(no subject)

[wednesday_whimsy]

#17. There’s nothing wrong with hoping things will get better. Just try to be realistic.

"Come on, come on, come on," Juliet muttered as the phone continued to ring. She looked towards Chief Vick's office, leaning to the side to catch sight of Carlton gesturing emphatically.

"Detective O'Hara?" McNab said, drawing her attention as he stopped in front of her desk. "Are you okay?"

"Fine," she said. "Just fine. Are you? You're looking a little drained. Why don't you take a vacation?"

The phone was still ringing. She hung up and immediately dialled again.

"I'm saving my vacation time for Christmas," Buzz said with a smile. "We were thinking of going to - "

"Go now," Juliet said, looking him right in the eye and putting every ounce of conviction into her voice that she could. "Just go. I'm serious. Something terrible is happening."

The door to the Chief's office was thrown open and Carlton strode out, looking ready to kill. Juliet hung up the phone again and rounded the desk.

"What happened?" she asked, stopping him in his tracks. "What did she say?"

"She said I needed to take a vacation or she'd be getting another shrink in to monitor me," Carlton growled. "What's it going to take to get people to listen?"

"People are going to have to see it," Juliet said. "Who believes in zombies without hard evidence? You would have called this crazy two days ago."

Carlton rolled his shoulders, but didn't contradict her. "Did you get through to anyone?"

Juliet shook her head. "It just keeps ringing out. My mom isn't answering either."

"Mom," Carlton sighed, "damn it." He ran his hand over his face. "Lauren. Victoria..."

"It's okay," Juliet said. "I'll call them. They might actually answer." She pulled his phone across the desk and opened his address book.

There was a sudden buzz of activity near the entrance, and Shawn appeared with Henry a second later.

"Well, it took some convincing," Shawn said, when they stopped next to Carlton's desk. "But Mrs. Wilcox next door was a big help."

"What are we doing?" Henry asked.

"Convincing the Chief I'm not crazy," Lassiter said. "She might listen to you."

Carlton led Henry back into the Chief's office. Juliet smiled nervously at Shawn and picked up the phone.

"Who are you calling?"

"Carlton's family," Juliet said. "I offered. Mine aren't answering."

"Your brother?" Shawn asked, hopefully as he stepped closer.

Juliet shook her head. "If he doesn't want to be found, I won't find him."

Shawn nodded. "So, Lassie's mom huh? Good luck with that."

Juliet's smile turned a little more natural. Shawn looked away while she made the call and then as soon as she hung up, asked, "Where's Gus?"

~

Juliet woke with a start and looked around. Gus was still asleep, leaning against the window. She sat up from where she’d been lying against him.

“Why are we stopped?” she asked, making both Carlton and Shawn look back at her.

“Jules, you’re awake,” Shawn said and held out a cereal bar for her. “Eat this.”

Juliet took it and started to eat automatically. “Carlton?”

“There’s a car up ahead,” Carlton said. “There’s someone in there.”

“Alive?” she asked. She nudged Gus awake and pushed the remaining half of the cereal bar into his hand. “Eat that.”

“What’s going on?” he asked, rubbing his eyes.

“We don’t know if they’re alive,” Shawn said. “We’re going to find out.”

“Wait, what have I missed?” Gus asked.

Juliet pointed out the car. “You’re not going though,” she said, patting Carlton on the shoulder. “You’ve been driving all night.” She pulled her gun out from under the seat and checked it. “Let’s go, Shawn.”

 ~

Shawn was halfway out of the car before Juliet had even stopped. He raced towards the Gusters’ house, pulling his gun free of his jeans as he did so.

The front door was open and Shawn paused in the doorway. “Gus?” he shouted. “Are you there?”

He heard Juliet’s footsteps behind him and he pointed her towards the kitchen as he made his way into the living room.

“Gus, it’s me. Jules is here. Are you here? Can you speak?”

The living room was empty. He made his way back to the hall and started up the stairs just as Juliet came out of the kitchen.

“There’s nothing there,” she said as she followed him. “There’s only Gus’s car outside. Maybe he left with his parents.”

Shawn shook his head. “He’d have told me. He’s not answering his phone.”

“Try calling it again,” she told him.

When they reached the top of the stairs, Juliet stepped in front of him and waited while he took out his phone and called Gus.

They both strained to hear any noise.

Juliet shook her head. “Okay, we tried. Just stay close.”

They advanced along the hallway. Juliet pushed open the first door.

“That’s the spare room,” Shawn said, seeing it was empty.

