Diene Welt
Six
She'd evaded them. All of them. They simply ran past her without a second glance. She was pressed flat against a wall and breathing hard. She had studied the map of the city quite throughly earlier, and was going to use it to make a quick, yet safe get away. According to the map, there was an old, abandoned monorail system near the center of the city, which lead to an ore processing plant on the outskirts of the city. If she could take the monorail to the processing plant, she could facilitate an escape via there. But there's at the heart of Zombie country, a place she wanted to avoid.
She checked her ammo bag on her ammo status. Still good. She took the break in the fighting to check the clip in the gun. Four of five, still good. But just to be sure, she pulled the clip out and slapped a fresh one in. She needed to move, but her legs were locked, impeding movement completely. Her brain was scared stiff, and unable to make decisions. As she attempted to unscramble her brain, she was interrupted by a message coming over the intercom system.
"Hello, hello? Anyone there? Can you hear me? If anyone can hear me, please, you have to help me. I'm on the fourth deck up from main engineering. I need your help! I'm in the locked door there, the code is zero zero five six. Don't worry about the Zombies, it's too hot up here for them. They can't survive in temperatures over two hundred and sixty degrees." Maria started to wonder what that was. A survivor, or a trap.
"Please! If anyone is still alive, answer this call! There's a console on the far wall from the Civilian Barracks! Please! Pick up! I don't know how much longer I have." The voice called again. Maria looked to her left to see a heavy door with the words "Civilian Barracks" printed on the top-middle in the Drakel tounge. Looking across the room, she saw the console the voice was referring to. Swallowing the sinking feeling in her throat, she ran to access the computer. The moment her finger touched the 'Activate' button, it clicked on to show the visage of a Drakel scientist. "Hello? Is someone there? Oh, thank god! Listen! I don't have much time, and neither do you. Here's what happened. We were researching the stolen Head of Carnax, I know. It was wrong, but I'm just told to do my job without questions! You understand, right? Well, anyway, we were researching the Head when members of the research team started dropping dead. We thought nothing of the fist one, he wasn't looking so hot the previous few days, so we just thought his death was natural. Well, once five of them failed to report the next day, needless to say, it had become a problem. Anyway, I don't know what these things are! But they are everywhere. Every time someone dies by any means connected to these...these...ZOMBIES, they become two, that's right. Two zombies per corpse! That means there are over five million of them still living. You have to get out! I know a way you can escape, and destroy all these bastardizations with them! But you have to destroy the Head! It may be connected somehow.
Maria told the scientist that the head was already destroyed, and it seemed to bring some comfort to him.
"Oh, good. You destroyed it. Now that their power source is gone, you can destroy the city, yes, you have to destroy the entire city to make sure none of these things escape! Towards the center of the city, you will come to an old, abandoned monorail system. However decrepit it may seem, it still works, and can carry you anywhere in the city. Take the monorail to junction 2-BFG and get off. The monorail won't stop there, so you'll have to jump for it. Once you get there, follow the corridor until you reach the reactor silo room. You have to shut down the failsafe system and set the reactor to overload. You can either destroy the silo itself, or program the system to deactivate after the next cycle is complete. Either way, it's up to you. Now, to get out. Once the failsafes are off, an access hatch will open which will..." The scientist was stopped by a DrakZombie falling from the ceiling, crushing him flat. Maria just barely heard his scream in anguish before becoming a grease smudge. The Zombie then looked into the screen, stared at Maria for around ten seconds before screaming in what sounded like rage and smashing it's fist across the panel, killing the connection. The X-Guardian muttered swearwords under her breath which were hardly audible. The static was quickly replaced by the console's main menu. One of the options, Tram System Map, peaked Maria's interest. She pressed the appropriate button and waited as the generic map of the city was overlayed with the Tram Route. There. She pointed to the dot on the map which read as 'Primary Station Omicron' and memorized not only its position, but the fastest route to it. It was a simple run-and-gun to the station, perhaps she could make it without attracting too many DrakZombies.
So much for that plan. The moment she turned around, she came face to face with a particularly ugly DrakZombie, not two inches from her face. It was breathing hard, it's breath stung Maria's eyes. It's fetid appearance was an eyesore to the Guardian. The creature seemed intrigued with Maria. It was staring at her, and she could even swore she saw it look down the front of her bra. With a disgusted look on her face, she pulled her gun right up to its face, pressed the barrel into the creatures lower jaw, uttered a clear 'fuck off' and pulled the trigger, blowing the creatures head off.
Reloading, Maria set off towards the Monorail, the words of the dead scientist still fresh in her head. As she started down the hall, she could hear more DrakZombies coming her way full tilt. Once again, they were on her tail, gaining speed and closing the distance fast. She had to think of something. Suddenly, the tell-tail sounds of the DrakZombies had died. She couldn't hear them anymore, and that silence was soon replaced by a steady hiss, followed by a slight chitter sound. Confused, Maria turned and looked down the hall to see what was making that sound. From the darkness, she saw a small, blue, two-legged creature hop out and look about. It had a small head, very small and sharp teeth, and was leaking thick black smoke from it's ass. As it looked about, it scanned everything for something to attack. As it's eyes fell on Maria, it scanned her. Having detected her as a viable target, the little creature opened it's mouth and emitted a high-pitched screech with all but rendered Maria deaf, then began sprinting her way full spread. Stunned, Maria could do nothing save watch as the little demon charged her. The smoke it was leaking became progressivly lighter in shade. She didn't know what it ment exactly, but it couldn't have been good. As the blue thing came to a rest right before her, the smoke had vanished, and its body started to warp and deform in odd ways. Soon, the creature simply exploded in a mess of blood and intestines. Maria was knocked some fifty feet down the corridor, but managed to land on her feet.
Cursing at the things she had nicknamed a "Popper", she continued her sprint down the hall, dodging every Popper she saw. Luckily, they had to stop to explode, which gave her just enough time to escape the explosion, which was not only big, but powerful too. She had no idea how the first on had managed to not hurt her.
The doors were flying by. Each individually labeled with some scientist or soldier's name or whatnot. Eventually, she could begin to see the door which read "Monorail". Tapping into a reserve of her strength, she gave an extra push of speed to reach the door before the zombies got to her. She was just about there. Another thirty, maybe forty feet and she could relax. Just before she reached the door, it opened revealing a muscular zombie standing in the door frame. Maria realized the ambush slightly too late. The Guardian only had enough time to scream 'FUCK!' at the top of her lungs before crashing into the strong zombie. The combination of Maria's strength and the speed to at which she was traveling at mixed together in perfect form to knock the strong zombie through the door and onto the floor, freeing its head. Guess it wasn't so strong after all. On the bright side, she could see she was in the Monorail docking station. The bloodstained floor mat below her read "Primary Station Omnicron". Just where she needed to go. She stood, smiled, and entered the tram. After shutting the door on a DrakZombie, or course.