literature

Zombies

Deviation Actions

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The UNSC wasn't ready for it, no one was. In the wake of the Human-Covenant war there was no way humanity could be ready. They'd over run the town, the disease spreading like wildfire in a short time. The military had taken action, but fighting them was like no conventional fighting.

John leaned against the window sill, looking down from the roof. There were a few wandering about the open grounds but they had no idea that anyone was in the building. In the dark night they'd turned off all the lights, making John all the more thankful for his enhanced night vision.

There was a sound behind him and the rifle shifted in his hands. He stopped as he saw the source. "Hey." he was too tired to say more.

"Hey, I'm here to relieve you." Linda moved over to the window. She looked out, eyeing the ones nearby. "They seem to be rather inactive tonight."

John stood up and handed the rifle over to Linda. "Maybe they found something else to keep their attention." He moved out of the room, not wanting to think of what poor soul it was that had got their attention. John made his way down the hallway to one of the rooms. He opened it, finding his family inside. His children all lay on cots spread evenly around the room. He moved over to the bed where Kelly lay, curled up under the blanket. He moved over, slipping onto the cot beside her.  

Kelly shifted and looked back at him. She turned so that she was facing him and moved as close as she could to him. "Were there many out there?"

John glanced over his shoulder at the sleeping children. He didn't want them to have to hear this sort of thing. "There were a few not that many. It's rather quiet out there." He ran his hand over her hair. "Linda's on watch."

Kelly let her head rest against John's chest. "How much longer do you think this will go on? I heard them say that we were running low on food, that they aren't making progress."

"I'm sure that it will be fine." John held her tight against him, not wanting to think about it. "Just get some sleep." He closed his eyes, trying to will himself to sleep.

When John woke up Kelly wasn't there. It wasn't uncommon for her not to be there when he slept in, which he usually did when he had night watch. He got up, passing up checking how the techs were doing with finding a cure. He was tired of them saying they hadn't made progress. He found Kelly in the gym, lifting weights.

John stood, watching her as she moved. She must not have noticed him. He leaned against the frame of the doorway, lost in watching Kelly. He didn't even notice when Fred moved up beside him. "You do realize that staring is supposed to be considered rude?"

Kelly turned to look at them and John frowned. There went his entertainment. "I am aware." He eyed the axe that was resting on Fred's shoulder. "Why do you have that?"

Fred glanced over at the axe. "We're running low on ammunition. Figure that there's no reason I can't kill them up close." John didn't really know what to think of that. He had to admit it was a good idea, but it still seemed risky. "It also doesn't make noise."

"Sweatheart, have you seen the kids?" Kelly moved over to them, frowning. "I mean, were they still asleep when you got up?"

John frowned. "They weren't in the room. Are you sure that they aren't just somewhere around here?" Kelly didn't seem too at ease. It was obvious that something was eating at her. If there was one thing that John had learned to trust more than his own instinct, it was Kelly's maternal instinct. "Fred, can you check one wing of the building. Kelly, you check the west and I'll check the east."

The three Spartans split up, looking for the kids. Usually John wouldn't have been so protective, would have trusted his kids, but he still remembered the day that it had all started. He'd had enough close calls that day with losing them. So he'd become a protective father, after everything he figured he deserved that right.

John met back up with the others and was displeased to find that neither of them had the kids with them. "I don't know where they are." Kelly was obviously getting worried. If John was a protective father, Kelly was more dangerous than any animal mother in the universe.

John reached over, putting a hand on her back. "We'll find them. Who's on duty right now?" John looked to Fred for an answer.

"Well last I knew it was Ash. I'll go see if he saw anything." Fred left the room, heading for the roof.

John pulled Kelly to his side and tried to ease away her worry. "We'll find them. I'm sure that they didn't get that far away." Kelly leaned into him. She didn't say anything and he hugged her tighter.

They'd stood together until Fred returned. He was running. "Ash was knocked out. Who do you know other than one of ours that could knock out a Spartan?"

John moved through the building to a terminal. "Gabrial, did anyone leave?" The AI didn't reply. John cursed. They must have shut down Gabriel to conserve power. He turned to the others. "All right, so they might have left. What do we do?"

Fred frowned at him. "Why are you asking us?"

"Because four of my children are missing. Logical plans isn't really something that I'm currently capable of, Lieutenant." John hadn't want to admit it but he wasn't in a condition to lead. Parents hardly ever thought logically when it came to the safety of their children.

Fred shrugged. "Well I say we go out looking for them." John frowned and Fred shrugged. "We think they left, and as their uncle I can't leave them out there, can you?" John didn't reply to that question. Fred already knew the question. "I'm going to go get my crossbow."

