And here we are again! Welcome back, I hope you have missed me!
In addition to working on my other stories and taking a vacation, I have been reading this wonderful story by Sarcasm is a Habit called Total Drama: Unfinished Business. Call it shameless advertising, but it really is a good read. If you've enjoyed The Kobold Necromancer's works, then you should love this.
As always, comment, review, suggest, and request down below!
Onwards!
"Last time on Total Drama: Pahkitew's Vengeance!" Chris annouced. "We dumped our contestants in the frozen arctic tundra! While we were hoping for someone go crazy and try to climb inside someone else's carcass for warmth, what followed was amusing nonetheless. The gal pals Caroline and Maurananei managed to avoid elimination while simoutaniously rescuing Zelda from becoming a popsicle, Trey introduced some foul play, and Wilson some even fouler! Or was it his alternate personality, Serphonus? In the end, both Trey and Alan were eliminated, though Alan didn't leave without a little . . . present." Chris frowned, shuddering at the memory.
Chris quickly resumed a wide grin. "We're nearing the end, people, and we've got seven competitors remaining! How long will be before we're down to six? Will Serphonus's cover be blown? And will I be stuck hosting reality TV for the rest of my life?" Chris listed off. "Find out now, on Total! Drama! Pahkitew's Vengeance!"
(theme song plays)
Caroline stiffened and inhaled sharply as she stretched, her vision blurry and hazy as she slowly woke up. The air was hot and muggy against her skin, and her hair was greasy against her scalp; she yawned and stretched, wondering where she was. It wasn't until she heard a loud snore like that of a large bull with a stuffed nose did she looked up and see Maurananei holding onto her like a child would to a teddy bear did she vaguely remember what happened; it wasn't until a loud snore like that of an elephant with an allergy problem shook her entire body did she remember entirely remember what happen.
Last night, after Trey and Alan's elimination, the contestants had stayed up late watching horror movies, everything from vengeful poltergeists and cybernetic ghosts to mutant aliens and rotting zombies; the zombies in particular had scared Caroline witless, and she was sure she was going to have a rough night's sleep until Maurananei offered to spend the night with her in the swamp she had made her temporary home in with Larry. At first, Caroline had found it a little nerve racking to be sleeping on top of a gigantic, mutant plant in the embrace of her best friend, but had quickly gotten over it when she realized how safe she felt; not many people could say they were friends with an ex-criminal and her monstrous plant, and she was quite certain they could fully protect her against anything Chris or any other natural force the world had to offer could throw at her.
"Morning, Maurananei." Caroline squeaked when her friend finally woke up.
"Morning, kid." Maurananei yawned, tasting her own morning breath as she sleepily scratched herself; a fly absentmindedly flew into her mouth and down Maurananei's throat, with the ex-criminal ignoring the taste of the insect in her mouth. "Sleep well?"
"I guess." Caroline shrugged. "The swamp smell took some getting use to."
"Smells like home." Maurananei waved it off. "The alleys and rooftops of France are not exactly something to admire."
"Okay . . ." Caroline trailed off uncomfortably. "You ready for today's challenge?"
"As long as it doesn't involve zombies, I'm good." Caroline shivered.
Toni blinked and looked at her surroundings, taking note of the soda stained embedded deep into the carpet and many open bags of chips scattered about, their contents piled in heaping messes; on the walls were spots of frosting and dried soda, the large flatscreen TV cracked in the upper left hand with the words 'Game Over' blinking on a black background. She felt the surface underneath her suddenly rise sharply and looked down to see herself curled up like a cat on Paul's chest, her nails dug deep into his shirt and skin.
"Morning, babe." he choked, trying to sound like he wasn't in pain. "I like being this close to my girlfriend as the next guy, but could you kindly remove your claws from my chest?"
"Sorry." Toni apologized as she released him and took the seat next to him on the couch.
"That was some wild night, eh?" Paul joked. "I'm glad we aren't cleaning this mess up." he said after noticing the state of the Hangout of Awesomeness.
"I warned you against giving me too much sugar." Toni shook her head. "When I get to hyperactive, I tend to lose control of myself and start switching from one animal form to the next until I crash."
"I'll keep that in mind when this game is over." Paul grunted as he hauled himself off the couch and stretched, wincing at the cracking of his bones.
"You really believe we'll still be together?" Toni asked, her mocha skin flushing a warm mahogony as Paul grinned and took her in a warm embrace.
"You know it, babe." he smiled, kissing her on the forehead. "One way or another, you'll come to me and I'll come to you. Heck, you could probably turn into a homing piegon and find me in no time!" he joked; Toni blushed again and started peppering him with kisses, trackling him to the ground with a the prowess of a hungry lioness.
"I, am beginning to lose my patience!" Chris announced angrily.
"Um, Chris? We're all right here." Zelda informed him; all seven of the remaining contestants were lined up in front of the outdoor stage where the Virtual Reality machine was located, awaiting use.
"I wasn't talking about that, Ms. Make-a-faulty-Animatrix-and-blow-up-my-Island!" Chris frowned as Zelda shrank back at the insult. "I was talking about how long this season is taking! I have a limited amount of vacation days people, and you're eating them up!"
"Someone missed their morning coffee today." Maurananei grumbled; Anuok scribbled something on her notepad and handed it to Maurananei to read. "Oh, the coffee machine's broken?" she read off.
"Don't even get me started on that!" Chris snapped angrily, making Caroline hide behind Maurananei for cover. "Everything is falling apart around here because of you freaks!"
"How about you stop right there, and we don't tear you apart and beat your lifeless corpse with your own arms and legs?" Maurananei threatened as Toni let lose a feral growl from her throat that sent shivers down Chris's spine as he instinctively jumped back with fright.
"Alright, alright!" he cried as he recomposed himself. "Today's challenge is yet another virtual reality challenge. Meaning, nothing you do could possibly damage anything I own!"
"Except his ego and dignity." Paul mumbled to Toni, a deep smirk crossing both of their faces.
Chris frowned and bit back the rude comment he was about to spit out; appearing too cruel and harsh towards the contestants, no matter how annoying they got or how much they drived him crazy, would ruin his image and thus either get him fired from the job he loved so much or stuck on the show for the rest of his career without any chance of moving on to bigger and greater things. "Anyway, your challenge today is to survive the zombie apocalypse!"
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"I swear, he's doing this just to torture me!" Caroline cried.
Change Confessional
"A zombie apocalypse, eh?" Serphonus scratched his chin darkly. "Sounds like the perfect time to mess with people." he chuckled deviously.
End Confessional
Chris grinned upon seeing several frightened and nervous faces, as well as a few excited faces and even one very disturbing look on Maurananei's face that sent a shiver up Chris's spine. "Yep! Today you'll be fighting your way through hordes of the undead, all in a desperate battle for survival!"
"Yes!" Maurananei pumped her fist. "Please let there be a zombie Chris!"
"If I may ask, why are you so intent on ruining my beautiful face?" Chris asked.
Anuok sighed, rolled her eyes, and then made a series of rapid hand gestures, a few of which looked to be very rude in origin; when no one seemed to understand what she was saying, she pulled out her notepad and scribbled something down on it before handing it to Zelda to read.
"You're kidding, right?" Zelda read off. "And that's just the uncensored version, too. Where did you even learn these words?" she asked Anuok as a creepy smile crossed the mute girl's face.
"Alright then." Chris clapped his hands, bringing the attention back to him. "Your challenge will be to battle your way through the abandoned, zombie-infested city we have set up for you until you get to the top of Hatchet Hospital, and signal a helicoptor for help; the winner will be allowed to bring another competitor of their choice into the Hangout of Awesomeness." [1]
"He is getting dangerously close to copy right infringement." Paul whispered to Maurananei as the host continued on.
"You can go it solo or work together as a team, and you are allowed to kill each other if you want to." Chris chuckled deviously. "And for added horror and shock, some of our undead friends will be zombie versions of you and the contestants you have voted off this season!" he cackled as a couple contestants gasped.
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"Lets see, which zombie version of a contestant would I be utterly terrified to meet?" Paul tapped his chin. "Micheal."
Change Confessional
"Are zombies fire proof?" Zelda gulped. "Because I am not looking forward to facing off against zombie Mitchell."
Change Confessional
"Why does Chris insist on being so mean!?" Caroline wailed, curling up into a tight ball and hugging herself out of fear. "It was bad enough that I was terrified of Micheal before, but now I'll never be able to look at him the same way again!"
