Alex acutely flinched at the noise and his big red irises rolled upward in slight irritation.

Another one… Gre-

Alex paused for a moment, his already cold blood going even icier. Maybe even the iciest.

They don’t have to know.

“Keep moving. Please. I’m absolutely enthralled that you are afraid of a survivor with a gun and not a drooling corpse.”

…if it’s not… I’m in trouble…

His fingers pulled Alice back up from slipping and he felt ill.

Goddamn what I would give to go first.
Mercer licked his dry lips and breathed out slowly.

Alex looked straight at their backs and smiled darkly, hiking an eyebrow up. “Now this excites me.” That smile was probably too seductive and uncalled for as he trooped behind them. “Hustle.”

The burning, searing pain felt like it was about to rip her apart. Alice let out a scream, which echoed in the stairwell, taking everyone by surprise. Her eyes opened briefly, only seeing more darkness. Everything felt heavy, like holding onto 50 ton weights. She couldn't bear it any longer, she let out a croak, a guttural cry of agony and blacked out again.

~

Ivann froze and so, it would seem, did everything else. You could have dropped a hair pin and it would have sounded like a dropped jar of marbles in the stair way.
"Is she conscious?" He asked quickly. She seemed to have quieted down, but who knows why. She may be passing into the infected state. They needed light and they needed to assess the situation. Unfortunately the person above them didn't give them much room for options and the window of opportunity to get past the gunman undetected was long since past.
"Nevermind, no time. Let's GO!" Ivann said hastily. There were foot falls and moans coming from all directions.

This is nothing but a chute for freshmeat..

It was difficult to figure out where all the sounds were coming from but in the end Ivann gave up, he didn't care. He never should have left that godforsaken penthouse. Lurching forward his foot landed in something slick, sliding him up two stairs and face forward into a corpse. Without skipping a beat he was back up, moving with a whole new purpose. To get these people where he promised he'd take them. But who knew what that penthouse had become. It felt like days since he'd been there now. He swallowed back the pain, the pain from his possibly-broken nose, the pain from the loss of his dead best friend and mother.

Come on.. We're on 12.. 6 more floors..

Dutch was running, and all hope left him as he was pursued by several crazed things with no means of defense, and no end in sight apart from his ultimate demise at their hands... and teeth.

He had no idea where he was in relation to the exit, the floor plan of the immense hotel was baffling when you were running for your life.

He heard a scream from below, adding to his terror, heightened previously by the muffled sounds of gunfire. This was all so surreal, these people, they were like... zombies. But you can't call them zombies, right? Not if you're going to take them seriously, but they acted just like the zombies in video games and movies, and somehow... they had become real. How? Why?

He spotted a doorway, propped open by a dead body, and thought Why not? He honed in on that doorway, and it was the only thing on his mind. As he dove through it and kicked the body out, his pants caught on the doorknob and he heard a loud Skriiiiiiiiiiiitch as the velcro came undone on one leg.

The creatures were very close behind him and he struggled not to trip on the pants leg that hung around his feet as he shoved the door shut against the weight of the dead person's body.

He plastered himself against the wall and surveyed the room quickly, he was like a cornered squirrel in a new environment, looking for threats.

He found none, luckily. He was in the maid service's laundry room, and a hamper was just barely in reach. He slid it across the floor and propped it under the doorknob so that it couldn't be opened from the outside.

Fixing the velcro patches of his stripper pants back, he leaned against one of the washing machines and felt near collapse.

--

Lisa felt Alice's weight being lifted as Alex gained momentum. She saw the resolve on his face, but had no clue as to what it meant for them.

She had a sneaking feeling that he wasn't going to go along with her plans of avoidance. Not that that was really an option after Alice's outburst, but she just wasn't ready. The world didn't seem to give a damn about her state of readiness, though.

Alex slipped through the door, the whole floor of lights shuddering on and off like a bad horror film.

Alex slipped Alice gently to the ground, panting and pacing in anxiety. “W-wait.” The virus walked several feet away, trying to breath in precious oxygen, getting away from they; who were already panting just as bad and using up the air in their bubble.
“F-fuck stairs.”


The older man leaned against the wall and relaxed as best as he could, given the events at hand.

That's when he saw him. Mick saw the sole reason for revenge for making him hurt. The Australian's eyes narrowed in anger. That thing killed his daughter.

