Face the Tide

Alice studied her tired eyes in the reflection of the cold piece of steel in her hands. A large assault rifle, an M4 Carbine. The polished black steel showed sunken blood-shot eyes. Alice groaned, realising each and every day she was looking more like them. No sleep, no food, always running and fighting...

It was wearing her down.

But now wasn't the time to be fussing over such things. The dead were right at the barrier now, crawling up the makeshift wall and finding any little hole to get through. They would break through at any moment now.

It was time to do what she had grown to know well. Fight!

Karin sat a few metres away from her, leaning against a wooden beam for support while she inspected the P90 in her grasp. She gave a cautionary glance to her companion and the two offered thin smiles. They had been through this enough times to have become a little accustomed to it, not enough to stave off the nightmares, but enough to hold a weapon still and take aim at the horde. Enough to keep one's mind on track. Enough to survive this far...

While they took up their instructed positions on either side of the wide sliding panel door of the shop, Tessai moved to the barricade, seemingly desiring to fight them with his bare hands. Ururu bowed to the guest with untimely grace before rushing off to the barricade all the while hefting the large bandage-bound object.

Rukia stood in the middle ground, an M4 in her hands, a katana at her waist and a combat shotgun slung around her waist. She stood unnaturally still, poised for attack like a wild animal, a predator watching its prey...Waiting for the right time to strike.

"They're breaking through!" Ururu called out, a serious tone to her voice never showed before.

Within seconds the barrier collapsed, a rusted car with traces of lime yellow paint had collapsed from the centre, rolling out and bringing down the upper level of the barrier with it. It was only a short gap but it was enough for the undead horde.

They clambered over by the dozen, scrambling over each other to reach the red meat on the other side.

Ururu nodded gravely and shouldered the object which was almost the same size as her thin frame. Even while facing the brunt of the ghouls the girl showed no fear, not even a tremor. Without a word she dug her feet into the ground and tensed up.

In the next moment a blinding white flash consumed the world. When the haze faded a mountain of dismembered human wreckage remained amidst the broken barrier. With the bandages now blown away Alice could see the girl was wielding some kind of rocket launcher more suited to being mounted onto the back of a truck or a tank than on the shoulders of a tiny young girl.

Nonetheless the swarm had diminished upon the front-lines.

While Ururu reloaded her strange weapon Tessai stood by her side and crushed anything which limped, crawled or rolled anywhere near him and his comrade. Meanwhile Alice and Karin took to the fight, providing cover fire. Rukia darted aside to give the support their clear shots. While hiding off to the side Rukia mowed down those that broke free from the pack and made it through the barrier, however she failed to notice the barrier give way behind her.

A rotting grey hand clamped around her ankle and Rukia cried out in fright and drove her toe through the gaping maw reaching ever closer. The empty skull shattered under the thunderous blow and disintegrated. Rukia swivelled around and unleashed every last bullet in her clip to stave off the sea of dead creatures. Their corpses tumbled over one another and built up a clammy pile of debris. The others were slowed down by having to climb over, giving Rukia enough time to bring her shotgun around and fire off a blast into the crowd.

At such close range the blast was devastating, throwing the ghoul's torn bodies back into the crowd and sending them stumbling and tripping back into the horde outside.

"Rukia!" Alice's voice cut through the thunderous roar of gunfire. "Behind you!"

A group of stragglers from the main breach in the barrier had encircled her. Rukia ducked low and swung her feet out to shatter knee caps and knock the ghouls down. When she had them on the ground she used the butt of her M4 to hammer in their skulls. While she did so Alice and Karin shot down the zombie pouring in from either side of her.

"Rukia, fall back!" Alice commanded providing cover fire while the shinigami girl dashed back to the storefront.

Ururu had finally reloaded her weapon and skipped back a few paces to get a better shot before unleashing another hail of fire upon the ghastly wave of flesh and bone. While she made her retreat Tessai used brute force to destroy those already breaking through the gap where the front line once stood.

