Soulbound (Carlos x OC)

Chapter 2, Resurrection

little authors note, i know rpd was in raccoon, but the police station theyre in now has the exact same layout. its just easier since i know the rpd layout better than any other random station!! ofc i dont have the whole place memorized though, so some things may be off, but it doesn't rlly matter that much lol. also, im aware mr x wouldn't be in denver either, but i needed a bigger villain.
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Serenity's POV

     We set on our way to the police station. The streets were busy, people driving recklessly, or running to any safe place they can get to, it was just pure chaos everywhere you looked. We took no detours whatsoever and just went straight to Denver's main police station.
     Claire, Jill, and Chris all set off in their own car, leaving me, Carlos, and Lily in this one. We all could've fit in Chris's soccer mom minivan, but we figured it'd be best to bring two vehicles with us. I left Carlos alone in the front so I could speak with Lily.
"Your dad in town?" I ask Lily.
"I don't know where he is. My mom broke up with him a lot of years ago." She responded.
"I'm sorry." I tell her.
She lets out an awkward smile.
"Well, you can annoy Carlos as much as you want to make up for that." I whisper to her.
She laughs.
"I'm not deaf, you know." Carlos announces.
"Shocker." I reply.
We finally get to the police station. I take Lily with me, holding her hand in mine. She's holding her coloring book in her other hand, and the colored pencils are in her pocket. I throw my backpack over my other shoulder. Carlos leads us in.
We wait near the door for the others to catch up with us before we set through the station looking for people. It's definitely better to be in a bigger group while we're here.
Once everyone's together, we all agree on checking around together, but Claire just went ahead and started shouting.
"Hellooooo?!" She called out.
"Way to keep a low profile." Chris elbows her.
While the siblings were in the middle of having a quarrel, the sound of a door was heard from the floor above. There were stairs to the left and to the right. Going up them could either lead you to the same spot in the middle or to the left doors or right doors. From the sound of it, the slammed door was to the right.
"Do we check that out?" Carlos asks.
"We're here to help." Jill says, then leads the way up there.
The rest of us hesitate, but Claire shouts "I'm right behind you!", and runs after Jill.
"Let's go then." Carlos tells me.
I nod. I hold onto Lily's hand with a firm grasp. Carlos follows behind Chris, Chris is behind Claire, and Jill is leading the whole group.
We get to the door we all seemed to hear the slam from, and it appears to be a sort of waiting room. There's nobody in here, but there is another door that leads farther back into the place.
"We shouldn't all go in there. Could be a trap." Chris says.
"We just got here, who'd wanna hurt us already?" Claire asks.
"You'd be surprised." I say.
We split into groups. I'd go past the door with Claire. We wouldn't go far, and we'd come back the moment things got weirder than usual. The rest would stay in the waiting room, except Chris, who'd be right outside the door, watching over the railing to see if anyone went into the main area.
"Ready?" Claire asks me.
"No. But let's go." I say.
"Alright." She replies.
She opens the door and we look around. We could go either left or right. We agree on going left first.
We take the turn that leads us in the left direction. We walk past a few locked doors, only to see the hall come to a dead end.
"Well, if they're here, they locked us out of whatever room they-" Claire begins, but can't finish because a zombie came out from around the corner and attacked her.
Claire fell to the ground with the thing, holding its body away, keeping it from tearing the flesh of her neck. I ran over with my knife and pierced it through the zombies head. It didn't kill it, so I take it out of its head, then stab it again, but more toward the back of the head. It stops trying to bite, and its head goes weak and flops toward Claire. She pushes the thing off of her, then I give her a hand and help her up.
"Thanks." She tells me.
I nod.
"His breath wasn't very nice." She humors.
I laugh a little.
"Wanna check out the other side now?" I ask.
"Don't have a choice." She says.
"Technically we do. We can just go back if you really want to." I tell her.
"Oh no, gotta impress the ladies." Claire says.
"By ladies do you mean Jill?" I ask.
"SHHHH." She shushes me.
"Woah! Sorry." I laugh.
We finally set on our way to the right halls. They lead us outside, there's stairs that could take us to the floor below, and a fence. A few rotting pieces of flesh are piled up against the fence, pushing it and growling.
"Guess we aren't finding who we were looking for after all." Claire announces.
"Still think Jill's gonna be impressed?" I tease.
