Infection

[Erik-El]

Chapter 1:


Day 1, 8:15am.

Preston had noticed that he had not seen a customer all day today. Strange for a monday morning. Usually he is making twice his base pay in tips alone. It looks like he is not getting the latest issues of his comic on wednesday. Damn customers. It actually was a little creepy. Preston opened up the shop doors to make the place seem a little more inviting and let the sound of the finger snapping alternative music to be heard from the streets.

Preston was just going through his checklist of chores when he noticed a customer heading right for the shop. "Finally!" Preston thought as he prepared himself for a record breaking coffee service.

"Ha! Hello Mr. Jackson. Will it be the usual mocha today?" Preston said with a glance. No reply as Mr. Jackson lumbered into the shop. Preston looked up again and noticed that Mr. Jackson was bleeding profusely from several open wounds on his right arm and shoulder. Preston meant to say something like, "HOLY SHIT!" But no sound came from his mouth. Mr. Jackson reached the counter and then fell to the floor and Preston jumped over the counter to help Mr. Jackson.

"What happened Mr. Jackson?" He said as he hurriedly looked all over the counter for the shop phone.

"Some dam.... Damned people attacked me for trying to help.... A woman. They were.... On her and... I tried to.... To help. I just wanted.... to help...."

Preston was busy trying to stop the bleeding with wads of napkins. He looked up at Mr. Jackson again and stopped immediately. Mr. Jackson was dead. Preston leaped over the counter again and knocked several syrup pumps over before he found the phone buried behind them. 911. The first time he had ever had to dial the number in his life. He never expected to get a busy signal. "Bullshit!" He exclaimed.

Just then he noticed Mr. Jackson was moving again, standing up with his back to Preston. "Mr. Jackson! I thought you died. What are you...?"

Mr. Jackson turned and they met eyes for a brief moment. To Preston, it felt like hours. He never had someone look at him like that. With such emptiness. Before another word could be said, Mr. Jackson leapt at Preston with a ravenous passion. He fell going over the counter and grabbed at Preston as he went. Preston nimbly dodged out of the way and scampered back, grabbing a toaster for protection. He did not know what to say. He just stood there as Mr. Jackson stood back up and stumbled at Preston.

CRACK!

One solid hit across the head and Mr. Jackson was down. He did not get back up.

Preston looked at the bloody toaster and the flakes of blood on his own apron. He dropped the toaster and fell against the counter to support himself for a moment. He looked out the doors of the shop and a new sight was before him. Silent, bloody people chasing and attacking screaming ones. Some had noticed the music of the shop and were heading his way. Only two thoughts were in Preston's head, "I need to get home and I need to get Lizzy."

[Erik-El]

Day 1, 8:20am.

Preston had made his way out the back of the shop. There was no one around in the back alley. He jammed a pallet between the door and a ledge of concrete to prevent gruesome followers from running him down. He still had his apron on. "Just a little extra protection." He mused to himself. Preston made his way behind all the stores in the outdoor mall. He could hear the screams of others, pleas for help and cries of pain. He pushed past it. Nothing mattered except Lizzy. He was no hero. Let someone else take the glory of saving everyone, he just had to save one person.

Preston had a simple 4'' folding combat knife on him. That was his only protection. He laughed to himself for a moment at the thought of having to let these crazy people get that close to him before he could defend. "Are these crazy people though? Mr. Jackson was dead. I just know it, he was gone." He thought. "No time for that stuff right now. I have to get home and then get Lizzy."

Once Preston reached the end of the outdoor mall area, it was all parking lot. It seemed bigger now than it used to. All that open space before he could reach the road. "I should have brought my damned bike." He cursed to himself. Preston dodged, ducked and sprinted from car to car. A few had these crazies around them that he had to skillfully avoid. Some were locked in their own vehicles. Prisoners in their own automobiles. Silent sentinels.

Finally, he reached the road that led to his home. It took longer than it normally does because he had to play it stealthy. Not a single encounter since the Coughy Shop. "Too lucky today I guess." He thought as he took to a dead run. He could get to his house in mere minutes from the parking lot if he runs flat out the entire way.

[Erik-El]

Day 1, 8:45am.

Home! The run up the three flights of stairs to his apartment at the top floor seemed easy. As he put the hey in his lock, he noticed that Tony's apartment door across from his was ajar. "Tony might be hurt. I need to check it out." Preston pulled the key from the lock and peeked his head into Tony's apartment.

