Chapter Text
Daytime brought a more peaceful air to the slums, despite the ceaseless cry of the infected, it made it easy to forage and hunt. Veronica found herself searching every house for supplies - food, gauze, scraps; anything useful. With her were Heather Duke and Ram, who had been forced to go along rather than annoy Lena all day, she had patients to tend to as well. While rummaging in an old wicker basket, Veronica took a moment to turn to Duke, "I haven't seen Betty..." She remarked. There had been a small sliver of hope that she was out there, but seeing as she was nowhere around the tower - which Chandler had renamed to 'New Westerburg' - the hope had dwindled.
"Haven't seen her." Duke replied, busy rummaging through some drawers, "You think Heather needs cutlery?" She held up some old forks and knives, the patterns on the handles had faded, but they still sustained a semblance of elegance in their form.
"Probably." Sighing, Veronica went back to rummaging - she knew that Duke changed the subject on purpose. Seeing Betty again would have to remain a dream, JD had given up on her quickly in the early days, preaching about how they had to survive and not go on wild goose chases.
A cry rang out from the window, a viral had broken through with a harsh screech - alerting the other infected in the area, "Ram!" Heather snapped, "What the fuck?!"
The boy didn't reply, he just sprung to action - waving his nailed board around at the growing number of infected and clumsily side-stepped their attacks. Letting Duke continue fishing around a little more, Veronica helped him out, pulling out a German 9mm (courtesy of Duke) and fired at some heads. However, the zombies were quickly bombarding the room and the two were becoming overwhelmed, "We gotta go!" the brunette called, motioning for Duke and Ram to get the fuck out while she took a few last-minute shots to keep their attention. Heather managed to drag her out through a window.
Once they were all on a higher roof, Heather turned on the jock, "The fuck was that?!"
He stepped back, hands up in mock surrender with a vaguely offended look on his features, "Not my fault you two are so boring." He moaned, dragging out the 'boring' far longer than necessary.
The slums around them bristled at the volume of their voices, Veronica felt her hairs stand on end - like they were all staring at her. "Guys-" She paused, glancing around at the gathering crowd, "Guys keep it down." She glanced around again, the hands reaching up to the building, only a matter of time before a viral catches wind, "They are sensitive to sound."
"You think we don't know?!" Ram shouted - on purpose - as he stepped up to the brunette, using his size over her. She backed up, instinctively lowering herself into a more defensive stance, "You don't get to boss me around, ya fuckin' nobody." Her foot was balanced on the edge, the old wood creaking at the imbalance. Sure enough, a viral heard him and made a bee-line for them. Veronica quickly sprung into action, kicking its head as it reared up to the roof, before shooting it a few times as it fell. The distant screams of virals responded to her attack, so she threw a few random firecrackers out to cause some confusion.
"Let's go." She ordered, keeping her voice down to minimise any attention they could garner. Duke nodded, taking off with her. Ram took a few seconds, he stared at the viral's body and took note of how fast she reacted - how easily she struck the thing down... Shaking his head, he turned to catch up with the girls. Duke was slapping the other girl's back and offering small congratulations at her marksmanship.
He kept quiet for the most of it, waiting for them to silence completely before asking, "So, where have you been for all this time?" He ignored the look he got from Duke and focus solely on Veronica.
"Oh, y'know - around." She responded quickly, turning her attention to the front and moving her body a little faster. Duke shot him another look and he backed off, sighing dramatically to make sure they knew how wronged he felt. To that, the other two shook their heads, picking up the pace so they could get the supplies back before dark. They ran into a few wanderers on the roofs and balconies, they had clearly been infected for longer - their eyes had sunken into their skulls and their skin looked like glue, slowly running off of their body; they had almost no teeth, these were the weaker breed - died quickly.
Similarly, the slums were getting worse, there was less colour on the buildings - the brick was crumbling like chalk, the roofs caved easily, making it harder for runners to get around safely. They would need to relocate at some point, Harran was no longer closed off to the outside world - the outside world was a similar hell. "Out of curiosity though, where have you been?" Duke asked, glancing at Veronica as they moved.
