HOLY WATER CANNOT HELP YOU * slade

RUNNING FROM THE BLOODLESS,

for fear of exile.

some days, the irish canadian could find himself wondering what would've happened if he'd remained with scar, despite what he'd discovered. he might not've been able to handle his raids after that, not fully, but he at least would've had a place in this world. a safe spot to rest his head. no more of this sleeping with one eye bullshit. he missed his delta team, to be honest; even tonk, the asswipe. he had a mouth on him, but when it came to restraining a grown man and making him plead for mercy, he was someone you looked up to. his best friend, jetson, was the main person he missed from his group. the new leader for scar's delta team, probably. there was no way he could have a conversation with jetson over a few beers ever again. hell.. there was probably a slim chance he could have a conversation with anyone over a few beer anymore. that kind of luxury wasn't achieved often.

today had been one of those days, where he couldn't get his head out of the clouds no matter what he did to try and alter it. it would just irony that amongst his backstreet travelling that he'd run into a small group of scar scouts while thinking about the "good ol' days." and thanks to his fogged mind, the scout team had spotted him well before he'd even been aware they were on his tail.

they waited until he had barely any cover from the infected, and their bullets, to open fire on his location. the spew of bullets that echoed throughout the alley's entrance shot out, ringing his ears with a shock that caused his body's instincts to kick into play. instantly, it was like someone had switched his adrenaline switch on, his heart flaring within his chest in an all-too familiar way. the noise drew the attention from the infected, the ones with the capability to move faster than the others due to more stable limbs started to crowd faster, coming in from all angles. the only good thing about the noise was that it was, eventually, going to put the scout team in the exact same position gambit was in. they'd have to fight their way out if they wanted to return back to their master, tail between their legs.

slade had darted to take cover behind a rusted and overly run-down buick, keeping to the farthest from the team as he could, while doing his best to get his bearings and figure out the best route to try and escape. the longer he took, however, the closer their shots were starting to get, and with every shot that was fired at the rust bucket, it ate away at the cover. it was about as stable as using a bright sheet to hide yourself in a dark field. "bloody christ," he growled under his breath as one of the bullets singed just a tad of the material over his shoulder of his tee shirt, unaware of the small skim the bullet had made into his actual skin. it did kick his ass into gear to at least move, though.

gripping the handle of his shot gun, he pushed off the front of the car, keeping himself low as he sprinted for the nearest corner, using the building as a much better location for cover. now all he had to worry about were the moving threats. reluctant to make even more noise amongst the stray bullets and shouts around the corner, slade lifted the back of his gun, shooting it forward into the eye socket of a walker who'd approached him a bit too close for his liking. it took a few more power-swings to fully take the motion out of the infected individual, but as soon as he was given an opening, gambit re-gripped the handle (ignoring the blood and brain matter quite easily), and started on his sprinting path once again.

at least. until the familiar sound of a tossed, and rolling can caught his ears. instantly, gambit's eyes widened, and he spun around mid-step to check to see if his ears had heard correct. the familiar black and red grenades scar specifically uses for pheromones was quick to register, and that's all gambit needed to see to get his ass into mega-gear. they'd been using those grenades before the world had gone to shit, and the infection had broken out; he could only imagine what kind of spray they were injecting into those suckers now that their plans were nation-wide. he wasn't about to stick around to find out, though.

the instant he saw a fire escape, slade's gloved hands were fastening his shotgun to his back and hoisting his body weight on top of a close by dumpster lid. backing up to the edge, he leaned back to get himself better momentum before running down the length of the small metal garbage tin, jumping off the edge to grab onto the bottom of the ladder. it squeaked in protest, but he fought to keep himself up. climbing up a few steps, he took a chance look down to see what kind of commotion might be following him. the alley below was slowly starting to fill in, most of their attention still being drawn towards the bullets that had been fired off, where as only a small handful were dedicated to trying to grasp gambit's boots or pant legs.

