Lixi had grabbed a tire she'd found under the front seat and dove out, making it a few yards from the car before she heard Adja's cry. She'd been quickly moving to meet the only zombie in the lot that seemed capable of running, or as close as they seemed to get, thinking the fastest ones the most threatening as none of them were exactly rational or intelligent. She turned to the side in time to see a shining neon blob grab her companion, but Martin and Jason both seemed to be on it. The footsteps of the advantageously dexterous one she'd been heading towards were almost to her even at it's shambling gate. Better deal with you first. Lixi turned back to it, whipping it solidly across the jaw with the wrench she still had not replaced, then bringing her other hand, now equipped with the tire iron, up from the other side. Unfortunately, the tire iron proved to be an even less effective weapon than the wrench, as it's cross shape made it bulky without much weight.

One of the bars of the iron caught on the zombies puffy vinyl jacket, throwing off her swing. The motion failed to make contact with the creatures bandanna covered head at all, and instead lodged in the side of it's neck after tearing a hole in the over stuffed fur trimmed coat. The zombie looked to have been someone in his late 20's, extremely white, but trying very hard to look like a late 90's rapper. White fluff exploded from the cheap jacket, and thick, darkening blood oozed out of the wound in the creatures neck. Either it's spine or it's jaw made a cracking sound as it righted the direction of it's head, though not the angle, and glared with fierce empty eyes at Lixi for a moment before lunging at her.

Loosing her grip on the ineffective tire iron as the corpse launched forward, she abandoned it, and stumbled backwards, twisting to keep the would be gangster body from getting a solid grasp. She swung again with the wrench, this time making a fairly solid contact, which seemed to stagger her target. She used this to her advantage and quickly brought it down once again on the creatures head, from the top this time, and finally heard a satisfying crunch as the skull cracked. It made one more lunge at her, making just enough contact to push her backwards as she brought one last strike down onto it's head. A small chunk of scalp and bone flew as the wrench sunk deep into the gray matter, then made a it slid back out of the falling corpse.

Lixi stopped and looked around for a second, seeing Martin chasing a head about the parking lot, and Adja still in tact, and only about 3 more zombies left. "Oy! Everyone alright? You've got two slow movers heading your way, and it looks like the only other one is stuck in that car, maybe we'll save him for last. I'm gonna take a quick peek around the corner to see what this sides like, then I'll come give you..." Her words were cut off by as quick intake of breath as she felt cold hands on her shoulder. Idiot! Look first, then talk! she thought as something dragged her backwards between two truck trailers. that were pulled along side the building.

She twisted in the things grasp, struggling to free herself. Turning enough to give it a quick kick to the side of it's legs, she managed to at least get enough leverage to pull back far enough to turn and see what she faced. A tall brutish man in a dirty stained wife beater, at least 6'3" and well over 200 lbs of both bulk and brute had been shot cleanly through the chest, leaving most of his body fully intact for the zombie to utilize in death. A blue tarp hung in shambles from a cord around his midsection, and judging from the deterioration of his skin, he'd been dead long enough that he'd barely missed the cut off for getting into hell before the gates closed. Poor fool must have been shot, and someone was trying to hide the body.

the thought of 'Poor fool' vanished from her mind immediately as the hefty creature now bore down on her with all it's force, throwing her to the ground and landing on her with all it's mass, arms slashing violently at her, teeth bared. It was everything she could do to keep it from tearing into her face with it's teeth. It's cold fingers clawed viciously at her skin, sinking in deep enough that she felt blood forming in the gashes it left in a few places, while bruising and battering her ribs, arms, and chest the rest of the time.

The creatures growling, putrid mouth was gnashing less than 4 inches from Lixi's throat now. She creamed from the pain of the things beating on her torso as she fought to push it off, arms already shaking and exhausted. Suddenly, blood and bits of bone and tissue splattered across Lixi's face, and the thing went completely limp, slumping down over her arms like a ton of dead weight. Lixi hurried to shove the corpse, now missing the entire back half of it's cranium, off to one side. As soon as she did, she found herself looking directly up the barrel of a silenced TAR 21 assault rifle a mere couple of feet in front of her.

She froze, instantly recognizing the symbol on the full body suit of combat armor. Confusion set in when she realized there was only one person that she could see. The sweepers were usually just that, in a sweeping formation. By the time you saw one, you'd see a whole line of them. Her curiosity was doubled when the rifle lowered and the person holding it stepped back a few paces, then reached for his mask. The over sized militant towering over her pulled the small voice sensors off his throat as he pulled the full face gas mask off, leaving both to hang off his uniform.

"You have GOT to be fucking kidding. Lix? Why the hell am I surprised. Joel's behind this, so of course your not far behind. I thought you'd be dead by now little sis." The soldier extended a hand to her.

"Jeremiah! What the hell are you doing on a sweeper team?" Lixi leaped up without his help, and tossed her arms around her older brothers neck. "And for the record, Joel and I parted ways a few millenniums back." He pushed held her for a moment, but then grew serious, and pushed her back, holding her at arms length.

"God Lix, if you were as smart as you are stubborn you wouldn't have to ask. I couldn't rank high enough to get any other missions down here. How else was I gonna check up on you. What the hell are you doing in all this anyway?" He'd been about to say more when his look went blank and he touched his free hand to his ear. He quickly grabbed the voice sensor and pressed it to his throat. "The stores been cleared out sir. Nothing but a few roaming dead left in the parking lot. Some street thugs rolled up in stolen car, but they've been taken care of. I picked off everything inside, walkers or living, just to be certain. Proceeding east to rendezvous." He let it drop again and looked at her once more. "Look Lix, I don't have time to explain or even to talk. There's about a dozen of us out here right now, split up to sweep the outskirts. Therms showed this place had some survivors, so I got sent here. Do me a favor, get inside the store, I already wiped everything out. In the sporting goods area they should have some of those thermal blanket things for extreme cold, grab a few. If you here a helicopter coming, take cover, and wrap up in one of those to dodge the thermal sweeps. Stock up, and for god sakes, put a shirt on, and then get the fuck out of here. We'll deal with Joel. You can't fix this this time. Get out of here, and get far far away. If anyone else from the house sees you... well... you know what they'll do. I already took enough beatings for having a traitor for a sister, I don't need them finding out your alive." He started to march past her, never looking back. Lixi thought about what he said and looked down, realizing what was left of her shirt was now hanging off her in strips after the last attack.

"Wait! Miah!" He looked back at her sternly. "You... you got punished, because of me?" He turned away and kept walking. "Hey! There are 3 people up front of the store, they're with me. Please... don't hurt them ok?"

"I know, and I won't. Ditch the car, go low profile. And sis... you're welcome. I can't agree with what you did, but it doesn't mean I'm not still your brother. Gotta watch out for my little sis and her dumb ass standards." With that he turned and headed toward the back of the store quickly without giving her time to say anything more.