to allow the knee to strike her cheek before plunging her knife into its throat.

It didn't weaken.

The corpse still lashed out and ripped at her pantleg, blood pouring down onto her body like a satanic bath. She let out a cry as she turned her heel a bit to make contact with the handle, kicking through the tight, burning pain to shove the knife deeper into the dead man's neck until she heard a sickening crunch. The corpse went limp and landed onto her body, blood pooling around the two. Danny lay there, unmoving for a moment, blinking at the sky as she touched her scalp, glad to find that she still had hair there.

"I take one li'l' nap and you almost up'n die on me." Danny turned her dead to see Ferris standing in the doorway of the gas station, his gun pointed at the corpse lying atop her body. 

"Get a good show?" She grumbled shoving the creature from herself and crawling out of the bloody puddle, glaring at the now rested man before her. Her leg hurt, and gave her a sharp jolt of pain through her knee every step she took a step.

"I heard you yell 'n came out, was about to shoot it 'fore ya throat-punched it with a knife." His dull eyes were nearly sparkling when she walked over to him, his rest had really cleared the cobwebs from his face.

"You did damn good." He said, shoving his gun into his pants and adjusting it before looking back at her once more, the awe fading as soon as it had appeared on his face at the look she gave him. She looked haunted by what had just happened. 

"It was running. Running... full speed at me. Like an rabid bear. A live one." She said, looking back at the now lifeless corpse on the ground. He reached out and gave her a hard oat on the shoulder, bloodying his hand with the calculated blood on her shirt.

"Get in here. Need ta clean you up. You look like shit." Danny smirked half-heartedly, turning away from Ferris to retrieve her knife from the corpse. She wanted to forget about the way that it had moved. The Dead were slow-moving, shambling creatures... this was just some... fluke. A freak corpse. As much as she told herself that this would be the only one, she knew she would have to prepare for more of... this.

She flipped the corpse over with her scraped boot and stepped on the thing's jaw, tearing the blade from its shredded throat. The sound was similar to the sound of shoving your hand into a thanksgiving turkey and getting caught on a rib-bone. A squish, crunch and a pop... Danny removed the knife and grabbed her pipe, moving away from the corpse as fast as she could to avoid gagging.

"It's just an emergency shower... so it'll be cold as hell in there." Ferris explained when she went into the back room, seeing the little shower stall near the trash compactor. Leah, now happy that the danger was gone, was back in the picture, sniffing at Danny's jeans and sticking her tongue out like she was telling her that she smelled like rotting steakhouse garbage. Leah liked garbage. 

"It's s'posed to be for like... acid burns or chemicals or somethin'. I'll find ya a new shirt in the novelties... but we'll have ta get you new pants in Briarville." Ferris said, making a face at her clothes. For a guy with clean, but tattered clothes, it was clear that he drew the hygiene line at corpse blood. Probably a smart decision.

"So, you're still up for Briarville?" Danny pressed, stepping to the door of the tiny emergency shower. Ferris let out a small, abrupt laugh at that and she brushed the hair out of her face.

"If those fucks out there can run now, I wouldn't mind a badass like you watchin' my back. You can handle yerself on your own, but we'd be dumb to not pair up here. The world jus' got a bit scarier." He seemed to struggle with his words, not exactly sure how to put together what he wanted to say, but his intention was clear to her. He didn't want to be alone, and having a end-of-days buddy sounded better than whatever life he had lived before now. 

As Danny's realization showed and the smirk grew on her face, Ferris was quick to give her a small push into the shower, grumbling behind his still growing stubble, his tone somewhere between being playful and having mock irritation.

"Now git. You smell."