End Confessional
"Now for this game, we're going to do a combination of video game and movie rules," Chris explained. "If you get bitten by a zombie, you have a limited amount of time before you are turned into a zombie; there are medical supplies hidden throughout the city that will heal you should you get bitten. Upon dying, you will come back as a zombie and be able to terrorize your fellow competitors until someone wins. First person to signal the helicoptor, wins immunity." Chris concluded. "Any questions?"
"I-Is it s-safe?" Caroline whimpered.
"Of course!" Chris promised. "But if you don't believe me, ask our zombie lunatic, Shawn what he thinks!" Chris grinned, jerking a thumb behind him towards the virtual reality machine where Shawn was currently sitting and playing.
"N-no! Get away! Get away!" he screamed as he began to thrash about in his chair. "Jasmine, please! Don't do it! Don't do it! Jasmine! JASMINE! AAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHH!" Shawn screamed at the top of his lungs as he tore the helmet off of his head and broke out of the restraints as he launched himself from the machine and at Chris.
"You . . . you monster!" he yelled as he tackled Chris to the ground and began to throttle him. "How dare you turn my girlfriend into a zombie!? Who does that kinda thing!?" he howled as Chef lumbered up to him and pried him off of the host before slinging him over his shoulder and making his way over to the docks as Shawn whimpered and held himself.
"See? Completely safe!" Chris grinned as he picked himself up and dusted himself off. "Now get in there and start slaying some zombies! And remember: if you have to go out, do it with guns a blazin'." he nodded his head as the contestants shared nervous looks with each other.
Maurananei blinked as she looked at her surroundings, taking note of the sickly, yellow shade of the sky and the derelict remains of the city around her; towering skyscrapers scrapped against the poisoned sky, most of their windows smashed out or overgrown by strangling vines draped with moss while other had simply collapsed, blocking off entire roads with their rubble and remains as abandoned, rusted cars lay destroyed and crushed against each other, as if they had been hastily deserted for some reason. A few crows could be heard through the desolate remains of the once proud city, ocassionally diving down from the skies to peck and feed upon the few corpses that remained from the hordes and feral dogs.
"Pfft. I've seen worse." Maurananei scoffed when she felt a sudden weight in her hands. Looking down, she found that she was carrying a massive minigun in her hands with a large, black barrel that looked ready to gun down any undead that got too close. "This is gonna be fun." she grinned.
"At least you got a weapon." Zelda sighed. "Funny how popular zombie media is, considering they really are nothing more than reanimated corpses. There are so many zombie movies out there, they can actually be considered a separate genre of horror."
"Fascinating." Maurananei rolled her eyes as she hefted her minigun onto her shoulder. "Now either shut up and start walking, or grab something to use those martial arts skills of yours for something other than beating your boyfriend's face in."
"Hey, I only did that when he was a pervert!" Zelda protested as she grabbed hold of an old, lead pipe about as long as she wa tall. "It's not like you did any better when you were stalking Ch-"
Maurananei whirled around and pointed the barrel of her minigun at Zelda's face, a low growl escaping her lips. "Don't. Say. That name." she hissed. "Ever."
"Touchy, are we?" Zelda squeaked, not daring to move a muscle with such a weapon pointed at her.
Maurananei didn't say something as she glared at Zelda with a hard look before finally relaxing about three hairs and withdrawing the weapon to heft it onto her shoulder and begin walking again. "C'mon. We gotta find Caroline."
"Why?" Zelda asked. "Wouldn't be more efficient for the two of us to just run to the hospital and take out the other contestants so one of us gets immunity?"
"Maybe." Maurananei shrugged. "But I'm not about to let my friend get slaughtered simply because she can't defend herself like I can."
"I never took you for the friendly type." Zelda remarked.
"And just what's that supposed to mean?" Maurananei growled again, her fingers twitching on her minigun.
"You just seem to really hate the world." Zelda explained. "Ever since you came here, you've threatened to kill Chris at least twelve times; I swear that death glare of yours alone gives him nightmares."
"Hope so." Maurananei grumbled under her breath; she looked back to see Zelda watching her with an expecting and calculating look. "You really wanna know why I'm like this? Why I seem to hate everything and everyone?"
"It would at least make our temporary team up more effective."
"Why do you think this is a team up?" Maurananei raised an eyebrow.
"If it wasn't, you would have mowed me down with that monster of yours already." Zelda pointed out.
"Fair enough," Maurananei sighed as she climbed up onto the hood of an abandoned car, launching herself across the roofs of several more cars with Zelda in tow before they finally managed to overcome the barrier of rubble blocking their way. "I was born in Paris, France. Nice country, I suppose." she began. "I never knew my real parents; I was kidnapped by some gang on the streets and stolen away from my Mom and Dad before I got to know them. Only, the idiots got the wrong baby, and left me to die and rot on the streets; except I didn't. I grew up knowing no right from wrong, knowing no boundaries as I commited crime after crime after crime, everything from robbery and vandalism to even a few spouts of murder before I was even ten. I was eventually caught and taken in my a police officer who took pity on me and tried to raise me properly." she concluded. "He did a real half baked job at that, considering I'm banned from ever crossing over German borders."
"You got banned from Germany?" Zelda raised an eyebrow.
"It's not something I'm proud of, alright?" Maurananei snarled. "And now I'll never get a taste at that sweet beer again . . ."
Zelda went silent as she contemplated whether Caroline knew who she was friends with or not.
Caroline awoke with a start, panting heavily as she looked around at her surroundings, gulping nervously when she found she didn't recognize anything; she was in a room of some kind, with white wash walls with white tile floors and a window that was riddled with cracks from the lower left corner, as if something had smashed into the glass pane. Looking to her left, she found a dead monitor and empty IV bag, the needle still dripping with liquid and pooling on the floor.
"A hospital," Caroline breathed. "I'm in a hospital." [2]
Normally, this would have been wonderful news to Caroline; she could have spawned in Hatchet Hospital, but she somehow sensed that she wasn't even close. Some sort of chilling feeling shivered up her spine, filling her with dread as she climbed off of the hospital bed and set her feet onto the floor; she could feel the coldness through her shoes. With goosebumps on her skin, she walked out of the room, wondering where she was and how she could get out.
"Hello?" she called out, her voice sounding small and insignitficant in the empty hallways of the hospital. She gulped when she was met with nothing but silence, the few lights that still worked flickering on and off as if they were slowly dying.
A sudden scraping noise caught Caroline's attention, and she looked down the hallway in the direction the noise was coming from and immediately felt her breath catch in her throat; standing at the ewnd of the hallway was a zombie, drool dripping from its lose jaws. Rotting, bloodied flesh clung to his skeletal figure as the rags of the previous members clothes hung off of him in shreds, his lifeless, hollow eyes starrig out at the world with hunger.
"N-n-nice z-zombie." Caroline trembled, hoping the walking corpse hadn't seen or heard her. The zombie grunted and turned its head to look at her, snarling as it suddenly shot off down the hallway at her with surprising speed; Caroline screamed and dove into the room across the hallway, the zombie right on her heels as she dove across the empty hospital bed and used it like a shield for the savage zombie.
Confessional
"Funny thing about being in life threatening situations," Caroline chuckled sheepishly. "You'd be surprised at what people can do."
End Confessional
With a yell, she grabbed an IV stand and swung it like a baseball bat, the wheels catching on the zombie's bony neck and jaw and lifting him up into the air where Caroline then hurled it and the IV out of the window; her heart was still racing as she watched the zombie plummet to the road before, screeching horribly before it smashed against the pavement into a bloodied pulp.
"Glad I'm not him." Caroline breathed with relief.
It was then that she heard more scraping and shuffling noises in the hospital, accompanied by low groans and snarls as a toxic odor plunged itself deep into her lungs. "Oh, crap." Caroline whimpered as she rushed out of the room to see several zombies gathering at the end of the hallway with hungry looks in their eyes; one of the zombies looked vaguely familiar with dark, brown hair ocassionally broken by curly, caramel streaks.
"Mitchell." Caroline whispered.
Zombie Mitchell growled loudly as a stream of fire came streaming out of his jaws, exploding on the floor at Caroline's feet; she screamed and turned tail to run, the horde of zombies giving chase after her with Mitchell's zombified corpse at the lead, taking fiery pot shots at her.
"Why did I sign up for this show!?" Caroline screamed.
Paul looked around at his surroundings, grunting with annoyance when he noticed that he was in what seemed to be an old, abandoned warehouse; most of the large windows on either side of him were shattered or stained brown with mysterious stains that smelled absolutely horrible, and the back was completely blown out and caved in, allowing a chilling breeze to blow through and into the empty, metal shell of the warehouse. "Well, if this isn't a tad cliché." he grumbled.
