~Chapter Twelve~
Feet slapping the pavement through scenes of devastation, the zombies were out of control, houses burning down, cars overturned, people being torn apart in the street, it was spring break for the undead.
"This is madness!" Cassie yelled, "They don't even seem to be searching for us, they're just destroying everything in their path!"
"Ghouls just wanna have fun sweetheart." Ash replied "Don't worry, the talking bird told me everything.."
[I have a name y'know!]
"..I know a place of salvation if you will where we can sort out our shit."
"Hey hey!" Jake waved his hand as if asking a question "I believe I'm in charge here."
"Buddy right now you're in charge of precisely two things." Ash growled.
"Jack and shit?" Ben suggested.
"Exactly, and Jack left town, this situation is not in your control, you don't become a deaddite slayer overnight okay? Wait, no, ya do, okay but you haven't so shut your pie hole mister, you can take the animal thing and the alien slugs but the zombies are my department."
"Yes sir!" Jake agreed, eyes shining with admiration.
"Wow, what a man, so aggressive and take charge, a man amongst mice, not like Tobias at all." Rachel sighed.
[Hey I'm flying right here damnit!]
"Sorry, sorry, it's the chin, it just, does it for me."
[Damn, I can't compete with that.] Tobias sighed.
"So where are you taking us then?" Marco asked.
"Right there." Ash pointed with a metal finger at a giant grey cinderblock of a building, a mall that dwarfed it's neighbouring businesses, the 'Overlook Roadside Inn' and this town's Needful Things chain store. Blazed in glowing red over the half dozen glass doors it read 'S-MART: Shop Smart, Shop S-Mart.' "I work here and we can get everything we need inside."
"We're gonna hide out from zombies by barricading ourselves in a shopping mall?" Marco asked.
"What's wrong with that?" Ash said.
"Nothing. ." Marco replied. "Just. . . It's been done."
"Oiiink! Oink Oink! Oiiiiiiiiiiink!!" All heads turned in the direction of the horrendous battle cry, charging down the middle of the road came the Werepig, the presence of the Animorphs was like a fish hook in it's primitive mind and it ran for them trotters pounding the asphalt, shouldering the odd zombie to the ground.
"Cheese it! Cops! No wait.." the Werepig leapt on Ash before he could start his chainsaw, It squealed and laid it's trotters into his face and chest, the saw clanged away, Ash threw in a punch with his metal hand, the Werepig reeled back long enough for Ash to jump to his feet.
The creature paused and considered him with it's black beady eyes, turned it's head and spat out a tusk then came again, it grabbed Ash and swung him around, his head connected full force into a telegraph pole he staggered back dazed, blood pouring from his temple "Jesus how many concussions does that make now?" he stumbled and fell to the sidewalk.
The Werepig sniffed and turned to the Animorphs, It grabbed Ben's shirt and smelled him, no energy so he threw him aside, though he did smell like pot, and his eyes looked a little red, the Werepig made a mental note to hassle him after he'd killed the others.
"Shoot it for Christ's sake!" Rachel yelled.
Marco pulled off a round, the buckshot ripped through the Werepig's uniform around it's right shoulder, it staggered but then pulled it's own sidearm, standard issue Colt. Marco frantically attempted to reload but the Werepig loomed, beating the others who got in his way down.
It grabbed the sawn-off barrel and pulled it off Marco as he finally clicked the shells home, it threw the gun over his head like an afterthought, Marco looked up into it's huffing snout, the Werepig brought up it's .38, thumbed off the safety...
"Here piggie piggie piggie!" Ash called, the Werepig turned snorting in anger, Ash was slowly climbing to his feet "That's right, I ain't done by a long shot, or are your eyes to big for your stomach?"
The Werepig turned completely away from Marco, holstered it's gun and ran for Ash, Ash and his metal fist were waiting, snout bleeding and now at a weird angle it staggered back but it came again, Ash hit it again, The Werepig lashed out and caught Ash on his overcompensating jaw line, then grabbed him and pounded him into a brick wall.
It shoved him into the wall again and again, squealing with delight, Ash dropped to the ground, beside him he spotted something shiny, his Remington he reached out for it... Fingertips on the polished walnut stock...
