; holding on to hell

[ROSEMARY LENNON]

R ose jolted back to consciousness with a terrified shriek and a cry of pain.  For a moment - just one, blissful moment - she thought it had all been some terrible nightmare. Her memories of the events leading up to this second were  jumbled, hazy and confusing just like a dream would be, but the sticky warmth of blood trickling down the side of her face was enough to remind her that this was very much reality.  She pushed herself up to her hands and knees with a dramatic groan. Carefully reaching out to touch the open wound on the side of her head, Rose froze with horror as a chilling snarl reached her ears. Glancing over her shoulder toward the noise, she immediately scrambled away at a crawl until she managed to clamber her way to her feet, taking off at a clumsy run.  A zombie was heading straight for her. And where there was one, there were usually others.  Holding one hand out to guide herself along the wall to keep upright, Rose tried to gather her bearings. She knew she was inside the main building - but where exactly was escaping her in her panic. There had been a man with her - an older, handsome vacationer - but he was nowhere to be seen now, so she was entirely on her own for the first time since this whole shit storm began. Fear rattled her to the core - as did worry about the man’s wellbeing - but she knew she had to continue her personal mission with or without help. She didn’t have a choice. Alexander. Since the beginning, he was her mission. He was all that mattered. Locating him was the driving force of her survival, because if she found him, then he would help her get to her father, and then somehow everything was going to be alright. Right?  Probably not. But everyone needed a reason more than just their own survival to keep fighting, and that was hers. He was hers. Just as Rose was about to reach the door at the end of the hallway, a massive explosion shook the entire building like an earthquake. Bracing herself on the wall, shards of glass and debris showered over her from the ceiling, slicing cuts through her already bloodied work uniform. The door splintered and blew open, a swarm of zombies spilling through it and onto the floor. They writhed and hissed in a tangled mess like one of those horrible ‘rat kings’ that she had made Lex google image search that one time. Her moment of hesitation was enough to nearly screw her over. The lone zombie caught her up quickly as she stared at the ones on the floor (recognizing almost every one as people she had interacted with as little as just a few hours ago) and grabbed her from behind with a rotting, putrid arm. Tossing her body weight back as she spun, she managed to knock the zombie slightly off balance. Her chest heaving up and down with adrenaline, fear and anger, she watched as it regained it’s footing, reaching out for her once again. That’s when she hauled her arm back and punched the undead motherfucker right in the face. The zombie slammed back onto the marble floor with a crack that resounded throughout the hallway. Rose quickly shuffled around to it’s head, stomping her high-heel deep into the forehead with a sickening crunch. Wrenching it free with a grunt of effort, she made sure to place the shiny red shoe back on her foot before she took back off running in the opposite direction. Bounding corner after corner, she finally slowed to a stop when she emerged into the large reception area of the resort. Taking in the immense damage - a burning pile of carcasses in the corner, shattered glass and upturned furniture everywhere - Rose felt her heart twist in her chest. This was her domain, her spot, and it was no longer precious. It was ruined. Her home was gone. First, she checked to see if the phones were working. They weren’t, which she figured. She then slammed through each desk drawer looking for supplies or anything that could be used as a weapon, grabbing the absolute saddest excuse for weapons ever, and then crawled under the safety of her desk, hugging her knees. She still couldn’t remember much about the events leading up to her waking up alone in the hallway with a cut on her head. She didn’t know where she had looked for Lex, what she had done or who she’d done it with, but what she did know was that this would certainly be a place he would check for her. All she had to do was wait it out and survive. There, curled up in her small hiding spot, an exhausted and bleeding Rose Lennon slowly slipped back into restless unconsciousness.