It was a disaster. More so than usual anyway. Tony never was the clean, neat and organized person that Preston was but Tony never destroyed his own things. The couch was flipped, the television knocked over. For all intents and purposes, it looked like Tony had been burglarized had it not been for the fact that nothing was missing. Preston made his way through the mess carefully, not knowing what to expect. He stepped on some broken glass and the crunch of it beneath his shoes caused a whimper to come from the bedroom down the hall. "Hello? Tony? It is me, Preston. Are you hurt?"

"I am here..." Came Tony's voice from the bedroom. It sounded weak, defeated.

Preston quickly went into the room and found Tony hunkered in the far corner of his room, staring at a dead body on his bed. It was Laquisha, his on again, off again girlfriend. "She just came at me. I tried to talk to her, tell her that I loved her but she just kept coming." He struggled to say through tears. Next to Tony was a bloody hardback Bible. Tony with all his mass, had caved in Laquisha's once beautiful face with the good book itself. "I swear Preston. I swear that I did not mean to kill her."

"I know man. You are a good guy."

"I just wanted her to get off of me. I wanted her to listen. She came here for help. She said she was attacked so I helped clean her up and she said she wanted some sleep. When I came to give her some breakfast in bed, she jumped at me."

"Preston was never good with consoling people. Most of the time, he dealt with serious issues with cynical sarcasm. A way to keep things from being too serious. He was just unsure of what to do. No way a crappy joke would fly in this situation. "Uh... You should clean yourself up man. I am going to get some things. Whatever happened here is happening down at the mall. It is a big deal. I do not think it is just here either."

Tony collected himself and followed Preston across the hall to his apartment. Once inside, he tossed his bloodied apron in the trash and made a beeline for his bedroom closet. Pulling the giant black chest from beneath the carefully stacked clothes, he saw a message that he put on the lock the day he purchased the chest. It read in all caps, OPEN IN CASE OF ZOMBIE OUTBREAK!!!

Preston paused for a moment to look at it. The irony was not lost on him at all. He chuckled to himself, "Zombies..." and promptly opened the chest. Inside was his own personal 'survivors kit' that he has amassed over the years. Everything was just where he had left it. Preston was a novice gun and blade geek but he had collected quite a few favorites:

One set of glossy black Lizzyurai blades - a katana, a wakizashi and a tanto. All kept battle ready and polished to a mirror shine. One pair of brass knuckles for the ghoulies that got a little too close. Three Chris Reeve Pacific 6'' S30V Blade Combat Knives. One LaGana Tactical Tomahawk "VTAC" in gunmetal black. One PM9. One PM45. Two Glock 17 9mm with 17 round clips. One Glock 18 9mm with a single 33 round clip and Glock stock (very very illegal). Two Glock 37 .45 with 10 round clips. One Benelli M4 Semi automatic Shotgun. Care kits and holsters for all the weapons and 3 total ammunition cases packed with rounds. He also pulled his leather jacket from a hangar and put on his leather biker gloves.

A lot of weight for one man. Even one in as much shape as him. "Looks like Tony gets to help." he muttered, "Tony! Come in here and help me carry some of this stuff."

Tony came into the room, he had apparently gone back to his apartment to get his fighting gloves as he was wearing them at the moment. "Tony, get that shit off your hands and help with some of this stuff." Preston pulled out a duffle bag and started to pack the items in. Tony got the shotgun. "Preston, you know I have never fired a gun. What am I supposed to do with this."

"Point at the bad guys and squeeze the trigger." Preston countered. "If you cannot do that, you can use the stock to bash them in the head. Oh, and whatever you do, do not throw the gun at them. I need that and it was expensive as hell."

"I'll leave the gloves on. I feel better with them. Where are we going?"

"We are going to get Lizzy."

"Preston...." Tony started but stopped himself. He knew Preston would not change his mind about this. The best he could do is make sure Preston did not get himself killed. Preston busied himself packing bottled water into a backpack for Tony as well. He was trying his absolute best to not think of Lizzy as a bloody, raging maniac. It turned his stomach whenever the image popped into his head. "Focus on the task Preston. Focus." Lizzy was living with her boyfriend 20 miles away, downtown. 20 miles through a potentially ruined city filled with these.... Zombies.

Fortunately, Tony had a ride.

[Erik-El]

Day 1, 10:03am.

