AUTHOR'S NOTE: I just wanted to thank everyone for their reviews, and note
a couple of things. First off, Asheville is a town in North Carolina that
is near the Tennessee border. If you haven't seen Evil Dead 1, I highly
recommend it, mainly because Sam, Bruce and Rob made it by themselves
without help from Hollywood. However, in the beginning, you see a (crappy)
map Ash is holding that delineates the NC/TN border, and Ash even comments
that they'd just crossed it. My assumption was always that they were
leaving NC, and since they're within driving distance of the cabin, that
they lived in or around Asheville. But yes, I did note the irony.
Secondly, I would like to assure everyone that none of these guys are Mary
Sues, but please be patient, because they might come off that way at first.
All I can say is trust me, as I've had this huge saga planned for months
now, and have only recently gotten around to committing it to paper. I
promise you that I would never insult the Gods (ie Sam, Bruce, and Rob, and
all the demi-dieties surrounding them) by doing something like THAT. :)
Anyway, happy reading! On to...
CHAPTER THREE: A WALL OF DEADITES
Feeling fully prepared now, all five turned their attention to the front doors of the S-Mart, where a sea of the demon-zombies seemed to be waiting for them to come be dinner. Gaping maws and blank white eyes peered in at them, most of them moaning. A few were issuing threats and descriptions of what would happen to them when they came out in high, shrill voices.
Alicia shuddered. "Please don't let them eat my soul," she said to Ash.
"It's just talk, baby, just talk," he assured her, nodding once to emphasize his point. With a sigh, he told himself, "I did it with sixty primates, I can do it with five real people with guns."
So he wasn't too happy when Shawn grabbed the axe he'd taken from the fire alarm. The bow and arrows, Zoe's choice of weapon, didn't please him, either.
"What the hell are you doing? We've got guns!"
Zoe ignored him, but Shawn turned and gave him a huge lopsided grin, his eyes sparkling. Ash just shook his head.
"We're all gonna die," he said to himself. Then he started for the door.
Bill and Alicia both grabbed and loaded guns as Ash started firing at the incoming wave of the Necronomicon Ex Mortum's finest. A dozen of them rushed in all at once, but three went down as Ash fired wildly at anything that was cackling. In an impressive display of whirling and twirling, Shawn took the head and arms of two more of the ghastly creatures. Zoe's arrows were aimed true, turning two more into pincushions with shots of three arrows per round. Alicia watched all of this with awe, everything moving in slow motion. One came screaming, running at her with claws bared, its face a ghastly scowl and its stench permeating her nose and making her eyes water.
Suddenly its head exploded and a shower of black blood erupted over her and Bill. She squealed and looked to see that it had been Bill that had saved her.
Taking the head of the line, Ash and Shawn were making progress out the door. As more and more Deadites tried to come at them, they exploded in a shower of blood and dismembered body parts. Shawn was moving like a Cuisinart, his axe laying waste to multiple demons at a time. He looked like a Viking berserker, his mouth wide open in a long loud war-cry that Ash couldn't make out over the din of screeching monsters. He was shooting, kicking, and butting them with the end of his gun, smashing them about any way he could.
One managed to grab his throat and he stuck the muzzle of his rifle under its chin. But when he pulled the trigger, not a thing happened. In panic, Ash head-butted the creature, with no luck. He tried to grab the strong claws that were around his throat, gasping for air that wasn't coming. Suddenly the creature was abruptly ripped away from him, and he looked up in time to see Shawn toss it over the crowd, giving him a wild-eyed grin.
"Ammo!" he shouted back to Alicia. She looked in the cart and grabbed the ammo box, tossed it back to him. He looked at the box for a second only to see it was the wrong caliber. He tossed it back to her.
"The .3030 ammo!"
Flushing in her frustration, Alicia found it and tossed it to him. In the meantime, three more Deadites met the butt-end of his rifle. He dropped behind Shawn when he caught the second box of ammo, reloading, and pleased to note that Bill had moved up a little. He was out the door with Ash and Shawn, shooting at anything that advanced. Even Alicia had managed to fire off a few rounds, and she even hit one.
Zoe had dropped behind the rest of the group, and seemed to be sleepwalking. The bow had been replaced in the cart, and her mouth was moving.
"Zoe, what the hell are you doing?" Ash cried out.
"She's chanting," Alicia rolled her eyes.