The Werepig spotted the gun and kicked it away just in time, He pulled Ash up and nutted him with its sloping forehead, Ash flew back, The Werepig came a him but Ash managed to stick his leg up and dig his toes under the creatures gut, Ash let the momentum take the monster, flying over him and smashing through a Krispy Kreme store window.
Ash jumped up and began bouncing like a boxer warming up, "Come on, I ain't done yet, comeon little piggie, you know I eat guys like you for breakfast with two eggs sunny side up, you're damn straight I do, comeon sheriff.. Come on?" Ash peered inside.
The Werepig had found itself behind the counter and was gorging on leftover stale donuts, "Damnit pig! We're in the middle of something! mano a mano battle between man and. . . Pig mutant.. It's a sacred thing! Get your fat ass out here!"
The Werepig looked up to Ash, down to its donuts, then back to Ash eyes gleaming angrily, it dropped the delicious treats and charged for him, tackling him to the ground.
Rachel crawled along the ground, the Werepig had laid her out good, she could feel the bruise swelling on her cheek and the trickle of blood that dripped out her nose into little spots on the asphalt, finally she found it, her hands came across the Remington Marco had lost.
Ash and the Werepig struggled on the ground fighting tooth and nail, Rachel tried to aim but it was impossible without hitting Ash "Ash! Give me a clear shot will'ya?"
He barely heard her but he managed to glance over for a split second and saw her cradling his shotgun, he wriggled his boots up under the creatures armpits and kicked off, it stumbled back allowing Rachel a clear shot, she took it, Ash felt the buckshot rip the air above him and the Werepig stumbled back it's chest gaping but still alive, still standing.
Rachel pumped the gun and with hesitation took aim and fired, Ash looked over head as the power box on the telegraph pole exploded above, light speared out in all directions.
The Werepig's mouth dropped open as the light reflected in his black eyes, it didn't see the power line, cut free by the gunshot and falling fast till the last second when it socked him in the chest, several thousand volts rocked it's body, frying it's skin to crispy perfection.
Ash leapt to his feet as the pig fried, he sniffed the air that was filling with a most delicious aroma "Makin' Bacon." He said finally and with a roundhouse kick he finished it off, the Werepig stumbled back, roasted to perfection, and hit the pavement like so many pork chops.
Rachel rested the gun against her hip and stood triumphant, slowly raised the barrel to her lips and blew the smoke away. "Hail to the queen, baby." Ash looked at her, mouth gaping open, she shrugged.
Under his breath, Ash muttered.
"Christ, what a woman."
~Chapter Thirteen~
Back at Jake's place zombies wandered in and out of the beaten down doors and amongst the chaotic new internal decorating of blood and smashed furniture in their usual wandering zombie way.
In the upstairs main bedroom a zombie with his feet propped up on Ax's carcass chowed down on an Andalite shin bone "Alright what do you want? Leg or a breast?" He asked the zombie stumbling over the body.
The second looked sceptically at his partner "Breast? I didn't know Andalites had breasts."
"Well not usually but that Marco bloke's been feeding him female hormones for a gag."
"Ah. What a card that guy is."
Suddenly with a weird screeching noise and a whipping camera angle Ax came roaring to life, all four eyes pupil-less sour milk white. His tail whipped out and neatly decapitated the second zombie, then grabbed the undead throat of the first and lifted him with his still weak looking yet powerful arm.
[I believe that belongs to me.] He rasped, the zombie held out Ax's missing hoof and Ax took it, lifted up his stump front leg and locked the bone into place with a sound oddly like a shotgun being reloaded. [Thanks much.] and he twisted his now powerful hand to the right, snapping the zombie neck like a twig and he dropped him.
The zombie stumbled back, head lolling from side to side, "Ow you stupid bastard."
[What the..?]
"Well I'm a fucking zombie aren't I? You don't just kill me by snapping my neck" He attempted to grab his head and sit it straight on his broken neck but it slipped off and hung down his shirt again. "Oh yes, thank you very much!"
