Authors notes: Chapter 5 as we head to that ever so fun to blow up gas station.
Chapter 5: Pressing for the Hospital
Bill pushed the safe room door open and stepped out into the darkness of alleyway beyond, grunting and shaking his head as the rain was now coming down heavily, he could see the alleyway went off to the left but that there was also a way forward leading through a building to the right, "I don't know which way, through here I think" he said as Louis came to join also grunting at the bad weather. "Let's split up and search this area, might be some useful supplies around" Louis said as he and Francis began to walk left down the alleyway as Bill and Zoey quickly entered the building to the right, the wind whistling along with the pouring rain, Francis now wishing he took the right path with Bill rather then be stuck out here with Louis.
He found himself mumbling under his breathe about the weather as he took his anger out on two common infected round the corner with his shotgun, Louis sprayed a third infected down causing it to run straight into the wall before collapsing to the ground never to move again, "look there is a door here looks like it goes through into the burger tank and then out the other side" Louis said looking further up the alleyway to see if Bill and Zoey were coming.
They had both passed through the building and out the other side, Zoey shivering as the biting winds pierced her, holding her pistols tightly as she spotted a partially sealed garage to their right with some common infected inside, Bill wanted to take a look and quickly shot down the several infected inside spraying the nearby wall with blood as he ejected another empty magazine. Zoey slid under the half shut garage door and looked around seeing a couple of tables and a car left idly in the garage, she jumped back in shock as behind the car was a decaying army personnel's corpse, his chest ripped open and intestines spilled out over the garage floor, however laying on the floor next to him was a wooden hunting rifle. Picking it up and testing it's weight she turned to see Bill nodding at her, "good find kid" he said quietly listening for anymore infected, they searched the rest of the garage, finding, some more Molotov bottles and some bottled water they decided it was time to get back to the rest of their team.
Francis and Louis were walking up another alleyway seeing an idle common infected wearing a hug via jacket with ear muffs on ahead of them, before either of them could raise their weapons his head suddenly exploded violently, spraying brain meat and blood mist everywhere as his muffs and headless corpse dropped to the ground as blood sprayed everywhere. They rounded the corner seeing Zoey smiling smugly with her new smoking barrel hunting rifle, "nice shot kid" Bill said quietly walking past her and seeing a door back down the alley beyond Francis and Louis, "that door leads through the burger tank and out the other side, let's go" he said pushing the door open and pushing down a narrow corridor.
Pushing through the fast food place he came out into some kind of loading area, with the Fairfield water works to their right, "the hospital is on the other side of the water works" he said firing at the commons scattered around the area, dead ahead was a gas station with still active pumps, Bill quickly halted his fire knowing it would end badly if they set the pumps off. To his horror however a hunter was emerging from behind the gas station growling as it crawled towards him on all fours, Watch put Hunter!" He suddenly heard from Francis as he and Louis both fired at the Hunter blowing its head off and slamming bullets into the gas station, all of them yelled in shock as the pumps were ignited by the bullets and exploded showering debris and flames into the air in a giant flaming mushroom cloud. The force knocked them all to the ground as angry screaming and shouting became audible as the explosion finished, "god damnit you clumsy son of a bitch!" Bill cursed loudly getting back into his feet and looking back to see dark figures already climbing over the fences and crashing through doors around them as the closed in on the flaming wreckage of the gas station.
"Shit get to that cherry lift we need to get to higher ground!" Louis yelled as he began to run and open fire, the group following his lead as they jumped onto the lift, Bill pressing the button as the lift began to ascend the group gunning down infected coming straight for them as Francis lit the fuse on a pipe bomb and tossed to the ground below setting off the alarm. They began to run across the top of the loading area roof, the pipe bomb soon exploded, showering blood sand body pieces high into the sky, Zoey tossed another one as they pushed into the third attic floor of a warehouse building, they dug in seeing a hole leading into the floor below which infected were trying to climb up through to get to them. Louis and Francis were on it though using their position to fire down at any infected that was trying to climb up, Several Molotov's were tossed after the second pipe bomb exploded as the team fought against the horde in a tense stand off for quite some time, Francis cursing as blood splattered all over him from the infected trying to climb up to him, his shotgun blasting holes right through them exposing bone and organs. Despite chewing through high amounts of ammo and Grenades the group had managed to come out of conflict unscathed, all of them tired, cold and Francis and Louis with blood on their clothes that wasn't their own, "god damn, that was some shit..." Louis breathed heavily as the rain outside was coming down harder then heavy the wind howling loudly as well as the angry snarls and screams of infected had gone out completely... they were alone once again.
