Ah! Sweet chapter indeed. And found it before the PM.
This is really getting good! :)
One thing though, it's quite common for assault weapons to be fitted with both red-dot sights and flashlights. They could have walked into the tunnel with weapons in hand. Something like this.....
magnificent!
even though i'm sorta sad to see the cock jokes disappear, it's more than made up for by the new chapter.
*give link a cookie*
(you get two if i'm in the story somewhere. even if i appear for one line and then get eaten :p)
Hahaha, that was so awesome, thanks for that, just made my day lol
Great job :D I'm lovin' it.
wew
Excellent chapter =D
Just hope the new one won't be quite so long, but then you have got a life to attend to!
;_;
We all owe our lives to Sarai AGAIN, is there anything that woman can't do?!
[I've been wandering round but I still come back to you]
Nice chapter. I've not personally experienced a flashbang in the face, but from what I've heard it's not pleasant. Then again, neither is having Fyndir squish you against a wall, or getting cracked in the nuts, so I figure the unknown assailants are about even with our protagonists :P
And yes, I do enjoy reading your story, thanks for the PM. Would have seen it sooner, but I had severe alcohol poisoning :[
Whoops :( forgot to answer the comments, before beginning to focus on the next installment...
Monocrom: Glad you think that it's getting good :) But as you've said a couple of times yourself, in your own thread...y'aint seen nothing yet :D
And about the rifle issue...that'll probably get explained away in the next issue. Thanks for pointing this stuff out, though (and please, don't stop doing so ;) ).
Joodah: Glad you're enjoying this stuff so far, but unfortunately I can't introduce any more characters, aside the ones I've yet to introduce :( no cookie, I guess.
Trunks: I thought you might enjoy this particular chapter :p
Gagsy: No, there's definitely no way in zombie-hell that I'll take three weeks for the next chapter as well, so don't worry :P and thanks for the support.
Sainth: Sorry about the booze news :( hope you sober up. And yeah, it definitely looks like these particular gate-soldiers got their fare share :D
-------------
Update: I will try to get the next chapter done by tomorrow, or by the day after that, folks, since I've finally got my University schedule and everything ready.
Don't stress it if it takes you a bit to get it all done.
Anyways, to comment on said story, it was full of action, suspense, drama, bold, italics, and wonderment.
All I hope is that I'm not dead.
I am looking at this thread as I always do with anticipatation. I have been very very busy for a month, but now that I am resting at home I really want a fix of it :( Link sweety, do you think you can manage :p You can bounce ideas off me on MSN if you want ;-)
Anyway, good previous chapters as I've said and I'm sure Jade isn't dead. She better not be dead, don't worry dear, it's not just your life in the balance!
...the explanation (unsatisfactory as it may be) for the extreme lack of new installments in this thread is on my account page. If you're interested, you're more than welcome to read it over.
So, in order to finally get on with the story, I'll make this short and simple:
I'm very, very, very sorry to be so late with the latest chapter. This time, surprisingly, it wasn't quite my fault after all, but that's still no excuse...especially considering how, at the start of this thread, I promised new chapters almost daily.
Anyhow, on with the show, in the hopes that there are still some people interested in it.
Chapter Ten: Good news and Bad news
(part one)
Memories, old and nearly forgotten, jumbled together in the mind of a sleeping young woman.
"I think, therefore I am", a wise man had once said.
"But does dreaming count as thinking?" thought the sleeper, in the midst of her dream. "Coulda sworn some other fellow said something about dreaming and being dead being more or less the same thing...<<To sleep, perchance to dream>>, or something along those lines, if I'm not mistaken."
Then she realized that, by simply arguing the point, she probably did have a good chance of being alive.
She might have reflected further on the matter (she certainly enjoyed wrestling with the logic of great minds of the past, such as René Descartes and Shakespeare), perched as she was on her very own subconscious-produced sand dune, but her train of thought was interrupted quite suddenly.
From somewhere far away, she heard a noise. A noise that seemed like a pitiful, mourning wail and a guttural, predatory howl wrapped up in the same vocal explosion of anguish and rage. She jerked her head about, as the clear skies above her turned darker and darker, searching across the desert in her dream for the source of the terrible cry....until she spotted something.
And though she knew what she saw could not be real, that it could only be yet another part of the strange dream she was immersed in, she felt her heart skip a beat.
Off into the distance, standing erect on yet another sand dune evoked by her own subconscious, was another person. That is, if he (or she) been lying under the ground long enough for his (or her) body to deteriorate into a hideous, hole-filled cadaver, almost beyond recognition.