Ash shook his head and jumped back out, fully reloaded. He started firing at more of the Deadites, but they'd seemed to get the hint, and were giving the group about a yard's distance.
"Yeah, didn't think so." He nodded; job well-done.
"Where are we going?" Bill wondered after taking another shot that resulted in his being doused with green goo.
Ash pointed to a parking space right in front of the store. The cream- colored car that occupied the space had certainly had seen better days. It was a 1973 Delta 88; it was dented and scratched; primer showed through the paint and a big dent in the passenger side made getting in that way dubious. The hood had obviously been welded together, and had a big bulge right in the center, and the rear bumper was missing.
"My car," he said.
"THAT'S your car?" Shawn exclaimed. "Oh, god, we're dead!"
"Listen, asshole, that car has seen more of these bastards than you're looking at right now, so either you ride with me or you stay here and see if one of these guys will lead you to safety."
"Um... guys?" Alicia ventured from behind them. All three men turned to look at her, and she gestured to Zoe, meekly explaining, "Zoe doesn't look so good."
This was an understatement. Zoe's body was starting to quiver, and her eyes were rolling up. Her chanting grew louder, but was occasionally interrupted by the cxhattering of her teeth as she twitched spastically.
"We've got to get her to the car," Shawn observed, racing to her side.
"Give it up!" Ash shouted to his back. "She's probably already one of them!"
Shawn spared him a venomous glare as he scooped Zoe's body off her feet and carried her toward the car. As they pushed through the crowd of Deadites, Ash began to notice that they were closing the gap and not giving the human survivors as wide a berth. He glanced with narrowed eyes at the trembling figure in Shawn's arms, his eyes narrowed with reservation.
As the others reached the car, Bill glanced at the huge blue sign above the crash barrier.
"Uh, Ash?" he said uncertainly. "This is a handicapped space."
Ash held up the stump of his right arm with a raised eyebrow. "Yeah. It is."
"Get the door open! She's losing consciousness," Shawn insisted.
As he unlocked and opened the passenger door - which was much easier than one would suppose - he said to the big man, "I'm telling you, she's history. Her rack isn't worth it."
Ignoring him, Shawn laid Zoe out on the front seat. As he loosened her clothing, he said, "She's about to have a seizure."
"Shawn, we got bigger problems than her," Ash replied, warning in his voice.
Shawn looked at him, his mouth working as though about to say something. Finally he shook his head and continued with his task.
The gunfire was starting again; Bill and Alicia were shooting as the creatures reached out to grab and swipe at them. Ash crossed around to the back of the car and flung open the truck. He, Bill and Alicia started emptying the contents of the shopping cart into the trunk, fitting them in around the already-present jungle of books, comics, clothes, spare tire, and what looked to be a cloak. They each took turns firing shots at the wave of Deadites, but the monsters were still keeping their distance, even as that distance was closing.
Somewhere in the midst of the confusion, Shawn appeared, grabbed one of the laden shopping bags, and brought it back to Zoe.
Finally, they all piled into the car, and none too soon. Whatever wall had held back the demons finally collapsed, and they converged on the car with renewed force. The engine roared, and Ash threw it into reverse with tires squealing. From the back seat, where Shawn had moved her, Zoe moaned. It was a bumpy ride out of the S-Mart parking lot as Ash indiscriminately hit anything that moved, and several of the beasts fell to the might of three tons of Detroit steel. Then the Delta found pavement, and the road, and the group drove in silence for a while.
Finally, Zoe stirred.
"Sugar..." she breathed, panting. Shawn dug through the bag he'd grabbed and handed her a bag of cookies. She opened the bag and started shoving them in her mouth, unheeding of crumbs that clung to her lips or fell to her lap.
"Hey, can I have one?" Alicia asked. Zoe clutched the bag to her chest, growling feraly. Alicia turned to Ash and whined, "Why should She get to eat all of them?"
"Because I said so," Shawn answered for him.
"What do you care, anyway?" Bill snapped at the big man. Shawn made no response, just sat and looked out the window. Ash watched the entire exchange in silence, wondering what the answer was. He fixed his eyes on the dark road and they continued along.
More time passed by in silence, with only the trees, cliff-faces, and the occasional farmhouse passing by. It seemed like an eternity, an eternity in darkness.
"Where are we going?" Alicia wondered aloud. Her voice was quiet, shaky.
"To the high school," Ash replied.
