Chapter 19: Paint the Town Red

Robles

"Well…"

Collete bit her lip and shifted her gaze a little, as if she didn't really want to explain the strange things going on.

"I don't know if you'll believe me or not…"

"Trust me, after what's happened, I'll believe ANYTHING."

Collete looked up at Sam again, unsure whether the Marine was serious or not.

"Okay, but it's going to sound strange…"

Sam sat and listened. As Collete went on, Sam felt the uneasiness in her stomach rising. Even after Collete finished her story, Sam was still trying to make ends meet. The dead walking? The entire city getting invaded? It just made no sense.

"Okay, you're totally sure that these guys are undead, or whatever you think they are? Sure they just aren't a bunch of crazy guys?"

Collete shook her head.

"Nothing seems to kill them, and it seems to spread like a disease."

Sam glanced around nervously. She was getting more nervous by the second.

"Right, I guess we should-"

Before she could finish, however, Sam saw Collete's horrified expression. The girl's eyes widened in fright. It took a few seconds for Sam to realize she was staring at something behind her.

"BEHIND YOU!"

Sam turned and noticed a person standing behind her. Unlike any normal person though, this one stared at her with cold, dead eyes. The person, or former person, opened its mouth to reveal dozens of blood covered teeth and growled. It lunged at Sam, shrieking for human flesh. Sam backed away and raised her battle rifle. Three rounds tore through the zombie's chest, but that didn't even slow it down. Sam kept firing at it, but the thing still kept coming.

Sam wasn't quite sure what happened next, but it felt as if something shifter her rifle, snapping the barrel up several degrees. This time, three rounds went straight through the zombie's head. The thing gurgled and flopped to the ground, violently twitching. Sam stepped over it, and quickly put it out of its misery with another three rounds to the face. Taking one more look at the thing, she muttered.

"So you can kill these things…"

Sam turned and saw that Collete was fine.

"Okay, we're going to have to get out of here. The dropship that took me here is over at the landing pad. We're going to have to get there fast, though."

Collete looked at the Warthog, which was mangled from the explosion and from flying shrapnel.

"In THAT piece of junk?"

Sam took out a fresh ammo clip from her belt and reloaded her rifle.

"It's either that piece of junk, or we WALK to the landing pad. And I don't think you'd want to do that with all the zombies crawling around here."

Collete realized that the Marine was right, and hopped into the passenger seat.

Sam was about to hop into the driver seat until a wave of nausea hit her. She backed off a little trying to shake off the disorientation. She also caught flashes of visions, and a spark of rage at something, but she shook it off and got into the jeep. This zombie crap was seriously getting to her.

Omega

Karla fought to keep the bile from rising from her throat. The scene she saw was horrifying. Dead bodies were everywhere. Scattered and thrown around like broken toys. Blood was smeared all over the walls and floor, and the stench of death was thick enough to see in the air.

What really made the scene unsettling, though, was not just how the room looked, but in the manner that most of the men were killed. All of them had their eyes wide open in fear and mouths stuck open from screaming. It would've looked as if these men had died from fright if it weren't for their wounds.

Several had missing limbs, others torn in half and in pieces. A couple had broken necks, with damage so visible that it looked as if something tried to twist their heads right off. One man even had his innards ripped out and strung around like tinsel on a Christmas tree, and from the expression on his face, while he was alive.

Karla backed against a corner, tripped over a body, and found herself vomiting on the floor. She looked up and saw that even Holy, an Elite, was visibly shaken from carnage surrounding them. If this could even freak out a Covenant Elite, she did NOT want to know who or what killed these men.

Karla staggered to her feet, trying to keep her breathing under control. She closed her eyes, and tried to regain her nerve. She was only partially successful.

"O- okay, lets keep moving…"

The other two squads of Marines filed into the room. Some of them fainted, many puked, all were terrified. Karla looked at Holy. He seemed to be on the edge of a nervous collapse. He merely stood there muttering a prayer under his breath.

Leaving them behind, Karla moved cautiously into the kitchen, rifle raised. Unfortunately, the kitchen was very much the same as the rec room, with dead and mutilated men scattered about. The kitchen seemed clear, until Karla noticed the freezer in the back. It was large enough to fit a man inside. Karla knew that she had to check it, but f eared what she would find. Carefully, she grabbed the latch with trembling hands.

The body of a man tumbled out and fell right on top of her.

Robles

Chaos wandered the streets, along with his escort of undead/Flood minions. Like any powerful leader, Chaos always kept the most powerful and genetically superior strains close to himself. He knew he was close to what he was looking for. Chaos reached out with his consciousness and found what he was looking for. He mentally touched a probed it, to gauge its reactions.

It responded perfectly.

Chaos smiled, and mentally ordered his escorts away. They would attract too much attention. Besides, Chaos intended to do this on his own.