Survival or Struggle?

"Andy!" Jake and Jinxx both said in unison, while CC was just staring at him, slack-jawed.

CC shook his head to focus on something else and immediately went back to Ashley, who was still slumped near the bar. They had left him, barely had enough time to move when that big...thing came towards them. Thank all that was good in the world that Andy arrived at that moment. Jake and Jinxx hugged Andy in welcome, smiling in relief. Andy looked to have been through quite a lot with the short time they were away from each other. Well, for about a day or so now anyways. Hey, even time flies in zombie apocalypses. Andy's gaze instantly followed CC and rushed towards Ashley.

"What happened?" Andy asked CC.

"He told me that he encountered one of those things." he said, pausing and pointing to the now 'all the way dead' zombie. "He told me that he had fought it and it flung him into a wall. He managed to kill it before it would do anything more to him." CC said, finishing his explanation. Andy nodded, his brow furrowing, looking at Ashley's unconscious form. Even unconscious, Ashley seemed to be in pain. It wasn't a good face for Ashley. Andy prodded Ashley, then shook him on the shoulder slightly. Normally that would wake Ashley up, but not this time. Andy sighed and looked at CC.

"How long has he been unconscious?" Andy asked, concerned.

"About a day or so." We got here after everything went crazy. Maybe about a few hours into it. So actually, maybe about 2 days." CC said softly. That didn't sit right with Andy.

"He hasn't woken up? Groaned? Moaned? Called out anything?" Andy asked. CC shook his head.

"You can even ask Jake and Jinxx. They were the ones that saved both of us. They saw when Ashley passed out." CC said, pointing to Jake and Jinxx, who nodded.

"Yeah, he hasn't woken up once. Even the noise around him didn't wake him." Jake said, his brow furrowing. This wasn't good, at all. But they couldn't just sit here, they needed to get to a safer area. Andy lifted Ashley into a fireman's carry and got to his feet, wincing.

"Ashley is no light weight." Andy said.

"Good thing Ashley isn't awake. He'd be giving you hell for that comment." Jinxx said, chuckling.

"C'mon you guys, we need to go. Me and Jinxx had scouted other potential hideouts to go to in case of this sort of thing happening." Jake said, motioning for them to get them to move.

"How far is it?" CC asked him.

"About 2 miles. If we hurry, we can make it there without running into these things." Jake said softly.

"Two miles feels more like twenty miles at this point." Andy mumbled, shifting a little under Ashley's weight. The others took that as a cue to move. They walked out of the hole that used to be part of the wall and Jinxx and Jake looked around and waved the others through. Andy got through first, being careful to try to be silent because of Ashley's added weight barring down on him. CC went next, covering Andy and Jinxx and Jake hurried out and Jake stayed in back with CC and Jinxx moved to the front to protect Andy and Ashley in case something happened.

They walked for a few moments in silence, their quiet footsteps seemed to echo in moonlight. They looked around every so often, it being so quiet was a bit unnerving. They almost didn't hear the moaning, if Jinxx hadn't motioned for them to back up a little behind a wall. If they had gone around the corner, they would have been seen. Jinxx hissed in almost a hint of how much of a close call it was. There were too many, they needed to find an alternative place to hide. Where to go though?

"Any idea guys?" Jinxx whispered, trying to not be overheard by the moaning zombies around the corner. Andy couldn't exactly look around, and Jake stayed where he was to protect Andy and their unconscious band mate.The silence, besides the moans and groans not far away from them, lasted for a good few minutes. CC seemed to find something, silently pointing to a small apartment across next to a tattoo parlor. Jinxx nodded and they all moved into it. Andy set Ashley down onto the ground while the others checked out the place. They dragged at least three bodies, all deceased, they made sure, before tossing them out onto the street and closing and barricading the door. They all sighed in relief, grateful that not anything great had happened, but they weren't holding their breath. They had more pressing matters, they needed to get Ashley to wake up.

"Anything from him?" Jake asked, pointing to the still unconscious Ashley. Andy shook his head, frowning and moving some hair out of Ashley's face. CC moved to Ashley and bent down and moved the shirt Ashley was wearing up a bit. Andy rose a brow, CC looked at him and sighed.

"I told you he was attacked by that thing. I need to see how bad it is. Maybe it was worse than I thought." CC said, moving up Ashley's shirt the rest of the way and bit down a curse word or two. Andy actually swore, catching himself before it became too loud. There were dark bruises all over Ashley's back. They were now worried, seeing as he had trouble waking up, that it might be internal or broken.

"We need to get him to a doctor." Jinxx said.

"How? Do you see all those things out there? Getting to the hospital it like going into the middle east. It will never happen." CC said.

"Well, we can't just sit and let Ashley die! He needs medical attention." Jinxx said, snarling. They looked to Ashley and nodded. Their next mission: try and survive long enough to get Ashley to a hospital. But they needed a plan first. Not so easy with those things out there. CC looked at Ashley and then at Jinxx.

"Let's plan and go. We're wasting time, something Ashley may not have a lot of." he said.

Notes