John watched him leave and sighed. This was the sort of reckless thing he'd been hoping to avoid, but here they were apparently using that as plan A. "Why would they leave?" The question brought John's attention to Kelly. "I mean, they aren't fools, they know what's out there."

"I don't know, but it's the only logical conclusion." John didn't like the idea, or have any reason why his kids would do something so stupid, but if they weren't in the building they must have gone out.

Fred returned with the Axe hanging across his back and a crossbow in hand. He'd been using it recently when they would get close enough to shoot. He'd always take back the arrows after he was done. He stared to move toward the doors and John followed him. Fred stopped and turned to look back at John. "You do realize you don't have a weapon, right?"

John frowned. He hadn't realized it. He blamed the worry for his forgetfulness. John grabbed a lead pipe and moved back over. "This should be good enough." John turned to Kelly. "You stay here and keep looking for the kids."

"Wow, when you're worried you really don't use your brain." Fred shook his head and smirked.

Kelly's fist stuck John's shoulder and he frowned at her. "No way I'm staying behind. They're my children as well. I'm going out there." Kelly moved over and grabbed an axe for herself from the wall where it was hanging in case of a fire.

John sighed, knowing that he wasn't going to change her mind. He nodded to Fred and they moved out. "Wait, shouldn't we take some of the others." He stopped as they reached the door to leave the building.

"There are already three of us going on this suicidal mission. We don't need to risk anymore." John had to admit that Fred was right. They were risking enough.

The door slid open and there was only one figure outside. It stood, staring toward the sky. Fred didn't hesitate, he moved toward the figure, switching to his axe. The figure turned toward him and they could see that the left side of her face had been torn away. Her eyes were hazed over like foggy glass and she reached out toward Fred, letting out a weak moan as it started to stagger toward him.

Fred didn't let her get very far. His axe hit the side of her head and she fell to the ground. Two more strikes and he was satisfied that the brain was destroyed. He looked back to John and Kelly. "All right, where do we start?"

John thought for a moment. "I think they'd go to the house if they were out here." Fred nodded and they started to move.

The group moved across the base, doing their best to stay away from the wandering foes. John watched as a trio of them wandered around the front of his home. There had been a long talk about what to call them. They'd decided on calling them rotters, or at least that was what had been voted in as the names. John had wanted to call them what they were, zombies, but he'd been voted down.

An arrow shot through the air and pierced the closest rotter's face. It fell to the ground and the other two turned toward the Spartans. Kelly and John moved forward. One hit and the rotter that John was attacking fell to the ground. One more hit and it's skull was caved in. Kelly's axe sturck the center of the second rotter's head and she pulled it free.

"Come on, that noise might have gotten some attention." Kelly ran toward the door and the two men struggled to keep up with the speedy woman. She opened the door and moved through the lower level.

John went up the stairs, Fred right behind him. He moved toward the rooms of their children. He stopped when he reached Catherine's room. His daughter and oldest son stood in the room, an assortment of guns laying on the bed.

Catherine looked toward her father and then toward Jacob. John moved over to his daughter and hugged her to him. "What do you think you two were doing? Where are your brothers?"

"Sam's getting the weapons out of his room. We heard the soldiers talking about how ammunition was slim and we came here to get the stuff we had stored." Jacob didn't seem to understand why they were so upset. "Why did you come here?"

"We came looking for you. We thought you'd gone out and gotten attacked." Fred moved into the room.

"We don't need to be protected." Catherine pushed John a bit away from her. "We were doing just fine. The rotters didn't know that we were here."

John frowned, a bit hurt by his daughter pushing him away. He was still getting used to her recent streak of  independence that the young girls showed. "What did you expect us to do? You left and we had no idea what happened." John took a deep breath. None of that mattered any more, they were safe. "Well we can't stay here. We need to get moving." John motioned to his kids and then moved out of the room.

They moved to Sam's room where they found the other two boys, a shotgun, DMR, and pistol all set out while Sam was grabbing an assault rifle. He turned toward his father. "Hey dad. Why are you here?"

"They came to get us. Apparently they think we can't handle ourselves." Catherin obviously wasn't happy at all.

Sam shrugged. "What do you expect? We went out without telling them when there are rotters around and they are our parents."

There was a loud bang down stairs and the group ran down toward the kitchen. They found Kelly trying to hold off a rotter. Her hand was in its throat, holding away its open jaw. Fred moved into action, grabbing the rotter and pulling it away from Kelly. John moved over to where Kelly's axe had fallen and grabbed it. He tossed it to her and she easily caught it. Kelly moved toward the rotter and with one swing lodged the axe into the rotter's head. It fell to the ground and Kelly cursed.

"The thing came up out of the pantry when I opened it. Knocked the axe out of my hand." Kelly ran a hand through her hair and then moved over to her children. "Are you all okay?"