"At least we're together." Toni smiled as she walked from behind a stack of crates, a crowbar in her hands. "Not sure why this is of any use to me though." she shrugged, tossing it to Paul to use.
"Cool. I'm double armed." he grinned as he spun a pistol around in his fingers, taking note of the clattering sound of bullets in his pockets. "Team up until we get to the roof?"
"Definitely." Toni nodded. "If you'll give me a second, I think I can get us there faster." she added while she concentrated on an image in her head. Her back and body swelled with muscle and tissue, her shirt starting to tear as her body became bigger and bigger with muscle and fat until she made Paul look like a tennis ball compared to a pumpkin. A short layer of fuzz sprouted all over her body and now made her look like a walking hair as her skull ground and cracked while it was forced forward into a long muzzle that her teeth quickly filled, their numbers increasing thirty-two to about ten more, razor-sharp teeth perfectly designed for cutting into and tearing off strips of meat. Her fingernails grew to a wicked length until they were as long as pencil's as the bottom of her palms became leathery pads. Her ears rotated to the top of her head as her entire body flashed a creamy white as the last few hundred pounds packed down onto her, finishing the transformation.
"This is so bad ass." Paul grinned as he climbed onto the massive polar bear's back. Toni let out a loud roar and barreled up the ramp of rubble at the back of the warehouse and into the open air, roaring once more as Paul fired off a victory shot.
Unfortunately, the resulting fire caught the attention of every zombie in the harbor; before long, the two of them were surrounded by zombies on all sides, saliva dripping from their jaws as flesh hung off their bloodied bones, an awful smell filling the air. With a yell, Paul launched himself off of Toni's back and straight at a zombie, kicking off its head with one swift movement of his foot before he swung his crowbar and sent the body flying into a pair of other zombies; he raised his crowbar over his head as he fired his pistol into a zombie's chest, right where the heart would be before he bashed in the zombie's skull, blood and brain remains splattering all over his shirt as he whirled around and shot another zombie in the head.
Toni bellowed and rose up on her hind legs, swinging her paws at an approaching zombie and sending it flying into several more of its comrades before she dropped back down to all fours and charged at a group of zombies, slamming into them like a bowling ball into a collection of bowling pins as she sent them flying in all directions while crushing several more underneath her paws. She lunged at another zombie, clamping her jaws tightly on its skull and crushing it with one movement of her jaws before tossing the still struggling corpse into another zombie with a quick twist of her neck; she felt Paul climb back on top of her as she reared up onto her hind legs and charged right at the remainer of the horde, barreling into them as Paul swung his crowbar and fired off his pistol, sending zombies flying and falling in all directions.
"Yee-haw! Ride 'em, cowboy!" Paul cheered as Toni bellowed out an agreement.
A sudden hiss caught their attention, and Paul turned just in time to see a Zombie Eduardo come racing out of an alley at them, launching itself at Paul and tackling him to the pavement and off of Toni's back as Paul jammed his crowbar through the zombie's chest; the living corpse didn't fall however and continued to struggle and try to bite Paul before Toni swung a paw and sent him flying, tearing Paul's weapon out of Zombie Eduardo's chest.
"Thanks, babe." Paul breathed with relief; Zombie Eduardo came charging right back at them, snarling and snapping its jaws while Paul drew back his arm and threw the crowbar like a javelin, impaling Zombie Eduardo through the stomach and embedding the end of the crowbar deep into the building behind him, trapping there as Paul mounted Toni again and fired off his pistol, smirking with satisfaction when the zombie's skull exploded into a bloodied pulp.
"Ain't nobody gonna eat me." Paul snarled as he rode off.
"So your parents are both a super model and super genius?" Maurananei raised an eyebrow.
"Yep." Zelda nodded as she absentmindedly twirled her pipe around in front of her and around her back to pass the time while they walked; the only sounds the city offered to them were the occasional roar of settling rubble, the caws of hungry crows, or the whines of feral dogs in the alleys.
"Well that explains a lot." Maurananei grunted as she ducked under a fallen traffic light.
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Zelda wondered.
"Your hot and your smart." Maurananei replied simply. "I'm straight, and even I have to admit that your as hot as they come, maybe even better; Alan's one lucky dude."
"Yeah." Zelda agreed with a slight blush to her cheeks. "I hope my parents like him."
"Considering the beating Micheal gave him over the course of the season, I think they'll think he's already been punished enough." Maurananei reassured her; Zelda was about say something else when her partner silenced her with a quick hand gesture, motioning for her to be quiet as her grip on her minigun tightened. Zelda glanced around for what was coming, but found nothing to alert her of until she looked down at a puddle of water on the pavement in front of her; every few seconds it rippled slightly, as if something heavy were being dropped over and over again in a steady rhythm.
"What is it?" Zelda whispered.
Maurananei didn't say anything at first as the noise got louder and louder as something got closer and closer, the ground starting to tremble underneath her feet as a gigantic shadow fell over the city. The two girls looked skyward, and Zelda swore she nearly wet herself by what she saw; towering over them and the surrounding buildings was a Titanite of epic proportions. It's four, blood red crests were nicked with pieces torn out as part of the alien's bloodied jaw was exposed to the elements, huge amounts of rotting flesh hanging off of the Titanite's monstrous bones and body; Maurananei could see it's amssive heart behind its gigantic ribcage through strips of flesh holding the bones together as it lumbered through the city, not particularly caring about where it stepped or what it stepped on.
"Micheal." Maurananei breathed.
"And of course, Chris programmed his most powerful form into the computer." Zelda whimpered as Zombie Micheal growled, a deep sound that thundered through the city, and started to move once more, effortlessly crushing cars and rubble beneath his feet into dust.
"What do we do?" Zelda hissed.
"Against that thing? Not much," Maurananei replied back. "But considering he's not chasing us, I think his vision is based on movement. So whatever you do, do not make any sudden movements." she warned.
"What happens if he sees us?" Zelda whispered.
"We run to a building, stay still, and hope it's strong enough to withstand Micheal's hunger." Maurananei answered as she slowly backed away; Zelda copied her movements, glancing behind her every now and then so she wouldn't trip over anything as Zombie Micheal growled and carefully searched the city, crushing anything under his feet as he took out gigantic chucks of buildings to haul himself up should he fall over.
Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!
This time, Zelda did wet herself at the sudden noise, looking around wildly for its source before she caught side of the abandoned car next to her blinking its lights and beepinng loudly as its car alarm went off.
"What did you do!?" Maurananei snapped.
"I didn't do anything! Honest!" Zelda flinched under her partner's intense glare; an earth shattering roar punched itself into her ear as every window within ten city blocks shattered into hundreds of pieces while Zombie Micheal turned to face them. He snorted and roared again, taking long strides to get over to the two frightened girls as they screamed and ran for the cover of a large office building. The Titanite raised a fist above its head and brought it down the side of the building, clearing out a massive trail of damage as his fist traveled downwards, sending glass, plaster, and concrete everywhere in thick showers.
"Curse you, Chris McLean! Curse you!" Maurananei screamed at the top of her lungs as the building collapsed around them.
"You're only making him angrier!" Zelda yelled as the Titanite bended down to punch a hole through the building, grasping for the two girls with his festering fingers; when he came up with nothing but rubble and debris, the undead Titanite lowered his head down to peer into the building at them, narrowing his blood red eye as a low growl escaped his jaws.
"Mother." Zelda whimpered before two shots suddenly rang out and punched into the alien's eye, a loud roar of agony echoing through the city as Zombie Micheal held his bleeding eye and shot back up his feed in pain; the two girls whirled around to see Anuok standing there with a smoke pistol, a grin on her face.
"Oh, thank goodness it's just you." Maurananei sighed with relief.
Anuok nodded and blew across the top of her gun as the building trembled and shook around them from Zombie Micheal's attacks; the mute girl made a series of rapid hand gestures.
"Anuok says we should go out the back." Zelda translated.
"You understand that?" Maurananei sounded surprised.
"It's just American sign language, not Japanese or anything." Zelda rolled her eyes. "Now lets go while the goings good."
Serphonus cursed as he watched from the air, encased in a shimmering purple orb that kept him aloft and masked; the witch doctor could have easily won the challenge by just flying over the hordes of zombies and to the roof of the Hatchet Hospital, but he had other plans in mind. In order to win the million dollar prize, he had to win the competition and not get eliminated. But with firm friendships and strong relationships all around him, he was a sitting duck. Sooner or later, they would eliminate him so they could all spend one last night together before things got grizzly.