[LEX POWER]

L ex squeezed his eyes shut, trying to block out that constant, rasping moan that now seemed to fill the entire island. And the pounding. The incessent pounding on the wood shed door. Three pairs of fists at least, all desperately trying to force their way into his temporary sanctuary and feast on his brains. Or flesh. Or whatever it was zombies hungered for these days. Hands covering his face, he pushed his head backwards into the wall, gently at first but harder with every movement. Perhaps he could knock himself out until the zombies got bored and wandered off.                           "Would you shut the hell up!?" But of course the moaning and pounding continued, no change in pace whatsoever. Lex let out a groan and slumped forward. It had been only hours ago that he'd been in his tower, guarding lives on the beach. And then chaos, and gnashing teeth, and tearing flesh, and running. He'd tried so hard to save people, but he was weaponless and for the most part they ran from him as quickly as they ran from zombies. The decision to head back to the main building and find Rose was an easy one to make, but unfortunately he'd been herded into the woodshed before he could get there. It wasn't far, but the flesh eating monsters outside the door sort of put a kabosh on the plan. Laid out on the floor in front of him were things that he'd managed to find that passed as weapons in the shed. A shovel, some pruning shears and a long plank of wood with a few nails sticking haphazardly out of it. None of them would do any good, of course, until the zombies backed off the door. At this point as soon as he opened it they'd flail in and he'd be unable to defend himself. He needed a distraction. As if someone up there were listening, an explosion shook the island like a small earthquake. Lex leapt to the window and saw flames and smoke billowing out from one of the upper floors of the Main Building.                                     "Rose..." he breathed, hoping beyond hope that she was somewhere safe. One of the lower floors perhaps, closer to her desk, away from explosions and fire. It took him a moment, in his panic, to realise that the pounding on the door had suddenly stopped. He could see the zombies that had previously been at his door now shambling passed the window towards the main building, drawn by the sound of the explosion. On the one hand this was good. He could now sneak out of the woodshed without getting nibbled on. On the other hand, how many other undead assholes would he now have to fight through just to get through the front door? That would just have to be future Lex's problem, right now he just needed to get out. He quietly moved his barricades out of the way and grabbed his make shift weapons before cautiously opening the door a crack and peeking out. They were only a few feet away, but at least they were no longer focused on him. With a long exhale, he stepped out, leaning his shovel and shears on the outer wall and brandishing his wood and nails as he crept up behind the closest zombie. He nailed it in the head with a dull thunk. It let out one final rasping moan before going still. The two ahead of him turned at the sudden, albeit quite, sound and began shuffling back towards him. Lex quickly tried to pull back his weapon for another hit but found the it stuck in the zombies head. It didn't matter how hard he pulled, it wouldn't come loose. The other zombies were drawing near and he quickly let go, allowing the corpse to drop to the ground, stumbling back to the woodshed and grabbing the shovel. It was weightier than the plank of wood, and he swung it harder. It connected instantly with the zombie's head, spinning it around with a sickening snap. Two more whacks crushed the head into the ground, staining the grass and sand red, and spattering Lex's face with blood and brains. When the final zombie came for him, he raised the shovel and drove the sharp end right into it's eyes, almost cleaving the top of the head from the rest. Breathing heavily, eyes darting, Lex rested the shovel against his shoulder, picked up his shears and ran for the main building. The sun had almost set by the time he made it, casting the island in a low light. Visibility was not great, and Lex slowed his pace so as not to inadvertently run into any more walking corpses. While many of the island's undead population seem to have migrated towards the explosion, they seemed to be concentrating their efforts on the side of the building where the fire actually was, leaving the front door effectively free and clear. He still took his time crossing it, not wanting to give them a reason to swarm at him. He could see a few of the faster and larger ones in the crowd and the last thing he wanted was them on his tail. Bodies littered the path to the door. Blissfully, none of them were moving, but that could change in an instant. He tried not to look at them, every face seemed familiar. Some where co-workers, others guests he had met on the beach. Lex gritted his teeth and moved passed them, eyes determinedly forward. By the looks of things no one had barricaded the main door. In a way this was good, he wouldn't have any trouble getting in. But what if it meant there was no on alive inside?           Don't think like that. Rose is in there. She's alive. You'll find her. He stepped over a corpse as he entered the building, quickly bending down and driving his shears through it's skull, just to be safe. He left it propped up against the door though. Maybe it would work as a preventative against other zombies.                                        "Rose?" He called in as loud a whisper as he dared. The reception desk, Roses desk, was just in front of him but what were the chances she was actually anywhere near here? She'd probably run to a safer area of the resort... if such a thing existed. The moaning and pounding was back, but it seemed further away. Other floors and corridors teeming with undead. How quickly had this spread? How had this spread? He made his way to the desk, peering around cautiously. The sun was setting further, darkness was setting in and though he'd never been afraid of the dark as a child, it filled him with dread now. He hopped over the desk, hoping to find some sign of where she may have gone, or anything useful for survival. The sound of soft breathing caused him to freeze. He turned slowly, eyes darting every which way to determine the source of the sound. Finally, he saw his friend curled up under her desk, sleeping... not very peacefully. With a relieved smile he crouched down and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.                          "Rose, it's me. Wake up."

