Well here we go, the 7th chapter in a series I'm very much enjoying writing. I didn't think I was going to get this far tbh but hopefully I can just keep cranking 'em out. Also don't forget to vote in the poll on my profile for who you want to survive, it may make a difference. And keep those reviews coming, I appreciate everyone's comments thus far!
Anyways, prepare yourselves folks, this one's an action packed chapter filled! Picking up right where we left at the cliffhanger last time.
WARNING: This story contains scenes of violence, swearing, sexual activity and character deaths.
With her eyes closed tight, Courtney was unable to witness the act of bravery that saved her life. But she did hear parts of it: the gunshots going off were very close to her. The gunfire ended fairly quickly and then she heard bodies falling to the ground and some sort of a smashing sound.
When she finally dared open her eyes, Courtney saw all the zombies were no longer moving around her. Duncan the delinquent was kneeling on the ground, still pummeling one of the corpses' heads in with a rock. Finally he stopped and turned to look at her: she saw he was completely covered in blood.
"Th-thank you Duncan." Courtney managed to get out as he rose back to his feet, giving her a nod, "You actually saved my life."
"I'm not letting you die on me." Duncan managed to get out.
Alejandro and Noah had come over to them after the former dispatched of another couple of zombies. The Spaniard saw Duncan and looked very worried, "Where's Heather?"
Duncan shook his head, "I lost her in the swarm. I heard Courtney scream and came running immediately. I'm sorry dude."
Alejandro looked crestfallen, but Duncan turned to Noah and said, "Here, I picked this off the ground from our surprisingly friendly host after Blaineley killed him."
It was Chris' gun, the .357 magnum. Noah's eyes widened as he took the weapon, feeling much more relieved that he didn't have to rely purely on Alejandro to survive.
"Wow, I wasn't expecting such generosity from you of all people." Noah said in a sort of complimenting fashion, "We should get the others and then high tail it for the yacht before Mildred gets there."
Trent had long since given up trying to use his pathetic knife against the zombies. He had actually managed to kill a single zombie, but their sheer numbers were going to overwhelm him if he didn't do something fast. So he did: he bolted. He knew Blaineley was going to try making a run for the yacht and he hoped that would be the safest place for him to hide and then assist his friends in whatever way possible. He considered sacrificing himself for the others; after all the only person he truly cared about was already gone. They'd left Gwen behind at the cottage and he had low hopes that she was alive. But to be a sacrifice, first he had to be in a useful position to do such a thing.
"Follow me you undead creeps!" Trent hollered as loudly as possible over the gunfire, trying to get the attention of the zombies. He veered off away from the yacht, changing his initial plan, and continued shouting. It was starting to work; as his friends ran out of ammo, his voice became louder and louder. And many of the zombies were eager to catch the fleeing prey.
Trent lost track of where the rest of his friends were as he fled into the woods, hearing the footfalls and groans of hungry zombies behind him. He didn't have a clue where he was leading them exactly, but he just wanted to double back after getting a safe distance away. Perhaps this was going to work.
The musician burst into a clearing in the woods and halted for a moment: which way was he going to go to double back? The zombies weren't that far behind, but then he realized his mistake: zombies were additionally coming at him from the direction he was running. His heart skipped a beat as he saw some of the singed zombies who had survived the explosion at Chris' cottage emerging from ahead of him. He was trapped.
DJ and Geoff had both run out of ammo by this point and were starting to panic. DJ was using his shotgun as a club, using his brute strength to smash through the heads of a few zombies. But the zombies seemed never ending, and the brick house was starting to get tired. Bridgette and Katie were still cowering behind the two guys, with the surfer girl closing her eyes and praying for this to all just be a nightmare that she would soon wake up from.
"Get ready to run," DJ said to the other three, "I'll hold them off while you three make a break back where we came from. Come up with a new plan to get off the island."
"What? No, we aren't leaving you behind." Katie insisted and took a deep breath, drawing her knife, "We're all here for each other, that's what you said."
DJ bowed his head in acknowledgement and continued beating zombie heads in. Bridgette seemed inspired by this comment and she opened her eyes, steeling herself to at least try and defend herself. Though Geoff had other ideas.
"Bridgette you at least have to run. You're not just fighting for yourself." Geoff exclaimed, glancing down at Bridgette's stomach.
"No, I'm not leaving you here to die Geoff." Bridgette said, though she was visibly trembling as she held her knife and watched as an oncoming zombie came towards her.
But she wasn't going to have to kill it. There was a blur of purple and the sound of a blade slicing through flesh and the zombie collapsed. Bridgette blinked a few times and shook her head as if to clear it and clarify what the heck she just saw. It was Sierra wielding her machete: she had survived after all.
