Author's Notes: Hey guys, long time no see. Enjoy.

We're Gonna Get Those Bastards Chapter 15

When she regained conciousness, the first thing she noticed was that it was dark...and wet. Very wet. She felt like she was floating, yet despite not being able to breathe, there was a strange sensation of peace throughout her body. Was this heaven? She didn't remember learning in church about there being so much water.

Smoker's unconcious body floated by her. Nope. She was in hell.

It took her a few moments to remember the previous events that had transpired and come to the conclusion that she was not, in fact, dead, and was instead submerged in the Savannah river.

Quickly expelling her remaining air, Witch followed the bubbles to the surface and emerged from the water. With a painful gasp the girl took in the precious oxygen her decaying lungs had been desperatley craving.

She looked at her surroundings. The water was filled with iron and steel debris. Witch looked up at the bridge that she had fallen from and was in awe at the smoldering remains of the large chunk that had been blasted away from the center of the structure. She could hear the sounds of jets in the distance, accompanied with the roars of additional explosions.

What the fuck was going on?

"Hunter?" she called out. No response.

"Boomer? Tank? Southern Infected?" Her echoing voice once again met only silence. Crap.

Well first things first. She needed to make it to shore. Unfortunately for the pale creature, she was about a mile out from land on either side, and the longer she continued to float in the water, the more she was starting to realize that her right arm was in some serious pain.

Witch figured falling off of a bridge with her right claw lodged into a car would be the most obvious cause for the discomfort. Though, she should count herself lucky that her claw had dislodged itself upon impact, or she could very well be floating to the blackest depths of the river like Smoker.

Smoker! Oh shit. The condescending prick must have still been stuck to the car! Should she save him? Should she leave? He was always an asshole to her. Plus he was probably dead already.

During her inner turmoil, she was unaware of a loose girder burning through the bridge until it fell quickly through the air and landed with a large splash beside her.

Witch screamed and shielded her eyes from the violent torrent of water. When it subsided, she looked up again. Several of the burning girders were beginning to glow red, bending and creaking towards the water below. It was only a matter of time before they fell too.

Relying mainly on her good arm, Witch began to frantically paddle towards some nearby wreckage. She should be safe as long as she was out of range. The hope of safety was soon replaced with crippiling guilt as she imagined a dozen girders piling onto her comrade's defensless body below.

Gritting her teeth, Witch took a long breath of air and once again submerged herself into the river. Kicking her feet as fast as they would go, Witch continued towards the bottom, trying her best to ignore the increasing pressure in her ears.

As predicted, she felt the water vibrate, and a mangled girder wizzed by her like a torpedo. This was crazy. She was condeming herself to almost certain death to save a guy who used to poison her breakfast every morning. Another girder crashed into the water and flew by her, and Witch decided to block out all thoughts of self-preservation and focus on the task at hand.

It didn't take long for her to reach the car. She couldn't see anything, relying instead on tracing her claws across the car's surface until she found Smoker's slimey tongue. It was stuck against either the hood or the bumper, she couldn't tell. All she knew was that as the red-hot girders continued to crash down around them like a macabre game of roulette, she could waste no time and simply cut off the tip of her teammate's tongue.

Swimming up, she grasped Smoker's lanky frame and used what was left of her inhumane strength to push him towards the surface. Emerging from the depths, she narrowly missed a particularly sharp chunk of iron and kicked towards some floating wooden planks nearby.

The second she threw themselves onto the waterlogged surface, Witch collapsed in exaustion and looked up to the bridge. They were out of range. They were safe. Still, she braced herself as the largest heap of metal so far hit the water nearby and sunk to the bottom. Seconds later, pieces of the car surfaced. Christ, talk about cutting it close.

For several minutes Witch allowed them to float on the water's surface. The girders had stopped falling, and the water was now eerely calm. Her eyes were getting heavy. She was falling asleep.

The girl would have too, if not for the violent coughing that erupted from beside her. She turned to her companion, who had awoken in a gagging fit as a peculiar mix of his trademark smoke and murky river water spewed forth from his mouth.

Smoker sat up in a daze, immediately looking out at the vast body of water around him. He groaned, "I keep telling myself I'm not going to mix liquors ever again, but I never listen." Smoker turned to the infected lady laying beside her and his good eye widened in mortified horror, "Eww! I really fucked up this time!"

Witch cracked him across the face, "Pervert," she growled, but instantly regretted it when pain shot through her arm once again.

"What in the hell happend?" Smoker asked as he nursed his throbbing cheek.

