#triggerbrat

@fixmeinfortyfive !!!! rad

Pairing: Chloah

Rating: M (because guns and death and zombies)

Summary: It’s a zombie apocalypse and all Hannah and Chloe have right now are each other, but they’re running out of bullets and time being together forever isn’t as far away as they thought it’d be.

Disclaimer: I own nothing

If Chloe’s being honest with herself, she’s not really sure how it got to this point. Holed up on the second story an apartment building, ankle deep in bullet casings with Hannah by her side fighting off the undead.

It’s like something out of a horror movie.

Hannah’s got her makeshift sniper rifle lined up to take shots at the haphazardly placed coffee can explosives. She uses the bullets carefully. She’s laying down on the porch staring through her scope and holding her breath every time she shoots.

It wasn’t always like this, Chloe thinks. There used to be more of us.

Hannah pulls the trigger and another explosion lights the block orange. A few zombies that survived the fire wander around burning until the heat destroys their nerves endings and leave them immobile until they’re chewed up by the flames.

Six in the squad.

Sarah was the first to go. Never one for killing, she was on lookout. Keeping watch through the night with her night vision binocular hybrid. When she saw the signs for a group of infected approaching, she sounded the alarm. Waking everyone up to grab weapons and get ready to run. Perfect form.

Things were going alright, Mary had taken to cutting open infected with a sword as Gemma stood a few paces behind them shooting at stragglers with bow and arrow. Isabel was wielding some sort of machine gun that probably should not have gotten into their hands but did. (Seriously, they had never passed a military base where did they get it from? Unless they took it from that one abandoned gun shop) Chloe and Hannah were back to back (shoulder? Because height difference) catching undead with bullets to slow down more.

But Sarah still had to get down from her ‘watch tower’ and there were undead approaching. Sarah got down from her perch and started making her way towards them when a group of zombies stumbled out an alley, cutting off her escape, sights set on her.

Gemma was next, she hesitated in sprinting to Sarah only long enough to make sure Chloe and Hannah could cover each other and Mary wasn’t in immediate danger of getting killed or hurt and Isabel hadn’t been forced to reload or give ground. She shot off arrows until her quiver was empty, then pulled twin revolvers and waded through corpses to get to Sarah, but infected were still coming through the alley and she was running out of bullets.

Isabel paused in her shooting once she heard the time between each shot getting larger and ran to Chloe and Hannah.

“We have to go!”

“We can’t just leave them!” Chloe stopped pressing the trigger long enough to turn to the teen running towards them “C’mon Mary! Tell Isabel that we can still save them!”

Mary stopped to catch their breath.

“Mary please!”

They looked up and shook their head.

“Chloe, Isabel’s right. We can’t save them, we have to go. There’s still time to leave and get to better ground if we go now.”

“But-”

Bang

Mary flinched as a scream pierced the air, followed by a ‘get away from her’ but they don’t know who said it, and two more gunshots. They grabbed Chloe’s arm.

“I’m sorry, but we can’t stay here…”

Isabel and Mary grabbed Hannah and Chloe and ran when the gunshots from the alley stopped. Isabel pulling Hannah along driven by adrenaline and rage. Mary dragging Chloe by the wrist to an apartment building that they had scoped out and set up in case something like this had happened.

It was built out of brick, the kind that was laid by hand and made to last centuries. They had spent hours boarding up all of the windows on the first floor and setting traps on the entrances. Going so far as to blow all stairs leading up except for one to make defense easier. About a half block away was a gas transport truck still a fourth full that they had agreed would be used to blow up a horde if they could lure it there.

Chloe and Hannah stopped fighting to go back once they saw how close to the building they were and how far behind the alley was.

At once, all four teens started setting up the coffee can clad bombs up around the perimeter of the building. Isabel and Mary seemed to be looking at each other and whispering a lot.

“Hannah?”

“Hmm?”

“What do you think they’re talking about?”

“I have no idea.”

“Dad friend stuff?”

“Probably.”

Mary was the third.

When all the cans were in place and safe-ish distances from each other, they started running back to the door, Mary cutting down stragglers in the path that Isabel mowed down. The four looked back to see the mass of zombies that had approached the block, coming from all directions, attracted by the sound of gunfire. Hannah was the first to react.

“Oh my god.”

“Shit.”

“God fucking damnit.”

“Fucking hell, watch your god damn language Mary. God...”