"Bad zombie!" Sierra growled as she attacked another one, "I didn't write thirteen Geoff + Bridgette fan blogs just so you could ruin them!"
The super fan continued her assault, scaring just about everyone, and she turned out to be very, very dangerous. They then heard gunshots from the tree line: Chef Hatchet, LeShawna and Izzy had come to save the day. Their barrage of bullets massacred the zombies nearby and the group was given a brief respite. Alejandro, Noah, Courtney and Duncan were seen rushing over to make sure their allies were alright.
"Dude you totally saved our bacon." Geoff thanked Chef, Sierra, LeShawna and Izzy, "Where are the others?"
"Gothie, Geek face and Geek face two went after Guitar Boy." Chef said and some took a moment or two to register who those people were.
"We have to go back and get them!" Sierra exclaimed, "Being apart from Cody for this long has been awful! And he might be in trouble!"
"You've been separated for three minutes, calm down girlie." Chef rolled his eyes, "But we do need to go back for 'em. Say, where's Chris?"
Most of them looked at their feet and didn't say anything as it dawned on Chef what had happened to his partner in crime on the show. Chef didn't say anything either, his face became impassive and he turned back to the woods.
"Let's go get the others. You all clear the path to the yacht and we'll all get the fuck off this death trap." Chef said icily as he strode off towards where there were shouts in the woods, LeShawna, Izzy and Sierra hot on his heels.
"Come on," Courtney said after a moment, getting everybody's attention, "the path to the docks is mostly cleared, which means Blaineley is probably already there. We can't let her leave with our only transport off the island, so let's move it!"
"Conserve what bullets any of you may have left." Alejandro warned as he joined Courtney at the front of the formation, "Try and use your knives or whatever else you have. We don't need to draw them towards us."
Almost as soon as the group began cleaving through the zombies right in front of the dock, they heard a gunshot. Alejandro frowned, "What did I just-"
"Get down!" Katie warned, pushing Alejandro down just as another gunshot went off and hit where Alejandro's face had been just seconds before.
They heard evil cackling and realized the shots were coming from the yacht: Blaineley was already aboard and was firing off rounds at the remaining campers running for the boat. The worst part of it all, was some of the zombies who were headed for the woods were turning around; which was precisely Blaineley's plan.
"This is what you deserve!" Blaineley cackled maniacally as she missed another shot, this one aiming for Courtney, "You should've listened to me, but now it's too late! I'm leaving the island and I'm making sure none of you can follow me!"
"You're insane!" Geoff screamed and ducked as Blaineley's next shot targeted him, "Dang man, that's seriously lame."
"Oh I'm going to enjoy watching you die most of all Geoff, you too Bridgette." Blaineley taunted, "You made my life hell on the Aftermath Show! And you Courtney, you were the person I was eliminated with on World Tour! All of you are going to pay for the torture I've been put through!"
"Violence isn't the answer!" DJ called desperately as the zombies started getting closer, "We understand you have demons Blaineley, but we can work this out! If you kill us all, there's no going back!"
Blaineley's eye twitched as she turned her gun on DJ, "I've already killed Chris, you think I'm stupid? I know you'll all kill me the first chance you get. But sadly for you, I'm the only one left with any ammo!"
Blaineley fired again and this time her shot made contact: she hit DJ in the shoulder and he cried out and keeled over. Katie gasped and immediately moved to help DJ while Blaineley laughed at them.
"This is the most fun I've-" Blaineley began but her eyes widened and as her next words were about to come out of her mouth, instead she spewed out blood. Everyone looked around at each other in shock: no one had fired a gun.
Up on the yacht, Blaineley felt the weapon embedded in her back and she slowly turned around to face her attacker.
"They call me the backstabber for a reason you bitch." Heather, Queen of Mean, snarled at her before withdrawing her hand axe and hitting Blaineley over the head with the weapon. The blonde TV host's eyes rolled into the back of her head and she collapsed on the ground, leaving everyone still on the dock in a stunned silence.
"Alright Heather!" Duncan cheered and realized what he'd said, "Wow, never thought those words would come out of my mouth."
"Heather quick, let us on the yacht!" Courtney shouted, indicating the railing blocking their entry.
Heather didn't hesitate to do so and just like that, everybody else was able to climb aboard except DJ and Katie. DJ's wound was severe and he was starting to bleed out. Katie was desperately trying to pull him onto the ship, but she just wasn't strong enough.
