Falling Behind

Hey peoples! Okies. Announcement time. hehehe. There’s only going to be one more story put up after this one. Why? Because I’m going on a six month hiatus to write–get this–a novel! Yes, an actual, honest to goodness novel! So when I come back, which should be sometime in February 2012, I’ll have a good sized story for you to sink your teeth into. I’m not going to give anything away except to say it’s historical. And yes, if I get an idea for a short I’ll do my best to jot it down and post it up here, but I’m not making any promises.

So, without further ado, I give you more of Cotton and Z, who are fast becoming favorites of mine. Also, I’m leaving you with something you all love — a cliffhanger. *cackle*

Cotton pulled back the long, heavy curtain and stared out the rain streaked window at the concrete and steel landscape, admiring the gray cast lent to everything by the abysmal weather, then he grimaced because the color made him think of zombie guts and he’d seen enough of those to last him the rest of his life.

He let the curtain fall back into place. “As long as actual cats and dogs don’t start falling from the sky, I think we’ll be okay.”

“I take it that means it’s still raining pretty bad?”

“Gosh, you’re sharp,” Cotton remarked dryly, moving away from the window to sit next to Z. He would have taken Taylor’s chair, but the last time he’d done that, she’d made him work overtime for a month. Without the extra pay. So the uncomfortable chair it was.

He and Z had been called into Taylor’s office over an hour ago on urgent business, only neither of them had been clued in to what was so urgent. Taylor had told them to stay put until she got back, so here they were, twiddling their thumbs and getting more antsy by the second.

“What do you think is going on?” Cotton asked after a long stretch of silence.

Z cracked his knuckles, the sound intensified to Cotton’s alert senses.

“I can’t say,” he said. “But I’m willing to bet it has something to do with the lack of zombies lately.”

Cotton rolled his eyes. “You don’t actually think their numbers are decreasing, do you?”

Z shook his head. “No. There’s no way. Not even with the amounts we kill every night. Their numbers are increasing more rapidly if anything.”

Cotton frowned. “How do you know?”

Z’s gaze shifted away from Cotton. “Just a feeling I have.”

Cotton was just about to ask Z what he knew that everyone else did not and why the heck he was keeping information like that from him, since he was his partner and all, when the door opened and Taylor came striding in looking like the wrath of God.

Cotton was suddenly very attracted to her.

She flung the files she was carrying on her desk, uncaring that their contents spilled out everywhere, and started pacing back and forth.

Cotton sat up a little straighter in his chair. If Taylor was throwing things around and looking pissed as hell, that meant this was serious business. Cotton had only ever seen her act this way once before and it hadn’t been pretty. Of course, it was way back when, and Z had pretty much made everyone angry enough to breathe fire out their noses that day.

Taylor stopped pacing long enough to level a hard, burning look at Z, presumably ignoring Cotton.

Cotton immediately picked up on the undertones bouncing back and forth between them like a tennis ball and almost swallowed his tongue. So Z hadn’t been pulling his leg all this time. Holy shit.

“I don’t know how he’s done it,” Taylor spoke, “but Eli has managed to gather mass amounts of zombies and hold them in one place without them eating each other. Our sources have revealed that he’s managed to get them under control somehow. They obey him. We’re also pretty sure he’s planning on releasing them all at once. What we’re not sure about is when.”

Z didn’t look surprised, but then Cotton had prior knowledge that he knew something was going on, he just didn’t know how Z knew it; a fact that Cotton was going to rectify the minute the two of them were out of there.

“So we’re looking at a code black?” Cotton asked.

Taylor nodded.

Cotton cursed. “Shouldn’t we be evacuating everyone, then?”

“Way ahead of you, Cotton,” Taylor said. “We started doing that weeks ago. Didn’t you notice the city has gotten quieter?”

Cotton shrugged. “When you have zombies on the brain all day, every day, you don’t really notice anything else.”

Taylor lifted her brow but declined to comment and Cotton was okay with that. He had a feeling whatever she would have said wouldn’t have been pleasant anyway.

“So what you want us to do is–” Z began, only to be interrupted by Taylor.

“–find out what Eli is using to control these things with and destroy it, and as many of them as possible.”

