Undead littered the power plant pathway like discarded garbage.

Walking corpses shambled in the side access alleyway. Dempsey moved headlong; USAS-12 rocked into his shoulder and aimed forward. The first shotshells ripped two corpses open like busted cans, spilling rotten innards across festering grounds.

Nikolai sprayed bullets off Dempsey's right as they bound down the alleyway. Packed bodies jittered in response to their lead maelstrom, with Dempsey's ten-round magazine emptying faster than he expected.

"Shit, reloading!"

Dempsey slid to the alley's left with skillful maneuvering, and Richtofen moved up. The concussive, deafening warbling of his Ray Gun caused Revy and Dutch to flinch, with Rock and Benny tripping over the wave it produced. A green bolt punched dead center an undead, melting its flesh and splitting the carcass. Nikolai's weapon ran dry as its rotten guts slathered the concrete, and he called out, Takeo cycling in place.

With each undead slain, the team had to slow its pace. Maneuvering over corpses became an issue, sparing no inch of free ground, the horde surging from manholes, shattered windows, and rooftops.

One threw itself from a nearby roof and landed directly behind Rock. He stumbled forward, crashing into Dutch as dozens more threw themselves over the edge. He turned, audibly cursing and firing his RPK into the steady mass of walking carrion coming for him.

"They're behind us!"

Richtofen turned his head, the green magic gun sputtering as its final charge ripped through two undead simultaneously, casting their corpses aside. "Scheisse! Girl, use that gun!"

Dempsey moved up as his auto-shotgun walked buckshot into chests and skulls, braining and blasting more blood and bone out of their way. The undead surged like an enveloping hand, getting point-blank as Takeo's rifle ran dry. He slung the marksman rifle over his back, drawing Python and Katana simultaneously.

Revy turned to the accumulating, pushing mob at their rear and began squeezing the Zap Gun's triggers. Red bolts of lighting warped through the air, stinking of ozone as they penetrated undead flesh and electrified it. Undead freaks shrieked in pain as their limbs and structure contorted unnaturally until they folded in on themselves with sickening squelches.

"Holy shit!"

Each blaster exhausted eight of these charges, melting zombies like butter with each shot. Knowledge programmed from the deep unknown spun her into reloading as Dutch's RPK ran dry.

"Reloading!"

"Mag out!"

Richtofen stepped in, blasting two undead briskly, but some slipped through with their horde so great. One pounced on Dutch as he slotted a drum, another duet barreling into Benny with a final snagging one of Revy's arms.

"Fuck off!"

She snapped her right leg up, burying its heel into the undead's stomach and sending it somersaulting down the alleyway. Revy nearly stopped at the surge of strength, watching Dutch transition his weapon into a buttstroke, breaking the carcass' skull apart with ease. Benny worked the offered shotgun up as the zombie clawed at him, blowing the top half of its skull off.

Nikolai, Dempsey, and Takeo wedged themselves ahead of the crew. They slashed, shot, and elbowed their way through the festering undead tooth and nail. Dempsey resorted to his dual Model 1911A1s, pistol-whipping and shelling undead point-blank. Takeo unleashed his inner whirlwind, slashing undead with his sword and removing heads while smashing with the revolver's butt. Nikolai spaced himself from the others, holding the Vityaz beneath his right arm as he constantly fed it thirty round magazines, forever dumping the weapon into the squirming mass of bodies.

One hit Dempsey in the gut, bowling him over as the writhing mass surged over him. Nikolai swiveled his gun over as it snapped dry, the Russian cursing loudly and fumbling for his CZ. Revy spun around, her two hands triggering red blasts into the spinning mire of rotten flesh. Bodies stank and burned, ripped into shreds by the Zap Guns' bolts.

Her weapon ran dry again, but Dempsey had wormed himself from the horde. A ka-bar in one hand and a zombie throat in the other, he howled a guttural scream and burrowed the knife through its temple. Dempsey kicked to his feet, stumbling beside Revy while covered in cuts, scrapes, blood, and bruises.

