Hey guys! What's up? Thanks so much to all you guys, especially Snakeshark19, ThatCrazyChick196, and RedEyedWarrior for their constant reviews :) Now, lets get on with the bloodbath/cliffhanger conclusion!
THE WARNING: This story will be gory. Not so much I have to put it in 'M', but if your grossed out by that, sorry. Also, mild to severe swearing and mild sexual themes!
A zombie strolled into camp, dozens more behind it. It strolled towards Beth, arms outstretched. Fortunately, the zombie tripped, crashing to the ground with a loud thud, awakening Izzy and Beth.
"Zombie!" Beth screamed, taking the solid stick she was using was a weapon and bashing the zombie over the head with it. Due to Beth's strength, or lack thereof, it merely scraped the zombie, taking a couple layers of skin off it's already rotting head. The zombie crawled forward, encasing Beth's ankle with it's bony and slimy hand. Beth screamed, kicking the zombie in the face. It's nose broke, gushing blood, and Izzy swung in, flipping over Beth's head and landing with both feet squarely on it's head. It popped like a grape, sending bits of skull and squirming gray brains in a four-foot radius.
"ZOMBIES!" Izzy bellowed, awakening the rest of the campers. The zombies were swarming in from all sides. Several people were up instantly, running out of the tent, Chef among them. The cook grabbed his pistol, blowing a hole in a zombie that almost sank it's jaws into a drowsy Geoff.
"GET OUT OF HERE!" Chef bellowed, before firing more shots into the horde of zombies descending from the north.
Speaking of North, he was currently packing backpacks full of supplies in one of tents, as Lia grabbed some weapons.
"Idiots!" He hissed, grabbing a loaf of bread and sticking it in one of the three backpacks he was planning to grab. He heard a scream outside, and peeked outside to see Scott having his jugguler, forearm, nose and crotch devoured by four different zombies.
Lia made to go help him, but North held her back. "No babe." He said seriously, "Don't do it. We need to think about us, and James and Haley. He's way too far gone."
Lia nodded, even though she didn't like it. She handed North a Bowie Knife and a couple boxes of .45 ammunition.
Cody burst through the tent flaps, panicking. "Where's Sierra?" He screamed. Faintly off, he heard a 'CODY!' and he rushed out to help.
Chef had run out of ammo, but hadn't dared throw the gun away. He was slashing through zombies with Brick.
He slashed through another one, trusting Brick enough to survive. Everything was a blur. He saw a glimpse of what looked like Justin, sprinting into the woods with a figure on his back. He saw Cody and Sierra hand in hand, sprinting right after them.
Anne Maria groaned in agony, limping along without an arm or eye, blood pouring from all of her orafices. As Chef sprinted to help, a zombie sunk his teeth into hersizeable chest, tearing a chunk out. She dropped to the ground, sobbing.
Chef turned around, bellowing to run again. He saw Haley, Katie, James and Ezekiel fighting for their lives. James and Haley were doing most of the work. Katie and Ezekiel were also helping, but only slightly. Even with the skill of James and Haley, they were slowly getting overrun. Even as Chef ran to help, a zombie was able to take a chunk out of Katie.
Chef leapt into the foursome, and watched in horror as James quickly pulled out his pistol, blowing a hole clean through a sobbing Katie, who was begging him to end her life before she turned.
Ezekiel, his courage failing, bolted, meeting up with a fleeing Noah and Gwen, the latter calling for her significant other.
James, Haley and Chef were getting overrun now, it was happening even faster with the absence of Ezekiel.
"Get out of here!" Chef hissed, "I don't know about you kids, but I'm leaving!" He sprinted, drawing away some of the zombies, but not all.
Haley and James also ran for it, but one was not so lucky. A crawling zombie with crushed legs grabbed Haley's ankle, sending her to the ground. Her hat tumbled off her head as she hit the ground. The zombie sank it's teeth into her ankle, ripping out the tendon and half of the muscle.
Haley cried out in agony, crushing the zombies skull with her foot. James, not noticing, kept on running, but noticed her cry of pain. He turned around, but did it too sharply, tripping and stumbling. He could only watch in horror as the zombies descended upon Haley, ripping her apart.
"FUCK!" James screamed. Grabbing his knife, he was about to fight off the zombies coming towards him, but then realized he was still on the ground. For a brief moment, he thought he was a goner, when an arm reached down and yanked him up, burying a knife into the three zombies that would've otherwise claimed James's life.
"Let's go." A voice snarled. James turned to see North's face, white with rage. Lia was right behind him.
"We are leaving them." North snarled again. Lia's face was also set. James, however, was not as sure.
"Whoa, hold on man." He said, as the trio took off running. "Let's just regroup."
"What the fuck are you talking about?" North said angrily. "We just lost Haley, and we are all scattered."
James decided to reason with the best possible point with North. "They have most of the supplies. Let's at least regroup."
North's expression did not lighten, but he sighed. "Fine." He turned abruptly, heading towards the main pack of survivors, Lia and James on his heels.
