ZA RP

Settling In

Chapter 4: Part 1/2
His eyes took a moment to adjust to the low lighting of the factory. Blinking them a few times, rubbing them, he noticed that Clark and the others had ventured in a little ways, already starting to sweep the area for any immediate danger. Following Clark’s lead, Levi raised his pistol and slowly ventured into a space that was wide open, away from the walls. Letting Clark sweep the area to the left, he took on the task of sweeping the right side.
        The factory itself was a dark, depressing place, that seemed to emit the word danger from every little crevice and crack in the walls and ceiling. Boxes lined the walls on both sides, filled with old, useless machinery parts from when the factory had still been functioning. The most defining feature of the space Levi was in though was this center room, with a small overlook into the basement floors of the factory.
        Finding nothing important, he lowered his weapon, and joined the group in this central room. Looking around the weary band of survivors, he noticed Emily was holding Clark’s child now. The two looked happy together, Emily’s face glowing with a happiness that Levi hadn’t seen since, since…(since this whole damn outbreak started) He smirked, leaning up against the wall where they weren’t any boxes.
        “Clark, she’s beautiful!” Emily called over to Clark, who had finished his sweep now. Levi watched as she used her finger to tickle Lavender’s belly, and heard the baby’s squeals of laughter, a wide smile appearing on Emily’s face.
        “You know, you’re pretty good with children.” Clark was smiling himself now, holstering his side arm and taking the automatic off of his back, resting it on the concrete floor. A clatter was heard, followed by the echo of the noise, as it traveled throughout the expansive, deserted factory.
        Turning his attention away from the two of them, he looked now at Quincy, who was still holding onto his nose, cupping it, although it was bleeding anymore. Feeling guilty, he looked over at Clark, and sighed, having to pull Clark away from his time with his daughter.
        “Clark…can you come over here for a second?” Levi holstered his own pistol now, noticing Clark’s expression change from a smile to a straight face.
        “What’s wrong?” Clark said as he neared him.
        “It’s not anything too major…just…well before we found you, Quincy was kinda, off.” He paused, looking for the right words to describe the situation. Seeing Clark’s eyebrow raise, he continued. “But the point is, I kicked him in the face for harassing Rosy, and well…” Looking over at Quincy now, allowing Clark to follow his gaze, “I think I may have broken his nose or something. It shouldn’t still be bothering him if it was just a bloody nose.” Finishing, he saw Clark nod his head, and walk over to Quincy.
        “Quincy, are you okay? Let me have a look at your nose.” Clark knelt down next to Quincy, using his hands to gently pull Quincy’s away from his nose. Inspecting it thoroughly, he nodded his head, confirming Levi’s worries. “Yeah, it’s broken alright. But don’t worry, this isn’t hard to fix. Just bear with me, okay?” He smiled at Quincy, trying to comfort him a little.
        Reaching his fingers and touching Quincy’s nose, he set the cartilage back into place with a quick motion. Quincy cried out in pain, but he was soon quiet again, shooting Levi a spiteful look, knowing he must’ve told Clark about the incident. Levi was about to walk over and formally apologize for his actions, when a scream was heard.
        “What the hell…?” Levi looked around, taking count of his team. (Emily, Clark, Lavender, Quincy, Rosy, Madeline, Brandon…) He stopped for a quick second, and then remembered the final person whom was missing. (Darren, dammit to hell…)
        Rushing towards the scream, he heard someone grunting, as if they were wrestling, followed by another voice he didn’t recognize. Finally reaching the upper level of the factory, having climbed a tall staircase to do so, he saw Darren throw his attacker off of him. There was a dagger lodged in Darren’s leg.
        “And who the f*ck are you?” Levi kept his emotions under control, aiming at the man’s head, wanting to get some information before ending his life. “And why did you attack my team!?”
        The man, actually only a teenager himself, only smiled at Levi, as though this were a favorite game of his that they were playing. Drawing a katana from a sheath on his back, he stared Levi down, unafraid and unintimidated by him. Judging the distance of the fall over the edge he seemed content, and took a final glance over at Levi and Darren.
        “You’re not even worth my time…” Sheathing the katana again, he hopped over the railing, disappearing into the darkness below.
