Chapter 11: Am I gonna live, gonna lose it all?

"NATSU!" She yelled as she jumped, shooting at the zombies.

Now, she'd either fly or fall.

Natsu had made it up first and already started clearing the middle floor with Wendy when he decided that Lucy was taking too long.

"It's been too long. Wendy! Go up the stairs and see how Luce is doing. If something happened, come back right away and tell me. I'll take it from there."

Natsu swore when he heard Wendy shoot and she came back. He heard 5 more shots.

"It's bad. There about 30 more upstairs."

30? That was bad.

"Wendy, get out of the house."

"No way! Lucy nee-"

"I know. But Luce is smart. She'll make it out. While she does that, I'm gonna blow it up." He said.

He shot the last zombie on that floor before detaching the grenade from his belt. He let out a few shots and his wish had been heard. Half the zombies chasing after Lucy went after the noise.

He ran to the gas stove and turned it on. He found a propane tank in a stored away grill and prayed it would work as he spilled all the liquid inside it on the floor. Then, he took out his gun and shot at the window until it broke. As he jumped he pulled the pin on the grenade. Yet, right as he launched himself off, he heard his name being yelled.

"NATSU!"

Looking up, he saw the blonde jump from the roof. Welp. It looks like she's as crazy as me.

His instincts kicked in as he angled himself in the best possible position to catch Lucy. Once Lucy was safely in his arms, he came to the realization that Lucy was going to hit the fence, so he turned his body around so he would hit it first.

"Oof." He said as his back made contact with the fence, effectively knocking it down as the house burst in flames. Discarded on the side were their weapons, relatively unharmed.

Lucy and Natsu groaned as Lucy rolled over to the side to let Natsu get up.

"Thanks Natsu." She said, slowly getting up.

"No problem." He moaned, doing the same.

"Omigosh! Natsu! Lucy! Are you guys hurt? Did you break something?" Wendy frantically panicked.

"Don't think so." Lucy said, stretching out her back as Natsu grunted.

"On that note… THAT WAS SOOOO COOL!" Wendy cheered. "It was like it was from an anime or something."

Lucy chuckled. "It sure seems to hurt more though."

"I second that." Natsu joined in. "But, we better get going if we wanna survive. Zombies will be coming in a few minutes."

Wendy and Lucy picked up their weapons and made their way to Akane Resort. It was a slow walk due to the fact that Natsu and Lucy still hurt from their escapade, so when Wendy saw the bicycles, they happily agreed.

Now they were traveling faster, killing any zombie that they saw in the open. Honestly, quadrant 4 consisted of about 2 towns and the resort, which meant that it wasn't as big as other quadrants. Once their team had finished up with that town they were clearing, Lucy radioed Gray. He picked up.

"Lucy?"

"Yeah. It's me. We finished the first town and were just wondering about you guys."

"We just have two more streets. Nothing more."

"Alright. Then we'll meet up at the resort and decide what to do from there."

"Copy that."

Lucy put her walky-talky away as she relayed the message. It took them less than 15 minutes to get there with their bikes. When they arrived, Erza had radioed in that her group was on their way.

When Erza arrived, she immediately asked if there had been any trouble and Lucy filled her in on their worst encounter.

"Hold on. Let me get this straight. Flame-Brain over here was able to actually catch you?" Gray said in disbelief.

"Yeah. Though I must say, she was a bit heavier than I expected."

Lucy whacked Natsu with the back of her reassembled shotgun-axe. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing!"

Erza grabbed the weapon out of Lucy's hands.

"This is… AMAZING!" She cried. "What gave you the idea? Why haven't we come up with the idea?"

"I, uh, found one that looked professionally made, but I lost it." Lucy said with a questioning tone.

"Very well then, I will have Gajeel recreate it then when we get back." Erza declared.

Lucy smiled as Wendy, Gray, and Natsu shivered in fear. If Erza got a weapon like that… would the base even be left standing?

Of course, their little reunion was unsurprisingly cut short by zombies.

"Damn it," Gray said, stripping his shirt.

"Well, this ain't the time to get naked!" Natsu shouted. "Weirdo."

Gray hastily put his shirt back on as he got out his knife.

"Say, Ice Butt… How many did you get today?"

"SO far, 82." Gray replied. "83 now."

"That's good, but not good enough." Natsu said, slashing a zombie. "That makes 97."

"You boys are pathetic. I've already killed 143." Erza bellowed. Lucy shrunk back in surprise.

"143?" She cried. "I've only killed 115!"

Gray and Natsu winced as Wendy hung her head in shame. "But I've only gotten 66."

