It's down to just the two of us now. Killer versus killer.
What's left of the demons that me and my ragtag team were battling moments ago are trying to get through the portals to Earth before they close. It doesn't really matter if they escape or not though. Earth was doomed from the start when the very first of the demons arrived there and with them, they brought other creatures that are just as dangerous. It's just a matter of time before they completely take over, everyone either (un)dead or made into the demons' slaves.
Most of my team are dead now, their bodies scattered amongst those of the demons, left to rot on this place's hot, rocky, blood covered battlefield. After I freed my flower from her chains, I had the ninja escort her back to the portal we came in through. I do hope that they make it out, but even if they succeed, I have doubts about either one of them surviving for very long, maybe a week at the most.
I suppose that I could be at least partially blamed for the predicament that the Earth's in now, but I can't really say I care about it at all. I was already killing the people off anyway, albeit a lot more slowly. I just came here for two things: my flower and the top hat wearing man standing before me. He's considered the original serial killer by some. I just consider him an annoyance though.
"It's time to end this, Red..."
"Time to end you anyway, asshole..."
We then charge at each other, me with a combat knife and him with a scalpel, the hot wind blowing into my face, making it difficult for me to see, but I move forward anyway. I feel the blade of his scalpel slice into my abdomen and I react by punching in front of me, landing a fist in middle of his face. I hear cartilage snap, causing him to let out a small yelp as he stumbles backwards. Circling around him to get the wind out of my face, I'm able to see blood profusely dripping out of his nose. I also managed to knock his hat off, revealing his bald scalp, skull visible where part of the flesh is missing.
I step forward, raising my knife and aiming for his neck, but he catches me by surprise and suddenly swings his scalpel upwards, catching me in the neck instead and slitting it open. I can feel and see blood beginning to squirt out into the air and onto the ground in front of me. It won't kill me, but he will when I pass out from the blood loss.
Already feeling lightheaded, I decide to change tactics and drop my knife. He grins at me, knowing I have a very limited amount of time to work with. Realizing that there's a cliff edge just a few feet behind him, I charge at him again, catching him off guard, and spear him over the edge. As we fall, I see that below us is a river of lava. It wasn't exactly what I'd hoped for. There won't be any coming back for me from this one. He sees it too and begins screaming. I can only smile at his sudden terror despite the fact that I'll be going with him. He hits the lava before me with a splash, his screams instantly silenced as his body is melted down in just a matter of seconds, disappearing forever into the deadly orange glow.
I however hit the bank of the river, only the lower half of me ending up going into the lava. My head smashes against the ground, cracking my skull open, and I can feel my legs almost instantly melt away. Fighting through the pain, I manage to drag what's left of me several feet away from the river before blacking out.
Meanwhile...
All over the world, complete chaos has broken out.
Demons are mercilessly slaughtering almost any human they come across with their claws and bladed and spiked weapons, keeping a few as prisoners that they see a potential future use for.
The recently deceased are standing back up and going after anyone the demons somehow manage to miss. It turns out that all of those zombie movies were right for the most part. At first they move pretty fast, almost running sometimes, but as they decompose, they slow down to that classic shuffle everyone knows them for. And destroying their brain does put them down permanently. They seek the flesh of the living, not knowing why they want to eat it but just wanting to. It isn't limited to humans though. The animal kingdom is affected by it too. Packs of rotting dogs roam the streets, chasing down and ripping apart any unlucky person who they come across. Flocks of birds clumsily circle the smoke filled skies, attacking anyone trying to hide on the rooftops.
As if that isn't enough, strange floating monsters have appeared that like to take control of any machines near them, from small objects like kitchen appliances to tractor-trailers, and kill off any people they can with them, sometimes accidentally taking out demons and zombies too.
In response, countries have tried to get their military forces together to fight back, but with governments quickly falling apart, that has proven to be futile and everyone remaining alive is left to fend for themselves.
...
I slowly open my eyes and can see stone. Sitting up, I realize that was looking up at the ceiling of a stone building. The room I'm in is lit by a single candle on the floor. My legs have fully re-grown and as far as I can tell, all of my other wounds have healed as well, including my slit throat. Finding that I was laying on an old, dirty mattress situated on the floor in one corner of the room, I start to stand up so I can figure out where I am, when I hear a woman's voice.
Woman: "I was beginning to wonder if you were ever going to wake up."
I look in the direction of her voice to see that she's standing in a doorway, her messy hair containing a few streaks of gray. She takes a couple steps into the room and stops again, looking my naked form over.
Woman: "How do you feel?"
"I'm fine. Who are you though? Where are we?"
Woman: "My name's Anne. We're at what I'm currently considering my home. When I found you, I thought you were dead, for obvious reasons. When I realized you weren't though, I brought you back here. I tried to bandage your wounds, but...well, you can probably figure out the rest for yourself."
She doesn't seem curious at all about my healing abilities. I guess with all that's been going on though, something like that isn't really a surprise to her.
"I guess I should thank you then. How long have I been out?"
Anne: "It's kind of hard to keep track of time here, so I could be way off, but I think approximately three years..."
"Oh...umm..."
I can hardly believe it. I expected to be out for a few days at most. I wonder why it took so long. Maybe because of my massive blood loss.
Anne: "I'll get you some clothes."
She walks back out of the room for a moment as I get to my feet. When she returns, she hands me a shirt, pants, and a pair of shoes.
Anne: "I made them myself, so sorry if they don't fit you exactly."
She then leaves again so that I can get dressed. The clothes aren't much to look at. The shirt and pants are pieces of cloth from different objects sewn together and the shoes are made up of several pieces of what appears to be leather. I put them on though and they all end up fitting me okay.
After I'm dressed, I go through the doorway and find Anne sitting in the floor of the next room, and what appears the be the only other room, reading a well-worn paperback novel. Glancing around the room, taking in what little there is to see, I sit down on the floor next to her.
"So, I'm guessing I'm still in Hell?"
Anne: "Yes, unfortunately, although I doubt Earth is in any better shape now."
She puts the novel aside before continuing to speak.
Anne: "I came here with a group of people, about thirty of us, mostly scientists and soldiers. I was one of the scientists. We'd hoped to somehow stop anymore demons from coming through the portals and end the invasion, but right after we arrived, we were attacked and almost everyone in the group was killed. Me and a few others managed to escape with our weapons and most of the other supplies we brought with us. We holed up in a building that was a lot bigger than this one. More demons found us though and everyone but me was killed. I managed to slip away unnoticed. I found this place and after a few days, I went back to the other building to see if the demons had left it yet and to get what weapons and supplies I could. It was horrible though, what the demons did to them in that building...and the smell, intensified by the heat of this place..."
She pauses for a moment. She looks like she might either cry, throw up, or both. She eventually continues her story though instead.
Anne: "About two weeks later, I found you when I was out looking for any other people who might be alive. I could hear screams sometimes and even though I doubted that I'd find any of those people still alive, it gave me some hope. This building has held up pretty well for me so far. The only demons here still are just the ones who didn't manage to get into Earth before the portals closed. Sometimes they roam around this area, but I've never had to deal with them. I'm careful when they're around, act quiet and sit in that back room since there's no windows in there for them to see in through. There's some zombies here too, but they're stupider than the demons. I always keep my gun with me though, just in case..."
She lifts up an assault rifle she had laying next to her to show me.
Anne: "What about you? How'd you end up coming here? And what's your name anyway?"
"I'm Red. I...was following someone."
Anne: "Did you find them?"
"Yeah..."
I wonder if my flower and the ninja ever managed to get back to Earth.
I awaken. I'm laying on the mattress again, this time with Anne, both of us naked, one of her arms draped over my chest as she continues to sleep. Almost a week has passed since I first found myself there, at least according to the way she keeps track of time. Moving carefully and quietly so as to not wake her, I drag her arm off of me and climb to my feet. I stretch, my back aching some since the mattress isn't very comfortable, but given the alternatives, I'll just have to deal with it. Picking up my clothes from the floor, I begin to put them on.
Anne: "Can't sleep?"
"Yeah. Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up."
Anne: "It's okay. I don't sleep well here usually anyway."
She rolls onto her side, using one arm to prop her head up as she smiles at me.
"I've been thinking about something."
Anne: "What?"
"Maybe we should try to get out here, go back to Earth. I know you have supplies here, food and water, but how long is that really going to last, especially with both of us using them up now? Six months? Maybe a year if we ration more than we already are?"
I see her smile falter.
Anne: "How do you know we'll find anything there though? It could just be one giant crater now for all we know! And what about the portals? How do you expect to reopen those? I think we should just stay here until our supplies are low and then worry about trying to return..."
"We won't know if we'll find anything unless we try. And I think I'll be able to reopen one of the portals. I studied them some before... But it could take me five minutes or five weeks. I really don't know. If we try when we're almost out of supplies though and it takes me longer than I expect, then what are going to do? We can't just start growing crops here and in case you haven't noticed, there's no water around here except for what's in the bottles. If we try now though and it takes me longer than I expect, we can stay at one of the nearby buildings and live off of the supplies we have now while I work on the portal."
I can tell that for some reason, she's close to tears now. I figure she's just afraid of leaving this building and possibly having to face the demons and zombies outside. She nods in agreement with what I've just said, although it seems forced.
Anne: "Okay, whatever you think is best..."
Without saying another word, I grab my shoes and exit the room. As soon as I'm gone from the room though, I can hear her begin to sob. I think she's a nice person, but she has some severe issues sometimes. I guess being basically alone for three years has messed her up in the head. I can only hope that she gets better as time progresses now that I'm with her.
