Ever the Survivor

As you'll find out, Kat likes sharp objects :) They're kind of her weapon of choice when she's up close. I myself, love guns and knives(I actually own some of these), so I like to give specifics. I'm a visual person, and some of these need a picture instead of me going into detail. Plus they're just cool to look at ;D. Especially her Ulaks. I feel like some people wouldn't know what the hell I was talking about or would be picturing the wrong thing in their head if I sort of explained what they look like. SO, here are links to the pictures of Kat's weapons that I will be mentioning every now and then from here on out. And yes, Josh Frohmeyer, aka Scud. The effin weapons genius that our lovely Reedus plays in Blade 2. That's why Kat's Special Weapons are bad as fuck ;)

http://www.swords24.eu/images/products/en/Ontario_Spec_Plus_Marine_Combat_Knife_ONSP1.jpg
Kat's Ontario Spec Plus Marine Combat Knife

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51exKWX98-L.jpg
Gerber Silver Trident, Kat's hunting knife.

http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2012/286/f/c/my_hidden_blade__booyah___xd_by_xpvtcaboosex-d5hpaxb.png
Kat's Hidden Blade she wears on her right arm. I believe I introduced it first in Chapter 1. AC ftw. She also has two smallll hidden blades in the bottom of a pair of boots I'll incorporate later. If she steps on the side of her boot a certain way it will come out the back of her right one, or the front on her left, depending which one she's using. These are courtesy of Scud of course ;)

http://www.swordsswords.com/images/products/detail/Light__Dark_Throwing_Knife_12_Piece_Set.jpg
Kat's Throwing Knives

www.swordsandweapons.net/assets/images/mc2069.jpg
Kat's Ulaks, Sabre Claws, one or the other. They are one of Kat's preferred melee weapons, but her's look different. The one that is always in her left hand will have sharp, hook like serrated edges from the tip to a few inches below the handle, so if she were to stab anything with it, when she pulled it out it would cause even more damage. The one that will always be in her right, dominant hand will be her slicing claw. And looks basically just like the picture, except for the little hooks by the handle, it is smooth all the way down, and both are sharp as razors.

http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130107220245/residentevil/images/7/73/CrossBow_RE6.jpeg
Kat's Assault Rifle / Crossbow Hybrid. The sides fold in, the stirrup folds under, and for all intents and purposes, it is an assault rifle. But on the foregrip, there is a switch, much like on the safety of a gun, that when it is switched, the sides will fold out, allowing you to use the crossbow. (Scud tweaked it, obvyyy)

http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/6256/beretta92fsinox.jpg
Kat's silver 9mm Beretta 92FS.

http://www.jddefense.com/gallery/photos/Guns-Bullets-Stuff/cs45.jpg
Kat's small sidearm she keeps in a brown leather shoulder holster. A silver Smith & Wesson CS9.


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It had been a little over a month after this madness began. Kat hadn't been able to contact anyone in the beginning because the phone lines were down and her cell phone wasn't sending or receiving. She had thrown it out the window a long time ago. The day she was supposed to leave, she took the boys with her and sat at Blue Ridge all day. On the false hope that Leon would still show up and get them out of this hell. That was 4 weeks ago. When it was clear he wasn't coming, that's when she knew. This was happening in more towns than just little, old Ellijay, Georgia. The first thing she thought of was the gaseous missiles in the plans Neo-Umbrella had been working on. Had they got the virus to adapt? None of the news reports said anything about missiles or bombs or explosions. So what caused it? She'd been asking herself that for weeks. But now she was asking why it hadn't been taken care of yet. This must've been bigger than she originally thought. She just hoped where ever they were, whatever they were doing, her brother Scotty and Leon were okay.

The last thing the radio had said, was there would be what sounded to Kat like a Forward Operating Base in Atlanta, Georgia and survivors should make their way there. That the military was there and that they would be safe. Food, shelter, protection. That was the last she heard before the radios went silent and the cameras had stopped rolling. She figured if they could get to the FOB, she could show her government badge and be able to get any information she could and hopefully, somehow, get in contact with her people. So she had decided that's where they would head.

