Distant moans carried for some distance on the wind, and they found themselves past the matted fur of Lauren's drooping, overlarge ears. She raised her head drowsily and brought an arm up to one of them to lift it. They were definitely those moans. She frowned and rose, the restful embrace of sleep fading rapidly, replaced instead with worried alertness. She stifled a yawn and looked about the room. The door remained as terrifically reinforced as always. She turned back to look at Daniel and considered waking him – perhaps not. She could handle this. The moans weren't plentiful, there were no more than ten, maybe twenty.
She glanced at Navin and tapped her foot rapidly. They could handle this. She strode over to the slumbering metagross and tapped his forehead. He opened his one good eye and growled in displeasure. "Early," echoed a voice somewhere deep inside the metal creature. The eye closed again.
Lauren crossed her arms and pouted, her foot tapping increasing twofold. She grabbed hold of his forelegs and shook the creature as best as she could. For emphasis, she added a growl of her own, though it came across more as an annoyed squeak.
The eye opened again, and so too did the mouth. "Stop. Problem?" asked Navin. His eye trained itself intently on Lauren's animated response: her arms gesticulated wildly at the locked door – beyond the locked door. Beyond it and the heavily barricaded windows and entryway of this decrepit shack in the middle of the wilderness. They were out there – close enough for their moans to carry on the wind.
Navin's eye narrowed. "Death," he grumbled: low and drawn out, it shook the floors and walls. "Fight." He stood up on all fours proper and stomped towards the door before stopping and turning to Lauren. His tone was inquisitive, "Master?"
The lopunny turned back to Daniel, foot tapping now running at a fever pitch. More moans carried on the wind, and an ugly mixture of fear and worry gripped her. She turned to Navin and shook her head. They would do this alone. She climbed atop the metagross and set about unlocking the seven different locks mounted on the door. When at last she finished, she hopped back down and rummaged through the cracked and creaking chest of drawers they kept in the bedroom. She produced a shotgun and a belt pouch and gave Navin a meek grin. He was fortunate: the teeth, claws and grasping hands of the undead had precious little effect against his body, even as he tore through them with claw and energy alike. She on the other hand...
A shiver ran down Lauren's spine. There had been too many close calls for her, too many times that she'd nearly been absorbed into the putrid fold of the other. Too many times that Daniel risked his neck for hers. Now was her time to prove she could manage well enough on her own. She pushed the bedroom door open and let Navin through. Mostly on her own anyway. She closed the door behind them and press a small switch hidden behind a conveniently placed flower pot sporting a fantastically dead orchid. The sound of the locks re-engaging rang out for a few seconds. Satisfied, she set of with Navin down the stairs into the foyer of the shack and then towards the kitchen. The two performed a quick sweep of the house and met in the kitchen, satisfied nothing had broken in.
Tiny shafts of light broke through small cracks in the boards that covered every last window, though a significant beam of light shone through the skylight above the kitchen table. She pulled a ladder from behind the softly whirring fridge and set it under the skylight so she could climb up and unlatch it. She pulled herself up on the roof with Annabelle and racked the forend back to load a shell into the chamber. One, two, three, four, five in the tube, like Daniel had taught her. The roof shook slightly – Navin had launched himself up out of the skylight no doubt. She nodded at the metagross and closed the skylight, then latched it shut. Birds didn't chirp much anymore. The air carried little more than the whispers of the wind and sinister moans now. It shifted the idyllic forest around them somewhat. The trees were no longer peaceful figures in the distance. Now they concealed advancing hordes. Now they regarded the trees with suspicion and worry.
"Soon," growled Navin. "Soon." The metagross leapt from the roof, down to the woodland floor below. "Fight." The moans in the air were very close now – the fastest of their lot would be upon them soon.
A shambling figure emerged from the treeline, and upon seeing Navin, raised its arms and began to limp at the pokemon. The guttural moan coming from the reeking undead raised significantly in volume, and was abruptly cut off as Navin charged the man, launching him high into the air and several feet behind him. As the figure struggled to stand, Navin stomped over and brought a clawed foot down onto its head, a wet, sickening crack ringing out in the forest air. More figures began to present themselves, emerging from the treeline. Men, women, children, and a few of the humanoid pokemon that were receptive to the blight – most others had simply expired. They swarmed Navin, beaten off in twos and threes with furious charges and meteor mash punches. A few staggered and fell, heads turned to pulp as Navin turned to face them and let loose a wave of psychic energy.
