Wow. Long update time! Sorry guys, I've been super busy, but I recently re-read this story and got all inspired! So hopefully I can get this out before New Years. Guess we'll just have to see :p!
Now, it's time for action :)!
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!
All was quiet over the camp. About four hours ago Noah, Brick and James had switched watches with Heather, Mike and Geoff. Only a few zombie-related incidents had occurred throughout the night; four, to be exact. Another incident was when Geoff lost his pants and had to spend four hours in his underwear, but thats a story for another time.
At about six thirty in the morning, Chef got the three lookouts to rouse the rest of their pack as he himself got breakfast going.
Within fifteen minutes everyone was alert and awake, sitting around the small fire Chef had going. The weather was extremely grey and gloomy. While it was warm, you could practically smell the upcoming rain.
"Let's get some grub before rain puts our fire out." Chef said, handing out trenchers made of bark heaped with meat and apples.
"This much?" Cody asked curiously as he received his portion.
"We can't take the deer with us." Chef explained as he cut off another wedge of meat and tossed it onto the cast iron skillet hanging over the flames.
"Y'all ready for this?" Chef asked, concerned.
"Ready as I'll ever be, I guess." Duncan answered, spearing a piece of venison with his knife.
"Yeah, pretty much what he said." Jo agreed, having already finished her meal.
"Best eat quickly. The smell of all this sizzling meat will be sure to attract some zeds." Chef said, sighing as he sat up, stretching his legs. Taking the last portion for himself, he walked over to a log and plunked down on it, divulging into his meal.
"Oh god…" Gulped Zoey as the group sat quietly. "We're actually going to do this, aren't we?"
"Damn straight." Eva said, pounding her fist into her knuckles. "We're going to teach those horrible bastards what its like to die."
Jo laughed. "Hell yeah, we should beat them to death with their dismembered limbs!"
"Or break their jaws and then stab their teeth into their eye sockets!" Eva snarled amusedly.
"Or chop of their nuts and choke them with it!" they said in unison. They then started laughing as every male at camp looked fearfully in thier direction.
"Now now, settle down." Chef said, his commanding voice ever a useful tool. "Start packing up, we leave in fifteen minutes."
"How long will it take us to walk the five miles?" Trent asked as he helped Gwen pack up her tent.
"It depends on how fast we walk." Harold told him. "If we walk five miles an hour, it should take an hour; however we don't know exactly how long it is to the town and not everyone will be walking the same speed, so I could probably only give you the time down to the nanosecond."
Trent wasn't quite sure how to respond to that, so Gwen stepped in and saved her boyfriend from an awkward silence.
"Cool, Harold, but you just give us the hours and minutes." She said, smirking at him.
The ginger nerd nodded. "Around an hour and a half, but if we move faster than average we could be there in less than an hour."
"Well then lets walk faster than average." Alejandro said, coming up behind Trent and Gwen. "The sooner we get there, the sooner we can set up a somewhat decent defence against the bandits."
"I hear that." James remarked from the inside of his tent. "We should leave ASAP, and maybe some of us who are faster can run ahead and get there first."
"Are you fucking nuts? Or just stupid?" Heather snarked, entering the conversation. "Splitting up is like the worst idea ever. We need to stick together."
James eyes' narrowed at the feisty girl in front of him. "Where do you get off calling me stupid, stupid?" He snarked right back. "I just want to get there so lazy-ass prissy bitches like you don't hold us back, and then we ALL die because when we walk into town we get blown away by the bandits."
"Watch yourself, amigo." Alejandro warned, straightening up and narrowing his eyes at James. James, not wanting to cause any more strife, backed off, rolling his eyes and keeping silent.
Heather, fuming, turned on her heel and stomped off in the direction of her tent, muttering under her breath.
"Nice." came a voice, a few feet from where James was packing up. He looked up to see Harold leaning against a tree, his supplies all neatly packed up.
James grinned at seeing his long time friend. "Harold, buddy. How have you been holding up?"
Harold shrugged, "Better than some, worse than others…I miss LeShawna." He confided.
James clapped him on the back. "I know, man… I know. It'll all be good, though. We just got to last through it."
The ginger smiled, "Thanks, man. I appreciate it." He noticed James state of packing, and decided to offer help. "Need some help dude?"
"Sure!" James said gratefully. "Thanks man, I totally hate packing. It blows."
Harold chuckled. He picked up James's main pack to bring it over to him, and as he did so a photo fluttered out of an open pocket that Harold's sharp eyes had not caught.
"Hm? Whats that?" He asked curiously, bending over to pick up the photo. The photo showed James with his arm around a girl whose name Harold did not know. One thing was for sure though…"Dang James, who's this uber babe?"
James froze. "Who?" He asked innocently, trying to keep his voice calm.
"Her." Harold showers him the photo. James quickly took the photo out from his hands and studied it intently, as if trying to recall who she was.
"Oh, her…" James lied. "I think she was the girl I took to Junior Prom."