"Not all of us are fine." Catherine was looking past her mother, over at Fred. He was clutching his hand. Catherine looked toward her mother. "What do we do?"

John moved over to his friend and looked at the wound. Fred released it and John could clearly see that it was a bite mark on his hand. "What happened?"

"When I pulled him away he grabbed my arm, bit me." Fred glanced over at Kelly and then looked down toward the ground. "They haven't made any progress."

John closed his eyes. He didn't want to admit that this was happening. He knew what Fred meant. There was a bang on the back door and John could see several rotters through the window. Kelly moved over to the window and looked to John. "How many?" Kelly didn't reply. That was a bad sign. "We need to get out of here."

Fred nodded. "Leave out the front door." He looked toward the back door. "I'll get their attention, should give you a chance."

"What!? We can't leave you." Catherine moved over to her uncle. "We can't leave anyone behind. You're a part of the team and members of my team don't get lost behind."

Fred smiled a bit and unslung the crossbow from his back. He handed it to Catherine. "Well then it's good that I'm the ranking officer and therefor this is my team, not yours." He made sure that she grabbed the weapon. "You're on crossbow, and I'm ordering to see that your siblings and parents all get back to the safehouse. Remember rule one: you follow the chain of command." Catherine nodded, pulling back the crossbow and slipping on an arrow. Fred grabbed his axe and handed it to Sam. "You watch their six." Sam nodded, gripping the axe tightly.

John hated to watch this, hated to be once more leaving behind another friend just because he was injured. He motioned to his children. "Scout the front, make sure there aren't many rotters there." The children moved away and John moved over to Fred. He handed him his pistol. "Firing should help to draw them away." He looked into Fred's eyes and spoke what he couldn't speak in words. It wasn't just to draw them away, but to save Fred from being torn apart while still alive. John hugged his friend, holding him tightly for a moment. "Kurt made a good choice. I made the right choice putting you in charge on Reach." He glanced over at Kelly. "I would have nothing without all that you did."

Fred nodded and John moved away, heading toward the front of the house. He stopped at other side of the doorway and looked back. Kelly had pulled Fred to her, kissing him deeply. John didn't really think much of it. He would usually be upset, but he knew what she was doing. She was giving him a moment of happy before he left the house. Kelly pulled away, resting her forehead against Fred's. "You know she'll be waiting for you, on the other side."

"I've always known." Fred's eyes closed. "She's always been waiting." He smiled a bit. "Probably waiting for me, to tell me all the things I did wrong." He pulled away from Kelly. "Go."

She reluctantly moved away, and John stood on the other side of the doorway. She looked at him for a moment and he nodded, letting her know that he'd seen but being sure that the look on his face conveyed he didn't care.

John and Kelly moved to the front door, looking out. There were about seven rotters moving toward the house and more in the distance. A shot echoed behind the house and they all turned, moving as quickly as their broken sluggish bodies allowed them. When the coast seemed clear enough John led the group out of the house and across the open area. The rotters all seemed completely focused on following the gunshots that he could hear in the distance.

It took them only about ten minutes to make it back to the base. "Where have you been?" Linda frowned at them. "We had no idea where you went. Where is Fred?"

Kelly looked toward the ground. John stepped up. "The kids were gone, we went looking for them, and Fred was bitten." Linda looked shocked by the words. "He drew them away."

Linda nodded. "I'll…I'll go tell the others." Linda left, a sort of distant look in her eyes. It was the most emotion that John had ever seen from the woman.

John looked over toward the kids. "Why don't you go take the weapons you gathered to the armory and catalogue them?" The kids didn't say anything, but Sam and Catherine still clung to the weapons they had been given.

Kelly watched them leave and then shook her head. "I'm going to go lay down." Before John knew it Kelly was half way down the hallway. He sighed, following after her.

John reached their room and by the time he got there he found Kelly curled up on their bed, under the covers. John moved to the bed, climbing under the sheets with her. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close.

They sat in silence for a long time until Kelly spoke. "I thought we were done losing people with the end of the war." Kelly turned on the bed and pulled herself as close to him. John just held her close, not knowing what to say. He had a feeling this was far from the end of things.
This takes place after the events of What could have been. It's not actually a part of that canon though. It's done for Halloween. An edited version should come out soon but it might be a little while. The whole Fred dying is more of a joke. After I put out 'what could have been' a guy on ff.net who's been asking for Kelly/Fred from me was messaging me and asked me what was I going to do with Fred. He asked if I was going to kill him. Now I like Fred too much to actually kill him, and I love writing him and Kathleen. I wouldn't kill him. Please read and comment. I don't own anything from Halo.
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Fire-Raven's avatar
Awesome, as usual. Not gonna lie though, I when I read it (before reading your comments) I was like "WHAT? You're killing FRED?" and had a minor panic attack =P