"You don't remember?"

"I remember some things. Just not so much the floating raft and the horrible pain in my mouth." He spit out his long tongue, and his eyes widened when he saw the section that Witch was forced to slice off, "Oh God!" he cried out.

"Can it Smoker. You still have plenty of your disgusting tongue left. We need to get to shore, so get to paddling."

"Screw you. I don't take orders from you," the taller infected sneered in defiance.

Witch's eyes narrowed. She didn't feel like dealing with this idiot right now, "Would you rather drift out here until this plywood sinks?"

"I...fine," Smoker groaned, resigning any further arguements, and began to use his large appendages to help Witch paddle towards land.

An agonizing fourty five minutes later and the pair reached the shore. Witch crawled off of the piece of wood and kissed the solid ground in gratitude.

"When you're done making love to the dirt we better figure out where the hell those idiots went off to."

Witch stood up and tried to hide her blush as she brushed some bits of dirt from her lips, "I think it'll be best if we backtrack and-"

Her idea was put on hold at the ear-piercing sound of Savannah's civil defense alarm. It blared loudly for several moments, before a stern voice blared over a loud speaker.

"Attention citizens of Savannah, Georgia. This is the United States Military."

Witch and Smoker exchanged worried glances with one another.

The city has been compromised. All bridges and access points to the outside of the city have been put on lockdown, and Savannah is set to be leveled in order to contain the infection in approximately two days. You have until this time to make your way to Hunter Army Airfield for immediate extraction."

The man on the siren paused, as if he was contemplating how to finish his address to the condemed still fighting for survival in the city. He chose to keep it simple.

"...Good luck...and may God have mercy on us all."

God?

"What God?" Witch and Smoker found themselves questioning in unison.

"Well shoot, that don't sound too good, does it darlin'?"

"Will you shut up and stop calling me darlin'?"

"Hey now! I keep on tellin ya that ain't no way to talk to your savior."

"Whatever. Just keep rowing hero boy."

Zoey sighed, sitting in the rear of a horrifically cramped rowboat floating down the Savannah River.

She fiddled with her shotgun. The shells were useless now, having been underwater for too long, but at least the gun itself was safe. It was her baby after all.

The college girl heard humming and glared at Ellis currently sitting beside her, rowing the boat with that same stupid carefree smile on his face that he had been wearing since she met him.

Didn't this guy realize the danger they were in? They were seperated from their teammates, caught in the middle of a zombie outbreak, and worst of all, now apparently had just fourty eight hours to make it all the way to an airfield on the other side of the city. This sucked, yet somehow Mr. Hero appeared to not have a single care in the world.

On the other hand, she should be thanking God that she was even alive. The car had landed hard into the river. Putting her shotty to good use before it was rendered useless, the young girl had blown out the windshield and swam to the surface with Ellis before they were pulled too far under.

She remembered passing two of the special infected on their way up, a smoker and a witch if she could remember correctley. They appeared to have died upon impact. Good. Two pricks she'd never have to worry about ever again.

Unfortunately, she was now stuck with the biggest prick of them all. If they didn't have the immense fortune of finding a capsided boat in the middle of the river, Zoey would have figured God was punishing her for picking all of those fights with homeless people on the subway when she was younger. She just hoped her friends were alright.

"I sure hope the others are ok," Ellis said, as if reading her mind.

Frankily, she wasn't exactly sure what the hell happend to all of them. By the time they reemerged to the surface of the water, the bridge appeared to be desolate, and their calls to their teammates fell on death ears.

"Let's pray they are. For now we need to make our way to the military base and hope our comrades are doing the same. Gods, this is all so exasperating."

"God bless you."

"...What? No, I said exasperating. It means..." Zoey paused as she noticed Ellis giving her his trademark smile of infinite ignorance. She sighed, "Nevermind."

It was dark now, save for the flashlight taped to Zoey's gun. Crickets and bullfrogs conducted their nocturnal symphonies, and Ellis soon became bored of the silence. He smiled at his new teammate.

"Hey, I got an idea! Let's play twenty questions to get to know each other. I'll ask first! What's your favorite color?"

"Ellis I'm not really in the moo-"

"Oh, I got a better one! How about, what's your favorite type of movies?"

Zoey put her palm to her head, "Ellis please, you're giving me a headache."

"Oh, even better! What's your favorite type of porno?!"

"Ellis! Shut up damnit!" she screamed into the night, approximately at the same time their rowboat roughly slammed into the side of an unforseen dock.

