S C A R L E T

"I don't see them." I looked at Nico, closing the roof door behind me. I knew damn well Hallie would have no way off without it being open, and maybe it was really wrong of me to leave her like that but, when someone points a gun at you, you kinda lose any kind of pity feelings or sympathy you had towards them.

So you're damn right I left her for Don's men to find her. Hate that bitch anyways.

"I don't either but let's keep looking." Nico grabbed my free hand, which was my left hand and dragged me down the stairs.

The next floor was only two staircases down but the door was cracked open. I assume Logan and Juan left it like that for us to find. However, I have no idea why they didn't just come back and get us, if anything splitting up is a recipe for disaster.

"Don seems to think that those cars we spotted belong to the group Logan and Alaina run with."

Nico and I froze on the middle of the staircase, we backed away from the railing as well, hoping that Don's men hadn't seen us.

"Don seems to think every car we see belongs to them." A sarcastic voice joined the conversation.

I gently let go of Nico's hand and slowly crawled to the railing so that I could look down and get a good look at the people that had come to attempt to trap us.

I was expecting to see lots of buff men with rifles, but I was surprised to see only two grown men, a guy that seemed around my age, and a woman. The two grown men were both white, the teen my age was a light skin. Light brown eyes, light brown skin, but dark brown curly hair. As for the women, she was Asian, with short black hair and dark brown eyes.

"This is stupid...why are we even here? There's nothing but walkers in this shitty hotel." The light skin stated.

I backed away from the railing and crawled over to Nico. "Should we just shoot them and get it over with?" I asked quietly.

Nico gave me a blank look. "From this height?" He shook his head. "That would only give our position away and put us in more danger."

I nodded, and agreed with him. "You're right, dumb idea." I acknowledged.

"Let's get to that floor." Nico looked down the stairs at the open door that led to the 15th floor.

"Okay." I said, looking back at the roof door briefly before following after Nico. I knew Hallie wasn't going to be a problem as long as she didn't give herself away. But still, I wondered if I should play it safe and get rid of her.

However, I wasn't heartless enough to kill an innocent like that. Even though she wasn't necessarily innocent, she was acting out of anger, and if anyone understands the want for vengeance, it's me.

Slowly, we made our way to the floor. Once we were inside we removed the door stopper and closed the door quietly. When it was fully closed, I realized it couldn't lock.

I guess we just have to hope they won't check this floor.

"We should find an open hotel room. Maybe wait them out?" Nico suggested behind me.

I could hear him trying door handles to see if any were open. I looked out the small window on the floor door one last time before turning around to look at him.

"What about Juan and Logan? They couldn't have just disappeared, do you think they're okay?" I held my rifle tightly to my chest.

Juan and Logan couldn't be far, and there was no blood other than dead corpses of walkers, so that had to be a good sign. Plus, we would've heard the gunshots.

"I'm sure they're okay." Nico nodded reassuringly at me. "Don't worry, we'll find them. They're probably the ones who left the door open." Nico again tried to open another hotel room, but it didn't open because just like the others, it was locked.

I looked past him when I heard shuffling, and I was surprised to see a couple of walkers. However, their arms, and jaw were cut off to the point that their throats were sliced open. That's probably why I couldn't hear them growl. Because they couldn't. What was even weirder, was that they were both looking straight at us, but made no attempt to even try to attack us.

I thought it was interesting, because you don't see that everyday. In fact, you don't see that at all. "Nico look." I walked up to Nico, and nodded my head in the direction of the two walkers who only looked at us. One cocked it's head to the side, as if it were studying us.

Nico furrowed his eyebrows. "What the hell?" He looked at me, and we shared a glance before we both turned back to the walkers.

"Why aren't they attacking us?" I asked out loud. I was so used to Walkers consistently charging at us and trying to eat us alive. The concept of them only looking at us oddly before turning away like they were bored was foreign to me.

I took a couple of steps closer to the walkers, holding onto my rifle tightly in case one of them suddenly decided to attack me or Nico.

"I don't know. But there's no way they died like that, someone must have done it to them to keep them quiet." Nico grabbed my arm and I turned my head to look at him.

"Which means we aren't alone on this floor." Nico lowered his voice and I felt myself suddenly feel a wave of paranoia wash over me.

I looked back over towards the walkers before looking back at the floor door. It was our only exit off this floor other than the elevator on the other side of the hall.

"Do you think it could have been Logan and Juan? Maybe a way to let us know that they're here?" Nico asked me quietly.

The thought never occurred to me. "I don't think so. Why would they do that?" I questioned back.

Nico ran a hand through his hair before taking a step closer to the walkers.