[ROSEMARY LENNON]

T his was the worst sleep Rose had ever had, and she'd once been lost in the Cèilidh Woods for three days, so that was saying something. They couldn't even be classified as nightmares, because each dream reflected her life as it now was. Horrible creatures reaching for her - rotted, disgusting teeth gnashing at her - monsters chasing her through the darkness - each dream felt like a terrible nightmare, but it was also her reality. Her brain was trying desperately to make sense of what she'd been seeing, but the struggle to do that was all too much. A bloody, decaying hand gripped her by the shoulder and ripped her out of her restless sleep, and Rose reacted quickly: she slammed her makeshift office weapon - an open stapler - into the fleshy bit of the zombie's hand without hesitation and with a strangled scream. Kicking out at the creature wildly, she managed to scramble out from under her desk and around the zombie's legs, clambering clumsily to her feet. She slipped her right shoe off of her foot and held it over her head with shaking hands, turning back toward her attacker. She was ready to slam the heel into it's brain, but stopped herself just before she swung. "Fuck!" she exclaimed. Recognition behind her eyes, she was now realizing how close she had just come to trying to kill her best friend.

[LEX POWER]

H onestly, the last thing Lex had been expecting was for his hand to be stapled, followed by a swift kick to the face. He toppled over with a short cry of pain, looking up at his friend in pain and confusion. But Rose had a sort of wild fear in her eyes and she barely seemed to register who he was as she bent down to reach for her shoe. In fairness he couldn't really blame her for her swift reactions. Given the current island climate, the chances were good it could have been a zombie reaching for her instead of him. That said, he really did not want to be on the recieving end of that lethal looking high heel. How in the hell did she even walk in those?                                      "Rose!" He didn't want to raise his voice too loud in case any zombies in the general area heard their scuffle.                                     "ROSE!"                                                   "Fuck!" She came to her senses before he ended up with a heel through the eye, thankfully. Lex cautiously got to his feet, his own weapons now lying on the ground, and gently reached out to take the shoe from her hands.                                       "It's okay, Rosie, it's okay." He pulled her toward him and wrapped his arms around her in a tight embrace as if shielding her from the nightmare the world had become. The words felt like a lie, but he wasn't yet ready to vocalise the truth. At least now they'd found each other. It would get easier from here on out.

[ROSEMARY LENNON]

A nd there he was, in the flesh. Alexander Power, the one thing that had kept her moving this entire time; the one thing that was supposed to trigger her to feel like the end of this whole ordeal was near. But standing there before him, her arm raised in mid-attack, her heart truly felt heavier than ever. He climbed to his feet and reached for her makeshift weapon, and Rose gripped the shoe even tighter, inching backwards. Her eyes searched his, almost certain that by the way her luck was going lately he was about to try and take a bite out of her, but the sound of his voice made her release the heel from her grasp. Her arms fell weakly to her sides until he pulled her in to him, and then they wrapped so tightly around him that she was sure it was almost painful for the both of them.                         "It's okay, Rosie, it's okay." Rose shut her eyes tightly, not entirely surprised to feel tears escaping down her cheeks. The relief of finally having him with her was intense, but there was a new fear there now. She didn’t believe him. She knew that it wasn’t going to be okay; things were never going to be okay again - and for this, Rose felt a depression that she probably should have expected. She pressed her face into his jumper one final time before pushing away to look up at him. Her hands touched either side of his head, patting along his shoulders as if checking him for any gaping wounds. “Are you alright? Not hurt too bad?” she asked him worriedly, and then gasped, grabbing his stapled hand as she remembered what she'd done. “Shit. Oh, fuck. Sorry.” Rose gathered her discarded shoe from the floor, placing it back on her foot with difficulty. She gripped her friend's arm to keep her balance. "It's the whole island, isn't it?" she asked. "What the fuck is happening..."