Putting my shoes on, I begin to pack food, water, ammunition, and anything else I think that we might need into a couple of bags the supplies had originally been stored and carried in. I also pack my machete, the only weapon I had with me when she found me. Everything else was either melted in the lava, lost during battle, or in the case of my chainsaw, broken. I think I remember where the portal gate's located that I came here through, but I hope it isn't more than a couple hours away. Even though I'm almost completely sure that Earth will just be a shell of its former self, I'd still rather be there than here.
When Anne finally exits the back room, she's fully dressed again as well, but she still doesn't look very happy about my plan. I'm beginning to wonder if it isn't just a big mistake to even bother bringing her along. I don't want her slowing me down a lot or doing something stupid that'll end up harming me or especially herself.
"Ready?"
I might be a serial killer (or was anyway), but even I think it'd be really cruel to leave her behind here by herself again. I'll just have to try to be nice to her and keep her spirits up. Picking up her assault rifle, she looks up at me.
Anne: "Yeah, I guess..."
I pick up my gun, also an assault rifle, and we each take one of the supply bags before exiting the building through its door-less entrance.
Outside, the hot wind greets us, but nothing else does. We're both cautious as we move though, knowing that at any second, one of the demons could come out of seemingly nowhere to attack us. Neither of us feel very threatened by the zombies though. They're slow and as long as we keep an eye out for them, they'll never even get close to us.
"Can you take me to area where you originally found me?"
Anne: "I think so..."
She takes the lead, but I stick close to her. If we get attacked, I'm not sure how well she'll be able to actually defend herself.
After what seems to be about a half an hour, we arrive at the bottom of the cliffs. The river of lava is gone now, having cooled and solidified, but everything else about the area looks pretty much the same as I remember it.
"Now we just need to find a way up there. Any ideas?"
Anne: "If I remember correctly, there should be a path somewhere nearby..."
"Let's find it then."
We search for only a few minutes before discovering the path. It's steep, but I'd rather walk up it than try to climb up the cliff. Eventually reaching the top, I get ready to start leading the rest of the way when we see the corpse of a demon on the ground, causing Anne to scream, its body ripped in half at the waist, organs and blood having spilled out. The blood appears to be somewhat fresh too.
Anne: "What happened to it? Did the zombies get to it?"
"Maybe, or it got into a fight with another demon and lost."
She stares at the mutilated corpse with a strange look in her eyes. Not wanting stay out in open like this any longer than I have to, I take one of her hands and walk her away from it. Most of the demons might be at Earth now, but as the corpse has proven, this can still be a pretty dangerous place. I begin to wonder how she's going to react when we cross the battlefield beyond the caves that was littered with their corpses after I got past it when I first came here. Thinking of that battlefield also makes me wonder if any of the members of my team that were killed are now reanimated or if they got lucky and somehow had their brains destroyed when they died.
When we reach the entrance to the caves, I stop and take out a flashlight from my supply bag, turning it on.
Anne: "I don't think we should go in there..."
She's really starting to get on my nerves.
"Why not? We have this flashlight and it shouldn't take more than a couple minutes to get through."
Anne: "Something could be in there..."
I can feel my old feelings of hate for everyone else no matter who they are beginning to surface.
"We have guns. Co-"
I hear something moving in the darkness of the cave opening.
Anne: "What?"
"Be quiet for a moment."
I shine the beam of the flashlight over to where I hear the noise and see a lone zombie making its way towards us, its arms outstretched in front of it. It's rotted so much, it's impossible to tell whether it was originally male or female. Leveling my gun, I fire a single shot, striking the zombie in the forehead, causing its head to explode, blood and brains splashing onto the ground as the rest of its body falls down for good.
"See? We can handle anymore of them ea-"
I hear more noise. A lot more, coming from the depths of the cave. And then, another zombie steps out, followed by two more, the gunshot having gotten their attention. I get ready to shoot them as well, but within just a few seconds, fifteen or twenty of them have already exited the cave and they don't seem to be coming to an end anytime soon. Their stench burns my nostrils.
"Shit, there's too many of them! Follow me!"
I turn around and begin running, not sure where to, but wanting to put some distance between us and them. I look back once and see that there's at least fifty of them now.
Anne: "What are we going to do?!"
"Just keep fucking running!"
With our bags of supplies, we can't run very fast, but it's still faster than the speed of the zombies. After a couple minutes of running, I change directions and start moving parallel with the cliff line so we don't end up back there and I hope to find a way around the caves. We don't get far though when I see the outline of a roundish, stone structure in the distance: another portal gate. I point at it as we run.
"See that?"
Anne: "Yeah..."
"That's where we're going."
Reaching it a lot sooner than I expected us to, I look back again and see that the zombies are still following us. I estimate that we have about ten minutes at the most before they catch up to us. I don't tell her that though. The last thing I need right now is for her to start panicking.
Anne: "So how do we open it?"
I step over to a round piece of stone on the ground next to the gate. It's about three feet in diameter and almost reaches my waist. Thirty dials marked by different symbols are on top with the same symbols on the outer edge like on a clock. Four cranks are attached to the sides of the structure that can be used to turn the dials.
"Those dials, I think they need to be lined up with the symbols on the outside."
Anne: "And what if we can't figure it out before the zombies get here?!"
Not with the whiney, depressing attitude again...
"Then we'll figure out something else. Just stand back and let me work on this."
I begin turning the nearest crank, causing only some of the dials to rotate. After I have a couple of them lined up with their corresponding symbols, I move on to the next crank. Behind me, she's pacing, constantly looking back at the zombies.
Anne: "Hurry up! They're getting closer!"
"Stop looking at them then."
She doesn't, but I don't care really. Figuring out how to open this portal is more important to me right now, because if I have to be stuck here with her much longer, I might just go jump into some lava again and this time I'll make sure I go all the way in. We should still have a few minutes anyway.
When there's only a couple more dials left to line up, she screams. I look and see that the zombies are only about a fifty feet away now and there's at least a hundred of them in the crowd.
"Fuck."
I begin working on the dials faster, trying to get them all lined up properly. Right when the zombies are beginning to close in around us, I get it. A bright, bluish glow quickly fills the structure from the middle, opening the portal, but I don't know for how long.
"Yes! Let's get out of here!"
I approach the portal, not knowing where on Earth exactly it'll take me to and at the moment, it doesn't really matter to me. I start to go forward when I hear her scream again. I turn my head to look and find that several of the zombies have grabbed her, one chewing on a piece of flesh from her arm, her gun on the ground at her feet.
Anne: "Help me, Red! Help!"
She holds her other arm out for me to grab and I start to reach for it but stop myself. This is the perfect opportunity to get rid of her. Besides, she's been bitten. She might turn into one of them now from it and even if she doesn't, she'll probably die from a blood infection or something anyway without proper medical attention and she'll still become one. So instead, I wave goodbye to her, right as another zombie bites into her neck, tearing more meat away. Shoving several zombies back away from me that are getting too close for comfort, I then quickly jump into the portal, leaving Anne and her cries of pain behind.
Exiting through the other side of the portal, I fall to my knees, dropping my assault rifle and supply bag to the ground. I'm now in the woods somewhere and I can feel the heat of the sun overhead, but now's not the time to admire the scenery. Picking my gun back up, I scramble to my feet and spin around, taking several steps back away from the portal as I wait to see if any of the zombies followed me. Suddenly though, the portal recloses and I lower my gun, highly doubting that they'll be able to figure out how to open it again anytime soon.
Picking my supply bag up, I choose a direction and start walking, hoping to reach a road eventually. The woods seem completely unaffected by all that happened, although I wonder if any animals still roam them, alive or undead, and the sky looks pretty normal too, considering the fact that when I last saw it three years ago, it was filled with smoke from all of the fires that broke out and were left to burn themselves out. If I didn't know better, I'd think the world was back to normal, but with the way things were going when I left, I wouldn't be surprised if everyone's dead and the remaining demons, zombies, and the other monsters are wandering around wondering what to do next.
Hearing a rustling nearby, I turn to look and find a zombie deer trying to make its way to me. It moves very slowly though and I can see why: one of its legs are broken, the bone poking out through its rotting flesh. It'll never catch up to me unless I just stand still and even then, it'll take a while. Patches of its fur are gone and one of its antlers are also missing. I'm tempted to just put it out of its misery, but I don't want to waste any ammo, so I just continue moving. I really hope other, more agile zombie animals aren't lurking around, waiting for some fresh meat to pass by that they can pursue.
Eventually reaching a road, my walk through the woods pretty uneventful other the encounter with the deer, I glance up and down it. It's almost foreign to me after the time I spent in Hell. Even though I was only actually awake for a little over a week there, it seemed like a lot longer. The road has several fallen corpses on it. I'm guessing they're zombies, or were. With most of them, I can't tell if they've had a bullet put through their brains or not without having a closer look, but if any of them are still active, they either don't realize that I'm there or they're unable to stand up to try and eat me.
There are also two vehicles on the road, but they're both useless to me. One's a van, flipped over and missing a tire and the other's a car that appears to have been on fire at some point, possibly from an explosion because all of its windows are missing and what's left of the vehicle is burnt black. Maybe that's a good thing though if any of the machine controlling monsters are still around. Perhaps they're even the reason that these two are in the condition they're in.
