Ok, First off, have a happy and safe Memorial Day! Woot!
Second, is the next chapter ;)
Don't think it's just a Giant Snake this chapter, it's that and a whole lot more!
Special thanks to: Simeon Williams, Darrinx, Godhand's Number, Tangora, YamiDymlos, Zero-Nightmare, Longsworder, Delta Operator, Jak4, DshizNit, swiglo3000, Savior M. Ascend, Mortal Guardian, Cold-Chaos, anarcrothe, Darks00, Jokerisdaking, IncrediRaider8, Otritzi, bahamut9999, Aelis Aisling, no body, hopeless-romantic-nr-one, Chaos Blade, K-R-4-E-V-A, Kei Ikari, KPFan4Life, Leah Phillips, Draft Strangus, whitem, Uzziel, zero9g9, and surfrost for reading and reviewing.
Chapter 23
Why does it have to be a Giant Snake…
"EVERYONE MOVE!" Vin screamed as he started firing at the large snake.
As if they were all connected, everyone moved as one, running at full blast towards the far wall and towards relative safety.
"Kim, Shego, On my six NOW!" Vin shouted as he ducked behind a tree.
"On my six? What's that mean?" Kim hurriedly asked Shego as they quickly changed direction towards Vin.
"It means get on his ass Princess"
"Oh, right"
Ron glanced over his shoulder as he continued with the others in their mad dash towards the wall, he saw Kim and Shego start heading towards Vin's location, and Vin continue to wave them to keep going.
However the snake was on the move, and it would surely close the distance between itself and them before they got to the wall. So obviously Vin had a plan of some kind, what it was Ron didn't know, what he did know was that he, as well as Rufus and the rest of the survivors were going to continue running towards the wall.
Kim reached Vin's position by the tree in short time, with Shego close behind, while the snake started slithering towards the group.
"I need you two to distract that thing and buy them time to get clear" Vin breathed as he checked on the snake's location.
"And just what do you plan to do while we play cat and mouse with that thing?" Kim questioned.
"Try to kill it of course, while it's trying to get either of you, I can move in and put the giant pair of boots down for good, now enough questions, they're running out of time!"
Vin pointed over to the snake, within the short conversation they just had, the snake managed to get within striking distance of the group. It lunged to strike at the closest member, which in this case happened to be Ron.
Ron screamed as he saw the snake lunge at him when a green blast caught the snake in its side (Does a round creature even have sides?) pushing the snake away from Ron, making it miss Ron all together…
Save for Ron's belt which its left fang managed to grasp and pull away.
"Oh Man! Not Now!" Ron shouted as he desperately pulled his pants back up to continue running.
The snake turned towards the source of the blast, its tongue darted out angrily as its eyes scanned for the suspect. They came to rest on Shego, who had both hands engulfed in green flames.
"Come on you oversized reptile, Mommy needs some snake skinned boots!" She taunted as the snake hissed at her.
The snake started towards her, moving in its serpentine motion back and fourth across the grassy field as it closed in. Shego held her ground.
The snakes head reared up as it looked down on Shego, it opened its jaws, preparing to strike when its body jerked back suddenly.
Confused the snake turned back to see Kim holding onto its tail, her eyes mimicked the red reptilian like eyes of the snake.
"Uh, uh, didn't you mother teach you table manners!" Kim taunted as she yanked on the snakes tail, the force of the tug caught the reptile by surprise and sent its head crashing to the ground not to far from where Shego was standing.
The ground shook as its massive head indented into the ground, sending up small clouds of dirt.
The snake lay there for a second, dazed.
Vin finally saw his opportunity to strike; he grabbed a five foot long piece of pipe railing that was sheared off the top of the wall. He ran at the snake, holding the railing like that of a javelin or pole vaulter. Just as the snakes head started to lift off the ground again Vin drove the railing right into its snout. The snake started to recoil in pain but he kept the pressure on, forcing the pipe deeper into its snout, soon Shego and Kim were helping drive this pipe railing down into the snout until they pierced the snakes jaw and effectively pinned its head to the ground, similar to a giant piercing someone might get on their lip, only this wasn't a decorational item.