Zeus' back was to him and he watched the virus. No red head, no blonde, no passed out raven, just Zeus. Fucking Zeus. Alexander Goddamn Mercer.

Mick watched how fluid he virus moved; how could these people not tell it was him, even in disguise? No human moves that smoothly with purpose. Michael had already drew his gun and was taking aim as he took slow steps towards Zeus, walking past the others in blind ignorance. He swallowed. The bullet wouldn't hurt Blacklight much, but more because he was weakened and very unaware.

Must be very weak for him not to hear me by now.

Mick watched Alex hunch over, the symmetrical red tribal dragons on the back of his jacket shifting with the leather. The lights flickered ominously and Alex caught the scent of something.
“…. No.”

"Eat this, petri dish."

Mick pulled the cold trigger and watched as the virus fell forward, clutching his side with a groan. The part insane veteran didn't care as he leapt towards Mercer. The man practically grinned as he jumped onto the virus, knees first. That action of kneecaps hitting rib cage forcefully made Zeus cry out from under him where any human would scream bloody murder.

Alex blinked then and snarled a hand clutched to his side, his nose to the sky in searing pain and hatred. “ARE YOU SHITTING ME, MICHEAL?! I THOUGHT WE SOLVED THIS?!” This man pinning Alex was one of the few banes of this existence.

“Not until you’re dead, mate.” There was a flat thud and Alex was pinned yet again on his back by a foot on his chest, an auburn haired man pointing a gun down at his chest. Alex sighed, his face adopting a worn out expression and a grimace.

"Are you really this weakened? Almost makes me sad to kill you like this." Michael cocked his gun at Alex again just as the virus began to make noises like a rattlesnake.

"Why don't you listenInventory:"
"Why don't you die, Zeus?"
"I'm not programmed to."
"You stupid jackass, you should have just stopped kicking when they fed you pesticides after your lobotomy."
"That's too bad. Now why didn't I cut you in half in Nevada when you were sleeping in your car?"
"If we were to kill everybody who hates you, it wouldn’t be murder; it would be genocide!"
"I’ll never forget the first time we met... although I’ll keep trying!"
"Hi! I’m a human being! What are youInventory:"

At that Alex snarled and leapt. Michael's gun went up and connected with the side of the sentient being’s skull. Not like would it slow him for long.

Michael hooked a hand around hood and scruff, dragging the virus through the dusty floor leaving a trail of dark black liquid as he pulled.

The soldier wasn't getting far and decided to take a risk as he watched the brackish red blood soak into the plush carpet fibers, no longer being smudged across tile. Mick didn’t even care about the others watching them in horror. He was doing them a favor.

Mick dropped his prize just as he felt the big fish start to struggle with a weak hiss.

Just looking at that face, the deep scowl, high cheekbones, and the preying eyes made him fill with rage.

Alex came to and whipped a hand out to grab his hunter's ankle and clenched hard, making pain blossom up the Australian's leg and forced him to his knees. Zeus laughed darkly, exposing a mouth of sharp, neurotoxin saliva laced fangs, specially oozed when the virus was especially pissed. Alex swiped out quickly, clocking the veteran hard in the jaw as the weapon slid out of his hand and the virus slid it across the waxed tiles.

Mick cut Zeus short as his hands went to the monsters neck, cutting off his air supply, strangling him. Alex struggled to get his knees up to buck him off but his eyes stayed bored into the government man's, the virus' sclera turning red from asphyxia. He gasped and spluttered. Mick noticed that when Blacklight tried to pick his hand up and weakly formed one or two claws that faded away. Zeus was sitting in his own spilled blood.

Alex opened his eyes wide and tried kicking. It would take a lot more than this to kill him. He didn't need oxygen but God only knew what Mick had planned if he passed of from being deprived of it. Curse him becoming dependent on lungs from humans. His whole chest felt like fire from the graze across his ribs. Alex got his knee up between them and swiftly tried to straighten it, getting the effect he wanted as Michael backed up, let go of his neck, and groaned at the knee to the gut. Both men skittered and tried to regain balance on their feet, breathing in the other’s adrenaline.

Alex haphazardly smudged blood in a line on his cheek.
“We have done this before, you can’t kill me.” Mercer was forced to hand to hand combat, which he was comfortable with for the time being.

The two men grappled one another and Mick grinned as he lifted his fist up to belt Alex across the face but Alex caught it, struggling to push it back as he balled his own fist and caught the veteran in the jaw yet again.

