Chapter 5: Refusing to Die
With Number 1 back in commision the group got even more under control as he commanded them about. Rachel was pleased to be part of the group and helped out whenever they could. Also the group had figured out that creeping along back alleys was way better than the main streets as those filled to the brim with the infected and it was easier to take down enemies in those tight places. Currently though the group had found a nice basket ball court where they had taken down quite a few infected people and resided there to catch up strength.
"Okay guys," Number 1 sighed looking at the weaponry they had, "We either need new ways to defend ourselves or need more ammo so I have decided to send Numbers 4 and 3 to scout about and pick up any amunition they might find to bring back here." "What?!" Wally yelled, "Why us? If you want it why don't you go? We're worn out!" Nigel slammed the younger boy up against a brick wall, took off his sunglasses, and looked him dead in the eye. "Because," he replied, "I have to be around to lead and make decisions for my team. Also I would never send anyone to do what I myself wasn't willing to do, so get going!"
Quickly changing his mind Wally grabbed Kuki's hand and rushed off as Number 2 and 86 stood guard with rationed shots. Nigel decided to discuss some things with Rachel in a tent they had set up. "So," he began, "What exactly do you think our chances are of getting out of here alive, if at all?" "Slim to none," Rachel mearly replied sighing and closing her eyes, "This city is dead, if there are any survivors left I hope they can get out on their own, especially now that some are even turning into those Vendrite things…" "Indeed," Nigel agreed, "Do you think they really took down Dr. Phendrite though? From the description it seems like they would have beat him for good but I still have my doubts." "No idea," Rachel said and got up, "Well I'm gonna go guard the court, take Numbah 86's job and all. You two should spend some quality time together." With a wink the girl was gone leaving Nigel to hang his head in embarrasment.
"Kuki," Number 4 said nervously clutching his female friend's hand, "How do you feel?" "About what?" she asked curiously. "About the situation we're in…" "Oh that's easy, we're gonna make it out in tip top shape cause we're the Kids Next Door!" After slamming his hand over her mouth Wally said, "We gotta keep quiet ya know, this city is deadly!" Clutching Number 4's mouth shut in return Number 3 pointed towards a shadow that was approaching the alley they were hiding in for a minute.
"Hello?" the axe man called out, "Dr. Phendrite? Come on out, I have a Vendrite for you!" Holding a gun up to the man's head Wally began to talk startling the man he previously met in containment, "Why are you after that monster? Haven't ya heard he's dead?" "Dead?" the man asked astounded, "What do you mean dead?" "An entire hospital came down on him and he was shot with a cure for phendrite!" Kuki exclaimed looking the man over. At this the man dropped his axe and stared at them. Then letting out an agonizing cry grabbed the two children and dragged them out of the alley into the light of the morning.
"See that?!" he screamed hysterically pushing their heads out into the open. There were two Vendrites currently huntched over and creeping along the road looking for food probably as there were many drained bodies scattered about. "That is where you are going to end up. Now tell me just where I can find as much phendrite as his body containted?! He was the perfect, freaking specimen!" the axe man asked wildly catcthing one of the Vendrite's (They do have mouths by the way, I gave them the wrong description for that, but everything else was correct) attention, but only their presence, nothing more…yet! Getting angry the man finally threw the duo into the street and the Vendrites immediately sprang into action as Wally and Kuki fired all they could at the beasts!
Taking a whole clip up Four grabbed Number 3's hand and ran again, this time straight down the street hoping to find a place to hide out for a bit. Roaring crazily the monsters sped like cheetahs after them, leaping far and climbing across walls with their tails pointed at their prey. Letting out a scream Kuki darted to the right as one of the monsters leapt at them and she mashed Number Four against her chest in fear clutching him tightly. "Kuki! I can't breathe and we're gonna die if you don't let go!" Wally yelled blushing violently and breaking free. The Vendrite spun around as it missed its target and the other cornered them in.
"Wally…what are we going to do?" Kuki squeaked holding onto his shoulder watching the monsters step forward slowly and growling a bit, their tails flickering forward every few seconds. Suddenly Number 4 spotted a rifle behind the Vendrites. "Don't move!" he hissed to Kuki and dove between the two deadly beings. One's tail flicked forward stabbing the other in the chest causing it to roar out in pain and slash at the first. Soon the two Vendrites were in their own battle with eachother and Wally aimed at one of their heads. Finally killing the one that had originally stabbed it the remaining Vendrite stood back up and looked at Wally just as he shot through its skull killing it and it dropped to the ground dead.