Like a farmer trying to earn a living, he needed to sow the seeds he needed in order to survive, only he needed to grow suspicion and spite in everyone around him instead of corn or tomatoes; oddly enough, Serphonus was now hungry.
His plan to have Zelda and Maurananei eaten by the Titanite had worked for the most part; alerting the undead colossus of their precense by throwing concentrated balls of raw magic at the old car to activate the alarm had worked like clockwork, a plan he was really proud of.
As he flew over the city towards the Hatchet Hospital, he glanced down and noticed with a start that Zombie Micheal was howling in agony as it held a rotting hand to its face, roaring as it continued to attack the building it had cornered the two girls in; a sudden spout of gunfire came out from the base of the building and exploded into the Titanite's foot, making the titan roar with further pain.
"How dare they!?" he hissed with annoyance, thrusting his cane downwards to force the sphere carrying him to move down towards the Titanite's head. "C'mon, you over-sized carcass! Smash 'em already!" he yelled in Zombie Micheal's head; the Titanite bellowed and moved his hand away from his bleeding eye to swat at the glowing orb that was buzzing around his head, just barely missing the witch doctor as he continued to buzz around the Titanite's head.
"Not one of my better plans." Serphonus realized as Zombie Micheal turned his attention to him. Roaring with hunger or annoyance, the colossus crossed its arms in front of its decaying face just as a loud hissing noise filled the air and a sudden spray or corrosive, green liquid shot forth from a pair of organs that were just barely visible in the Titanite's wrists; the green shower of acidic liquid washed over Serphonus's sphere, smoking curling off of it as the witch doctor fled before his magic dissipated.
"The big lug is proving to annoying even in game!" Serphonus growled to himself as he landed on the road below just as the purple orb around him vanished into thin air; unfortunately, this did nothing to deter Zombie Micheal from chasing after him. The Titanite stomped across the city after the witch doctor, bending down every now and again to try and scoop him up in his gargantuan hands. Serphonus mentally cursed himself for being so careless as he quietly chanted a series of incomprehensible words under his breath before pausing long enough for him to stomp his staff down into the ground. A loud sucking sound filled the air before an exact image of Serphonus materialized beside him in a puff of black smoke; the two witch doctors nodded and ran off in two different directions. Thankfully, Zombie Micheal chose to chase after the fake Serphonus, completely ignoring the real witch doctor entirely.
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"Note to self: destroy all aliens." Serphonus growled.
End Confessional
Paul gritted his teeth as he fired off his pistol again, putting another hole through yet another lone zombie that come shuffling their way as he and Toni made their way down the streets; the shape-shifter had long since returned to her normal form and picked up an old baseball bat to use as a weapon while Paul decided to stick with his pistol. Despite the both of them being armed, Paul was feeling less safe than before.
"Any idea how much farther we gotta go?" Paul wondered.
"Before I changed back, I got a whiff of some medical alcohol," Toni answered, barely more than a whisper. "Unfortunately, it was coming from two different directions and neither one was stronger than the other."
"That doesn't give us much options." Paul tapped his chin. "Should we split up?"
"Not if you value your brains." Toni shook her head. "The odds of us one of us getting mobbed by zombies is too great; together, we'll at least have a sporting chance of making it out alive."
"If you came back as a zombie, you'd be the last one I'd kill." Paul joked.
Toni rolled her eyes. "That has gotta be the worst pick up line I have ever heard." she said before grabbing Paul by the front of his shirt and yanking his head down to her level to press her lips to his for a few seconds before breaking away. "Cheesy, but I like it." she smiled.
"Aw, thanks." Paul blushed a little. "You sure your mom is okay with us dating?"
"Considering you helped save her from that Nigerian military base, I'm pretty sure she already sees you as a son-in-law." Toni smiled. "Although, truth be told, she tried talking me into going out with Micheal before we left."
"Why!?" Paul panicked.
"You mean other than the fact that he can change into animals just like me?" Toni asked with a sarcastic tone. "Either way, I gave her a piece of mind after she said that. She strongly approves of you." she said with a smile.
A sudden hissing noise caught their attention and the pair froze on the spot, their grips on their weapons tightening as a loud shushing noise swept its way over the quiet avenue they were currently walking down. Snarls and moans started to fill the air as zombies started to shuffle out of the alleys and burst out of the apartment doors on either side of the street; more lean and agile members of the undead hissed and growled like hungry animals as they climbed face down the fronts of the buildings and swarmed on the roof tops, hungrily licking their chops as they gave off a rotting odor. Paul gulped when he recognized zombie versions of Mortisha, Trey, and Reese among the ranks of the undead, shivering when Zombie Mortisha licked her dagger-like teeth and pointed a bony claw directly at him before drawing it across her throat.
"You take the ones on the left, I take the ones on the right?" Paul suggested, wincing as the zombies snarled and clawed at the air. [3]
"How about I take the ugly ones?" Toni suggested sarcastically.
"Which ones would that be?" Paul smirked.
"Exactly." Toni smiled slyly as she focused on an image in her head and felt the changes begin. The first thing to happen was the fur; black, thick, and coarse, it raced over her arms and legs, meeting at the torso and racing to cover her face and back as her hands and feet became thick and leathery. Her jaw bulged forward, bones crunching and cracking as they changed and shaped themselves to the match the image in her head. Her usually slim arms swelled as muscles packed themselves on top of each other, her veins expanding as her nimble fingers lost their delicateness as they became thick and perfect for smashing. Her toes shrank a little and suddenly moved away from the rest as they became similar to her hands while her face turned into a black, rubbery mask as her belly became round. With the unfortunate fatness came the massive and broad shoulders the heavy brow that shaded her eyes as her canines enlarged and completed the transformation.
With a roar, the gorilla swung her baseball bat like a club and connected it with the skull of a zombie, sending it flying before the large ape beat the rest of the body into submission. It was as if someone had just hit the play button on the remote; all the zombies rushed at them as one, skittering down the sides of the buildings and jumping off of the roof tops and swarming out of the alleys in a mad rush to consume and destroy the warm, living flesh before them.
Paul yelled incoherently as he fired his pistol like crazy, putting holes through zombie's skulls whenever they got too close for comfort. Zombie Mortisha snarled and dropped down from the roof tops and landed in front of him, swiping her bony fingers at him and forcing him to jump back as three large slashes appeared across his shirt and chest; upon closer inspection, blood dripped from the wounds and Zombie Mortisha's fingers were instead razor sharp claws and her head was twisted upside down like some nightmarish creation as she wore a ripped and rotting cloak over her near skeleton figure. [4]
With a glare, Paul fired off two bullets at the monstrosity, blasting a hole in Zombie Mortisha's unbeating heart and skull; he fully expected the corpse to drop to the ground, lifeless, and was quite terrified when she kept attacking him without appearing to suffer any damage as she lunged at him and tackled him to the ground. Immediately, he was swarmed by zombies as started cracking skulls in a fruitless attempt to protect her boyfriend; with a loud roar, the gorilla ditched its baseball bat and grabbed an unsuspecting zombie by the leg and swung it around in a wide arc, clearing out a large selection of the undead for a good while as they tried to untangle themselves from the mess or arms and legs they had landed themselves in.
"Get ready to die twice, you undead freak of nature!" Paul snarled as he cracked his head into Zombie Mortisha's bleeding skull, allowing him to grab his pistol and slam the butt of it into her head before pulling the triggering and firing a bullet right through her decaying brain; the walking corpse screeching horribly for a second before Toni crushed her skull into a bloody mess with one swing of her cinder block fist.
"Thanks." Paul sighed with relief as he climbed to his feet.
A loud hiss and growl caught his attention and he turned to see Zombie Trey standing in front of a new horde of zombies as the ones that had been ensnared in their own limbs managed to untangle themselves and form loose ranks that surrounded the two survivors; Zombie Reese giggled and hopped back and forth on his feet like an imp as Trey glowered at Paul and glanced at the remains of Zombie Mortisha.
"Oh, BEEP!" Paul cursed.
"Attaaaack!" Zombie Trey roared in a low, hoarse voice as he jammed his guitar at Paul; the army of the undead bellowed and screeched as they rushed past their leader and swarmed at Paul and Toni, dropping like flies as the gorilla smashed their skulls like eggs with her massive fists and Paul fired off his pistol as fast as he could; when he was starting to run low on bullets, he focused on the chromatophores within his skin cells and felt them tighten and loosen with easy, effortlessly camouflaging himself as he whipped out a small Swiss army knife that he kept in his pocket and started to take down individual zombies within the ranks of the undead while protecting Toni from any that got too close to the hulking ape for comfort.
