Survival or Struggle?

Safe. They were safe. Or as safe as safe would get anyways. The four(with an unconscious CC sprawled out next to them), gathered their thoughts and made sure to catch their breaths after all the running they had just done. And lugging an unconscious body around was no easy feat either. Once they had a few moments to get themselves together, Jake and Jinxx got up and deposited CC on a couch. They didn't want CC to be where they couldn't reach them. They were worried about him. He was breathing, so that was something that calmed them slightly. But they still had no idea what the doctor had done to CC. Not that any of them had any theories to help them out anyways. And besides, they had more important things to do. Like make sure this was indeed a safe place to stay.

Sure, they had checked before. But they had been in a hurry. No sense in being caught by surprise by not checking properly. So Andy and Ashley went and scouted out the house, while Jake and Jinxx stayed to watch if CC came back to awareness. The two painstakingly moved from room to room, checking every possible place where a zombie was to hide in or around. Once they the first floor covered, they went up to the second floor. This one was a bit scary, there was blood on the carpet. Dry, Ashley had checked, so there had been some trouble here before. But it seemed to be long gone by now. Nonetheless, they made their way through the second floor carefully. Their weapons had been either left behind or broken. So they would need to search for new weapons while they were here.

Andy opened the last door and gagged. There was no body, but the sight of the dried blood everywhere in the room, plus the broken window, made Andy aware of just what might have happened to the person living here. Ashley and Andy just looked at each other before Andy shut the door. They moved back down the stairs as quietly as they could, making their way back to the other three. Ashley released a breath he realized he hadn't been holding. Andy seemed to have a similar thing. It was like they had both been waiting for something to jump out at them. Which wasn't too far of a stretch.

"Any change?" Ashley muttered, not wanting to raise his voice much.

"Not much. CC's moved a few times. But other than that, nothing." Jake said, shaking his head. That wasn't promising news. CC had to come around at some point.

"Come on, we need to look for weapons, supplies, anything of use while we're here." Andy said softly.

"Isn't it safer here?" Jake asked, looking around as if to make a point.

"We thought our venue was safe enough. Turns out, not so much." Ashley said. Jake shrugged, he couldn't really argue with that. And they did need weapons. So off they searched, though Jinxx stayed and searched around where he was closest to CC.

The other four went up the stairs when nothing really came up on the bottom floor. Upon searching all the rooms upstairs, they came to the closed door that Andy shut not too long ago. Jake sighed, shaking his head. It would be just their luck that weapons would be hiding in there. So Andy opened the door and stepped through the doorway with a grimace. Sure enough, there were bags of various things to defend themselves with. Apparently someone was in this fight for the long haul. They just picked a bad spot to actually hide the weapons. More for them at least. They took the bags(about three big bags in total), and went down the stairs. Jinxx's face lit up at the sight of what they were carrying.

Ashley unzipped the bags and shuffled through the weapons carefully. He ended up choosing two pistols, two machetes, and a thick piece of lead pipe. Andy had chosen a shotgun, a line of grenades(how the former owner got these was beyond him), and a katana. Jake ended up with an AK-47 and a spear. Jinxx ended up with a sawed off shotgun and a pair of sais. Whatever CC would choose would be up to him. While the others weren't really picky, CC actually would probably think more on his choice of weapons. But, now that they were all settled with weapons, they set about using one of the empty bags to use to get some supplies. They knew they were going to have to leave this place sooner or later.

Ashley stayed with CC this time while the others searched. They found 4 cans of food, a few bottles of water, some beefy jerky, matches, a lantern, first aid kit, and some hand towels. The house seemed to have an ransacked already. Either that or the former owner had been about to go grocery shopping. Either way, they were happy to see what they found. They made their way back to Ashley and a still unconscious CC. They set the goods they had down, at the same time, there came a noise from upstairs. They froze, eyes getting a little wide at the realization that one of those things must have gotten in somehow. Wait...

"Did we shut the door behind us before we left?" Jinxx asked, still looking towards the stairs.

The silence after that spoke volumes. They couldn't let one of those things come down here. Jinxx went towards the stairs, making the least amount of noise possible. Jinxx made his way up the stairs, and he was halfway up the stairs when one of those zombies launched itself at Jinxx. Jinxx drew out his katana to protect himself. The zombie collided with him and they sailed down to the floor. Jinxx's breath rushed out of his lungs, stunned badly. The zombie was forced off of Jinxx by Ashley hitting it with the lead pipe. Another crash came from the same place the first zombie they were currently fighting. Ashley had just enough time to back away before he was launched against the wall, hitting his head, blacking out. Jake and Andy were battling a couple of zombies of their own.

"These things can climb?!" Jake asked, horrified. There was no way zombies could get up to the second floor without climbing.

"Apparently!" Andy said, just as horrified.

They thought they heard something else, but they had zombies to kill. They managed to not use their guns, they wanted to make sure there was still a house to keep them safer. Well, after this, they would have to make some decisions. After killing their zombies(which had accumulated to about four each and had relocated them to a room or two away from the others), they heard a voice.

"Stay off my friends!" the voice shouted. Wait...

Andy and Jake ran into the living area, Jinxx was still at the bottom of the stairs, shaking his head to try and clear it. Ashley still was unconscious. But the zombies weren't the problem anymore. Why you ask? CC had one killed by the crossbow he must have gotten. And the other...well. CC's hand was covered in gore. To say Jake and Andy were shocked was an understatement. CC's body seemed more muscled and lean, his eye color seemed to have changed, and were those claws?!

"Damn." Jake uttered.

Notes