"So Magnolia has had all this shit the entire time and nobody ever decided to use it? I mean seriously I can think of at least two times where this woulda come in handy." Natsu was standing beside a large barrel that sat on top of a hastily made stone wall, one week since the Slayers and Erza had made their return. The wall went all around the guild starting at the lakeshore behind it to four blocks out, across another six and then back to the other side another four. The wall itself was a metre wide and when walking along it would come up to the waists of most of the guild members. Demolished buildings lay behind the wall where the stone to create the wall itself had come from. Natsu, Lucy, Gray, Juvia, Erza and Happy were all standing in the middle of the wall facing to the middle of town where they were sure the main force was going to come in from in just over a week. Two large barrels had been placed on the wall itself, standing about eight feet high and at least four feet in circumference on the inside.
"Well it couldn't have helped with Phantom Lord or Laxus being an idiot so I don't know what you're talking about." Natsu shrugged at Gray's retort.
"Fair enough icicle breath."
"Alright I don't care about when this shit could have been used so can we please get back to figuring out what else we can do?" Lucy ended the conversation quickly and precisely. "Right. So. I want the rest of the barrels placed out at regular intervals along the rest of the wall and-"
"HEEEEELLLLLLLP" The group turned weapons drawn to look down the block that led to South Gate Park. A single person was running towards the group, her long purple hair flowing behind her taking off the heads of a couple random zombies that had wandered a little to close for her liking.
"Is that Kagura?" The flash of a samurai sword swinging its way through rotted flesh and bone gave Erza her answer.
"Fuck. Natsu, Gray, Juvia with me. Erza, Happy; take to the roofs and follow from there, I have a feeling we may need to do some fighting today." The group nodded and jumped into action. Gray and Juvia knocked arrows and jumped down to the street with Lucy who had drawn her sword and Natsu who had his hands on fire. Erza vaulted off the wall and to wall of the house across from her, running her way up the last two feet of the wall to the roof with Happy on her back with a dagger in each hand.
Lucy and Natsu were the first to reach Kagura who had collapsed in complete exhaustion on the sidewalk beside two more decapitated zombies.
"Kagura! You're alive!" The girl looked up and smiled widely when she saw Natsu before throwing herself into his arms and crying.
"Three blocks over. They're all trapped. We tried to get here but so many are dead now. Please help them!" She buried her face into Natsu's bare chest as Lucy scowled at her menacingly.
"Alright. Erza! Happy! Three blocks! Meet us there!"
"Aye sir!" Happy called back from Erza's back as Erza herself started to run towards the edge of the roof they were on to clear the gap.
"Natsu, leave her here with Juvia. Gray follow us!" Natsu carefully unclasped Kagura's arms from around him and passed her over to Juvia before running after Lucy and Gray.
"Damn man, she's supposed to be the composed one!" Gray glanced over at him as they followed Lucy
"Yeah, well, things have changed you know?" Gray nodded.
"Fair enough."
"If you two are done gossiping I would really appreciate some help with the group of zombies that are currently trying to eat people that we know!" Lucy swung her blade and took the head off a zombie facing the other direction down an alley that the group turned into. About three metres wide the alley was packed all the way to the entrance with sounds of fighting and yelling at the very end of it.
"Gray! Fire over us and into the crowd, Natsu! Start us up. Erza, Happy, go to the end of the alley and help out the group down there!" Erza and Happy moved quickly to Lucy's commands and Natsu fired a huge blast of fire into the crowd of rotting corpses. The small horde turned slowly but it was to late for them to react as the team of Natsu and Lucy cut them down from behind. From the other end of the alley, Happy and Erza had started a counterattack with the group that was trapped. It didn't take long for the entire small horde to be wiped out completely with both Erza and Natsu being able to use magic without the zombies being attracted to them. In under five minutes Natsu and Lucy had fought their way to where Erza and Happy were and were introduced to the group that they had worked hard to save.
"Lucy! Natsu! Oh thank you thank you thank you!" A hysterical Sherry dropped what looked like a homemade crutch and threw herself into Lucy while her fiancee Ren shook hands with Natsu and pulled Sherry away from Lucy and into his own arms.
"Natsu. Lucy. I've memorized that beautiful attack. Rufus came up to the couple and bowed deeply, taking his signature hat off with his right hand and sweeping it as low as possible without touching the ground before bringing it up his left side by the scythe that sat in that hand. "It's good to see you as well Gray." The two shook hands and turned to look at the last of the survivors.
"Glad you could join us." Hibiki still had the black vest and pink shirt that he'd had on at the Grand Magic Games, his brown hair messy and blood splattered. He was holding a homemade club made from a tree branch, same as all the others.
"Glad y'all could make it this far. I hope to hear your stories when we get back." Lucy turned around and started towards the entrance to the alley. "Oh and by the way, we have actual weapons back at the guild for you to use.
At the Guild
"You know we're gonna have to get them people set up in the infirmary. There's no room down here in the main hall." Natsu nodded his agreement and stood up to walk up the stairs.
"It's alright Natsu, Wendy and Romeo are already up there so I'll get them to help me set it up!" Mira had already gotten to the bottom of the staircase by the time Natsu had stood up.
"Wendy and Romeo? What are they doing up there?"
"What teenagers do best!" Mira smiled mischievously and made her way up the steps.
"Well that was more information than I needed. Kagura!" The sword master looked up from her coffee at the end of the bar.
"Yes Natsu?"
"I wanna hear your story."
"Alright then, better sit down."
"I want to hear it as well." Lucy pulled a chair from one of the leftover tables and straddled it beside her love. "Now hurry up."
A couple very helpful reinforcements have arrived and not a moment to soon! How did they get there and what travesties did they face while on their way?! Reviews and comments are welcomed!