A sudden noise caught Paul's attention and he turned to see Zombie Trey slip his guitar strap over his neck and start to finger the strings with his skeletal fingers just as Paul stabbed a zombie in the chest through its unbeating heart; he gulped when the undead musician strummed a few strings before grinning wickedly and began playing his guitar in a dramatic fashion, strumming the streets with wild swings of his arms. The sound was unbearable to Paul's ears and absolutely agony to Toni's sensitive eardrums as Zombie Trey continued to play his heavy metal ballad for his undead horde. [5]
"Toni!" Paul yelled over the roar of the music, his voice nearly drowned out. "Go! Get out of here!" he yelled.
The gorilla roared and pounded its chest in response before it grabbed hold of a street lamp and used it like a gigantic club to bash multiple walking corpses into submission.
"Just go!" Paul scremaed louder. "I'll cover you and meet up with you at Hatchet Hospital!"
The gorilla roared in protest and was about to charge at Paul to scoop him up in her hairy arms and try to make a get away before Paul suddenly aimed his pistol at her and pulled the trigger, firing at the ground at her feet and making her stop in her tracks. "Go. Please." Paul begged as he returned the weapon's focus on the horde of undead. "If I don't make it, win for the both of us." he said.
The gorilla was about to move again when Paul trained his pistol on the large ape. "Don't make me shoot you. I don't wanna shoot you, but I will if it means getting at least one of us out of this hellhole." Toni was about to move again before catching a look at Paul's determined and unwavering expression; with great reluctance, the gorilla took one last look at Paul before crushing one last zombie into a bloody corpse and fleeing, knuckle running down the street and away from the horde as the rest of the zombies circled around Paul and edged in closer, preparing for a meal.
"A walking meal, a walking meal! Reese gets a walking meal!" Zombie Reese cackled impishly as he danced in front of Paul tauntingly; the joking corpse quickly fell when Paul fired a bullet into its head. With a growl, Paul drew back his hand and chucked his knife right at Zombie Trey, smirking with satisfaction when the blade plunged deep into the walking corpse's skull and remained stuck fast there as Zombie Trey dropped to its knees and slumped lifeless to the ground. The ranks of the undead were now less organized that before but were still driven by insatiable hunger. Just as Paul reached for his trusty pistol and the remaining bullets in his pocket, he felt something hot and smoking slam into his chest and pin him to the ground; the zombies moved as one and piled onto him, hungrily eating away at him as he screamed.
The last thing he heard before he died a painless death was a deep, cackling laughter that twisted its way into the deepest, darkest corners of his mind.
Confessional
"Wonderful work, if I do say so myself." Serphonus grinned devilishly as he leaned against the wall of the outhouse. "Now that Paul's out of the challenge, I can mess with Toni all I want and break all manner of ties she has with anyone in the game." he chuckled deviously. "And what about Wilson? Here's a little secret for all you Total Drama nerds out there: he never even existed. All just a clever disguise and ruse for my defarious purposes." he grinned.
End Confessional
Caroline screamed bloody murder as she ran out of the clinic for dear life, making a quick note that it wasn't Hatchet Hospital, and tore down the street as fast as she could with the small horde of zombies chasing after her, Zombie Mitchell at the lead and hurling fireballs at her that she only just narrowly missed. The animal whisperer was barely looking where she was going when she slammed into something remarkably strong, like that of an iron wall; Caroline groaned and groped around to try and find some sort of hold on which she could peel herself off of. Her fingers closed around something soft and round, good enough for her to grab onto and pull herself off of the sturdy surface before she realized what it was.
"Uh, didn't see you there?" Maurananei guessed with a red blush to her face; Caroline abruptly noticed that her small hands were closed tightly around her friend's breasts and immediately yanked them away with a crimson red face as she stammered an apology.
"Don't worry about it." Maurananei waved it off. "I'd normally be so angry that I'd pop a blood vessel, but considering you're being chased by those unsightly faces without a weapon of any kind, I'll let it slide." she said, nodding to the horde of zombies behind Caroline. "Now if you'll excuse me . . ." she grunted as she hefted her minigun off of her shoulder and leveled it at the horde before pulling the trigger on the weapon and sending a shower of bullets at the pack of walking corpses. She cackled as Zelda jumped right into the middle of the horde and cleared out a small circle with a single swipe of her lead pipe before she raised it above her head and cracked it down on the skull of an unfortunate zombie, smashing the undead's head in; Anuok frowned and pulled the trigger on her gun, shooting down any zombies that came too close to them or Zelda as the later was ocassionally peppered with bullets until the entire horde was completely decimated.
"You okay?" Maurananei asked as she lowered her weapon slightly.
"Y-Yeah. I'm fine." Caroline gulped. "What about you?"
"We're fine." Zelda replied. "We ran into your zombified boyfriend, but nothing we couldn't handle."
"We got chased by a three-hundred foot tall zombie alien and got cornered in an office building before he finally got tired of trying to catch us and left while we escaped out the back way." Maurananei corrected the pink genius as she glowered. "Now that we're rested, we better start making our way to the hospital for a pick up."
"I don't know if this has occurred to anyone else, but what happens when we get there?" Zelda asked after a few moments of quiet walking. "Chris did say there could only be one winner."
"Simple." Maurananei replied without any hesitation. "Once we get to the roof, we fight to the death of whoever is left." she answered; Zelda gulped upon realizing how at ease Maurananei had said this and gripped her lead pipe tighter, hoping her martial arts skills would pay off in the end. The group of four girls made their way along the streets of the abandoned metropolis, ducking under fallen traffic lights whose wires sparked and fizzled horribly and crawling over the rusted remains of derelict cars and vehicles; they encountered very little of the undead thankfully, and any that they came across were quickly gunned down before they could alert their fellow zombies of finding food.
Talk amongst them was put to a minimum both out of fear of attracting the attention of the shuffling dead and because they simply didn't really have anything to say to each other in the first place; Caroline hugged herself closely to Maurananei, searching with frantic and sharp eyes for the first sign of danger and a weapon she could possibly use. While she was glad that Maurananei didn't seem to mind watching over and protecting her in the absense of Micheal, she couldn't help but feel useless to her aggressive friend at times and wanted to prove that she could be of more use than just an animal translator. Zelda had her lead pipe poised and ready to bash in any walking corpse's skull they found while Anuoj mostly kept to herself.
It wasn't until they had traveled on for what seemed an eternity did something truly eventful happen. Without warning, Anuok whipped around and slammed into Maurananei and Caroline, tackling them to the ground as a bullet whizzed over their heads; Zelda quickly ducked to the ground as more bullets were shot through the air. Maurananei growled much like a feral dog and sheilded Caroline from most of the gunfire with her own body as her eyes darted around for the source of the attack.
Zelda suddenly cried out on instinct as a bullet grazed her arm and another burried itself deep in her shoulder before she could spin her lead pipe in front of her fast enough to block most of the gunfire. The pink genius looked around wildly for the source of the attack when her eyes caught sight of a spider monkey perched on top of the roof of an abandoned convience store weilding a gun in its grubby, little hands; the primate screeched with amusement as it fired the weapon at the girls, howling even louder when a couple of bullets mercilessly slammed themselves into Anuok's gut and grazed her neck; another bullet to the head ended her and her body slumped lifelessly to the pavement. With little choice left, Zelda hurled her pipe like a javelin at the monkey and sighed with relief when the monkey scampered away.
"Is everyone okay?" Zelda asked, hissing when she looked at her wounds.
"I'm fine." Caroline said as she crawled out from under Maurananei. "What about you Maurri?" she asked her friend; there was no response but a dry groan as Caroline fearfully rolled her friend over onto her back and choked upon seeing multiple bleeding holes punched in her shoulders and arms and even right through her chest and stomach; a gigantic, red hole sat right between Maurananei's eyes as she gasped for dying breath, her eyes half closed.
"C-Caroline?" she wheezed. "Are you alright?"
"I-I'm . . . I'm f-fine." Caroline choked; she knew full well that Maurananei's death wasn't real in the slightest, but watching as her friend, one of the few people who acknowledged her as a friend instead of little more than a waste of space, lay dying on the road at her knees, breathing her final breaths while she was incapable of saving her. Even if she were able to remove the bullets and find enough medical supples to heal her and patch her up, it was already too late. "Please . . . p-please don't die on me." she begged.
"We all gotta go some time." Maurananei smiled weakly as she coughed slightly. "Funny. I can't feel anything remotely close to pain, and yet I feel as if I've just been hit by a freight train."
