Coming Down (John and Maverick)

John was shaking uncontrollably all over, his entire body felt hot and cold at the same time and he felt both hyper-aware and numb at the same time. There was blood on his hands, if only a small splash. A zombie had caught him by surprise and he'd not been able to think of a non-bloody way to kill it before it could bite him. So his sword had come out and he'd stabbed the creature clear through the eye, through the back of his skull.

The blood had splashed on his hands and the instant he saw it John had had to use every ounce of his self-control to keep from screaming in horror. The blood, god the blood! It was there! On his hands! God why did it have to be there? Why was it on him? He wanted it off!

He was already coming down from his paralyzing fear though enough to try and think, even though his body was still locked up from the sight of the blood. The stupidest thing was that he was unable to look away from it, prompting more fear. A slight sound from his side made him bite his lip even as he shivered and shook,

"H-h-h-hello?" he stuttered out, his usually quick and sharp tongue gone in the place of this fear, "P-p-please... h-h-help me!"

Maverick had been holing up in Buckingham Palace, it was a beautiful place and her father had told her once before that he would buy it for her one day so that she could sleep in the bed like a Queen, which was what she had done last night, it was a beautiful sleep. nothing was as safe as this place and she was glad that she had left the waxworks in exchange for this accommodation.

She wished she could stay, but who knows, maybe she would come back here after a few nights, never stay in the same place for more than a few nights, that was one of her rules, then you became too comfortable and the zombies might catch onto your presence in that particular building.

Clambering down onto the pavement outside of the palace, she looked around the gardens and saw, with shock, the ass from the waxworks standing there looking like he was in some sort of shock, then she saw the zombie coming towards him, dammnit why didn't he move?! Cocking her gun, she aimed, paused, and then took the shot, splattering the zombies head all over the guy, John if she remembered.

Stalking her way through the long grass she took one look at the guy, knew she needed to act and sighed;

"Well fuck me." she whispered, before throwing the guy over her shoulder and walking slowly back to the Palace with him, setting him on one of the sofas and unscrewing the top off a bottle of water, pouring a little into his mouth "Hey, calm down, what's wrong?"

John had been blind and deaf to the world since he had started to stare at the blood on his hands, the terrifying, horrorfying, disgusting blood. He had just been trying to bring himself to try and force himself to put his hands down when he heard a loud gunshot and the sound of something moving past him at high speeds. He managed to turn his head when he heard it impact something soft.

He immediately wished that he hadn't.

A zombie had been coming up on him and had been taken out by the bullet. The one thing he found completely unbearable was that the head exploded, all of the blood and gore spraying against his face. His eyes widened madly and his shaking began to increase, almost like he was going to have a seizure.

Then he started screaming. Terrified, pettrified, screams of fear, maddening fear.

He was vaguely aware of being thrown onto someone's shoulder and wasn't screaming by that time, having screamed himself hoarse within the first few seconds. When the water went into his mouth he shook so that his head moved. The water instead cleaned his face of the blood that was visible to him. He was still shaking like a leaf though,

"W-w-w-where am I?" he asked, still clearly terrified. The question began to process slowly, "B-b-blood... Oh god... oh god so much blood! All over me! God the blood! Get it off! Get it off me! Ah! Oh god it's on me!"

He thrashed on the sofa, trying desperately to wipe the blood off of himself with his hands.

Maverick blinked and she merely watched the guy for a moment, he seemed like he was having some sort of panic attack and she really didn't know how to handle it, she supposed she could use the same techniques that she had used on her mother when she had taken too much cocaine and went into a similar seisure...it might work.

Hearing that it was the blood that was the problem, she tore a strip of material off the curtain train and covered it in water, like it was a flannel, and she rubbed the blood left on his face off, before gripping his hands tightly and scrubbing the blood off that lay on them too. Wow, he really was zombie bait if this is how he reacted to blood.

"Hey, it's all gone now, so calm the fuck down okay?" she asked, her voice not sharp like it was when they first met, gently she stroked the hair from his eyes and the familiarity of the situation to when she was taking care of her mother made her more gentle, more soft like she used to be.

Gently she tipped the water up into his mouth, to ease his shakes; "Now you lay still. You're going to feel dizzy, so stay put until I say."

The blood was being wiped away. He was being clensed of the foul substance. John was so happy, he hated blood with a passion simply because it was the only thing that could stop him dead in his tracks each and every time. It was getting a little bit easier as this new world went on but it was a slow process.

