Don't startle the Witch chapter 7
"Jesus Christ," Nick said when he saw Homura standing there. "I don't even know your name, but you're already getting on my nerves."
"I agree with the man." Coach said, crossing his arms. "You actually could'a helped us back there.
"You appeared to have the situation fairly under control." Homura said, flicking her hair back. "Here. Who would like a grenade launcher?"
"I'll take it." Ellis said, and Homura passed him the single-barreled launcher.
"Geez, Ellis." Rochelle said with disbelief. "That's your third grenade launcher in the last 2 days."
"Hey, that a problem to you?" Ellis joked.
"Not yet."
Madoka looked up at Homura, Madoka's hands shaking around the hilt of a different Frying pan she picked up after her cricket bat snapped.
"Sick of firearms?" Homura asked Madoka in a physic link.
"A little bit… Doesn't feel right for me…" Madoka responded, a slight blush on her face.
"Understandable. And the situation?"
"Zombies? I hate them." Madoka giggled. "And I need a bath. Really bad."
"What're y'all standing around for? Let's get going." Coach questioned.
"I agree with Coach." Mami said.
"All right, y'all." Ellis said, noticing the collapsing walkways crashing into the thick swamp water. "Let's just stay on the walkways."
Madoka looked down at her burned shoes and torn tights. She was a mess. Swamp water won't make it any worse.
"Which way are we going?" Mami asked, noticing a fork in the pathway.
"Bottle of puke here." Nick said, checking a nearby house. "And a Chainsaw. Ellis?"
Ellis looked down at his dented frying pan and simply nodded no.
"Wow, that's a first." Nick said, and picked up the Chainsaw for himself.
"Anything else in there?" Coach asked, walking in himself. "Aww yeah, I got the pills!"
"Grabbin' a shot!" Ellis said, picking up the last of the items inside the room.
Homura stayed oddly with the rest of the group, thinking of Coach's remark to 'stay with y'all' during the Midnight riders concert, a pump-shotgun in her hands.
Mami and Homura never actually make eye-contact, as Madoka and Sayuka both sensed a very thick tension between the two, a dangerous thing to have in the current appocolypse.
Everyone looked around when they heard the oh-so-familiar sound that cursed their ears. Crying.
"That crying girl's around. Kill your lights." Ellis said, reaching over and turning the light off his grenade launcher.
Everyone else did the same, and Sayuka's flashlight died before the concert was over.
"Anyone got any good Cr0wning weapons?" Ellis asked, his current loadout not very good for the Witch battle.
Homura walked past Ellis with a loaded Spaz-12.
"Do y'all know what you're doing?" Coach questioned.
"Completely." Homura said, the shotgun loose in her hands.
"Huh?" The Witch attempted the speak, in her quiet, raspy voice.
"Goodbye." Homura said, and everyone was amazed when Homura pulled the trigger and the Witch's head exploded from close range, blood splattering all over the floor, The Witch's long claws inches away from Homura.
"Jesus Christ!" Nick yelled, startled.
"Oh my god…" Sayuka said, swallowing hard.
Homura kicked the empty shotgun shell off the walkway and calmy looked down at the decapitated Witch, its head in pieces all over the walkway.
"Honestly now," Homura said, and fired another shot into the stomach area of the already-dead witch. Double tap. Even if it's head is gone. Homura pushed off the witch with her foot, the dirty swamp water quickly turning bloody.
"Am I the only one getting kinda 'fraid of her, though?" Ellis whispered.
"Nope." Nick silently responded. "She's probably the best of us here."
"But what's her name?" Ellis pondered.
"Akemi Homura." She responded, somehow hearing them from nearly ten feet away. "Call me Homura."
"Well gee, I'm-" Ellis began.
"Ellis." Homura finished. "Ellis, Nick, Coach, and Rochelle."
"Holy-" Coach began. "How'd you know that?"
"Call it foresight, if you must." Homura said, not bothering to walk back to their location.
"Okay, that's kinda weird, but hey, what the heck." Nick said, and considered a handshake, but quickly told his hand not to, as for all he knows, she could throw him 30 feet in the air or something.
With a long, silent pause, the entire party of survivors continued walking forward, Homura leading this time.
"Sniper here." Homura said, picking up one of the rifles and sliding it into the vast quantities of space under her shield.
"Pow! I'm gonna snipe some freaks with this one!" Coach said, exchanging the shotgun for the rifle.
Ellis walked down a set of stairs, leading to a dock.
"The road stops here. Guess we need to go another way." Ellis said, looking around.
"Over here!" Sayuka said, noticing a patch of land behind the dock.
"Good eyes, girl." Nick said, still having trouble learning names.
"It's Sayuka." She explained to Nick.
"Oh, okay."
"Hey, we got some planks over here." Rochelle said, noticing a couple wooden planks floating in the water.
The survivors carefully wandered the swamps, noticing a faint light in the distance.
