"This could have gone better, honey," Calliope remarked as she and Huinesoron ran before a horde of zombies.

"Better?" Huinesoron said, twisting to fire his shotgun at a zombie that was getting dangerously close. It fell back without a sound; unsurprising, as it now had no head. "How could it have gone better? I mean, we're alive. And stop calling me ‘honey'!"

"Aw, but it fits you so well, honey!" Calliope replied. A zombie stumbled into their path from a side street, and she quickly decapitated it with a machete as she ran. "I wish I still had my gun."

"You wouldn't have lost it if you hadn't tried to pet the cat!" Huinesoron said, once again turning and firing at the oncoming horde.

"But it was adorable!" Calliope said, grabbing Huinesoron's arm and steering him around a small pile of zombie corpses. "I couldn't not pet it!"

"It was a zombie cat!" Huinesoron said, trying to fish some ammo out of his bag as he ran. "It was a bloody zombie cat!"

"It was still adorable," Calliope insisted. She reached behind Huinesoron and grabbed the ammo. She held it for him as he reloaded, grinning up at his grime-covered face. "But not as adorable as you, honey."

Huinesoron growled as he chambered a round, then immediately shot a zombie that was about to lunge at Calliope. "Why do I keep you around, anyway?"

Calliope saw a zombie on the other side of Huinesoron from her. In one fluid motion, she leapt around him as they ran, skewering the thing before it could leap. She pulled her machete out of its chest, then sped back to her place at Huinesoron's side. She grinned up at him. Huinesoron growled again.

Another beast tried to throw itself in front of Calliope, but at that moment, she stumbled. Huinesoron, thinking quickly, yanked her out of the zombie's path. Its clawing hands missed her by inches.

"Thanks," Calliope breathed, briefly resting a hand on Huinesoron's arm. The two continued running through the ruined city, side by side, watching each other's backs.