Gerard hadn't said anything for two hours. He was sat in the back of the car, holding the radio to his chest, though Mikey's voice had left it ten minutes after they'd gotten into the car. He was waiting for something to happen. He was waiting to hear it again.

Frank sat in the front, beside Bert, who was driving with a sullen look on his face. The younger had the samurai sword on his lap, and he wasn't even doing anything with it, he was just staring at it as if it was some magical deity that would give him all the answers.

He knew what he was doing was wrong, and he should just own up and tell them that he was lying, but he'd told Gerard he could find Mikey, and that was exactly what he was going to do. Even if it killed him. Which it probably would.

~

Ryan had been working for a solid fifteen hours while Lindsey paced restlessly, waiting for something to happen. Ray hadn't come back yet, which was annoying her further, and she was just about ready to scream when Ryan huffed, pushing his hair back from his face.

"Got anything?" She asked, and he hesitated before speaking.

"Almost. I think I've got something that can stop him from decaying altogether, kinda like a preservation thing, but I think I'm close to something that can reverse it. I'm not sure."

"What, like that stuff taxidermists use?"

He made a face. Brendon wasn't some prized pet that was going to be kept on top of the mantelpiece in his uncle's woodland mansion. "Sort of. He's already started decaying, so he needs something stronger, something to stop it from getting worse. If we inject him with that, then we might be able to slowly reverse the process with something else."

He transferred the serum into a syringe, and let Lindsey lead him to where Brendon was. The zombie was restless, banging its hands against the cage, but when Ryan walked in it seemed to calm, which was strange, to say the least.

He smiled. "Hey, Bren," he said softly, approaching it. It grunted in return, groaning and shuffling as it pressed itself up against the bars of the cage. "I've got something for you."

"Be careful, Ryan." Lindsey said, her fierce voice abnormally shaky.

"He won't hurt me." Ryan insisted, but he wasn't convincing anybody; Brendon had hurt him when he was human, what was to say that he wouldn't hurt him now?

Slowly, carefully, he unlocked the cage, holding up a hand as he opened the door. The zombie stilled, staring at Ryan with lifeless white eyes as he pressed a hand to its face, tilting its head to the side so as to expose its neck. It started to groan, distressed, but Ryan made gentle shushing noises as he lifted the syringe and stabbed it into the leathered skin of its neck.

Lindsey watched in awe as he didn't even grimace, pushing the plunger and injecting the serum into the zombie. It was almost as if it was a rabid dog, and Ryan was some sort of dog whisperer. Ryan Ross the zombie whisperer.

It was calming, soothing, almost freakishly beautiful to watch, despite the fact that Ryan had clearly lost his mind. It wouldn't be quite so gross if he wasn't having a weird intimate moment with a zombie, but Lindsey reckoned it would melt her ice-cold heart.

Until the zombie turned around and bit into Ryan's hand.

~

"I know where he is."

Gerard turned to Frank, his eyes wide with hope, and he shuffled closer in the darkness. It was no longer safe to sleep in the tents, so the three of them remained in the car, despite the fact that it was a bastard to sleep in.

And Frank had just spent the last five hours acting as though he knew where to find Mikey based on the radio. But he knew where Mikey was, radio or otherwise. It was just a matter of getting there.

They were close, he knew it, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to go there. Gerard deserved to see him, sure, but it would destroy him.

"We're close. We'll be there tomorrow."

Then Mikey's voice floated from the radio, and Gerard hugged it to his chest, whispering into it as if his brother could hear him.

~

Lindsey stepped away from the transmitter, a smug smile on her face, and she turned to Ryan, who was quietly working on his antidote, his bandaged hand held to his chest as he worked one-handed.

There had been tears and blood and Lindsey rushing to get Ryan away from the zombie, which was staring at Ryan as if it was a puppy that didn't realise it had done something wrong until it was locked back into its cage. Ryan had just stood there, dumbstruck, as his hand bled and missed its thumb and index finger. What had followed the tears and blood was quiet speculation as to whether the bite would infect him or not; the zombie was no longer decaying, if the serum worked, but it was still a zombie, and he could still turn.

"Got any further?" She pressed, placing a hand on his shoulder that he promptly shrugged off.

"It's pretty hard to work when you only have half your right hand." He replied, and she actually recoiled a little at the acidity in his voice. She'd managed to stop the blood flow and had stitched him up as best as she could, what with there being protruding bone and muscle and whatever else was in the human hand, but he was still scarily pale and there was sweat on his brow, and he looked to be in intense pain.

"How about you stop for a while, yeah?" She tucked a strand of hair behind his ear, smiling as warmly as she could. "He's not going anywhere. And besides, you've done so well. I want to update you on the others."

He reluctantly agreed, letting Lindsey lead him to some sort of living area, though it was barely that; an old couch, a wooden coffee table that had been eaten at by mice, and what looked like a 1990s TV with a hole punched through the screen.

They sat down, and she grinned wickedly before speaking. "I've sent out the message, and they're on their way. Iero knows where I am. Ray should intercept them before they get here, but if he doesn't, then..." She shrugged. "So long as I get Iero, I'm happy."

~

Frank woke up to a face pressed against the window. It wasn't just any face, it was Ray's, and he had the same sort of expression as that of an excited puppy. The less awake of the two cried out and jerked back, subsequently headbutting Gerard and waking Bert at the same time. Which would be an accomplishment, if Ray Toro (fangs and all) wasn't peering in like some sort of leper.

"Open the window, Frank!" He said, and Frank looked at him as if he was an idiot.

"So you can eat us? No chance!" He frowned. "What did they do to you?"

Ray was personally offended. "Why would I eat you? No offence, but you probably taste like shit. You haven't showered in like three years."

"Three weeks, actually." Bert snorted in the front seat and the youngest of the four turned to glare at him, while winding down the window. "Fine, but the second you sink your teeth into me, I'm going all garlic on your ass."

"Frank, garlic went extinct like two and a half years ago." Gerard said quietly behind him, and he sighed in exasperation.

"Not helping, Gerard."

"But -"

Frank waved a hand, shushing him. "What do you want?" He asked Ray, who shrugged.

"Technically I'm supposed to eating you, or at least drinking your blood - has blood always been so metallic? Anyway - but I fed on the way here, so I'm not really hungry. I just wanted to hang with you guys after I was rudely snatched."

"What even are you?" Bert asked, not very nicely might Ray add, brow furrowed in confusion.

"I'm not sure. I think I'm some weird enhanced vampire thing, but Lindsey didn't tell me exactly -"

"Wait what? Did you say Lindsey?" Frank demanded.

"Uh, yeah...Lindsey was the one who took me...Lindsey and Ryan."

And as Frank looked at Bert and Gerard, he could feel the fear suffocating his body and mind, rendering him powerless to what was to come.

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