“We’re checking them all,” Juliet said, moving across the hall to the next door. “What’s this?”

“Uh, Joy’s room.”

That one was also empty. Shawn wasn’t sure whether or not to be relieved.

“Gus?” Juliet called out. “Are you... Where are you?”

The next door was Gus’s room. Shawn stepped in front of Juliet and pushed the door. “I got it.”

An apple came flying through the air, slapping Shawn in the head. "Ow!" he hissed, ducking behind the door instantly.

"Gus?"

Juliet asked, hesitant. There was a long moment of silence, in which she and Shawn exchanged confused glances, before finally Gus' voice came through the door, sounding terrified.

"Is that Juliet?" he asked, clearly nervous. "Or zombie Juliet?"

"If we were zombies," Shawn said seriously, "would we tell you?" He winced as Juliet punched his shoulder.

"I'm armed," Gus said again, and the sound of something that was probably a banana hit the other side of the door.

“Are you throwing fruit?” Shawn asked incredulously.

“Zombies eat meat, Shawn,” Gus said.

Shawn pushed the door open again and stepped inside. “So you’re trying to convince them you’re made entirely of...” He bent down and picked up a banana and potato. “Fruit and vegetables?”

Gus peered out from the closet, then emerged slowly. “It was working.”

Shawn looked around. “On what?”

A broken moan sounded behind them and Shawn and Juliet turned slowly to find an old woman in the doorway.

“Is that Mrs Harris from next door?” Shawn asked as they backed away.

“Uh huh,” Gus said.

“And she’s a zombie now?”

“Uh huh,” Gus repeated.

“Is she the only one here?” Juliet asked, steadying her gun.

“As far as I know,” Gus said. “My parents took the car. I was just grabbing a few things.”

Juliet nodded and fired once. Mrs Harris fell to the ground.

Gus pressed a hand to his stomach. “I’m going to throw up.”

“Do you have what you came for?” Juliet asked, and Gus pointed to the bag on the bed. Shawn grabbed it and pushed Gus ahead of him as they followed Juliet out of the room.

# 9. There are other people out there like you. You're all on the same side. Treat them well.

"What do we do if they're not zombies?" Shawn asked as they approached the car.

Juliet's mouth was set in a grim line as she considered the question. "I don't know," she said. "Let's just find out who they are first."

When they were about twenty feet away, both the driver and passenger side doors were pushed open. A man and a woman emerged, with guns aimed at Shawn and Juliet.

"Lower your weapons," Juliet shouted. "I'm a police officer."

"I'm not sure the police exists anymore, honey," the man said. "And in case you hadn't noticed, you'd pointing a gun at my girlfriend."

Shawn kept his own gun trained on the man. "Let's all put them down then, shall we?" he said. "On three. One, two..."

The woman sighed and lowered her gun. "Jeff."

Jeff did as he was told. Shawn and Juliet, followed suit.

"We're not infected," the woman said, walking slowly towards them. "We're trying to get to the coast. We thought maybe if we took a boat we could go somewhere. Anywhere."

Juliet gave a reassuring smile. "We're on our way to Seattle. Have you seen any other survivors?"

"Not many," the woman said. "We started out with a bigger group. We got separated. I don't know what's happened to them."

Shawn looked at Juliet and then back at the car where Carlton and Gus were waiting. "I hope you find them again."

"Do you have supplies?" Jeff asked and rolled his eyes at the look hisgirlfriend gave him. "We're down to our last bottle of water, Annie."

"We don't have a lot," Juliet said. "We can give you some water though. We really need to stock up though."

"There's a town not far from here," Annie said, pointing the way they were all headed. "It's bigger than anywhere we've been before though. It's probably crawling with ... them."

Juliet glanced at Shawn, who nodded. "Lassie's not going to be pleased though."

"Leave Carlton to me," Juliet said and held out her hand to Annie. "I'm Juliet O'Hara, this is Shawn Spencer. We can help each other out."

~

"I don't like this," Lassiter said as they followed Jeff and Annie's car into Eugene. "We don't know these people."

"What do you think they're going to do?" Shawn asked, once again sitting next to Gus in the back seat, while Juliet sat up front. "Feed us to the zombies? Why would they?"

"We have food, water and weapons," Lassie pointed out. "And a better car."

Shawn pursed his lips. "I like them."

"You liked Martha Stewart too, and look how that turned out." Gus said.

Shawn pouted. “But she made such decorative napkin animals.”

