Zombie Apocalypse chapter seven
this one took way too long, but i think it's my best chapter yet. enjoy ^.=.^
Chapter seven: Pit of Death.
Six a.m. third day of the apocalypse
This was just too good to be true. Ryan had found a weapon locker right of the main hall. The small room was filled with firearms; everything from rifles to SMGs, shotguns and even an M61 Vulcan were sitting in this goldmine. Red ran into the room followed by swift and Ryan, abandoning all stealth upon seeing the huge stash of guns. "Come to papa" red mumbled as he rummaged through a crate and pulled out an AA-12 automatic shotgun. Ryan grabbed an H&K MP7, slapping in a 20-round clip while swift stared longingly at the M61 in the corner. Ryan was going through another box "check out this old thing" he said jokingly as he pulled out another weapon. Red looked over to see what his friend had found and his eyes immediately lit up. Running over to Ryan, red snatched the mini-14 out of his grasp while grabbing several clips out of the crate "dibs". Ryan just looked at red, confused as to why someone with an AA-12 would want something that looked that old. Shrugging, he went back to stocking up on ammo, taking a glance at swift, who was still staring at the Vulcan. Swift couldn't take his eyes of the six barrels of awesomeness. He wanted to take the thing so badly, but he had already tried to lift it and he found it much too heavy. Red stepped over to his side, looking from swift to the Vulcan "are you going get stocked up or sit here drooling over this thing?" swift looked dejected as he turned around and headed for an open crate. Red sighed, grabbed swift's shoulder and handed him his AA-12 "hold this" red said as he grabbed the 248lb gun, shouldering it as if it only weighed 50lbs. "lucky infected bastard" swift mumbled as red took back his shotgun. "hey hey, it's not all fun, constant voices in your head telling you to kill everything around you, the rage, this thing has its ups and downs" red said with a chuckle but a note of seriousness laced the joke. Grabbing a nearby belt of 20mm ammo, red loaded the Vulcan and emptied a few hundred rounds into a blank wall just to make sure the gun worked. Satisfied, he wrapped the belt Rambo style and loaded a 32 round drum into his shotgun. Swift, happy that they were at least bringing the Vulcan, went to get some toys. Even with all the gear in the room he settled with his preferred weapons; two H&K MP5s. locked and loaded, the group stepped out of the room ready for almost anything.
***
Ivan sat in front of a bank of monitors, watching as the security captain moved his men into position, using a classic pincer movement. Hands laced, he couldn't help but feel a bit of pride seep to the surface as he watched another monitor. 208 was still with the two intruders, who had found one of the many weapon lockers inside the compound. Ivan knew the captain wouldn't be able to take down 208 with the weapons he had, but he didn't really care how things turned out. Ivan hadn't sent the guards to kill or even capture 208; he had sent them as a test, even though the guards thought otherwise.
***
The guards had come out of nowhere. No alarms had been triggered, and according to Ryan no one had spotted them. Apparently Ryan was wrong. The first five unlucky guards had run into the middle of the hall, assault rifles up and ready, but obviously none of them had expected to meet a pissed off dragon with an AA-12 and a Vulcan. That first small group had been cut in half from the auto shotgun, and from that time forth any further guards had been just a little more cautious. They had kept a good pace; red only hoped that they could keep that speed. Running past an intersection, Ryan and swift both got several kills on a few guards trying to set an ambush. They continued their desperate sprint for several minutes before Ryan skidded to a halt and reversed his course. "What the fuck are you doing?" red yelled, Ryan didn't even slow down as he hollered back "I've got to get something". Red started to follow Ryan, but swift turned down another hall and disappeared into another room marked *generator warning high voltage*. Red stood in the hallway, trying to decide which one to follow when a bullet whistled by his head. It took less than a second to spot the flash of steel around a corner and even less time for red to raise his shotgun and empty the fifteen remaining rounds into the wall. A satisfying cry of shock and pain emanated as the last rounds tore into the wall. A lone M-16 clattered to the floor and was quickly followed by a stream of blood. Red ejected the empty drum and started to insert a second drum when another guard sprinted around a corner, assault rifle on full auto. He felt several rounds rip through his shoulder and right arm, sending lances of pain through him. As the guard emptied his weapons' clip, he continued his charge, deftly pulling a six inch combat knife from his belt. Yelling, the guard lunged the last few feet and made a quick swipe across reds' chest, leaving a foot long gash. He ignored the searing pain from the blade and went for the knife, but missed it by millimeters. The guard, most likely the leader of the security force, was in a blood frenzy after having his men cut down. He made another swipe with the blade, but the guard was giving in to his rage, which made the attack easy to counter and red had the battle in his favor in less than a second. Twisting the guards arm, red dislocated his attackers' shoulder which was more than enough to make him drop the