Chapter 4: Don't fear the Reaper.
1 Mile from Great Northern Mall
5:09 pm
Xavier and Sherry were face to face with Grim Scythe, a monstrous mutant that was produced by the T-Nubius Virus and unleashed by Lazarus in hopes of slowing them down and preventing them from taking out his laboratory and destroying all of his work. The Scythe was ready to attack, it's monstrous Scythe blade scraping against the road, leaving a trail of sparks in the wake, and Sherry had her hand steadily on her pistol, and Xavier took notice...
" We are gonna need bigger guns to fight that thing." Xavier said.
" Let's check the back." Sherry said.
Xavier maneuvered his way to the back of the Humvee, and began to search for weapons. He found a heavy sniper rifle with plenty of rounds, an ATS-12 rocket launcher with only two shots, three grenades, another SMG with only a couple of magazines, two pistols with only a handful of clips, and a couple of scavenged shotguns and shells the soldiers collected from a few cop cars...
" How much do we got?" Sherry asked.
" Probably enough to either wound or piss the thing off." Xavier said.
" Shit." Sherry said.
The Scythe was nearly on them when a couple of shots rang out, and a group of National Guardsmen appeared firing at the scythe, in which Xavier noticed a glowing spot under it's rib cage...
" I think we've just found it's weak point." Xavier said, handing Sherry a shotgun.
" That's a good point." Sherry said, taking the gun.
They hopped out of the Humvee, and started to fire at the weak spot. The Scythe killed three of the guardsmen, and it stumbled downward, shattering it's scythe blade on impact, and blood splattered onto the ground from it's side. The Scythe had fallen over dead, and the remaining Guardsmen had approached the duo...
" Who are you?" The Captain asked.
" Sherry Birkin, D.S.O, and this is Xavier Moore." Sherry explained.
" I'm Captain Shayla Reynolds of The National Guard, New York state division." Reynolds explained.
" This is Lieutenants Berkley and Reese, and Privates Keegan and Rusk." She added.
" What are you guys doing all the way out here?" Xavier asked.
" We were trying to get civilians out of the mall, but we got ambushed by the infected." Keegan explained.
" The Mall is where this all started." Xavier said.
" What are you talking about?" Reynolds said.
" There's a lab underneath the building, where they had developed the virus." Sherry explained.
" Who developed the virus?" Reynolds demanded.
They explained the entire situation to Reynolds and her team, New Umbrella's involvement in the attacks, The missile that was ready for launch, but Sherry immediately noticed the Launch Key she was carrying had disappeared in the chaos...
" Where is it? Where is it?" Sherry asked.
" Where's what?" Reynolds asked.
" She stole the Launch Key to the missile we told you about." Xavier explained.
" You mean the shattered thing on the road?" Rusk pointed out.
Sherry noticed that the key was now in pieces on the road, destroyed by the large feet of the Scythe, which she found quite humorous...
" That ought to slow their plans down." Sherry said.
" Well, If we're gonna get to the mall, we've got to move fast." Reynolds said.
" What's the rush?" Xavier asked.
" When our convoy got swarmed, we saw a huge horde making their way this direction." Keegan explained.
" A Horde? How Big?" Sherry asked.
" Looked over 10,000, and they were coming this way." Rusk explained.
" Well, time to go." Reese said.
" Whoa, why the rush?" Xavier said.
" Because the horde's coming this way." Reese said.
The group looked down the road behind them to confirm Reese's claim. They saw hundreds of zombies surging towards them in one big group, in which prompted them to flee directly down the rear entrance to the mall, only to be confronted by more commandos..
" Subject 23, you are to return with us immediately." The commando leader, Reinhardt, said.
" My name is Sherry!" Sherry screamed.
" You work for New Umbrella?!" Reynolds demanded.
" Silence, your sacrifice for the betterment of humanity will be great." Reinhardt said.
" What the hell is he talking about?" Berkley asked.
" In English, he's gonna try and turn us into lab rats." Xavier responded.
" OH HELL NO!" Berkley screamed before shooting Reinhardt in the head.
Blood sprayed out the back of Reinhardt's head, and the commandoes opened fire, and Berkley was killed after being shot repeatedly. A lone zombie wandered out of the mall, and Xavier noticed a few more coming out of the doors behind the commandoes and managed to get a very interesting idea. He immediately grabbed hold of the zombie's bloodied shirt and faced it towards the commandoes...
" You boys made a deal with the devil, and now you can't pay him back..." He started.
" What does that make you?" One commando asked sarcastically.
" A civilian, it makes old Zeke here his debt collector." Xavier finished, throwing the zombie at the commandoes.
The Zombie quickly took down the commando it landed on top of, and the ones coming out the doors behind the commandoes came rushing towards them. The group quickly fled inside and slammed the doors shut as the zombies quickly swarmed the commandoes...
" That was a World War Z reference!" Rusk pointed out.
" Yes, that was." Xavier said.
" That was also a very pretty ballsy move to do." Reynolds pointed out.
" What can I say? I can get pretty creative at the most strangest moments." Xavier explained.
" Cut the chatter, we should find that lab entrance." Reynolds said.
" Good Idea." Sherry said.
They proceeded through the mall in which they saw the steel gates at the Macy's were down, and hundreds of Zombies banging on the metal gates and the area above to be sparking...
