Seeing is believing (London Survivors)

Sebastian had been busying himself outside of the bus, setting up traps and what not, it only took him a few minutes when it came down to it but he was just wanting to give those guys a little bit of space and himself too, he hadn't been around people for a long time and it was getting to him a little bit. He thought though that it was what his friends would have wanted, him to move on and not dwell on the past and his losses.

He would use that thought to motivate him through these next few days while they got themselves to the check point and kept each other safe, travelling in a group was much safer than being alone, the whole buddy system thing.

However, he thought that he was going to have to wait a little longer before having to see how well they all fought together, one of the traps further away began to jingle and he swore, his attention jerked up to a rather large zombie charging its way around the bus station, with several other zombies in tow.

"Shit." he said, dropping his cigarette to the floor he had been smoking, Sebastian raced back into the bus and thought it would be best if they got the hell out of here as soon as physically possible, he didn't want to stick around with that massive ugly bitch running around outside.

"Guys we need to get the fuck out of here, there's big trouble outside some of those freak zombies." he stated "So who want's to drive this fucker so we can get out of here?!" Sebastian asked his voice was frantic and he was gesturing wildly to the drivers seat "Go on cabbie get us the hell out of here!"

Patrick had to grin to himself when Rowan said that she had a thing for the Irish accent. Her ex boyfriend was Irish? Well he hoped that the bastard hadn't left a bad image to go alongside the Irish accent otherwise his pursuit of Rowan was going to be shot down before it even began. He opened his mouth to speak, hoping to get some flirting in before she decided if she was going to leave them, when he heard a commotion outside. When Sebastian burst in, looking very panicked, he stood up with his shotgun,

"Wha' te fec' happ'n'd te yer?" he asked the gay man quickly, looking at the once foppish man now looking like he was being chased by the devil himself, "Yer loo' lik' a choir boy who's see' a pries' wit' a bottl'a baby oil."

He immediately went to the window and swore when some green goo type substance hit the window on the outside of the bus. About to dismiss it as nothing, his eyes widened when the window that the green stuff had touched began to dissolve,

"Jaysus chris' on a bik'!" he cried out in alarm, "On''a tem new feck'rs can spi' acid at us! Fec' tis shi'! I'll driv' te feck'r!"

Moving to the front of the bus, he turned the keys and the bus failed the start. Swearing, he tried again, noticing a very big zombie rushing towards them like some sort of demented monkey. Once again he turned the key but this time it worked, the bus violently lurching forwards as he immediately gunned the engine,

"Fec'!" he growled in annoyance as he ran over several of the smaller zombies, "Shoo' ou' from te windo's! Ther'a fec'in' loadsa tem!"

Rowan gasped when she heard what Sebastian said, oh no no no that was not good! Not those special zombies! She hadn't spent long researching the process of mutation in the disease but she knew that it made them ten times more dangerous than normal ones, biting her lip she ushered everyone inside and closed the doors of the bus.

Taking out her rifle she made sure that it was loaded, and the safety was off before she took up a stance by one of the windows, she was going to have to shoot out of that with the limited visability she had here. Although she didn't think much of it when the green gunk hit the window, her mouth popped open when she saw it beginning to dissolve the window itself.

Well...that was new.

"Oh my god!" she cried out "Look at how many of them there are!"

As she aimed her rifle through one of the open windows, Rown shot off two rounds, one into the closest zombie the one who had started to spit acid at them, it only clipped its shoulder the first time, but the second time it got its head which exploded in a mist, ducking back away from the window she coughed lightly, god it smelt awful like a mixture of guts and vinegar.

"Crap...there are new mutations I haven't even seen before here..." she whispered more to herself than anything else, lurching as the bus headed off she kept trying to shoot at the zombies although it was hard now they were moving, she didn't want to waste ammo "Try and drive over as many as possible, I can't get agood shot while we're jerking around like this!"

Jimmy had just been settling down from his nervousness from before when the whole bus seemed to explode into action. Honestly, it was a bit relaxing a weird kind of way. Everything made a lot more sense when all he had to remember was to shoot zombies and not people. By the time he had loaded his rifle and gotten it ready to fire Patrick was already driving the bus.

And doing a pretty shitty job of it too.

