ZOMBIE chlex style NC-17 (completed 27/11/2013)

Description: Chlex and zombie apocalypse/ AU/ All Lionel Luthor wanted was to cure his disease...

I do not own anything connected to Smallville.

A/N I hope you will like it. I have the whole plot planned out. It’s of my creation, so there will be no connection to any zombie movie you may know (won’t be too gore or disgusting, will be a love story ) There will be some pretty good twists.

Right now my priority is my book that I am writing, so I may have update this story once or twice a week.

***

What would you do if the world’s most revolutionary cure turned out to be a curse? How would you survived in the world full of zombies?

Part 1

Chloe woke up to an insisting ringing.

“What the hell?” she murmured as she glanced at her clock. It was barely 4 am. She growled and reached for her cell. “WHAT?!”

“Sullivan, get over here!” she heard Perry White’s, her new editor, order.

“What happened?” she asked, sitting up and rubbing her eyes with her free hand. Perry wouldn’t just call her in the dawn if it wasn’t important. She had to listen to him if she wanted to make a career she was dreaming of.

Over a week ago Chloe had been granted a very special interview scheduled for this day. She would be the very first reporter that would officially write about the new revolutionary LuthorCorp cure. Lionel Luthor, the CEO, had been suffering from rare and deadly liver disease. His scientists had not only produced a cure for that, but it was the remedy for all the world’s problems. It could cure cancer, even AIDS, all by regenerative cells grow.

Chloe still thought Lionel Luthor was evil and he’d only invested in that research, because he was selfish, wanted to live and refused to sign the company over to his son, Lex, who was currently struggling to make something for his own. Chloe hadn’t see him since she’d finished Smallville high, but she was sure he didn’t even remember her now as she’d been just an annoying teenager who hadn’t let him off the hook until he’d granted her an interview back then. All this time she’d felt like she’d been just a pest to him.

“It’s…” Perry’s voice faltered, “it’s bad, Chloe.”

If he called her Chloe then something horrible must’ve happened.

“What? The world is going to end?” she asked sarcastically while getting up and stretching her tired body.

“Actually, that might be it,” Perry said in such a serious tone that Chloe stilled.

“Chief, what is it?”

“The hell has broken lose, that’s it! Get your ass over here and… be careful. Oh, and better turn the news channel on before you go out.”

“Ok…” Chloe hesitated.

“Today, Sullivan!”

“Ok, I’m going!”

Chloe ran to the bathroom, then put some clothes on and got out of her room.

“Lana?” she asked. “Lana, are you up?! Something’s happening!” She turned the TV on.

In that very moment, the city alarm went off.

Chloe shivered, having a very bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.

“Attention, attention…” she heard coming from the TV. “This is an emergency broadcast,” Chloe frowned, “stay at home, close all the doors and windows. There are serious side effects to the LuthorCorp revolutionary cure. First high fever and exhaustion, then death, after three hours the brain cells regenerate and the body awakes. It was called the zombie syndrome. Infected people don’t think, don’t feel, they’re not even alive. They crave for meat and they will do anything to get it. If you get bit, you will become one of them. It usually takes three days to complete the process. There is no cure. I repeat, there is no cure. If you were bitten or treated at one of Luthorcorp’s facilities, stay away from others or if you’re brave enough, save them by shooting yourself in the head. If you are a survivor, stay away from the infected, find a gun or something sharp. The only way to stop those phantoms is to shoot, pierce or cut off their heads.

Chloe was standing there, in her living room, listening to that, hearing the alarm that was still on. She was squeezing her hand around the remote control, still couldn’t believe what she just heard. Zombies? Zombies?! It must have been some horrible nightmare she would soon wake up from, right?
“Attention, attention…” the transmission started again.

“What… Wh…” Chloe barely uttered.

Daily Planet. Perry had asked her to get there. But he couldn’t be at his right mind! Could he? Chloe was renting an apartment just right the corner, but still…

“Lana!” Chloe called her friend’s name again. “LANA!!” She ran to her friend’s room and… was stopped on what she saw.

She vaguely remembered that her friend had taken the LuthorCorp cure.

“Oh god!” Chloe covered her mouth with her hands as she was staring at her friend who was now standing in the middle of her room, her eyes bloodshot, blood dripping from the corner of her mouth.

Lana had leukemia. She would’ve lived for a few years, but on hearing that there was a cure she’d decided to take it. It was free for everybody and as Lionel Luthor had told Chloe, he’d wanted to redeem himself when he’d got a second chance at life. He wanted to help people. Maybe his intentions were genuine, but she still thought that everything coming out from his hands was tainted. What was happening now was just another proof to that.

“Lana?” Chloe squealed. “Lana… please… are you still there?”

But her gut told her Lana wasn’t there and would never be.

In that very moment Lana opened her mouth and… roared, she just roared at Chloe like she was some predator.

Chloe just stood there, completely frozen.

When Lana moved, trying to get her with her teeth, the blonde reporter finally woke up, running back to the living room, frantically looking for some weapon.

She grabbed the lamp standing on the table and took a swing at her former best friend that was just behind her now.

There was no time for crying, no time for grieving. Chloe woke up today to a completely different world and had to fight to survive. Or die.

The shadow of the person standing behind her wasn’t her friend anymore. It was a zombie.

Chloe hit Lana in the head, using all her strength.

She heard another roar and jumped away as Lana fell to the floor.

But she was still moving, getting to her feet.

There was no time for packing, no time even for grabbing the most useful stuff. Chloe had to run or she would die.

All she had on her was a brown shorts and white tank top, but there was no time for getting anything else.

She didn’t think twice as she got to the door and pushed them open. When she found herself on the staircase, she ran for dear life.

She knew she was being chased.

Chloe stumbled and almost fell from the last few steps. She managed to grab the rail and landed on her feet. She was free. Out of the building.

“Daily Planet…” she thought, but stopped immediately on seeing that the street was already taken over. She could see the walking deads batting those who were still alive.

Chloe was terrified like never before. Even when she’d been in Smallville there had been nothing there that had scared her so much.

Blood was raging through her veins now, heart beating so fast she was afraid she would go into cardiac arrest.

And she would die. She knew it now.

It was either die here on the street or in her apartment when she left her former friend.

Then a miracle happened. She noticed a car coming from the distance.

She had to make it. She had to stop it to save herself. There was no other option. She’d sooner die being hit by a car than being bitten and turned.

She ran to the street and stood right in front of the upcoming car. She closed her eyes as she saw how fast it was coming.

Then she heard a squeak of brakes and… nothing happened. She didn’t feel any pain.

“GET IN!” she heard a woman’s yell and then a gun shot.

She opened her eyes and saw that it was a sport car. She was lucky it had good brakes.

There was a woman with red hair behind the wheel and she was the one shooting at the zombies to make it possible for Chloe to get in.

The stranger didn’t have to tell the blonde twice. She jumped into the car and the woman drove away immediately.

That was when Chloe realized how shaken she really was. And how cold.

Her whole body couldn’t calm down, then the tears came.

“Oh… my God…” She covered her face with her hands, sobbing frantically. “Oh… what… what…”

But it wasn’t the end.

The woman pointed her gun at her.

“Hey!” Chloe yelled.” What are you doing?!” Her body shook even more.

“Have you been bitten?!” the stranger asked in harsh voice.

“NO!” Chloe denied in an instant.

“If you’re lying…”

“I swear! I swear I’m fine! I just… I just saw my roommate turning into… trust me, if I’d got bitten I would’ve taken that gun from you and shot myself!” she said urgently and honestly, her eyes full of tears.

“Good,” the red head lowered the gun. “Are you a good shooter?” she asked while handing Chloe a second gun.

“Wh… what?” Chloe could just stare at her, pale.

“We need to shoot them to survive.”

“Eh… I never… I can try… but…”

“It’s fine,” the woman sighed heavily, “but you keep that gun just in case. It’s not that hard, you just point at the head and then pull the trigger.”

Chloe, still shaking, took the gun. Her eyes widely opened.

“Remember that they are not humans anymore,” the woman continued, her voice getting softer like she was compassionate to Chloe now. “It’s like shooting animals.”

“Uhm…” Chloe nodded quietly.

“I’m Tess. Tess Mercer,” the red head finally introduced herself.

“Chloe Sullivan.”

“Nice to meet you, Chloe.”

“Where are you going? Is there a safe haven?”

“Yes,” Tess answered to Chloe’s big relief. “It’s one of the LuthorCorp facilities at the outskirts of Metropolis.”

“LuthorCorp?” Chloe couldn’t hide the disappointment in her voice.

“Don’t worry. Lionel Luthor is dead.”

“What?” That was news. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, since I was the one to put a bullet into his zombie head,” the answer came bitterly.

“You… Ok, slow down…”

“He naturally was one of the first to turn. I was there.”

“You know the Luthors?” Chloe asked, this time curiosity won over.

“Worse. I am one of them. And I’ve just killed daddy dearest.”

Wow. Just in time for the haunting season:) I love it. Zombies creep me out. I can't wait for more.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by falllovessummer

Wow. Just in time for the haunting season:) I love it. Zombies creep me out. I can't wait for more.

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I'm happy you liked it.
Hunting season? What is that?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TrinityR

I'm happy you liked it.
Hunting season? What is that?

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The Haunting Season is Halloween time. Stores are filled with pumkins and scarecrows and candy and costumes.
At least all the shops next to me are. Heck pumkin patches are starting to pop up as well.

Yay a new story! And it's nc 17!

Really cool start to a new story. Can't wait for you to update.

I added the rating to the thread title for you, because there's some issues with editing post, but in the future when you post a story, it has to have a rating, even if it's in the NC-17 section :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Julie

I added the rating to the thread title for you, because there's some issues with editing post, but in the future when you post a story, it has to have a rating, even if it's in the NC-17 section :)

---

Oh, sorry about that. I was gone for long and completely forgot!
Thanks!

falllovessumer, kaw, trinna thank you for comments!!

***

AN: Thank you very much for the interest in this story and I am really sorry for not being able to update sooner, but it’s not only because of my original work. I am very busy, especially now when I start my MBA.
I just wanted to make something clear: Clark Kent doesn’t exist in this story. Yes, there was a meteor shower, yes, something weird happened because of that, but there are no aliens. I realize that if I put Clark in here, the way to save the world would be too easy (just watch the episode Rabid from season 9).


Part 2

“Wait…” Chloe said, trying to wrap her mind around it all. “You’re Lex’s sister?”

It could be true judging from the obvious surface similarities like red hair. Lex had had been red-headed, too, right before the meteor shower.

“You know Lex?” Tess seemed surprised.

“Kind of…” Chloe hesitated. “I knew him briefly when I lived in Smallville.”

Chloe remembered that Lex had spent even less time there than her. It’d been just two years and he’d moved back to Metropolis. They hadn’t even spoken that much beside her few feeble attempts to get him to agree to an interview. The last time he’d actually said yes, but Chloe knew now that it’d been out of pity for that pathetic high school girl who’d taken her Torch job way too seriously.

She’d been following a lead back then connected to meteors that had fallen years ago. They had gotten a few people special powers and Chloe herself had witnessed some pretty wacky stuff. It’d died down. She’d moved out. Started studying journalist and got an internship at the Planet. And now… now when her career was about to start… the world was going to end. She was scared for Perry White. Even though he could be hard on people Chloe liked him and respected.

“So you’re from Smallville?” Tess prompted while keep driving.

Chloe wasn’t even surprised as they passed zombies on the street. All of them tried to come closer, but they weren’t moving fast enough to get to a speeding car. Chloe and Tess were safe for now…

“No,” Chloe denied. “I lived there only for three years and then I moved back here. I’m pretty sure that your brother wouldn’t even recognize me now… You know, I could’ve sworn that Lex had no siblings,” she dared to say. “I did a thorough research on him to prepare myself for the interview.”

“That’s because he didn’t have any back then,” Tess answered. “He found me about a year ago and we‘ve become very close.”

“Can I ask why you two didn’t know about each other?”

“It’s not an interview, is it?” Tess made sure, half-joking. “If that ends and we survive… or if we start printing news again…”

“No, I promise. You won’t see an article about you,” Chloe said honestly. “Totally off the record.”

Chloe understood Tess’s fear of it all coming out. If the blonde herself had no idea Lex had a sister it meant they’d done a pretty good job at hiding the truth.

“Lionel left me in foster home when I was little. He never wanted me. It Lex hadn’t come across a paper on me in his father’s things, we would’ve never met.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. Lionel Luthor wasn’t a good person. Trust me, I know,” Chloe said.

“Yeah, me, too,” Tess said bitterly. “I am not a bad person, you know? But when he turned and… and I shot him… it made me feel like I finally had my revenge on him. He destroyed my life after all.”

“I understand,” Chloe said quietly. She chose not to think about it too much. “So he figured out that Lex found you?”

“Oh, nothing ever stays hidden when it comes to Lionel Luthor… or came…” Tess corrected. “And Lex… he was raised by him and Lionel wanted him to eventually become him… Lex isn’t like that yet. He’s not that cruel. He is cold sometimes, I admit, and he has trouble with trusting the right people as all betrayed him in the past, but… he has a heart. He tries to hide it, you know, but it’s there. I should be glad that our father can no longer hurt any of us. Few more years and that drop of humanity that still lingers in my brother… would be gone.”

Chloe sat in silence, processing it all. She didn’t think much of Lex Luthor and suddenly, his sister saved her life. Their destines entwined. Her whole life had changed in one morning. Everyone she knew and trusted were probably dead by now as that circle was very small.

“Do you think there’s a chance somebody in the Daily Planet might’ve survived?” she suddenly asked Tess. “Could we go there, maybe?”

“I’m sorry, Chloe, but I drove pass it. There is no way somebody survived out there. All the public places were attacked at first as the doors are usually opened. You were lucky you were at your apartment.”

“But… if someone survived…” Chloe started again.

“I am sorry, but we really can’t get back there. It’s too dangerous and I don’t have enough ammunition or fuel,” Tess said. “Trust me, we wouldn’t be able to get in there. There is a emergency broadcast and they say where the safe haven is. It’s up to people to get there. Besides, the military is already checking the streets, killing zombies and looking for survivors. I guess it’s more complicated, because they have to make sure they aren’t already bitten.”

“God…” Chloe’s body shook again. “What will happen to us?”

“You know what I’ve learnt?” Tess asked. “My father left me all alone and I have learnt to adapt. We need to adapt ourselves to the new circumstances, because otherwise we’ll all be dead. It’s like being a cat. Always fall on four. Always survive.”

“I’ll try that,” came from Chloe. “And thank you. Thank you so much for saving me. Without you…”

“Don’t mention it.” Tess picked her phone and looked at the screen, biting her lip.

“What’s wrong?” Chloe noticed the obvious change in her expression.

“It’s just… I’ve spoken to Lex last night. He was on a business trip and promised to come to the safe haven, but… I haven’t heard from him ever since.”

“Maybe he’s already there,” Chloe voiced her hope.

“Maybe… but I think he wouldn’t have gotten there so fast…” Tess sighed heavily. “I just hope he’s alright.”

“I’m sure he is. I may not know him well, but I know enough to tell that he is a fighter and a survivor,” Chloe said while placing her hand on Tess’s arm.

“Look.” Tess pointed something on the horizon.

“It’s a… wall,” Chloe said.

“Yeah,” Tess agreed. “And a big gate in the middle. They had to separate themselves somehow to be safe inside.”

As they were closer, they spotted that the huge wall was also under voltage.

Tess finally stopped her car next to the wrought iron gate.

They wanted to get out of the car, but they were stopped but the urgent voice coming from the speaker.

“Get out slowly with your hands up in the air!”

Tess and Chloe looked at each other, but then obeyed. They had no other choice.

As they were out in the open, they stopped next to the gate.

“Have you been bitten?” the soldier on the other side asked.

“No!” They both denied.

The soldier looked at them closely.

“Turn around,” he commanded.

They did.

“Are you looking for bite marks?!” Chloe huffed. “We’ve already told you…”

“I don’t give a damn about what you tell me! We’ve already had a man that came here with a bite mark and said otherwise! We have to check you. It’s better to be safe than sorry!”

“Ok, soldier,” Tess got angry. “My name is Tess Mercer and I am the daughter of Lionel Luthor. The sister of Lex Luthor!”

“I do not care who you are, miss. For me you can be a queen.”

“Just tell me, please, is my brother here?”

“This place doesn’t belong to Luthors anymore,” the man said.

“To whom, then?!” Tess was getting more and more irritated.

“To me, miss Mercer,” she heard a voice and finally, a man appeared just right next to the soldier.

“Morgan Edge! Just perfect!” Tess huffed.

Chloe knew it wasn’t good news either.

“And no, Lex Luthor isn’t here,” he said.

Morgan Edge was the well-known crime boss of Metropolis. The blonde reporter herself had come across some papers connecting him to Lionel. She just never had enough to actually incriminate him.

“I will not treat you any different than others. You will not get any privileges. Just because you are a Luthor doesn’t make you special.” He turned directly to Tess now.

“I’m very aware of that, Mr. Edge,” Tess said harshly. “We are here for sanctuary. I don’t expect anything more.”

“Let them in,” Morgan told the soldier and the gate started opening. “You two will get a quarter, but you will have to go through the doctor’s examination.”

“Will do,” Tess said, “we have nothing to hide.”

“Good.”

Chloe sensed the sharpness in both their voices. It was obvious that Tess felt hostile toward a friend of her father.

“Take them inside,” Edge commanded the soldier and turned around to walk away.

“Son of a bitch,” Tess murmured under her nose. “Wait… what will happen to my car?” she asked the soldier.

“We’ll get it to our garage. We have plenty of vehicles. We need them to go for supplies.”

They followed the soldier into the facility. The building was very high. Chloe estimated at least ten stores and she suspected there would be an underground, knowing Lionel. She also was pretty sure there was a secret lab in there and she didn’t like that idea at all.

The soldier stopped and put the walkie-talkie to his mouth.

“Is the doctor free? We have new survivors. Over.”

“Bring them. Over,” came in answer.

“What kind of tests the doctor will do?” Chloe asked. “Do you take blood?”

“We look for bite marks.”

“And that means stripping naked when a bunch a men gape at you,” Tess guessed sarcastically. “It’s end of the world and they enjoy themselves like that.”

“Miss, if you think we take pleasure in that, you’re wrong! What do you think happens to the ones that actually have bite marks? We have to kill them.”

That made Chloe a little greenish and Tess stopped talking.

As Chloe suspected, they were led downstairs to a long and darkened corridor.

“Go through that door. I will wait for you to lead you to your quarter… if everything’s fine.”

“I can assure you, it is,” Chloe said sharply and pushed the door opened.

Poor Perry. I think Chloe is ready to start slapping some people. Can't wait till the next update.

Part 3

As Tess suspected, the examination was based on looking for any skin marks.

They were allowed to keep their underwear as the doctor had a special x ray machine that allowed him to see the skin beneath the fabric.

“Satisfied now?” Tess asked in angry voice. Chloe could tell she was getting impatient.

“Miss, this matter is very serious,” the doctor said. “Please, stay still. Just few more minutes.”

“We weren’t bitten for a Christ’s sake!” Tess raised her voice. “Do you really think those idiots can think long enough to actually bit me there?! There have no brain!”

That did it. The doctor lost his patience and told them to get dressed.

“Finally!” Tess huffed. “Can we get a room now?”

“Tess, I think you’re just making it worse,” Chloe told her quietly when they got behind the screen to put their clothes back on.

“Oh, really? Excuse me if I’m so anxious to get it over with. Chloe, my brother is out there! He’s the only family I have left! I can’t… I won’t lose him.”

“Hey, hey,” Chloe put her hand on Tess’s arm. “I’m sorry… Tess, whoever can make it out there, it’s Lex. He’s strong. If one good thing came out of Lionel raising him, it’s that. He would never let his son to be weak, so I am sure that Lex will be alright.”

“I hope so.”

“We also have another problem,” Chloe noticed. “Morgan Edge. You have no idea how long I’ve been trying to find some evidence to put him away.”

“And now you can’t even do that,” Tess sighed. “It’s the apocalypse, Chloe. He can get away with absolutely anything. The worst part is that there is no other place to hide for us.”

“We’ll figure something out. First we need to get to know this place.”

“Are you ready, ladies? Then you can go.”

“Who are you exactly?” Tess asked, coming over to the doctor. “Are you working for the LuthorCorp?”

“I was a genetics at Star Labs,” he said. “I had no other choice but to come here. It was the only way to survive.”

“What’s your name?” Chloe asked, seeing that they misjudged him. He wasn’t as bad as the first impression they’d had of him. Maybe it was because they’d been so angry that they’d had to be examined.

“Emil Hamilton,” the answer came.

***

Finally, Tess and Chloe walked out of the doctor’s office and met with the same guard that had taken them there.

“Are you absolutely sure Lex Luthor isn’t here?” Tess asked again.

“Sorry, m’am, haven’t heard of him. Now… follow me.”

He started to lead them out of there, to the elevators.

“This whole place needs to run somehow and we all settled here in a hurry,” the guard said, “so there are duties everyone have to fulfill if they want to stay.”

“I can imagine what Edge does to those who don’t,” Tess murmured under her nose.

“I have a direct order to assign you, Miss Mercer, to the protection unit. Can you shoot?”

“Of course, you can call me a pro,” she said.

“Good. Then you will be trained as one of the guards. Your gun will be returned to you… You, miss Sullivan, on the other hand, will be assigned to keeping this place… clean,” he finished awkwardly like he didn’t know how to call it or diminish her.

“Excuse me?” Chloe raised her eyebrows.

The elevator went up.