"Hold on. That's 504 zombies." Lucy said. "508 now." A shot rang out, causing 4 to fall over. (So when I was rechecking this, I realized how bad my math was and I was all like... thats 503 zombies... 510 ten now... causing 2 to fall over... I think its fixed.)

"Master said that there was a total of 400 inhabitants and 150 guests which brings us to about 550 people give or take 20. We still have yet to clear the resort, so why are there so many zombies?" Erza asked.

"Zombies are semi-nomadic. While they stick to one area, say a quadrant, they'll travel around freely. My guess is that something happened in that hotel and it drove the zombies away." Lucy said.

"I say we kill these zombies and then check it out." Wendy voiced her opinion. Natsu ruffled his little sister's hair.

"It's a done deal."

"Phew! Gramps gonna be surprised we finished in one day."

"Natsu, it's 4 AM." Gray deadpanned.

"Yeah. One day."

"Let's just go check out the hotel before we head back."

Erza and Gray brought Natsu's car around and they all managed to fit. Natsu decided to drive this time and Lucy climbed into the passenger's seat while the rest piled into the back. They ended up falling asleep.

"Hey Luce?" Natsu said softly.

"Yeah?"

"Can you tell me about your first day?"

"Huh?"

"Your first day of the apocalypse. You kinda told us but didn't really give any details.

"Oh."

"Crap, I'm pushing again aren't I...You don't have to answer that. I was just wondering."

"Nah, it's fine. I guess it's kinda mean leaving you with less than half of the story."

Lucy and Michelle were giggling at their favorite character on Supernatural.

"You know what would be nice, Lucy?"

"What?"

"Chocolate popcorn!"

Lucy had to agree and rushed to the kitchen to attempt to make it.

Michelle yelled a bunch of silly advice, shrieking in laughter each time. Though they weren't bound by blood, they were sisters and they would never forget that.

Lucy busied herself in preparing the melted chocolate after heating up the popcorn.

Unsure what to do, she just poured the chocolate into the bowl of popcorn. Only then did she realize her mistake.

Michelle walked in to see Lucy's progress. "Oh dear Lucy!"

They laughed as they flicked drops of chocolate at each other. Once the chocolate had sort of hardened, they decided to head back to the tv and just eat it like fudge.

Lucy cursed herself for forgetting napkins and knives and left Michelle to go get them.

While she was searching for a clean knife, Lucy heard the sound of a window smashing and a scream. Lucy quickly grabbed what appeared to be a meat cleaver and ran to see what was happening. Was there an intruder? Were they looking to steal or for something else? Or Something more?

There was another scream and Lucy's heart dropped.

"Michelle?" She called. The power had gone out and her generator was a little sluggish, so it was pitch black.

One by one, the lights turned back on only for Lucy to see an eyeless version of Michelle right in her face. It was horrifying. She could see part of the girl's neck was missing, almost like a bite mark. Blood was rushing down and splattered a bit.

Lucy screamed in fear and swung her meat cleaver as a reflex. She screamed again but in disgust this time. She had just sliced through her best friend's head. She could feel the blood oozing down the knife, covering her hand. It slowly trickled down her arm and collected at her elbow where it dripped on the floor. She was sobbing. What the hell had happened? How could she have killed her own best friend? Her own sister? Her self pity party was cut short as an inhuman growl erupted from the middle of the room.

Lucy could still remember the break in the show where the news took over,

"This is an Emergency Order. Please stay in your homes and barricade the windows and doors. There has been an outbreak in a disease and we have our top scientists researching all possible cures. Do not let the infected bite you. I Repeat -"

She didn't hear the rest because the TV was smashed by the creature before her. It was … the gardner?

She thought about running, but couldn't. Her legs were made of rubber. Her heart pounded and the beast charged. She had no chance of escaping.

Okay, so it's a bit rushed, but it should be fine. Rate and Review, please!

Responses:

fairytailfanatic0703: Thanks! And if I can devise a way to incorporate Mest into the story, then sure!

Kalessia04: Well, that was my inspiration. I do try to include memorable moments in the anime in this story, so this is probably one of my favorites. Again, you have Natsu's gun which is the equivalent to the scarf which he looses in the fight against hades and Lucy gets it back for him... Idk... As for the arcs, my favorite is the GMG because not only do you get a LOT of Nalu, I love the fact that they aren't face the threat of death constantly, which enables Natsu to get all powerful and stuff and it also may have to do with the fact that I LOVED Gajeel and Natsu vs Rogue and Sting... :) But I also love Tower of Heaven because of Erza's backstory. You get to see why she was so demanding and the Jellal vs Natsu was EPIC.

Ushindeshi: Thanks!

Question for Today:

Who's your favorite Dragon Slayer and exceed? Why?