Tony was driving. It was a brand new Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 4 door. Lifted with massive tires and off-road lights, a reinforced bumper and a towline. It looked like a small monster truck. Tony had all the windows replaced with special glass to keep them from shattering from his overly impressive sound system. Today they served as zombie-proof windows. The radio filled their heads with news of outbreaks all over the area and as far as reports could tell, were all over the country. Reports indicate that the exposed people were walking dead and advised people to stay indoors. "Yeah right. How many movies and video games have shown the guy who stayed indoors to be the one who lives?" Tony muttered.

They were not ten minutes along to Lizzy's place before they started to see the roads begin to fill with these zombies. Tony was wasting time. He was dodging and weaving through the random zombies in the otherwise empty streets. Once they got to a clear patch, Preston had Tony pull over so they could trade seats. It is a twenty or thirty minute drive on a normal day. With the streets empty like it was, they should be there in no time. Single story shops gave way to high rise buildings. Lizzy's condo was in the heart of the city.

Preston had run down quite a few zombies before having to stop short. Suddenly, there were cars everywhere. On the sidewalks and some in the streets. Some were simply empty, others on fire while others still were smashed into building walls. It was a mess. "Tony, I am going to have to go the rest of the way on foot. You should go."

"And what, let you die?! I don't think so Preston." Tony said sternly, "Besides, what do you think your mama would do to me if she found out I left you here? I'll leave the Jeep here and we can come back to it with Lizzy. No one can get into this Jeep without the keys anyway."

Just a few blocks away and they would be at Lizzy's condo. Preston knew Lizzy would be smart. She always was smart. She would stay in her home on the 8th floor of her building. She would not do something stupid like what he was doing. She would be smart.

[Erik-El]

Day 1, 10:38am.

Because they were on foot, they had to take more back ways to avoid the streets. These zombies were extremely hard to notice when not out in the open. They were as silent as they dead until they were already on top on you. Then they moaned and grunted like mad. Preston and Tony met up with a few in the alleys. Preston wanted to keep quiet so he used the tomahawk and Tony used a small, one-handed sledgehammer he had in his Jeep tool chest. Preston still had his two Glock 17s with a spare magazine for both just in case though.

It turns out that individually, the zombies are not that bad. They just bull rush you. A sidestep and a swing of a melee weapon is all it took to drop one. Of course, head shots were the order of the day. "Man, they sure can move though." Tony noted. "It's like they can move faster than a normal person can. I don't get it."

"Yeah but if they really are already dead, that will not last long. Tissue breaks down pretty fast when it is not being fed nutrients and blood. These bastards will probably get pretty slow pretty fast."

"Let's just assume they all are fast as flark unless they prove to be slow though, eh?" Tony said with a smug grin, belying his suppressed pain at having just killed Laquisha a couple hours before.

They finally reached Lizzy's building. It had a lobby with one all glass wall and a revolving door. It had been broken in. Glass and blood were everywhere. The elevator lights still worked but for some reason, the elevator would not come down. It was stuck on the 8th floor. Lizzy's floor. "flark." Preston grumbled. Next to the elevator was the staircase. Up they went.

They had gotten to the 6th floor when they saw a body fall down the space between the flights of stairs, bumping into the occasional rail as it went down. It hit the ground with a noise that could be heard even by Preston and Tony. Something between a thud and a splatter, a wet smacking noise. They looked down to the body, it was still. They then looked up just in time to see another body follow the same path, narrowly missing them. Zombies had spotted them and were taking the fastest way to get to them, jumping through the flights of stairs.

A few were wise enough to take the stairs down to the still living Preston and Tony. Six of them. They were standing between Preston and his Lizzy's place so as far as Preston was concerned, the zombies would have been better off taking the jumping route. He hacked his way through the horde. Tony was backing him up by making sure the felled zombies stayed felled. His tomahawk was so sharp and going so fast, Preston was going through everything he swung at. Top halves of heads were being separated from bottom halves with ease, arms were tossed through the air.

They got to the 8th floor entrance and slowly opened the door. It seemed pretty empty. They discovered why the elevator had refused to come to them in the lobby. A body was stuck in between the elevator and the hallway, the doors constantly opening and closing on it. It was not Lizzy.

Preston rushed to Lizzy's door number. Still no activity. He stopped just before her door and gave a short little prayer to a god he had not believed in for many years, "Please let her be okay. Please...."

