The Last of Naruto
I do not own Last of us or Naruto, that respect goes to Naughty Dog and Kishimoto respectively
This chapter has been re-edited = 1
I just re edited the chapter. Had no time to proof read it and only did so recently. It now has better grammar and story flow. There may still be some errors but I can always come back to fix it and they should only be minor. No one was perfect after all and I refuse to waste time on a BETA.
Comment review:
TheatreFreak12: Thanks for your review, I will most likely go back to the chapters I've already posted and look over them and fix the errors and spelling mistakes. I'm not perfect in English but at the moment I'm rushing chapters out as soon as possible while I maintain my inspiration, also because I will most likely be busy with engineering assessments later on. I'll be focusing on improving and editing chapters later when I'm more knee deep in assessments since for now I want to get my plot out there.
Also for the atmosphere comment you are right in that respect, however I wasn't exactly referring to the English term in which I put great detail into describing certain parts of my story, I was more focusing in on maintaining the emotions the game provoked in their environment. Regardless you are still right and I'll be going back to the previous chapters to edit and improve them while adding more adjectives to further invoke the setting to the reader. For now I want to focus on getting the plot out as soon as possible. I'm trying to aim for a chapter a day cause as a reader I remember having to wait months for the next chapter and it was frustrating.
Hope you enjoy this chapter... as a heads up there will be a few more chapters till the main characters of the game gets involved as well as time skips.
The Last of Naruto
Chapter 4 The Scout Clone
After jumping out of the window the designated 'Scout clone' or 'Scout' for short took off towards the sounds of gun shots in the distance jumping from rooftop to rooftop to avoid confronting the infected. From Naruto's escapades in the night he knew a couple of basic things about the New World he was in. Such things included the name of the planet being Earth and countries that inhabited it such as the one he was presently on, the United States of America.
He also learned that unlike the Elemental Nations which was one large supercontinent Pangaea, the continents of the world drifted apart over the course of millions of years. At first he thought he travelled into the future, but by closely inspecting the continents they didn't match up to what the elemental nations looked like.
One point towards dimensional travel.
Additionally further research from National Geographic books has shown that there was one country that possessed similar culture to his homeland. A country called Japan that even had different myths associating to a demonic 'Nine tailed fox'.
'Kurama' he thought. And that was one point to time travel.
Regardless, he supposed it didn't matter either way. He or rather the original was somewhere else outside of home.
Outside his comfort zone.
A new area. A new time. A new custom. He had much to learn and catch up on and Scout guessed that finding and befriending survivors was the first step to finding the answers he seeks. Just the thought of that didn't help his mood.
"If finding survivors was so important then why didn't boss go himself... Arrgh".He all but mumbled to himself.
'I think boss is just moping or lazing about, seriously staying back because of safety, checking wounds and training is a poor excuse' the clone thought frustrated. 'Well on the bright side I at least get to explore and help somebody out. Hope it's another princess this time' as Scout thought back to princess Koyuki Kazahana and Snow country. Scratch that 'Queen Koyuki Kazahana of Spring Country'. He thought over the idea again and internally scoffed. In all likelihood royalty no longer existed or were at least much weaker in power. Thinking back he never understood the need for Royalty.
Everyone was equal.
He continued to jump, from building to building trying to conserve what little Chakra he had. Scout took this opportunity to analyse the city. As expected it was full of large, tall buildings. The more new looking ones were composed primarily of metal and of glass. What glass remained on the buildings glistened in the sun as he continued to jump. He noticed plants of all kinds ranging from pretty yellow flowers to weeds and vines growing on the side of the buildings. The unique mixture of disuse and plants created a unfathomable apocalyptic beauty which Scout could definitely appreciate.
It was like the start of a whole new adventure.
In the past he would have jumped for joy at the prospect of an adventure in a whole new environment, people to save, things to discover, now all he could think of was his current dilemma in this mysterious new world and the failures of the past. Still the apocalyptic urban jungle was a magnificent sight to behold, well as long as he ignored the ugly looking infected running about.
He looked further and noticed large stretches of roads and bridges littered with disused cars that seemed to enhance the apocalyptic environment and the ever present world pandemic. There were all sorts of cars present ranging from black and white, red and blue and so much more all appearing in different shapes and sizes. None looked clean; most had scratches either from the infected or in the rush to escape. Few still held glass, no doubt due to the early days of the infection.
He also noticed that the cars were all clustered on the streets and the highway bridges he read about. What got his attention the most was that wildlife was growing around and onto the cars seemingly hoping to absorb them back into nature.