I continue walking, heading along the edge of the road, keeping an eye out for any signs that might tell me where I am exactly. I step over one of the downed corpses, a piece of its skull missing, its brain visible. Not expecting it to move at all, it surprises me by grabbing at my feet as I pass over it. It attempts to bite me through the leather and before it manages to succeeds, I kick it away and stomp down on its head as hard as I can, crushing its skull against the pavement and causing its brains to shoot out through the hole, splattering against the ground with a wet slap. I guess someone either shot it or struck it in the head with something, breaking the skull but leaving the brain untouched.
Going on, I'm now very cautious of any of the other bodies I have to go near on this road. I come around a corner and looking over the guardrail, I can see a small town situated below the hill that this road seems to run down. It seems lifeless, its streets resembling this road in that there are bodies and useless abandoned vehicles strewn around. Not hoping to find anyone alive there, but not having anywhere else to go to, I climb over the guardrail so that I can proceed directly down it to the town instead of having to follow the road for who knows how long. It's risky though since the grass on the hill is tall, giving any still active corpses on the ground that might be there the perfect hiding place, so I take out my machete to cut away any grass around me as I move.
Carefully, I begin my descent, eventually reaching the bottom of the hill without incident. Most the buildings in the town appear to be intact. As I walk down one street of a neighborhood, I spot remnants of society in the overgrown yards: lawn chairs, children's toys, newspapers, still folded up as they were delivered, although now yellowed by the sun and the pages melted together by the rain. I wonder if I'll be able to find some cigarettes or maybe even some beer. I guess all the beer in the world is pretty flat now though.
As I exit the neighborhood, I spot a gas station, most of its convenience store's front windows knocked out and the doors left wide open. I approach the entrance and peer inside. It looks almost completely picked over, only a few items left on the shelves. I don't really need any food or supplies like that though since I still have the supply bag and I haven't used anything out of it yet. And glancing behind the checkout counter, I see a few packs of cigarettes left.
Grinning over my lucky discovery, I enter the store and walk around behind the counter, but I stop in my tracks when I see a corpse sitting upright against the wall. I kick one of its legs and it doesn't respond. I guess it's dead for good. Grabbing the packs of cigarettes, I open one of the packs and remove a single cigarette before storing the packs in my supply bag. I realize I don't have anyway to light it though and I look over to where the store's lighters should be, but they're all gone.
"Fuck."
I almost throw the cigarette down onto the floor in frustration, but I decide against it since it might be a while before I see anymore of them and I put it into the bag as well instead. I start to go back around the counter so that I can exit the store, passing an open doorway to leads to a back area for the employees. It's pitch black beyond the doorway and that's why I don't see the zombie in there until it lunges out at me, grabbing onto me with its rotting hands and trying to bite me. I manage to shove it back though, causing it to disappear into the darkness again and I begin firing my gun in its direction, trying to aim about where its head should be, until I hear the thud of it falling to the floor. It doesn't make anymore noise, so I get out of there, reloading my gun with extra ammo from the supply bag once I'm back outside.
Next, I decide to try and find some better clothes than Anne's handmade ones. Not that really care about what I'm wearing at a time like this, but some of the stitching on the clothes she gave me is already coming undone and some pockets would nice to put smaller items in, like a lighter if I ever manage to find one. I head down the street towards a line of shops. As I do, I pass a bus stop and reading its sign, I find out where I am: some town I've never heard of in Illinois. At least that solves one mystery for me.
All of the stores appear to have been ransacked, but I do spot a clothing store at the far end. I enter it and after making sure it's zombie-free, start looking through what's left of the clothes for stuff that will fit me. Sifting through items both on the racks still and on the floor, I eventually manage to find a couple t-shirts and pairs of jeans. Removing Anne's clothes, dropping them to the floor, I put on a pair of underwear that I found as well and one outfit, placing the other one in my supply bag in case I need it for some reason. I also get some socks and find a pair of hiking boots. As I'm lacing them up though, a sudden explosion rocks the building, followed by several smaller ones. I quickly finish and tie them, before collecting my gun and supply bag and stepping outside.
Immediately, I see a plume of thick black smoke rising high into the sky. I follow it down with my eyes and see that it's coming from the gas station, what's left of the pumps and convenience store engulfed in flames, and situated in the street in front of it is a tank. Two theories immediately come to mind: the tank's either being controlled by one of the monsters or some dumbass survivors thought it'd be fun to blow things up with the tank. Either way, I really don't want to become the next target. Preparing to go back inside the clothing store, I turn around only to find several zombies approaching, the noise the explosion having attracted them I'm guessing. But now they seem to be aimed towards me instead of the gas station.
I hear the tank begin to move and I turn my head to look at it to see that as luck would have it, it's also moving in my direction. I go back into the clothing store, hoping that the tank will just pass by. I look behind me and all but one of the zombies are following me in. The one who doesn't is curious about the tank, which proceeds to run it over with its treads, creating a crunching sound as the zombie is flattened. Not wanting find out when it's too late if the tank's going to try to blow me and the zombies up, I rush into the back area of the store, searching for a way outside. The windows I see are barred, so that's out of the question. I then see a door and try to open it, but it's locked. With the zombies steadily getting closer, I begin to ram the door with my shoulder, making my shoulder sore, but eventually breaking the door open.
Running across the parking lot on the other side of the door, I'm knocked down by another explosion at the clothing store goes up in flames, scraping my palms and knees on the pavement. Standing back up, I see that two zombies managed to make it out the door before the tank fired, their backs now ablaze. I would shoot them, but I'm afraid that the tank might come for me again then. I quickly realize that doesn't matter though as the tank turns the corner and enters the parking lot, before coming to a stop. I wonder if someone's going to open the hatch and step out until it starts shooting its machine gun. I almost instantly drop to the ground to try and avoid being shot as the tank fires in a half circle, rounds taking down the two zombies and ripping into brick and concrete.
When the tanks stops firing, it begins rolling forward again, lining one of its treads up with me. I roll to my feet with my gun and supplies in tow and run again, hoping to come across the monster that's controlling the tank so I can kill it. I doubt I will though since from my short experience with them before, I learned that they like to hide while they play with nearby machines.
Going into a field, I head back towards the neighborhood I passed through before, thinking I can maybe lose the tank there. I climb over a short chain link fence into one of the houses' backyards. I plan on cutting between two of the houses to get back to the street, but somewhere behind me, I hear the sputtering of small engine coming to life. I turn my head as I continue moving and see a blood covered lawn mower chasing me, the blood long since having dried, cutting a path through the tall grass as it goes
"Oh god dammit..."
I change my direction and run at the backdoor of the house instead, ramming my shoulder into it as well, not having time to check and see if it's locked or not, my speed allowing me to take it right off of its hinges in one blow. I race through the house, the lawnmower following me. When we reach the carpeted living room, it tears the carpet to shreds, but it isn't slowed down. Outside, there's a metallic grinding as the tank runs over the chain link fence. Finding the front door, I quickly unlock it, open it, and run out, slamming it shut behind me. I hear the lawnmower ram into the door, trying to continue its pursuit, but I don't stop running.
There's another explosion and I look, expecting to see the house blowing up, but it isn't. Instead, I see smoke rising up from behind it.
I hear talking somewhere behind the house, someone giving orders.
Man: "Tyler, take care of that lawnmower. If it didn't get that guy, try to find him. Cole, help me hunt down the overdrive."
Unsure of who these people are, not knowing if they're just going to take me prisoner or something, I quickly hide before they see me, ducking behind one of the abandoned cars on the street. A few seconds later, I hear the front door of the house open and the noise of the still running lawnmower gets louder. Peeking out from behind the car, I see Tyler force the lawnmower outside and flip it over, preventing it from moving around anymore. The underside is caked with a combination of grass, blood, and shreds of carpet. He then steps onto the sidewalk, scanning the area with his eyes for me, forcing me to duck down fully again.
Tyler: "Hello? Is anyone there? We can help you! We have shelter...food...medical supplies...ah, fuck it."
I hear him begin to pace along the sidewalk, waiting for his friends to come back. Gunshots ring out and then the lawnmower's engine shuts off. I guess they found the monster controlling it, the "overdrive". It's a fitting name, although I must admit that I find it to be somewhat amusing. With the only sound now coming from Tyler's shoes against the concrete, several moments pass before his friends return.
Man: "Any sign of him?"
Tyler: "No, he's long gone."
Man: "I guess we better head back then. It's going to start getting dark soon."
The three men begin walking, going back through the house.
Cole: "I can't believe how much damage the C-4 did to that tank."
Standing back up, I slowly approach the still open front door, passing by the now stationary lawnmower. I'm planning on following the men back to wherever they're going from a distance, but I have no doubt that it's going to be tricky and if they spot me, they might mistake me for a zombie and shoot at me. Carefully, I make my way to the back door, listening for their voices. At the doorway, I see them going across the field towards the parking lot on the other side. The tank's been reduced to smoldering pieces. Staying low in the high grass, I pursue them, stepping over what's left of the chain link fence.
When they reach the parking lot, I remain in the field, waiting to see which way they're going next.
Tyler: "Those explosions have drawn more zombies to this area."
Man: "I've noticed. We should be okay as long as we keep moving though. If any of them get too close to us here or try to follow us back once we're on the highway, we'll take them out. Otherwise, don't worry about them. We're low on ammo anyway. If we don't find more soon, the whole town's going to be in a lot of trouble, especially if the demons pay us another visit."
