Blood

Author's Note: I know this is my second story that I'm currently working on, but I could help myself. I needed to write it, so I hope you enjoy it. And despite what it seems like, I promise this will be Jason/Nico.

Chapter 1: Disaster

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"Piper, get out of the way!" Jason screamed, lunging at her with what felt to her like the force of a thousand bulls. They both fell to the ground with a hard thud and Jason laid over her for a moment before one of those monsters tripped over his back, bringing him back to the reality of the situation. In one swift movement, he shot back up and quickly helped Piper get her footing before turning on his heel and bashing one of their skulls in with his baseball bat.

"Jason, what are these things?" Piper screamed, her voice shaking and scared and weak. He hated hearing Piper like this. He'd only heard her like this one other time in his life, and it was after her father had gotten into a horrible accident doing one of his stunts for a movie he was filming. She was so terrified and confused and he wished that he could give her the answers that she wanted, but right now he was just as clueless as she was.

"I don't know, Piper, but they're not friendly and they're not safe so keep away from them!" He planted his bat straight into the forehead of another one that was coming at him. Piper positioned herself behind Jason, without a weapon and unable to protect herself. "Piper, we need to get out of here. Can you find us a way out?" He asked her, desperation in his voice. She looked around frantically; the wide hallway of their once peaceful high school now held them and an innumerable amount of those… things, but was otherwise devoid of any human life. It was a pretty useless hallway in terms of escape routes, but then again no school could have or should have been prepared for something like this. Finally, Piper remembered the doorway just around the corner. She grabbed Jason's hand and yanked him down the hall.

"C'mon!" Admittedly, the two probably shouldn't have been yelling, because as far as they both could observe loud noises seemed to attract the ghouls. But over the echoes of the moaning throughout the school, the screaming of other living students, and the overall chaos the two were in right now, yelling seemed appropriate. Jason followed obediently as the two narrowly avoided a run-in with another one of the beasts. It lunged forward at the two and Jason just barely dodged out of the way, causing the thing to fall to the ground and subsequently trip two others. At least the things weren't smart.

As the two turned the corner Jason held his bat up in a ready-to-swing position, prepared to fend off anything that attempted to attack him or Piper. Fortunately, there was nothing in their immediate vicinity and Piper, still holding onto his wrist, took a quick sharp turn into a pair of double doors that lead them down a flight of stairs.

"Where are we going?" Jason asked, making sure to keep an eye out behind them just in case anything decided to ambush them. Not that these things had the brain to plot out an ambush in the first place.

'This staircase leads us down to the girls' locker room, and there's a way directly out to the field from there." Jason had never been in the girls' locker room before but he hardly thought it was the time to question why there was a way straight out to the field from in there, and he definitely didn't think it was appropriate for him to be embarrassed about going in there in the first place. He followed her quietly, still making sure that there was nothing behind them, and it wasn't long before the two of them burst through the door into the locker room, where everything looked surprisingly clean and put together. A sea of white lockers and a wall that had interchanging tiles of white and light pink surrounded him. It was nothing like the boys' locker room for sure, but before he even had time to contemplate is surroundings, Piper was pulling him farther away from the entrance.

The run through the locker room was a short one, and straight line through alley of lockers before one quick turn. Piper shoved through the small black door that brought them outside and they were immediately greeted with the harsh midday sun. Briefly blinded, the two stood stationary before closing the door behind them and then examining their surroundings. There were more of them out here, but not as many as in the school, and out here it was much more maneuverable. Jason tightened his grip around his baseball bat.

"Please tell me you drove to school today." Piper begged. The student parking lot wasn't too far from the feel and they could easily make it there. Jason nodded.

"Yeah, but I can't imagine anywhere else is any better than this."

"Doesn't matter. At least we'll be protected in there." Jason didn't question her.

They both knew where to go and immediately headed toward the parking lot where they knew Jason's care would be. It didn't take them long, but what they didn't anticipate was the absolute disarray the lot would be in. There were stranded cars in every position possible and it looked like plenty of people, students and teachers alike, all had the same idea as they did. The two of them hesitated for a moment before heading towards the lot anyway in hopes that Jason's car might still be salvageable.

"Piper, this way." Jason exhaled as he grabbed her arm and pointed towards his car with his bat. She followed close behind. Jason hopped over the hood of one car and helped Piper over it, and then turned to find one of the ghouls on the ground, crawling towards his feet. He stomped on its head as hard as he could and felt its skull crack under the pressure. Piper looked away as the thing's congealed blood and remnants of its brain leaked out of its broken head, and for good measure Jason stomped on it hard again. Grabbing Piper for the second time, he pulled her forward and towards his car.

He was fifty feet away and his hand was in his pocket for his keys when he heard it: a high-pitched shriek that pierced the air around him like a knife. It echoed all throughout the lot and Jason whipped his head around to see Piper falling to the ground. There were tears in her eyes and she was screaming, her hands desperately grabbing at her legs. There was one of those monsters with its hands wrapped around her ankle and its teeth planted firmly into her skin. Jason watched in horror as it tore out her skin and she screamed in agony. She glanced at Jason for a moment and he took a step forward, but stopped. Tears welled in his eyes as he looked at her desperately try to crawl away, only to see the ghoul grab her leg again and make a meal out of her. A look of absolute betrayal fell to her face as she looked at him.

"Jason!" She screamed, but he knew already there was nothing he could do. He took a step back towards his car. He choked.

"I'm sorry."