UNITED IN BLOOD
CHAPTER ELEVEN !

   THE YOUNG LINDEN GIRL kept her hazel eyes peeled, staring around her and taking in her surroundings for any explosive traps that could blow her up. Right in front of her, Danielle had watched as an infected walked right into a trap, that she had not seen, and explode right then and there. Crimson red blood and guts had flown everywhere, splattering across the nearby walls.

   Ellie Williams, who had explained her experience with explosive traps afterwards, out of natural instinct had reached out, gripping tightly to the grey woollen fabric of Danielle's sweatshirt and had yanked the brunette away from the explosion and out of harm's way.

   Both Danielle and Dina learned part of the redheads past. According to Ellie, a few years back she and Joel had been travelling across the states, the reason Ellie had stated wasn't important, when they needed to get a car from this man named Bill. This man had had an entire town to himself, rigged to the nines with explosive traps that would set off anytime the infected or a trespasser would walk into them.

   As Ellie told the two of her experience with Bill and swiping a few of his things when he wasn't looking, the image of a smaller version of the redhead sneaking around and stealing from this man ran through Danielle's mind causing a small laugh to fall past her lips.

   Though her joyous giggle was short lived once the trio happened upon a mangled up corpse of a horse. Tommy's horse to be specific. Laying before them was the deceased animal, flesh torn from its body, blood pouring from every bite mark. The spring weather brought along a slight heat that caused the corpse to rot faster than normal which in turn had induced a nausea producing stench.

   The sound of gagging filled her ears which caused Danielle to turn around just in time to see Dina rushing off of the side to puke her guts out. The smell had caused the already nauseous, pregnant woman to throw up the little food she had in her system.

   Ever the doctor, the brunette moved to Dina's side, attempting to comfort the dark haired girl by rubbing her hand along the girls back. Dina gagged and heaved until she physically had nothing left to throw up. It wasn't a pretty sight, to say the least.

"Are you okay?" Ellie asked her friend in concern.

Dina pulled herself back up into a standing position, her hand weakly swiping at her mouth. "Sorry it's just... it's the smell."

"All right." The redhead nodded her head. "He must have taken off on foot. You good to keep going?"

   "Yeah, I'm fine. Please." Dina was quick to agree before hauling herself over a small opening in the nearby wall. It was the most likely way that Tommy had travelled once he and his horse were attacked.

   "Hey." Ellie reached out to grab at Danielle's shoulders, pulling the brunette back before she could climb through the opening. "Is she gonna be okay?"

   Danielle threw the freckled girl a look of feigned confusion. Of course, she knew what was wrong with Dina but Ellie did not and  it wasn't the Linden girls place to divulge such information. "Yeah, why wouldn't she be?"

"She's sick."

   "She threw up, Ellie." Danielle was quick to counter. Thankfully their circumstances allowed for easy explanation for Dina's illness. "She's tired, hungry and that smell isn't exactly easy to stomach. She'll be okay."

   "You better not be lying to me." Ellie said as she released her hold upon the brunettes shoulders, one by one, her fingers falling away from the fabric of the sweater Danielle wore as if it had burned her.

   Danielle eyed the redhead in front of her, ignoring the thumping against her ribcage and the desire that burned within her for Ellie to retake her hold of her shoulder. "You wouldn't exactly know if I was though, would you?"

   A heavy exhale escaped from Ellie, her head lightly shaking from side to side. With a wave of her hand, she motioned for the brunette to move. "Just go."

   The city was on the verge of total destruction. The once beautiful buildings now appeared completely run down, holes blasted into the sides from explosives that had gone off. The earth had begun to reclaim its territory as moss grew in thick bunches along the walls.

   "How did this city get so wrecked?" Dina asked, her eyes drinking in the sight before her as the three girls walked on. "Boston wasn't like this, was it?"

   "Boston didn't have a full blown civil war. The fireflies never put up this kind of resistance." Ellie explained to her friend, as she side stepped away from a low hanging branch that threatened to hit her in the face.

   With each passing question, Danielle learned more about the two girls. She learned of Ellie's past in Boston, her love of comic books and space.

"I don't see any Wolves." The dark haired beauty commented the closer to the TV station they got.

Ellie shook her head, eyes peeled and shoulders back in defence as she moved along. "No. Let's not count of chickens though."