Zoey squeaked as she fell overboard, landing on her butt in ankle-deep water. Ellis stood up dramatically, "Land ho!" he declared and tossed the boat's anchor. It landed with a small plop next to Zoey, splashing the miserable girl with water. She wiped the water from her eyes and glared daggers at the boy in front of her.

Deciding it best to take shelter for the night, the pair left their boat stationed at the docks and cautiously headed into a nearby commercial district. They had nothing more than melee weapons, but luckily the sporadic infected paid them little mind as they looked for signs of a safehouse.

It didn't take them long to find traces of graffiti, pointing towards a saferoom nearby. As they approached a large fortified building in the distance, both of their jaws dropped. One in amazement and one in horror.

"You can't be serious," Zoey murmered as she gazed at the sign above their newest 'saferoom'.

"A Chuck E. Cheese?! Awesome!" Ellis squealed in excitement, running for the front door of the establishment.

As her partner ran ahead, Zoey had serious thoughts of just locking him inside and finding her own way to the military base. She probably would have, if she wasn't so tired, it wasn't so dark, and she didn't have the creepy feeling that they were being watched.

She heard a gurgle echo in the darkness, and quickly headed after Ellis, running inside the Chuck E. Cheese and baricading the door behind them.

"This is great! This is just friggin great!" Smoker complained, taking his frustrations out on one of the many common infected scurrying along the residental street. Pushing the confused zombie to the ground, Smoker kicked him. He heard Witch groan behind him.

"You said that forty times already Smoker. Let's just find a place to stay for the night and figure out what to do in the morning," Witch suggested, already past her limit of dealing with her companion's moodiness for the day.

Smoker sneered, "Oh sure! While we're at it, let's find a nice bar to hold up in and get wasted! We'll have us a grand o'l time before we're blown into dust."

"We have two days Smoker. Just take a chill pill and we'll find out where to go tommorow."

As much as the weezing infected hated to admit it, his annoying companion did have a decent point. He was tired, and they didn't even know which way the military base was at the moment.

Grumbling to himself, Smoker surveyed the neighboorhood they were walking through. Of course every house was boarded up. Hell, many of them looked like they were abandoned way before the infection ever hit Savannah. Good o'l deep south for you. Walking up to the porch of a nearby house, Smoker sprawled himself across a cheap plastic bench and sunk into his normal routine of despair and self-pity.

"What are you doing?" Witch asked in curiosity.

"What does it look like? Making myself comfortable for the night. Here, you can can take the floor," Smoker stated rudely, tossing one of the bench's dirty throw-pillows onto the ground for Witch to use.

The female infected was not amused. She turned to the door. Flexing her claw, she made quick work of the wooden boards nailed across it and kicked it in. Witch smirked towards the astonished infected.

"No thanks. You can have the bench, I'll take the master bedroom," she teased as she walked into the house.

Every time Zoey and her team would sprint towards a saferoom after a long day of battling against the hordes of the undead, she would pray for nothing more than for her temporary sanctuary to have power.

There was nothing scarier than holding up in a crammed cellar for the night, with no light or heat, and only the moans and groans of the undead through the bars of the red door to keep you company.

Watching Ellis dance through rows of games and attractions flickering with flashing lights and loud noises like a kid in a candy store made her second guess her previous fears and desires.

Zoey sat at one of the many tables, a piece of lukewarm pizza in her hands as she watched with annoyance while Ellis bounced from one game to the next.

"They got Pacman! And skeeball! Oh my stars, they got Daytona Racing! This place has everything."

Zoey deadpanned, taking another bite of her slice with a roll of the eyes. She combed the entire place, and found nothing in terms of ammo or supplies; just a couple of frozen pizzas, one of which she was sharing with King Doofus over there.

Ellis ran up and grabbed another slice of the pizza, "Man this place is great! Which game ya'll thinkin' about playing first?" he asked with the excitement of a child.

"How about none of them," Zoey said coldly. This resulted in a pout from the boy.

"Aww come on darlin'. Don't tell me you've never enjoyed coming to a place like this."

"I did...when I was eight," she replied.

"Well shoot, me and Keith used to come to these places all the time. That reminds me of this one time me and my buddy Keith got really wasted on moonshine and hit up this place that was just full of bouncy castles. Well lemme just tell ya, bouncy castles and liquor do not mix."

Yet another thing that drove her nuts about the boy. If she had to hear one more story about this deadbeat Keith, she'd kill herself before the infected even got a chance to.

"The judge went easy on us though, so it all worked out," he finished with a proud smile.

"That's great Ellis. Tell you what, why don't you enjoy those games and I'll just sit here and watch."

