Chapter Five: We Gonna Light It Up, Like It's Dynamite

"What did you do! He was alive!" Tifa screeched as she ran over to Reno and attempted to punch him, but he dodged and she ended up almost falling into a deceased, truly deceased, Remnant lying on the ground. "Don't you try ta hit me again lady, I'll kill you." he said with the same icy glare in his eyes, a truly frightening countenance by any standards. Tifa didn't try to hit him again, but instead tried to make him miserable by bringing Marlene into the equation, "How could you shoot this little girl's father right in front of her eyes? What kind of twisted are you?" At this new accusation, he raised an eyebrow, "Me? You're usin' th' kid ta try an' make me feel bad, so what kinda twisted are you? Besides, he wasn't human no more, well, he wouldn'ta been in a day or two anyway, they got him, one o' them bit him, see right here." he said as he pointed to Barett's left arm, his real arm, and a certain spot on the arm that bore a bite mark. "So what? You didn't have to shoot him in front of his own daughter!" "Listen, you b-" "GUYS!" At Aerith's sudden outburst the two quieted and Reno lowered his gun, really not a smart move for Tifa to start a fight with a guy who apparently had no problem shooting people, just sayin'. "I think we should leave, now. If we do that we might be able to reach the church by nightfall, so stop causing more trouble for Marlene with your fighting and be respectful!" Reno couldn't argue with that idea, but he also had an idea of his own, and he just loved fireworks. "Uh, I left something in th' lobby! Be right back!" he said as he dashed inside and the exited quickly soon afterward followed by a few slow moving Remnants. Using the tactics that had conveyed Zack, Aerith, Marlene, and Tifa here safely before, the rooftop climbing, they were able to move through the upper city quite quickly, it was the re-entry into the slums that they ran into trouble.

"Hey! Look! Peaches!" Denzel exclaimed as he pulled the can out of the cupboard, "Tons of them! Guy must have really liked them, ya think?" "...Sure." Cloud responded in his normal stoic manner, he had never been much of a talker, and now he might even have been less of one. "I wonder if there's a pack or something around here..." Denzel said out loud to himself as he meandered through the house with Red following him, making sure to stay close to where Cloud was. He eventually found a backpack, it was a kid's backpack, a young boy's by the style and the name which was embroidered onto it, "Billy." "Well, at least we can gather some supplies in this." Denzel confirmed out loud to himself again, this kinda reminded Cloud of what his brother, Zack used to do whenever he came for a visit, talk for the sake of breaking the silence, something Cloud always appreciated in the house filled with uncomfortable silence whenever the "lost son" of his mother's would visit their family. He looked up to his brother, a lot, he just hoped he'd get to see him again to tell him that, he wasn't sure he ever had. Once Denzel had gather just about everything he wanted, he asked, "So, where are we going?" "Fort Condor, if there is any information as to where my brother was last stationed, it would be there." "Okay! Maybe they have supplies there too!" "Maybe the fort is still up and running..."

It seemed like the slums had filled up with Remnants after they'd initially passed through, but the thing was, Reno couldn't very well shoot the things, too much noise and the whole of Midgar would be on them again, so he was almost useless in this situation… almost. He could still wield a lead pipe like no other, which he did. This made the fight slightly more even on their part, but Zack was limited now in his own movements by the fact that Marlene was on his shoulders. This didn't stop him from giving it all that he could though, and the group managed to make it out of the whole city by nightfall, the rest of the march toward the church was in utter darkness, however. Well, not entirely...

They had made their way through the marshes that laid beyond the farmlands and, although the snakes in that place were huge, they managed to do so before 1 in the afternoon. After the two-some exited the marshes, they were faced with another issue. An old mine. Climbing through the boarded up doorway had been easy enough, but Cloud wondered if it had been boarder up before or after the calamity, a thought that was ditto'd by Denzel, so both proceeded quietly and cautiously through the mine. After walking in a complete circle, Cloud finally broke the silence, figuring they had already walked around once and there were noRemnants. "Denzel, do you have a watch?" "No, why?" "Well, I can't tell how long we've been in here." "How could you tell the time earlier then?" "By the sun." "You can do that?" "Well, yeah, not as good as everybody else though." "Wow. Can you teach me? I don't even know how to do that at all!" "Maybe. But first we have to get out of here." "Okay, well we walked that way, so maybe this way instead this time?" "Sounds good, stay close." And the two proceeded through a new set of winding tunnels Red XIII following along casually.

