Chapter 11: Into the Next
DEATH TOLL
Hell came to earth these four are gonna send it back
The four of them stood in the middle of the road leading ahead into the darkness, only their flashlights showing the way forward as the night had arrived leaving them alone, surrounded and feeling like there was no hope, "we need to get ourselves to Riverside I heard reports it held out and that the military has a presence there" Louis said rather quietly not wanting to attract unwanted attention, "yeah that's our best plan and this road will lead us straight to it" Zoey said glancing around for any signs of movement among the trees surrounding them, "alright then let's move it and remember as little noise as possible we have two people on handguns so we are in a bad spot, careful now" Bill said sharply as he motioned for Francis to move ahead and lead them down the dark road where he could see a bridge was coming up ahead of them. Walking forward slowly one by one the team made their way along the right side of the road, Francis frowning as he could see infected ahead of them on either side of the road, "yeah stealth isn't gonna work grandpa there is too many" he said gruffly before he blew the head off of the nearest infected, as expected this alerted all the others to his presence their eyes turning a deep crimson as they charged at him screaming in fury, "come get some!" he yelled between the fire of his shotgun as he blew of limbs and removed heads, Bill aiding with bursts from the sub machine gun as Zoey and Louis warily took occasional shots with their handguns. They took on the steady group of the infected before the last one fell, Francis huffed satisfied as he reloaded his beloved shotgun before pushing further towards the bridge ahead of them, noticing a sign on the left side of the road, "uh oh watch out Dear around" he said jokingly as this made Zoey question something, "can animals get infected or does it just kill them?" she asked clearly paranoid about the thought of zombie dear, they all remained silent as Francis approached the bridge Bill took a puff of his cigarette before answering, "kid there is enough problems to worry about without things like that... try not to think too hard into it" he said quietly as he she looked down at the ground embarrassed but nodded non the less.
Francis immediately spotted a problem as they made it to the bridge, "we are gonna have to go under the bridge and through the gorge and try and get back up the other side, that tanker exploded and took the middle of the bridge with it" he announced loudly as Bill could see the problem as well, the middle of the bridge had fallen from one side meaning they could not cross, "the military must blown the tanker to knock down the bridge in order to cover a defence into Riverside... doesn't mean the infected cant climb up those ladders on the other side though..." he said gruffly spotting a way they could get back up in the form of ladders on the other side, "come on then down here" Louis said as Francis lead the way down underneath the bridge towards the ladders on the other side. As expected infected stumbled mindlessly about under the bridge which Francis and Bill dispatched of quickly as Francis quickly climbed up the ladders to the top peaking around and gunning down more commons waiting on the road ahead, "you better get up here quick looks like a massive tunnel ahead that we will have to go through" he called out as Louis tutted and Zoey glanced around her as Bill quickly scurried up the ladders to join him, "come on kids up you come we ain't got all day" he said impatiently frowning at the sight of the massive tunnel ahead, "I hate tunnels" came the annoying quote from the biker who hated everything as Louis and Zoey made it up with them.
"Come on people this is the quickest route into Riverside so lets just get this over with" he said shaking his head as he and Francis led the way into the darkness of the tunnel, Zoey shivered shaking her head as she moved to follow along with Louis, her anxiety was creeping up her spine making her feel cold and scared, the darkness of Fairfield at night was already terrifying enough... now they were in a forest area and entering a pitch black tunnel filled with abandoned cars... the infected had just as many hiding places here as they did in the city, she began humming trying to keep herself focused as her and her team navigated amongst the left behind cars as several parts of the roof ahead of them had caved in the occasional fire burning from a damaged car or barrel of some kind. To the sides were the occasional side passages with bins and storage areas in them, Bill and Francis would occasionally deviate from the straight path to check for any supplies, Francis found a couple of pipe bombs in one room while Bill found something far better, he walked back out a side passage to the left holding a long katana in his hand, passing it with one hand to Zoey who caught it with one hand and placed her pistols in her holster, she gripped the weapon tightly as they approached a build of cars seeing a massacre beyond, "this tunnel was a death trap..." Bill aid quietly as the navigated corpses against the walls and the floor all around, Zoey feeling tense as she thought she heard some growling nearby.
They all jumped in shock as a hunter dropped down onto Louis and began trying to claw at the man's insides before it was kicked off by Zoey and Francis blasted it out of existence, to everyone's horror the "corpses" all around them began to rise up from the ground, their eyes a pale grey as they stumbled about mumbling and breathing heavily, their eyes fell on the four survivors they could see from their weapon mounted flashlights, as they stopped for a moment their eyes turning a deep crimson as they began to growl and scream angrily shaking violently as they all began to charge towards the non conformities... they were not corpses they were sleeping infected, "holy shit!" Louis yelled as they began to open fire in all directions, Francis tossing a Molotov before immediately going to town with his shotgun. Bill holding down his trigger until the mag was empty before ejecting and slapping another one in with expert speed as he then continued taking infected life's with precision, Louis aimed as carefully as he could while fear was etched all over his face as the muzzle light from the handguns lit up the tunnel around him, showing him the snarling blood ridden faces with red eyes charging in his direction as Zoey with her new Katana slashed away at anything she could see charging at her though the darkness spraying blood everywhere as she removed limbs and heads, her teeth gritted with a scowl on her face as the blood sprayed onto her clothes and face.
