As the last of the onrush of infected died down, the survivors allowed themselves a brief respite. Ellis gazed out across the hedge maze that covered the ground below the mansion, adjusting his cap slightly.
"Hey guys, did I ever tell you about the time me and Keith got lost in a maze? I mean shit, Keith told me he'd been in this maze a THOUSAND times, but we ended-"
"Ellis?" Nick looked over from his spot by the doors that lead out onto the deck, eyes cold "Seriously? Is now the best time?"
"No… naw, sorry." Ellis muttered, hands clamped around the triggers of the heavy duty turret that overlooked the maze. The field of fire wasn't perfect, but it was better than the shotgun strapped across his back.
Suddenly, a bellow shattered the relative calm and Rochelle was the first to recognise it, her eyes scanning the garden before she spotted the source.
"Tank! Left side!" She called, raising her rifle at the titan that was heaving itself over the wall like it was nothing. A shot rang out but missed, gouging out a chunk of the wall as the infected brute landed with a thump, charging towards the house like a freight train.
"Ellis!" Coach called as he began to pour fire into the Tank "Get that gun round!"
Ellis swung the turret round, but the creature was outside of the arc. Instead, he turned and rushed over to the corner where the grenade launcher they had found in one of the rooms was stashed. He hefted it onto his shoulder and leaned over the rail in time to see the Tank wrap its arms around the base of the support beam and heave itself up like an ape, snarling.
"Comeone you big ugly-"
And suddenly, Ellis felt himself flying. He saw the ground, then the sky, then the ground again before the impact knocked the wind out of him. Stars exploded before the hicks eyes as he found himself lying against the hedge maze, sprawled like a doll. In the distance he could hear shouts, bellows and gunfire but he couldn't tell where it was coming from.
Suddenly, he felt arms grip him and in a moment of madness he lashed out, thinking it to be an infected, but as his vision cleared, Ellis found himself staring into the chizzled face of Nick.
"Nick?" He murmured "What…"
"No time, come on Overalls; get your southern ass up." He grunted, helping Ellis to his feet as he quickly patched up the gash in his side from where he'd hit the maze.
"Anything broken?" Nick asked, but his voice was barely masking the fear as Ellis frowned, looking to the house in time to see Coach and Rochelle come sprinting out of the front door, taking the steps three at a time, though Coach was slightly slower.
Then Ellis realised what had knocked seven shades of shit out of him and realised if he'd have landed a bit further forward he probably would have broken his legs. From the doorway the pair of survivors had just left, the Tank barged through, 800 pounds of angry muscle.
For a moment it stood stock still as it regarded the four survivors before something huge leapt from the decking above the entrance way and landed at the bottom of the steps with a bellow, absorbing the impact with ease.
A second Tank.
"Shit… shit shit shit…" Ellis muttered, clinging onto the Grenade Launcher for dear life. What stuck him though, wasn't the fact there where two Tanks, but that they looked almost identical, literally.
"Twins?" Ellis had time to smirk before both infected took off, straight for the survivors. They jostled with each other as they ran, each eager to smash the humans first.
"Split!" Coach called, as he and Rochelle made left, Nick and Ellis right. As a response, both Tanks took a separate team.
The one after Ellis and Nick was the one that had appeared first, as evidenced by the numerous bullet wounds on its thick torso. The pair ran faster than they ever had before as the brute busted through the hedge maze behind them, roaring.
From across the maze came gunfire and bellows, and Ellis span round with a grin that could be considered insane, before the grenade launcher spat fire in his hands.
The shell impacted directly in the Tanks chest and staggered it backwards with a roar, a bloody crater appearing in its chest. But this only made it angry, and before Ellis could reload and despite Nick adding his fire to it, it swatted Ellis aside with a casual blow that slammed him hard against the outer wall.
Before it could crush Ellis like an egg, the beast suddenly erupted in a torrent of flame that sent it wheeling around, lashing out and screaming like it was human. Nick grinned and rushed to help Ellis up again, before the Tank came at them again, and this time it had murder in its eyes.
Nick gulped, grabbing Ellis he managed to dodge round a clumsy fist and go back the way the came, hoping the Tank succumbed to the flames before it reached them again.
Barely a few feet in font of them the first Tank finally dropped with a whimper, its arms buckling and sending it face first into the floor, a burning charred corpse. Ellis patted Nick but he shrugged it off, ushering him towards the sounds of where Coach and Rochelle where fighting the second.
After a brief rush through the maze, they found Coach kneeling over the limp corpse of Rochelle, tears falling from his kind eyes. The Tank lay dead beside them, a lucky shot from Rochelle having blown its head off as it crushed her chest with a fist.
"Goodbye Rochelle, you where good." He whispered quietly, turning away from the scene as Ellis felt tears in his eyes – shit, why did this have to go and happen?
It was Coach who brought him round
"We're gonna be okay, you hear? Lets get back to the Mansion, Virgil is still a ways off." He patted Ellis on the shoulder as the trio sprinted off towards the mansion as fresh screams filled the air.
They would survive, but at what cost?