“You have no qualifications useful to us and…”

“Useful?! Qualifications?! I am a Daily Planet journalist! What more do you need?!”

“Do you see an office and a printer in here? We don’t have time to write news. There is no one to receive them anyway. All the people in here already know everything from our leader. You will have to keep this place clean as few other women.”

“Women?! What kind of a…” Chloe started again, but felt Tess’s elbow on her side. She glared at her new red headed friend.

“Leave it,” Tess whispered. “Do you really want to agitate Edge? He knows exactly who you are and he can bring you down with a snap of his fingers. It’s about your life, Chloe. Leave it for now.”

Chloe bit her lip. Tess was right. Edge wanted to send her a message and silence her. If that didn’t work, he would do something more extreme.

The blonde reporter - or should she say ex reporter - just sighed heavily.

“Here you go. Your room.” The guard opened the door for them as they stepped out of the elevator on the fifth floor.

It looked like any other motel room. Squared. Two beds. Two chairs. Surprisingly - a TV - but a small one. And a small bathroom as well.

“Sorry, but…” Chloe started, “I don’t seem to have any warmer clothes… and I’m pretty sure Tess has nothing else than what she’s wearing either…”

“You’ll get some,” the answer came. “Take some rest. There are three meals per day. Breakfast at 6, lunch at 12 and dinner at 6 again. Don’t be late. The canteen is on the ground floor. Tomorrow you will also start your job. Miss Sullivan, you will be expected at the ground floor in room 1.2, and you, Miss Mercer, level minus 1, the armory.”

“Thank you,” was all Tess could say.

As the guard disappeared, Chloe moaned, “Are you fucking kidding me?!”

“Chloe, we need to stay low for a few days and then we’ll figure something out,” Tess tried to make her feel better.

“What’s there to figure out, Tess?! We are stuck here! There’s nothing to go to outside, unless you want to die and become one of those…” Chloe’s voice trailed off and she shivered. “And here?! What will we get here?! Tyranny! It’s Morgan fucking Edge!! He’s worse than Lionel Luthor!”

“Chloe…”

“Don’t Chloe me! I’m right! We’re dead either way! We’re in prison here!” Chloe walked over to the bed, fell on it and started crying.

“Chloe, I’m really sorry,” Tess’s voice softened. “You’re not the only one who lost everything.”

“I have no one, Tess. No one. You, at least, have your brother.”

“I don’t even know if he’s alive…”

“We have to hold on, don’t we?” Chloe asked, facing Tess with her face wet from tears.

“There is no other choice, but to hold on and see what the future brings. This can’t be the only safe haven in the world.”

“Maybe… maybe the epidemic didn’t spread outside America?” Chloe voiced her feeble hope.

“It did,” Tess had an answer. “It did. Few of my father’s patients were from Europe. One from Russia, one from France and one from Germany. And there would’ve been more to come… they even wanted to distribute the cure, but… I don’t know if they actually did,” she sighed, hated not to know, too.

“It sucks,” Chloe said.

“Yes, it does.”

***

They spent four days there. Four long, tedious days with Chloe playing a house keeper and Tess being trained.

And in the night of the fourth day, a rattle woke them up.

“What the…?” Tess asked, immediately sitting on bed, thinking that zombies breached their security and were inside. Even though it seemed impossible.

Somebody was knocking hard on their door.

“Miss Mercer! Are you there?!”

Tess jumped out of bed and came to the door to open it. She face a guard from the night shift.

“Miss Mercer.”

“Yes?” Tess asked.

Chloe also got out of bed and came closer.

“There is a man by the gate, claiming he’s Lex Luthor.”

“What?!” Disbelief, hope, worry, happiness… all of that was in Tess’s voice now.

“You need to come with me.”

“Of course!... Chloe!” she turned to her new friend. “Lex…”

“I’m so happy for you, Tess!” Chloe squealed and was about to turn around when Tess grabbed her hand.

“Come with me. I can’t do this alone… what if he’s…” She didn’t have to finish. Chloe understood and let her lead her.

They got out of the building quickly and there, on the other side of the gate, was a tall bald headed man.

Chloe recognized his patrician features. It was Lex. No one else.

She couldn’t have forgotten this handsome face, straight nose, pride posture.

She had had a crush on him back when she’d been in high school. It had been silly and stupid, wouldn’t lead to anything, but thanks to her childish obsession she could know for sure now that it was him.

“Lex! You’re ok!” Tess yelled. “Let him in! What are you waiting for?!”

“Miss… he can…”

“LET HIM IN!”

“Quiet!” The guard got angry. “It’s the middle of the night!... He can be bitten!”

“Do you really think I would jeopardize my sister’s safety like that?!” Lex asked angrily. “I am fine! Let me in!”

“The doctor will see you first thing in the morning,” the guard said while gesturing for another to open the gate. “And you,” he turned to Tess, “you need to keep an eye on him. He’s your responsibility now. If he shows any signs… shoot him.”

“Sure,” she answered bitterly.

The gate was opened and Lex got inside. Tess hugged him immediately.

“I was so worried!” she sobbed into his neck. “I’m so glad you’re made it!”

When they parted, Lex’s eyes set on Chloe.

“Chloe Sullivan,” he said, “and we meet again.”

So he did recognize her… She swallowed hard.

Part 4

It was still the middle of the night, so they were forced to come back to their rooms as fast as possible.

Tess knew that asking her brother any questions in the company of the guard, that was again leading them upstairs, would be wrong. She didn’t want anything to leak to Morgan Edge. Being in a company of Lionel’s friend, even when Lionel was Tess and Lex’s father, meant danger.

Chloe could feel Lex’s curious gaze on her back as they were making their way and it unsettled her for some reason. Still, after so much time passing by, that man had a strange impact on her.

As soon as the door closed behind the three of the survivors, Tess asked in concern, “Where the hell have you been?! What happened to you?! Are you ok?!”

“What is she doing sharing a room with you?” Lex asked, either evading his sister’s questions or being more interested in something else.

“Are you serious?! I’ve been worried sick about you and all you can do is ask about Chloe?!” Tess got angry.

“Hey! Hey! I suggest you calm down, Tess,” Chloe said. “If you two keep arguing, I am sure a guard will come right back in and…”

“She’s right,” Lex sighed, looking at Chloe closely, making her feel uneasy again. “Tess, I am fine. It’s been hard to get here, but… I am here, aren’t I?” he sighed, turning back to his sister. “Now, can you please explain…”

“I wanted to get to the Planet and found myself in a trap. I would’ve died if Tess hadn’t saved me. We came here,” Chloe said in calm voice. “Anything else you’d like to know?”

“No, thank you,” Lex looked at her again. “You know, I was following your career before all of this… happened. You had the potential to be a really good reporter.”

“Thank you,” Chloe said, completely taken aback. Had he really?

“Don’t look so surprised, Chloe,” Lex chuckled. “You were a pretty good reporter back in high school. That was why I finally granted you that interview.”

“You’re making fun of me,” she hesitated, trying to decipher the look on his face.

“Not at all. When you kept asking I eventually did some background check on you and found great stories. Great like for a high school student.”

“Well, I feel honored, Mr. Lut…”

“Oh, no, please, call me Lex.”

“Excuse you!” Tess cut in.

“Tess,” Lex sighed. “I just wanted to make sure you’re alright, but I can’t stay here,” he suddenly told her and turned around. “Oh, a bathroom. I could use a shower.” And he disappeared behind that door.

“What?” Tess just stood there, not understanding a thing. “What?! Lex! What are you talking about! Why can’t you stay?! I know it’s Morgan Edge, but…”

Chloe didn’t want to break it to her, but she knew what was going on. She knew it the moment she saw the look in Lex’s eyes when he told Tess that he was going to leave.

And he heart ached strangely.

“LEX!” Tess yelled and unceremoniously opened the bathroom door.

There wasn’t a sound that came out from her mouth now. She just stood there in the door, terrified, looking at something.

“Tess?” Chloe asked, concerned about her friend. “Tess, what is…”

She was afraid Lex might’ve turned. She was afraid Lex wasn’t Lex anymore, so she jumped to Tess, trying to drag her out of the door and close it, but…

She stood still, too.

At first she saw Lex without a shirt. And she had to admit that it was a pleasurable sight. He had a very nice toned chest. And he was handsome, she had to give him that.

Only she soon stop admiring his body as she noticed what Tess had clearly noticed, too. Tess wouldn’t be interested in her brother’s body after all, right?

There it was. Right on his arm. A bite mark.

There was also something wrong about it. It didn’t look like it was fresh. Chloe knew enough by now. If a person was bitten and about to turn, the bite mark did not heal. It was inciting. It always looked like a fresh wound. Until the person would become a zombie.

Tess reacted immediately. She grabbed a gun and aimed.

“WOW! Wow!” Lex raised his hands. “Tess! Don’t shoot!”

“Why shouldn’t I?!” she yelled in despair. “What did you think, Lex?! Did you really think that coming here like that… after… that… that’s gonna help me?! And now what?! Now I have to fucking shoot you! Just like I shot out father!”

“Tess, stop! Let me explain!” Lex begged her.

“Tess…” Chloe spoke. “Tess… just… look at it!”

“What?! I see a bite mark! That’s what it is!”

“Tess,” Lex said, this time in much calmer voice, “please, let me say something. You have me at gunpoint anyway. There’s no way I can hurt anyone.”

“Ok, talk!” she said bitterly, tears swelling up in her eyes.

“One of them bit me exactly four days ago. When I was trying to get here.”

“Four?” Tess raised her eyebrows. “It’s not possible…”

“I’ve already told you I wouldn’t jeopardize your safety. I waited, Tess. As soon as I was bitten I waited. I didn’t have the guts to pull the trigger just yet. I wanted to see you. I thought I could make it here in my second day and then escape, but I overestimated myself. Then… a miracle happened. It was the third day. I was prepared for the fever to come. I was prepared to shoot myself in the head as soon as it would, but… it never did. Tess, I am fine. I was bitten four days ago. The wound is scarred now. And I am fine. I am not a zombie. I am still me.”

“And I’m supposed to believe it?” Tess asked, crying. “Why you out of all people?”

“Because he never gets sick,” Chloe suddenly spoke.

Both Tess and Lex looked at her.

“What did you just say?” Tess asked.

“Just think about it! Lex had asthma when he was a kid! And then there was the meteor shower and right after that…” Chloe’s voice trailed off.

“I never got sick,” Lex finished after her. “I have an unusually high white cells level in my system. Maybe I’m immune.”

“But… wh… eh… are we really going to take that chance?” Tess slowly asked, stammering and she lowered he gun.

“It’s been four days, sis. I am fine and the wound is scarring. What other proof do you need? And besides, did you really think I would come here, turn and then bite everyone? I am not a bad person. The only one I would like to have my revenge on is dead. You killed him, remember?”

“But… what are you going to do? They’re going to examine you in the morning and… they’ll find it, Lex. They’ll kill you. They won’t be asking questions.”

“Then we’ll tell them the truth,” Chloe suggested. “They have to believe us. The wound is scarred. Doctor Hamilton will believe us!”

“He’s not the one in charge, Chloe,” Tess sighed heavily. “Edge is. And if he finds out… Lex is a dead man.”

“But he’s immune!” Chloe persisted.

“In another scenario they take me to the lab, dissect me to see what makes me tick,” Lex said. “It’s lose either way, Chloe. The only way for me to live is to escape from here.”

“But how are you going to? There are guards everywhere!” Tess noticed. “And what kind of life will you have out there?!”

“I can’t be turned,” he said.

“We don’t know if it’ll work the second time, too!”

“We don’t have a choice but to take that chance,” Lex was stubborn. “Face it, Tess. There’s no future for me here. Only death or being cut open in a lab. I need to get out.”

“And you leave me?” she asked.

“What other choice do I have?” He rubbed his forehead. “At least I know you’re safe. And you’re not alone. You have Chloe now.”

“But… fine,” Tess sighed, “then I’m coming with you!”

“You can’t!”

“I won’t stand being here a day longer!” she yelled. “This place is run by Morgan Edge and I feel like a prisoner. How much time am I supposed to spend here? All my life?”

“Then I’m coming, too,” that was Chloe.

“You can’t just…” Lex denied.

“I know a way out,” Chloe added.

“How? Every single way out is guarded! I know, because I’m one of them!” Tess was desperate.

“We can’t use an exit,” Chloe told her. “We won’t get far anyway. The fence is under voltage, remember? And there’s no way we can turn it off without them noticing.”

“So what, then?” Tess asked.

“We can sneak into the garage and take a truck. That’s the only way. We can easily drove it through the gate.”

“Then we’ll damage the gate and all the people inside will be in danger.”

“No, they won’t. There are too many guards to let that happen. They’ll be fine. The gate will be fixed in no time and that will also give us some time to escape. They won’t be chasing us when their safe haven is in danger.”

“That’s a brilliant plan, Chloe. Do you know a way through to the garage?” Lex asked.

“Edge maybe put me to the cleaning unit, but he underestimated me. I’ve been to every single corridor and level of this facility. I can get us out,” she said with pride.

“Fantastic. Tell me the way. I’ll take a shower and be out of here.” Lex smiled.

“Wait a moment… you will?” Tess got angry. “Lex…”

“The discussion is over,” he said firmly and came closer to the door, then took the handle and closed himself inside.

“Over my dead body will he go alone!” Tess clenched her fists.

“Watch your words. We live in dangerous times,” Chloe warned her and walked over to the closer. She took a bag that had been given to them earlier in case of an evacuation and started packing them.

“Chloe, I really think you should stay,” Tess said.

“No way! How long do you think I will stand this? I am not some house keeper! I am a fighter! God damn it, I am a reporter! I will not stay here and die out of boredom!”

“You know you will die out there, do you?”

“Then at least I’ll die doing something important. Tess, you do know we need to take Edge down. I don’t know how, but he can’t be the world’s new leader… Wait here…” Chloe suddenly walked toward the door.

“Where are you going?”

“Shh… we need some clothes for Lex. I’ll go and get them, but you stay put!” And she was just gone.

“Damn it, Chloe!” Tess hissed.

***

“What do you think you’re doing?” Lex asked sharply when he immerged from the bathroom, clean and handsome. That last one was on Chloe’s mind of course.

“Going with you and like hell try to stop us!” Tess answered him back. “Now, do you want to get out of here or not?”

“Tess…”

“No! You know me! I won’t stay put and listen to Morgan Edge! And you know damn well that Chloe will not, too. You came here and gave us hope, Lex. You are healthy and we’re taking the chance and we’re going with you.”

“It’s either this or you’ll have to face the doctor in the morning,” Chloe reminded him. “I’m not staying here. The only way out is with me.”

“Fuck!” Lex cursed. “Alright! It’s your funeral!... You haven’t lost your sharpness, have you, Chloe?”

“Not in a million years,” she answered with a broad smile. “Let’s get out of here!”

I"m loving this story. Please update soon.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by trinna

I"m loving this story. Please update soon.

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Thank you very much! Here it is!

***

Part 5

Chloe took the big bag she packed and pointed the door with her hand.

“Follow me!”

“Give me that,” Lex offered to carry it for her. “That’s all?”

“Yeah. All we need. A change of clothes and some toiletries.”

“Off we go then,” he sighed, still not really happy with the new arrangement. He felt awful that because of him and his carelessness they had to run now. On the other hand, it looked like Tess and Chloe were looking for an excuse to settle somewhere else. He just hoped he wouldn’t have to shoot any one of them. They were all they’d got now.

“Let’s go,” Tess agreed and opened the door. She peeked into the hallway, checking for any guards while holding a gun in her hand, then she gestured for the rest to follow.

They quietly walked out of the room and Chloe took it from there, leading them to the emergency exit.

It was dark and they could only relay on the blonde reporter to get out of there safely, following her into different corridors.

Finally, after ten minutes that for them seemed like forever, they found themselves in the garage.

“My baby,” Tess whispered when she spotted her sport car, a gift from Lex.

“I don’t think she’ll be useful to us now,” Lex chuckled quietly.

“Guys, over here! It’s the three trucks that arrived early in the morning with supplies. Maybe they haven’t unpacked everything yet…”

Chloe was right. One was half empty and the last one was still full of food.

“I feel bad stealing it,” she suddenly voiced her conscience.

“Morgan is fat and he eats most of it anyway,” Tess told her, “you forgot how little food we usually get here?”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Chloe opened the door and…

There was a sheer and high sound. An alarm.

“Shit!” Chloe cursed. “Get in! NOW!”

She didn’t have to tell the Luthors twice.

Lex immediately found himself behind the wheel when Tess jumped to the back seat with the bag. Chloe took a seat next to Lex and he started the engine.

“Where to?” he asked her, confused.

“Ahead. This truck should easily go through the garage door, it’s light.”

She was right.

When Lex started the engine and drove forward, the truck burst through the thin door and then there was a gate ahead.

“Faster!” Chloe encouraged him.

“They are people here!” he yelled back when he saw the gathering guards.

“They’re not suicidal! They’ll jump away!”

Chloe was right again.

Lex speeded up and soon, they hit the gate.

There were sparkles, but they were fine. The voltage didn’t hurt them inside the vehicle.

And they were driving away into the night… leaving the safe haven behind them…

“Are they after us?!” Chloe looked back, but she couldn’t see much.

“No,” Tess notified. “There’s no point in chasing us. It’s too dangerous for them. We’re as good as dead for them now.”

“If only that place was mine!” Lex growled and hit the steering wheel with his fists. “I would’ve…”

“But you weren’t there,” Tess reminded. “I have no rights to LuthorCorp whatsoever as I was still hiding from the world and Edge…”

“He is cunning,” Chloe finished, furrowing her brows. “But Lex, you could’ve taken over.”

“With that bite? No way! Edge would’ve killed me and there would be no one to stop him!”

“Bingo!” Tess suddenly exclaimed. “Guess what I found in the supplies!”

“What?”

“Guns! Lots of guns and bullets! Guys, maybe we’ll survive after all!”

“Yes, maybe, but it’s night and if we run out of gas… guns won’t help us,” Lex sighed. “We need to find a place to stay in for a while. Somewhere high above the ground, so they wouldn’t get us so easily.”

“It’ll be dawn soon and we have enough gas,” Chloe said while looking at the dashboard. “We can look for some place as soon as the sun rises.”

“I’m prepared,” Tess said while loading a gun. “Chloe, have one.”

“I don’t even know how to shoot!” She protested.

“Then it’s high time for you to learn,” Lex said. “You won’t survive otherwise.”

***

After few hours, dozens of abandoned and devastated streets and killed zombies - mostly by Tess - they finally stopped in front of some old building on the outskirts of Metropolis.

“Voila!” Lex gestured.

“An old pizzeria?” Tess raised her eyebrows.

“That means there can still be a coal furnace as this is one of the old, traditional pizzerias. It is also on the second floor, so we can bolt the door and booby trap it. They won’t get inside,” Lex explained, pretty proud of himself.

“I think is a great idea,” Chloe supported him. “Come on!”

“Shit… Wait!” Tess yelled and shot few zombies that were coming their way. “Do you think they can smell us? What if we wake up and there will be hundreds of them around the building?!”

“Do you have an alternative for a shelter?” Lex asked. “Thought so.”

They jumped out of the car and got to the door.

“It’s locked,” he said, looking closer at it.

“Somebody has a hairpin?” Tess asked, leaning toward the lock and examining it. “What? I can pick it up.”

“We could always go to a supermarket,” Chloe suggested, looking around nervously and clenching her gun.

“For a hairpin?!” Lex asked, taken aback.

That did it. For the first time since the outbreak, Chloe actually laughed. It was a silly and delicious laugh and they all soon followed her.

“No! To hide! We could live in there for some time! Don’t you think it’s a great idea?”

“Actually, it is,” Lex agreed. “But we need some rest and… do I see a garage here?”

“Yes, but first I need to open this,” Tess said angrily, pointing the lock.

Chloe thought hard and then she came back to the track. She was searching through the supplies until she find some small object that before had been keeping the bag closed. “I have something!”

She almost got a heart attack when she heard a shot.

She turned around, feeling like she was moving in a slow motion, that much scared she was.

Lex was standing there with a smoking gun and right before him there was a dead body.

“Oh my god…” Chloe whispered, closing her mouth with her hand.

“You’re welcome. Now… what did I say to always take a gun with you and be careful?”

“I’m sorry… I never…”

“…had a gun before in your life, I know. It’s time to teach you a few tricks, Chloe.” Lex reached his hand to her and helped her get out of the car, then closed it. Chloe still felt a little weird. Add to that Lex’s touch kind of burnt her.

She watched him giving Tess the small clip and she finally picked the lock, letting Lex in first.

“Stop drooling,” Chloe suddenly heard and she shook her head, turning red.

“What?” she asked Tess.

“Even zombie would notice that chemistry. You two kind of match each other and it’s the end of the world, so it’s romantic,” Tess teased.

“LEX?!” Chloe opened her eyes widely. “Are you kidding me? No, he’s too annoying. Believe me, I’ve already spent my quality time with that narcissistic type.”

“That what I just said, chemistry,” Tess shrugged.

“It’s clean,” Lex appeared in the door. “What?” he asked, studying both Tess’s and Chloe’s expressions.

“Nothing!” Chloe denied quickly. “Let’s get out of here!”

“I’ll find the garage door and open it from the inside,” Tess volunteered.

***

“The owner must’ve have abandoned this place in a hurry,” Lex said when they finally reached the second floor when the pizzeria was.

“Yes, like everyone. I wonder if they made it…” Chloe’s voice trailed off. The reality sank in, but she still was a little shaky. The world as they all knew it, ended. How much time they had? Would they be alive the next day?