knife. Never the type to let up, red followed the counter by slamming the guards face into the wall; he repeated that action three times, leaving a large blood stain marking the point of impact. Ripping off the facemask reveled what red guessed was a wolverine, although he couldn't be certain because all that was left was a bloody mess. Thoughts of mercy crossed his mind as he stared at the broken, battered guard, but they were quickly silenced when he red received a knee to the groin. "Cheap... mother fucker" red grunted as he doubled over in pain. The wolverine made a few weak punches, but the further attacks only increased the rage red was feeling at being sucker punched. The wolverine pulled out his sidearm weakly, hoping to end the fight. "Now I'm pissed" red yelled as he used his tail to knock the gun away. Grabbing the guard by the throat, he slammed him against the wall and was rewarded with several satisfying cracks as he felt the wolverine go limp. Throwing the lifeless body to the floor, red chuckled "to coin an old phrase... PWNED" picking up his shotgun and Vulcan, he noticed three other guards standing in shock at seeing their leader killed. Red just grinned evilly as he turned the Vulcan towards the frightened soldiers. Laughing harder as they turned tail and bolted, he fired a few rounds at their heels just for good measure. As the adrenaline subsided, the pain returned with a vengeance. Falling to his knees, red knew he was a goner if he didn't get some type of medical attention. Suddenly, the pain began to subside and he was shocked to see that the bullet and knife wounds were rapidly healing. Swift came sprinting down the hall, firing several shots behind him. "dude, you look like shit, what the hell happe" swift stopped in midsentence as he watched the gashes and holes healing, astonishment showing clearly as he did a double take just to make sure he wasn't seeing things. Grinning, red returned the stare "nice to see you too". "Very funny... now that that's out of the way, we should consider vacating this place relatively soon" swifts' look broke the humor, red was immediately on his feet. "Please tell me you didn't fuck with anything" swift looked at red with his best innocent expression "who? Me? Why would I rig this place to blow in the next twenty minutes?" "Don't you think that could have waited" red asked sarcastically, swift just shrugged "no time like the present".
***
6:33 a.m.
Ryan stepped out of the genetics lab, quite pleased with the outcome of his little hunt. Cradled under his left arm was a small inconspicuous plastic container. The lab had been completely empty, so he had had absolutely no problems finding a sample of the virus and swiping a few files. He wanted to study the virus's genetic code himself, but that could wait, for now he just concentrated on keeping the small box safe. The contents of the box provided the only reasonable solution to stopping the infection besides annihilating the entire city. He was, to say the least, startled when swift came around a corner and almost ran into him. Not even stopping to talk, swift just kept on running, only slowing down for a second to yell "RUN!" Ryan took the signal at face value and sprinted after swift, trying to be as careful as possible with his precious cargo. Ryan quickly caught up to swift "where's blood-tail?" in answer, swift pointed over his shoulder. Looking back, he spotted red backpedaling down the same corner swift had dashed around, his Vulcan spitting out a constant stream of fire. Stopping, Ryan turned back to help, but when red saw that he had stopped running, he yelled "GO!" as loud as he could and immediately went back to firing at whatever was around the bend.
***
Red sighed in relief as he watched Ryan and swift disappear around another corner. He knew he would have to make a break for the exit soon. Aside from the fact that, according to swift, the base was going to blow in the next fifteen minutes or so, he was also on his last belt of ammo for the M61. Another undead poked its head out and was immediately greeted by a hail of bullets. Although he couldn't deny the fact that this was fun (shooting zombie after zombie with a Vulcan) the fact that he was on a deadline, literally, ruined the whole experience. "This is bullshit" red thought as three more of the strange zombies charged his position. They were quickly decapitated by the 20mm rounds, but as the last of the three zombies fell, the Vulcan ran dry. Red figured that the other test subjects had been released, as none of the zombies he had killed so far had looked like the standard undead. Most of them resembled smaller versions of hunters, but they moved with a precision and intelligence that he hadn't seen before. All of the other zombies had run right into his gun fire, but these ones had actually waited until he had to reload before charging. Luckily the Vulcan wasn't the only weapon he carried; when one ran dry he merely switched to another one. Just like before, when the Vulcan needed a reload, the zombies charged. Red dropped the Vulcan and whipped out his AA-12, unloading the 32 round drum, shredding the wave of charging zombies and painting the halls with blood and gore. His shotgun clicked empty as the last of the group went down, red did an about-face and sprinted in the direction he hoped led to the exit, several more of the zombies chasing after him. "Do these little fucks ever give up" red thought to himself as he rounded another bend in the twisting maze of halls, the zombies only a few yards behind.
