PetrA

Chapter thirty-five: Cody

At least they'd been allowed to keep their bags... Cody could still smell the bubble gum he wanted so badly. After all, it was one of his favourite flavours. The large grumpy dude called Michel still looked like he was ready to wring somebody's neck for messing with his gun. "Is he always this grumpy?" Cody asked quietly. The boy who sat beside him had red hair and brown eyes. "Yes and no. He gets really mad when somebody mess with his guns or draw moustaches on his face." The kid grinned and slipped Cody a piece of bubble gum. He took it greedily and stuffed it in his mouth. He looked at the wrapper and almost laughed, almost. "It was you and that Harrison kid wasn't it?" He asked. The kid smirked, "Yes it was, Marty, and I, but my brother Lewis helped too.

Gemma plopped down between them and grabbed a gum herself. The kid protested but it was too late. "Helium, you don't steal a man's bubble gum!" Cody hissed. Gemma just raised her eyebrows at him, "I'm sorry Greed but the gum guns made me crave it." She glanced at the boy, and stole another piece. "Hey!" She grinned at him and chewed. "Where's our Cookie?" She asked looking around. "Cookie?" The kid asked. "Our friend." Gemma said gnawing on some leaves in addition to her chewing gum. "Oh, he's probably with Michel and Teresa. If you haven't noticed they are not very friendly towards others. They believe everyone's infected somehow, and Mr. Grumpy pants would probably kill us all if it wasn't for Teresa. He's quite trigger happy and have no sense of humour what so ever." "We've noticed." Cody said. "But why block all exits and ways around the city?" Gemma asked. The kid shrugged, "Dude, as I said Michel is quite happy with killing people. I believe it's his personal drug." Gemma frowned "How'd he gets those wounds on his legs and arms?" He shrugged. "Somebody just bit him. Not infected, but the person got away with their life. It was awesome." He leaned back against the tree. "Hey Dinozzo do you have some gum left?" somebody called, "Do you have something to trade?" He called back. A short female came over, her hair pulled back in a bandana and cut short. "I have some dried fruit and a cool stick." The red haired kid thought about the offer. "Deal, I want a fancy stick and dried fruit is yum." The girl threw the things to him and he gave her a package of gum.

He began munching on the dried fruit right away, he offered Gemma and Cody some, and even if he wanted, Cody wouldn't have been able to say no. Food is food and he was hungry. "Why Dinozzo?" Cody asked stuffing the food into his mouth. "Because my name is Anthony and Stella is a fan of NCIS." He pointed the stick at the girl. Gemma asked if she could have some more fruit for Kim. Anthony nodded and gave her a bag. After a long time, Kim finally came back, he did not look happy. "Whoa did he insult Dolphin?" Cody asked. Kim gave him a sour look, "No, but he did ask if there was more of us." He sat down in front of them, "Fruit?" Gemma asked holding up the bag. "Thank you." Kim said taking it from her hands. "Did he by chance mention that he'd kill you?" Anthony asked brightly. Kim scowled at him, but didn't answer. "He said he'd lock us in the city if we made any problems."

Cody talked with Anthony and his brother Lewis as he came over and joined the party. "What's with the strange names?" Anthony asked suddenly. Cody glanced down at Gemma who was fast asleep in his lap and then at Kim who shook his head. "It's what we call each other." Cody said. "So did you know each other before all this started, or did you just stumble upon each other?" Lewis asked. Cody stroked Gemma's hair softly, "We went to the same school. So yeah we knew each other." He said. "Friends?" "Well sort of..." Cody said, but he didn't want to give out too much information. Somehow, he knew that it would be a bad idea. Too many people and that Michel dude would just love to have a more playthings.

The chilly night and hard ground didn't give them much comfort, and Cody didn't sleep at all he just laid there and watched the sky, the clouds hung low in the air promising rain. Finally, the sky seemed to brighten and people stirred. Perhaps it was Cody's imagination, but a rotten smell had started to settle over the camp. Cody sat up waking up Gemma; she wrinkled her nose "It smells like rotten eggs." On the east side of the camp people started screaming, people all around woke up for good and panic spread like a wild fire. There were too many people gathered here, Kim pulled out his knife that he'd hidden in his sleeve. It was a wonder how he'd managed to not cut himself. Anthony stood with wide eyes holding his fancy stick and dried fruit. From the few tents in the middle of everyone, Michel and Teresa crashed through holding their guns. Cody wanted to scream at them, you do not use guns when there's only a few dead people eating away like it's a buffet table. That'll only attract more, they'd changed the bubble gum in their magazines to real bullets and started to shoot like they were in an action film.