“It’ll be ok,” Lex told her on noticing the look on her face. “We’ll survive.”

“How can you be so sure?” Chloe asked, her voice tired. She was tired. Tired of living. Of running. Of trying to find shelter. And it was just the very first day of many to come…

“Because you’re in the company of Luthors. And we always survive.”

“Tell that to your father,” she said sarcastically.

“He had it coming. He did it to himself.”

“I think there are some pizzas in the freezer!” They heard Tess’s enthusiastic voice. “What d’ya say for lunch?”

“As long as it’s fresh!” Chloe warned her.

“It’s frozen! Of course it’ll be fine when we bake it!”

Lex went to help Tess with the furnace, leaving Chloe alone.

She took the gun he’d offered her before and weighted it in her hands. She didn’t want to shoot. Even if that weren’t people anymore. It just wasn’t her…

She wanted to… go home.

But she knew how stupid and immature that plea was. She had to be brave. She had to be that Chloe Sullivan, the fearless reporter. At least she wasn’t alone. At least she didn’t have to live under Morgan Edge’s roof. Who knew what would he do to her eventually?

Suddenly, a can of cola appeared in front of her eyes.

“Thirsty?” she heard Lex’s voice and he sat down right by her side on the old couch.

“Thanks,” she took the drink and smiled to him.

“Tess’s making pizza. I never through I would see my sister cooking, but there’s a first time for everything, isn’t there?” he asked and nudged Chloe. “How are you holding up?”

“Been better,” she answered.

“Listen, it means a lot to me what you’ve done. Leaving that place behind couldn’t have been easy for you.”

“I told you,” she sighed, “it was as much for me as it was for you two.”

“Even when the world’s ending, you still want to take Edge down.”

“Someone has to. If he’s the new leader where the world will stand in a few years?”

“If we survive.”

“Oh, he will, believe me.”

“Do you think…” he started after a moment of silence, but stopped.

“What is it? You can tell me,” Chloe encouraged him.

It was so strange. One moment they fates entwined just like her and Tess’s and they were becoming friends… she and Lex Luthor. In her past life that was before the outbreak she would never believe it was possible. Or maybe she’d only thought she’d known him… Maybe there really was more to Lex Luthor.

“What if my immunity is only temporary? What is the virus will finally turn me? What then? I will kill you all.”

“I don’t think that’s gonna happen,” she said and to her own astonishment, she covered his hand with hers and looked him in the eye. “The wound is scarred. I don’t think you’re in any danger.”

“What if I get bit again, then?”

“Well, you would have to just… try not to.” Suddenly, she wrinkled her forehead like she was thinking over something pretty hard.

“What is it?” he asked, curious.

“I just wonder… if we came across somebody bitten but not dead yet… if we got them your blood… would they not turn?”

“You think my blood could fight that virus?”

“Maybe…”

“I don’t think it would be that easy, Chloe.”

“We could always try someday…”

“We would have to be extremely lucky to catch such a person on time and I’m not risking anyone’s safety here.”

“I understand.”

“Hey, maybe you could stop hitting on each other and help me?” they heard Tess’s voice in the door.

Chloe turned red again, but fortunately Lex did not see it.

“We were just talking, Tess,” he said and stood up, letting Chloe’s hand go.

She felt strangely empty without him by her side and forced herself not to think about him that way. It was the end of the world. It was only natural that her body was reacting to a handsome man. And she might’ve had a crush on him in the past, but she was over it now. It was Lex Luthor. The most infuriating man in the world and even her sharp tongue couldn’t verbally win with him sometimes.

Part 6

They spent the next two days there. They didn’t talk much. Chloe had found papers in the desk, so she mostly wrote something on them. Lex suspected it was their story of survival. He didn’t think it would ever make it to print as he had serious doubts about the humanity’s victory and zombie extinction. But if that kept Chloe busy and more or less happy, he was fine with it. Who knew, maybe someday they would all die. Maybe Chloe’s journal would be lost, but maybe someone else would find it and read it.

When Chloe wasn’t writing or sleeping, Lex and Tess were doing their best to teach her how to shoot. They fortunately had enough bullets for now as there was a whole stock in their truck.

Then the zombie came again, forcing them to leave.

“It’s too dangerous to go to the city now,” Lex said when thinking about Chloe’s previous idea that they should barricade themselves in a supermarket. “Tess? What do you think?”

“We should head to the woods.”

“The woods?!” Chloe raised her voice, startled. “Are you crazy?! We’ll be wide in the open!”

“No, I am not crazy!” Tess hissed in answer. “For your information, they always go after the meat. They smell humans, they go there. There are no humans in the woods! We can spend a few days there. We just need to pick some place by the lake.”

“Fine by me,” Lex said. “And we need to keep guards.”

“Of course.”

So they jumped into the truck and Lex drove them.

Chloe was angry at them, but she decided to stay quiet and instead she just wrote a few juicy sentence about the Luthors in her journal.

She didn’t know that Lex noticed the smirk on her face when she did so and he chuckled.

***

Chloe hated when somebody other than herself was right.

She hated being wrong. Period. And even more, she hated to admit it.

Because Tess was right. There were safe in the woods. And they suspected they would be able to stay there until their food ran out.

Lex became her only teacher now. He seemed to be very determined to teach her how to shoot properly by the end of the week.

Chloe couldn’t help but actually get to like him very much. He wasn’t like she’d thought he would be. He turned out to be far from narcissistic. On the contrary, he was a decent guy with a difficult past. Once he told her his story. Maybe a bottle of brandy they found in the stack had something to do with it, but nonetheless, Chloe heard about the difficult childhood he’d had. About Lionel Luthor terrorizing Lex’s mother, about Lillian killing Lex’s baby brother, Julian.

Chloe was even surprised that Lex turned out to be such a good guy when coming from such a family.

He was a fighter. Just like she was. And that brought them together now.

Tess didn’t have it easy as well. She’d basically raised herself as being in the system. When she’d grown up, she’d been determined to get a degree in biology.

***

One day Lex discovered that Chloe chose the exact same time to take a bath in the lake.

She was at the other end of it and didn’t notice him, thank God.

He couldn’t help but peek at her, but all he saw was her naked back as she was half submerged into the water. Then she dove in and he lost the sight of her.

Tess was the one on guard duty then and she just shook her head with a smile. Maybe the adventure they were having would be much more interesting after all.

***

“We’re running out of food and we need to get some,” Lex said. “It’s been safe here, but we’re not surrounded with fruit trees. We need to eat.”

“Maybe one of us should stay here?” Tess suggested. “Just in case?”

“No, I think we should all go and stick together. If something happens, we’re stronger that way than we are when being alone,” Chloe contradicted. “What if zombie finally sniff that there are humans here?”

“I’m with Chloe on that,” Lex agreed and Tess scowled at him, but after she thought it through, she hated to admit that this time Chloe was actually right.

“Your shooting is almost perfect,” Lex approved of Chloe, “so you get the gun and this time you shoot.”

“I would hate not to when I finally know how.” She winked at him and Tess rolled her eyes.

There was obviously something going on between those two, but no one but her could notice it. Maybe there would come a day when Lex would finally figure out he felt for Chloe.

“Idiots,” Tess murmured under her breath.

***

It was a disaster.

They came back to the city more or less safe, but all the shops they were passing by were completely rid of any kind of lasting food. The cans, the granola bars, the water… it was all gone. Cleaned by either Morgan Edge’s group or those who managed to stay alive long enough.

“What are we gonna do?” Tess asked, trying not to panic.

“Block of flats?” Lex suggested. “Maybe people who abandoned them left some food?”

“Maybe, but even if we find some now, what will happen later?” Tess asked. “Lex, we can’t just keep looking for food and drive. It’s too dangerous. Even the petrol on the abandoned stations will eventually run out.”

“Have a better idea? I’m listening!”

“We can always come back.”

“They won’t take us in,” Chloe said.

“And they won’t listen to me,” Lex agreed. “They will kill me!”

“The scar should be fine now. They won’t notice...”

“Really? A bite mark and they won’t notice?!” Lex asked, pretty irritated. “If they let me live they will cut me in their lab! I know they have the tools, because my father owned that place!”

“Lex, it’s ok…”

“No, it’s not, Tess! I knew it would happen. I knew it and I told you to stay and let me leave on my own. You can come back. Both of you. I won’t stop you. Hell, I’ll even give you the car!”

“Lex, don’t talk like that! We’ll live. All of us! And no one’s leaving anybody!” Chloe joined into the discussion. “We can drive. America is big enough to find enough food and some other safe haven!”

“If we only knew what’s happening in Europe!” Lex punched the steering wheel.

***

“I’ve found some!” Tess yelled from the other side of the flat they were in.

It was the tenth floor of a huge building.

“Enough?!” Lex asked, running to her.

“With this and what we’ve found before we can live for a week or so,” she said. “We should take it back to the truck. I think we’re pushing our luck now.”

“I found some candy, too. It won’t go bad any time soon!” Chloe appeared in the kitchen.

“Good. Let’s go,” Lex commanded and they all walked to the door. Lex was first, protecting the rest just in case. Chloe followed him and Tess was behind.

Only when Lex opened the door, he was startled by two dead men on the stair case.

“Fuck!” he cursed and fired. The second one was hit by Chloe. “Nice shot!” Lex voiced his admiration. “Let’s go! Down! As fast as you can!!”

As they ran into the stair case, they noticed that the door to the flat at the end of the corridor was open, showing at least dozen of zombies.

“Fuck! They must’ve found some people there!” Tess yelled. “How they even got here?!”

“Just run!!” Lex roared, took Chloe’s hand because she was right next to him and pulled her downstairs.

As they were running, something grabbed Chloe, but Lex managed to yank her out of that grasp untouched.

They finally reached the ground floor and burst through the door to the street where their truck was waiting.

Lex and Chloe had to fire to another four zombies that suddenly took an interest in the vehicle.

“Inside! NOW!” Lex roared again and then they heard a scream.

It was a piercing, terrifying, full of agony scream. It came from the inside of the building. And it was female.

“NO!” Lex stopped and turned around. “TESS! WHERE ARE YOU?!”

Chloe felt like she was made of stone. She couldn’t move. She could just stand there, right by Lex’s side, still clenching his hand and looking at the stairs inside the building in front of her.

Tess wasn’t there.

Then zombies started walking out of it. No Tess. No red headed woman. Just dead men.

Chloe and Lex still didn’t run. They took their guns and shoot every single one of them. Waiting. Hoping.

Until they saw one walking out. With a hand in his hand.

Chloe covered her mouth, looking at the scene before her, terrified, her eyes widely opened in terror.

“Where’s my sister?! What did you do to her?!” Lex was screaming in desperation.

“Lex…” Chloe finally found her voice and her hand took his again, then squeezed a little. “Lex?”

But her yanked away from her and jumped to the building.

“LEX! NO!” Chloe yelled and killed the zombie that was carrying Tess’s hand. “Lex, she’s dead!” Chloe was crying now, doing her best not to break like Lex did. Tess was gone, but the blonde reporter still had one friend left and she couldn’t let him die, too.

“LEX!” Chloe got to him, grabbed his arm and forced him to turn to look at her.

There was nothing in his eyes. Nothing.

“LEX! I need you!” she tried to get to him. “You can’t leave me alone after I’ve ran away with you! I won’t survive alone! Lex, listen to me!” She grabbed his face in her hands and forced him to look her in the eye. “Come with me. We need to survive. She would want that for you.”

Absentminded, Lex let her pull himself to the truck and sat on the passenger seat.

Chloe started the engine and drove away, crying all the time.

Great update.

great but sad please update soon i can't wait for more.

Coming right up!!
Thanks for the comments!

***

Part 7

“It’s my fault,” Lex whispered, still in shock.

Chloe took her eyes off the road and looked at him.

“Lex, you’re not to blame here. You didn’t kill her.”

“I might as well just pull the trigger!” he suddenly raised his voice and look at her.

Her heart ached painfully on seeing the pain in his eyes. She could understand him. She really could. He’d just lost the only family he had left. She’d felt the same way when her father had died of heart attack.

“It was an accident,” she told him. Her gaze focused back on the road, but her hand wandered to Lex’s and squeezed it gently.

“If only I made her stay…”

“Tess was a grown up. She knew the danger. She would never stay there and you know that. I wouldn’t either.”

“Chloe, you need to get back. We need to get you back there!”

“What? No!” Chloe looked at him again. “I’m not leaving you like this!”

“Chloe, I can’t let something happen to you, too!” he said urgently, looking so intensely into her eyes that she avoided his piercing pupils by facing the road again.

“I’m not going anywhere,” she said hard. “We’re sticking together. We’re all we’ve got, Lex. We need to take care of each other.”

“What if you die?”

“What if you do?” she answered with a question. “Lex, we can’t speculate. We need to go on. I am so sorry about Tess, but we can’t give up. We need to survive. For her.”

“But…”

“It wasn’t your fault. You know, in the past I would’ve accused you of many murders, but I would never tell you that you killed her because you really didn’t. It was her choice. She wanted to come with us.”

He just nodded and kept holding Chloe’s hand, burning her with his touch.

She really felt too much in his presence. Her body was slowly burning.

It’s just because we’re alone in here… she told herself.

***

Two days later they were sitting by the Crater Lake in Smallville.

It was Chloe that came up with that idea. They’d already spent some quality time in the forest on the outskirts of Metropolis, so it was high time to check another town. Much smaller one. The town where they’d actually met so many years ago.

There was no one out there. It was completely abandoned what was sad, but also meant that they would be safe for a while.

There was a hot spring next to the lake, so they camped there. Just trying to get through another day. Trying to stay alive.

Lex was suffering inside. He didn’t want to talk about his loss. He didn’t even want to hear about Tess. He wasn’t ready and Chloe could understand that. She could wait.

In the meantime she was doing her best to make him feel better. She tried to talk to him about neutral things, even about the embarrassing time in Smallville she’d spent chasing him. That made him smile, so it was worth it. And Lex had a beautiful smile. He usually looked hard like a ruthless businessman, but Chloe seemed to have the gift to make him show her his true self. The caring one. The gentle. The softness in his eyes when they were wrinkling during his smiles. He was older than her, but eight years were nothing in the twenty first century. It was perfect.

And why she suddenly started thinking about that?!

They were sitting by the fire, just freshly after dinner.

Chloe was looking into the flames now.

She didn’t know how it happened that they suddenly got so close. Maybe they were instinctively looking for a warm body. The fire wasn’t enough.

But as soon as they touch and Lex’s arm was draped around her, the flames engulfed them just like the ones in front of them were engulfing wood.

“Damn, you’re beautiful,” Lex said in hoarse voice as their eyes met from up close.

One minute they were just two distant souls in the cemetery of all humanity.

The next they were kissing.

“I thought this when I saw you back then, in the safe haven,” he said with his lips brushing hers and then kissed her more eagerly. He seemed to devour her, to be everywhere. She didn’t know which part of her body actually didn’t feel him. His lips, his tongue, all hot on and in her mouth. The dance of desire.

Her hands soon wandered up to his bald skull and did what they unconsciously wanted to do all along. They stroked his smooth scalp with pleasure. Lex moaned into her mouth and sucked her tongue in, slid his own along her bottom lip, making her gasp and moan and graze her body against his as fire erupted in her centre.

“Wait… wait…” he stopped kissing her, but he was still close and she could still feel him. His forehead rested against hers and their eyes met again. “Are you… we don’t have any… birth control…” His face winced as he was surely suffering from erection and just now realized they couldn’t get any further.

“I’ve got that covered,” Chloe answered in a wheezing whisper and kissed him again.

She’d got a shot few weeks before when she’d thought she would go on a date and she was always bad at taking pills at the same hour. The date had been a fiasco and good, because now Chloe found something much better.

Maybe it was meant to be.

“Oh, thank God…” Lex groaned so animalistically that she felt even more desire. She was ready to just rip the clothes off of him and take him. Or let him take her. Hard. She didn’t care. She just needed him inside so badly.

Never before had she felt such a fire, such a desire. She’d never wanted anyone so badly that it actually hurt.

She felt Lex’s hot and trembling hands under her blouse, then he stroked her through her bra.

“Oh, Lex, yes…” she moaned into his mouth.

His lips quickly wandered down to her neck, licking and sucking a path down to her breast that soon were exposed to his eyes. He kissed them gently, then closed his mouth around her nipple, licking and sucking it.

Chloe could just surrender, forget about everything. All that mattered was the feeling. The felling of Lex. Everywhere.

His hand were in her pants now, slid inside, stroked her swollen fresh.

“Oh… ah… Lex, I can’t… just… fuck me,” she pleaded, her body sprawled wantonly on the mat on the ground.

She reached up her hands and ripped his shirt off, ravishing in the sight of his perfect chest that she’d caught a glimpse of in the bathroom when they’d been in the safe haven.

She ran her fingers over the bite mark that was completely scarred now.

She wasn’t afraid. She wasn’t afraid of anything while he was with her. She could as well die tomorrow if only she could have that one night with him…

She was fumbling with his fly and soon, his hard and prominent cock was freed. He was big. Even better, she thought as she stroked him.

“Oh, fuck…” Lex groaned, closing his eyes, doing his best not to come right on the spot. “Chloe… stop or I…”

She loved to see him so out of control. And she was the reason for that. But she still wanted to have sex. She was desperate and she wouldn’t wait for him to get hard again, nor she would be satisfied by a cunnilingus in the meantime. It was too late. They were both too far gone.

Then Lex’s mouth covered hers again and she automatically spread her legs, so he could fit between them and she felt his cock on her sensitive flesh.

The moment he slid inside she actually started coming. She couldn’t help it. She wanted him too much.

“Oh, my…” she started, her lips opening widely against his as he was still kissing her. And she was there. Right at the peak.

“Fuck!” Lex cursed again and stilled, managing not to come himself. That would be a fiasco for him. He was Lex Luthor, not some teenager.

“God, I’m sorry,” Chloe breathed heavily. “I didn’t mean to…”

“It’s fine…” he groaned while pushing into her and making her gasp again. “You can come again. Multiply orgasms. I can’t right away… so… it’s fine… God, you feel so good…” he rasped.

“You, too… Lex… oh, fuck… You, TOO!” she screamed, close again.

She’d never before experienced something so powerful. She’d never before come so quickly and now she was about to come again. That had never happened to her before either.

Lex was doing it to her right now. He was making her…

She was there again, completely leveled by the second orgasm that was more powerful than the previous one.

She couldn’t comprehend how such pleasure was even possible.

When her channel contracted around Lex’s cock, he roared, drove into her faster and faster, fucking her mercilessly, but she didn’t mind. She loved it. She wanted more and more.

Then he froze, came hard, spilling his hot seed into her.

They were lying there, on ground, hot even t though the night was pretty cold, motionless. Still joined. Their bodies drained.

“That was… god, that was fucking amazing,” he rasped into her ear, then managed to raised himself a little on his elbows and look into her eyes.

“Yeah, wow…” Chloe agreed.

“Can you believe that was the best sex of my life?” Lex asked her.

“I can, because mine, too. I’ve never come twice before.”

“Oh, really?” he asked, his face looking at her dirtily. “Then I will have to break my record. I will make you come three or four times the next time.”

“The next time?” she raised her eyebrows, laughing. “I will hold you to that, Mr. Luthor.”

He slid out of her and laid right next to her. They were both watching the stars now.

“There are no stars in Metropolis,” she sighed, looking for his hand until she grasped it, their fingers entwined. “Unless you count the choppers and planes.”

“Yeah, I loved living here in Smallville. It was peaceful… but I had to move on. LuthorCorp…” Lex’s voice trailed off as the painful memories came back to him. “And now it’s all for nothing. It was just a waste of my time. It wasn’t even important. People are.”

“Yes,” she said.

After a while she raised herself up.

“Where are you going?” Lex asked, unhappy that he lost the contact with her body.

“To the spring,” the answer came. “I feel all sticky and I need a shower.”

Lex laughed, didn’t really want to get up just yet.

“I’ll join you soon and maybe I’ll keep my promise with four!”

“I thought you meant three.”

“No, four! Coming right away!”

She was gone about two minutes when Lex heard her scream.

He jumped to his feet, naked grabbed the gun and ran to the spring.

Chloe was there, her front turned to him and behind her… a dead man. It just bit her.

“NO!” Lex roared and aimed. The zombie dropped to the ground. Lifeless.

Chloe just stood there, shaking. The blood was flowing from the wound on her neck, being splashed by the water from the stream. The water that now was red.

Lex froze. His gun still in his hands. Smoking.

He was watching Chloe’s eyes with his own wide open.

“Why haven’t you shot me yet?” she finally asked, her voice terrified, hurt. In agony.

AN Wow! It’s been such a hectic week for me! I’m sorry for updating so late, but unfortunately, you will have to get used to mostly one, sometimes two updates per week, or maybe less. I’m doing my best as always, but there’s only so many hours in a day!!
I have to finally start writing the sequel to JeXVille, so it will be posted soon and it will be called JeXPolis. I know, I know, another responsibility, but if I don’t start it I’m gonna explode!

***
Part 8

“Why haven’t you shot me yet?”

It was the perfect question.

Chloe had just been beaten by a zombie. There was no coming back from that stage. She would turn in exactly three days and there was nothing Lex could do about it.

Only he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t just point and shoot. Not at her.

He had already lost his sister. He couldn’t lose Chloe Sullivan, too. They’d just shared something. What had happened between them was so unexpected and wonderful. He couldn’t just…

“Why won’t you shoot?!” Chloe cried out. “Lex! Just shoot me!”

“I can’t!!!” he roared, squeezing his eyes shut and dropping the gun. “I can’t do it, Chloe!” he said again and their eyes met.