Kuki instantly wrapped her arms around him in a life threatening hug and crying a bit. "I was so worried!" she moaned happily. Number 4 blushed again and hugged back before looking around and dragging her back into an alley, "Listen. We want to stay alive correct? Well now even we are down to near nothing with what the guys gave us for ammo, but at least we know what kill the Vendrites now, eh? A shot from a rifle to the head!" Number 3 nodded agreeing and she got out her own gun, "Let's find some ammo!"
"Jake?" Amy cried out worriedly, "Where are you?" "Right here Angel," Jake said joyfully hugging her from behind and ruffling her hair about, "You weren't worried now were you?" "Haha! Not a bit, did you get it?" she asked excitedly bouncing up and down. Holding out his hand Jake revealed many glass testubes each holding a sample of the cure for phendrite. "Bringing this back will be sure to have Jack not be mad at us and Shadow will be amazed at what progress we made!" Jake replied kissing her and laughing, "Well, might as well head out of here now, this city's dead anyhow."
"What about the Kids Next Door?" Amy asked curiously. "They made it out in time," Jake told her walking along the alley and seeing a construction site up ahead for a tall apartment building that had begun to be built before the infection spread, "That's where we can contact help from, it's the only place high enough for miles." "Yay!" Angel Amy exclaimed clutching onto to Jake, "But I meant do you think they'll live?" "Well it doesn't matter to us now, we have no idea where to find them." "True," Amy agreed smiling, "Wanna cuddle on the way back?" "Sure sure," Jake sighed and rubbed Amy's back, "but we have to get out of here first silly." Smiling at eachother again the two loving friends walked off hand in hand towards the construction site.
"Number 1 and 86 get out here!" Number 2 screamed as he fired his ammo into a horde of infected citizens, "There's too many of them!" "He's right you know!" Rachel yelled as the two leaders leapt out with ammo strapped across their body and firearms in hand. BLAM BLAM! Nigel and Fanny quickly picked off quiet a few as well as a Phendrite or two with their weaponry. Suddenly one of the men pulled 86 down into the crowd and hissed at her with sharp fangs. Blasting the man he immediately was defeated but a woman tossed the guns out of her hands.
SFWING!!! 86 immediately flipped up a dagger strapped to her arm slamming it into a young woman's chest and slicing through another man's shoulder. A roar could be heard as the Vendrite leapt out of the crowd at her and pinned her down with its hands and feet preparing to pierce her chest with its tail and begin feeding. SLASH!!! Nigel slammed his own dagger into the Vendrite's cheek and it stumbled backwards trying to get it out. Meanwhile Number 2 and Rachel were blasting the Vampires for all they were worth.
"Where's Number 5 when you need her?!" Hoagie screamed as he ran out of ammo. "Right here buddy boy!" Abby yelled out sniping off one that had clutched onto his leg from the roof. "Number 5!" "Hey Nigel and Fanny! Catch!" Number 5 ordered as she dropped an enormous object over the edge and tossed a few shotguns to Rachel and Number 2, "They don't have lazers around here but hey, these'll do! We apparently have been living right next door to a bomb store!" Amazed at this news Numbers 1 and 86 caught the two man firearm and powered it up.
"Whoa!" Number 1 exclaimed, "What bomb store makes this kind of weapon?!" "The kind that has an inventor for the owner I'm guessing!" she yelled back picking off a few more and using a grappling hook to get down to where the others were. "Powered up!" Fanny informed Nigel holding onto the back of it where lights lit up. "Fire!" he ordered and they pressed the triggers on the back and front ends of the weapon.
The street was instantly incinerated as well as just about anything in the beam's path leaving only the Vampires on the sides to fall stupidly into the trench made or crawl over the fence…which some of them had begun doing! Firing more and more ammo into the creatures Nigel leapt back over the fence as well as Fanny as the monsters broke through looking at them hungrily and thrashing their arms about.
Wham! "Come on guys!" Rachel exclaimed slamming a door into the back of a shop open with her foot and team trailed after her. "Ah!" Number 5 screamed in surprise as she felt a quick pain run through her arm. Blasting the Vendrite in the face that had slashed her Abigail Lincoln stumbled through the door and locked it shut clutching her injured limb. "Abby?" Number 2 said worried, "You okay?" "Not really…" she replied lifting her hand off her arm and revealing the mixture of phendrite and blood dripping down.