"Nico what are you doing?" I questioned immediately, lurching forward and grabbing his arm to stop him.

Those walkers are there for a reason, it could be a trap.

"They're on the floor, isn't that Logan's pistol?"

I looked down at the floor and spotted the shiny metal pistol. I furrowed my eyebrows, why would Logan leave his favorite gun behind??

I let go of Nico's arm and took the liberty of shooting the two walkers down. The suppressed gunshots went off but they went as soon as they came. The two walkers fell to the ground and I waited a few seconds before going over and picking up the gun.

Nico walked over and I handed the gun to him. He studied it, and furrowed his eyebrows. "You think he left it for us to find?" I asked.

Nico put the gun on safety before putting it in the back of his pants. He nodded before turning to the door the walkers laid in front of.

He twisted the door handle, and to our surprise it opened. We shared a look before I raised my rifle up, and got ready to shoot anything that could possibly harm us. Nico lifted his gun up too before slowly entering the room.

Out of nowhere a white figure roughly tackled Nico down. He crashed onto the floor with a groan before looking up to his attacker. Nico reached for his rifle that fell out of his hands but the man stopped him by stepping on it. He yelled out in pain, and it immediately snapped me out of whatever it was that had me standing there watching the events take place before me.

"Nico!" I quickly ran over to help him, when suddenly a woman blindsided me, and punched me in the face.

I fell to my knees and blinked, not exactly comprehending the hit. I tried to stand up but she wasted no time, and punched me again. I winced, trying to get up again but this time she kneed me in the stomach and I fell completely onto the ground, being winded from the hit. I groaned rolling onto my back, holding my stomach as I tried to breath.

Get up! I thought to myself. Get up Scarlet!

I turned onto my stomach and tried to get up. I was still winded and my sides and stomach ached terribly but still I pushed myself up. However the woman was having none of it and this time kicked me in the face. She grabbed my rifle and roughly removed the strap from over my head before throwing it across the room.

I tasted a metallic liquid on my lips and I winced from the throbbing pain my face gave off. I fell onto my back again, and my vision blurred for a split second before it went back to normal. I gently touched my lip and saw blood on my hands when I looked down at it. Anger flared in me and I was about to look up at the woman when a gurgling choking sound caught my attention. I looked to my left and saw Nico on the floor, the man on top of him with his hands around Nico's neck. Nico struggled to remove the man's hands, trying to pull them off before trying to reach for his eyes.

The man helped in pain and briefly stopped chocking Nico, pulling back to rub his eyes. Nico coughed and sucked in a huge breath, seeming desperate for air. His ability to breath freely was only temporary however, because the man punched Nico in the face before starting to choke him again, pressing down more roughly this time. Once again Nico struggled against him, but this time that guy was prepared.

My heart sped up when Nico turned his head to look at me, and reached his right arm out to me. The look he gave me, scared me half to death.

My eyes widened. "No!" I screamed.

Seeing Nico in danger made my adrenaline kick in. I focused my attention back onto the woman who walked over to me, a menacing look on her face. She moved to kick me again but I rolled over so that she missed me before I jumped back up onto my feet.

"You think you can take me on?" She laughed.

I kept my eyes trained on her as I heard Nico fighting for his life. Don't look at him, take care of her first then help Nico. I had to repeat that to myself in my head as I tried to think of how to fight this women.

She was skinny, really skinny actually. Like she didn't eat enough. Her short black hair, matched the color of her eyes. Black. She was a walking skeleton horror movie.

She charged at me and I dodged her before using her speed and pushing her in the direction she was running towards. The momentum of her speed made her fall hard, face first onto the pearly marble floor.

Not thinking about my next move, I dived for my rifle, reaching for it and grasping it before turning the safety off and pointing it at the woman. She was already up on her feet and she charged at me, a cry of war escaping her lips before I pulled the trigger. She went silent as she fell to the ground, blood pouring out of the bullet hole in the middle of her forehead.

I quickly turned to the man on top of Nico. I didn't waste time to aim, and shot at him as soon as I was facing towards him.

"Fuck!" He cried out in pain, holding his bleeding arm as he jumped off of Nico. I stood up and aimed more carefully at him this time. Nico didn't move, and I was afraid to look at him. Why isn't he moving? Why isn't he moving?! I kept my eyes trained on the man, focusing on him so my eyes wouldn't glance at Nico's still body.

He narrowed his eyes at me. "You can shoot me if you like. But if you do you won't ever see your friends again. You're with them huh? The Hugh Jackman lookalike and the Mexican?" He taunted.

I kept my rifle on him, thoughts of what they could have done to Logan and Juan swarming my mind.