'Even in the end all things return to nature' was the thought that passed his head as he continued to manoeuvre to his destination.
Thinking back to his equipment in preparation for the encounter, Scout began recounting his arsenal. Most of the awesome modern weapons went to Scavenger since he had more direct confrontations to deal with exploring the mall. He shuddered at the kinds of infestations that lurked there. On the bright side he got the more familiar weaponry as well as supplies which included
47 kunai, 2 being left for the original in emergency
The last remaining explosive notes numbering at 7, well until more was made.
20 food pills. He doubted they'd have much use anyway.
20 blood pills, which might actually come in handy.
Some bandages
And 5 canteens of water for emergency.
These were stored in a small makeshift bag that was just a black leather jacket found off a dead guy and redesigned with strings to act as a carry on by the shoulder. They didn't have time to scavenge a more reliable bag at the moment, but if the opportunity presented itself he would definitely take it. Worrying about items falling out such as kunai cutting through the leather would be disastrous and he didn't want such problems with infected running about.
His current goal was to investigate the gun shots, find survivors and provide support if necessary. If they were friendly he could ask or even trade for information after all it was the apocalypse and everyone needed something.
His needs were just a bit different.
If they were hostile he guessed he'll have a fight on his hands and dispelling would just alert the original. Besides they couldn't harm him, he was a Shadow clone, a copy of the original and Shadow clones just dispelled. This line of thinking brought about another thought though.
'I wonder what the people of this world would think if I dispelled in front of them'. Scout paused and thought of such an act and giggled at the idea. They'd probably be stunned or terrified and chalk it up to a 'ghost' disappearing in front of them.
Haunting them.
Then again he doubted ghosts topped infected for others. He didn't know what was worse. Dieing by a curse or dieing by infected.
Scout continued to jump across rooftops expending as little as chakra as possible to save for his long survival. He knew he couldn't do rasengans in fear of dispelling, only in emergency could they be used and also that meant no access to large Chakra consuming jutsu. Henge and kawimari were not exempt from this rule. Scout let out an exasperated *sigh* at that.
'Man that sucks. How am I supposed to fight effectively with such hindrance's' thought Scout a he got closer to the destination.
Preparing himself he reached into his pack and equipped 6 kunai. 2 had explosive notes tied on in case there was a small horde of infected.
Approaching a low level building that held a more prestigious design compared to the modern buildings, he looked down. He spotted 3 survivors and heard another cursing about a door, probably a door to the building. The three survivors were shooting at tides of infected, no doubt attracted to the noise. He could tell more were on their way.
At this rate they would be overwhelmed.
Making a quick decision he began his own support, deciding in the meantime to hold back on the explosive kunai and focus on the use of the standard kunai.
He was sure the heads of the infected were the weak spot, so replacing the explosive kunai with 2 general kunai he held 6 up by the tip; he took a second to aim then launched them at the incoming infected. The kunai travelled more than 100 km an hour, enhanced due to his Shinobi attributes and training. The 6 kunai met their mark and pierced deeply into the heads of the infected.
LINE BREAK
Cassandra was an 18 year old girl that grew up in the apocalypse with short dark blond hair that went to her shoulder blades and a nice pretty heart shaped face which usually maintained a serious stern expression, but that did not deter her beauty. She was a heterochromic and had a light blue eye on the left while the other was light green and with her main line of work operating and repairing machinery she easily maintained a slightly musclier physic than the average slim girl. She was 5 foot 7 last she measured and wore tight, yet flexible jeans and a red hoodie jacket (saw it on one of
the game covers but can't remember which or find a picture online so use your imagination) and was equipped with the basic 9 mm pistol coming from the empty holster on her belt.
Currently Cassandra's day was terrible and to top it off her life maintained its difficulties all throughout. When the infection outbreak began 11 years ago she was only 7 as all hell broke loose.
Infected biting people.
Chaos.
Confusion.
With quick thinking of her father they were able to find a small group of survivor's just numbering bellow 100 in total. If it wasn't for him she and her mother wouldn't have made it out at the start of the new chaotic world. Initially they were to wait out the coming storm, but when things didn't improve they began to search for a more secure area to live. Overtime their small group dwindled down until they found a safe community.
Eventually resources dwindled and many people began doing supply runs. So when their small community decides it's her turn to do a supply run it was mandatory for her to go. She didn't want to, but she had to.