"What do we do?" Lewis asked terrified. "We run obviously." Kim said. The twins started to run, but Gemma and Kim grabbed them by their arms. "The other way, unless you want to be on the menu." They turned around and ran, Cody, Gemma and Kim hot on their heels. Someone yelled after them, "COME BACK HERE AND FIGHT!" Michel all right... Cody ignored him and crashed through the trees. Cody cannot remember one single time he'd been happy to be surrounded by tree's, because the huge Ox with a girly name started firing bullets in their direction. Smooth, use your bullets on living people rather than actually kill the problem. It's amazing how stupid people can be.

They crashed through the trees and out onto the road, Cody didn't dare turn towards the city limit where their stealth car was parked. They turned their noses in the opposite direction and ran without stopping. Behind them, the screaming continued, and the echo of guns tore through the morning air. Anthony and Lewis were the first to stop, they nearly collapsed on a car somebody had spray painted and wheezed. However, Cody was no better. It felt like he'd been running a marathon and the air just wouldn't reach his lungs. Now he understood how people with Asthma feel like when they don't have their meds. For a long time, they just stood there bent over trying to catch their breaths. When Gemma made a squeaking noise and pulled Cody's arm. Her grip was painfully tight as she struggled to talk. Cody winched and looked at Gemma who was pointing at the van the twins stood leaned against he could hardly believe what he saw.

Hail the crazy Dolphin queen wearing a bowtie, dancing with the devil. Cody could have whooped with joy, but he didn't have the air to do so, neither did he think it would be wise. Hail the crazy Dolphin queen wearing a bowtie, dancing with the devil! There's only one person who'd write something like that. Ellie had been here and left a message hoping they'd find it. "What the hell?" Lewis asked looking at the sentence. "Hail the crazy Dolphin queen wearing a bowtie, dancing with the devil. Who writes stuff like that, on a car?" Kim's head snapped up, his eyes widened as he read the paint. He looked ready to faint, but Cody guessed that was from running. "They made it out!" Gemma finally said, she looked like she'd found the cure against certain death. "What?" Anthony asked now staring at the words too.

"How'd they get out without the ox noticing them?" Gemma asked ignoring Anthony completely. "They must've found an alternative way." Cody said looking around. Surely, Ellie wouldn't just have left one message for them, Kim moved away from the car and began looking for another message. He must've known too that she'd never just leave one message for them. "What's with that message? You all act like it makes sense." Gemma grunted, "It make sense to us alright, there's only one person who'd write something like that." She touched the paint, "It's almost dry. They must've been here yesterday at some point." Gemma frowned and looked in the direction of where Kim had gone off, he was looking at a car with furrowed eyebrows. "We're lost. There are loads of people who could have done this just for shits giggles." Lewis said. Gemma scowled at him, "Considering it's says Crazy Dolphin queen, Bowtie and Devil..." She looked at them, "It's not random, and I know exactly who did it." She glanced at Cody. She silently asked if she should tell them. Cody just shrugged, there wasn't anybody else around.

"Dolphin, Devil and Bowtie are names for our friends. Ellie, Henrik and Joachim." She said Joachim's name with distaste. Anthony and Lewis perked up when Gemma said Ellie. "Is this Ellie, Dolphin whatever hot?" Lewis asked. Cody rolled his eyes and Gemma gave them a warning look. "Might be available, eh maybe we'll have some luck." Anthony said. "You'll have no luck with Ellie. You see Kim is her boyfriend." Anthony rolled his eyes, "And this Kim, is he alive?" Gemma scoffed. "KIM!" she yelled. Kim turned around startled. "What the hell? Don't yell. I don't want to be a buffet dish." He said. He walked over and shot Gemma an annoyed glance. "And there you have your answer." She said smirking at the two red haired boys. Their faces fell, "Dammit." But their disappointment didn't last long. "Anyway, you should probably see this." Kim said mentioning for them to follow him.

Hestopped in front of the car he'd been frowning at. "Ah that's Ellie. The Dolphinis North with the minions. Seek the realm of my father. P. Jackson is fab."Cody laughed, "That is Ellie alright. Who else would put a Percy Jacksonreference and on a car with paint?" Gemma looked inside the car. "The keys inthe engine, we could take this car." She opened the door and gagged. "Or not,smells like somebody died in there." "Somebody probably did." Cody said.