Blake and Kaleb had faught her on it, they wanted to go and get Phil and Kay. But they had had a few close calls already, Kat reminded them. She knew Phil would keep him and his wife safe. Rising Fawn, Georgia was in the complete opposite direction of Atlanta, and Kat knew they wouldn't have the gas to be wasting. So she had packed up all her gear, all the ammunition and weapons Phil had around the property, food and camping gear, and they split up in two cars. Kat's Avenger and Kay's Optima, that she had left behind when they had taken Phil's truck on their trip. After Dylan and Kat had went to the Robertson's store and grabbed whatever looters hadn't thought to take or had missed, they headed out of Ellijay. They stopped at Jase's house which was on the way and locked the younger boys in the cars. Her and Dylan had made their way inside, seeing the place was a mess. There was blood on the floor in the living room and tables were flipped over. There were a few spent shell casings on the floor but there were no bodies anywhere in or around the house. Jase's truck was gone. The boys were disappointed when their two oldest siblings came back to the cars without Jase.

But that had all been weeks ago. Kat told her brothers what she really did in DC around a fire a few nights later. Talk about a scary camp fire story. Only this one was true. When she told them she had seen something like this several times before, only on a much smaller scale, they were shocked. More shocked about that, than they were when she had basically told them she killed people for a living. They thought zombies were the things of movies, video games and scary stories. No one could say anything. But they felt a little better knowing she was capable of keeping them safe in this situation. She said she had gone through this plenty of times before. That night after the younger boys had been put to bed, she talked with Dylan more about it. He had the same questions she had. How could plans for something this big go undetected for so long, if it was as bad as they thought it was? Was this happening across the whole United States? Worldwide? Why wasn't the government doing anything? Where was the military? Where was the DSO and BSAA? What started it? Unfortunately she couldn't answer any of them. Her and Dylan had taken turns being on watch that night while the others slept, like they continued to do today.

It was a long day of driving and going through houses out in the Georgia country side. They decided they would finish their trip to Atlanta the following day. They didn't have much further to go, a few hours at the most, but it would be night time when they arrived if they kept going now. Kat didn't want to be on the road after dark, or be walking into a situation she had no idea what to expect of, when visibility wasn't that great. So they had drove off the road into a relatively flat field and parked the cars. They got out the three tents they had and started to set them up while Kat made a fire. They ate their supper in silence and with their weapons hot and ready at their sides. Always listening and watching. That seemed like all they ever did now. Kat climbed on to the top of her car after dinner to get a better view of the field they were in. Being a little higher up, she could easily see across the field. With the full moon and no clouds, the sky lit up the night nicely for her. She got comfortable on the top of her car and started her watch for the night until Dylan got up to relieve her.

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It was late afternoon by the time the Carsen clan had gotten about a mile outside the city. Once the two older siblings felt the area was secure, they parked the cars while Dylan and Kat scouted ahead to see if it was really safe. Kat had a bad feeling going in. The place would've been booming with activity if this was an FOB and a refugee camp. Surely they would've put barricades up and there would be scouts working a perimeter and lookouts on top of the surrounding buildings. But it was eerily quiet and she hadn't seen any of that. As Kat and Dylan snuck more into the city, she could see that it was a lie. What once had been a safe haven looked like a battlefield of sorts. Papers and trash littered the streets. Some cars were burnt out and some overturned. There weren't any high walls or barricades that she could see. How was this supposed to keep people safe? The further they got into the city, the more dead bodies they saw. Some dead, others, not so much. The two snuck around the undead corpses they could, without being noticed. They were coming up to a section that looked like it had more military presence than the rest. There were several Humvees and trucks, and Kat saw a tank sitting in the middle of the street. As they got closer, she looked around, seeing the bodies of former soldiers on the ground and one laying over the main gun of the tank, obviously deceased.

Kat could hear movement on her right, so she put her back to the wall and carefully peeked around the corner of the building they were just in front of. She finally saw why the city so quiet. At a glance, what looked like half the whole town lined the street. But they weren't people, not anymore. Some were just standing idly, staring at nothing. Others were walking around. And others were eating whatever was left of the person that once was. Kat motioned to Dylan to go back and they quickly and quietly went back the way they came. They stopped in a few small stores to see if there was anything worth grabbing. Luckily they were clear. Whatever undead had been roaming around in there were laying on the floor. Scavengers had already been in there before, which also meant they were picked clean. They made their way back outside.