        Running over to the edge, he tried to find the man again, but failed to do so. Realizing he was wasting time, he turned his attention back to Darren, knelling down next to him. Wrapping one of Darren’s arms around his broad shoulders, he lifted, and with some effort on Darren’s part, he was able to lift him off the ground.
        “Darren, what the hell were you thinking, venturing off by yourself like that!?” Levi grunted, helping Darren down the staircase now, trying to get him back to the others.
        “I was patrolling the damn area, that’s what I was thinking! Trying to make things safer for everyone, and this is the thanks I get!?” He would have pulled away from Levi, if Levi wasn’t the only thing preventing him from falling face first down a flight of stairs.
        “Come on…Clark will fix you up in no time…hopefully. Although…” pausing between breathes, trying to support that larger man, “Maybe it would be better if you couldn’t run off and get yourself hurt like this”. Looking over, he saw Darren furrow his brows at him. Laughing a little, he finally got them down the staircase.
        As soon as he got Darren to the bottom of the stairs, he heard another scream, this time coming from the way that they had entered the factory.
        “You’ve got to be kidding me! Can’t I get a damn break!? Clark here…” Half throwing Darren into Clark’s grasp, he hurried across the floor, nearly tripping on the edge of a bigger pile of boxes. Finding who he was looking for, he raised his pistol, looking around for the danger. Not finding it, he raised his eyebrow, lowering his pistol.
        “Brandon…” He called, although Brandon ignored him at first. “Brandon? Everything alright?” Now feeling uneasy, Levi carefully made his way over to Brandon, quickly closing the gap between the two of them.
        “I didn’t think it was possible…” Brandon said, as if in a trance. He never once turned around to look at Levi as he was speaking. “I can’t believe it…”
        Levi was about to put a hand on his shoulder, when a loud beep suddenly went off, and Brandon wiped around, a wide smile on his face. “I found a microwave Levi! Look, look!” He turned back around to face the kitchen appliance, and pull something out of it. Facing Levi again, he showed him the box. “Now I can finally eat that frozen dinner! FINALLY!” He sat down right where he had been standing, opening the TV dinner, and enjoying the food inside, devouring it like it was his last meal.
        Stunned and annoyed, Levi facepalmed, lowering his head, not wanting to see Brandon. “Oh for f*ck’s sake…you’ve got to be kidding me…” He said in a low voice. Laughter could be heard from behind him, as Clark had ventured over this time to see what the fuss was about.
        “Good to know some people are more worried about food than the zombies.” He wore a wide grin. Waving his hand at Brandon, he motioned Levi to follow him back to the group. (Damn Brandon, one of these times it won’t be all just a joke…) Sighing, he holstered his pistol, his mind racing about the man he saw earlier. (I can’t just let this go, he could still be in here…)
        Spending a few hours sitting in wonder over the man, he finally decided to go on a search for him. Standing up, he put his now cleaned handgun back in his holster, and walked over to Clark, whom had been putting a new dressing on Darren’s leg.
        “Clark…” He called quietly, not wanting to wake Lavender up, now that Emily had gotten her to fall asleep. “I’ll be back shortly, I have to check the lower levels for any kind of danger. Don’t want to spend the night here not knowing if the place is safe, you know?” Seeing Clark nod his head, he smirked at him, and ventured down into the lower levels, via a ladder.
        Looking around the lower level, he noticed immediately that the place had been flooded, due to a broken water pipe. Water had since stopped flowing in, but the damage had been done already. Boxes and part of the floor were underwater. Since the floor was uneven in its old age, it provided a path that Levi could take to venture further without having to get his feet wet.
        Walking down the land bridge, he rounded a corner, and noticed a bag of supplies sitting near some boxes on the other side of a larger pool of water. Taking notice that the floor had caved in here, he knew the water was going to be fairly deep here.
        “Well, our intruder must have left in a hurry, forgot some of his stuff…” Levi whispered to himself, looking for a way to cross the gap without going through the water. Not finding any way, he judged the distance from where he was standing, to the other side. (I can handle this, no problem. Just get my feet wet is all.) Backing up a few steps, he prepared himself.
        Running full speed, he jumped right before he touched the water. As he predicted, his feet landed in the shallow water on the other side. However, what he hadn’t been planning was the shock of electricity that shot up his leg. Letting out a scream of pain, he fell forward, unconscious from the high voltage shock.