Supply runs were known as suicide runs. Sometimes they were successful and everyone made it back with much needed resources, food, ammo, medicine and other basic needs, but there were times when people were lost, or few made it back. There was one time a group didn't make it back at all. Life as a scavenger was extremely risky.
And that wasn't the only problem. Infected were predictable, but other humans, other survivors were dangerous and crafty. They always had to be careful.
As usual they were running low on food, fresh water and ammo and so their group was sent. Things were going well at first for their merry band of 12 scavenging through a convenience store; however that was until a dozen clickers busted out from the back door taking out 4 of the team inside.
Naturally they opened fire which resulted with runners attacking their position flanking them from the front taking 2 more. 6 got out from that escapade including her, but it wasn't over yet.
Everyone ran to the closest fortified building down the road being the Library and bunkered in till Jeff got the front door open. In the 10 minutes of fortifying they lost 2 more members who turned faster with multiple bites. They were put down immediately. They had no time to think and plan at the time, now there were only 4 left including her.
A dozen runners were approaching flanked by 3 clickers. They were running low on ammo and needed time to supply their magazines. Things were not looking good.
"Fuck" was all Cassandra could say.
Was she going to die here?
What of her Family?
Mom… Dad… Little sis…
Hope was dwindling as she used what little time she had reloading to contemplate her life. There was simply not enough manpower left to deal with the infected in time.
There were too many and so few bullets left.
She kept shooting along with along with the other survivors felling 5 more runners, yet they just kept coming and more were replacing them.
They were simply making too much noise.
She kept shooting and for a second life seemed to play in slow motion. She then heard a whizzing sound and things sped up.
*thwack* *thwack* *thwack*
They looked forward and some strangely designed knives found them imbedded into 4 heads of the infected runners and 2 clickers, ending their forward rush.
'What's going on?'
LINE BREAK
Scout launched six knives at the runners rushing the entrance of the classically designed library. With careful aim he easily felled 6 with direct impact to their heads. Taking more kunai out he began to throw more in batches of 6. To him kunai throwing was child's play and he would help them out until they got inside, then he would confront them.
Cassandra was momentarily confused at first. 'Is it reinforcements'? No. No one she knew could throw knives that well at the same time, he doubted any human could. 'Could there be more than one person? If so why not use guns?' Still she appreciated the help and wouldn't overlook a gift horse in the mouth.
She wanted to spot their saviour and thank for the assist, however the infected were not letting up. More kept coming replacing the ones killed in droves. She couldn't let up. She needed to keep shooting, then there was another set of knives imbedded on another 6 infected. Whoever was helping she needed to thank him or her later.
"Nearly got the door" Jeff sounded of with firm agitation in his voice. She supposed it was due to the stress of their current predicament.
More infected swarmed their position. Jeff needed to hurry.
The Scout clone continued to launch sets of 6 kunai at the infected, hoping to stave them off from the survivors till they got inside the library. In which case he would follow through a window and meet up with them.
While pulling out more knives he analysed the situation. There were too many rushing their position. 6 were no longer enough. It was almost a small horde out there moving towards their position. He needed to take out the big guns.
He needed the explosive notes.
Already having 7 sets of kunai tied with explosive notes. He equipped three and threw them to different parts of the jumbled up horde. Then in a second's time they detonated, blowing infected parts all over the street. More kept coming though and he used 2 more explosive notes to fell them. Then the survivor at the door sounded off.
"The doors open everyone inside".
Scout took that as the signal to follow them in; however he needed to keep launching kunai to make sure they got in safely and barricaded the entrance. He'd follow them in afterwards.
LINE BREAK
Second time that day Cassandra was at a loss for words. When a sizable amount of infected appeared the stranger launched three kunai with weird paper tags and writing on them. He missed the infected.
'Paper tags? What good would that do' she thought to herself in desperation as she looked at the incoming horde. It was as if the stranger was mocking her. Not a moment later the paper tags exploded into something equivalent to a grenade killing dozens of the infected runners and clickers.
Cassandra was stunned. It just didn't make sense paper and knifes couldn't do that, 'how did that happen' was all she thought. Never mind, she would think on that later, for now she needed to keep shooting. Survival is what truly mattered right now and as if God decided to grace her with a miracle she heard Jeff shout
"The doors open everyone inside".
The survivors rushed into the library while Jeff pushed a bookshelf over the entrance, creating a makeshift barricade, hoping it would hold the infected back. There was loud knocking for a good 5 minutes. Everyone was on edge before it eventually stopped.
