Zanvis: ALIVE. (Part two of Apocalypse AU!)

Chapter Twenty: Travis.

     Travis rubbed his very sore face and stared ahead. Anger coursed through his veins. If he felt this angry, he wondered exactly how angry Zane felt.
     The male who had knocked him down the ladder- the brown haired one with boots on- crossed his arms and had a crooked grin spread across his face. Don- Sasha- stood next to Gene, no sign of fear showing on her face anymore.
     "You're back," Zane muttered drily.
     "I am," replied Gene.
     "You trapped us."
     "I did."
     "You're dead."
     "I am?"
     Zane lurched forward. Aphmau grabbed his arm before he could make it across the room.
     "I believe you've become acquainted with Sasha, yes?" Gene asked, his voice very loud and arrogant.
    "Yes." Travis muttered, standing up. Zane looked too fueled by anger to say anything.
     "This is Zenix," he said. Zenix gave a little bow. His eyes remained fixated on Zane, taunting him.
     Zane pulled his mask off and tossed his head, showing off his full injury. Zenix took the very slightest step back, and even Gene seemed a little put off.
     "You did this," Zane snarled.
     Aphmau clapped her hand over his face. Travis watched his shoulders droop.
     "Put a muzzle on that thing," Sasha muttered. "He's been driving me nuts ever since you guys 'captured' me."
     "Maybe you should put a muzzle on that mutt that you sent after us," Travis said in a steady voice.
     Aphmau released Zane, and he took a deep breath.
     "What brings you here?" Zane asked. His voice was eerily calm. Anyone else, Travis imagined, wouldn't be able to detect that little trace of anger in his eyes. He did a good job of hiding it, and only a little bit showed, but in that little bit of anger, Travis could see pure rage.
     "Just stopping by and checking up on you guys. We care about everything you do," said Gene.
     "A little too much, don't you think?" Zane crossed his arms behind his back.
     Aaron and Garroth grunted as something pushed against the door.
     "Let's make this quick," Zenix said. His voice made Travis want to tear off his own ears.
     Zane stared at Zenix for a moment, then looked at Gene. "State your purpose. You're outnumbered here."
     "Oh, just cleansing the city of... scum."
     "Your dog did a bad job of that the first time."
     "The werewolf was meant to scare you."
     "The dog didn't scare any of us."
     "You're pathetic."
     "I believe that you're the one who acted like a poor, lost child to get us to take you in, betrayed us, and then sent another person to do the same thing."
     "And yet, you fell for it. Twice."
     Travis could sense that the tension in the air was going to explode soon. He walked up beside Zane and subtly took the knife from his hands and replaced it with something else. He pretended that he was just putting his arm around Zane's waist.
     "Stop consoling your boyfriend," Zenix grumbled. "He can fight his own battles."
     Travis chuckled and said nothing.
      "Have you come to just talk, or do you want something? Want us to leave, want us to give you our base..?" Zane asked.
     "I believe I made myself clear when I said we wanted you all to-"
     "Die," Zane spat, holding his gun out and firing a shot.
     The room erupted into madness.
     Travis's ears were ringing. He saw Garroth and Aaron stumble forward, then move back. The door had fallen off its hinges.
     The shot hit Zenix just below the shoulder.
     Gene sprung forward with a long knife in one hand and a pistol in the other, not shooting but trying to hit anyone around him with the knife.
     Sasha charged to the door and fought against Aaron and Garroth, who were holding the door as best they could with Sasha tormenting them.
     Travis watched as Zane leapt at Gene, tackling him to the ground.
     Laurence fought against Zenix while holding one of his arms. Aphmau joined him quickly, hitting, kicking, and stabbing at him.
     Travis looked back and forth, then started to help Garroth and Aaron. He grabbed Sasha by the arm and whipped her around, getting her on the cheek with his knife blade and throwing her to the floor. He put himself between her and the door.
     Aphmau cried out, and the fighting in that corner became more intense. He couldn't see Zane over the mess of people surging around him.
     Sasha suddenly jumped up into his face, punching him hard in the jaw. He saw her take out three little blades with unnatural speed and put them between her fingers on one hand.
     The scent of blood hanging in the room made his vision blurry, but he didn't let it distract him too much. As Sasha jumped at him to punch with her blades, he pushed her face to the side and tried to stab at her stomach. Her small figure helped to let her get away with a small scratch across her stomach.
     The roaring and snarling of walkers was almost deafening now. Garroth and Aaron were obviously losing strength.
    As he was looking for Zane, something sharp jabbed into his arm. He gritted his teeth and jumped at Sasha, his own blade stabbing her hard in the shoulder. She screamed and backpedaled.
     Suddenly, the door fell in and Aaron and Garroth switched from holding the door to slashing and shooting at zombies. Some of them, the smarter ones, were trying to leave.
     "There's too many!" Garroth shouted, stabbing at them.
     "Go up the ladder!" Gene commanded weakly.
     Zenix was the first to scurry up the ladder, his right leg hanging limply. Through the chaos, he saw Aphmau lying on the floor.
     "Go!" Zane roared.
     Laurence dragged Aphmau towards the ladder, and Zane helped him lift her up.
     Aaron and Garroth went to help as well, while Zane and Travis started for the ladder as well. Sasha kicked Laurence in the back of the knee so his leg buckled and used that as a distraction to climb up the ladder.
     Aaron grabbed Aphmau and climbed up as fast as he could with his one hand.
     Zane pushed Travis roughly to get him to climb. Laurence went after Travis, then Garroth, then Zane. Gene struggled to climb after them.
     Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Zane kick Gene in the face and knock him down. Travis guessed it was for revenge.
     All of the walkers that finally made it past the broken door completely overtook Gene.
     The darkness of the upper floor was full of screams and yells without any discernible source.
     Something was torn off of a window, and the room became light. Everyone was fighting and yelling. The window was thrown open by Zenix, and then he was dragged back roughly by Garroth. Garroth disappeared into the crowd.
    Both Sasha and Zenix freed themselves at once, and jumped out the open window. Everyone ran to the window, even Aaron, who was carrying Aphmau over one shoulder.
     Travis gasped. There was a wide ledge a little below the window that Sasha and Zenix frantically limped across. One by one, everyone else jumped onto the ledge and followed them up a little staircase onto the roof.
     Aaron sank down onto the first roof with Aphmau, while Travis and a much slower Zane chased Sasha and Zenix across the roof. Travis wished that the buildings weren't so close together so that they wouldn't be able to run from
roof to roof so easily.
     Travis jumped forward right before they could leap onto the next roof and managed to grab Zenix by the ankle. Zenix tripped while Sasha kept running. Even Zane stopped following her. Zane and Travis hauled the sobbing and whining Zenix to his feet and dragged him across the roof and across the gap to the others.
     Zane suddenly stopped, staring with wide eyes at the others. They all were either sitting or laying down
     Travis couldn't assess how bad their wounds were. His vision was too blurry.
     What he could tell, though, was that the two laying down were bleeding much more than the others.
     Aphmau was one of them, and she was being held by Aaron, who was trying to dig through the bag of supplies that Travis hadn't even remembered they had brought. He was surprised it survived the attack.
     The other one was Garroth, who was blocked entirely by Laurence. Travis suddenly became aware of all of the sounds.
     Zane's breathing decreasing, Laurence's sudden loud wails, and Aaron's faint sniffing.
     The reality of everything dawned on Travis.
     Their healer was basically dying.
     Everyone was injured or severely injured.

     Garroth was dead.