There was a moment in which the two of them stared at each other, communicating with their eyes or something stupid like that. Cotton didn’t really know what they were doing, or why, he just knew it was starting to make him sick.

“I don’t really need to say anything else,” Taylor said, finally breaking the silence that had Cotton close to squirming, “but what I am going to say, the two of you better listen to very closely, ’cause I’m only going to say it this once.”

Cotton leaned forward, breath held in anticipation of what he hoped she was going to say.

“I don’t care how long it takes, how much ammunition you have to go through, how disgusting things get, you better not come back here without cleaning up your mess, you understand?”

And with that, his hopes were dashed and he hung his head, emitting a soft whine at having been thwarted—again—by Miss Tidy.

“Well if that’s all, I’ll be going now. Thank you for crushing my dreams, Tay,” he said drolly. “You always know where to hit a guy the hardest.”

He didn’t wait to be dismissed or to stick around for Z, he just got up and left.

Z spared Taylor the barest of glances before following Cotton. He had his hand curled around the door’s handle and was just about to push it down to open it when Taylor said his name, halting his actions for that brief moment.

He looked back at her. “What, Taylor?”

Her gaze was still as fierce as it had been when she’d first stormed into her office.

“Make sure you come back with all your parts attached.”

He laughed low. “Why? You have special plans for some of them?”

“Not hardly. I just don’t want you too banged up.”

He let go of the handle and crossed his arms, giving her his best disarming smile. “And why is that, Taylor?”

Her lips thinned. “Because, as you keep reminding me, you’re the best I’ve got.”

He didn’t say anything, just continued to smile at her. Finally he said, “Then I guess I have no choice but to come back safely, huh?”

She held his gaze for a breath, then looked away, metaphorically hiding once again behind her sturdily crafted desk.

Z opened the door and was practically pounced on by the dwarf that was his partner before he could properly step foot out of Taylor’s office.

“What in God’s holy name makes you think it’s okay to keep stuff from me, Z, hmm?” Cotton asked, his tone a mixture of surly and something that was completely Cotton. “We’re partners. That means when you know something I don’t, you’re supposed to let me in on it. And what the heck is going on between you and Taylor?”

Z sighed and rubbed at his face with both hands, then proceeded to walk away without answering Cotton’s questions. Knowing he wouldn’t let up until he was satisfied with Z’s answers made Z wish Cotton had an off button or something.

“Wait until we’re in the car.”

Cotton rolled his eyes but was blessedly quiet on the way to Z’s car.

Thankfully the rain had let up, so they didn’t get completely soaked on the way there, just slightly damp.

“Spill,” Cotton said as soon as the doors were shut.

“Oh my God, you’re like a girl sometimes, I swear,” Z muttered.

“Shut up. It’s a hazard of being raised by a single parent.”

“I feel for you if that parent is male, bro,” Z said casually as he pulled out of the lot and made his way onto the road, merging with what little traffic there was.

“You shithead, you know she’s not. And stop avoiding my questions. Why didn’t you tell me you know what’s going on?”

“Because I wasn’t certain until Taylor told us.”

Cotton gave him a droll look. “That’s bullshit. The truth this time, please, or I’m going to have to bang up that pretty face of yours.”

It was Z’s turn to roll his eyes. “Fine, but you better not start freaking out on me. I have no qualms about throwing you onto a curb somewhere.”

“Whatever, just tell me!”

Z tightened his grip on the steering wheel. “I’ve been keeping in contact with someone who’s been closely watching how things have been playing out with the zombies.”

“An outside source?” Cotton asked.

Z nodded. “Yeah.”

“Who?”

Z sighed. “No freaking out, okay?”

Cotton growled. “Dude, enough, okay? Just freaking tell me!”

“Alright, alright. I’ve been getting information from Sage.”

Cotton blinked at him a few times and then he exploded. “Are you out of your friggin’ mind, Z! He’s a freakin’ vampire!”

Z rubbed the spot between his eyes and shook his head. “This is why I don’t tell you things,” he mumbled.

“God! I can’t believe you!” Cotton continued with his tirade, which Z ignored for the most part, until he couldn’t stand listening to him anymore, at which point he turned on the radio, hoping to drown him out with the Bee Gee’s.

