The Abandoned Brewery

Chapter 7

Night of the Drunken Dead

Nikolai's Point of View

"Yo, Nikolai! Wake up! It's your shift!" Dempsey said to me, waking me up.

"No." I say, falling back to sleep. He slapped my face. "Alright, alright, sheesh. I'm up, I'm up. You're like father." I mumbled the last part. I stretch, feeling much more energized. I look around. No zombies. I make a makeshift chair out of extra wood and sit in it, bored. I eventually fall asleep.

A few hours later I wake up. I see Takeo right in front of me and I have a stinging pain in my cheek. He slapped me awake!

"Screw you, Takeo!"

"You slept through your entire shift! A zombie got in the shelter and nearly killed Richtofen if I didn't wake up because of the noise! Go back inside. It's my shift anyway."

"Go to Hell…" I walk back inside, and Dempsey and Richtofen were awake.

"You nearly got us killed!" Dempsey said, furious.

"Ja! Zhe zombie was a second away from eating my face!"

"You two try staying awake out there for three hours!" I say, angry.

"WE DID." They both say. I mumble under my breath and go to the corner. I take out my vodka bottle, and realize it's empty. Great. Juuuuuuuuuuuust great.

"I have to get vodka refill again…" I say, leaving the shelter. I head towards the brewery.

"Where do you think you are going?" Takeo said to me. Unfazed, I keep walking. "I asked you a question, drunk."

"I'm going to your mom's house, that's where I'm going."

"I killed my mother."

"IT WAS AN INSULT, ASS!" I yell. I run inside the brewery. I need to get drunk before I go abusive husband on their asses, like I did to wives (kill them, I mean). I fill my bottle with the strongest vodka there, and drink. I can already feel the sweet, sweet vodka calming me down. I take another gulp. I refill the bottle and start to head back. Before I leave the room though, I hear zombies screaming. I follow to sound, fingers on the trigger of my Win Falafel. I looked into the room where it was coming from. It was marked "Experimental Drinks. Authorized Personnel Only." I open the door, which oddly didn't cost points, and see zombies drinking from a vat of the weirdest looking vodka I've ever seen. It was neon orange, illuminating the dark room. The zombies were now glowing the same shade of orange the vodka was. They heard me come in. They turned and charged at me. They were so fast. I aim my falafel, but one of the zombies slapped it out of my hands. I duck as the other swung at me. I bash their heads together, shattering their fragile skulls. I take out my X2 Flare Gun and shoot the other two. I sigh. That makes three special zombies in one place. I bend down for my falafel. I pick it up, but I notice something about the dead zombies. I look down to investigate. I poke a corpse with my falafel. The corpses immediately explode with the force of a bouncing betty. I blast throws me against the wall. I fall face-first on the hard floor. I try to get up, but I can't.

No.

NO!

I'm down. I'm down, and there's nobody here to save my sorry ass this time. I guess this is what I get. All those wives I killed, all the people I've made suffer. I guess this is the end of Nikolai. The other's don't need me. I've just been a burden the entire time I've been with them. The constant bickering with Takeo, always getting down because of something stupid, always slowing them down to get vodka. I shouldn't be here. I've had this coming. I just can't believe that it was an exploding corpse that did me in.

But then I get a surge of energy. I'm not going to give up. I'm not letting some hellpig erase me from this Earth! I crawl through the hallway, using every bit of my strength, which was draining away fast. I yell for help, hoping someone will hear me. Nobody seemed to be coming. I struggle against death's inviting arms. I yell for help again. But as soon as I yell, I collapse. I can see a great darkness. Everything else started turning red. I'm just about to give up, but I hear someone coming. Was Dempsey here? Or Richtofen?

It was Takeo. Great. My last few seconds in this world will be his gaze, unforgiving and happy for my demise. Then I feel something stab my arm. Was he cutting me with his sword!? I give up all hope and put my head down, and close my eyes. Any minute now Satan will welcome me to the depths of Hell.

…

"Uh…Satan? Anytime now!" I say, half-expecting to not hear anything.

"I'm certainly not the Devil. How drunk are you exactly? And are you just going to lay there, or are you going to get up and follow me back to the others?" I hear a voice that clearly wasn't demonic. In fact, it was rather…Japanese. I open my eyes. I…I'm alive! I would never think it, but the Jap of all people saved my life! I slowly get up.

"You…you saved me. You could have left me there to die, to finally be rid of me forever. After all the shit I've said about you, after all the arguments and brawls, you saved me. Why?"

"I may despise you, Nikolai. I may curse your family's name. I would love take one of you vodka bottles and smash it over your head on a daily basis. But I'd never let a friend die."

"Friend? You just said you hated me and my family!"

"You are right. You are not my friend. You are lucky that Dempsey and Richtofen actually enjoy your company. If they didn't, I would have left you."

"I always knew that you liked me deep down. Not gaily by the way."

"I don't"

"So you're in love with me?"

"No, you moron. I hate you to the core of my very being. Now, let's get back to the other two before I kill you myself."

"Okay. Bestie!" He backhanded me.

"I for one would respect the man who just saved my life, drunk. Let's go.

"Fine. Antagonize me for trying to be friendly." We walk back to the shelter.

"Vhere vere you guys?" Richtofen said.