   As the three girls continued on, Danielle's eyes scanned their surroundings, the young girl forever on edge. The hair on the back of her neck stood up from nerves. Lodged between two cars was a extremely thin line of wire which the brunette immediately recognised as an explosive wire. Before she was able to warn the other two of the wires existence, she watched as Ellie walked closer and closer to the the wire.

   "Wait!" Danielle Linden exclaimed, her hands grasping onto the straps of the redheads backpack, yanking her back just before she walked right into the trap.

Dina rushed to their side, looking down at their tangled limbs as they breathed heavily in relief. "Christ, it's a trip wire!"

   "Thanks for the save." Ellie shot the curly haired brunette a look of gratefulness as she pulled herself free of Danielle's hold. She instinctively stuck out a hand to help.

   The Linden girl shook her head, grabbing hold of the hand in front of her, using all the strength in her legs to pull herself up. "Don't mention it."

   "They're all over." Dina pointed out as her eyes adjusted to the sight of the thin wires, noticing just how many of them there truly was. Between every vehicle, between the broken glass of nearby store windows, these thin little wires that sat ready to explode at the slightest of touches, were ready and waiting.

Ellie was quick to surmise. "Probably for infected."

"Still... one wrong step."

   "Yeah, let's be careful." The redhead grabbed hold of a glass bottle that luckily lay amongst the rubble, throwing it directly into the trap and setting it off.

   With whatever they could find, the three girls begun setting off the traps that blocked their paths. Bottles or stray bricks, even an abandoned shoe or two, they used anything and everything. They squeezed under trucks and through small spaces, all in their journey to reach the TV station, to find Leah.

   "There's the TV station." Danielle glanced up ahead to see the TV station. It looked well preserved for a building that sat in downtown Seattle, twenty five years after the outbreak.

   Ellie walked on ahead of the two girls, sidestepping to avoid the explosives before climbing over a wall. She disappeared from view for a brief moment before her head resurfaced as she stared down at Dina and Danielle. "Stay down there. These stairs are wired up."

The dark haired Dina asked, "Can you detonate them?"

"Not here." Ellie replied as she climbed back over the wall and made her way down beside the two girls.

   As if she was on a mission, the freckled redhead scanned the area for any possible way past the rigged up explosives. After a few minutes, Danielle and Dina watched as Ellie climbed up a nearby wall, glass bottle in hand before lobbing it over at the explosives which let out a huge bang, the blast echoing loudly.

   Dina, followed closely by Danielle, began to climb up over the walls to the now explosive free zone. "We're not being subtle right now."

"Maybe Leah will come to us." Ellie muttered as she briskly jogged her way up the staircase.

   "Yeah or they might be waiting to ambush us." Dina couldn't help but sarcastically quip to her best friend, though Ellie didn't appear to notice.

   "There it is. Stay low." Right in front of them was the station, sitting completely silent and still. The atmosphere they had just walked into was extremely eerie, putting all three of the girls on high alert. "Feels empty."

   "This place is usually swarming with WLF." Danielle felt insanely on edge. The silence that enveloped the station caused her muscles to tighten as she just waited to be attacked. "It's scary how silent it is."

   "Agreed." There seemed to be no good way for on entering the building without drawing attention to their existence. They needed to get in and get out with capturing the attention of any enemies. "Maybe we can climb up?"

   With no way out but up, the girls hauled themselves up and over the walls. They climbed higher and higher, the muscles in their arms and legs burning, begging for the chance to relax even if just for a brief moment.

Once they finally reached the next level, Danielle was quick to utter, "Fuck."

Dead bodies were strewn across the ground, puddles of blood all around. "That's brutal. Tommy do this?"

   With the tiniest semblance of luck, Ellie happened upon a rope that hung out a second story window. This allowed the trio a way of entering the building undetected. "Let's get inside."

   "After you." Once the Williams girl had lugged herself up the rope, Danielle motioned for the dark haired girl to go on up before her.

Dina short her friend a soft smile, her hands gripping the rope tightly. "Why, thank you."

   Before they knew it, all three were inside the building, carefully moving about just in case there were more people inhabiting the station. As they walked, the sight of chairs thrown about, tables turned over along with broken glass and blood trails staining the wooden floors greeted them. This place looked as though a bomb had hit it.