The men leave the parking lot, disappearing around the corner of another row of shops. I then move out of the field to follow them, but I don't get far because a zombie stumbles in my direction out of a nearby alley. My immediate reaction is to raise my assault rifle at it, but before I fire, I stop myself, remembering that I'm supposed to be following the men and any gunfire from me will most likely draw their attention. Instead, I quickly get my machete out of the supply bag before silently but effectively decapitating the zombie in one swing. As its headless body crumples to the ground, I continue after the men. Reaching the street, I find that they're nowhere in sight though. But the other man mentioned the highway. If I can find it, maybe I can catch up with them there.
I start roaming the streets of the town, looking for any signs to direct me to the highway. I continue to use my machete to decapitate any zombies that try to get in my way. Tyler was right, there does seem be an increase in the number of zombies in the area now. I pass the carcass of a large dog on the ground, almost all of its body gone except for its head and some of its torso. It snaps its jaws at me, but it has no way of actually reaching me. I suspect that the dog's death is recent since the blood on the ground around it is dried, but doesn't look very old, not faded by the rain or anything. I guess some members of the animal kingdom managed to survive the invasion too.
My thoughts are interrupted though when I hear several shots being fired nearby. I head in there direction, taking down another zombie as I move, and just a couple blocks away, I spot the three men with two demons towering over them near the on and off ramps for the highway. I'm a pretty tall person, but the demons are taller than even me. They're both unarmed, however, their claws make up for that.
One of them swipes at Tyler, tearing his head right off of his shoulders in a single swipe. His body falls over, blood squirting from his neck, as the demon looks down at Tyler's head impaled on one of its claws and proceeds to eat it whole. The other demon slits open Cole's gut, spilling his intestines onto the pavement, laughing at him as he collapses, staring in shock at his insides the entire time.
They then turn to the other man, who has shoulder length brown hair and sports a beard, backing away as he unloads his shotgun on them, each shot taking out chunks of their flesh, but they don't seem to notice at all. With my machete still in hand, I charge at the two demons. I stab the machete into the back of the first one I come to, its black blood spilling down the blade. It lets out a howl of pain and turns around to face me, doing more damage to itself when it moves by causing the machete to slice deeper into it. Before it gets the chance to actually attack me, I rip the machete out of it, splashing its blood onto the ground, and swing the machete at its legs, cutting into them, but not completely cutting them off, bringing it to its knees. Then, I swing the machete downwards onto its head, splitting it open and stabbing into its brain, killing it, black blood now dripping down its body.
The other demon turns towards me, seemingly more pissed off than the demons usually are. I guess I can sort of sympathize though. It pisses me off too when some asshole interrupts me while I'm killing people. Oh well, tough shit for this demon. Times have changed now. I take a swing at it with my machete, but it manages to catch it between its claws. It tries to force it out of my hands, but I keep a strong grip on the handle. Before either of us can do anything else though, I see the remaining man step up behind the demon and raise his shotgun up into the air, pressing the barrel of it against the back of the demon's head.
Man: "Claw this you son of a bitch!"
He then fires, causing the demon's head to explode into a black, liquid cloud. Getting my machete free from its claws, I quickly step out of the way as the blackness rains down onto the ground, chunks of brain and skull mixed into it, and the headless demon's body falls forward, hitting the ground with a thud. The man looks at me, lowering his gun.
"Since you helped me with that tank back there, I thought now would be a good time to return the favor."
Man: "Thanks, although you're a little late..."
He looks at Tyler's body and then over at Cole's, except he sees that Cole's back on his feet now and running towards us, dragging his intestines behind him. The man raises his shotgun again and tries to fire at his former friend, but he just gets a click.
Man: "Shit..."
"I've got it."
As Cole nears us, I step forward and swing the machete into the front of his neck, taking his head cleanly off, his legs carrying the rest of him forward for a couple more feet before going down. I turn to look back at the man.
"So, I heard your friend Tyler mention something about shelter...?"
Man: "Yeah, but do you think maybe we can discuss that once we're on the highway?"
He then nods behind me and I look to see the zombies in the area moving towards us.
"Good idea."
I follow the man up the off ramp onto the highway, which I find is also, unsurprisingly, littered with downed corpses and abandoned vehicles.
Man: "Well, since we've saved each others' asses now, I suppose we should learn each others' name. I'm Harry."
"I'm..."
Since I got back to Earth from Hell, I've been thinking that since I was a well-known wrestler and, most importantly, a convicted murderer, maybe I should just use my real name for now since not many people know it and if anyone recognizes me, it could start some unneeded trouble. At least if I'm using a different name, I [i]might[/i] be able to fool anyone who suspects me for who and what I really am. Maybe I'll change my appearance some too, it'd probably help a lot more than just a change of name.
"I'm Tim."
Harry extends his hand for me to shake. I accept it.
Harry: "Nice to meet you. You were asking about our shelter...I'll just tell you the basics of it for now. It's not far from here, about an hour's walk. It's another town, one that we've cleaned up a little bit and fortified with walls made up of pretty much anything we could get our hands on. It's close to Chicago. Just like every other major city around the world, Chicago itself is overrun with those walking pus bags, which makes it slightly more dangerous for us to live so close, but the closeness also works as an advantage for us when we need to make a run into the city for supplies. There were about forty of us to start with, but our numbers have dwindled down to ten...well, eight now...nine if you decide to stay."
"I'm sorry about what happened to your friends."
Harry: "Eh, don't worry yourself over it. They knew what they were getting into when they volunteered to come out here with me. What were you doing by yourself anyway though?"
"I was just...trying to survive."
Wincing in pain over a soreness on my palms, I look down at them to see the scrapes from when I fell in the parking lot before. My knees still feel scraped too. They should've healed by now.
I'm impressed with how Harry and his group have set up the town they're using as their home. They've cut off one section of the town from the rest by constructing the walls he'd mentioned around the section. The walls themselves are about twenty feet tall. They used a lot of abandoned cars in the walls as well as some other large, heavy objects. He leads me in through a big gate built into one wall. Immediately, I see several houses, a clinic, and a gas station, among other buildings, enclosed within the walls. What's left of the people here approach us as the gate's closed behind us.
Blonde Man: "Who's he, Harry?"
Harry: "I'd like for you all to meet Tim."
I nod at them, noticing that altogether, there's five men, including Harry, and three women.
Dark Brunette Woman: "Where's Tyler?!"
Harry: "Uh...everyone, I'm afraid I have some bad news. Tyler and Cole are dead. We were on our way back when two demons attacked us. I'd probably be dead too now if Tim here hadn't interfered."
The dark brunette woman begins sobbing uncontrollably, running away from us towards the houses. A short haired woman quickly goes after her to console her. The remaining people have somber looks across their faces from hearing the news, but no tears are shed. I suppose they're so used to being around death constantly now, it no longer affects them like it would've before the invasion.
Harry: "Well, the rest of you know what needs to be done before it gets completely dark. I'm going to show Tim around some."
They all take one last look at me before walking away to do whatever their tasks are. Harry and me then start walking around, him showing me some of the basic places in their little fortress along the way.
Harry: "Certain things are easier when done before the sun goes down for the night and we lose that light. We have a few flashlights, but we try to save those only for when we really need them since fresh batteries and light bulbs are a pretty rare commodity these days. And there's some candles, but we're trying to make them last as long possible, so we just keep them to see in the houses and stuff at night if we need to."
"Sounds like the most efficient way. The woman that ran away crying, I'm guessing she was involved with Tyler somehow?"
Harry: "Yes, Maria, they were husband and wife. They'd already been married for a couple years before the invasion. I'll need to have someone keep an eye on her, maybe Lily, the woman that followed her, make sure she doesn't try to do something like kill herself. Fuck knows we don't need to lose anymore people now. Tyler was the best marksman here and Cole knew the area better than any of us."
I spot a bus parked near the gas station, its windows covered by various pieces of scrap metal.
"Aren't you afraid one of the overdrives will tear up this place with that bus?"
Harry: "Our mechanic did something to the engine to prevent that from happening. We keep it fueled up though in case we need to use it and he says it would take just a few minutes to get the engine working. There aren't many overdrives left around here anyway though. That one today was the first I've encountered in several months actually."
We ascend a flight of stairs that appear to be passenger boarding stairs from an airport, ending up on top of the surrounding walls, able to see everything outside of the walls for miles. In the distance, I can see the outline of skyscrapers.
"Is that Chicago?"
Harry: "Yep, that's the Windy City, or what's left of it anyway. Part of it burned down not long after the invasion started. We have a pretty direct route there from here, just have to follow the highway further, but with all the zombies that are there, it's impossible to get very far into the city without becoming completely surrounded by them. It's a shame too. You know those warehouses full of supplies that the government set up in every major city right at the start of the invasion? Chicago got two of them. One of them was destroyed in the fire we think, but the other one's probably still pretty full of supplies."
"Do you know where the warehouse is? Have you ever tried to reach it?"
Harry: "Cole marked it on a map. We did try once, but we didn't even get close to it. Like I said, you end up getting surrounded. We tried to shoot them. There were just too many though and we lost several people. And our ammo count's too low now to even consider trying it again."
Thinking, I don't respond right away.
"What about the bus? Could drive it to the warehouse and load up whatever can fit."
Harry: "I doubt we'd be able to maneuver it very far on the highway with all the cars that are on it and the city's streets probably aren't in any better shape, not to mention all the zombies that'd be waiting to greet us."
"So find an alternate, clearer route into the city. Might have to go through a few other towns along the way and it'd probably take longer, but I doubt much longer. Someone could even be sent ahead into the city to find the clearest path to the warehouse and maybe try to find out if there're any demons or overdrives left that could pose a threat. The zombies could easily be run over by that bus and one or two people could stay on the roof of it to shoot some if needed."