[LEX POWER]

I t was a relief to have Rose there, finally in the not chewed on flesh, but they still had a long way to go. Ideally they'd make it to the lighthouse, find Rose's dad and hole up there until... uh... well he hadn't got quite that far. Surely there'd be rescue of some kind once word reached the mainland. Right? Despite that, he couldn't help but smile as Rose checked him for wounds. Other than his now stapled hand, Lex had been quite lucky in the injury department. Yes, he was covered in blood, but it was mostly other peoples.                                             “Shit. Oh, fuck. Sorry.” Lex laughed, eyeing the staple in his hand. "I've had worse," he pointed out. In fact, the staple was sitting paralell to a scar he'd received three or four years ago when he'd cut himself on some coral out in the reef. It had bled like a mother fucker... and the subsequent infection had not been fun. In comparison, a staple to the hand was nothing.                "It's the whole island, isn't it? What the fuck is happening..." He nodded, absently picking the staple from his hand as Rose leaned against him. "Everything from the beach to here at least... it looks like a fucking war zone..." But he couldn't even begin to explain what was happening. Sure, zombies. But HOW was the important question. Horror stories are all well and good, but all the stories said the curse or disease or whatever it was that caused this had been contained a couple of hundred years ago. How exactly does something like this just... happen? "Have you been under there this whole time?" he asked, nodded to her desk.

[ROSEMARY LENNON]

"I ’ve had worse," Rose frowned; somehow that didn’t make her feel better about it. “Everything from the beach to here at least... it looks like a fucking war zone…” Her frown deepened, worry and confusion overtaking her features. She pictured the island - her home - ravaged and plagued from coast to coast with evil and terror, and it made her stomach churn. Rose couldn’t even begin to think about all the other people she cared about and what their fates were - it was all too much. Way, way too much. The stories had been true. She’d grown up hearing them, having them taught to her over and over along with many other legends of the island and the Gods that tended to it, but she had never truly considered whether or not she believed them. It was one thing to know the tales, it was a complete other thing to heed the warnings they offered. “Have you been under there this whole time?" Rosie hesitated and then shook her head, her hair falling loosely over her shoulders. “No. I was with some guy - a guest - he…” she trailed off, struggling to grasp the memory that seemed just barely out of her reach. “I can’t remember much before just twenty minutes ago. All I know was that we were together, he was helping me look for you, and then I woke up with this,” she pointed to the cut on her forehead. “No weapons, no guy, and a ton of zombies on my ass.” She chewed on her cracked lip, frustrated that she couldn’t recall what had happened to him. She wasn’t sure whether she was supposed to be worried about him or infuriated that he’d left her. “You seen anyone yet?” Rose asked cautiously after a beat. “Maya? Adam? Jason? Anyone?”

[LEX POWER]

H e pushed Rose's hair back off her face as she spoke, inspecting the cut on her head. His first aid training reminded him that head wounds tended to look worse than they were but somehow that wasn't comforting. And even so, he didn't think it was a good idea to go around with open wounds. What if this thing spread in more ways than just a bite? "He just left you?" It was an unfair assumption, there was every possibility that in the chaos they had simply been separated. But Lex's over protective nature got the better of his logic, his face set in a glare as he pulled his hand back from Rose. "Asshole."                “You seen anyone yet? Maya? Adam? Jason? Anyone?” Lex hesitated. Had he seen their friends? He'd thought he had on several occasions. Visions of his friends as flesh eating monsters as he passed, only to blink and see an unfamiliar flesh eating monster. Or had he? Some of the zombies he'd passed had been pretty unrecognizeable, what if one of them had been there and he hadn't noticed? Finally he shook his head, his glare replaced with sad uncertainty. "I don't think so..." He definitely hadn't run into them alive, but if he had they would be here with him now. He shook his head again, this time to dispel thoughts of potentially dead friends. Retrieving his make-shift weapons he turned back to Rose, determination clear in his face. "Okay, we gotta get to the nearest med kit that is not currently near a zombie horde, get your cut taken care of. Then, we're heading to your dad, yeah?"

