E A T

Blaring music poured into the medical tent from the outside world, Greg growled and stepped outside to see Eden and Max standing upon the old stage like area with two uncovered amps. With what was left of their iPods, they blared 80's pop at the standing Creeper and it's following Minors. "You blasted moron! You're suppose to be killn'em not usin'em as pets! Confounded idiots! Sorrounded by idiots!"

"Could be worse." a blue skinned zombified male stepped from his usual hiding spot just to get the usual AK47 pointed at his forehead. "C'mon Greg, this time, I'm simply heading to the Center." he pulled out his cellphone with a blank face. "Hauncho needs me to report on the whereabouts of the marchers, and this is probably vital for you four aswell. Seeing as Mitchell and Sarah are located in the same sector." Blue crossed his arms and aswell as his eyes to the live artillery pressed to his forehead.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Nikki tripped from the medical tent with her gauze in hand and practically tripped over Blue's cat and faceplanted beside Greg's boots. Which he simply moved over and gleered into the aim of his gun. Once she sat up and brushed off her clothing, her green eyes glared. "We gotta have Blue! He may be as ugly and evil as those zombies, but dammit! Atleast he brings us all this useful information. Besides, he could possibly lead us to Derry!" she jerked up and jerked the gun away, ammunition igniting and a bullet firing close to their feet.

"Ciao~." Blue waved, wandering to stand at the top of some sorrounding rubble of a 'Many Moons' antique store that used to stand. Of course he simply vanished after that into the other rubble with his zombified cat trailing along close behind.

Upon the opposite side of town an entire different war was brewing for what could have possibly been a fifth
survivor, curly brown tresses blew slightly in the wind as  he run forward and into a nearby building. Something that seemed to be well kept and hidden about Block 12 was that Derrik may have ran things from an old office, but he also was nastier than most common contaminated in the area. Instead of being as civil as Mallory and Nexus, he prefered to hunt his own food down. Whether that food be an unlucky zombie, survivor or something from one of the feeding locations, Derrik enjoyed to kill his meal.

Now was no different as the young teenager ran from whatever trailed behind him. Once or twice he could feel the claws of the predator swipe at his back and tear the bottom of his grey shirt. But now he was somewhat safe in one of the few buildings still standing. He'd come from out of Block 6 to find and kill the head of B12. But he had no idea it'd be such a challenge. Zack coughed into his hand, a bit of blood showing but he ignored it. That's when he finally realized whom was chasing him. After digging the newspaper article out about Derrik's contamination and the following effects, he went pale.

When Derrik hunted, he went just as he was. Leaving the paperbag back in his office as if to signify he was
prowling. His brown tresses were clean, and styled in a way they shaded off his eyes, of course they were faded from the virus, but still had some color. Zack stood, slowly wandering into the back of the small 'EAT' store and opened the backdoor. One step outside and the hot air of the center of B12 flooded his lungs. That's when he heard it. From atop the roof came the sound of snarling, a low throated growl that made his blood go cold.

"Rrun rrabbit, rrun." behind him stood the Creeper of this sector, it's dark eyes staring off to the right even as it spoke, "Rrun rrabbit, hhe's ggoing tto ffind yyou."

"Shut the hell up!" he took the butt of his gun and smashed it to the creatures face before scattering up onto the next building when he saw his target standing utop EAT still. Their gazes locked, as it seemingly waved beforecrouching and jumping buildings, now standing close by. There were two options, stay and fight, or run and risk breaking a leg or running into patrols. But it was a risk Zack was willing to take as he jumped down from the building's roof and ran as fast as possible until he found a well hidden rubble pile to get between.

Derrik inhaled, growling still he stalked forward, moving building to building and following the warm blooded
prey. Finally, his metal pieces for ears picked up the vibration of warmth. Carefully, and making no sounds he
crept forward and stood behind the survivor. "Peek-a-boo." he jerked away the gun and began tearing his claws into the short male's neck. "Children shouldn't stray from home, pest." the zombified male watched as the boy coughed up more than a healthy amount of blood, and died. Satisfied with this, the lead zombie simply plopped down and ripped off the few things he ate before dragging the finger between his teeth and ripped flesh from bone.

Max yelped once he realized the Minors had started to prow again, grabbing his shotgun and blasting the tallest of them between the eyes with a simple flare gun. "Rascals!" he grumbled and held his hand up for another weapon, "Yo Nikki, Greg! One of you needs to gun me!"

Greg picked up a handgun and threw it to him, but his aim was slightly off since poor Eden got cracked in the side of the head in progress. "Shit fire! Eden! Move your damn head!"

"Yeeeow! Next time do overhand, not under! I think you gave me a concussion!" He flailed around and adjusted his goggles that were nearly knocked off in the proccess.

"Oh suck it up, queer!" Greg tossed another to Max, who caught it in time to get a bullet through the creeper that convulsed into a pile of bone and skin.

