UNITED IN BLOOD
CHAPTER TEN !

THE GAS HAD FINALLY been procured after the three girls had traversed through both the dome, which they had learned was actually a synagogue thanks to Dina and her Jewish heritage, and through the courthouse garage which had been crawling amass with runners and clickers. The infected had truly taken over Seattle.

The once suffocating atmosphere that surrounded Ellie and Danielle had dissipated greatly ever since the redhead had gifted Danielle the photo containing her past. While their relationship hadn't changed much, —they weren't going to suddenly gossip about Dina when she wasn't listening or chitchat about their childhoods, the air around the two had certainly shifted.

Danielle found herself mounted on top of Shimmer, waiting patiently for Ellie and Dina to return to their horses. The brunette had decided to give both Dina and Japan just a little bit of space and had swiftly hopped on the back of Ellie's horse after they had left the courthouse. The redhead hadn't seemed to mind, instead she appeared to simply shrug off the extra rider of her horse.

Ellie and Dina had hopped down from the horses mere seconds prior, both working together to open the large gate that had hindered the trios journey through the city. The deafening sound of scraping metal filled the air as Danielle watched the gate finally open up, her hazel eyes taking in the ruined streets of Seattle just up ahead.

"It worked." The freckled announced somewhat happily as she heaved herself back up onto the horse, just narrowly avoiding kneeing Danielle into the side.

The brunettes hand fell to the Williams girl's waist, lightly gripping the fabric of her jacket. Danielle's hold upon the jacket sent the unmistakable shiver of nerves coursing through her body, though to didn't appear to even phase Ellie. She was initially hesitant to hold onto the redhead at all but after a particular harsh jostle, courtesy of Shimmer, the fabric of Ellie's jacket was held tightly between Danielle's fingertips to avoid her flying off.

"Well, no welcoming committee." The redhead stated sarcastically. She wasn't wrong. Danielle had half expected a fleet of WLF to swarm them before they could even step a single foot past the gate.

"Or, they're just waiting for us." The dark haired Dina replied while tapping her foot again her horse, prompting Japan to start trotting along the streets.

"Let's look for a way in." Ellie suggested as her fingers gripped tightly to the reins of her horse. Her gaze shifted cautiously around. "Keep an eye on those windows."

The decaying bodies of both infected and non-fungal humans alike, were littered along the asphalt. The stench of rotting flesh filled the air, attacking their nostrils as they traversed through the streets. The Serevena Hotel that once sat far in the distance, now grew closer and closer as the girls moved further into the city.

Strewn across the side of the hotel was a quite large, very tacky looking banner. Printed in what looked like black paint were the letters WLF paired with a crude drawing of a wolf directly beneath. Danielle knew that the banner was an act of war. It informed any passing Seraphites that the hotel was a base of the WLF and was not to be approached unless they were prepared for retaliation.

"Wolf. WLF. I get it." Dina voice was oozing with realisation as she read the words upon the banner.

The tattooed redhead found herself glancing up at the banner. "Oh yeah, that makes sense."

"You two are only putting that together now?" Danielle struggled to tame the smile that valiantly fought to appear on her lips.

Dina's eyes darted over to the brunette, letting out a scoff. "Hey, not everyone is a doctor like you."

Dina watched on as joy danced around the Linden girl's eyes. This was probably the happiest Dina had seen the girl since they had met, which saddened the dark haired beauty greatly. With a grin, Danielle shrugged her shoulders. "Don't need to be a doctor to get that. Just common sense."

"You see that?" Dina suddenly pointed out, her head nodding in the direction of the fence that closed off the Serevena Hotel. "Infected just hopped that fence."

"Means we can get in that way." Ellie replied directing Shimmer in the direction of the gate.

The three girls hopped down from their horses, who seemed grateful for the break, and began making their way over to the large gate. In front of them laid a dumpster, allowing the girls to climb over with ease. One by one, they dropped down upon slightly overgrown grass, their feet squelching in the previous night's rainfall that had softened the dirt and soil of the hotel courtyard.