"But . . . I-I can't win this without you!" Caroline protested. "Please! I need you!" Caroline started to cry as she hugged Maurananei tightly; Zelda was watching the emotional outburst before her with pained eyes as she removed the bullet from her shoulder, her breath short and dry as she tried to fight back tears.
"Yes . . . you can." Maurananei's breathing started to slow down. "From the moment I laid eyes on you, from the moment when you slugged Ezekiel in the face, I knew you were strong. Life may have treated you like BEEP! but you can do this. You don't . . . don't need me to help you. You can do this, I know you can."
"N-no . . . I can't . . . " Caroline sobbed. "I'm pathetic and worthless. Nobody but you guys like me and when this game's over, I'll never see you again." she sniffed, choking on her own tears.
"Yes you will," Maurananei promised her. "You're beautiful. You're cute. You're fun to be around. Micheal's lucky to be your boyfriend, and I'm lucky to be your friend; heck, if I wasn't straight and you weren't dating Micheal, I would snathced you up long ago." she joked with a smile as her skin continued to pale. "You can . . . w-win this. You've come this far; why quit now?' were Maurananei's last words before she went limp in Caroline's arms, her pulse dead and lifeless and her fingers cold and clammy.
Confessional
"Such a warming moment," Serphonus mocked crying. "It would warm my heart if I had one." he chuckled deviously. "And the best part? They'll think the poor animal BEEP! did it, too. That's four votes against Toni, more than enough to get her off of the island and away from my money. But why stop there?"
Change Confessional
"I meant every word I said to Caroline," Maurananei said. "And if any of you BEEP! know Caroline out there, I will personally hunt you down and make you pay for everything you've ever done to her. You hear me!? You're gonna be my Larry's next chew toy!"
End Confessional
"Come on, Caroline." Zelda sighed, resting a hand on the mourning girl's shoulder. "We need to get going."
"How do I know you won't just kill me!?" Caroline snapped defensively, tears still trickling from her eyes.
"Because I could have done that long ago when you were crying over Maurananei's death." Zelda explained calmly. "And, to be quite frank, you're not much of a threat. If it wasn't for Maurananei, you'd be Swiss cheese by now."
"Don't you dare say her death in vain!" Caroline shouted, tears streaming down her face.
"Caroline, she isn't dead. She's still alive." Zelda said calmly with a hint of impatience in her voice. "Now come on; don't let her death be in vain."
"Stop mocking her!" Caroline sobbed angrily.
"I didn't-" was all Zelda managed to say before Caroline grabbed Maurananei's minigun and managed to heave it up into the air with shaky arms as she pulled the trigger; a shower of firey bullets came spewing out at a lightning fast rate, slamming into Zelda's body with the force of a freight train in each bullet as Zelda's body jolted and shuddered with every punch until she lay lifeless and crippled on the ground, dead. Caroline breathed heavily as she dropped the weapon and looked over Zelda's fallen form, realizing with horror what she had done . . . and that she felt no guilt at all.
A low growl echoed throughout the entire city, and Caroline quickly grabbed the legs of Maurananei, Zelda, and Anuok's corpses and dragged them under the shelter of a tree, folding their arms over their chests and drapping an old tarp she had found over them before grabbing Anuok's gun and Zelda's pipe in her hands; the minigun was too heavy for her to carry as she left the body's behind and made her way towards Hatchet Hospital just barely visible over the rise of buildings.
Confessional
"I guess I don't entirely blame Caroline for acting like that," Zelda sighed. "From what I understand, she comes from a pretty hard life without any friends and constant abuse, so she's pretty fragile. And based on her actions, I am going to guess she has never experienced death before, much less have someone close to her die so close to her; people in such a case are suseptable to rash actions due to strong emotional influence.
End Confessional
Serphonus grinned maliciously as he watched Toni from within the depths of an alley, chuckling quietly to himself when she noticed her nervous demeanor as she hugged herself atop of an abandoned bus, her body tense as she prepared herself to strike or flee at a moment's notice.
"All too easy." the witch doctor chuckled as he dipped a hand into a small pouch clipped to his belt and pulled out a handful of purple dust before chucking it down at his feet and engulfing himself in a puff of pink smoke as he felt his nearly limitless magic work and change him, projecting an image of Paul over his own body and disguising his voice to the point where almost no one would be able to tell the difference; he just hoped Toni didn't turn into anything that had too good of a sense of smell, otherwise he would be found out for sure. Once he was confident that the spell had worked, he cleared his throat and came jogging out of the alley, pretending to have just been running for a long time as he approached Toni with a smile on his face.
"Paul!" Toni sighed with relief as she jumped off the of the roof of the ancient bus and pulled Paul into a bone crushing hug; not once did she flinch upon touching him, making Serphonus assume that it had worked. "I thought you were dead!"
"Yeah, well, it'll take more than those zombie idiots to take me down." Serphonus smirked.
"Glad to hear it." Toni smiled, hugging him again. "Come on. The hospital shouldn't be too far away."
"Good. I'm ready for this challenge to be over." Serphonus sighed. With a hidden smirk on his face, he jogged after Toni through the dust filled streets under the poisoned sky, his grin deepening further when low snarls and hisses came from the alleyways as they ran past and Toni flinched slightly.
"So, uh, can I just ask you something?" Serphonus asked through Paul's voice.
"What?"
"Is it true? About what they said about you?" Serphonus popped a question that wasn't true in the slightest.
"What? What did they say about me? And who's they anyway?" Toni wondered.
"The other contestants." Paul replied. "Zelda's been going around saying you've been cheating on me with Maurananei."
Toni screeched to a halt. "Excuse me?" she raised an eyebrow.
Serphonus held his hands up in defense. "Hey, I'm just trying to make sure I got all my facts straight before I do something rash." he said in Paul's voice. "So is it true?"
"N-no!" Toni yelled back, her cheeks flushing a deep red. "Why would you think that?"
Confessional
"I love Paul more than anyone else I've loved before," Toni said. "But if he thinks I could be swayed that easily to cheat on him with another girl of all people, we're gonna have some issues." she frowned, folding her arms over her bust.
Change Confessional
"And the seed of doubt is planted." Serphonus grinned, rubbing his hands together. "If Toni doesn't get eliminated tonight, she'll be more wary and suspicious of Zelda and her relationship with Paul will be strained." he smirked. "Meanwhile, I simply watch from the background and enjoy the fireworks."
End Confessional
"I'm not saying you did, but given the chance, would you ditch me for her? Or maybe even Micheal?" Serphonus asked.
Toni looked hurt. "Paul, you know my mom already tried to pair me up with Micheal and you know what I said. Why are you acting like I can't be trusted?"
"I'm not saying I don't trust you." Serphonus shook his head. "I just to be reassured that I'm the only one for you."
"Of course you are!" Toni protested. "Paul, I love you like I've never loved anyone else in the world. I can't imagine another day without you at my side, holding me tight and telling me that you love me to." she said.
"Good." Serphonus nodded as he reached into his pocket with Paul's hand and pulled out a gun he had salvaged from the wreckage of an old grocery store. "Nice to see you're as gulliable as usual."
"What?" Toni blinked, not quite believing the words she heard.
"Oh, you poor, mindless, BEEP! You really thought I loved you?" Serphonus purred, a cruel grin crossing Paul's face. "You were nothing more than a tool to me, a free ticket to get farther ahead in the competition. And you blindly allowed me to manipulate and pull your strings like the worthless, BEEP! puppet you are."
"S-Stop calling me that!" Toni shouted, balling her hands into fists.
"Too bad no one will be able to know what you are, thanks to the censorship of this show," Serphonus as he loaded bullets into the empty gun without a care. "And you wanna know what the sad part is?" he asked.
"Wh-What?" Toni trembled.
"You fell for it so easily." he said. "Pity. I was hoping for more of a fight." he grinned as he finished loading the pistol and pointed it at the shape-shifter. "Any final words before I blow your brains out, you disgusting BEEP!"
