Chapter Text
Melissa cautiously walked through Hatchetfield's remains looking for any more survivors. So far, she had only found one- a teenage boy named Danny who, as far as she could tell, was very high. She hoped he had been more successful in his search, as her own had been fruitless. She really hoped that he was still okay, knowing that there was a chance he wasn't.
There had been many close calls. That morning, before she had known what was happening, she had almost been trapped and killed by who she thought was her boss. Then she had been held at gunpoint to sing by two jazzy police officers, who were stopped by a now dead news reporter. Later in the afternoon, she had met Danny when she saved him from a girl in a yellow overall dress and another she had recognized as her coworker's daughter vomiting their blue sludge into his mouth. Just about thirty minutes ago, soon after she and Danny split up to find others, she had been caught by a military general and narrowly avoided getting her throat ripped out. She had seen firsthand what these blue-eyed creeps could do, and she knew she might not always be as lucky as she had.
She heard a distant gunshot and a loud crash. If there were any survivors, they'd be there, and she would need to be quick to save them in case the crash was caused by the infected. She ran in the direction of the sound. As she slowed herself, she saw a silhouetted figure determinedly walking towards downtown. Whoever they were, they didn't seem hurt or like they had just lost someone, so they had either been alone or there was someone she could help. Quietly approaching the rubble of what used to be a helicopter, she heard pained groans. There was someone there. She gingerly stepped over the lifeless body of a woman in a blue-stained military uniform, fingers loosely curled around a handgun, to find another with a chunk of rebar in her leg. Her outfit suggested that she was one of the baristas at that cute little coffeeshop a block away from CCRP.
"Um, hi, miss," Melissa said, speaking quietly in an attempt not to scare her. A failed attempt, if the barista's scream told her anything. "I'm not one of them. I'm human, I promise."
"How do I know you're not lying to trick me?"
"What color are my eyes?" She asked, taking off her glasses so that the woman could see them.
"Green," she said, coughing slightly. Melissa, after putting her glasses back on, noticed a couple of small red stains on her blouse. "You're not infected."
"Right. What's your name, miss?"
"Emma Perkins, you?"
"Melissa Perri."
"What's that smile for, Melissa?"
She hadn't realized that she had started grinning when she heard that this was the famous Emma. "Nothing. It's just nice to finally meet you."
Emma chuckled, wincing in pain. "Finally?"
"My coworker talks about you all the time. Paul Matthews."
"Paul talks about me?" Emma asked, trying to mask her blush with more coughing. "I mean, yeah, I know the guy. You just missed him, actually. He's gone to go destroy the meteor."
"Meteor?"
"Yeah. That's the head of all of those infected zombie motherf-ckers," Emma explained, kicking the other woman's corpse with her good leg. "This bitch is one of them. Used to be my manager."
"Well, we should probably get away from her, then," Melissa said, kneeling down to try to help Emma. "You definitely shouldn't walk on that, though. I can try to carry you, if that's alright."
"I mean, I don't really have a choice."
"I don't want to do it if it'll make you uncomfortable. Are you sure you're okay with it?"
"Yeah, go ahead," she sighed, reaching out to let Melissa pick her up. She lifted her off the ground and started carrying her toward where she and Danny had agreed to meet up. "You're stronger than I expected, I'm impressed."
Melissa giggled. "And you're lighter than I expected, I'm relieved."