"Just go," DJ coughed out blood as he turned back and saw Beth the zombie leading the charge towards him and Katie, "please. I don't want to drag you down."
"Shut up," Katie snapped at him, "I told you already I'm not leaving you behind."
Katie tapped into her adrenaline and used strength she didn't know she had to drag DJ the rest of the way up the board to the yacht. Noah started shooting the nearby zombies on the dock to try and slow them down by causing a pile up of bodies they had to get through.
"He's losing a lot of blood!" Katie choked up as DJ appeared to pass out, "Someone help him!"
"I have basic medical training." Bridgette told her, "We need to move him to a bed or something so I can have a look."
"I don't want to be the bearer of bad news, but I don't think the others are going to be able to get to the yacht like this." Noah said as he fired the .357 magnum once again.
"Close the entry, we need to get out of here." Heather commanded coldly.
"No way dude! Chef and the rest need our help!" Geoff protested.
"We're all going to die if we stay here much longer. This is our chance, we need to take it." Heather reminded him.
"Whatever you do, decide soon cause I'm nearly out!" Noah shouted back.
The zombies inched ever closer to Trent as he backed into the middle of the clearing and saw zombies on all sides. He gulped, "Nice zombies? Friendly zombies? Not-going-to-eat-me zombies?"
All he received in response were snarls. He sighed and accepted he was finished; at least he helped the others.
"Trent!" He heard a familiar voice call out to him, "Climb into the tree, hurry!"
It was Gwen. His heart flooded with relief and joy, but he snapped back to reality and quickly did as he was told as his former girlfriend started shooting the zombies in the clearing. Trent was also able to see Harold firing off his rifle into the horde.
"We're going to lead them away before we run out of ammo!" Gwen hollered at Trent, "When you see your opening, run!"
"I don't want to leave you!" Trent called back.
"Too bad soldier!" They heard Chef's voice as he entered the fray with LeShawna, Izzy and Sierra, "That's an order! We'll double back and follow as quick as we can!"
"Quick Cody!" Sierra screamed as she grabbed hold of him, "Time to go!"
The zombies turned to follow after Sierra, Cody, LeShawna, Izzy, Harold, Chef and Gwen. Trent and Gwen locked eyes once and the musician mouthed, "I love you," to her before she turned and fled with the others. After only a little bit of time, the zombies had totally cleared out and Trent was home free to run back to the docks. He knew he wouldn't have much time, so he decided to heed Gwen and Chef's request and run as fast as his legs could carry him to where the others would hopefully still be waiting.
"How are we going to get back there?" LeShawna called out, taking some heavy breaths as she wasn't used to so much running, "The whole place is crawling with those suckers!"
"Fear not my chocolate goddess, I will protect you." Harold told her and she rolled her eyes, "We can simply-"
"Watch out string bean!" LeShawna warned him and just managed to shoot her pistol at the zombie that had just lunged for Harold. She put a bullet right through its head, one second before it would've sunk its teeth into the geek.
"This is insane!" Cody cowered from Sierra's back, "There's no way we're going to make it back, we have to try a new strategy!"
"Get to high ground!" Harold called back, "At least we'll be able to visualize our surroundings better. Come on!"
"Chef?" Izzy noticed the cook seemed to be in a faraway place, "Hatchet?"
flashback scene
"We're pinned down!" The corporal reported to the walkie-talkie, "What are our orders commander?"
Chef Hatchet and his crew were trapped in the jungle, not even being able to lift their heads up for fear of being shot. They had been raiding a terrorist cell, but they were jumped and forced to flee back to their base. Unfortunately, they'd been followed inside the treacherous jungle where the locals knew the area better than they did and there location was compromised.
"Commander are you serious? I've got twenty five men here and that's all you can do?" The corporal seemed angry.
"What's the issue corporal?" Chef chanced the question to his platoon leader.
The corporal threw down the walkie-talkie and sighed before addressing his troop, "Men, I hate to say this but we're on our own. The commander has abandoned us and says our only chance is to run for our fucking lives or die here in this trench."
"Go out there? No way, we're just going to die!" Another man with bushy eyebrows exclaimed.
"It's either a chance to live or a guarantee to die by staying here." Chef said, gritting his teeth, "I saw we run."
"If we can get to high ground, we can visualize our surroundings better." The corporal seemed in agreement with Chef, "Come on men, the fight isn't over yet!"
And with that, the twenty five abandoned soldiers ran for their very lives, immediately getting shot at...
back to present
Chef blinked and tried to ignore how similar Harold's suggestion was to a ghost from his past and he ran with the kids up the long hill on the island that lead to the infamous Wawanakwa cliff. They soon reached the top of the cliff and quickly realized the problem: there was nowhere else to go from here but the water.