It was to be expected considering the man was definately not a bus driver but it still annoyed, and hurt, when he was sent flying to the ground because of the man's terrible driving. As he got up to complain at the man he noticed a lone zombie had clawed it's way onto the bus through the still open door. He fired a few times with his rifle, killing it before it could reach Patrick. He spotted Rowan firing out of a window and joined her,

"Thank god these things don't need headshots to die!" he joked a little bit nervously even as he fired at some of the regular zombies. Wow. Regular zombies? Was that how weird his world was now? That there were 'regular' zombies and 'irregular' zombies? He gritted his teeth, "But try not to drive over any of the big ones! That big tank-like fucker for example... that'll run us straight off the god damned road!"

Looking out the window, Jimmy swore as he saw another hurl of acidic spit come flying towards the window that he and Rowan were firing out of. Grabbing the girl, he helped her duck under the spit and swore when it began to dissolve the wall behind them, showing more zombies chasing them in that direction including...

"Is that a midget zombie?!" he shouted in surprise, spotting a midget zombie trying to jump at them. He smacked it back outside with his rifle before turning back to Rowan, "You okay?"

Sebastian had to admit that he was shocked and because he was shocked he wasn't really doing a lot to help the guys out, snapping himself out of his funk he decided that he needed to get abetter shot, there was no way that he was going to be able to do his ammo justice if he was just shooting out of some midgy hole in the wooden boards of the bus.

So, he ran to the back of the bus and busted open the emergency door, letting himself hang out of the door as Patrick drove around he laughed, trying to enjoy himself as he shot at the zombies charging after him as he hung kind of like bait from the bus.

"Oh no no, trust me my Irish friend I would love to see that sight more than these ugly sons of bitches trying to grab a hold of my jungular." he grinned, before going back to throw shots out at the zombies, trying to aim for the more lethal points like the head, heart and lungs, even if he shatted their legs it would stop them from running after them like that.

As the bus lurched he was thrown back into the bus and the door closed after him, growling a little bit he took up a position by one of the melting sides of the bus, there was a bigger place to shoot from there, and so not touching the acid he merely reloaded his pistol and frowned, looking for some of those special freak zombies, he saw what looked like a big obese guy charging at the bus, and he shot at him repeatedly until he went down in an explosion of what looked like fatty pus...

"Ew...I think I'm going to vomit." he bawked lightly, before looking out the window and spotting a large zombie heading their way "Watch the fuck out Patrick!"

Patrick had to admit that he was getting some sort of sick thrill from running over some of the infected fuckers. They were making the ride in the bus a bit bumby but that was alright by him, he had actually done up his seatbelt so he was fine. Of course the others were wrattling around like pills in a pot. He stuck his tongue out in distaste as Sebastian's comment,

"Yer ev'r hea'd abou' too muc' infermat'n?!" he called back to the gay guy just as he crushed another of the zombies under the wheels of the bus, "I hav' the weird'st urg' te sin' abou' te wheels on te bus righ' now!"

When the zombie that had been sneaking up on him was dealt with he grinned a little bit and held a hand up with a thumb up to show his approval. He wasn't about to turn his head away from the road considering the road was mostly blocked off by parked and crashed cars and the like. Hearing Sebastian's warning, he saw the massive zombie charging towards the bus. Not willing to bet that anything else would be able to take the thing out, Patrick grinned and stepped on the accelerator,

"Grab onto som'ting!" he roared down the bus as he charge the bus towards the massive zombie, "I'm takin' tis big fec'r ou'a te gam'!"

The front of the bus ploughed into the large zombie, pinning it to the front of the bus until the bus crashed into the side of a burning fire truck. The impact was jarring and Patrick swore a little bit but when he looked out the front window he could see that the zombie was trapped between the front of the bus and the fire truck. It growled a little bit, either in pain or anger he didn't know. What he did know was that the thing was close enough to shoot at now. Grabbing his shotgun, he emptied four shells into the creature's head and it was still. Breathing a sigh of relief, he unbuckled his seatbelt and looked at the back of the bus,

"Everyon' okay bac' ther'?" he asked, falling out of his seat before he managed to stand again, "Com' on guys... we nee' te ge' movin' again."

Rowan screamed a little bit when the acid came towards her and she looked up at Jimmy from where she lay on the floor, he had saved her? Blushing a little bit she got up quickly and dusted herself off, she was really glad that she had people to look out for her, she would have been melting on the floor if it hadn't been for him. This fight was really scary, she'd never been up against so many zombies for a really long time, especially not those special ones.

