A/N: I don't really know what to put up here anymore. Have to start updating instead of spending so much time on FGO lmao.
Edit: Holy crap, it's been almost a year since I updated...whoops. Sorry it's been a while, but my personal life has been busy this past year.
Ch.13- Survivors?
"Commander, is this really going to be a good idea?" Abigail asks. She holds onto the Abrams frightfully while Alexi starts touching the tank all over.
"Commander! Commander!" she radios Leon, whos driving the tank towards the checkpoint.
"What is it, Alexi, was it?" he asks, shifting some gears to avoid an abandoned truck.
"What's the gun caliber of this tank? The biggest I knew of was maybe a 105mm gun on a howitzer." she says while poking around on the turret mounted .50 cal.
"It's a 120mm gun made by Rheinmetall."
Alexi ponders for a second.
"Isn't Rheinmetall the ones who made the 8.8 cm guns?" she asks.
Erwin, who's listening to their conversation drops in with a smile.
"Yes, they were the same ones who made this gun~." She boasts holding a Kar98k in her arms.
Leon chuckles.
"Outpost sighted, poi~!" Yuudachi announces, Harusame nodding with her as looks out of the radio compartment.
"Outpost confirmed. There are two Humvees coming to meet is now." Suzukaze announces, turning the .50 cal away to get a better look. The humvees pull up to the Abrams, the driver window pulled down.
"Y'all must be the support of Commander Henderson that San Diego HQ had told us about." The corporal says. The girls in the back nod.
"That's good then. We're from Base Echo located 3.3 kilometers away from that walker infested city Los Angeles." The Corporal says. "Our boys have been fighting them stray hordes for a while now. It's getting to a point where we're pretty much running dry of ammo again."
Svetlana thinks for a moment.
"So what do you need our help with?" she asks, putting Alyona's rocket launcher down beside her.
"Well ma'am, there was a meeting called between bases Alpha, Beta, Charlie, Delta, and Foxtrot a while back. What we decided was to try to take over the areas around the southern border of Los Angeles." he says.
"Let's think about it for a moment though." Svetlana says calmly. "We have to think about the worst that could happen. We have seen the power of a mutated one couple days ago, so it could be safe to say that there is a high possibility that there would be another one of those mutant things out there somewhere."
The tank drives through the gates of Outpost Echo, grinding to a halt near three Humvees. Everyone gets off or out of the tank.
"Name's Stanley. Corporal Stanley around here. Nice to meet y'all" he says.
Everyone but Leon and Tomlin salute to him.
"We've had recently lost contact with a survivor camp a bit far inside that hell hole Los Angeles. We've been trying to get it back up into contact."
Leon sighs.
"So what you're telling me is that we have to go find that camp and locate that damn survivor camp… right?" he asks in a monotonous voice.
Stanley sighs.
"Pretty much."
Leon puts up a pained smile.
"Yeah, we'll try our best. No real promises that we'll do well."
"Teitoku, why didn't we take the tank?" Suzukaze asks, poking her head down from the open turret of the Humvee. "Also, why did we only come with me and 5 others? Aren't we kinda low if we get swarmed…?"
Leon laughs as he swivers past a small blockade of cars.
"If you can see here, some of these alleyways are kinda small for a tank to go through, plus, the engine, despite how it is quiet and all still is kinda loud. It'll attract the infected here if we're not careful enough. Also looking at the fuel consumption that the tank needs, it's better to take this humvee out instead of the tank if it's for recon."
"Commander, where are we going…?" Abigail asks, her face contorts with confusion and panic.
"Checking out the area around the survivor camp first." He smiles. "It's fine, we'll be alright."
Elizabeth giggles softly, adjusting the small crown atop her head.
"Commander, I detect some gunfire." Alhied says. Leon stops the Humvee.
"Given the sound of the shots, it sounds like it's around 40 meters away…" Erwin says.
"Another adventure, poi~?" Yuudachi asks, her green eyes lighting up in excitement.
Leon loads in a clip of NATO 5.56 rounds into his M4. Getting out of the Humvee, he motions the girls to keep silent. Two voices can be heard laughing, their heavy boots slowly approaching.
"Hey Reb, ya got that one? If not I'll take care of him."
"Go ahead, Vod, there's more along the way."
The sound of a shotgun goes off, following by a ghastly screech.
"Nice shot. Heheh… this is like playing Doom, but more realistic, Vod."
"Say, Reb, how much 9mm you have left?"
