Fatal Flaw

Chewing aggressively on her lip, Juliet Weiss shoved the tip of her knife underneath the dashboard of a '96 Chevy. Cursing to herself as the knife slipped and almost took off her thumb, she started pulling wires out haphazardly and with the precision of someone with a lot of practice, she striped four of the wires and wrapped them together, causing the dashboard to light up. She touched two more wires together and the car snarled to life; she leaned against the throttle, pumping gas through the engine to keep it alive.

She crawled out of the floorboard and sent a glance over her shoulder to the two-story Tudor she had called home for almost nine months, in one of the windows she could just make out the outline of Niall Horan with his gun propped on the windowsill.

“Hurry up,” he mouthed at her and rolling her eyes, Juliet snatched a hammer off of the ground. Sliding into the car she threaded it through the steering wheel and jerking hard to her right and then to her left, the snap of the wheel lock almost made her jump but after months of living in hell there wasn't much that scared her.

Leaning out of the car door she flashed two thumbs up; Niall’s gun glinted as he moved it out of the window. Tapping her foot against the gas pedal her hands gripped the wheel so hard her knuckles turned white. From the corner of her eye she could see Niall's blond hair flashing and behind him, the stray they had recently picked up, Harry Styles, loaded down with bulging black trash bags.

Juliet popped the trunk at the same time the passenger door opened, Niall standing beside it with his .22 rifle still raised. She could see the top of Harry's head as he stuffed the trash bags into the trunk.

“Can you hurry up,” he whispered to Harry and Juliet couldn't help but roll her eyes.

“Control freak,” she muttered underneath her breath, ignoring the dirty look Niall sent her way. The slamming of the trunk shook the entire car and Juliet tightened her hands on the wheel.

Sliding her hands across the gear shift she kept her eyes trained out the windshield as Niall and Harry slid into the car, Niall sitting rigid in his seat and Harry sprawling out in the back as if he's done this a million times.

The moment the doors shut Juliet had the car thrown into gear and her foot slammed on the gas, the wheels screeching as they lurched forward. Beside her, Niall yanked on his seat belt, bucking it up hastily. Smirking to herself, Juliet took a right turn too fast, swerving to avoid a large branch in the middle of the street.

“Christ, are you trying to get us killed?” Niall all but shouted, keeping his hands braced against the dashboard, his teeth grinding together. From the backseat Juliet could hear Harry chuckling.

“I don't see anything wrong with her driving. It's exciting,” Harry piped up from the backseat, leaning forward so that his head hovered between Juliet and Niall. Grinning, Juliet turned from the road to wink at Harry, beside her Niall pressed himself against the passenger door, munching on his lip. That was never a good sign, it always meant he was getting annoyed.

Letting up in the gas, Juliet watched as the speedometer ticked towards the left and the houses on the left and right of the car slowed from a blur until she could pick out each piece of trash in the yards.

“So,” Harry started, leaning back in his seat, one of his ridiculously long legs digging into the back of Juliet's seat. “Where are we heading now?”

Juliet shrugged and rolling through a stop sign she instinctively glanced in the mirror for the red and blues of a police officer. She watched Niall out of the corner of her eyes as he rubbed his jaw and fingered the barrel of his gun.

“We're heading south, I suppose you don't have any suggestions do you?” He asked sarcastically, his lips pursing.

“Not really, I mean I thought you guys had everything planned out,” Harry teased, making Niall roll his eyes. Reaching her hand out, Juliet rubbed Niall's shoulder, doing her best to keep him from turning around and slugging Harry; she wasn't sure that she wouldn't wreck if he did that.

“We're heading towards the countryside,” Juliet explained, “We can drive in three different directions and still hit a rural area. Specifics don't really matter, I mean how's one town really going to be different than another? South is just the general direction we're heading.”

Easing the car down a small highway, Juliet kept one eye on the road and one in the mirror watching Harry. She and Niall had stumbled upon him by accident, they were busy getting canned goods from an abandoned corner store when a scraping sound from one of the walk-ins caught Niall's attention.

They had opened the door fully expecting a biter. Instead it had been a shivering Harry that towered over the both of them, a .22 pointed directly at Niall and a baseball bat strapped to his back. It took fifteen minutes but Juliet had finally managed to talk him into lowering his gun and after that he refused to shut up or stop following them around.

Niall had wanted to shoot him but Juliet kept him from doing it and like finding a lost puppy dog, they took Harry to the attic they called home.

“We have a live one,” Juliet said, slowing down to a bare minimum and point off in the distance. Coming towards them ever so was the hunched figure of a biter. "Should we stop or what?"

"Get a little closer," Niall said, readjusting his grip on his rifle.

As the biter drew near they could make out the tattered black and white suit that was still clinging to it's body. It was the type of suits professionals used to wear. Stopping fifteen feet away from it, Juliet determinedly stared at it, the queasiness and blind fear that used to fill her when a biter came close had long since disappeared.

Opening his door, Niall stepped out with one foot planted on the ground and one still in the car. Balancing his rifle on the top of the door, Juliet could hear him breathe in deeply once. The biter came closer, it’s jaw opening and a deep moan crawling up from it’s belly. She could hear Niall take in another deep breath.

Bang!

The body dropped lifelessly to the ground. Sliding back into the car, Niall flipped the gun’s safety back on. Wordlessly, Juliet put the car back into gear and steered carefully around the body.

As they drove out of town she kept an eye on the rear view mirror, watching for biters that might have followed the sound of the shot.