"Thanks Jimmy." she grinned getting her gun ready and she shot off a few more rounds into the zombies that she could see chasing them through the acid damage in the bus, they needed to take that other one out, it was going to give them more trouble than the others.

When she heard that Patrick was going to crash the bus into the big zombie, Rowan hooked her arms around the pole of the bus nearest her and she gasped as the impact hit, throwing her into the other metal pole where she banged herself pretty hard, her chest taking most of the impact and she was almost winded by the impact.

Staggering to the front of the bus she cursed loudly as the zombies were getting closer and closer despite them having a little bit of an edge on them in the bus they were going to be on the same level now that they were on foot.

"Come on let's go go go!" she cried "Jimmy where should we go?" Rowan asked, the panic and fear was clearly evident, she thought that this was going to be it, she was going to die here, there were just so many and more were being attracted, they needed to get somewhere and get somewhere fast.

Taking some more ammo she filled her pockets, picked up her bag and ran out of the bus, aiming shots at the zombies nearest her, taking them out by precise shots to their vitals, some required more than one though. Her run however was stopped when she was pulled off the ground by something wet and slimy, screaming as she was tugged into the air she tried to reach for her knife.

"Help!" Rowan screamed.

Jimmy had to admit that it felt good to save Rowan like that, almost felt like he had saved his niece back there. He grinned a little bit at her even as he fired some more shots out the window. Just because he'd managed to save her once, didn't mean they were going to be safe from the bastards for very long. He managed to pick off another of those spitting zombies before grinning at her,

"Don't worry about it." he assured her as he reloaded, making sure to pick up some more ammo from the now-moving pile, "Just keep up the good work!"

When he heard that Patrick was going to crash the bus he swore and grabbed onto the chair in front of him and held on for dear life as the bus went from above the speed limit to a full stop in less than a second. The chair knocked the wind out of him and he groaned as he staggered to his feet to follow Rowan,

"Next time I drive!" he growled to Patrick before following her out of the bus. Swearing when he noticed how many zombies were chasing them, he pointed down the street, "Let's take that street! Student accomodation for Kings College down there, we can lose them in the buildings!"

His eyes widdened when he saw a figure on top of a nearby roof shoot something slimy and long at Rowan, wrapping her up and causing her to get dragged towards it. Firing rapidly, he shot the apendage above her so that she dropped to the ground before shooting the zombie responsible, not liking how it exploded into smoke. He went to offer her a hand up when he heard some kind of battle-cry before a zombie with one huge arm rammed into the side of him before picking him up in it's giant arm and slamming him onto the pavement. He screamed in pain as he assualted his ribs.

Sebastian was really unhappy that Patrick had just charged the bus into the fucking wall! What kind of a crazy mofo did that when there were no seatbelts back here he could have gone through the window or anything! Staggering out of the bus before picking up the rest of the ammo and a few more guns, they werent going to come back here any time soon and there was no point wasting it.

Slinging his bag over his shoulder he charged out of the bus and looked around getting his barings, he ran in the same direction as Rowan and Jimmy, seeing the special zombies attacking them he was going to go and be the knight in shining armour to help out the handsome taxi driver but he was quickly having a problem of his own to deal with.

Before he could do much about it a small zombie had attached itself to his head and was proceeding to hump the hell out of him, almost gagging with the smell Sebastian pulled out his gun and aimed it for the creatures head, although it was a risk not knowing where the fuck the creatures head was, he shot anyway, loosing consciousness as he was through lack of air.

When the grip lessened and the thing fell off he kicked it repeatedly; "Yeah that's right you fucking bastard!" he cried "At least buy me a drink first you slimy git!"

Deciding he should take the heat off the others Sebastian pumped bullets into the nearby zombies, taking a lot of them down as he ran for cover behind one of the buses, ducking and reloading he blinked as the petrol from the bus dripped closer to the fire of the fire engine.

"Watch out! The bus is going to blow!" Sebastian warned, as he emerged from his space and began killing zombies like there was no tomorrow.

Patrick was still rather shaken up over the whole crashing and then shooting something in the face four times with a shotgun. Even to some kind of tank-like zombie four shotgun shells to the skull tended to mess you up. There was no head left anymore, it was just some kind of mush. Chuckling a little bit at Jimmy, he flipped the cab driver off with a grin as he began to reload the shotgun,

"Bit' me yer Lond'n geez'r!" he joked a little bit, beginning to think that all this action and violence was getting to his head, "Jaysus Chris' tis plac' is fec'in' mess'd up..."

