Killing Star

by DoubleBoxEven

The specimens have overrun Japan. Can Kona get through the hellish creatures, and survive? Be advised this contains much violence and gore...sort of... Sorry it's so long also. Category is Action, I state this because that isn't a selectable category.

Konata was all alone. She could hear gunfire in the distance, telling her she wasn't the only one still alive, but she was scared to approach it. Gunfire meant more fighting, and fighting was rarely between humans anymore. Fighting was done with...them. The specimens were almost everywhere in Japan now.

Konata could feel the weight of her knife, and her pistol. She had grown very accustomed to them in the past weeks since the initial outbreak. The common populace hadn't had a chance with the no gun laws, but Konata had been lucky enough to find her pistol on the body of a dead soldier. The knife had been acquired from a destroyed shop.

She looked out the windows of the dark apartment she was barricaded in. Only a few hours until night time. The streets weren't a place for smart people to be after dark. The building had been previously fortified, and the creatures had moved through, and killed its previous inhabitants, but Kona had found a room that was still holding strong, and she locked herself inside.

Some of the creatures displayed above normal intelligence, and she had learned that hiding herself in a place they had already destroyed, would stop a lot of them from checking it out. Her second floor view of the street showed what appeared to just be an empty street, but she knew better. A newspaper lying on the ground, crunched up for no apparent reason, and Kona a muttered, "It's one of the invisible ones."

It stepped out of the shade of a building, and Konata could just faintly see the shadow it cast as the sunlight hit it. The invisible creature was moving towards the sound of the gunfire, and she felt sorry for whoever it was targeting. That was when she saw a man. He stepped around the corner of a building out of an alleyway, and the invisible monster started moving towards him silently.

Kona wanted to scream, she wanted to warn him that invisible death was creeping towards him as he ran across the street. She aimed her pistol, wanting to warn him with a shot, but paused. If she fired, she would be drawn into the conflict that was obviously escalating judging by the sounds in the distance. The gunfire was heavier, there were explosions, and the screams of the specimens being torn apart.

Konata lowered her gun, and immediately the man in the street glanced over his shoulder, and noticed the shadow of the thing following him. There was no hesitation as he pulled his knife quickly, and rammed it into the skull of his pursuer. There was a quick gout of blood, and the invisible stalker dropped to the ground.

After the kill, the knife was sheathed, and the man moved on across the street, glancing around for any other possible threats. The man was obviously not Japanese. He was probably a little over six feet tall, with long brown hair reaching almost to his waist. He had big biceps, and well developed forearms, although she couldn't see any veins sticking out on his hands like many people who worked out developed.

He was wearing glasses, and had a shotgun slung across his back. The oddest thing about this man though was his smile. Despite his overly large canines, Konata could tell the little smile that seemed permanently attached to his face was one of genuine happiness. It wasn't creepy, or murderous despite the situation, and his more than scary appearance.

He had a big beard surrounding his chin, and the mustache didn't quite reach down to it. He had a big deep scar above his right eye that looked like someone had taken a knife to him. He was wearing a black shirt with no decorations, and black denim jeans, as well as some yellow work boots with rainbow colored shoelaces Konata couldn't miss from a mile away.

The shirt was bulging outwards, so Kona knew he was wearing body armor under it, and his movement was slightly clunky as if to emphasize this. The man had more deep scars on his forearms, starting on the underside of his elbows, and running up into the sleeves of his shirt on both sides. Overall a big scary looking, probably American. Yet he didn't seem threatening at all to her from here, despite having casually dropped a monster with a knife when he had a probably working shotgun on his back.

The man crouched in the shadow of another building, and with his black clothes, he faded in all except his feet. Kona saw him crouch down, and begin talking on a radio. A few seconds later he pulled his big knife back from its sheathe on the left side of his chest. He angled it against the sun, and Kona saw some flashes.

A few minutes later she saw more flashes coming from a man on a rooftop. She hadn't noticed the second man's appearance until she saw the flashes. He was carrying a rifle, and he waved to the man on the street.

Konata groaned, and thought, "Oh great, they're bringing the fight this way anyways. What are Americans doing here?"

The second man was a little shorter than the first, and not as heavily built. This man did not seem nearly as pleasant either. She hated the way he looked straight towards her cover, like he had searched out her hiding spot in seconds. It seemed he had though, because the man waved at her. There was no smile on his grim face.

The rifleman wasn't wearing body armor, he looked like the type to rely on speed in a fight. Kona soon stopped examining the first two humans she had seen in days though because of a banging noise at the door. She had been found out, it was inevitable with the gunfire outside attracting more and more creatures to the area.

She quickly checked her pistol clips, making sure they were fully loaded, and prepared to fight. There was no way out of the room except either jumping from a window where she might break her legs, and through the door that was currently cracking. A shot rung out from the rooftop of the building across the street, and a board covering one of the windows in her hiding place broke.

Kona let out a little yelp as the board splintered a few feet away from her. She didn't have time to be afraid though, the door shattered, and Konata began shooting. They weren't the really deadly specimens. They were the plain ones, covered in gray veiny skin, they marched unafraid, occasionally making screaming noises to attract more monsters to the area. These humanoid creatures were almost like zombies with their endless determination and stamina. Konata knew they could almost always be quickly taken down with a head shot though.

They would have to move the objects she had stacked before they could come at her, but they were already smashing a big dresser to the side. Konata aimed her pistol, and capped one in the head. It dropped like a stone, and its four comrades stepped over the corpse, and began reaching for the blue haired girl with hungry looks in their eyes. One flipped a table, and Konata shot it in the chest, receiving only a grunt of pain as a reward. Her next shot was higher, and it dropped from the impact to its skull.

Three more, and they were past the barrier Konata had built in front of the door, they were moving in quickly, so she just began firing repeatedly at them. Three shots through the chest killed one, a shot to the head killed another, two more shots through the third's stomach, and Konata was rewarded with a clicking noise.

She had checked the mags she had spare, but had neglected to see how many bullets were in the clip currently loaded into the gun, she quickly hit the release, so the empty magazine would drop out, and reached for a spare, knowing she didn't have enough time to reload before it would be ripping her apart.

Then it flew backwards with a bullet hole in its face. Kona reloaded, and glanced out the window to see the rifleman with his gun poised, barrel still smoking from the shot that had probably saved her life. The man waved her over furiously, and she knew she would have to join them if she was going to live through this day.

Konata quickly moved out of the doorway, and headed down the stairs to see more creatures at the bottom of the stairway, looking up at her. Then there was a loud roar, that stunned Kona for a few moments as she watched both of the creatures slam against the wall with holes ripped through their bodies.

The big man strolled casually into view, and stopped at the bottom of the stairs to check his kills, before looking up towards Konata, and saying, "Hey, how's it going?"

The smile was still on his face along with a little blood left over from killing the stalker earlier. Kona hadn't spoken with another person in weeks. Still the casualness of the greeting left her even more stunned than the earlier shotgun blast. The big man quickly loaded a new shotgun shell into his gun to replace the one he had fired, and then looked back up to Kona, and shouted, "HEY! You deaf? I guess if you are, that was a wasted yell, though."

Konata wasn't sure how to react to this man. Even when he yelled, he seemed to do it happily. She was trying to form a response when a loud burst of static issued from his radio, and a voice started speaking. The radio was calling out, "Maniac man, you there? Is she with you?"

The big man who Konata guessed was named Maniac picked his radio up out of its carrier on his hip, and said, "Yeah, yeah. She's here. Looks like they didn't hurt her either, but it's weird, I think she might be mute, she isn't talking at all."

"Hey, I can talk!" said Konata, for the first time in weeks she finally had hope for a rescue. Now that she was up close, she could see this man was heavily armed. Obviously not a normal civilian, maybe the American army was rolling through to save them, and he was a special forces guy.

Maniac walked up the stairs, saying, "Alright, looks like she can talk."

With that, the big man handed Konata a spare radio he had in a holster on his right hip. He told her, "There you go, now you can join our voice channel. Looks like Eighty-eight wants to talk to you."

The blue haired girl accepted the radio from the man, and the same voice that had been talking to Maniac came on, saying, "Hello? Is this the girl in the apartment building? Can you tell me your name?"

Konata was still wary, now Maniac was looking down the stairs, holding his shotgun ready in case more enemies appeared. She was hopeful, but at the same time, she wasn't entirely sure she could trust these people. They hadn't tried to kill her...yet, but Kona had seen people commit horrible atrocities since this whole ordeal started. She had seen some very bad things done to women by men in particular.

The little Otaku decided she would go along with whatever they were doing for now, but if a safe opportunity arose, she was going to bolt, and get away from them. Fighting the monsters like these men seemed to be doing was useless, there were always more.

Kona responded, "My name is KonaKona."

There was no way she was giving her full name if they were using names like Maniac, and Eighty-eight.

The man on the other end didn't indicate that this agitated, or bothered him in any way. He asked her, "Are you alright? Have you been injured at all?"

"No," She replied, "Are you here to save me?"

The man on the radio sighed, and said, "We weren't sent here to save you, I'm sorry."

