Outside Of Life [WayHaught]

Recon Mission | Part 3

The herd was beginning to surround the Outsiders, all possible exits very quickly being closed off. Sergeant Dolls had instructed the Privates, including Mercedes, to act as the first line of defence as they crouched behind a burnt-out car. The approaching herd were a hundred paces away, but close enough to leave a smell under Private Gardner's nose, much to her disgust. The Sergeant and Doc worked together to mow down the zombies behind them as a somewhat organised two-pronged attack method, only they were running low on ammo and Sergeant Haught had taken the extra in her backpack.
Wiping the sweat from his brow, not removing his hat to do so, Doc knelt behind Dolls to reload his pistols. "This is certainly not ideal, Sergeant Dolls. I assume you have a more thorough plan of attack than what we are currently partaking in?"
The Sergeant didn't reply. His level-headed persona was what had gotten him the promotion to Sergeant in the first place, but Dolls was finding it hard to keep calm as the herd grew ever closer to their makeshift stronghold.
"Any suggestions you have, Doc, I'll be glad to hear," he said reluctantly.
"Well, I do remember this one such occasion where I used a few sticks of dynamite-"
Wynonna covered Doc's face with her hands, muffling the rest of his idea. "You guys suck at this, huh? We're doing fine, the herd is ages away with all that shuffling they do and Haught-stuff is never late, so in about thirty seconds we'll have backup and the zombies will die and I can be reunited with my whiskey."
Dolls couldn't hide the look of surprise on his face at how sensible Wynonna sounded. "That's a good point, Earp. Apart from the whiskey."
"Reunited?" Doc stood up, having finished reloading his pistols. "You mean to say you let whiskey leave your side?"
Wynonna groaned and rolled her eyes. "Not exactly, no. I went to get some out of my bag and it wasn't there so obviously Nicole took it. Suppose that's what happens when you're friends with a nark."
While Dolls tried to explain to Wynonna the importance of being sober while on a recon mission, Nicole and Waverly had fought their way out of the treehouse and into the middle of the street, running from car to car in an attempt to avoid being seen. Neither of them had many rounds left in their weapons and reloading would only draw further attention to their position.
"Why couldn't there be deaf zombies?" Waverly muttered to herself, sticking close to the Sergeant. "Life would be so much easier if they couldn't hear every little noise."
Suddenly Nicole stopped and looked over her shoulder at the brunette. "Waves, you have to be quiet. This is the only way we'll get to the rendezvous alive."
The look in the Sergeant's eyes sent a shiver down Waverly's spine. She knew being an Outsider wasn't a trip to the park, but it hadn't sunk in that they really could die at any minute. At least, it hadn't sunk in until then.
"Sorry," the brunette mouthed.
Nicole tried to smile, but couldn't stop herself from thinking the worst. She kissed Waverly lightly on her forehead and continued down the street. They were only a block away but at this rate, they were at risk of being late. All the Sergeant could do was pick up the pace and hope that their equipment didn't rattle more than it was already, especially with her backpack containing most of the spare ammo.
Lucky for the Privates who were on their last round of bullets, Nicole and Waverly came out of a side street and into the bundle of cars the rest of the Outsiders were taking cover in.
"Jeez, what took you so long?" Wynonna grabbed Sergeant Heaught's backpack and decanted the bullets, chucking a fresh box to each member of the team. Even Mercedes was getting into it, having just been complaining about the dirt on her boots solidly for the last five minutes.
"We were caught off-guard by a herd," Nicole explained, mostly talking to Dolls. She couldn't help but feel sheepish at how exactly she'd been caught. "We did find rope, batteries and radios though."
Dolls nodded his head. "Good work, Haught. We could really use your help with developing a plan."
The Sergeants nodded at each other and got to work formulating their attack method much to Wynonna's annoyance. Deciding not to waste her time on the goody-two-shoes in charge, the elder Earp went to annoy her sister instead.
"Whatcha doing Waves?"
The younger Earp gave no response, loading up her shotgun.
"Is this silence the result of banging hot redhead?"
Waverly glared at her sister and locked the shotgun into place.
"Ok, sorry, not the right time, I get it." Wynonna held up her hands as if to surrender. "But seriously, Waves, are you ok? You guys were gone for ages and Haught is never late."
"Wynonna we could die if this herd isn't stopped soon and yet instead of helping everyone out, you've decided to ask stupid questions which, in turn, has stopped me from doing anything helpful too! And also, I'm not going to apologise for being late because, well, I really like Nicole."
The elder sister's grin faded as she took hold of Waverly's hands. "I'm sorry, ok? You know what I'm like Waves; shit gets real and I run the other way. I just want to make sure you don't get hurt in all of this 'feelings' stuff. The apocalypse can do funny things to your brain, trust me."
"I know, Wynonna, and I appreciate the concern but I'm a grown-up just as much as you are. I can take care of myself, really."
The sisters smiled at one another, trying to block out the approaching wall of viral flesh for just a moment before Wynonna placed a delicate kiss on Waverly's forehead. "I trust you, baby girl. But also it's literally in the 'big sister' job description to both annoy and worry about your sister so you can't get rid of me that easy!"
Together, they made their way to the front of the car barricade and began firing at the herd. Sergeant Haught then jumped to Waverly's side, shouting to Doc and Dolls to "stop arguing over the minute details of dynamite and get your asses over here to help!"
In the end, the whole thing turned out to be quite epic, or at least it was in Wynonna's mind. Private Gardner sat within the carcass of the car that the Earp's were stood behind in order to reload weapons and remain protected. Perry was defending the back of the stronghold with Privates Bouillon and Van Tilberg beside him. They were lucky that the street was narrow, houses lining either side so that the herds were effectively being funnelled towards the Outsiders.
Soon enough, the squad had evolved into a well-oiled machine and the Earp sisters alone were able to cut down an entire row of the herd at a time. Sergeant Dolls kept on top of the status of his team, constantly going back and forth to check up on Perry, then Mercedes, then Wynonna (who still didn't have her whiskey), and round again. Doc was content mowing down the stragglers that seemed to get past the Earp sisters' attacks, his double-pistol approach meaning he was able to get clean shots to either side of the street with no trouble at all. Sergeant Haught had first remained glued to Waverly's side but the younger Earp was proving herself worthy to no end, at some points shouting at the infected as she shot them down with a gun the same size as her.
Knowing that Wynonna would protect her sister if she couldn't protect herself, Haught made her way to the centre of their small barricade where their kit had been piled up to allow freedom of movement around the edge. She picked up the bags in turn and sniffed them, singling out one that smelt of cigarette smoke and alcohol. Inside, she found an array of dangerous items and illegal contraband as per Nedley's rules, but that's exactly what she wanted.
"Doc, I need your help with this," Nicole said, tipping the bag upside down and emptying its contents onto the shabby tarmac. "We're going to very quickly run out of ammo at this point. Even though we're keeping the herd at bay, that won't help us two days from now when we have no bullets and we end up in another situation like this."
The gunslinger removed his hand and ran a hand through his slick black hair. "Well, what do you propose, Sergeant?"
"We need to make a bomb, and fast."

A/N: Ooooooo we back with a bang (heh). Did you know you can follow me on Tumblr @ HelloImThatPerson ?? There you can send me ideas or ask me questions :) Let me know what you though of this part in the comments and keep your fingers crossed that Nicole's idea works....