Their weary, restless legs carried them into the hotel lobby though they quickly fell to their knees behind some nearby cover to hide for a mass of infected mere feet away. The dead chewed and swallowed away at a man's body, completely oblivious to the trios arrival. From beside her, Danielle saw Ellie reach into her backpack and pull out a bottle of alcohol, a rag and a lighter. With expert precision, the redhead crafted the makeshift Molotov in seconds before she lobbed it over to the infected with a grunt.

Screams of agony echoed throughout the lobby as the infected became completely engulfed in flames. Their already decaying bodies caused the flesh to practically melt from the bone until they were nothing but a pile of dead-undead corpses.

After making sure that no more infected were in the surrounding areas, the three girls let out a sigh of relief. As the began making their way through the hotel, their hands grabbed at whatever supplies were laying around.

"They've been shot." Dina declared as the trio happened upon the dead bodies of WLF soldiers. The wooden floor panels beneath them had become soaked in blood. "Either of you recognise them?"

Ellie shook her head. "No."

"Vaguely." Was all Danielle could say. She vaguely recognised them but she saw so many injured people in the medical bay every day that it was hard to say if she truly recognised them or that they just looked similar enough to others she had seen throughout her life.

"Maybe someone else killed these guys and the infected just wandered in." Dina suggested, the young girl attempted to find an explanation as to why people lay dead, bullet wounds filling their bodies. The bullets no doubt still embedding in their flesh.

Danielle and Dina choose to stand off to the side of the staircase as they watched the Williams girl search the rest of the small room. After a few seconds, the pair heard Ellie call out, "Hey, I found their gas."

"Well, if we need any more we know where to get it." Dina replied with a small smile. It was slightly funny. All of that work they had done to get the gas for that stupid fucking gate and yet just beyond it, lay a room filled almost to the brim with full gas canisters. The irony of the situation was not lost on the girls.

When Ellie returned to their side, that's when they began to climb the staircase. Upon stepping foot on the first floor, both Dina and Ellie started searching through the rooms, which appeared to have already been ransacked thoroughly for supplies. The young brunette decided to steer herself down the hallway, her black boot clad feet stopping just outside an ajar door.

Her hand lifted in the air, fingertips only grazing the door before it slowly opened with a squeak of the metal hinges. A reddish hue enveloped the room as the sunlight shone in through the maroon curtains that were pulled shut. The pungent scent of iron filled the air as her eyes landed upon a deceased body tied to a chair.

"Shit." Danielle found herself uttering just as the sound of Dina's voice filled her ears. "The fuck happened here?"

Danielle swung her head round to see both Dina and Ellie standing behind her, the two girls having apparently followed her, all the while she had been completely unaware.

"Tommy did this." The redhead surmised as she sidestepped past Danielle into the room.

Dina shot her friend a perplexed look. "This?"

"There's no way." The medic stated. Tommy was a nice man, a good man. He had accepted her into his community with open arms and hadn't blamed her for Joel's death when he could've. There was no way he was capable of something so horrifically brutal such as this.

"It was definitely him." Using her right hand, Ellie lifted up the head of the man revealing his beaten and blood soaked face. "This is one of the ones that killed Joel."

Though his face had been swollen, no doubt from an onslaught of punched, Danielle had recognised him. "Yeah, that's Nick."

She hadn't known him well. The Salt Lake Crew really did keep to themselves as did she. Her and Nick had never really even come into contact before the trip to Jackson.

"Shit. There's another one over here." Dina pointed out causing the two other girls to walk further into the room, they gaze falling upon another dead man, hidden from view by the bed.

"He was using them against each other."

Dina, who was consumed with hesitation, asked, "How?"

"Joel told me about this. You ask this guy a question, but you don't make him say it. You make him write it down." Danielle and Dina listened intently while Ellie explained the method behind the torture that lay before they. "Then you ask this guy. If the facts match, then they're telling the truth. If not..."

