"I think that went well," I said as we left the headquarters. Truthfully, Rahim was pretty hard on Crane, but it was understandable. Amir did almost die, and now Crane would be using that much more antizin. From what I'd gathered, we were gonna be in deep shit if we didn't get more antizin soon. "So, to the thirteenth floor?"

Crane nodded and muttered, "I'm not lazy… little shit."

I laughed and walked on ahead of him, since I knew where the elevator was and I didn't need Crane wandering around until he figured out the elevator door looked like any other door. I'd paced this floor too many times. After Jade had pointed me up here, I'd practically been quarantined myself. Lena was sure to check me all over for bites. She was definitely relieved, but I was guessing that was more about antizin than actual concern for my safety.

Even after they'd given me the go ahead to leave the building, I didn't want to leave without Crane. I hadn't completely forgotten about him being a giant ass on the plane, but still we were in this shit together. I looked back at him then. He looked a lot better now that his head wound had almost completely healed. Honestly, I could see why the GRE picked him. He looked strong, but not overly so. His tan skin and dark hair made him less conspicuous that I was. In fact, I was still a bit surprised that they let me go at all. I was fairly short, bright red hair, green eyes, too much time in the sun and I would resemble a lobster, but I suspected that she had a stronger motivation to find Kadir than Crane did.

I looked away when Crane caught me watching him and continued walking down the hall. The man standing guard at the elevator stepped forward, giving me a once over. "Where do you think you're going?"

I folded my arms across my chest. "The thirteenth floor."

"You?" he laughed, "by yourself?"

I gritted my teeth. "Alright, just because I'm-"

"I'll be going with her," Crane said, placing his hand on my shoulder and pulling me backwards. He whispered, "We need them on our side, Red."

I raised an eyebrow at him. "Red?"

He chuckled. "On account of the hair," he said, lifting a curl, "wow, that's soft."

I swatted his hand away, and turned back to the guard. "You gonna let us through or not?"

The guard raised his hands in surrender, stepping away from the door. I wasn't sure if I was excited to be leaving this floor or nervous about going to the thirteenth. Apparently something hug had gone down on that floor - a survivor didn't get antizin in time? Or something like that…

I shook my head and stepped into the elevator, groaning internally. Small spaces also weren't my thing. "Jess, you better be thankful for this," I muttered, staring at the row of buttons, and pushing thirteen.

Crane loomed over my shoulder, "What'd you say?"

"Nothing."

The elevator lurched downward and I gripped the handle tightly, looking out of the corner of my eye to see if Crane had noticed my nervousness. If he did, he had the smarts not to mention it again. I stared down at the linoleum squares and thought of why I was here. Why for the love of all things holy had I decided to come into a quarantined city? It was simple: Jess.

I could still remember the day the quarantine had started, some three months earlier. I had nearly lost my mind, of all the places for something like this to occur, it had to be in the one city that my best friend was inside. Honestly, I never understood why Jess wanted to go into Haran in the first place, but I wasn't going to argue with Jess. That would only be a lesson in futility. Jess wanted to do something good. "Doctors," I muttered, rolling my eyes.

"You coming or what?" Crane asked, watching me look up from the square that I had been staring at, clearly lost in thought. I could feel his eyes studying me, and I wondered what he thought. I'd been described as feisty, told that I needed to watch my mouth, and that it was always the short ones that get all riled up. Well, honestly I wasn't that much below average height, and yeah… I know I swear too much. Did he care? Did I care if he did?

"Red."

"Huh?"

He grinned at me. "Coming?"

"Oh," I replied, feeling a bit of a fool for how long I had just stared back at him, "yeah, sorry. Let's go."

Crane pushed open the door and I immediately wanted to hurl.

"God, what is that smell?"

He grimaced. "The dead."

I turned and punched his arm. "Well, no shit, Sherlock."

He shrugged. "You're the one that asked."

I glared up at him and kept walking. One look at the floor and I knew it was pointless to try to avoid stepping in the blood; it was everywhere. I swatted the flies away from my face, and peeked around the corner. Looked like the power was out, or at least every light was off. When I looked back I could see Crane talking into the radio and nearly cursed, I had completely forgotten to check in with them.

"It's been over 70 hours."

Crane turned and gave me a pointed look.

I grinned back sheepishly, shrugging, then walking further down the hall. Halfway down I stopped, hearing the telltale shuffles and grunts of zombies. I wanted to smack my head on the wall. Why didn't I bring that pipe? I huddled down and hoped that Crane would keep quiet. All I had to do was stay quiet until I got far enough t-

"Help! HELP! SOMEBODY!"

I looked over and saw the zombies ambling towards me. "Well, fuck."

I turned and sprinted back down the hallway. "CRAAAAANE!"

When I bolted around the corner I saw Crane headed my way, pipe in hand. I cocked my head, seemed like there were a lot of those just lying around. When I was close enough I pointed behind me and ducked out of the way. The first two of the group made for Crane, but I wasn't so lucky that they all did. Instead I found myself on the floor, pinned down by a rather fat zombie who was missing part of his jaw.

I could feel the wet ooze of guts dripping onto me and cringed. The only thing keeping me from being bitten was my foot that I had managed to jam between them as I fell. I was just lucky that the brainless beast didn't try bitting my leg. Instead it clawed at my face, missing it by mere centimeters. "Crane?! A little help here?"

When I saw Cane swinging the pipe, I shut my mouth and eyes tight, aware of the blood splatter that was coming. When the wet droplets sprayed across my face I tried not to think about it too much. I scrambled out from under the dead weight and grabbed the hand that Crane offered.

"How much you want to be that was Mark calling for help?" Craned asked as we walked down the hall.

