AN: Sorry for being gone for so long. My laptop had a hard drive malfunction and I lost everything. Including the program I used to write these. So all my hard work on the latest chapter was lost.

Not to mention I recently moved into an apartment and am trying to get settled so… yeah…

Oi…

Alas, I will suck it up and continue.

Latest Anonymous- I swear to god I'm going to beat you with a popsicle…

…

"If I have to tell you one more time to leave Moses alone, I'm going to throw my shoe at you.." I whispered threateningly at the hunter.

The Hunter growled softly which caused Moses to snarl right back at him. I raised my voice. "Oh my God. Just… Stop! Honestly."

To be honest though, I should've been thankful everything was going alright… I hadn't given Moses the chance to really respond to my bath comment as I went off to search for cleaning supplies. Sure, it had taken a while to clean the mess they made and it stank like Hell, but neither of them had seemed to make much of a fuss as I packed everything we would need. Including the homemade Molotov's I had made the day before.

Although, I was certain the hunter was trying to tell me something I couldn't figure it out. And when I seemed to give up on trying to guess he started pestering Moses. First it was just little things, like just getting too close for Moses comfort, then he got a little more annoying by jumping on his head and growling at him. Moses had been keeping his temper in check pretty well through it all.

That is, until the hunter started picking at me.

Nothing bad really, he just kept poking my leg or coming up to sniff me in various places. Mostly my hair oddly enough; but of course it was way over the limit for Moses. It was all I could do to stop them from jumping on each other and tearing themselves apart.

Not to mention, we still had that Tank from earlier to worry about too. Between trying to babysit the boys and looking out for that thing, I was at my wits end. At any time one thing could go wrong an-

"REEAAAAAHHH!" The sudden screech from somewhere behind me had me jumping out of my skin and screaming bloody murder. I didn't really have time to react otherwise as a pair of familiar strong hands grabbed me and twisted me around.

I realized at once it was Moses. He was currently holding me pressed against his side, both arms around me while he openly snarled at the little hunter.

I blinked and blinked again, unsure how I wanted to react to being held like that. Part of me wanted to push away from him, but the other part of me…

I blinked, feeling most of the blood draining from my face.

The other part of me wanted to…

With an angry scowl I shoved myself away from Moses. I glared at him as he watched me with an open expression of shock. "Quit being so overprotective of me! I can handle myself!" I all but screamed at him. Then I whipped around and glared at the hunter. "And you, stop being a pest or I'll shoot you myself!" Yet again, the hunter seemed unphased by me or the way I reacted.

That didn't help my mood any. My scowl darkened and I walked right up him, looking down at his crouched position. I had to take a deep breath to stop myself from kicking him in the face.

"Listen here, you little punk…" I started dangerously. "I don't-" I cut off suddenly. The hunter also whipped his head to the right. Glancing at Moses I saw that he was also looking back toward the highway that would lead us back to the McDonalds. Both of them were staring intently.

So I had heard something… Taking a few timid steps forward I pulled my pistol out and surveyed the area. To my dismay the noise continued: Loud crashing and various sounds of things being smashed to pieces.

Moses came up beside me but I continued to look out over the few houses that lined the road. "One guess who's making those kinds of noises…" I whispered to him.

He wheezed a few times and turned to me. I gulped, unable to really hide my fear. Here I was, screaming like a banshee and that stupid Tank was somewhere close smashing things.

I took a quick breath and started walking forward. "Come on guys. Let's get out of here before he decides he wants to smash us." A moment or so later I heard the clunking steps of Moses and the soft clicking of the hunter's claws on the pavement.

We managed to get a few yards further before all the crashing noises stopped, which in turn, caused us all to stop. My blood ran cold and I felt frozen in place. If the monster ran out of things to smash already we were in trouble… I glanced over to the houses in fear. It wasn't hard to tell which house the Tank was in. There were quite a few large holes adorning the sides of the house as well as one huge hole.

Feeling like my heart was trying to beat its way out of my chest I whispered to the boys, "We need to go. Now."

I should've seen it coming really. Should've known my bad luck streak was gonna go on a roll… We didn't make it five more steps before the tell-tell roar of the tank filled the air and the beast came crashing through the remnants of the house.

All three of us froze and stared at him as he stared right back at us. We were only about the highways width away from him. Just as the house collapsed behind the tank, he let out another mighty roar and smashed his hands into the concrete of the walkway, picking up a large chunk of it.

"MOVE!" I screamed and shoved Moses to the side as the tank threw the concrete at us. We scattered and I had to jump to avoid the flying sidewalk bits as it slammed into the road. I felt winded when I crashed to the ground but knew I had no time to spare. So gathering my feet under me I sprinted down the highway as I heard, as well as felt, the giant pursuing me.

I racked my brain for a plan but found I was at a loss. Aaron was the fastest; he would always be the one to distract Tanks when we ran into them. Kaiden would be in charge of lighting it up (if we had a Molotov handy), and I would snipe from a distance-

Then it hit me. My Molotov's! If I could just light this monster up I may have a chance… I tried reaching behind me to get my backpack off but the angle allowed me a glimpse of the tank behind me. He was closer than I had first thought. In my fear I simply twisted back around and tried to push my legs to go faster.

From somewhere behind me I could hear a hunter pounce and I let out a shout of terror. It was one bad thing after another… But instead of being slammed into the pavement I heard terrible screeching noises from behind me and the tank let out roars of pain and anger. A few loud crashes and immense shakes followed me but I continued to run full sprint, now fueled by insane fear.