Ellis frowned, but nodded regardless. Before he left, he placed a few tokens on the table, "If you change your mind," he said before practically skipping over to Pacman.

Zoey shook her head in annoyance and finished her slice of pizza. Of course it didn't take long for bordem to set in. She wished she still had her PSP or DS. Now those were real games. Not these kiddy games they had in here.

Despite this, she found herself swipping the coins from the table and standing up, surveying the area. Maybe skeeball wouldn't be so bad. It was sort of like bowling, which was kind of cool.

In a moment the coin was inserted and the balls came rolling out. Picking one up, she aimed, rolled it, and somehow not only scored no points, but hit the backboard so hard that it bounced off and rolled back to her.

She picked the ball back up and glared at it, then jumped when she heard Ellis's voice behind her. "Aww cool, I knew you'd fine something you'd like," he said. Thankfully, he appeared unaware of her embarassing shot.

He took the lane next to her, and she watched in amazement as he rolled ball after ball with expert percision. When he was done, sirens sounded for a high score and a small pile of tickets popped out of the side of the machine.

"Aww sweet, I almost got enough tickets for the stuffed pony at the ticket booth," he said with joy. He looked to Zoey, "Come on darlin', you haven't even thrown one ball yet."

Zoey looked from Ellis to the ball, suddenly feeling extremely self-concious. She rolled it, lighter this time. It didn't hit the backboard, but it did plop itself awkwardly on the lowest tier, giving her a whopping ten points out of one hundered.

The girl pouted. "It's ok. Just take your time," she heard Ellis encourage her. A few balls later and the girl was starting to remember why she hated this game as a kid.

Ellis laughed at her expense, and Zoey felt her face heat up with embarassment. She glared at him, "Look, shut up. This game was always stupid anyway."

"Aww come on hun, it ain't that bad. You just gotta learn the proper technique is all. Here, I'll show ya."

Ellis walked over to her lane and put another token in the machine. After handing her the ball, Zoey expected him to step back. Instead, she felt him brush up against her, grasping her wrist and holding it gracefully towards her target, snaking his other hand around her waist for support.

"It's all about the motion of the throw. You gotta follow through and hold your wrist straight. That's the key to the higher scoring holes. Got it?" he asked her.

Zoey wasn't really sure about anything at the moment. Her head suddenly felt fuzzy while in the boy's embrace. She really hoped he couldn't feel her heart beating faster, or the tinge of red that tickled her cheeks as Ellis continued to wave her hands through the motion of the throw.

He stepped away and smiled at her, "Now you try."

The girl shook the cobwebs from her mind, "Ok," she studdered, avoiding the boy's gaze and looking to her lane.

Moments later the sirens blared and a pile of tickets were dispensed at the delighted girl's feet. Zoey couldn't restrain herself as she bounced on the ball's of her feet and clapped, giggling like a giddy schoolgirl.

She stopped when she saw Ellis smirking at her, "Told ya you'd have fun."

The college girl stubbornly turned away, "It was...ok," she admitted.

Ellis grinned, before grabbing Zoey's wrist and pulling the girl towards another group of games.

"Hey! What are you doing?!" Zoey asked, dumbfounded.

"Taking you to have some more fun!"

The night was filled with air hockey, pizza, racing games, Tekken, Space Invaders, and more pizza. When it was all said and done, Zoey couldn't deny that this was the most fun she had had since the infection began. She also couldn't deny that it was all because of Ellis.

Around midnight, Zoey found a couple blankets, most likely left by some of the previous survivors, and made a makeshift bed out of one of the booths.

As she got comfortable, she looked over to Ellis, "Ellis, you wanna make a bed in one of the booths too?"

Ellis grinned, "You kiddin'? It's been my dream since I was just a boy to sleep in a ball pit, and I ain't gonna pass up that chance now," he stated happily. Getting a running start, Ellis did a cannonball into a nearby ball pit, immediately sinking underneath the waves of plastic balls.

It was silent for a moment, before he popped his head out, "Oh, I almost forgot," he said, hopping out of the pit and darting across the room towards the ticket counter.

"Forgot what?"

"To trade in my tickets," he said.

Zoey rolled her eyes, but this time it was accompanied by a small smile. Someone should really tell him that in a zombie apocalypse no one is really going to care if you have enough tickets for prizes.

A few moments later, Ellis trotted triumphently back to Zoey with a large stuffed pony. It was pink and fluffy, and Zoey remembered from her childhood that the little mark on it's body meant that it was a My Little Pony, though she wasn't sure which one. Why a young man in his twenties would want one, Zoey didn't have a clue.