The...thing was like a corpse that simply refused to stay in its grave, hidden from the sight of the living...it was, in many ways, just about as disgustingly decrepit as any other body. Yet by the sound of its baleful howl and the fire glowing in its horrid eyes, the dreamer could tell that it must have been possessed by an unspeakably mad demon or devil...for it seemed more alive than anything else she'd faced in her entire life.
The creature stared back at her, aware of her presence now, and moaned. It moved a step towards her, down the dune. And another. And another...she knew, somehow, that it had recognized her. Jesus, it knew her.
And with that the sleeper leapt up, in the midst of her dream, and ran for her life.
No sooner had she begun to flee than yet another bone-chilling, animal-like shriek escaped the rotting lungs of her pursuer. And from the sound of its howl (the young woman didn't dare look behind her), the thing giving chase to her was, absurdly enough, beginning to draw even closer to her, for all the panic-induced speed the poor dreamer could feel herself running at.
For even though she knew, in her mind, that there was simply no way that all of this could be real, even remotely possible, the inescapable truth had long since sunken in her heart: in your darkest nightmare, whoever or whatever is coming for you, no matter how hard you run, no matter how desperately you hide...it will reach you, eventually. And unless you wake up the instant it does, you'll be wishing you'd have died in your sleep.
And since she was already able to form coherent thoughts in this dream of hers, and actually realize that she was dreaming...the chances of her nightmare being a great deal more harmful than expected rose drastically. For all she knew, she truly was fleeing for her life.
She moved across the cool sands as fast as she could, still not chancing a fleeting glance over her shoulder, and noticing only now that she was actually headed towards a colossal construct of some sort, easily as tall as any skyscraper she'd ever seen, right in the middle of...wherever her mind had placed her.
As she drew nearer, a distant part of her mind realized that the construct was actually the head of a gargantuan statue, partly worn smooth by the sands and winds of the desert all around it. And the closer she got, the clearer the face became.
Her fear of her pursuer, however, was far greater than what pleasure she may have otherwise felt before such a discovery...and it was certainly enough to keep her from actually stopping and examining it properly, in order to make out exactly who or what the statue was supposed to be.
The cries of torment from behind her were growing steadily louder, and more coherent.
"Yooooooooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurg hh...Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeghhh..
."
The sleeper didn't much care what the nightmarish corpse was trying to communicate: she devoted all her energy to climbing the marble-like lengths of long, unbraided hair of the statue, hoping to escape her doom by reaching heights that her ghastly pursuer couldn't force its decrepit body to reach as well.
After what seemed an eternity, she reached the ear of the statue, and finally glanced back behind herself...only to moan in dismay. The unnamed horror was only a mere 50 feet or so behind, clambering up the side of the remains of the statue, still staring directly into her eyes, mouth sagging open in yet another piercing scream of wrath.
So the sleeper picked up the pace as best she could, forcing herself to not look back at her pursuer, to not ask herself why it hated her so, why it seemed like it needed to reach her and end her existence, and employing every ounce of her energy into climbing up the head of the ruined statue.
Yet the monster drew ever closer, ever nearer to her dangling feet, ever louder and louder than before, almost as if she were a mere arm's length away from her.
The sleeper kicked madly behind her, felt her foot connect with something, and with a final burst of energy, pulled herself up onto a ledge of some sort...
...and then she realized that the ledge was no ledge. She'd finally made it to the top of the statue...
...and the horrid creature chasing here was still right behind her, never giving up for an instant.
The dreamer rose to her feet, and walked backwards, staring at her monstrous doppleganger, tears of desperation spilling across her sweat-soaked cheeks.
"WHY?!?" she wailed. "WHAT IS IT YOU WANT WITH ME...WHY CAN'T YOU JUST LEAVE ME ALONE?!?"
The monster dragged itself after her, moaning something with its harsh, rasping tones.
"SPEAK, GOD DAMN YOU! IF YOU'RE GOING TO KILL ME, I WANT TO KNOW WHY!!!" shouted the dreamer.
Then, the creature spoke.
"I...i ammmmmmn....i ammm..."
Yet, even as it spoke, the dreamer saw. She saw the color of its hair, its height, its teeth, and more than anything else, its eyes. She realized what it was, what it truly was, for the first time. And the discovery shocked her more than anything else could have.
She screamed. And as she screamed, the corpse said:
"....I am...you."
