Noise…<br/><br/>So much fucking noise…<br/><br/>Shaking hands held a pale face as Jason's headache throbbed a little harder behind his eyes. As Julian left the room to investigate whatever happenings were taking place back toward the front of the shop, the nearly incapacitated Jason plopped down in the rolling office chair that he assumed belonged to Miguel. Julian seemed smart enough and all, but to Jason he seemed like the type that would go postal if stuck at a desk.<br/><br/>Another spike of alcoholically induced hate-pain stabbed through his skull and his body clenched into a ball. As the momentum brought him forward the pain from his hangover was somewhat replaced by the pain of his forehead slamming into the desk before him. Jason reflexively flung himself backward, only for the wheels of the chair to take it upon themselves to fly from beneath him. He found himself on the floor and momentarily forgot how he got there. The sudden amnesia was disconcerting. Well, until the vomit forced it's way from his digestive system to land all over the floor of the office.<br/><br/>"Well, I reckon the deal's off now." He said to no one in particular.<br/><br/>Then he heard the sound that was more so felt to be a trill of fear and adrenaline than it was actually heard. Why were there guns? The physical pain of his body was shoved away and replaced with a very real sense of danger. Something was wrong. Very, very wrong. Some small surge of discomfort rippled through him as he sloppily climbed to his feet. He crept slowly toward the office doorway, the sounds of panic escalating with every step.<br/><br/>"No…" He couldn't, or maybe he wouldn't believe what he was seeing. "It can't be true. Not this…"<br/><br/>It wasn't hard to figure out what this… This thing that used to be human was. Jason knew the word, but it wouldn't leave his throat. Nervous feet drove him forward to join the rest of the group. His eyes wouldn't leave the human shaped thing sprawled on the floor, and they grew impossibly wider as it got itself up. The world became a blur in the briefest instant. Ruined pieces of building and glass exploded inward as something monstrous crashed through the front of the shop. The ceiling came in on Jason as he stood in shock.<br/><br/>His eyes opened suddenly and he found himself once more on the floor. Pieces of debris pinned him to the ground and he dug deep for the strength to free himself. Slowly, he managed to bring himself to his knees and he watched as blood spilled from his face. He could taste the familiar copper as it flowed down from his forehead, but there was no time to be wasted. Whether it was luck or divine intervention, there were none of the walking dead coming for him and he watched as the rest of the shop's living occupants flew from the danger. For what might have been the first time in his life, he was more concerned that they escape than for his own well-being.<br/><br/>Jason shook the haze from his vision and really took in his surroundings. The front room of the automotive shop was officially fucked, but one man's trash is another man's treasure. At least, that was Jason's musing as he grabbed a metal pipe from one of the many piles of crap that littered the once pristine waiting area. Zombies were filling the only exit out, but as they flooded one threshold, another made itself clear as what appeared to be the last of the dead ones moved from the bus. Jason would rather have died right then and there rather than face what happened next...<br/><br/>He ran as quietly as possible to the bus entrance and managed to get on without much difficulty. Gore seemed to be the new décor of choice as blood coated nearly every surface and pieces of people were strewn about. Jason shook his head at his humor. He knew it was poor taste, but he also knew he had to cope. How could one cope with what crawled into view next?<br/><br/>First there was just a small hand reaching out from a row of seating. Then there was the mutilated torso of a 2 year old child pulling itself toward him. Jason froze as it came fully into the open; it's left arm just dragged it eternally forward toward the next food source. A bloody stump was all that was left of the undead child's right arm and leg.  A stone formed in his stomach and it pulled him to his knees. The undead toddler only pulled itself closer, a small rasping moan permeated the air everytime it pulled itself toward the fallen Jason. "Stop it." Jason's words were broken as the lump in his throat tightened. "Just don't come closer. Please… I can't…" Tears came in ones and twos and then they became a steady stream that comingled with the blood that already caked his face. "JUST FUCKING STOP IT!!!" Jason openly sobbed as he slammed the pipe he held off of the floor again and again. "NO NO NO NO NO!!!" Was it better to die? But… If this was what he thought it was what would he find when he passed to the other side? Still he sobbed as he contemplated these questions. Clutching his chest with his left hand, he shakily got to his feet. "I'm sorry god dammit." He stared in the milky dead eyes of the child that crawled ever closer and he collapsed once more. "I'M FUCKING SORRY!" It was right there now, less than a foot away. The sobbing only grew  harder as he swung the pipe down and felt only the slightest resistance as the soft skull caved beneath the blow.