***
6:35 a.m.
Swift called the elevator, hoping it still worked. The last shots had stopped a few seconds ago, Ryan seemed a little pissed about leaving red, but the container he was carrying seemed like the one thing that had allowed him to leave. As the doors slid open, swift sighed in relief and stepped into the lift. Ryan stood in the hall for another minute before stepping into the elevator and pressing the button for the first floor. As the doors began to close, swift spotted blood-tail as he skidded around the corner, ten plus zombies hot on his heels. Bracing his shoulder against the door, he leveled one of his MP5s and fired several controlled bursts into the crowd of zombies. He managed to drop two of the creatures, but the rest kept coming. The doors started to slide shut again. Ryan braced himself against the door and contributed the firepower of his MP7, dropping another zombie.
***
Red made a desperate lunge for the elevator, still firing a few shots over his shoulder. He flew through the doors a little faster than planned and slammed into rear of the elevator, denting the steel. His head was still ringing when one of zombies came flying through the still open door, landing on top of him. The doors slid shut before more of the freaks could get in; red pushed the zombie off and kicked it in the face. The kick, other than slamming it against the wall, didn't seem to faze the zombie as it immediately lunged again. Pulling out the combat knife he had taken, red let the zombie impale itself on the six inch blade. As soon as the creature hit the blade, he grabbed the thing by the throat and dragged the knife downwards, dissecting the little fucker like a frog in science class. Throwing the corpse to the floor, he wiped the blood off the knife and replaced it back into its sheathe. As the elevator continued its' slow accent, swift kept glancing at the PDA to check the time. Red finally noticed the small box Ryan was clutching, curiosity stirring as he noticed the beakers and USB flash drives stored in the transparent container. He was about to ask what was in those beakers when the doors parted, opening on the ground floor. The group walked out of the elevator quickly, all of them glad to be out of the claustrophobic space and out in the open again. The smoke was an instant slap in the face, reminding all of them that they weren't out of danger yet. Swift pointed to their right, "we've got company" red looked in the direction swift was pointing and spotted a military HUMVEE. At first he thought that a few guards had survived, but then he noticed who was driving, along with what the vehicle was doing and started cracking up.
***
6:44 a.m.
Sylvr was having the time of his life. Ever since he'd revved up the engine and drove through the garage door all of his troubles had faded. He laughed manically as another zombies existence was ended by the hummers grill, quickly going back to doing doughnuts once the body flew off the hood. Henry was in the back seat, sleeping. Sylvr knew the kid was tired, but to sleep through something like this? Looking for more zombies, he spotted Ryan and swift walking towards the hummer. He was jolted back to his driving as a hunter got chewed to pieces by the tires, causing the vehicle to lurch. Slamming on the brakes, he just started laughing as the hummer stopped "if only I'd gotten one of these sooner" he thought. Switching back to first gear, he pulled up next to his companions and leaned out the window "need a lift?" swift looked at him skeptically "with the way you drive I might be safer walking" Sylvr looked at swift "I'm hurt, I'll have you know that I went to a certified driving school" swift grinned and hopped into the HUMVEE "good enough for me" Ryan got in the back with Henry, glad for the chance to finally sit down. Sylvr turned in his seat and looked at Ryan "find what you were looking for?" in answer, Ryan pointed at the box and nodded. "Guess what else we found" swift chuckled, Sylvr turned, a questioning look forming on his muzzle as swift pointed past him. turning, he was shocked to see the dragon that Ryan had called blood-tail, as he had seen this very same dragon take several rounds and drop to the ground. His mind raced as he calculated his next decision, in a split second he grabbed swifts' MP7 and leveled it at the dragons' head. Blood-tail didn't even flinch; he just stared down the barrel and smiled. "I saw you get shot, multiple times, there's no way you could have survived those rounds unless....." "Unless I was a zombie" the dragon finished "not quite. now, would you be so kind as to lower that gun before I do it for you" Sylvr didn't like threats, but he didn't see any reason not to lower his weapon. Swift and Ryan seemed fine with blood-tail, so he wasn't too reluctant in handing swift his gun back. Blood-tail jumped into the back seat between Ryan and Henry, getting as close as possible to the turret. As soon as he was settled, he pointed at his wrist, swift pulled out a PDA and looked at the screen for a second "shit, Sylvr, we seriously need to get out of here, now" Sylvr didn't have a clue what had passed between blood-tail and swift, but he took the advice and slammed the accelerator to the floor.