"We got lights on over there!" Nick said, running towards it.
Homura stopped Nick when she heard a long hissing noise.
"HEY GUYS, IT'S A SPITTER DUDE!" Ellis shouted, firing at the long-necked zombie with the neon-green liquid spraying from it's mouth.
Rochelle fired a properly-placed sniper shot and the spitter collapsed to the ground.
"Nice shot." Mami complimented.
"Thanks." Rochelle answered.
"Yo everyone, into the Safe house!" Nick instructed as he set up the locks on the steel safe house door.
Every did as they were told and went inside.
"Does anyone have any Bug spray?" Rochelle asked, swatting a mosquito off the back of her neck.
"Ooh, you can try covering yourself in mud." Ellis offered.
"Ellis, not the best idea, don't you think?" Nick said, looking down at his suit. "Can we just get out of here fast? This swamp water's ruining my white suit."
"You mean the same white suit with Zombie brains all over it?" Rochelle teased.
"Hey, brains come out. Swamp water doesn't." Nick responded, then awkwardly paused. "Don't ask me how I know that."
Ellis did as usual and cut-into a conversation with a story.
"I ever tell y'all about the time my buddy Keith tried deep-frying a turkey? Third degree burns over ninety percent of his body. His doctor had to call up like, other doctors to look at him 'cause they never seen burns on top of existing burns."
"Ellis, sweetie, is now the best time?" Rochelle asked.
"Oh, okay." He responded, ending his story.
Sayuka looked down at her shoes and began to complain about the swamp water.
"Sayuka, you only stepped in the water once. It's not that bad." Mami said, with a sigh. "How much worse can it get?"
"Ugh, time to get wet." Ellis said, noticing how the pier outside the safe house quickly angled downward, into the water. Sayuka gave an irritated look at Mami.
"Well, my suit's already ruined. Lets go." Nick said, setting out into the water.
"Let's just go." Ellis said, following him.
"I ever tell you how much I hate swamps?" Sayuka said.
"No. You didn't." Rochelle joked.
"Yeah, I hate swamps. A lot."
"That's good to know."
"What's that over there?" Coach asked, seeing a small light over in a nearby rowboat that went partially ashore.
"I dunno." Rochelle answered. "Lets check it out."
"More Incendiary." Homura said, suddenly appearing in the boat. "And a vile containing 'bile'."
Ellis tossed the Bile jar to Madoka, who nearly stumbled and dropped it.
"I question why you are so interested in vomit." Homura said.
"It's like a beacon for the zombies. They all like the smell." Mami figured.
"That's entirely disgusting." Sayuka said, swatting away bugs.
"To us, but not to them. So long as it stays capped, they wont come running." Nick said.
Madoka carefully clipped the bile jar to the bullet belt Ellis gave her at Whitaker's gun shop, the loops empty and unused.
The survivors walked amongst the swamps, carefully treading. They saw an abandoned house, which had broken apart badly with what everyone would of thought was a tornado; as only the frame still stood. There was a short dock with a couple gallons of Gasoline on it, and a fire axe sticking out the side, nothing worth taking.
"Anyone else see the parachutist back there?" Nick asked, as he took his m-16 rifle.
"I did." Ellis answered. "But what in the world is a parachutist doing out here?"
"Hey Ellis, I found your reason." Rochelle shouted over to Ellis.
"Really?" Ellis and Nick both questioned, running that direction.
"Jesus Christ! A whole plane!" Nick marveled at the crashed airliner with the plane slashed into large chunks, one of the wings bent in half.
"Wow, I don't think we're ever gonna see anything good ever again." Ellis moaned.
"Ellis, you did find some firearms, didn't you?" Mami proposed the question.
"Well, yeah. I guess so." Ellis answered.
"That's good to all of us, really." Mami explained.
"Warning. Alarm will sound if door is opened." Coach read on the side of the closed airplane door, the only way through.
"Figures." Nick sighed. "Pull it, man."
The door opened and a high-pitched alarm rung throughout the swamp.
"Everyone on guard!" Mami ordered, her Tactical shotgun smooth in her hands.
Homura stood on top of the plane, sniping as many incoming zombies she could with the limited clip sizes.
The alarm eventualy stopped ringing and everyone took a second to rest on the stable plane wing, which was mere feet above the ground.
"Woo." Coach said with a pant. "That was a lot of guys."
"You're telling me." Sayuka said, disappointed that her katana finally snapped.
Bullet shells littered the area, bright red shotgun shells to copper-tinted M-16 shells. Homura slid down off the roof to the wing in which everyone sat, and looked down at her egg-shaped gem, a deep purple as compared to Mami's golden one. This one indeed, as very dark and clouded. Her hand closed around it and her clothes transformed into the exact same school outfit all of the other girls wore, still much cleaner than Madoka's. Which made her upset.
"Well, lets get moving. There isn't much further." Homura said, walking out into the swamp, everyone else chasing after her.