"You fuck 'em up."

"Tommy didn't strike me as the type." The medic quietly muttered. Not that she blamed him at all, of course. She had dreamed of the day she could kill the man who had taken control of her life for so long.

Ellie's eyes flitted up to scan the look of slight discomfort that was evident upon Danielle's face. "Yeah, you'd be surprised what Tommy is capable of."

"East one. Another gate code?" The dark haired Dina said as Ellie knelt down to the ground, digging out her tourist map to jot down the new code.

"Looks like it." Ellie replied, though her voice appeared distant as she glanced back and forth between the code written in blood and the map held in her hands.

"This just happened guys." Dina announced to the room, her gaze hardening as she stared down at the dead bodies.

"Yeah, the bodies are still warm so Tommy can't be far off." Danielle was quick to agree. The natural body heat still emitted from the corpses and the blood had yet to coagulate.

"Come on. We can get out this way." Dina suggested, leading the other two girls in the direction of fire escape door. "Maybe catch up with Tommy."

Silence fell upon the girls as they exited the room, making their way out of the hotel through the door, dropping down onto a conveniently placed RV before hopping to the grass below.

"I know you said Tommy had a rough past, but..." Danielle could faintly hear Dina comment to the redhead. "Fuck."

The brunette had decided to give the two some privacy and had power walked ahead in the direction of the horses. With some grunts of exhaustion and upper body strength, Danielle was able to hoist herself back onto of Shimmer just as Ellie and Dina approached, still deep in conversation.

"I don't want you to think bad of Tommy—"

"Ellie." Dina cut of her best friend with a look. "If I had my sister's killer tied to a chair... I'd do worse."

"I hear you." Ellie replied before hurling herself in front of Danielle, grabbing hold of the reins. The medics hands fell to her waist within an instant, something that should have bothered the redhead and yet, it didn't.

The clip-clop of hooves against the concrete filled the streets while they made their way to a nearby gate. As if they had planned it, Dina and Ellie hopped down from the animals once more. The dark haired girl made her way towards the gate, calling over shoulder as she did. "You get the generator. I've got the gate."

As she walked over towards the generator, the redhead responded inquisitively. "You remember the code?"

"You mean the one written in blood?" Dina sarcastically quipped as she readied herself in front of the keypad, fingers poised and ready to enter the code once the generator powered up.

The generator rumbled on as the power began travelling through the bright yellow power cord into the gate. "I got it."

"And I..got this!" Dina triumphantly said just as the gate screeched open, metal scraping against metal.

Danielle cheered with a small clap of the hands. "Woo! Go Dina!"

"Thank you, thank you." The dark haired girl playfully bowed, her hands clasped together dramatically before her facade faltered as she let out a laugh.

The horses began carrying the three girls through the streets once more. The place seemed so very quiet. So quiet that you'd believe the entire city had been abandoned, left to be consumed by the growing vegetation.

"I say we find shelter and we set up camp." The, still hiding her pregnancy, Dina suggested as she glanced around her in suspicion. She could feel it in her bones that something was amiss in this godforsaken city. "Maybe somewhere high up so we can scope out the area."

"I like that idea." Ellie agreed wholeheartedly with her friends plan. It was a good idea for them to hunker down and rest up before they had to begin travelling through the metropolis once more.

"Okay. Let's look for an open building."

"Preferably with no infected. Or WLF." The freckled girl jokingly listed off the things she desperately wanted to avoid.

Dina swiftly corrected the redhead. "Wolves."

"Whatever."

The dark haired girl glanced her friend's ways. "I still have some of those almond things left, if you're hungry."

"Ehh...not really." Ellie shrugged her shoulders, her fingers scratching at the scar that cut straight through her eyebrow.

"You should eat something." Dina advised her friend before she suddenly gasped out in shock. "Oh my god."

"What?" The redhead asked in concern just as Danielle also inquired with a fearful, "What's wrong?"

