Radioactive

"I'll leave my heart where I leave my home, I never thought that I'd be on my own. I never knew that I had this in me, I kinda think it came all too quickly."

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Harper kept her arms tightly around her knees as she sat around the fire with Matt and Amaryllis. Taniss had loudly announced that he had to take a leak, and wandered off a few minutes ago, so now they were enveloped in an awkward silence. Harper had yet to say a single word to Matt, and he could sense that she was mad at him, but he couldn't figure out why.

Taniss clambered back into the clearing, "look what I found!" He announced, holding a guitar up into the air.

"What? Where?" Matt asked, surprised.

"Just leaning against a tree. I'm assuming someone had used it as a get away or something and then they.." he trailed off awkwardly as Harper buried her head in her arms, still wrapped around her knees. "Right." He finished, clearing his throat. He sat down between Amaryllis and Harper, plucking at the strings. The sound it was emitting was not quite enjoyable. After a minute of every holding their hands over their ears, Harper looked up at him. "Amaryllis can play. Give it to her."

He obediently obliged, passing it to her. "I feel like it's been forever." She said with a laugh, settling it in her lap. She stroked the guitar lovingly before beginning to play bits and pieces of a few different songs.

She landed on Radioactive by Imagine Dragons, mumbling the lyrics as she played. Harper smiled softly, resting her chin on her knees. "I'm breaking in, shaping up, then checking out on the prison bus, this is it, the apocalypse, whoa."

Taniss smiled, laying on his back, listening to the girls as they sang together. "I'm waking up, I feel it in my bones, enough to make my systems blow. Welcome to the new age, welcome to the new age.."

Harper laughed and Amaryllis grinned at her over the fire, their previous arguments forgotten.

When the song ended, Matt and Taniss applauded, "wow, dinner and a show." Taniss said with a grin.

They registered the low growl coming from the woods only seconds later. Super lifted up his head in alarm, and Harper grabbed his collar, pulling him closer to her. "What's that?" She asked warily.

Taniss was on his feet in an instant. "Matt, watch Harper."

Matt blinked, "er, okay. What about Amaryllis?"

"Excuse me? You think I need watching?" She snapped, her eyes narrowing at him.

"Not now, guys." Taniss reached for his gun, which he had thankfully reloaded, facing it towards the woods. Another growl came from the other side of the camp site, and Matt jumped up, grabbing his own gun off the ground beside him. Harper was the only one who remained seated when more growls came from the shadows. Super returned the growls, standing up, but Harper kept her arms around him so that he couldn't break away.

Taniss turned away from the edge of the words, "Amaryllis--" he began, but Super suddenly barked, and he turned around in alarm to see what the dog was barking at. A walker launched itself from behind the safety of a tree, it's long arms extended. Her hair was matted and frayed, swinging around her face as she shuffled towards him. The gunshot rang out, attracting the others even more. They stepped into the light, four or five of them scuffling towards them, as Taniss turned back to the fire. He reached down and pulled Harper to her feet, "we've gotta get you out of here."

"I'm not--" but he didn't let her finish before he shot another in the head. For every zombie they seemed to be killing, another came forward. Now six were standing out in the open. Amaryllis and Harper didn't have guns, so they shielded themselves behind the guys.

"There's too many, get to the car." Taniss demanded, but he was interuppted by the breaking of glass. A quick glance towards the car revealed that one of the zombies had broken the drivers window, and was banging himself against the door, unaware that he could simply go around.

"Okay, now what's your plan?" Matt grumbled, pulling the trigger again. The zombies were closing in.

"Take them out and hope we live." Taniss suggested, drawing a sigh from Amaryllis.

"This is why you shouldn't be in charge." She dived towards the tent without another word, disappearing inside.

"Amaryllis! Bad idea!" Harper shouted, covering her ears as the gun shots rang out again. She let go of Super to do so, and he charged forward, snapping at the heels of the zombies. "Super, no, come here, boy!" She called, stepping away from Taniss. He reached out to grab her, "stay close to me. Don't be an idiot right now, you're in no position to do that." She yanked her arm out of his grip, but still stayed standing beside him as he swivelled around to kill the zombie that Super was attacking.

His obessive barking seemed to be attracting them, somehow more than the gunshots, and they flocked towards him. He lunged back and forth, snapping at their already torn clothes, coming away with ripped and bloody garments. One of the zombies gripped onto his fur, and he let out a yelp. "Super!" Harper yelled, gripping onto Taniss. He turned around to give the zombie the fatal blow, but it had already sunk it's teeth deep into his back.

She cried out in alarm as Amaryllis emerged from the tent with their backpacks. "Super!" She turned towards the fire, pulling out a thick stick, weilding the fire as a weapon. The zombies seemed to back away from it, lurching back and forth and letting out eery wails.