...
"We can get through to the waterworks in this warehouse" Bill said as they had cleared their way through the rest of the building once the panic of the horde was done and dusted, "we are running low on grenades again" Francis pointed out, they had one Molotov, one pipe bomb and the bile grenade they had found earlier left, everything else had been used to fend off the large horde, "we will find some more don't you worry about that" Bill replied gruffly. They came out the other side into an alleyway with graffiti all over the walls, and after checking a small side room and finding nothing they pressed in, the dark alley like corridor leading down multiple flights of stairs into a large rooms with silos in it, Zoey grimacing at a half eaten corpse laying in its own blood in the doorway. "I think they tried to escape" Bill remarked sadly as Francis shook his head, the sight only feeling his hatred of the infected man acne they now fought against, "still can't get used to this..." Louis said quietly to Zoey as they both sadly nodded stepping over the corpse, looking further into the room to search for anything valuable.
Finding a Molotov they pushed into a side room with an eerie red glow as they searched in the dark corners for anything they could use, to their surprise they saw an infected stumbling around with pills on his pocket a pipe bomb and a rucksack on his back, "even the infected have more supplies then us!" Zoey cursed blowing his head off as his body collapsed to the ground dropping his spoils. His backpack had several bottles of water in it as well as some cans of beans and peaches, "poor bastard must've been human when he got hold of all this stuff..." Bill said bowing his head for the poor man who died trying to survive, "guess we really are the last people left in the city... besides the chopper pilot I mean" Louis said taking the Grenade and pills. Bill turned to see Zoey had a fearful look on her face, "Zoey you ok?" He asked with concern putting a hand on her shoulder as she was frozen stiff with fright, "something is crying around here..." she said quietly as they froze in place, somewhere unknown to them at that moment was a sobbing woman... one they now knew was anything but friendly, "witch around here turn those flashlights off..." Bill hissed quietly.
They turned around to see Francis standing next to the wall looking at something, Louis yelped in shock as the crowbar was tossed right into his arms, he caught it with one hand grunting at the biker, "Jesus what are you doing?" He asked annoyed at the biker who turned around to reveal he was now holding a large red fire axe, "you on door busting duty from now on" he simply said laughing as Bill realised there was no door leading out of this area. Bill then noticed a man hole cover right at their feet, leading down into a grim murky world below... but one he knew would allow them to continue to the hospital, "maybe there ain't no stinking zombies in the sewer" Bill said trying to lighten the mood as he lifted the cover out of place showing a grimy dark sewage filled landscape below them, "I know we need to continue to the hospital... but god damn that is some nasty shit" Louis remarked as Zoey recoiled in disgust, "I hate sewers" Francis simply grunted to himself.
"The subway smelled bad... but this" Zoey managed already smelling the horrible landscape below her from the small hole that was now open, "into the sewers we go" Bill said dropping down into the put below, followed by Francis who grunted loudly, "this is not gonna be sanitary" Louis said shaking his head and recoiling as he dropped down followed lastly by Zoey who had a less then enthusiastic look on her face, she placed the manhole back over and turned to join the three men.
...
