Entry tags:

!complete, alice liddell, grog strongjaw

WHO: Alice and Grog
WHAT: Grog saves Alice from Zombies
WHEN: During the Diablo Crisis
WARNINGS: Violence
STATUS: Closed and Complete

Alice had seen the posts about strange things happening, about people seeing things, zombies or something like that, and she’d had every intention of staying at home where it was safe. But then she’d gotten a call from one of her old directors, wanting to meet with her to discuss a part that he thought she’d be perfect for and it had just been too good of an opportunity to pass up. Plus it wasn’t like zombies and things like that actually existed right? It was probably all just some stunt got up to advertise something. She’d go and meet them for lunch, talk about the part and maybe get one more quick job in before she started her first semester of college.

The only parking spot she could find was a couple of blocks away from the restaurant so she was going to have to walk, even if these heels weren’t the best for walking. Maybe she really did need to think about wearing flats more. Or at least keeping a pair in her car for situations like this to change back into her heels once she’d gotten wherever she was walking too. She wasn’t paying as much attention as she should have been to what was going on around her, running over in her head what she planned on saying to convince him that his thought was right - she’d be perfect for this part. She was at her happiest when working and she wanted to start college...happy.

She let out a startled shriek when someone grabbed hold of her curls and turned to face...some monster and that...was when the shriek turned to full scream.

***

Grog was out buying a few things, and he had come to a small market a block from the restaurant. It sold pork bao, and he loved those things, and so he was there getting some when he heard the scream. There was something inside him that told him to call the police, to run away, but something else, something primal, rose high. Someone was being attacked near him? That made him… mad!

Especially when he looked up and saw that it was Alice being attacked by some… thing. Red seemed to fill Grog’s vision and he roared, actually fucking roared,a dn charged, bounding toward them with strides he couldn’t have taken a few moments ago, until he came down, landing next to them with a snarl.

Without hesitating, he reached for Alice with one hand, the other hand slamming forward in a punch, one that landed with a cracking sound that echoed across the lot, and sent the thing reeling backward for a moment. “Alice. I’ve got you. Come on.” He put her squarely behind him as he saw more of the things nearby, rage filling his mind.

***

It took Alice a minute to figure out who it was that had rescued her and then she almost clung to his hand as he pushed her behind him. “Grog! What are these things?” She asked, her voice quivering a little bit as she peeked around him and saw more of those monsters. She wasn’t going to call them zombies. Because zombies weren’t real and these things definitely were real. And scary. She wished she’d paid more attention to what people were saying on the network about what was going on outside - she’d have told the director she couldn’t meet him today. If he couldn’t wait then - the part wasn’t for her.

***

Anger filled him like it never had, a red-filled hue across his vision and he found it hard to speak as he forced words out. “I don’t know! Something nasty, something foul, something that is going to die.”

And he roared, a sound that echoed across the lot as the monsters came toward them. He swung his fists and found himself slamming two aside, one with each fist, the things faces falling inward and their bodies hurling back. Satisfaction filled him as he grabbed the next one, lifted it, and hurled it with force into the next wave, sending three or four down into a tangle of broken limbs.

For a moment it was clear and he swung around to catch Alice up in arms that seemed full of infinite power.

“Hang on.” And he leaped, clearing a car and landing on another, then leaped again, landing far away from the things that had attacked them, close to the entrance of the restaurant.

“Inside! We need to get inside.”

He pointed at the door.

***

Alice closed her eyes tight when the next group of whatever these things were reached them, grabbing hold of the back of Grog’s shirt so that they couldn’t get separated. Maybe it was a little naive of her to put so much trust in someone she was just getting to know to protect her but he was her friend and clearly had a better idea of how to handle these things than she did. Or at least more skills at fighting them off than she would have. Maybe it should have raised some questions in her head about where the superhuman strength he was using came from but all she cared about right then was that he was there and she wasn’t getting eaten by a zombie. She couldn’t even stand to look at ground beef in the package at the grocery store, how was she supposed to eat brains?

There was a small squeak of surprise when he picked her up in his arms and jumped, even if landing on the second car did make her jostle a bit in his arms but she didn’t pull away, burying her face against his shoulder and holding on tight, trying not to let herself give in to the fear that was still racing through her and start to cry. She lifted her head up when she heard him say they needed to get inside, nodding and untangling her arms from around him and running for the door, cursing her heels under her breath but knowing at the same time she wasn’t going to stop wearing high heels any time soon. She liked dressing up and looking pretty and sometimes flats just didn’t provide the same effect. She pulled open the door, turning around to look at her friend as she stepped through and yanking it shut behind him before turning around to throw her arms around him. “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.” She said, the words spilling out of her in a rush as she felt tears starting to fall. “Are you okay?” She asked him, pulling back to look him in the eye.

***

Her pushing against him and holding on brought him out of the rage, and he calmed, slowly, and gently hugged her close, petting her back and hair, stroking softly, hoping he was helping. He had never really comforted anyone before, but this was… this was nice. He gently comforted her, and felt himself normal again, and felt a little odd, tired even. What had happened? He had suddenly felt a great deal like his Dream self. Had the attack triggered that? How?