[Erik-El]

Day 1, 11:01am.

Preston opened the door with the spare key that Lizzy always kept hidden in the wall mounted hall lights next to her door. He marched in, eyes darting left and right to find Lizzy. He found someone else entirely, Brandon. Lizzy's live-in boyfriend she had been seeing for a few years. He stood up, "Is Lizzy with you?" he asked. Preston's heart sank. "I thought she would be here."

"No. She went to work today. She had a big case she was working on. I tried callin' her cell and her office phone but I've got nothin' so far."

"And you just sat here!" Preston said as he grabbed Brandon by the shirt and lifted him.

"They said to stay home on the news man! Will you take it easy? You're breakin' the shirt."

Disgusted, Preston released Brandon. What Lizzy saw in this idiot he would never know. "I am going to get her at her office. You can show some balls and come if you want."

"No way! She'll be fine. Her office is prob'ly better protected than here. They have guards with guns."

Preston shot Brandon one last look of contempt and headed for the door. In Preston's opinion, if this really was the end of the world, guys like Brandon should not be the ones to survive it to rebuild. Tony stopped him just short of the door. "You know, if we get to Lizzy and she finds out you were here and left her boyfriend by himself, she is going to be pissed." he continued, "She will probably kill you for coming after her when she is the type that can take care of herself while leaving her soft-hearted Brandon to die. Plus it would probably look really good if you saved him."

Preston felt he could have killed Tony for being so damned right at that moment. Fortunately he did have one outlet for his rage. Preston walked right up to Brandon, who only managed a confused "What?.." before Preston punched his ticket with a well placed fist to the jaw. Preston knew he got more satisfaction out of that than he should have.

[Erik-El]

Day 1, 12:30pm.

Carrying Brandon was probably easier than dragging him kicking and screaming but it sure did not feel that way going down all those stairs. Of the two zombies that jumped down the stairs, one was still alive. Both its legs and arms were broken in several places so it just paddled along on the ground harmlessly. Tony handled it. One less zombie to harm the living. Brandon came to with the sound of the sledge smashing brain matter into concrete.

"Whu? What happened?"

"You decided to come with us." Preston smirked as he dropped Brandon on the lobby floor.

"Like hell I did! I am headin' right back upstairs!"

"There are more zombies up there and we left your door open. Who knows what is in your place right now, waitin' for you." Tony lied. It was enough. Brandon just gave up and followed along without another word.

They were just about to step onto the street when they noticed a horde of dozens of zombies walking the street. There must have been more than fifty of them just walking in circles aimlessly or standing still, swaying back and forth as though they were thinking of a lullaby. All of them had sections of their bodies ripped away. It was quite a sight to take in.

Brandon let out a yelp and all at once, over one hundred eyes shifted in their direction. There was a pause. As though the zombies were assessing the prey. Tony whispered an "Oh fu..." but either never finished or the sound was just drowned out by the moans, grunts and the sound of 100 feet sprinting in unison.

Preston and Tony snapped into action and Brandon was right behind them. They could make it to the jeep if nothing got in their way. Tony liked the fancy things like keyless start and keyless locks. Brandon was lagging behind and the zombies were closing the gap. The longer they ran, the more and more likely it seemed as though Brandon was going to die. That was something that Preston could not allow. "Tony, you get the Jeep, I will get Brandon and meet you at the park two blocks up."

"You got it!" Tony huffed as he really let loose on the speed. Of he went like a rocket while Preston and Brandon turned toward the park. Since they were closer to the horde, the majority of the zombies turned toward the park with them. Only a handful of zombies continued after Tony. If he wanted to, Tony could probably have handled the few that came after him by himself had he not had to get the Jeep to the park before Preston was eaten alive.

Preston was pulling Brandon along as he ran. He was starting to get very tired despite the death that was closing in on him. He had to risk the sound of gunfire. POP POP! Preston fired two off at the two closest zombies while he continued to run. The park was just a block ahead. Tony should have gotten the Jeep by now. If they were lucky, Tony would pull up to the park just as they got there by foot.

Brandon shrieked as another zombie was close enough to reach out and grab him. Brandon stumbled and the zombie was on him, dragging him down. It set out to bite Brandon but it had no jaw so it just rubbed its bloody stump of a mouth on Brandon's shoulder. Brandon found his second wind at that moment and tossed the zombie off and was back in a dead run. With how tired Preston was, he was barely pulling ahead of Brandon at that point but at least no longer had to help Brandon run.