Zombie Ax narrowed his eyes and his tail whipped out and up, cleaving the zombie from foreskin to forehead. [Better?]
The zombie gasped a little "...Much..." and the two halves broke apart and fell too the ground like so much rotting meat. Ax cracked his neck to the right, then to the left, then all the way and sighed.
[I know I'm bad, but it feels so good.] As if catching a scent in the air he turned, pupil less eyes blazing. [Animorphs....] he breathily growled. [Never did you include me in your little human clique, always 'the Animorphs and Ax did this' 'the Animorphs and Ax did that' sure the billing was great but always the outcast, that David guy, he's considered an Animorphs in what? Five minutes? Ay Karumba...] His voice trailed off.
[Vengeance will be mine!] He cried finally and leapt through the window, landing easily on the ground below and galloping into the night. Zombie Aximili was afoot!
~Chapter Fourteen~
Glass tinkled to the tiled floor as Ash's metal fist pounded through and unlocked the door from the inside, it swung open and the Animorphs shuffled through, he pulled it shut and they all looked at each other as if to say..
[What now?] Tobias said.
"You know how many explosives can be made from everyday household objects you can buy at any local S-mart?" Ash said, he seemed to be looking into space, thinking, "We're gonna build a bomb."
"To what end?" Cassie asked.
"These Yeerks they're whole base of operations underground right?"
"They've got a big Yeerk Pool complex dug out under the town." Jake answered.
"I say we pay it a visit."
"Are you crazy?!" Marco exclaimed, "Listen buddy you may think your hot shit with your severed hand and your big chin but we know a little something about fighting a war alright? Going down there now? With the five of us, you, your stoner cousin and a handful of homemade explosives? That's suicide."
"Don't talk to me about suicide missions kid, I once went up against an army of the undead led by an evil version of myself with sixty primates, some gunpowder and a '73 Delta Oldsmobile, this'll be a walk in the park." Ash sneered.
"Bu.. Ah.. Uh. . . . Eh." Marco tried and failed to protest, finally he sighed.
"Sorry Marco but the man's credentials are clearly spotless." Jake patted Marco's defeated slumping shoulders, then got the light in his eyes, "Yes a true leader of men, why if only someone such as I could aspire, a great man, determined, rugged and a touch of wild, if only someone could tame him.." He shuddered with a smile.
"Umm, Jake, could you, y'know, stop rubbing my shoulder like that, it's creepy."
Jake snapped out of it, "Oh, sorry Marco."
"Alright, Jake and Cassie, you know your way around the nursery section?" Ash asked.
"Do I!" Cassie replied.
"Then I want you to load up some bags of chemical fertilizer, two wheelbarrows full should do it."
"Got'cha chief." Jake saluted.
Ash eyed him "Yeah.. Remember, get the chemical kinds of fertilizer, the other crap, well just the crap, is useless for bomb making."
"For a big hit, hold the shit, right on." Jake agreed.
"Will you get outta here." Jake and Cassie took off. "Ben and King Kong, I need you boys to grab some cleaning products, flammable stuff, Ben you know the drill."
"You got it cous."
"And Rachel, would you care to accompany to Sporting Goods? I'll probably be needing more ammo before too long."
"Do you even need to ask?" Rachel smiled.
[Ahem-hem.] Tobias coughed loudly, [How about me Ash, where should I go?] His feathers were bristling as his hawk glare went from Ash to Rachel.
"Oh yeah, you know you'd think I'd be able to remember a talking bird huh?"
[We went through this, my name's Tobias and I'm a human trapped in the body of a bird, remember?]
"Okay, spare me your life story, just, fly cover, jeez." Ash said.
"Now now Tobias, we're all adjusting" Rachel cooed, barely taking her eyes off Ash, she turned fully to him "Shall we?"
Tobias intensified his glare and was about to talk back when twin screams cut through the air like a loud, piercing knife, they were coming from Jake and Cassie's direction, an unmistakable high pitched mindless glass breaking screech of terror, accompanied by a deeper rounder yell that Tobias easily took for Cassie.
Ash turned to Rachel and nabbed his gun, "Hold that thought." He raced off across the linoleum.