“Up the shut fuck Chloe, if I want to say god fucking dammit because a horde of infected are approaching us, I will say god fucking damn it as much as I want to.”

Hannah and Isabel were already getting the barricades for the door and looked at the two arguing with attempted annoyance and a handful of anxiety. Isabel speaks first.

“As much as I hate to break up this lovers spat, could you two please get the fuck out of the way so that we can barricade the god damn door?”

“Oh yeah sorr-MARY WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!”

Mary was five feet closer to the horde (a rather short distance) than when Chloe looked at them last. They ignored her and looked at the approaching horde with crossed arms. Stared at the undead then sighed. They turned around and smiled.

“Hey Isabel, take care of ‘em for me okay?”

Isabel nodded.

What are you talking about?

Hannah figured it out first. Tried to move forward to pull them inside the building, but Isabel blocked her path.

“You can’t do that!”

It clicked.

“MARY THAT IS A STUPID IDEA AND I FORBID YOU FROM DOING IT!”

Mary just shook their head and patted Chloe on the shoulder.

“Nope, it’s damn good and it could make sure that you get out of this alive. Also I’m sorry about this.”

“About wha- oof.”

Chloe landed on her back inside the apartment and coughed. She looked up to see Mary putting her foot down. Then they closed the door.

Isabel started barricading because somewhere on the other side Mary was swinging their blade to buy them time. Chloe snapped out of her shock long enough to choke out a question.

“Why?”

“It’s a dad friend thing. Now help me block this door. Mary didn’t do that just so we could sit around.”

Hannah sprung up and grabbed another board.

“You’re right, let’s do this and then go upstairs. If we’re fast enough maybe we can get to a place where we can watch out for them. Right?”

Chloe blinked and nodded.

“Uh, right. Good plan. Yeah.”

Mary shouted something that sounded like a suggestion of where the zombies should put their hands if they didn’t want to get ‘decapitated’. The three finished boarding the door and climbed up the portion of stairs that served as a path between the first and second floors. Chloe kicked down a door to their planned and stocked apartment that she believed (hoped) was facing the direction that Mary was. Hannah and Isabel brought in the other two boxes of assorted bullets from the other apartments. Isabel stayed to reload her gun then ran back to guard the stair case.

She threw open the screen door and jumped half onto the balcony railing, scanned the ground for blue hair or their jacket or something that showed that Mary wasn’t dead. She found all three on top of the fuel truck and then some.

“come and get some you fuckers!”

Mary’s voice carried across the block and okay yeah, that was a little better than anything Chloe had thought would happen. She leans a little closer to see just what the fuck Mary is up to before she does anything.

And so far Mary’s doing nothing but yelling.

They’re shouting insults, but once they had exhausted their supply, they started screaming song lyrics.

Hannah appeared by Chloe’s side with her makeshift sniper rifle.

“Not trying to be rude or anything, but what are they doing?”

Chloe blinks.

“I honestly have no idea what they’re doing. I mean they’re attracting the majority of the horde with all that screaming, but I- wait shit. They’re getting all that attention. They fuck. God damn it Mary. They’re gonna blow themselves up!”

Hannah got down and aimed for one of the infected that was near the front. Thought process being that maybe it would trip up some more and then Mary could escape and they could blow it up and no one else had to die to protect them.

“HANNAH DON’T YOU PULL THE TRIGGER I SWEAR TO GOD IF YOU DO I WILL THROW THIS SWORD AT YOU SO HELP ME GOD!”

Hannah froze, while Chloe cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted.

“Mary What Are You Doing?!”

“BUYING YOU TIME AND SAVING RESOURCES.”

The street was packed with undead and infected, some wandered aimlessly, but most stumbled towards Mary’s shouting. Groaning and howling for death and blood.

“Now Is A Poor Time To Be Throwing Shade Mary!”

“YEAH YEAH I KNOW SORRY, I JUST REALLY NEED AS MANY TO COME TO ME AS POSSIBLE BEFORE I BLOW THIS THING UP.”

Apparently the crowd wasn’t getting as close as Mary wanted it to, because they drew a flare gun and fired off three shots in a tight triangle. Undead poured into the streets and they let out a cheer before climbing on top of the tank and removed the cap from the top of the fuel truck.

“MARY-”

“HEY CHLOE, HANNAH! GUESS WHAT MY DAD ALWAYS TOLD ME?”

“What?!”

They leveled the flare gun at the opening.