“Ah, God, no! Not this crap! Anything but this, Z, come on! I’ll be quiet! I promise!”

* * *

An hour later, Cotton was muttering foul things beneath his breath as he and Z made their way down a steep hill overgrown with weeds and wildflowers. The rain had stopped by the time they got this far, a fact Cotton was especially grateful for. He didn’t like the rain, really.

“You know why he wanted us to meet him at the river, don’t you?” he grumbled, ignoring the fact that Z was ignoring him. “It’s because he’s planning on sucking us dry and dumping our bodies in the water. You know, maybe I should become a vampire. Easy cleanup and I wouldn’t have Taylor breathing down my neck about the mess ’cause there wouldn’t be one.”

He paused to mull it over for a second, then shook his head.

“Nah, ’cause then I’d have to give up food and stuff. Sex, too, so screw that.”

Z just took it all in stride. He was used to Cotton bouncing back and forth between ideas in the middle of a conversation, even if that conversation was one-sided.

Sage was waiting for them at the bottom of the hill, clothed in black and red and looking every bit the pissed off vampire with a grudge against the world. He wore his hair mid-length and layered, and Cotton only knew this because his mom was a hairdresser.

His clothes were normal enough, except for the thin, studded leather strips that hung from his jeans in tight loops over both thighs and crisscrossed at his hips. Then there were the multiple piercings to be taken into account. How one person could wear that much metal in their ears was a mystery to Cotton. Even the inner part of the shell was pierced. Not to mention his bottom lip in two places.

His shirt was a simple printed T. Fingerless black leather gloves and Doc Martens rounded out his attire. Cotton made a mental note to find something similar to wear to the next Halloween party he attended. He was forgoing the piercings, though. He disliked pointy objects that close to his face too much to ever get one, let alone more than that.

“You keep staring at me like that, human, and I might think you like what you see,” Sage said in a deep, smooth voice.

“Nah, you’re a little too dead for my tastes, babe,” Cotton snapped back without missing a beat.

Sage smirked. “Is that what they told you? That vampires are dead?”

“That’s the consensus, yeah.”

“But you don’t know for sure, right? You’re basing your belief on what other people have told you to be true, so how can you be sure we are, in fact, dead? You’ve never met a vampire before now, have you?”

“What point are you trying to make?” Cotton asked in a bored tone and crossed his arms.

Z coughed and leaned down to tell Cotton in a quiet tone, “Um, unless you swing both ways, shut up now. Sage isn’t dead and he’s trying to tell you he thinks you’re hot.”

Cotton narrowed his eyes at Z. “What?” he hissed.

Z nodded swiftly while trying to hold back laughter.

“You make friends with the strangest people, Z, I swear,” Cotton muttered, ignoring the fact that he’d lumped himself in that same group.

Sage watched the exchange with an amused smile.

“As much as I like making other people squirm with discomfort, I don’t believe that’s why we’re here tonight,” he said.

Z nodded and stepped forward a bit. “True, but it’s always fun to ruffle the minion’s feathers, ya know.”

Cotton glared at Z and took a step back, making sure there was lots of space between him and Sage, just in case the guy got the wrong idea. Sage merely smirked at him and Cotton rolled his eyes.

“Can we just get this over with? I don’t really like having to wait to be sprayed with guts, blood, and brains, so the sooner this is done, the quicker I can go home and get clean.”

“So you’re saying you wouldn’t be against waiting to get sprayed with other things?” Sage asked slyly.

Cotton nearly choked on his own spit. “You sick perv! I don’t swing that way, okay? I’m not any sort of curious either, so just take your sexual innuendo and shove it up your ass!”

Sage grinned, and, realizing how that sounded, Cotton groaned. “Eugh, you know what? Screw it, I’m going to sit in the car. You two have fun without me.”

Z and Sage watched him nearly scramble up the hill in his haste to get away, the two of them laughing at him the whole time.

“You’re right,” Sage said, chuckling to himself. “He is fun to mess with.”

“I told you so,” Z replied, smirking, then a second later he was all business.

“What did you find out?” he asked, his tone serious.

Sage’s expression was grave. “You know the old institute that’s been falling to pieces?”

