Tears Chapter 2
"All right you commy bastards, I know you're hiding around here somewhere." Bill whispered to himself as he made his way slowly through the dense forest that had been his home for 2 years straight.
BANG! His gaze shot to the left of him. BANG! He looked to the right. BANG! "Wha!" Bill said bringing his head up, the visions of 'nam fading from his mind. Near the exit to the safe room, a zombie had been pounding on the door for several hours now but to no avail. Bill muttered to himself as he reached for the hunting rifle he placed on his side. With one final bang the zombie's head exploded as the rifle bullet passed through with little effort at all. Looking back around the safe room he saw Francis, Louis, and, looking in the back, he smiled as Zoey and the witch lay cuddled up together. With the gunshot however, Bill managed to stir Francis from sleep.
"Goddamn it Bill! What the fuck are you doing?" Francis shouted, ending the sleep of everyone else. Louis looked groggily at Francis, then Bill and said with a yawn, "Mornin' guys. Time to go already?"
"According to Bill at any rate." Said Francis, emphasizing Bill's name.
Zoey opened her eyes to an odd yet wonderful sight, the witch was smiling back at her. She hugged her close and kissed, Zoey couldn't wait to get out of this city, to be able to finally get closer to her newfound love. Judging by the bickering going on between Bill and Francis, it was almost time to continue their journey. She started to get out of bed and the witch followed.
"Quiet for a second Francis." Bill said quietly. Outside the safe room, a hunter was attempting to find a nice vantage point, unfortunately, Bill found him first. The hunter was able to let out a short yelp as the bullet passed through his skull. "You were saying?" He added looking back at Francis.
Francis looked at him in shock, "How the hell did you know that thing was out there?!"
"Even you don't growl like that Francis." He replied, then seeing the witch and Zoey coming forward, said, "I see the love birds are awake, sorry about the noise."
"It's alright." Zoey said, "The sooner we get out of here the better." Louis unbarred the exit and thrust open the door, shooting a few stray zombies in the vicinity. There would soon be several dozen zombies in the vicinity as the moment Louis stepped out of the safe room his grimy suit became all the more disgusting as a boomer sent the contents of its stomach onto Louis.
"AWW SHIT MAN!!" Was all he could say as he staggered backwards sending buckshot forward randomly. Francis shoved him aside and began to pick off the incoming horde quickly and efficiently with the assault rifle. Bill and Zoey both managed to get a few headshots but the majority of this horde was taken down by Francis. "Damn this suit was expensive too!" Louis spat as he wiped away the last of the bile.
"Well guys, keep an eye out for a smoker." Zoey said as they finally started leaving the safe room behind them. "Where there's a hunter and boomer this close together, a smoker can't be far behind." Everyone remained alert for any signs of smoker activity, but found this section of airport very absent of the coughs and wheezing smokers conjured up. "Well that's odd." Zoey said after a few minutes. "Let's go through this office." As they made their way through the office corridors, a lone zombie found itself staring at the wall and completely oblivious to the approaching survivors. Francis put his index finger to his lips in silence and crept up to the zombie. When he was close enough he took a swing with the butt of his rifle, smacking the zombie at the base of its head. There was an eerie crunch as the zombie's face flattened against the wall.
Francis smirked, "PWND BITCH!!"
"Nice shot Francis." Said Louis sarcastically as he sent buckshot into the small horde of zombies Francis' yell attracted.
"Hey at least now the ones in the rest of this office won't surprise us from behind." Francis shrugged
The survivors emerged from the other end of the terminal near the stares. After dealing with the horde of zombies down in baggage claim they found themselves stuck, a fence blocking their path and what appeared to be a still operable van.
"I suppose we could drive this thing through the fence." Bill said, "But that would make one hell of a racket."
"We could take 'em no prob." Said Francis
"I don't see a line of molotoves on that desk do you Francis?" Bill snapped.
They all thought for a bit on how they would confront and deal with the horde their plan would surly bring, until a new plan was devised for them. The witch was watching intently and formulated an idea herself.