"Brilliant thinking Harold." LeShawna said sarcastically, "What the heck do we do now?"
"There's no guarantee we'll survive jumping." Cody gulped nervously as he peaked over the edge of the cliff and watched as a few pebbles took the long fall down.
"We got more problems!" Gwen shrieked and pointed as the zombies slowly began making their way up the hill towards the cliff's edge. Gwen began shooting again, as did Izzy, Harold and LeShawna since they still had a few bullets left. Chef had run out of ammo so he started attacking with his cleaver he had taken from the kitchens, while Sierra fought with her katana.
"There's too many!" Harold shouted as he killed another but then found a problem, "And I'm out of ammo!"
Chef was in a daze again as he cleaved (literally) through another zombie and had another flashback.
flashback
As soon as the troop exited the trench, about half of them were mowed down by machine gun fire. The other half managed to get into the cover of some trees, but they didn't dare stop moving. The corporal lead the way, running from tree to tree to limit the amount of time he was visible to any sniper or shooter in the trees. Chef followed his example, as did others, but some were unlucky. Two more fell to snipers in the trees, but they had no choice but to continue pressing on.
At some point, of the remaining ten soldiers, the group got split into two groups of five. Chef was still with the corporal and the five of them had regrouped and were discussing a strategy.
"Alright, we're nearly out." The corporal tried staying positive, "It's just over that ridge, so here's what I'm thinking. I'll draw out their fire and you guys-"
The walkie-talkie crackled to life and the voice of the man with the bushy eyebrows was panicking, "Corporal there's too many of them! We're out of ammo, help us, ah!"
They heard gunfire and then nothing but static from the walkie-talkie. They fell silent and the corporal took a deep breath.
"We're going to survive this, you hear me? We're not letting all of 'em die in vain. Got it?"
"Sir yes sir!" They all saluted, though they all looked mortified. And then they continued the run for their very lives.
back to present
"Twenty five of us went into the jungle that night...only five came back out." Chef's PTSD from his war days was hitting him hard and his focus was slipping. He looked around at the teenagers under his wing and tried his best to get it together: he had to save these kids. He couldn't fail them like he'd failed his platoon.
"I'm out too sugar!" LeShawna cried, actually looking scared for the first time.
Cody realized that the line of defense his friends were maintaining wasn't quite enough. One of the zombies managed to slip past them and was headed straight for him: and he had no weapon at all but the knife. He quickly drew it, but the zombie jumped at him and the knife went skittering over the edge of the cliff and down into the murky waters below. Cody yelled in fear as he tried to wrestle the zombie off of him, but his strength just wasn't enough.
Luckily, his stalker's was. Sierra grabbed a hold of the zombie and threw it off of him. She then jumped on it and stabbed it through the head with the katana.
"Thanks Sierra, you're amazing!" Cody couldn't help but say it and Sierra blushed.
"Oh Cody, I love-" Sierra shrieked as she belt teeth digging into her neck. While distracted by Cody, and still kneeling on the ground after finishing off the last zombie, the sugar addicted super fan had left herself exposed. Cody looked on in horror as his protector shoved the zombie off of her, but the damage was done.
"This is it, the end!" LeShawna started to cry and it was easy to understand why she was despairing. The zombie horde was never ending and the group was trapped at the top of the cliff. Sierra had been bitten and Cody was in shock. Harold and Izzy had run out of ammo, Gwen was running low and Chef was in between reality and flashbacks. They'd all backed up to the edge of the cliff now and were facing a choice.
"We have to jump, but we need enough time to all make the jump!" Harold exclaimed, "My luscious LeShawna, I insist you go first."
LeShawna nodded and said, "Goodbye sweet world!"
She jumped and Sierra said, "I'll h-hold them all off. I'm dead anyway."
"What? No way!" Cody was kneeling next to her, ignoring the oncoming zombies.
"Cody," Sierra said weakly as Gwen could be seen jumping off the cliff in the background, "you must live, for us!"
And with that, Sierra mustered up what was left of her strength to attack the zombies and give the others enough time. Izzy and Harold had already jumped, leaving just Sierra, Cody and Chef on the cliff.
Chef gave Sierra a salute, "We appreciate your sacrifice soldier, I swear to you it will not be in vain."
Chef grabbed Cody while the nerd protested, "No! Sierra! Stop!"
But Chef had an iron clad grip on him and he jumped over the cliff with him in his arms, screaming, "Sierra!"
