Authors notes: This chapter will cover the majority of the first chapter of Crash Course
Chapter 9: Finding a way out of Town
Francis led the way up the dark alley way mumbling to himself to calm his nerves as the sun shun down on them leaving only the rooms around them shrouded in the darkness as they travelled between, warehouses and garages with cars left in them never to be used by anyone ever again as the area had long since been abandoned or the owners had joined the relentless horde of infected that stumbled around the area, "Damnit stupid trucks blocking the way ahead gonna have to find a way around" he cursed as Louis and Zoey had searched the rooms to the left, finding a Molotov and some canned foods on a table as they re emerged grunting as the 18 wheeler Francis had mentioned that was blocking the whole alleyway, Bill noticed a warehouse to their right, "through this warehouse goes beyond the truck" he said motioning with his hands to move as he stumbled up some stairs into a car park and grunted as Infected stumbled about in front of him.
"Mother humpers no escape from them" he scowled unloading a mag of the MP5 to drop every single one of them splattering blood and organs all over the floor as he marched into the warehouse, "look around for anything useful" he grunted as Francis blasted open a locked door on the left grunting at the writing scribbled on the wall as Zoey and Louis scouted behind boxes and on shelves finding some pills and another Molotov next to a ripped apart corpse, "Jesus what is with all the ripped up bodies around here?" Louis asked as Francis shook his head, "possibly multiple hunters in the area so keep your guard up" Bill said coldly kicking a box over as he found nothing useful. Francis and Zoey had emerged out the other side behind the truck investigating down an alleyway, Zoey grunted annoyed at the lack of useful items in this area filled with warehouses and storage buildings, clutching her hunting rifle tightly as she feared for the appearance of multiple hunters, "infected don't travel in packs right, I mean what if these hunters are working together they could cause a problem..." she muttered as Bill and Louis walked out behind her marching down the alley ahead, "don't go getting yourself up kid but if we'll deal with that situation if we have to" Bill said quietly firing at more commons stumbling around ahead of them as Francis kicked a can emerging from the alley finding nothing of use.
He looked up noticing a sign for a company he recognised hanging from a building to their left, "I drove for Hersch once til some guy laughed at y little brown shorts and I beat him to death" he muttered as Zoey looked at him concerned as Bill shook his head and Louis laughed a little, "just keep moving you big dope we need to find a way out of this shirt hole and keep an eye out for any signs of an evac somewhere in the area we may get lucky for once" Bill snapped as he marched out onto a Main Street and began firing at commons as Louis dispatched loners with his handguns. Zoey and Francis turned left into a building as the corridor ahead had a steam pipe that hissed as it leaked steam from a puncture, "watch out for that god damn steam pipe" he grunted as Zoey walked close behind him, "maaaan I love steam" she said in a drawn out voice laughing as he grunted, "oh yeah steams alright I just hate the pipes" he grunted blasting two commons stumbling around a dark room ahead, Zoey giggled before freezing as the faint sound of coughing could be heard close by, "hey watch out smoker somewhere..." she said quietly turning around and gasping in horror as she realised Francis had moved on and left her alone in the dark room. There was a moment of silence before she recoiled in horror as a horrid ear piercing shriek occurred as something wrapped around her body causing her to drop her hunting rifle to the floor, she cried out looking back in horror as the smoker was back down the corridor pulling her in as the tongue tightened around her, it hissed baring fanged teeth as she screamed as loud as she could as she was also being choked, when suddenly the tongue went limp... the smoker gave a horrid shriek of pain as a crowbar smashed into its back.
It suddenly wailed one last time as its body suddenly flew against the wall as it exploded showering thick green smoke everywhere as Louis stepped through coughing as ran to Zoey who unwrapped herself from the tongue and pulled herself off the ground, "hey girl you alright?" He asked as she nodded smiling as she retrieved her hunting rifle, "yeah... he took me by surprise but... thanks" she said as he nodded dislodging the crowbar from the corpse as shaking off a bit of flesh stuck to the end with a nearby crate as he moved to join her in the main street beyond where Bill and Francis were waiting. "Come on kids over to the other side of the street we can by pass the truck through that shop" Bill muttered kicking the door to the shop open and blowing an infected's head off before walking through into the room beyond, kicking a table as he found nothing of use to them at all, he proceeded out the back coming out the other side of the truck followed by Francis as they now stood just in front of a railway bridge where the train had derailed off the other side into the Main Street beyond, "wow Zoey must've shot the train conductor" Francis remarked as the woman shook her head, "he was a zombie Francis he wasn't gonna land the thing" she snapped as he shrugged his shoulders. Bill marched out into the middle of the bridge, looking around he had the nastiest feeling they were being watched as groaning suddenly came into ear shot, "watch out boomer in the vicinity" he managed before the infected in question appeared from behind a over turned car puking all over him as Francis blasted it showering vomit on Louis, "god damnit you clumsy oaf!" Louis cursed as angry screams echoed all around them as dark figures charged towards them from in front climbing over the derailed train as other emerged behind them from the darkness of allies and left behind vehicles.