Konata felt her heart sink, this nightmare wasn't over for her, there would be more running, fighting, nights spent alone in abandoned warehouses wishing she had something to eat. Already her hope was fading, and she was picturing her end at the hands of the monsters when the voice came back on, saying, "We may be able to help you though."

"How?" said Kona quietly, already wishing she had never come into contact with people who were just going to leave her alone again.

The man on the radio seemed to pick up on her tone because he said, "Hey now, keep it together. You don't think we'd leave somebody in a nightmare like this do you? We were sent here to scout and secure areas that could possibly be used as a forward base into an effort to take back the city. Once we have an area secured, or have finished scouting we have evac coming to get us out of here. We could really use a hand, especially from someone who knows the area. If you help me out, I'll help you, and get you out of here along with us, assuming we all survive this mission of course."

It took a minute for all that to sink in, but Konata replied with real excitement after she understood what had been said, she responded, "You mean...you can really get me out of here?"

On the inside there was turmoil, they could be saying that just to keep her with them, but she desperately wanted to believe there was hope. There was a chance to get out of the country, and finally be safe. The voice wasn't one of optimism when it replied, "All I can promise is that we'll try. Unfortunately our mission has an expected Ninety percent casualty rate. That mean HQ only expects .6 of the six of us to make it back. I guess the survivor will lose an arm or something."

Konata couldn't help but chuckle, there was a huge chance of death wherever she went, and yet she was still happy. That was the first joke she had heard since the outbreak. The little Otaku hadn't realized how much she had missed human interaction until now.

There was another roar from Maniac's shotgun, and a screaming noise. Konata could actually hear some poor creature's bones popping, and its flesh being ripped apart like cloth before the powerful spread of the shotgun. Maniac immediately loaded another shell in, and said, "Hey, they're starting to get restless, are you going to come with us or not? I hope you do because I'd rather not have to give up on my evacuation just to stay here, and make sure you don't die."

Blunt, but still in that same pleasant tone, Maniac seemed impossible to read through. His face was grim and happy looking at the same time, his tone was pleasant, and yet the things he said were blunt, and nice both.

Konata said back into the radio, "I'm in."

As soon as the words left her mouth Maniac started moving. Kona followed quickly, pistol at the ready. The glare of the sun nearly blinded her as she stepped out into the sunlight for the first time in the last day. The roar of Maniac's shotgun, and more bones snapping let her know something had been waiting for them outside.

As her hazy vision cleared, Konata could see more creatures closing in on them. A red one that looked very similar to the slow, weak, gray creatures, with a giant blade attached to its arm suddenly started charging on Maniac's right, but it was dropped quickly by a rifle shot coming from the roof across the street.

Three of the weaker creatures were approaching on the left, and seven more coming directly from their front, only twenty feet away now. Maniac shouted to her as he let another blast issue forth, killing three of the creatures in front, "Cover my sides alright? I can take just about anything head on, just don't let them sneak up on me."

The sentence was punctuated by another shotgun blast, and Konata opened fire on the three closing in from the side. A rifle shot took out one as she was taking aim, and Konata dropped a second one with a clean head shot. The third was still approaching, and Konata lined the shot up carefully, and killed it with another head shot.

The street was clear for right then, but they could hear more of the creatures moving in. Maniac shouted, "Hey! Get off that roof man, we need to clear out!"

Eighty-eight waved his response, and disappeared from their vision, and Maniac began to reload his shotgun. Konata asked him with a little concern in her voice, "How many shots do you have left for that thing?"

Maniac grinned broadly, and said, "Thirty-five. Hope I find some more."

That wasn't very reassuring. There were way more than thirty-five monsters between them and freedom, of that Konata was sure. If he managed to get a kill with every shot then it still wouldn't be enough. The sound of small arms fire issued from within the building the rifleman had gone into, and Kona watched flashes light the dark windows worriedly.

Maniac didn't seem to notice the commotion, but he noticed where Kona was looking, and said, "It'll take more than a couple of them for me to be worried about him. You'll see."

The gunfire stopped, and a minute later, Eighty-eight trotted out of the building to receive a nod from Maniac. The rifleman said, "Things are going to get pretty bad here, and really soon. We need to link up with the rest of the team. We need to check out all the surrounding area, and then get out of here on foot if we can't secure a site for proper evac."

Konata nodded, and said, "How many team members are with you besides us?"

Eighty-eight sighed, and responded, "Can't you do math? Never mind, there are three others, and one of them is a Medic, so he'll take care of you if you get hurt, most likely all of us will need his attention before we're through."

Three more of the monsters with big blades on the ends of their arms came out of an alleyway, and began charging. The rifleman rook aim, but Maniac said he would get it. They were moving in quickly while Maniac was looking down the sights of his shotgun. He waited as they closed in, and Konata saw Eighty-eight pull out one of his pistols just in case Maniac didn't handle it like he said.

Suddenly one of them moved in line with another, and Maniac opened up, taking down all three when they were fifteen feet out from him. As The big man loaded another shell in, he said, "I have to make every shot count."

The first two creatures had simply popped from the waist up, and the one that had brought up the rear was lying on the ground with multiple holes in its chest. Kona didn't envy anything on the receiving end of that sort of weapon. After all that had happened, she found it hard to believe humans had ever used such things on each other. These guns were terrible things, and yet, now they were everyone's only hope for survival.

The three moved out, now heading down a short alleyway, moving in the direction Maniac was going when Konata had first spotted him. They moved out onto another clear street, and yet Eighty-eight stopped, raised his rifle, and fired. About ten yards away one of the invisible stalkers was slammed backward hard, and hit the ground dead.

The rifleman loaded a new shell into the lever action rifle he was carrying, and began following Maniac again, with Konata right behind them. They kept moving, and Kona soon realized that they were moving closer to more sounds of fighting. When she heard an explosion come from up ahead though, Maniac suddenly pulled out his knife, and began running faster towards the sounds of violence.

Konata hurried after him, and Eighty-eight kept the pace he had been going the whole time, now covering the rear as Kona rushed after the big man who had saved her earlier. They moved through another alleyway, and Maniac disappeared around a corner before Kona heard some grunting noises, and monsters squealing. She pulled out her pistol, and came around the corner to see Maniac was being held by one of the weaker monsters, and one of the ones with the blade arms was charging in. Its red skin rippled as it ran, faster than any human could possibly run, and only fifty yards left before it reached the trapped man.

Konata raised her pistol, taking careful aim, she knew she couldn't hit the bladed one, so she focused on the one holding Maniac, and fired. The shot killed the creature holding Maniac, and he cheered for his freedom as he ducked under a swing by the red creature attacking him. Maniac never had a chance to stab it though because Eighty-eight rounded the corner, and quickly shot it in the head.

Konata jumped to the side as the creature began thrashing about and stabbing wildly, even with the upper part of his head removed. After a few moments though, the creature fell down, and ceased its violent reactions. The blue haired one moved past the corpse of the creature warily, but it didn't stir, and she saw Maniac was once again rushing ahead, not seemingly worried about whatever was ahead.

There was another explosion, and soon a large creature walked out about twenty yards ahead of Maniac, standing at the end of the alleyway. It had a glowing pack on its back, and seemed to have some sort of weird ovular attachment on its right hand. It pointed the strange right hand in their direction as Maniac exclaimed loudly, "Launcher!"

Konata heard a strange sucking noise coming from the direction of the creature, and then saw a bright light come from its hand, Maniac threw himself to the side, while Kona ducked under the blast, and Eighty-eight actually jumped over the blast.

It exploded behind them with a roar, and Maniac charged at the creature, now pulling his shotgun from the holder on his back. He placed it right in the thing's face, and fired, causing it to stumble backwards, and Konata couldn't believe it when the creature regained its footing, coming out of the stumble to point its weapon directly at Maniac.

The big man, fired another blast into its face, and Kona watched as the large creature back flipped, with its head separating from its body, and its chest slowly ripping open as it flew. The blood sprayed everywhere, but Konata was now used to blood. It didn't make her feel sick like when she had first started tearing monsters apart.

A moment later they were in a street of chaos. The weaker creatures were everywhere, there were more of the red creatures with the blade-arms than Konata had ever seen in one place. She briefly wondered how she had gotten herself mixed up in a suicide mission like this, there had to be a hundred enemies here.

Maniac suddenly shouted loudly, "Oh yeah! This is gonna be fun."

The grin on his face seemed like it might split his head in half as Maniac called out, "Oi Monsters! Get yer goodies here!"

The exclamation was in a horrible British accent, and Konata couldn't believe it when Eighty-eight chuckled behind her. A blast rang out, and Konata saw the spread of the shotgun rip down six enemies on Maniac's first shot, he followed it up with seven more, clearing a wide space in the horde that was flocking to a building, trying to bust down the front door while more gunfire was coming from the windows of the building, pushing them back.

Maniac fell back behind her to reload, and it was only then she realized that these people expected her to fight like one of them, if she didn't carry her own weight, they could all die. She was new to all this though, not like these guys who had probably been grinding their fighting skills since the initial outbreak in the UK.

She had only been fighting monsters for a few weeks, and didn't know as much about fighting them, she had never even seen a horde this big. Still, the only option was to fight, or to die. Eighty-eight realized that, and pulled out his two small pistols, and began firing rapidly on the crowd, dropping a monster with every couple of rapid shots.