"Forget I said that." She laughs.
We start heading back to where the group is. I'm honestly glad I got to do this with Claire. Im a lot closer with everyone else than I am with her. It took awhile for me to convince her I wasn't a piece of shit when we first met. She was really protective over Jill, its always been obvious she has a little crush.
The group was still waiting for us by the time we were back.
"Nothing?" Carlos asks.
"Nope." I reply.
"What's on your hand?" Claire asks Carlos.
"Lily found pens in the drawers of that counter." He says.
"I hope they stain your hand." I tell him.
He gets up from his seat then kneels down by Lily.
"Can I use that?" He asks her.
She nods and hands him a pen.
He then runs over to me and draws a huge mark on my arm.
"That was uncalled for." I tell him then try taking the pen so I can draw on him. He holds it as high up into the air as he can, making me unable to reach it. I continued struggling until Chris walked back in from where he was watching over the main area. He walked past Carlos then took the pen.
"Now nobody gets it." He says.
"Hey!" Lily calls to him.
"Nice one, dumbass. Lily lost her pen now." I tell Carlos.
Once Chris returns the pen to Lily and Carlos stops acting like a child, I realize Jill isn't in the room.
"Where's Jill?" I ask.
"She went looking for a restroom." Chris tells me.
"How long ago?"
"Like right as you and Claire went through that door." He replies, then realizes she's been gone far too long.
"I'm gonna go look for her." I say.
"Not alone you aren't." Claire tells me.
"Im not endangering any of you. Just keep lookout for anyone else, okay?" I say.
"Can I come?" Lily asks me.
I kneel down and look at Lily.
"You can't come this time, how about you stay back and scribble on Carlos some more?" I suggest.
She hugs me. Im not sure why she hugged me, but I hug her back.
"Ill see you once I find Jill, alright?" I tell her.
She nods.
I stand up and walk over to Carlos.
"We don't know what's in here. Make sure Lily doesn't get hurt. Claire and Chris are both really good on their own, but don't let them get hurt either." I tell him.
You might think I'm being dramatic making sure he watches over everyone. Or, you might think the fact I'm talking like I'll never see him again is dramatic, but after Raccoon, I just have to.
"Let me go with you. If something happens to you, I'd never forgive myself and you know that." He tells me.
I get on my tip-toes and kiss him. Once I've released the kiss, I tuck his hair behind his ear.
"I'm gonna be fine. From the looks of it, nothing too bad is in the station." I tell him.
I walk over to Chris and Claire and tell them goodbye too. I assure them I should be back, but if I haven't returned in an hour, to watch their backs.
I head through the door and enter the piece of floor that lead us into that room. I walk along, turning into random doors, hoping I'll manage to run into the bathroom. Or any trace of Jill.
     I reached a long hallway with tons of doors on both the left and right. As I walked through the hallway and read the signs on the doors, I got an eerie feeling as if someone was watching me. I turned around to ensure nobody was behind me. I convinced myself I was just being paranoid, then continued walking through the hall. I heard growling from behind most of the doors, leading me to assume that whoever was working in them before was infected. It's crazy how this whole thing spreads so quickly.
     As I was walking by, I heard more growling at a door, which is seemingly normal, but it sounded almost..fake? Like, maybe a recording? I pressed my ear to the door I heard this artificial growling from. Sure enough, I heard where the clip ends and begins again. I couldn't tell if I should open the door and check inside, it could be Jill, or someone playing it to protect themselves. But it could also be bad news. I have no idea what went down in this police department.
     I stood up and took a few deep breaths. I grabbed my gun and gathered all my courage I had inside of me. I know last time I opened a questionable door, Jade was on the other side. I never wanna see anything like that ever again. I never wanna feel my heart drop that way again.
     I placed my hand on the knob and took one more deep breath. As I was about to turn it, Jill ran to me from farther down this hallway.
"Jill!" I shout.
"Watch out!" She tells me. I look behind her, and see a huge almost human looking thing following her. He's only walking, but every step shakes the room. He's terrifying.
"Fuck! Cmon!" I tell her.
"We can't lead him to the group!" She replies as we run together.
"Let's just try to lose him somewhere. We'll make it back to the group later." I suggest.
"Sounds like a plan." She tells me. 