***To Be Continued***
Feet slapping the pavement through scenes of devastation, the zombies were out of control, houses burning down, cars overturned, people being torn apart in the street, it was spring break for the undead.
"This is madness!" Cassie yelled, "They don't even seem to be searching for us, they're just destroying everything in their path!"
"Ghouls just wanna have fun sweetheart." Ash replied "Don't worry, the talking bird told me everything.."
[I have a name y'know!]
"..I know a place of salvation if you will where we can sort out our shit."
"Hey hey!" Jake waved his hand as if asking a question "I believe I'm in charge here."
"Buddy right now you're in charge of precisely two things." Ash growled.
"Jack and shit?" Ben suggested.
"Exactly, and Jack left town, this situation is not in your control, you don't become a deaddite slayer overnight okay? Wait, no, ya do, okay but you haven't so shut your pie hole mister, you can take the animal thing and the alien slugs but the zombies are my department."
"Yes sir!" Jake agreed, eyes shining with admiration.
"Wow, what a man, so aggressive and take charge, a man amongst mice, not like Tobias at all." Rachel sighed.
[Hey I'm flying right here damnit!]
"Sorry, sorry, it's the chin, it just, does it for me."
[Damn, I can't compete with that.] Tobias sighed.
"So where are you taking us then?" Marco asked.
"Right there." Ash pointed with a metal finger at a giant grey cinderblock of a building, a mall that dwarfed it's neighbouring businesses, the 'Overlook Roadside Inn' and this town's Needful Things chain store. Blazed in glowing red over the half dozen glass doors it read 'S-MART: Shop Smart, Shop S-Mart.' "I work here and we can get everything we need inside."
"We're gonna hide out from zombies by barricading ourselves in a shopping mall?" Marco asked.
"What's wrong with that?" Ash said.
"Nothing. ." Marco replied. "Just. . . It's been done."
"Oiiink! Oink Oink! Oiiiiiiiiiiink!!" All heads turned in the direction of the horrendous battle cry, charging down the middle of the road came the Werepig, the presence of the Animorphs was like a fish hook in it's primitive mind and it ran for them trotters pounding the asphalt, shouldering the odd zombie to the ground.
"Cheese it! Cops! No wait.." the Werepig leapt on Ash before he could start his chainsaw, It squealed and laid it's trotters into his face and chest, the saw clanged away, Ash threw in a punch with his metal hand, the Werepig reeled back long enough for Ash to jump to his feet.
The creature paused and considered him with it's black beady eyes, turned it's head and spat out a tusk then came again, it grabbed Ash and swung him around, his head connected full force into a telegraph pole he staggered back dazed, blood pouring from his temple "Jesus how many concussions does that make now?" he stumbled and fell to the sidewalk.
The Werepig sniffed and turned to the Animorphs, It grabbed Ben's shirt and smelled him, no energy so he threw him aside, though he did smell like pot, and his eyes looked a little red, the Werepig made a mental note to hassle him after he'd killed the others.
"Shoot it for Christ's sake!" Rachel yelled.
Marco pulled off a round, the buckshot ripped through the Werepig's uniform around it's right shoulder, it staggered but then pulled it's own sidearm, standard issue Colt. Marco frantically attempted to reload but the Werepig loomed, beating the others who got in his way down.
It grabbed the sawn-off barrel and pulled it off Marco as he finally clicked the shells home, it threw the gun over his head like an afterthought, Marco looked up into it's huffing snout, the Werepig brought up it's .38, thumbed off the safety...
"Here piggie piggie piggie!" Ash called, the Werepig turned snorting in anger, Ash was slowly climbing to his feet "That's right, I ain't done by a long shot, or are your eyes to big for your stomach?"
The Werepig turned completely away from Marco, holstered it's gun and ran for Ash, Ash and his metal fist were waiting, snout bleeding and now at a weird angle it staggered back but it came again, Ash hit it again, The Werepig lashed out and caught Ash on his overcompensating jaw line, then grabbed him and pounded him into a brick wall.
It shoved him into the wall again and again, squealing with delight, Ash dropped to the ground, beside him he spotted something shiny, his Remington he reached out for it... Fingertips on the polished walnut stock...
