Chapter 29: The Sentence
Alice worked on reloading her shotguns with two quarter-filled slugs as she and Chris made their way to the others. Just as Alice was re-holstering the last weapon she saw Luther's corpse next to the tunnel. He had been killed execution style, and blood poured from a bullet hole in his head and the liquid trickled down the chasm. The brunette stood next to Claire and the other survivors, anxious to get going.
"I'll take point," Chris stated and lowered himself into the hole.
"I've got your back," Angel said and followed after Chris.
The redhead turned to Kim Yong beside her and said, "you're next."
The man shook his head in fear. "I can't do it."
"You can." Claire tried to reassure him, but Alice had no patience for his apprehension.
"Let's go!" The brunette yelled and suddenly Kim Yong was sliced in half from the space between his shoulder and neck; he fell to the ground in two completely separated pieces. Alice and Claire both turned to face their attacker.
It wasn't the creature's massive stature, the nails sticking out of his rancid flesh, the black apron and scarlet gloves he wore like a butcher, or the burlap sack over his head void of even eyeholes – what caught Alice's attention first was his accessory. He bore with two hands a saw-toothed axe topped with a hammer textured to pulverize. The imposing weapon was a fierce combination, and the brunette couldn't decide which end she would want to be hit with less. Maybe I should just avoid getting hit altogether, Alice thought and laughed internally.
The ex-project went into action without trepidation. She spin-kicked into the air and struck the colossus in the face with her booted foot, but his head hardly registered the hit. It was going to take a lot to bring this threat down, but Alice wondered if he would be any match for the Washington's that awaited him in the chambers of her double-barrels.
Before the brunette could draw her guns, the beast used a combination of gravity and strength to bring the hammer-end down to crush her. She sidestepped out of the way, and the weapon smashed a urinal behind her. He was much faster than she had anticipated. The undead was already recovered from the failed blow and muscling out another. He came at her horizontally, clipping a tiled wall as she dove out of the way.
Alice landed on her back as small chunks of concrete fell on top of her. The dust caused her to sputter, and blurred her vision as it got into her eyes. She could just barely make out the downswing of the axe and moved to avoid it. Alice rolled herself to a standing position and was finally able to pull out her shotguns, but her clouded sight caused her to misjudge the amount of time she had before the next strike.
The hammer-end came at her from the right, collided with her side, and knocked her into the wall a few feet away. Alice's head struck the solid divide, and she was instantly dazed. She fell to the ground and one of her 12 gauges was jerked from her grip. The brunette struggled to keep her eyes open; the last thing she saw was the jagged blade of the axe being hoisted above the burlap-covered face. In her confusion Alice dimly wondered if this was her execution. She had been judged, and he was here to carry out her sentence. It's no less than I deserve, Alice thought, but she heard gunfire; then felt the remnants of her consciousness slip away.
The redhead unloaded the rest of her clip into the back of the brute's head, and it caused him to refocus his attention. Claire was outright relieved that she had spared Alice from the beast's wrath, but now it was turned on her. He came at her with a sweeping blow and she ducked beneath it. The axe sliced through shower pipe behind her, and a jet of water sprang from the severed channel.
Claire saw the undead ready another swing, so she ran for the back of the shower room. Her sprint was hindered by the constant need to look over her shoulder to evade the hatchet. The colossus swung again narrowly missing the redhead, but cutting into another pipe. She dropped her handgun, without the time to reload it was useless. Claire glanced behind her as she did so and ducked a third, and then a fourth swing that resulted in two more broken and gushing shower conduits. The cold water fell on them both like rain, and soaked Claire to her very skin.
There was no where left for her to run, but she didn't stop her sprint in the slightest. In front of her was a bench and after that a wall lined with inset windows. The wet material hindered Claire's movement only slightly as she used her left foot to jump up the bench and the other to rocket herself off the window ledge. She flipped backwards over the creature and tried to land on her feet, but her right boot lost its traction on the watery floor. Her foot slipped behind her so she had to catch herself with her hand.
Claire looked up from her crouched position to see the fiend twist around to face her. She stood up and started to walk backwards. The redhead wasn't sure what her next move was going to be. She couldn't evade him forever and Alice was still unconscious; then she remembered the brunette's fallen shotgun. It was resting in the water only a couple of yards away in between her and the creature.
She ran straight for the brute as he charged her. He brought his cleaver up for an overhead swing, and Claire dropped to slide between his legs. The redhead extended her arm to grab the shotgun and brought it up. She pulled the foremost trigger right before she passed beneath him and her momentum kept her moving. The quarter-filled shot blew right through his torso, and he fell to his knees, and then onto his stomach. The coins rattled as they hit the ground alongside the beast.
Claire left the shotgun on the floor and rose after hearing the fiend's axe topple down. She turned and sighed with relief when she saw that the undead was lying motionless. Water continued to pour from the broken pipes, and Claire smiled as she saw the brunette begin to rise with one shotgun still tightly clenched in her hand. But suddenly Alice wasn't the only one recovering from paralysis. The redhead's attention shifted back onto the brute as he brought back his arms to lift himself off the ground.
The fiend ascended only to his knees and pulled back his axe to throw it at the redhead. The ex-project, still dizzy from her encounter with the wall, tried to flex her mental powers and deflect the weapon. The axe continued to flip end over end and the pressure in Alice's head that usually accompanied her psychic will never surfaced. It was then that she recalled her limitations with panic, and sprinted the few feet to Claire.
The redhead cried out; not for herself but for Alice who was now also in the path of the coming axe. They each grabbed desperately for the other and doubled over as one to escape the saw-toothed edge of the cleaver. Claire could feel the wind from the axe as it passed over them and embedded itself into the wall.
They righted themselves, and Alice turned while bringing up her shotgun. She aimed for the brute's head, and pulled back on both triggers firing each of the side by side barrels, which doubled the recoil. The force rocked her arm, but it had the desired effect. The coins exploded the fiend's head into chunks of crimson flesh and fragments of white, shattered skull. The headless corpse dropped to the floor a second time, and the brunette was certain he wouldn't be rising any time soon.
With the creature's defeat Alice and Claire turned back to look at the axe that had nearly claimed both of their lives. The taller woman shook her head lightly in disbelief as Claire grinned beside her.