[ROSEMARY LENNON]

R ose allowed Lex to examine her head injury, watching his eyes turn hard with concentration as he looked down at her. That told her that it probably didn’t look so good - it certainly didn’t feel very good - but she hadn’t had the chance to check it herself yet in all of the commotion. Normally Rosie cared very much for her appearance; so the fact that she hadn’t even bothered to check just went to show how truly and deeply distraught she actually was at the moment. Lex was usually the one she’d go to with any sort of damage to her person; he was even the only one she would trust to pull out her splinters, even over herself. Everyone at the resort was supposed to have some form of First Aid training, including Rosie, but she typically just flirted with the instructors in order to pass rather than pay any attention to what they were teaching. She was really regretting that now, obviously.     “He just left you? Asshole.” Rose chewed the inside of her cheek, looking away but saying nothing. If he had just up and left her, yes, that statement was probably correct, but something in her gut told her that there had to be more to the story that she just couldn’t recall. Leo didn’t feel like an asshole to her, but then again, most men were assholes to Rosemary Lennon for very little reason at all, so she wasn’t sure she should hold much faith.      "I don't think so..." Alright. Well, that wasn’t the worst news she’d ever heard. If Lex had been out on the island and hadn’t come across their closest friends yet, then perhaps they might already be somewhere safe. Of course, it could also mean they were dead or worse, but she trusted that Lex would tell her the truth if he’d seen their corpses wandering about.      "Okay, we gotta get to the nearest med kit that is not currently near a zombie horde, get your cut taken care of. Then, we're heading to your dad, yeah?" As Lex gathered up his weapons, Rosie’s attention fell upon a suit jacket that lay discarded on her marble desk, noticing it now for only the first time. She picked it up and moved it about in her hands, immediately recognizing it as Leo’s. A flash of a memory - warm hands, the whispered name ‘Rosa’ in her ear - struck her like an electric shock and she dropped the piece of clothing to the floor, her eyebrows stitched in confusion. “Sure,” she said absently in response, barely paying attention to her friend. Then, she turned her eyes back to him, forcing her mind from the past and back into the present. “I mean - yes. Dad. Sorry. I’m still just really -” She swirled a hand around her head. “ - confused. I feel like I was tackled by an entire rugby team and not in a good way.” The forced smile fell from her lips almost as soon as it appeared as she finished her half-assed attempt at a joke. She reached out and touched him, forcing him to stop what he was doing and to turn back to her. She gripped his arms at the elbows, looking up at him with the same searching eyes that she often looked at him with. “Can’t we wait a minute, Lex?” she dared to ask. “I want to just be happy that I’ve found you for a bit longer before I see any more shit go down.” Just then, Rosie noticed movement within the room in her peripheral. Freezing in fear, she dared to slowly turn her head to the right, hopefully as undetectably as possible, and felt close to fainting at what she saw. A zombie clumsily ambled it’s way across the lobby as casually as though it were a guest simply headed to the pool on a Sunday. In fact, if she didn’t know any better, she would have thought it was just old Mr Jensen from Room 417 out for a stroll again. She tightened her grip on her friend to the point that it probably hurt, her mind reeling desperately for an idea of what to do. Unmoving, she hoped that perhaps the zombie would simply be on it’s way and leave them unnoticed, but just when she thought they were in the clear it stopped in it’s tracks and sniffed the air. Turning awkwardly to face them, the zombie snarled and gnashed it’s rotten teeth, advancing on them at a run. “Uh. Uh. Uhh,” Rose slapped her friend’s arm repeatedly to turn his attention, even though he more than likely already knew. She pointed to the approaching zombie with her free hand, still smacking Lex with the other, her heart in her throat.