"His name is Logan." I corrected, stepping towards him. Don't look at Nico. Don't look at Nico.

The man backed up.

"Where are they?" I demanded keeping a good distance between us. He's going to get up any second now. He's going to get up.

The man smirked. "Gimme your gun and I'll tell you." He bargained.

"How stupid do you think I am?!" I shouted out of anger, my eyes began to water, but I held them back. Don't cry, you only cry over dead people, Nico's not dead so Don't. Cry.

I shook my head, keeping my gun leveled with him. "I'll do you a better." I lowered my voice. "Tell me where they are, and I let you get off this floor. If you don't, I'll make sure your death is nice and slow." I emphasized on the last three words, just so he could know I wasn't joking. Get up Nico, get up!

He narrowed his eyes on me. "How do I know you ain't lying?" He questioned.

Nothing. Why wasn't I hearing him shuffling to get up?

"You don't, but you're just going to have to trust me." I stated pushing back the dark thoughts that wanted to make an appearance.

The man laughed humorlessly. Starting with a chuckle before it turned into a whole fit of laughter. When he finished he looked at me, still chuckling to himself. "Sounds like a bunch of bullshit if you ask me."

"-I didn't ask you. Stop wasting my time and tell me where they are!" I snapped.

He looked down at his arm, which he was putting pressure on with his right hand. Blood covered his hand before he looked back up at me.

"Go to-"

I didn't let him finish his sentence before I aimed down and shot his foot. He screamed in pain, grabbing his foot and crying like the pathetic, piece of shit he was.

"You little bitch." He groaned his face red from the pain.

"So I've been told." I was getting impatient. Nico was still on the ground and this fucking asshole was still breathing.

He's going to get up, he always does.

"Where are they?!" I yelled.

He stayed quiet and I aimed my gun to shoot his other leg. "Wait! Goddammit okay!" He caved. "I'll talk. Just please, put that fucking gun down." He begged.

I lowered the rifle, keeping it close to my chest in case he tried anything.

"They're not here."

I raised my rifle back up, I'm getting tired of his games.

"Can you hold the fuck up?! Jesus you're fucking impatient." He commented.

"Where are they?!" I said through clenched teeth.

"They're in the hotel room 1520B." He confessed. "In the bathroom. We were keeping them there for later." He admitted.

I looked up at the open door, spotting the hotel room from across being the room he just named. It was locked, I remembered from when Nico and I checked it.

"The keys to the room, give them to me." I ordered.

The man shook his head. "No no. That wasn't the deal." He moved so that he could position himself to tend to his foot. I looked him over, his dirty, skinny body imaging the woman's. It wasn't until I spotted a gold reflection of a chain around his neck, and little did you know, a key hanging on it. Bingo. "the deal was-"

I didn't let him finish his sentence, instead I just shot him in the head. I was never going to let him go, because when you let people go, those people only come back to hurt you.

Nico.

I froze in my spot. My stomach dropped and my heart sped up. I closed my eyes, taking in a deep breath to ready myself for the sight I was about to see. However, nothing could prepare me for what was to happen next. Nothing.

I turned around, and walked over to Nico, crouching down beside him and looking him over. I didn't know what to do. What are you suppose to do when you see the love of your life on the floor? He was pale, which scared me heavily. His eyes were closed and bruises began to form around his neck.

He laid still, and my eyes began to water. I felt my lip tremble, and with a shaky hand I pressed two fingers to his neck, checking for a pulse.

~*~

Wiping my tears, I opened the door to the bathroom Logan and Juan were trapped in. I was relieved to find them in the bath tub, their legs being the only things tied up. However they were already untying their ropes.

"Scarlet! Thank goodness you're okay." Logan stood up, throwing the rope that was holding him motionless to the side and enclosing me in a hug.

I didn't speak, the lump in my throat holding me mute. I wrapped my arms around Logan, hugging him back.

"We thought you and Nico had left." Juan stated, hugging me next.

We pulled apart and I shook my head.

"Hey, speaking of Nico. Where is he?"

A pang hit my heart, and tears threatened to spill. Be strong. Be strong.

I looked up at Juan.

"Nico he's-" I paused, clearing my throat when I felt it tighten. "He's-" I couldn't hold back anymore and a heart wrenching sob escaped my lips as tears poured down my eyes.

"Don't say it." Logan whispered, tears gathering in his eyes.

I sobbed, holding my face in my hands all I could do was weep for the lost. Juan enclosed me in a hug, and I could feel his tears on my back. I cried again, shaking from the sobs I gripped onto Juan's shirt.

"I wasn't fast enough."