     We both run as fast as we can. Jill runs slightly ahead of me so I can follow her path. She turns sharp corners and goes through a few doors. We keep running until we hide in a room that has some weird statue missing a hand. We hid behind some boxes. I held my hands over my mouth to try and silence my heavy breathing. Jill has really good control of her breathing, so she manages to just calm it down a bit. We hear his footsteps near the door. They slowly got closer and closer until they were right outside the door. But, to my surprise, he kept waking and passed the door. Jill and I stayed back awhile longer until we heard his footsteps gone completely.
     Once his footsteps were gone, the two of us got up and started slowly walking back to where we left the group. We made sure to walk slow and steady, making minimal noise in hopes of avoiding that thing.
     We finally reached the room where the rest of us were last seen. Thankfully, the group was still in here. Carlos was sitting down, and Lily was asleep, leaning her head on his shoulder.
"Jill!" Chris shouts and hugs her.
"Wow. You didn't think I could manage myself?" She teases.
"Nope." He jokes back.
Jill turns to Claire. I expected Claire to hug her or something, but she just smiled then turned her head.
"What happened?" Chris asks Jill, as I walk over to where Carlos and Lily are.
     "I woulda gotten up and hugged you, but this little one is out." He tells me.
"It's okay. You guys look cute together anyways." I smile.
     My mind can't help but wonder to the thought of Carlos as a dad. Before this, I could never see him like this with kids. I mean, he didn't even wanna go present at a school, but, seeing him with Lily feels different. It makes me beyond happy though. I'm glad Lily trusts him.
     "After all that, I'm guessing you didn't find that bathroom?" I overhear Chris ask Jill as I end my conversation with Carlos.
"Why? You gotta go now?" She laughs.
"Maybe." He replies.
I let out a small laugh from their conversation.
     As everyone was settling down again, I remember something that I should probably share with everyone.
"Oh, guys, by the way, when I was looking for Jill, there was this long hallway, and, I heard growling behind almost every door, but, behind one of the doors, the growling sounded fake." I explain.
"Fake like a person was the one growling?" Claire asks.
"Not quite. Maybe a recording." I say.
"I didn't hear anything." Jill says.
"Maybe I'm paranoid." I tell the group.
"Nah. After everything we've seen and heard, I think you'd be able to tell real growling from fake growling.." Carlos says.
"Gee, way to be reassuring." Jill says.
"Well I don't want her to feel crazy. Nothing wrong with that, is there Jill?" Carlos replies.
"Well in this situation the truth isn't always best." Jill tells him.
"Okay, both of you, enough." I say.
     My attempt to make the two stop arguing didn't exactly work though. They've always kinda argued a bit. I think they have some bad blood from Raccoon. From the lying and secrets to.. everything else. And, honestly, I think maybe Jill had a thing for Carlos. He might've had one back. I still feel awful about coming between it. They both assure me that nobody's mad at me for any of that, but I can't help but feel bad. Maybe they could've had something.
     Once I snap back into reality and leave my thoughts, the two are still arguing. I look up at Claire and Chris, who are both just watching. Claire and I make eye contact, and I signal for her to say something. She nods.
"Seriously, that's enough!" She tells them.
Carlos finally gives it a rest. Lily wakes up, it must've been from all the shouting.
     "Shit, sorry Lily. You can go back to sleep." He tells her.
"It's okay." She says as she yawns, then wipes her eyes.
"I need some air." Jill says, then walks out of the room.
"I'm sorry guys. I didn't mean to put anyone on the spot." Carlos apologizes.
Everyone assures him it's okay, including me. Maybe I should be upset that he doesn't get along all that well with my closest friend, but I'm not. I know he can't help it.
As Jill was still outside, we heard a huge crash. Chris ran to the door to check it out, Claire following behind him. Carlos jumped up to go out with them. I picked up Lily and placed her behind the counter.
"Just keep coloring, okay?" I tell her.
She nods. I can see the concern in her eyes.
"I'll be back. I promise." I assure her, then run outside.
Once I get outside, I see the thing that was chasing me and Jill has returned. His sights are locked on Chris right now, but everyone is taking fire at him. It doesn't seem to phase him. Eventually, he stops for awhile, but then he just keeps going again.
"You guys get out of here! I'll lure him away!" Chris shouts.
"No way." Claire tells him.
Jill just continues firing at the thing without a word. Carlos fires at it too.