"Looook." She said eerily as she approached the fence. With a powerful swing her claws sank into the metal and a few moments later a hole was torn into it.
Zoey's eyes lit up, "Amazing! We don't have to worry with that van after all."
Francis shrugged, "Well, that was easy. Good thing too, I hate vans."
The trip through the inner workings of baggage claim went as smooth as can be. It wasn't until entering another terminal that things became grim. As they walked the sound they had waited for finally became audible. The chocking gag meant a smoker was present. However, the sound was amplified as if more were actually there. "How many you figure?" Louis whispered. Bill simply answered, "Not sure." It didn't matter, the smokers were ready, their plan was set. As the survivors moved slowly through the terminal, the smokers struck! In an instant, four simultaneous tongues were launched, each baring for a different survivor. One at a time in rapped succession: Bill, Louis, Francis, and Zoey were all wrapped up and being dragged backwards. The witch snapped her head back in reaction but was unable to rescue any of them as her attention was required to dodge the incoming chunk of flooring.
With a mighty roar the tank charged towards the witch, when he was close enough a punch was sent lunging towards her. With elegant grace, the witch dodged his punch and ran past, raking her claws into the tank's meaty arm on her way. The tank had continued its charge even after sending a punch. Having missed his target he dug his arms into the ground forcing an abrupt one eighty turn, ripped up another large chunk of floor, and threw it overhand at her. However, the instant the rock was out of his hand the tank charged forward. The witch leapt up to meet the rock face to face and with ease, she sliced it in two, just in time to meet the fist of the tank's second punch.
"ZOOOEEEEYYYY!!!" The witch cried as she was sent hurtling through the terminal.
Meanwhile, as the smokers strangled their prey, Zoey watched in horror as the tank sent the witch flying. Francis and Louis were merely trying not to suffocate, while Bill formulated a simple solution to the problem. With what little room he had to maneuver his hand he grabbed the combat knife from his pocket and sliced the tongue, then quickly scooped up the hunting rifle and placed a round of ammo into each of the smoker's heads.
"We have to save her!" Zoey yelled, thankfully Bill was way ahead of her, with a molotove in hand and a match lighting the tissue. "Don't worry, I've got this." Bill said as he threw the molotove. It arched past the tank, banked off a wall, and landed with a crash sending a small pool of fire between the witch and tank. The tank let out a roar and came to a stop just shy of the fire, he ripped yet another chunk of the airport floor and hurled it back towards the survivors, he then turned to give chase to his new targets. The terminal was ablaze with the sound of gunfire as the survivors each took a different direction to lure the tank around. Zoey was careful to avoid tripping on anything this time as she raced around, part of her was thinking about kiting the tank, but another part of her feared for the witch's safety. She took note that the tank was busy chasing after Bill and stopped shooting. With all the action going on no one noticed Zoey run through the flames to check on the witch.
Bill found himself backed into a corner, he braced himself as the tank readied a punch, however, the tank's life was cut short just in time and the punch sailed into the wall just above Bill's head. Pushing himself out from under the now limp tank he saw that only Louis and Francis were running up to him.
"Where's Zoey?" he asked. The three of them looked over towards the now dying fire and found Zoey using her first aid kit on the witch.
"Oh god no!" Zoey cried as she approached the witch, she tore open the first aid kit strapped to her back and began healing the witch. She smiled and said, "Zooeyy." When they were all back together the witch gave Zoey a big hug. "Actually, you should thank Bill. He's the one that distracted the tank."
The witch let go and turned to Bill. "Bill." She said happily as she ran to embrace the elderly vet. Bill merely chuckled and returned the hug. Francis looked shocked. "Hey I helped kill the tank too you know!!" He said with his usual raised frustration tone. Letting go of Bill the witch turned to Francis and softly punched him in the shoulder. "Francis." she said with an air of humor.
"Well since we are introducing ourselves. Names Louis." Louis brought his hand up. The witch shook his hand repeating his name, "Louis."
