Chapter 16: Sometime slightly before the end of Chapter 15
Vivi wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and got up to splash cold water on her face. You'd think after six years of this, you'd get used to the concept of death and dying, but then you see a man's skull cap explode and everything old is new again. At least the gunfire seemed to die down, but then again, that could have been good or terrible. Most things in her life were either good or terrible.
She stepped outside of the bathroom. In the kitchen, Bonney was wrapping bandages around Nami's leg, since Law was apparently too busy to be a real doctor, that lazy ass. Half of Zoro's head was also bandaged up to keep his injury from bleeding everywhere. He and Coby were standing near the window, carefully peeking out while remaining hidden.
Coby glanced over at Zoro. "Hey do you think maybe you should sit down…? You're hurt pretty bad."
"What, this?" Zoro pointed to his face. "Nah, the cut's real shallow. Wounds to the forehead just bleed a lot because the skin is thin. I'm good."
"If you say so." Coby turned back to the window and let out a truly anguished sigh. "Oh no… Are you kidding? We don't need that too!"
"What is it? Did they roll out a tank or something?" Nami asked from the kitchen.
"Nnnnope. Much worse than that," Zoro said.
The girls made their way to the front room, Nami hobbling on one good leg and using Bonney for support. When they got a good clean look out the window, Nami and Bonney swore and Vivi gasped. The undead were just starting to funnel in through the hole where there used to be a gate. Dozens were already past the wall and making a beeline for the fresh food that was Krieg's men. They fired off a few courtesy shots, but they were quickly overwhelmed. The five inside Zoro and Bonney's house flinched in disgust as rotted teeth sank into flesh.
"We really should do something…" Coby muttered.
"On it!" Bonney said. She walked away from the window and over to the love seat. She dragged it toward the door and propped it up in front, then reached over and flipped the deadbolt. "There we go!"
Coby sighed. "Not what I had in mind, but I guess that's still technically correct…"
"It's a start," Nami said. "What do we do when they're done eating those guys. They had the guns and stuff to spare, we barely have anything. They're gonna be clawing at the door eventually."
"And they just keep coming!" Vivi whined. They were filling up the space inside the walls like a swarm of cartoon termites that devour everything in sight.
"Two weeks. We didn't even make it two weeks on our own before we all fucking died," Nami said.
Meanwhile, Krieg and his Amazing Friends quickly realized the only safe place in the outpost was on the balcony. They doubled back through Franky's backyard and scaled the nearest ladder, circling around back to the gate where they could watch the horde pour in, dumbly following after one another. Only a few of the zombies actually noticed there was food right above them, and any that made a futile swipe was eventually pushed away by the rest of the horde.
"Well, we're safe f'r now, but I gotta tell ya, this is real upsettin'!" Krieg huffed. "We'd been watchin' these idjits for days, preppin' an attack like this and now we're gonna have t' go gather up more men and more guns and more cars. This does not fit in with my plans at all. Ah well… Less mouths t' feed for now…"
"Hey speaking of plans?" Monet said, sitting on the edge of the balcony and dangling her legs, just out of reach of any zombie's grip. "How are we gonna get out of here?"
Krieg nodded slowly. "That is a good question and I will get back t' ya on that."
Meanwhile again, Robin, Franky, Law, and Perona were gathered around Franky's front window and watching the carnage unfold.
"It's serene in a way, don't you think?" Robin said. "All of them moving like one giant engine…"
"It'd be even more serene if they weren't here to devour us," Law said.
Robin smiled a little. "Eat you, maybe. They ignore me, remember?"
Perona's eyes widened, which was impressive considering they were always wide open. "WAIT! YOU'RE IMMUNE!"
"That's right," Robin said, nodding a little condescendingly. "What's your point?"
"You can go out there! And you can go get all the good stuff from the storage house! Like all the guns and the grenade launcher and stuff!" Perona yelped.
Law and Franky looked from Perona to Robin in disbelief. "Did… Perona come up with a plan before the rest of us did?"