Z nodded slowly. He remembered the place well. It was where his new beginnings were rooted. As well as…

“Yeah. I know it,” he said, eyeing Sage with perplexity.

“Then you’re aware of the underground sections, I take it?”

Z nodded again, declining to comment. Just thinking about it had his stomach clenching even as he wondered what Sage was getting at with these questions.

“Well, your guy has made that place his base of operations, and he puts the cells to good use. As far as I know, he’s fixed things up a bit.”

“As far as you know?”

Sage shrugged. “I didn’t stick around that long. New faces, especially ones like mine, aren’t easily looked over or forgotten in places like that. I was there long enough to make sure that was where things were going down, then I got out of there.”

Z sighed, but nodded. He couldn’t expect anything more from a guy whose agenda wasn’t the same as his, after all. “Alright. Thanks.”

“Hey, Z?” Sage called as Z started back up the hill.

He turned. “Yeah?”

“What did Taylor say about you cutting deals with a vampire?”

Even from this distance Z could make out the shit-eating grin on Sage’s face and gave one of his own. “She can’t say anything about something she doesn’t know of.”

Sage laughed. “You’re going to be in deep shit when she finds out.”

Z chuckled. “Probably, but that’s never stopped me before.”

“No. It hasn’t,” said Sage. “You best get back to your pygmy minion. Oh, but before you do, do me a favor?”

“What?”

“Scare him a little for me, will ya?”

Z laughed. “I’ll do that.”

Sage stepped into the shadows of the distant trees and Z jogged back to the car where Cotton was waiting for him.

“Did you get the info you needed?” Cotton asked as soon as Z hopped in.

“Yep,” Z said, starting the ignition and revving the engine a few times.

“And?” Cotton pressed.

Z flashed him a grin. “Sage told me to wish you a good night and that he hopes you dream of him.”

Cotton cupped his face with his hands and dropped his head into his lap, giving a pitiful whimper. “What did I do to deserve this?” he moaned.

“You were born short,” Z said, pulling onto the road.

“Fuck you,” Cotton spat, the vehemence lost due to the words being muffled by denim.

“You’d do better to tell Sage that, wouldn’t you?”

Cotton whimpered. “I hate you.”

Z found himself able to drive in silence with Cotton in the car for the first time in a while. He would have to scare him more often.

* * *

The two and a half hour drive was silent aside from the occasional snide remark from Cotton, which pretty much went unnoticed by Z. His thoughts were somewhere else entirely.

He’d known the institute was still standing, albeit in a gloriously rusted heap as opposed to its once shining, gleaming perfection of waxed floors and stainless steel, and in all the years he’d been free from that prison, that hell, he’d managed to block the worst of his memories from his mind, but for some reason those black moments were leaking back into his memory bank, making him feel emotionally unstable, and that was not something he appreciated at all. He survived by keeping his head straight and thoughts clear of anything that might throw a wrench in the way the mission needed to be carried out, so this–this was anything but pleasant. This feeling of not knowing how things were going to go down was making him second guess himself, and that was never a good thing.

Bad things happened when he wasn’t one hundred percent sure of how he was going to react to things.

“Yo! Earth to Z! Is anybody home in that thick noggin of yours?”

He blinked as though coming out of a daze and saw Cotton’s hand waving frantically in front of his face. He batted it away and snapped, “What?”

Cotton kind of frowned at him. It was a weird look, actually. Not really a frown, but not exactly a sneer, either. Then again, Cotton could make some whacked out expressions. Some of them so weird, Z had a hard time believing the guy was just a normal human.

“You were staring off into space like you were communicating with your homeworld for like, ten minutes, dude. We’ve been sitting here for fifteen.”

Z looked around in surprise. They were definitely no longer moving. The question was: when had he stopped the car, and why didn’t he remember it? Ah, well. At least he hadn’t driven them off a cliff or anything bad like that. He heard a rumbling noise and looked back at Cotton, whose mouth was moving. Right. He was still talking.

“What is with you today? First there was that weirdness with Taylor, then you tell me you’ve been cavorting with the enemy, and now here you are not being you. What’s the deal? And don’t give me some lame bullshit about it having been a long day. I’ve been with you the whole time, I know it’s been a long day.”