As soon as he was able to he got off the bus, just in time to see some midget-zombie trying to hump Sebastian's face to death. An odd sight to be sure. He raised his shotgun but thought better of it. He wasn't about to risk shooting Sebastian's head off after all! Deciding that it would be better to run over there and smack the thing with the butt of his shotgun, Patrick made to begin his charge.

A watery growl was his only warning.

Something literally pounced on him and pinned him to the ground. When his back hit the ground he was able to clearly see what looked like some kind of zombie chav! It sliced at his chest with it's claws, cutting deeply. Roaring in pain, Patrick reared up and headbutted the creature in the face, causing it to fall off of him. Before it could pull itself to it's feet he took his pistol out and fired repeatedly at the creature's face,

"Yer nee' te los' te hoodie yer dum' shi'!" he growled before moving away from the creature to support Sebastian. He smirked at the gay man, and decided to tease him as they fired their weapons, "Yer go' som'ting' whit' on yer fac'... foun' a zombie tat yer lik'?"

He swore when he saw the petrol and the fire but they were too bogged down with the onrushing regular zombies to do more than shout warnings, "Ge' te hell ou'a ther' guys!"

Rowan cried out in pain as she fell to the floor after being saved by Jimmy, she landed awkwardly on her legs and she felt them wobbling even as she stood up, she didn't know what she had done but it really didn't feel good...it felt like she might have fractured one of them or at least torn a muscle slightly, it hurt like buggar to walk on them but she didn't have much of a choice, she was going to have to run on them soon enough.

As she heard Jimmy cry out in pain she gasped softly and half hobbled, half walked over to where he was being attacked by the zombie, taking out her gun she reloaded it and before the zombie could slam him down onto the pavement again, Rowan shot it once in the arm to distract it;

"Lungs, jungular, heart...head!" she stated as she shifted her gun to shoot the zombie in each of these points, making sure that it wasn't going to be getting back up again.

Hurrying over to Jimmy she bent down and looked over him, he seemed to be okay there weren't any bones breaking through the skin but it was more than likely that he was going to have severe bruising from the impact that he had endured, it was agood job the zombie didn't get a second slam or something would have definately broken.

With one hand she kept advancing zombies away, it seemed odd but they were slowing there were less of them coming at them and she wondered why, had they killed that many of them there weren't any more to come at them? Groaning a little bit she tried to help Jimmy up;

"Come on we need to go!" she squeaked "I'll go ahead and open the dorms up for you guys, but hurry up I don't have much ammo left!"

Swiftly, Rowan left Jimmy with the boys and she dashed through the streets, now she wasn't trying to pay so much attention to killing the zombies, she moved quicker, although she saw a special up ahead of her and she squeaked when she saw it was one of those tank things! Swerving behind a large dustbin she bit her lip and cried out when the bin was smacked away from her, the zombie batted her away itself into the wall with a smack and Rowan raised her gun to retaliate.

Jimmy swore violent as the creature's grip around his torso tightened further, causing Jimmy the very discomforting feeling of his ribs creaking. The slam to the pavement almost knocked him out cold, as it was he could already feel blood on the back of his head. Human skulls were not meant to hit concrete after all. He was expecting the end to come when it raised him up for a second slam but it was thankfully distracted by Rowan.

It dropped him to the ground just moments before it was killed. Good thing too, he really didn't want to be stuck in the dead-man's grip of that fucker, he'd never have gotten out. He moaned a little bit and tried to pull himself up to his feet as Rowan came over to help him,

"Thanks Rowan..." he told her, his breathing rough and raspy. God damn it, if he was injured in the lungs he was done for. Swallowing hard, he managed to pull himself to his feet, putting his rifle on his back so that he was using his pistol instead. It was much easier to use while hunched over and trying not to die after all, "You're right... we need to keep moving. You get those doors open and we'll hold them off."

Even as they made their way towards the dorms another of those massive tank-zombies appeared. And this time they didn't have a bus to ram into it! He swore and began to empty his pistol clip into the thing. His eyes widened when it downed Rowan,

"Rowan!" he cried out in alarm, pushing his body to get him over to her quickly. He checked her over quickly to make sure that she wasn't about to die before he knelt down and raised his rifle, pouring fire onto the creature even as he spoke, "Rowan! Rowan are you alright? Did you break anything do you think?"