The Werepig spotted the gun and kicked it away just in time, He pulled Ash up and nutted him with its sloping forehead, Ash flew back, The Werepig came a him but Ash managed to stick his leg up and dig his toes under the creatures gut, Ash let the momentum take the monster, flying over him and smashing through a Krispy Kreme store window.
Ash jumped up and began bouncing like a boxer warming up, "Come on, I ain't done yet, comeon little piggie, you know I eat guys like you for breakfast with two eggs sunny side up, you're damn straight I do, comeon sheriff.. Come on?" Ash peered inside.
The Werepig had found itself behind the counter and was gorging on leftover stale donuts, "Damnit pig! We're in the middle of something! mano a mano battle between man and. . . Pig mutant.. It's a sacred thing! Get your fat ass out here!"
The Werepig looked up to Ash, down to its donuts, then back to Ash eyes gleaming angrily, it dropped the delicious treats and charged for him, tackling him to the ground.
Rachel crawled along the ground, the Werepig had laid her out good, she could feel the bruise swelling on her cheek and the trickle of blood that dripped out her nose into little spots on the asphalt, finally she found it, her hands came across the Remington Marco had lost.
Ash and the Werepig struggled on the ground fighting tooth and nail, Rachel tried to aim but it was impossible without hitting Ash "Ash! Give me a clear shot will'ya?"
He barely heard her but he managed to glance over for a split second and saw her cradling his shotgun, he wriggled his boots up under the creatures armpits and kicked off, it stumbled back allowing Rachel a clear shot, she took it, Ash felt the buckshot rip the air above him and the Werepig stumbled back it's chest gaping but still alive, still standing.
Rachel pumped the gun and with hesitation took aim and fired, Ash looked over head as the power box on the telegraph pole exploded above, light speared out in all directions.
The Werepig's mouth dropped open as the light reflected in his black eyes, it didn't see the power line, cut free by the gunshot and falling fast till the last second when it socked him in the chest, several thousand volts rocked it's body, frying it's skin to crispy perfection.
Ash leapt to his feet as the pig fried, he sniffed the air that was filling with a most delicious aroma "Makin' Bacon." He said finally and with a roundhouse kick he finished it off, the Werepig stumbled back, roasted to perfection, and hit the pavement like so many pork chops.
Rachel rested the gun against her hip and stood triumphant, slowly raised the barrel to her lips and blew the smoke away. "Hail to the queen, baby." Ash looked at her, mouth gaping open, she shrugged.
Under his breath, Ash muttered.
"Christ, what a woman."
~Chapter Thirteen~
Back at Jake's place zombies wandered in and out of the beaten down doors and amongst the chaotic new internal decorating of blood and smashed furniture in their usual wandering zombie way.
In the upstairs main bedroom a zombie with his feet propped up on Ax's carcass chowed down on an Andalite shin bone "Alright what do you want? Leg or a breast?" He asked the zombie stumbling over the body.
The second looked sceptically at his partner "Breast? I didn't know Andalites had breasts."
"Well not usually but that Marco bloke's been feeding him female hormones for a gag."
"Ah. What a card that guy is."
Suddenly with a weird screeching noise and a whipping camera angle Ax came roaring to life, all four eyes pupil-less sour milk white. His tail whipped out and neatly decapitated the second zombie, then grabbed the undead throat of the first and lifted him with his still weak looking yet powerful arm.
[I believe that belongs to me.] He rasped, the zombie held out Ax's missing hoof and Ax took it, lifted up his stump front leg and locked the bone into place with a sound oddly like a shotgun being reloaded. [Thanks much.] and he twisted his now powerful hand to the right, snapping the zombie neck like a twig and he dropped him.
The zombie stumbled back, head lolling from side to side, "Ow you stupid bastard."
[What the..?]
"Well I'm a fucking zombie aren't I? You don't just kill me by snapping my neck" He attempted to grab his head and sit it straight on his broken neck but it slipped off and hung down his shirt again. "Oh yes, thank you very much!"