Harry: "That might work, but no one here's crazy or stupid enough to go there to find a path for the bus, especially alone."
"I'd do it."
Harry: "Why though? Didn't you hear me when I told you how you'll get surrounded by the zombies there?"
"I heard you. I'll try to move through the buildings or something as much as possible, stay off the streets. You seem pretty desperate for supplies here and I could use some things myself."
Harry: "Yeah, we are getting desperate. We've taken a lot from the surrounding towns. There's hardly anything we can use left in them. I'll have to think about it though. It still sounds pretty dangerous to me, even with the bus, and I really don't want to get anyone else here killed."
A moment of silence occurs between us. I continue looking at city, wondering if I should head there eventually for the warehouse even if Harry decides against going there with the bus.
Harry: "Anyway, why don't I show you where you can put your stuff down and sleep? That is, if you want to stay here."
"Of course I do."
I follow Harry back down the stairs and he leads me to the houses, all of which have two floors and appear to also have basements. We enter the last one on the left and proceed up the stairs inside.
Harry: "You'll be staying here with Justin and Brooke. There's no running electricity or water. The police station has a boiler that we've managed to keep operating though, so we've been taking showers and the like there using water from a nearby pond. The water appears to be clean enough, but I wouldn't advise drinking it either. We have bottled water for that. We were using a couple portable generators for some electricity in areas for a while, but they went through fuel too fast."
He takes me to a somewhat small room. It contains a bed, a dresser, a rug, and a few other objects, left behind by the home's previous occupants I'm guessing.
Harry: "Well?"
"It's good enough for me. Thanks a lot."
I set my bag down on the floor and lean my gun against one wall. Next to the bed is a window and on the opposite wall, a closet.
Harry: "I'll show you where we eat now. It's about time for dinner anyway. We only have canned goods to eat, but it's better than nothing."
We exit the house and I follow him, noticing that they have a couple fires started on the ground around the area since it's almost dark outside now. Reaching what was once a diner, I can see several candles lit inside of it through the windows as we go in. Everyone else but Maria and one of the other guys appears to already be there, spread out around the diner in the booths, some people sitting together and others alone, eating from their own cans with forks and spoons. Grabbing a can, mixed fruit, from the counter and a fork, I take a seat at an unoccupied booth. Harry sits with me after he gets his food and begins telling me more about himself and the other people.
I find out that Harry was a cop and is sort of the unofficial leader here. Maria was a waitress and Lily was a nurse. The blonde man, Adam, was a mechanic. The other woman, Brooke, was a teacher, Charlie, the other person not at dinner, was a firefighter, Justin was a cab driver, and Wayne was a bartender.
When I'm done eating and prepare to leave, Harry hands me one of the already lit candles in the diner and a partial book of matches from his pocket to take with me. Now I have a way to light my cigarettes at least. Once outside, I blow out the candle since the moon's providing just enough light for me to see by.
I don't go directly back to my room at the house. Instead, I walk around some, exploring the areas I haven't gotten to see yet. I quickly find that there isn't really anything of interest though and decide to just return to my room. On the way, I spot Charlie walking along the surrounding walls, a rifle in hand. Someone has to constantly keep watch I guess.
Inside the house, I realize I can't see as well in the dark as I used to be able to. I suppose that whatever's causing me to no longer rapidly regenerate is also affecting my enhanced senses. I wonder if I can still produce and control electricity. That would actually probably come in handy if I can. I can't test it here though. Someone might see me do it. Relighting my candle, I make my way to the stairwell. I pass a closed door and behind it, I can hear a man and a woman shouting angrily. Assuming it's Justin and Brooke, I keep moving, going up the stairs and entering my room.
I set the candle on the dresser and go into my supply bag to get the already open pack of cigarettes. Lighting one with the candle, I open the window before sitting down on the bed and taking a nice, long drag of it, highly enjoying it.
Woman: "Hey."
I look up to see Brooke standing in the doorway. She has blonde hair and can't be anymore than thirty years old.
Brooke: "Tim, right?"
I nod.
"Smoke?"
Brooke: "Yeah, I'd love one. I thought I'd never see those again actually. It's been a while."
I take another cigarette out and hand it to her. She lights it with the candle as well before sitting down on the bed next to me.
Brooke: "Thanks. You should be careful with who sees you with these though. Some people here are a lot more desperate than me for them, especially Wayne. I once caught him trying to light one of those white, paper lollipop sticks. I'm Brooke, by the way."
"Nice to meet you."
Brooke: "So where were you when this all started?"
"L.A."
Brooke: "Me too. I barely managed to escape before the bombs landed though."
"What bombs?"
Brooke: "You really don't know? Those overdrives somehow managed to get a hold of some nukes and started dropping them. Wiped out most of the west coast. I've heard parts of Canada got hit too."
Oh shit. My flower and the ninja were supposed to go back to L.A. via the portal we went to Hell through.
Brooke: "I don't get why they didn't bomb more places though. Guess they couldn't get a hold of more or something. Of course, no one here really knows what's happened across the oceans. Maybe they bombed countries over there instead for some reason. Anyway, I better get back downstairs before Justin comes looking for me... Thanks again for the cigarette."
She then stands up and tosses the butt of her cigarette out of the window, giving me a smile before leaving.
Exiting the police station, I feel refreshed after the shower I just took, although I'm now even more concerned about the loss of my powers. Before my shower, I glanced into a mirror and noticed that the glow in my eyes has completely disappeared. I'm not sure what that means exactly since I never knew much about my powers beyond what I was able to do with them, but I'd like to find out more and see what I can do about possibly restoring them, hopefully soon. They really do make life easier.
Down the street, talking to Adam and Charlie, Harry sees me and approaches.
Harry: "How'd you sleep?"
"Just fine."
Harry: "Good. Listen, I've been thinking about your idea to go into Chicago and after speaking with the others, I've made my decision. I still think it's a dangerous idea, but I guess danger lurks everywhere in this world and we'll probably have to try to go again eventually anyway, so, if you're still willing, I'd like for you to go with a couple other people from here and see if there's anyway to possibly get the bus to the warehouse."
"I'll still do it, but I'm going alone. I work better that way."
In truth, that's not the only reason. Among a few other things, I don't know how well the people here can handle themselves in battle other than Harry and I don't want them getting killed while following me into something that could lead to my own demise.
Harry: "Don't be stupid. What if you encounter something like another tank?"
"Then I'll figure something out."
Before either of us can say anything else, Lily runs up to us.
Lily: "Have either of you seen Maria? I woke up this morning and she wasn't in bed. I've looked all around and can't find her. I'm starting to get worried."
Harry: "No. Did you check the diner?"
Lily: "Yeah, I've searched everywhere that I could think of."
"Maybe she went outside the walls?"
Harry: "I doubt it. We would've heard the gate being opened and Charlie had guard duty. Surely he would've heard or seen her if she tried to get out another way. She has to be here somewhere. Let's all search. I'll inform the others."
Even though I still think Maria simply left, I do as Harry says and start searching. We thoroughly check each area within the walls, sometimes more than once, but don't find any trace of her. With just the houses left, we focus our attention on them. As we head for the one Maria and Lily were sleeping in, Lily suddenly has a revelation.
Lily: "Shit, you know where I forgot to look? The basement! We never go down there so it completely slipped my mind."
Harry: "That's got to be it, because I really don't know where else she could be."
Splitting up into groups, Lily, Justin, Brooke, and myself enter Maria and Lily's house and Harry, Adam, Charlie, and Wayne enter the next one.
Lily lights a candle and opens the basement door. We then follow her down the wooden stairs and in the center of the room, we find her, hanging from a ceiling beam with a noose around her neck, thrashing around with her arms and legs, a stool and a nearly burnt out candle on the floor underneath her body.
Lily: "Oh god! Someone help her!"
Tears beginning to roll down her cheeks, she almost drops the lit candle, but Brooke manages to grab it in time. Taking out a knife, Justin moves over to Maria to cut her down.
"Wait, don't."
Justin: "Fuck you! I'm not leaving her up there!"
Not giving me a chance to tell him why it was illogical that she would still be alive, he stands on the stool and saws at the rope with his knife, but before he can finish, she manages to grab onto him, causing him to drop the knife, and takes a bite out of the side of his neck. With blood squirting out of the ragged hole, he topples off of the stool and falls to the floor, grasping his neck, trying to stop the bleeding. Brooke tries to run over to him, but I grab her arm to stop her.
"There's nothing that can be done to save him and you know it."
Brooke: "Let go of me!"
She changes her mind though when what's left of the rope snaps, dropping Maria to the floor next to Justin. Climbing to her feet, Maria then runs towards us.
"Get upstairs!"
I shove Brooke and Lily ahead of me and slam the basement door shut behind me, leaning against it with my back as Maria twists the knob and pounds against the door with her hands, trying to get through to us.
"Brooke, get a weapon for me. Lily, go find Harry and the others."
Lily runs outside through the front door and Brooke starts looking around the house for something I can use. I hear a cracking sound as the door begins to break.
"Fuck, hurry up, Brooke!"
She finds a baseball bat and lifts it up to show me.
Brooke: "How's this?"
"That'll have to do. Bring it to me."
She rushes over and hands it to me.
"Okay, now stand back.
