"My Scientific Best" | The Trio

.14

• "And now I found brimstone in my garden,
I found roses set on fire!
And I found Jesus, what a liar,
So I trade licks with Muddy Waters!"

* * *

"Where the hell are we."
You know, traveling by train isn't the fastest, but at least it's a freight train. No unnecessary stops, but still. It would really be great if The Trio had any idea of where they were going.
"Not in Florida."
"Oh my goodness Vincent, of course we're not in Florida. Check your- check your GPS." Darryl kept staring into the distance. There were some faint buildings in the distance, very faint. But hey, they were buildings!
Breakfast was nice, and so was their sleep. Everything was nice, but they really couldn't stay like this forever. On a train, for probably over three days straight. They needed food, they needed to eat. Pretty much stuff essential for life.
"Uhhh, doesn't look to be going over there." Zak muttered. Vincent turned, leaning his head out of the cart and focusing on the tracks. He was right, the train just seemed to be zooming right on past the city.
Both Zak and Vincent looked towards Darryl, and without them saying a word, he had already guessed what those stares meant.
"Well- Uh. It's close to Florida- but- shoot. Our main focus right now is getting Zak to a third hospital, and then to find somewhere safe."
That wasn't really an answer.
"Well...?" Vince knew that they were on a schedule, so it was now or never. Personally, he voted to jump.
A surprising vote from Darryl though, Vince was almost certain that he's back down, compared to how he had been acting earlier.
"Alright, everyone get your things. We need to fall in a way that'll protect our faces, to just shield yourselves when we do it."
Vincent nodded, while Zak delayed a bit. "Yeah- yeah." He coughed awkwardly, which almost scared the living hell out of Vinny given the events prior. He really needed to get ahold of himself.
The Trio didn't have much to pack up, just a blanket and some muffins left over from their breakfast.
Darryl leaned out of the cart, as did Vincent. Jesus Christ, the train really did seem to be going faster now that he focused on the tracks. He couldn't even see each individual bar given the speed. The anxiety was relentless, but Vince tried his best to focus on other things- like that fresh autumn sent.
He looked to Darryl, who nodded.
"Al-Alrighty... Aheheheh." He hesitated, before taking a deep breaths. "Okay. Three..."
Vincent tensed up, eyeing for a spot of brown leaves and soft grass to land. He just needed to relax, this would be fine.
"Two..."
Suddenly, Zak gripped Vince's hand, and in an instant, they jumped. Bad idea, definitely a bad idea.
"I DIDN'T SAY ONE- ONE!"

It all happened so fast. The impact was the most painful part- and just in time had Vincent been able to stop himself from rolling. That, and the fact that Zak was literally pinning him to the ground.
Vincent waited for the entire world to stop spinning before focusing on his friend.
   He had been thrown onto Vincent during the impact, and was... Holding him down by his shoulders?
   "Uheheh... Skeppy?"
   He stared at him for a while, before seeming to snap out of it. He was almost sad.
   "Jesus- Uh." Zak unpinned Vince, and adverted his gaze, brushing dirt and leaves off of his clothing. "Are you- Uh. Are you okay?"
   "Yeah- You?"
   "I'm... I think I'm okay. Where's—" He couldn't seem to finish his own sentence. They both looked over at Darryl, a few feet away, hunched over the ground coughing hysterically.
   "Oh- Oh SHIT-" Vince ran over to his friend, getting down on one knee. "Bad- Bad?!"
Darryl attempted to take deep breaths as Vincent rubbed circles on his back, and his frantic coughing began to cease.
Darryl smiled sadly, breathing heavily. "S-Sorry, rough landing." He tried to chuckle, but clearly it hurt more to do so.
They both seemed to ease more into the silence, they made the best of it. Off the train, away from their fresh apartment, and hopefully safe. Both looked to the train, which was hardly visible at this point.
"How's...?"
"He's- I think he's good." Vincent turned to Zak, who smirked at him.
"It's the apocalypse, how good can I be?"
Vincent nudged him playfully as Darryl sighed. He didn't sound mad or irritated, he just seemed relieved that the three weren't in life or death situations. Golly, he had to admit, things were getting- well, going better. Now they just needed to head over to those towers in the distance, where they would hopefully find a place to rest and get some legitimate medical attention for Zak. Three times the charm, right?
   But maybe those nurses did save Zak. It wasn't like he was vomiting up blood and acting all drunk as he was before. He didn't seem perfect though, but who would? The point being that they all just needed some help.
   "Hey, Vince! You ready to start walking?" Zak waved his hands in front of his eyes, which Vincent immediately pushed away.
   "Ready as I'll ever be." He readjusted his backpack, and The Trio began their hike.