Mick spluttered and backed up, charging forward and swinging hard at the panting virus and successfully dug his knuckle into Alex's temple. Mercer gasped in surprise, head butting the soldier in reply to the punch, getting rewarded with another rough jab to his pretty pale face for the move.

The both of them continued to swing and bark in pain; neither Mercer nor Roland being men to back down from a fight. They would fight to the death if it came to it.

Mick had a bloody split lip and Alex was marred with a heavy bruise on his brow. Alex shook his shoulders in readiness.

"Down.. a.. level..Inventory:" Ivann blinked, fear threatening to swallow him whole as he watched Lisa disappear from sight. The plan was the pent house, the fortified walls and sense of safety and now that was out?

What the fuck?

Reminding himself to be angry later he tried pushing the sound of the Ginger's loaded threat to the back of his mind. The only thing that mattered was this poor, broken girl that lay in front of him. He had no idea what kind of shape the floor was in beneath them. It could be abandoned, or it could be completely infested. All the doors could be locked, or.. All sorts of calculations was forming in his mind at this point. Fear forgotten, Ivann weighed his choices. The sound of a huge confrontation began. For a moment Ivann wrote it off as a possible walker mob but then he heard the voices.

The other gunman..

At this point Ivann switched to survival mode. He bent down slowly and picked up Alice, cradling her to his chest.

"Don't worry. I got you." He wasn't even sure why he whispered that to her. Maybe because if it were him he would have hoped a stranger had reassured him. He backed out of the room and down the hallway. He waited briefly, hearing the sound of crashing bodies and yelling then decided to use his brief window of flickering power to make it down the stairs. His eyes were adjusted again to the darkness. He would listen to the ginger, it was obvious that Mercer's head was just not in the right place. He's been obviously having issues since he saw this girl laying on the floor at Ivann's feet.

Maybe he's got a thing for her..

Quickly Ivann dismissed the notion for ridiculous. There's no way that Alexander Mercer, a walking virus, was capable of having the notion of love. He wasn't programmed for that, he was programmed for destruction, for rage, for survival.

What's wrong with you Rainik? Get a hold of yourself. That's a person, doesn't matter if he's a virus. What's gotten into you?

Ivann smiled darkly, feeling shitty to his core. The government's gotten into me.. He replied to himself internally and began down the stairs, keeping his foot steps as quiet as possible. The sounds of moans were still echoing but it was obvious that the large mob following them earlier had found new prey on a lower floor.

Ducking through the 17th floor stair way entrance, Ivann walked into a similar hallway to the one above. The hallway floor was tiled here though. A small, dark wooden table stood at the end of the hall, with an ornate mirror nailed above it and a beautiful white orchid in a frosted glass vase atop it. Ivann could see himself in the mirror, heaving from strain on his body, hair disheveled and cradling a bloody body. The look on his face was total exhaustion. There were four doors, two were closed while the other two were standing wide open. An abandoned maids cart stood between the two open doors as Ivann carefully glanced in one room. At first glance it was empty and he walked inside silently. Seeing a bed he carefully planted Alice atop it and upholstered his gun. Efficiently Ivann secured the room and double checked the hallway, stealing a bottle of pain pills sitting on top of the garbage before heading back to the room. Being sure to put a "Do not Disturb" sign on the door to flag Lisa as their room. Kind of a sick joke that he knew wouldn't make anyone laugh but somehow it made Ivann feel better.

"Now to take care of you.." Ivann murmured and took Alice to the bathroom, closing the door behind him. He was cautious, if not over cautious. If for some reason infected broke down that door, Ivann would know it and have a better chance at not getting caught with his back turned. First he placed Alice in the bath tub, being extra careful against the slick surface. Finding a few expensive wax candles Ivann lit them with a few matches he found earlier. The room brightened as the candles crackled to life. Quickly Ivann began to go through the motions of starting to clean Alice. He thought about removing her shirt and pants but decided not to before any real debate could start in his mind. He needed to know if she was bit so he felt instead of removing any clothing. Something about taking her clothes off while she was unconscious seemed dirty and violating. Using the water from the back of the toilet tank he washed away all the blood off Alice until she resembled a beat up, more normal version of herself. Several times Ivann irrigated the long five inch slice she had received. There were other scratched but nothing seemed as bad as the wide open cut on the top of her left forearm. She was definitely going to need stitches Ivann determined.