They couldn't bunker down too long, they needed to keep moving.
Cassandra looked around the entrance to their temporary shelter. As usual there were bodies lying around. She noticed the front desk, no doubt for library returns and borrows as well as a set of stairs to the second floor; they however were blocked off with book shelves collapsed upon one another with books scattered across the ground floor.
She looked to the left and to the right noticing 2 more rooms full of shelves and books branching from the entrance lounge.
Overall the place was huge.
POV Cassandra:
"We use to look after places of knowledge with rules, detail and cleanliness, now look at us". Jeff said in a melancholic tone. Guess he was reminiscing better days. Then again who wouldn't be?
I was too young to remember much about libraries, the importance of books and knowledge but clearly this was another sign of humanities lost golden age, the loss of life and the loss of knowledge. All people truly cared about anymore was survival.
Jeff was part of the Golden age.
Lived it.
Breathed it.
He talked about space travel, cars, iPhones, iPods, laptops and electricity when I was younger. Still does. He really missed the good old days, everyone missed the good old days. I might have been too young to remember much but doesn't mean I couldn't dream of better times.
Stopping that line of thought I decided to focus back to the task at hand. I looked at the dead soldiers and carcasses and counted 12. There was plenty of ammo and guns lying around along with boxes full of ammunition.
"We should arm up, rest and resupply; the community could use the ammunition. We should also keep moving, don't want to test if those doors can really hold". I told them in an authoritative voice. I may not be used to supply runs, but at least I knew my way around the leadership role. I'd be damned if I didn't use it when we needed it.
Back to third person POV:
"Sure thing boss" the three others in the room responded almost in comical sync. She may not like it but everyone needed reprieve over what just happened. A group of 12 reduced to a group of 4.
Everyone got to work filling their guns with ammo and storing additional magazines in their pockets. Everyone had equipped an assault rifle as their primary weapon as well as a 9 mm hand gun in their gun holster for emergency use. Additionally on top of what food they managed to scavenge from the convenience store all 4 survivors were able to fill their packs full of hand guns and ammo while also carrying additional sets of assault rifles on their shoulders.
Then they had a quick break, quick tin food which acted as pleasurable deterrent to the situation at hand. They were in unfamiliar territory surrounded by infected. Someone was not likely to survive. That is if they managed to escape at all. They couldn't spend too much time idling, they needed to move.
15 minutes later the group of survivors led by Cassandra and supported by Jeff moved to the emergency exit. They just needed to get to the sewer system so they can link up with their original passageway and make a safe trip home. The issue was to get to the sewerage area they needed to go through the basement, a prime area for infected. Still it needed to be done and as they made their way to the staircase they heard multiple gunshots ringing at the top floor of the Library.
"Who do you think that was?" said scavenger one in a high pitched female voice.
"Don't know, sounds like he's in trouble… Should we help out?" said scavenger 2 in a gruff male voice.
"We don't, we keep moving. If we take a detour we'll be in more danger and as far as we know he could be as good as dead when we arrive." Jeff replied in a serious tone without looking back.
Cassandra stopped walking and contemplated the problem. "It was probably the stranger that helped us out before and as much as it pains me for not returning the favour we have to look out for ourselves first".
The group agreed with her, they after all just survived a recent incursion with infected so moving on they proceeded down the emergency stair case 1 down towards the basement.
LINE BREAK
Back with the Scout clone.
Scout clone had just entered through an initially closed window from the 3rd floor, but nothing could hold a ninja back as he proceeded to unlock it with his awesome pick-locking skills. After entering and shifting out below the curtains he immediately notices problems on the floor. He could hear Clickers. He saw infected, some were continually scanning the room looking for anyone to infect and there were some runners, staying still and moaning sadly. It was as if they were fighting the infection. He couldn't wake them; he had to move around them.
Scanning the area for more infected Scout saw something new. The new the infected wasn't at the stage of the clickers but there was a beginning growth of bipedal plates and they appeared to be stalking and cautiously searching. 'Stalkers' he decided to call them. They put him on edge so he decided to be most cautious around them.
Scout hid behind a shelf and peered over, looking at his current predicament. He noticed an emergency staircase at the end of the floor but to get to it he had to bypass dozens upon dozens of infected.
There were bodies around to loot along with guns and ammo but he seriously couldn't afford to be side tracked and be caught unawares. He needed to catch up to the group of survivors.
