Cautious footsteps could be heard as the eight survivors made their way through the town. Bill led the way, his M16 cocked and ready to fire at a moment's notice. The other survivors stayed close behind, with Coach and Francis covering the rear.
"So, what's your plan, old man?" Nick asked Bill. "Find a safe house, then what the hell do we do?"
"Let's just focus on finding that safe house first," Bill said, "and I'll fill you in on our plan once we get there. It's too dangerous to talk outside where zombies can hear us."
"Really now?" Nick asked. "We did an awful lot of talking back in that alleyway and we were fine."
"A Smoker almost got Francis, so don't be too sure of that, son."
"Quiet!" Rochelle whispered harshly. The survivors stopped where they stood, ears open for the sound of Infected. Suddenly, they heard a slow, ominous growling.
"Hunter!" Ellis whispered. "Damn, those fuckers like to be sneaky."
"Keep an eye on the rooftops," Bill said, "and let's keep moving."
The survivors continued down the street they were on slowly so as to not make any more noise. It didn't matter, because the Hunter's growling was beginning to get closer.
"Sounds like it's right behind us," Ellis said shakily.
"Tighten up," Bill said. "Make a circle and keep close."
The survivors arranged themselves in a circle so that the eight of them could cover eight different directions. Francis took a cautious look up at a window above and saw something moving. He fired his shotgun, but no sound of pain followed.
"Francis!" Bill said. "What the hell were you shooting at?"
"I saw movement up in that window!" he barked back.
Bill looked up and saw the window Francis had aimed at. "Those are curtains, Francis. Next time don't be so quick on that trigger."
Suddenly they heard a blood-curdling scream.
"He sees us!" Louis said, fear present in his voice.
"But we don't see him," Coach said ominously.
Zoey looked over across the other side of the street. On the first floor of the building there she saw a pair of glowing red eyes.
"He's there!" she yelled, aiming her flashlight and firing off her pistols. Coach quickly aimed his shotgun in that direction and fired as well. The Hunter yelped in pain and jumped away, hidden in the shadows again. The survivors could hear him breathing laboriously as he had taken fire.
"Good eye, Zoey," Bill said. "You and Coach got a shot off at him, did some damage."
"But we didn't kill him," Coach said.
"It's okay," Louis said, much more cheerful than he had been before. "We'll be able to hear him coming from a mile away now."
Suddenly they heard a whooshing noise, and Louis was knocked down to the ground by the prowling zombie.
"Get this thing off me!" he yelled, trying to fend off the Hunter's brutally sharp claws. Bill took aim and fired off a few bursts from his M16 write in the Hunter's chest. The Hunter got knocked backwards and keeled over dead.
"You okay, Louis?" Zoey asked.
"I'm fine," he said as Coach helped him get to his feet. "I'm not hurt. Bill was so quick to shoot him he didn't get a scratch on me."
"That sneaky son of a bitch came out of nowhere," Nick said. "They usually scream worse than my ex-wife before they attack. You think these zombies are getting smarter?"
"I don't want to know the answer to that question," Rochelle said.
"Let's keep moving," Bill said. "Our gunfire probably attracted all kinds of attention, we have to keep ahead of them."
They continued to search through the streets in search of a safe house. Along the way they came across a bar, the windows missing and the door hanging off of its hinges.
"You know what?" Nick said. "This isn't the seediest bar I've ever been to."
"We should check for supplies," Coach suggested. "Might be something useful in there."
"Yeah, and there might be a Tank waiting to serve us a cold one," Francis remarked.
"There may be a safe house inside the basement," Rochelle said. "Let's check it out."
"Bill, what do you think?" Louis asked.
"Well, it's pretty quiet. If we go into that bar the zombies can only attack from so many sides. I say we see what we can find."
"Nice," Nick said. "Maybe they left behind some booze. Could use a drink with all this apocalypse shit that's been happening."
They entered the bar slowly and started to look around. Nick's first stop was behind the bar. He searched the cabinets beneath, but there was no alcohol to be found.
"Ah, shit," he said. "No booze."