   "Fuck." Dina gasped at the sight of the dead body that lay in the hallway, the entire body riddled with bullet wounds as the still warm blood poured free.

Ellie glanced back at the two, her green eyes sharp. "Be careful."

   The Linden girl eyes the redhead as she continued on journeying ahead of herself and Dina. With a sigh, Danielle turned her head to face Dina. "She's the one walking head first into danger but yeah, we should be careful."

   "Calm down, Danielle. Your feelings are showing. Ellie might see you care for her." A cocky grin graced Dina's lips as she nudged the brunette in her side.

"What?" Was now truly the time to bring this up? No. Did it matter to Dina? Evidently not.

   The dark haired girl threw her head back as she emitted a hearty laugh. "Don't think I didn't see that little hand touch earlier when you saved her."

   Danielle could barely glance Ellie's way without feeling like her knees would give way. She was but a mixed bag of emotions, confusion and fear though continued to read their ugly heads every time Danielle attempted to get herself under control. "Delusion is a common symptom of pregnancy. You were seeing things."

   "Fine. Run from your feelings." The dark haired girl jested to her friend as Danielle walked on ahead, the girl desperate to escape from the suggestive glances Dina kept sending her way.

   The Linden girl ventured further into the TV station, sidestepping away from the trail of bodies that lined the path. A disgusted gasp was pulled from her as she paused in place. Just ahead of her were the hanging bodies of WLF soldiers. The sight was enough to make even the toughest of people feel thoroughly sick to their stomachs.

   "Jesus Christ!" Danielle muttered to herself, her voice weak as her gaze followed along with the blood that dripped down from the plethora of open wounds upon the bodies. With each drop, the blood splattered further across the tiled floor, gathering in a puddle directly below.

   "This is definitely not Tommy." Ellie confidently stated, though the tremble in her voice gave away the fear that she was struggling to keep hidden. The strung up corpses had really unsettled her.

"Who the fuck did this?"

   "I don't know." Ellie kept her hand hovering near her gun that was firmly placed into its holster, her eyes scanning the area for any sign of movement. "But it's a message."

   Danielle knew exactly who had done this. The war between WLF and Seraphites had been raging for years, both sides killing with no semblance of mercy. The Seraphites were particularly brutal, stringing up enemies and slicing straight through their skin, through the flesh and muscle til they reached bone, all in their misguided and demented attempt to save them.

   "It's the Seraphites. They do this to 'free the spirit' or some shit like that." The sight before her caused the brunette to force down the bile that threatened to rise at the back of her throat.

   "Keep your eyes open. They could still be here." The redhead said as she glanced at the Linden girl just in time for Danielle to reply with, "If they are, then we're dead."

Gripping tightly to her gun, Dina turned her head to throw the brunette a weak but playful glare. "You're so optimistic, Dani."

   "If you knew the seraphites like I did, you wouldn't talk so loud." Danielle quietly said, her voice a mere whisper compared to the volume she had been using just minutes ago. She hoped that both Dina and Ellie would heed her warning.

   The three ventured through the station on high alert. Their backs were up and their attention was focused on every little noise that was made. From the rustling of shoes to an accidental elbow collision with a nearby wall, every little sound caused the trios hearts to pound furiously against their chests.

   An entire pathway was blocked off due a locked door which in turn impeded their progress. With no other option, the girls begun carefully sidestepping along a windowsill, determined to not look down at the deadly drop just below them.

The sound of muffled static filled their ears, the further they shuffled along the windowsill. "You hear that?"

   "What is that?" Dina asked, unable to pinpoint what the exact sound was. It was garbled, like talking but too unintelligible to make out clearly.

   Once inside the building again, the sound became much louder, though clearer it was not. It seemed to originate from a specific room which caused the girls to make their way in its direction. Ellie used her hand to push open the door that had sat ajar, revealing the sight of a dead body displayed in the middle of the room.

Ellie glared down at the dead girl, eying up the number of arrows that had been shot into her body. "That's her. Leah."

   "Guess the universe really wanted her dead, huh?" Dina muttered before kneeling down alongside Leah's body, searching through the pockets on the cargo pants and sweatshirt. "There's nothing on her."