"I never knew how much I knew about doctoring until I met you." Ivann began with a laugh. "You know, I come from Sweden? Yeah.. My father before he ran out on me and Mom was a doctor. I used to idolize him.." His voice went silent and the picture he used to have of his father in his military greens sprang to mind. "He was a bastard though.."

"You don't say?" A struggled voice said quietly and Ivann's eyes shot up, wide in shock.
"You're- You're alive?!" Ivann practically screamed, causing Alice to cringe in pain.
"Not so loud please.." Alice croaked, "to be honest, I wish I wasn't alive."
"You're suicidal?" Ivann asked, his eyes going wide, causing Alice to laugh until she was painfully hacking.
"No, I'm not.. I'm just.. in a lot of pain.." She said, finally calmed and winced as she tried adjusting in the tub.
"Here let me help." Ivann started to move but she held up a hand. "No." She said firmly. "Where's Alex? Lisa?"

Ivann paused, looking at her hesitantly. How could he say that they both left her without saying that's what they did?

"So Lisa, I take it is the overbearing, over protective ginger?" Ivann asked, this got a laugh from Alice and a small nod.
"Lisa's great." Alice said admiringly. "So is Alex... but where are they?"
"Something happened-" But Ivann stopped at the sight of Alice's face, which was now beginning to well with tears.
"They- They're dead?" Alice stammered, beginning to cry. Ivann started fumbling uncomfortably.
"No, no, no! They're upstairs!" Ivann said, his words tumbling out. He never planned on this girl waking up.
"Oh.." she said, wincing as one of her awkwardly bent fingers brushed away the tears. "I want to sleep." She finished, her voice raspy.
"Okay," Ivann said and looked back at the door, "hold on a sec."

Giving a quick glance around the room he came back in the bathroom and bent down to pick up Alice who quickly assured him yet again that she didn't want his help.

"Look, you're not anywhere near ready to do anything without someone's help. Your body is a train wreck. Please, let me help or the ginger will have my head as a trophy." Ivann's words brought a weak laugh out of Alice as she finally consented. Before she drifted off she placed a hand on Ivann's arm while he was setting up the candles on the night stand.

"Thank you," she whispered and dropped the hand, "I know you saved me from those two walkers. You're just a stranger and you didn't have to, but you did. I'm Alice."
"Don't worry about it, the living has to take care of their own now. And it's nice to meet you, Alice. I'm Ivann."
"Hmm.. Ivann.. Lisa's gonna like you, I just know it." And like that Alice was gone yet again to the darkness.

Lisa was stunned. She couldn't get past the look on this man's face. He felt that he was doing right by wanting Alex dead. She saw how badly he needed to kill Alex.

How could someone feel so strongly about Alex, her friend, that it would shake their very being the way it had for him?

She couldn't shoot. She couldn't bring herself to interrupt this encounter, it wasn't her place no matter how much she cared for Alex, it just wasn't hers to decide.

Alex was watching her now, they had noticed her.

Her gun was still held out, and she lowered it. Perhaps he knew why she couldn't fire. She hoped that he knew why, and that it wasn't because her opinion of him had changed. She used to uphold justice in her own menial way, she would do her part to keep the peace, stop evil do-ers, but how did it translate into this new world? She couldn't be the judge, she couldn't police a world that had no laws, and she couldn't determine a man's innocence.

Anyone in their right mind would have voted against Alex in any moral rank before the outbreak, she herself despised the thought of him when she watched documentaries about the horror he had brought to the world.

But now, she knew him, and he was good. But this man knew a different Alex, and he had something to settle, and she knew he needed closure.

She couldn't kill a man in such a state of mind.

She couldn't.

She pointed down to the floor so that Alex could see, and mouthed the word 'Alice', she hoped he noticed, hoped he understood, she couldn't just yell it out that they were waiting downstairs, it was the whole reason she had the guy move her, to protect them from this new threat.

Tears welled in her eyes and she ran back out of the room, practically falling down the stairs as she took them two at a time to the lower level.

She had hoped Ivann would keep her in the stairs, but he was gone, she opened the door to the hotel hallway and searched for them. If she couldn't be any help to Alex...

She blinked the tears away, it was no use, they clouded her vision all the same. She tried the doorknobs of the hotel rooms as she went, most were locked. She wiped her eyes with her coat sleeve, and could feel the dirt cake onto her cheeks.

Can't really get any worse, can it?