He moaned slightly as his shakes began to die down a little bit and his mind was once again able to take control of his body. John gritted his teeth against the collosal headache and the pain in his veins and turned to look at the woman who had taken him away from the zombies,

"Have you... may I have an asprin? Or something for a headache? Please?" he asked her quietly, his voice rough and scratchy, "If you don't have anything... I..."

He paused for a second. How to explain this properly? Just telling the truth seemed like the best bet though,

"If you don't have anything... check my backpack..." he told her quietly, "There's some morphine I was able to salvage from a hospital supply truck..."

Maverick wondered if she was supposed to be something like a personal maid service now, but the guy did just have a seizure she couldn't just leave him on his own it would be even more of a death sentence than last time she left him. Standing up she made her way over to her bags, and she dug out a large box of aspirin, extreme strength that she had gotten from her father's private pharmacy.

"Here." she stated, giving him one and gesturing at the bottle of water left on a side table that looked too expensive to be allowed "They're extra high strength, like horse tranquillisers, so just take the one, it should get rid of any pain you'd ever feel in the next day or so, so don't worry about relapsing headaches."

Sitting down on the chair opposite John, she leant forwards and steepled her fingers, looking at the man in front of her, before throwing him a Cadbury's chocolate bar, a grim expression on her lips;

"Eat, having higher blood sugar will help you feel better, but I'm sure you already know that." she instructed, looking out at the garden, taking her silenced pistol and finishing the other two zombies wandering around, one of them looking like Camilla for a moment, before she smashed it;s face with a bullet.

John took the tablet gratefully and didn't even wait for the explanation as to how strong it was before taking it with a small mouthful of water. He sighed a little bit as the pain already began to numb. He nodded to her slowly, careful not to move his head too fast lest the headache threaten to split his head in two again,

"Thanks." he said quietly as he pulled himself up into a sitting position. The world swam for a second but he was able to maintain what little balance he had, "I should have died out there... thank you for saving me."

He nodded a little bit when she handed him the chocolate and ate it slowly as she left, not doubt to go and kill any other zombies around. He closed his eyes tightly and when she came back he glanced up at her,

"Hemophobia." he told her, quietly, "Fear of blood. I've got it and I've got it bad. Just thought you should know why you had to come and save my ass from getting eaten."

Maverick sat down on the sofa next to John and merely looked at the floor for a long time, here she was, saving people, becoming attatched, how could she not? It was a basic human need to be surrounded by people but then again there were not many people around to choose from, so this wind up merchant might be the only conversationalist she had for miles and miles.

But in this situation, should she even think about befriending him? He would most likely be killed in a world like this with a phobia like his.

"Have you not thought about travelling with someone? What's going to happen when you get blood on you and there's more than one zombie to deal with? When I'm not here to save your ass from becoming a human fucking happy meal."

As he explained what it was he had Maverick shook her hand dismissively;

"I kinda worked out what it was when the blood got off you, I don't need the fancy ass word for it." she smirked lightly "Now I told you to lie down until I told you to get up you're still dizzy and need to rest before you go back out there."

John was glad that someone had been around to save him and yet annoyed that he had to be saved at all. He had learnt, almost perfected, ways to kill zombies either without blood or at such a distance that the blood didn't bother him at all. When she brought up travelling with others he looked bitter for a few moments,

"Oh yeah and who would want me hanging around with them?" he asked her quietly, "Never mind the fact that I'm more than capable of trapping dozens of the feckers and killing them all in one go. Never mind the fact that I've almost perfected ways of killing them while getting around my condition... I'm sorry, I don't mean to rant."

He chuckled a little bit. It was a little bit redundant considering she already knew,

"Touche." he admitted before he grimaced a little bit and laid back down, "I hate being helpless like this... I always try and get up too soon and make it worse to... nothing for it I guess. Thanks again."

Maverick smirked a little bit and she couldn't help but think that the guy might be better after he just had a seizure, after all his jokes seemed to have stopped and he was more serious than he had ever been before, and she couldn't help but think that it might be good to keep him around, but...what about her philosophy?! She was so confused, and it was making her agitated.

"Doesn't matter a shit to me if you rant or not." she shrugged, after all it wasn't any of her business what they guy did or didn't do "Why don't you ask someone to take you on based on your skills you just said, someone will find that a valuable asset, trade skills and whatever." Maverick shrugged again.

Taking the bottle of water she gave it a sip herself and sighed gently it was so nice to be able to talk to someone that wasn't herself which was what she was used to lately. Maybe she could make an exception to the rules? Immediately she shut the thought down, no exceptions. None. Especially not men, things were always complicated when hormones were involved.

