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Sue didn't know if it was a ray of hope he was grasping for, or just the culmination of all that had happened coming within reach. And truth be told, he didn't know how much he cared. All he knew was that he was doing something, getting somewhere. Maybe it wasn't the finish line, but it was better than... than....

Than Elke or Zeke or Piper, or anyone else he knew that turned into the greenies.

It was just him out today. Him and the cats, at least. He wasn't looking for a fight, but he kept his golf club with him just the same - the grounds were crawling with zombies these days, after all, so you couldn't be too careful. But this recon needed doing. He had to make sure that it was the right place, the right way to do it.

So he'd sent the cats first. They were quicker than him, after all, and hid better. He'd crouched under the bushes while they scouted the area around the groundskeeper's shed, peered in through the windows. When they reported back that it was safe, that was when Sue dared to come out in the open.

And he liked what he saw. Hugging close to the wall of the shed, measuring the distance between it and the defunct dormitories, Sue felt a surge of grim optimism. This was the place - he felt certain. This was where they were going to do it.

Team Columbus - or at least, what was left of it - was going to make a stand. They were going to hit back. All Sue had to do was finish the planning, and rally the troops.

It was going to be glorious.

Sue was a survivor. He didn't get caught unaware - not with his sentries, not with his instincts. He was turned on, always turned on, always ready. When Elke approached, he was already informed, already aware, that there was danger nearby. One figure. One risk. Get ready, Mackie warned him. Stripers, helpfully, put in: Don't get eaten.

"You get near me, you get dead," Sue barked out, turning to face the new threat. His pose was perfect - all menace, all confidence, zero fear. A lifetime of swagger had prepared him for such intimidation.

Just one thing wasn't going according to expecation: Elke was alive.

So this was the part where he was supposed to fall over himself with happiness. This was where things were made right, where new hope came over him. Where the deathtrap seemed a little less confining than it did.

But that wasn't right. Not now. Not when Sue had found his own way; not when he'd already aligned himself. They were dead; they did not come back to life. That was why he had to get them before they got him.

Anything else meant... well, it meant that if he did anything right in defending himself, it was murder. And he couldn't believe that.

So Sue met her caution with threat. The dinged-up golf club flew up, ready to swing the second Elke got within range. "Not a single step closer, I ******** mean it!"

"Bullshit."

No hesitation, no thought. Sue wasn't even considering giving Elke the benefit of the doubt. She was the enemy. If he let down his guard, even for a second... CHOMP. And he was a Sue'ffle. Sue d'Jour. Some other bad pun that meant zombie chow.

"You might look human," Sue put in for emphasis, "but I'm not stupid. Zeke's dead, you know. And Piper's missing now." He pointed the golf club at her accusingly. "You know anything about that one?"

What did she... do?

Sue didn't know what to say. His face ran white, lips pressed together, eyes wide and staring. "... What did you do." His voice was too soft. It was something building tall, a high tower shaking, ready to collapse - and where it would fall....

He exhaled. Sue hadn't even realized he was holding the breath. The smile that came onto his face as tight and pleasant. "Well gee, Elke, I guess I shouldn't worry about it, right? I mean, there will be other people." Yes. He was going there. He was starting there, anyway. Way back when, before things were insane, when one of his cats had gone missing and all Elke could say was --

No. This wasn't about that. He had much, much better things to be angry with her about.

"You attacked Piper." His tone cut suddenly flat, ugly. Sue advanced a step. His anger was getting the better of his reasoning; he didn't want to avoid a fight anymore. Beneath that, that almost-Elke shell was... that thing. Everything ugly, everything that made him bitter and angry. He wanted to draw it out and beat it down. "You got her good. The one person in the world who would've never thought to guard herself, and you got her when our backs were turned. Lucky enough that didn't kill her then, but I bet you know something about what's happened to her since!"

That was it. Pin the blame. Remember: Elke was one of them. She was a greenie. She would kill him in a heartbeat if she could, no matter what she looked like now. And if she didn't know already, she'd know now: Sue wasn't going to be fooled. Ever.

He could have asked her how she'd made the transition, stood there and judged whether he believed her. He could have told her to prove that she was human, told her to bleed for him so he could see her heart pumping out the blood. There wasn't an easy litmus test for zombieism that came to mind, but if he'd wanted to, he could have thought one up for her.

But Sue didn't bother. Not because he couldn't, but because he didn't want to. He couldn't afford to give her her humanity back - because if he gave it back to a once-greenie, he would have to consider that all greenies could get it back. And he wouldn't be able to fight the way he had to.

And he had to - people were counting on him.

"Shut up! SHUT UP, Elke, just STOP IT. You aren't getting me. You aren't getting anybody around me. You so much as try - so much as think about trying - and you know what I'll do?" The club swished down, an exclamation mark on his question. "I'll take you down. I'll take you to pieces. And when I'm done, I'll stake you out for the rest of the greenies to bite into. See how you like it, right? You come back so easily when it's one of us that knocks you down - you think you'll come back if it's one of your own?"

The scariest thing about this was that he was serious. He wasn't just talking. He was making an oath by it. Give me a reason, Elke, just give me one. And I'll do it.

What do I expect, Mr. Bond? I EXPECT YOU TO DI-- okay that wasn't Sue, not by a long shot, but the thought passed briefly through his head before being quashed.

His eyes burned. His hand was itching to take a swing at her already, break off some of that milky skin and prove that she wasn't what she appeared to be - but he balked. He couldn't yet. He wasn't that person yet....

"I want you to run, Elke. I want you to get the ******** away from here. Come tomorrow, maybe the day after, I am making this place into a meat grinder. And you or any other greenie that comes here will die. I don't mean die and come back, I am going to ******** handfeed you to your own kind and we will never see your ******** face again. You got it?"

There. That was it. That was the truth. It was what he had to do.

And God help him, if she made any move other than ******** fleeing the scene, he was going to make a liar of himself and start the carnage now.

What. WHAT.

Now she was going to lecture him? Tell him what he could do, couldn't do? She was one of them. She wasn't trying to tell him off out of any fear for what he might do, what sin he might commit. He was trying to tell her off because she was scared for Team Zombie.

Sue was not impressed.

"If it keeps the real folk safe? For those people? I can do ******** anything."

No, Sue wasn't playing any games - he'd spent the past week being hunted, watched friends die. Elke standing there, being... anything, was spitting on everything he'd gone through. And guess what? Her time to flee had run out.

Sue flicked down his golf club like a fencing blade, took a proper grip and started for the supposed zombie.

One step for every three of his just meant that he had 33% more time to pump himself up before he reached her. He wasn't going to back down though. He'd given her her chance. He'd told her to run. And if she'd done it, that would have been her way out. If she turned and ran now... he'd probably let her go. Probably. But it wasn't so certain.

But the fact that she stayed there. Still trying to convince him. Trying to act like the world wasn't so ******** life-or-death as he'd seen it be, as he knew it was. That wasn't convincing him of anything except that she was trying to get his trust. That she was waiting for him to drop his guard.

It wasn't going to happen, Elke. Not ever again. She'd been his teacher for how to survive out here, after all - first with her death, then with the attack preceding her double-tapped zombie-death. You didn't let zombies get near to you. This time, when she died, Sue was going to see fit that it was the last time.

"Shut it," he ordered her for the final time, and took the swing.


((He's holding back - the fact that she doesn't look like a zombie's keeping him from full commitment to the swing. Figure that damage is around 3/4 what it would normally be? If you even want to use the dice, IDK XD

EDIT: *looks at roll* ... Sue, why do you suck so hard at fighting. ROFL))