"At the very least maybe, hmm… at least 112 rounds left? Maybe less."
Leon motions his girls to slowly move in. The girls move out, slowly ducking cover behind cars and garbage cans.
Just before he gives the signal, he hears a garbage can fall over.
"Fuck! I didn't know that was there!" Alheid's voice bleeds into the com.
The two pairs of boots could be heard walking closer to their positions.
We
"Hey Reb, I think there's more back there."
"Let's check"
Leon signals the small platoon.
"FREEZE! PUT YOUR GUNS DOWN!" Leon shouts as the group leaps out of their hiding places. He then notices that the men aren't even men at all.
Both of them looked like highschool seniors, donned with Trench coats. One of them taller than the other. The taller one wore all black, his shirt has the red words "Wrath" written with red letters. He wears a baseball cap, though his blond hair slightly protrudes out of it. The shorter teen has the same trench coat, except that his shirt is white with the words "Natural Selection" written on it in black. They both have aviator's sunglasses on, but it's a slightly cloudy day, so there really is no point in protecting their eyes.
"Woah, woah,woah! The fuck is going on here? We're just trying to scavenge and have some fun on the way, bruh." the taller one says.
"Teitoku, I think they're survivors from the camp." Suzukaze says.
"Nah, that camp was swarmed a week ago, Columbus High School. It was us and a handful of others." The shorter teen said.
"By the way, I'm Eric Harrison. This here's Dylan Kieffer." Eric says, raising his hand towards Leon. Leon shakes hands with the two teens.
"What brings the…" Dylan looks at the girls around him. "If you can call this an army, what brings you guys here?"
"Erm….we were told to go to the survivor camp… well, since it's been over run, we need to know where you guys are stationed now…" Leon says.
Multiple screams can be heard down the street.
"Fuck! Here they come again." Eric says, raising his Hi-point 995 carbine.
Leon raises his M4.
"You guys need better weapons… holy fuck."
Eric rolls his eyes.
"We've had these weapons for a while, Vod needs the better guns."
"C-commander, sixteen targets sighted!" Alexi says.
Dylan reaches into his trench coat and pulls out an AB-10 semi automatic pistol.
"What kind of gun is that…?" Elizabeth wonders aloud.
Dylan laughs.
"It's a pistol no one hears about anymore, made by Intrec." he says as he fires a burst at an incoming infected.
Elizabeth raises her Lee-Enfield and fires off a shot. The bullet hits the creature in the chest. The creature stumbles a bit, but regains its grip and continues to hobble towards the group.
"What I've learned from fighting these fucks is that you aim for their heads, if they don't die, aim for their heart." Dylan says, extending his hand. "May I try?"
Elizabeth nods, handing him the rifle. Dylan takes the rifle, looking down the iron sight, spotting the infected Elizabeth had shot at earlier.
"Let's see here… the shot should be right here." He says, pulling the trigger. The rifle barks, the butt of the rifle hitting his shoulder.
"Fuck! Forgot about the recoil! Shit!" He curses holding his shoulder. Elizabeth laughs.
"You got him though!" She says, pointing at the crumpled body on the ground.
A thump sounds as Leon fires off a 40mm grenade out of his MK 203 undermount grenade launcher.
"Behind us, poi!" Yuudachi says, turning her M16A4 towards the newcomers.
Eric reloads his carbine.
"Once they've found prey, they'll keep coming." he says, raising the carbine.
"Didn't you have a shotgun earlier?" Suzukaze asks, firing her M9.
"That…" Eric says as he takes out his shotgun. "Outta ammo."
Suzukaze sighs. "Heads up, blockhead."
Eric looks up and catches the 1014.
"Give it back later."
Eric grins. "Thanks."
A thunk can be heard.
Leon empties his magazine and turns around. His mouth drops.
"Commander, this can help right?" Erwin asks, hauling the M2 .50 cal machine gun out of the Humvee.
"WHAT THE FUCK, YOU BASTARDS HAVE THAT?" Dylan screams, looking in awe at the machine gun. He had literally took Elizabeth's Lee Enfield.
Leon laughs.
"I forgot we had that."
Eric has an agitated look.
Erwin places the MG and sets up the Tripod.
"Abby, where's the belts?"
Abigail rushes over to the German.
"H-here!" She says, placing the belts quickly into the receiver.
"FIRE!" Erwin shouts happily as she blazes the .50 cal. The infected roar as they start getting torn apart by the bullets.