The relentless horde seemed unending and unhinged by the determination of the survivors to stay alive by any means necessary... blood spilled, gunfire and screams of fury echoed off the dark walls as muzzle flashes and flashlights stood their ground lighting the way through the endless darkness and destruction left in the wake of the green flu epidemic... and despite the overwhelming masses coming to take their lives... they stood their ground and the last infected dropped with a pathetic whine of misery as its crimson omens turned a deathly grey the body crumpled to the ground never to move again as a pool of blood formed underneath, the survivors gasped for breathes as they remained in place, hardly able to accept they had indeed beaten the horde back... for now. "All is must've took was one infected to make its way inside this tunnel t-then everything went to hell for the poor bastards that were trapped in here with it..." Bill managed dropping the cigarette from his mouth and crushing it under his boot as he hastily lit another one before taking a look around the tunnel, a sombre look on his face as he could not begin to imagine the horror of being trapped in this tunnel when the infection found its way to the poor people butchered in and out of their own cars, for a sad moment they were all reminded of the moment they had first encountered the infected themselves. Bill in the surgery room... Zoey her parents... Louis at work and Francis his own god damn girlfriend... a moment that changed their lives forever as it bought the horror of the green flu virus into their lives and turned their world upside down, the moment the new world order was shown to them in full view and they realised they would be spending the rest of their lives running and gunning, "this is never gonna end..." Zoey remarked repeating her words from the hospital after the massacre they had witnessed at the front of the hospital all those people all those lives... gone in a matter of moments, "come on w-we have to keep moving there is nothing we can do for them now... other then pray they have found peace" Francis spoke in a moment that surprised the other three... the fear in his voice, but for him to be the voice of reason was a first and a much needed moment. "The tunnel ahead is blocked we have to find another way to get to Riverside..." Louis said sadly seeing the large blockade in the tunnel ahead as Zoey noticed a side passage to the left, "everything we have seen so far has been evidence that they tried to set up a defence for Riverside... let's hope that means they held out" she said blowing a lose strand of hair out of her face as she made her way to the light shinning from the side passage, gritting her teeth as she could feel the blood that now stuck to her face from the conflict a short while earlier, turning to face the others in the light showing that her face was indeed covered in blood from the conflict, "its not gonna get any better you know..." she finished making her way down a flight of stairs as the men quietly followed their faces filled with sadness.
...
They had emerged in some kind of Generator room that was mostly barren with only a few idle common infected which they dispatched off quickly and quietly looking in some storage rooms for any supplies, Francis grunted standing in front of a body in army fatigues with its head split open like an egg a rubbery appendage of some kind wrapped around its neck but it was cut off a few feet away, Zoey grimaced at the body shaking her head as Bill stood a few feet away taking several puffs of his cigarette, Francis one handed scooped up the SCAR combat rifle in the soldiers hands and tossed it at Louis who gasped but managed to catch the weapon, he shook his head in appreciation as he scoped up mags from the soldiers pockets putting them in his own as Zoey climbed up a ladder at the other end of the room seeing a flight of stairs leading back outside as a white house symbol had been painted on the wall, "safe house out here" she said quietly as Bill quickly jolted up the ladder and joined her. "Lets move people" he said marching up the stairs as Louis and Francis caught up they walked through another batch of thick trees warily glancing around for any signs of the enemy, safe room up there on the side of that building!" Francis shouted pointing as they quickly navigated through the trees not knowing how many hours until the sun would come back up as it was still the middle of the night for them, "this is our best bet of finding another way to Riverside, I don't know where this goes but lets hope it goes through" Bill snapped clearly fed up as they made their way up a hill and into the safe room, Francis slammed the door shut behind them as Zoey collapsed to her knees burying her face in her hands as Louis and Bill sat on a table, Francis scoffed kicking a can before sitting on a pipe in the room.
"This is some shit you know that..." Francis grunted as Bill shook his head going through yet another cigarette as Louis scoffed and waved the smoke away from him as Zoey didn't move the bloody katana resting on the ground next to her as her jeans and track jacket were also covered in blood, "yeah well it ain't going to change so we have to accept the fact that until we get to Riverside we may be the last ones left... we rest here for a few and then it's time to head out again" Bill snapped clearly fed up of everyone reminding him how hopeless the situation was... he had not marched their asses out of Fairfield and beyond just to fucking give up in Riverside... he was going to get them out of this mess if it killed him, scoffing he stood and marched over to the other side of the safe room looking at his dim reflection on a whiteboard as the room was well lit. He sighed and blinked before looking to see three tanks standing behind his reflection in the whiteboard, he shook his head and took a big puff blowing it heavily into the air behind him as he then slumped down to the ground... it was gonna be a hell of a long night.
End Chapter
Authors notes: We kick of Death Toll with pretty much the whole of the first level and perhaps a bit of self inserted foreshadowing but apart from that I will see you all again next time.
Have a great day