The snake started to squirm around, hissing in pain as it tried to get free, but it was pinned to where it was, and it didn't use an excess of bullets to do it.
Slight cheering could be heard from the wall, where the rest of them successfully got out of the zoo.
"Why don't you kill it?" Shego asked, sounding mildly surprised.
"Part of my morals, I don't like killing animals when it isn't a necessity" Vin stated as he started walking towards the wall, Kim and Shego shortly joined his side.
"Wait, what about the shark back there?"
"And the giant Alligator, and the Spiders?" Kim added, sounding confused.
"When it isn't a necessity, the gator was trying to kill us, and we really had no where to go, and the spiders…well spiders don't count as animals."
"To some they do!"
"But not to me, spiders are some of the most disturbing creatures on this planet. Plus, I absolutely hate spiders"
"But, that just…oh, never mind" Kim finally deflated; arguing about this wasn't going anywhere. That and she silently agreed that if they didn't have to kill everything they encounter the better things would be.
How that would work she didn't have a clue, but it made her feel better and that's all that matters.
By now they reached the wall, and were being helped over to the other side.
"Good job with that snake, man does that bring back some bad memories" Chris said with a slight shudder.
Ron peered back over the wall, his eyes going wide.
"Um, guys?"
"What'd you mean? You ran into a giant snake?" Vin asked, not hearing Ron.
"Actually we did, in the mansion right?" Jill said.
"Guys?"
"That mansion had a snake? Damn, that place had a lot of creatures then."
"GUYS!" Ron screamed.
"What! What is it Ron!" Vin asked sounding slightly annoyed by the interruption.
"There's a problem" He managed to get out before he hesitantly pointed back over the wall.
Curious, the others peered over the wall.
What they saw was the snake, its nose still pinned to the ground, only now its tail wrapped around the pole and was starting to pull it out.
It hissed once it pulled the pole free from its snout, its tail constricted around the pole bending it into a 'U' before it dropped it to the ground in a muted thump.
Then its bloody head turned towards the wall, if the snake wasn't pissed before, it sure as hell was now.
"Oh, shit" was all Vin could say, and it managed to hit the right note as to the current problem.
"Oh man, what are we going to do now?" Ron asked sounding lost.
No one had a clear answer as the snake let out an angry hiss before it started towards the wall.
Vin gritted his teeth as he checked his watch. Just less than three hours to go before the entire city ceased to exist, and they still had another two miles to go before they reached the airport, and even then they still had to get a jet, and deal with Wesker and Will.
Not enough time, we don't have enough time…
They had to get rid of the snake, but it might take too much time to get rid of the snake and get to the airport. Then if they just ran, then the snake would undoubting pursue them, and they couldn't run continuously for long.
There was only one option in the matter, he didn't like the option, but then again he didn't have a choice.
"Everyone go, I'll deal with the snake…"
"What?" Everyone said unanimously.
"You heard me, you get to the airport, and I'll meet you there after I take care of this"
Vin started to climb back over the wall when he felt an arm grab his shoulder. It was Shego.
"No, we'll fight the snake together!"
"There's not enough time! You guys go, get out of here, that's an order!" He hissed at her.
"You can't leave us, you're our leader!" Kim shouted.
"I don't have a choice and there's no other alternative. Now go, I'll keep it busy as long as I can."
He broke free of Shego's grasp and stood on top of the wall, everyone looking at him with shocked and saddened eyes.
"You three are in charge" Vin motioned to Chris, Jill and Carlos before he looked at the rest of them.
"I will be at that airport, just don't get in too much trouble."
With that he disappeared over the wall, They heard the snake hiss, followed by lots of thudding and random shots fired from his AR-15.
"You heard him, we gotta move" Chris said, his voice was somber, yet stern enough to break everyone's gaze away from the wall.
"Come on…" Chris said before he, and the other two started down the road in the direction of the airport, eventually the others followed.
The last ones to move from the wall were Shego, Kim and Ron. And not to forget, Rufus was also there standing on Ron's shoulder, his own shoulders hunched down in sadness as they listened to the battle going on over the wall.
