The crash was loud enough to awaken the dead.

Jolting into awareness Joan grabbed her bolter and looked around herself in confusion, the world still a blur as her eyes adjusted to the world of the living. Next to her Edwin was also sitting up, eyes wide with fear, his filthy clothes still creased from the worried sleep they had shared.

"Huh? What's going on?"

Ignoring the man's question Joan struggled to her feet, feeling a little unsteady where she stood. She hadn't had nearly enough rest to recuperate from her injuries...pursing her lips Joan forced herself not to think about it. Instead she looked around, trying to locate the source of the sound.

Another crash was all it took, with eyes wide in horror she saw the door leading out to the sewer visibly buckle under the impact, one of the hinges tearing pieces of the wall with it as it inched inwards. An all to familiar moan followed through the door as the undead behind it struggled to get in.

Grunting Joan raised her bolter, a silent prayer passing her lips even as she heard Edwin curse under his breath, the man stepping up behind Joan.

Then the door leading to the other room opened, the two guardsmen stumbling out, both still struggling to get their uniforms and equipment on. They looked surprisingly...calm...though that impression was quickly fading as they fumbled with their lasguns, eyes on the buckling door.

"Emperor be damned!" The woman growled, making Joan flinch. Normally such heresy would be enough for her to put a bullet in the offender... now she settled for shooting the woman a glare, only to be met with an all too sweet smile. Great...maybe Edwin was right...damn him. "Orders Ro...sir?"

"Is there any other way out?" Edwin mumbled, nervously stepping from side to side.

The sergeant shook his head, eyes bitter. "No, there is no other door...not even a ventilation shaft big enough for even Li to slip through..." He eyed the door, putting the stock of the lasgun unto the ground as he moved to fasten the bayonet to the end of the rifle, the woman mirroring his movements.

"So the door it is then." Joan muttered, finding the thought oddly calming. Next to her Edwin crouched down to grab a steel rod he'd found, an improvised club against all those things...it was really a futile attempt to be useful. She couldn't complain about the thought though. "Any plan?"

Ron frowned, checking his belt and weapon with practised movement. "We should move to the right when we leave...we hit them hard and fast and then rush to the right, not stopping for anything."

Joan grimaced, the thought of running not all that tempting to a still exhausted body. Edwin looked equally apprehensive. "That's your plan? It's horrible!"

"Got any better idea kid? I'm all ears."

The crash of flesh against steel marked Ron's words, the creak of folding steel worrying, as was the sight of the upper part of the door bending inwards towards the centre of the door that was visibly wrinkling as it was pounded inwards.

In the darkness of the corridor outside she could see green and filthy shapes, clawed and thick hands raised in wordless rage.

"Erm...no." Edwin replied, pushing his shoulders back as he stretched sore muscles. Joan would have done the same by now...but she didn't trust it wouldn't hurt too much.

"Great." Ron turned to Joan. "You, sister, I want you to blow the door with that gun of yours, me and Li will get grenades through, then we move through, blasts anything we find aside and clear the right side for a run...got it?"

Joan bowed her head, placing the bolter up against her shoulder in readiness. She didn't like how heavy it felt... "Yes, let us purge our way free."

Before her Li went over to the right side of the door as both her and Ron inched forward, freeing grenades from their belts, rifles under their arms. She felt Edwin's hand on her shoulder, the man's voice hesitant. "I'd advice carefulness...you're still weak."

"Noted." Joan replied, suppressing a smile, he was surprisingly sweet...for a non-sister. "And I feel no weakness any more." She lied without thinking, her breathing calm...though it was quickly picking up speed as she saw one of the hinges crash open.

"Now sister!"

Suppressing a scathing reply Joan settled for putting the buckling door into her cross-hair...and then fired off a flurry of shots.

The heavy bolts punched right through the steel, slamming into the creatures behind in explosions of gore, some blood exploding through the holes in the door as the undead begun to die. Barely had Joan seized firing when the door began to buckle once more, a fresh horde slamming themselves against the failing obstacle.

She fired again, emptying the entire clip she watched the door buckle under the barrage, then fall forward, it and the now dead monsters behind falling into the sewage water behind them.

Moving to reload Joan watched Li and Ron toss a grenade each through the open doorway, the dual explosions tearing apart the fresh arrivals of undead. One of them stumbled into the room, its back torn into one big wound, creating a carpet of blood behind it as it went on towards Joan, arms reaching out towards her.

With a yell Edwin threw himself forward, steel rod swinging, crashing into the skull of the beast. It fell unto one knee, part of the skull caving inwards. Still alive it waved its arms at him...only to miss as he went around it and lashed out another two times, almost tearing the beast's head off its shoulders.

With a squelch it fell to the floor, arms blindly reaching after any prey it might reach. Edwin was already on top of it, rod rising and falling as he turned its head into mush. A manic look on his face.

Forcing herself to look away from the sight Joan brushed past him, now reloaded gun spitting fresh death into the creatures struggling towards the doorway. Li and Ron whirled about, lasguns adding to the fire and cutting down all that appeared. "Forward!"

Heeding his own order Ron rushed through the doorway, bayonet digging into a zombie's eye and pushing it over the edge of the walkway and into the water. Li instantly followed, turning her gun to the right as she passed the doorway she fired off a flurry of shots against an enemy Joan couldn't see.

Following in their wake Joan instantly found herself confronted with a shocking sight.

To her left she saw a few, perhaps eight, undead approach, their already filthy shapes covered in sewage, clawed hands stretched out towards them. To their right...she couldn't count them...a wall of zombies was practically right on top of them, scuffling for space as they marched on. One of them losing its hand as Li looped it off with her bayonet, the beast didn't care though, its other hand grabbing Li's armour by the chest.