Kona stepped up beside him, and began checking her shots, making sure that each one at least hit, and fired rapidly into the half of the horde that had broken away from the assault on the building. Then her gun was empty, and she fell back as Maniac took up her place, with his shotgun renewed.

He would strafe around, trying to line up as many enemies as he could, and then fire a shot, taking out a clump of them with each one. Once Kona's gun was reloaded she heard more screeching behind them, and turned to see more of the slower weaker monsters coming from the alleyway they had just left. She shouted, "We got company from behind!"

Eighty-eight shouted back to her, "Take care f it, we're kinda busy here."

There were ten approaching her, but they were sort of lined up, so Konata quickly started aiming right below their chins, and firing, counting on the recoil to take the bullet up into their faces. She dropped four of them before she had to reload, and then Eighty-eight was in front of her, unloading both his pistols, not seeming to care if he hit something vital on them or not, but the crowd was cleared, and he quickly reloaded.

Kona turned back to watch Maniac fire his eighth shot straight, and moved in to fill the hole he left, while he loaded his last two shots into the shotgun. After he loaded in two shots, the monsters regrouped, and the full remainder started heading straight for Konata. She trembled slightly as she saw a wall of enemies headed her way, but she kept shooting until she heard a clicking noise to let her know the clip was empty.

There were no more magazines to refill her pistol, and Maniac seemed to realize this as he saw her pulling out her knife with a very determined look on her face. He tossed a small object into the crowd, and Konata immediately knew to look away as she heard a loud explosion, and saw pieces of charred and torn monster going everywhere.

Still eight of the red ones charged out of the smoke, and Maniac was there, he fired his three shots, and heard a click after that, seeming to think he had one more shot, he was vulnerable. Eighty-eight was still firing on some monsters coming through the alleys. Kona heard Maniac issue a very loud, "AAAAHHHH!"

It was crazy, but she smiled hearing it, it was high pitched, and even this exclamation of surprise seemed to be done happily. Kona couldn't believe what she saw as Maniac pulled out his knife, and rammed it into the face of the first creature to approach. He stepped back as the second one moved in swinging, and crossed its throat with a powerful slash, nearly decapitating it, and the second one fell.

The third one slashed downwards at him, but he threw his chest out, and took the hit in his body armor then stabbed it through the face a couple times, killing it. Two of them were heading towards Konata now, as the last three quickly rushed in towards Maniac.

The blue haired one didn't have time to think as she tried her best to remember how Maniac had killed them with his knife. She judged the length of the blade as the first one sped in, and stayed at its maximum reach as it swung. She only moved slightly back to dodge, and then rushed in, powerfully slashing its throat.

The thing gurgled as it choked on its blood, and some splashed across her now freed from its artery pumping blood out into the air instead of through veins that were now severed. She crouched under the swing of the second one, and moved behind it quickly slashing its back over and over until it turned, and smacked her with the flat of its blade, hurting badly, but giving her an opportunity to bury her knife through its eye, killing it. Kona could feel the knot in her stomach for the first time, she hadn't realized how tense she was, she had really thought she was going to die there, and had fought on instinct, ripping the two monsters apart with her knife.

Now the street was clear though, and she couldn't believe how ferociously, and brutally she had been able to fight. Still the knot didn't ease up, both her, and Maniac were out of ammunition, if...no when they ran into more monsters, she would be stabbing them instead of shooting, just the thought made her want to cry.

No more bullets pretty much meant no more life, she had been lucky to survive against the two monsters, there was no way she could be expected to fend off any more with a pitiful knife. She looked over at Maniac who should surely be thinking the same thoughts as her, but he was scrounging around some wrecked emergency vehicles, apparently not worried.

Konata decided she should stay very close to him since he didn't seem to have much trouble killing things, but at the same time that also worried her since she hadn't forgotten how he had rushed through the alleyways, and been easily held by a monster because he hadn't been paying attention. It was like he didn't really care if he died or not. That was well...maniacal.

The building the monsters had been besieging, opened its door, and three men spilled out of it. Konata first noticed the black man, mainly because she hadn't seen very many of them in her life. The big African was carrying a small machine gun, and had a pack marked with a red cross on his back, he was obviously the medic, Eighty-eight had spoken of.

The person immediately to his left was a fit kid, but wasn't much bigger than Konata. He looked like he couldn't be older than fifteen. Kona felt bad a kid had gotten caught up in this, and yet, judging by his weapons, he was a part of their squad, not just some survivor they had found. He was carrying a bunch of grenades, and Kona recognized the plastic explosives hanging about him because she had seen them in action movies.

He was carrying some weapon Kona didn't recognize, it looked like a shotgun, but with a much bigger barrel, and Kona only realized what it was after he broke the barrel open,and loaded a large yellow striped shell into it. This kid had a grenade launcher, and these adults were perfectly fine with it. The man on the African's right was a slender man, nearly as tall as Maniac, but not nearly as heavily built.

He was twitching nervously as he fingered a little machine gun, and Kona noticed bandages wrapped around his hands. It seemed he had burn markings all over him, not like he had been engulfed in flames, but it seemed his skin had turned a pink shade from being exposed to constant heat, and his skin absorbing the heat.

Maniac then shouted up, "Hey, can I axe you guys a question?"

They looked over by a wrecked firetruck where Maniac was holding a fireaxe above his head proudly, and the kid shouted back, "HA! I see what you did there! I think you should axe some of the monsters instead though!"

Eighty-eight sighed in a disgusted manner as Maniac laughed at the corny joke he had made. The black man however walked towards Konata, and immediately began checking the injury she had sustained. A few moments later, she felt a sharp sting, and the pain faded as he pulled a syringe away from her. Kona's mind filled with panic, and her eyes widened, but the man just smiled at her, and said, "It's alright, its just a pain killer, it'll have you feeling better in no time. Horzine makes some good stuff. It kills pain without slowing combat actions. Much better than standard military meds that's for sure."

This man was the the same height as Maniac, and he looked just as scary, but Konata could tell from his voice how nice the man was. Actually she immediately found it odd that someone this kind would be on a battlefield willingly. He smiled at her, and said, "Is there anything else I can do for you sweetheart?"

Konata then felt a lump in her throat, someone being nice to her in the middle of all this made her want to just throw her arms around them, and beg them to make her safe, but she just said, "I don't have any bullets left."

The big man looked at her bloody knife, and nodded, saying, "Don't worry, I got you covered until we can get you something better than that knife. I'm Mike by the way, nice to meet you."

Eighty-eight, and the rest of the squad joined the two, and Eighty-eight said, "This is KonaKona, she's a member of our squad until we either all die, or get out of here. She's going to help us either secure an LZ, or scout the area, and make it out on foot. Everyone introduce yourselves."

Maniac said to her, "Well, I'm Maniac, and I'm sort of the squad mule. I carry supplies for everyone whenever we actually have some, and I typically like to bust up stuff with some spread shot."

The kid was up next, and he said, "I'm ArthurDent. One word, that's my first name. I'm not saying my last name for privacy reasons. My favorite number is 42, and I'm not Prefect."

Maniac chuckled at Arthur's introduction. Then was the twitchy man. This man had short brown hair, and a small beard. He wore metal rimmed glasses, and his face was expressionless. What was most odd though was the backwards hat he wore. It was a black baseball style cap with a big "E" above the bill which Kona saw as the man turned around to examing the surroundings. He was still examining his little machine gun, and Eighty-eight said, "That there is JL. He's a little weird, but that man can set anything on fire."

"It's a great gift!" said Maniac enthusiastically.

"It's a miracle." whispered JL quietly, getting an odd look from everyone, he continued muttering quietly, and Kona made out, "Make them into brightly shining beauties."

Maniac then said, "He's a weird guy, but cool as they come."

"What's that?" said Kona suddenly pointing a little ways in the distance. There was a lot of red smoke rising into the sky following a bright orange light. When the group saw it, they immediately started heading towards it.

She followed them as they quickly headed towards the flare. Eighty-eight explained to her as they ran, "There are some people who make a living on this kind of stuff. That's a merchant flare, they send those up when it's relatively clear, and everyone rushes in, and buys all of their supplies. It's dangerous work, but the ones who do it get filthy rich, really fast."

Kona nodded at the explanation, but still didn't think this merchant could help her. It wasn't like she was carrying money around with her to buy supplies with. Still she trudged on following behind Mike, with Arthur right behind her. They ran through open streets, and through alleyways until Maniac shouted from the front of the group, "We got an APC!"

Indeed there was a big armored vehicle ahead, with the entry ramp completely extended. At the top of the entry ramp was a cage with a slot and counter behind it though. Standing behind the counter was a woman, who shouted loudly, "I was beginning to think you weren't going to make it."

Everyone immediately began talking with the woman, and getting the things they needed. Kona saw the woman slide Maniac a new vest of Kevlar, as he traded in his old torn up one. Eighty-eight came up to Kona, and said, "Why aren't you stocking up? She's going to leave at the first sign of any of the creatures."

Kona sighed loudly, and said, "I'm not carrying any money with me, not like I could afford anything, anyways."

Her heart was still low, especially since she was now thinking about being the only one fighting up close with a knife since Maniac was resupplied. She chuckled sadly, and said, "I guess carrying around a big wad of cash would sort of ruin the RP element, huh?"