Tony managed to pull up just in time. Preston and Brandon crawled into the Jeep just as the horde fell onto the vehicle. Tony hit the gas and the Jeep gave a little jump as a few bodies were pulled under the massive tires. Next stop, Lizzy's office.

[Erik-El]

Day 1, 1:18pm.

They made it to the office building after leading the zombie horde in the opposite direction and then backtracking. This would give them more time to get Lizzy out. The building did not look like it had been breached. The shatterproof glass was still intact. There were some guards on the other side of the doors holding down their positions. Preston pounded on the door to get them to open it. They did not budge from their positions. "Look, I am not one of them. No bites see?" he said as he presented his arms and turned around so they could see his body was undamaged.

One of the older guards came to the door and unlocked it. "You can come in, but your friend has to stay out here." he grunted as he pointed to Brandon.

"Why? I was never bit."

The guard said nothing, only looked at Brandon's bloody shoulder.

"What? That is not my blood."

"It is okay. Tony, could you circle the area with Brandon? I should only be about 15 minutes." Tony nodded as he pulled Brandon into the Jeep and drove off.

Preston reached Lizzy's floor with a ping of the elevator. Inside, you would never have known that a infection had broken out. Suits and ties, skirts and heels. There she was. His pocket-sized vision of perfection.

"Preston! What are you doing here?"

"I came here to get you. To take you someplace safe. I even brought your boyfriend."

"Brandon is with you?"

"Downstairs. They would not let him in because he had some blood on this shirt. He is fine though so no worries."

"And you brought him here?" She eyed Preston suspiciously, "I would have thought you would leave him to some zombies and come to get me afterwards." She said half-jokingly. "Did Tony make you do it?"

".....Same old Lizzy. Never lets anything slide." Preston responded with a coy smile.

"Well it took you long enough. I would rather die out there than in here with all these stuffed shirts. Besides, the cafeteria will be empty in a day with how many people are here." With that, she had her belongings in her arms and was on her way to the elevator without looking back. Preston followed right behind her. She would never have admitted it but when she first heard of the outbreak on the news, she prayed that Preston would save her. She silently thanked god for that small miracle.

[Erik-El]

Day 1, 1:32pm.

Now that Preston had Lizzy, he was not sure what to do. He just wanted to find somewhere safe and hole up until the thing blew over. He tried to think of places to go that could be well guarded and already well stocked. Grocery stores have tons of food and are pretty closed in. All he would have to do is find a way to block the main doors. A mall could also work. He even remembered a zombie story where a prison was used. The only problem is that he had no idea where the local prison was and malls have a lot of entry doors that could be breached. It seemed like a grocery store was the only option. It made sense really. Aisles packed with food, plenty of clothing, the superstores even had things like clothes and guns.

"Hey guys, I think we should head to the Super-Mart. We could camp out in there until this thing passes."

Preston got no objections, Tony nodded in approval and changed course heading to the nearest grocery store. Every now and again, they would see masses of zombies in the neighborhoods they passed. The roads would literally be thick with them on occasion and Tony would have to go off-roading to pass them. Other times, the streets were as empty as a ghost town. After a while, Preston noticed something moving along a way up the street. As they drew closer, they noticed it was a young man on a bicycle. Maybe 18 years old. He wore a light jacket and some shorts. He was missing a section of his cheek and looked to be exhausted and in a great deal of pain.

"Tony, pull over." Lizzy said urgently.

"No, look at him. He is infected. He is going to become one of them soon. Keep going." Preston ordered.

They passed the youth. As they went past, the youth tried to flag them down. He was waiving and screaming for help. He almost lost his balance on the bicycle he was waiving so hard. "God dammit Preston! How could you just leave that kid to die?" Lizzy was livid.

"Helping him would put us at risk. He was going to attack us eventually. It was a sure thing. He was a time bomb waiting to explode."

"We could have at least made it so he would not die alone. We have the weapons to protect us once he did turn into one of them."

"Lizzy.... Think about it. What if he turned when we were in a bad spot? Say a horde of zombies rushed us right when he turns, then what? We have something attacking us from inside while we are trying to deal with what is going on outside. It was too much of a risk."

"We should have helped him, I don't care what risk there was. Some things are worth the risk Preston."