Gus rolled his eyes. "I'm with Lassie. I say we ditch them."

"We're not ditching them," Juliet said firmly. "They're trying to survive. So are we. We help each other or we all end up as zombies."

Shawn nodded. "Live together. Die alone."

"Are you quoting Lost now?" Gus asked. "Is that what we've come down to? You're actually quoting Jack?"

"I'd be a good, Jack," Shawn said. Gus snorted in derision. "What?"

"If anyone in this car is Jack, it's Lassie," Gus said. "He's in charge, but we all hate doing what he says."

"Hey!" Lassiter said.

"I don't hate doing what he says," Juliet said, earning a grateful smile from Lassiter.

"That's because you're Kate," Gus said. Juliet grimaced.

"So I'm Sawyer?" Shawn asked. "You have to give me Sawyer."

Lassiter nodded. "Yeah, you're both con men."

"See, Lassie agrees with me."

"Why do I have to be Kate?" Juliet asked. "Can't I just be Juliet?"

Shawn grinned. "That makes us a couple, you know?"

Juliet groaned. Shawn ignored her.

"Who are you?" he asked Gus. "Everyone else on that show is pretty messed up."

"C'mon son," Gus said, incredulously. "I'm Desmond."

Shawn, Juliet and Lassiter all burst out laughing.

"No," Shawn said. "Who are you really?"

"Screw you, Shawn," Gus said. "I am the coolest person in this car. I can be Desmond."

"Juliet is the coolest person in this car," Shawn corrected.

"Thank you."

"And, you and I are pretty much the same level of coolness," Shawn continued.

"Hey!" Lassiter said again. "So I'm the least cool out of everyone?"

"Yes," Shawn and Gus said in unison and bumped fists.

"I hope you both get eaten by zombies," Carlton said.

~

Shawn protested vigorously at being told to stay by the door with Gus.

"Someone needs to cover it," Juliet said, squeezing Shawn's arm tightly. "We don't know what we're going to find in there. We need an exit plan."

"Uh," Gus said. "I'm all for staying out of the action, but could someone else be the exit plan? What about them?" He pointed to Annie and Jeff in the car next to them.

"I don't know them," Carlton said. "I don't trust them. O'Hara you take the girl. I'll go with..."

"Jeff," Shawn said. "Can you ask him what hair gel he uses? His hair is strangely perfect for someone fleeing from zombies."

Lassiter stared at him for a long moment before getting out of the car and walking away to join Jeff, who emerged at the same time.

"Are you armed?" he asked, mildly impressed when Jeff lifted his shirt to show off the two handguns tucked into holsters at his side, but trying not to show it. "Can you shoot them though?"

"Paintball Champion three years running," Jeff said, looking over at where Annie was now talking to Juliet. "You know the rules. Stay together in groups, keep your eyes open, grab whatever you can carry."

Carlton crossed his arms. "I'm in charge here," he said, but Jeff ignored him and walked quickly towards the entrance to the store. Carlton hurried to catch up, walking faster than normal, even with his long legs.

Jeff pressed his face against the window, trying to peer inside. A few lights still flickered inside, probably from a backup generator, but it was hard to see from a distance. He couldn't tell if anything was moving inside, which didn't put his fears to rest. It was better to know what you were up against than to be surprised. "I can't tell," he admitted, and rolled his eyes as Lassiter insisted on checking himself.

"I can't either," Lassiter admitted after a moment, pulling out his firearm. "So let's just get this over with."

"How do we get in?" Annie asked as she and Juliet joined them.

Carlton pointed his gun at the sensor above the door and fired. The doors slid open.

"Hopefully that means none of them are in there," Juliet said. "Good luck, partner."

She and Annie went left on entering the store. Carlton and Jeff went right.

Annie moved to get a shopping cart, and Juliet paused, taken aback. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"It's a line of self defense," Annie said as she began to wheel it toward the canned goods. "And, this stuff is pretty heavy."

"It makes noise," Juliet hissed.

"So do you," Annie pointed out. "Now stop talking and keep a look out."

~

"Water's down here," Jeff said, peering down one aisle. He kept his back to the shelves and ran down to the water bottles. Carlton stayed close behind him.

"We're going to need something to move them," Carlton said. "Or this is going to take a while."

They both looked around. There was a door marked Staff Only at the end of the aisle.

"They might have a cage or pallet jack," Carlton said. "We could pile some stuff up."

Jeff nodded. "After you detective."

Carlton braced himself against the wall and pulled the door open slowly, trying to see, but it was pitch black inside. "Shit," he said quietly to himself, straining to hear anything.