That was when Eighty-eight said, "Don't worry about that. We'll get you taken care of."

He went and spoke with a trader for a few moments before coming back, and saying, "Here. Take this contact lens, we all have one. When you kill a creature, our government records it through this device, and will credit you with money you can spend here. I've given you $1500 to start off, after this you'll have to earn your own though, I gotta make a living."

The blue haired girl perked up, and her eyes sparkled as she thanked him over and over again, until he said, "Yeah, well, you better get something before she decides to kick us out, and leave."

The little Otaku rushed to the counter, and examined the inventory list posted on the wall to her right with prices. The first thing Konata did was hand over her pistol, and ask for as much ammo as she thought it was wise to carry for one weapon. Soon she was fitting her pistol into a holster the trader had thrown in for her, and she bought an equipment back pack to store all her magazines in an easy to reach place.

Kona considered buying body armor like Maniac had, but decided she'd rather be able to outrun the monsters than take a hit more effectively. So Konata decided on buying a machete just in case she ran out of bullets, she wouldn't be down to a little knife again.

Kona was debating on what sort of gun to buy since she didn't know anything at all about guns, but the trader announced loudly, "Sorry, but you're on your own for now, we got more company coming in."

The APC entry ramp began to close, and they all quickly made their way off it since if they tried to stay in the vehicle they would be crushed against the heavy wire cage protecting the trader. Once the armored vehicle left them in the road, Arthur said aloud, "I never trusted her. It's kind of hard to trust someone who proclaims themselves as a traitor."

Maniac chuckled, and responded, "I never thought of it that way, but I can see your point."

The big shotgunner began putting shells into his shotgun, and Konata heard the roaring of monsters getting closer. They would soon be in another fight, she knew, but they were restocked, and that did loads to boost her confidence, almost making her forget about the predicted 90 percent casualty rate.

Maniac pumped his shotgun, and then they headed out, looking for a defensible location before they were found. It wasn't as frightening now hat she wasn't alone. More than that though, Kona felt better because she was no longer cowering in some corner. She was fighting, and she had a purpose now. Even so, now that she had more ammunition, each empty alleyway they passed leading away from the monsters seemed like it was beckoning.

Konata was more than a little tempted to run away, but she couldn't do it before she repaid the kindness of the two men who had rescued her at least. If they actually found a safe place though, she would be getting out of this nightmare finally, and she wouldn't have to run anymore. If they couldn't find a place though, they would probably all die. The odds of making it out of the city on foot were slim to none.

Konata no longer had time to think though as a group of the slow monsters came out of an alleyway on her left. The blue haired girl immediately opened fire on them, causing the rest to turn towards her. Three shots, and two kills before Mike was next to her, firing small bursts into their faces, and dropping one of the twelve with each burst.

The two of them quickly had the clump dealt with, and were soon caught up with the group that had moved on once Mike had started helping Konata. They were marching down the middle of the street like they owned it until a large group appeared in front of them. Arthur, and Maniac chucked grenades into the mob, pulping many of them, as well as bringing more attention onto the little group. Now enemies were spilling out behind them, coming out of the windows of other buildings. Konata barely ducked in time as one of the launcher enemies shot a projectile directly at her. They went back to back, making a circle with Mike in the middle, all except for Kona, who shouted, "Hey, let's get into that Gas station!"

The five men in the group looked back and forth between her and the gas station she was pointing at immediately on the side of the road. There were no monsters pouring out of it either, and it seemed like a good idea. They rushed towards it, with Maniac now bringing up the rear, dropping clumps of enemies with each blast from his shotgun until it was empty.

As he entered, Maniac closed the door, and immediately began barricading it with anything he could find. Once he was satisfied with his work, he said, "I'll handle the doors, you guys just stop them from coming through the front windows. Eighty-eight then said, "Dent, your grenades are not to be used in here, unless you're killing yourself, and ONLY yourself, understand?"

The kid named ArthurDent shrugged, and said, "Yeah, yeah. You know, Maniac would just laugh at me for using a grenade launcher in here."

To which the rifleman responded, "Well, Maniac isn't in charge here. I am, so you follow my orders, got that? I don't want you killing all of us because you think it'd be cool or funny."

Arthur smirked at Eighty-eight, and said, "Yeah, yeah, I promise I won't blow us all up. Happy?"

"Very," said Eighty-eight, now only slightly worried Arthur would fire off some grenades in an act of defiance.

JL was standing over by one corner, and he suddenly laughed loudly, and said, "They're coming to play with us again! This time we'll melt them beautifully."

There was a crash at the window he was standing at followed by a quick burst of machine gun fire, and Konata looked over in time to see some flaming monsters being pushed back out the window, and lighting the ones behind them. JL's quick bursts had driven them back from his window, and he swiftly reloaded his gun, awaiting more enemies.

Kona watched the horde descending towards the big window she was guarding with Mike, and Eighty-eight. Arthur had gone to cover the back window opposite JL alone since it was smaller, and pounding could be heard on the back door as the creatures tried to break through whatever barricade Maniac had constructed.

The window cracked as the first creature pounded on it, a small black thing, that quickly leapt towards the window. Another of its kind, walking on all fours, and looking very much like a spider and human crossbreed launched itself towards the window. Kona could tell this one would break through, and then they would be face to face with another horde, even bigger than the last.

Eighty-eight didn't wait for the creature to impact the window though. He fired a very large pistol through the glass, and hit it mid-jump, sending it flipping backwards as its upper body was nearly ripped clean off by the .50 cal bullet. The glass window shattered outwards with the shot, and Konata found herself firing into the mob now. Imitating what the rifleman had done earlier.

She didn't focus her aim, there was no time for that. She just looked down her pistol sights at the enemy head level, and fired. She was dropping them quickly. Eight of them went down with her first twelve shots. Eighty-eight was using his rifle now, firing almost as quickly as Konata's pistol, and reloading shells into the rifle at a rapid pace that made his hands blur.

This man was obviously well practiced with a rifle. She reloaded her pistol, letting the empty clip drop to the ground since there was no time to store it for a later refill. As soon as her clip dropped, Mike began firing his machine gun, it was a small thing with a weird attachment on the top, but Mike kept up his calm, short bursts, and was mowing down the opposition in front of them until he saw the launcher at around the middle of the mob.

Mike shouted, "We got a launcher here!"

At that point Eighty-eight had only loaded three shells into his rifle, but he immediately cocked the rifle, and took aim. He squeezed off the first shot, and took it in the shoulder. The thing raised its arm, pointing the launcher at them. Konata knew there was know way they could dodge the explosion it would cause in their current position.

The rifleman squeezed off his second shot as the launcher began glowing. The shot went right down the barrel of the enemy launcher causing a small explosion as it stumbled backwards. The creature once again pointed its smoking launcher at the group, and Eighty-eight fire his last shot, taking it in the forehead, and dropping it to the ground.

He stepped back behind Konata to reload as she finished, and the little Otaku began firing into the crowd again. Kona looked away as she saw movement on her right, and looked over to see Maniac as he shoulder rammed the slowly sliding open front door. Kona couldn't believe what she was seeing as the man slowly forced the monsters back with his strength, and re-tightened his barricade.

As the blue haired girl looked back to her foes, she saw a large fat creature standing right in front of her. Her eyes widened, and in instinct, she raised her gun, and fired repeatedly into its face until it exploded.

Konata screamed in pain as her vision blurred, and she felt a burning sensation at different points in her body. The fat creature had popped, and sprayed some sort of acid onto her. She couldn't see anything, and Konata was firing blindly into the crowd of monsters, knowing she was probably in the final few seconds of her life, and doing anything she could to prolong her very short time.

Then her vision cleared, and she felt better. The acid had dissolved itself on her, and Konata fell back behind Eighty-eight to catch her breath, and reload, while the rifleman began holding the window alone, after he yelled, "Take care of her Mike!"

The black man turned around with a serious look on his face. Every moment he wasn't helping their leader hold the window, the mob crept closer, and closer. Mike raised his gun, and the little otaku's eyes widened as the big man in front of her aimed directly at her. Kona felt numb all over, she tried to raise her gun to get in the first shot, but Mike was already in his aiming stance, and she closed her eyes, waiting for the pain.

She felt a sharp sting, and she opened her eyes to see Mike now turning back to fire away on the monsters that had crept closer. Kona pulled a small syringe from her arm where she had felt the sting. All her pain was gone, and she felt rejuvenated somehow. Apparently Mike had injected her with the same type of pain medication as before from that weird attachment on his gun.

She silently thanked him, as she stepped up to fill in Mike's hole as the big medic stepped back to reload. Eighty-eight watched the creatures creeping closer on Kona's side as she stopped every few seconds to reload. He could tell she was very talented with her pistol use, she hadn't trained anywhere near as long as he had, and yet her head shot ratio was almost as good as his own.

Still, that pansy pistol, even in the hands of a naturally skilled person just wasn't enough for this. He had an idea that could help her for now though. He called out, "Hey KonaKona! Catch!"