Back in the center, Nexus was nibbling on a piece of skin jerky as Derrik wandered back in. "Finally! Blue wants to tell you the Marching is now in sector R23. And something about discreet is never thinning." he shrugged and jumped up from Derrik's chair before offering him some of thhe jerky, "Caucasian?"

"Gender?"

"Female."

"No thanks."

"Fine with me." Nexus grinned and fixed Derrik's bag before waltzing out to go speak with the few other infected that stayed in the building with the rest of them.

With cold sockets and a sigh, Derrik rubbed his fingers up against his temples. Even for what people were calling a zombie, he hated being the one over things. Without much effort he pressed his bag covered forehead to the table and sighed. Pressing the Block intercom button and finding the sector the survivors were in, he smirked when he could hear them talking. "Clean." he shouted to them over the sound of Max's handguns.

"Hush man, it's the Head Hancho." Greg pointed.

"Heh. Yeah. As you may know, there's been a doubled amount of people convicted to this area, thus doubling the amount of contaminated. You are immune to this infection and can go unbothered. But also, this means there is nessicery acts of screw ups. Sending more and more humanly and completely healthy, yet feloned people into the region. The Center has been ever so kind enough to spare some of them, but we will not allow you to keep them on your side. Those from Block 6-10 are meal tickets. We do not steal food from you, you do not steal food from us. And Scifi?"

"Outrag--"

"Derrik." Eden replied to the speaker with narrowed eyes.

"I look forward to spending more time together. Take care of my sister or I'll make you my dinner."  he removed his finger from the once red, now orange button on the intercom before hitting the one for the center he resided in. "Attention: Tonight there will be no prowling, a storm is brewing past the horizon." he sighed and flopped back in his chair, slightly smirking to himself.

After a moment, Nexus ran into the room and waved his arms around. "Derrik! We've got a problem! That damned old man is shooting at the gas station!"

"For fuck's sake.. there's nuclear particles in the air, does he not know he can blow us, and America up!? Dumbass old fuck." Derrik cursed, standing and stomping down the stairs with a growl sounding off as he strapped his skates onto his old sneakers and skid into the parking area before pushing himself to where that old man was sitting and shooting at the gas station.

"HONCHO!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. What the hell are you doing?"

"Gon' blow all these damned zombies up." he shrugged and fired once more.

"Idiot! If you blow this place up, the entire sector will be vaporized along with the entire country and possibly more than just America! What contaminated us?! Nuclear waste! What's in the air?!?"

"...nuclear...waste... Goddammit! Get the hell outta here before I blow your brains out!" of course his bark was worse than his bite, but for the while he held his gun aimed at the zombified bag wearers face.

"Your funeral." he simply hopped back onto the cleared road below from his rubble tower and kicked off. Launching his rollerskate clad body forward and back to the Center.

"Greg! Greg! Greg! Is Derrik over here?! I thought I heard him!" Eden and Nikki spun around the corner with crowbars and bats ready as Max followed close behind with a cigarette lazily hanging out the corner of his mouth.

"Please tell me you didn't just come because your little boyfriend was here?!? I could have died!"

"...He's not my boyfriend!"

"Queer."

"You two! Get your arses in gear, we don't get back to camp now and we'll be stuck out in the dark. Those mulches'll eat 'ya alive." Max waved a hand before wandering into an old EAT building. It looked like there was a storm brewing, and he prefered to sleep inside tonight. Though once they were inside and the lanterns were on they saw Blue plopped down in a spinny chair munching on a popsicle.

"Wh-where did you get that?!" Nikki's eyes lit up to the cherry treat.

"In the freezer, why? Want some? There's a whole stock in here, I'm surprised the infected haven't found it. But I have. Since I'm a neutral body, I really don't give a shit about whom takes from my own stash." Blue shrugged his shoulders before his cat jumped up to lazily lay around his neck.

"You never told us, WHY?!" Greg growled and pointed his gun to the zombie that was still enjoying the popsicle.

"Ya'never asked, but there's a catch to this. You eat my food, I get some needles and thread." he raised a brow ith a smirk over his deteriorating eyes.

"Why?"

"Gotta sew what gets ripped, right? Being infected has it's perks and cons."

"Deal." Nikki spoke before Greg or Max; jerking out her sewing kit and handing it to him before he handed them a spare key to the safe like freezer.

After a moment of arguing and discussing flavors of things, everyone was sitting at random diner tables around
the room. With everyone having a popsicle in hand they mentioned to Blue he might either stay or get out, other way Greg was probably going to fire a round at him either way. Finding this as a fun little game he growled out some insults and let the old man get it out of his system.

Back at the center everything was settled, sleeping, or prowling even if it went against Derrik's orders. Without much effort, Derrik was laying in one of the cleanest beds with Hem and Mallory upon either side since they were all considered the smartest of the infected, and the only ones that didn't want to eat eachother. So without much effort he glanced to the sleeping zombies, first Nexus. The duct tape covered male that was more like a little brother than a servant, and Mallory the female he had practically adopted into this weird family he had.

'Family... such a funny word...'