Sebastian wiped at his face when he heard Patricks jibe but there wasn't anything there, growling a little bit he thought that it wasn't really the time for them to be joking around but it made him feel more than a little bit relaxed about the situation. Well, as relaxed as he could be given the situation that they were in, a little humour didn't hurt anyone he supposed.

"Enough of the jokes Paddy, we have to get out of here and out of here quickly, you guys don't look like you're in the best of shape to carry on." he stated, looking around he spotted a bank over in the next block of shops, that looked like one of the best places to go, big heavy thick doors and it looked like it hadn't been looted yet or anyone was staying there.

When Rowan sped off he swore a little bit, it wasn't the best idea to go running off on her own and he saw that he was right when one of those big fuckers appeared and he dashed off to go and help Jimmy, he had just been bashed against the concrete pretty damn hard he shouldn't be speeding to anyone's assistance right now, even Rowans.

Seeing he had taken the tank down, Sebastian wasn't surprised that Rowan wasn't in the best state to walk he'd heard the smack from where he was after all, she'd hit the wall pretty hard. Picking her up he held her over his shoulders, still holding one of his pistols.

"Get the back door to that bank open!" he barked "When we're in there we can start sorting out peoples injuries and shit but, we can't stop now!"

Making his way over to the bank he stamped his foot against the door again and again, he could feel it weakening but his leg was too.

Patrick smirked when he noticed that Sebastian had taken the joke in good faith. After all, he wasn't trying to insult the gay guy as much as he was trying to lighten the mood. The mood kind of needed to be lighter to him. Especially considering he was now bleeding from five deep gashes from that pouncing chav zombie. He gripped his gun tighter to him and smirked a little bit,

"Ah yer kiddin' me?" he joked a little bit, patting himself on the chest. He obviously avoided patting the areas where he had been slashed open, "A lil' som'ting lik' tis won' keep me down. A cours'... we are gun' hav' te ge' thos' two insid'. Tey're lookin' bad..."

He did his best to provide support with the tank zombie but his shotgun wasn't that effective at the longer ranges. Thankfully the beast went down fairly quickly all things considered. When he reached both Rowan and Jimmy he nodded in agreement to Sebastian's surprisingly well thought out plan. He didn't know why it was surprising, it was just very serious from someone who hadn't been very serious before. Picking Jimmy up off the ground, he let the guy lean on him,

"Com' on yer ol' buzza'd." he joked, "We gun' ge' yer insid', ten yer can hav' yer ol' man's half hou' yea'?"

Seeing that the back door to the bank was almost open, but Sebastian's leg was giving out, Patrick let Jimmy stand on his own a moment. Charging forwards, he kicked the door hard and it swung open. He went back to helping Jimmy inside,

"Wher' we wan'a be ten Seb'?"

Rowan groaned lightly when she felt herself being picked up and flung over someone's shoulder, she felt like she was going to throw up any minute and her head was spinning all over the place, her body was aching and she felt like she had probably bruised every area of skin she had from the way that her whole body was stinging and being sensitive to touch.

As she was jerked about on Sebastian's shoulder she was just glad to get inside, although she was out of it really and didnt talk she was just glad to be inside now, she could lie down and maybe have a drink, she was just glad she had managed to hold onto her bag, maybe things wouldn't be broken in there but she didn't hold out much hope to be honest.

Opening her eyes she saw that she was being laid down behind one of the teller booths, and Sebastian and Patrick were going around trying to barricade the doors, luckily, banks had been assigned metal shutters and sheets of metal when the raids had begun so it should hold them off pretty well, until they got tired and wandered away to somewhere else.

Widening a little bit more when she heard the bus finally explode, Rowan smiled softly, that would take lots of them out and draw the attention of the others with the burning, they were attracted to bright lights after all. As she attempted to sit up Rowan huddled herself under the desk in a little corner, now she was semi safe, the situation she was just in dawned on her and she was just feeling so lucky to be alive right now, even if she did feel like death.

Jimmy could tell that Rowan was not appreciating the rough handling she was getting from Sebastian right now in the carrying but it was either that or be dragged on the ground. Because honestly? He was barely moving even with Patrick's help and if the blood staining his chest was any indication then Patrick was going to be unlikely to be able to lift her. He groaned a little bit in pain as Patrick helped him walk,

"Fuck you you paddy bastard." he groaned through gritted teeth, smirking to show that he was joking though, "Let's see you get smashed into the pavement and still look this good."