"Fuckin' A!"

Takeo had since discarded his revolver, slashing whirlwind strikes through the loose necks of fetid bodies while Nikolai fired into the pushing yet waning horde. Dempsey sheathed his knife and reached into Revy's holsters as she loaded the Zap Gun.

"Gimme these!"

"What, hey-!"

Dempsey ripped them without regard and pushed forward, snapping nine millimeters into the regressing horde best he could. Still, as they waned, the undead pressed. Doctor Richtofen swung around, blasting an undead with his Ray Gun in the gut.

"Use the other feature! We may breakthrough yet!"

As the Cutlasses ran dry, Nikolai's handgun emptied, and Takeo stumbled back as two undead seized his limbs; she looked at the weapon in hand. Slotting the red nozzle at a forty-five, she twisted it into the blue's rear and snapped them together. An electronic warble reverberated through the weapon, its four prongs at the muzzle wavering in tandem.

Revy leveled the weapon and fired.

A purple beam screamed into the horde, drilling through two undead and exploding in a third. Some microbial wave sluiced into the mob, swelling the fetid carcasses and leveling them airborne.

Takeo wrenched one arm free as Nikolai blindsided the second zombie, smashing the receiver of his Vityaz into its skull, exploding it across the Japanese's blood-drenched uniform. Takeo slashed up through the survivor's torso, splitting its sternum and the frontal lobe with one strike. It fell back, putrid innards spilling out.

Revy spun around and fired a second purple beam into the rearward mob as the forward horde bloated and floated. Benny kneeled and fired twelve-gauge across from Dutch, who utilized the magnum to punch sushi-roll-sized holes in undead skulls, the exit wounds like macabre graffiti across the walls.

This horde trampled on themselves - skin, flesh, and clothes swelling as they levitated above the ground. The time between her shots was impeccable, as they continued to bloat at nearly the same speed. The Lagoon crew stared in awe.

"Might want to close your mouths!" Richtofen shouted, laughing, "Or you might get some blood inside!"

"Huh?"

Revy glanced at Richtofen to see him shielding his face, just like Nikolai, Takeo, and Dempsey were. An eruption from each corpse showered the crew in festering guts, blood, and flesh, splattering Revy's skin and everyone's clothes with swaths of rotten sinew. Dutch spat something as Benny cried out; Rock the only one who got the memo.

His white shirt now soaked red, the businessmen stood amongst them, Smith and Wesson 38 clutched shakily in hand.

"Ha-ha! The fuckin' Wave Gun, man!" Dempsey slipped Revy's Cutlasses into their holsters as she glared at the copious blood pour. Every undead in the blast's vicinity disintegrated, and now it remained eerily quiet.

"Don't touch those again," Revy hissed, swinging the Wave Gun in Dempsey's face, "Or I'll use this on you."

Dempsey snorted, retrieving his handguns and loading them, "Gotta reload it first, skank," He chided, sliding both Model 1911A1s into their thigh holsters.

Richtofen gazed down the alley, exhaling sharply as everyone managed their bearings. Benny puked, and so did Nikolai, while Rock remained surprisingly steeled against the blood.

"So," Rock asked, looking down the alley, "To the power plant?"

"Ja!" Richtofen spouted, marching forward over the corpses, "It's just this way, is it not?"

Rock nodded, glancing at Revy as she fumbled with the discus-shaped power pack in the Wave Gun. He offered a smile, and she scoffed, shouldering by him.

"Tough luck," Dutch whispered to Rock while strolling by, "Don't die on us."

"Got it. I won't."

The eight loaded their guns and marched into the power plant's parking lot to find a blue, swirling vortex howling above it. Undead, yellow eyes glimmered from within, but only there.

"Shit," Dempsey grumbled, "Guess it's another fuckin' shoot house."


Short but sweet with more to come. My infinite hiatuses never cease to slow my progress.

Be ensured, there is more on the way.