"Come on you two, we should go.." Ron said quietly as he started to lead Kim and Shego away from the wall and towards the rest of the group.
What in fucks sake did I get myself into…?
Vin questioned as he sprinted away from the wall, seconds before the snake smashed into the section where he was previously standing.
Fight the snake on my own…it sounded so simple ten seconds ago, now I realize I bit off way more than I can chew…
He spun around and squeezed off a few rounds from the AR, the rounds impacted on the snakes hide, if it wasn't for the light trickle of blood, he would've never figured he hit the damn thing.
Unfortunately it also got the snake's attention, its head snapped quickly to the right where he was standing.
He immediately started running towards the wall, unslinging the AR as he did. Unless he was willing to get up close and personal with the snake again, it wasn't going to be very helpful in this situation. In theory he could use the grenade launcher attachment to lob grenades at the snake, but that would quickly diminish the supply of grenades he had, which at this point was only three, and he did not want to waste them when another run in with Apotheosis could also occur.
It was just too much of a risk, so he tossed the rifle against the wall, if he was going to take this snake down, he'd have to rely on his trusty .45s, and the Springfield he now held in his hands.
The snake darted around his location, trapping him against the wall as it slowly started constricting itself closer and closer to him.
He unsheathed his combat knife, holding the handle tightly in his right hand.
When the snakes body was a good five feet from him he struck, driving the knife right into its side as he forcefully yanked the blade down. The blade caught on something in the snake, stopping its downward movement. He quickly released his grip from the knife and jumped up, using the knife handle as a temporary step he climbed onto the snakes back.
He quickly used his left foot to feel for the curved butt end of the knife handle and swiftly moved his foot up, jarring the knife loose in the process he snatched it before it fell to the ground.
Within the short amount of time this took place in the snake turned and tried to grab him, only he rolled out of its bite and onto the next doubled up section of the now coiled snake.
The next opportunity to strike presented itself as the snakes head passed by him, flipping the knife in the air he caught it by the tip of the blade, which was still covered in snake blood and threw it at the snakes left eye.
His aim was remarkable, the knife went right into the center of the snakes eye, causing another bout of hissing in pain as blood squirted out of the wound in the eye, Vin quickly jumped off the snake and ran towards the cabin he saw before the snake emerged, hoping that the snake wouldn't get its bearings back till he was inside.
Fortunately the snake was still worrying about the knife stuck in its eye to worry about where he was going and he got to the cabin with little incident.
Upon entering the cabin, Vin caught a whiff of a rather pungent odor, similar to that of rotting flesh.
It took him two seconds to realize there was a zombie in the room, which lunged at him as soon as he closed the door.
He dealt the zombie a right hook, knocking it to the ground and breaking its jaw in one swoop, it stayed down.
Vin tightened his finger around the trigger, when he caught sight of what was in the cabin.
A slight smirk came to his face as he released his finger from the trigger, although he had to strike the zombie again to keep it from getting up while he shackled it to the ground with some heavy duty chain he found.
He wasn't going to take the zombie out, not yet, he first had to put the idea he had into action, which if successful would take out the zombie, and the snake with one round.
"Well, its mad scientist time" He said to the zombie, which just groaned.
It was at least a half of an hour since they left Vin back at the field, they made pretty good ground in that time they had gotten about halfway to the airport, and their escape.
While that was something to be excited about, the entire trip was eerily quiet for the most part. No one said any thing at all, Chris, Jill and Carlos looked back at them each feeling guilty about leaving someone behind. Ron was close to Kim, his arm wrapped around her waist, Shego had her arm hooked with Drakken's and Bonnie was just by herself in the center of the two couples, each appeared to be on the verge of tears.
"This isn't right Chris, we should go back for him" Jill said softly.
"I know Jill, but Vin was right about the time thing. We still have Wesker to deal with and get the families. Not to mention getting a jet…there's just no time to do all that and go back."
"What about all that no one gets left behind Bullshit we always here? Shouldn't we be doing the same thing?" She argued.
"Jill, that's the army, and while I agree with what you're saying we can't go back." Chris shot back.