With a hum and a quick check of her ammo, Veronica returned the glance, "Around, as I said. I ran with JD for a while - Rais gave us a lot of shit, being loners y'know? Dennis was with us for a little while but, " She averted her gaze, "He uh, wasn't really made for surviving. Volatile got him - bad. We killed him before he could turn." She didn't say more, but Duke nodded - shooting a quick glare at Ram, who was happy to have had his question answered. The day was fading, the sky was turning a warm orange as the sun set, both Ram and Duke's watches went off along with their walkies - Chandler barking orders. With a shared nod, they quietly made their way across the roofs, no one was to speak so everyone could focus on listening for threats. Unfortunately, as they climbed a particularly tall roof to use one of the ziplines they had set up to New Westerburg, a tile snapped and slipped under Ram's hand. He fell down to the lower foundation, alerting the hostiles in the surrounding area. Duke hissed in frustration, already at the zipline - Veronica motioned for her to go while she made her way back down to Ram. Left without much of a choice, Duke left to alert their medics to be ready.
As she got down, she noticed the shape of Ram's leg, it was misshapen and she swore she could see the bone breaking through the skin. The darkness around them made the situation harder. "What the hell are you doing, Sawyer? Get up there and go!" Ram seethed, even he knew the implications of an injury like his, there was no feasible way to get him back up there.
"Fuck if I am," She hissed back, pulling out a small first aid kit from her pack, "Now, this is gonna hurt," She said, as she pulled out a stick and got him to bite on it, "try not to make any noise, or they'll get here faster." The, she grabbed some bandages and wound wash - it wouldn't do much to help the break, but it might stop the open wound from infecting, she sprayed the wound and carefully wrapped the bandage around - loose enough to allow minimal pressure on the cut but tight enough so that it was stay. Ram bit down hard, breaking the stick to make up for the lack of a scream. "You good?" She asked
"About as good as I can be," He responded tiredly, carefully taking Veronica's shoulder as she offered it.
"Don't put any pressure on that leg, you're gonna need to rely on me here." Ram nodded, knowing he'd end up disobeying her anyway, he was an asshole but he wasn't about to let Veronica attempt to haul herself and him without help. "I'm gonna get you to that ledge there, see?" She pointed to a small ledge halfway up that was set up with a few UV lights that might keep the more dangerous infected away, "Then I'm gonna give you my gun - use it wisely - while I climb the rest of the way and set up some kind of rope to pull you up, ok?" Ram nodded again. The distant sounds of zombies were becoming less distant and the screams of the volatiles were growing far too close for comfort. Without another second wasted, the two started to climb, Veronica focussed on balancing most of their weight into each step, using the loose bricks and tiles as foundations to stand and grab. Ram focused mainly on his good leg, occasionally swallowing his cry when using his injured leg if he saw Veronica struggle at all.
They had almost made it to the ledge when they heard a volatile cry behind them and begin to scale up - a lot faster than them. "Shit!" They hissed in unison, putting all their effort into moving faster. The thing got closer and closer, claws scraping the soles of their shoes - Ram used his good leg to kick down and halt it slightly. Luckily, they just managed to get to the ledge and activate the remaining UV lights. "You good to stay?" Veronica asked as Ram took her gun and shot down at the still rising volatile.
"Yeah, it shouldn't be able to get me, but don't take too long" Veronica nodded at him and began the rest of the climb alone, taking a fraction of the time it took to get to the ledge. As soon as she was stable at the top, she pulled out a rope and tied it to the metal base of the zipline, don't break, for the love of God don't break. She then created a noose on the other end for Ram to be able to grab on to and threw it down to him. The jock wasted no time in looping himself through it like a strap - from one shoulder to the opposite armpit - and shouting for Veronica to pull. Pull she did, putting all her strength into it and pulling plenty of muscles on the way. She would have to go to the medic after this. She focused solely on pulling, not allowing her mind to wander lest she was to drop him - but a strangled cry pulled her out of her concentration. She paused.