The dark haired beauty sounded exasperated as she spoke. "I sounded like my mom just now."

"I'll be fine." The Williams girl brushed off her best friend's concern as the faint sound of Danielle's laughter from behind her reached her ears.

Danielle watched as Dina travelled ahead of herself and Ellie, her horse trotting along with city streets with ease. She found herself worried for Ellie, who had seemed very distracted every time they ate. "Dina's right though. You've barely ate since we got here."

"And I'll tell you what I just told her, Danielle." Ellie turned her head slight to glance back at the curly haired brunette. The anxiety that swam in Danielle's eyes was apparent causing Ellie to let out a reluctant sigh. "I will be fine. Stop worrying."

With a lunge, both Shimmer and Japan jumped over the metal barriers with ease. It was then, that all hell broke loose. A deafening explosion set the very second the horses hooves touched the ground. The well hidden land mine sent the girls flying from the animals.

With her vision blurred and her ears ringing mind numbingly loud, Ellie could just barely make out the figure of Danielle Linden rolling off the side of a nearby wall, her body disappearing into thin air. The injured horses whined in agony before two gunshots rang out and the pleading neighs faded into nothingness.

Her gun lay just few away as Ellie began dragging herself across the concrete as Dina struggled against their captures just behind her. A shadow loomed over the redhead who found herself glancing up just as the butt of a rifle came slamming down on her face, knocking her out cold.

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SHARP PAIN. THAT WAS all Danielle was aware of as she ran. That sharp blinding pain that made it extremely difficult to breathe. The explosion had sent the young girl flying through the air, her body having colliding with the asphalt before rolling down into a nearby staircase that had led to an underground train station.

She knew it was wrong but the brunette couldn't help the thoughts that ran through her mind. She could just go. Run off and live to see another day. Did she truly owe Ellie or Dina anything? No. Hell, she wouldn't even be back in Seattle, smack dab in the middle of WLF territory, if it hadn't been for Ellie.

But she just couldn't do it. It wasn't who she was. Dina was a good person and had treated Danielle with kindness even when she didn't have to. And Ellie, well...Ellie may not have liked her very much but that didn't justify the redhead dying at the hands of the same people who murdered Joel.

And so, here she was following closely behind a WLF convoy truck. The brunette dominant left hand gripped tightly to her handgun while her right clutched at her aching side, that was no doubt beginning to develop a hideous mix of blue and black hues, as she dipped in and out of nearby abandoned businesses to hide from any nearby lookouts.

If Danielle was correct, and she usually always was, the soldiers would be taking Dina and Ellie to a nearby elementary school that had become a base of operations for the WLF. The very same school came into view right as she thought of it and lo and behold, she was right. The girl watched as the truck took a sharp left, veering off towards the educational building.

The closer she got, the more Danielle was able to see just how swarmed with WLF soldiers the place truly was. Everywhere she looked, stood yet another fucking soldier blocking her path inside. Finally, as if Lady Luck was looking down upon her, Danielle watched on as a soldier that guarded the back exit, took off for a nearby porta-potty. Seeing this as her only chance, the brunette ran towards the door and slipped inside unnoticed.

The inside corridors were brightly lit from the many holes that filled the ceilings. The light cascaded down onto the old, mildew covered displays of children's artwork. It saddened Danielle to think that this place was now used by the WLF when they needed a place to hide out or interrogate people. It sickened her, in fact.

"That was Danielle?" A familiar voice could faintly be heard by the brunette, the further into the building she went. She still firmly gripped onto her pistol, prepared to shoot at any point. "She's still alive?"

Danielle manoeuvred herself down the hall, stopping just outside the classroom where the voice emanated from. Her eyes just barely emerged over the top of the classroom window to see both Ellie and Dina struggling against their restraints.

The pair didn't seem to notice her as Ellie grumbled out an angry, "Wouldn't get my hopes up. She's probably long gone by now."