He closed the distance between them and took her into his arms, his face buried in her blonde hair. He could smell the wonderful scent of her skin. He could feel her naked chest against his as she was breathing so fast. He could have sworn he heard her accelerated heartbeat, too.

How many times her heart would beat before it would stop? How many minutes would he be able to cradle her in his arms?

He wanted to protect her from everything, to keep her safe, even for the cost of his own life, but he couldn’t. He failed her. Just like he had failed Tess.

Half an hour later they were both lying neat the fire. They put their clothes on and now Lex was spooning Chloe, listening to her breathing next to him.

There was nothing to say. They were both exhausted and knew there was no turning back.

Chloe snuggled into Lex, enjoying his body while she could. She rid of any shame or awkwardness. She needed him and she would not hide it now. No when she would be dead soon.

She also knew she would have to kill herself at the end of the second day, because Lex wouldn’t. Lex would want her to bite him, so he could go with her. The chances were slim that he would turn. But he would let her attack him anyway.

“We have to do something,” Lex finally voiced his thoughts some time later. The more time Chloe spent in his arms, the more he wanted to keep her by his side. Forever.

“Lex, there’s no way. I wasn’t caught in a meteor shower and even if… there would be no chance I would have the same ability. I am not immune. I’m just a plain human, just Chloe.”

“You are not just Chloe. You’re one of the strongest women I know.”

“Strength has nothing to do with this.” She sighed heavily.

“Tomorrow I’m going back to the city,” Lex decided.

“What? Why?” Chloe asked. “It’s too dangerous!”

“I’m doing it for you,” he told her. “The food may be gone, but people usually don’t need needles unless they’re drug addicts.”

“Needles?” Chloe frowned and turned to look into his face. “Lex, what are you… oh, no! I won’t let you!”

“What if it actually works?” he asked, urgency and hope in his expression. “Chloe, maybe we could…”

“And what if it doesn’t?! I’d still be dead and you’d be weak! Too weak to protect yourself!”

“I’ll be fine. Accelerated white cells grow.”

“Lex!”

“I won’t let you die, do you understand?!” he raised his voice and looked at her with such an intensive gaze that her lips parted in surprise. Was it possible that he cared that much about her? “And I’m not asking, I’m telling you! Tomorrow I will go to a pharmacy and I will bring a needle and an IV. I will give you my blood.”

“But…”

“This discussion is over.”

She was mad at him at that moment but also touched by the care he was giving her. On the other hand, she would do the same for him. They only had each other. Lex’s motivation might not even be feelings he could or could not have for her. It might just be the fear of loneliness.

She cried a little in his arms and the next thing she remembered was Lex waking her up in the morning. Her head was pounding what terrified her as she wasn’t sure if the reason was the crying or the change she would undergo very soon.

When she washed her face in the stream, her gaze focused on the guns that were in the truck.

“Don’t even think about it,” Lex warned her. “You need to promise me you won’t do anything stupid until we test your theory.”

“Oh, so it’s mine theory?” She raised her eyebrows.

“Well, you came up with it, didn’t you?”

“I wish I didn’t.”

“Don’t worry, I would’ve eventually figured it all out by myself… hungry?”

She shook her head.

“When I think of food I have nausea. But I wouldn’t mind some water. I’m so thirsty!”

Lex eyed her warningly, but he didn’t say anything. He just gave her what she wanted.

***

“Anything?!” Chloe called to Lex.

He went into the store room in the supermarket they’d walked into.

They hadn’t found what they were looking for yet, but Lex figured maybe he could find some food.

“Son of a…” Chloe heard followed by a gun shot.

“Are you ok?!” She ran to the door and wanted to peek inside, but Lex appeared in the same time, closing the door behind him fast.

“Zombies,” he just said. One of his hand were holding the other.

“Are you got…?” Chloe’s voice trailed off. “Lex!”

“It’s alright. It won’t do anything to me,” he said to her.

“You don’t know that!”

“Chloe, I’m fine! Let’s go! We don’t have much time left!”

***

“There’s a shopping centre out there!” Chloe pointed something in the distance. “There’s no other place we can look!”

“Good. We’re going there,” Lex said in a determined voice.

“We’ll be out of gas soon,” she noticed.

“I’ve got it covered. There’s a station neat that centre.”

“Why are you so sure of yourself?” she hissed. “You should’ve just left me and tried to survive when you still have a chance!”

“I think we had that discussion already. I. Am. Not. Leaving. You,” he said. It sounded like separate sentences when he emphasized it so strongly.

“Why?”

She didn’t receive any answer.

***

“It’s locked,” Chloe said when she tried to open the door to the shopping centre. “That’s weird… Why… wait…”

“There are people hiding inside,” Lex finished her sentence and pointed his gun at the lock.

“Don’t!” she warned him. “You’ll make a free passage for zombies! If there are really people in here, we can’t endanger them!”

“I’d listen to her if I were you.” They suddenly heard a voice.

Chloe and Lex looked up. There was a man in the window at the first floor. What more, he had a gun aimed at them.

“Get out before I’ll shoot you!” the man shouted.

“We don’t want to cause any trouble!” Lex spoke, lowering his own gun. “We just need help!”

“Help is exactly what we can’t give ya! You think I can’t see the marks on the both of you? Hell! I should’ve shot you both right here on the spot instead of talking to you! You’re already dead!”

“Please, don’t!” Lex put his gun away and raised his hands in surrender. “I promise you, we won’t even try to get inside! There’s only one thing we need. Please, can you help us?”

“What is it?” the man asked suspiciously. “What can you possibly want now?”

“Listen, I don’t expect you’d believe me, but I am immune. This is my second bite and the first didn’t turn me. It healed!” Lex rolled his sleeve to show the scar. “I’m not asking for letting me inside, I just want something from the pharmacy. There has to be one in this centre.”

“What?”

“IV and maybe few needles… or anything that would be useful in transfusing blood.”

“You want to give your girlfriend your blood to save her?” The man raised his eyebrows. “Man! That’s a long shot!”

“But it’s the only one I have. Please, I am begging you. It won’t cost you anything. Just help us and get us what we need,” Lex pleaded.

The man laughed. It wasn’t pleasant. It was a crazy laugh. Chloe wondered how long he’d been inside and if he had any company with him.

“’be right back!” And he just disappeared.

Lex and Chloe waited in silence for nearly twenty minutes. They did not feel like speaking to each other. There was nothing to say anyway. They were both exhausted and desperate, hanging to the very last feeble hope there could be. Even Chloe wanted to survive now. The longer Lex was fighting for her, the more she really wanted to live. There was also the other case, but she was afraid to ask. Did Lex feel something toward her? Or was he doing it just because he didn’t want to be alone? She was opting for the second one. He must have been selfish as a Luthor, mustn’t he? Or maybe he just wanted her by his side as he had never had enough friends or people that would truly care about him. That was variable as she knew that many people had liked Lex in the past only for his money.

“Here you go, birdies!” The man appeared in the window again and threw them stuff that were necessary for what they were about to do. He even got them a disinfectant.

“Thank you very much!” Lex expressed his gratitude. “If we still live in a few days we’ll come back.”

“Then maybe I even consider letting you in!” the man laughed.

“Are you here alone?” Chloe wanted to know.

“No. My father is still here. I lost my girlfriend, but I managed to barricade myself here. My father owns a shop in this centre.”

“I’m sorry for your lost,” Chloe said honestly.

“Thank you. I wish you the best no matter how crazy you are now! Buddy, you must really love this one,” the man said to Lex. “And I can understand you. I really can. I loved my girl, too, and if there’d been a slight chance she might’ve survived I wouldn’t of hesitated.”

Lex didn’t say anything. He didn’t deny the stranger’s words, but what would be the point anyway? If the man was helpful, better not to dissuade him from it, Chloe thought.

“Here you have some food!” He lowered a basket to them on the line. “I hope we’ll see each other again.”

“Thank you! We’re really grateful!” Chloe told him. “What’s your name?”

“Victor.”

“It was nice to meet you, Victor! I’m Chloe and this is Lex.”

“Wait… I knew you looked familiar! You’re Luthor!”

“Yes, but I’m not my father, so you don’t need to be afraid of anything,” Lex quickly added.

“Sure you’re not. I can’t imagine the Luthor senior saving a young lady like that. He’d be looking out for his own ass!”

“Something like that,” Lex confirmed. “We need to go. Time is precious now.”

“Sure! I hope I’ll see you two again!”

***

“You should… when I’m gone… I want you to join Victor,” Chloe said, back in the truck. “He looked like a nice man.”

“Chloe, I won’t let you turn, I promise!” Lex said, angry with her.

“I’m just thinking realistically here.” She shrugged and massaged her temples.

“What’s wrong?” Lex immediately got concerned.

“It’s just… my head is pounding even more now and I feel so hot…”

Before she could protest, he put his hand to her forehead and felt it up.

“You have a fever. Fuck! We need to go faster!”

“Lex, just…”

“Chloe, shut up and let me take care of you, ok?!” he snapped at her and she went quiet. She didn’t want to make him any more angry with her. She wasn’t mad at him. She understood he was just afraid for her life.

They soon stopped in Smallville on the very same spot by the Crater Lake.

Lex jumped out of the car, leaving his gun behind.

“Lex!” Chloe protested, following him on her feeble legs to give him the gun. “You still need to be careful.”

“Chloe!” He caught her before she fell to the ground, then he raised her up, taking her into his arms and carrying to their previous place.

When she was lying down on the covers, he was doing his best to prepare himself and her to the transfusion fast.

“Just… let me go…” Chloe said so quietly she could as well whispered it.

“Never!” she heard in answer. “The trip to Metropolis must’ve weaken you! Is it the end of the second day already? How much time do we have?”

“We don’t,” she said, understanding him all wrong in the fever.

She felt a prick in her arm as Lex tried to find a vein and when he finally did, it hurt.

“Sorry. Never done that before,” he apologized when she hissed.

***

“Come on, Chloe, it has to work! I just has to!” Lex was murmuring under his breath as the blood was flowing from him to her.

He was afraid they were too late. He was afraid that at this stage the blood wouldn’t help. Maybe he should’ve given it to her right away, but how? There was no other option!

“Lex?” Chloe suddenly spoke, but still in that weak voice.

“How are you?”

“Lex…” She turned her head and caught a glimpse of him.

He was weak, barely holding on straight, dark circles formed under his eyes.

“Lex!” she yelled at him. “Stop! I’ve had enough! Your blood needs to heal you first!”

He still wouldn’t relent.

“LEX!” Chloe jerked the needle out of her arm.

“Chloe, what are…”

“I’ve had enough!” she said sharply what weaken her more.

He must have known her well enough to realize she wouldn’t let him put that into her arm again.

“Fine!” he hissed and dropped right by her to the ground. He was so weak.

There was chocolate in the basket Victor had given them. The stranger had thought of everything. That was exactly what Lex needed after giving away so much of his blood.

“It would be ironic…” Chloe started, “if I died from anaphylactic shock, wouldn’t it?”

“You mean if our blood types can’t be mixed? Don’t worry, I’m a universal donor. I thought of everything.”

“So I see…”

Few minutes later Lex heaved himself up to get to the stream. He needed to clean up a bit.

When he came back Chloe was unconscious.

“Chloe?” he asked. “Chloe?”

She didn’t respond.

“CHLOE!” he roared and dropped to his knees right by her side. “Chloe, talk to me!”

She was gone.

“Chloe, no…” he suddenly cried. “Chloe, you need to leave!!” He took her face in his hands. “Chloe?”

She still wasn’t waking up.

Lex put his finger to her neck, checking the pulse. It was so weak she could as well had none.

“NO!!!” Lex roared. “I’ve given you the blood! You need to live!! Come on! Fight, Chloe!! Be strong for me!”

He couldn’t watch her die. He couldn’t be there to see her taking her last breath. It couldn’t end that way! It just couldn’t! Not again!

He raised himself up and got to his truck like he was in a trance.

He needed to find some outlet for all the feelings inside.

He got to the car, deciding to find some zombies and shoot them.

He couldn’t think now of what he would find when he would come back.

AN Wow! It’s been such a hectic week for me! I’m sorry for updating so late, but unfortunately, you will have to get used to mostly one, sometimes two updates per week, or maybe less. I’m doing my best as always, but there’s only so many hours in a day!!
I have to finally start writing the sequel to JeXVille, so it will be posted soon and it will be called JeXPolis. I know, I know, another responsibility, but if I don’t start it I’m gonna explode!

***
Part 8

“Why haven’t you shot me yet?”

It was the perfect question.

Chloe had just been beaten by a zombie. There was no coming back from that stage. She would turn in exactly three days and there was nothing Lex could do about it.

Only he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t just point and shoot. Not at her.

He had already lost his sister. He couldn’t lose Chloe Sullivan, too. They’d just shared something. What had happened between them was so unexpected and wonderful. He couldn’t just…

“Why won’t you shoot?!” Chloe cried out. “Lex! Just shoot me!”

“I can’t!!!” he roared, squeezing his eyes shut and dropping the gun. “I can’t do it, Chloe!” he said again and their eyes met.

He closed the distance between them and took her into his arms, his face buried in her blonde hair. He could smell the wonderful scent of her skin. He could feel her naked chest against his as she was breathing so fast. He could have sworn he heard her accelerated heartbeat, too.

How many times her heart would beat before it would stop? How many minutes would he be able to cradle her in his arms?

He wanted to protect her from everything, to keep her safe, even for the cost of his own life, but he couldn’t. He failed her. Just like he had failed Tess.

Half an hour later they were both lying neat the fire. They put their clothes on and now Lex was spooning Chloe, listening to her breathing next to him.

There was nothing to say. They were both exhausted and knew there was no turning back.

Chloe snuggled into Lex, enjoying his body while she could. She rid of any shame or awkwardness. She needed him and she would not hide it now. No when she would be dead soon.

She also knew she would have to kill herself at the end of the second day, because Lex wouldn’t. Lex would want her to bite him, so he could go with her. The chances were slim that he would turn. But he would let her attack him anyway.

“We have to do something,” Lex finally voiced his thoughts some time later. The more time Chloe spent in his arms, the more he wanted to keep her by his side. Forever.

“Lex, there’s no way. I wasn’t caught in a meteor shower and even if… there would be no chance I would have the same ability. I am not immune. I’m just a plain human, just Chloe.”

“You are not just Chloe. You’re one of the strongest women I know.”

“Strength has nothing to do with this.” She sighed heavily.

“Tomorrow I’m going back to the city,” Lex decided.

“What? Why?” Chloe asked. “It’s too dangerous!”

“I’m doing it for you,” he told her. “The food may be gone, but people usually don’t need needles unless they’re drug addicts.”

“Needles?” Chloe frowned and turned to look into his face. “Lex, what are you… oh, no! I won’t let you!”

“What if it actually works?” he asked, urgency and hope in his expression. “Chloe, maybe we could…”

“And what if it doesn’t?! I’d still be dead and you’d be weak! Too weak to protect yourself!”

“I’ll be fine. Accelerated white cells grow.”

“Lex!”

“I won’t let you die, do you understand?!” he raised his voice and looked at her with such an intensive gaze that her lips parted in surprise. Was it possible that he cared that much about her? “And I’m not asking, I’m telling you! Tomorrow I will go to a pharmacy and I will bring a needle and an IV. I will give you my blood.”

“But…”

“This discussion is over.”

She was mad at him at that moment but also touched by the care he was giving her. On the other hand, she would do the same for him. They only had each other. Lex’s motivation might not even be feelings he could or could not have for her. It might just be the fear of loneliness.

She cried a little in his arms and the next thing she remembered was Lex waking her up in the morning. Her head was pounding what terrified her as she wasn’t sure if the reason was the crying or the change she would undergo very soon.

When she washed her face in the stream, her gaze focused on the guns that were in the truck.

“Don’t even think about it,” Lex warned her. “You need to promise me you won’t do anything stupid until we test your theory.”

“Oh, so it’s mine theory?” She raised her eyebrows.

“Well, you came up with it, didn’t you?”

“I wish I didn’t.”

“Don’t worry, I would’ve eventually figured it all out by myself… hungry?”

She shook her head.

“When I think of food I have nausea. But I wouldn’t mind some water. I’m so thirsty!”

Lex eyed her warningly, but he didn’t say anything. He just gave her what she wanted.

***

“Anything?!” Chloe called to Lex.

He went into the store room in the supermarket they’d walked into.

They hadn’t found what they were looking for yet, but Lex figured maybe he could find some food.

“Son of a…” Chloe heard followed by a gun shot.

“Are you ok?!” She ran to the door and wanted to peek inside, but Lex appeared in the same time, closing the door behind him fast.

“Zombies,” he just said. One of his hand were holding the other.

“Are you got…?” Chloe’s voice trailed off. “Lex!”

“It’s alright. It won’t do anything to me,” he said to her.

“You don’t know that!”

“Chloe, I’m fine! Let’s go! We don’t have much time left!”

***

“There’s a shopping centre out there!” Chloe pointed something in the distance. “There’s no other place we can look!”

“Good. We’re going there,” Lex said in a determined voice.

“We’ll be out of gas soon,” she noticed.

“I’ve got it covered. There’s a station neat that centre.”

“Why are you so sure of yourself?” she hissed. “You should’ve just left me and tried to survive when you still have a chance!”

“I think we had that discussion already. I. Am. Not. Leaving. You,” he said. It sounded like separate sentences when he emphasized it so strongly.

“Why?”

She didn’t receive any answer.

***

“It’s locked,” Chloe said when she tried to open the door to the shopping centre. “That’s weird… Why… wait…”

“There are people hiding inside,” Lex finished her sentence and pointed his gun at the lock.

“Don’t!” she warned him. “You’ll make a free passage for zombies! If there are really people in here, we can’t endanger them!”

“I’d listen to her if I were you.” They suddenly heard a voice.

Chloe and Lex looked up. There was a man in the window at the first floor. What more, he had a gun aimed at them.

“Get out before I’ll shoot you!” the man shouted.

“We don’t want to cause any trouble!” Lex spoke, lowering his own gun. “We just need help!”

“Help is exactly what we can’t give ya! You think I can’t see the marks on the both of you? Hell! I should’ve shot you both right here on the spot instead of talking to you! You’re already dead!”

“Please, don’t!” Lex put his gun away and raised his hands in surrender. “I promise you, we won’t even try to get inside! There’s only one thing we need. Please, can you help us?”

“What is it?” the man asked suspiciously. “What can you possibly want now?”

“Listen, I don’t expect you’d believe me, but I am immune. This is my second bite and the first didn’t turn me. It healed!” Lex rolled his sleeve to show the scar. “I’m not asking for letting me inside, I just want something from the pharmacy. There has to be one in this centre.”

“What?”

“IV and maybe few needles… or anything that would be useful in transfusing blood.”

“You want to give your girlfriend your blood to save her?” The man raised his eyebrows. “Man! That’s a long shot!”

“But it’s the only one I have. Please, I am begging you. It won’t cost you anything. Just help us and get us what we need,” Lex pleaded.

The man laughed. It wasn’t pleasant. It was a crazy laugh. Chloe wondered how long he’d been inside and if he had any company with him.

“’be right back!” And he just disappeared.

Lex and Chloe waited in silence for nearly twenty minutes. They did not feel like speaking to each other. There was nothing to say anyway. They were both exhausted and desperate, hanging to the very last feeble hope there could be. Even Chloe wanted to survive now. The longer Lex was fighting for her, the more she really wanted to live. There was also the other case, but she was afraid to ask. Did Lex feel something toward her? Or was he doing it just because he didn’t want to be alone? She was opting for the second one. He must have been selfish as a Luthor, mustn’t he? Or maybe he just wanted her by his side as he had never had enough friends or people that would truly care about him. That was variable as she knew that many people had liked Lex in the past only for his money.

“Here you go, birdies!” The man appeared in the window again and threw them stuff that were necessary for what they were about to do. He even got them a disinfectant.

“Thank you very much!” Lex expressed his gratitude. “If we still live in a few days we’ll come back.”

“Then maybe I even consider letting you in!” the man laughed.

“Are you here alone?” Chloe wanted to know.

“No. My father is still here. I lost my girlfriend, but I managed to barricade myself here. My father owns a shop in this centre.”

“I’m sorry for your lost,” Chloe said honestly.

“Thank you. I wish you the best no matter how crazy you are now! Buddy, you must really love this one,” the man said to Lex. “And I can understand you. I really can. I loved my girl, too, and if there’d been a slight chance she might’ve survived I wouldn’t of hesitated.”

Lex didn’t say anything. He didn’t deny the stranger’s words, but what would be the point anyway? If the man was helpful, better not to dissuade him from it, Chloe thought.

“Here you have some food!” He lowered a basket to them on the line. “I hope we’ll see each other again.”

“Thank you! We’re really grateful!” Chloe told him. “What’s your name?”

“Victor.”

“It was nice to meet you, Victor! I’m Chloe and this is Lex.”

“Wait… I knew you looked familiar! You’re Luthor!”

“Yes, but I’m not my father, so you don’t need to be afraid of anything,” Lex quickly added.

“Sure you’re not. I can’t imagine the Luthor senior saving a young lady like that. He’d be looking out for his own ass!”

“Something like that,” Lex confirmed. “We need to go. Time is precious now.”

“Sure! I hope I’ll see you two again!”

***

“You should… when I’m gone… I want you to join Victor,” Chloe said, back in the truck. “He looked like a nice man.”

“Chloe, I won’t let you turn, I promise!” Lex said, angry with her.

“I’m just thinking realistically here.” She shrugged and massaged her temples.

“What’s wrong?” Lex immediately got concerned.