"where'd that scumbag go?" echoed from around the corner, the distinct sound of a gas mask clear in the man's voice. narrowing his eyes, gambit hoisted himself up quicker, pulling himself to safety. keeping close to the wall, he started up the steps, keeping his eyes and ears open for anything that might give him some intel on what the scouts had been up to. "doesn't matter, zee. there's no way he didn't inhale some of that toxin. if he's not dead in an hour, he'll be slow enough that one of the infected'll get him." gambit scoffed at the idea, clenching the handle of his shotgun. if only it had better range, and a silencer. "c'mon. this place is gettin' too hot. let's get back to headquarters with these samples."

carefully, gambit continued his way along up the fire escape, finding himself an open door not too far up. shouldering it open, he was careful to make sure the room was clear before closing himself in. after the door was stable, he locked it, just in case, and hesitated against its frame for a moment. he'd heard an awful lot of confusing things since he'd initially "betrayed" scar, but hearing that tidbit about the released toxin made his skin crawl. they were releasing chemicals into the air, now?

just about to breath out a sigh of frustration, and get himself ready to start clearing enough of whatever building he'd taken shelter in, gambit's attention was once again taken hold of suddenly. there was a loud slam from a door, and that could mean only one thing; someone human. or human enough. the peg in his gut instantly told him to tighten his backpack straps, pull his gun off his back, and start heading in the opposite direction, up a few levels, instead of dealing with whatever mess could be waiting for him down the flight of stairs in the off corner. but the commotion that was echoing up the stairwell was only staring to grow. mentally scolding himself, slade gripped his shotgun tighter and started for the stairs. "might as well kiss your ass goodbye while you're at it, lad.." he muttered to himself as he started down the stairs.

there hadn't been an expectation as to what he was going to walk in on, but when gambit poked his head out from the stair well and peered down the hallway, the last thing he expected to see was a familiar tattooed pain in his ass, completed with a string along of a few, clearly starving, hospital patients. he was about to start laughing, and ridicule her on her lack of ability to take out a few undead, but the doorway she'd slammed gave one last crack before the hinges gave way, and a stream of bodies fell into sight. they scrambled over another, fighting to struggle free from the cluster to get to their feet to join the chase, their whitening eyes scrounging to settle on their newest accommodation to their dinner plans. "ah fuck."

all humor lost, gambit started to unlock the stairwell's fire safety doors, closing one before zeke had made it. he didn't release the second until she'd crossed the barrier of the frame, sending the door into a quick jolted slam. as soon as he could, he flicked the lock, but he knew it wouldn't take much to will that door open. especially not with a bundle of walkers pushing against it. "gimme a hand, lass," he commanded, not even a 'hello', or a quick 'you alright?', grabbing a waiting sofa. he started to push it up towards the door, giving it as much of a push as it'd need before moving on to grab the cracked and splintered coffee table. tossing it up against the door, shoving it halfway behind the sofa, gambit took a few steps back to admire his handiwork. it was probably the quickest, and shittiest, reinforcement job he'd thrown together, but it was enough to buy them some time to at least get to a safer location.

he was sure he didn't need to let her know he was heading up the stairs after the door started to shudder with weight, taking the stairs two at a time. when they reached the door frame for the stairwell's entrance up there, gambit followed suit, unlatching them from their open position to lock them as well. "well, blondie," he started as he started as he shifted around a snack vending machine, shoving himself against it to slide it along the wall towards the doors. "if you've got any bright ideas, the class is waitin' to hear 'em. no where to go but up, now."

ezekiel . 1681 . soooo long. and i feel like i gave you nothing to work with D: next one'll be better, i promise!

RUNNING FROM THE BLOODLESS,

for fear of exile.

to be perfectly honest, slade had never let the idea of the commotion outside having any part in this. sure, the noise would attract a lot of attention, but there was no way that any of those mindless goons had seen where he'd entered. the ones in the alley were more than likely trying to find places to get into the basement, through the windows. if this was because he'd been spotted by those scouts, he'd never fully admit it, but he would at least feel bad for putting someone in this position. maybe not as bad as he'd feel if it were someone he didn't know, but he'd still feel bad if he were the cause of any zeke's possible injuries.

if she brought the topic up, he'd just have to deflect it somehow.