An infected leaps at the front line, but only an arm makes it, touching Eric's boot. He kicks it away.
The clanks of the bullet casings and the sound of the machine gun die down as the belt empties itself.
"This fires slower than an MG-34…." Erwin pouts, staring at the glowing red barrel. She looks up and sees the bloody carnage left behind.
"But still more effective~" she smiles. The small group gets up.
"Say… Eric, Dylan, you guys said that you guys have taken refuge somewhere else… where would that be?" Leon asks.
Dylan points down the street.
"Down there and make a right, there's an abandoned office building with broken windows. The guys who have guns take watch there. I'll show you guys to them." He says.
Leon gets into the Humvee.
"There are three spare FN SCARs in the back, get a vest and grab a gun, things will only get worse." He says as the engines rev up.
"Thanks for letting me borrow the Enfield." Dylan mutters as he hands the Enfield back to Elizabeth. She giggles.
"No need to worry~"
Meanwhile Eric still holds onto the M1014.
"Damn this is better than my shotgun." He says, marvelling at the gun. A vest hits his head and a ticked off Suzukaze stares at him.
"Ooi, give me back my shotgun." She demands.
Eric laughs.
"Can I just borrow this for the day?"
"That day will turn into forever you fuck."
"I dunno whut you say, me no comprehendo English."
Yuudachi had to grab onto a pissed off Suzukaze as Leon starts to drive.
"Aaaaaaand ladies and gentlemen, this is Captain Leon Henderson speaking. Welcome aboard the fabulous party bus. Today's weather in Los Angeles is partially cloudy, at around 78° fahrenheit with a 0.5% chance of rain." Leon says into the radio that plays towards the back. He catches sight of a walker, shivering the Humvee and hits the creature head on. The body makes a wet slap as it rolls past the right passenger side windows, smearing blood all around.
"Aaaaaaand 100% chance of death and carnage!" He shouts as Erwin, who sits on top of the turret, starts blazing the Maduce at random targets.
"Is this how he usually acts…?" Dylan and Eric both wonder aloud. Yuudachi and Suzukaze laughs.
"With admiral with us, nothing gets boring, poi~" Yuudachi says happily.
"Naaaaaaate, ya there?" Eric calls. He starts banging a piece of sheet metal.
"Fuck off, Eric, stop banging on that. You know more common sense than that." The voice calls from the second floor.
A teen slightly shorter than Dylan walks down the stairs. He swings his M37 Ithaca onto his back.
"Who are those…?" He asks, pointing at Leon and the others.
Dylan sighs. "The guys the army sent to check up on us."
"Well, they look like elementary schoolers and high schoolers with guns, but those look more than enough." He laughs.
Nate turns to Leon.
"Name's Nate, Nate Dykeman, pleasure to meet you, sir." He says.
"Captain Henderson, nice to meet you."
Nate laughs.
"Given our current situation, we could use as much firepower as we can." He says.
They walk to a door and Nate knocks.
"Henry, open up. It's Nate."
The door opens. The guard standing there nods grimly. He holds a simple Glock 17.
Nate chuckles.
"Welcome to what is left of the survivors from the camp."
The cubicles were Occupied by various survivors, but not more than around 100 people.
"To be honest, if you see the weapons we have, we look more like a Southern Lynching mob than armed survivors."
Leon peers into one of the cubicles. A dark brown haired woman was laying there, asleep on the floor with a little girl beside her. The father stared at him, a shovel in his lap.
"What do you want…?" He growls.
Leon shakes his head.
"Nothing."
"Commander, this place is kinda scary…" Elizabeth says.
"It's only cause we fight day by day… not much we can do except pray." Dylan says.
"We're literally running out of everything. The food supplies are running low, water is running low too. Even the walkers are getting smarter." Nate says.
They walk to a corner where a window had been broken.
"This spot is our lookout position, also the Sentry tower. Though the best caliber gun we have is a .22 deer rifle." He says.
Leon smiles a devious smile.
"Erwin, Abigail, bring it in." He says.
Nate looks at Leon with a funny look.
"Bring what in?"
"You'll see."
Just that moment Erwin and Abigail come in carrying the .50 cal machine gun. They set it down on the sentry position, lowering the tripod and loading in a belt.
"I hope ya know how to shoot this, sir." Erwin says, grinning at Nate.
The stunned Nate could only stare.
Yuudachi waves her hand around his face.