“Are you okay, Alice? I think I’m fine.” He had some cuts and bruises, and one finger was twisted and sprained, and his whole body would ache, later. For now? He was fine.

He smiled softly at her. “I couldn’t let them get my favorite actress, could I?”

***

“I’m fine. More scared by those...zombies than anything. I thought it was going to bite me and I can barely stand to look at ground meats in the grocery store how am I supposed to eat brains?” Alice said, her voice going up a little at the end as she fought back hysteria as she realized - Grog had rescued her from zombies. As much as she’d wanted to deny it to herself - that’s what those things had been. They were zombies. “And then you came and rescued me.”

She blushed a little at his compliment. “I’m glad my favorite comic artist was nearby to stop them. Want to hear something funny?” Alice asked him, rubbing the back of her hand under her eyes. She’d have to fix her makeup later. Or just go home when it was safe outside and wash it all off. She wasn’t going to try and go talk to someone about a part now.

***

Grog smiled and hugged her gently. “Hey, you are going to be okay, I promise. You did better than most people.” he smiled softly, chuckling at her words about being a zombie. “You are going to be fine. No brain-munching diet for you.” He nodded, feeling his rage and energy drain out of him.

Now he felt tired, but still okay. He checked himself, and saw he had dirty hands and cuts and abrasions all over, and his clothing was torn in a good half a dozen places. But he was fine. He gave Alice the once-over too, to check she was okay.

“I’ll always do my best to be there for you, Alice. And, sure. What’s funny?”

***

Alice hugged him back, leaning her cheek against his chest as she let her friends embrace comfort her. “How do you figure that? All I did was scream my head off and hide behind you so I wasn’t in your way.” It was a simple statement of fact and that was how she said it. Alice knew her strengths and weaknesses better than people might think looking at her with her dresses and heels and purple tipped hair - weakness? Fighting and defending herself. Strength? Following directions. And that was all she had done out there.

She took his hand, leading him over to one of the tables and flagging down a waitress to ask for water and some napkins. Bandaging? Not a strength. But she could at least try and help clean up the cuts he’d gotten out there. Who knew what those zombies had and could infect people with. She gave him a small smile at his question. “I was on my way to meet with an old director to talk about a new project he’s starting. Some kind of horror comedy that he thought I might be good for.”

***

“You didn’t freeze. You moved when told to, and you had the sense to not just do something dumb like try to attack it. Such small things make all the difference.” Feeling normal again, Grog smiled and gently continued to pet her hair and back.

“You would be surprised how many people don’t listen, and just lose it and act in ways that are detrimental. In a crisis, know what you know and can do. That’s how you survive.” He nodded.

He sat down with her, and shook his head, smiling a little. “I bet you would be great in it. Hell, I’d watch you in it.: He winked at her. “I know how good you can scream.” There, a joke to try to push away the horror of what they had just faced.

***

Alice gave him a small smile at his reassurance that the things she’d done had helped. “I think I would have frozen if I was by myself.” She admitted. It was nice, just him petting her hair and comforting her. But then she’d always been an affectionate, physical person with her friends and she had no intention of changing that anytime soon. For her a hug was more comforting than just about anything someone could say.

“I’ll keep that in mind. Something tells me this isn’t the last crisis I’m going to end up hearing about living here. Or getting caught in living here.” She told him, taking the napkins and bowl of water from the waitress with a friendly smile. “Give me your hand. We don’t know what kind of germs those zombies could have and I’m trying to imagine how you’d explain that to a doctor. Is there even a spot on insurance forms for wounds gotten fighting zombies?” She asked, partly joking, partly wondering out loud.

“If it’s got anything to do with zombies when I finally get a chance to talk to him I’m giving it a hard no. Because I think this experience - is more than enough zombie for me. Maybe it’ll have to deal with werewolves though. That could be fun. And different from vampires.” And werewolves scared her a lot less than some of the other horror movie monsters. They were humans most of the month after all.

***

Grog smiled warmly as he sat back and nodded. “The crises do seem to keep on coming, steadily. Dreams, invasions, monsters… something tells me we had better be ready.” He nodded again as she offered to clean his hand. He offered his hand without fighting.

He kissed her cheek as she worked on it, and laughed. “There should be Orange County Crazy Insurance, to cover everything from monster to aliens to psychedelic plant growth.” It was crazy.

“Just as long as you’re safe. You will knock them dead, Alice.” he had faith in her, absolute faith.

He turned to the waitress, smiling, and took out his black card. “Can I get a couple of drinks for me and my friend and some menus? I’m not going outside for awhile and i think i may need to eat and drink something in order to not go a little crazy.” he nodded to Alice.

“I think we deserve to eat something and have a drink, don’t you?”

***

Alice tried to hide the slight blush that spread over her cheeks at that kiss as she focused on cleaning up his hand, trying to make sure that she got as much dirt and just...zombie fighting mess out of the cut and scrapes as she could. She laughed at his comment about the Crazy Insurance. “Whoever starts that will make millions. And I would be the first one through their door to take out a policy. ….What a second - psychedelic plant growth?” She asked, eyeing the plants around them somewhat nervously.