The little Otaku turned as a pistol was thrown straight into her empty hand. She holstered it in an empty slot on her equipment rack, and kept firing until her pistol needed a reload. Then she fell back as Mike walked up, and tossed a grenade out into the mob, and began pushing them back with his machine gun. Eighty-eight put all of the spare clips he had for the pistol on Konata's equipment rack, as she said, "What about you though?"

Eighty-eight smirked, and said, "I still got about twenty shots left with my rifle, after that, I have THIS."

As the rifleman ended his sentence, he brandished a large hand cannon. She had seen that gun rip the spider thing nearly in half earlier from one shot, surely that would be enough for him as he claimed. Konata thanked him, and reloaded both pistols, preparing to unload on the horde. A moment later, Mike stepped back, and the two who had been reloading, stepped forward.

Konata fired from her left hand, she was ambidextrous, but it still felt weird because she was used to firing from the right. The recoil kicked upwards, and caused her to miss, then she fired from her right, and took a monster in the shoulder when she had been aiming for the head. She was used to bracing her pistol with one arm, and aiming with the other.

Still, she remembered how much stronger the recoil was from the first shot, and how she had overcompensated on the second, and her third shot rang true as it passed through the head of one of the red creatures charging in. The fourth shot took one of the weaker ones, the fifth took a spider out of mid-air where it was quickly killed by the rifleman next to her.

The booming all around Konata was deafening. She could hardly gather her thoughts since they were only a jumble of screams and gunfire, and yet Konata felt a smile spreading across her face. These two pistols felt right in her hands, this was the way she had been meant to fight all along. Kona laughed loudly as she swept the front of the mob with both pistols as Eighty-eight stepped back to reload, and Mike filled the hole he left.

The weight in both hands were comfortable, and she exclaimed loudly feeling the adrenaline rush through her as a mob they couldn't possible beat moved in, "One in each hand! Come and get it!"

Eighty-eight laughed, but not at Kona, he had hear Maniac yell from the back of the store, "That's more like it! Now you're part of the squad!"

The blue haired girl was still afraid she was going to die, she still knew they didn't have much chance of coming out of this alive, her hope was getting dimmer by the second, and yet, these people around her were fighting with everything they had, trusting her to do the same. They believed she could fight just as hard as them even without their experience.

Konata would not steal away, and save herself while they fought and died, she would fight as hard as any of them, cover their back and fronts, and then she'd make a contest with Maniac about who could get more kills. The Otaku could feel some of her old self coming back, and it felt good.

The pistols ran dry, and Kona calmly stepped backwards as Eighty-eight traded places with her. She dropped the empty magazines, and swiftly pulled a spare for the left gun, and loaded in in, holstering the right gun as her hand moved towards the fresh clip, and then she repeated the process for her right gun, and stepped forwards to replace Mike.

Eighty-eight grinned as he saw now they were no longer creeping in closer, now they might actually have a chance. The three at the window heard Maniac yell, "GET DOWN!"

They rolled to their lefts, as they heard a clanking noise, and Konata could see a small object hit the ground near the door they had been standing by. The monsters rammed through Maniac's barricade a moment later, and started spreading, each of them intent on killing the things that had caused them so much trouble and pain.

There was blood, and ringing. Konata's whole world seemed to be shaking as she realized that a grenade had gone off not too far from her. The monsters in and around the door were in various states of disassembly, and some had even become garments of a sort, sticking to the people in the gas station.

Then Maniac was there, standing in the doorway, unloading his shotgun, and trash talking as he did it. After every blast he would taunt saying, "Take that! Open wide! What now! Headshot! Sniped with a shotgun! How do you like that!"

Eighty-eight was back in his window firing, Konata joined him, and Mike headed in to cover the door as Maniac fell back to reload. Arthur was soon there next to Konata as Eighty-eight stopped to reload, the kid said, "I couldn't see any more back there, I'm here to help."

Arthur tossed a grenade out of the window at the foot of the mob, then the two youngest members of the squad took cover on the side of the window trusting the thick walls to keep them safe as the world rocked again, and they both stepped back in front of the shattered window to drop more enemies. Kona was lining up a headshot when her vision went red, and her head began throbbing. A few bottles on the shelves busted at the same time, and a moment later Konata realized there wad been an incredibly loud scream from the mob.

The scream originated from a skinny looking woman in a straightjacket. Her mouth was open to reveal crooked and large teeth, while her hair poked out in every direction. The otaku tried to line up a headshot. On the woman creature, but a second scream came, and the small girl stumbled backwards holding on to her ears as a little blood flowed from them.

Kona saw Dent pull his grenade launcher off his back, and the kid stepped on the empty window frame, and fired, shoving a grenade down the things throat. The grenade exploded, and took out not only the screamer, but a small clump around her too. Arthur chuckled as he loaded a new grenade shell into his launcher, and then switched to his pistol to begin firing again.

There was another loud bang as the barricade on the back door was busted through, and Maniac left Mike to go check it out. They all heard the chainsaw in the back, and Maniac raised his shotgun to fire into the face of the big thing wielding the chainsaw as it slowly advanced. The shotgunner opened up, but was rewarded with only a click.

He reached towards his shell container, only to find it empty, as the chainsaw creature began closing distance. Maniac sighed, and shouted, "Did you guys know the chainsaw dude laughs in a really deep voice?"

Eighty-eight spun around. Those words from Maniac had sounded very much like suitable last words for his best friend, and saw Maniac charging the big thing with his fireaxe out. Eighty-eight could only see his friend's back, but he knew there was giant grin there as Maniac charged the thing.

Maniac judged the length of the chainsaw, and dodged back just out of reach after the first swing. The thing was a lot faster than it looked, and Maniac swung the fireaxe in quickly clipping its forehead, and slashing instead of trying to bury the blade in its forehead. The towering chainsaw wielding monster whipped its chainsaw around, slashing at its attacker, and the two blades met, knocking each other back with a squeal of metal and a shower of sparks.

Maniac recovered first, and powerfully swung the axe over his head as the monster stepped to the side, taking the killing blow in its shoulder rather than in the forehead. The chainsaw whipped upwards as Maniac tried to dash back fast enough to not be cut in half. The tip of the blade caught his body armor, shredding it without much trouble. Maniac swung his fireaxe from the right side, slashing the thing's throat open, but it kept on trucking aiming another swing at its opponent.

Maniac's body armor was clipped a little lower this time, causing the big man let out an excited, "AHHH! That was close!"

The monster was open after the swing though, and Maniac moved in with a powerful swing from over the top of his head. The blade sunk into the forehead, and the chainsaw man dropped to his knees, and his hockey mask split in half revealing a heavily deformed, once human face. It was dead. Maniac pulled out his pistol, and shot two of the red creatures coming in through the door now. They died quickly with four shots.

Their defenses were nearly compromised, as JL was now being slowly driven back, letting some flaming monsters in through his window only to be dropped by Maniac who suddenly seemed serious now that his body armor was ripped up. At least he seemed serious until he cracked a big grin when he dropped a monster at close range.

Eighty-eight looked around, the monsters were now pressing in quickly against Kona, and Arthur. He and Mike were having trouble holding the front door. JL was desperately trying to keep things from getting through the window he was guarding. Maniac was watching an empty doorway though at the back of the station, waiting for more to move in so he could silence them.

Eighty-eight shouted loudly, "Everyone move! Out the back, we'll find somewhere else that's more secure, we need to go while its clear."

Konata heard, and turned at the same time as Arthur to run for the back. Arthur brought up the rear as JL and Maniac headed out the back first with Mike, and Eighty-eight right behind them. Once Arthur reached the back door though, he turned, and fired a grenade into the gas station, killing a clump of monsters that had made it inside, and then he turned to run.

Everyone reloaded their weapons while running. Konata was worried she was going to drop her full clips, but managed to keep hold of them. Soon Maniac called out, "It sort of reminds me of Scooby-Doo what with the running from monsters and everything."

Eighty-eight called back, "Hey! Don't do it Maniac!"

It was too late though, Maniac began singing. His singing was great as he perfectly hit each note he intended, but the sort of song he sang aggravated Eighty-eight to no end. Maniac continually sung as they ran,

You've got to love the world,

Be a friend,

and when you're down you have to get up again.

And when you're blue,

here's what you do,

you just sing a happy tune now.

Eighty-eight just sighed as Maniac repeated the same verse three times, having forgotten what comes after that. Arthur turned to fire on one of the fast red creatures that was steadily catching up, and to launch another grenade into the mob that was accumulating back behind the gas station. Soon they found themselves in an alleyway because Maniac said he had a good feeling about it.

At the end of the narrow passageway though, there was a dead end, and they backtracked, to find the mob moving closer, and almost caught up with them. Arthur went about placing some of his plastic explosives on the ground along the path they ran away on. Maniac chucked two grenades into the mob, killing some more of the creatures.

They ran, and three time they heard deafening crashes as the ever closing mob was shredded by Arthur's explosives. After the third explosion though, they turned to face the wall of enemies. There weren't a huge amount of them left. Maniac threw his last grenade, and took out a quarter of them, including another one of the fat ones who sprayed acid on the ones closest to it as it died, and they withered up with the acid dissolving on them.