"It's a bad idea anyway," Bill said. "We have to keep our heads if we're gonna get out of this alive."
"Hey I found some first aid!" Louis said. The others went over to the cabinet he was standing at. There were two first aid kits and three bottles of pain pills.
"Five of them, eight of us," Nick said. "Who's feeling lucky?"
"Doesn't matter," Francis said. "Just take the shit and go."
Coach and Zoey took the first aid kits, while Rochelle, Louis, and Bill took the pain pills.
"Anything else here?" Zoey asked, looking around. Suddenly they heard creepy laughter. "Uh...did I say something funny?" she asked.
"I wish," Rochelle said. "That's a Jockey."
"A Jockey?" Francis asked. "The hell are those?"
"You've never seen a Jockey?" Rochelle asked. "Oh, that's right. My news station was reporting on this. You folks came from the North, right?"
"Yeah, we were out in Pennsylvania when the outbreak started," Zoey replied.
"Well the southern US got hit with a bit more of the mutations than the North did," Rochelle explained. "There's a few types of Specials down here that you folks didn't get."
"Let's get to the point, sweetheart," Francis said. "What the hell do these things do?"
"They jump on your head and take you for a joyride," Ellis said. "I got hit by one at the mall and he almost walked me off the third story catwalk."
"I think it's getting closer," Bill said, holding up his hand for everyone to hush. There was a door at the end of the room, and it sounded like the laughter was coming from there. This was confirmed when they started to hear scratching at the door, the laughter punctuating the noises.
"Better start firing!" Coach yelled.
"I got this one," Nick said, but before he could take aim, the door flew off its hinges and pinned him to the ground. Before anyone could react, the Jockey leaped onto the closest survivor he could find.
"Fucking hell, get this thing off me!" Francis yelled. The Jockey was riding him around the room and knocked him into the pool table in the center of the bar. "Bill, Louis, someone shoot this thing!"
As Francis wrestled with it, Bill took careful aim with his M16 and peppered the Jockey with a few rounds. This was enough to get the Jockey to fall off of Francis, but it was still walking around through the room. Francis aimed his shotgun right at the Jockey's face and fired. The Jockey fell to the ground and didn't get up.
With the coast clear, Francis and Coach lifted the door off of Nick and helped him upright.
"Shit, I hate those things," he muttered.
"Reloading," Bill said as he put a fresh clip into his M16.
"Same," Francis said, but he fished through his ammunition. "Uh-oh."
"What's wrong?" Rochelle asked.
"I've got like three shotgun shells left," Francis said. "Got a little carried away I guess."
"Hopefully there will be ammo at the safe house," Zoey said. "Speaking of which, are we gonna check the basement?"
"It's this way, where the Jockey came from," Louis said.
"There might be other zombies where that one came from, stay close," Bill said. He led the way through the dark hallway and found a door frame with some stairs leading underground. It was pitch black down there and there was also a reeking odor.
"God, that stinks more than this biker does," Nick complained.
"I'd like to see you try to stay clean when there's no working water," Francis barked back.
"Quiet!" Bill said. "We need to be careful. No more of this squabbling, or we're all gonna pay for it."
Bill walked gingerly down the stairs, ignoring the rank smell of the basement. Once everyone else had followed him down, they spread out to scour the room for supplies.
"Shit, there's nothing down here," Francis said with a groan. "Nothing but empty cans of food."
"Looks like someone tried to hold out down here during the outbreak," Rochelle deduced. "That doesn't explain the smell though."
"Oh my God!" Zoey said, gagging a bit and backing away from the corner of the room she had been looking at.
"What's wrong, Zoey?" Coach asked.
"Whatever you do, don't look in that corner," she said.
"Well, cupcake, you couldn't have picked a worse set of words if you didn't want us to look," Nick said. He shined his light over to the corner. "Holy shit!" he yelled.
In the corner were the rotting corpses of what appeared to be an adult and two children, most likely a family. Their facial features were barely recognizable, but the gashes in their corpses made it all too clear what had happened.
"I think I'm gonna be sick," Zoey muttered, looking away from the corner of the room and gagging.