The tunnel ahead was large, dark and full of shit and dirty brown and green water and sludge, "Francis is that you or the sewer?" Bill said chuckling as did Louis as Francis chose to ignore the remark, concentrating on the still audible sobbing echoing off the walls around them, "this way, we should be able to come out right next to the hospital if we are lucky" Bill explained dropping down into the main tunnel. The rest followed, Zoey visibly grimaced as she tried to stand on the concrete paths around the edge of the tunnel to avoid having to step through the sludge and sewage in the middle, the sobbing of the horrid wraith infected sending a shiver down her spine as it continued to echo through the darkness around them, "she's down here with us somewhere... be god damn careful" Bill said. He was now the only one with a light on, instructing the others to turn theirs off as he carefully and slowly led the way through the tunnel, they grimaced as their lights shone on what looked to be the mutilated remains of three unfortunate souls who had been ripped to shreds, "looks like we were not the only ones who thought to come down here..." Bill said quietly as they continued down the dark tunnel.
They suddenly became alert as the sobbing of the witch got much louder as they passed a small vent like tunnel, holding their breathe as the three of them passed the tunnel... they all froze in terror as a yelp from behind them occurred as Zoey accidentally put one foot into the sewage, only to place her hand over her mouth as in an instant the crying had stopped, "get away from that tunnel!" Bill hissed as growling suddenly became audible. The backed away as the growling got progressively louder, suddenly Zoey jumped in front as a flawed hand scratched the wall off the tunnel as the witch emerged hissing at them as she suddenly gave a blood curdling scream lunging straight for Zoey, "oh no..." Zoey said her blood running cold, the witch however had suddenly stopped moving as Francis had stepped in her path confidently holding the fire axe. He had swung slicing the witches head clean off, the body collapsed into the water painting it a deep red as Francis picked up the head, Zoey and Louis grimacing as Bill looked somewhat impressed a witch had just been killed in one clean swipe, "nice try bitch" he said throwing the head down the tunnel behind them as he turned around with a smug grin, "nice... that's how you do it cleanly" Bill whistled as Francis simply nodded walking down the tunnel...
...
They had been in the sewers for a good half hour now, navigating tunnels and vents, blood soaked and feeling wet and miserable was the least of the negative emotions that ran through their head, however finally after the gruelling journey they emerged into a large open tunnel where Bill spotted good news written on the wall in red. "Need to get to the nearest manhole the hospital is above us" he said seeing a manhole cover down the other end of the current tunnel, "thank god finally we can feel fresh air again..." Zoey muttered as Francis silently nodded his agreement with her, Bill shot up the ladder pushing the cover off and jumping up to the street, his blood ran cold as he did however, "get up here... but don't expect a pretty view..." he said coldly as Louis and Zoey looked at each other worriedly.
Francis went up next, doing a double take at the scene ahead as Louis audibly gasped in shock and horror, Zoey having a look of despair on her face, "oh shit..." she barely managed... they had finally made it to mercy hospital... but the area in front of the entrance to the emergency room was filled with bodies... bodies, blood and the stench of death. Bill was hit by the disbelief like a knife through the back, it stung... it stung like hell, military personnel, CEDA personnel and even innocent survivors, all dead Alamogordo with infected bodies with bullet holes... but it was a massacre... they had tried to fend off the horde and had paid dearly for doing so. "Even being in a war doesn't prepare you for this... they come at ya and at ya and never god damn stop..." Bill said his voice low and dark as he grimly approached a military body with its chest split open, he picked up a large desert cobra magnum handgun, checking the magazine and taking some more and placing it in his holster. He had to face facts they were the last four people alive in this city... and he had to get them to the roof of this god forsaken hospital he was sure was overrun by this point, "come on people... into the emergency room... if we make it, they won't have died for nothing" he said calmly taking his hat off and saluting his fellow brothers in arms who had died trying to hold off the horde.
He sighed closing a safe room door once they were all inside as Zoey and Louis collapsed onto an old green couch, tired, wet and cold as he and Francis sat silently on a table... no one spoke for some time as the image of the scene outside still burned in their minds, the trued devastating power of the green flu was hitting them full force like a truck, it broke their hearts and their spirit as well... even Louis found nothing positive to say in that moment, "this is never gonna end is it?" Zoey said quietly as the silence continued on after that.
End Chapter
Authors notes: Much longer chapter this time adding a bit more meat as well especially with the upsetting imagery outside the hospital, next up of course is the hospital itself which will hopefully be out sometime soon, thanks for reading and hope to see you all later.
Have a great day.