He swore when Patrick put him down rather roughly next to Rowan behind one of the teller booths. Patrick had gone off to help Sebastian barricade the bank windows, which was going surprisingly very well. The door they'd knocked in had also been barricaded to hell and back and that was good, it was the weakest point in their defences. He turned to Rowan but the massive explosion of the bus kind of demanded his attention for a few moments. Groaning a little bit, he crawled slowly over to Rowan and began to check her over,

"Hey you alright there Rowan?" he asked her, wincing when he leant on his ribs a little. Shifting into a better position, he smiled faintly, "We're all safe inside this bank now... We'll make it to the dorms another night then I suppose."

Seeing that she looked a little shaken, he held out a hand to her as he proped himself up against the desk beside her. He smirked a little bit sadly as he held the hand out to her,

"Me and my niece used to hold hands when one of us was scared... what we used to do was we used to squeeze once for everything we were currently thinking that was scaring us." he told her quietly before giving her hand a squeeze, "One... I was scared about you when you got hit by that tank thing... so scared that you were going to be seriously seriously hurt. But... your turn."

Rowan turned her head and let her eyes flick over Jimmy, it was like her nerves were shutting her down from the inside out, she just didn't know what to say or how to react, she had fully expected to die during that fight and she had almost done, if she hadn't stopped herself from hitting her head hard on the wall, she probably would be dead right now, food for some zombie bastard who decided she would make a nice meal.

Groaning a little bit when she shuffled slightly over to Jimmy, Rowan smiled softly, she was barely keeping herself from vomitting all over the place because of the pain but he looked as if he was in as much pain as she was. Ultimately she was so glad she was able to put down that zombie who was trying to kill him, it would have done too if she hadn't have stopped it.

When he said that they were safe her smile dimmed a little and her gaze shifted away, he didn't have to lie, they were never safe, they could never be safe again while they were stuck here, and she was going to be stuck here for the longest time. Until her job was done.

"I think I feel about as good as you look." she joked, her voice was hoarse and quiet but, she was just glad that she was able to speak without throwing up, her voice felt sore and she desperately wanted a drink but couldn't move to get one, and didn't have one in her bag "I'm so sorry I couldn't help you faster...are you really badly hurt?"

Her mind was beginning to wander back to her research but...when he started to talk to her about his neice she raised an eyebrow, did she look like his neice? Is that why he was being so nice to her? Looking down at their clasped hands, and hearing that he was scared for her when she was hit by the tank, Rowan smiled lightly after taking a deep rasping breath to fight a wave of nausea. Squeezing his hand, she whispered softly;

"One...I was scared about what would have happened to you if I hadn't have been able to help you...if I was a second or two later..." she bit her lip and turned her gaze to her lap.

Jimmy could see that Sebastian and Patrick had both moved on towards other areas of the bank that needed to be covered or barricaded. He was glad because it meant that she was allowed to be here with her, helping her to deal with the pains that she was in both emotionally and physically. He hoped that she wasn't feeling too bad about what had happened to him though. It wasn't her fault he had taken the damage though so he didn''t understand why she would feel bad about it,

"So what you're saying is that you feel absolutely precious?" he joked, doing a passable imitation of Sabastian as he did so before wincing a little bit at his ribs. He shook his head a little bit when she asked if he was really badly hurt and lied through his teeth when he spoke, "No no, just a little light bruising I'd imagine. I'll be fine in no time!"

Holding her hands like this he had flashes of doing this with his niece and his expression softened further as he relaxed. She was so like his darling niece Hannah that it hurt his heart to see her in such a hurt position. Not to mention the girl was lovely and definately didn't deserve to be treated this way by anything, even zombies,

"Don't worry about could have beens. What matters is that I'm alright... you saved me." he assured her happily before squeezing her hand again, "Two... I was so afraid that when I got to you that... that you wouldn't get up again. Paralzed or... dead... I just... I was so afraid that my last words to you were about ducking under acid spit..."

Rowan looked at Jimmy and she raised her eyebrows in a sarcastic manner, she knew that he was lying through his teeth she knew enough about biology to understand that the body was not meant to be slammed full force against a concrete surface and come away without serious damage. Wondering whether she should really make a big deal out of it she merely smiled and shook her head, which sent her spinning so she didn't do that again...