With a growl the woman kicked out, sending herself tumbling back and the zombie holding her flak armour in a clumsy paw. Rolling unto her knees Li put a shot into the beasts knee, sending it stumbling...and then fall into the sewage as another pushed past it in its eagerness to rend the flesh of the living.

"We go left! Left!" Ron shouted, a hint of panic in his voice as he tossed a grenade into the massive pack on their right. The explosion in the back didn't even faze the horde... "Kill the ones on the left!" Li and Joan obeyed, both bringing their guns upon the eight beasts ahead of them, barely aware of a cursing Edwin bringing up the rear, uselessly waving his rod at the horde on their rear.

One of the beasts ahead of them exploded, the waist of what once might have been a woman blowing apart and leaving the torso tumbling into the water. Another fell, a flurry of laser blasts burning away the thick growths around its head, exposing a roughly human skull, the white bone not at all filthy, much to Joan's surprise.

Rushing forward Ron stabbed one of the creatures in the stomach, pushing it back into another one and tripping them both over the edge of the walkway and into the water. An instant later he had to duck from a third one's swipe, his lasgun burning a deep wound in its chest. It kept going though...until Joan blew its chest apart with a round of her own.

As one Joan, Li and Edwin rushed forward, two guns spitting fire while Edwin waved his bloodied cudgel over his head. Two more beasts fell, one loosing its entire leg while another had its arm burnt to a cinder, a third getting a gutted by a sweeping bayonet, then its head crushed by a steel rod.

They begun to run.

Then Joan found the floor flying towards her face.

Blinking she found stars dancing before her and the taste of her own blood in her mouth. Rolling unto her back she looked down...and found a sight before her that froze her to the very core.

The horde was almost upon her, a wall of filth-covered monsters, their mutated features twisting into grimaces of hunger as they already reached out towards her, the sewage covering them giving the impression of them wearing dark robes. Blinking the filth out of her eyes she realized that the 'female' zombie that had lost its legs were holding unto her ankle, denting the metal with a clawed hand as the other grasped after Joan's thigh.

"Joan!" The cry was dull in her ears as the sister kicked out, her heeled boot striking the zombie in the forehead, the dark steel slipping through the soft skull, killing the beast. Rolling unto all four she moved to get up...

One of the downed monsters came out of the water, clawed hands held up wide, as if it wished to hug her.

She managed a shriek.

Then she felt hands close around her right arm and leg...and pull her into the water.

The water was oddly warm, warm and disgusting, Joan tried to close her mouth as the horrible liquid ran down her throat, only to have it forced open as the pain in her ankle made her scream. She heard something, a dulled shout, oddly distended in the running water...then the sound of laser fire.

The grip on her limbs slackened.

Kicking out Joan pushed herself upwards, gasping for breath as she broke the surface of the river. The stench of decay and death was everywhere, making her retch. Some water must have entered her suit for she felt the wound in her stomach begin to burn from the filth covering it, as was her lungs from the horrible water she had swallowed.

"Help her!" Was that...Edwin? Coughing Joan inched forward, blindly searching for her bolter through the murky water, her fingers brushing against nothing but rough rocks, rocks and...

The hand shot out from the water, grabbing her by the jaw even as the one-armed zombie came out of the river. Evil eyes focused on her, freezing her...

With a wordless groan the monster stood up and forced her to arch her back, the grip on her jaw shifting as it pushed four filthy digits into her mouth, grabbing her by the right cheek...Joan tried to scream, but realised she had no air left in her lungs. Her vision swam... "Shoot it! Shoot it now!" Ron? She felt the heat of the lasers passing over head, searing off pieces of sludge and flesh off the beast at her back, the remains raining down over her.

It didn't die, instead it merely pulled at her in rage, a growl escaping it.

Her cheek came off.

Taking a deep breath to get some fresh air into her lungs Joan spluttered, a torrent of her own blood choking her as the wound widened, her entire cheek being pulled off.

Even as she felt as if her entire face was being set on fire she heard the unmistakable sound of chewing...

"Too late!"

Too late? No!

Something heavy hit the back of her head, sending her tumbling forward, her forehead impacting with the edge of the walkway, making her vision swim even as she rolled over unto her back.

They were everywhere.

"No! Help her!" The voice was more distant, more desperate. Kicking out Joan sent one of the undead tumbling, another grabbed the kicking limb...and pulled. Joan screamed, all air leaving her once again, over the scream one could easily hear her hip breaking.

"No! Let go of me! Help her!"

Kicking out with her working leg Joan sent the beast grabbing her other leg away while she half turned in the water, hand grasping hold of the walkway and pulling her away from the encroaching horde.

Another instantly grabbed her hand, thick club of a hand closing around hers...Joan stiffened in wordless pain as every bone in her hand broke along with her gauntlet. Dark blood pouring out of the thick paw covering her hand, as if it was simply squeezing water out of a rag...Joan smiled at the thought, suddenly oddly detached from the horrors all around her.

"No! Nooo! Joan!"

Something heavy hit the small of her back...then she couldn't feel anything from the waist down.

Rolling over she tried to see, but the sight was blocked by the monster towering above her, a hand reaching towards her in surprising speed...clawed digit going right for her...

Joan didn't think she had any air left in her lungs, but she did...wailing she tossed and turned in an effort to get away, her left eye crushed against its socked as a clawed finger inched its way into her skull.

She couldn't get away though...Joan jerked, her body refusing to obey as pain washed over her in waves. She heard a crunching sound...what little vision she had left watching how the monster tore away from her face, a piece of white bone still covered in pale skin following.

Her face...

All went black.