(part 2)
So instead of telling tigerkitty off, she simply remained silent for a few minutes, sitting there on the staircase. The others looked at her, fearing that they'd lost her somehow, that she was going to succumb to the horrors of that day and crack up entirely...after all, the screams of the other students still fighting for their lives in the upper floors could still be heard in the distance.
Then, without uttering a sound, she moved towards her study-mate and held up her right hand. The hand with Trunk's pistol in it.
"You're probably right, 'kitty. And I shouldn't be holding on to this...you're the one with the level head, you should take care of the rest of us".
Tigerkitty stared at her for a moment, surprised that what she'd said had made such an impact. Then she shook her head, pushing the gun away from herself.
"Geez Gagsy, I'm glad that you've gotten over yourself so quick...but I sure as heck ain't A-O-K at the moment. I can't keep my hands from shaking...and I feel like I'm gonna blow Italian-style chunks all over the wall, at any given moment."
So Gagsy turned to Trunks. "It's your gun, and I'm betting your uncle taught you how to use it...considering all the trouble he doubtlessly had to go through to smuggle it overseas."
He grinned sheepishly, pocketing the gun. "Yeah, well I'm not sure how that worked out, actually...all he ever he said was something about catching an Air Marshal screwing a flight attendant once, and that he'd never <<lost touch>> with the guy since. But sure, I can shoot."
Seconds later, as they reached the spacious bottom floor of the school, they immediately heard those awful, disquieting moaning sounds off to their right, towards the cafeteria. 2 of the cannibals were making their way towards them. From the looks of their stature and of the clothes they wore, they'd been two typical jocks (the athletic type) before turning into...whatever they were.
Trunks, forcing himself not to panic, drew his piece...but something bothered him. These two cannibals were acting differently than most of the others they'd seen on the upper levels of the institute. They didn't seem quite so...dead. They were still incapable of speech, and they were still both horribly mutilated and chalk-white, but...they were moving at a brisk pace. Which was, of course, pretty damned bad news.
"Guys...is it just me, or..."
"Nu-uh" piped up Link. "These freaks are moving about three times quicker than the rest we've seen, from the looks of it...you'd better let 'em have it, Trunks."
*click-click*
"uhm...uh..."
*click-click-click-click*
"...oh, fiddelsticks" said tigerkitty. She tried to employ a calm, tranquil tone of voice. "Cool it, don't panic, just reload the darn gun, and shoot 'em."
"Wish I could" Trunks whispered, absolutely aghast at this particularly nasty turn of events. "Got no more bullets in my pockets. I was kinda hoping that there was one more in one of the chambers, but..."
*click-click*
The two burly zombies, about as large as football players, were getting very close indeed. So close, the group had little more than a few seconds to decide what was to be done.
Link was the first to pipe up. "I say we bolt. Skidaddle. Run for the hills, abandon ship, make like a FUCKIN' TREE!!!"
"Run where, Link?" Gagsy shouted, half exasperated, half desperate. "We can't go upstairs, we can't get past those two uglies to get to the front exit! And we've got no where else to go, except for the cafeteria, which would be a friggin' death-trap, 'cause there's only one way in and one way out!"
The zombies were almost upon them.
"Screw it" said Trunks, losing his head. And with that, he seized his pistol with his throwing arm, bent as far backwards as he possibly could, then snapped forward and hurled it with every ounce of adrenaline-enforced strength he could muster. It hit the oafish cannibal on the right, square in the chest.
It didn't even stagger. It just kept coming, now mere feet away from 'em.
"...math whiz, my lily-white ass" said Link, close to urinating in his own pants.
Gagsy and tigerkitty glanced at each other, knowing full well that they were all basically done for. But, though they had little choice, they decided to go down with a little dignity anyways. So they stepped out from behind the other two, balled their fists, and got ready to bite, scratch and claw every inch of maimed flesh they could reach.
"Another miracle would be nice, Trunks". Gagsy smiled weakly to herself, still facing the oncoming cannibals. "Got a shotgun up your sleeve, by any chance?"
And then the cannibals got within an arm's stretch from Link and Trunks.
The next few moments were...a blur. Absolute, incomprehensible chaos. There was screaming, yelling, people shoving backwards, people shoving forwards. The only thing that most of them remembered of what happened next was a peculiar succession of noises.
*THUNK-THWACK!!!*
A figure had appeared, almost out of nowhere, behind the assailants.
The two burly, freakish corpses just dropped to the ground, without uttering another sound, save that of the putrid air escaping what remained of their lungs.
The four exchange students stood absolutely still. Trunks was in some sort of fighting-stance that he'd probably seen in a Star Wars movie, keeping his left hand in front of his body, palm turned outwards, while his right hand was held high above his head...basically, he seemed to be trying to employ some non-existent martial arts form, in order to protect tigerkitty. Link, on the other hand, was stuck in a most ungainly boxer's pose, one hand poised to strike and to cover Gagsy, the other curled over his head to protect himself. The two girls stood in an almost symmetrical stance: both with their hands raised in front of themselves, in a dog-paddle position, ready to scratch the living hell out of whatever was coming their way.
And yet, none of them had actually struck anything, except perhaps themselves...let alone, the two crumpled non-dead jocks on the floor.
"Wish I had my Polaroid on me. I'd make instant internet celebrities out of the lot of you" said someone. A woman (of obvious Asian descent) wearing an expensive pair of glasses, dressed in a tight black dress, and with her raven-black hair tied into an elegant knot at the back of her head, stood above and behind the two lifeless forms on the ground, a heavy lead pipe held firmly in both her hands.
When no one said a word in reply, she eased her posture a bit, and smiled gently.
"Seriously now, it's all right. You can un-freeze yourselves...it's ok. They're about as dead as they can get, trust me. I know where to hit 'em."
Link, the perennial jokester, was the first one to speak, having lowered his arms and straightened up.
"A shotgun, Gagsy?"
He glanced at her, eyes still wide open with astonishment.
"Uhm...how's about a good ol' freaking ninja?"
(end of part 2)