Gun fire rose up as a shotgun and hunting rifle removed limbs and heads splattering blood and bone all over the floor and walls while handguns and a sub machine gun cut through the horde quick and cleanly, wet thwacks occurring as grey bodies snapped back falling to the ground as blood pooled out underneath them as Louis and Bill could see better again with each passing moment as the bile evaporated off of their clothing as the body count piled up, the group trying to time their reloads around each other as Francis blocked off one side with a well placed Molotov. Soon enough another damned conflict with the infected menace was over, of course deep down they knew it would not be the last but they hoped that this cleared out the infected in the immediate area at least for a small amount of time, "hey Zoey next time someone offers us a ride don't shoot him..." Francis said out of no where as Zoey cursed stomping down the street as she chose to ignore his attempts to wind her up, "come on Francis what choice did she have?" Louis said as they began marching through the street passed the bridge and derailed train.
She mumbled under her breath as she continued into a car park with bodies and left behind cars seeing more destruction up ahead in the form of an exploded 18 wheeler tanker that had crashed through the barrier of the car park into the road that was below it, she nervously moved to the edge looking down at the bodies that littered the road below, before glancing right and seeing a large bridge that was going across the river beyond the road ahead, "hey look there's a bridge going across the river, we can use it to get out of town" she explained, she paused a moment later when she realised the three men had not responded turning around she could see they had not followed her straight out into the car park, she could hear them arguing somewhere nearby in a building but could not see them... suddenly various growls and grunts could be heard close by and she frowned nervously shifting from one foot to the other as she looked around for the hunter that had caught her off guard, she crouched down low as the growling suddenly stopped, "guys if you could get over here I could use..." she managed before a horrid scream sounded and two figures emerged from behind derailed train and leapt straight for her, "oh shit..." she said her blood running cold as she fired a shot alerting the men she was in trouble...
"Shit Zoey hang on girl!" Louis yelled at the top of his lungs darting out from the building and hearing screaming and two more shots from the hunting rifle, Bill and Louis opened fire on a Hunter but to their shock and horror the thing dashed to the side and jumped over more bullets they fired at it before it lunged with lightning speed at Louis ramming his gut causing him to crumple down to the ground the wind knocked out of him, however the infected was not as successful with the Vietnam veteran who caught it mid lunge and jammed a knife in its side, it hissed and slashed at Bill hitting his shoulder and drawing blood. He hissed as he kicked the hunter to the ground and stamped his foot on its stomach, "you are not the one to take me down..." he grunted blowing its brains out with a burst from his sub machine gun while Louis climbed to his feet as Francis rushed passed him seeing Zoey grappling with the second hunter with blood seeping from two injuries to her left arm, he kicked the creature off causing it to yelp and stumble against a car as he pressed the shotgun to its head and blew its head into hundreds of pieces spraying himself and the car with blood mist as the headless corpse collapsed to the ground.
Zoey clutched her arm giving a sharp yelp as Francis touched the wound lower down her arm before pulling the first aid kit off of her back and disinfected and dressed the wounds for her while being a gentle as possible as she watched pain on her face as he finished rapping bandages over her arm before nodding that he was finished she sighed, "thanks Francis... they took me by surprise..." she said embarrassed as he nodded standing up, "don't worry about it they are dead now and that means we shouldn't see another one for a little while at least" he remarked turning around as Bill and Louis walked over, Louis still clutching his gut as Bill looked at his bleeding shoulder grunting, "let me just patch up the old fart and we see if we can get across that bridge and out of this dump" Francis said pulling Bill aside as Louis and Zoey stared at the bridge, "lets hope it leads to a way out of this state we need to try and find somewhere the military are still holding up" he said quietly as she silently nodded. Once Bill was patched up he walked to the edge noticing a ladder leading down to the road below which he quickly slid down blasting away commons stumbling about below as he motioned with one hand for the rest to come down, Louis and Zoey took the ladder down while Francis slid down the exploded tanker landing just next to Bill who shook his head as he began to move down the road, he turned to Louis and Zoey giving a thumbs up as she chuckled while Louis also shook his head, Francis then grunted as the rest of the team made to move after Bill...
...