Z stared at Cotton for a minute, then said, “You sure are talkative today. What’s up with that?”

Cotton glared at him and Z couldn’t help but crack a grin at that. It was such a normal expression for Cotton to be sending towards him. Z had to say it was refreshing after all the weird, girly ones Cotton had been hurling at him today.

“Fine.” Cotton sighed. “Don’t tell me, your partner, anything. I don’t care, and it’s not like I need to know what’s going on in your head in case you’re having some kind of psychological breakdown or anything. Not like I would need to know in case something happened because of it. I’m sure Taylor would understand if I had to tell her you were being an emo bitch during a mission and that’s why everything backfired–or worse.”

Cotton shrugged nonchalantly and leaned back against the seat. “Nope. Don’t need to know at all.”

Z wasn’t sure he wanted to tell Cotton he was having flashbacks of what happened to him in that place. Cotton knew he wasn’t entirely human, at least, not anymore, but he wasn’t aware of the specifics, and Z didn’t think now was really the best time to tell him. It was one thing for Z to be a little out of it during a mission, but it was quite another if Cotton decided to flip mental tables over something. And if both of them were not completely focused? Taylor really would have their balls on silver platters. Hell, she’d probably be the one to chop ‘em off…in a very torturous kind of way. Which might involve ice picks…and maybe a dull knife–

“Z! You’re zoning again! I’d appreciate it if you’d stay on Earth while I’m having to work with you!”

He shook his head, dislodging the unpleasant thoughts circling through it. “Sorry,” he said to Cotton. “I’m just not dealing with this real well right now.”

Cotton lifted his brow, giving Z a deadpan stare. “Oh really? I couldn’t tell.”

Z squeezed his eyes shut and pressed the heels of his hands hard against them. “Just–. I’ll fill you in on the details later.”

He dropped his hands onto the steering wheel and opened his eyes. They refocused quicker than any humans would in the dim light. “Right now I just wanna get in there and kill things, so come on if you’re coming, otherwise you can sit out here and keep the crickets company.”

He popped the door open and stepped out like he hadn’t just gone all wishy-washy over his past.

He heard Cotton’s door open, then slam shut, tell-tale hurried footsteps, and then Cotton was beside him, mumbling, “Like I’m gonna let you have all the fun.”

Z smirked and continued on, the sounds of the night doing nothing to turn his thoughts away from his memories and the knowledge that he was about to enter the place where he’d spent his teenage years at the mercy of monsters—this time of his own free will.

He stopped just in front of the doors, taking in the ruined outer appearance and then he stepped through the frame of what used to be a glass door, pieces of debris crunching beneath his boots.

Everything had been left as it was after the escape, the only difference now was the layers of dust and outside debris scattered across the floor.

Flashes of his past flickered in and out of focus in his mind’s eye. The screams and commands of his friends echoed in his ears like he was hearing them for the first time. He stopped and closed his eyes, breathing deeply to calm his speeding heart.

A hand grasped his shoulder and he whipped around, breaking the contact, and took a step back. In the blink of an eye, he had his gun raised and ready to unload a bullet dead center to the head of whoever had touched him.

“Easy. Easy,” Sage said, hands raised in front of him. “It’s just me. Didn’t mean to spook you.”

Z took a deep breath and lowered his gun. “What are you doing here?” he demanded.

“I thought you two could use some help, plus I was bored.” He shrugged and tucked his hands in his pockets.

“Hasn’t anyone ever told you to never sneak up on a guy with a gun? I almost killed you.”

Sage smirked and cocked his head slowly to the side, causing his hair to spill forward, further obscuring his features. “This place got you jumpy, Zedidiah?”

“Probably as much as it’s got you, Sherridan.”

A raucous fit of laughter seemed to come out of nowhere, but only because Cotton, the one who was now doubled over laughing, stood nearly a foot shorter than the other two men in the room; the fact that he was bent over rendered him practically invisible.

Sage glowered at Z, lips pulling back in a snarl. “I thought I told you never to call me by that name again!”

Z smiled toothily. “Oh, you did. But then, I believe I told you the same, did I not? If you can renege on a promise, then so can I.”

“Sherridan? Are you serious?” Cotton cackled. “Oh my God! I think that’s worse than yours, Z!”