Deciding stealth was an important factor he began a plan to divert the attention of the infected. Picking up a book, he threw it across the room hitting a book shelf.
Some the infected moved to that area to investigate.
Slowly moving as to not divert attention to himself he crept his way across the room ducking below fallen shelves or standing behind shelves that still stood doing his best to stay out of sight.
This repeated process took around 30 minutes and was exhausting for the clone especially with terror and stress looming over head. On the bright size he passed several military corpses and took a M4 with 2 magazines worth of ammo (approx. 30 bullets) and a 9 mm pistol with 2 magazines (25 bullets).
Eventually making it to the exit he spotted another corpse close by with a large backpack. Making an error in judgement he decided to pick it up, however in doing so a large book fell down with a loud *thump* close to him. Reacting quickly he took the pack and made for the exit. The infected were alerted and would swarm him. Equipping the pistol he began shooting at any runners and stalkers close to him to buy him time.
Dodging a runner in front he rushed through the emergency exit door of staircase 2 and ran down, he looked back and saw infected runners still after him. Deciding to risk the fallout, Scout equipped one kunai with an explosive note and threw it at the stairs above him and continued to run down as fast as he could. He had set it to 2 seconds and in doing so the explosion would collapse the stairs above him.
So he needed to move fast.
Expelling what chakra he could spare he increased his speed and was significantly further down than the infected on his trail until *boom*. The stairs above collapsed burying any infected that was too slow.
The clone was in the safe zone and the stairs he stood on held steady. The only issue however was that one infected was fast enough to avoid the burial. Although there was little room for mobility, especially with how unorganised he was carrying his newly acquired items, the infected runner made a mistake in its pursuit. It took a lunge at Scout as if it was going for a lucky chomp.
Big mistake.
Naruto being trained extensively in taijutsu along with being in a body of a 6 year old was able to dodge around its left side and tripped the infected. It flayed for a second before it fell down the stairs.
This was an opportunity Scout took full advantage of. Deciding not to risk using a kunai he pulled his newly acquired 9 mm gun out and shot it in the head ending its miserable life.
A minute later he decided to take some time for reprieve. Scout sat down and began ravaging through his newly acquired pack looking through all the items finding some useful while the others were dead weight and taken out.
Analysing the items he collected recently he looked over them again.
1 assault rifle, M4 if he remembered the name correctly with two cartridges of around 20 bullets.
1 9 mm pistol with 15 bullets, 'probably should have conserved ammo better back then'
And 2 health packs
Scout then looked over the rest of his items before transferring them to the better bag and disposing of the make shift one.
10 general kunai remained
1 kunai with explosive note
20 food pills
20 blood pills
5 canteens of water
Deciding to fill what little Chakra reserves he could Scout took a food pill and swallowed it refilling what reserves he lost over a period of time. He had to watch himself, no matter how much chakra he had it only took one good hit to end him.
He knew he could be replaced by another clone, but time was of the essence. From what he could tell the survivors were moving further away. He had to catch up to them, find more information about the world and know what was truly happening, then the boss could make his move and decide what to do from now on.
Packing his supplies into the new small but sturdy bag he placed it on his back along with the M4. Equipping it now was stupid it was low on ammo and took both his hands to operate and was significantly big. He however knew he could easily handle the recoil of the shots because he was a Shinobi.
He was stronger and faster than civilians.
He was a super soldier to them, even if he was weaker than before.
Deciding to dispose of the prior bag Scout began to walk down the stairs looking for some form of exit, as a precaution he equipped one kunai in his left hand and the 9mm pistol on his right hand. He liked the combination. Using two hands for a gun bigger than him posed many problems. A knife and a pistol provided the opportunity for long range and short range combat at the same time. As a clone it was an effective combination, especially since he couldn't afford to expend chakra on any rasengan's or jutsu. He supposed the original would like a rasengan in one hand and a pistol on the other. Thinking about it he could definitely say it was a badass combination.
The only downside of the combination was that the Boss would need to readjust his taijutsu. He needed to adapt with the gun and limited chakra reserves, his previous forms of combat relied heavily upon clones, brawler style fights supported with jutsu. Naruto no longer had the luxury of clones and unlimited amounts of jutsu, he now needed to fight conservatively and effectively and had to prioritise on stealth.
He needed to move like an assassin.
He needed to fight like a proper Shinobi.
Going further down any doors he tried to open proved futile. They were either barred from the other side or had debris blocking the path into the specified floor, no doubt due to the exploding tag he set of.
