As he walked down the hallway, the ladies arguing behind him, he sighed and smiled.
'Reminescent of the old days...' I thought. 'F****** hell...damn zombies plague.'
I remembered me and my old friends, jumping a around town, snatching just about enough crowns to nab a drink for each of us, and joke around with some girls at the cafe, then sleep away on a rooftop. Then, a realization jolted me back to reality.
"Hey! Where do I go from here?"
He'd be met with a rough tackle to the floor, and then a heavy weight on his stomach. Sure enough, it was Alexandria.
"Well," she replied with some badly acted deliberation, "if you'd identify yourself, we'd welcome you around. If you won't, you'll be going into the hole."
She then leans over (directing more of the god-heavy weight onto his chest), and whispers in his ear : "People have done things there...so it'll smell reeeaaal nasty."
Luke watched on as they decided what to do with the apparent thief. Then he looked down at the book in his hands. He slipped it back into the shelf and followed the rest of the group.
"Alexandria!" Sylvan shouted. "Get off of him. Let me handle this." He raised his drawn flourish, advancing on the stranger. As the man stood up, Sylvan hoisted his weapon to a point under the guy's head. "What's your name?"
I eyed the blade held in the man's hand with caution and a tinge of annoyance.
"Aye, because putting a blade to my throat is a more useful diplomatic device than what she did right?" I said, panting. I slowly pushed the blade down.
"Never asked for any trouble mate." I stated. "We can work something out, I'm sure."
"I'm sure, too." said Sylvan, in a sarcastic tone. "I asked your name?" Suddenly, a ringing was felt in his ear. Someone was at the front gate. "Hatchling, patch me into feed 3."
The camera feed showed something everyone had not expected for quite a while.
"Everybody arm yourselves! The zombies have arrived! You, stranger," Sylvan said, talking to Jaxter, "Prove yourself." He handed him the Master Blaster that hung at his side. "If you doublecross any of us I swear you shall die.... if not from zombies." Then he turned his attention to the rest of the dumbfounded room. "Come on! GET YOUR WEAPONS!"
Sylvan needn't repeat himself twice. Alexandria was already on the way, running as fast as her armor would let her.
"Keep your gun, thank you." I said, tossing he blaster back and taking out my own two Iron Slugs. "I'll use my own."
As I started loading my gun, I turned to Sylvan.
"You get my name after I'm done shooting up the intruders."
Edea heard the alarm and prepared her Leviathan blade as she rushed to the location. Edea also didn't know anyone here and sighed
Luke froze for a second. Then took out his Skelly shield and Prismatic Alchemer. He ran to catch up with the others.
Victoria's Cold Iron Vanquisher rang out of its sheath as she advanced on the walls. She marched up to the gate and laid against the adjacent wall. "Ready when you are, commander," she noted to Sylvan.
[Raige, who just finished depositing the loot, hears the alarm.]
Sylvan: "Everybody arm yourselves! The zombies have arrived!"
Raige: "What? already?"
[Unknowst to Raige, a group of zombies managed to dig their way into camp. Affraiel, who only lost one of his hands to the undead days ago, takes out one of his twin leviathan blade and cleaved one of the zombie's head clean off. But the renegade warden wasn't ready for what came out of the secret tunnel next, a large infected with one of its hand mutated into a blade twice the size of Affraiel's.]
Affraiel: *jaw drops* "Damn, that zombie has got one hell of a sword..."
Raige: *arrives at the scene* "Hey, Affraiel, what is that thing over there?!" *points at the large zombie with the blade for arm*
Affraiel: *chuckles* "...Beats me, but I think this is going to be fun."
[Affraiel and Raige teamed up, covering both flanks of the mutated zombie, the zombie swings its massive blade arm 360 degrees, Raige rolls under the deadly blade and shoves his combuster into the zombie's lower belly. Affraiel parries the massive blade and moved in for the kill. Much to affraiel's suprise, the mutated zombie pushed Raige away before parrying his attack. The ways the mutated undead reacted to a attack gave both Raige and Affraiel a sense of fear, but the fear wasn't raw, the fear was cunning, as if the zombie had planned out its own moves all along.]
Affraiel: *backs away* "What the... this zombie ain't right! It ain't supposed to parry my attacks, it was supposed to take it!"
Raige: "What ever this is, it is not a normal infected..."