And with that, it threw itself on her, and sank its teeth in her, letting the force of the impact drive them both off the top of the immense statue and sailing towards the ground...
...and through it all, the sleeper screamed, not caring that she was falling, not caring that the face of the statue itself was her own...
And with that, Jade awoke.
(part two)
"...oh...oh sweet God...oh, for bloody fuck's sake..."
Jade breathed in and out, coming dangerously close to hyperventilating, as if the encounter she'd just experienced had been as real as the air she breathed so greedily.
She was both still shocked by the horrid nightmare, and insanely relieved to be safe and sound in reality.
"Oh God...oh, oh...oh geez..."
Well, relatively safe and sound. After taking a few moments to cool down a bit and rest her head against the pillow below it, she remembered the last thing that had happened to her before she'd been caught up in the surreal nightmare.
Which is to say, the throbbing sensation in her left temple and (oddly enough) in her right foot, pretty much forced her to remember why the hell it hurt so bad to shake her head and limbs.
And at that same moment, she realized that she was actually strapped to the bed she lay upon.
"Oh...oh shit."
She was a captive of a group of armed hostiles, below the surface of a zombie-infested, half-ruined city.
Not much of a "safe" reality to wake up to.
Somewhere to her right, a door opened, and an elderly, though obviously powerfully built man in a brown military uniform, complete with shiny golden medals, entered the room. His face reminded her heavily of the Russian boxer from Rocky V, only withered and wrinkled. She half expected him to say something like: "I must break you".
But from the first few words the man uttered, she could tell he was anything but Russian. Italian, most likely.
"You were suffering from...what is it, you call it? An <<Incubus>>, I believe."
Before Jade could correct him, he went on.
"I'm glad to see that you have awoken. Things will be much easier, this way. We must start immediately."
"...start?" asked Jade, starting to get seriously angry. "...start what? Who the hell are you, first of all, and why the fuck are you holding me prisoner here, while there are hordes of freaking zombies to worry about?!"
The old man raised a bushy eyebrow, and grimaced beneath his clean-cut mustache. "That is the exact reason why we have kept you here. Just to worry about the <<Freaking zombies>> as you so childishly put the ruin of our town, our families, our culture...our very lives".
He began to move towards the door, but was halted by yet another outburst on Jade's part.
"...what, and me and my friends are having a picnic up there?! WE'RE in as deep shit as YOU people must be!" she snapped. "Our lives will be more than ruined, if we don't get out of this hell-hole, and..."
She hesitated for a moment, the words of the military officer sinking in.
"...wait, what do you mean by <<That is the exact reason why>>?"
The burly man turned towards her, still grimacing, and spoke:
"I would hesitate to tell you this troublesome news, if I were not sure that whatever evil gave birth to this catastrophe originated from you and your corrupted, war-hungry Northern American governments...but the fact of the matter is that when you struck the undead-corpse outside, you did a very, very foolish thing..."
He pointed towards her right foot. Jade peered down as best she could at it, strapped to the bed as she was by thick leather bounds, and frowned. It was bandaged.
"What do you mean? What the hell did you people do to my foot...?"
"Not us. You. You struck the mouth of the creature, and forced one of its...what is the name, in English? <<Incisors>>, yes..., you forced one of it's incisors through the material of your boot. Easy for one foolish as yourself, running about as you were without a care amongst the undead, to overlook. Especially while my men were--"
Jade stopped listening.
A zombified tooth, through her boot. In the heat of battle, fighting for her life and those of her friends, she hadn't noticed...but through her boot...
"You mean...you mean I..."
...the corpse that was her...the struggle for survival, all the time on her own head...
"Yes, that's exactly what I mean. There's a good chance that you are, for all intents and purposes, infected."
And with that, he left the room, not sparing a single glance for the speechless, unbearably horrified woman inside.
-------------------------------------
"God damn it Sarai, you sure took your sweet time" grumbled Fyndir, rubbing his eyes with his fists.
The others were also trying to shake themselves loose of the effects of the flash-grenade (or whatever it was) that had struck them less than a minute earlier. Trunks had helped Gagsy up to her feet, as Link and Jen moved towards the rest of them, checking the downed soldiers for signs of life as they went. They found none.
"Please, stop, all this gratitude for saving your hides is overwhelming" sighed the woman as she holstered her pistols. "Just for that, you won't get to hear me say <<I told you so>>".
"Good" muttered Fyndir. "I'd probably smack you just for thinking about doing that".