The group gasped until suddenly they heard one of the windows of the building shatter and bodies began to poor through. "Abby, can you walk?" Nigel asked sternly firing into the crowd as Fanny and Rachel ran for the front door. "Yeah," she replied hissing a bit at the pain in her arm, "I'll get going but you might wanna leave me here, I'm infected you know…" The trio ran into the lobby of the candy gun shop and locked the door behind them. They looked out the windows to see another horde of the infected staring inside…
"Yeesh," Kuki murmured looking at where their headquarters used to be, "Looks like they got overrun…" "Or not!" Wally said desperately, "They aren't chowing down or anything on any bodies, they're just trying to get in that shop behind our court…great! Now they're locked in!" Thinking some things over Number 3 blasted her gun in the air catching all of the infecteds' attention. "Kuki! What was that for?!" Wally yelled and Number 3 just smiled innocently, "To get them away from the door?" "When they leave you run inside and tell them they're gone! Got that?!" Wally ordered before pushing her into an alley and leading the monsters away.
"Wally…" she whispered quietly then remembered, she had to get in there! Running over to the door the asian girl looked at the trench that had been made by the enormous firearm Numbers 1 and 86 had fired earlier seeing many bodies and infected people trapped inside clawing about. A Vendrite leapt clear out of the crowd below and slammed down before Kuki looking with bloodshot eyes at her.
"Yay!" Amy screamed joyously clutching onto Jake and kissing him, "We're almost there!" The boy just chuckled as they stepped onto the construction site, "That we are Amy, all we need to do is take the elevator up to the highest point and send off a signal from there now." The two hastily boarded the construction elevator failing to notice puddles of phendrite around them as they rose. "I'm so glad we're finally getting out of here!" Amy told Jake excitedly and looked up seeing the lights on the top of the elevator flash yellow as they began to slow down and come to a stop.
"Top floor, Jake and Amy off," Jake said smiling at his female companion and holding the signaling device, "Now let's place this over there on the middle beam!" Walking over a catwalk connecting to the middle support beam the boy simply placed the circular object on it activing it and looked, his jaw dropping. Phendrite let out an enormous roar behind Amy startling the teenage girl and causing her to run towards Jake. Embracing her Jake looked at the battered mutated Silveronian doctor that had tortured them and been the cause of the infection spreading while Amy looked over her friend's shoulder and down to the ground far below.
"Well I know why he's here…" Amy told Jake hugging him tightly as Phendrite walked towards them, "The ground below is made completely of phendrite…" Gasping Jake turned around and saw for himself, it was indeed an infected land below. Letting out another roar Dr. Phendrite ran at them, full speed intending to ram them over the edge where he'd feast on the radioactive material below. Getting one of the cures Jake fired it into the circle in Phendrite's middle chest head causing more cracks than from the hospital battle to appear and pop all over his body hurting him greatly.
"Amy, you keep firing at him okay?" he asked giving her the gun and she nodded. Running off to the side Phendrite began to follow the boy before Amy shot another test tube of the cure into a crack on his shoulder causing it to go limp and he roared in pain beginning to chase her, the tentacles of his mouths slithering quickly ahead of himself. "Now let's see here…" Jake hissed jumping into the construction crane and looking at all the buttons and levers, "Yeah, I can work this!" The machine creaked to life as Jake shouted, "Get him to the center of the structure Amy!"
The space pirate saw the plan now and ran as fast as she could over to one of the edges of the buildings where a catwalk to the center. Thump! Phendrite landed right beside here and slammed his fist into her stomach sending her flying to the other side of the battlefield. "Ugh!" she moaned as she landed on the metal beam almost rolling off the edge, "Wow, he can really jump far…" Phendrite leapt up again about nine feet bring his arms down on the girl just as she rolled out of the way. "Not getting me that easy doc!" she said grinning slyly and shooting another cure into his other shoulder disabling that one as he let out another loud roar.
WHAM! Phendrite flung Amy to the center support beam where Jake had placed the signaling device and leapt out of the way just as Phendrite came back down again. "Now Jake!" she yelled and the wrecking ball of the crane sent the juggernaut flying to horizon. "Whoops…" she whispered as she dropped one of the cures over the edge then shrugged hearing a helicopter in the distance. Jake jumped down and embraced her tightly as they watched their ride approach.