"Heh,heh,heh…" was the last thing they heard before the entire area was bathed in radiant light and the ground around them quaked violently with vibrations from the shockwave of the blast. "YEAH!" Reno yelled at the top of his lungs, in true pyromaniac fashion as he watched the sky light up with fire and smoke from the explosion behind them. "What happened?" Aerith breathed as she released her solid grip on Zack's shirt. "I solved the Remnant problem in Midgar." Reno proudly proclaimed as Tifa drew a fist. Punching at him, she screamed, "What if there were other people in there! Like me and Marlene were, not to mention Barret!" "Look chick," Reno started as he dodged a punch and then another from Tifa, "It ain't likely there was anybody else, an' even if there was, it was a quick painless death, more than they could have hoped for from the Remnants, so just shut it, 'kay?" Aerith was trying to get the two to stop fighting, well Tifa to stop punching and kicking and Reno to stop antagonizing and dodging, when Zack spoke up, "I have to agree with Reno on this one." "Zack!" "Well, I mean, I don't think there was anyone else there and it makes sense not to let that many Remnants live, but I got a question for you Reno, just how did you manage to rig the whole city to blow like that? (It was kinda cool.)" "The reactors. They're all connected by subterranean tunnels, just in case one ever overheated or something, they can vent to each other and release pressure, but anyhow, you blow up one with enough force and it will chain to the other reactors, supposing the tunnels are open. So all I had to do was set the self-destruct up on one of them, open the tunnels, shut the regular vents, and Kablooey! Bye-bye, Midgar. Nifty, huh?" "So… supposing we hadn't made it out and were still fighting our way out of there right now?" Aerith had an idea now, but it wasn't one she hoped to be true, just for the sake of Tifa ever calming down today. "We'd be crispy." "Thought so." Zack just shook his head and smiled at his crazy pyromaniac friend as he continued down the path, Tifa now having a new reason to hate the red head. Aerith just sighed heavily as they walked back in the pitch black darkness that had settled back around them, eventually clutching onto Zack's shirt again to steady herself and to make her feel less uneasy in the darkness.

"Well... I guess whatever that was it's over now..." Cloud stated flatly as Denzel unbraced his arms from above his head. "But what was it, Cloud?" "I'm not sure... maybe just an earthquake... that is what normally causes the ground to shudder and quake violently like that..." "Yeah... but animals can normally sense earthquakes, right? That's what my momma used to say... But Red didn't even whimper until the ground was actually shaking..." "Look, I'm no expert, and I can't say that you aren't right about the whole animal thing, but what I do know is it does us no good to debate about something that already happened, let's just go, okay?" Cloud hadn't really meant to snap like that, but his lack of sleep was starting to catch up with him as well as his frustration with the maze on tunnels they were stuck in. Denzel agreed with a silent nod trying not to provoke Cloud who was mad at him for a reason he couldn't understand and the two wove through the rest of the winding tunnels and corridors until finally, just at daybreak, they emerged from the old mine shaft with Fort Condor fully in sight.

"Haleluah! Light!" Reno exclaimed as he jumped for joy at seeing the sun rising over the horizon, a jump which resulted in more as he realized that the dark shadow in the distance was actually Aerith's church. "Yeah! Home at last! No more road trips, 'kay guys?" "...Reno, you were the one who insisted upon this one." Aerith finally pointed out, slightly tired of Reno after having traveled a whole night in utter darkness and being quite worn out on top of that. Zack smiled widely as he began telling Marlene all about his brother which they would soon meet-up with again to which Marlene silently listened, she hadn't spoken since the incident at Shin-Ra headquarters. Tifa glowered in the background as they approached, her evil glare fixed onto Reno until, upon approaching the church, her gaze was suddenly directed over to Zack who shouted out a name or something, she didn't exactly catch it, and ran inside Marlene gripping onto his hair for dear life. "Cloud! Cloud! Where are you!"

Author's "well, crap, I finally got a review then I forgot to update" Note: So, yeah, didn't get to what actually happened at Shin-Ra headquarters yet… or what all weapons Reno actually has with him either… and yes, just to make sure there was no confusion, the earthquake that Denzel and Cloud experienced was caused by the epic blowing up of Midgar by Reno. (I secretly always wanted to blow it up!) So yes, Tifa epic despises Reno… but she kinda always did? I mean, she hated Shin-Ra… Oh, yeah, so I haven't decided how kosher I'm gonna be on Tifa's storyline, she does know Cloud though and they did still grow up in the same town (where she was the queen "B", if you get my drift! ;P), but other than that… yeah, no promises. Oh, yes, I realized that this was a short chapter, which is why I had it done and totally forgot to actually update, sorry. There will be a following chapter posted relatively soonish, however, because of this, so yeah. And BTW: Thank you my reviewer, UltimateNinjaOfDoom! You gave me hope and also the will to continue posting this little fiction (yes, I was just about to say "screw it!" and not post anymore.) but apparently you realize that FF7 vs. Zombie apocalypse = Epic, just like I did, so again, thank you. Request a one shot from me, I'll write it for you, okay? (this only applies to my first reviewer, UltimateNinjaOfDoom, and if this makes you others sad, well you should have reviewed. epic hurt face :*( Oh, and I promise to get to the hilarious once again, (yeah, I wish I didn't kill Barret now... but the story demanded it...) but give me a minute... I mean, Next chapter: Reno tries to cheer Zack up? Yeah... that's gonna work out great... hint of sarcasm ;) R, R, and R, okay peeps! (now that I know you're out there, you can't pretend you don't exist anymore... *evil smiles*)