Low Heath

Earning Trust

It's the dead of night, the weathered streets silent and eerily calm, covered in a light pink fog. There was no infected in sight, save for a  few dormant infected peashooters. Suddenly, there was movement on the street. A figure, hidden by a thick leather cloak, slipped through the trash and rubble, hiding every now and then to keep their silhouette obscured. They headed to an abandoned hardware store, the shop kept in surprisingly good condition, save for the boarded up windows and minor door fortifications. The figure enters, locking the door and slowly sliding a heavy box in front of it. Taking off the cloak, the zombie shuffled lazily to a cracked mirror, yanking on a small rope to turn on the lights. The light flickered and buzzed to life, illuminating the former Engineer's tired face. This, is Dave. Dave has been hiding out in this tool shop for Zod knows how long, and so far, it's been going well. Sure, he's had his close calls with the Infected, some almost costing Dave a broken pelvis, but despite that, He's got heating, food, water, and, when it's raining, he can watch old movies on dvds. What's not to like? (He's still not used to the almost never ending moaning and giggling outside.)

Back to the present, Dave pulled his bag off of his back, bringing out all of the supplies he managed to scavenge during his trip. Canned food, bottled water, nails, screws, and most importantly, a cassette tape player and some headphones. Dave groaned in dissatisfaction, knowing that he could have gotten more if those pesky infected didn't catch wind of him. He's been taking different routes and paths during his weekly scavenging trips, but it always ends the same; Dave running for his life away from a group of horny plants. It's almost like the infected are getting even more aggressive. Last time, he had to run for three hours straight to get them off his tail. Shaking the disappointment away and stashing all of his stuff, Dave double checks the door, then climbs up the stairs to the roof. Popping open the door, the engineer rolls out a small blanket, lying down on it while crossing his arm behind his head. Dave stares at the night sky, the now shining starlight mixing with clouds of the Haze to make beautiful swirling clouds and patterns. He lets out a calm sigh, pulling out the cassette player. He popped a tape, in jacked up the volume, and put on his headphones, leaning back and relaxing.

*Hours later, somewhere nearby.*

"I told you we were too late~! Now we'll never find him!" The distraught, whining voice of an Infected peashooter rang throughout the streets, the plant scolding her friend. Another infected plant, a rose, sat on a ledge, her cheeks flushed with embarrassment and disdain. "H-Hey! Wasn't my fault you decided to slow down to catch me!" the Peashooter sighs, hopping up to sit next to her friend, rubbing her back. "I know... but we need to stay focused! We'll never get a mate at this rate...."  the peashooter grumbled a bit, looking up at the night sky. "This is getting us nowhere! You've screwed up three attempts, and we haven't even got one lick of cock to show for it. Just thinking about it is driving me CRAZY~!" Masie, who was the whole reason their prey got away(again),  wiped away a tear and floated down from the ledge, sulking as she began to drift away. "Hey, there's always next time~. Wanna try again tomorrow?" Mel chirped behind her, trying to cheer her up. Masie nodded softly, hovering up walls and jumping up to the roof for the night. Floating from roof to roof, the rose gracefully traversed the quiet town, scanning the streets for any movement. After a short trip, She settled for a rickety telephone pole, sitting up on the top to simply gaze around the neighborhood. Ten minutes into her searching, and Masie is dozing off, finally giving up on trying to find a different mate. She climbs down, jumping onto a random rooftop and lying down, sighing heavily. Masie turned to stretch, only then noticing the zombie staring directly at her, frozen in fear.

Dave had just recently woken up from his nap, only to find an infected rose sitting right next to him. He silently panicked, trying to stay quiet as he slowly creeped towards the door. He just barely reached it, when the flower suddenly turned her head, looking over at him with teary eyes.  She quietly gasped in shock, a heavy blush setting over her face. They both stop, frozen in place. As the two stare each other down, a thin line of drool trickled down the corner of Masie's mouth,  an excited smile spreading on her face as her thorny tendrils reflexively begin creeping towards the zombie. Not waiting to get snagged, Dave dove for the door, opening it and hopping in, much to the displeasure of the rose, who tried to dive after him. The door shut right in front of her, Dave locking it quickly and letting out a shaky sigh of relief. Clawing at the door, Masie pleaded desperately with the zombie within, begging for him to open the door. "Please! Please! Please! Open the door! You have no idea how much I CRAVE YOU~!" She tried to break the door handle,grabbing a small rock and smashing it against the door. After a while, she stopped, sitting down and waiting patiently. "Can we at least talk? I know you're lonely~..." She backed up from the door, leaning against a ledge while talking in a singsong, taunting manner. There was a brief moment of silence, and Masie could hear stumbling within the building. The door creaked a tiny bit open, Dave peeking out to peer at the rose. "About what?" His eyebrow shifted slightly, glaring at the Infected. His voice was rough and scratchy from being quiet for so long. Masie's eyes lit up with joy,  quickly slinking as close to the door as she could. "That's close enough," Dave grumbled, making the plant skitter back a few paces. "We could talk about ANYTHING~! What's your favorite food? What size shirt are you wearing? How long do you sleep? Do you ever feel like leaving your door unlocked? Do you want a ma-." Her excited giggles were cut off by Dave quietly shushing her. Masie tried her best to stifle her ranting, causing Dave to sigh in exasperation. "First rule, one at a time, let yourself breathe. Second, no weird questions, please." The flower nodded intently, trying to seem as calm as possible. "What's your name? I'm Masie~!"She finally managed to blurt out, shaking with excitement. "It's Dave. Nice meeting you." Dave's arm reached out reflexively to shake her hand, quickly pulling it back after the flower decided to lick his arm. She pouted for a bit, before asking another question.