'Well on the bright side at least the paper tag had strong explosions' the clone thought to himself trying to cheer up while opening another door only to find more debris blocking the path. The next door down was different as it was blocked by piles and piles of book shelves in which the clone didn't bother to move, he needed to conserve energy after all.
Finally arriving at the bottom of the staircase he stopped. He was at the bottom. Looking at the door momentarily he then looked up at the sign above and read basement.
LINE BREAK
Cassandra wasn't happy with the condition of the Library's basement. The central chamber they entered was flooded and dark. She and her group turned on their flashlights trying to locate a generator to power the lights, it was easy, it was only a couple of meters in front of them and so far there wasn't any infected as the eye could see. That however was likely to change once she turned on the generator.
She prepared herself.
Cassandra signalled Jeff to start the generator while the other two survivors who she now knew as Jason and Julie readied themselves by taking defensive positions. Thinking on Jason and Julie they too had been whisked away from the community due to a lack of resources and were required to do a supply run.
Just like her.
What truly upset Cassandra was that they had a child back at home and they were out here taking on infected just to meet the basic needs of the community and their family. Just the thought of those backstabbers doing this to their own people angered her.
Then again she couldn't blame them, supplies were running low and someone needed to do supply run.
Just like her they were picked out of the barrel of luck.
Thinking more on the subject she remembered the dozen of 'volunteers' from the community that also were part of the supply run.
'Was part of the supply run',
No doubt they were infected and changed by now.
Just the thought of others like her doing something dangerous because they had no other choice scared her. Why?
Cause 'it could have been me back at the store bitten, dying' she thought morbidly.
She looked back at Jason and Julie. Again she wished she had more time to get to know them.
Befriend them.
Guess she could do that when they got out of this situation alive.
If they got out alive.
All they needed to do was move further into the main sewer system then they could make a straight run to the community.
Although many were killed, they were able to scavenge much needed ammunition that should last them a month if used correctly as well as bits and pieces of food. It wasn't much but it would help. God they needed food, they were starving back at home and designated rations did so little. There was plenty of food to scavenge, but the issue was you had to risk your life in the process.
'Then the cycle starts all over again'. She glowered at the idea.
It was a destructive cycle in which the community was victim of. They had little renewable food resources and very little could be grown in their home. The only thing renewable was rats and they were getting harder to hunt. It appears they too were suffering from hunger. Sure it may not be her specifically that would be part of the next supply run, but they would run the same risks and losses she went through.
She wouldn't want anyone in the community to go through that experience.
She shook her head. She needed to concentrate. There can be no openings in their formation. There were many rooms that faced into the central basement chamber and many bookshelves to hide the infected, especially stalkers. They and clickers posed the greatest problem.
Cassandra equipped the M4 assault rifle and loaded up the magazines ensuring the cartridge was full. She also prepared her 9 mm handgun in case it was needed in emergency, also checking the bullets inside. She looked up and noticed the other members of her rag tag team doing the same.
They were ready
Cassandra signalled Jeff to start the engine. In doing so there were a couple of loud pulls of the motor string. It took three tries for Jeff to finally start the diesel generator, then all of a sudden most of the lights flickered on. Some were in such disrepair that bulbs were missing, broken or were flickering sporadically as if signalling the start of a horror scene.
Suddenly she could hear load groans, wails and clicks. Everyone faltered, scared to face the incoming tide of infected. Still they needed to do this; it was too hard stumbling in the dark while trying to avoid the infected. They weren't built for stealth and all it took was one fuck up then the rag tag group would be fighting a horde of infected in the dark, surrounded.
No, this was the best option they had taking them all head on. This way they at least had the advantage. There may be many entrances to the central basement chamber, but at least the infected were scattered and had to travel in knee deep water. This way they could deal with small groups of infected over a period of time eventually killing them all.
More groans and moans were heard followed by the occasionally clicking of clickers. Then there were splashes. Movements in the water. The infected were getting loader, the water ripples increasing in size and sound.
They were coming.
The world seemed to slow down and for a second Cassandra hesitated when the sight of the first two infected runners came to view. She looked into their eyes. Eyes devoid of life yet held eyes of pain as if the person in the inside was trying to fight the infection, trying to win but failing. She saw their eyes and briefly wondered if these infected, no 'people' were still alive. By this thought she hesitated.
She looked further and noticed their hand flaying about. She noticed something shine on their left hand, she wished she didn't notice. What she saw was a wedding ring on their marriage finger and both the young male and female infected were wearing the same one.