On the other side of the road after searching through a building and finding some pills Bill noticed a hill that would lead them up to the street where the bridge was situated and quickly got everyone up as he took down any infected in his path, however upon reaching the top of the hill they quickly came across a problem, "well shit looks like the army was here at some point and they have gone and barricaded the god damn bridge..." Francis yelled kicking an empty can across the ground as Bill noticed a warehouse on the other side of the road motioning for him and Louis to take a quick look as Zoey noticed a large cannon left in the middle of the road that was conveniently facing the barricaded bridge, soon enough Bill and Louis had come back, Louis had found a cricket bat left behind by some poor bastard laying in his own blood mutilated as Zoey directed their attention to her discovery, "barricade... big ass gun... anybody got any ideas?" she said smugly as Bill took note of the cannon facing the bridge. "That's a howitzer, that will certainly clear the barricade but it will make one hell of a bang doing it and you all know what that means..." he said coldly as Zoey instantly regretted being so cocky about it as he chuckled, "well this bridge is the only way out of town as far as i'm concerned and as soon as its clear we can just get across and keep moving until we are clear of the area" Francis said patting Zoey on the shoulder as she nodded silently as Bill nodded agreeing with the biker for once, "well alright then we need to get set up to hold them off for a while at least and then we can fire this thing... but we need to move as soon as we can or we are gonna get overrun fast" he said looking at them all as they nodded at him.
Louis took note of a minigun placement in the back of a truck behind the howitzer testing that it could cover the whole of the hill he was satisfied taking up position and grabbing hold of the weapon as Francis took up position on the left side of the truck where Louis could not aim as Zoey stood behind Louis holding her hunting rifle hoping to keep them at bay from behind Louis so he would get distracted while on the gun, "alright lets fire this thing and get the hell out of here, this might hurt your ears a bit..." Bill warned as he pulled the leaver, a deafening crack occurred as the howitzer fired a shell at the bridge, the barricade was blown to pieces in an almighty explosion as a large mushroom cloud rose high into the air, a large wall of fire engulfing the front of the bridge, "hold them off till that fire clears..." Bill yelled jumping up to stand next to Zoey as angry screams and shouts occurred all around them as the sun was beginning to turn orange in the sky symbolising night was approaching. The minigun spun to life as Louis could see dark figures clambering up the hill through the trees and began dropping them like flies, blood and flesh splattered in the air and over the trees and ground as bodies dropped and slid back down the hill as more and more tried to push up, Francis cursed under his breathe as infected climbed over the barricade next to him coming from the street they were standing in previously and began to unload with the shotgun blasting holes in grey bodies as blood splattered everywhere.
Bill and Zoey sprang into action as infected climbed over a derailed train car behind the truck, the smg and hunting rifle keeping them at bay as dark shadows seemed to be coming from all directions, the howitzer had invited the whole city for dinner and that meant they had to move as soon as the path was clear... Bill fired bursts dropping attackers quickly and efficiently as Zoey removed limbs and body parts spraying blood everywhere as more and more infected seemed to pour into the area, Francis grunted as infected were also charging towards him from the warehouse switching between both angles with every shot as he attempted to keep them all at bay as Louis never stopped firing the minigun, before he cursed out loud as the barrel stopped firing bullets and began to endlessly clicked, he looked over seeing the fire was going out and that a large portion of the way onto the bridge was now clear. "Its time to leave the path is clearing and the minigun is out of ammo!" he yelled jumping down from the truck and tossing a pipe bomb down the hill as he smashed his bat against two infected dropping them as he and the others jumped down and ran for the bridge, he cried out as a tongue latched onto him and pulled him against a car as Zoey scoped in on the smoker on the roof of the warehouse to their right, "fuck you freak show!" she cursed blowing its head off as the rest of it exploded showering blood and green gas everywhere as Louis clambered to his feet and smashed a skull of a woman charging him down, Bill tossed a Molotov towards the hill engulfing a large area in flames.
They made it to the foot of the bridge, firing and swinging at infected coming after them as Francis tossed another boomer bile at the street as it shattered all heads turned and charged for it, Bill igniting and throwing another Molotov which stopped the infected coming onto the bridge after them as they quickly hurried across, weaving between cars and panting as the other side of the bridge had road signs one pointing to a place known as Riverside, "Riverside that's where the army was last hold up if we can get there we might be able to catch up with them and get to safety!" Louis yelled as Bill nodded noticing a warehouse down a hill to their right with a white house symbol on the wall, "safe house in that warehouse lets move people" he spoke as he and Louis jumped down the hill and took out the idle infected in the area Zoey and Francis moved to follow but Zoey suddenly paused. She spun around and blasted a hunter on top of the bridge, splattering its brains out as it fell limply and collapsed into the river below the bridge, Francis whistled as a smug grin adorned the college girls face, "that's right..." she added jumping down to follow Bill and Louis into the warehouse where they found the other two men sitting down in the safe room, joining them Zoey looked back towards the bridge hearing the angry screaming and shouting of the infected disturbed by the howitzer... thank god they got away from that shit... she thought as she slammed the metal door shut with a sigh.
End Chapter
Authors notes: Crash Course isn't going to take long to do as it really is short with that being said I try to get the next one out quick so thanks for reading.
Have a great day.