It wasn't until I realized I couldn't feel any shaking following me before I looked behind me. The sight made my eyes widen. The hunter had pounced on the tanks shoulders and back and was attacking the beast's face with claws and teeth.

I stood there stupefied as the tank attempted to reach for the hunter with its massive hands but every time it got close to grabbing him, he'd just jump a bit to the side and continue slashing at the tanks face. The behemoth began stomping around and slamming his fists against the ground in blind rage. The roars coming from him and the screeches and tearing sounds from the hunter made my skin crawl.

From the corner of my eye I saw movement and flinched at first but realized it was just Moses running up to me. I stared at him as he got closer but didn't otherwise move. When he reached me he grabbed my arm and attempted to pull me down the highway, away from the fight. I still felt a bit in shock so as he tugged a bit harder I began following after him. However, a high-pitched screech/roar sounded from behind me and I dug my heels in and glanced back at the two fighting.

If I had to guess the tank managed to get a hit on the hunter. The little zombie hung by his claws from the tanks shoulders and his feet were scraping for purchase at the tanks lower back.

It was then that I finally snapped out of whatever I had fallen into and pulled my arm from Moses grasp. He wheezed at me and I hurriedly yanked my backpack off and ripped the zipper open. "I'm not leaving him!" I said with a bit of frustration. I pulled out a Molotov and dropped the backpack. I fumbled with the lighter for a bit before finally getting the rag tied around the neck of the bottle lit. With a huff of determination I sprinted toward the two fighting.

I had indeed lost every last bit of my common sense…

The tank and hunter were still roaring and trying to tear each other to bits. The noises were probably enough to wake the dead(excuse the pun). In their scuffle they were turning in all different ways and limbs flying about dangerously. Keeping myself a bit turned, so I could run away if I needed to, I yelled. "Ah… Hunter! Get out of the way!" What was I supposed to call him anyway? Now certainly wasn't the time to be grasping for names…

My voice didn't even rise above the noises the two were making. Blood was coloring the road beneath the tank and most of his face region was just a blur of red. I clenched the Molotov a bit tighter feeling panicked. "Move damnit!" I screamed. That time my voice did pick up over the shredding noises but they didn't seem to notice.

Fuckfuckfuckfuck. I couldn't just light the hunter on fire. Not to mention if I didn't throw the Molotov soon the rag would be burned out… Feeling frustrated beyond anything I took a deep breath and screamed with all my might. "MOOOOOOOVVEE!" That seemed to get their attention but didn't have the effect I wanted it to.

The hunter stopped attacking for a split second to look at me, in that second, the tank lurched to the side and managed to grab the hunter in a bone crushing grip. I swear I heard snapping sounds… But before I had to think about it the tank pulled the hunter from his shoulders and threw him into a pole that held up stoplights with bone shattering force. The little hunter smashed into the pole with a sickening crunching sound and lay still in the heap he landed in.

I stared at the unmoving mass that was the hunter for a moment before my anger took hold of me and I let out a grunt of effort and threw the Molotov at the tank. I had been aiming for his midsection but, my aim being as terrible as it was, was lucky for once. The glass exploded in the tanks face and the contents spilled over his upper half. The beast reared back and let out a bark of pain.

Then the fluids caught fire…

I shielded my eyes from the blaze and took a few steps back. The tank let out a monstrous roar of pain and flailed his limbs about in a furry. I found myself taking a few more steps back in fear. I'd never seen a tank in such a fit of rage… Not this close…

Not sure what I did, if anything, but the tank paused for a bit and slowly turned its head toward me. The blood drained from my face at the look in its eyes. Rage. Hate. Crush. Kill. The blood that soaked his upper half was beginning to boil from the fire, which, mixed with its already grotesque features, would be enough to give even the most hardened survivor nightmares…

In that moment, he turned toward me and rushed at me with speed that I didn't know it could have. I turned and began running down the highway again. It turned out that Moses was only a few yards behind me. He was staring wide eyed at me and hardly seemed to notice the monster I had right on my tail.

As I passed him I shoved him as hard as I could to the side, out to the Tank's path. Glancing behind me I saw the Tank take a swing at Moses but his fist fell short as he fell to the ground from my shove. I was also able to tell that the raging beast was catching up to me, fueled by the added anger from the fire.

I continued to run down the highway back into town well aware that I had left my backpack and all my weapons behind. All I had was the pistol and I was pretty sure that wasn't going to do anything.

Just then, a loud gun shot rang out from somewhere ahead of me. The bullet whizzed over my head and, I assumed, hit the Tank at my heels. I glanced over my shoulder again and saw that the shot had actually stumbled the beast. A few more shots were fired off into its face and finally the flaming monster fell to the ground dead.

My legs gave out and I slumped to the pavement feeling like my heart was trying to beat itself to death. At the sound of footsteps behind me I cringed. I hadn't been as alone as I thought I was…

"Ameleia..?" A mans hushed voice asked behind me.

As if my heart wasn't already strained enough its beating picked right back up. No matter how much I told my body to move it wouldn't. The voice froze me in place. Not to mention I was terrified that if I did look there would be nothing there. As if my poor over-fried brain was just imagining things to try and make me feel better.

My eyes remained glued to the road in front of me as the footsteps walked around my side to stand in front of me.

The same worn, dark brown cowboy boots that I remember…

A shaky gasp escaped my lips but I remained still as the person knelt in front of me, taking my face in their hands I was forced to look up into those murky blue eyes.

I let out a broken sob as I whispered. "Aaron…"

…

AN: Oh, please don't hate me for leaving off there. Dx

And Merry (late) Christmas? :x