'They were married' was the thought that came to her head and she hesitated to give the order to shoot.
She wasn't ready for this.
She wasn't experienced fighting infected. She only got by before due to the adrenaline rush. This revelation was horrific and painful for her and she hesitated.
Julie and Jason were however more focused and saw her hesitation; they too noticed their marriage finger and understood what she was going through, however it needed to be done. Aiming their assault rifles the couple proceeded to deal with the incoming runners.
They open fire and the infected were killed. One of the runners died with multiple bullets in the torso and one in the head while the female infected had several shots to her neck in which she proceeded to choke and collapse on the water. Dead.
It was a horrific kill to Cassandra and what was worse was that they were floating face down near each other. Touching each other. It was as if it was a romantic death.
To her it was if even in death they would be together
To love each other
To stay together as one.
It left a dry salty taste in her mouth.
She shook her head rigorously trying to focus on the topic at hand, she couldn't think like that. She couldn't start sympathising in the middle of combat. She had to fight and worry about the repercussions later, everyone was depending on her and her family wanted her to return home alive.
There were more splashes and clicking. It appears the gunshots have definitely attracted what remained of the infected in the basement. More were coming. Cassandra steeled her resolve for the coming fight.
"First time seeing such a sight?" Jeff questioned her, drawing on his strength and experience from previous encounters with the infected.
"Yeah", Cassandra let out in a raspy voice.
"You'll get used to it eventually, true they were humans once, like you and I, but that was then and this is now. It is either them or us".
Cassandra let out a slow nod, acknowledging the words from Jeff. She replied in a shaky manner as if hesitating what to say next. "Does... Does it ever get easier?"
Jeff hesitated in answering, then replied firmly "No".
LINE BREAK
The lights in the emergency exit which the Scout clone resided in flickered on and off continually. For the past 5 minutes He had been unable to pry the basement emergency exit door open in stairway 2, mainly because the door was jammed. He was presently stuck and decided to wait in the stairway and think of a new course of action.
'Should I go back up' Scout wondered in apprehension. In reality he was pretty stuck and needed to conserve Chakra for whatever tasks lay ahead. Using a rasengan now would weaken him considerably; he was stretching his temporary life as it is. He'd rather not risk it at the moment. Scout briefly considered placing an explosive note on the door blowing it out, but even he knew it was a stupid idea. He had no idea where the survivors were and he was stuck in the staircase, he wondered what he should do.
Then the lights began to flicker on and off and he could hear the humming of the motor in the distance but could not pinpoint where. 'Clearly the survivors had something to do with this', he all but thought to himself. A minute passed then he heard gunshots on the other side of the basement door then more gunshots. Scout now knew where the survivors were and needed to get around the door.
Weighing his options he decided to take a food pill and have another in reserve for chakra recovery. Even if it was slow some recovery was better than no recovery.
Scout prepared himself picking up his backpack and gun then stood in front of the door. He thought for a second. He had only one shot and he needed to do it right.
"Rasengan".
LINE BREAK
Cassandra and the group were slowly being overwhelmed. There were simply too many infected, far more than anyone expected was in the basement and they were losing ground and the infected were closing in.
Jeff had been bitten and they knew it was all over for him, yet more just kept coming. He continued to fight even if he was now infected. He still had time ranging from a few hours to the end of the day. Yet he kept on fighting, For Cassandra.
All of a sudden there was a loud shout of rasengan followed by an explosion. The party noticed it coming from one of the large rooms on the left followed by gun shots and a flurry of feet.
"Guess our saviour has arrived" said Jeff sarcastically, after all it was over for him one way or another. He was bitten and infection would be following shortly after.
"Just wish he had gotten here sooner" Cassandra responded solemnly. It was her fault after all that Jeff got bit. She wasn't focused enough and a runner nearly took a chomp at her arm. That however never happened as Jeff moved her aid, instead having the runner take a chomp at his shoulder
She understood the situation. It was over for him and she couldn't do anything about it.
Jeff was a close friend of the family and often entertained her and took care of her during her early years in the community. He was like a close uncle, a second father. Now there was nothing they could do. It was too late.
Gunshots continued to sound off in the distance; no doubt the newcomer was having his own trouble with infected. They would try to provide support but he or she was on their own, they were tied down dealing with the last of the infected making their way to their position.
