Experiment Paul AU 2.0

All Together

Bill helped Emma up. Her hologram kept looking at the poor man and his tiny sleeping daughter suspiciously. "Yeah, one more was hard enough. Knowing there's four more must be a lot."

She nodded. His casual, flat tone made her feel at peace, something she hadn't felt in a while. "Yeah. It's..... Jesus. It's been so long since this shit started, y'know? And I've never run into one living person! Well, there was that dying guy-"

"So many bones where they shouldn't have been.." Hidgens wavered a little bit, imitating a shudder.

"....Yeah. We decided to just beat his head in. He wasn't gonna make it anyways."

".....Oh. That's... nice," Bill lead them down a winding flight of stairs and a long hallway, eventually ending up at a big metal door. "This is it."

"A..... door?" Emma and Hidgens exchanged suspicious glances. Hidgens floated in front of Bill, resting his hands in his chin.

"Hmmmm. This is quite a strange place to take us, alien. What's behind that door? An ambush? A bigger ambush than I could ever anticipate? Good try, your mind games won't work on me."

Bill looked Hidgens dead in the eyes, expression deadpan, and kicked the door as hard as he could. After this, Emma heard a frustrated huff then a click. The door opened slightly, then opened more. A frazzled woman wearing a purple sweater with a big blue cat on it stood in the doorway. Her ginger hair was a little curly and very matted, her eye bags were so dark Emma almost mistook her for a raccoon.

"Hey Charlotte," Bill said softly.

"Hi Bill!" She whispered with a faint smile, "And......" Her eyes went wide, which seemed to be the go-to reaction today.

"She's alive."

Without another word, Charlotte nodded and stepped out of the way, letting Bill and Emma in.

The room they entered was large, cold, and smelled like formaldehyde and bleach. The only sources of light were two flickering lightbulbs hanging from the ceiling from pieces of yarn. In one corner, there was a small cot covered in stuffed animals and a pink blanket with a floral pattern. Bill immediately walked over and placed the sleeping Alice down on it.

As Emma looked around, she noticed there wasn't much else besides that- a couple of rotting pillows and torn apart blankets, a dead rat in the corner of her vision, a couple of empty beer bottles. No food or water in sight.

Click! "Jesus," Hidgens chuckled, looking around, "What a fucking shit show."

Emma heard Bill murmur 'Don't worry, I don't know either' behind her. She turned to the two. "Bill, didn't you say there were two more survivors?"

"Yeah, but uh-"

The door was viscously kicked open, causing Charlotte to jump. The man who entered was breathless, carrying a backpack on his shoulders and a rifle in his hands. He looked like he went through hell- his nose was bleeding, his eye was black, and his clothes were torn and bloody. "HOLY FUCKING SHIT." He managed to wheeze out between breaths.

"Quiet down, Ted." Bill said flatly, pointing to Alice.

"Don't tell me what to fucking do, Bill. I just fucking ran into a huge fucking horde of those stupid bastards."

The room fell silent.

"And.... and you l-lived?" Charlotte asked, fidgeting nervously.

"Of course I fucking lived. Does it look like I didn't?" He snapped, throwing the backpack down at their feet. "Found some shit at an old survivor camp. Fucking hard to find, they buried it."

Bill nodded and went to examine the contents of the bag. "Why don't you calm down and say hi to our new survivor?"

"Wh-" he turned to Emma and her hologram companion, who was distracted by a bug on the wall.

"Uh, hi! I'm Emma, and this is Hidgens."

"Is he a fucking holo-"

"Yep."

"B-"

"Don't question it. It's easier if we don't."

"Ok, cool. But.... why?"

"I don't know. He doesn't like talking about his super scary and tough backstory all that much. He does like talking though. Sorry."

The corner of Hidgens' mouth twitched, and he continued staring at the bug, this time in fake interest.

"Oooooookay. Fine. As long as he isn't gonna fuck shit up, I don't think I care."

"Don't worry. He won't."

Hidgens sighed. "I can't promise you anything. Especially since you act, walk and talk like a douche."

Bill looked up from examining a soda can, laughing. "I think I'm starting to like him."

"Shut up Bill." Ted muttered, going to sit down by one of the rotten pillows.

"Anyways, Emma. All this food looks safe, so.... wanna join us for dinner?"

"Oh sweet, food! Hell yeah!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The five survivors (Bill had hesitantly  woke up Alice for dinner) and Hidgens  sat around a small makeshift table, made from a discarded oil barrel kept in the back of the room. Their scavenged dinner was a simple one- soup crackers, fruit gummies, beef jerky, and soda, and the one water bottle going to Alice.

"Why does Alice always get the good stuff?" Ted whined, making him sound like a toddler.

"She's seven. She needs everything she can get."

Alice stuck her tongue out at Ted, and he did the same. Emma watched the scene, amused.

"Well one day without ~the absolute best~ isn't gonna hurt her!"

"You don't know that!" Bill snapped.

Charlotte, desperate for a topic change, butted in. "Did you hear about Paul's big concert tonight?"

The atmosphere immediately relaxed. "Oh yeah," Bill replied, "It's been exciting the other Infected for days."

"Jesus, they were so bad tonight. I barely got my ass out of there before the first "performance"," Ted added.

"Wait- I don't know what these 'concerts' are, but is that why he decided to leave me alone?" Emma asked.

The room fell silent, except for a soft hum emitting from Holo Hidgens.

"Hold on a second- what?"