He glanced at the others as he wiped the blood away from a fresh cut to his cheek, where an assailant had apparently gotten in a good blow before being swatted away or gunned down. "You folks ok?"
"Yeah, more or less" said Link. "So long as everyone doesn't particularly mind the smell of fresh fear-piss in the morning..." he added, glancing down at his crotch, and sighing in apparent relief as he found no evidence of any such thing.
"Good" said Sarai. "Then we're getting out of here, now".
"Uhm...no, we're actually not" said Fyndir, frowning.
Sarai gaped at him, utterly disbelieving. "Are you KIDDING me, big guy?!" she almost shouted. "It was nothing short of a miracle that not a single one of you was shot or dragged off to only God knows where, and that all you have to show for a damned showdown with armed and presumably well-trained military men are some superficial cuts and bruises...and you want to push your luck some more?!?"
Fyndir shrugged. "Hey, us coming away from this with nothing but a few scratches is exactly why we should keep on going. These clowns want us alive, which already gives us a hell of an advantage on 'em. No reason we should turn back, now that we know that."
Sarai merely shook her head at him, still unable to believe what she was hearing, and turned towards the rest of them. This time, letting an edge of steel into her voice as she spoke: "That's it. If Fyndir has a death wish, that's his problem. The rest of you are coming with me, now."
Gagsy, finally managing to open her eyes and stand up straight (albeit still holding on to Trunks, who didn't seem to mind that particularly), looked right back at her with the same intensity. "You seem to be laboring under the delusion that you're somehow able to tell us what we can and can't do, Sarai..and I suggest that you get your facts straight now."
"It's like Fyndir says. If we could take on them," (she nodded towards the fallen soldiers all around them) "then we can probably take whatever else is coming for us. Plus, unless they've got half a battalion down there, we've already taken out a sizable part of their numbers."
Sarai seemed ready to answer in kind, but the others chose that moment to pipe up as well.
"We didn't make the decision to walk in here lightly, Miss Sarai" said Trunks. "We've come this far, and we're still ok. There's just no way in hell we're going back, until we know what they've done with Jade."
"What he said", said Jen approvingly, patting him on the shoulder, though causing him to wince slightly from the pain of an unseen cut or bruised area in the process. "Giving up now would be awfully dumb of us. Besides, there might just be one of those communication-devices we've been looking for, down here."
The others nodded. Without waiting for Sarai to begin to argue anew, they simply got up their equipment and began walking down the tunnel once more.
The woman stood there for a few moments, dumbstruck.
Then she shook her head, and followed, muttering.
"..optimistic fools."
end of part two
Fuck. Well, it has been forever since the last update but this one was pretty badass. However, while zombie infection fever dreams and all are pretty crazy, I can't wait for some more 'Fyndir smashing the hell out of fools' action.
Holy shit. A BBS story has returned to the frontpage....
Kudos Linksilvermane.
At 12/3/07 12:53 PM, Saint-Jesus wrote: That is very long... DOUBLE POSTER!
The writer of the story can double post.
Huzzah!!! new chapter for the win. now, on the other hand:
nooooooooo! not jade!
Sheesh, forgot about the comments for a wee moment :p
Jade: Well, I suppose you could say that we've already established that Yes, you are screwed. But now, we have to find out exactly how screwed :D I mean, technically speaking, you were kinda screwed earlier, what with you being in a half-demolished zombie-ridden city and what not...and even before that, you were on a honeymoon of sorts with Fyndir, which brings us to a whole new level of the meaning of the word "screwed"...
Sainth: Yes, I know, I know, it has been an awful damned time since I've been back at this thread. Technically speaking, it's been an awful long time since I've been back at this SITE though :/ Glad you liked the latest chapter, anyhow. And yes, except some of the good ol' Cock-smashingly-good tussels with Fyndir smack dab in the middle SOON :p
Rague: Thanks, I suppose. You might wanna check and see at what point I started the topic though, should you be wondering if I'm breaking or bending any of the latest, purely brilliant BBS story-related rules.
Iateamexican: Thank yew for stating the obvious...though sadly, it seems that the obvious actually needed to be stated :/ seriously, thanks.
Joodah: Yes, a new chapter :p glad you seem to have enjoyed it. And yes, Jade is involved, but perhaps she's in less profound horse manure than you think.
Then again, things could be much worse. Only time will tell ;)
Whoops, forgot the update.