Sitting on the arm of the sofa she looked down at John so helpless and dependant, she was reminded once again of the seizures her mother had; "I will stay with you until you are back on your feet, those drugs will make you a little lucid, best not be alone while under the effects."

John groaned a little bit, once again trying to sit up. He needed to do it, to prove to both himself and Maverick that he wasn't just some weak little medical case. He was a medical case he supposed but he didn't have the time or the security to be a medical case. He had to be stronger than he was, even if that meant pushing himself harder than he ever had before, harder than he had ever needed to push,

"Well good because I might just start up again latter." he joked faintly, not really in a joking kind of mood after what he'd just been through. He scoffed and glanced at her, "You're the smartest person I've run into in this city. Everyone else has been either dumber than a sack of bricks and couldn't think of that or too damn cowardly to give me a chance to show them I could do other things."

John could hear the truth in her words mainly because the world was beginning to feel... significant for some reason. Like every movement was somehow funny. He gritted his teeth and sat up properly, sighing as he did so,

"There... much better." he said with a smile before turning to Maverick, "Thank you for this. I know it's usually against your code after all."

Maverick tilted her head to one side and she wondered if this was John's way of telling her that she was the only person he would be willing to team up with and the way of him telling her that she shouldn't be as dumb as the others to throw him out of this place. It was against her codes, both of them, but she had an idea, that she would love to try out, and see if it worked. If not, it would be on her head.

"You want me to consider letting you travel around with me?" she asked with an indifferent look on her face "I know it contradicts my codes, but even someone like me can get lonely in a world like this, where there is literally no other sound but groans and the sound of people getting ripped open."

Shrugging her shoulders Maverick took one last drink of water before putting it on the table in front of her, she wondered, as she looked at John, maybe her codes were wrong, but they had never landed her in trouble before....maybe she should vocalise how she felt? Immediately she shut that thought down.

"No need to thank me." she muttered "I'll be in the garden if you need me, don't try and move much just yet, you'll fall over and get a nose bleed. Then we start all over again."

Getting up she wandered into the garden and she began to work up some of the soil, in order to see if it was good enough to plant things in.

John was hoping against hope that she was with the idea of him accompanying her. If he was honest he wanted her to offer to take him with her because they would be an ideal match up. She could take them up close and be the fighter and he could plan ahead with traps and fight them at range, where the blood didn't bother him. Of course it was against her principles so he just had to see if he was worth that to her,

"Well... yes. I think it would be a good thing for the both of us, giving each other what we need as well as support." he elaborated with a small smile, "Well you'll never be lonely with me around that's for sure. I happen to think my jokes are slightly better than those sounds but feel free to disagree yeah?"

He knew that she had said that there was no need to thank her but he couldn't help but feel otherwise. After all, she'd saved his life and that meant a great deal to him. Chuckling a little bit when he was told to stay on the sofa, he gave her a little salute,

"Yes sir, boss lady." he agreed before she left the room. As soon as she left he sat up again as carefully as he could, slowly getting himself ready to stand up, leaning heavily of course, but standing up none the less.

A few hours later, Maverick came back into the main hall where she had left John and she wondered if he was going to be ready to move around now, after all it was getting dark and they were secure in the grounds that was for sure, but she still would prefer being upstairs in the room she had managed to make even more secure, the Queens bedroom, was probably the strongest protected room in the palace.

Wiping her hands on her jeans, Maverick felt for the first time in ages, that she really could do with a bath, moaning slightly with pain and exhaustion, she was glad she had been able to turn over almost the whole garden, and make a protective cover for it, so that the weather wouldn't harm it, or anything that attempted to eat and contaminate their food.

"John?" she called out, for the first time sounding like she should do, not the rather arrogant and arse like teenager she had been "Come on out and I'll take you to the place where we're going to hole up for the night."

Leaning against the table, Maverick wiped at her forehead, briefly seeing stars, she really could use with a drink right about now.

John had managed to get himself back on his feet after about half an hour but the drugs had made everything kind of trippy for awhile so he hadn't gotten to moving around until about an hour after she left. He had wandered around through the halls, looking for something along the walls. And when that failed he had even ventured out to the guard house. It had been deserted and only had a few rifles left with not a lot of ammo. He'd taken a rifle, mostly ceremonial, and taken it back in with all of the ammo he could carry.

When he arrived back in the main hall where Maverick had left him he had rooted around until he found a good piece of paper and a pencil. He had been writing out some plans for traps when he had heard Maverick coming back inside. From the alcove he stood up and waved her over,

"Over here." he called to her before passing her a bottle of water he'd found, "You look like you could use this. Now... I found a rifle with some rounds. I'm no good up close. You've seen that. I was thinking I could use it at a distance where I'm not affected. What do you think?"

