Beth hacked at the corps before her despite her aching arm. Somewhere in amongst the dozen or so bodies Carl was being set upon, his screams of pain pushed her on harder. To her right Dan's form was in full swing, his bat doing a better job than her machete. With each chop, flesh parted to leak thick, almost black blood, making the floor slick and coating her enemies as well as herself. Still it was no match for the blunt force trauma he seemed able to inflict, what would normally be a mortal wound, barely slowed the creatures. Beth's attacks did little more than disable the cables that kept them moving

She had just pulled the blade from the shoulder of a semi naked woman when a movement from behind startled her and something flew past her. The woman's head caved easily under the weight of the small dark iron square that was a sledge hammer. The dead woman's body crumpled as her brain ceased working and her legs buckled. Jace was already winding up for another swing when Beth stepped back in shock. In all the excitement she had forgotten his presence, now he was here, seemingly out of nowhere and swinging a brand new weapon to boot.

Quickly the two guys smashed skulls, clearing the way to Carl who struggled on his knees. Three undead humans had ahold of him, a large male prevented him from rising, it's tattered clothes exposing large well formed muscles, nothing like the staved masses that wandered. This was a powerful creature, it's blue eyes alive with fire as it fought a battle of wills with a would be meal. A smaller, younger male pulled at Carl's curled arm trying to take his share away to devour in privacy. His other arm had already lost the battle and a sickly looking girl was slowly biting a chunk from his bicep.

Beth could see the look in Carl's eyes, this was not a fight he hoped to win, with teeth grit he had given in to the superior strength of his foe. He was on his knees in defeat, but she didn't see any sign of it in his face. Instead he radiated defiance, he was losing, but every step of the way he would push back. If he was to go out then he was going to be as difficult a meal as he could be.

Jace swung the hammer sideways, smashing a fist sized hole in the large zombie'a face. The force of the impact toppled the guy while unbalancing Carl, all of his pushing back suddenly came to fruition and he went over backwards, sending the other male over as well. Dan stepped in as the pitiful creature tried to rise and was instead met with a cricket bat to the jaw and then temple. The remaining female however refused to let go, it's teeth deep in Carl's flesh.

This time it was Beth's turn to decapitate a head, but before she could move into position, Dan had already taken her spot. Quickly he drew his pistol and jammed the barrel up against the dead girl's nose. The shot was loud and seemed to eco about the foyer, the top of her head opening to let the insides out and the things brains sprayed across the tiled floor. The muscles, sensing the change in body structure tried hopelessly to reset themselves by a series of spasms, each one extremely painful for Carl as he growled through clenched teeth.

Still the creature remained locked on and it was only when Dan stuck his butterfly knife under the ear and through the jaw pivot that they were able to remove the corpse from Carl's arm. When they did have a moment to survey their surroundings, they found themselves still surrounded, only it was with twitching, disabled corpses, still trying with any energy they contained to move, even if it was only a single limb.

"I thought you were going to leave us if shit got bad?" Carl smiled at Dan as the dreaded dude helped him up.

"It wasn't all that fucking bad" Dan played it down. "Would have been better if somebody had hauled his arse inside a bit sooner."

"Fuck you, I could have drove straight through the window, or what if I had fucked the door. What then huh." Beth felt sorry for Jace, he looked like he had been through hell, only to come back to being attacked by a stranger. "Who the fuck are you anyway?"

"This is Dan." Carl broke the awkward stand off. "It's alright, everyone did fine. Let's all get cleaned up and look at the stuff."

The tension eased a bit and Beth kept busy tending to wounds. Carl was sporting several deep bits that really needed stitching but no one was really prepared to do the task without antithetic, the best they could do was drown it it antiseptic and bandage it tight. Jace relayed how he had came to be shot as they removed the pellet which had stopped not too deep under his skin while Dan took a shower to clear his head. Despite what Carl had said Beth still felt like she had let the team down, the guys had out performed her terribly and had it not been for them, Carl might have been a lot worse for wear. The fact that Carl had made an effort to reassure her only made the feelings worse, being that he had to in the first place only confirmed her inadequacy.

It was late by the time she got to her shower, washing the grime away still didn't help the feeling but it was a pleasant luxury that had been missing from her life none the less. She let the hot water drill into her like a thousand tiny needles and she was red and minus a layer of skin by the time she was through. Voices echoed about as the guys talked and when they became raised she couldn't help but worry.

Indeed when she made her way out, all be it in a dirty bra and men's clothes, Jace having failed at getting anything specifically for her, she found them sitting about a walkie talkie arguing.

"What's going on?" Beth asked still trying to get the moisture out of her hair with the towel.

"Carl here wants us to run off and rescue someone." Jace didn't look happy as he spoke.

"Why what's all this?" She still didn't understand how or why it was all happening now. "When did we get this?"

"I picked it up at the shop, I thought we could use it to communicate better. I didn't know Carl here was emergency services and could actually work the damn thing."

"Help, can somebody please help me." A girls voice crackled over the two way.

"Holy shit." Beth's surprise blurted out.

"It's ok, we will come as soon as we work out how, just hang in there." Carl spoke reassuringly.

"I hate to say it but I don't think it's a good idea." Dan Looked sombre for once.

"I second that." Jace added.

"So we just leave her?" Carl raised his voice. "Change the channel and forget about it?"

"You know there are a bunch of pissed off zombies trying like fuck to get in here right." Dan responded. "How the fuck do you expect to get out of here without letting them in. You want to jump out and shut the fucking door, look at what that did to you already."

"So you are saying we should leave a young girl alone when she needs help!" Carl argued. "Just look the other way while she dies, fuck you, I'm not prepared to do that. Beth, back me up."

"We need to think this through." She averted giving in to either side. "None of us are in any shape to help at the moment. Its not like we can drop everything and take off. How far can this radio reach anyway?"

"It's CB and can go for miles." Carl answered her question. "We know where she is, we have the address. I'm not saying we should just take off but these guys sound like they don't even want to think about it."

"I've just got back from out there." Jace spoke his voice raising. "Things are changing out there, you know that, you fought one of these things. It's getting bad and there are other people too, we can't save them all."

"You don't even want to try." Carl practically spat in Dan's direction.

"You bring me a plan that will work first." Dan spat back. "I'll help when I can but I'm not throwing myself to the wolves for anyone."

"Beth?" Carls eyes pleaded.

"We need to sleep on it, all of us! Then we can talk about it, see what we can do, if anything." Carl's face dropped and he muttered a defeat,

It wasn't that she didn't want to help, sure it was a nice idea, but there was no way she could rationalize away the concerns of the others. Jace and Dan were right,bad much as it hurt her to admit it but it was bad out there and getting worse, the dead were getting more functional. And as much as she wanted to be that compassionate person Carl was, she just did t have the strength inside. When the radio crackled once more and Carl started to talk, Beth turned away, it was a hard call but the right one. She didn't have any more to give.