----------------------------------------
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In a (hopefully not entirely futile) attempt to NOT make promises that I can't keep, I'll just say this:
I WON'T take more than a week to come up with the next chapter, much less MONTHS, like last time. Hell, I might be able to squeeze one in tomorrow, or the day after that. It depends on how much work I REALLY have to get done.
What with my older brother coming back from a 4-month-long trip, I'll probably be nose-deep in books and what not, since I've been slacking off considerably in the past few weeks (weird eh? No internet, and I fuck around even MORE.... :/).
Anyhow, yeah, no more than a week should do it. Hell, if I pull it off by tomorrow, the folks that still haven't realized that I finally DID get back to the story might get to read two of 'em at once :p
Did I read something about 'tomorrow'? I'm afraid I am unable to provide meaningful comment unless you're able to add another chapter :)
This is a fair trade as you have starved me of literature for too long!
Keep up the good work!
At 12/10/07 12:14 PM, Sarai wrote: This is a fair trade as you have starved me of literature for too long!
Go read a book or something...
Wait... they do teach you how to read English when you come over from the boat right?
At 12/10/07 12:16 PM, CanadianSnowman wrote:
Go read a book or something...
Wait... they do teach you how to read English when you come over from the boat right?
You there.
You, theutterly unfunny, incredibly annoying, witless person-thing-whatyoumaycallit.
...mind butting out of my thread?
Either that, or keep your comments strictly on topic, thanks. Criticism to my story-telling skills and originality I can take just fine.
Unprovoked racist comments and unfathomably ignorant references? Not so much.
Anyhow Sarai, from the looks of things, I may be able to get another chapter in by tomorrow night, at around this hour. Maybe.
Hope you enjoyed the other chapter, anyhow.
Wow, ive spent from 1:00 to 3:30 reading your story form the begining and im proud to say that i want more!!! i cant wait till the next chapter comes out (and i hope thay have a cure for poor Jade :( ) good luck! :D
Bringing back old shit.
At 12/10/07 03:35 PM, lawlmaster wrote: Wow, ive spent from 1:00 to 3:30 reading your story form the begining and im proud to say that i want more!!! i cant wait till the next chapter comes out (and i hope thay have a cure for poor Jade :( ) good luck! :D
Wow, that long of a read, and still wanting more? :D
Awesome. Glad you like it.
At any rate, I've only got a few minutes here, so I'll be brief:
Sorry, but I won't be able to come up with the next chapter tonight, nor for the next three nights after that.
By day I study, by night I get what sleep I can. Again, my apologies to any of you who may have actually been expecting a new installment by today :(
At 12/11/07 04:28 PM, LinkSilvermane wrote:
Sorry, but I won't be able to come up with the next chapter tonight, nor for the next three nights after that.
By day I study, by night I get what sleep I can. Again, my apologies to any of you who may have actually been expecting a new installment by today :(
That would probably have been me! Your most vocal fan :P *will fight anyone for that title*
*smiles her most cute smile*
At 12/15/07 03:34 PM, Sarai wrote:
*smiles her most cute smile*
If only I'd read this sooner...I'd have damned the countless University Exams, and gotten right to work :p
Eh. Least I'm reading it now, right? Better late than never, and all that?
...please don't murder me in my sleep :(
On with the next chapter, at any rate.
Chapter Eleven: Surprise, Surprise
"Mpf. You think these fuckers would have worked on the damned potholes a bit more upstairs, instead of building f'ing interminable underground shit", muttered Link.
The small rescue group trudged down yet another dark, hospital-clean hallway, moving ever forward (and even that, only thanks to the extra flashlights they'd procured from the guards they'd brought down earlier), with about as much an idea as to how much farther they had to walk through the captor's corridors in order to reach some area that the armed assailants might be keeping their kidnapped comerade as they did half an hour ago.
For the fourth time in the past five minutes, Gagsy elbowed Link in the shoulder (eliciting several grunts of approval from the other members of the group from both in front and behind them), all but growling at him to be silent.
"Shut the hell up already, dude", she whispered, as they neared the umpteenth end of one section of a hallway, which then veered off to the right. "For all we know, the next time we turn a corner, we could be walking straight into another ambush..."
And then she too silenced herself, as Fyndir raised a large fist to halt the rest of them, and peered around the corner into the adjacent hallway with the use of a mirror he'd "borrowed" along with the other choice objects they'd taken from the fallen combatants.
After a few moments of staring intently at the reflection, he risked flashing a beam of light down the corridor for half a second...and then visibly relaxed his tensed shoulders.
"Ease up, folks...no one in sight down this one either", he sighed.