Eighty-eight pulled out his hand cannon, and began dropping one with each shot from twenty yards away. He didn't need head shots, hitting the upper body was enough to rip the things apart easily. Mike killed five with quick bursts from his machine gun, and Konata got the last kill with a shot from the pistol in her left hand.

As the silence settled over the streets, Konata couldn't believe they were still alive. There had been hundreds of them, and none of them were even very badly injured as far as Kona could tell. Her thoughts were broken by a big flare in the sky again, and they began a mad dash for the place where it had gone up.

Soon Konata was looking at a familiar APC, and she boarded it with the others. The first thing she did with the money she had acquired thanks to that contact lens was replace all of the empty magazines she had dropped. There was still money left over though, and Kona thought she might like to have a shotgun like Maniac, but the trader said it was probably a little too big for her to use, and even though it was annoying, Kona agreed with the woman.

Instead she saw a small machine gun hanging on a rack behind the trader, it was smaller than the shotgun Maniac used, and it had a red dot sight that would help her aim. Konata spent her money on purchasing the Bullpup rifle, but loading up on ammunition for it as well. After she had purchased a good bit of ammo for the rifle, she practiced reloading it, and mounting it on her equipment rack quickly.

Konata sent the rest of her money purchasing two grenades since the others had found them quite useful. Once turned around, she began looking to see what everyone else had bought. Maniac had purchased a large shotgun that had a giant round magazine attached to it, she could see four more of the large drum clips hanging off his back and sides. The fireaxe was hanging from his equipment rack along with a big silver machine gun that looked much higher quality than Konata's own Bullpup. He also seemed to be wearing some new body armor which left Kona to ponder how often this man needed to buy body armor.

Eighty-eight was carrying the same kind of machine gun as Maniac was. She watched the two men as they each thumbed the firing switch down to semi-auto from full. Arthur had replaced his explosives, and JL was giggling in the corner petting his machine gun. He had grenades about him as well, but it didn't look like he had made any significant changes.

Mike had a large katana on his back now, but he was still carrying his machine gun with the weird syringe firing attachment on top. She also saw a big silver gun in a hip holster he hadn't had before. It looked just like Eighty-eight's hand cannon, and Konata had no doubt it was the same type of gun.

The trader bid them goodby as she began closing the entry ramp to the APC, and they all stepped back, and watched their supplier barrel off down the road at a high speed. The group spotted a large catholic church steeple a few roads down, which was an incredibly rare sight in this part of the world. They decided to head over towards it.

They made it there with time to spare, there were large stone walls, that would probably provide excellent protection from the creatures. The big, thick, wooden doors looked strong as well. On the inside there were different colors playing around the shadows because of the sunlight moving through the stained glass windows. There was a big stage on the far end of the entrance with a beautiful wooden column rising out of it. There were carvings on the poll of Jesus, and Mary.

There was a place to stand at the top of the rising wood, and Kona was sure that's where the pastor gave his sermons. She thought the building was beautiful, there were even iron bars on the outsides of the windows to stop it from being broken easily. It seemed the only weak point of this building would be the front doors. Maniac was already barricading the front door, and Konata couldn't help but feel bad as Arthur, and Eighty-eight began breaking windows so they could go ahead, and get some visibility.

The air was hot, and thick. Konata felt overwhelmed at the presence in this place. She saw Mike crouching. No he was kneeling in front of the stage. The little Otaku approached him, and watched the big man in his silent prayer. Soon he was finished, and stood, as he looked over at Konata, he said, "Yeah, I'm Catholic. I was praying for our souls if we die here, and also apologizing."

Mike reached back, and pulled out his machine gun, and began inspecting it, while Kona asked him, "What were you apologizing for?"

Mike cocked his gun, and said, "I was apologizing, because we're probably about to wreck this place."

The creatures were screaming outside, and Konata could tell they were already in pursuit of the humans they had sniffed out. Maniac, and Eighty-eight both moved to the windows on each side of the barricaded front doors, and soon Eighty-eight let out a single shot. Konata was pretty sure the rifleman had managed to kill something with it too.

Konata began watching some of the side windows on the left side, not too far from Maniac. JL guarded some area on the same side as Kona, but further away from the front door than the Otaku. Arthur took some windows behind Eighty-eight, and Mike followed in a similar position, opposite of JL.

Soon Maniac was shooting, and the sound of bodies ripping, and bones being snapped by strong impact filled the air, leaving Konata to imagine the gore outside the church. It wasn't very long though, before there were creatures at her own windows, reaching through the iron bars, trying to kill her. Konata shot a small burst between the bars from her Bullpup, and killed two enemies, their heads ripped open as the small projectiles fractured as they passed through the creatures.

Kona was sprayed with blood, but she kept them back from the three windows she was guarding. JL was doing the same on the windows he was covering, and Kona had faith that Mike and Arthur were doing the same.

The guns Maniac and Eighty-eight were firing, seemed to never stop, she could only imagine how many of the monsters there were out there. Already she could tell from the beating all over the church walls that there were more than in the mob they had faced at the gas station.

Everyone was focusing on keeping the creatures back from the windows, and the front door. It was Konata who first heard them dropping in quietly from the roof. The little black spider creatures had torn a hole in the roof, and were making their way inside. Konata saw them dropping, and abandoned her windows to walk into the center aisle of the church between the pews.

She shot one as soon as it landed, and three more after that, but she knew there were some creeping around that she couldn't see. The church was shadowy around the pews since the only light was provided by the sun outside. Suddenly one of the creatures leapt, it looked like a part of the shadows she had been watching, but Kona managed to hop away only receiving a painful scrape on her face.

The little Otaku fired a shot in between its shoulder blades as she looked down on it, and the thing stopped moving. She turned to see one leap silently towards her, but this one Konata shot out of mid-air with her Bullpup.

The blue haired girl screamed as one suddenly dropped from the roof on top of her. Kona had absolutely no idea how she managed to get it off of her, but she was soon unloading way too many shots from her Bullpup into its corpse. After it was dead, Konata noticed something seemed weird about the shadows just behind JL, without thinking, the blue haired girl took aim, and fired to where the shadows seemed to be shifting.

Konata was rewarded with a scream as an invisible creature had its torso ripped apart by three shots that slammed it into the wall. JL never even looked back to see the corpse of the thing. As Konata looked around, she noticed three more of the stalkers, trying to get in close to the men at the windows, but Konata killed each of them.

Maniac, and Eighty-eight were now firing nonstop except for the time it took to reload. Their single shots were always punctuated by screams of the creatures, and even the breath of the creatures outside was a dull roar because there were so many of them. Konata would guess that there were nearly six hundred of them just from her intuition.

Maniac switched to his shotgun when Konata heard the roar of another chainsaw, and the Shotgunner released four shots before switching back to the machine gun he was using as a semi-auto rifle. Something was very unnerving about the whole situation, Maniac was still grinning and trash talking, but everyone else was looking grim. They didn't think they'd make it out of there, and Kona suddenly, sadly found herself almost overcome by despair.

She had fought so hard, and come very far on her own, only to die on the day she finally found some decent people. People who were trying to help others, and had saved her life. Konata could accept it if she died, but somehow in her short time knowing these people, and seeing the way they looked out for her, and each other, she couldn't allow them to die.

Her team would not fade here, and Kona pushed the despair, and sorrow back down. Kona became a mass of blue haired determination as she walked back towards her windows, and immediately began barraging the enemies with dual pistol fire. She was dropping them left and right until she was picking them off as they approached the window instead of while they were pulling on the bars, and chipping away at the stone.

The front door had cracks in it, and still Maniac, and Eighty-eight were relentlessly firing on the horde outside. Arthur threw a grenade out from between the bars, and more screaming was heard as the vibrations rocked through the church. Mike threw a grenade of his own, and JL began laughing hysterically as his bullets lit enemies on fire, and he cheered the dancing flames on.

Konata shouted, "We can do this!"

Maniac grinned bigger at Kona's shout, and he looked over to say to Eighty-eight, "That girl's a natural, huh? I wasn't that ferocious when I first started killing these things."

Eighty-eight nodded, and went back to picking off the enemies as they came up the stairs. He pretended he couldn't see the ocean of a mob they were coming from filling the entire outside courtyard. They would soon be marching through the front door once they broke the barricade, but there were too many enemies approaching for someone to have enough time to strengthen the barricade so they were just SOL.

Konata tore one of the screamers apart before it could open its gob, and suddenly everything went silent. She was panting, trying to get the glare of outside light out of her eyes. There were no monsters in front of her window for the moment. Maniac, and Eighty-eight were still firing relentlessly, so when Arthur started yelling, "Fleshpound, we got a Fleshpound here! HELP!"

Kona immediately ran over to his window ready to provide assistance, until she saw exactly what a Fleshpound was. The thing stood seven feet tall, and it had spinning metal hands with spikes for mincing its targets. It was built solidly with thick muscles, and it reeked of death. More to her horror though was the fact that there were two more behind it.

Arthur through a grenade out of the window, and it exploded at the monster's feet. Konata wondered if it had worked until she heard a roar, and the thing charged out of the smoke like a blur. It slammed its huge arms into the window, twisting, and piercing the bars easily while Konata and Arthur jumped backwards. Arthur ran up, and placed two of his explosives on the ground a few feet away from the window, and ran back to the center aisle along with Konata.