***
Ivan watched the hummer speed away on a security monitor, rage seething through him. He hadn't wanted to lose 208, merely make a few field tests. As he thought about the hell he was going to get for this mistake, one of the technicians approached him, looking rather distraught. "Sir, we're getting some odd power fluctuations from the generators" this little bit of information didn't help ease the mood he was in, but he decided it would be better to check things out for himself. The entire underground half of the base was powered by a total of ten gasoline generators; pipes ran throughout the complex, drawing fuel from several sources. Ivan considered fossil fuels to be obsolete, but he had never been able to convince those higher in the chain of command to switch the base to electric. The tech gave him the camera number and went back to his station. Ivan switched his monitor to the number and immediately the picture changed to the generator room. Panning the camera, he didn't notice anything out of the ordinary at first. Spotting two blinking lights, he zoomed the camera in, his blood going cold as he recognized the small white objects. Clicking the power on the monitor, Ivan sat in his chair, tenting his fingers "well played 208... well played"
***
"One question, what's the rush?" Sylvr had his answer quickly, but not in the form he had expected, as several tremors shook the hummer. "Holy shit" he muttered as he looked in the rearview mirror. The area that they had been in a few seconds before was turning into a huge crater. The whole complex was quickly caving in as Sylvr continued looking in the mirror, one of the few remaining buildings disappeared as the ground around it gave away. Dust started to spill out of elevator room, but it was quickly replaced by a ball of fire. Jets of flame began shooting out of the ground wherever a building disappeared. Ryan was watching the show, wide eyed, red and swift however seemed to be enjoying the fireworks display, cheering whenever something went exploded. Sylvr couldn't take it anymore and yelled above the noise "what the hell did you do in that base?" swift turned and answered "I rigged the generators with a little C4, although I have to admit I hadn't expected the whole base to go up like that" "well, that answers my question" Sylvr muttered "C4 isn't that powerful though, which means you must've hit a major gas main, Nice work slick". It took less than a minute before the base was completely reduced to a smoking pile of rubble, the only sign that it was ever there was in the form of a huge crater. Slowing down, Sylvr looked back towards the base and then at his passengers. He was amazed to see that Henry still hadn't woken up, he was also a little worried about this but decided it wasn't important.
***
7 a.m.
They had only been driving for a few minutes, but the excitement from the base going up in flames had quickly worn off, plus the fact that it had started to rain didn't help. The silence was getting on his nerves, no one wanted to talk, just sleep. Unfortunately he was the only one besides Sylvr that couldn't sleep. Rummaging through a few compartments in hopes of finding something to do, he was ecstatic to find several CDs buried under a bunch of old playboy magazines. Tossing the playboys out the window, red began sifting through each of the CDs, "lets see... Avenged, Disturbed, Edguy, Sonata, ah, here we go" leaning forward, red slipped Sonic Firestorm into the CD player, cranked the volume up, and hit shuffle. As the music started playing, he leaned back and quickly fell asleep to the beginning riffs of Prepare for War.
***
8:30 a.m.
Red awoke, sweating profusely. It took him a minute to remember where he was and orient himself. Sylvr had apparently driven them a few miles out of the city. Looking around the hummers' interior, he noticed everyone else was fast asleep. Red finally noticed that his music had stopped and promptly started looking for a replacement when his ears picked an all too familiar sound. His senses went on high alert, adjusting to the drizzle of rain on the roof. Grabbing his mini-14, he jumped out of the hummer and listened more closely, hoping he was wrong.
hope you enjoyed this installment of the apocalypse. rate, comment, please tell me what you thought of this as i stayed up till 2:30 a.m. working on it. feel free to ask questions ^.=.^
i know the M61 was a little much, but something like the M134 (minigun) would have been too light.