It would have been easy to mistake his mannerisms with relief, or even satisfaction...but the more perceptive ones amongst them (namely TigerKitty, who patted the burly man on the arm in a soothing gesture, and Trunks, who simply backed off and kept a wary distance) knew that he was far from satisfied with the state of things.
He wanted to take down another couple of armed hostiles. He wanted to bust down a couple of doors and get to the woman he'd pledged his life to, especially if that meant getting past five or six more soldiers in the process. He had a lot of frustration to vent, and not a lot of things to vent them on, with all this empty space.
Still keeping his distance (and wisely so), Trunks glanced at Sarai, insofar the voice of reason of the group, and quietly asked the question that was on everybody's minds: "Uhm...Miss Sarai? How is it even possible for there to be this much space, underground? Shouldn't we have hit a subway-system by now...or the sewers, at least? How the heck can these people have this much room to spare?"
But the sleek, bespectacled woman remained silent, for once not caring for the concerns of one of the students she'd taken under her care. She simply paused, tilting her head ever so slightly to the right, and staring off into nothing, as if she were listening for something.
"Uhm...miss? Miss Sarai? You alright?"
Jen, Gagsy and Link picked up on her odd behavior as well. Fyndir, on the other hand, simply paced about, having more trouble than ever at keeping his anger and frustration at bay.
Sarai's eyes widened.
"I've been feeling...odd, about these hallways lately, kids. Not just because they're empty, and not just because although there are cameras every 10 steps we walk, but..."
She reached out to the wall at her right, almost caressing it, frowning as she did so.
"...but they seem...off, somehow. My sense of direction, I think, is telling me that we're actually not moving very far from where we started."
Fyndir snorted. "No shit, leather-lady. We've been walking for 35 fuckin' minutes without running into so much as a fuckin' packrat, and NOW you pick up on the fact that we're not gettin' anywhere? Smooth. Meanwhile, Jade's somewhere down the next couple hundred fuckin' hallways, and they're doing God knows what to her..."
He clenched his fists and shut his eyes, willing himself to not punch a hole in the wall.
But Sarai didn't seem to care about his scathing attitude towards her in the least. "I meant, the hallway seems to be leading nowhere. Ever since we got through the first two or three corridors, it's been like moving down the same stretch, over and over again. And I'm getting tired of it."
She began to turn towards the same spot that she'd touched earlier, and pulling up her newly-acquired M4 to bear.
Jen started to move towards her, not quite believing what she was seeing. "Wait, hang on a second Miss, what good could that possibly..."
"Cover your ears, kids" said Sarai, half a second before she let loose with the three-round-burst, firing in a circular motion.
*BLAM!*BLAM!*BLAM!*-*BLAM!*BLAM!*BLAM!*-
*BLAM!*BLAM!*BLAM!*
Fyndir clamped his heavy hand on the rifle and yanked it away from the seemingly trigger-happy woman, swearing loudly. "What the bloody HELL was that for, ya brainless bitch?!? You want a fuckin' army on top of us, ya stupid..."
Yet he trailed off, as he glanced at the bullet ridden wall. Then, he simply gaped.
Sarai gave the big man a warm smile, and gestured at the rest of the group (still cursing and holding their palms over their sore eardrums) to come and take a look for themselves.
Light shone through the ragged holes left in the wall by Sarai's assault. Neon light.
Gagsy seemed as dumbfounded as Fyndir. "But how did you...how the HELL did you know?"
Sarai shrugged. "I didn't really. I just had a bit of a hunch. The flash-bang grenades, the totally unprepared soldiers, the sensation of not actually going anywhere at all..."
She glanced at the rest of them, gesturing to her right and to her left.
"I'm guessing that these hallways are circular. They don't actually lead anywhere. We've been chasing our tails, without a clue, stuck in the dark as we are. All it took was a little brainpower to deduce that..."
Trunks finally caught on, gasping. "Wait...brainpower! That's what separates us from the rotting cannibals up there! That's...that must be what this is for! It's a freakin' zombie-maze!"
Sarai smiled once more. "Exactly. And I'm guessing those soldiers we bumped into earlier were trained for the detainment of slow, undead folk, and not people who're very much alive. Not to mention armed and extremely pissed. Which would explain, for example, why they weren't quite so readily equipped to face us. The all-too visible rifles, the flash-bang grenades, the general lack of other forms of proper equipment to subdue armed hostiles...not to mention the relatively weak materials they used to construct these walls. I'm guessing they believed that no amount of undead muscle would suffice to get through, push and shove as it might."