Maverick wandered slowly over to John and she took the water from him uncapping it she took a shakey sip, feeling better for a moment she then decided to drink some more, swiftly finishing half of the bottle. Now feeling a lot more stable her mind turned to what John was planning and she thought that it wasn't half a bad idea when it came down to it, she knew how to shoot too.

"Were there any more of those things in the guard house?" she asked quietly, getting right down to the facts "We can both use with one, I know how to shoot pretty well, and I'm guessing that you do too, we can use them to defend ourselves when the barrier to the palace falls, which I don't think it ever will."

Looking at the rifle she sighed softly; "We'll only have to use these when other people decide they want a share of what's ours."

Moving out of the room she smirked a little bit; "Come on, its getting late and we need to move ourselves upstairs to the back of the palace where our activity wont be spotted, the lights still work after all, we can use them sparingly, in the right places."

John saw Maverick getting revitalised by the water and was glad that he'd had the foresight to pick the bottle up from the mini-fridge in the guard house. It wasn't the only thing working either, it seemed like the mains for certain areas of the palace still worked even if the lights didn't,

"Yes but only one I think." he tried to recall, having been more focused on salvaging as many bullets as he possibly could at the time, "It would be good if we both had rifles at the ready I agree. Sometimes both of us will want to hang back after all, take them on from a distance. As for the barrier... I think you're right. If we ever attract enough attention to even have it as a concern that is."

John froze for a second. He'd made plans for other people, of course, but he didn't like the fact anymore than Maverick seemed to. He sighed slightly,

"Yes we will because they will always come for what they want."

He raised an eyebrow and began to follow her with a small smirk,

"The lights still work huh? Some of the mains do as well. There's a mini fridge in the guard house where I got the water bottle from that works. Maybe the kitchens work too?"

Maverick merely nodded to John's statements she wasn't very interested in what was going on at this moment in time regarding the electricity, she knew that they would have to cope without it at some point and so she tried not to use it, after all you didnt know who it might attract or when it might run out. She was a staunch believer in saving things in case of emergencies.

Opening the door to the Queens bedroom she smirked a little bit, before pushing a button hidden on the portrait of Prince William, it then opened the door to the safe house that she had been using. Of course, it was naturally for her peace of mind, and it was far from being small, it was like a flat in its own right.

"Here, this is where I have been sleeping, of course the Queen and her family would have a safe house in her palace, I just was lucky enough to find it. It has its own generator, and chemical toilet, shower with hot water and beds for the two of us." she stated matter of factly before sitting down on her bed and taking off her shoes.

"I'm using the shower, then I'm going to sleep, you'll want to rest up while you can." she instructed "We will be going out to gain supplies tomorrow."

John had to agree with Maverick's non-commital to the state of electricity in the palace. Just because they had it didn't mean that they had to use it. Or even that it was right to use it. It could be a terrible mistake to use the power after all, lights could attract unwanted attention from both infected and humans. Neither of which they wanted poking around their little stronghold, even if it did feel strange to call it 'their' stronghold.

He followed her into the Queen's bedroom and whistled in appreciation when she revealed the saferoom within the palace's most heavily guarded room. It stood to reason that the Queen would need a saferoom like this but what made little sense was why she wasn't currently using it. He supposed it didn't matter now,

"Sounds more like a bunker than a saferoom..." he muttered to himself before grinning, "I bet this thing is designed to prevent radiation and chemical weapons... you won the lottery with this place."

When she said that she was going to use the shower he raised a hand in acknowledgement as he sat down on one of the beds. He laughed,

"Not been on a bed since this whole thing started..." he chuckled, "I think I'll get enough rest don't worry."

Maverick hummed to herself as she picked up one of the towels that she had found lying around here and she made her way over to the small cubicle in one corner of the room, it was a black simple thing but it would do, it screened her from view and it gave her enough space to dry herself off in the cubicle when she was done.

"I know I did, the only thing wrong with it is that if we get stuck in here with people out there we have limited supplies and we need to fix that, tomorrow we will be looking to get more food, water and ammunition."

Stepping into the cublicle, she stripped off and she placed her clothes out of the cubicle by sliding them underneath. Turning the water on she sighed happily and she had a brief shower before turning off the water, to conserve it, and beginning to dry herself off, stepping out of the cubicle in the clothes she had worn before after getting changed she rested on her bed.

"My names Maverick, by the way, Maverick Ryan." she muttered "I had the best sleep I've had since this started last night. Hopefully I will this night as well."

With that, she closed her eyes, and attempted to drift off to sleep.