After a couple minutes, the group had caught up with the main pack which had decided to walk, as the horde of staggering zombies were about a hundred yards away, and it would be little while before they were in any danger again, though most of them were on edge, or sobbing.
North ran up to Chef Hatchet, punching him in the gut. Everyone gasped, as Chef recovered. He grabbed North's hands, and put him in an armlock, bending his arm behind his back. For any normal person, this would've been enough to be subdued. North was not normal. He dropped like a weight, causing his arm to dislocate, but Chef to drop him due to his now deadweight. North got back up, and put his arm back in with a howl of pain.
Chef, now angered, tried his best to reason with the enraged teenager, instead of beating him to a bloody pulp. "Look here kid." he said, backing up slowly. "What's the problem here?"
Everyone had stopped, looking at the duo.
"The problem." North started, his voice raising. "Is that at least five people are dead, one of them Haley, because YOU AND YOUR PEOPLE COULDN'T FUCKING STAY AWAKE ON WATCH!" He roared.
"That's not my problem." Chef snarled right back. "I can't control these kids."
North, still white-faced, grabbed the knife from his belt, but didn't unsheathe it.
"Whatever, you defend them all you want, I'm out, I'm gone, count me out. I'm not staying here, waiting to get killed because of you idiots." He spat the last word. He turned to Lia and James. "Are you guys coming?"
Lia nodded, grabbing her pack and walking over to North, standing by his side. James, however, hesitated.
"Are you coming James?" North asked quietly. "If you don't want to, that's fine, but I suggest for purely your own safety that you come with us."
Despite this, James shook his head. "No, man, sorry. I'm not going. Safety in big groups, right?"
"Yep. I guess so." North said, his face expressionless. He and Lia then turned around and headed away from the main group, which had started moving again once North had recovered his temper. They turned and didn't look back.
James sighed, running his hand over head. He continued walking.
After a couple hours of walking, the remaining people set up camp. They finally did a head count. It was confirmed that Haley, Anne Maria, Katie and Scott were dead. Noah, Justin, Cody, Sierra, Beth, Ezekiel and Gwen were missing. Everyone else was there.
Trent sat with his head in his hands, praying to every god in existence that Gwen was alright. Bridgette and Geoff went over to comfort him.
"Don't worry dude, I'm sure she'll be okay!" Geoff said optimistically, patting the musician gingerly on the back.
"Yeah!" Bridgette added, though not sounding as optimistic as her boyfriend. "Gwen is…well, she's Gwen! She's tough and smart, I'm sure she'll find away to make it back to us."
Trent nodded, smiling weakly at the two blondes. "Thanks you guys." He said sadly.
Mike and Zoey were sitting near the fire, snuggling. "I still feel bad, after all he did to us." Zoey whispered.
"I know, me too. But c'mon, he died, Zo." Mike said comfortingly. "When you think about it, what Scott did to us on the show wasn't that bad compared to all the other horrible stuff we've seen.
Zoey started to sob. "Is that supposed to make me feel better?" She said, wiping her eyes and hiccuping.
"No, I'm just trying to honor their memories. All of them." Mike said, gazing out over the horizon.
Everyone tried to make themselves comfortable around the fire, none of them daring to go to sleep for fear of another ambush, and for the hope they might find their missing friends.
Meanwhile, a couple miles away, Noah, Ezekiel and Gwen were walking through the forest, keeping a sharp eye out for light but not daring to make noise to call for fear of attracting zombies.
"This sucks." Noah griped.
Gwen turned to him, annoyed. "You think walking is bad, at least you aren't Scott or Anne Maria."
THis clammed Noah up for a while, but it wouldn't be long before he started complaining again.
"You know, I wouldn't worry about Trent. I saw him with Eva when I was running to you guys." Ezekiel said, stretching his back. "I don't think anything could've happened to him if Eva was still breathing. And it takes a lot to get her to stop breathing." He chuckled, before coughing after inhaling a small leaf.
Gwen smiled slightly, her spirits lifting just a little.
"Yea, I just want to see him again." She said sadly. "I hope he's okay...I need him to be okay."
They continued walking until they spotted some light. All three of their faces lit up like the sun, and they started sprinting towards it. They burst into the clearing, joy on all their faces, but the joy was quickly wiped off their faces.
Standing in front of them were about 7 or 8 big burly man, with 3 or 4 women in chains on the ground. Their faces were very bruised and they had welts all over their bodies. Then they saw a boy about their age in chains, looking sad and slightly surprised at the sudden entrance of 3 teens, and the older man, also in chains, who was gesturing with their eyes to run. Then they saw the unmistakably un-zombified human corpses about 5 feet away.
"Well well." One of the men grinned evilly, "What do we have here?"
"I see two skinny twerps, and a very pretty lady." Another man said.
"RUN! GET OUT OF HERE!" One of the woman in chains screamed.
One of the men pulled out a handgun and blew the side of her head off.