"Fucking go! I can't let you guys get hurt!" He yells.
Jill runs back to me and Carlos.
"You two go with Lily. Get out of here. Claire and I will help him." She instructs us.
"We aren't leaving you guys alone." I tell her.
"Go! Protect her." Jill tells me.
"No!" I shout.
"Carlos, get her outta here." Jill tells him. He puts his gun into his pocket then he holds me by my shoulders and moves me.
"What're you doing?! They need help!" I shout.
"So does Lily!" He replies, then puts me into the room with her. He walks in with me and shuts the door.
"They can't fight that thing alone!" I yell.
"They're smart. All of them, they're gonna be okay. Just breathe." Carlos tells me.
"I can't just breathe! None of this is okay!" I tell him and try getting to the door. He blocks me from leaving.
"Let me out." I tell him.
"I can't do that." He replies.
"For fucks sake just let me go!" I yell.
"Don't raise your voice. Calm down, deep breaths." Carlos tells me.
I feel awful for shouting at him, I really do. But I can't stop. I'm awful and I can't stop.
"Let me go!" I shout again.
As I was trying to get through the door, Lily comes out from behind the counter.
"Oh, Lily. I'm sorry I didn't mean to yell." I tell her.
I see tears in her eyes. She's crying.
I walk over to her and sit on the floor near her. I hug her.
"Im scared." She cries.
"I'm gonna protect you. Carlos and I will make sure you're okay." I tell her.
She hugs me tighter. I feel her tears create a damp spot on my shirt.
Once she's gotten it all out, I ask her to stay behind the counter while me and Carlos step out and talk. We go through the door Claire and I searched earlier, not the one where we last saw the others.
Carlos follows me out. I turn to him.
"I'm sorry." I apologize.
"I know you are. It's okay." He tells me.
I look down.
"You know I'm not good at communication, I'm trying though." I say.
He lifts my chin so I face him.
"It's okay. Im not going anywhere." He assures me.
I got insanely lucky with him. I'm awful at communication, and my emotions are hard for me to handle, but he's still here for me. I have so much respect for this man.
"Thank you." I thank him.
He smiles.
As we were turning to open the door, we heard Lily shout.
"Help me!" I hear her call out.
Carlos and I rush through the door.
"No fucking way." I say.
"Serenity! Long time, no see." Jade says.
"What could you possibly want now? You've taken everything. You ruined Raccoon for fucks sake." I shout at her.
"All I need is for you to give up the girl. Easy enough." Jade tells me.
"Tough fucking luck. She's not going anywhere with you." I say.
My mind is overflowing with questions. How is she even alive? Why is she back? Did she cause this mess in Denver? Just, why?
"I need the girl. I won't leave without her." Jade says.
"Who're you working for now?" I ask.
"Secret!" She smiles.
She continues holding Lily's arm as she talks. Lily pulls away, but Jade is holding her arm firmly. I'm not sure how to go about this, if I rush at her suddenly, she might break Lily's arm, or worse. But I cant let her get away with Lily either. I told her Carlos and I would keep her safe and I've already failed to make that come true.
I know I have to keep her talking so she doesn't leave.
"Why do you need Lily?" I ask.
"Yet another secret." Jade tells me.
"Aren't you tired of being the second best?" I ask.
"Excuse me?" She seems offended.
"Always working for people. Under them. Doesn't it hurt knowing you're not enough to be their equal?" I ask.
She tenses up. I'm getting under her skin and it's plain to see. As she's getting worked up, Carlos takes his opportunity and charges toward Lily and Jade. He takes Lily from her grasp so quickly she didn't have time to think.
     "Get Lily outta here!" I shout.
"What?!" He asks.
"Go!" I say.
"I can't leave you." He tells me.
"She'll only follow us. You need to go!" I yell.
He hesitates for a second, then begins running with Lily. Jade attempts to run after them, but I block the door. She swings at me, but I move just on time, and her hand hits the door.
"Fuck!" She shouts.
     As she's distracted by the pain her hand just experienced, I grab her arm and twist it, holding it behind her back, leaving her unable to move anything but her other arm.
"Stay away from me and my friends." I whisper into her ear.
"In your dreams." She replies, then drops a sort of smoke grenade.
I begin coughing and try fanning the smoke away from my face, but by the time I was again aware of my surroundings, Jade was gone.