Zombie Ax narrowed his eyes and his tail whipped out and up, cleaving the zombie from foreskin to forehead. [Better?]
The zombie gasped a little "...Much..." and the two halves broke apart and fell too the ground like so much rotting meat. Ax cracked his neck to the right, then to the left, then all the way and sighed.
[I know I'm bad, but it feels so good.] As if catching a scent in the air he turned, pupil less eyes blazing. [Animorphs....] he breathily growled. [Never did you include me in your little human clique, always 'the Animorphs and Ax did this' 'the Animorphs and Ax did that' sure the billing was great but always the outcast, that David guy, he's considered an Animorphs in what? Five minutes? Ay Karumba...] His voice trailed off.
[Vengeance will be mine!] He cried finally and leapt through the window, landing easily on the ground below and galloping into the night. Zombie Aximili was afoot!
~Chapter Fourteen~
Glass tinkled to the tiled floor as Ash's metal fist pounded through and unlocked the door from the inside, it swung open and the Animorphs shuffled through, he pulled it shut and they all looked at each other as if to say..
[What now?] Tobias said.
"You know how many explosives can be made from everyday household objects you can buy at any local S-mart?" Ash said, he seemed to be looking into space, thinking, "We're gonna build a bomb."
"To what end?" Cassie asked.
"These Yeerks they're whole base of operations underground right?"
"They've got a big Yeerk Pool complex dug out under the town." Jake answered.
"I say we pay it a visit."
"Are you crazy?!" Marco exclaimed, "Listen buddy you may think your hot shit with your severed hand and your big chin but we know a little something about fighting a war alright? Going down there now? With the five of us, you, your stoner cousin and a handful of homemade explosives? That's suicide."
"Don't talk to me about suicide missions kid, I once went up against an army of the undead led by an evil version of myself with sixty primates, some gunpowder and a '73 Delta Oldsmobile, this'll be a walk in the park." Ash sneered.
"Bu.. Ah.. Uh. . . . Eh." Marco tried and failed to protest, finally he sighed.
"Sorry Marco but the man's credentials are clearly spotless." Jake patted Marco's defeated slumping shoulders, then got the light in his eyes, "Yes a true leader of men, why if only someone such as I could aspire, a great man, determined, rugged and a touch of wild, if only someone could tame him.." He shuddered with a smile.
"Umm, Jake, could you, y'know, stop rubbing my shoulder like that, it's creepy."
Jake snapped out of it, "Oh, sorry Marco."
"Alright, Jake and Cassie, you know your way around the nursery section?" Ash asked.
"Do I!" Cassie replied.
"Then I want you to load up some bags of chemical fertilizer, two wheelbarrows full should do it."
"Got'cha chief." Jake saluted.
Ash eyed him "Yeah.. Remember, get the chemical kinds of fertilizer, the other crap, well just the crap, is useless for bomb making."
"For a big hit, hold the shit, right on." Jake agreed.
"Will you get outta here." Jake and Cassie took off. "Ben and King Kong, I need you boys to grab some cleaning products, flammable stuff, Ben you know the drill."
"You got it cous."
"And Rachel, would you care to accompany to Sporting Goods? I'll probably be needing more ammo before too long."
"Do you even need to ask?" Rachel smiled.
[Ahem-hem.] Tobias coughed loudly, [How about me Ash, where should I go?] His feathers were bristling as his hawk glare went from Ash to Rachel.
"Oh yeah, you know you'd think I'd be able to remember a talking bird huh?"
[We went through this, my name's Tobias and I'm a human trapped in the body of a bird, remember?]
"Okay, spare me your life story, just, fly cover, jeez." Ash said.
"Now now Tobias, we're all adjusting" Rachel cooed, barely taking her eyes off Ash, she turned fully to him "Shall we?"
Tobias intensified his glare and was about to talk back when twin screams cut through the air like a loud, piercing knife, they were coming from Jake and Cassie's direction, an unmistakable high pitched mindless glass breaking screech of terror, accompanied by a deeper rounder yell that Tobias easily took for Cassie.
Ash turned to Rachel and nabbed his gun, "Hold that thought." He raced off across the linoleum.
***To Be Continued***