“TO ALWAYS GO OUT WITH A-“

Pulled the trigger.

BOOM

Isabel was the last.

The explosion may as well have vaporized everything within twenty feet of the truck and sent off a shock wave that knocked both teens off their feet. Chloe didn’t want to think about what happened to Mary. Isabel shouted something, but there was a ringing in her ears that made it hard to pick out. Hannah managed to stand up first and stumbled out of the apartment to find Isabel.

“SHIT!”

Chloe dragged herself off the ground and stumbled after Hannah, dazed and unsteady as she navigated the hallways to the staircase where Isabel was supposed to be standing guard. Isabel was bleeding from somewhere in their hair. Hannah pressed a wash cloth to the place she thought the bleeding was coming from.

“C’mon Isabel wake up! Shit you gotta wake up!”

She pressed hard with one hand, shook Isabel with other.

“WAKE UP!”

Chloe stumbled and fell to her knees.

“This is not happening, this is absolutely not happening.”

“What’s – ahem, sorry – what’s not happening?”

“Isabel!”

“Isabel!”

The blonde coughed a few more times. Tried to sit up but couldn’t and when they looked down, they saw the reason why. A piece of shrapnel was sticking out of her stomach. Her shirt was red with blood and the crimson kept on spreading.

“That’s… not, good.”

“What’s not-oh.”

Isabel laid her head back against the wall.

“I should’ve listened when Mary said that I would need to get to farther away to stay out of the blast radius. Really didn’t think that the explosion would bust through the walls hard enough to send shrapnel.”

They opened their eyes.

“Since chances are that I’m gonna bleed out either externally or internally, Imma just go ahead and say that you two should probably hole up in an apartment, preferably one that we’ve already prepped and stay there until you get a chance to escape.”

Hannah scowled.

“Fuck no. We’re taking you with us!”

She looked down then stood up.

“After I find something to slow the bleeding! Or stop it. Hopefully stop it but slowing it is a good idea.”

Chloe pursed her lips.

“We could try cauterizing it… but you might go into shock and I don’t think that’d be a good idea…”

Isabel nodded their head.

“It’s a good idea, since you two stubborn fuckers aren’t gonna let me die in peace, then it’s a good idea that we have a back-up plan. And if I do go into shock, just try to keep me from doing anything that might kill me okay?”

“Obviously.”

But in the back of Chloe’s mind she already knew that they might not get a chance to start plan B or plan A, not with the way that Isabel was bleeding. Hannah came back with corn starch, a quarter of their bandages, a lighter, a small pan, some flammable materials that are questionably safe, and a piece of metal that’s thin and a little small, but long and capable of being a cauterizing tool.

Chloe started the fire and heated the metal. Worst came to worse they could try to stop the bleeding then move Isabel into the apartment they were in earlier.

Hannah stopped the external bleeding and started trying to find a way to get the starch on the inside of Isabel’s body where most of the bleeding was probably occurring, but had yet to make any progress.

“I think, I think that’s all I can do… Sorry…”

Isabel waved a hand.

“S’fine. Ya did your best for plan A, now it’s time for plan B.”

Hannah nodded and looked at Chloe. Chloe held up the glowing red metal.

“You ready?”

“Absolutely not, but let’s get it over with.”

“Okay.”

Chloe shifted the shrapnel a bit and pressed the metal to the freshly bleed area. Isabel made a sound between a choke and a scream.

“I’m sorry!”

And she was, but she couldn’t stop now. Couldn’t because it was making some progress and better than letting Isabel bleed out. Because it was a chance that they would live and they had to live, had to live because they’ve already lost half the group. Sarah’s gone and Gemma’s not here and Mary fucking blew themself up. And Isabel was still here if only barely because there was this chance, so she was gonna take it and do it whatever it took to keep them alive. Whatever it takes because she couldn’t lose anyone else.

She couldn’t.

Hannah wiped away sweat and tears and held Isabel’s hand while Chloe worked and she was almost done, thanking God or whatever was watching that the shrapnel was just a metal bar and not a piece of metal with jagged edges that could tear Isabel’s organs.

When Chloe finished the last bit of cauterizing, she carefully pulled the metal pole out and covered the hole with gauze and taped it so that nothing could get in and nothing could get out. Then threw away the trash and the shrapnel and dumped the ashes, carried everything back to the apartment, returned to bring the passed out Isabel back too.

