Zombies and Blood

Brick fired his last shell and sent the last lump of a zombie flying back and smashing into a black, wrinkled tree before slumping against its trunk, a crater now blasted into its chest. A dozen more erupted from the ground, shrieking and moaning, green mucus trailing from their slackened jaws. Brick grinned at the fresh target and reloaded his shotgun. A crack! split the air, and the head of one of the lead zombies suddenly disppeared from his body. The sound repeated itself four times and four zombies collapsed to the ground. Brick charged in to finish the rest, and blasted them all point blank range, tearing them all to pieces and knocked them all right back to the hell they'd come from. The air suddenly turned ominously quiet, as the moaning in the distance ceased abruptly.

Brick reloaded again and spat into the murk as Mordecai came from behind at a jog while making sure to kick one of the zombies in its already twisted head. The duo took a moment to look around and verify that it was safe enough to move on and nothing was going to come up from behind them. As they'd found out recently, zombies could be stealthy buggers. After taking a few moments to look around, the two continued on toward their destination to meet up with the other half of their small group. Their was a silence between the two as per the usual, Brick being the more stoic and Mordecai simply not knowing how to communicate with the wall of muscle right next to him.

Mordecai was rather surprised at his inability to talk to Brick at all. He and Lilith could speak easily enough if he he was able to coax Lilith far enough out of her shell. Roland didn't mind sharing some of his old Crimson Lance stories with him, even though Mordecai didn't have any real interest in them. However, in all the time Mordecai had spent traveling with the rest of the group to find the Vault he had rarely if ever spoken to Brick about anything. He knew that he could trust the mountain of a man in a gunfight, but he didn't even know the man's motives. It disturbed Mordecai, a sniper was supposed to know everything about their targets, and Mordecai didn't know shit. However, Brick didn't seem to be the one who wanted talk about his personal life, and Mordecai knew of his extremely short temper.

They hiked through a murky gulley, with dark, tall and foreboding trees that seemed to lean towards them on either side of them. Out in the distance, Mordecai could hear the staccato bursts of gunfire and the muffled groans of zombies being cut cown. He glanced over at Brick, who looked rather impatient as the gunfire came closer and closer. He could see the bloodlust hiding behind his pupils. He gripped his shotgun tighter and his pace suddenly increased. Suddenly he was sprinting towards the sounds of combat, and left Mordecai standing their in the dust. He groaned and followed at his own sprint, "Brick!" The tank of a man ignored him and was scrambling over a hill at the very end of the gulley and by the time Mordecai was at the foot of the hill Brick was already over the crest of it.

When he got to the top, he saw a scene of pure chaos. Lilith was firing profusely into rushing and screaming mobs of shuffling zombies and Defilers, alighting them instantly. Roland was near her, but was being backed away slowly as a Tankenstein rushed him with arms outstretched. Brick had succumbed to his beserker rage, discarding his shotgun and instead smashing through the mob with fists pumping bone crunching jabs and uppercuts one after the other. Mordecai got over how chaotic the scene was quickly and had his sniper rifle out off his back and in his hands and quickly started pumping rounds into the crowd. Meanwhhile, the Tankenstein was closing the distance toward Roland with a scream. Mordecai sent a round ramming through the back of the Tankenstein's skull, and the massive body collapsed to the ground and gave Roland some breathing room.

A zombie managed to break trough Lilith's wall of bullets and lunged at her. Mordecai aimed swiftly and sent a bullet through the side of the zombie's side with cold precision. It was always like that when he started firing, like a cold detatchment from the rest of the world and the only thing was his teammates, the enemy and his sniper rifle. He sent clip after clip into the mobs and took out dozens at a time.

1 clip. . .

Lilith sent a grenade into a trio of Defilers and desintegrated them into charred ash.

2 clips. . .

Roland backed up, firing his assault rifle, but the massive crowd came to close for him to use the rifle effectively. His scorpio turrent was deployed with a merely a minute wave of his hand and the extra wave of bullets tore through the entire crowd.

3 clip. . .

Brick was screaming in bloody rage, tearing zombies limb from limb and shattering bones with every punch. A tankenstein suddenly came from behind and lunged at Brick's exposed back. Mordecai switched his aim ready to send a round through his skull just as before with the first, when he found he didn't have to. Brick ducked and whirled, and then sent a blistering punch into the Tankenstein's face that held enough force to send the giant zombie staggering back on his back foot. Brick pounced and sent more severe punches that burst through the zombie's armor and then, after that was done and the Tankenstein lying near dead on the ground, tore off its left arm with a mighty jerk. The Tankenstein screamed, but was cut short as Mordecai swiftly ended its pain.

And that's 4. . .

Then all of his surroundings came back to him, and Mordecai realized that everything had once again gone silent save for the rustling of dead leaves. When he jogged down, Roland nodded at him, "Thanks for the assist Mordecai, Brick."

Lilith nodded as well and she smiled slightly. It made Mordecai rather happy to see it. Brick, however, came up from behind and grunted, "When are we moving out?" Mordecai looked back at Brick and had to wonder how the guy could still be standing. He was covered from head to toe in green blood, his breath was coming out in heavy snarls, and his knuckles looked like they'd run through a meat grinder. He had his shotgun in his hands again, although from what Mordecai had seen he didn't seem intent on using it very often.

Roland sat down on a stump and cracked is neck, "In a bit Brick, we'll just rest for a few minutes." Lilith didn't object and took a seat on a patch of grass

"I'm gonna take a look around," Brick rumbled vaguely and turned. He walked over a rolling hill and disappeared from view. Mordecai looked after him, and then back at his other two teammates.

"I'm gonna follow him." He was already walking after him before they could reply. He walked over the hill and saw Brick walking through long blades of grass that reached his knees, which was rather impressive given his size. He sat down on a log and reached inside his shirt. He pulled something out and stared down at it for a long moment.

Mordecai, wanting to know what it was, took out his sniper rifle and looked through the scope. What he saw was a small picture of an attractive woman, black hair and pale skin. Mordecai arched an eyebrow in interest, and when Brick turned the photo around to the back, Mordecai had to magnify his sight to read a short scribble on the back

love you BRICKY!

Mordecai felt his jaw drop, and his eyebrows shoot up under his mask. Who the hell was she? A sister? A girlfriend? a friend? As these questions roiled in his head, he caught sight of about half a dozen zombies stumble into view and begin shambling toward Brick. Mordecai forced the questions down and instead focused on the enemy he could actually fight. At the last moment as he sighted up the reticle, Brick suddenly sprang into action. The lead zombie lunged, but flew backward as Brick sent a jab his away directed toward his face. He suddenly had his shotgun in hand, and blasted a wall of bullets that tore through the rest of the crowds easily enough. Only one remained and Mordecai was tempted to kill him before Brick got his hands on him.

He pushed the temptation away and simply watched as Brick tore through the zombie and sculpted it into an even grander mess. Mordecai looked through his scope and looked for any more hostiles, and found none. He focused his reticle on Brick and found himself rather disturbed when Brick looked up and seemed to stare right through him. Then even worse, a cruel smile suddenly formed on his stony face. Whether or not Brick had seen him Mordecai didn't know, and he didn't want to find out. He began to retreat and as he walked back to join up with the rest of group, he felt his thoughts drift back to the girl.

Didn't think Brick could put aside being an asshole for a day much less get a girl.

Suddenly he was even more confused about Brick than he had been an hour ago.

Shit!