She does as I say and then I move forward a few feet away from the door, turning around so that I can see it. Large cracks are beginning to form in the wood. Maria should be able to break through it any moment now. When she finally does, the door splintering into several chunks, she charges at me, but I'm ready for her and I drop her to the floor by swinging the bat into her face, knocking some of her teeth out of her mouth. She immediately starts trying to get back up, ignorant to the damage I just did to her. Before she can get completely upright though, I slam the bat down on the top of her head, sending her back to the floor, but she tries to rise again. I strike her again, repeating this until she stops moving, blood oozing out from underneath her hair, her skull no doubt cracked open.
Relieved that she's finally down for good, I start to drop the baseball bat when I remember that Justin's still in the basement, probably having bled to death by now and should be reanimating soon. Hearing footsteps behind me, I turn my head to look and see Harry and everyone else entering the room. He lets out a sigh at the sight of Maria's body, but doesn't say anything. He, Charlie, and Wayne walk over and look down at her. We all then hear footsteps racing up the basement stairs.
Wayne: "Who's that? Justin?"
He sticks his head through the doorway to have a look. I start to warn him, but it's too late. Justin greets him at the top of the stairs by grabbing onto Wayne and biting into his face, peeling away a strip of flesh. Wayne lets out a scream of pain and tries to push Justin off of him, but Justin swallows his food and goes in for another bite, ripping out the front of Wayne's throat, before they both lose their balance and end up tumbling down the stairs together.
Unholstering a revolver, Harry runs down the stairs after them, me and Charlie following. At the bottom, we find Justin and Wayne on the floor, Justin trying to get back up and Wayne unmoving and barely conscious. Harry aims his gun.
Harry: "I'm sorry..."
He then fires twice, once at Wayne's head and once at Justin's, ending both of them permanently.
Later that day, we bury the three bodies in a small park in their section of the town that they've been using as cemetery. They're all shaken up over the incident, especially Lily, who doesn't attend the small ceremony at all that they hold their dead friends, or family as some of them might consider each other now.
It's hard to believe, at least for me since I only woke up about a week ago, that the human race is almost extinct. I expected it to happen eventually, as it seems to with everything else that lives, but I thought it'd be through something like a global war with each other. Now we're all working together to survive just a little longer, even myself. These are the type of people I once would've considered murdering and yet here I am, helping them and living with them. I'd pinch myself to check if I was just dreaming, but I know I'm not.
During dinner that evening, Harry sits with me again. For most of the meal, he's more quiet than usual, understandably of course. When I'm almost finished though, he speaks up.
Harry: "Still planning on going into Chicago alone?"
"Yep."
I don't expect him to argue that anymore.
Harry: "When do you want to go?"
"As soon as possible I guess. I could go tomorrow."
Harry: "I'll get a map of the city for you with the warehouse's location marked on it before you leave. You can take any supplies you want from here. Weapons, ammo, food, that sort of thing."
The next day, Harry shows me their stash of guns in the police station. I already have my own assault rifle, but from what they have, I also decide to take a sniper rifle, pistol, and some ammo. I can use the sniper rifle on the rooftops in the city to clear up the streets some if I need to and the pistol in case I run out of assault rifle ammo. On the way out of the weapons storeroom, I see some straps laying on a bench and grab a couple of them to attach to the assault and sniper rifles to make carrying them easier.
I store what I can in my supply bag: machete, pistol, ammo, canned goods, and, of course, my packs of cigarettes, although I decide to give one pack to Brooke, hoping I'll be able to find more in the city. She gives me a somewhat shy kiss on the cheek afterwards.
After Harry hands me a map of Chicago and the surrounding areas, I make my way through their fortress's gate and head for the highway, having decided to follow it until I get closer to the city, the rifles and supply bag strapped to my back.
Standing at the crumbling edge of the highway where a large section of an elevated part has collapsed completely to the ground far below for reasons beyond my knowledge, I let out a sigh. I'll have to backtrack to the last exit and find a way around it. At least I'm about three-fourths of the way to Chicago and the map should be helpful in navigating me the rest of the way there and especially through the city itself, but still, why can't anything ever be easy?
Turning around, I begin walking again, grateful that I've only encountered a few zombies and nothing else that would like to kill me on the highway so far, each one alone and seemingly lost beyond all hope in more ways than one, just stumbling around and waiting for something still alive to come along for them to attempt to devour. I decapitated them with my machete as I passed by, preserving my ammunition for situations when more of them are around.
Once I'm off of the highway, I have a look at the map and decide to head for a nearby small town with a couple roads leading from it into the city. By the time I reach the town, the sun should just be starting to set and hopefully, I'll be able to find a secure enough building there to stay in for the night, because I really don't want to be in the city at night while trying to avoid or kill the zombies and anything else that might be roaming through that concrete jungle.
The road I'm currently on is only two lanes, very little else around. Behind me is the highway, ahead of me in the distance is the town, and even further ahead is the city. Also, of course, are abandoned vehicles and bodies scattered along the road. I carefully make my way around them, wishing that I knew how to hotwire cars, then maybe I could find one in a good enough condition to drive the rest of the way there instead of having to walk any further. Perhaps being a cannibalistic serial killer was the wrong criminal path for me, even though I was so good at it.
As I walk, I start thinking about my flower. Not for the first time and probably not for the last, I wonder if she's dead. Did she even make it out of Hell and if she did, was she still in L.A. when it got nuked? I had been planning on heading back there eventually, but I guess I won't bother now. Everything we had had been there though. The mansion, our friends, our careers, we'd even discussed possibly having a child together. If she somehow is still alive, I have no idea where to begin searching for her at. It's not like I can just call her cell phone and ask her where she is.
I spot the broken, burnt remains of a commercial jet several hundred feet away from the side of the road. I don't approach it, but I speculate how it may have crashed. An overdrive could've taken control of it in midair and crashed it to kill everyone on board, although in early days of the invasion, I remember them preferring to crash planes into other things or places where people might be to try and kill the most possible, not just crash them into the ground.
Eventually, I'm close enough to the town to see some sort of movement within it. Maybe zombies. It looks like a lot of them if it is. Since I'm not close enough to see who or what they are exactly, I drop what's left of my cigarette to the ground before getting the sniper rifle and looking through its scope. Demons, about twenty of them, maybe twenty-five. I quickly hide behind a nearby car on the side of the road before any of them can spot me. What the hell are they doing there? Is it their base or something? The way I see it, I only have two choices here: try to go completely around the town or fight them. I don't want to try surviving the night without some kind of shelter, but I'm also having serious doubts about me surviving a battle with that many demons, at least without my powers.
"Fuck it."
I bring the sniper rifle back up and take aim. After I get their attention and they start running at me, hopefully I'll be able to shoot down most of them before they get too close. Focusing on the head of one that's on the roof of a two-story building, I fire, the bullet striking the demon in the back of the head, causing its flesh and skull to just explode on impact, killing it, its body falling off of the roof to the pavement below. The other demons are instantly alerted by the gunshot and start looking around for the source, oblivious to their now dead one as black blood flows out of what's left of its head. Loading the next round, I fire again, another headshot, this time taking down one amid the crowd of confused demons.
I'm beginning to think they might actually be stupider than the zombies, but then one of them notices me and, pointing with its large, clawed arm, lets out a series of grunts that I can only guess amounts to something like, "Over there! Let's kill him!" They all turn to look at me, letting out similar grunts, and then they charge, raising their various weapons into the air at they move. I fire several more shots, each one hitting its mark, but it seems to barely make a dent in the group.
With them steadily getting closer, I quickly drop the sniper rifle and equip the assault rifle. Stepping out from behind the car, I start shooting at them again, swinging the gun back and forth across the wall of demons, trying to aim for their heads. I only manage to kill a few more though, most of rounds either missing or just not doing enough damage to affect them. Moving back to put a little more space between us, I don't get far when I stumble over a sundried corpse laying across the middle of road, falling backwards over it to the ground. The putrid stench of the corpse flows into my nose, almost causing me to vomit. This was a really bad idea.
I try to get back to my feet, but the demons are already upon me. Before I can shoot at any of them, one with a giant wooden club hits the gun with the club, breaking the gun in half. It then slams the club down onto the top of my head, sending a sharp shot of pain through it and knocking me unconscious.
Sometime later, I open my eyes, cringing at the pain that erupts within my head. I didn't think I'd be conscious ever again. I can feel dried blood on my face. Unable to walk due to the shackles around my wrists and ankles that are attached to a wall by chains, I turn my head to see the rest of the room. There's not much else to see though. Because of the lack of windows, a barrel with a fire lit inside of it sitting in the middle of the room to provide light and sitting against one wall are all of my belongings except for the clothes I'm wearing, including the now useless assault rifle. From a doorway across the room from me that appears to lead into another room, a demon emerges.
My jaw drops in shock. I didn't know the demons even knew how to speak at all. I'd only ever heard them use grunts to communicate.
"Uhhh...ca nook desa?"
The demon stares at me for a moment. I'm unable to tell what expression might be on its grotesque face, but then it begins laughing as it approaches me. I'd join in with the laughing if it wasn't for the scythe in its hands. Standing in front of me, it holds the blade of the scythe against my throat.
Laughing again, it continues to hold the scythe with one hand while using its other to unlock and remove my shackles. As soon as I'm free though, I make my move before it can do anything else. Grabbing onto the handle of the scythe, I kick the demon in the gut, sending it stumbling backwards and causing it to lose its grip on its weapon, leaving it in my hands. I then swing the scythe so that the blade punctures its chin from underneath, driving through its mouth and piercing its brain, before the tip pops out of the top of its head. Dead, its black blood drips down the blade and out of its mouth and nose, quickly forming a puddle at its feet. With several tugs, I managed to remove the blade from its head, its body crumpling to the concrete floor.