"What the-" Stammered Francis, "You hug Bill, shake hands with Louis but you punch ME?!" Zoey wrapped her arm around Francis, "Aww cheer up Francis." The witch moved to embrace Zoey, taking Francis in as well. Louis shrugged and looked to Bill, "Well shoot, this reminds me of the pep meetings I used to attend." Together he and Bill moved in on the embrace. "A group hug among friends was always a good end to our meetings." Francis scoffed, "I hate group hugs."
It should be noted that within this terminal a statue of Atlas stood in the middle with the globe in his hands, to commemorate the Ayne Rand airport. Unbeknownst to the 5, all the destruction caused by the tank was making the globe rather unstable. Within moments, they found out the hard way. With a great crunch, Atlas' wrists shattered and the world came rolling after them. Due to Francis being in the middle of the group, he was unable to dart to the side in time, and was forced to merely run.
"Shit I hate Indiana Jones too!" He yelled as the massive ball of death chased him. Francis dove for a door hoping the globe would be stopped but it crashed right on through. Silence overtook the four that remained for a brief moment before they were interrupted. Before anyone could suggest what might have happened, there was a pounding coming from the nearby restroom. "Hey! Somebody get me out of here!" Came a familiar voice.
Bill scratched his head as he approached the door, "Francis? Is that you?"
"No Bill, it's your beard. Just get me the hell out of here, I got stuck somehow."
Bill opened the door to let Francis out. "How the hell did you get here!? You just got run over by a fucking globe!"
Francis just shrugged, "No idea. Any other questions?"
"Whatever. The safe room is over there, let's just get out of here."
Safely inside, everyone gathered more ammo and patched themselves up a tad before venturing out onto the runway, their salvation.
"Oh thank god we are almost out of here." Zoey cried as they made their way down the destroyed hall that would normally have lead to a plane. Off in the distance a plane was approaching the runway. Louis noticed this and called out, "Look! It's coming for us. That's got to be it. We're saved! We're saved We're sa-ooooooooo" He cut himself off as the plane's wing clipped into a crashed plane and was torn off sending the rest of the plane crashing down into several chunks of rocks. "Well, maybe there will be a working plane somewhere among all of...this." Louis dropped his head.
"Buck up son," Bill said, "I think I can see a plane way off in the back there."
Working quickly, the five survivors made their way across the wrecked runway and found Bill to be correct. "There. A C-130, we should be able to use that." Bill said enthusiastically.
"YOU!" The pilot's voice came from the nearby walky-talky resting in the poor soul who had it last. "YES YOU!!" He said again as the survivors looked around in confusion. "IF YOU CAN GAS ME UP, WE CAN FLY OUTTA HERE! BUT THAT PUMP IS GONNA MAKE A REAL RACKET, SO YOU MAKESURE YOU'RE READY FOR A FIGHT BEFORE YOU START HER UP!"
"I copy that." Bill said, "How long do you th-"
"HOLY SHIT LOOK OUT!!! THERE'S A WITCH!!!!!!" The pilot had just noticed what the fifth member of the team was and cut Bill off. Zoey grabbed the radio from Bill angrily.
"We KNOW! She happens to be traveling with us, that isn't going to be a PROBLEM now is it?!" She nearly spat.
"Whoa there, I didn't realize she was cured, sorry 'bout that, but you never can be too careful."
"Uh huh...Are you guys ready for this?" Zoey said placing her hand on the lever.
Louis positioned himself on the mini gun while Bill and Francis placed some gas canisters and propane tanks. "Let's do this!" Louis shouted.
"OK here goes." As Zoey pulled the lever, Bill and Francis took their places up on the top of the truck. With a loud churning sound the truck began its job.
The pilot came on again over the radio Zoey had clipped to her belt, "THAT DID IT! I can hear the truck pumping, just hold 'em off for me while I fuel up."