The group was starting to take notice, even if Chris and Jill weren't. It was what was said next that got everyone.
"You know we aren't leaving him behind right?"
Everyone turned to who said it, which was Carlos.
"So you want to go back and get him?" Chris asked.
"I want to, but like you said we can't."
"But, then we're still leaving him behind!"
"Chris, my friend, you just don't know Vin like I know him. He only does something like this if he knows he can win, he will beat that snake, and he will be at that airport, and he will be with us when we leave this place"
Carlos confidence started rubbing off onto the others. They had all seen Vin in action, and it gave them the hope, and the knowledge that he would be ok after all.
However the moment of joy was short lived when they looked past the three leaders and on to what was on the next block.
"What the hell is that?" Bonnie asked, pointing to the object.
Curious the three turned to see,
It was a large greenish mass, similar to a really giant tree, only this was easily six stories tall with large and ominous tentacles that sprouted out from the center mass. Chris and Jill knew immediately what it was from their experience with something similar in the Mansion back in Raccoon City. The Giant Killer Plant.
"Oh, not this shit again" Chris wined.
"Uh, hello?" Bonnie tapped her foot in annoyance.
"It's a Mutated giant killer plant" Jill said quickly.
"Ooh, right, I was just telling Rufus the same thing"
"Yep" The mole rat replied.
"So, how do we get rid of it?" Kim asked after Rolling her eyes at Ron's comment.
"Well, last time we made an acidic solution that killed its roots and then we burned it. But I don't see any way we could do that here."
"Actually there is a way" Drakken spoke up.
Everyone looked towards him, anticipating his solution.
"Because it is a plant, it has the same weaknesses as a plant, and because of where we are…" He pointed over to the right, at a vacant building, which was a Home Depot.
"…we can easily concoct some sort of super plant killing formula!"
"You know, for once, that's a plan that actually makes sense." Shego replied.
"Shego! Now's not the time for your banter!"
"Whatever, lets just get this over with already" She responded as she started towards the depot, the others shrugged their shoulders and followed after her.
Vin was rather pleased with what he created in the last fifteen minutes, he would've been done with it sooner but he had to keep hitting the zombie so it wouldn't bite him.
What was in the cabin was assorted gas cans, each filled with either regular gasoline, or with a mixture of gasoline and oil for all the assorted lawn keeping tools in the place. It was really more of a shed then a cabin but that in itself wasn't important. What was important was the self made 'suicide zombie' which consisted mostly of the sole zombie in the place, strapped with all the gasoline and flammable substances in the cabin.
The plan was simple, boot the 'zombie bomb' out the door and shut it behind him, the snake should pick up on the zombie and hopefully mistake it for him, then when its about to bite into the zombie, shoot the zombie and the resulting explosion should in theory blow the hell out of the snake.
He checked his watch, it'd been at least fifty minutes of dealing with this damned snake. He just hoped that the others weren't having as big of problems as he was.
The zombie tried to grab his hand again, He smashed the rifle against its head, snapping it back.
"What have I told you about trying to bite?" Vin questioned the zombie, it responded with a groan.
"Fucking moron, good thing you're shackled to the goddamn floor you bastard."
He moved to the window to check on the target.
The snake had gotten over the knife in the eye after it finally shook the knife out, by mere coincidence it landed very close to where Vin placed his AR-15. The snake moved across the grounds, it was relying more on its senses now than before, however it appeared that the senses were not amplified when the reptile was in contact with the virus, otherwise the Cabin would've been ripped apart shortly after it shook the knife out of its eye.
"Well buddy, you're on." Vin unshackled the zombie, being very careful about where he put his arms as he guided it towards the door.
"Nothing personal, but get the fuck out!"
He kicked the zombie in the ass out the front door, it stumbled and fell face first on the grass, and he slammed the door shut after he was out.
The sound caught the snake's attention, it turned towards the shed.
By now the zombie was on its feet, shambling around in circles while Vin adjusted the scope setting on the Springfield, the snake cautiously approached.
"Come on, come on you big pair of tacky boots…" Vin whispered to himself as he set the rifle on a table and looked down the scope.