They were halfway back to the apartment when they realized that Isabel felt a little cold, so they put them under blankets in one of the bedrooms. Then ran to the other apartments they stocked and brought everything back.

Brought everything back because it didn’t look like they were going to be leaving any time soon. Not with the way the fire burned through half the city. (They’re safe in the brick building though.) And certainly not with the slowly regrouping horde of undead that was wandering around the streets.

They bolted and blockaded the door then laid down in the bedroom across from Isabel’s with the doors open and napped. It was easy to fall asleep after what had happened. They didn’t have any energy left, and the little bit of sleep was supposed to help enough that maybe they could make a plan to get out of here. Even though plans were never really any of their things.

They woke up two hours later and Hannah went across the hall to check on Isabel. They’re awake, and while they couldn’t move, they were still hungry and thirsty, so Chloe grabbed a couple granola and a glass of water with one the straws that they found from a package in a convenience store.

Chloe broke up the granola bars gave them to Isabel in between sips of questionably sanitary water. Though she liked to think that it’s clean because she boiled it before letting to cool down to its current temperature. Hannah changed bandages and when all was said and done, the two sat back and tried to relax while Isabel let out a heavy exhale, then opened their eyes.

“So.

Chloe crossed and uncrossed her arms while Hannah picked at a fingernail, Chloe looked back up to answer Isabel’s prompt.

“So.”

“What’s gonna happen now? And don’t you dare say some shit like I don’t know or wait here until you get better because neither of those are options. We can’t afford to stay here. We don’t have the resources or the numbers it takes to hold down a fort of this size. We have to do something.”

Hannah frowned and let out a frustrated exhale. Opened her mouth.

“Actually, I think we can… and hear me out. You’re right Isabel, we don’t have the numbers to stay here until you get all the way better, but we can definitely stay here longer than what you were thinking. We have enough food that would have lasted the six of us a few weeks, a month max… but since it’s only the three of us now, and you probably shouldn’t eat food the way Chloe and I can, we have probably two, two and a half months’ worth of food.”

She cleared her throat and took a drink of water. Continued.

“As for the low numbers, Chloe and I can go break down the rest of the stairs completely, make sure there’s no getting in. We can stay here for a while until you heal enough that we can move again. And we can take shifts keeping watch. How does that sound?”

We never made it that far.

Isabel dropped their head on a pillow.

“I guess. Sounds fi-“

rustle

“…”

All three teens turned heads to look at the door. They screamed.

For one reason or another, there was an undead standing in the door frame, wandering unfocused eyes locked in their direction. It shuffled forwards.

Bang

A hole appeared in the center of its fore head and it fell backwards. Chloe and Hannah each reached for the knives they kept on them at all times, crept towards the doorway while Isabel laid guard from the bed.

Two more undead were in the hallway, but they locked onto Chloe and Hannah with scary efficiency. Neither get the chance to move though, not with the knives that wound up stuck in their chests.

The two teens make a dead sprint though the hallway into the living room to grab guns and opened fire on the half dozen in the room and the three more trying to get through the door. The first thing that they grabbed were hand guns, but they’re more than enough to take back their apartment.

“Shit! I though we locked the door!”

“We did! I don’t know how, but they broke down the door!”

“Well fuck.”

They slipped out the door back to back to clear out the hallways, and once that is done, they run back into the apartment to check on Isabel. Isabel who is coughing up blood and choking on the crimson. Hannah stayed to help Isabel breathe while Chloe started hauling bodies out of the room and throwing them over the balcony.

Something told her they would need the space. Hannah picked up Isabel’s machine gun upon entering the room and then proceeded to make hole in the floor big enough for a tiny little explosive, then dragged Chloe from the apartment as she set it off.

“Why did you blow a hole in the floor?”

Hannah gives a sheepish grin.

“Faster zombie disposal?”

Then shot at the undead stumbling through the door. As if to prove her point, Hannah pushed the nearest corpse into the hole and watched as it fell to the first floor and crushed three more undead.

“See? It works.”

“Never said it didn’t just wanted to know why ya did it.”

Chloe reloads for the zombie coming into the room.

“How’s Isabel?”

Hannah falters and Chloe picks up her gun again.

“Gone.”

Then it’s Chloe’s turn to falter and Hannah’s turn to start shooting.

“How?”

“There was more shrapnel. In her back, I think it pierced her lungs but tore when she shot the gun. You know they hates-hated ones with no recoil.”

 That was three hours ago.