"Ram!?"
"I'm okay!" He shouted back, "Keep pulling! Focus on that!" With nothing else to go on, she continued, sighing in relief when she caught sight of his face rising over. As soon as he was shoulder level, he grabbed the side and pulled himself up - only when she saw the state of his already broken leg, did Veronica understand the scream.
"Fuck! Ram it bit you!"
"No fucking shit!" He slid his machete over to her, "Cut it off."
She grabbed the machete, shooting him an indignant glare, "What?!"
"Veronica," He started as calmly as he could, "You either cut it off or I die and turn, you pick!" She nodded hesitantly, allowing him to spread the leg for her to cut. The fact that she could no longer hear the volatile, the nailed board was gone and he was clutching her still smoking gun told her the volatile was taken care of. Steeling herself, she lifted the machete and swung it down on his leg. She winced at the volume of his cry, the machete wasn't sharp enough and had lodged itself halfway through. Blood wars spurting out and covering the ground around it. Without wasting time on an apology, she ripped it out, taking blood and muscle with it and brought it down again, cutting the rest of the way through.
Through the darkness, she could see him in tears. "I'm sorry, but we're not done yet." He nodded weakly, holding back his sobs at the pain. Veronica picked the machete back up and grabbed her lighter, Ram's eyes widened in horror.
"No no no! Veronica please!" He begged, he knew it had to be done, but it was all becoming a lot.
"I know, but I can't let you bleed out, you'll die before we even make it inside the tower." She heated the end of the blade until it glowed a faint red before pressing the flat side against the stump, effectively cauterising the wound. The blood stopped spurting but the stench of burning flesh and the sound of his screaming made her want to puke. Immediately after, she pulled off her shirt and ripped in a way that would easily wrap around the stump, spraying some more disinfectant on it, she wrapped it around the stump and secured it with Ram's belt. "Okay, we have to move, I'll attach you to the line then I'll go after." With a tired nod from him, she helped him up and hooked him to the line, setting him off to New Westerburg. Before setting off herself, she took a last glance at his leg - it was adorned with a horrific look bite mark, which had turned a sickly green, the rest of the leg had already begun to rot. If she hadn't acted so quickly...
Veronica shook her head, using the zipline herself to get to the entrance.
As she got down, she helped Ram walk inside and up to the lift, getting him to the medics - who were already preparing for him with Duke and Kurt. Upon seeing his best friend, Kurt glared straight at Veronica. "What the fuck!?" He got no response as she sat him with the medics. Kurt pushed her, "What did you do?! Where's his leg, you bitch?!" She took it, letting him push her against the wall and make his way to her. A loud thump made her look up.
Ram had his leg out, glaring down at his friend, "Stop it, man. She saved my damn life out there." Then he turned to her, "go get some rest, kay?" She nodded for the hundredth time that night, taking her leave and heading to an empty room to sleep in.
However, the peace didn't last long as someone knocked on the door. "Not now, Duke," She mumbled, burying her face in the pillow. The door creaked open, revealing red, not green.
"It's actually me," she said, with Heather Chandler's voice.
"Oh," Veronica sat up and faced her, "Look, I'm sorry I couldn't do more but he would've died and-" She was cut off by the girl examining her, leaving almost nothing unchecked, "Uh-"
"Sh." She hushed, "You should be with Ram, your hands are full of nasty rope burns, your arms are clearly sore and you just used a rusty machete to cut off a leg. There's no way you're just okay."
This was odd, but the brunette lacked the strength to question it, "I'll go in the morning, I promise okay?"
She seemed to mull it over, but eventually shook her head, "Come with me, I'll get you fixed up - seeing as you're too stubborn to go get it done properly." As forceful as she was being, Chandler was still gentle in helping Veronica up, whose knees buckled at the prospect of holding their own weight, and helped her get to Heather's room. "Thank you, by the way."
She half nodded, her head falling limply against her shoulder.