"Psh," Harold scoffed. "Liar. Since when to people have guns and wear dirty messy clothes to prom?"
"It was survival themed. People were weird at my school." James laughed, tucking the photo away. "It's nice to have proof that things used to be normal, you know?"
Harold didn't buy that for a second, but he decided to let the subject drop. "Yeah, I feel you bro. I'm going to go see if anyone else needs packing." He then walked over to see if Aidan needed any help.
James breathed a sigh of relief, pulling out the photo and taking a quick glance at it. He then quickly shoved it back into his backpack and slung it over his shoulder.
Izzy was reloading and prepping her 'Super zombie destructor OVER-9000'. She had four bottles of alcohol left and was currently making sure all the flint in her barrel was sharp enough to ignite the rags. She put a useless empty bottle and a handful of leaves into the chamber and aimed it at a tree. She fired, and the, flint ignited the leaves as the bottle went soaring towards the tree, shattering into tiny crystalline shards. Unfortuneatly, the flaming leaves soared up into the scrawny apple tree, setting some of it's own leaves on fire.
"Whoops." Izzy chuckled as the tree erupted into flames. "Good thing we're clearing out, then."
"Izzy, whats the meaning of this?" Chef yelled, storming over to her. "Why are you blowing things up and setting stuff on fire?"
Izzy grinned maniacally. "Thought I'd distract the zombies whilst we move out, Cheffy-boy." She lied quickly.
"Psh, yeah right." Chef scoffed, not buying it for second. "Doesn't matter if you mean it or not though, cause it'll help us out. Now let's get moving."
"Aye-aye, captain!" Izzy saluted, picking her 'Super zombie destructor OVER-9000' up and jogging over to the majority of the campers, whom were sitting by the coals of the campfire in silence, the aura of nervousness almost palpable. "We're going! Get ready to blow away some baddies because we are G-O-I-N-G GOING GOING GONE!"
Everyone got up quickly, some looking more relaxed then others. Beth was close to fainting, whilst Eva was looking forward to killing some heathens.
"ALRIGHT EVERYONE, QUIET DOWN! Could y'all look here for a sec?" Chef said loudly. All the campers looked towards the man they considered their leader.
"I know y'all are scared." Chef started. "And you best believe me, you have a right to be. But if we all keep our head and do this quickly and efficiently, we should be able to all come out alive, every one of us. So lets get out there and do this."
Most of the campers, sprits raised by Chef's speech, cheered and quickly picked up their possessions, getting ready to head out into the forest.
"Hmm…alright." Chef said, pulling out his compass and observing it intently. Finally locating North-West, he pointed in the aforementioned direction. "We head that way, lets move out!"
The sun was high in the sky when the group of teenagers plus one middle-aged man first caught sight of the little ramshackle town. "There it is!" Aidan said happily, wiping sweat off his brow.
The group stayed near the outskirts, searching for any activity that might be observed within the town.
"I don't see anything…or anyone." Geoff said, squinting his eyes against the sunlight.
"Hmm…well that probably means the bandits aren't here yet. We should head in." Noah suggested.
"Yeah, but should we all go? Maybe a huge crowd like us will scare the inhabitants." muttered an agitated Zoey.
"Nah, we ain't splitting up." Chef said firmly, "No way, no how. Now is everyone locked and loaded?"
The eight people with guns, Aidan, Chef, Brick, Ezekiel, Jo, Duncan and Gwen, nodded. Chef had the shotgun and Ezekiel had the hunting rifle, whilst Aidan had a Desert Eagle and the other five had the standard .45 handguns.
"Good. Now let's move!" Chef announced, and the twenty-six humans jogged or walked into town.
"Hello!?" Chef shouted into the vast silence. The group had just walked through the gate leading into the town. 'Grentonshire' was painted in faded blue letters on a weathered wooden plank hanging from the iron gate.
"Hello?!" Chef called again, getting uneasy from the vast wall of silence that greater him. Soon, however, the silence was broken, albeit gently.
"Do you hear something?" Sierra piped up, facial features scrunched together in concentration.
Everyone else strained their ears, listening. Then they heard it…it sounded like something familiar…it sounded like…car engines.
"The bandits!" Chef said, causing a small panic to rip its way into existence.
"Oh my god!" Beth screamed, turning white. "We're not ready! We're not…" She hit the ground, unconscious. Ezekiel stood over her, having pinched a nerve to calm her down.
"Great. Who's going to carry her?" Chef asked, annoyed, but Lightning was already on it. The farm girl was slung across his shoulders as everyone ran to get behind cover. The people without guns merely hid behind cover completely, whilst the eight folks with guns tried to get into prime position.
"Get ready, let's kick it in the ass people!" Chef barked, just as the vehicles came into sight. "Don't fire unless you have a sure hit." He yelled.
The cars parked right ouside the gate, and after a few seconds the doors opened, and outstepped fifteen or so men, all clad in guns. They had ski masks on and were covered head to toe in fabric, reducing the chance of them getting bit by zombies.