"Why?" Bill exclaimed incredulously. "That's clear across the county! Lengthwise!"
"Because there's a bomb shelter underneath it," Ash said, his voice hopeful. "And if there are other survivors, I bet that's where they'll be."
"Except for the ones who got stuck in their out-of-the-way farmhouses!" Alicia cried. "That happened to my aunt Barbara up in Pennsylvania - "
"Well, this is North Carolina," Ash snapped. "And we're going to the high school."
Nobody argued, and the tense silence continued all the way to the high school.
CHAPTER THREE: A WALL OF DEADITES
Feeling fully prepared now, all five turned their attention to the front doors of the S-Mart, where a sea of the demon-zombies seemed to be waiting for them to come be dinner. Gaping maws and blank white eyes peered in at them, most of them moaning. A few were issuing threats and descriptions of what would happen to them when they came out in high, shrill voices.
Alicia shuddered. "Please don't let them eat my soul," she said to Ash.
"It's just talk, baby, just talk," he assured her, nodding once to emphasize his point. With a sigh, he told himself, "I did it with sixty primates, I can do it with five real people with guns."
So he wasn't too happy when Shawn grabbed the axe he'd taken from the fire alarm. The bow and arrows, Zoe's choice of weapon, didn't please him, either.
"What the hell are you doing? We've got guns!"
Zoe ignored him, but Shawn turned and gave him a huge lopsided grin, his eyes sparkling. Ash just shook his head.
"We're all gonna die," he said to himself. Then he started for the door.
Bill and Alicia both grabbed and loaded guns as Ash started firing at the incoming wave of the Necronomicon Ex Mortum's finest. A dozen of them rushed in all at once, but three went down as Ash fired wildly at anything that was cackling. In an impressive display of whirling and twirling, Shawn took the head and arms of two more of the ghastly creatures. Zoe's arrows were aimed true, turning two more into pincushions with shots of three arrows per round. Alicia watched all of this with awe, everything moving in slow motion. One came screaming, running at her with claws bared, its face a ghastly scowl and its stench permeating her nose and making her eyes water.
Suddenly its head exploded and a shower of black blood erupted over her and Bill. She squealed and looked to see that it had been Bill that had saved her.
Taking the head of the line, Ash and Shawn were making progress out the door. As more and more Deadites tried to come at them, they exploded in a shower of blood and dismembered body parts. Shawn was moving like a Cuisinart, his axe laying waste to multiple demons at a time. He looked like a Viking berserker, his mouth wide open in a long loud war-cry that Ash couldn't make out over the din of screeching monsters. He was shooting, kicking, and butting them with the end of his gun, smashing them about any way he could.
One managed to grab his throat and he stuck the muzzle of his rifle under its chin. But when he pulled the trigger, not a thing happened. In panic, Ash head-butted the creature, with no luck. He tried to grab the strong claws that were around his throat, gasping for air that wasn't coming. Suddenly the creature was abruptly ripped away from him, and he looked up in time to see Shawn toss it over the crowd, giving him a wild-eyed grin.
"Ammo!" he shouted back to Alicia. She looked in the cart and grabbed the ammo box, tossed it back to him. He looked at the box for a second only to see it was the wrong caliber. He tossed it back to her.
"The .3030 ammo!"
Flushing in her frustration, Alicia found it and tossed it to him. In the meantime, three more Deadites met the butt-end of his rifle. He dropped behind Shawn when he caught the second box of ammo, reloading, and pleased to note that Bill had moved up a little. He was out the door with Ash and Shawn, shooting at anything that advanced. Even Alicia had managed to fire off a few rounds, and she even hit one.
Zoe had dropped behind the rest of the group, and seemed to be sleepwalking. The bow had been replaced in the cart, and her mouth was moving.
"Zoe, what the hell are you doing?" Ash cried out.
"She's chanting," Alicia rolled her eyes.
Ash shook his head and jumped back out, fully reloaded. He started firing at more of the Deadites, but they'd seemed to get the hint, and were giving the group about a yard's distance.
"Yeah, didn't think so." He nodded; job well-done.
"Where are we going?" Bill wondered after taking another shot that resulted in his being doused with green goo.
Ash pointed to a parking space right in front of the store. The cream- colored car that occupied the space had certainly had seen better days. It was a 1973 Delta 88; it was dented and scratched; primer showed through the paint and a big dent in the passenger side made getting in that way dubious. The hood had obviously been welded together, and had a big bulge right in the center, and the rear bumper was missing.