Amidst the smoke and dust the others could barely see what was going on. They could only hear Tessai roar like a lion and hear the jarring crack of bones being split apart.

It was then that they saw it.

A flash of silver through the dust, cutting through like a blade.

Before they could warn him Tessai was knocked down by a heavy blow to the head by a thick silver bat. A small boy stood over the fallen giant and once again raised the bat.

"Jinta?" Ururu whispered from the sidelines. She stopped reloading her launcher and became transfixed on the battle.

"Hey! Ururu, you've got to load that thing before they reach us! Hey! Are you even listening to me?" Alice reached out to slap the girl but Ururu blocked it with ease without even looking away from the fight. "H-Hey...What are you-"

The small child sprang up onto her feet and charged into the heart of the feud unarmed. Just like Tessai, she too managed to possess inhuman strength, pummelling the dead with her small pale fists. The one she had called Jinta noticed her approach and swung the bat with arms that were unnaturally thick for his body size. His red hair had been falling out in patches leaving a yellowish scalp beneath. His eyes unlike the majority of the ghouls were a sickly green colour as if pus had seeped in behind his pupils and into the whites of his eyes. His teeth had grown into a hideous disjointed grin that couldn't fit within his mouth and so remained jutting out like boar tusks.

"What the...What the hell happened to him?"

"The animals..." Rukia explained softly, "The virus mutates within animals. He must have been bitten by one of them and caught their unique strain. You remember the spider right?"

The thought made all the girls shiver.

"Well regardless, we've got to stop him." Karin piped up.

"No," Rukia waved aside the suggestion, "Jinta was their friend and co-worker. Tessai and Ururu will handle him. We've got to keep the rest of the horde out of their way while they finish their business. I'll take the centre and Alice, you cover the second entrance."

"What about me?" Karin asked.

"You? I want you to start loading that thing up!" Rukia shoved the launcher towards the girl. "When you've got it fully loaded you give me a yell. I know Ururu looked like she could handle it but trust me it packs a hell of a punch!"

The younger girl nodded and set upon her task while Rukia and Alice laid down a hail of cold steel. The gravel outside the store had been soaked with blood leaving thick congealing puddles as more and more of the undead collapsed in pieces.

Meanwhile Tessai wrestled Jinta off of his shoulders and hurled him into the barrier. The boy collided with a thud which shattered the cinder block beneath him but left the beast unscathed. With a bestial snarl the boy lunged once again. Ururu leapt up into the air and intercepted him with a fist through the gut. Her fist dug in deep, crushing the now defunct organs in his abdomen. He coughed up black blood and landed in a heap, only to recover and roll into a crouch like a cat about to pounce. Ururu bared her fists and rushed in like a pro boxer. She ducked under his wild swings and threw a fierce uppercut, dislocating and removing several of his tusks.

Jinta roared with unbridled rage and spear tackled the girl. Before he could tear her apart Tessai slammed his open palm into the boy's temple. He was sent flying once again into the barricade, making a sizeable hole for the rest of the swarm to storm through. The mountain of a man cursed under his breath and threw himself into the melee throwing punches left and right and holding them demons at bay.

Jinta moved in to attack him from behind but was intercepted once again by Ururu who tackled him and pounded his nose in until the cartilage in his nose was pushed deep inside his skull. The sickening black blood seeped out from his eyes, nose and mouth but the beast only let out a depraved gurgling laugh and shoved her aside. Ururu collided with a rusted car and scraped up against it. She squealed as the abrasive rusted bonnet took a considerable amount of skin with it. With her dress torn and ruined, her back in tatters, tiny hands shaking, Ururu lunged at her tormentor once again tackling him to the ground. She caved in his left cheek and shattered more of his tusks but still Jinta struggled and fought her off. He pushed her up against the busted car and grabbed her by the hair before smashing her face through the side door which buckled and fell off under the impact.

Ururu dropped like a stone and barely had time to roll onto her back before Jinta pinned her down. He pressed his tusks against her collar but she managed to hold him back before he could bite her. As she struggled she looked to Tessai for help but the giant was buried under an avalanche of ghouls who were stripping him of flesh and looting his innards to share with the horde.