"Shut up." Jordan snapped at the redhead before turning to the other man in the room that Danielle didn't recognise nor did she care to. "We should let Isaac know. See what he wants us to do."

The man appeared to agree and had begun to walking towards the door when Danielle slammed open the door, shooting the man point blank in the face. Crimson liquid sprayed from the wound instantly as the man's body collapsed to the ground.

The triumphant feeling that flooded her veins didn't last long as the brunette was knocked to the ground, her legs flying out from under her. Danielle fell face first onto the floor with a painful grunt, her gun flying out of her grip and sliding across the floor.

"Danielle!" Dina could be heard feebly yelling for the brunette, the girl still struggling against her restraints.

"Fuck, leave her alone!" The redheaded Ellie angrily cried out in a desperate attempt to draw Jordan's attention away from the medic, who looked like death warmed up.

A hand gripped her shoulder, pulling and twisting her body around bringing her face to face with Jordan, who now had a noticeable scar across his face. "Didn't think I've ever see you again."

"Fuck you Jordan." Danielle spat out, contempt for the man dripping from her voice. God, she really fucking hated him.

Her fingers weakly dragged across the ground for anything she could use to defend herself. Her gun was no longer an option as it now lay across the room and her small pocket knife was tucked in her boot. When all hope seemed lost, a small shard of glass nipped at her fingertips. The brunette grabbed hold of the piece of glass, holding it so tight in her palm that it dug deep into her skin. This is where her medical knowledge would come in handy.

Jordan smirked down at the medic. "You know, a little birdie told me how happy Isaac would be to see you."

Danielle glared up at the man, her gaze a field of fiery embers. "If you're gonna kill me, shut the fuck up and get it over and done with!"

With her final word, the brunette gripped tightly to the shard of glass and drove it right into Jordan's neck. Blood began to stream from his carotid artery almost instantly as he stumbled back from her, hands scratching at his neck in vain. Seconds later, Jordan's body collapsed to the ground in a pool of his own blood.

"Christ! Are you okay?" Dina asked the brunette as she ran over to cut both Dian and Ellie free from their constraints, the rope fraying with ease thanks to the glass she still had firmly clutched in her now blood covered hand.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm okay." Danielle simply nodded her head. Her entire nervous system was high on adrenaline. "Come on. We should get out of here."

"Yeah, someone's bound to have heard those gunshots." Dina agreed with the medic just as Ellie flew past them and began rifling through the pockets of the deceased Jordan.

The redhead soon held up a Polaroid photo of a girl. "Look, she's one of them."

"Come on, look at that later." Dina tried to usher the redhead towards the exit, though Ellie seemed completely unfazed.

The redhead continued to stare down at the photo and letter grasped in her hands. "Was there a TV station on that map?"

"Ellie, now is really not the time." Danielle was desperately stressing with severity of the situation to the freckled girl. They needed to go and they needed to go now.

Finally Ellie conceded and shoved the stuff into her backpack before following behind the two girls. Before they could even exit the room, shots fired in their direction causing all three of them to fall to their knees behind a desk.

"Fuck!" Danielle fearfully cried out as a bullet went flying right by her head as she ducked down behind the desk for cover. Movement from beside her caused the girls head to turn just in time to see Ellie sneaking away. Two consecutive gun shots rang out followed by the unmistakable thuds of bodies falling to the ground.

Dina and Danielle rose to their feet and began to follow closely behind Ellie, all three of them gripping tightly to their weapons. They kept their eyes peeled for any remaining WLF that could be loitering right around the corner. "This place is crawling with WLF. We need to be smart about this."

"The shots came from over here." Called out a soldier as the girls rounded the corner, ducking for cover. "Clear the rooms."

"I'm heading this way." Danielle muttered over to the redhead beside her, gesturing to the left side of the hallway. "Remember, be smart."

"Got it. Be careful." Ellie responded before she headed along the classrooms off to the right of the hallway.

