Briarfeather and Cinderblaze - Complete 2017

AU Go! I'll find you and I'll come back! I promise!

"In here! It's open!" Cynthia told Leon from where she was bringing up the rear, her pistol in one hand as she took every opening to shoot down the infected and defend them against them.

"Is it empty?!" Leon asked her, he was leading Diana, protecting the blond haired and sky blue eyed immune ten year old girl from harm. "We don't want any infected jumping us!" He flicked his golden blonde bangs out of his amber eyes. Cynthia scooped up a older and rusty metal pipe before kicking down the wooden door and swinging the pipe into an infected's skull before dropping the now red stained pipe, sapphire blue eyes fierce, black hair up in a grimy high ponytail.

"It's empty, get in there!" All three of them scurried into the place, Cynthia shooting more of the infected as they went. After a few minutes they were starting to be over run by the many hordes of infected. Cynthia had been pondering an option since they reached the entrance to the city's exit and despite the heavy feeling in her gut they needed to get Diana to the research lab to cure the pandemic wreaking havoc on their country. "The exit is a gate upstairs to your left." She said to Leon, speaking over the horrific groaning and grunting from the infected. "Take my crowbar and get out of here, I'll cover for you."

"What?!" Both Diana and Leon exclaimed, staring at her in shock, the former staring at her from her hiding place, the latter pausing in his actions of throwing small knives to stare at her.

"I'll stay here and cover you while you two get out of here."

"We're not leaving you here!" Diana exclaimed, sky blue eyes fearful, "We can't leave you to die!"

"Cyn, you can't ask this of me," Leon pleaded with his only friend. "You can't be telling me to leave you here."

Cynthia turned blue eyes on him, "We promised Ivory we'd get her sister to her, one of us has to stay."

"But-"

"No buts about it, I'm staying and you're taking your cousin to her sister and the lab." She told him insistently, blue eyes flashing stubbornly, her jaw set. For a moment they had a staring contest and Cynthia shot another infected without breaking the contest between her and Leon.

"Alright." He sighed resignedly, turning to look up at the gate barely visible behind the barely functioning stairway. "Diana, go up the stairs, I'll meet you up there." The ten year old protested.

"Leon, we can't just leave her-"

"I said go up the stairs." The eighteen-year-old boy spoke in a hard tone.

"But-"

"Go up the stairs Diana!" He barked, pointing at the stairwell. Diana opened her mouth but shut it as she caught the pain in her cousin's amber eyes and scurried up the stairs Leon was telling her to go up. The moment Diana disappeared from view he turned to his friend who was watching him, blue eyes fierce and stubborn but mirroring his pain. "I can't change your mind?" He asked her, getting closer as the infected struggled against the barred doorway.

"No, you're more important." She tells him and Leon studied her. Ever since he could remember once the pandemic started Cynthia had been there to save his sorry behind more than once, the first time he had met her was after his siblings vanished and the person taking care of them had been infected, nearly infecting him as well. But Cynthia had arrived, the blue eyed girl saved his butt and he owed everything to her.

"Help! Someone Help me!" Leon's thirteen year old self struggled against the infected adult pinning him to the floor and trying to sink it's teeth into his neck, "I don't want to be like them! Help me!" He cried, struggling harder.

"Get your head down!" A female voice yelled and Leon flattened himself further against the floor. He saw something metal out of the corner of his eye and a metal pipe crashed into the infected person's head, sending them flying off Leon and lying motionless on the ground. A girl about a year older than him was standing near him, the piper held firmly in one hand while she whipped out a pistol and shot the infected as it started to stir. "You ok?" She asked him, blue eyes concerned as she tucked the gun away and rested the pipe on her shoulder like a baseball bat.