"Tessai!" the girl screamed, tears streaming from her eyes.

"Tessai is down!" Karin cried from the store entrance.

"Shit! They just keep coming! There's no end to them!" Alice yelled ignoring Karin's report.

Rukia cursed under her breath and dropped the empty M4 at her feet and unslung the shotgun. She dug a crater into the front line of the advancing ghouls and made a path for Ururu to rush back to safety; however the girl was pinned down by the mutated Jinta and was unable to escape from the swirling mass of the dead which was gradually surrounding her.

"Damn! Karin is that launcher ready?"

"N-not yet!" Karin stuttered, fumbling around with a shell she had dropped.

"Grr, there's no time left..." Rukia closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Keep loading that ok, I'm going for a run."

"What?"

It was too late to stop her.

Rukia dropped the shotgun and removed the sword from its scabbard. She dashed across the porch and leapt into the air, flying like a bird over the front line and landing amidst the horde. In a blur of red and silver a spreading circle began to clear around her. The furious warrior hacked away at the ghouls and re-cleared her path to Ururu' side.

The younger girl was still trying to keep Jinta's jaws away from her body when he suddenly tilted his head and snapped at her arms. She moved it aside in time but in her haste she had let him fall on top of her. She squirmed underneath him and screamed out in panic, only making Jinta laugh. He pressed his face into the crook of her neck and Ururu placed her hands over his face. She dug her thumbs into his eye sockets and kept on pushing, using the momentum to pry his head away as well.

Jinta roared in agony as Ururu's thumbs disappeared completely inside his skull. Jinta thrashed about more violently and managed to slam Ururu into the dirt once again, even in his horribly wounded state. Just as his tusks grazed her supple neck Ururu felt something splash against her cheeks. It got in her eyes and she could barely see but she did notice that Jinta had stopped resisting.

When she opened her eyes at last, Rukia stood protectively over her, a bloodied katana blade running though one temple and protruding from the other. The girl could only stammer like a fool as Rukia pried her blade away and helped the girl up.

"Can you walk?" She asked.

Ururu gave a weak nod.

"Alright, when the path is clear..." The shinigami performed a wild dance with her sword, cutting a fresh path through the dead once again. Ururu staggered along behind her as the gap was quickly closed up again behind her.

By the time they reached the storefront and were behind their own line of defence the entire courtyard outside was a solid sea of grey.

"Damn it! Fall back inside! Take every last weapon you can find and head down into the cellar!" Alice snatched up Rukia's shotgun and held the ghouls back while the others fled. She slowly followed suit, using up the last of the shotgun shells and emptying her Carbine. She threw the empty weapons at them and ran to the weapons cabinet near the cellar door. With panicked breaths and a back turned on the oncoming horde Alice took every gun and box of ammo she could and divided it roughly amongst the others before pushing them down the ladder. She waited until last and then dropped down.

The descent down the ladder was easy for Rukia and Ururu who could simply drop as if it were a trivial matter, but for Karin and Alice they had to descend the great ladder the human way. Just when they had gone halfway down Alice heard a mournful cry and glance up in time to see a rotting young child fall down towards her. She hugged the ladder and braced herself as the body bumped off against her and dropped far down to the rocks below, landing with a resounding splat. The child's body just about exploded on impact ensuring he was definitely dead for good now.

It seemed their trap would work, if only they could get down the ladder in time.

"Karin, just slide down!"

"I can't! I-I'm afraid I'll"

"Just drop!"

"No!"

As the two argued another corpse dropped on them. Struck by surprise Alice was knocked free from the ladder and began to free fall. She groped for the rungs to no avail, her eyes widening in shock. Karin hadn't even comprehended what had just occurred until her hands her out of reach of her friend. Still she struck a hand out only to see Alice slipping away from her.

Alice felt weightless. She was flying...

The ground rushed up to meet her.

Darkness blanketed her vision.

Kind hands held her.

And then everything was still...

Please review!