“I promise to be safe. I’ll leave all the stunts to trained professionals. They get paid to take risks that I don’t.” She admitted to him. She had forgotten that the waitress was there, most of her attention on taking care of his wounds and at his question she looked over at the young woman and added. “Please?”

“I think we do. Is this the restaurant you mentioned having the pork bao’s?”

***

Grog smiled at her. “Definitely. If I had the start-up money, I might do it myself.” He chuckled at the idea, “BUt no, I love my job too much.” And he nodded, laughing. “It was some time back, a few years ago. Central Irvine became a forest of plants and mushrooms. Much of which expelled psychedelic spores.” Or he was remembering two different events. It had been some time.

“Good! You concentrate on being gorgeous.” He nodded and smiled as the waitress went to get menus. “What would you like to drink? I am feeling like wine, but, ladylady’s choice.”

***

Alice smiled back at him, setting the napkin she’d used off to the side. “All done. I’m pretty sure you won’t have to worry about your hand going all Evil Dead on you or anything.” She said releasing his hand as the waitress came back with their menus.

“I have no clue how I missed that happening. I wonder what else I missed out on,” she said, glancing up at him over the top of her menu.

“And I’m glad you love your job too much. I don’t think anybody else would do the series justice like you do.” He knew she was a fan. It was part of what had brought them together the first time they met and hung out. And Orange County just seemed to keep throwing them together and she wasn’t about to complain about that.

“Wine would be good.” She drank wine at home with her dad over dinner sometimes so she knew more about that than other alcohol’s. She didn’t have a lot of experience with it but - she at least could tell what she liked what from what she didn’t. “Red maybe?”

***

“Red wine sounds good.” Grog smiled at her, glad for the friendship they were building. He had colleagues, and his best friend, but he'd had few friends outside that and no friends of consequence outside the Trickfoot family.

But Alice was a good friend. And he was glad to know her. He smiled and have her a sidelong hug.

Menus arrived, and water, and he ordered a bottle of red wine as he looked at the menu.

“What're you in the mood for, beautiful?”

***

Alice had been looking over the menu when she heard his question and she looked up with a small smile. “You’re good for my ego. Did you know that?” She asked him, looking back down at the menu and making up her mind quickly. She turned her attention to the waitress, smiling as she placed her order (possibly stumbling over pronunciations but she wasn’t going to let that bother her) and handed her back the menu. They didn’t ask for her ID and she didn’t offer it, watching Grog subtly as he placed his own order, waiting for them to be alone again to ask the question that was burning in her mind.

“So...what were you doing out in this insanity?”

***

“I doubt it is a bad thing to be so.” He grinned at her and placed his order after her, and watching the waitress go before turning back to Alice and capturing one of her hands to squeeze it. Her question had him chuckling.

“Well, I was out buying some imported foods and items from some of the international markets a few blocks away. Several birthdays are coming up, and also one of the shops sells bao, and I love bao. When I heard, then saw you in danger, well, I couldn’t just stand by and do nothing.”

He grinned warmly at her.

“So… I waded in. I had no idea that dream me would join the party so much, though.” He smiled, a little tremblingly. “It was a little frightening.”

***

Alice was acting on instinct as she tangled her fingers with his when he took her hand. “You mentioned liking those I think. We’ll just have to see what I think when our food gets here,” she said with a smile. “When is your birthday by the way?” She asked, hoping the question came out casual.

She squeezed his hand in an attempt to comfort him. “I can imagine. If it had been anyone but you, I’d probably have been afraid. Or more afraid at any rate. Even though it wasn’t directed towards me.”

***

Grog smiled softly. “September 3rd. Just a couple of weeks away. Why?” He smiled at her, eyes warm. He liked this nice woman, he did indeed. “When is yours?”

He liked the idea of maybe exchanging gifts.

“Thank you for trusting me, Alice., It means a lot.” Wine arrived, and he poured for them then raised his glass. “To us, and to surviving for another day, by trusting one another.”

***

Alice pulled her phone out quickly to add the date to her calendar so she couldn’t miss it. She pushed a blonde curl back over her shoulder as she looked back up at him. “May 4th. And in case you were wondering - yes I know what unofficial holiday that is and I celebrate both every year.” Frequently with a Star Wars themed birthday party when she was little and even know the invitations were shaped like lightsabers even though the party wasn’t themed anymore. Unless you counted the fact she put her hair up in space buns for it every year as linking back to the theme.

“You haven’t given me any reason not to trust you Grog.” She told him, taking her hand away long enough to lift up her glass to return his toast. “To us and trusting each other.” She took a small sip before setting her glass back down, her hand resting beside his arm.

***

Grog did the same, adding her birthday to his calendar in turn. He smiled at her. “I look forward to celebrating it with you again next year. Both of them.” He grinned at her. He would like that a lot.

He took a long sip at her toast and smiled, sitting back, and finding himself very happy.

This was going to be a great day!

***

FIN