There was a loud smashing noise that was deafening as the Fleshpound ripped through the wall, the lights along its stomach glowing red as its spinning spikes roared a death cry at everything stupid enough to get in its way.

Konata was stupid.

She pulled out her Bullpup, and unloaded an entire clip into its chest, causing it to grunt in pain, but keep approaching. There were three quick beeps, and Arthur said, "Look away!"

The blue haired girl turned her hair as a massive explosion rocked the building. She saw the Fleshpound's right arm go flying, and she knew it was dealt with. Arthur ran towards the front door, and place one of his remaining explosives behind the barricade before yelling at Maniac, "We got two Fleshpounds back there, go do you thing!"

Maniac sighed, and said, "Ahhh, crap. Cover this window for me."

The big man pulled his shotgun, he had been saving its ammo for a situation like this, and thumbed the firing switch up to full auto as he walked calmly over to join Konata who was firing into the the first Fleshpounds through the hole.

Maniac threw a couple grenades at once, and they all exploded, angering the creature. It charged out of the smoke like a blur, and Kona knew she was dead as she saw its spinning spikes getting closer and closer, but the thing completely ignored her as it rushed towards Maniac.

Maniac aimed his shotgun, and held the trigger down while aiming at the things stomach level. Immediately the gun started pulling up as it rapidly unloaded shell after shell into the thing charging him. He watched it rip apart before his eyes, and yet it still managed to make contact with him, slamming its arm into his chest.

Maniac went flying, and slammed into a pew as he watched the creature fall, he looked down at his shredded body armor. There was a little bleeding despite the armor that had absorbed most of the hit, but the first Fleshpound was dead.

Mike was with Konata now, and he threw two grenades of his own at the hole as the second one came through, Konata mimicked the big medic, and so did Maniac. Their grenades exploded with a comparable boom to Arthur's plastic explosives. The third Fleshpound was still standing though. Quickly a shell hit its chest, and the church rocked as the Fleshpound was thrown backwards like a ragdoll from the force of Arthur's grenade launcher. Now Mike, Kona and Maniac were desperately trying to hold back the creatures as they flooded towards the hole that had been made in the wall.

Kona knew it was only a matter of time, they were being overwhelmed, there was just nothing they could do against so many enemies. Their defenses had been breached too soon, and there wasn't any way to last.

Maniac chucked another grenade, leaving Kona to stupidly wonder for a moment how many of the things he carried. The monsters were sent spraying backwards as the thing detonated, ripping through them with shrapnel, and disintegrating with force. Arthur stopped covering his window by the door to launch another grenade at the hole in the wall, taking out another group that clumped in immediately.

Maniac slung his auto-shotgun across his back, and pulled the pump action he had been using since the beginning. He would fire as a clump approached the entrance, and immediately load a shell in, he kept this process up for almost five minutes with the rest giving him covering fire when he reloaded until finally he shot eight shots without reloading.

Maniac tossed the pump shotgun to the side, not wanting it to weight him down, and shouted, "it looks like I gotta do something awesome!"

Eighty-eight turned away from his window to see Maniac charge out of the hole, and shouted, "NO! Get back in here!"

His best friend had just charged out, and Eighty-eight had no intention of letting him die, but a blade inserted itself between the bars on the window, nearly impaling the distracted marksman. He had to cover this window or they would all die. Eighty-eight could hear Maniac's semi-auto fire ring out over and over, pausing for only a second occasionally to reload.

Maniac was laughing maniacally, which was fitting because that's how he had gotten his callsign. No one even noticed when JL had left his window, but he was now laughing alongside Maniac as they went back to back, JL lighting enemies up with his incendiary rounds, and Maniac popping heads rapidly with his assault rifle.

Kona couldn't believe how brave, and insane the two of them were. Mike was taking careful aim, and killing enemies that got in close to the two as they reloaded, and Konata was focusing on stopping more enemies from pouring through the hole in the wall in front of them. They were helping their two compatriots until suddenly Eighty-eight yelled, "Everybody, fall back to the stage!"

Kona's feet immediately obeyed the man, despite her not wanting to leave JL, and Maniac on their own. Mike moved away too, but not before shooting one of the painkiller syringes into both Maniac and JL. There was a crash as the front door exploded inwards, the barricade shattering, and a few moments later there was an even larger booming as the explosive Arthur had left exploded. Eighty-eight tossed a grenade at the door a moment later, and took out another big chunk of monsters.

Kona reached for a grenade, but remembered she had tossed her two earlier at the hole. Arthur placed his last explosive in the center aisle about halfway through the church before pulling out his grenade launcher, and firing a round at the creatures swarming through the door. The explosion killed a clump of them, and Arthur took the time to run away while loading in another grenade.

Eighty-eight's semi-auto fire started up, and heads started popping as he killed a creature coming through the door with almost every shot. They were dropping like flies as the three of them, Mike, Konata, and Eighty-eight unloaded. Soon though, their clips ran dry, and Arthur first fired a round from his grenade launcher, killing a clumps of them, and then chucking a hand tossed grenade to hold them back before reloading his grenade launcher.

A couple flaming monsters walked through the hole in the wall, before collapsing letting them know JL, and Maniac were still alive. Konata looked for any sort of escape route, but all there was were the hole, and the front door. Both of those led to death for her and her teammates, and she wouldn't accept that, so she fought harder.

Konata focused on her aim more, she had to stop the fast red ones, and black ones from getting close to them, so she made sure to head shot them, while Mike targeted the vast amount of slower ones moving in endlessly. Eighty-eight was dropping anything and everything that moved. He was a deadly sentinel, sending punishment to anything with a head to head shot.

It was obvious he had been killing things for a very long time because despite the tenseness, and seriousness of the situation, his hands never trembled. Eighty-eight just kept killing and killing with casual looking motions. Arthur's grenade launcher was holding back not only the bigger mob, but he focused it on a couple chainsaw guys, and used it to snipe the launchers as they appeared, while Konata kept killing the stalkers since she could somehow spot them from far away. She just seemed to know how to notice them.

Then came the clicking noise from her pistols, and Konata drew her Bullpup once again. She let out small bursts, and found herself to be incredibly deadly with this sort of weapon. Her aim was dead on, and it was comfortable in her hands. Each burst of three rounds would bring down two or three enemies as she swept at head level.

Another boom, and some more creature parts came flying through the hole in the wall. Maniac and JL were still fighting out there. Konata shouted at Eighty-eight, "We have to go help them!"

The rifleman never stopped killing as he shouted back, We can't go after them, we have to stay here."

Konata let another couple bursts out, and yelled back, "They need us. If we don't go to them then they'll die, don't you even care!"

Eighty-eight killed three more enemies who were almost to the halfway point of making it to the stage. Then he yelled out, "Maniac is my best friend! Of course I care, he's like my little brother. If we go out there though, with these kinds of numbers against us its suicide. Everyone will die! Is that what you want?"

Konata could see how Eighty-eight felt. He was choosing the lives of the four of them over the two others, it was simple math, but Konata couldn't explain it. There was no way she could let another member of her squad die without help, she wouldn't stand by, and let them get ripped apart by the horde no matter what.

Eighty-eight shouted at the Otaku as she stepped off the stage, and advanced on the incoming mob of enemies. She shot the top panel of Arthur's explosives as the monsters streamed around it, and set it off with a huge boom. The explosion sent monsters flying charred, and ripped up. Blood splattered everywhere, and the bloodied stumps of limbs strewn about the room made Kona want to sick up, but she kept pressing forward with a grim look on her face as she downed monster after monster with Eighty-eight and Mike killing the ones trying to flank her.

Konata made a dash for the hole in the wall, and as soon as she was through, one of Arthur's grenades eviscerated the ones that had followed her. The bright light outside made it hard to see after being in the dimness of the church, but Konata began firing on the enemies pressing Maniac who was firing his assault rifle, and popping heads almost as casually as Eighty-eight did.

JL was linked to Maniac's back, and he was still lighting enemies on fire. The smell of charred flesh was everywhere, and Kona added to it by dropping a small wave as it approached. Kona mowed through a group of the spiders, while Maniac was headshotting the red ones with blade arms. JL was unloading on almost everything that moved.

Maniac shouted happily as Konata joined them, "You're pretty awesome! I don't mind if you join our awesome club here!"

Kona couldn't fathom how this guy was still so happy with death less than ten feet away from them, but she said, "They're pressing in on the stage in there! Let's fall back to there, I think all of us might be able to hold it."

Maniac sighed as he killed a couple more things stupid enough to approach him head on, and then he responded, "Where's the fun in that? Sure we could hold them off, but wouldn't it be better to circle around front, and then save the guys? Then we get bragging rights."

JL said quietly, "Sounds good if you want to go."

Maniac nodded, and said, "Oh yeah! Thanks KonaKona, you gave us a great idea."

One of the chainsaw people was approaching behind Maniac as he said this, and Konata unloaded half a clip focusing the fire on its face, and it finally went down. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. These two were insane. They were already moving towards the front corner of the church, preparing to take on the brunt of the mob willingly. The brave Otaku's stomach knotted with nervousness. More than anything, she couldn't believe she was following them. She was actually about to walk into this fight, and when it dawned on her, she stopped.