"I bet they were making out in a closest in the brewery." Dempsey said. Takeo slapped him. I gave him a death glare. Richtofen gave him a questioning look. He rubbed his cheek where Takeo slapped him. "Ow… I'm not gonna charge at you again because I know what'll happen, but that really fucking stung!"

"Let that be a lesson to you, American. If you must know, I just saved Nikolai's life."

"How?"

"I was going inside the brewery to see what he was doing, and I heard him scream."

"I wasn't screaming! Screaming is for pussies! I was yelling like a man!" I say, defending my honor. Oh great, now I'm turning into him. Honor…he's addicted to it, like some foreign drug.

"Okay, Nikki. You know what? I'm going to start calling you that from now on, until you apologize for your completely disrespectful behavior to me throughout the years."

"I'm sorry." I say.

"A sincere apology."

"Not on your life!" I say.

"If you say so, Nikki." He said that to me with delight, knowing that it annoyed me.

"Nikolai, vhat exactly got you down?" Richtofen asked me.

"Well, I just got my vodka refill, and was about to come back to you guys, when I heard some hellpigs scream. I follow the screams to a dark room, and the zombies were drinking weird vodka. Next thing I know two charge at me. I kill all the zombies but then the two corpses that I killed exploded and nearly killed me. Then, I was wallowing in self-pity when-"

"A dark room? Super drinks? Mutated freakbags? Is this the place where the Perks were made?" Dempsey interrupted. Asshole.

"Ve need to find out. Nikolai, bring us to zhe room!"

"Okay. Follow me." I led them back to the room. There were a few zombies in there, which we quickly disposed of.

"Interesting…vats of glowing drinks. Let me see…my Russian-translating skills are bit rusty…" Richtofen looked at sign on the vat of red liquid. "Juggernaut Cola. Ingesting should increase durability against blows." He read. "Zhis is prototype Juggernog!"

"Free Jugg!" Dempsey said, grabbing a mug left on a desk. I take out an empty vodka bottle.

"Nein, you idiots! Zhis could be very unstable! It could kill you!"

"If there's a Juggernog machine in this place, then it must have been tested!" I protest.

"Or Sam put zhem here!"

"Geez, fine." Dempsey said. He looked over at the other vats. "What's this orange one?" It was the same vat that the hellpigs that nearly killed me came from. I looked at the sign.

"Um…Super-Sonic Formula. Ingesting should grant heightened stamina and speed. Known side effects include loss of sleep and loss of bone marrow." I read. "Must be Stamin-up. It is clearly not finished. The zombies freaking exploded on me after I killed them!"

"What about that neon green one?" Takeo pointed to yet another vat. Richtofen walked to it.

"Dexterity Alcohol. Ingesting should greatly improve hand-eye coordination and faster reflexes. Side effects include higher amounts of perspiration and vomiting." He read. "Speed Cola, in simplistic terms."

"Wait a second here. Perspiration, as in sweat?" Dempsey said.

"Ja."

"Shit! Do you know what this means? The maggot whores have been drinking from these vats, turning them into jacked-up versions! The Speed Cola's side effects cause sweating, like the zombie that exploded on us, causing the others to come after us. The Stamin-up zombies nearly killed Nikolai, and the Bruisers drank Jugg!" Dempsey said.

"And with several more perks in here…there's no telling what might happen!" I say.

"For once Nikki is right. We need to get out of here." Takeo said. I will throw that bastard to the sharks one day.

"I vill stay here. Zhis is a perfect opportunity to study zhe perks, reverse-engineer zhem, and create perks from scratch. In ozher vords, free perks. I can handle myself alone, so you zhree go vizhout me, and come up vith an escape plan. Come get me vhen you figure it out. Oh and Takeo, you are in charge."

"What?" I say, terrified.

"That's BS." Dempsey said.

"Deal with it. What the honorable doctor says goes." Takeo said. We left the room. Why, Richtofen?

Okay, a few announcements.

If you also follow Escaping Alcatraz and have read the latest chapter, you can skip this part and go to the bottom. For those who haven't, read on.

I'm issuing a contest to all of my readers out there. I want you guys to come up with your own Wonder Weapon. You have to give me a name, what it does, and a Pack-a-Punched name. I'm really interested in what you guys come up with. The top three will be featured in later books in my Zombies series! There are a few rules for this contest though.

1. It has to be an ORIGINAL idea. If it's from another fanfiction or a custom map it won't be accepted.

2. The weapon has to be balanced. No nuke guns that automatically kills every zombie or anything like that.

3. It can be a gun (like the Ray Gun, Blundergat, Thundergun, etc.), equipment (Gersch Device, Monkey Bombs, etc.) or even a melee weapon (Like the Golden Spork).

4. It can't be based on another series. No Mario weapons, no Batman gadgets, no Harry Potter wands, etc.

5. Please no inappropriate language. I didn't think I would have to say this but a certain entry has brought me to doing so.

As long as it's within the rules, let your creativity flow! Submit your entry in a review or a private message. Deadline has yet to be determined.

Second, since I got positive feedback with the backstories last chapter, I decided to start adding Character Profiles of each character in my stories. They include full-length biographies up to Shi no Numa of each character. As of right now, only the Original Characters have been finished, with Samantha and the Mob of the Dead Crew coming soon. Just a warning: I sorta went all-out with Richtofen's backstory, and it is LONG.