* * *

"Yo, you think we're halfway yet?"
   "Oh my goodness Skeppy."
   "What?! I'm just asking."
   "How would I know, I've never exactly done this before."
   "Geez, I was just ask-"
   "Shuuut uuup...!" Vincent groaned, sluggishly dragging himself along the road. They'd found one, but that was early on. They still had a pretty annoying distance to walk- not that it'd take days. Probably like fifteen more minutes, but still! Physical activity, and being this exhausted combined were not Vincent's strong suit.
   Zak perked up. "Strange that we haven't seen any cars yet, down this road I mean." He turned to Vince who fixed up his posture a bit.
   "How is that strange."
   "It's so spooky, you know?"
   "Too soon."
   He whined, a bit louder this time. "This is sooo boooring, you guys are no fun."
Darryl muttered something under his breath, but didn't have much else to reply with.
   "Look Zak- lets just- chill. For a bit."
   "Oui, mon ami."
   "S'il vous plaît, tais-toi."
   "What?"
   Vincent smirked. "It means thank you."
   "But doesn't merci mean thank y-"
   "People!" Darryl shouted, pointing to a few shadowed figures in the distance.
The other two turned their heads, and Zak broke into a full on sprint.
"Oh my good- Wait Zak?! SKEPPY WAIT—"
"What is he DOING?"
Zak seemed almost dazed in a way, he wasn't even this reckless... normally.
Vincent ran after him, as did Darryl. The closer they got, the more those figures seemed to be not just two people, but a group. A group of...
"Oh, come on!"
Vincent dropped his bag, unzipping it as fast as all hell, and grabbed the shiny, sharp kitchen knife out of the back pocket.
Without focusing on whatever Darryl just yelled, Vincent ran over to his friend who already seemed to have another knife on him. Zak's seemed a bit less big, but it'd do the job if he tried hard enough.
"Bad, there's a hammer in yours!" Zak yelled, sinking his knife into one zombie's back, and crushing it's skull with his foot.
"What good can a hammer do for me?!" He backed away from the group of corpses, and nervously took out his apparent weapon.
"It's better than... your fist!" Vincent held down another, slicing open it's throat, and again, shattering it's skull. Pretty good technique, although gruesome.
Zak finished off the last, and neither of them appeared to have lost much of their energy. Damn fresh, to say at the least.
"Let's just, keep making our way on down."
Just as Darryl finished his sentence, Vincent took in the layout of this apparent city. The entire street was empty, how lovely.
As The Trio continued down the empty roads, Vince caught himself peeking onto all of the individual, abandoned shops. Jesus Christ, this really wasn't so local.
Hah.
"HOLY SHIT—"
Vincent turned around, first in complete surprise that Darryl swore, but also at the fact that he had just knocked a pretty tough looking dead guy off his shoulders.
"BAD—"
What a complete nerd, doesn't know how to fight? Oh please. Darryl single handedly, forced the creature to the concrete ground. He didn't even fall over himself, he gripped onto the hammer, and slammed it down on the head of the monster.
There was a moment of simple shock, but it didn't take long for Darryl to acknowledge his mighty kill.
He scoffed sarcastically. "No need to thank me."
"Damn..." Zak winked up at him, before continuing down the street.
"Wow, way to notice my epic takedown!"
Vincent chuckled to himself lightly. "Great job on your epic take down, BadBoyHalo."
"Thank you very—"

An ear shattering gunshot escaped throughout the empty streets, and Vincent's gaze immediately followed Zak, who had stopped dead in his tracks. Dark, crimson blood trailed down his left arm.
Just as he ran to catch Zak from falling, a loud, and frankly, overly egotistical shout followed.

"Blood for the blood god! Take that— NOOB!"