Now, however, they overwhelmed him. Lauren was wrong, there were more than ten or twenty. There were ten or twenty dog-piling Navin alone at this point, and at least forty more struggling to shamble past the morass towards the lopunny standing atop a distant roof. Her mouth was dry, her whole body was shivering, and the tap-tap-tap of her nervous right foot had started again. Navin would be fine, but now she had to clear the waves of undead off of him – at least enough for him to properly cause an earthquake anyway.
Annabelle was loud, and she hated that about the gun. Each pull of the trigger, boom of the report and rack of the forend made her ears quiver and ring. One, two, three, four, five, six. Reload. One, two, three, four, five, six. Reload. Banging and scraping echoed below her as the undead did their best to break through the front of the house, but Navin was almost completely cleared of the undead.
The roof shook. Had they broken through? No, this wasn't the door giving way. Beneath the moans of the horde, Lauren heard Navin shout "Off!" The ground beneath him split, and the undead piling atop him were flung off in every direction. Lauren, however, lost her footing and fell to the soft earth below.
She rubbed her rear and whined then looked about. One of them was crawling directly towards her. In a panic, she scrambled to stand and find Annabelle. She rummaged in the leaves in a panic and felt her hands play against hard wood. With a sigh of relief, she brought the shotgun to bear and fired directly at the crawling undead. Several more had turned to face her now, and they too began to shamble and crawl. Far off to the right of her, Navin continued to fight off the now dwindling numbers of undead. Emboldened by his tenacity, she dug her feet into the ground and dropped the advancing mob. One remained, shambling awkwardly towards her over the fallen figures of its comrades. She brought the weapon to her shoulder and aimed at the creature's head.
Click. Her ears drooped and she backed up several paces, a hand rummaging wildly in her belt pouch for another shell. Nothing. She looked past the moaning zombie and noticed several shells glinting in the sun and scattered about the floor. It would be upon her in a few seconds. Her ears perked and she with another (failed) growl, she launched a kick at the undead's knees. It connected, and she used the leverage to flip away from it. The creature fell to its knees and she launched herself at it again. She grasped its midsection and brought the creature up and over and back down again, directly onto its head. With a loud snap and a wet crack, Lauren kipped up and turned back to inspect her handiwork. The suplex had worked – mostly. The undead's skull had split open a fair deal, and most of its brains were now spilling out, but she hadn't quite managed a complete skull smash. Somewhat dejected, she turned back to look for Navin and saw him standing amid a field of bodies. She collected Annabelle and what shotgun shells she could pick out of the ground and strode back over to him.
Navin crushed one last skull beneath a clawed foot and turned to Lauren. "Good," he mumbled. The lopunny nodded happily in agreement. With a faint smirk, Navin added, "End." With another nod, Lauren climbed atop Navin. He jumped into the air and landed on the roof, leaving several punctures in the tiling and sending an ominous crack rippling across the entire building.
Lauren slapped the top of his head in reprimand and hopped off Navin to open the skylight and drop back down into the kitchen. Navin followed closely behind. She closed the latch on the skylight once again and the two returned to the bedroom door.
She hadn't thought this far. Daniel was still sleeping and she didn't particularly want to wake him. She looked to Navin, confusion etched on her face. With a sigh, the metagross trained its eye on the door – the sounds of the locks disengaging rang out. With a grin of approval, Lauren opened the door and let out a squeak of terror when she crossed the threshold and saw Daniel sitting up in bed, rifle trained on her.
His intense expression softened upon seeing her, and with a grin, he slid the rifle under the bed again and stood up. "Gave me quite the fright there Lauren," he said with a chuckle. He outstretched his arms and drew the lopunny into an embrace after she bounded up to him. "Heard some moans and took care of it yourself, huh?" he asked the crown of her head. He felt Lauren nodded repeatedly into his midsection. With another laugh, he pulled up one of her ears and let it fall limp again. "Wish my own worked as well as yours do," he mumbled, "Lucky you."
He looked up at Navin and added. "Good work Navin. And thanks for...well, you know." He glanced down at Lauren.
Navin trudged to his corner and laid down again. He fixed his eye on Daniel and said after a pause, "Helped?" His eye flickered to the rifle under the bed and back to his master. With a sheepish grin, Daniel brought a finger to his lips. The metagross chuckled and closed its eye. "Peace."
Lauren scrambled up Daniel's front and made her way onto his back to rub her face against his. Absently, he brought a hand up to the top her head and rubbed it. "Yeah," he said at last.
"For now."
Funny what a picture of a lopunny holding a shotgun can do. A one off, nothing more, but it's certainly invigorated my interest in seeing Au Coup Par Coup properly resumed.