Luke looked beyond the gate. Weird, it seemed like the fighting had started. Nobody was out there, but the sounds of fighting seemed to be coming to mind.
Unless...
He turned around and followed his ears. Some zombies had gotten in. A couple of knights were holding them back. Quickly running back to the front, he tapped Sylvan on the shoulder.
"There's a breach at the south side of camp." He whispered.
Affraiel: *laughs* "Hey, Raige, I think we should give this guy a name! Oh shi-" *dodges another blade swing from the mutated zombie* "-How about? Reaper?"
Raige: *cuts down another normal infected* "Okay then, how do we take this bastard out?!"
Affraiel: *sees cans of gasolines near the supply depot* "Got an idea! Hold the reaper while I turn up the heat!"
Raige: *parries another attack from reaper* "Okay old man, I hope you know what you are doing!"
[While Raige is keeping the reaper zombie busy. Affraiel uses his last functional hand and opens the gasoline can with his mouth, while the mutated zombie was distracted, Affraiel pours the content onto its body. The zombie becomes enraged and switches its target to Affraiel.]
Affraiel: *yells* "RAIGGY BOY! TURN ON THE FLAME!!! BURN THAT BASTARD OUT!"
Raige: *charges up his combuster* "Here we go!"
[Raige releases the combuster charge, the spark sets the reaper zombie ablaze. It roars in fury as it desperately swings its blade arm towards Affraiel, trying to do any kind of damage possible. But Affraiel grinned when the reaper zombie stumbled to the ground, a pile of cinder was all that was left of the strong mutant.]
Affraiel: *hi fives Raige with his last hand* "WOOO!!! I JUST LOVE ZAMBY BBQ in the morning!"
Raige: *sneers* "It is not over yet..."
[Affraiel's high spirit soon came to an end when he realized that while he and Raige were dealing with the mutant zombie, dozens of normal infected have already dispersed into the camp. Infecting anyone they see, as long as the tunnel isn't destroyed, more reinforcement could come at any moment.]
Affraiel: *sees more zombies are emerging from the hole* "Damn..." *looks at Raige* "Okay Raiggy boy, I will go back to the camp and get rid of the stragglers while you do something about that damn tunnel! Man, I hope Nezula and the others are okay..."
Raige: *chuckles* "Nezula? Is she your dirty little secret? I thought you were single..."
Affraiel: *shrugs* "Well, things changed, I just want to settle down with someone... you know... a new life and all that jazz?"
Raige: *smiles* "Okay then, I will get rid of the tunnel, you stop the stragglers."
"I kinda knew that." Sylvan replied to Luke. Taking back the Master Blaster, he charged out of the building, hair waving in the stinging wind.
"WHATEVER YOU DO, JUST DON'T GET BIT!" Sylvan shouted. Then he charged into the fray, Grand Flourish waving above his head.
The man's eyes flickered and and then finally opened. It seemed he was in the same place he was before where he had supposedly fainted.
He stood up and found seemingly nothing had changed. Except for when he turned around a horde of the undead trudging after him, leaded by a reaper looking thing as well. Yes, that was surely different from before. Renewed with endowed vigor the man took off to south of the camp (the side he was facing already), running at a full sprint.
As Sylvan charged forward, massive shards rained down upon the horde and released a flurry of shrapnel, indiscriminately clearing a wide path for the Commander to go on ahead.
Already in the fight was Victoria, who, as the infected closed in on her, delivered several horizontal arcs, tearing more than just a couple of new holes into the walking corpses. As if they weren't slow already, the Cold Iron Vanquisher seemed to make them go even slower.
Well, it was that, or it was the fact that Victoria was gracefully mobile in that lightweight raiment of hers. Even as the horde tempted to press in, there was a radius around here that was never breached, thanks to Alexandria's bombard.
Speaking of the Ironmight-clad Knight, she wasn't taking care of herself very well. In fact, she was still ignoring the ever-closer undead as she continued to aid Victoria...
...and then it happened. One of the infected, mustering all its want for flesh into one fluid action, suddenly pounced forward, and grabbed a hold of her from behind. With its jaws wide open, it appeared ready to bite into her...until all of its teeth broke into an ugly mess.
Props to the Ironmight Platemail. Alexandria had only just noticed the soft impact on her armor, so it wasn't too much of a surprise when she casually shot the zombie's head off her shoulder, impaling it with a jagged crystal.