An eerie yell came from all around them, this truck was indeed making a racket, enough to get the attention of several hundred infected scattered across the huge runway. The mini gun turret was brought to life as Louis gunned down the infected charging from the front, Bill and Francis were dealing with any that climbed over the rock chunks behind the plane and truck, and Zoey and the witch took position on either side of Louis. Bill had replaced his hunting rifle with an M-16 before this fight, and good thing too as both he and Francis had their hands full dealing with the swarms of zombies and the occasional smoker. Zoey was using an auto-shotty to take out any clumps that got past the boys on the truck, the witch of course used her own claws and cut down any that dare attack from her side. A boomer stuck his head out from behind some plane wreckage only to have it filled with lead from the turret Louis was manning. The pilot's voice came back on, "Tank's about a quarter full, sorry guys it's still a ways yet." A hunter made an attempt to pin Louis by jumping off the plane but was cut down by the ever vigilant witch. After about a minute's worth of fighting it seemed the infected were slowing their assault.
"Fuel gage at half way folks, hang in there!" The pilot called. At about this time the reason for the dip in attacking infected became clear as a large chunk of runway came flying over head.
Louis called out, "TANK!" Bill and Francis turned to focus their fire but found it unnecessary, this particular tank was coming from Louis' direction and was spared none from the mini gun's wrath. Shortly after appearing, the tank collapsed down the small pit and came to a rest at the fire, creating a larger blaze and would prove to make things much easier as this fight went on.
"Fuel gage at three quarters people! Almost there!"
Again, the infected made a mad dash towards the survivors, Louis decided the gas cans would prove useful and ignited them. Scores of zombies were burnt to a crisp as the pilot made another announcement, "FUEL GAGE NEAR THE TOP, WE ARE JUST ABOUT GOOD TO GO!"
It was time for Bill and Francis to call it, "TANK!!" They said together, jumping down from the truck and shooting the tank. Louis grabbed a fresh auto shotty and joined the fight while Zoey ran to grab a propane tank. Together she and the witch healed it towards the tank. "SHOOT IT!!" Zoey shouted. Bill took aim and followed the tank, waited for just the right moment, and fired as the tank was about to make contact with the tank's face. The propane tank exploded causing the tank's head and upper body to do the same. Just in time as the pilot called one last time, "ALRIGHT WE'RE FUELD UP!! GET IN! GET IN!!!!"
As the C-130 lowered its rear hatch the survivors heard another roar as the remaining infected attempted one final rush. Bill and Louis both threw their pipe bombs and drew the hordes attention while Francis, Zoey and the witch jumped on the plane. As another chunk of rock soared near the plane, Louis and Bill scrambled on as a tank charged at them. Francis pounded on the wall behind the pilot, "GO GO GO!" With that the hatch was closed and they took off down the runway. A few zombies were chopped to bits by the propeller blades and soon after the plane lifted off. They had done it, they were out of the city.
"WOOO HOOO WE MADE IT! WE FUCKING MADE IT!" Louis cried, "How 'bout that party!"
Bill smiled, "Why not." A knock came at the door and the pilot stepped into the cargo hold. "I got this baby on auto pilot, did I hear someone mention a party?"
"I hate parties." Came the call of Francis, Everyone stared at him and he added, "...usually. What do you got?"
The pilot pulled out a few cigars, "Well, I managed to find a box of these." Bill was just about to light his cigarette when he let it fall from his mouth, "Son, you don't know how happy I am you found those." He quickly grabbed one and lit it.
"Name's Mike by the way, I'll be taking us to an army set up safe zone."
"Sounds fine, and nice to meet you." Bill said shaking his hand.
Zoey found herself staring at the witch, "W-we made it......we actually made it." Tears began to form in her eyes as she rushed to the witch and wrapped her arms around her and begun to sob. "I-we can be together now."
Louis took notice and said to the others, "Hey guys, I think those two need some privacy, is there room up there?"
"Oh yea, and there's some booze up there too."
"Hell yea." Francis beamed and darted up into the cockpit. Louis and Mike went in after and Bill went in last, he looked to Zoey and the witch, they were just standing in embrace. He smiled and closed the door behind him.
Authors note: Well that's about it, I plan to add one final part to this story with some lemony action between the two lovers. So don't read if you don't like that stuff. The story is done anyway.