The two girls ducked off to their respective sides, leaving Dina behind to bring up the rear. Danielle stayed crouched down as she snuck up behind multiple different people, pulling them into a chokehold before jabbing her pocket knife deep into their throat. The corridor was cleared in minutes, allowing the three girls to venture further through the building, getting closer and closer to an exit.

A sigh of frustration fell past Danielle's lips as they had to crouch down yet again, into the overgrown grass to hide from a mass of WLF who had begun doing a sweep search of the premises for them. "This is really starting to get old."

With their knives gripped in their hands, the three girls made their way around the tall grass swiftly taking out their enemies, one by one until there was no one left.

"Up here." Dina called out to the two before climbing up on the collapsed roof.

Ellie and Danielle closely walked behind the dark haired girl. The rooftop was thankfully free of enemies, allowing the girls a little reprieve from the fear induced adrenaline high they had developed. Danielle's racing heart slowly began to slow until it returned to it's average seventy beats per minute.

An incoming car caused the trio to crouch down, their gaze following along as men jumped from the vehicle followed closely behind by multiple dogs. They ran into the back entrance to the school which gave the girls their perfect opportunity to escape.

There was an apartment building right beside the school allowing for a balcony to be almost perfectly levelled with the rooftop. Ellie went first, sprinting into a jump right over to the balcony, her upper body colliding with the balcony's exterior. Danielle went next, groaning in pain as the metal of the balcony slammed into her already bruised ribs. Then came Dina, who seemed to have it easier when it came to her jump.

Once the trio scanned over the apartment for any and all left over supplies, they ended up hiding away in the bedroom furthest away from the balcony they had entered from. The room was completely ruined. The exterior walls were basically non existent, allowing them easy access to the oversee the whole city.

Ellie glanced round the surrounding area, her eyes scanning for any WLF that could have been potentially hanging about. "All right, coast looks clear."

"Yeah. I think we're good."

"All right." Ellie swiftly pulled out the letter and Polaroid from her bag handing them over to Dina. "Check this out."

Dina's suggestive whistled caused Danielle to glance over her shoulder to see a Polaroid of Leah, another WLF soldier and Jordan's girlfriend, lifting up her shirt and revealing one of her breasts.

"She's one of them." Ellie offhandedly replied to the suggestive nature of Dina's whistle before turning to look at Danielle. "She's the one that whacked you with that golf club."

"That was her?" The brunette was honestly not that shocked. Leah had never really liked her, something she hadn't tried to hide, so to find out that it was Leah who had caused the still healing gash on the back of her head, truly didn't surprise her.

The news of Leah having attacked Danielle with a golf club caused the teasing smile to fall from Dina's lips. "Well, fuck her then."

"Read the letter."

Dina's voice filled the room as she read out the letters contents. "Jordan. Isaac's got us posted up on a two week at the TV station. Scars spotted in the area. Here's something to hold you over. Leah."

Laid out in front of Ellie was the tourist map, which she pointed at a specific location. "Tv station."

Dina looked back and forth between both Danielle and Ellie. "You think she's still there?"

"We gotta find out, right?" Ellie just simply shrugged her shoulders. She had no idea if Leah would still be there but she hoped that she would be.

Danielle couldn't help but agree. "It's worth a shot."

"So it's by all these tall buildings." Dina pointed at the illustrated drawing of the large buildings upon the map. Her head swiftly turned to scan the city behind them before gesturing to towards the buildings far in the distance. "That way."

"Okay. Let's go get Leah." Ellie folded up the map and shoved it back into her backpack. The three girls began making their way to the large opening in the wall and hopping down on to the top of a closed off hot tub. From there, they began making trekking through the city once again, now with a destination in mind.

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jamielee's thoughts.
so what did we think? Honestly I think we all saw her killing jordan coming. It was inevitable from the start... also Danielle is that bitch, I don't make the rules. quite a long chapter but don't expect this all the time. Anyway I hope you enjoyed :)