She wiggled another handle and it moved freely to her touch. She opened it, keeping her grip on her pistol just in case.

It was a good thing she had as the room was full of what looked to be a party of several 20-somethings, all turned.

She smacked at arms as they found their way towards her and slammed the door back shut. It was a good thing they couldn't figure out doors and that they opened inwards.

She felt shaken by the sight. It was obvious that the people inside had been through quite the ordeal. One had been snacked on pretty heavily and was lying, spread across the bed and floor, gasping a moan as it had been reanimated in pieces.

She would never unsee that, never forget it.

She tried more doors, all locked, the key card swiper beeping angrily.

"Alright, alright." she muttered.

The further she got from the stairwell, the more she felt she was abandoning Alex. The man that kept her from becoming that thing on the bed so many days ago.

Alice had that guy looking after her, she has someone, Alex is alone. How could I leave him alone?

Sure, Alex was big and tough, he could take on anything that threatened harm to Alice and herself, but he was weakened, he was stressed, he had the new burden of worry and fatigue. And she had left him to fight alone and weaponless.

She ran.

And now she was running again, but this time not as a coward, not as a girl dismissing her responsibilities as a friend in favor of a moral dilemma, no, this time she ran as what she had never been in her prior life: a hero.

Or at least she hoped there was still time to be one.

She burst through the door to the stairwell and charged up three stairs before realizing the zombie behind her, she turned and kicked it into the rail, her newfound mission giving her adrenaline out the ass, and punched it square in the jaw.

That felt good.

She drew back and kicked him again, sending him plummeting down from the spiraling stairwell and she knew it would be a long way down. They wouldn't be bothered by him again.

She carried on, up to the next level and held her gun out straight forward. If they hadn't moved, she would be aiming straight at....

Yes.

"STOP. Stop it right there or I will shoot."

She had their attention. She walked right up to them, forcefully, swiftly, and without wavering in holding eye contact or her gun steady.

"I understand that you have a problem with Alex here, I also know that whatever made you this pissed happened before the outbreak. Can I just tell you that you, sir, have picked a horrible time to pick a fight with him. We need Alex alive, we need you gone. Do the math. Now how you get 'gone' is up to you, but I recommend you take the route that allows you to live and fight another day."

The words were falling from her lips, flying more like really, and she had no idea where they came from. She didn't feel the feelings she was forcing behind them. She didn't want to kill him, she certainly didn't want to use her last bullet to do it.

He didn't seem responsive, she saw the fire in his eyes. Alex must have done something ungodly to him for him to care so little for his own life just for the chance to take a swing.

She saw his eyes flicker for a second towards Alex and she took the opportunity to sock him over the head with the gun as hard as she could, knocking him out.

"Alex, go find Alice and... that... foreign guy, whatever his name is, I'll make sure he stays down. We move for the penthouse. Now."

She knew that if they could hole up in the Penthouse, this guy couldn't hurt them. They could fortify the upper level, and eventually he'd either leave or they'd have to take him out. Either way, she was confident that the hotel Delgata would be theirs.

Ivann was prepping to go figure out what was taking the pair upstairs so long when a scratching came at the door. Flicking his eyes to Alice who had passed back into a deep sleep, he clicked off the safety on his gun. The hairs on his arms stood on edge and his stomach tightened. Quickly, he threw open the door and raised his gun but lowered it quickly when he saw a broken, crumpled Mercer and instinctively reached for him. The ginger wasn't in sight and a pang of feeling hit Ivann. He didn't even know this woman and he was already concerned for her. Shrugging off his unease he dragged Zeus inside and closed the door behind him.

"God.. you're fucked up." Ivann murmured aloud. He didn't even know where to begin, Alex was covered in his own murky blood and Ivann thought twice about touching it. Would it infect him? Would it kill him? He knew what he was dealing with Alice but Alexander Mercer? That was a whole different story. "Come on big boy, let's get you cleaned up.."

By the sight and energy Alex put forth Ivann could tell he was losing him fast but he needed to get him to the bathroom. With a lot of work and back strength that Ivann didn't even know he had in him, he managed to get Alex in the tub. He had cleaned it best he could after washing Alice down but the bathroom still smelled of blood and filth.

Gently he helped remove the virus' jacket and shirt. "I need to get a better view of what I'm working with.." Ivann explained aloud, trying to reassure Alex but he knew that didn't go far for either in terms of comforting. "Before I lose you I need to know. What happened to Lisa?"