   "Look." Ellie arose from beside Leah's duffle bag which she had been ransacking, holding a collection of Polaroids in her hand. "It's all of them."

"Even you're in here." Ellie handed over a Polaroid photo to Danielle, their fingers lightly brushing against one another.

   "What?" The hazel eyed girl stared down at the photo, one she hadn't even known was taken off her as she looked lost in thought in the image. A giant blood red 'X' was scribbled over her face.. "Oh, that's just lovely, Leah. Thank you so much."

   "Christ, no wonder you're dead." She muttered, her eyes scanning over Leah's corpse once more as she tossed aside the Polaroid. She didn't need the reminder of how much Leah had hated her.

"That's near Jackson."

   "Look at their fucking smiles." Ellie snarled in anger. She continued to pilfer through the collection of photos before stopping. "That's her. That's the one who killed him."

   Danielle glanced over the redheads shoulder to see the smiling faces of Abby and Owen looking back at her. A melancholy feeling hit her as the girl realised she would never see her friend again. At this point, she and Abby were strangers, never to swap their favourite novels so the other could understand when they ranged and raved, ever again. It hurt to acknowledge than in the face of revenge, the Anderson girl had chosen to betray her and even abandon her.

"Three down, right?"

"Three down."

   Just then a clear voice came over the radio. "Six, this is two. Do you copy? Support unit India en route to the TV station. Repeat, support unit en route—"

   At that, Danielle, Ellie and Dina gathered up whatever supplies they could before retracing their steps, returning the way they came. After everything they had been though, they were not going to let the WLF find and kill them. It just wasn't happening.

   They had made it outside the upper level, just in time to see an armoured vehicle pull up and multiple soldiers exit the car. "Keep your eyes open!"

"Shit!" The freckled redhead exclaimed as she ducked down out of sight.

Danielle couldn't help but mutter an irritated, "This is just great."

   Dina seemed worried, her eyes wide with fear. Danielle picked up on the fact that the dark haired girl had been covering her stomach any time they ran into a dangerous situation. "How are we getting out of here?"

   "We can do this. Just stay low and we'll be fine." Danielle tried to reassure the dark haired girl before she turned to look at Ellie, their faces practically pressed up against one another as they pressed closer to each other to stay out of sight. "I think there's a window that leads outside but we have to get up stairs to get to it."

With no other options, Ellie nodded her head in agreement. "Okay, cool. We can get around them."

   They skulked quick and quietly through the building, out of sight from any soldiers. Not wanting to draw attention to themselves, the girls only killed whoever was absolutely necessary.

They had finally made it to the upper floor, all breathing a sigh of relief as the window came into view. "There it is. Let's go."

"There they are. Trespassers!" Cried out a WLF soldier just as the girls began to jump out of the window.

   "Fuck! We gotta run!" The girls skidded along the muddy ground, running desperately for their lives as bullets flew past their heads. Their breathing was heavy and their chests ached as their lungs cried out for oxygen.

"Are they with the scars?"

"I don't fucking know! Just shoot 'em!"

   "Dead ahead!" A group of soldiers suddenly spotted them, sending the girls bursting through the first door they came across. The door slammed shut behind them, Ellie quickly pulling a nearby out of order vending machine to block the WLF's path.

   "It'll work for now. Keep going!" Dina ushered both girls on. After a few seconds, the unmistakeable greenish dust-like consistency of the infected filled the air. "Spores ahead! Masks."

   Ellie dug deep into her backpack, her hands pulling out two masks. She hadn't trusted Danielle to carry her own, in fear of the brunette taking off if she had everything she needed to survive. With an outstretched hand, she spoke. "Here."

   "Thanks." Danielle muttered before swiftly strapping the mask to her face. The glass began fogged up almost immediately as the brunette breathed heavily.

   "Anything?" The echoing voice of a soldier moving about the building reaching them as they began searching the building for the supposed trespassers. "Negative. Keep looking."

As they pushed themselves through a turn style gate, Dina spoke up, her voice a little hoarse. "I thought they had us."

"You and me both." The Linden girl agreed still trying to control her and slow down her breathing.

   The three girls began to venture through an incredibly tight space caused only by collapsing walls that threatened to fall at any given moment. "God, I hate tight spaces." Danielle and tightly spaces never got along. Despite understanding her fear, it didn't help when she was forced into a space barely big enough to move about in.