[LEX POWER]

L ex hefted the shovel a couple of times, as if testing its weight. It was great for whacking zombie heads but was it too heavy to carry all the way to the lighthouse? He'd never really had to calculate burden over usefulness before. Certainly not in such an extreme circumstance. He looked between the shovel and the shears, torn. He wanted as many options as possible. Maybe if Rosie carried the shears and he carried the shovel... yes... two weapons were definitely better than one. He turned at her touch, his blue eyes meeting her green ones. There was something briefly comforting about the look she was giving him. Despite the situation, the concern and the worry. It was familiar. Home like. “Can’t we wait a minute, Lex? I want to just be happy that I’ve found you for a bit longer before I see any more shit go down.” For a moment he allowed himself a smile, and he almost nodded. It would be nice to rest for a moment anyway before heading back out into the chaos. Of course, the moment he decided to do just that was when he spotted the corpse shuffling across the lobby. He hoped briefly that it was one of the slow ones, that it might ignore them and the could sneak past it. “Uh. Uh. Uhh.” He didn't need Rosie's repeated slaps in the arm to alert him that that hope was false as the zombie broke into a run. But it did spur him to push her gently to the side, handing her the shears as she stepped forward, brandishing the shovel like a baseball bat. "Come and get it mother fucker," he muttered under his breath, waiting for the right moment. As soon as it came within range, he swung the shovel as hard as he could, connecting with the zombies head with a loud and sickening CRACK. The blow wasn't enough to kill it, but it certainly threw it off balance. It stumbled and slowed, giving Lex the opening he needed to drive the sharp edge of the shovel into its skull. The zombie immediately stilled, becoming a regular corpse. Lex tried not to see the old man that corpse had been before all this started. Movement from further down the hall caught his attention and he swore again. He turned back to Rosie, any sign of mirth gone from his face, fresh blood spattered on his cheeks. "No waiting, Rosie," he said, apologetic. He grabbed her hand, thankful he didn't have to do this alone. "Run."

[ROSEMARY LENNON]

=

R osie accepted whatever he handed her without question, her eyes still trained upon the approaching zombie. The weight of the weapon confused her, however, and she glanced down at it before pulling a questioning expression and looking back up at Lex. He would be using gardening shears as a weapon. This man always mystified her. "Come and get it mother fucker," She flinched involuntarily at the sound of the metal shovel connecting with the zombie’s skull, wincing as her friend drove the sharp end into it’s brain with a sickening crunch. Unfortunately by now the sight of blood and gore didn’t bother her nearly as much as it once had, considering all that she’d been through lately, so she was able to move on from it fairly quickly. "And what exactly do I do with these, Alexander?" she razzed with the ghost of a grin, pulling the shears apart and closing them again a few times like scissors snipping the air. "Bit of gardening? We gonna prune some hedges?" "No waiting, Rosie," The urgency in his voice wiped any hint of a smile from her face. The warmth of his hand around hers alerted her to the cruel reality of the situation - typically, this would have been a generally nice feeling, but for Rosie lately nearly anytime somebody took her by the hand it was because they were in serious danger. "Run." She let out a small noise, halfway between a whine and a growl, before obeying and setting off at a run. Her heels were killing her, so she released her friend’s hand and fell a few steps behind as she pulled them off one by one. Gathering them close to her chest - because she’d be damned if she just left these shoes laying around for just anyone to take - she took off barefoot after her friend again, her arms full. She pushed through the large glass door and out into the hot, sticky night. She paused briefly, her eyes scanning the horizon as she took in the carnage that was her home, before turning to Lex. "My place," she said. "Mum’s ring - it’s there - I… I feel like I should bring it to dad." She glanced over her shoulder into the lobby behind them, making sure that a zombie wasn’t directly on her ass. "I’d also like to change." She tugged at her skirt. "I know I look hot but, like, this isn’t good apocalypse surviving attire."