"Well, that accounts for the smell, at least," Bill said. "We're lucky it isn't anything worse."
"We should head back upstairs and get the hell out of this building," Louis said. "There's nothing else here we can use."
"Agreed, everyone back up the stairs," Bill ordered. They made their way up the creaky steps, but when they got to the top of the stairs they heard shuffling noises.
"What the hell is that?" Rochelle asked.
"Looks like a few zombies came in to take a load off," Nick muttered as he came up and peered into the bar.
"We should sneak out the back so we don't attract attention," Bill said.
"Aw, man, you don't want a little target practice?" Nick asked. "My trigger finger's itching."
"That sure as hell doesn't surprise me," Francis muttered.
"I could start with you, meathead," Nick spat back.
"Quiet!" Rochelle said. "They can hear us!"
"Come on!" Bill whispered as they slowly made their way through the hallway and out the back door.
"Oh no," Ellis said. As they stepped outside, they saw hoards of zombies walking around the streets.
"Where the hell did all these zombies come from?" Zoey asked.
"They probably showed up when we had to kill that Jockey," Bill said. "Shoot only what's necessary, we don't want to attract their attention."
The eight survivors slowly made their way down the street, keeping their eyes trained for Specials that might be waiting on the rooftops. One of the zombies turned as they approached and ran towards Nick, who pulled out his pistol and shot it in the head. It staggered backwards and hit a car, which promptly set off the car alarm.
"Dammit, Nick!" Rochelle yelled as all the zombies turned to face them. "The hell did you do that for?"
"How was I supposed to know that car had an alarm?" he asked.
The eight survivors started firing at the zombies. Francis decided to conserve his shotgun and instead pulled out his Magnum in order to take out the approaching zombies. They took out the horde one by one before any of them could land an attack, but in the confusion they couldn't hear a dangerous threat waiting in the wings.
Suddenly they heard what sounded like a wounded cow.
"Oh shit, not one of these," Nick said.
"One of what?" Louis asked, but suddenly he was grabbed by a zombie that had come barreling towards him at full speed.
"Get this thing off me!" Louis cried as the zombie slammed him into the ground. Nick, Rochelle, Ellis, and Coach all fired at the zombie until it keeled over, then Coach helped Louis off the ground.
"You okay?" he asked.
"I feel a little dizzy," Louis said, "but I think it'll pass."
"The hell is that thing?" Francis asked.
"Charger," Ellis explained. "You can usually hear them a mile away, but I guess that horde of zombies kept us distracted."
"Well let's hope we don't run into him again," Louis said. "My head hurts."
"We'll get you patched up once it's safe," Bill said. "We need to keep moving before more zombies show up."
The survivors made their way down the streets, and it was oddly quiet, with no zombies in sight.
"This is either really good or really bad," Nick said.
They came upon a setup of plastic chairs all facing a gazebo. From a speaker setup they could hear a particularly sappy sounding rendition of "Here Comes the Bride," but the most important thing was the woman in front of the gazebo hunched over and crying.
"Oh this is bringing up some bad memories," Nick muttered.
"We need to give that Witch a wide berth," Bill said. "Shut your lights off so we can go around her."
"Looks like she got stood up at the altar," Ellis said. "No wonder she turned into one of those things."
"I bet she was worse before she got infected," Nick said. "By the way, are there any hot zombie bridesmaids nearby? I bet Ellis would love hooking up with one."
"Shut up, Nick," Ellis muttered, but Zoey actually chuckled a bit. "Wait, you think that's funny?" Ellis asked her.
"Oh, sorry, Ellis," Zoey said, clearing her throat and blushing a bit, "that's not the reason I was laughing."
"So what was the reason?" Ellis asked.
"Well, um...never mind," she muttered lamely.
"Keep it down, you two," Bill said. "I think she's starting to get angry."