Another man chuckled. "Thanks for that, Quince, she was starting to get on my nerves."
Quince grinned, showing yellow teeth. "An' also, we g't anutha' repl'cmen't."
Two men lunged forward, grabbing Ezekiel, cuffing him on the back of the head, sending the prairie boy spiraling into unconsciousness.
Another two grabbed Noah, doing the same to him.
The leader of the group strolled up to Gwen. He was much more well groomed then the others. He had slicked-back black hair that went down to his shoulders. It had a crimson tint to it. Gwen, the only remaining conscious person, saw with rising revulsion that he was using blood to slick his hair back. He wore a slightly beat up suit, complete with a red tie.
"Greetings, love." He said, with a British accent, extending his hand. When Gwen didn't shake his hand, he used the hand to backhand her across the face, causing her to stumble and cry out in pain.
"Well well, seems we have a snotrag. We'll break you quickly." He grinned. "Let's try again." He extended his hand again, and this time Gwen quickly shook it.
"My name's Bruce." He said, winking at her. "What's yours?"
"Gwen." Gwen mumbled, crossing her arms over her chest. She didn't like the look some of the other men were giving her.
"Gwen, what a lovely name." Bruce said, grinning evilly again. Pearly white teeth nearly blinded her, and she wondered briefly on how his teeth were so white in this horrible predicament.
One of the men, impatient, got up and started heading towards Gwen. "Enough of this boring chit-chat, I want my-" He was cut off as Bruce's side kick rammed into his chest, sending the man careening backward and into the dirt, completely unconscious.
"Now, now, Alfred, no rushing." Bruce said, tut-tuting at the unconscious man. He then turned, looking at all of his men sharply. "We need to get Gwen here acquainted with our customs. 'Fun' can start tomorrow." His gaze sharpened, causing his men to flinch. "Unless we have any objections."
All the other men quickly shook his head.
"Good!" Bruce said, "Why don't you catch some shut-eye, Gwen. You and your 'buddies' will have a long day ahead of you tomorrow. Well, you will, the other two will have a long journey into heaven." He laughed, shoving Gwen towards the other woman. Gwen quickly lay down, trying to get to sleep, and trying as hard as she could not to cry. The last thing she heard before drifting off into a nightmare filled sleep was Quince and another man throwing Noah and Ezekiel's unconscious forms next to the other two men in chains.
Back at the main camp, the ex-reality show contestants/co-hosts/James heard a large amount of rustling in the bushes nearby. James, Brick and Chef all pointed their guns at the rustling as an exhausted Justin tripped, emerging into the fire light, a very happy Beth on his back.
"Hey guys!" She said gratefully as most of the other contestants swarmed to give Justin and Beth hugs and to make sure they were okay.
"Are you bit?" Chef asked sharply, poking and prodding the farm girl.
"No," Beth said, giggling as Chef accidentally tickled her by poking her in the ribs, "I was on Justin's gorgeous back because I twisted my ankle running away." She said, showing her bare ankle for emphasis. It was indeed very swollen and red.
"What about him?" Chef said, poking the now sleeping heavily form of Justin with his boot.
"Oh, he's fine. He's much more athletic than he lets on." Beth said happily, hobbling over to the fire and warming herself. Her happiness slowly wore off as he noticed how few people were here.
"Wait, where's everyone else? I saw Anne Maria and Scott go down. but we are missing way more than those." She gasped. She started to tremble. "Are they…?"
Brick was quick to comfort. "No, no, never fear ma'am. While it is true that Katie and Haley did die, North and Lia permanently separated from us, and Cody, Sierra, Gwen, Ezekiel and Noah are still MIA."
Beth felt a little better, but worry still plagued her face.
"Just get some sleep." Courtney said gently, patting Beth on the shoulder. Beth nodded, and within five minutes was out cold, using a log as a pillow.
Duncan sighed, pulling Courtney closer to him. This whole ordeal really had made him seen how important close ones are to you, and how quickly they can be taken away.
Despite the heavy losses, everyone knew they would quickly move on. You had to to survive.
As does life, it moves on.
Well guys, there we go! A definitely more serious chapter than the others, but that's what I want this story to be, very serious. Sorry it's been taking me a while to update, that's just how it rolls, this story is very hard for me to get motivated to do, but when I do, i bang it out super quick. Anyways, leave a review if you enjoyed, or didn't! Anyways, Ciao guys, I'm off to mow the lawn XP.
Dead: Owen, LeShawna, Staci, Sadie, B, Sam, Dakota, DJ, Lindsay, Chris, Cameron Tyler, Scott, Anne Maria, Katie and Haley.
Unknown: Cody, Sierra.
In Peril: Noah, Gwen, Ezekiel.
Alive: Ezekiel, Eva, Noah, Justin, Izzy, Cody, Beth, Courtney, Harold, Trent, Bridgette, Geoff, Duncan, Heather, Gwen, Alejandro, Sierra, Lightning, Zoey, Jo, Mike, Brick, Dawn, Chef, North, Lia, and James.