“Thank you, minion,” said Z loftily. “I have to agree.”

Sage just growled and muttered things beneath his breath that Z could guarantee weren’t pretty or nonthreatening.

“As much as I would love to spend the rest of the night listening to you two insult each other,” Cotton said once he’d regained enough breath to actually speak instead of doubling over in another bout of laughter, “I believe it would be in everyone’s best interests if we actually did what we came here to do, agreed? Of course it is. So, sally forth, tallyho, and all that dumb crap. Getting zombie guts out of clothes isn’t the easiest thing in the world to do, not to mention the hellacious stains the stuff leaves behind, so I’d really like to get this over with as quickly as possible in order to minimize the amount of time I’m going to be spending with the laundry detergent and a scrub brush.”

Sage and Z watched in bewilderment as the shorter male then turned on his heel and went off down the widest hallway by himself. Sage turned to look at Z and asked, “Is he really stupid or really brave?”

Z shrugged. “A little bit of both.”

“Ah,” Sage breathed with a nod.

“Are you two coming or not?” Cotton’s voice bounced back to them through the empty hallway eerily.

Z steeled himself and with a deeply inhaled breath, took the first step leading him closer to the place that haunted his dreams to this day.

“We’re coming, midget,” he called with false calm, and beside him, Sage chuckled.

“You’re the freak here, not me!” Cotton snapped back.

In more ways than one, Z thought sadly.

He and Sage caught up with Cotton fairly quickly and directed him where to go. It was when the three were making their way down what had to be the millionth staircase that Cotton casually brought up the question of how Z knew his way around the place.

Z sighed. “I should have known you were going to ask me about that before the night was through, so, to make a long story short, I know this place because I was kept here for several harrowing years against my will and injected with stuff that burned like hellfire through my veins as well as being put under the knife, electrocuted, and nearly drowned a number of times; shot, stabbed, poisoned—you name it, all to test my resistance to certain things. There’s loads more I could tell you, but I’m pretty sure you want to keep your lunch down.”

Cotton blinked once, twice, a third time. “Well, shit.”

Z really wanted to laugh despite the heaviness of the atmosphere, but had to decline since there were people coming their way, and it just wouldn’t do to be found out this quickly. He lifted his gun and fired three shots in quick succession, each shot hitting the target’s kill-zones with deadly accuracy. They dropped to the floor without a sound.

Cotton looked at the dead bodies not twenty feet from them and shook his head. “I’m not even gonna ask.”

“Good, ’cause I wasn’t gonna answer.”

Sage pushed off from the wall he’d casually been leaning against while Z took out the baddies, and said, “Let’s keep moving. Where those three came from, there’s sure to be more behind them.”

Not five minutes later, however, they received an unwelcome, but not necessarily unanticipated shock. Standing at the foot of the stairs was the slimy bastard Z and Cotton had been after from the beginning, the one who was responsible for the mass outbreak of zombies.

“Eli.” Z breathed the name even as Cotton choked on it.

A mirthless chuckle floated up to them, causing an instantaneous shudder to trip down Cotton’s spine. With a glance at Z and Sage, he couldn’t tell if they were affected or not, but by the looks of it, they weren’t really all that surprised to see him. Why Cotton had thought the possibility of running into Eli was slim was beyond him, especially since finding and then bringing him in was their main objective.

“Hello, Z. It’s been far too long. We’ve been expecting you. Ah, I see you’ve brought friends. Perfect. Now if you’ll just come down here and follow me like a good fellow, there won’t be reason for my men to harm you.”

Cotton fought against a second shudder at the sound of Eli’s voice. It brought to mind a rotting corpse mixed with mucus and the smell of thyme, and Cotton had always hated thyme. It was, in a word, disgusting.

“You should know me well enough by now, Eli, to know that won’t be happening.”

Eli chuckled. “I figured as much, so you shouldn’t be at all surprised by what is about to happen.”

There was only the faintest flick of his fingers to give him away, but by then it was too late. The pinprick pain of a needle sliding into the tender skin of his neck, followed by white hot pain was all Cotton was aware of before sweet blackness enveloped him and he was lost to reality.

(c) Brianna Somersham 2011