"So...if I was to poke you right here in the ribs you would be completely fine...yes?" she asked with a small smile "You don't have to be so brave, I know enough about anatomy to tell that you took a lot of damage from what that Special did to you...you should get some bandages on that...I might have some pain ointment too or those...Nurofen capsules..."

Reaching for her bag she winced lightly as pain flared through her but she hooked her foot through the handle and pulled it closer, hissing a little as she did so, opening it a little she rooted through with one hand. Refusing to let go of Jimmy's hand Rowan pulled out a box of extra strength pain capsules and handed them to Jimmy; "Here these should help."

Unable to stop a little laugh which she regretted, so much of her was still tender from her impact, but laughing seemed to be off the cards too;

"You saved me so much today, I'm so grateful, I don't know what I would have done without you Jimmy, probably be zombie food right about now." she grinned softly, before letting her expression dull a little bit, there were so many things she was scared about she didn't know where to start, squeezing his hand again she whispered "Two, I'm scared...knowing what I know, it makes everything so much more terrifying..."

Jimmy could tell that his little white lie had been seen through and it just made him chuckle a little bit. Yeah it kind of made sense that she would be a little bit sceptical considering he had been slammed into the pavement by a massively strong zombie. He could also tell that she wasn't in the best of shape either. She had to stop herself from moving, a sure sign that she perceived everything to be spinning, after merely shaking her head,

"Yes... but I recommend not poking me in the ribs... mainly because you look like if you extended your arm to poke me you'd fall over on top of me." he joked a little bit before sighing a little bit when she mentioned knowing her anatomy before smiling, "I'm not alright... but I will be. It's just a lot of serious bruising, a fracture at most. I didn't feel any ribs break and I'm still alive so I doubt there's any internal injuries to my hear or lungs or anything like that."

He frowned when she did so much for him, put herself in so much pain, just so that he could feel a little bit better. Taking the tablets greatfully, he took two out of the packet and held them out for her to take, "You need some as much as I do."

Taking another two out he took them quickly before chuckling a little bit and shaking his head, still holding her hands,

"You don't need to worry about that. I'd save you again and again if I had to." he told her happily before his expression became more concerned, "You know more than us... don't you? Why is that?"

Squeezing her hand gently, he sighed a little bit and glanced towards the door, "Three... I'm afraid of how intelligent those special zombies are... that second spitting one knew exactly where to attack and they semed to work together to try to separate us..."

Rowan, the more that she talked with Jimmy, the more she realised that she was scared of almost everything, before they had come along she trusted nobody and she was all alone in this big world she was just so scared that she was going to die and she was going to die in a horrible way. Tonight alone she could have been eaten, humped to death, squished to death by a massive zombie or had her organs eaten away by acid...

Taking the tablets greatfully she swallowed them down although it was hard, she normally never took tablets without having something to drink them with but...beggars couldn't be choosers she just wanted to feel better and she knew that these were the only things that were going to do the job.

"Thanks Jimmy, I was trying to save them for an emergency, and I think this qualifies as the right situation, don't you?" she asked with a little smile "I've never seen so many of them in one place...or have so many try and attack me at once, it was so...frightening."

As she hugged an arm around her knees she realised that she just wanted to share her burdens with someone instead of trying to soldier on alone, perhaps Jimmy would be that person that she could share her thoughts with, that she could ask for help for what she should do, if she was making the right calls or if she was making a big mistake.

"You shouldn't have to come and save me...I feel so pathetic." she admitted before smiling softly and looked back up into his eyes "I'm a biochemist, I was actually lucky enough to be assigned to the research department of this disease for my dissertation work...so...I worked with uhm...several specimines. That's where I'm going, back to the lab."

Squeezing his hand again, Rowan felt her eyes filling with tears; "Thats because they do, specials are smarter, more closer to human intelligence. Three...I'm...I'm scared of being alone..." she whispered, her tears rolling down her cheeks "But there's nobody left...just me."

Jimmy had been his niece's confidante for many years before all this zombie stuff had even begun to surface and he knew the fact of a young woman who wanted someone to be there to talk about her problems. And he was going to be that guy. Of course Sebastian could probably be that guy because he was gay and therefore had no interest in taking advantage of that vulnerability. But he had doubts about Patrick simply because he didn't know the guy. He wasn't going to take advantage because she was almost exactly like his niece, just like the daughter he had always wished that he had had,

"Yeah I think this is about as much of an emergency as we're going to be getting." he admitted with a little chuckle before growing a little bit more serious, "Just once. That was back when this all first started and there was this massive group that just kind of like... descended onto a football stadium."