Toni gulped as she felt hot tears like molten iron drip down her face; she wanted to believe that what Paul was saying wasn't true, that she was merely hallucinating to perhaps an accident in the game that put her in shock and that she would wake up any second now to see Paul's loving smile once more. But she knew that what was happening wasn't a dream, that Paul really was insulting her, that he really did never love her, that he had a loaded gun pointed directly at her face. She felt the animal instincts within her well up and push aside all human logic and reason as an image formed in her head and the DNA flowed through her blood and veins. She felt muscles pack themselves onto her shoulders and chest as her spine bent forward, compressing her down onto her hands and knees with a loud crunching noise that sent shivers down her spine. Her neck swelled with muscles and tissue as she felt hundreds upon thousands of tendons and muscles wire themselves up to her jaws as her teeth ripped through her gums and became sharp and pointed. Her face snapped and crunched loudly as it bulged forward into a short, box-like muzzle to fit her new teeth that were perfect for crushing while her grew larger and slightly triangular in shape as they rotated to the top of her head; her arms snapped as they bent at her wrists to add another joint as her fingernails grew into sharp claws perfect for clawing through thick hide and providing traction in a chase. Tissue and muscles continued to pack themselves onto her, making her forelegs longer than her back legs as a small tail squirted out from the base of her spine while a light, shaggy coat of tan fur sprouted all over her body, sprinkled in with black spots and hashes that gave her a scruffy and dirtied appearance, completing the transformation.
"Ah, you're finally returning to your original form, I see." Serphonus smirked as his grip on the weapon tightened against the hungry spotted hyena. The animal snarled and showcased its massive teeth as it gave a cry that sounded similar to laughter before lunging at Serphonus just as he pulled the trigger on the gun in his hands; the bullet grazed the animal's shoulder before the hyena slammed Serphonus to the pavement, cackling further as it attempted to bite his throat and crush his neck into dust. The witch doctor would have none of it and cracked the butt of his gun over the hyena's head, dazing it long enough for him to scramble to his feet and point it at the animal's head.
"See you in BEEP!" Serphonus grinned as he pulled the trigger and blasted a bullet into Toni's skull. With a pained whine, the animal dropped to the pavement, dead. [6]
Caroline breathed heavily as she rushed at the doors of Hatchet Hospital, gulping in one deep breath as she jumped and tucked her body up into a ball as she smashed through the glass of the doors and tumbled into the lobby, cutting her arms and legs on the glass shards and bruising her knees and elbows on the roll. With a small groan, she climbed to her feet and looked around the decorated lobby before setting her eyes on an elevator; if she took the elevator, she would reach the roof faster. But the likely hood that there was still power to work the elevator was slim and the prospect of it stopping while in use was also highly likely. In the end, she decided to use the stairs that stretched between the many, many floors of the hospital, hoping to whatever god there was that there weren't too many zombies to deal with.
Panting heavily, she made her way up the stairs, glancing out of whatever window she passed to see what appeared to be a tidal wave of garbage and trash flooding the streets; it was then with horror that she realized that they were zombies, thousands upon thousands of them. The snarled and hissed, growled and roared as they clambered over one another in their mad rush to get to the hospital and claim the last of the remaining lives in the city for their endless hunger. Caroline felt her blood run cold when she saw a large elephant with an exposed rib cage and rotting flesh and tusks stomp through the ranks with several excited zombies on its back; Toni. A familiar zombie soared above the army of the undead, fire streaming from its hands as it was pushed through pulsing veins in its exposed wrists and arms; Mitchell. A decaying head and a festering arm and hands pushed its way through the crowds of corpses, fading in and out of existence every few seconds; Paul. A tall, muscled, female zombie with greasy hair, skeletal leg, and a pair of sizable breasts just barely held back by the shreds of a tank top shoved its way mercilessly through the horde of undead, wielding a chain saw as it cackled manically; Maurananei. And to top it off, a colossus of epic proportions waded its way through the sea of corpses, blood dripping through its dagger-like teeth and rotting body as its massive, exposed heart beat every few seconds while it crushed hundreds of zombies underfoot without care, easily, swiping its arms past the corners and sides of buildings and sending rubble down onto the army of undead without care; Micheal.
Her heart in her throat, she ran faster up the steps of the hospital, noting with horror that the zombies were starting to climb the walls of the hospital, occasionally punching clear through the walls and windows to try and grab at her before she shot them down with Anuok's gun or beat them back with Zelda's pipe. She heard more crashes above and grumbled under her breath when she realized that she would be fighting her way up through the halls and corridors of the hospital.
"Should have just taken the elevator." she cursed under her breath as she turned down a hallway and saw a good number of zombies swarming in the corridor and blocking her way to the stairs. With a scream, she fired off her gun and blasted three zombies in the heads before rushing into the fray with Zelda's lead pipe, mindlessly swinging it back and forth to slam the zombies into the walls on either side of her as she blindly ran through the hallway, up the stairs and followed the same process through the second zombie filled hallway before coming to a stop.
"Please tell me there's a map in this place." Caroline whimpered as she stopped to catch her breath, crawling over to the nearest elevator to rest. So far, she had successfully made her way through a couple of the hospital's floors, but she had no idea how many there were until she looked at a map. With little choice left, she reached above her head and pressed the up button the elevator's pad, yelping with surprise when the elevator dinged open; she quickly scrambled in and breathed with relief when the doors closed behind her inside of the empty car.
"Just thirty more floors." Caroline sighed with relief. "Better go twenty just to be safe." she said to herself before pushing the button for twenty-two and sliding down the back of the elevator to rest as the car slowly made its way up to the song of mindless elevator music. Before long, the doors dinged open again into a thankfully empty hallway; she stepped out of the elevator and carefully made her way down the hall before climbing up the next flight of stairs and freezing with fear once she made it to the top.
Standing in the hallway in front of her was Zombie Maurananei with her chainsaw and a cruel, twisted grin on her face. Down at its feet with a spiked collar around its neck attached to a chain leash was Zombie Toni; the chain was held tightly in the grip of Zombie Paul as he chuckled darkly and drew a bony finger across its throat in a slicing motion while Zombie Mitchell engulfed itself entirely in fire and turn it into a fiery skeleton with blackened bones. The walking corpses hissed and snarled savagely before lunging forward at Caroline as the animal whisperer gave off an identical scream and charged at them, blindly swinging her pipe and successfully catching Zombie Paul in the jaw and smashing its head up against the ceiling before swinging her weapon again to cut off Zombie Mitchell's head.
Caroline suddenly screamed as she was knocked down to the ground by Zombie Toni, now off of her leash and in the form of an undead wolf with an exposed jaw, missing eye and open rib cage with visible organs. The wolf growled and snapped its jaws, trying to bite Caroline's head and neck as she twisted it to the side to avoid every attempt before she managed to grab Anuok's gun and fire it at the zombie wolf, hitting it once in the throat to get it off of her before blasting it in the head to kill it. Now it was just Zombie Maurananei and Caroline left in the hallway.
"Please," Caroline said. "Just let me pass. I've lost you once before, and I don't wanna lose you again. Much less have to kill you." she added, gulping at the prospect of having to kill her best friend. Unfortunately, the zombie's response was to merely cackle manically and charge right at Caroline as she drew Anuok's gun and squeezed the trigger with her eyes shut, accidentally shooting her weapon upwards to bust out one of the overhead lights. She was forced to duck down to avoid a swipe of Zombie Maurananei's chainsaw before she fell on her back; she was about to get up when Zombie Maurananei stomped its foot down on her chest, pinning her to the floor as she gasped for breath.
"Me always want to be in two places at once!" Maurananei growled as she revved up her weapon. "Now you realize dream!"
Caroline closed her eyes and waited for the sweet grasp of the Virtual Reality machine to pull her out of its computerized nightmare and send her back to the real world, but the sweet release never came. All she heard was a loud blast in her ears and the strangled screams of Zombie Maurananei as it fell; Caroline rolled her eyes up to see Wilson standing over her with a smoking gun and a kind smile on his face as he helped her up.
"Race you to the top?" he smiled.
"Just hope you can defend yourself against my boyfriend." Caroline sighed as she tightened her grip on Zelda's lead pipe and Anuok's gun. "He's some kind of alien giant."
"I noticed." Wilson nodded. The two of them quickly made their way to the top of the hospital without any further incident until they kicked open the door to the roof top and walked out into the poisoned air above the city; all around them for as far as they could see were members of the undead, filling the streets and scaling the surrounding buildings in futile attempts to try and get to the last two people within the city that had managed to escape their grasp.
"So how do we signal for help?" Caroline wondered.
"I think that's the least of our problems right now." Wilson gulped as a gigantic hand big enough to crush a car between two of its fingers reached up over the lip of the hospital roof , quickly followed by a sparsely covered, skeletal face that of a Titanite. The colossus roared at the two survivors, nearly sending them tumbling off from the sheer force of the sound while the titan hauled the rest of its body onto the roof of the already unstable building.