The zombies around Super had been shot down by Taniss by the time she reached him. She shoved the stick into the ground, and probed the wound, choking back tears. "Oh Super, you're gonna be okay." She promised, glancing around her for anything she could use to clean the wound.

Amaryllis dug in the back pack, tossing a water bottle in her direction. She snatched it out of the air before it could hit the ground, uncapped it, and dumped it on the wound, but she could already tell that it was fatal. He was panting, his tongue lolling out of his mouth, laying on his side. "Come on, you can't die." She moaned, brushing her hair behind her ear as she leaned over him. There wasn't much she could do, and even though her friends were fighting for their lives around her, she sat down, pulling his head onto her lap. She stroked him softly as his breathing slowed, until it stopped completely. She hardly had any time to wrap her arms around him for one last hug before Taniss had her by the arm, hauling her to her feet. "We've got to get out of here."

"Where? What about Amaryllis and Matt?"

He didn't lossen his grip on her. "Right now you just need to focus on yourself. You're not the only one you have to worry about." He paused, as if waiting for her to confirm it was true, or tell him otherwise. When she said nothing, he only nodded, "right, come on."

She obediently followed him away from the camp site into the woods. She turned around before the trees could swallow up her view of the camp site, to get on last look at what was going on, but her mouth fell open with an audible gasp that had even Taniss turning around.

Super was climbing clumsily to his feet, his jaws snapping open and closed. A low growl escaped his throat, able to be heard from so far away. His gaze zeroed in on them, and his lip curled back to reveal his yellowing teeth. "He's a walker. A dog zombie. Holy--" Taniss didn't let Harper finish her cry of alarm before he was hauling her through the trees again.

Super had taken off after them now, his feet carrying him twice as fast as they could move. Taniss broke out of the trees and darted for the lodge. He veered off suddenly, almost sending Harper toppling over. "There, that RV. It's been there since we've got here, come on." He gripped onto her hand, pulling her towards it. He wrenched open the door, thankful it was unlocked. The door had barely shut behind them when Supers body slammed against it. He threw himself repeatedly against the door as Harper dropped to the floor and scrambled backwards to the opposite wall, leaning against the booth that was set up behind her. "Taniss!"

He didn't answer. He threw open the glove box, digging around for a key. "I can't find the key." He shouted in frustration. He reached up to pull down the mirror, and the key fell down into the seat. He slid into it, and started the rv, hitting the gas. He had to take the road to get to their campsite, sincd they couldn't go straight through the trees.

"He's still--"

"Ignore Super," Taniss shouted back, the RV rocking back and forth as he tried to get used to driving such a large vehicle. She was pitched to her left, onto the booths seat. Super somehow managed to keep up with them, still throwing himself into the side of the RV.

Harper was choking back tears as she pushed herself out of the seat, and scrambled to the front of the RV. "Sit down and get buckled." Taniss snapped at her, but she ignored him. Instead, she reached forward and yanked the gun out of his waistband.

"Harper?! What are you doing?!" He was fighting to keep the RV on the small, dirt road, so he was unable to turn around.

She clambered back to the booth, standing up onto the seat to pull open the window. She leaned out of it, holding the gun out of the window. She trained it on Super, pulling the trigger just as they went over a bump. She wasn't a good shot, but somehow she had gotten lucky, and the dog dropped to the ground. She slumped into the booths seat, pulling her knees up to her chest, but she didn't have time to feel sorry over the loss of her dog before Taniss was yelling at her to open the door. She pulled it open, almost being vaulted out by the momentum. Matt and Amaryllis were running towards them. He was shooting behind him, taking out every zombie that came within range of twenty feet of them. There must've been a hoard of zombies near by their camp this entire time, and the sound of the guitar must've been enough to distract them, cause there were about fifteen scrambling after them. Amaryllis was the first to throw herself into the slow moving RV, upon Matts request.

Harper reached out to grab his hand, dragging him inside as he shot one last zombie. The door was slammed shut, and Matt slumped into the booth, holding his hand over a bleeding wound in his side.

Amaryllis stomped to the front of the RV, and whacked Taniss across the head. "If you ever leave me like that, I swear i'll have your head."

"I saved you!"

"You idiot! You--"

"Amaryllis," Matt snapped, shooting her a glare. For some odd reason, that shut her up, and she stomped to the other end of the rv, slamming the small bedrooms door shut. Matt turned his attention to Harper, "Super turned into one of them. I'm sorry, none of us had any idea that would--"

"I took care of it." Harper snapped, her voice cracking. His gaze turned sympathetic, but she ignored it, instead turning her attention to his bleeding side. She dug the first aid kit out of her backpack, pulling out a bandage. They didn't have time to disinfect it, so she only stuck it on and tossed the wrapper into the trash. Matt opened his mouth to say something, but she just turned away, sitting on the opposite side of the booth and pulling her knees up to her chest, her head tilted away from him. He only sighed and stood up to join Taniss at the front of the RV.