Konata looked longingly at the entrance to the graveyard, that would lead her away from the church, where she was now sufficiently deadly enough to probably survive well on her own. This was her chance to get away from a group of people that seemed suicidal in their determination, and yet, she couldn't.

Maniac said to her before he disappeared around the corner of the church, "Only you can decide to fight or not! If you think you've got a better chance on your own, then go, none of us will stop you."

The big man pulled his shotgun out. Once he disappeared around the corner with JL, Kona shouted, "I won't run! I'll kill every last one of them, or I'll die trying!"

Kona rushed around the corner to see Maniac holding his assault rifle out to her. She took it, and the six clips he had remaining. When she asked him why, he said, "You're more deadly with it than me anyways. I'm a shotgun man."

Maniac's sentence was punctuated by him turning, and bringing down eight enemies in a line with one shotgun blast. Each slug slammed through the enemies, flipping them, and ripping them. Maniac unloaded the sixteen shots he had left, leaving a huge swath of corpses in his wake.

Konata checked the sights on her new machine gun set to semi-auto, and noticed the word SCAR etched into the handle. Kona stepped up to Maniacs side while he was reloading the drum on his shotgun, and she instantly began raining death herself. It was obvious why Eighty-eight had chosen this thing instead of a sniper rifle. Kona would fire an easy head shot, and then immediately switch, and kill another monster. The recoil hardly changed her aim at all.

The blue haired girl was actually advancing on the mob as she fired, killing them more and more rapidly as her red dot lined up with their skulls. The shots were also powerful enough that when she missed their heads a bullet traveling through their chest would slam them back, and kill them. JL was next to her, ripping the larger specimens apart, and lighting them on fire so that they hurt the ones around themselves.

Large booms were happening in the church each time Arthur launched another grenade, but Maniac was now finished reloading, and he cut another hole in the mob, clearing their way to the stairs. Kona quickly dropped the enemies in the church with her SCAR as Eighty-eight helped her with his own. JL was holding the horde back from the stairs as he tossed his last grenade, and emptied his machine pistol into them.

Maniac opened on the crowd again, clearing another huge chunk out of them. Then he tossed a grenade as Konata took his place, dropping the enemies left and right. A bright light issued from the crowd, and Kona felt herself hurtling sideways as an explosion hit right beside her. She struggled to her feet feeling dizzy, and unsure if she was seriously injured, but considering the blood trickling down her face, she doubted she was in good condition.

Kona stumbled into the church as Mike rushed over to her, poking a syringe into her, making her feel only a little better before he put another one in., making her feel a good bit better, and then he shot a syringe from his machine gun into Maniac, who called out a thanks. Arthur was there on the stairs now raining the shells from his grenade launcher until he ran out, and switched to his pistol.

Then Eighty-eight, and Maniac were standing side by side, Maniac cutting swaths in the enemy horde while Eighty-eight would drop anything tough enough to survive Maniac's shotgun with a few bullets to the face.

The mob they once couldn't even hold in place was now being pushed back by the intense ferocity with which they fought. Kona watched the last twenty enemies be dealt with brutally, there was hardly anything left of their bodies as the combined fire of six squad members ripped through them.

Everything was quiet. No more monster screams heard in the distance, just the wind, and the warmth of the sun warming them. The leaves danced in the trees as the wind soughed through them softly.

The trader's flare rose from one street over.

Konata couldn't hear more creatures approaching, it sounded like everything was utterly empty. The blue haired girl had a very bad feeling about the silence. A couple times she had felt a presence in the silence. Something terrible, hunting them.

She got as much ammunition she could carry for the SCAR, and sold the Bullpup to the trader for much less than she had bought it for. Maniac once again got new body armor as well as a new SCAR. Dent grabbed more explosives while Mike just bought a few grenades, and got some ammunition for his machine gun.

Eighty-eight used a radio to call in HQ, and ask for extraction, as well as a new assault squad at the church since it was the most defensible building in the area. Kona could hardly believe her ears when she heard they would be getting airlifted out of the city in around ten to twenty minutes. She had made it.

They all stepped out of the APC to a greeting of "One in the body!"

The missile just barely missed taking Konata's face off, but poor Arthur never had a chance. The missile impacted him while he was waving goodbye to the trader, and thanking her for not betraying him. It exploded sending blood everywhere as the APC hatch closed, and the trader left them.

Kona couldn't believe it. A teammate gone in the blink of an eye. No previous warning, and Arthur had been so young. Maniac's shotgun was in his hands as he charged the beast responsible, it had long hair traveling down its back, one eye bulging from its socket, and tattered shorts and lab coat.

It looked like a twisted, and distorted version of Maniac. The shotgunner screamed in rage as he charged the beast with a Gatling gun arm. The rocket launcher was mounted on top of the Gatling gun. The shotgun unloaded twenty times as Maniac closed the distance the shells pierced into the body of this thing over and over as Maniac got closer to the target of his rage.

Eighty-eight had his SCAR out, semi-auto off, and Kona mimicked him. They both unloaded on him while Mike went to see if there was anything he could do for Arthur. Their combined fire brought the creature to its knees, but Maniac had to stop to reload, having expended his twenty shells in just a couple seconds.

In the meantime JL lit the beast up with a full clip from his machine gun. The creatures hair, and clothes were flaming, but the bullets appeared to do very little damage to this tank of a monster.

The beast swung its normal arm, and hit Maniac sending him flying across the street, and sliding on the cement where he landed. Then it stood up, and turned invisible. Eighty-eight stopped firing for a moment, and ran over to Maniac, by Konata watched her surroundings. She couldn't see this thing, just like she couldn't see those invisible stalkers.

What she could see though was how some sand blown up off the sidewalk by the wind took a moving shape as something passed through it, and she opened fire on the thing without hesitation. She held her gun steady making sure every shot hit its mark, and emptied an entire magazine into the big creature as it roared in pain.

The thing turned towards the gnat annoying it with its machine gun, and let it gun barrels begin spinning. Konata had played enough video games to know that after those barrels got up to speed, you didn't want to be in front of them, so she crouched down behind a car, and immediately heard high caliber rounds clanging against the other side of the car while she prayed they couldn't pierce all the way through.

There was a big explosion as Mike threw all five of his grenades at the creature, and moved in unloading his machine gun from its side. The machine gun was spun around, and unloaded on the medic who was quickly taken apart by the machine gun fire.

Konata stood up, and unloaded another clip into the things upper chest, and face. She took cover as it screamed, "What have you done to my children! You'll pay for what you've done!"

The roaring became deafening as Maniac pressed his shotgun against the small of the monsters back, and unloaded all twenty shots he had on full auto. The shells of the last five shots managed to pierce all the way through their target. Bringing it down to its knees again.

Eighty-eight emptied his Scar into its side, distracting its gaze from Maniac for a moment as his larger friend threw all eleven of the grenades he was carrying at the feet of the monster. Kona saw its legs tense, the monster was going to jump away from the explosions, and waste all of Maniac's grenades.

Konata wouldn't have that, she stood up, and fired, hitting its bulging eye, and stopping it from jumping as it covered its face in pain. Then the grenades detonated. Everything seemed slow motion as she watched the monster ripped apart by countless pieces of shrapnel from the frag grenades.

It was over, they had killed it, and the streets were silent around them.

Then Maniac screamed on the voice chat channel, "WOOOO! WE DID IT! HOLY CRAP THAT WAS CLOSE!"

Eighty-eight then said, "Yeah, we did it, calm down a bit though, or you'll blow my speakers."

Mike came on the channel as the message said that they had won the game, and said, "Hey KonaKona, was this really one of your first games? You were great, I especially liked the way you gave us the contact lens idea. It sounds a lot better than carrying around big stacks of money."

Arthur then came on, saying, "Yeah, speaking of which.."

The voice trailed off, and they heard a poncy British accent proclaim, "Loadsa money!"

Maniac laughed loudly, and said, "Anyways guy, I gotta go. That was awesome though, you mind if I add you to friends KonaKona? We should play again sometime."

Konata yawned and stretched. That had been a pretty intense game. As she leaned back in her computer chair because she had been sitting on the edge of it, Konata said, "Yeah, go ahead, It'd be nice to have a level six support specialist on my contacts anyways."

Maniac chuckled, and said, "Alright, we'll have to do this again soon, I'm killing the server now, so later."

With that the voice channel hosted on Maniac's computer closed along with his Killing floor game. Kona exited Killing floor on her computer, and then got up, and went to the kitchen for something to drink, all the while thinking, "RP servers are awesome."

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Author's note: I probably just got some hatred for writing this, sorry guys. Also, I know I could have written a new chapter of Beyond friendship in the time I spent on this, but once the idea was in my head I couldn't focus on anything else, so this got finished first. I won't let anything else distract me from writing the next chapter of beyond friendship though.

Anyways I'd like to hear your thoughts on this action type story so feel free to either leave a review or send me a pm to tell me what you think, or offer advice on how to make my writing better. Until next time though, later.

P.S. This was put in after publishing. I wrote this story while messed up on pain medication after hurting my back. I have now gone back, and fixed all of the mistakes i spotted, but if you see any more, please tell me either via review or pm, so I can get it fixed.