"My car," he said.
"THAT'S your car?" Shawn exclaimed. "Oh, god, we're dead!"
"Listen, asshole, that car has seen more of these bastards than you're looking at right now, so either you ride with me or you stay here and see if one of these guys will lead you to safety."
"Um... guys?" Alicia ventured from behind them. All three men turned to look at her, and she gestured to Zoe, meekly explaining, "Zoe doesn't look so good."
This was an understatement. Zoe's body was starting to quiver, and her eyes were rolling up. Her chanting grew louder, but was occasionally interrupted by the cxhattering of her teeth as she twitched spastically.
"We've got to get her to the car," Shawn observed, racing to her side.
"Give it up!" Ash shouted to his back. "She's probably already one of them!"
Shawn spared him a venomous glare as he scooped Zoe's body off her feet and carried her toward the car. As they pushed through the crowd of Deadites, Ash began to notice that they were closing the gap and not giving the human survivors as wide a berth. He glanced with narrowed eyes at the trembling figure in Shawn's arms, his eyes narrowed with reservation.
As the others reached the car, Bill glanced at the huge blue sign above the crash barrier.
"Uh, Ash?" he said uncertainly. "This is a handicapped space."
Ash held up the stump of his right arm with a raised eyebrow. "Yeah. It is."
"Get the door open! She's losing consciousness," Shawn insisted.
As he unlocked and opened the passenger door - which was much easier than one would suppose - he said to the big man, "I'm telling you, she's history. Her rack isn't worth it."
Ignoring him, Shawn laid Zoe out on the front seat. As he loosened her clothing, he said, "She's about to have a seizure."
"Shawn, we got bigger problems than her," Ash replied, warning in his voice.
Shawn looked at him, his mouth working as though about to say something. Finally he shook his head and continued with his task.
The gunfire was starting again; Bill and Alicia were shooting as the creatures reached out to grab and swipe at them. Ash crossed around to the back of the car and flung open the truck. He, Bill and Alicia started emptying the contents of the shopping cart into the trunk, fitting them in around the already-present jungle of books, comics, clothes, spare tire, and what looked to be a cloak. They each took turns firing shots at the wave of Deadites, but the monsters were still keeping their distance, even as that distance was closing.
Somewhere in the midst of the confusion, Shawn appeared, grabbed one of the laden shopping bags, and brought it back to Zoe.
Finally, they all piled into the car, and none too soon. Whatever wall had held back the demons finally collapsed, and they converged on the car with renewed force. The engine roared, and Ash threw it into reverse with tires squealing. From the back seat, where Shawn had moved her, Zoe moaned. It was a bumpy ride out of the S-Mart parking lot as Ash indiscriminately hit anything that moved, and several of the beasts fell to the might of three tons of Detroit steel. Then the Delta found pavement, and the road, and the group drove in silence for a while.
Finally, Zoe stirred.
"Sugar..." she breathed, panting. Shawn dug through the bag he'd grabbed and handed her a bag of cookies. She opened the bag and started shoving them in her mouth, unheeding of crumbs that clung to her lips or fell to her lap.
"Hey, can I have one?" Alicia asked. Zoe clutched the bag to her chest, growling feraly. Alicia turned to Ash and whined, "Why should She get to eat all of them?"
"Because I said so," Shawn answered for him.
"What do you care, anyway?" Bill snapped at the big man. Shawn made no response, just sat and looked out the window. Ash watched the entire exchange in silence, wondering what the answer was. He fixed his eyes on the dark road and they continued along.
More time passed by in silence, with only the trees, cliff-faces, and the occasional farmhouse passing by. It seemed like an eternity, an eternity in darkness.
"Where are we going?" Alicia wondered aloud. Her voice was quiet, shaky.
"To the high school," Ash replied.
"Why?" Bill exclaimed incredulously. "That's clear across the county! Lengthwise!"
"Because there's a bomb shelter underneath it," Ash said, his voice hopeful. "And if there are other survivors, I bet that's where they'll be."
"Except for the ones who got stuck in their out-of-the-way farmhouses!" Alicia cried. "That happened to my aunt Barbara up in Pennsylvania - "
"Well, this is North Carolina," Ash snapped. "And we're going to the high school."
Nobody argued, and the tense silence continued all the way to the high school.