"Yeesh," Wallabee Beetles sighed exhausted and sitting on a cardboard box, "Those things were hard to loose, I hope Kuki's doing alright…" Tink! Number 4 was surprised as something small hit his head from above and landed in his hand. It was a testube of the cure for phendrite! "Oh man! Boy was that jog ever worth it! A cure!" he exclaimed closing his hand around it and looking up just as a helicopter descended on top of the structure above him, an unfished apartment building, "A rescue team? Wow, well I better get back to the guys first, they might need this!" Wally ran off not noticing the Shadow Corp. symbol on the side of the chopper.
"Come and get me!" Kuki yelled firing rapidly into the crowd of infected citizens and Vendrites that filtered through the hall ways. BLAM BLAM BLAM! One by one she took them all down, even kicked a Vendrite out a window, and charged towards the door ahead. "Guys!" she screamed banging on the locked door, "Let me in, it's Numbah 3!" Immediately the door flung open to let her in and she kicked it closed looking up into the faces of her teamates, "Hi guys…" Then she saw all the citizens outside the windows looking in at them hungrily. "Kuki?" Abby moaned looking her, "Where'd you come from girl?"
The infection on Abby's arm had worsened significantly and she looked pretty pale as a greenish blue substance lay on her cut. Cracks of blue and green also corsed along the veins in her arm and up her shoulder and body a bit. At this site Kuki gasped but then remembered, "guys I cleared a path through the hall, we can escape through the back! Oh, and what happened to Numbah 5?" "She's been infected with phendrite but that aside, you expect us to believe you actually got through there?" Number 2 replied. Number 3 just looked at him and said, "Well I wouldn't be here if I hadn't gone through there now would I?"
"Enough chit chat!" Nigel ordered grabbing Fanny's hand and dragging her away from the front door that they'd been holding, "If she says she's cleared a path and she's here then we need to get out of here now!" Following Number 1's orders the others ran down the hall as he and Number 86 carried their infected teamate quickly. The team soon got back outside and looked around seeing a minimal amount of citizens that the group easily picked off. "Hiyah!" Kuki screamed slamming her foot into the Vendrite's chest that had blocked her way earlier before she ran inside and it fell backwards into the trench the super gun had made.
Huffing and puffing Wally stumbled along the edge of a building and looked around, no one in sight. Then he saw it up ahead, the court they had been hanging out at and his team running away from it. Spotting them he eagerly caught up with them waving the cure in his hand and seeing the state Number 5 was in.
"Where did you get this again?" Numbah 86 asked skepticly, "And how are you sure it's the right thing?" "Well what other testube has that kind of thick orange liquid in it?" Number 4 replied as they settled down at an abandoned warehouse. Nodding her head 86 put a syringe she had been carrying from the hospital over the top of the testube and stuck it into Abby's arm. The substance slowly dripped down into her and her veins in her arm began to glow orange and fade back to normal as the phendrite infection on her cut disappeared as well. Happy to see Number 4 alive and well Kuki hugged him tightly and smiled ruffling his hair about. He smiled back as Nigel and Fanny discussed what to do now…
"What do you mean we aren't leaving?" Jake asked rather distraught to the gasmask wearing troops, "That's why we contacted you guys!" "Yeah!" Amy yelled at the commander grabbing his collar and bringing his face down to eye level, "just what's the meaning of this?!" "Kids, we were assigned to find and bring back phendrite infected specimens and that's what we're going to do. Now a group of us can take you away of course but me and my troops are staying here," the commander replied pushing Amy off himself. "Oh, well in that case thanks," Jake told him carrying Amy over his shoulder into the chopper where a few troops and the pilot were left, "and by the way, stay in the alleys! They're a lot safer than the main streets!" With that the helicopter lifted off with Jake and Amy safe inside leaving the troops below to deal with things.
And there you have it folks, I know I haven't updated any stories in a long time but I'm back I just thought The Chronicles of Captain Melon Head got a bit to out of hand so I backed down for a bit to relax, you know, sip some lemonade and go trick or treating, the works. Well I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, wrote it all in one day and let's see here it measures on microsoft word to...5 1/2 pages, not bad. Well no morphing up to another level for the Vendrites it seems. Just to let you all know I have this planned out all in my head and just wanted to get back to doing this cause I think it's a nice sci-fi horror thing at times (maybe more sci-fi than horror but I know for a fact that this chapter was more horror and action than sci-fi). Well thanks for reading so far and be happy