Wasting no time, I move into the next room to find more windowless walls, a flight of steps leading up, and two demons, one armed with a spear and the other unarmed. I attack the one closest to me first, who tries to jab me with its spear, but I nearly decapitate it by swinging the blade of the scythe into the side of its neck. Black blood squirting into the air, it collapses and I set my sights on the other demon, who's already advancing towards me. I swing the scythe at its neck as well and it tries to block it with its claws, but the blade shatters them and slices its neck open anyway.
With the black blood spreading across the floor, I make my way up the stairs. Before I can reach the top though, I encounter another demon, catching it by surprise. Quickly maneuvering the blade of the scythe behind its legs, I sweep its feet out from under it, knocking it down the stairs. I run down after it and with it struggling to get back up, I sink the blade into the back of its skull, its body twitching before I rip the blade back out, taking a chunk of its brain with it.
Going back up the stairs, I reach a door at the top and open it to find that it leads outside into the night. I step through, the door staying open behind me. Now in an alley, I cautiously make my way to one end of it. Peeking around the corner, I see that in the town square near a statue that seems to mark the middle of it, what I think are all of the remaining demons are standing around a large bonfire, talking and grunting with each other. I count about fifteen still, assuming that's everyone. I don't think I can fight all of them though, at least not while they're all together like this.
Slowly, I step back into the alley. I could hide somewhere within the town and rest for the night, but they'd probably search it when they find me missing. I guess the only other thing I can do is escape the town before they make that discovery and hope I can find somewhere else to stay. Not only am I exhausted from all the walking I've done today, but I also have a terrible headache now thanks to the blow to the head from that club.
Turning around, I head back to the door. I'll get my stuff and try to find my way to one of the roads leading to Chicago. Suddenly though, a door on the other side of the alley slams open and a demon steps out. Before it can see me, I silently but quickly approach it and take its head off with the scythe. If there are anymore demons hiding in other buildings, my escape will have to be a very stealthy one. I get back down the stairs and, dropping the scythe to the floor, collect my supply bag, sniper rifle, and anything else that's mine, except the broken assault rifle.
Once I'm back in the alley, I go in the opposite direction I did before, ending up on an empty street. Using the moonlight to see by, I look at my map to figure out which way I need to go. I would take out my flashlight, but that'd give me away easily if one of the demons see the beam. Thinking I know where to go, I fold the map back up and start walking.
Hiding every time a noise is made that seems nearby but not actually encountering anymore demons, I eventually find one of the roads, another two lane one, and make my way down it. While still near the town, I hear a scream of anger emit from somewhere within it. I guess they discovered that I'm gone. Hopefully, they won't search for me outside of the town because I'm not sure how far I'll be able to get before I absolutely have to stop.
I almost end up sleeping in the backseat of a car, which wouldn't be an ideal place for a few reasons, but then I find a charter bus stopped on one side of the road. The doors already open, I step inside. Other than a few unmoving corpses, it's empty. Opening some windows so it doesn't smell so bad with the doors closed, I put my supply bag and sniper rifle down before sitting down in a row with my back against the wall, stretching my legs out over the aisle into the seats across from me, quickly falling asleep.
A scratching sound causes me to wake up with a jump. I can tell by the sky that it's early in the morning, the sun just beginning to rise. Standing up, I grab my machete and carefully make my way towards the front of the bus where the sound's coming from. If it's the demons, they'll easily be able to trap me inside here and kill me. Glancing through each window I pass though, I don't see anyone, but when I reach the front, I look at the doors and find a zombie trying to pry them open. Relieved that it's not the demons, I kick the doors open, hitting the zombie with them, the force of the impact causing it to fall backwards to the ground.
Stepping out of the bus, I decapitate the zombie as it tries to get back on its feet. I then have quick look around to make sure that there aren't anymore of them in the immediate area before going back inside the bus to get the rest of my stuff. There's not much point in trying to fall asleep again and it shouldn't take me more than an hour to reach Chicago now, giving me the rest of the day to find the supply warehouse. Keeping my machete in hand to deal with any other zombies I might encounter along the road, I begin walking once again.
When I finally reach the edge of the city, I notice several zombies roaming around, none having noticed me yet. I quickly head for a group of old industrial factories, each one surrounded by chain link fences, my hurried footsteps attracting the attention of the closest zombies and their moans attracting others. Entering the front gate of the first factory I reach, I pull it closed behind me before grabbing a rusty chain laying on the ground nearby and using it to help keep the gate shut for the time being.
Taking out my map, I begin examining it, keeping an eye out for any zombies that could be in the factory area with me. I'm also guessing that there's more than one gate, which I can hopefully find and use to escape back outside through, if the zombies now trying to get past the gate behind me don't have some dumb luck and find it first. After a few moments of tracing the map with my finger, I realize that one of the 'L' train lines is nearby and would pretty much take me straight to the warehouse if I follow it.
Behind me, I suddenly hear the sound of the chain snapping in half and the squeaking of the gate slowly being pushed open. Time to move. Not looking back, I put my map away and arm myself with my machete as I start running across the pavement toward the large main building. Not bothering with the front doors since they're closed and boarded up, I instead make my away around to the side of the building, nearly running straight into a zombie standing behind the corner as I round it. I shove it away from me, knocking it down onto the ground, and continue running, now in tall grass, trying to put as much distance as possible between myself and the other zombies in pursuit of me.
Dodging a few more zombies, I make it to the area behind the building to find more grass and a gap in the fence where it's been knocked down by an ambulance crashing through it, the ambulance stopped not far beyond that. I hope that there're no overdrives around right now. I don't need something chasing me around with machines in addition to the horde of zombies coming for me. I quickly escape through the gap in the fence, the ambulance remaining lifeless, and start running down the street I emerge on, heading straight into the downtown area of the city.
This is the worst place I've seen yet. Dead and undead bodies seem to be everywhere, although the undead ones are moving very slowly at least. As long as I don't stop moving, they shouldn't be able to ever catch up with me. Vehicles are also scattered everywhere, many of them burned out. But I guess with what was once a such a big and busy city, I should've expected this.
As I move, I look for a station for the 'L' so that I can easily get onto the tracks and follow along them, hopefully avoiding many of the city's zombies and if any are left here, demons. Spotting stairs leading to an underground station, I approach them and discover that, surprisingly, the gate is up. Taking out my flashlight and turning it on, I descend into the darkness underneath the streets, realizing that I might end up finding myself coming face to face with more zombies or something else, but I don't think I'll ever make it to the warehouse alive if I stick to the streets.
When I'm on the station platform, I hear something shuffling nearby. When I shine my flashlight around though, I don't see anything. I've never been one to be scared of the dark or be scared easily at all for that matter, but this would be one of those very rare moments when I am scared. I even switch my machete for the pistol I got from the police station. If I see any zombies down here, I don't want them getting anywhere near me. It's too late to turn back now though. Any zombies on the street that saw me go down the stairs are probably already making their own way down and any zombies that see them going down will follow out of curiosity or whatever their logic is for following each other.
Wasting no more time, I jump down onto the tracks and start walking in what I think is the correct direction, moving slowly and cautiously, shining my flashlight on everything in front of me. I'll be able to move a little faster once I reach the parts of the track that are outside in the open. Even though the power is off, I avoid touching the third rail in case of the presence of any overdrives. The only corpses I encounter within the tunnel are laid out on and next to the tracks, having long since ceased all movement.
It feels like I've been walking for hours by the time I exit back into the daylight. After putting away my flashlight for now and having a quick look at the map again to try and figure out where I am exactly in the city now, I continue walking, picking up my pace. Below in the streets, the zombies continue shuffling along, seemingly unaware of my presence at the moment. It'll take just one of them to spot me for all of them to end up seeing me, although they'll still have to find a way to get up here.
When I reach a stopped train car, I consider entering it and searching for anything I might be able to use, but I decide against it and instead step onto the next track to go around it. I notice that most of the windows have some amount of blood splattered on them from the inside, a few smashed out as well. It reminds me of what the aftermath of one of my murders might've looked like, but for some reason, it's different to see now, in this forever changed world.
Eventually, I'm able to see the supply warehouse from the tracks. It's big, about three stories tall, completely surround by a barbed wire-topped chain link fence, with several overhead doors built into the front of the building, one of them raised slightly. The fence's gate is closed though with a lock, so no zombies are actually on the warehouse's property as far as I can tell. I can probably break the lock, but I'll have to go back down to the streets to reach it. I decide to head back to the previous station since I passed through it just a few minutes ago.
At the station, I'm not even all the way down the stairs leading to the street when the zombies notice me. I push away the few who are waiting for me at the bottom and run towards an alleyway on the far end of the street, dodging any other zombies who are in my path, more and more zombies following after me as I move. Entering the alley, I make my way through the winding brick and concrete, using my machete to take care of the few zombies I come across within it. It's too narrow for me to dodge them without risking the chance of one of them biting me.
Once I reach the other end of the alley, I find myself almost directly across the street from the warehouse's gate. Quickly, I run towards it and, shooting the lock off with my pistol, pull the gate open, somewhat surprised that the lock hasn't been removed by someone before now. Not bothering to close the gate behind me, I then run for the partially open overhead door. Crawling under it, I grab at the bottom and lower it shut, the zombies pounding on it from the outside just seconds later. I'll worry about them when I'm ready to leave though. If I ever feel the need to leave.