   "Ellie!" Dina whispered pointing in the direction of a vent. The shutters were just large enough to allow the girls the ability to see a clicker lurking just feet away from them. One accidental noise and they were fucked!

   The clicker appeared to vanish out the door sending the girls shuffling through the vent once again until they came out the other side. The entire station glowed bright red, courtesy of the flares that were thrown about the palace by the

"Masks on! Sweep this entire station."

"We should just leave 'em down here for the infected to eat." A male soldier harshly commented as she continued to scan the area for the three girls.

   "Wait, that gives me an idea." Danielle faintly muttered, her head turned to stare at the redhead beside her. "Ellie, do you have a bottle?"

   Though Ellie shot her a look of utter confusion, she proceeded to swiftly pull out exactly that. In her hand lay a glass bottle. "Yeah, here."

   "Thanks. Okay, stay low. Don't move unless you have to." Danielle warned the two before she used all of her might to toss the bottle right in direction of the WLF, the glass shattering the instant it colliding with the ground.

   Hands grabbed at the brunette, yanking her back down out of view. Ellie stared at the girl in absolute bewilderment. "What was that?"

   "Just wait." Just then, the screeching and clicks of runners and clickers alike echoed throughout the empty subway station as they made their way right into the path of the soldiers. The cries of the soldiers reverberated off the walls as they were torn apart but the infected, leaving only their dead bodies behind once the feeding frenzy was truly over.

   "That was some quick thinking." The redhead reluctantly complimented the brunette, battling away a soft smile that fought its damnedest to surface.

   Danielle let out a breathy laugh which was somewhere between a sigh of relief and a joyful laughter at the succession of her plan. "It's been known to happen on occasion."

━━━━━━━━━━━━━

   THEY HAD FUCKING DONE it. As their fingers grasped at the thin vines of luck that dangled just close enough to touch, they had managed to escape death once again. The fucking city of Seattle had it out for them but they had escaped the clutches of death.

   After battling it out with nearly every variation of the infected possible, the three girls had finally made it out to yet another obstacle that sat in their path. At this point, Danielle was starting to get really exhausted with all of the hurdles life had thrown at them and they hadn't even been in Seattle a full day.

   The redheaded Williams girl took in the sight of absolute destruction before her. Entire train cars were thrown over on their sides, piled on top of one another. "What the hell happened here?"

   "I'm gonna say some kind of train crash." Dina's response caused a small giggle to fall past the brunettes lips though she quickly stifled the laugh once Ellie's green eyes landed on her.

"Thanks Sherlock." Ellie quipped back at her friend.

Danielle smirked over at the dark haired girl beside her as they walked side by side behind Ellie. "Astute observation there."

   "I'm an excellent observer." Dina playfully boasted. That's what Danielle liked at Dina, even in the darkest of times, the dark haired girl provided a sliver of light that brightened the mood, if only for a short period of time.

"We're getting closer to light." Ellie called back to the two girls, glancing up as the grey coloured sky stared back.

   "Just a bit further, okay?" Danielle glanced over at Dina with concern. The girls complexion had lightened considerably with Dina beginning to look like a ghost. She needed to rest and she needed it very soon. "Are you okay to keep going?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Thanks, though."

   "It's no problem." The medic brushed off the gratitude. It was what she was there for, after all. Help Dina Abby and keep Dina from fainting as pregnancy began to take its toll.

   "Hey. Let's get you up there." Ellie called out to Dina, motioning up to a nearby ledge. Hopefully once up there, they could continue looking for a way out.

Both Ellie and Danielle kneeled down, hands clasped as they prepared the lift Dina up. "Are you ready, Dina?"

   "As I'll ever be." Dina uttered before reaching high, using every bit of upper body strength she had to haul herself up on top of the train car.

   After Dina pushed down an extremely heavy piece of broken off train, Ellie and Danielle were able to climb up too with ease. They continued further through the train cars as Ellie took the lead. The two girls stared on as the redhead journeyed through the trains with ease until suddenly she wasn't.

   "Oh no!" Ellie yelled out before the train car beneath her feet wobbled, breaking apart and sending the redhead flying down through the car, her limbs colliding with brute force against the metal railings.