"Well?" Jeff asked quietly, nudging him a little. "Go. We haven't got all day."

Carlton glared at him, but moved forward into the room. He could make out something shiny in the corner, and moved over to it slowly. "Got it," he whispered, and began to push the pallet toward the door quickly.

There was a growl in the darkness and Carlton froze.

"What was that?" Jeff hissed.

"Go," Carlton said, holding his gun up and pointing into the darkness. "Take all the water you can, get the girls and go."

"Dude," Jeff said, but Carlton was in no mood to be argued with. "Get out of here," he shouted. "Lock the door."

Jeff hesitated another second, but a cry rang out from the darkness and he was moving, scrambling out of the room with his gun drawn. Behind him, he could hear snarls and two gunshots.

~

"What was that?" Juliet asked across the store, pulling out her gun and scanning the area quickly. She exchanged a glance with Annie and they took off sprinting towards the sound, shopping cart in tow.

Jeff slammed the door closed behind him and grabbed two huge water water barrels just as Annie and Juliet rounded the corner.

"What was that?" Annie asked, scanning over Jeff. "Are you alright? We heard gunshots."

Juliet looked up and down the aisle. "Where's Carlton?"

Jeff put the water in the cart and grabbed the handle and Annie's hand.

"He's in there." Jeff said, indicating the door with a grim expression. "There's no light. He told me to go and get you out."

Juliet reached for the door.

"He's gone," Jeff said. "And so are we, before they get out." He pulled Annie along towards the exit.

"Dammit," Juliet hissed, and began pounding on the door. "Carlton!"

Something heavy threw itself at the door on the other side, trying to claw its way out. A hand broke through the glass on the window of the door, causing Juliet to scream and scramble backwards. She could feel where some of the glass had brushed her cheek, and thought the wetness dripping down her cheek was probably blood. But all she could think as another gunshot rang out was that at least Carlton was still in there, alive.

~

"What the hell is going on?" Shawn yelled as Jeff and Annie barrelled past them, through the door.

"Get our stuff in the car," Jeff told Annie firmly, then turned back to Shawn and Gus. "Your friend Lassiter saved our lives, but now he's trapped in the warehouse. I'm sorry."

"What?" Shawn asked, looking quickly toward the closed doors. "Where's Juliet?"

"Inside," Annie said, watching as Shawn took off sprinting inside.

"Shawn!" Gus shouted, but it was no use.

Shawn raced through the store to find Juliet covering the door to the warehouse.

"Jules," he gasped as he skidded to a stop beside her. The door was rattling furiously and there were three arms stretching out through what had been the glass panel.

"He's in there, Shawn," Juliet said tightly. Her mouth was set in a grim line. "We have to help him."

Shawn lifted his gun and fired off a shot, causing one of the arms to slump down. It just gave one of the zombies more room to move through.

"Watch it," Juliet snapped. "You could hit him."

Shawn raised one brow. "So what's your plan? We fight them off with tomatoes? I keep telling Gus that doesn't work."

"Shawn," Juliet growled. "You're not helping."

The door rattled again and strained against the force batting against it.

“How do you know he’s still...?” Shawn asked, but couldn’t find it in him to finish the sentence.

“He fired a shot.”

“Just one?”

“He only has so many bullets, Shawn!”

Shawn hesitated, looking around. "Go," he said, pointing to the door. "I'll get him out."

"What?" she asked. "You need backup."

"I have a plan," he lied, trying to glare at her. "Now go."

She hesitated and he pushed her away. "Go!"

She backed away, watching as Shawn stepped closer to the door.

"Get out!" he yelled again and grabbed the door handle.

Shawn waited until she was out of sight before staring down at the two zombies trying to climb their way through the small window in the door.

He didn’t know that he’d ever really been this close to one before and had time to really look at it. They were both snarling at him, teeth bared and eyes dead and cold, their features distorted just enough to be recognizable as different and wrong. It made his blood run cold.

As far as ideas went, this was probably the worst one he’d ever had. Shawn took in a deep breath before jerking the door open and taking off running down the aisle. But there wasn’t enough distance between them, and before he could do more than stumble a few steps, there were two of them on top of him, all three crashing to the floor in a tumble of limbs. He screamed without even realizing it, and fired his gun, just praying he hit something, anything.

There were still hands scrabbling at him though, and he could feel nails tearing at his shirt and feel its breath on its neck as he struggled with it, trying to keep it at bay. This was it. He was going to die, or become one of them.