“It’s just… my head is pounding even more now and I feel so hot…”

Before she could protest, he put his hand to her forehead and felt it up.

“You have a fever. Fuck! We need to go faster!”

“Lex, just…”

“Chloe, shut up and let me take care of you, ok?!” he snapped at her and she went quiet. She didn’t want to make him any more angry with her. She wasn’t mad at him. She understood he was just afraid for her life.

They soon stopped in Smallville on the very same spot by the Crater Lake.

Lex jumped out of the car, leaving his gun behind.

“Lex!” Chloe protested, following him on her feeble legs to give him the gun. “You still need to be careful.”

“Chloe!” He caught her before she fell to the ground, then he raised her up, taking her into his arms and carrying to their previous place.

When she was lying down on the covers, he was doing his best to prepare himself and her to the transfusion fast.

“Just… let me go…” Chloe said so quietly she could as well whispered it.

“Never!” she heard in answer. “The trip to Metropolis must’ve weaken you! Is it the end of the second day already? How much time do we have?”

“We don’t,” she said, understanding him all wrong in the fever.

She felt a prick in her arm as Lex tried to find a vein and when he finally did, it hurt.

“Sorry. Never done that before,” he apologized when she hissed.

***

“Come on, Chloe, it has to work! I just has to!” Lex was murmuring under his breath as the blood was flowing from him to her.

He was afraid they were too late. He was afraid that at this stage the blood wouldn’t help. Maybe he should’ve given it to her right away, but how? There was no other option!

“Lex?” Chloe suddenly spoke, but still in that weak voice.

“How are you?”

“Lex…” She turned her head and caught a glimpse of him.

He was weak, barely holding on straight, dark circles formed under his eyes.

“Lex!” she yelled at him. “Stop! I’ve had enough! Your blood needs to heal you first!”

He still wouldn’t relent.

“LEX!” Chloe jerked the needle out of her arm.

“Chloe, what are…”

“I’ve had enough!” she said sharply what weaken her more.

He must have known her well enough to realize she wouldn’t let him put that into her arm again.

“Fine!” he hissed and dropped right by her to the ground. He was so weak.

There was chocolate in the basket Victor had given them. The stranger had thought of everything. That was exactly what Lex needed after giving away so much of his blood.

“It would be ironic…” Chloe started, “if I died from anaphylactic shock, wouldn’t it?”

“You mean if our blood types can’t be mixed? Don’t worry, I’m a universal donor. I thought of everything.”

“So I see…”

Few minutes later Lex heaved himself up to get to the stream. He needed to clean up a bit.

When he came back Chloe was unconscious.

“Chloe?” he asked. “Chloe?”

She didn’t respond.

“CHLOE!” he roared and dropped to his knees right by her side. “Chloe, talk to me!”

She was gone.

“Chloe, no…” he suddenly cried. “Chloe, you need to leave!!” He took her face in his hands. “Chloe?”

She still wasn’t waking up.

Lex put his finger to her neck, checking the pulse. It was so weak she could as well had none.

“NO!!!” Lex roared. “I’ve given you the blood! You need to live!! Come on! Fight, Chloe!! Be strong for me!”

He couldn’t watch her die. He couldn’t be there to see her taking her last breath. It couldn’t end that way! It just couldn’t! Not again!

He raised himself up and got to his truck like he was in a trance.

He needed to find some outlet for all the feelings inside.

He got to the car, deciding to find some zombies and shoot them.

He couldn’t think now of what he would find when he would come back.

Please update soon. Chloe has to wake up.

Part 9

Chloe was probably dead by now. Changed into one of them.

He couldn’t deal with it. Couldn’t accept it.

He was left all alone and he could as well die, too. He wouldn’t shoot her. He wouldn’t watch her being dead and still walking. Attacking him. With eyes with no real expression, without the real Chloe inside.

He found a herd of them.

He started shooting, attacking. He was venting the grief.

Couple of them even managed to bite him before he shot, but he didn’t care.

What was one more bite? Nothing. It couldn’t hurt him anyway.

And even if it did, he wouldn’t care. He didn’t want to live anymore.

What was the point of living in such a world?

He was strong, he was a Luthor and a survivor like his father had always said, but… if Lex was the only one left, he wouldn’t like to be. Not like this. Not for this price.
Only he realized he couldn’t just let them eat him alive. He didn’t want a painful death.

And Chloe… he owed her something after all. She wouldn’t like to be a zombie. She would like to die too.

So he had to come back to kill her… to put a bullet in her head and to bury her.

It would hurt him. It would leave him a zombie, even without the change. But he had to do this. For her.

She would like him to and he knew he would like her to do something like that for him too if the situation was reversed.

Lex noticed a grenade in his bag, so he threw it to the remaining zombies. Instead of running they actually were curious and soon were blown to pieces.

Lex was coming back, afraid of what he would find…

***

When he did, covered in blood that probably was partially his, he could look at Chloe just yet and he decided to dig up a grave. Only he needed to wash himself first as the blood felt unpleasantly sticky to his body.

When he was cleaned and the wound more or less stopped bleeding, he forced himself to come over to the blanket Chloe was lying on.

He jerked to a sudden stop when he looked at her face.

The fever broke. The dark circles under her eyes were gone. She looked… healthy. She looked like she was just sleeping, not undergoing any dreadful transition.

Lex’s heart started beating so fast he thought he would go into cardiac arrest.

“Chloe?” he whispered, unable to say her name out loud.

He crouched to the ground and put his hand to her neck, checking her pulse.

It was steady, completely normal.

To be sure, he put his ear to her chest to listen to her heart.

“What are you doing?” He almost jumped on hearing Chloe’s voice.

“Chloe?! You’re ok!” he exclaimed, finally breaking his own silence. “Oh, god! It worked! You’re fine!”

“But you clearly aren’t,” she said in patronizing voice. “What the hell did you do?!” She sat up and touched his neck where she could see a fresh wound. Then she examined him more thoroughly, finding a few more bites on his arms. “LEX!”

“I’m fine. It’s not like they can hurt me.”

“But… what the fuck did you do?”

And just like that, she was Chloe again. The same nosy and sometimes very infuriating reporter.

“Nothing… ok, ok,” he gave up on seeing the look on her face, “I went… out… to kill… some of them… You know, I needed… I needed venting.”

“You needed venting?” she repeated with raised eyebrows. “Great, just great!”

“I thought you were dead! You were barely breathing and if you saw yourself…”

“But I’m fine now. Lex… you healed me,” she suddenly said, stunned, like it just got to her. “You really did it! Do you realize what we can do with that knowledge?! You can heal!”

“Well, technically my blood can and if I give away too much I will get sick.”

“I’m not saying you should be a walking blood bag, I’m saying we should try to produce a cure.”

“Where? In Edge’s shelter?”

Chloe lost her enthusiasm.

“It sucks… you have all that potential and… we can’t do anything with it.”

“I think it’s too late anyway, Chloe. I may heal somebody’s bite, but I doubt I could heal a zombie. They’re just rotting bodies. Even if my blood could reverse the process, they would still die.”

“I know… I’m sorry I said that. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I don’t… You know, I don’t treat you like a blood bag, do you? I care about you as a person.”

“I know,” he reassured her and pulled her to his chest. Chloe snuggled into him eagerly.

“What are we going to do now?” she asked.

“I don’t know… go to Victor, I guess.”

“Yeah, he shouldn’t be alone in there. And we have to stay together. All of us that survived… you’re still bleeding here.” She noticed a wound on his hand and pulled away to look at his face. “Come, we’ll take care of this.”

She got to her feet, took his hand and pulled him toward the stream.

Chloe insisted Lex took his short off, so she could see what he’d done to himself.

“You’re stupid, stupid man…” she murmured under her breath.

“Careful who you call stupid,” he warned her.

“Or what?” she asked.

They were standing under the stream and Chloe took her clothes off, so they wouldn’t get wet and all that was left was her underwear. And Lex couldn’t help but react to her body. Especially when a moment ago he‘d thought he’d lost her forever.

She didn’t see his kiss coming, but she didn’t complain when his lips touched hers.

Soon, they were kissing and holding onto each other as the hot water was flowing down on them.

Lex pushed Chloe gently against the stone wall from which the spring was coming out above them. He put his arm under her head, so she wouldn’t hurt herself, but she couldn’t feel any discomfort anyway. All she could feel was Lex and his naked now body. Grazing against her, caressing her…

She didn’t even notice when she spread her leg to make room for him. He just slid in smoothly, making love to her immediately.

“Lex…” she moaned, “yes, Lex…” Her nails were grazing his back and her body clang to him like she was never to let him go again.

He could just keep pushing into her and feel her. She was alive, she was real. He was inside her.

Life was so fragile. One minute he was ready to die himself, because there was no one left he cared for. He didn’t want to be all alone. He preferred to be dead.

Yet, he’d saved her. His blood was now in her veins and she was safe. She would live. And he would never let her get hurt again. He would protect her for all cost, he swore to himself.

Also, he would not waste this second chance they got.

***

“Oh no, that’s not a good sign,” Chloe said when she and Lex came back to the shopping centre Victor was hiding in.

They were welcomed by the door… opened.

“I guess it’s not for us,” Lex murmured as he pushed it further to peek inside.

“It’s dangerous.” Chloe’s hand grabbed his sleeve. “Lex, don’t go in there. I’m scared for you.”

“I’ll be fine.” He turned to her and smiled. “Don’t worry. Nothing can hurt me.”

“Well, here you’re wrong!” she hissed. “You can be hurt by them! They can rip you to pieces if there’s too many of them! Remember Tess?”

“Chloe, we have guns. We need to check it up. We owe it to Victor.”

“I know we do,” she admitted, “and believe me, I want to help him, but… We need to be careful. We can’t just jump inside and look what’s gonna happen.”

“Do we have a choice?... Stay here.” And he just disappeared inside.

“No way! Are you… Lex?” She also walked inside the building, but the lights were out and there was no windows in the hall of this centre, so she couldn’t see much. “Lex!” she hissed, doing her best to still whisper.

“Here!” she heard, so she carefully went in that direction.

She reached the stairs and slowly walked up. There was less probability the zombies went there if they got inside.

Suddenly, her eyes exploded in pain as the lights were turned on. She already managed to adjust to the darkness, but now she was blinded again.

Fortunately, she had enough reflex to jump behind the nearest wall as she saw a glimpse of more than one person.

“Who are you?!” She heard their raised voices. “Are you alone?! Where did you come from?! Are those… bites?!”

“Listen! Wait! Wait! I can explain! Look, this one is weeks old! I am immune! I swear! Don’t kill me! You can do it anytime if you see me changing and believe me, it starts with the fever, so there’s no way I can hurt you!”

Chloe was terrified. She’d almost died last night and now… now Lex was the one in danger for a change? She couldn’t let them hurt him, but how would she stop them? They were at least two of them.

“It’s just me,” Lex assured them.

Chloe peek out of her hiding place and she met Lex’s eyes.

The look on his face and the slight shake of his head meant one thing: don’t.

She had no choice but to listen. At least for now.

“So you say you’re immune?” She heard another voice.

“Yes! Just look at this scar. Does it seem fresh to you? I escaped from safe haven, because I was afraid they would kill me if they knew.”

“Wait… you’re Lex Luthor. I knew you seemed familiar!”

“Yes, it’s me,” Lex admitted.

“So you have to be right… it’s been weeks since you disappeared… but wait, didn’t you run with two girls? And crashed the front gate?”

“They died,” Lex lied without flinching. “My sister, Tess, died few days ago and Chloe Sullivan, well… she died last night. I shot her and buried her. I thought I could save her whole giving her my blood, but I was too late.”

“I see… but you know, with the right technology and a lab that we actually do have in safe haven, we could succeed in producing the cure. Of course, if you’re telling the truth, that is.”

“I sweat I do. I’ve already told you, you can watch me twenty four seven and if the fever ever break you can shoot me.”

“Alright. You’re going with us.”

Chloe froze.

What? She wouldn’t Lex sacrifice himself for her like that. She needed to save him.

Only he’d already said she was dead.

If those people found out he lied… they could both die. How would they know Lex didn’t lie about the bite too?

There was only one way out of this.

She needed to let them take Lex and then find a way to break him out.

Or just find a way to get in and keep him safe…

She was listening to all the sounds that were telling her the men were taking Lex downstairs and to their car. Then she heard the engine running and they were just… gone.

“Fuck! Shit! Fuck! FUCK!” Chloe cursed out loud and kicked some box in front of her.

What would she do now? What if they hurt Lex? They wouldn’t care about his well being as long as they had a chance for producing a cure, would they?

Chloe needed to seal the door back, hide inside, east something and then figure out a way…

“Bingo!” she suddenly exclaimed to herself. “The sewer system! I can get inside that fucking lab that way!... Just now… where would I find the blueprints?”

She even felt ashamed that she hadn’t thought of this obvious solution when they’d escaped from safe haven in the first place. There were bathrooms there and running water, so there had to be a way…

AN Just letting you know about my new fics: The Phantom of the Opera (Lexana); Verus Amor (Lex&Kara) & Mrs. Luthor (Clois & Lexana)
You can find tchem in my master list.

***
Part 10

What would they do to Lex? Would they hurt him?

Chloe was still panicking. She knew they would not kill him, but he might as well suffer.

What happened to Victor and his father? Had they been bitten? Or maybe taken by the men from the safe haven? The second option sounded much better to her and she could only hope for it to be true. It had to be as Victor was very careful of who he let inside.

She took a few deep breath and forced herself to go look for food. She might not be hungry right now, but she needed nutrition to put her plan in motion.

She stuffed herself and took a lot into a car she found - the truck had been taken as probably a property of Edge. She was lucky enough to find a car with keys still inside and a half full tank. There was blood inside that suggested what had happened to the owner, but it was better than nothing.

Chloe was even more scared now when she had to drive alone through the abandoned streets, seeing zombies from time to time. She prayed that she would not meet any larger group. Her shooting was getting better and better, but she was alone. Lex that was always a mainstay to her was gone now. She could as well miss her every target.
“No, I won’t!” she decided loudly. “Lex needs me and I will not let him down!”

She clenched her hands on the steering wheel and stopped right by the city library.

She had been there so many times in the past, always doing some research for her studies. Some days the library had been like her second home. She had never thought of any apocalypse scenario when being in there, on the contrary, she had imagined herself finally getting a job at the Planet and becoming the best reporter.

Dreams didn’t always come true. That was the brutal truth of life.

Chloe took a deep breath and stepped out of the car, clenching two guns by her side, each in each hand. She knew she wouldn’t be able to shoot with the left one, but at least she had enough bullets that way. Loading the gun was still a task that took her too much time. She would never do it fast enough to shoot an upcoming zombie.

She finally walked up the stairs to the library front door and then found herself inside.

Luckily for her, it was closed, but not locked. Maybe zombies were smart enough to open the door? Or maybe they were just bursting through? Not knowing what a door knob was?

As soon as she checked the main library and found no one and nothing, she barricaded herself inside while pushing smaller shelves of books right next to the door. No one would get in, but she could get out.

Now she needed to find some information about the sewer system and find the blueprints of it.

She felt like her old self again. She was doing research. She was digging through the books. Just like she had done so many times before for her articles.

“Bingo!” she said to herself when she finally saw the right blueprints. “So… Morgan’s safe haven… must be here… on the LuthorCorp’s ground… wait a minute…” No, she couldn’t be that lucky. But she was!

She needed to go to the cellar of the library and there…

She crooked her head, studying the blueprints.

“Lex will be so proud of me,” she said to herself with a smile. “Hold on, Lex. I’m coming…” she murmured under her breath when she was leaving the room.

After having packed some food and water into a backpack, she went to the cellar and looked for the passage.

She didn’t think she would get hungry down there, but couldn’t predict anything. She might walk straight into the Edge’s building, but she might as well wonder somewhere when she would be lost.

“Now or never,” she said and entered the sewer system. “Oh, god, I hope the dead men didn’t have the same idea… do they even have ideas?” she asked herself out loud and shook her head.

She also brought a flashlight with her, so she would know where she was going.

An hour later she wiped the sweat off her forehead and looked at the blueprints once again.

“Where the hell are you?! I should’ve been there by now!” she raised her voice and suddenly she stopped on hearing something.

Her whole body stilled, trying to assess where the noise had come from.

Please, let it not be zombies, please… she was asking in her thoughts.

But no, no zombies.

She realized that on her right there was a manhole.

She took one last look at the prints and then shoved them away, pushing at the hatch with all her strength.

It did not budge, but then she noticed the handle. She could only hope it wasn’t rusty enough as not to open.

She used all her strength and the hatch just barely moved.

“Come on!” she hissed to herself. “You can do this! Lex needs you!”

She was free to go as the door started opening. It wasn’t all the way, but she was small and managed to squeeze in.

She found herself in darkness, but the smell changed, so she could assume she was in some building’s lowest level. She closed the door behind her as she didn’t want to put the entire safe haven at risk because of her stupidity.

She straightened herself up, glad that she could and that she didn’t hit her head on any low ceiling.

The she found a wall and started feeling it up, finally discovering a light switch.

For a moment she was squinting frantically, not been able to see anything clearly, but trying to desperately nevertheless. She needed to assess the possible danger. She couldn’t get caught.

The room was empty. It was… Chloe thought that she had enough of luck for the day. She found a closet she knew very well. She had been changing in that room when she had been living here briefly. Those were the outfits the housekeepers wore.

She shrugged. She was obviously doomed to wear it whenever she was here.

But the room meant that she was also at the right level with the labs and the doctor’s room.

She opened the door quietly and peeked outside.

She didn’t see anyone, so she stepped out into the corridor and started walking, keeping her head low.

She reached the door to Emil Hamilton’s office and it opened in the same time.

Fortunately, Chloe managed to hide behind it where on the other side of it was a person.

“Take five samples of his blood,” she heard doctor Hamilton’s voice and he walked away, toward the elevator.

Chloe managed no to attract his attention and slipped into the room before the door closed for good.

She was welcomed by a nurse’s scream.

Of course, the nurse didn’t know Chloe and even if she was wearing a special outfit, she was still dirty from the sewers.

So Chloe did the first thing that came to her mind. She grabbed some metal object that she spotted on the table next to a scalpel and hit the nurse in the head, knocking her down.

“I’m sorry,” she said to her motionless body.

“Chloe?” she suddenly heard a week voice coming from the back of the room.

She couldn’t believe it! But it was true! She found him!

“Lex!” she gasped and got to him.

He was tied up to a cot, his face white as paper.

“Did they hurt you?” Chloe asked, almost crying at the sight of him. He looked so weak.

Her hands cupped his face and she looked into his eyes from up close.

“No… they’re just… poking me with needles… taking my blood… testing it… giving me time to rest… only when… necessary…” he stopped talking, clearly tired.

“Oh, god… Lex… I need to get you out of here, but… can you walk? Do you have enough strength to stand? There’s a long way through the sewer system…”

“You got here through the sewers?” he suddenly asked, looking at her with bewilderment. “That is… brilliant.”

“I know… and… thank you,” she corrected herself. She didn’t need to show off her pride now. “We need to get you out of here. We can stay in the library. I have enough food for a few days and you can recover… just… please, you need to come with me.”

“Chloe,” his voice changed, his eyes became so intense, “thank you. I… I don’t know what to say… You’re amazing. Thank you for coming for me…”

“Of course. I couldn’t not come.” She took a scalpel and freed one of his hand when she heard a dull clung and something was put to her head. A barrel. A barrel of a gun.

She stilled. She knew her luck would run out soon…

“I’m sorry,” she heard Emil Hamilton’s voice, “but I can’t let you go. Edge will kill me if Luthor disappears. I really have no choice.”

Lex tried to free himself, but he still had ties on his left hand and his legs.

Chloe could just look into his eyes with her own blurred by tears. She wanted to say she was sorry, but the sound didn’t want to escape her throat.

“I knew you didn’t die,” Emil went on, forcing her to face him, “hands up,” he added. “I know you didn’t die, because when I took a look at Lex’s blood, I knew it healed you. I knew I had a cure in my hand.”

“You wouldn’t have let us go even if Edge hadn’t been your boss, would you?” Chloe asked bitterly, finally finding her tongue to speak.

“Of course. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to hurt any one of you. I just want to distribute a cure.”

“Look what you’re doing to him! He’ll die if you keep it up! You’re draining him of his blood!!” Chloe raised her voice, crying now.

“I know when it’s the right time to stop.”

“But he’s in pain! So what that physically he can take it?! Didn’t you swear not to do any harm?!”

“I’m saving this planet!” Emil also raised his voice. “And you, little girl, will not stand in my way!”

“Let her go!” Lex yelled. “I’ll stay, but please… let her go!!”

“No!” Chloe denied, turning to him. “I’m not leaving you!”

“Chloe!”

“Well, well, what we’ve got here?” Another person entered the room and Chloe winced as she recognized the full of venom voice. Edge.

“Miss Sullivan,” he said and walked closer. He had a gun too.

“No, please…” she started.

Edge lowered the gun and took a pair of handcuffs from his pocket.

“Turn around.”

“But I…”

“I said, turn around!” He pushed her to the bed and she lost her balance, landing on top of Lex. Their faces were so close for a moment. They looked each other in the eyes and Chloe sobbed as saw the blue grey depths.

She wanted to save him, only she couldn’t. Her heart was just being sliced.

Edge put the handcuffs on her and jerked her body to an upright position. She lost the contact with Lex.

“LEX!! NO!!!!!! LEX!!!” she was screaming, but she couldn’t fight anymore.

She was dragged out of the room by Morgan Edge and the last thing she heard was Lex’s scream, “CHLOE!!”

More please.