"That's cute Ellis."

Ellis smiled, "Glad you like it." Then he did something that suprised her. He held it out towards the girl.

Zoey looked at the pony and then to Ellis, "Ellis, I don't understand."

"Well shoot, you didn't think I was saving up all them tickets so I could get a pony for me now did you?"

"...You saved up all of your tickets to get a present...for me?" the girl asked, her voice a whisper of confusion.

Ellis nodded, grinning as Zoey took the pony from him. "I thought it would be a nice way to comemerate our first date together."

Zoey looked up shocked, "What? Ellis, this wasn't a-"

"Good night!" Ellis called out as he ran back to the ball pit and dove inside.

The young girl sighed, looking from the motionless ball pit to the pony smiling in her hands. Snuggling deeper into her blanket, she fondled the soft fabric of the pony. Closing her eyes, she smiled.

"Good night Ellis."

Witch stepped out of the shower, sighing with satisfaction as steam danced around her feet. That felt good. It had been quite some time since she was able to have a proper shower, even longer since she had a hot one. Luckily for her, the house they picked had both water and power, rare for an area so advanced in the infection.

Stepping into a nearby bedroom, Witch slipped into a fresh pair of white undergarments, and to change it up a bit, added a simple white nightgown. She was embarassed to say that she forgot what it felt like to wear a decent pair of clothing.

The bed looked very inviting right about now, but the sound of a television caught her interest and she walked down the stairs and into the living room. Smoker sat on a torn leather couch, arms lazily behind his head and legs on a nearby coffee table.

He appeared to be watching a DVD on an old box television. "Whatcha watching?" she asked, attempting to be civil with the easily annoyed infected.

His eyes glanced over at her momentarily, before fixating themselves back on the screen, "Dawn of the Dead."

There was some irony in there somewhere. Witch stood awkwardly next to the couch, rubbing her injured arm as Smoker continued to watch the movie. What she asked next suprised them both.

"Mind if I...watch too?" she asked. Smoker looked to her, surpised. After a few moments of gut-wrenching silence, the tall infected nodded, and Witch quickly sat on the opposite end of the couch.

Witch noticed that throughout the movie, Smoker would take momentary glances in her direction, as if not trusting her simple intentions of wanting to watch a movie with him. Was she really that bad of a person? Or was he really just that untrusting of others?

"Do you think we're any better than them?" Smoker asked, referring to the zombies after a particularly brutal scene involving the blood thirsty undead. Witch was taken back. What a depressing question to ask. Then again, this was the first time Smoker had even attempted to start a casual conversation with her since she joined their team, so it would only be polite to engage.

"I don't know," she answered truthfully as they watched a man scream while chunks of his flesh were torn from his bones.

"Do you ever think about it? Your humanity? What you once were?"

"Sometimes," Witch sighed. "It's the reason I cry. I'm grateful that I still know who I once was before the infection, and I'm grateful that I didn't turn into one of those mindless things stumbling around in the street, but sometimes I think that maybe they got the easy end of the deal."

"How so?" Smoker asked.

"Sure they're mindless killing machines now, but they don't feel anything anymore. They don't feel sadness...or grief...or hate. They don't have to suffer like we do."

Smoker was silent for several moments, before he said something that Witch would remember until the day she died.

"I think it's those feelings that stop us from truly losing what's left of our humanity."

Nothing else was said throughout the rest of the movie. By the time the film ended, and the screen cut to black, Smoker and Witch were already asleep, side-by-side, reluctant comrades in a quest to not only reach safety, but possibly discover the remenants of a humanity they fear they may no longer have understood.

Author's Notes: I swear it only feels like yesterday that I had posted the last chapter of this story, and now it appears that it has been almost a year and a half since my last update. Well I apologize for that. I hit sort of a rough patch trying to finish up college and I of course put these stories on hold until everything cleared up. Well it has! So expect sporadic updates once in a while of not only this story, but House of the Idiots and Chibi Elementary as well.

I like to believe that my writing skills have improved somewhat since my absence, and now that I'm aware of some of the simple grammer problems that plauged my earlier chapters, I believe I'll go back at some point and restructure certain sections in order to give the story a better flow.

Finally, I'm aware that all four occupants of the car would have died on impact after falling off a bridge, but I figured with all the crazy shit that happens in video games, something like that isn't entirely far-fetched. Ok, so anyway, please leave a review so I know there's still some interest in my story. Thanks.