"We heard something similar from a couple of now dead survivors...didn't believe it then though."
Joan was strangely silent, the sister wobbling after them with a face crunched up in a permanent grimace. Edwin couldn't really blame her, he himself felt weak even after the guardsmen sharing some of their food with him, and he didn't have severe blood loss. Glancing back he saw the woman whisper a prayer even as she stumbled, just catching herself in time before she got a face full of sludge.
That meant Edwin was the one who had to talk to the pair of troopers walking in front of them, the pair surprisingly relaxed considering the circumstances, only the woman of the two had her rifle raised in readiness. "You're saying the marines have killed other survivors as well?" The dark skinned man nodded, eyes focused on a bend ahead of them. "Why?"
Ron shrugged, casual. "Who knows? I've learnt to assume that the most shitty thing will happen by now...I've yet to be proven wrong."
"That's a bit of a bleak outlook isn't it?" The question drew a chuckle from Li, the female guardsman turning the corner they've arrived at and panning her rifle over a corridor looking like every other they've been through so far. "Where are we going anyway?"
"Spaceport." Ron muttered, holding his hand up all of a sudden and stopping all advance, his ears visible twitching. "I don't know about you but I don't intend to stay on this planet."
"Well if it's the worst case scenario we're looking at the place is either swarming with zombies or blown up." Edwin pointed out, drawing a glare from Li which made him pull back in sudden fear. If Ron died and it was only the three of them...she would no doubt shoot him. How could anyone have become like that? "And you know where it is?"
The guardsman still didn't move, a finger flicking the safety off even as he said: "Yes, we have a compass and map, but with the turning sewers and some place being blocked by debris or undead, progress has been slow..."
"Undead? Here?!" Edwin flinched, eyes roving the area in search for the shambling shapes, seeing nothing but darkness and the slowly moving water between the walkways. "I mean sure, one or two...but they couldn't stop you two right?"
"One or two?" Li snorted even as she turned to look down the dark hall where Ron was looking. "Try dozens? Or a hundred? The damn things have managed to enter through open grates or holes blasted through the ground."
"Oh...crap..." Edwin glanced back, remembering the grate they no doubt left open.
"What?"
"Um...n...nothing?"
Li whirled about, the cold muzzle of her rifle suddenly pressed against Edwin's jaw, making him freeze fast and Joan to awaken from her drowsiness and aim her boltgun over at the guardsman. Li ignored the threat though, eyes mere slits as she glared at Edwin. "What have you done!?"
"Well...we might have...left a grate open."
A curse exploded from Li's lips before she whirled over to glare at her sergeant. "See sir!? I told you these people were idiots!"
"Calm down, that grate is behind us no doubt." Ron muttered, still looking over at the dark corridor to their left. "It won't impede our march north...this might though."
"What? I don't see anything?" Edwin asked, even as he realised something was moving at the edge of the darkness ahead, several something. "Oh no...nononono..."
Ron slipped down on one knee, the other guardsman standing up behind him while both levelled their rifles at the approaching group. Slowly Joan hobbled up to them, her face so pale that it almost seemed to glow in the darkness, a small grunt escaped her as she aimed her weapon down the corridor, leaving Edwin to take a step back and worry.
Emperor he wished he had a gun...
With a slow moan one of the shapes fell into the filthy water between the two walkways of the corridor, it got up though, water cascading off it as it stumbled towards them. More followed, some through the water and others on the walkways. Had they always been so large?
Their features mutated by the disease the once humans were surprisingly bulky, their clothes torn apart by claws, weapons and their own growths... No, they were not human...monsters.
"Li?" Ron muttered, still not firing.
"Almost a dozen." The woman replied, one hand trailing down to her belt. "Destroy?"
A sudden grin played on Ron's features. "Destroy."
Barely had the word left the man's lips before Li tossed the grenade, the explosive disappearing within the water between the walkways...
Edwin stumbled as the grenade went off, tearing apart three of the advancing shapes and throwing dirt and sludge all over, knocking several of the figures about. A second later ruby lasers tore through the darkness, lighting the corridor up and creating a play of long shadows and blood-coloured lights.
The foremost monster fell, scores of burns covering its face.
Then it got up.
Joan's boltgun opened up, tearing the head of the monster apart, showering the rest in its remains even as her second and third shot blew the legs off a second one, its guts pouring out over the sludge covered pavement while it continued on by pulling itself forward with its hands.
Li's and Ron's guns spoke as one, burning a seizable hole in the neck of a zombie, a gurgle escaping it as it tore at the air with its chunky hands...then it fell into the water, disappearing within it. Another had its entire arm burned to a few brittle bones...yet continued, the remaining arm stretched out in hunger.
Edwin paled...didn't these things die!?
Joan's gun roared out its protest, tearing the shoulder off the wounded zombie, the remains of the bolt tearing a hole through the face of a second one...both fell silently.
Growling Li leapt forward, combat boots smashing into the head of a zombie crawling forward even as she jabbed her rifle forward, impaling the neck of an advancing zombie on her bayonet. It reached out...only to explode as she poured a flurry of shots into its jaw, spraying her with blood and green goo. "Die you fracking-"
Grabbing her by the jacket Ron pulled the fellow guardsman back a moment before another zombie swept the space she had been occupying with its claws, knocking the remains of the now dying monster aside.
Pushing a lasgun into the eye socket of the zombie Ron fired...the monster instantly went limp and dropped to the floor.
All of a sudden it was over.
Realising he'd been ducking Edwin straightened, dusting himself off with as much casualness as he could muster. "Jeez...those things doesn't like dying."
"That's the problem." Ron muttered, busy glaring at a now surprisingly small Li. "What did I told you about charging?"
"Unless ordered to..." Li mumbled, looking almost like a scolded child while cleaning her bloody bayonet off. It looked...a little odd... "sir."
"The emperor...protects." Joan gasped, though pale she looked a little more alive now, invigorated.
Ron chuckled, glancing at his filth-encrusted boots. "Indeed he does sister." He checked his weapon, rough hands brushing some dust aside. "Now let us move on and...oh you got to be kidding me."
"What?" Edwin hadn't need to ask, the distant moans was hint enough...as was the growing shapes appearing from where the zombies had come from. "Oh...shit."
"There's...a lot of them sir." Li remarked, her blood lust gone. Edwin could only nod in agreement, watching as a solid wall of monsters appeared...he couldn't even begin to count them. "Orders?"
"What do you think!?" Ron growled, already turning. "Retreat! On me!" He leapt forward, leading them down the corridor leading away from the monsters, the other guardsman hot on his heels.
Groaning Edwin realised where that put him...stepping up he put an arm around Joan's waist and pulled her arm over his shoulders, steadying her as they stumbled after the retreating guardsmen.
"This...isn't...funny anymore."