The crying had indeed been replaced by an ominous growling noise as the Witch looked around to hear what was making noise around her. The survivors carefully made to sneak around her so they could keep moving unscathed. Ellis made his way over to the speaker where the music was playing from in an attempt to put something between him and the Witch. He put his hand on it as he began to walk behind it, but accidentally changed the song. Suddenly, a loud rendition of a Midnight Riders song began to play. The Witch started to rise, getting steadily more angry.
"Change it back!" Francis barked, but it was too late. The Witch screamed and made a beeline for Ellis.
"Shit!" he yelled, shooting at the Witch as he tried to dodge her. He circled around to the gazebo, trying to find something to put in between himself and the Witch. The other seven survivors fired at her as well, and she began to slow as she got wounded. Suddenly Coach aimed a killing blow right to her head, and she keeled over and died.
"Good riddance," he said, "now someone shut off that music! As much as I love the Midnight Riders, that's gonna attract all kinds of zombies!"
"I can't figure this thing out!" Ellis yelled as he made his way back over to the stereo.
"I got it!" Louis said. He went over to the cable that was connecting the stereo to an electricity source and unplugged it, and suddenly there was a dead silence.
"You think we're safe?" Zoey asked, pistols raised nervously.
The survivors suddenly heard a guttural roar and saw a car get flipped up into the air.
"Watch out!" Zoey cried, pulling Ellis back just as the flipped car landed where he was standing.
"Holy shit," Ellis said. "Thanks, Zoey."
"Don't mention it," she said.
"There's only one zombie I know that can overturn a car like that," Coach said.
"And it's coming up fast!" Nick yelled. The zombie in question was a Tank, and the massive sunburned beast of a zombie came barreling for them.
"Is this the groom that stood up the Witch?" Nick asked.
"Cut with the jokes and kill that son of a bitch!" Bill yelled.
The survivors peppered the Tank with bullets as he approached. Francis used up the last of his shotgun rounds to do some damage before switching over to the Magnum pistol for good. The Tank came barreling towards them, and the survivors had to separate before he hit them with his massive arm. His attack hit the gazebo instead, smashing it to pieces and sending its debris flying across the street.
"We need to find some cover!" Zoey yelled.
"Fall back!" Bill hollered as the Tank was lifting up a giant rock. He threw the rock at the closest survivor, which was Ellis. Ellis ducked and the rock smashed in a wall just behind him, having barely missed him.
"That guy has some scary aim!" he yelled.
"It's gotta be almost dead by now!" Louis yelled. "We've been hitting it for a while."
The Tank barreled towards Louis and took a swing, knocking him back into the bushes.
"Louis!" Bill yelled. He redoubled his effort on the Tank, and the other survivors did as well, until the Tank keeled over and fell dead.
Bill, Francis, and Zoey immediately went through the bushes to look for their friend. They saw Louis lying on the ground, unable to walk.
"Can you help me up?" he asked. "I got the wind knocked out of me."
"You could definitely use some first aid," Bill said, "and the coast is pretty clear, so let's patch you up."
Zoey pulled out her first aid kit and handed it to Bill. He helped Louis dress his wounds while the other survivors looked around for other impending threats.
"These zombies are everywhere, man," Ellis said ominously. "How the hell are we gonna get out of here?"
"We have to keep searching for that safe house," Bill said. "That's our only hope until the sun comes up, then we'll have daylight on our side."
"How did this town get so badly overrun?" Rochelle asked.
"Beats the hell out of me," Bill said. "How did any of this start to happen? I guess we'll never know."
"I still think it's a conspiracy," Nick said, "but I know none of you want to listen to my bullshit, so I'll spare you the theories. You're welcome."
"Nobody was thanking you," Coach said with a chuckle. Nick glared at him.
"Hey guys, over here!" Ellis said. "I think I see a safe house!"
"Holy shit, he's right, folks!" Coach said. "Those steel doors are unmistakable. Thank you, lord, we're almost safe."
Suddenly a howling noise came from what appeared to be every direction.
"Why does there have to be a horde now?" Zoey asked. "Damn it, we're so close!"
Bill had finished dressing Louis's wounds, so now they were back on their feet. "We'll have to make a sprint for it. Let's go!"
They ran as fast as they could towards the safe house, but the horde was closing in on them fast.