Dylan and Kat had both put Kat's silencers on their handguns to muffle the shots if they absolutely needed to fire a shot in the city, but didn't want to waste the ammo that Kat knew they would need at some point. If they had seen any undead, they had tried to avoid them, taking alternate paths, unless there was only one of them. As they rounded a corner that would lead back to their cars, there was a lone zombie that hadn't been there before. It had spotted the two of them, moaning and slowly making it's way towards them. Neither of them pulled their triggers. They had had this conversation already. If there was only one or a couple, do it without guns. They'd had to dispatch a few with their knives today already. Kat put her silver Beretta 92FS in her left hand and carefully walked towards the corpse that was snapping it's jaws at her. She brought her arm back, unsheathing her trusty hidden blade and drove it deep into the thing's eye socket. She pulled her arm back, withdrawing the blade with a sucking sound and the corpse fell to the ground at her feet. She made a quick movement with her arm, flinging the dark colored blood still on the weapon toward the floor. She released the mechanism that let the blade slide back into it's hiding place.

Every time Kat came back from a mission with Leon, she went to her good friend and weapons specialist, Josh Frohmeyer. Thanking him once again for all of the goodies he made especially for her, and how she had used them that time to save her's or Leon's ass. She wished she could thank him now. She had a feeling she would be using these more than she ever planned to.

The rest of the way back was quiet. It had taken them longer to get back than it had getting there, with their few detours they had to take. An hour had passed from the time they left the younger boys at the cars. They hadn't seen another zombie on their walk back. It seemed like most of the undead stayed in the city, where most of the "food" had been. But Kat felt too close for comfort and wanted to get the cars as far away as she could. Dylan and Kat had told the younger boys in the cars that they wouldn't be staying in Atlanta. They made their way back a little ways out of town until they found a grassy trail that led into the woods, opening up into a small clearing. It was just big enough to fit their tents and a fire inside, but they would have to park the cars outside on the trail. They did the same thing they did at the end of every day and started getting their stuff for the night out. Kat gave Dylan her AR/Crossbow with a few bolts from her bag and told him to find them something to eat while she was on watch. No one said anything about it, but she could tell by the looks on their faces, they were wondering the same thing she was. Now what? Atlanta had been the the plan. Kat hated to admit it to herself, but she didn't know what to do now. She was used to having a plan A, B or C when she went out with Leon. But they hadn't had time for that now. Everything had happened so suddenly. They had been taking things day by day. They hadn't had time to think about what they would do if the refugee camp in Atlanta had fallen. But she knew she had to keep her brothers safe. She didn't think she would be able to do that with the 5 of them camping out in tents or their cars every night, and 3 of them being children. She wanted to find them a house to hold up in. Someplace that they could secure.

Two hours had passed and it was dark out by now while Kat sat around the fire with her younger brothers. She heard a ruffling sound behind her and quickly turned around with her gun drawn until she saw Dylan's flashlight. She sighed, replacing her gun with her knife as he got closer.

"Not much, but it's better than nothing." Dylan said, sitting next to his sister. He had a pheasant in his hands while she had a squirrel. They cleaned the animals in silence while Sam got out the last of their water and filled everyone's bottles as much as he could.

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"What are we gonna do?" Dylan quietly asked as he walked up to her around 2am. With the cars parked away from where their tents were, Kat had climbed into a nearby tree and was perched on a low branch. She just sighed and shook her head as she climbed down.

"I don't know." She said as she shrugged her shoulders. "I want to try and find a place we can stay in though. Maybe a house out in the country."

Dylan nodded. "As long as there's a water source around." It was Kat's turn to nod. Remembering they didn't have anymore drinking water.

"There's a creek near by. I saw it on the map. I'll go fill up the jugs tomorrow." Kat said as she stretched.

"You want me to come?"

"No, I'll go by myself. You hold thing's down here." Kat said. Dylan nodded. She placed a hand on his shoulder as she walked to her tent. Dylan climbed up the tree to take a seat on the branch she had been sitting on.