as they entered the security of the second floor, and the vending machine was as secure as it was going to get, gambit stepped back and let himself breathe. he knew to expect some sort of banter from the woman to his left, but right now, all he wanted to focus on was getting his stamina back up to its full potential. if they had to run again, the horde that would be following them would be a lot larger than it'd been when they'd first started to pour into the hallway. he really didn't want to deal with one of his lungs exploding while he ran for his life. at the mention of a fire escape, however, gambit instantly perked up, and he glanced towards her with a bit of a tilt to his head. "yeah, don't think that's gonna be our ticket outta 'ere." raising his free hand, he rubbed the back of his head, fingers transitioning from his loose mohawk to the slight stubble that was starting to grow in on the sides. "that's, kinda, how i came in. it's crawlin'."

fastening his shotgun over his shoulder, gambit glances around, looking to the clinic's signs to figure out which route would be best for them to take. the sound of zeke's tapping caught his attention after his eyes scanned over a stairwell sign, blinking as his eyes transferred over to the woman. she didn't linger too long in front of the machine before shifting away, her hands occupying themselves. admittedly, when her head shot over that fast to look at him, he'd thought she'd noticed his eyes had started to linger a little too much on the way her fingers toyed with her dog tags, but her words instantly notified him she had other things on her mind. rolling his eyes almost instantly, he released a small groan. "look, it's kinda complicated, alright? you think i wanna be in this situation any more than you do, lass?" he inquired, arching a brow at her, attempting to keep his slightly agitated voice hushed. "now c'mon, before those walkin' pieces of sunshine get enough manpower behind that. stairwell's that way."

after pointing in the direction that they were headed, gambit glanced one last time to the doors, his eyes lingering over that lone chip bag. he was about to continue on, ignore it, let it go, but gambit's impulse surged. if he hadn't heard any of the approaching dead's moans from the other side of the door, he'd never imagine doing anything that was so loud and obvious, but with the dead nearly knocking on their door, they didn't have much to lose. grabbing his shotgun, he angled the handle and shot it forward into the machine's glass. dust sputtered as the glass gave way, but slade's attention was entirely focused on grabbing that bag of chips and getting the fuck out of there. snatching the bag, he reefed it out of the circular dial, his feet already kicking off the rubble below his boots to start running behind he'd even known he'd actually gotten ahold of it.

slinging his shotgun back over his shoulder, gambit grabbed the corner of the wall with his newly freed hand to help him whip around into the next hallway, grabbing ahold of zeke's satchel's strap, giving her a bit of his momentum to send them off faster. he'd be damned if he'd put up with a lot of her crap for her to die so soon into their encounter. "there!" pointing to the darkened stairwell's door, slade let out a low irish curse underneath his breath, eyes scanning into the narrow window the door had. shifting his bag, he unzipped his side pocket and, after burying the chips, pulled out a flash light he'd been meaning to replace for sometime, but under their current circumstances, it was either chance the flash light, or waste his zippo fluid.

as he opened the door, shining the light around in a quick sweep of the first level and the stairs leading up to the platform, he waved her inside, closing the door quickly. covering the light with his palm, he pressed himself against the door after finding the lock, listening to see if their presence had been noticed going through. swallowing thickly, slade held the flash light out for zeke to take, going to take his chances with stealing a quick glance out the window; at least it was darker in the stairwell than in the hallway; there were no lights flickering within the narrow passage, giving them more of an advantage with darkness. and, when he shifted to glance out, it looked as though the horde was still following the space of the halls, lingering in the patient rooms that were open, waiting for any sign of movement, or sound.

breathing out a small sigh, gambit pushed off the door, slowly turning to zeke, his posture obviously more relaxed and much more to what she'd probably be used to seeing. "looks like we got two choices," he whispered, still unsure if there was anything below, waiting in the dark to spring at them. "we go down, see how crowded it is, or we go up. take our chances with the roof." slowly looking back to the window in the door, slade narrowed his eyes, biting the inside of his cheek as an idea formed. "unless.. you think you can handle some recon?" he asked, slade's grin obvious through his voice.

ezekiel . 1044 . hope this is alrightttt. lemme know if i need to change anything!