"We're running low on ammo after that Tank," Bill said, "so conserve as much as you can until we get to that safe house."
"That's easier said than done!" Rochelle yelled. She and Bill aimed their M16's at a few zombies getting close and took them down efficiently.
"Shit, I'm out of ammo guys!" Ellis yelled.
Rochelle pulled the trigger on her M16, but it clicked without firing off a single round. "I'm out, too!"
"Use one of my pistols," Zoey said, offering one to Rochelle.
"Thanks," she said, using the pistol to take the head off one quickly approaching zombie.
Unbeknownst to the survivors, there was a zombie lurking on the rooftops waiting to find the opportune time to strike. He launched forth a long, nasty tongue that wrapped itself around Bill.
"Smoker's got me!" he yelled as it started to drag him off.
"I got this fucker," Nick said, aiming at the tall zombie where the smoke was emanating from and firing his hunting rifle right at the Smoker's head. It exploded, and the tongue fell limp as Bill hit the ground.
"You okay, old man?" Nick asked.
"I'm fine, son," Bill said as he untangled himself from the gross tongue. He suddenly fired his M16 at a zombie that had been approaching Nick from behind.
"Shit, guess we're even now," Nick said.
"That was the last of my ammo," Bill said. "Can't help you now, so be careful."
"We're almost there, guys!" Louis said. The zombie horde was beginning to thin and the safe house seemed a lot closer now.
"Go, go, go," Zoey said, mostly to herself as they got closer to the door.
"Everyone inside!" Bill yelled, holding the door open as the other survivors crowded into the safe house. The zombies were starting to get closer and closer to the door. "Hurry up!" Bill yelled. Once the last survivor made it inside, Bill hustled in and shut the door. Unfortunately, another zombie had followed him in, but Rochelle took him out with a well-aimed shot from the pistol Zoey had given her. The eight survivors gave themselves a chance to catch their breath.
"Everyone alright?" Zoey asked. Everybody said that they were okay.
"That was one hell of a run we just had," Ellis said. "Jockeys, Chargers, shotgun wedding."
"Ha ha," Nick said sarcastically, "shotgun wedding. Real clever."
Rochelle sighed. "Nick, are you ever not an asshole?"
"Rarely," Nick responded with a smirk.
"How are the supplies?" Louis asked Bill, who had been rummaging through the tables.
"Well there's a map showing us the best route out of town, so that's a start," Bill said. "There's plenty of ammunition, so we're all set to reload our guns. Everyone take as much as you can."
The eight survivors rummaged through the ammunition and reloaded their guns to capacity, storing the extra ammunition wherever they could.
"Got a couple more health packs as well," Bill said. "Who doesn't have a healing item?"
Zoey, Francis, Nick, and Ellis raised their hands, and Bill tossed them all first aid kits.
"Holy shit, look at these," he said. "What are in these needles?"
"Oh that's gonna be helpful," Coach said. "That's adrenaline. Gives you a burst of energy so you can move faster, and it helps you get around zombies, too."
"Well there's enough for all of us to have one, so everyone grab a shot," Bill said. The survivors did so, storing the adrenaline in a safe place where they wouldn't lose it.
"Is there any food?" Louis asked.
"Yes, there's a few cans of beans, some crackers, and a couple boxes of cookies, for some reason," Bill said. "That's barely anything, but it'll be enough to get by for one night."
"Just one night?" Ellis asked.
"We can't afford to stay in one place too long," Bill said. "I'm not taking any more chances sticking around this hellhole longer than what's necessary, so I say we head out in the morning."
"Old man's got a point," Coach said. "There's zombies crawling all over tarnation here. We need to stock up on some real food and get the hell out of town."
"Exactly," Bill said. "So let's divvy up this food and have ourselves some dinner."
The dry humor failed to make anyone smile, they were all so tired from the trek to the safe house. Everyone was thankful, though, that there was at least a little bit of something to eat. It was good to find some temporary respite that safe houses had been providing for them time and time again, and they were just as grateful for one this time around as they had been for all the others in the past.