"Aw, man." Caroline gulped as Zombie Micheal raised a foot and brought it down in an attempt to crush her and Wilson, the two of them just barely avoiding the massive foot before the giant bent down to try and snatch them up in its enormous fingers. Wilson fired off all the bullets in his gun in one round, aiming for the gigantic, beating heart embedded in the Titanite's exposed chest and succeeding in making it bleed the tiniest bit, the bullets little more than pinpricks to the giant; Caroline followed suit, this time aiming for one of the alien's eyes and forcing it stumble back slightly as it raised a hand to cover its eye while it plunged the other one down in an attempt to snatch up the two puny survivors.
"Caroline! Your staff!" Wilson yelled.
"Pipe!" Caroline corrected.
"Whatever! Stab it into his heart! Or his eye! One of the two! I'll try and distract it!" Wilson screamed louder.
Confessional
"All a part of the plan," Serphonus grinned darkly. "Out of everyone on this island, Caroline is the one I want to face off against in the finale; compared to all of the other freaks on this poor excuse for an island, she's the weakest one out there and the least likely to snatch victory from me." he explained. "So Micheal, if you're out there watching this, I am going to lure your girlfriend into a false sense of security and then crush every last hope and dream she has left in her pathetic life before I steal victory from her. By the time I'm done, she'll be a hollow husk of whatever worthless girl there was."
End Confessional
Gulping, Caroline tightened her grip around the pipe and charged at the massive hand in front of her, her sneakers slipping on the bloody bones as she ran up the decaying arm and tried to keep her lunch down from the revolting stench that stabbed itself into her nose. She managed to make it up the elbow and then to the shoulder of the Titanite before it started to move again, utterly oblivious to the tiny girl hanging onto its shoulder for dear life.
"The pipe, Caroline! Use the pipe!" Wilson yelled
Caroline nodded and gave a loud, shrill whistle right in Zombie Micheal's ear, making the Titanite turn its head to her just in time for her to hurl her pipe like a javelin at its other eye and cheering when the weapon plunged deep into the soft flesh; the giant roared in pain as it held its bleeding eyes and stumbled back as Caroline took a dive and jumped off the alien's shoulder, praying that she would survive the fall. Wilson however, was not so lucky, and was crushed underneath the titan's foot as it stumbled back and fell off the roof of the building and to the ground below, howling angrily all the way.
Caroline was bleeding heavily from her injuries from the fall, holding her limp, right arm as she searched for any way of signaling for help before the zombies climbed up the building and took her. At first, she didn't see anything but gigantic impressions from the Titanite's foot steps until she noticed a bright object lying just barely intact inside one of the footprints. She rushed over to the object and nearly collapsed from relief when she noticed that it was a flare gun. With shaky fingers, she pointed the flare gun to the sky as dozens of zombies started to pour over the edges of the hospital, racing towards her as she pulled the trigger and closed her eyes, the bright fire shooting high off into the air as the zombies converged on her.
"Well, I have to say that that was awesome!" Chirs laughed, banging a fist on the oil drum that acted as a podium at the bonfire ceremony the flames crackled and danced, casting shadows over the campers and making Maurananei look very frightening to the host who chose to ignore for the moment. "So much drama! So much action! So many zombies!"
"Get on with it!" Maurananei snapped.
"Alright, alright. Sheesh." Chris grumbled. "When I call your name, come up and receive your marshmallow. Should you not be lucky enough to get a marshmallow you will forced to walking down the Dock of Shame towards the Torpedo of Shame-
"Get. On. With. It." Maurananei growled much like a feral dog.
Chris gulped. "Seeing as how Caroline won the challenge, she gets immunity and the first marshmallow." he said, tossing the animal whisperer her marshmallow; he then quickly called out Maurananei's own name and tossed her a marshmallow before she likely bit his head off.
"Anuok, Wilson, and Zelda, you're all safe as well." Chris grinned as he tossed the three teens their marshmallows; looks of guilt and two gasps of shock then followed as Paul and Toni looked fearfully at each other.
"Now there's one way to cause some tension," Chris smirked. "Show exactly one marshmallow to a pair of lovebirds." he grinned maliciously. "Paul, you're on the chopping block for back stabbing your girlfriend-"
"What!?" Paul roared. "But . . . I didn't . . . I would never-" he stammered before he was silenced by a low growl from Toni,
"Toni, you're on the chopping block for shooting at Anuok and Maurananei, forcing Caroline to go through a series of emotions she wasn't ready to experience and shoot Zelda full of holes." Chirs recited. "As sick as that might be, it was very cool."
"I didn't do anything!" Toni protested before Paul silenced her with a quick glare.
"And tonight's loser is . . ." Chris grinned as he held the marshmallow between two fingers.
Confessional
"Toni, duh." Serphonus rolled his eyes.
Change Confessional
"Take this, you back stabbing witch!" Maurananei growled at the camera. "This is for putting my friend through that BEEP!"
Change Confessional
"I thought I had something with Paul," Toni sniffed. "I really thought he liked me. But I guess you can't trust anyone in this kind of game. Once this competition is over, I'm going to spend the rest of my life hunting down and killing Chirs McLean. You hear me Chris!?" Toni roared angrily. "You will pay for what you put me through!"
Change Confessional
Anuok shook her head sadly as she held a piece of notebook paper. "So much sorrow and hatred." it read.
End Confessional
"Toni."
The shape-shifter blinked. "What?" she gulped hoarsely as Chris tossed Paul the marshmallow; the fluffy treat merely bounced off of his face as he starred wide eyed and slack jawed at the girl he loved.
"You heard me." Chirs shrugged. "We all gotta go sometime, and evidently, this is your time. So . . . get off my island!" he added, jerking a thumb towards the dock; he was promptly hit in the face with a branch as Maurananei dusted off her hands.
Chris tapped his foot impatiently as Toni trudged past the rest of the contestants, only stopping when Maurananei and Chef threw him glares and threatening gestures.
"Hey," Toni rubbed the back of her neck as she came up to Caroline. "I know we didn't talk a lot while in the game, but I just wanna say it was nice being with you."
"You, too." Caroline smiled as she shook the shape-shifter's hand. "I'll see you at the finale."
"You had a good run." Maurananei grinned as she pulled Toni into a hug and gave her a friendly noogie. "Don't do anything I would do, 'kay?"
"With your reputation, I'll probably take you up on the offer." Toni chuckled as she moved onto Anuok; no words were exchanged for obvious reasons as the two girls hugged and the shape-shifter moved onto Paul. The two were silent for the longest time before any one of them spoke up.
"I just wanna say . . . whatever happened . . . I'm sorry." Paul apologized.
"I . . . I'm sorry, too." Toni sighed. "Look, when I see this episode I'll try to figure out what happened, okay?"
"Deal." Paul nodded, pulling Toni in a tight embrace and kissing her on the forehead. "I'll win for us, alright?"
"I hate you remind you that it's a half hour show, but . . . it's a half hour show!" Chris yelled before Maurananei silenced him with one swift kick to the nether regions; the host crumbled to the ground like a sack of potatoes. With the small annoyance that was Chris out of the way, Toni gave Paul one last hug and kiss before climbing into the small pod and curling up into a tight ball as Chris shakily pressed the activation button and sent her firing off into the horizon.
"Who . . . Who will be voted off next?" Chris groaned as he attempted to stand again. "What crazy challenges will our contestants partake in and attempt to survive? And when will I be able to feel my kiwis again?" he whined.
"NEVER!" Maurananei yelled.
"Find out next time on Total! Drama! Pahkitew's Vengeance!" Chris signed off. "Chef! Get me an ice pack!" the host moaned.
Confessional
"All according to plan," Serphonus chuckled. "By the time this contest is over, they won't know what hit them." he cackled.
End Confessional
And there we go, ladies and gentlemen! Onto the references made in this chapter!
[1] This is a reference to Left 4 Dead's campaign, where the survivors must get to the top of a towering hospital to signal for help. To be honest, The Kobold Necromancer made this reference first, not me.
[2] The Walking Dead starts out with the main character waking up in a hospital to find out that the world has crumbled into a zombie-infested cesspool. Course, how is that any different than what the world is now?
[3] Rise of the Guardians line and reference!
[4] As some of you may have been able to guess, I am am an avid Ben 10 fan. When I first saw Zs'Skayr, I was literally terrified to sleep at night for fear of the Ectonurite suddenly creeping out from under my bed or closet; considering how creepy Mortisha is, this only made sense.
[5] League of Legends: Pentakill reference! Gotta love Mordekaiser!
[6] For those that did not see the Team Fortress based chapter of my story, this is by far my favorite line of the Spy's. See you in hell, amigos!
As always, comment, review, suggest, and request down below!
Hasta Luego!