I'm on the edge of my seat waiting for more.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by trinna

More please. [trinna]

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Here you go!

Quote:

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I'm on the edge of my seat waiting for more. [evette]

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I'm happy you like it so much!


Sorry, guys, I am sick and having a hard time updating all my stories. But I'm getting to that.
Only I think this will only make you want more

***

Part 11

Chloe was taken to Edge’s office and tied up to a chair.

“You should know very well that no one who has been beaten has the right to live here,” he told her while taking a chair right in front of her. Emil was there too, standing by the door and looking down on the floor. He obviously didn’t like what was happening, only he had no other choice but to stand by.

“I might be beaten, but I’m cured now!” Chloe denied fervently. “It’s been some time and I’m still me!”

“Take her blood,” she heard Edge’s order.

“What? No! You have no right!”

“I have every right! It’s my property! My land!”

“Well, technically, it belongs to the Luthors and shall I remind you that you have one of them imprisoned?”

“He has bite marks! Multiple number!” Edge finally raised his voice, losing his patience with her.

Emil got to Chloe with a syringe.

“Get your hands off me, you…” Chloe started again, trying to get free. Of course there was no way out.

“I’m sorry,” Emil apologized honestly and took the blood sample.

“We need to examine it,” Edge continued, “and you should thank me for not killing you and your boyfriend right at the spot.”

“He’s not… wait, I should thank you?! You’re not stupid! If you were you wouldn’t have survived for so long without going to prison! You know what Lex’s blood can do and you want to keep him alive!”

“Maybe, but we’re still observing him. He needs to stay in isolation until we have tested the blood on zombies.”

“Zombies?! Can you hear yourself?!” Chloe was shocked. “Don’t you get that they are already dead?! Even if the cure works on them, all you will have left will be a rotten body of a dead person! It’s not some fantasy world when you apply the blood and they come back! No blood can do that! You’re sick!”

“I will safe this planet, Sullivan.”

“And you will kill Lex in the process!”

“What is it about him anyway, hah? You escaped the safest place in America to safe him and now you’ve come back for him. Why? Are you two in love?”

Chloe remembered having sex with Lex and how amazing it felt. It was the best she had ever had, but… could she call it love? They never said those words to each other. It was the end of the world and Chloe had gone without it for a long time. Lex was handsome and sexy, so she had jumped the opportunity. He had done it too. But was it the real reason? Was it just because there was no one else or because the one person by her side was the right one?

She didn’t answer. She would not give Edge any satisfaction from her confusion.

“I’ll tell you what…” Edge started, “I will keep Lex alive and make sure we don’t drain too much of his blood. I will also keep him fed and healthy, but… you need to do something for me too. I will send you on a mission.”

“What mission?” Chloe asked, not really liking the sound of it.

“For Lex’s life. Can you do it?”

“But I need to know what it is!”

“Does it matter? You would do anything to keep him alive, wouldn’t you? … Emil?”

Chloe was sedated.

Was it possible for her to hate Edge even more than she already did?

***

“Hey! Wake up! Chloe, is it? Wake up! We’re almost there!”

Somebody smacked her gently and then she felt something wet on her face and she winced.

“There you go. Are you awake now? Can you hear me?”

Chloe’s head was pounding. She never reacted well to sedatives.

There was a quiet moan escaping her mouth and she felt something cold put to her lips. A glass of water. She accepted it and gulped it all down.

She finally managed to open her eyes.

She saw a handsome dark haired man crouched by her side. He was worried and was also looking at her with… yeah, he probably thought she was attractive. She could tell, because she didn’t usually get that much attention in her life.

“Who are you?” she asked, putting her hand to her head and sitting up.

She could hear the constant rumbling around her.

“Are we on a plane?” she asked another question, looking around.

There were soldiers. Guns. Ammunition. Supplies.

“My name is Davis Bloom and yes, we are on a plane. We’re heading toward China.”

“China?!” Chloe asked in shock. “What?! No! No! I can’t go to China right now!”

“Hey, calm down! They might’ve brought you here while you were unconscious, but they said you agreed to it.”

“Fuck!” Chloe cursed and kicked the leg of a bench she was sitting on. “Why are we going to China?”

“I’m going back there. Came back to America just two days ago for supplies and more people. We’ve intercepted a signal, a cry for help. We need to get all the people that survived out.”

“So… there is an outbreak in China too?”

“Chinese are rich, so naturally they’ve come to Luthor for a cure right away. The infection spread faster there, on the streets full of people in the biggest cities. Few are left. The signal came from a place deep in the forest and we can’t get a clear connection because of the trees.”

“But they’ve sent it somehow, haven’t they?” Chloe started thinking.

“They must’ve climbed up a tree.” Davis shrugged. “We intend to find out.”

“By going into a forest?” Chloe raised her eyebrows.

“That and many other SOSs we heard.”

“Why do you think they’re still out there? How do you know they’re not dead by now?”

“They’ve survived long enough, haven’t they?”

“How many facilities Morgan Edge actually owns?”

“Enough to eventually become the ultimate leader. He used the old LuthorCorp’s labs scattered across the globe.”

“Fuck,” Chloe cursed again.

“You seem to have a strong language,” Davis noticed, chuckling.

“No, I just… all that happened to me…”

“It’s ok. I understand.”

“Wait… what Edge was even thinking? Does he want to kill me?! I barely learnt how to shoot and now I’m on a mission?!”

Only it was convenient for Edge. He kept her away from Lex, so she could not interfere with his plans and she wasn’t a potential danger to anyone back in Metropolis’s safe house.

“It’s ok. All the soldiers that are going there for the first time will undergo a special training. You will be just fine, Chloe Sullivan.” Davis smiled to her brightly.

Only she didn’t feel like smiling. She felt more like crying.

It was so much bigger than she thought it would be. It wasn’t just one facility of Edge’s, there were dozens all around the world and by organizing safe units and rescuing people he was winning their trust, their gratitude. And they had no idea what they were getting themselves into!

“We’re almost there,” Davis told her after about twenty minutes of silence. He must have sensed that she wasn’t in the mood for a chat.

“Great. When will I be able to come back?” she asked.

When she saw the look on his face she barely stopped herself from crying this time. Tears were pushing into her eyes on their own and she felt they would flow soon.

“We have plenty of supplies to last for months,” Davis answered. “If you don’t want to be here so badly, why did you agree to come?”

“To save someone,” Chloe just said and stared at the floor underneath her feet.

Davis wanted to ask more, but he thought it would be better not to push. He would find out in his own time on her terms.

***

The place was much bigger than the safe haven Chloe knew. It was more like a military base with barracks, surrounded with a fence even higher than the one she remembered from Metropolis, also under voltage. That seemed to be the best zombie repellent, especially during the night when the visibility was limited.

Chloe was given a military clothes, toiletries and a room. It was small, but at least she didn’t have to share it with anyone. Some of the men did, so she figured Morgan Edge wanted her to be on her own, so she wouldn’t get the chance to talk to somebody for too long.

She couldn’t sleep, so she walked out of the building in the middle of the night and watched the stars. There was day in America right now and Lex was probably still imprisoned.

She couldn’t think of it. It was just too painful.

Lex.

What was it between them? How would it all end? Right now she didn’t see how she would ever be able to reunite with him and it broke her heart into million pieces. Did they even tell him why she wasn’t there with him anymore? Did they sell him a lie that she escaped? Was shot? That thoughts hurt her even more.

She needed to find her way back to him. Again. For all cost. He needed her and she needed him. They only had each other. Everyone else she knew and cared about was dead.

She heard shots and ran toward the sound.

She was welcomed by the sight of soldiers standing on their side of the fence, shooting zombies.

“Davis?” she asked the one person she knew. “Are we under attack?”

“No, but there are more and more of them coming every night as I just heard. They must be running out of food and smelling us, fresh meat. Don’t worry, Chloe, it’s excellent practice and they can’t get us because of the high voltage. Grab a gun and shoot some. It will make you feel better.”

It didn’t make her feel better. Her memories of shooting were connected to Lex. He was the one to teach her. He was the one who’d always been there. Or she’d been killing zombies to get to him.

The next day she went to trailing as everyone else and was shooting to a moving target. It didn’t go that well for her, especially when she was distracted by her thoughts again, but after dozens of tries she managed to get a hold of it.

“Chloe! We’re going to check that distress signal!” Davis caught her afterwards. “Do you want to come along?”

“Sure, why not?” She was exhausted of thinking about Lex. Of picturing hundreds of different images in her head. What did they tell him? That was the most nudging question. Did Lex think she was dead?

“Could you…” Davis started, but then stopped.

“What? Just ask,” Chloe encouraged him while walking along him to a truck.

“Could you forget or just give up on that guy you left back in the States?”

“Wha… What?!” Chloe jerked to a sudden stop. “Who told you?! Was it Edge?!”

“Hey, hey, calm down! No one had to tell me anything! You have it all over your face. You left a man that was close to you there, didn’t you? Or you were forced to? Can you forget about him? Was he that important?”

“I can’t forget or give up on him,” Chloe finally answered quietly, avoiding Davis’s eyes. “And I don’t really know what it is that we have. All I do know is that I would’ve been dead if it hadn’t been for him and his sister. I need to pay my debt. This time I need to save him.”

After having said that she walked the rest of the way to the truck, leaving Davis behind.

***

“Perfect!” Edge voiced his admiration when his people brought him a zombie just like he’d asked. “Put it in there, in the cage!”

Catching zombie under the nose of the people looking for a safe place there was a risky venture, but it would pay off. Morgan had so much hope it would.

When the zombie was already in the steel cage and few layers of blankets and few sacks taken off his head, it started getting angry.

“Now…” Edge took the vial of Lex’s blood and walked over to the cage. There was a special mechanism in there, so zombie’s arm would be immobilized when the cure would be applied.

“You’re wasting my blood when you could’ve been helping people out there!” Lex yelled to him from his place on the other side of the room. He was still tied up.

“Oh, no, I am not! This trials can change everything!”

Lex closed his eyes and tried to calm himself down. It was the second time he was in such a predicament, not able to get free. First was in BelleReve, when his father had locked him there. Only this time Lex hoped to get out of it without undergoing a electrocuting therapy and losing his memories in the process.

“Chloe,” he whispered to himself, trying to picture in his mind every detail of her face, of her body. She was the only thing that kept him sane. Thanks to her he hadn’t lost his hope yet.

“Chloe is in China,” he suddenly heard Edge talking to him again. “And can I just tell you… I’m pretty sure she’ll forget all about you very soon.”

Lex just kept his eyes closed. He was hurt.

You have two chapter that are back to back and they are the SAME..WHY?

Part 12

Chloe got into the truck, but she did not say a word the whole way to the forest. And it got them a few hours before she heard the driver informing them that they were actually close.

And they must have been, because suddenly such a foul smell hit they nostrils that Chloe felt sick in an instant.

“Here you go. Put this on. Now!” she heard Davis’s voice from the seat next to her and an oxygen mask was given to her.

“What is that?” she asked him when she finally put it on, so happy that she didn’t have to breath the contaminated air anymore.

They got out of the car by now, because they couldn’t drive the rest of the way.

“It happens when people try to protect themselves from zombies,” Davis slowly begun explaining. “We already got used to the view, but… you might wanna stay in the car.”

“Why?”

“Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

She almost did, because what she saw exceeded all her expectations.

There was a house in the woods, probably used to be a hunting one.

Now there was a fence around it and…

Chloe really wanted to just bend over and vomit.

Whoever was inside covered the fence with rotten meat. There were whole hunks of it, still bloody, flies all around it.

Chloe didn’t want to think how badly it must reek now. She felt blessed that she didn’t have to live inside it without the mask.

An old woman ran out of the house, yelling something in Chinese.

“She says ‘thank god, you came’,” Davis translated.

“You speak Chinese?” Chloe got interested.

“Well, yeah, I do. Not perfect, but I communicate.”

“So that is why they sent you here.”

“Precisely. It’s not enough to be a good soldier, you need to speak the language too…” He spoke something to the woman and they had a brief conversation. “She claims that she and her husband barricaded themselves in there few weeks ago and tried to call for help ever since. They weren’t bitten and the meat keep the undead away, because they look for fresh one, not decayed.”

“There’s fresh right inside,” Chloe noticed.

“Yes, but the smell is a perfect cover.”

“What kind of meat is that?” she asked out of the sudden, interested. She could have so many stories when she would be back… wait, she stopped herself. That was a cunning move form Edge’s side. Did he really think that Chloe would forget about Lex and wouldn’t want to come back, because of how many stories she could get while traveling around the world? Well, he underestimated her. She would go back.

“She says you’d rather not know, because you look greenish already,” Davis translated the woman’s words and chuckled.

“That is not funny!” Chloe scolded him.

The woman looked at her compassionately and Chloe suddenly felt guilty. She wasn’t the one living in awful conditions, she shouldn’t be the one people pitied.

When they got back to the car, taking the Chinese couple with them, Chloe was hit with the vastness of this apocalypse. It really seemed like the end. People were surely outnumbered and the enemy couldn’t die, because they were already dead. What kind of salvation would there ever be? Would they all just die out eventually?

But Lex couldn’t. Unless he would be killed in the lab, he would live on.

Chloe wasn’t sure if she liked that or not. No one wanted to be the last man on Earth, but on the other hand, he could never be turned…

“You’re thinking that there’s no hope for us, is that true?” Davis’s voice woke her up.

“Is there?” she asked, sighing heavily.

“As long as we live, yes, there is a chance. And don’t you forget that there is actually a way to kill them.”

“But only one bite is enough… I just think that this is really the end. Even if there are survivors, they will never be safe under Edge’s reign. How did it even happen that he’s the leader?”

“LuthorCorp has its subsidiaries all over the world and it managed to create a safe haven while other big companies didn’t even know what was happening.”

“Edge reacted so quickly, because he was Lionel’s friend and he knew about this before it became public knowledge. It was what he wanted all along. He didn’t say anything right away and then it was too late and LuthorCorp was the only place we could live in.”

“Why are you so prejudiced against Edge?” Davis asked. “Some people think of him as their hero.”

Chloe laughed bitterly. “If they knew the dirt I could dig up on him… I just didn’t have any valid proof that would hold in court, but… I was so close, so close… only this… shit happened.” She spread her hands.

“So he’s the bad guy?”

“There is one Luthor that survived and it all belongs lawfully to him, only he has bite marks. Edge knows how to play people, so they wouldn’t trust him.”

“Chloe… I think there’s nothing we can do about it. Edge won. We just need to survive.”

“Then I will die trying to take him down!” She clenched her fists.

“Careful there, you don’t want others to hear you saying that,” Davis warned her. “They might not be as understanding as I am.”

***

Yes, Edge was really crafty. He sent Chloe away and kept here there, because she knew if she disobeyed Lex would get hurt. On the other hand Lex allowed Edge for everything and he would survive for all cost just to see Chloe again.

There was no way out of this. Chloe knew it, but yet, she kept thinking hard how to find one.

“You’re doing that again, you know,” she heard Davis’s voice coming from behind her. “Instead of sleeping you come out and look at the empty road.”

“Because I can’t sleep,” she answered, standing by the gate that led out of the camp. She did watch the dark road, but did not see it as her thoughts were far away.

“Chloe, this has to stop. You will get sick if you sleep any less.”

“Why do you care?”

“Chloe…” he said her name again, this time softer, in worried voice.

“Davis, just… please, let me be.”

“It’s been weeks.”

“I’m very aware of that.” Her voice bitter now, full of longing.

“Hey, hey.” Davis circled her and put his hands on her shoulders, looking her in the eyes. “I promise you, we will survive that and we will live.”

“You know very well that I’m not worried about myself.”

He did it so fast that she couldn’t stop him. She didn’t see it coming at all. One second he was there, trying to comfort her and she mentioned Lex that was still in America in god knew what condition and Davis… Davis just kissed her.

“What are you doing?!” Chloe pushed him away as soon as she realized what he’d done. It took her a second to register the movement of his head and then his lips on her, but as she did, she put her hands on his chest and just shoved him. “Don’t do that again!”

“I’m sorry,” he apologized, hurt.

“No, I am sorry,” she told him while looking at his face. “I am sorry if I’ve given you any sign… I didn’t mean…”

“I know. You never did or said anything that could make me hope that we… that we could ever…” he stopped awkwardly. “I just thought that maybe if I just do it you will actually feel something.”

“Davis, I had no idea that you…”

“It’s ok.” He raised his hands. “It won’t happen again… unless you want it to happen, in which case you will have to make a move on me.”

“I’m really sorry.”

“Let’s forget about it.”

“I’m coming back,” she suddenly said.

“What?!”

“I made my decision. I don’t belong here and I’m not good here either. I just… I see how you look at me, Davis, but the fact is that I will never be able to reciprocate your feelings. That is just not possible. And I need to go back eventually. I can’t do this anymore.”

“But… how? The only way out of here is to get on a plane and you can’t even pilot it!”

“But you can,” she said, looking at him with sudden realization. “I couldn’t ask anyone, because they don’t know the whole story, but I’ve already told you the truth, Davis. You don’t want to work for that man and you don’t agree with his methods either.”

“But it doesn’t mean I can just take the plane and then what? You want singlehandedly take down Morgan Edge?!”

***

Doctor Hamilton was testing Lex’s blood again as Edge wished.

He was getting tired of it. Nothing that Edge told him to do worked out the way it supposed to. The blood could cure a person that was freshly bitten, but not a zombie.

Only Edge was stubborn and wanted him to keep trying.

“Give me that!” he got angry with Emil when he started explaining to him why the newest experiment would not work.

Edge took the vial from him and increased the heat in the burner.

And the lights went off.

“What’s happening?!” he got even more angry with Emil.

“You blew up the fuses!” Hamilton got mad too. “The electricity is down! I need to get it up running again or otherwise zombies can get inside the gate!” And he ran out of the door.

“Perfect,” Edge muttered under his breath.

Then he felt something moving behind him and…

He screamed, but it was too late. The zombie, that had been kept in the cage in this room, was set free now. And had just bitten him.

“Shit! Fuck!” Edge cursed and managed to escape from the room, shutting the door behind him. He hoped the undead wouldn’t get out of there as it was locked.

Edge ran straight to the lab and shut that door behind him too.

Blood. He needed the blood.

But the blood was already in the zombie that had bitten him…

Only Edge did not know if that was enough and he refused to be his own subject for experiments.

“There it is!” he yelled and got to a set of vials containing blood that were on the table.

Luthor was sleeping on a cot, although he was regularly fed and led to the bathroom, so he could take a shower and release himself, he was still a prison. And the blood was still regularly taken hence his weak state and paleness.

“You got bit? That’s nice,” Morgan heard him saying as he woke up and then Lex laughed. “At least you finally got what you deserved.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure!” Edge answered back and injected Lex’s blood into his vein. “Now I will be completely fine!”

Few seconds after the blood found itself inside him, he frowned. Something was wrong.

He was struck with a sudden fever and his body started shaking.

“What’s happening to me?!” he roared as his hands clenched on the edge of the table in pain. Then he saw his muscles changing, growing and a piece of the desk went off in his hands.

“Wait… what is… what have you taken?!” Lex asked, now starting to be afraid. “What happened to you?!”

“I don’t… I don’t know!” Edge roared as the transition was almost completed. He stopped thinking like a human, he was a vicious monster now. He was a zombie that mutated somehow.

“Which zombie bit you?!” Lex asked. “Which one?! The one you were experimenting on with my blood?!”

For a moment there Lex saw understanding on Edge’s deformed face, but then it was gone. The last ounce of humanity was gone too. He was an animal now.

“Fuck,” Lex cursed and started struggling with the handcuffs he had on. With no results.

Only the mutated Edge did not go for Lex, instead he broke the door off its hinges and was… just gone.

“I guess that’s even worse…” Lex said to himself. “HELP!!!! HELP!!!!!” he started screaming.

***

“We’ve received a distress signal coming from Metropolis!” a soldier got to Davis and Chloe that were standing by the gate, looking at each other, thinking over what Chloe had just suggested.

“A distress signal?!” Davis repeated, worried. “What happened?”

“We don’t know, sir. It went off automatically. We can’t establish any connection with them. Something must‘ve gone terribly wrong.”

“Get the concord ready! We have to get there as fast as we can!”

“Concord?!” Chloe opened her eyes widely. “You have a concord!?”

“Recent LuthorCorp acquisition. The last thing Lionel bought before he died. In case of an emergency.”

“Well, you can’t be a billionaire those days without owing not only a private plane, but…”

“This is not the time, Chloe. You’ve got what you wanted. We’re coming back!”

“I just hope it won’t be too late,” she sighed and followed Davis.

“We won’t be able to land near the exact place, but it will buy us a lot of time anyway!” he told her on the way.

Part 13

The journey, even though the shortest it could be, felt like a whole eternity to Chloe.

She was afraid for Lex. What if something happened to him? If there was a distress signal coming from save haven it meant that it was a breach of security. Davis had already explained it to her. And it meant zombies inside the parcel. If the infection spread there, there was no salvation for the poor people inside. And the worst was that Lex would probably help them, meaning he would lose too much blood. The fact that he was immune didn’t mean he was invincible. If he was beaten again and again and there was hemorrhage…

Chloe fought back tears. It wasn’t the time for crying now. Maybe he was ok, maybe he was safe. Maybe she would be there on time to save him.

She had only one regret: she never told him how she really felt. Maybe she hadn’t even known it back there, but now… now she couldn’t deny those feelings anymore.

***

“Wait, wait!” Davis arm stopped Chloe from running into the facility.

“For what?!” she snapped at him angrily. “There are people dying out there! We need to get in NOW!”