When she said that he shouldn't have to come and save her he didn't say anything. She wanted to be able to protect herself, he could respect that. But the truth was that he would always protect her, even if/when the time came that she no longer needed him to protect her, to fight her battles for her. He acknowledged, with a smile, that that was probably what fathers felt when their daughters grew up,

"Well even if I don't have to, I will always come for you. I want to protect you." he told her honestly before whistling a little bit, "No wonder you didn't want to leave London with us... you have some seriously important work here to do. You should be proud of yourself for that... no one else has stayed to keep up the research so that makes you the most dedicated scientist working on this subject. Congratulations!"

It might have been in poor taste but he hoped she laughed at least a little bit. When he saw the tears in her eyes his shoulders sagged and he pulled himself up so that she was sat next to her. Putting an arm around her, he hugged her as tightly as he felt they both could handle right now,

"I'm scared of being alone too..." he whispered as he leant the side of his head against the side of hers, "But you're not alone anymore. You've got Sebastian and Patrick... and you've got me. I won't let you be scared and alone again Rowan."

Rowan smiled sadly when he told her that she had some seriously important work to do, a part of her had wanted him to tell her she was being stupid, that she should leave right now and leave the reasearch for now, she wanted to leave and she wanted to be safe but she didn't want to feel like a failure, she didn't want to affirm everything that her Professor had told her before he had passed.

She felt proud though, she felt proud that she would be able to stay here while everyone else had left but...she was just so scared, every noise had her jumping, every shadow had her pulling out her knife, Rowan couldn't stand it any more! Things should just go back to how they used to be...before the world went to hell and she lost everyone and everything.

"Thanks Jimmy, it's nice that someone is still appreciating what I am trying to do, even if I'm not doing a great job...I feel like I've failed everyone, like...if we'd just tried harder...we could have done something, we could have saved...so many lives." Rowan whispered, she'd lost so many people, and so had everyone else, each death felt like her responsibility.

When she was held so closely to Jimmy, Rowan felt herself being unable to hold back the tears, she had been so strong for so long, struggling to survive and research as long as she could, but Rowan was tired, and scared....Even now she didn't want them to wait for her, she didn't want them to put their lives on hold to help her.

"You don't have to stay with me Jimmy...you should go, and start a new life away from all of this." she whispered softly "As much as I'm scared, and I realise that if I...if I continue my research alone I'll probably end up dead in about a week or so...I can't ask you guys to stop and help me, it's my task not yours."

Squeezing his hand again she whispered; "I'm scared of failing, Jimmy, and...I feel like I've already failed."

It might have been the probably concussion or the way he thought she was important to him even before she told him about her work, but Jimmy was sure that what Rowan had been doing would have a great impact on the world as it was now. She had stood there in her lab and continued even when Jimmy knew for a fact that many scientists had either run away to try and reach other countries or, in some extreme cases, 'Opted out' as it were. He was very glad that she hadn't chosen either path.

Jimmy could tell that she would not have been receiving a lot of encouragement from others. A lot of common people had gotten very angry at any scientist involved with the disease. There had even been reports of labs being burnt down even though they were researching a cure, simply because they were somehow linked to the disease. It had been a dark day for common sense that one. But he was oh so glad that her lab hadn't been targetted,

"Well of course I appreciate what you're trying to do... me and the others? We're trying to make sure that we as a little group survive... you're trying to make sure that all of London, all of Britain, survives!" he told her with a smile before shaking his head a little bit and giving her a short hug, "Don't think like that Rowan... you've been doing all that you can. And the disease itself was not your fault... you and your team have always done the best you could."

He could feel her sobbing a little bit as she let the tears out and he sighed even as he hugged her close, rubbing her back in an effort to soothe her. He didn't want her to be so overwhelmed by the sadness. He wanted her to know that there were things still in this world to hold onto,

"I don't have to, but I want to Rowan. I was going to the army outpost to see if I could get sent back in to help more people... but now I see that helping protect you and you research a cure is the best way forwards." he told her with a small smile before shaking his head a little bit and squeezing her hand back to comfort her, "You've not failed and you won't fail Rowan... I will stay with you, to help you. I'm sure the others will too if we ask them."

He gently squeezed her hand again, "I'm afraid of leaving you alone... I don't want you to get hurt when I could prevent it."