The snake tilted its head slightly as it got closer to the zombie, then it slowly opened its mouth and lunged at the zombie.
"Gotcha"
Vin fired as the snake was a good foot above the zombie.
The bullet ripped through one of the gasoline canisters sparking on the metal as it ignited the fuel and erupted in flames, which set the others off in a chain reaction, creating a large fireball within the snakes closing mouth.
While it didn't actually explode like it would if he had actual explosives, the fireball splashed the oil mixed gas onto the snake and started to burn the snake's head as well.
Within seconds the snake was thrashing around trying to desperately put out the fire on it's face, inadvertently fanning the flames and making the fire spread.
It took twelve additional minutes for the snake to finally die, burning itself to death.
It was an agonizing wait, mostly because of the hissing that came from the dying snake was getting unbearable.
When it finally stopped moving and lay there cooking Vin headed out the door and walked over to his AR-15 and the combat knife.
He gave one last look before he cast himself over the wall. He now had less than two hours to get to the airport with the rest of them, and much to his dislike, he had to go those two miles by foot.
"Third times the charm Dr. D?" Shego asked as she and the others ducked behind the drywall section as Drakken started mixing the last component into his super plant killer.
The first attempt, ending up exploding in his face, singing him black. It was a comical site, one that Shego was so used to seeing. The second attempt was much like the first, only the explosion was much bigger this time around, making Drakken loose some of his hair.
As he started on the third, everyone got wise and decided to hide till he got it complete…or till it exploded…again.
"Ah Hah! It worked!" He shouted as he held up the large beaker of the substance he just created.
"No explosion?" Ron asked.
"Guess not, no explosion" Shego said shrugging her shoulders.
"Aw man, I was ready this time" He huffed.
"So doctor, how much did you make this time?" Chris asked.
"Roughly five gallons, and it's a good thing we found these one gallon containers when we did, because they'll be perfect for administering the toxin!" He exclaimed joyfully.
"Good, now lets go kill that plant" Kim said as she started filling one of the containers with the toxin.
After another five minutes all the containers were filled and they were walking closer to the giant plant.
"So, how do we administer this stuff again?" Bonnie asked.
"Well…um…I haven't figured that out." Drakken said quietly.
"Um, why don't we just throw them at it, then shoot them?" Shego asked.
"That'll work" Drakken said, sounding annoyed that he didn't think of that.
"Ok, you guys throw, I'll shoot them" Kim said as she fixed the sights on her AR-15.
"Why do you get to shoot princess?" Shego prodded.
Kim glared at her, her eyes turning red.
"Ok, yeah that's a good reason. You're the shooter" She said quickly.
Kim dropped down to one knee, leveling the rifle up at the plant.
"Ready when you are" she called to the group.
"Ok, fire one!"
Shego lobbed the first canister, it tumbled to the air at the plant. When it was within roughly ten feet of the plant Kim fired, the round split the container in half, dousing a large section of the plant with the deadly toxin, which started to immediately eat away at the plant.
"It's working Dr. D" Ron exclaimed as he got ready to throw his container.
"Fire two!"
The process was repeated with each of the containers, by the third a good quarter of the plant was gone, by the last it was almost all a giant puddle of goo.
Chris checked his watch. They now had almost exactly two hours to get to the airport, get the families, deal with Wesker, find a jet, and wait for Vin.
It was going to be an eventful two hours.
Ok, another twist I included, and I can honestly say, this is one of those last minute twists. This was never in my original concept of the story, but I think in makes for a more interesting ending. That and it will actually allow a Super Kim vs. Super Will fight to occur, at least a little while till Vin does show up. And boy is he going to show up.
By the looks of it, we're talking about maybe another 5 chapters if I'm lucky. I'm just writing what comes to my head for the most part, (and I'm surprisingly writing all these chapters, start to finish in one sitting.) So hope for five, expect four.
As always, Read, Review, get a written response.
Act now and I'll send you instructions on how to make your own zombie bomb!
(Offer void in Utah, while supplies last, not an actual bomb, more like a firecracker. Illegal in 75 states) ;)