Wow, only three years late LOL I've actually had this stewing in my documents for forever but things got a bit crazy. BUT I'm back now and hopefully gonna start updating crap instead of being THAT kind of author.

"Okay, gonna lay a couple of ground rules," Travis whispered to Mason as they rounded a corner that neared the source of multiple gunshots. Mason sidled up to the wall RIGHT next to Travis. Travis scooted over a few inches. Mason followed suit, looking up at Travis eagerly. Travis sighed. "Okay, ground rules," He kept talking. "First, don't make any loud noises," He instructed and they continued to sidle. "That means no prowling, screaming, jumping on loud things, no noise," He explained. He glanced down at Mason for an affirmative. Mason glanced back up at him.

"…NOOOOO noise—?" "NO noises," Travis shook his head. "At all. I'm not gonna rescue you if you go and get yourself caught. Okay, rule two. Don't go too far away from me. I can use my tongue as a grapple and pull you out of an intense situation, but if I find out that it's because you wandered away and made noise, I'm going fishing," He threatened. Mason looked up, tilting his head. "…That means I'm using you as bait. Get it? Going fishing using my tongue as a line?" He asked. Mason made an "o" with his mouth and nodded enthusiastically.

The two paused for a moment, Travis glancing around quickly with his grey-green eye as he checked to see if it was safe. Mason also glanced around, though Travis knew he couldn't see anything the Smoker couldn't. Travis nodded nonchalantly to a passing Common guy and they continued moving. "Third and most important rule MOST IMPORTANT—" Travis looked at Mason intensely. "-Rule is NO GETTING SEEN," He said with urgency. "If you get seen and I can't save you in time, they'll riddle you with more holes than my cousin Jimmy down in Savannah," He said. Mason nodded slowly before going "Huh?" Travis rolled his eye. "My second cousin Jimmy. My half-brother wrote to me a few weeks ago saying that a military guy got him. Eighty-two times. With a gun," He said for emphasis. Mason looked incredulous, then smiled and nodded, his fang protruding from his mouth.

Travis continued to sneak around, appearing spider-like in the shadowy alleys. He would dart here and there rather deftly for a man with an intestinal tongue dragging along accompanied with the green cloud he emitted against his will. Mason attempted to follow suit though lacking in any grace and finesse Travis happened to possess, hitting anything and everything in his endeavours to look cool like Travis. After an unsuccessful attempt to imitate Travis, he ended up on the ground and rolled over to Travis' feet, glancing up in the way that only a Hunter could and grinned toothily.

"You disappoint me, Mason," Travis said dryly. Mason replied in the form of a thumbs-up sign, clearly missing the point. Travis sighed and motioned for Mason to follow him and the former turned on his heel, proceeding to scale the side of the building with relative ease, his long limbs grasping the brick with surprising strength. He reached the top and made another motion. Mason cocked his head up at Travis; how was HE gonna do that?

"It'll be easy," Travis hissed, managing to make his voice audible through the alarms and screams of undead. "You can go nice and slo—" His sentence was cut off as something suddenly felt very wrong and he quickly shot a glance to the side as he saw lights moving. "Shiii—Okay new plan Mason you need to get up here ASAP," Travis said, not bothering to be discrete about it anymore. "Like RIGHT NOW." Mason, not even fully aware of the gravity of Travis' words, started to panic and hopped around like a trapped animal.

"WHAT DO I DO WHAT DO I DO?" Mason shouted and Travis heard Bill shout "Hunter's 'round here!"

"Ummm think Travis THINK," Travis smacked his forehead, struggling for a way to save his colleague before snapping his fingers. "Mason, hold still!" He instructed quickly and Mason somehow found it in his jittery nature to cease his movement for just a fraction of a moment before Travis' slimy tongue wrapped itself around Mason's figure with freakish, prehensile strength. Travis then started reeling in Mason. The Hunter, however, wasn't QUITE sure how this worked and he started squirming again.

"THEY'RE GONNA SHOOT ME," He screamed as the Infected rounded the corner. "OH GOD I'M GONNA DIE." He said, his voice not conveying well to the ears of those who couldn't understand him.

"Hold thtill!" Travis retorted. "I'm workin on it!" He said but the Hunter continued to struggle, starting to reach for the emergency exits on the sides of the building.

"I'm too YOUNG to die!" Mason cried and the Infected noted the source of the shrieking.

"There's a Hunter up there!" Zoey exclaimed and the four of them started to shoot in Mason's general direction, firing him up more. He bounced around off the walls and stairs and railings like a hyperactive squirrel, each movement undoing a little bit of Travis' progress until the latter was against the edge of the building, doing everything in his power to keep from falling off.

"C'moooon," He exhaled, trying to keep his end under control as the increasingly-tiring Hunter continued to spring about, artfully dodging the bullet maelstrom. Then, by some divine miracle, the four Infected called to each other and the shots stopped firing.

"Reloading!" They yelled in unison. Mason took this chance to leap across the building and clambered over the edge of a railing… dragging Travis with him. The Smoker was yanked from his perch and he swung across the gap, hitting the brick wall and falling to the grate flooring just below it, the wind getting knocked out of him. He gasped for air and blinked as his vision swam. This was it. He was going to die from a rain of bullets in his back. He closed his eye and continued to struggle to catch his breath for whatever it was worth…

"TAAAAAAAAAANK" Shouted the one called Louis and Travis heard gunfire, though not directed at him. He managed to roll onto his side and saw the four survivors retreating as a large, hulking mass of muscle and flesh lumbered after them. He kept his eye on hem as the group disappeared in the opposite direction and he sighed heavily before falling unconscious.