Three more shots pierced through the screaming, and blood and guts were sprayed over him. "You are such an idiot," Carlton said, furious, as he began to push the bodies off Shawn. "Do you even know how much of an idiot you are?”

Shawn stared up at him, chest heaving and nerves singing. Carlton yanked Shawn up from the floor and growled, “Another five seconds and you’d be dead."

Shawn stared at him, still a little dazed. “Yeah but you saved me, Lassie. I knew you would.”

One glance over his shoulder told Shawn they couldn’t get out the way they’d come in, not without battling through dozens of the things. Lassiter was covering them, but they couldn’t just stand there waiting.

“This way,” Shawn said, tugging on Carlton’s arm. He started to run towards the back of the store, and the illuminated fire exit sign. They burst through the door, into a short, empty corridor, and pushed back against the door as the zombies started to try to force their way through behind them.

“What now, genius?” Lassiter yelled, over the moaning and thumping of the bodies against the door.

“The door at the end of the corridor gets us outside,” Shawn said and laughed, the adrenaline coursing through his body making him feel almost superhuman in that moment. “Then we just have to get to the car.”

“I really do hate you sometimes,” Lassiter said, with a glare that should have scared Shawn into submission, but instead onl made him laugh louder.

“Liar,” Shawn said, and grabbed Lassie’s shirt, dragging him down for a quick, hard kiss. “Brace yourself,” he said with a smile when he pulled away. He pushed himself away from the door and ran at full speed down the corridor and out through the fire exit. A quick glance around, told them they were safe for a while. “Lassie,” he shouted. “Come on.”

Lassiter cleared the corridor in seconds and slammed the door shut behind him. He leaned against it for a moment, breathing hard.

“What the hell was that, Spencer?”

“Us escaping a zombie hoard with style,” Shawn said and held out his fist for Lassiter to bump.

“That’s not what I’m talking about,” Lassiter said, ignoring Shawn’s hand.

Shawn shrugged and started to jog away, back towards the parking lot.

“Spencer!”

“Come on, Lassie,” Shawn said. “Gus and Juliet will be going out of their minds.”

Carlton caught up with Shawn in a few seconds and Shawn tried to ignore the looks Carlton was shooting him. He’d just decided to give up and say something when they heard the gunshots.

There was only one car left in the parking lot when they rounded the corner of the building, running at full speed. Gus and Juliet were standing on either side of the car, shielded by the open doors, firing at the swarm of zombies emerging from the open front entrance.

Shawn and Carlton started to shoot as they ran over to the car, taking down a few that were getting too close. “Every zombie in town is going to be able to hear this,” Carlton shouted as he skidded to a stop beside Juliet.

“We were waiting for you,” Juliet shouted back.

“Start the car,” Carlton told her, covering her as she ducked inside. “Guster, get in.” Gus dove into the open passenger side door. “Spencer...”

“You first detective.”

Carlton clenched his jaw and fought against the urge to shoot Shawn in the shoulder. He climbed quickly into the back seat and pushed the door open on the other side for Shawn. “Get in!”

“Just a second,” Shawn said, ignoring Carlton, Gus and Juliet, whose voices were now all raised and telling him to get in the car.

There were only five zombies now, too close for comfort, but Shawn knew he could take them. One, two, three...

His gun jammed and he reached for his other one, but the fourth and fifth zombies were on top of him too soon, and this was worse than last time.

Their hands closed around his arms. He could hear Gus and Juliet screaming in the background, but all he could see was rotting flesh as they writhed on top of him. Two more shots rang out and he was freed under their dead weight a moment later when Carlton grabbed him and pulled him into the back of the car. Juliet waited only until the door was closed and then sped off.

Shawn leaned his head against the seat and closed his eyes, still breathing hard. He could feel Carlton’s hands pushing the remains of his shirt off and moving over his chest, checking for bite wounds, but couldn’t even work up the energy tocomment on it. He didn’t comment on the way Lassiter was holding him against him, either, gripping him like he thought Shawn might disappear if he didn’t, but he mentally filed it away to remember later.

“You’re fine,” Lassiter said eventually. “An idiot, but fine.”

Shawn nodded and let his head fall to the side, against Lassiter’s shoulder.

“If you ever do that again, I’ll kill you,” Carlton said, squeezing Shawn’s arm enough to leave a bruise.

“I’ll help,” Gus snapped and Shawn smiled against Lassie’s shirt.

“I love you guys too.”


Part 4