We Can Run, Or We Can Die [Frerard]

Sixteen|Garlic Is Extinct And That's A Really Big Problem

Gerard hadn't said anything for two hours. He was sat in the back of the car, holding the radio to his chest, though Mikey's voice had left it ten minutes after they'd gotten into the car. He was waiting for something to happen. He was waiting to hear it again.

Frank sat in the front, beside Bert, who was driving with a sullen look on his face. The younger had the samurai sword on his lap, and he wasn't even doing anything with it, he was just staring at it as if it was some magical deity that would give him all the answers.

He knew what he was doing was wrong, and he should just own up and tell them that he was lying, but he'd told Gerard he could find Mikey, and that was exactly what he was going to do. Even if it killed him. Which it probably would.

~

Ryan had been working for a solid fifteen hours while Lindsey paced restlessly, waiting for something to happen. Ray hadn't come back yet, which was annoying her further, and she was just about ready to scream when Ryan huffed, pushing his hair back from his face.

"Got anything?" She asked, and he hesitated before speaking.

"Almost. I think I've got something that can stop him from decaying altogether, kinda like a preservation thing, but I think I'm close to something that can reverse it. I'm not sure."

"What, like that stuff taxidermists use?"

He made a face. Brendon wasn't some prized pet that was going to be kept on top of the mantelpiece in his uncle's woodland mansion. "Sort of. He's already started decaying, so he needs something stronger, something to stop it from getting worse. If we inject him with that, then we might be able to slowly reverse the process with something else."

He transferred the serum into a syringe, and let Lindsey lead him to where Brendon was. The zombie was restless, banging its hands against the cage, but when Ryan walked in it seemed to calm, which was strange, to say the least.

He smiled. "Hey, Bren," he said softly, approaching it. It grunted in return, groaning and shuffling as it pressed itself up against the bars of the cage. "I've got something for you."

"Be careful, Ryan." Lindsey said, her fierce voice abnormally shaky.

"He won't hurt me." Ryan insisted, but he wasn't convincing anybody; Brendon had hurt him when he was human, what was to say that he wouldn't hurt him now?

Slowly, carefully, he unlocked the cage, holding up a hand as he opened the door. The zombie stilled, staring at Ryan with lifeless white eyes as he pressed a hand to its face, tilting its head to the side so as to expose its neck. It started to groan, distressed, but Ryan made gentle shushing noises as he lifted the syringe and stabbed it into the leathered skin of its neck.

Lindsey watched in awe as he didn't even grimace, pushing the plunger and injecting the serum into the zombie. It was almost as if it was a rabid dog, and Ryan was some sort of dog whisperer. Ryan Ross the zombie whisperer.

It was calming, soothing, almost freakishly beautiful to watch, despite the fact that Ryan had clearly lost his mind. It wouldn't be quite so gross if he wasn't having a weird intimate moment with a zombie, but Lindsey reckoned it would melt her ice-cold heart.

Until the zombie turned around and bit into Ryan's hand.

~

"I know where he is."

Gerard turned to Frank, his eyes wide with hope, and he shuffled closer in the darkness. It was no longer safe to sleep in the tents, so the three of them remained in the car, despite the fact that it was a bastard to sleep in.