Lizzy folded her arms and refused to look at him after that. Preston did not really have much to say to it either. He knew on some philosophical level, Lizzy was right. She believes we still need to act like people. To be human to one another no matter what. The problem is that Preston was not just worried about zombies, he was worried about other people too. There are people out there that are just as bad as the zombies, worse even. Even some good natured people would kill others for their own survival and the worst a zombie could do is kill you. People can do worse.

As they got further along down the road, they noticed a mass of zombies a few miles out in a field, heading toward the road and somewhat in the direction the Jeep came from. They were far enough away that they did not notice the Jeep but by the time they reached the road, they would notice a tired young man on a bicycle. "Lizzy was right." Preston thought to himself, "I should have just shot the kid." Preston felt guilty. Guilty for not having spared the young man from the graphic death he was going to have and guilty for even thinking about taking the life of an innocent, living person.

[Erik-El]

Day 1, 3:12pm.

They had to take a lot of alternate routes, back roads with a lot of backtracking to get to the nearest grocery store. It was not the Super-Mart. With all the trouble they had, the smaller Food Way was just easier to get to. It seemed to be undisturbed. The only thing that gave Preston pause is all the cars in the parking lot. Cars in the parking lot meant that people went inside the store. They parked the Jeep right in front of the doors. Preston grabbed his tomahawk and his 17s. "Wait here a moment. I want to check it out first. If you get rushed, get Lizzy out of here Tony."

The entry doors to the store opened automatically for him. The arrangement of the aisles and registers made it impossible to see what was going on inside the Food Way. Cautiously, Preston pressed on. When he got past the registers things started to look bad. Knocked over shopping carts, spilled food and drinks, money scattered on the ground, blood. It was possible that zombies were here but cleared out. Preston had to be sure. It was too good of an opportunity if they were already gone. Even this smaller store had enough food and drink to last years for just the four of them.

By the time he was halfway into the store, he heard some canned goods hit the floor. Preston turned to look. A middle aged woman with one arm stood staring down at the canned goods that she had knocked over, then she slowly looked up at Preston. Her gaze was made up of that same empty gaze that he had seen earlier that day. Then she blitzed him. She gave out a loud roar as she leapt at him. His tomahawk split her head in two and she fell to the ground. She let out one final grunt and was gone.

Her noise had alerted more of them. The bathroom next to the registers spewed bloody meat bags, blocking his exit. More approached menacingly from deeper in the store. Some wore faces of absolute rage. Preston bolted. He knocked over just about everything he got within arms reach as he went. He was gifted with strong legs and they served him well. He got to the back and saw a caged ladder that led to a catwalk above for maintenance. Preston started up the ladder but his foot was caught by a series of hands. Their numbers worked against them. Each one tried to pull his foot to a different mouth until they simply lost grip. He climbed faster than he even thought he was capable of and once he reached the top, he closed the gate cover blocking the zombies from getting to the catwalk.

Now he had a serious problem. The catwalk was completely exposed to the eyes below. He could not get to the doors without kiting every zombie in the store along with him. Then there is the fact that automatic doors do not respond as well to a man in a full sprint. The doors were also made of shatterproof glass so he was not going to dive through them either. The only good thing is that because all the zombie attention was on him, his friends in the Jeep were safe from the undead inside the store. Preston had 32 rounds total left in his 17s. If he played his cards right, he could take out most with head shots and the remaining ones could be taken care of with his tomahawk as he let them up the ladder. Tony might hear the gunshots and leave prematurely though.

Preston decided he would try to conserve ammo instead. At the opposite end of the store, there was another ladder leading from the catwalk to the roof. He intended to take it. It would lead the zombies away from the entry doors which means away from Lizzy. As he made his way to the second ladder, the zombies did as predicted and followed him from the main floor, pawing at the air and gnashing their teeth as they followed. Once on the roof, he made his way to the front side of the store. The Jeep still was there, completely undisturbed. It was a good 30 or 40 feet down and no way other than jumping to the sidewalk. "Alley-oop!"

Preston rolled when he hit the concrete. It still did not prevent him from breaking his leg upon impact though. Preston felt the leg give, felt the electric vibration run up his leg causing him to let out a sharp grunt of pain. It was not his first broken bone in life so he was not surprised by it. Tony was out of the Jeep and dragging Preston before he could even manage to start for the vehicle himself. Once safely in the Jeep they were on their way again.