Don't startle the Witch chapter 14
"Now Virgil ain't going now further, but y'all can make it back to the bridge from here." Virgil said to the survivors once they were on land once again. The clean streets of New Orleans were littered with trash and festival beads.
"Thanks man." Ellis responded.
"You stay safe, brother." Coach spoke to Virgil.
"All right, I'm gonna see if I go help some other folks! Y'all take care now!" Virgil said before tuning his boat horn one more time before he was out of sight.
"It's been crazy getting here. And now we're at the final mile. Let's make this one count, people." Coach said, his soft and gentle voice containing the unusual form of leadership and confidence.
Madoka looked over at Homura, then back at the streets of New Orleans. Banners expanded over several buildings, a multitude of awnings around them. Sayaka nearly jumped as two US military planes flew overhead.
"Heh. Military's still here." Ellis noted.
"That's a good thing, right?" Sayaka asked, regaining a normal state-of-mind.
"That means we can get picked up. Saved." Nick explained, blasting a zombie's head off with his pistol.
"There's a bridge in the city," Coach said, pointing to a large raising bridge in the distance. "That on the other end is a massive Evacuation center. Biggest one so far."
"But how do we know how to get there?" Sayaka asked.
"We actually.. Have no clue. That's why we're just going for it." Rochelle laughed insecurely.
"Maybe we can find our Witch along the way." Mami said, thinking that the Witch would have it's most power in what used to be a very populated area.
"Maybe, I guess." Ellis went, unsure of how to respond, not knowing if it would even be here.
"Well, how do y'all know if it's close?" Coach asked, curious of the Puella magi's powers.
"Our rings," Mami said, raising her hand for everyone to see her ring with the topaz gem inside. "They'll light up brighter and brighter the closer we are."
"Ah, all right." Nick agreed. "Heck, I've had so much happen to me over a span on two and half days, I'll take anything right about now."
"Well, our rings aren't glowing, and your bridge is a distance away. How about we get moving." Homura suggested, the pump shotgun she wielded ready to fire.
"Yeah, she's got a good idea with that. No one's reaching the bridge just standing here." Nick spoke up, agreeing with Homura's idea.
So the survivors set out into the city of New Orleans, a overturned semi-truck blocking the path of empty cars, a corner restaurant's windows either missing or boarded up with thin pieces of wood. The tables and chairs were upturned, a man in the corner, dead; a small machete in his nonliving hands. A large blood stain stained the way straight down to his location, him obviously hitting the wall before dying and collapsing there. A side street remains unscathed, a couple zombies doing what appeared to be wrestling each other.
"Hey, weapons over here!" Nick shouted from a small storage room that was still open in the back of the restaurant.
Inside was a small Submachine and a police baton, no blunter than a stick.
"I'm gonna beat something to death with nightstick." Ellis spoke, happily.
Everyone took their picks of a nightstick and SMG, and then left the cramped storage room to the open area behind the restaurant, leading to another, larger restaurant with a more professional kitchen.
Madoka opened the door to the second Restaurant, them obviously loving frying foods, as frying pans were everywhere.
"Gonna Bonk some heads in with this one." Nick said, grabbing a pan.
"Spang!" Ellis exclaimed, imitated the noise it made when he got one.
"No one better make a crack about me being in the kitchen." Rochelle spoke as she herself took a frying pan. Coach stayed with his twin pistols, however.
Madoka looked down at her bent Crowbar and then at one of the five remaining pans.
"I'd take the pan, Madoka. More fun to kill stuff with." Ellis laughed.
Madoka agreed without saying a word and replaced the two weapons.
"I'll hold onto these pills." Nick spoke, grabbing a cartridge half-full with pain pills.
The survivors opened the large wooden doors leading to the seating area of the restaurant, only to be caught off guard very quickly.
"ONE OF THOSE CHARGING THINGS!" Rochelle shouted, the Charger quickly plowing through the survivors and taking hold of Ellis.
"He's got me!" Ellis shouted, struggling to escape the Charger's grip, it beginning to smash him into the concrete floor. "Shoot the charger, man! SHOOT THE CHARGER!"
The Charger's grip loosened as it fell over to the floor, blood exploded from it's face, a very clear buckshot to it's head. Ellis looked at Homura, her shotgun still smoking.
"All right, thanks." Ellis said, getting up off the ground.
"Hold up, y'all." Coach said, noticing something in the distance. A car glowed with a faint orange light. "That'ne's got an alarm on it. Don't go touching it."
Everyone did as instructed and weaved themselves and their gunfire away from the car, the red door of the safe house clearly in sight.
"There's the safe room! Everyone inside!" Rochelle shouted, making sure everyone was inside before she locked the metal door shut.
"How are you liking New Orleans?" Homura asked Kyuubey, her and it hidden away in a bunker above the saferoom.