Now Chloe’s fingers have all gone numb from pulling the trigger and the hole that Hannah made for zombie disposal is unusable as anything other than a pit for undead to walk or fall into. Hannah’s a few feet behind her laying on the porch trying to slow the incoming undead with well-placed shots, but Chloe knows that they need to get out of here as soon as possible, because they’re running low on ammunition and they really can’t afford to hold this position much longer.

Unfortunately, there’s not really anywhere they can go, and there’s no easy way to leave, and she doesn’t really want to leave either. Not with Isabel- Isabel’s body, she corrects herself, in the room behind her and Sarah and Gemma’s remains somewhere in the streets and little bits of Mary that are probably littering the block.

Bang! BangBangBang!

Four more infected fall in a way that blocks the entrance and Chloe takes the opportunity to shake out her hand.

“Ahh shit… Hannah, how many are out there?!”

Boom!

“Well, not as much as before but still a lot. Maybe a few hundred?”

“…shit.”

“Yep.”

Chloe goes back to shooting zombies. There’s a pile around her feet of bullet casings that comes up past her ankles, and Hannah’s pile is around her shoulders. Though that’s different because she’s lying down, not standing up like Chloe is.

Click

Chloe stops pulling the trigger to look at the gun.

Clickclickclick

“God damn it!”

She tosses it to the side and picks up a shotgun. It clicks empty. She goes for the back-up pair of semi-automatic hand guns.

“Uh hey Hannah… we may have a problem..!”

“What’s that?”

“I’m using the back-ups!”

Boom!

“That’s not good!”

“I know, what do we do?”

“Chloe, please tell me you still have your knives!”

“Yeah, but how’s that supposed to help?”

“Trade with me! You shoot the cans, I stab the zombies.”

“How are you going to get close enough?”

“I’m gonna throw them!”

“How are you going to get them back?”

“I’m going to tie the ends together with string.”

“Is that going to work?”

“It works on TV.”

“Oh my god, okay, just try not to die okay?”

“Obviously.”

Chloe picks up the rifle and aims at a can that has about six re-animated corpses around it shoots at it.

Boom!

Hannah’s twirling four knives, two separate pairs connected by some sort of strong string that shimmers in the orange light. She looks dangerous but beautiful and makes the spinning knives look like a work of art or some kind of dance.

Chloe points at another can, this one a little closer to the building where more undead are and fires.

Boom!

Hannah slits the throat of one undead with one pair of blades then hurls the other at two zombies that are trudging through the door way, before retracting both and dropping them at her feet. She reaches down and picks up an AK-47 and lets loose on the mini horde stumbling through the door way. Bullet casings tinkling onto the already covered floor. The brass falls like raindrops and bullets rip through the air like hail.

Chloe steadies her breath and aims at another can.

They are running low and they need to move.

Boom!

Maybe if she can set off a few in quick succession it’ll buy them enough time to get away? She could take over the doorway and then Hannah could pack their bags with enough stuff to last them until the next town.

It’s worth a shot. Then swears for letting Mary get to her like that.

Then Hannah shrieks behind her and she turns around in time to shoot at the two zombies that have somehow gotten past Hannah’s hail of bullets.

Hannah’s fumbling for a reload as Chloe picks up the two semi-automatic hand guns. Lets as loose as is safe on the incoming horde. They don’t sputter empty.

Thank god.

But it’s only a matter of time before something else goes wrong and then she has to fumble for another save.

Hannah starts shooting again, but it’s slower and they’re running out of time, and bullets, and energy and how the unloving fuck are they supposed to get out of this?

“Chloe, I know what you’re thinking, but we’re not done yet.”

It’s a lie. I’m sorry I’m lying to you.

“How di-“

“I’m your girlfriend you gay dipshit, and we are not dying here. If we’re going to die, we’re going to do it together, somewhere that isn’t zombie infested, with infected waiting to eat our corpses.”

I wish I wasn’t

“And they say romance is dead.”

Hannah scoffs as she mows down another row of infected.

“You’re gay.”

“So are you.”

Hannah clears her throat.

“And for the record, I love you.”

“I know Hannah, I love you too.”

wow chloe its razzle dazzle rose??? get it right 

Razzle Dazzle Rose: Describe an ideal date. point out every single exposed boob at the local art museum (;

Periwinkle: What’s something ordinary that has personal meaning to you? i honestly cannot think of a single thing right now sorry