LINE BREAK
"Rasengan" Scout charged his spiraling sphere and rammed it at the jammed door. There was a moment of metal grinding before he chose to explode the sphere causing enough concussive force to blow the door of its hinges and right across the room into an infected clicker. 'bonus points' was the first thought that came to mind as he proceeded to take advantage of the momentary hesitation of the infected to swallow a food pill, then re-equip the 9mm pistol and a kunai. He prepared himself for a fight.
The infected took notice of the noise and began charging at him, clickers, stalkers and runners in the mix. He analysed their numbers, 3 runners, 2 clickers and a stalker. They were fast approaching.
Learning from Experience he picked his targets. Out of all of them the clickers and stalker were the most dangerous, the clickers were strong and resilient while the stalkers had some semblance to strategy. From there he knew which target to pick first.
*Bang* *Bang* *Bang*.
Naruto only had enough time to let off three bullets felling the Stalker before he had to dodge a runner that was far too close for comfort. The room may be slightly damp, but great area for mobility remained. It was good as anything for a Shinobi.
Exhausting some Chakra he took a quick and long leap to the opposite end of the room to make distance between him and the remaining infected. He leapt above a fallen bookshelf that was idly remained in the middle of the room and proceeded to utilise it as a deterrent from a frontal charge of the remaining infected.
This strategy was effective since as soon as he landed there was a small *splash*, the clickers noticed the noise and his presence through echolocation and proceeded to frontal charge Scout. Right into the fallen bookshelf.
The clickers fell, stacking it onto the shelf and began crawling across to his position. The runners which had much better eyesight ran around. This bought Naruto an extra few seconds to open fire on the runners felling two with bullets to the head while for the final runner he engaged in close combat.
The runner went in for a lunge at Scout clone and tried to claw at him.
He failed spectacularly.
Scout was simply too small and nimble.
Infected vs Ninja.
Ninja wins hands down so using his superior speed and positioning Scout tripped the infected individual and shoved a kunai through his head.
Taking it out, he faced the clickers.
He needed to reload and there were 2 clickers left to deal with. They were crawling above the bookshelves and were about to bull charge him.
Deciding not to place too much risk into the confrontation Scout proceeded to reload a magazine with fresh bullets into the handgun and fired only managing to kill one while the other remained free to charge him.
The Clicker charged and with little room to jump to in time he thought fast and jumped directly up. The clicker was now just below him and deciding to save bullets Scout readied his kunai. As he came down he aimed the tip at its head and lunged forward. The clicker however noticed his presence in the air and turned up to face him.
It couldn't see him but it could sense his movement, his noise.
This was Scouts only shot and he had to do it right. To soon or too late it would be over for him. He couldn't be dispelled. Not yet.
The clone gambled and lunged the kunai at its head. It landed and struck through its forehead. there was a moment pause before the clicker began to collapse with Scout still holding a kunai through its head. The fight was over and he had won.
Scout stood still preparing for more, yet he couldn't hear anymore wild splashes in the water nor the sound of groaning or clicking.
Was it over?
Scout took a moment to regain his composure, reloaded and cleaned his bloody kunai. He paused in case he missed anything.
Nothing.
He could hear the survivors talking but there weren't anymore gunshots. It was over.
Preparing himself Scout figured it was time to finally meet the survivors.
Total supplies of Scout clone remaining:
1 assault rifle, M4 20 bullets.
1 9 mm pistol with 4 bullets,
And 2 health packs
10 general kunai remained
1 kunai with explosive note
18 food pills
20 blood pills
5 canteens of water
Additional comments:
So how was the chapter? I spent a bit of time on it. Originally it was meant to be short and he goes to the 'community' (you'll find out what community is soon I encourage guesses. It may come out next chapter), but I wanted to try thicken the pot while getting to know some new characters OC's. Don't worry I have good plans for them.
Also when I post chapters I will most likely update the existing chapters down the road to improve it or make it more presentable while cleaning any errors in the story I can find. As you've noticed I'm rushing chapters out since my free time will be strained pretty soon and I tend to make errors in my rush. That's why I'd like constructive reviews to fix anything bad.
if there is something you'd like to see please post it as a review and if I think its good I may add it. For now I have a general plot line for the story in my head and lots of free time to write it. I don't plan to abandon this story, EVER until i complete it so expect many updates.
I'm still new to writing fanfiction so please read and review with constructive critique. It helps you and me in the long run. I'd like to be almost pro when i get to the juicy bits of the game like meeting Ellie and Joel with the start of their adventure and a good form of romance with Ellie, not planning anything to sappy or stupid.
so please review