" We should move faster." Sherry said.
" Yeah." Reese said.
The gate finally broke and dozens of zombies swarmed out of the store chasing the group. During the chaos, the group is divided, with Reese, Reynolds, and Rusk going down one way, and Xavier, Sherry, and Keegan going the other way, each with a group of zombies chasing them. The first trio takes shelter in a closed down department store...
" Let's hope Leon and Dante have better luck with that missile." Xavier said.
" Agreed." Sherry said.
They immediately rose up with their weapons at the ready, firing at the zombies, killing them. Meanwhile, Dante and Leon were going to have some trouble getting to the missile...
CNS High School Stadium.
5:30 pm
Leon and Dante were parked outside the CNS High School Stadium, looking down into it only to see dozens of soldiers on guard, protecting a large rocket launcher on standby, awaiting a launch key to use in order for them to launch the missile in which was seen was a canister containing a cylinder of black liquid...
" That cylinder must be what's holding the T-Nubius Virus." Dante said.
" Must the right amount to take out Albany." Leon stated.
" Oh really?" Dante said sarcastically.
" Shut up, we need to get the virus out of that thing before it launches." Leon explained.
" That is gonna be easy." Dante said.
" How do you know that?" Leon asked the 13-yr-old.
" That's a heavy assault cruise missile, needs a launch key in order to launch it." Dante responded.
" How in the hell did you know that?" Leon asked, noticing he was right.
" My dad was in the military, he had overseen a few of those when they were shipped out." Dante explained.
They exited the car, and snuck towards the stadium's main entrance, where Leon killed a commando with a suppressed pistol and stole his radio...
" Let's see what we can learn." Dante said.
They turned the radio on, and they heard the most unexpected thing...
" Penitent 6, do we have confirmation the launch key has been found?" The officer on the radio said.
" Negative, the key has been destroyed by that damn scythe." The other voice said.
" Damn it, so why are we defending a missile without a launch key?" The officer said with annoyance.
" Cool your jets, a replacement one just left the lab, it's on it's way." The other voice explained.
" Well it better get here." The officer said before turning off his radio.
" Looks like these guys lost their keys." Leon said.
" Did you just make a pun?" Dante asked.
" What? I'm trying." Leon said.
" You really need to work on the puns, because that one was terrible." Dante explained.
Leon simply shrugged off his comment, and they proceeded into the locker room, and killed two more commandos. They exited out the doors, and slipped past the guards, setting a c-4 pack on the launch control console. They killed the two commandoes guarding the missile, and Leon began to speak...
" Alright, one of us is gonna need to climb up there and grab that cylinder." Leon whispered.
" I can do that." Dante said.
" Hell no, you are too damn important to go stealing a virus out of a rocket." Leon explained.
" Hey, do you know how to avoid getting caught?" Dante retaliated.
Leon simply was conflicted about letting Dante go up to the rocket and pull a cylinder that can kill thousands of people in a matter of minutes, but finally caved. He told Dante he would cover him in case things went south while Dante grabbed the virus. He boosted Dante up the side of the rocket's holding stand, and Dante tip-toed along the darker side and came up behind the cylinder...
" Okay, I'm at it." Dante whispered.
" Alright, be careful in case they have the thing booby-trapped." Leon said.
" Hey, who are-" A commando walking up said, before Leon killed him with his knife.
Dante carefully watched out for any tripwires or traps that would be connected to the canister, carefully sliding it out and tucking it under his arm. He snuck back to Leon, who had just killed his third commando...
" Got it." Dante said.
" Good, I'll set off a distraction, you haul ass to the car, I'll be right behind you." Leon said.
" Okay." Dante acknowledged.
Leon exploded the small c-4 pack on the launch console's power supply, blowing it out entirely. The commandoes rushed over, scrambling to try and salvage the situation, giving Leon and Dante the time to escape, and they sped away before the commandoes could take notice.
" Man, that was close." Dante said.
" Yes, it was." Leon responded.
Dante looked back to the canister that was shaking in the back seat, restraining it with the seat belt. He turned back to talk to Leon...
" We need to find a way to get rid of that stuff." Dante said.
" You're right, One drop of that virus can kill over a hundred people." Leon figured.
They looked down the road, only to see the massively growing horde of Zombies surging up the highway, which now stood at 50,000 and growing...
" Where do you think they are going?" Dante asked.
" Probably towards something drawing their attention." Leon figured.
Dante realized the only thing make enough noise to draw that many zombies just happened to be a supposed safe refuge: SYRACUSE.
" I'm starting to think they are heading towards Syracuse." Dante said.
" What makes you think that?" Leon asked.
" It's the only place in Northern New York that is making that much noise." Dante explained.
" Raider 1, kill bandits." The radio said.
Dante noticed the radio they had taken from the commando was still on, and an attack helicopter started to fire on them...
" Oh, shit!" Leon screamed.
" Language!" Dante hollered.
This chapter ends on a cliff-hanger as The New Umbrella soldiers race to reacquire the viral canister Dante and Leon stole, while Xavier and Sherry must work alongside their National Guardsmen allies to try and find the lab entrance in order to take Lazarus out for good. The next chapter wraps up what happened to Leon and Dante, in which a familiar face is warned about the fast-approaching undead horde closing in on Syracuse...