“We don’t know the situation! The gate is closed!”

“Just because it’s closed it doesn’t mean that somebody inside didn’t just change into a zombie! We need to help them!”

Davis closed his eyes, clearly exasperated.

“Look! Somebody’s making a way for us!” Chloe told him and he did. The gate opened for them.

“Chloe, I need to tell my people where to go. We still need to figure out some plan.”

“Screw your plan! I’m going to the lab!” Chloe managed to jerk herself off Davis’s grip and sprinted toward the entrance.

“Fuck!” Davis cursed and turned to his people, quickly giving them orders in which direction they should go.

“Shoot every dead man you see, but do not touch the injured people. They can still be saved!”

***

Davis didn’t know how wrong he actually was. The freshly beaten people couldn’t be saved anymore and Chloe saw it on her own eyes.

She found a man lying in a corridor. A fresh mark on his neck. His had a pulse, so she thought he had a chance.

She heard a roar in the adjacent corridor, so she quickly shot the zombie right in the head. Then her eyes came back to the man and… he was changing. It wasn’t even five minutes and he was changing right in front of her eyes.

“What the…?” she gasped and had no choice but to shoot him when his face distorted and he jumped to her, wanting to bite her.

The corpse dropped to floor and Chloe could just stand there, frozen and terrified, her face white, eyes widely opened, heart beating too fast.

If one bite now meant… Lex’s blood could help no one.

Where was he?! It could also mean that if he was still alive his blood wouldn’t be enough and he would turn too!

Chloe put herself together, deciding that time for being hysterical would come later and she burst through the lab door.

She heard shooting in the background and she could only pray that some of the people survived.

She stood still in the door and her heart seemed to stop too.
Lex was there.

“Get away from him!” Chloe heard herself speaking as she held the gun, aiming at the back of the doctor who was just bent over Lex that was lying on a cot.

Emil Hamilton straightened himself up and raised his hands into the air, then he turned to her.

Chloe caught a glimpse of Lex’s eyes watching her in awe. Her heart just somersaulted, she was so happy to find him still unscathed.

“Get away from him!” Chloe repeated.

“Chloe, it’s not what you think,” Emil said calmly. “Look.” He had a key in his right hand. “I was just about to free him. I didn’t mean to hurt him. You know well I did all of this for Edge. He would’ve killed me if I’d disobeyed… I was also the one to open the gate when the help came!”

“Where’s Edge now?” Chloe asked, still not sure if she could trust the doctor.

“He’s… mutated,” Lex spoke, his voice hoarse.

It was the first time she heard him since… she swallowed back tears.

“He was experimenting on zombies, brought them here, that idiot,” Lex went on, “and one bit him. It had my blood in its system and when Edge injected it to himself to stop the transition… it was too late. The process was speeded up and he ended up being some kind of a monster.”

Chloe listened, but couldn’t believe it. It was one thing to see actual zombies on the streets and to witness the apocalypse, but mutations? Monsters?

“Alright,” she finally said, “un-cuffed him,” she told Emil and he did so.

Lex slowly got up from the cot and Chloe was just about to finally get to him, feel his touch when…

She heard a regular thumping sound coming from the hall. It was getting closer and closer.

“Oh, no! He’s back!” Emil yelled and started walking backwards till his back hit the wall.

Chloe turned to the entrance, facing it bravely.

“Will a bullet stop him?!” she asked, terrified.

There was no other way out of there, only through this door. But there was monster on its way and they had only one solution: to shoot.

“I don’t know,” Lex said, his voice faltering. “Chloe…”

“I will kill him, I will fucking kill Morgan Edge. It’s what I always wanted to do, I wanted to get rid of this sun of a bitch! Now when he isn’t human anymore, it won’t even be a murder!” she said, trying to give herself some courage.

And then she saw him.

It was a monster just like she’d heard Emil and Lex describing it before.

There was nothing human in its face, just a grimace, teeth baring in rage, saliva dropping on the floor.

Chloe swallowed hard, suddenly feeling a little nauseous.

You can do this, Sullivan, she told herself. You have to do this.

She raised her gun, aimed at the brain and… shot.

She couldn’t breathe as she waited and still, nothing happened.

“Chloe…” she heard Lex’s voice from behind her.

“I can do this!” she said out loud and shot again and then again and again until she ran out of bullets.

Edge finally staggered.

“Chloe!” Lex roared and she felt his arms closing around her from behind and pulling her backwards, out of the way.

She realized just when the huge body hit the floor right by her legs that Lex had saved her life once again.

There was silence, interrupted only by distant shooting.

Chloe couldn’t move, could barely breathe, still in shock after what she had done.

Then it slowly came to her that Lex held her tight in his arms. She could feel his chest on her back raising and falling as he was breathing hard, adrenaline still raging in his body. She could even feel his heart that was beating so loud. His hot breath was on her cheek, his face in the crook of her neck.

Her body started shaking.

Then she could finally move.

Lex felt that she wanted to turn around, so he let go of her, but his hands were still on her shoulders when she finally faced him.

She could drown in the depth of his eyes or be burnt alive by the fire that was there.

“Lex…” she squealed his name.

“I’m here, Chloe, I’m here,” he reassured her and put his arms tightly around her again. She held on to him, breathing the familiar scent of his skin, realizing just now that he was there and they were finally reunited.

The shooting was much louder now and it seemed like the fight was getting closer to them.

“We need to help them,” Chloe came to her senses and let go off Lex. “There are weapons in a room not so far away from here. Come!” She grabbed Lex’s hand and pulled him toward the door. She didn’t care what Emil would do. He was a doctor, not a soldier and he probably didn’t have any training, so they left him.

“Lex,” she turned to him once again when they took the guns and were just about to go fight, “be careful.”

“You too, Chloe,” he told her and they ran out.

They could only trust each other to hold on long enough.

Chloe ran up the stairs and got to the main hall. There weren’t as many zombies in there, she thought, at least not anymore, so they just might have a chance.

“Sullivan?!” she suddenly heard a very familiar voice. A voice that she thought she would never hear again.

She turned around and stood face to face with her boss.

“Perry?!” she didn’t even care that she used his first name instead of White.

“I’m so glad you’ve survived, kiddo!!”

“Where did you show up in here?” she gasped when Perry swept her into his bear hug and then let go.

“Few days ago. I’d held on for quite some time in the Planet. I thought you were dead.”

“Well, vice versa… excuse me!” She just shot a zombie that was getting dangerously close.

“Is those rumors I heard true? You and Lex Luthor? Chloe, that could…”

“Perry, no offence, but it’s the end of the world, zombie apocalypse, literally, so save that article for later!... Davis!” She suddenly saw her friend, but…

She saw him getting beaten from behind. A zombie just sank its teeth in his neck and Davis howled.

“Chloe!” he noticed her too, but it was too late.

Chloe rushed forward and shot the zombie, then squatted by Davis that was by now lying on the floor.

“Davis…” she said his name, because she didn’t know what else she could. They both knew by now that those zombies were a new bread and that there was no cure. “Davis…” she started crying. All that pressure and terror finally kicking in. She could only hold on for so long. “It’s my fault,” she said.

“No, it’s not,” he disagreed, “I would’ve got here with or without you. If you have to blame someone… I guess you were right, it’s Morgan Edge’s fault.” Davis hand raised up and touched Chloe’s cheek. She didn’t push him away. Who was she to deny him that touch when he was dying? Only she didn’t see that the fire ceased and the fight was over plus Lex stood in a close range, watching her.

“Well, Edge turned into a freaky monster and I killed him,” she told him.

Davis chuckled. “That’s my girl!”

“You can’t die, you just can’t…” she sobbed after few seconds of silence.

“It’s ok, it’s better this way,” he whispered, stroking her cheek. “I love you, Chloe, but you love someone else and you should be with him. I’m just an obstacle. Live for the both of us. Promise me you will be brave enough and you will get what you want. Tell him how much you love him.”

“Wh…”

“I know, Chloe, even if you still don’t. Someday it may be too late for saying I love you… so do it now… and… kill me.”

“No, I can’t!” She shook her head fiercely when his hand dropped to the ground, lifeless.

“You… have… to…” he said with difficulty and then he closed his eyes, his heard stopped.

Chloe slowly raised from the ground, never taking her eyes off his body.

When she stood straight the corpse woke up, zombie was raising.

She took the gun and shot it in the head, then she dropped it to the ground with disgust and that was when she noticed Lex staring at her.

“Lex!” she called him and got to him. “Lex…”

“Who was that?” Lex asked in a cold, distant voice.

“Davis… wait, Lex… it’s not what you think. He was in love with me, but I… I treated him as a friend and there was never anything between us… and…. Why the fuck am I even telling you this?!” she suddenly snapped at him.

Lex was taken aback and didn’t know what to say. And here they went again… Chloe was the only woman he’d ever met that could infuriate him, making him want her and be confused with her at the same time. And he was never confused by a woman! He always knew what they were going to say to him or what they wanted from him! Not Chloe. Chloe was different. Maybe she wasn’t like every other girl Lex had met or dated in the past.

“You idiot!” she called him what surprised him even more.

“Chloe, what are you…”

“Yes! You are a freaking idiot! So much happened between us! SO MUCH, Lex! And you never told me what you really felt! That man who just died, Davis, told me he loved me even though he’d known me for few weeks! Even though he knew I would never feel the same!! He told me!! He was brave enough to bare his feelings to the person he cared for! And you… what the hell are you thinking?!”

Now Chloe was taken aback as Lex’s lips came crashing down on hers and effectively shutting her up as he begun kissing her with fervor.

At first she lost countenance and forgot about everything, all that mattered was that feeling, but then… she got even angrier and pushed him away.

“Chloe, but I already told you,” he confessed, staggering backwards.

“You already told me what?” she asked, much quieter now. She couldn’t stay mad for him for long after such a kiss.

“I already told you: I love you.”

She was looking at him, completely baffled.

“When? In my dream? Because I don’t remember it happening for real,” came the sarcastic retort.

Lex chuckled and then cupped her face, looking her in the eye.

“When I gave you my blood and I thought you were dying… I whispered it to your ear just before I stormed off to…”

“…kill some undead?” she finished after him. “Still thinking that wasn’t much smart of you.”

Lex smiled.

“I love you, Chloe Sullivan.”

“Well, I love you too, Lex Luthor. There, finally said it.”

“I love you with your whole infuriating person,” Lex added.

“Wait, what do you…” Only her mouth was closed again by another kiss and this time she did forget what she was about to tell him.

Suddenly, they heard clapping.

They broke the kiss and looked around, found all the survivors in the room, watching them.

“Ehm…” Chloe got read on the face, especially when Perry raised his thumbs up, his smile as big as banana. Chloe even noticed Victor with a much older man that must have been his father. So they survived too.

***

AN Not the end yet: ) And even the next chapter won’t be the last one. I know it seems so, but no:D Few ideas still in my head!!

Great story.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by trinna

Great story.

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Thank you!:*

***

AN: This part seems epilogish, but I will continue after that because there has to be something done with that apocalypse. So you can treat this as a two part fanfic. The first part is over in this chapter.
***

Part 14

“So, doctor Hamilton,” Lex started, facing the doctor, “humor us.”

The fight was over, but the people that stayed alive were now gathered in the main hall, waiting for some explanation of what had actually happened. They were also very confused because their leader had just died after changing into some kind of a mutated zombie monster.

Lex as a Luthor owed this place now and he asked doctor Hamilton to explain the situation from a scientific point of view.

“Well…” Doctor cleared his throat, clearly intimidated as every single pair of eyes were set on him, “Mr. Luthor here, the rightful owner of this and every other LuthorCorp facility, has developed a immunity for zombie bites.”

There was a surprised murmur among the crowd.

“Mr. Luthor was caught up in the meteor shower when he was a child. A direct consequence was the loss of hair, but also the unusual white cell grown thanks to which he never got sick. That is the reason why he is immune and till recently his blood could cure a bitten person if they did not change yet… Unfortunately, Morgan Edge was experimenting with the blood and injected it to a zombie. It is obvious that the dead men did not turn back into human. When Mr. Edge was accidentally bitten he injected himself the blood, but it mutated, creating a different kind of zombies. You witnessed it yourselves as the people you knew, the guards that were protecting you, turned one by one within minutes from being bitten.”

“Thank you, doctor, for this enlightenment,” Lex spoke again and then turned to the people. “The danger is gone as all the new breed of zombies was supposedly killed, but there is a small chance that some of them might have gotten out of this place, managed to run and infect the others. I would recommend you staying here and I can guarantee your safety. I am not Morgan Edge, nor I am my father, I will have your back and I will not conduct any dangerous experiments under this roof. You can be sure that no zombie will ever cross our threshold again. I will do my best for this world, but it will take time… First I need to check the files… is anyone here who used to work for me?”
Three men, that were the guards now, stepped out of the crowd. “Great. You will get me through them and we shall come up with a strategy. Will you take care of the bodies? We need some kind of a burial. I guess burning the bodies will be a better idea as we don’t want any monsters desecrating them… You can go back to your rooms and rest now… As for me and you,” Lex turned directly to the doctor and guards, “we will meet tomorrow and discuss everything. Thank you.”

Lex finally finished and the crowd started dispersing. When he turned back to Chloe, he noticed the proud smile on her face.

“What?” he asked.

“You’re a born leader, did you know that?” she asked while coming closer and wrapping her arms around his neck. “Something tells me that the world domination is just around the corner.”

“Oh, so that was your evil plan,” Lex said with poker face, “you seduced me, because you knew you will be the first lady when things get better.”

“Of course it was.” Chloe giggled and kissed him. “What d’ya say we’ll get out of here? Found some room… clean up and then…” her voice trailed off as her eyes lowered down his body.

“And then what?” Lex prompted with a chuckle. “Come, I think we can have the master room now.”

***

The streaming hot water was pouring down on them as they were locked in tight embrace under the shower.

Lex was kissing Chloe with all his fervor and his hands were wandering around her body, stroking the more sensitive spots. Her arms were around his neck, hands on his smooth head and she was kissing him back. She could feel by now the urgent erection at his front, pressing against her stomach.

Her hands slid down from his head to his back, cupped his buttocks and then went up front to stroke his cock.

“Chloe,” Lex groaned against her lips, his hands covering her breast now, “Chloe, yeah, fuck yeah…”

Suddenly, she stopped kissing him, now tracing a path with her mouth down his chest as she was slowly squatting by him. She licked his belly button, finally got to his cock and took it in her mouth, started sucking.

“Oh, fuck,” Lex groaned again, his hands fisting in her hair. “Yes, Chloe…”

He soon grew too urgent and helped her back up.

“Right now I need to be inside you…” he said, pushing her against the wall and sliding inside her channel from behind.

“Lex…” now she was the one to keep calling his name as he was drawing deeper and deeper into her until he was fucking her. They were both out of control, both craved for this and each other as they had spent so much time apart.

“I missed this…” Chloe confessed, “oh, I missed this… sooo… muuchh…” the last word she exclaimed in ecstasy as her channel started contacting over Lex’s cock, bringing him to climax too.

Her was holding her from behind, still inside of her, leaning against the tiled wall of the shower.

“I love you, Chloe,” he told her.

“I love you too, Lex,” she said it back and turned around slowly to hug him.

“Bed?” he asked, but there was an impish tone to his voice and she knew he didn’t mean sleeping at all.

“Bed,” she agreed with a smile.

Interesting beginnig. More please :grin3:

Great fic, I am so glad that he healed Chloe. I was worried there. Sorry I didn't get chance to read it until now.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by HotCrossedBunny

Great fic, I am so glad that he healed Chloe. I was worried there. Sorry I didn't get chance to read it until now.

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Oh, hi! It's ok. You don't have to read it at all if you're not a fan of the genre. Thanks for the comment!

I'm not in general a fan of the genre but I really liked this one and your style of writing and fics in general.

AN Ok, as I’m going through my notes for the “second” part I see that I might have exaggerated when saying the fic will be much longer. This is not the end, but we’re close to it.

And this part may come as a shock to you. I guess pleasant or maybe not so much… ; P


Part 14
“Any news?” asked Chloe when Lex came back to their room in the safe haven.

He just shook his head.

“Doctor Hamilton is doing everything he can, but I don’t think he’ll come up with any cure,” he said, “nothing like my blood. The new generation of zombies is spreading fast. We still don’t know how many actually got out, but the new ones can actually infect the old, so… it’s bad either way. They’re evolving.”

“And your blood doesn’t help anymore?” Chloe was seriously worried those days.

Lex got to bed right next to her and sighed heavily.

“I’m sorry, honey, but I’m afraid it’s the end. Doctor tried very hard, but I don’t think he’ll do it. He even doubts himself now.”

“That is terrible,” Chloe agreed and rested her head on Lex’s chest. His hand stroked her hair. “So we need to kill them all. We to keep killing them until the whole world will be cleansed of them.”

“Chloe, honey, I’m afraid there aren’t enough bullets for that,” Lex sighed again. The brutal reality of it all was hard to bear and she saw it in his eyes, his face. He was so exhausted, yet he tried more and more every day. He didn’t want to give up on Earth, but eventually they may all do so. “We’re still losing people. The new zombies seem to actually think. They’re nothing like the people they used to be, but they move faster and think how to get the rest of us. When we shoot them in the head they raise again very soon and the only way to kill them permanently is to shoot them and set them on fire right away. They turn to ashes and obviously don’t come back.”

“We could set a whole building on fire,” Chloe suggested. “Of course, with zombies inside.”

“Only we cannot burn the whole world… what will be left of us?” That question hang in the air, unanswered.

Chloe felt like she had to enjoy every single day of her life now, maybe even an hour. She didn’t know how much time she had left. She couldn’t know how many nights she would spend with Lex. They were together and they were in love, but sometimes it just wasn’t enough as they had no actual future. They could be parted or killed at any point what made them feel so much more. Their outburst of feelings, them making love, it was always intense, too intense even. Chloe was too overwhelmed by the love she saw in Lex’s eyes, the desperation when they were having sex. He wanted to much to capture the moment, to provide her with a better future. He would do anything for her and that was killing her. She would do anything for him too, but they were helpless.

There was nothing else to say and nothing else to come up with, so they did what they used to during nights. They started kissing, letting things heat up and then they had sex. It could always be the last time…

So Lex slid inside her, cherished her, kissed her, let her know he loved her more than life. He was rocking into her slowly tonight. Sometimes they fucked, sometimes it was more about making love to each other. Tonight it was the latter. It was like with every passing day they felt they were given too much time, that it would soon end…

“I love you,” Chloe said when close to coming. “I love you so much, Lex.”

“I love you too. More than anything, Chloe.”

***

“I think we can get some help if you let me go to Japan,” Emil proposed his plan to Lex and Chloe the next morning. “I intercepted an information that they might’ve had an idea of how to stop the epidemics.”

“Did they tell you any details?” Lex asked, worried. He was rather reluctant to let Emil go when people were still dying in America and the population was dwindling radically.

“I believe that they have a better equipment and with the help of your blood we might come up with something,” Emil admitted, “but I can’t promise anything, Mr. Luthor.”

“With the help of Lex’s blood?” Chloe asked, didn’t really like the idea. “Does that mean Lex has to come along?”

“Well, it would be useful. But I could as well take a vial of your blood with me, sir.”

“Would it be enough?”

The expression on Emil’s face told him everything.

“Are you absolutely sure there’s a chance?”

“Would they call me if there wasn’t?”

“Lex, I don’t like it. I don’t want you to be a guinea pig,” Chloe spoke her mind, her hand squeezing Lex’s.

“I am the one in charge, remember? Edge is dead. They will do nothing without my assent. Alright then, doctor, I’m desperate, so we can as well try it.”

***

After having landed in Japan, Lex and Chloe were given a room in the safe haven they found themselves in and Emil went straight to the labs.

He walked through a lot of corridors before he reached the right door. He had never been there before but he had gotten a plan of the building and she had told him where to go exactly.

He pushed the door open and walked inside.

It was dark in there and he couldn’t blame her. She wouldn’t like to see herself. Not like that. And she wouldn’t like him to see her in that condition too.

He had tried so hard, so hard to overcome his grief and broken heart. And he had been doing great. He had managed to deceive everyone or, at least, to keep that piece of information from them.

“Emil… you came.”

“I did.”

“I almost wish you didn’t. I almost wish you sent someone else.”

“You know I will be devoted to you till the day I die,” he said. “You wanted me to get them here, I did it.”

“They believe we can make the cure?” she asked.

“Well, I didn’t promise anything, but they took the bait.”

“You know there’s only one way to end this forever.”

“I do.”

“Then you know we’ll all probably die.”

“But they will be survivors. They have to be. They need to carry on our race.”

“Of course they will be. Everyone that is innocent and hiding in safe havens across the globe shall be rescued. The process has already started. Soldiers were given orders to leave the raw meat at pointed areas.”

“Weren’t they suspicious?”

“They got a message form LL, haven’t they? After all, my name is Lutessa,” Tess said.

***

“Mr. Luthor, you can lie down here,” the nurse showed Lex the cot in an exam room.

Chloe was there with him, scared to even let him go off her sight.

“You’re not just taking my blood, are you?” Lex asked when the nurse prepared his hand for the blood to be taken.

“As you’re here already, Mr. Luthor, we will make a full body scan and examination. It may come useful to us.”

Suddenly, somebody burst through the door.

“This is a hospital room!” the nurse was outraged.

“Mr. Luthor, I am so sorry for barging in like that, but…” It was one of Lex’s men that had come with him to Japan. “We lost New York and it looks like we did lose Metropolis too. We have reason to believe that soon the whole continent will be lost.”

Chloe was devastated and she needed to sit down. She did so right by the cot Lex was lying on, so she grasped his hand.

