The car ride was rather quiet, broken only by the cold wind blasting through the shattered window and the soft munching of the trio as they ate.

Nathan found himself glancing sideways at Rolen every now and then, watching the way the engineer’s pale, soft lips wrapped around the protein bar before taking a bite.
Lexa was the first to finish. She leaned back in the middle of the backseat, amusement flickering across her face when she caught Nathan’s wandering glances.

“So,” she said casually, “who’s the top?you or your boyfriend?”

Nathan felt himself tense at the subject, though he was clearly listening.

Rolen felt heat rush into his cheeks and coughed as he accidentally inhaled a bit of food.

Lexa burst out laughing. “Ha! I knew it. You’ve got bottom energy written all over you!”

Rolen sank lower in his seat, his once-pale skin now comparable to a tomato.

A small smile tugged at the corner of Nathan’s lips as he silently catalogued this new piece of information.

“You standing in the corner with a camera or something?” Rolen shot back, neither confirming nor denying it.

“Oh, hell yeah,” Lexa laughed, poking him in the side. “I’ve got all the porn saved on my special stalker thumb drive.”

Rolen swatted her hand away playfully. "Hey hands off the merchandise" Rolen teased back, earning a large grin from the woman in the backseat.

“We’re here.” Nathan’s deep voice cut cleanly through the banter. Both Lexa and Rolen turned to look ahead, their smiles fading as the first buildings emerged through the morning dew.
The tension inside the car spiked the moment they crossed into the city. Nathan glanced at the rearvieuw mirror, his eyes meeting Lexa’s for just a second.

"You know how to handle a gun?" The combat medic asked earning a nod from the survivor. "Good, everyone ready your weapons." Nathan stated, Rolen and Lexa glanced at each other briefly before Rolen took the hand gun from the holster he had on him and Lexa grabbed the rifle they had on the backseat, taking the safety off.

"We can't just shoot willy nilly at every moving shadow." Rolen said looking  up at Nathan behind the wheel. "It would ringing the dinner bell for these things."

“That’s why we only fire if it’s absolutely necessary,” Lexa replied, shoving the leather bag of food and supplies toward Rolen. “You focus on carrying that. Soldier boy and I’ll handle the demons if they show.”  Nathan nodded in agreement.

They drove deeper into the city. Broken windows and wrecked cars littered the streets, forcing Nathan to slow down to a crawl.

Rolen slipped the leather strap of the bag over his shoulder, his knuckles whitening around the grip of his gun. His heartbeat thundered in his ears.

The silence was unnerving.

As Nathan swerved to avoid a broken motorcycle, the car suddenly jolted and tilted slightly to one side. A sharp hiss cut through the air as Lexa gripped her rifle like it might dissappear.
“Fuck,” Nathan muttered.

“We’re sitting ducks out here,” Lexa hissed as she shoved the door open. Stepping out with the rifle raised and ready to fire.
Nathan followed instantly, moving to the passenger side and yanking Rolen’s door open. His red eyes scanned the surroundings as he pulled him out.
Rolen stepped onto the shattered glass that had ended their only safe escape.

“You think you can hotwire another car?” Nathan asked, one hand hovering near his gun as he pulled Rolen into a crouch. Lexa joined them without a word.

“Even if we found one,” Rolen whispered, “with all this debris, we’d just blow another tire.”
His gaze flicked toward a small house a short distance away. “We could regroup in there.”

Nathan followed his line of sight, then glanced at Lexa, who was still scanning the street.
“Are you two done braiding each other’s hair?” she muttered. “Might as well start seasoning yourselves at this point.”
Nathan sighed. “Stay behind me.”

The silence grew almost deafening as they moved.

Lexa glanced over her shoulder and froze. “Shit.”
She grabbed Rolen’s arm and shoved him around the corner of the house, pressing him against the wall. Nathan was there a second later, moving like a shadow.

Rolen clutched the strap of the bag, sweat slicking his palms as his fingers rested on the hilt of his weapon.
Nathan peeked around the corner..

Nathan's jaw tightened the moment he looked around the corner to see not just one, but 3 infected move around the still running car with curiosity and interest. Their moments were jerky and overly expressive. One of them even crawled inside the car while another sniffed at the drivers seat. The third let out a low, groggy growl before leaping onto the hood

"Infected,” Nathan whispered. “Three.”
The creature slammed against the car, scraping and shrieking like a rabid animal. The others joined in, metal screaming and glass shattering as the car began to smoke.
The noise drew more. Infected twitched into view from every direction, drawn by the chaos.

As more and more infected gather round, Rolen felt the static in the back of his mind pick up again, growing louder and louder until he felt its pulse echoing inside his skull.

Lexa placed a hand on Rolens Shoulder, seeing his terrified expression, yet she stayed quiet, and glanced expectedly at Nathan.  Who turned his head back to look at them and pointed at the alley ahead of them.  Just when two more infected came stumbling from behind the house they originally wanted to regroup at.

Rolen sucked in a breath and right at that moment, one of the infected heads snapped into their direction, the deep Red glowing eyes flared and the thing let out a blood curling laugh like screech, the awful sound immediately got the attention of every pair of red eyes surrounding the car and without further warning they started sprinting,
Some sprinted upright. Others dropped to all fours, charging like something torn straight from a nightmare..

"RUN!" Nathan roared and pushed them towards the alleyway.