And now came her Triglav, just ready to split her part of the horde into pieces...
Luke shrugged and ran up on top of the wall that surrounded the area. Moving along it, he fired into the mass of undead as he got closer. When he ewas directly over the breach, he started charging his Alchemer and shot charge attacks at the horde.
The zombie horde was dwindling. Only 14 remained, constantly being barraged. "Everyone, run to me!" Sylvan shouted. "We can do them in at range with our blasters!" He pulled out his blaster and shot at the closest zombie. The projectile went through its face, and it fell to the ground dead.
"What're you waiting for? Come on!"
Within a single sweep, 5 of the horde, now slicing down the horde size to 9, was cut down by Alexandria and a charged swing attack. Ever so graciously, the angelic Victoria spun to the last remnants of the horde, and took aim with her Argent Peacemaker
*BANG*
One fell.
*BANG*
Another.
*BANG*
And one more fell, before she lowered her revolver and began to reload.
Meanwhile, Alexandria had just bored a hole into another undead's skull, dropping the number down to 5.
The man continued running but the horde soon overcame him and he was forced down. Expecting the feel flesh to be torn from his bones and all of the horde converging over him the man winced. A minute passed and the man relaised nothing had happened, and was unscathed besides broken bones because of undeads' feet trampling him. He stood up and saw the horde had passed over him and now was being thinned by gunfire from the makeshift base he had been walking towards earlier. He slowly stood up and began -- for the third time -- walking towards the camp.
Raige?
What is it honey?
Our baby boy is growing up, just look at him!
Yeah...He looked alot like his grand father...
Raige, I just wondered what would our son turn...
A better man than I could ever be.
Oh Raige, don't be silly, you are the best...
We will find out soon...
[Raige runs into the supply depot, with a few dynamites in his hand, he planted them hear the tunnel where the zombies crawled out of. While he is planting the dynamites, few more infected emerged from the tunnel, he draws his blaster and killed them off before they could get close. Soon, Affraiel returned with reinforcements, both his estranged mother and Serris were at the scene.]
Affraiel: "Alright, let's finish this!"
Penumbra: "Mister raige, please don't mind my son's waywardness." *gracefully slashes down an infected*
Serris: *pushes a horde back with his pocket polaris* "Hey, Affraiel, tell your friend to hurry up!"
Affraiel: *turns to Raige* "Hey Raiggy boy! What is the plan here?"
Raige: *plants down the last dynamite* "Okay, all charges are set!"
Serris: "Then let's get out of here!"
[The four of them retreated to a safe position, Serris covers up his ears and Affraiel detonates the charges. The dynamites collapsed the tunnel and crushed the route of the infected. Hundreds must have died with seconds, but just as the dusts were settled, two zombies emerged from the destroyed tunnel. They were Raige's wife and child, reanimated from the death by the virus, slumbering mindlessly towards Raige.]
Raige: *trembling* "...Hold your fire..."
Serris: *groans* "What is it now?!"
Affraiel: *turns to Serris* "Shut your trap serry boy! Those two zambies are Raiggy's love and joy..."
Serris: *lowers his gun* "...Oh my..."
Sylvan quickly charged forward, slashing the final zombie's maw in half. He stood there, panting. "They've found us...... It's time to find them," Sylvan muttered, falling to his knees.
Luke puzzled at the last part of Sylvan's sentence. He found a ladder and climbed down it off the wall.
"Find them? What do you mean?"
Sylvan slowly stood up. "It's time I told you all. I learned it when Haven was still being sieged. There's a core...... a controller, to the virus. Since the zombies have already found us, it's only a matter of time until hordes of them destroy the camp. I wanted to postpone it, but now.... now it's too late. We need to destroy the controller. We're Cradle's last chance."
Victoria stifled a slight chuckle. "The use of hyperbole suggests the opposite. Perhaps we should keep him away from you as well?" A sly smile crossed her face as she glanced between Jaxter and Alexandria. She suddenly nudged Alex in the shoulder and remarked, "I jest. How about we keep him in the hole for now?" She gestured to the "prison hole" situated near the back of the camp. It...stank. Some people did things in it. Coincidentally, another waste hole has not been needed for a few days now.
"I am sure he would be very comfortable in there."