"I could be better." Kyuubey responded. "And how are you holding up?"
Homura didn't respond, more simply glared.
"The Witch we're searching for is in the city, isn't it?" Homura asked, silently.
"Yes. It's hidden on the bridge, the location everyone below us is all of too eager to reach." Kyuubey responded. "Your powers as a Puella magi allow you to stop and rewind time, but not make it go any faster forward."
Homura stood up from her sitting position, tempted to shoot at the incubator in front of her.
"Shooting at me will not result in any good." Kyuubey spoke, not even remotely frightened of the pistol aimed at his face. Homura lowered the pistol and walked away.
"Have fun surviving in New Orleans, incubator." She said, and left the bunker.
Rochelle was the first one to notice Homura walked down the stairs, and instantly got suspicious.
"What's up there?" Rochelle asked.
"Nothing. Just a couple wooden boards and boxes that have nothing in them." Homura spoke up a lie.
"Ah, well." Coach said and shrugged. "Not everywhere has something in it."
"Well, if y'all are ready…" Ellis spoke up, eager to open the door and fight more zombies.
"Fine, open it." Nick said and took a heavy breath of mixed releif and uncertainty.
The door swung open and Ellis ran out, the survivors following close behind.
"Throwing a Molotov!" Ellis shouted, throwing the ablaze jar of alchohol into the zombie hordes. A good chunk of them were watched as they were burned alive, others knowing best to avoid the flames.
"Nice throw." Mami complimented.
"Thanks." Ellis said, watching the flames die down.
The flames finally stopped and revealed a large stairway to what looked like a large park area.
"We can cut through this park." Coach instructed, and walked up the stairs to the park.
Ellis followed behind, and felt a blunt pain go through his arm as what appeared to be an armored police officer was infected, and wacked him with his nightstick.
"Seriously? Now they're bulletproof?" Ellis complained, and bashed it's head in as hard as he could, and it still attacked.
Coach shot it in the back, where I's bulletproof armor was at a lack of, and it fell over dead.
"Y'all gotta shoot em' in the back if you want em' dead!" Ellis instructed, now aware of how to deal with the armored zombies.
The survivors all met up in the middle of a large courtyard, and Ellis looked up at a statue of a man on a horse.
"Man, I wish I had a horse right now. I love horses." Ellis spoke.
"Ever try horse? Mmm. Tasty." Nick responded, entirely shattering Ellis's good mood.
"Dude, not cool. Like seriously. No." Ellis said, aggravated by Nick's response.
"Hey, when you're done complaining, we got some guns here." Mami said, picking up a 12-gauge fully automatic Tactical shotgun.
"I'll take one of those." Coach said, the shotgun comfortable in his hands, Ellis taking another of the remaining guns, Homura taking the last one.
"Hey, exit's over here-" Sayaka began, but was quickly stopped when she felt a Smoker's long tounge wrap around her thin body, the tounge already catching her arms. Unable to fight back, she cried for help.
"Smokin' one!" Coach said and ran up to the smoker, blasting an entire 32 pellets into the smoker's face. The infected did as normal and exploded into a massive cloud of smoke, the tounge cut and Sayaka freed. She began to complain about how she had smoker spit all over her body, but then she remembered how she had walked through a swamp, been covered in blood, acid, and rained on, exceedingly hard; so she stopped.
"Gate's over there. Let's go that way." Homura suggested, pointing over to the exit gate of the park.
"Good idea." Coach agreed, reloading the empty shells into his shotgun.
The eight survivors walked out into the street once again, a large spraypaint graffiti saying 'Where is CEDA?', a small tent to the left of an alleyway.
"Ooh, grabbin' first aid." Ellis noticed, and grabbed one of the bright-red first aid kits under the tent.
"I got this other one." Homura said, and adjusted the first aid kit to better fit on her back.
"I think we need to go down this way." Coach pondered, the alleyway leading to an area not accessable by the road, as a large gate was put up, but the gate protecting the alleyway was torn open, obviously a group of infected's attempts to escape, which succeeded, opening the gate for both the living and clean and for the living and infected.
Mami looked over into the horde of zombies and noticed a medium sized one.
"Anyone got a bomb?" Mami silently asked.
"Here." Sayaka said and gave Mami a Molotov. Mami quickly lit the Molotov tip from the muzzle flash of a pistol, and tossed it into the horde. The horde didn't expect it coming and burned all in a spectacular inferno.
"Ha, what a throw." Sayaka said, amazed at how much work she didn't need to do then.
The flames subdued and then all noticed a trailer that very specifically said CEDA on the side. The trailer was made out of a sturdy metal and bulletproof glass, which was fairly secure for the survivors. They all ran in and closed the door behind them, to notice another door leading past a fence.