"I don't," I groused. I had no doubt that it was Mark. My only question was, what was that idiot doing on this floor by himself?

"Are you still mad at me, Red?"

"Don't call me that," I grumbled, walking ahead of him.

"So, yes?" he asked.

I could hear the grin in his damn voice. Jackass. "I will hit you."

He chuckled and I hated how warm and inviting it sounded. Damn him.

I kicked the door to the apartment open and saw a zombie scratching at the bathroom door, and I assumed that Mark was inside. "Pipe," I demanded, holding my hand out towards Crane.

"Say please."

I whipped my head around and gave him my coldest glare.

He held his hand up in surrender, handing over the pipe. I stepped forward and swung the pipe with a hard determination.

I tossed the pipe back at Crane and kicked the door open, "Holy shit, are you okay?!"

I crouched down in front of Mark, who clutched his arm to his side. I could see the blood from his wound and the weary look in his eyes. "I cut my arm...getting away from him.. Oh, God...you had to kill him, didn't you? God damn it. That was... that was my brother... I came down to see him and..."

I glanced back at the body slumped in the hall, then up at Crane. "You tell Rahim. I'm gonna go look for something to stop the bleeding."

Crane nodded. "Rahim, this is Crane. We're down here on 13. Listen, this guy of yours got fucked up pretty bad getting away from a zombie."

"Oh shit...13?!"

I stumbled out of the room with a nauseous feeling creeping up on me. I had killed his brother. Part of me knew that it wasn't his brother, not really. But I couldn't imagine what I would do if I found Jess like... if Jess wasn't there anymore.

I turned the corner into a new apartment and rushed to the bathroom. Maybe it was just out of habit but I felt throwing up in the middle of the hallway wasn't the best idea. I dropped to my knees in front of the toilet, just letting it all out. When I pulled back, I wiped my mouth with a disgusted groan.

As I turned around I spotted a first aid station on the wall. "Huh, well that's handy."

The only contents were gauze, but I figured that would be good enough. After wandering through the apartment, I found a energy bar and a bottle of whiskey. After using a little of the alcohol as mouthwash I spat it into the kitchen sink and ate the energy bar.

Crane raised his eyebrow at me when I clomped back into the bathroom. The whiskey was half gone and I handed him the rest of the bottle and the gauze. He sighed, "Gauze and alcohol? That's your miracle first aid?"

I shrugged. "I suppose we could always amputate his arm instead."

Shaking his head, Crane doused the gauze in alcohol and wrapped Mark's arm up. He turned back towards me. "How we gonna- Duct tape? That's classy."

"Hey, if it works. It works. Don't question my methods."

Crane chuckled. "Yeah, okay Doc."

I leaned against the doorframe so she wouldn't get in the way. "After Lena gets here, you go talk to Rahim, I think I'm gonna lay down for a bit."

By the time I got back to the 19th floor, most of the blood on me had dried. I shuffled down the halls and back into room 194. With a bottle of water and a rag I managed to clean the blood off my face and out of my hair, but sighed as I looked down at her clothes, which were definitely ruined.

I quickly tugged my shirt over my head and let my pants drop to the floor, "Now something to wear."

After rummaging through the bag on the mattress, I pulled out a bright yellow shirt. Eh, I wasn't a big fan of the color but beggars couldn't be choosers. The shirt was definitely too big, just barely covering my bottom and I laughed at myself. If I didn't have the curves to prove otherwise, I would have looked like a kid.

Crane walked into the room to find me standing in only a shirt. His eyes shifted to the bag on the floor then back to me, a grin spreading across his face, "I do believe that's my shirt you've got on there."

My look of surprise quickly shifted to a look of challenge. "And I'm guessing you want it back?"

His smirk only grew, as I watched his eyes travel from my head to toe, "Well I have to admit, it does look good on you."

I rolled her eyes. "Oh, really?" I took a few steps forward so we were nearly chest to chest, and looked up at him, "so you don't want it back then?"

"Oh, I didn't say that," he murmured, bringing a hand up against the edge of the shirt. His fingers played with the hem, brushing against the smooth skin of my thigh...testing, teasing. I tried to think of a witty response, but as his hands slid up further underneath the shirt I gave up. "Oh, fuck it."

I pressed forward and Crane's lips crashed upon mine as he griped my thighs, lifting me up against his hips. My hands moved up his chest and around his neck as I pressed my breasts against him. Crane groaned into the kiss, and I rolled my hips against him in response.

Crane carried me forward until we came crashing down onto the mattress. I laughed against his lips and tugged at his shirt. I pushed him back long enough for me to tug his shirt over his head and then we were right back against each other. His hands moved swiftly under the shirt, smoothing his hand down my stomach. As his hand slipped inside my underwear I gasped, which he took as an invitation, his tongue plunging into my mouth.

But I wasn't there just to enjoy the ride. I pressed harder against him, my tongue battling with his. As my hands tugged at his zipper, I heard the crackle of the radio.

"Hey, 31, you ready?"

Crane froze against me. "Ah, yeah… Rahim, what is it?" he said, lifting himself up onto his palms. He looked down at me, and I grinned devilishly, letting my hand slip into his boxers. Crane struggled to keep quiet, his head barely registering that Rahim was still speaking. I didn't hold back. I yanked my panties down, and slowly guided Crane inside me.

He groaned, tucking his face into the crook of my neck as he slowly began thrusting.

"Hey 31, did you hear me?"

Crane bit his lip, torn between ignoring Rahim and making me stop. Oh, and he definitely didn't want me to stop. "Yeah... yeah, Rahim... I heard you."

"You coming or what?"

I laughed against Crane's neck and he gripped the edge of the mattress harder. "I'm tryin'."