"That's them." Gwen breathed to Chef, who was right beside her. "But I don't see their leader…"
"Let's move out." one of the men said, and as the first man opened the gate, Ched fired a bullet into his chest. Blood sprayed like a torn water balloon as the man went down. The bandits went for cover, but five more went down, with only one scrambling back up, limping behind a rock as the person helping him had his jaw shot off.
"Who the fuck are these guys?" Came a shout from one of the bandits.
"I don't know, but let's get the hell out of here!" Came another yell.
"No!" Came a voice, a familiar British accent attached. "We kill these bastards, and take their supplies."
Aidan's brow furrowed in anger. "That's Bruce. The leader. He must be all wrapped up in stuff too, thats why we couldn't pick him out."
"Yeah." Ezekiel called, pounding a round of ammunition into a bandit's neck. The bandits were starting to return fire, and a shell skipped off a wall and almost hit Duncan in the face.
"Get the grenades!" Bruce shouted, causing Chef to pale significantly.
"Retreat!" The black man hissed, and the eight commando's in training ran back as the first grenade was lobbed over the wall. A deafening explosion threw flames into the air, as a nearby building erupted into kindling, sending shrapnel in a fifty foot radius.
Chef grunted as he threw himself behind a building, the fire roaring behind him, missing him by inches.
"Shoot them!" A bandit yelled, and a spray of gunfire was heard, followed by a scream.
"No!" Chef yelled, picking himself off the ground and sprinting towards the sound of the scream.
He blitzed around the corner to see a bandit put a bullet through the chest of a third body. The body gurgled and lunged at the bandit, yelling as it sunk it's teeth into his chest.
Chef gasped, the zombie that bit the bandit was of no one that he knew. It was a girl that looked to be about eight years old. Her clothes were tattered and bloody, and she looked emaciated, as she did when she was killed.
"The whole bloody town…" Chef whispered as his eyes widened. About sixty zombies were now visible, drawn out by the huge explosion.
"Help!" Chef heard Geoff shout, and he went running towards the source of the noise, not worried about bullets due to the fact that most of the bandits were now turning into zombies. He sprinted around a corner to see Geoff trying to fight off three zombies with a bloody two-by-four, with an unconscious bloody Zoey on the ground with a sobbing Mike and scared looking Bridgette behind him. Chef quickly took care of two of the zombies as Geoff split the skull of the last before he or anyone else could get hurt.
"No!" Mike sobbed, leaning over Zoey's body. Chef quickly ran over and saw a huge bite mark right in the center of her stomach. A fourth zombie corpse was laying with its head split, but it looked like the zombie had dug into Zoey's stomach before Geoff had gotten it off of her.
"She was dead within seconds." Bridgette whimpered, her eyes not leaving Zoey's blank ones.
"How could this happen?" Mike howled in misery "How?"
Suddenly, Zoey reached up and grabbed Geoff's leg, bringing him to the ground. She groaned, lunging for his neck. Geoff screamed as Chef blew Mike's girlfriends' brains out, splattering everyone with bits of grey matter.
"Baby?" Bridgette sobbed as Geoff breathed a sigh of relief. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, Bridgey, I'm fine." Geoff said, getting up and giving Chef a big hug. Chef awkwardly patted his back, before a scream jolted him back to awareness. "We gotta get out of here…and fast."
Chef tossed the gun to Geoff and hoisted Mike over his shoulders.
Another explosion was heard, amidst a loud wall of sound that was zombie howls indicated that at least a dozen zeds had just died.
"This is bad. We can't run…they will just follow us back." Chef said, frustrated.
"Well then what should we do?" Geoff asked, his voice quaking with fear.
"Let's meet up with the others!" Chef barked, as he and the two running and one sobbing teens ran through black smoke and smoldering remains of what used to be houses. More howls were heard and a gigantic burst of flame rose twenty feet in the air.
"Let's head in that direction! That was Izzy's flame-thrower thing!" Bridgette said, and the small group ran in that direction.
They saw a clearing that had Izzy, Heather, Alejandro, Ezekiel, Noah, Lightning and an unconscious Beth. Izzy had used two of her bottles and Ezekiel was crouching, punching ammo into the zombies.
"What do we do?" Heather yelled, cowering behind Alejandro,
"There's only one thing we can do." Chef solemnly, setting Mike down and taking the shotgun from Geoff. "We Fight."
We Fight.
Sorry for the long update guys! Hope you enjoyed! Guess I didn't get it out by New Years.
Dead: Owen, LeShawna, Staci, Sadie, B, Sam, Dakota, DJ, Lindsay, Chris, Cameron Tyler, Scott, Anne Maria, Katie, Haley and Zoey.
Alive: Ezekiel, Eva, Noah, Justin, Izzy, Cody, Beth, Courtney, Harold, Trent, Bridgette, Geoff, Duncan, Heather, Gwen, Alejandro, Sierra, Lightning, Jo, Mike, Brick, Dawn, Chef, Aidan and James.