   "Fuck, Ellie!" Danielle cried out as she watched the redhead toppled to the ground with a thud. The train car continued to groan indicating how incredibly unsafe it truly was. Dina moved to make her way down, before Danielle reached out to stop her with an arm across her chest. "Watch out! Stay back."

   "Ellie, we're coming!" Dina called out to her best friend as she slowly followed the Linden girls each and every move, until they reached the ground.

   The redhead struggled against an infected, its fists hitting and pulling at her gas mask. Dina was quick to pull the trigger, firing directly into its head. The dark haired girl tugged Ellie to her feet, though her eyes widened in fear almost immediately. "Ellie, your mask!"

   The front of Ellie's mask was completely shattered. Huge cracks filled the glass allowing the spore filled air to force itself into Ellie's lungs with every breath she took.

   "Dina, no! Keep it on." Danielle quickly reached out to stop Dina from removing her mask just as her fingers began to mess with the adjustment strap. Without hesitation, the Linden girl started speedily attempting to pry her mask off. "Ellie, we can share mine."

   "No!" Ellie grabbed hold of Danielle's hands, ripping them away from her mask. She couldn't let this happen. She couldn't let the brunette risk herself for her.

   "What are you doing?" Danielle stared back at the redhead. She couldn't understand why Ellie was just willing to give up. They could share the mask. It would be hard but it was better than allowing the spores to invade the Williams girl's lungs and infecting her.

Her back collided with a nearby brick wall as Ellie used her strength to pin her hands against her chest. "Ellie, stop!"

   An overwhelming feeling of horror pooled in her stomach, her eyes growing larger with fear as she watched Ellie yank her mask from her face. "Ellie, please don't!"

   "Stop! I'm not infected!" The redhead desperately yelled in the brunettes face. She needed her to see, to understand. "I'm immune. I'm not coughing, do you see?"

   The screeching cries of runners filled their ears before either Danielle or Dina could truly come to terms with what they had just heard. "Oh my god, let's fucking go."

Ellie pushed the two girls on ahead, staying behind to shoot any incoming infected. "Run Dina!"

   "Ellie?" Dina cried out in worry. The idea of immunity didn't make sense and so she called back, hoping that Ellie was in fact still behind them and not coughing up blood while collapsed on the ground.

"I'm right here. Don't slow down!"

   "They're fucking everywhere!" Danielle yelled out in frustration, her feet aching more and more as she stumbled over the debris of destroyed walls that surrounded them.

   The three girls ran faster than they had ever run before, desperate to reach the surface once more. They desired to feel the fresh air brush over their skin one last time. Not one of them wished to die a lonely death down in the abandoned subway station.

   Screams of the infected echoed behind them as they all launched themselves over a barrier fence. It did little to keep the dead away as their combined weight caused the fence to fall in mere seconds. A faint sprinkling of light ahead caused the girls to stagger on, pushing themselves through a Turn-style gate one by one.

   Before she was fully on the other side, Ellie was pulled back by the harsh grip of an infected which started reaching its arms around her neck. A gun shot from Dina's pistol rung out, brain matter from the infected splattering everywhere allowing Ellie to pull herself free of its hold.

   A thud filled Danielle's ears causing her to turn round just in time to see Dina's knees buckle before giving out and sending the dark haired girl flying to the ground.

   "Fuck, Dina." Danielle rushed forward to grab hold of the girl, followed closely by Ellie. The two girls held tightly to Dina, holding her up as she attempted to walk with her weary legs that struggled to carry her weight. "Come on. You can do this. We got ya."

   The trio walked further outside until the sight of the Pinnacle Theatre greeted them. Ellie's hunter green eyes scanned the outside of the building before she spoke up. "Hey, what do you say we rest up in that theatre?"

   "That sounds so fucking good." Dina happily gasped out, though her body was still to weak to carry itself. The pregnancy was taking its toll on her body at the worst possible time. Once inside, they would be able to catch their bearings and hopefully come up with a game plan.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━

jamielee's thoughts.
not proodread! so leahs dead and it was danielle who was offering up her mask?? that's fun. also remember that she's a doctor so dinas pregnancy is constantly in the back of her mind. anyway hope you enjoyed :)