"Are you okay, poi~?" She asks.
Suzukaze laughs.
"Teitoku, you broke him~."
"Well shit…."
Dylan steps in.
"Ooh, is that ours now?"
Abigail nods shyly.
"F-for the t-time b-being…" she stammers.
"Aww sweet! Hey Nate, I'll take sentry duty."
Nate finally snaps awake.
"I am speech, Captain. For us to get such weapons…." He says.
"No worries. We're here to help."
"Bu-"
A teen bursts into the room.
"Another pack of infected! There's at least 30 of them." he announces.
"Set up the defenses, prepare for combat." Nate says.
The teen nods and runs downstairs.
"Sorry, captain…. These attacks are getting more and more frequent since we lost the original camp. Are you able to help us repel these walkers?"
Leon nods.
"Don't worry, we have this in the bag." He says.
The screeching gets closer.
"Girls, prepare for combat." He says.
"Roger!" They announce, running off.
"We'll do our best, Nate." Leon says, heading to position.
"Target spotted." Abigail says, looking through her binoculars.
Leon's voice bleeds into their ears.
"I know you girls are itchy to use your infantry and High Explosive shells, but don't. We don't want you girls to be found out. Erwin, I know your gun can change to a MG-34, but don't change it."
Erwin bites her nails.
"Haaaah…. Commander is annoying…"
"T-that's because Commander doesn't want to expose us too early." Abigail says.
Erwin takes her Kar98k and inserts a clip of ammo into it.
"I envy you, Abby…." Erwin complains, pulling the lever back, chambering the first bullet.
Abigail looks confused.
"E-ehh? Why i-is that?"?" she asks.
"Not only do you have that carbine, you also have a Tommy gun…." She mutters.
"But your Mauser 98k is way better than this dinky gun…" Abigail says, frowning at the carbine.
"In the war we feared you…. I mean even during Tunisia, when you were first introduced… there was a lot of fear that we had if we faced you…" Abigail says, looking down at the concrete floor of the rooftop.
"Funny how times have changed." Abigail chuckles to herself.
Erwin sighs, holding her rifle out to the small light tank.
"Then do you want to try using mine?" she asks.
Abigail blushes, looking to the side.
"I-I'm o-okay, really!" She stammers out, but Erwin takes her M1 carbine and places her Mauser in her hands.
"Te-he~ just for today." Erwin says. She chambers a magazines into the small carbine, and watches the small light tank struggle slightly, pulling the bolt back and forward, chambering a round inside the gun. Erwin moves to her side.
"See that man there? The shirtless one with the chest wound?" Erwin asks, slowly guiding the gun towards the infected. Abigail nods.
"Steady your shot… try to breathe in." She instructs. The light tank nods. She sucks her breath and stabilizes her shot.
"FEUR!" Erwin shouts.
The Mauser barks to life, the crack of the bullet can be seen flying down the building. The infected man collapses onto the ground, a dark pool oozes out from the bullet hole.
"My… shoulder." She moans in slight discomfort, rubbing her right shoulder. Erwin giggles.
"You'll get used to it~" she laughs.
Elizabeth takes her bayonet out of another infected, having already stabbed three of them to death.
"They just keep coming, oh I wish I had my Lewis guns right now." Elizabeth sighs.
The chugging of the M2 stops.
"Fuck, the barrel overheated again!" Dylan shouts, looking at the barrel, which was glowing red.
"Ammo is almost out too." he says.
Yuudachi tackles another infected, jabbing her karambit into its neck.
"Admiral, my M16 is out of ammo, poi~!"she shouts, severing the spinal cord on the infected.
Leon shakes his head.
"I thought we had more ammo in the Humvee…. Oh wait…"
Leon loads another clip into his M4. He catches sight of Suzukaze staring at her hairband for a second and shaking her head.
A sudden small vibration catches his attention.
Dylan and Eric take note of this too. Their eyes widen.
"I think we made too much noise…" Dylan stammers.
Leon looks at him funnily.
"What do you mean?"
A roar sounds as a muscular 8 foot armored infected appears into sight two blocks away. It's skin looked very grotesque like a layer of ice had been frosted over it. There was no skin on its face, but that really didn't matter. What made things worse was the armored riot shield it carried. The monster looks over at their building.
"That's Aegis…The Walker that had stormed the last safe zone the military had set up." Eric says.
Aegis screams an ear piercing screech. It was after the scream that the horde of over a thousand walkers started charging the base.