Lex did not show off any emotions, he was schooled in that, but she knew it affected him too.

“Is there any way they can get out of the continent?”

“No, sir, no way.”

“At least that is a good news,” Lex sighed, closing his eyes. “You may go now.”

Chloe felt tears welling up in her eyes.

Were they doomed?

He he I knew that it was going to be Tess. Poor widdle Chloe bear, do I sense a Swan Lake theme?

Zannie, yes, poor Tess:) But it had to be done! Swan Lake... not sure.

***

Part 16

“We’re losing!” Lex’s man informed him the next day. “I’m sorry, Mr. Luthor, but the mutation spread somehow. New zombies are in Europe and Japan too!”

“How? How could that happen?” Lex asked.

“They’re smarter. They’re dead, so they don’t need to breath. I believed they’ve gotten across the globe on a plane. We lost contact with two of the fleeting from America.”

“Damn it!” Lex got angry. He hated to feel helpless and at the moment, he did. He wanted to be the planet’s savior, but he couldn’t do anything more. They were doomed. There was no cure. They would all die. Sooner or later.

“Lex, it will be alright,” Chloe tried to comfort him, but she knew deep down that it was all futile. It was the end.

“Chloe, from the whole planet… the great Earth… I have about four hundred survivors. Do the math. Four hundred… and there was… there was…” he stopped, his body shook slightly but he did not cry. He wouldn’t. He was strong and he couldn’t break in front of her. “It’s the end. I am sorry, but we cannot fight against billions of dead men that can’t be killed.”

“Lex, it’s alright. No one expect more from you than you’re already doing.”

“It’s all the Luthors’ fault,” Lex suddenly said, his eyes staring into the distance. “My father killed the human race. His blood is in me… how can…”

“You can’t choose your family,” Chloe quoted and squatted by Lex who was sitting in a chair. “I never blamed you. No one would. It’s not your fault. You couldn’t have known what he would do.”

“The worst part is that he just wanted to heal himself. Of course, all he cared about was his own life, but through that he could help everyone. And that was the failure.”

Chloe could just listen and stroke Lex’s knee, the part of his body that wasn’t sexual and she had the access to.

“We can just sit here, wait to be taken over by them or… we can die,” Lex suddenly said.

Chloe swallowed hard as she saw the gun lying right next to him.

“Lex… I agree. I’d rather die than become one of them, but… let’s wait. Till the very end.”

“You’re right.” He pulled her onto his laps and then put his arms tightly around her. She snuggled her face into the crook of his neck. It was her Lex. Everything about him was dear and familiar to her. His smell, his skin, his breathing, the way he moved, looked at her, touched her. She didn’t want to let that go. She had just got him. They had just began their lives together.

But they never really had a chance. Not in this world.

“I love you,” she said.

“I love you too, Chloe.”

It didn’t matter how many times he would tell her those words, he couldn’t give her the one thing that could save her. He couldn’t give her a world free of the plague.

“What about the blood the nurse took? You think it can help?”

“No,” Lex denied. “I don’t. It’s too late anyway.”

Somebody knocked on the door and they heard Emil’s voice as it opened.

“Sorry to disturb you,” he said, “but I need to show you something.”

“What is it?” Lex asked, not even bothering to loosen his hold on Chloe. It was the end, he wouldn’t feel awkward in front of a stranger.

“You need to see it on your own eyes, Mr. Luthor.”

“Alright then,” Lex sighed, but did not get his hopes up. It was beyond that point anyway.

Chloe got off his laps and he regretted that they needed to move at all. He grasped her hand and they followed Emil.

“What’s happening? Why the chopper is ready when I didn’t get the order?” Lex asked on seeing what was happening outside through the hall window.

“You will see,” came the ambiguous answer from Emil.

“Hamilton, what is…”

“Please, just… follow me. You will understand then.”

“It had better be good!” Lex said.

***

“Emil, where are you taking us?” Lex asked, suddenly realizing he forgot the gun. If somebody was to bite them right now… he would fail in fulfilling Chloe’s last wish. She didn’t want to become a zombie. It was the last thing he wanted too.

What happened that he thought about how to die best, how to kill the woman he loved? What happened to the world in which his only concern now would be when and how to propose?

“Just… go inside and… I hope you won’t be too shocked,” Emil answered and pushed the door to a dark room opened. “I think you should turn the lights on at least that one time,” he directed those words to somebody inside.

“What is going on? Who is in there?” Lex asked and drew a protective arm around Chloe.

“Please, go in. We do not have much time.”

So they did.

“Hello, brother,” they heard a female voice.

Lex froze. He thought he was being haunted by the ghost of his dead sister. Or maybe he was already dead. Maybe he and Chloe had killed themselves and now they were in the afterlife?

“Please, don’t scream,” Tess repeated and in that moment Emil switched the lights on.

Chloe covered her mouth with her hands and she took in Tess’s image and Lex just paled, all the blood flowing away from his face, his hold on Chloe tightening.

“I know you two would be eventually together,” Tess said bitterly. “I saw it from the beginning.”

She was on a wheelchair, but it wasn’t even the worst part. She had been attacked by zombie. And she had survived.

She was missing both her legs, the right stump ending at her thigh, the left at her knee. Her right hand was also gone while the left survived but was missing two fingers. There were marks and scars on her neck and on her right cheek. All because of zombie bites.

“Tess, oh my god!” Chloe gasped.

“How?” was all Lex asked. “I got the healing ability from the meteor radiation. How could you…”

“You didn’t know,” Tess said, “of course you didn’t. You never knew you had a sister until few months ago. When I was little I had an accident and I needed blood. My type was very rare and then, suddenly, a blood came and I was saved. When I survived the zombie attack I realized that Lionel must have taken your blood to save me.”

“I… I did give away blood once when I was twelve…” Lex admitted. “ I remember it because it was different than all the other times they were examining it. That time I had given so much I nearly fainted, yet my father thought I could give more.”

“At least I know he loved me in his own perverse way,” Tess snorted.

“Tess, if I’d known…”

“What? You would’ve come back for me? Into a building full of zombies? Lex, see what they’ve done to me! I thought I was dead! I thought I would change but somehow I survived!”

“But it still doesn’t explain how you stayed alive. You must have been bleeding all over!”

“Emil saved me. Brought me to a safe place and then arranged a transportation to a place where no one would find me.”

“But… I don’t get it… when we came to safe haven… you just met Emil,” Chloe noticed.

“But I saw how he really was,” Tess explained. “It was the end of times, the apocalypse, so we didn’t bother with dating, we just… hit off right away. In fact, he’s the only good man I was ever involved with. The one I truly feel for.”

“When I came to you, you ran with me,” Lex noticed.

“What was I supposed to say? That I was briefly involved with a man who was working for Morgan Edge? Our enemy? If Edge knew, he would kill all of us. Emil needed to be discreet.”

“Why didn’t you say anything? You saved her and you didn’t bother to tell me my sister was alive?!” Lex turned to Emil.

“I was just following Tess’s wishes.”

“Or orders?!” Lex growled at him.

“Lex, stop, it’s not Emil’s fault. He was more than loyal to me, what I can’t say about you.”

“But how was I supposed to know you were immune?! Tess, how?! Answer me! I was sure you died!”

Tess and Lex both had tears in their eyes right now.

“How Emil found you in time?” Chloe asked.

“He injected me a GPS when I was sleeping,” Tess answered, “back in the safe haven.”

“Uhm…” Chloe just uttered.

“What now?” Lex asked bitterly his sister. “What do you expect me to do now?! Why you revealed yourself to me now?!”

“Because I have a plan to save the human race, Alexander,” Tess said calmly. “For days now I have been watching the zombies migrating. I have told the soldiers to place huge meat chunks in certain areas. Zombies took the bait. All we need to do is to drop bombs on them and if some survived… we have enough soldiers to fight and win.”

“We?” Lex asked, his voice faltering.

“Well, you, actually, and Chloe. I need you to go and have a life. I need you to lead the rest of the people that survived and to make a world for them. You can do this Lex, you are a Luthor. Don’t let that legacy go to waste.”

“My legacy is a disease. It’s our father who’s to blame for all of this.”

“And he is dead because I killed him. I already punished him. Although now as I think of it… maybe it would’ve been better to let him rot as a zombie. That would’ve been a better punishment.”

“Tess, what about you?” Chloe asked. She noticed the strange tone to Tess’s voice as it she was saying goodbye.

“Me? Just look at me!” Tess raised her voice. “I can’t live like that. I just can’t!”

“Tess, you are my sister, I won’t leave you again!” Lex denied, determined.

“Well, you’re going to. It’s what I want. Ever since I was attacked, my life had been nothing more than a misery. Do you think it’s easy for me to live in the darkness? To not been able to look at myself in the mirror? To not being able to show Emil how much I love him?”

“But it’s living after all,” Chloe said.

“No.” Tess shook her head. “I don’t want to live like this. Do you know how much pain I’m in? I called you here because I needed to tell you my plan. Now I can die in peace.”

“What?! NO!” Lex yelled. “I won’t let you.”

“You have no choice. The very first bomb will drop right here, on this safe haven. All the people have already been evacuated and if you don’t catch the last chopper on time, you will die down her with me. It’s your choice.”

“Tess, no, I will take you there!” Lex growled and walked over to her with the intention to take her into his arms and carry her.

“No!” She had a gun and now she aimed it at her brother.

“Tess!” Tears in Lex’s eyes welled up again. “Tess, please, don’t do this.”

“You either run now or you stay and I shoot you. I will not be a zombie and believe me, they are coming. If they’re here faster than the bomb is scheduled to be dropped, I will shoot myself.”

“I don’t care! I’m taking you with me!”

Tess got ready to shoot.

“Not even one step further, Lex.”

“But…”

“Look behind you at the woman you love. She is the one you need to fight for. She is the one you need to get out of here, not me. She is the one you owe this to. You can’t die and you can’t take me with you. She has sacrificed everything for you. She had been through so much more, I know, Emil told me. Lex, think of it. You owe it to her.”

“Tess, please…” Chloe pleaded, remembering how the read head had saved her life.

“Chloe, I couldn’t have a better sister in law. Please, take care of Lex for me. Love me and be there for him. You know by now that there is darkness in him, but he can fight it and become the amazing man I know he has the potential to become as long as you stand by his side, as long as you give him your love.”

“It’s time,” Emil noticed. “You need to run now.”

“But…” Lex started.

“I love you, brother. Now, if you don’t want to bring death upon the woman you love, you will run!”

“I love you, sis,” Lex just said, grabbed Chloe’s hand and made his decision. There was no other choice and Tess was right. “Emil?” he asked, but the doctor just shook his head.

There was no time for convincing him to go with them.

***

Lex and Chloe ran out to the roof and managed to jump onto the awaiting chopper in the very last moment.

“I thought you weren’t coming,” the pilot said. “Thank god you made it,” he added. “Mr. Luthor, I have orders to take you to Paris, to the biggest unit you owe. You’re in charge now.”

The chopper was flying away toward the nearest airstrip so they could board the plane.

When they were in a safe distance, the bomb was dropped on the building.

Chloe put her arms around Lex, trying to give him comfort, trying to show him how much she loved him.
***


AN Short epilogue to come!

Ohh, interesting.

In Swan Lake in the end they realise that the world will never accept their love and so they drown themselves so that in death they can be together - I wasn't too bothered by that as I wanted the bad guys to win! The bad girl was a Daddy's girl so you know that I had to support her.

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Originally Posted by HotCrossedBunny

Ohh, interesting.

In Swan Lake in the end they realise that the world will never accept their love and so they drown themselves so that in death they can be together - I wasn't too bothered by that as I wanted the bad guys to win! The bad girl was a Daddy's girl so you know that I had to support her.

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Oh, I am familiar with some versions of Swan Lake, but I was thinking of the black/white swan and not that ending.
Then, yeah, I see how you could notice a familiarity. It was close, but not enough:)
(one lack of happy ending in one fic was enough for me for lifetime:D)

Yep, I like the Black Swan. I am very happy to hear that you won't be upsetting me again. :D

Oh God, guys!!

I just had the perfect idea!
Has anyone seen the movie Just Like Heaven with Reese Witherspoon when she was a ghost and she haunted MArc Ruffalo and they fell in love?
Well, I am starting a story about Chlex, based on that movie.
Chloe will be perfect to haunt Lex and to change him, be his conscience. Can you imagine her pestering him all the time?
And I will add few twist and all, but don't worry, she won;t be technically dead:D:D Seen the movie - know what I mean!!

See you soon! I post a link here.
It will have to be PG13, because of the ghost thing, but I will manage some smutt chapter after that:D

great chapter though it is sad the tess and emial died.

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Originally Posted by TrinityR

Oh God, guys!!

I just had the perfect idea!
Has anyone seen the movie Just Like Heaven with Reese Witherspoon when she was a ghost and she haunted MArc Ruffalo and they fell in love?
Well, I am starting a story about Chlex, based on that movie.
Chloe will be perfect to haunt Lex and to change him, be his conscience. Can you imagine her pestering him all the time?
And I will add few twist and all, but don't worry, she won;t be technically dead:D:D Seen the movie - know what I mean!!

See you soon! I post a link here.
It will have to be PG13, because of the ghost thing, but I will manage some smutt chapter after that:D

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Yes, I LOVE that idea! Do it! Do it! Do it! But make sure that there is a happy ending like in the film, it almost killed me waiting for him to kiss her and being afraid that it wouldn't actually wake her up.

Ghosts are PG13?

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Originally Posted by HotCrossedBunny

Yes, I LOVE that idea! Do it! Do it! Do it! But make sure that there is a happy ending like in the film, it almost killed me waiting for him to kiss her and being afraid that it wouldn't actually wake her up.

Ghosts are PG13?

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Well, I just thought they wouldn't be able to have sex when she is a ghost, soo... but now, Chloe would peak, wouldn't she?

Not physically no, but yes of course she would peak (imagine if one of her first buggings of him was when he was in the shower) and if he were with another woman she could give him tips etc, they could talk about it (as one of the things she was missing from her life) etc

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Originally Posted by HotCrossedBunny

Not physically no, but yes of course she would peak (imagine if one of her first buggings of him was when he was in the shower) and if he were with another woman she could give him tips etc, they could talk about it (as one of the things she was missing from her life) etc

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I already have ideas about potential girlfriend and a shower with Lex in it, but they aren't quite as you said. Maybe it's better. It will be more fun for you!
I can't wait to start writing and post the first chapter! I have so many funny scenes in mind! And crabby Lex:D
Maybe I will be able to write something tomorrow, but most likely - Friday:(

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Originally Posted by starmoon

great chapter though it is sad the tess and emial died.

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Yes, I know, but it wouldn;t be a zombie theme with no death of the main characters, sadly:(

It sounds brilliant, I'm sure that anything you write will be good when you have time obviously. School work before Chlex.

Epilogue

Chloe woke up tired. She was used to it. Those days, well maybe she should say those months (!), she hadn’t got much sleep. During the days she was busy and then Lex was occupying her during the nights. Rebuilding the world wasn’t easy either. She and Perry White (who had gotten out of Metropolis on the last rescue plane) were trying to recreate the Daily Planet. If there was a new world, if they were raising from ashes, they needed a paper to tell news to the people. They needed to document their new history.
Chloe had also been so happy that the biggest libraries in the world hadn’t been destroyed that Lex lad laughed, couldn’t hold himself back. He had forgotten how exited she had always been about books, papers and knowledge.

Lex was now some kind of a leader. When those who stayed alive had settled down, they had all voted for Lex to lead them. Chloe was never more proud of him. She knew he would be great in it, he would do it for Tess.

It had been exactly five years since the bombing and the world was still raising from ashes. Just recently Lex and Chloe had come back to Metropolis to see what had been left from the city.

It wasn’t that bad and Smallville was almost intact. They had decided to make the very first colony right there, the village wasn’t polluted, there was a lake and a lot of fields on which people could grow food.

It was the very first step for repopulating the whole Earth. Lex wasn’t sure if the life would go on as he remembered it before he would die, but he didn’t care. He had done so much for all the people that his name was redeemed. No one remembered his father anymore. The legacy that would be left with them would be immense.

Chloe yawned and stretched in the bed. They were in the mansion that surprisingly was still intact. They thought maybe it was a sign that they were supposed to come back.

“Good morning, honey,” Lex said and kissed her, then hid his face in her hair, just lying there, right next to her.

“Don’t you fall asleep on me again!” she complained. “It’s not my fault we’re having sex almost every night!”

“Really?” he huffed. “Not your fault? I thought you were a hormonal bomb with the pregnancy and all.” He stroked her belly with affection.

“Well, but you’re always the one to initiate it!”

“I guess so…” His hand wandered down between her legs.

In the same time the door opened and a small girl ran inside.

“Mummy! Daddy! I’m hungry! I want pancakes!”

“Well, now you will give her what she wants,” Chloe told her, pushing his hand away. “Tess, honey, wait behind the door, will you?”

The little girl looked at them suspiciously but obeyed.

“One day she’ll jump to our bed and see how naked we are under the covers,” Chloe said to Lex like she was scorning him.

“I told you to lock the door,” he answered and got up with a sign. “And we need to use the time when she’s napping to have our wicked way.”

“I thought you have a meeting about the first transport of people. As we started repopulating we need to bring some American back to America.”

“Don’t worry, baby, I will do it all.”

“I hope so,” Chloe said and dressed up as well. “Now, I wouldn’t say no to a famous Luthor pancakes either.”

“Why did I have to make them in the first place? Now Tess wants them almost every day.”

“It’s high time you suffer a little, daddy,” Chloe laughed and they both walked to the door.

Tess was still there and now she was really crabby.

“Pancakes!” she yelled.

“Right away for my little princess!” Lex said and picked her up into his arms.

Chloe had got pregnant when zombies had still been walking the earth. She should have known better. Her injection had had to expire sooner or later. But how could she think of it when the world had been about to end?

Still, she never regretted having Tess. That child had been exactly what she and Lex needed after losing the Tess the girl was named after.

Somehow the future seemed brighter than they had ever anticipated…

The end



AN There, as promised, a short but I hope sweet epilogue.
I will soon start Heavenly-Not and paste the link here!
Thank you all for reading and commenting of this one! The story isn't alive without readers!

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww that was so sweet. I love that Princess Tessie Bear is going to get her pancakes. I hope that the new baby won't cause problems for her.

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Originally Posted by HotCrossedBunny

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww that was so sweet. I love that Princess Tessie Bear is going to get her pancakes. I hope that the new baby won't cause problems for her.

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Thank you:) I thought you would like it:)

HEAVENLY-NOT TO READ HERE
http://s22.postimg.org/wekux03tp/ban...0_x_567_px.jpg

Loved this story. I'll look forward to see what you come up with next.

I'm not very familiar with this genre (although I've "enjoyed" some fictional non-zombie apocalypses) ...I saw a bit of a zombie movie on TV once but it was too gory and depressing and not really my thing. :P I'm one of those people who craves a happy ending and can't handle too much angst. :) But how could I resist a post-apocalyptic Chlex love story? Seems like quite an original concept. (And I thank you for not going *too* far with the gore and violence) Hey, at least Chloe & Lex got a happy ending and will "rule" the world (and the LIBRARIES survived! Woo! I was relieved, right along with Chloe. ;)) ...so, too bad about most of the rest of humanity. ;) I was really anxious during many parts of this story...like every time Chloe & Lex were separated...love how you had them both rescue eachother. Happy about the fate of Lana and Lionel. Sad about Tess. Relieved about Perry! Lots of cool twists and surprises...I was very involved and had to read it all at once (but kinda scared of what might happen next as well) ...and I can honestly say this is and will remain my favorite zombie story ever. ;)

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Originally Posted by chrisrose

I'm not very familiar with this genre (although I've "enjoyed" some fictional non-zombie apocalypses) ...I saw a bit of a zombie movie on TV once but it was too gory and depressing and not really my thing. :P I'm one of those people who craves a happy ending and can't handle too much angst. :) But how could I resist a post-apocalyptic Chlex love story? Seems like quite an original concept. (And I thank you for not going *too* far with the gore and violence) Hey, at least Chloe & Lex got a happy ending and will "rule" the world (and the LIBRARIES survived! Woo! I was relieved, right along with Chloe. ;)) ...so, too bad about most of the rest of humanity. ;) I was really anxious during many parts of this story...like every time Chloe & Lex were separated...love how you had them both rescue eachother. Happy about the fate of Lana and Lionel. Sad about Tess. Relieved about Perry! Lots of cool twists and surprises...I was very involved and had to read it all at once (but kinda scared of what might happen next as well) ...and I can honestly say this is and will remain my favorite zombie story ever. ;)

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OO!! Thank you SO MUCH, hon!
I was kind of worried that it wouldn't be as I imagined and I would screw something up, but if you liked it then my job is done:)
I like twists, who doesn't , right?;p And you can be sure that after one one shot that didn't have a happy ending (Light in the Darkness) all of my stories will!:)
You're free to check up the new one, Heavenly-Not, but only if you liked.

Thank you again for such a long review!!

Guys, I am not sure is I should even mention it here, but I got to love Hunger Games and as I usually like older and blond men, so it didn't take long for me to ship Katniss & Haymitch, so if everyone is interested of a plausible way to get them together and fight against the Capitol go HERE

This story is exciting

That was awesome! First zombie story Ive ever read! Ive seen so many movies but this was Chlex amazing lol!

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Originally Posted by Ami Rose

That was awesome! First zombie story Ive ever read! Ive seen so many movies but this was Chlex amazing lol!

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Thank you so much! I am happy you liked it!!

Thanks so much for a fun read