The next morning, Kat woke up to the sound of her brothers talking outside. She got up, grabbed her gun and put it in her drop leg holster on her right thigh. She slung her shoulder holster around herself with her small sidearm and combat knife, before putting her Ulaks into their sheaths on the small of her back, attached to her belt. She unzipped her tent and walked outside.

"Hey sis." Sam said as he looked up at his sister. They were sitting around the area they had made a fire the night before. Kat looked to her 3 younger brothers. She could hear Dylan moving around in his tent. She said hey to Sam and ruffled his hair as she walked towards the trail to the cars, out of view. She had to get into the trunk where they had the old milk jugs they kept water in.

The walk didn't take very long, it was only a few yards away from their campsite. She walked to her car and unlocked the trunk, taking the two empty jugs out before putting the trunk back down. She bent over to pick up the two jugs, but movement to her left in the woods stopped her. She heard the familiar moaning sound before she even turned around. She quickly unsnapped the button that held her combat knife in place and took it in her right hand. She spun around to see two zombies a few feet away making their way towards her. She closed the distance between herself and the first one, landing a spinning round house kick to its head, knocking it to the ground. She jumped over the fallen body and pushed her forearm into the second ones chest. She drove her combat knife upwards through its chin before pushing it to the ground. She turned around and stood over the one she had kicked, grabbing the back of its head as it tried to get up, and slammed her knife into its forehead before letting it fall back to the ground. She took a deep breath and stood up. A smirk came across her face as she held her knife in her left hand and walked over to the back of the car again. She picked up the two jugs and held the handles of both of them in her right hand as she walked back to camp.

Dylan raised his eyebrows at his sister who was walking back into view from the treeline around the trail, he saw the dark colored blood on her knife.

"You alright?" He asked as he gestured to her knife with his head while he was loading more bullets into their other clips.

"Yeah. No big deal." Kat shrugged her shoulders and sat down, indian style next to her brother and grabbed the rag out of his front pocket. She threw the jugs next to her and started wiping off her knife.

Dylan looked around him, seeing the younger boys in their tent several feet away from them. He lowered his voice. "How many?"

"Two...As soon as I get back with the water, we'll boil it then leave."

"I don't really want you going by yourself if there were two right around here." Dylan looked at her.

"I'll be fine, D, really. I don't go anywhere without my stuff." Kat smiled and patted her right thigh where her Beretta was. Safe and sound in its holster.

Dylan looked down and smiled. "Alright. Just don't take too long or we'll come after you." Dylan bumped into her with his shoulder.

Kat smiled and got up. She walked over to Dylan's tent and went inside to grab one of the maps he kept next to his cot. She walked back to the fire area and picked up the jugs while looking at the map.

"Looks like a little bit of a walk from where we are. I'll be back within an hour for sure. Maybe a little longer." Dylan looked up at her and nodded.

"Two hours. Be back by then."

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He'd been tracking the deer he'd shot with his Horton for hours and the prints were heading in the direction of the stream he'd come across a couple times on this side of the woods. They veered off before they got there though. Something must've spooked it. He needed to fill his canteen anyway so he quietly continued forward. He'd be able to pick up the trail again easily, he knew where the tracks were now. But he froze in his tracks when the stream came into view. He saw a small figure in camo cargo pants and a black t-shirt kneeling down by the stream. But what stopped him, was her dark hair and the bright red ends she had pulled into a messy ponytail behind her head. It wasn't as vibrant as it was the last time he'd seen her. That had been weeks ago. But he'd know that hair. It was one of the things he had liked about her. Made her stand out. He wasn't sure he would ever see her again, to be honest. She must've came here for the refugee camp too. Fuckin pipe dream.

It had been a 20 minute walk to the small creek. Kat had one jug already filled and was focusing on the other jug in her hands. She loved being out in the woods. She let her guard down for a minute and was just enjoying the sounds of the water rushing by until she heard a twig snap a few feet behind her. She let the jug fall from her and drew her gun from her drop leg holster while she quickly stood up and turned around.

"Whatcha doin pointin that thing at me?" A familiar southern drawl sounded as she turned around. He had a smirk on his face.

"Holy shit." Kat said, as she looked across the few feet between them and into the blue eyes she hadn't seen in a long time. She lowered her gun.