The warehouse seems to have everything I could ever need to live off of, its inventory appearing to be almost completely untouched. Just by looking at the labels on the front of the crates that line the tall shelves, I can see that there's food, medicine, weapons with ammo, even standard clothing, among many other useful items. And parked in front of each overhead door: military supply trucks, their backs empty, and after having quick look into one of the them, I discover that their keys are in the ignition and the gas tanks are full. I've hit the jackpot. Prying open one of the food crates with a crowbar I find laying on the floor, I find that it's filled mostly with canned goods and MREs. Not my personal top choice, but it's not like there's much else to choose from here.
I do wonder why the overhead door was open, but no one seems to be here, alive or otherwise. As much as I'd prefer just staying here for a while though, I know that I must return to Harry and the others as soon as possible, so I use one of the forklifts parked around the warehouse to begin loading one of the trucks with as many of the different crates as possible, not stopping until the truck is full. The truck will drive a little slower now from the extra weight, but it'll be worth it I think, if I can make it back alive. I can't leave just yet though. With all those zombies waiting on the other side of the overhead door, they'll tear me to pieces before I can even get the door fully open. I need to distract them somehow.
Leaving my bag in the cab of the truck, I begin prying open the weapons crates left on the shelves, looking for grenades. When I find some, I take one and make my way to the upper floors of the warehouse via a flight of stairs on the other side of the building away from the trucks. And at the top floor, I find out who probably left the overhead door open, their brains all over the wall behind them. Their death wasn't recent though. They've decomposed immensely. Stepping over their body, I go towards a window that looks out over the front area of the warehouse and open it. The crowd of zombies has grown large. Nonetheless, I pull the pin from the grenade and throw it out of the window. It lands in the street outside of the fence, exploding a second later, sending pieces of asphalt into the air and attracting the zombies' attentions from me to it.
Quickly, I get back downstairs and raise the overhead door, some of zombies hearing the noise and slowly turning back around. I climb into the truck and start the engine. Honking the loud horn, I drive forward, easily running over the zombies in my way. Some of the ones that avoid being run over try to open the truck's doors, but fail to do so. Pulling through the still open gate onto the street, I start heading back in the direction I came from, following the 'L' tracks. Once I reach the edge of the city again though, I'll have to plan a different route to get back. I can't use the highway since it would just be impossible to drive across with all the abandoned vehicles on it in a big truck like this and I'll have to avoid the town with the demons in it. The zombies might not be able to stop me in this truck, but I'm sure that the demons would find a way to.
I continue running over zombies, keeping my pistol handy in case any of them somehow do manage to get a door open, and I eventually reach the edge of the city again. Getting my map out while keeping an eye out for any approaching zombies, I plot out a path back to Harry's little fortress town. I imagine he and the remaining others will be very happy to see me and my cargo when I return. Setting the map down on the seat next to me, I starting driving again.
It's almost night by the time I finally return. I don't notice it at first as I approach, but sections of their car wall have been knocked over. Their gate is also open and, very warily, I drive through it, stopping just inside. In addition to the walls being partially destroyed, many of the buildings are on fire and I can see the corpses of both Adam and Charlie, decapitated with large cuts along their bodies and even a couple severed limbs. It had to have been the demons. Turning off the truck, I climb out, machete in one hand and sniper rifle hanging from my shoulder since my pistol would be pretty useless against any demons that might be lurking about still.
"Hello...?"
I immediately hear a noise behind me and spin around with my sniper rifle raised to see Lily stumbling out from behind a pile of the knocked over cars.
Her body begins to convulse and I start taking steps backwards, bringing my sniper rifle back up.
Lily: "AND YOU'LL BE JOINING THEM!"
Her voice has begun changing as well, getting deeper. Then, I hear a ripping sound and realize that it's her clothes, her body getting bigger in mass, until her flesh rips as well, revealing muscles, veins, and other parts underneath. Blood drips from her eyes, nostrils, and ears. I fire several shots at her as I back further away, but the rounds have no affect. She seems to finally stop growing when she's about the size of six full-grown whales put together. And then something even more unexpected happens: she opens what I think are her legs and her clit shoots out at me like a tentacle. I try to dodge it, but it wraps tightly around my legs and knocks me to the ground, causing me to drop both my machete and sniper rifle. Dragging me across the pavement towards its gaping vagina, large crabs, complete with claws, actually crawling out of it around her pubes, I try to pull my legs out of the tentacle, but the grip seems to only get tighter.
"You fucking whore!"
She lets out a laugh as I reach the opening of her hairy, slimy vagina, before tossing me into the warm darkness of what will certainly be my final doom.
The match was going back and forth. Kalysto was getting thrown about by Wyld as MDS stormed in clotheslining the Bad Girl as she flew along from a hip toss. MDS and Wyld looked at one another and without hesitation caught the champion in the mouth with a balled up fist. They both stood their ground hammering one another until MDS grabbed the Champion by the waist. Both went crashing into the turnbuckles as MDS brutally hammered the champion down to his rump. And then it happened. Like clockwork Wyld lived up to his old name sake as he exploded into his berzerker fury.
He ignored the assault MDS was laying on him when he flung him back across the ring to the opposite turnbuckles. Rushing over he laid out MDS with a Shining Wizard. Turning around he spotted his soon to be divorced wife bouncing off the top rope springboarding into a senton attack only to be caught and then with one hand chokeslammed the shit right out of her. Literally. He slammed her down so hard that she lost control of her bowels causing her to roll out of the ring and laid out on the floor outside.
It was at this particular time when his mind snapped and completely shattered causing his untimely end. But in this reality he watched as she rolled out of the ring holding herself and turned seeing MDS rushing him. Ducking he hoisted the big man up on his shoulders and then drove him to the mat via Burning Hammer and then slipped in the crossface torquing back on his neck forcing the big man to tap out.
He stood in the middle of the ring with his arms in the air unaware of his brothers presance in the building, who was in fact watching the preceedings from the rafters.
As he went backstage he looked back as the refs and officials were helping Kaly and MDS from the ring. But what was realy on his mind was the fact he had someone waiting for him and he needed to finalize the last of his plans in his otherwise messed up life.
But when he sat down and looked into his mirror he furrowed his brow, obviously troubled by something. What was it, he wondered, and why does it evade his every thought of trying to bring it forth. But what was it?
He wondered now how he'd tell Shaiya that he chose to stay with his wife and the one night they shared together was the biggest mistake he ever made. He knew it more than affected their budding friendship. She said she had some news to tell him after he was finished with his match. But whatever it is it'll have to wait cause he was deadset on calling his soon to be exwife. He had made up his mind to try salvage and save his marriage, and yet there it was hovering over his head, still it eluded him. What the hell is so wrong. What was amis?
A soft knock at his dressing room door tapped when he looked back and grunted, " Yeah?"
And then she walked in. Tall leggy busty and sensually sexy. He smiled as did she when she sat down next to him. " So it looks like I'm going to be battling you for that title you hold so dearly. I just came by to congratulate you on your victory but it'd be moot seeing as I'll be kicking your ass at the next show."
" Is that a fcat?" he grinned standing before her as she eyed him up and down.
Nodding slowly she licked her lips. " That is a fact." tracing his abs lightly with her index finger. " Now I see why they really like you."
" What are you talking about?"
" Your wife and that lil celebrity gal pal of yours. Miss Portman."
He laughed to himself and nodded. " I love my wife and as for Shaiya, we're just friends."
" Sure you are."
" No really. We tried it once but it wasn't right. Even knowing my wife was looking to get tag teamed by Kade and Seth. Still though I'm hoping I can try save whats already lost."
Never in all her years did Viper actually think she'd be sitting here listening to his personal drama. She was way above that but still she couldn't help but feel compelled to sit there and listen. Why did she even care, she didn't yet here she was still listening to him go on about how he was hoping to settle down and start up a family after he retired. And then the bombshell hit when he told her win or lose in their upcoming match he was going to retire from the ring to begin this life. He was actually serious about all this and she just blinked.
This cunning warrior was always up and ready for a battle but a life of simplicit pleasures like fishing. It wasn't him at all and she wondered if this was just another ploy or tactic he was using to bring down her gaurd and then pounce. She knew him that well at least. But as he was changing in front of her he looked back as he wrapped a towel around his waist and grinned finishing off his new life goal. "... I mean honestly really I think I'm due to just take a break and maybe if the bug bites I'll come back and compete again. But right now, nah things are just getting to hectic these days outside of here so who knows. But I'm gonna hit the shower so if your gonna stick around just tell everyone I'll be unreachable for the next ten minutes. Thanks doll your a treat."
Viper just sat there blinking. Not only did she sit and listen to his retirement plan but she was very impressed by his openness and his..... " Uh sure."
And when the water turned on he disappeared into the stall as she got up and left. That whole fiasco really threw her for a loop and for one who doesn't shake at all she was just stunned.
When he got out Viper was gone. But as he got dressed he picked up his cel phone and noticed a text message waiting for him. When he read it over he smiled to himself. She agreed to meet up with him at the club he was going to tonight to talk about where they stand now with one another. He was going to try win his wife back but after he pommeled her the way he did in the ring and caused her to... well he did see her in worse shape before and he knew she was not one to hide after such brutality and.... messiness.
Ater he got dressed he was on his way out seeing the tech crew and few other wrestlers in the hallyway leading to the parking lot. " Hey champ! Good match tonight."
As he was heading to his car he looked back and smiled, " Thanks bro. I'll catch ya guys later, hittin the club tonight and going to go on a wild ride. You guys might wanna come out, unwind and have some fun."
Alternate Universe