Robin shrugged nonchalantly. "No, I always planned on doing just that. I was just wondering if anyone else would pick up on it." She walked away from the others. "I'll be right back, I'm going to go save everyone now." She opened the front door, kept her eyes on everyone else, and stepped outside with a graceful faux ballerina twirl.
Outside it was even more horrific and she had to stand on the front porch for a second to adjust to the sound. Besides the snarling and snapping of weak jaws, there was also the grotesque squishing of rotted flesh pressing against itself, or against the concrete or the walls. And let's not even talk about the smell.
She stepped off the front porch and walked down the driveway. The zombies were starting to spread out, filling the sidewalk instead of staying contained on the street. They hadn't caught scent or sight of the others secure in their houses and Robin hoped it could stay that way. She easily slipped between the zombies. They regarded her about as much as they did a road sign or a fire hydrant. Occasionally one would bump into her, but it would just stumble and continue on.
Up on the balcony, the shit trio watched in amazement. "How the hell is she doing that?!" Monet asked.
"I got no clear idea. They ain't even lookin' at her!" Krieg said, rubbing his chin. "And she ain't even wearin' one o' them guts tarps…"
Monet looked straight down at the crowd, swinging her feet. "I wonder if we could pull that off here…"
Krieg's face lit up. "Now that is an idea! Why don't you go on an' hop down there, gut one o' them an' try it f'r yourself?" He put his hand on her shoulder a little more roughly than she felt exactly comfortable with. Gave her a little shove too, just enough to make it seem like he was either just being boistrous… Or maybe he intended to volunteer her for gutting duty by shoving her off. She gripped the edge of the balcony tighter anyway.
Robin slipped into the storage house and slammed the door behind her. The zombies were spreading out now, trampling over front lawns and some stumbling up to the stairs on front porches. They weren't really aiming for anyone just yet… But it was a matter of time. She needed to work fast.
She shuffled down the basement stairs and flipped on the lights. The floor was lined with racks where the weapons were lined up. There was no need to organize or keep track of ammo, there were only twelve of them and they couldn't really go anywhere. It was frustrating now, since she couldn't remember where they put the rocket launcher. While she walked down the aisles, she holstered a pistol in the back of her jeans, because that's the safest place you can keep a gun.
When she finally found it, she handled it with care. Hancock didn't leave them with a lot of grenades, but she really only needed one. She'd never fired one before, but she figured as long as it was pointed away from her, she'd be fine.
She made her way back upstairs right around the same time a van turned onto the street leading to Little Garden. The last stragglers of the horde were filtering in, creating a wall of flesh that the van was not equipped to penetrate. God, I'm sorry about that, that sounded worse than I wanted it to.
Sanji parked the van a fair distance away from the gate and jumped out of the driver's side door. "God, look at that shit!" Rifle across his back, he climbed onto the hood, then onto the roof of the car. "KRIEG! IF YOU'RE ALIVE, I'M GONNA KILL YOU, YOU SACK OF SHIT!"
Krieg ducked down behind the wall. "Hm. Reckon we'll stay quiet f'r a little bit, see how this plays out…"
From the roof of the van, Sanji sprayed bullets into the backs of the zombies still milling around the gate. Several of them went down, but even more were drawn to the loud sounds and turned around. A dozen or so broke away from the group and shambled toward the new, more open target.
"No fair!" Luffy said, sliding out of the van with a crowbar in hand. Oh, he wasn't indignant at the zombies approaching him. "Sanji, you're taking all the kills! Come on, I need to get some hits in!" Two shamblers made it past Sanji and lunged for Luffy. He swung the crowbar down and pierced the skull of one, but found it stuck fast when he tried to pull it out. The body went limp and took the crowbar down with it.
The other zombie took advantage of Luffy's situation and pounced on him. Its jaws came close enough to Luffy's face that he could see its tongue through the hole in its chin, but before it could bite down, Baby appeared from the van's door and plunged a knife in its ear. The monster went down and Luffy took a step back to catch his balance.
Baby smiled at him from the door and hopped down onto the pavement. "Knives, dear," she said, handing him one from the harness strapped to her thigh. "Zhey will not get stuck like zhat crowbar."