Sierra now stood alone on the cliff, stabbing a few of them, but once she saw Cody had made it over the cliff, she lowered her weapon and smiled, "At least he's safe."
And that was her last peaceful thought before she got torn apart, her katana clattering uselessly to the ground beside her.
"SeƱorita, it is time to go." Alejandro urged Courtney, who had insisted on taking the wheel of the yacht, "If we wait any longer, Heather is right; we will all perish here."
"I think he's right Court, we can't see the others and Noah's out of bullets." Duncan said and finally the CIT nodded her head in defeat.
"Alright," She said before calling out loudly, "I'm going to drive us out of here now!"
"Finally," Heather muttered and she looked down at Blaineley's unconscious body, "now to guarantee we make it..."
Heather picked up Blaineley, with Alejandro's assistance, and walked over to the railing of the yacht. Blaineley was just starting to wake up, but she couldn't do anything to prevent the pair of them from throwing her over board and back onto the dock. Heather had made sure to grab Blaineley's gun before hurling her off the ship.
Blaineley shook her head a couple of times but what she saw was her worst nightmare: Beth and Chris, both zombified, were reaching for her. And there was nowhere to run.
"You!" Blaineley hissed at Chris, who bit down on her, "I got my revenge, this can't be...no!"
Blaineley's screams died, much like she did as Chris got his revenge against her. Courtney piloted the yacht away from the dock and started to steer the boat in the direction of the mainland.
"Wait!" They heard a distant voice from the island and Geoff peered out to see Trent, waving his arms frantically at them from the beach, "Come back!"
"Courtney!" Geoff called to her, "Trent's still alive, go to the beach and pick him up quick!"
Courtney bit her lip and weighed the risks. She eventually decided to turn back and go save him: enough people had been left behind today. Though she didn't dare go all the way to the beach, just in case some of the zombies got onto the boat.
"Swim out the rest of the way dude!" Geoff called as Courtney stopped the yacht about seventy feet out. Trent didn't need to be told twice as several zombies had started in his direction as he was the last living person on the island. In no time at all, Trent made it to the boat where Geoff threw down a rope for him to climb up.
Soaking wet, Trent was shaking and he said, "Thanks man."
"Only ten of us." Courtney heard Duncan saying from next to her, "Only ten of us made it off the island."
The CIT surveyed the survivors about her: DJ was unconscious and getting patched up by a very nervous Bridgette while Katie stood nearby trying not to throw up. It seemed that now that they were temporarily safe, the reality of everything they had just endured and experienced was catching up with them. Geoff was handing Trent a towel to dry off, but both gentlemen seemed extremely down; which was rare in Geoff's case. Courtney could see that Trent was crying and it didn't take long to realize why: Gwen hadn't made it. Courtney tried not to dwell on it either, though she knew she'd shed a tear about it later when no one was looking. She hoped Duncan wasn't too down about Gwen either, though she was pretty sure those two had called off their relationship.
Even Noah seemed to be thrown off his usual cynicism. Now that his services as the last one of them with a gun and bullets were no longer required, he promptly threw up over the side of the boat. Heather appeared to be doing the same as the horror at the fact that she realized she had killed Blaineley hit her. Alejandro stood next to her with a comforting hand on her back, but even he had a worried look on his face.
"Listen up everyone," Courtney said, trying to muster up some confidence in her, "I know we're all scared and upset. And we don't know what we're going to find when we make it back to the mainland. We've lost many of our friends, and our leader, and we will mourn them and avenge them. We will fight and survive for their sakes and for our own. We will not give up!"
No one spoke in response, but her speech did seem to give them at least a little hope. There wasn't much else for her to say so she started up the engine again and drove for the mainland. All they could do now was survive and hold onto each other. For if they didn't, they might not even be able to hold onto their humanity. And like DJ said, once you go too far, there was no going back.
And there you have it, finally the survivors make it off the island. Granted it's only 10 of them, bet you expected more than that. Or is it only 10? Do you think any of Chef's group survived the fall? What did you guys think of the demise of Blaineley and Sierra? I know a lot of people wanted Blaineley to die for her sadistic actions previously. And what's going to happen to the survivors headed for the mainland? Find out next time on Undead Drama!
DEAD: Sadie, Owen, Justin, Eva, Lindsay, Ezekiel, Tyler, Beth, Chris, Sierra, Blaineley
ALIVE: Heather, Duncan, Geoff, DJ, Bridgette, Trent, Courtney, Katie, Noah, Alejandro
UNKNOWN/PRESUMED DEAD: Gwen, LeShawna, Izzy, Harold, Cody, Chef Hatchet