Fyndir grunted his approval. "But if you put a titch of willpower behind them muscles, and if you've got half an idea as to how to use 'em.."
He grabbed his rifle firmly in both his hands, butt-end forward, drew it over his head, and swung with every rage-driven fiber of his body at the space of metal at the center of the bullet holes Sarai had left in the wall.
With an almighty crash, the entire section of the wall gave out, leaving a hole large enough to squeeze through...for an ordinary man. Fyndir snarled in frustration, and began to swing at the wall again, bringing down more of it with each blow. Link joined in with one of the P90's he'd apparently looted from one of the armory's earlier, obviously his choice weapon. The others simply stood back and waited, wondering how long it would take for more armed hostiles to notice the ruckus.
(end of part one)
(part two)
After a couple of minutes, together they'd busted an opening large enough to get even Fyndir's hulk through to the other side.
Soon as they were all through, they took in their surroundings in a slightly calmer fashion, having asserted themselves that no hostiles were about..yet.
They seemed to be in a lab of some sort, albeit a hastily-deserted one. Tables, chairs and surgical instruments littered the place, and drops of blood led outside the glass exit and towards a broader area, structured like a lounge of some sort (complete with neat, stylish couches and coffee-break paraphernalia), also deserted. Sarai seemed to have hit some poor bastard on the other side, with her first salvo of bullets, and the rest of the people who were behind the wall had wisely taken that as their cue to jump up and get the hell out.
At any rate, the coast was clear, and the group moved forwards as always, past the shattered glass door.
None of them spoke, now. Even Link had enough brains to keep his fool lid shut. They knew that they were finally in enemy territory, and that they still had no clue as to where they might find their kidnapped friend.
That, and they were all pondering the same thing, privately: Who in God's name would be able to forsee a zombie outbreak, and build a bloody zombie detainment-area accordingly?
But they said nothing, same as when the students had discovered the unpleasant truth about the days they'd seemingly had wiped from their minds, same as when they had crossed half the city and had run into one measly undead cannibal. They knew they had much more pressing matters to worry about.
Namely, the twin turrets that slid out of the walls at the other end of the room.
"Fuck", said Fyndir, a split second before he leapt to the right, all but tackling Jen, Sarai and Trunks along with him and pressing them to the ground. Similarly, Sarai shoved Link to the floor, and began to drop to the ground next to him as fast as she could.
Which wasn't quite quick enough. The twin barrels protruding from the wall opened fire a fraction of a second before she hit the ground, and for an instant all Link could see was blood arching up and over him, as Sarai cried out in shock and pain.
His hands flew instinctively to grasp her black leather jacket, as he dragged her down and behind one of the couches alongside him, in a feeble attempt to go for cover (Fyndir, smarter than that, had brought the rest of them behind one of the sturdy lab-desks directly behind them), and tried to keep them both as close to the ground as possible as the closely-placed turrets continued to fire.
Sarai gasped and clasped one hand over her left shoulder, but she didn't pass out. The bullet that had struck her had gone clear through her right shoulder, and to Link she seemed to be bleeding quite a bit.
But she fought past the pain enough to look Link in the eye, and gasp: "You trying to get a sneak-peek at the goods while I'm getting shot at, Mr. Silvermane?"
Link had, inadvertedly, torn off her jacket as he brought her to relative safety, and left her in her tight-fitting tank top.
"Sure" he grunted. "A bit of blood-loss, and suddenly everybody's a comedian. Either that, or I can expect a sexual harassment lawsuit, if we make it out of this mess alive."
He peered from under the couch (which was rapidly transforming into cotton-like swiss cheese) at the turrets, and spotted a metallic garbage disposal to the left of the belching guns.
Fuck it, he thought, and he shoved what remained of the couch to the right (along with his wounded teacher) and lunged for the elegant dumpster, bullets spelling death at less than an inch behind him every step of the way.
He'd never been much of an athelete, really. He certainly hadn't ever participated in any serious foot-race, or anything of the sort.
But the thought of not leaving enough of a corpse to fill a casket was enough to pump his body so full of adrenaline, he felt like his feet had grown wings.
He slammed into the wall to the left of the garbage disposal, out of the reach of the turrets, which began to focus on the more available targets...namely, everyone else in the room.
But before they could open fire once more, he picked himself up off the ground and slammed his right shoulder with everything he had into the garbage bin. It screeched and groaned and clawed at the ground, yet as the first bullets flew from the turrets, it was there to stop them.