The two of them could easily deal with the stragglers that broke off from the greater horde. Sanji drew them away two or three at a time with the gunfire, downing even more in the process. Every time Luffy put one down, he quietly counted along. "1,598… 1,599… 1,600!"
Baby giggled slyly, putting down one herself with a smug cry of "2,889…" which made Luffy shoot her such a dirty look.
They weren't doing much more than chipping away at the back end. The true terror was already inside, but the van wasn't equipped to start plowing through corpses. If Sanji tried to ram it, they'd just get trapped and surrounded and needing rescue themselves. They needed to take care of a bunch in one go.
Which is what Robin did next. She took aim with the grenade launcher, pointing in the general area of the concentrated cluster that had gathered around the RV in order to devour Krieg's men. She pulled the trigger, sending the stock into her shoulder, which hurt more than she expected. It's true, she wasn't familiar with using a grenade launcher, but she figured as long as it was pointed away from her and toward the zombies, she was good. The grenade shot out faster and further than she expected, slamming into the side of the RV with a THUNK. Then came the crack of the explosion, which turned 24 zombies into chunks. The RV rocked and it looked for a moment that it would tip over, but it righted itself before it could go over, albeit with an absolutely fucked up right side. It had become the reverse Two-Face of cars. (Because Two-Face's left side is the fucked up one.)
Robin, unaccustomed to causing that level of carnage, or really any level of carnage, raised her arms up in triumph and let out a "Whoo! 42 points!" Because two of the zombies were very clearly firemen. Unfortunately, this drew attention and she had to quickly scatter back inside the safety of the storage house.
"That was it?!" Perona squeaked. "The car didn't even go up in a big fireball!"
Franky shrugged. "Sorry, kiddo. Life ain't like the movies and the video games. Now come on, we're gonna drive my custom-made anti-zombie jeep through the horde to try and drive some of 'em off." He ambled his weirdo ass toward the garage and Law stared at his back of his head like there was a purple gopher strapped to it.
"We're gonna do WHAT?!" He cried out. Franky pivoted on one heel, smiling proudly.
"It's literally the safest place we can be! It's super zombie-proof! We're safer in there than we are in the house, trust me!"
"Trusting you is what I'm afraid of…" Law said. Reluctantly, he and Perona joined Franky in the garage, climbing into the Frankystein and sitting in the backseat while Franky situated himself in the front. "So how exactly are we doing this?"
"Super simple! We're gonna Pied Piper 'em into following us! All we need is to make a lot of loud, annoying noises to draw their attention!" Franky said, adjusting the mirror.
Law gave Perona a pointed look. She gave him a confused and offended expression, and he responded by raising his eyebrow. This conversation of facial expressions continued for a while until Perona huffed and shot a look toward the back of Franky's head. "Franky! I'm not loud and annoying, am I?!"
Franky pressed the garage door opener attached to the visor. "I love ya like a daughter, P, so I'm not gonna answer that. Both of you start shouting once we're out there!" He flipped his sunglasses down and flashed his teeth to the mirror.
Franky pulled out of the driveway. He immediately pressed the horn. La Cucaracha blared from the Frankystein, creating a cacophony that only those incapable of sentient thought would be drawn to. Additionally, Perona leaned around the back of her seat and started shouting her lungs out. "HEY! OVER HERE, ZOMBIES! COME ON! I'M A CUTE HELPLESS HORROR MOVIE PROTAGONIST! I'M TOTALLY GONNA BREAK THE HEEL OF MY SHOE RUNNING FROM YOU! LOOK AT HOW PRETTY AND DEFENSELESS I AM!"
They drew a pretty sizeable crowd. 51 to be exact, which, of course, they didn't count them, but you're the reader so you're allowed to know these sorts of things. For the record, there were 449 zombies left within the confines of Little Garden's walls, so… imagine that pounding at the doors.
The five in Zoro and Bonney's house didn't have to imagine that, they were living it. From the doorwall, Zoro casually called to the others, "Hey, they're starting to spread to the backyard. So uh… We're gonna be trapped soon."