Or, at least, it would have, had it been made of slightly tougher stuff. The first three bullets went clean through it, as if it were made out of thin air, as Fyndir roared over the chaos "Any other bright ideas, you suicidal moron?"
Yet, the staccato bark of bullet-fire stopped almost instantly after he'd finished screaming. They heard the noise of machinery moving about, as if the turrets were retracting back into the wall whence they came, and everything was silent.
Ever so slowly, Gagsy and Trunks peered over the splintered desk they'd been hiding under, and found Link lying next to the garbage bin, rubbing his aching shoulder.
He glanced at them, and smiled sheepishly. "If I'd had a Gravity Gun, that probably would have been a tad easier."
"Huh?" said a dazed Jen, as she got on her feet and began moving towards Sarai, checking to see if everyone else was alright.
"Erm...it's this Half-Life 2 super-charged...uhm, never mind. The typical defense against turrets is to block their motion sensors, that's all."
Fyndir stood up, walked over to him, and stared down directly into his eyes. He seemed to be struggling with the desire to compliment him on his audacity, and the need to slap him upside the head for being so incredibly stupid.
He settled for helping him up onto his feet, and telling him: "Please, please don't pull that shite again."
"Right" said Link, hoisting himself to his feet and gesturing towards Sarai. "How is she? Still traumatized over the attempted rape and all that?"
Jen, who was standing next to Sarai and conversing quietly with her, frowned at the distasteful joke, but limited herself to shake her head. "She seems to know how to patch herself up just fine. Check it out."
They crowded around the two, to the left of the room.
Sure enough, she'd already fashioned a makeshift tourniquet with a strip of black leather from her torn jacket, and had begun to tighten it over the wound.
"Here, lemme help", said Fyndir, as he grasped both ends of the leather and pulled down hard, to keep up the pressure as much as possible.
Sarai gasped.
"What, too much for ya, lass?" said Fyndir, chuckling quietly.
"I think", said someone from behind the group, from a previously unseen door to the right of the obstructed turrets, "she is worried of...how do you say? More <<pressing>> matters."
Fyndir spun around, rifle at the ready, and found a wall of approximately 10 armed men in front of him, all covering the small band of would-be rescuers, their weapons raised. He could all but feel the two red dots on his forehead, as he froze.
"Please, do not make the mistake of underestimating these men. Believe me, they are of a much higher caliber than the men you faced outside. They specialize in live hostiles."
A tall, military-uniformed man stepped out from behind the armed men, showing himself.
"Fuck" Link whispered. "It's Drago!"
"Who?" said Gagsy.
"Ivan Drago! The dude from Rocky IV!"
The elderly officer silenced them with a gesture, and turning to Fyndir, said simply: "Put down your weapons and come with me quietly, and I will take you to your friend. I daresay, in her condition, she'll be more than happy to see you all."
"<<Condition>>?" asked Fyndir slowly, barely able to keep his tone neutral. "What've you done to..."
"Done? Nothing," the officer cut him off. "She became infected all on her own, I assure you. And I find it highly curious that you would claim that we would impregnate her."
This time, Fyndir's jaw dropped. "She's...Jade's infected...and...and WHAT?"
(end of part two)
the best zombie story on the bbs makes its triumphant return!
very good job on the story, link. well worth the wait!
Ow.... looks like I won't be punching anyone with at least one hand any time soon :p I've not been shot in real life with anything worse than paintballs, so yeah... but I've seen a bullet wound in someone's arm in real life, so yeah, ouch :/ Need to make sure there's no casing or bone fragments in the wound so that it doesn't get infected.
Guys and their guns, blurgh, no fair hehe. But well done Link with the blocking the motion sensor things, that does make a lot of sense and was quite clever.
Excuse me while I go and find some Doctor or something and then have an emotional crisis of attachment to the rag-tag group of students ;-)
Anyway... *ahem*
Nice story Link, it's a real pleasure reading it.
Hooray! New updates! Way to make a return, with action, ingenuity, and storyline advancements galore.
I've been carefully pondering how to respond. But it's late, and I have to work tomorrow. So, I'll just say, "Sweet update!"
The part about everyone getting captured, saw it coming. But you still pulled it off beautifully.
Also, wow; pregnant & infected Jade! Safe to say, we all know who's been playing with her baby-maker.
Can't wait for the next chapter..... If you post it in 2009, I'm tracking you down and beating you with a large stick. ( j/k ).