Nami whined in her chair. "I'm already trapped! If they get in here, how the hell am I supposed to defend myself?! I can't even walk!"
"Yeah… That's gonna be a problem.. Grenade launcher didn't work the way we all kinda wanted it to…" Zoro said. He was taking all of this really well, or at least he seemed to be. The truth is, he was looking for a reason to run out there and start cutting fools up. "If there were less of 'em out there, I'd feel better about your chances. Maybe… I should go out there and start cutting fools up."
"That's the worst idea I've ever heard!" Bonney shrieked.
Vivi nodded. "Yeah, I mean… Getting yourself killed isn't going to help anyone.
"Then I won't get killed," Zoro said, as if it were as easy as that. "But Robin's the only one with access to our weapons and immunity or not, she's not gonna be able to save our asses if she's pinned down in there. Bonney, you can cover me." He put his hand on the doorwall handle.
"Oh can I?! How generous of you!" Bonney sneered. Her expression dissolved into panic when he slid the doorwall open. "WAIT YOU DUMBASS!" But he was gone and Bonney had no choice but to chase after him. "YOU PILE OF FUCKING PENISES, I'M GOING TO STAB GLASS IN YOUR GOOD EYE FOR THIS!"
Nami, Vivi, and Coby were basically pinned down with very little in the way of weapons at this point. None of them had ever felt quite so tense. "Y'know, now would be a really good time for my boyfriend to suddenly show up and save me..." Nami said.
"Honey, do they have any, uh… knives or anything in the house…?" Vivi asked her husband.
On the bright side, Franky's plan was working pretty well. The Frankystein was sturdy enough to drive through the lake of zombies. They managed to clear the gate with the cluster behind them. As they passed by Krieg's jeep, Franky noted the minigun mounted to it. "Soon, friend…"
For the first time since they arrived, Luffy, Sanji, and Baby saw actual proof that Little Garden had survived. Granted, Baby and Luffy scrambled back inside the van and slammed the door shut when they saw the Frankystein was leading the most morbid parade since the 1997 Macy's Day Parade, when Barney deflated and melted and the Cat in the Hat ran into a lamppost and put a woman in a coma. Look it up.
Franky pulled up alongside the van and looked up at Sanji. "Hey! You made it! You're actually still alive!"
"I could say the same about you, man! Are the others okay?!" Sanji called back.
Franky was happy to say "Yeah! As far as I know! They're holed up in the youngsters' house, last I checked! All except Robin, she made it to the storage house."
"So Nami's okay?! That's good…" Luffy said, popping into sight from the driver side window. A zombie made a swipe at him. He quickly put it down by ramming his knife into its eye socket without looking away from Franky or breaking his smile.
Franky grinned at the kid. "I'll bet she's waiting for you to be a big damn hero, kid. Go get 'er!"
With that, Franky drove off, honking his horn and letting Perona continue her zombie calling. All Law did was wave from his seat and call out, "Good luck! I hope some of you make it out of there!" Which prompted Perona to punch him in the arm as hard as she could.
Inside the storage house, Robin was carefully considering how to go about weapon distribution. It would be rather undignified to grab as much as she could and carry them out like she was a cartoon character carrying a stack of fragile china and trying not to trip. Perhaps she could put them in a pillowcase or one of those industrial garbage bags… No, that wouldn't work. If she was going to be Gun Santa, she'd need the red hat and the Santa outfit was somewhere in the attic. She didn't have a choice. She started strapping pistol holsters everywhere they could fit. Two on her belt, on her shoulders, on her thighs. Then she slung two assault rifles over her shoulders. It was rather uncomfortable and bulky, but it at least looked better than the alternative. Oh yes, and ammo. She had that in an ammo bag at her lower back. She felt like the most dangerous pack mule in history.
She intentionally avoided mirrors as she made her way back upstairs and slid out the back door. There were zombies crawling around the backyard. Not nearly as concentrated as they were out front, but enough that she found it distasteful. She swung one assault rifle up and looked down the sights. It was going to be a long walk to Zoro's house at this rate. "886," she muttered under her breath, pulling the trigger and watching a head burst open.