"I guess this is good-bye," Jemison said, then his eyes widened, and he shot.
I heard the soft crunch of bone splitting, then a heavy thump behind me.
"Infected!" The woman screamed.
I whirled around to face the new threat. About twenty or so had been edging closer and closer during the fight, attracted by the noise and scent of blood in the air.
"Can't a body even kill a person in peace these days?" Jemison muttered as he put another bullet in between the eyes of an oncoming corpse.
The woman had scrambled to her feet and pulled a crossbow from one of their packs. I offered a hand up to the man still on the floor.
"Temporary truce?" Asked the man whose nose I'd broken.
"Obviously," I said.
"Since we're not about to kill each other just yet, I guess this means introductions are in order." Jemison said as he reloaded. "I'm Carl Jemison. That feller whose face you just rearranged is Roy, and the she-hellion is Marta."
"Fuck you," Marta said dispassionately as she sent a quarrel flying into the mass.
"I'm Alice," I nodded at them. "I think." I whispered the last part under my breath.
"Nice to make your acquaintance," said Roy. "Hope it's a long one."
And with that, we launched into the fray.
I drew both of my swords twirling them in a deadly dance I'd been programmed to learn. The rhythm of the strikes sang through my blood like a '90s pop hit.
Slice, jab, slash. Three bastards down. A horde more to go.
Out of the corner of my eyes I realized my new tentative allies weren't doing too badly themselves. Jemison dispatched an Infected with one decisive headshot, his face wiped clean of all emotion. Roy flailed wildly about with a sledgehammer but he managed to take down two Infected on his own.
Marta stayed further back and shot the stragglers on the outskirts of the battle. She was pretty competent with the crossbow—I just hoped she didn't decide it was worth the risk to shoot me in the back.
Stab, slash, slice.
One of the Infected tackled Roy to the ground. Three more immediately swarmed him. I knew he had a matter of seconds before he was bitten. I wasn't finished with the Infected I had been fighting but Jemison was dealing with three assailants of his own and I knew there wasn't time.
I launched into the air, curling my body into a tight roll that took me over my current opponent's head and landed in a crouch right behind one of the Infected who was attacking Roy. I sliced at the thing's knees then immediately swung my sword up into the jaw of another.
Marta saw Roy go down and sent an arrow flying into the decayed brain of another of the Infected. The remaining two rushed me. I leapt into the air, spreading my arms straight out, executing a sort of barrel turn that sliced clean through the torso of one Infected and beheaded the other.
Roy gaped at me.
"Thank me later." I said, and turned back to rejoin the fight.
Only to find there wasn't one left to join.
As I had turned, Jemison finished off the last one, emptying his chamber into the Infected that I'd had to leave to rescue Roy, his expression still unchanging.
The only sound in the night was of Roy's labored panting.
"So what do we do now?" He asked. "Do we go back to trying to kill each other?"
"Seems like bad manners to kill someone who just saved us." Said Jemison, calmly wiping blood from his hand.
"Fuck manners. I still don't trust the bitch." Marta said, her crossbow trained on me.
I lifted my swords up, still dripping with the crusty blood of the Infected, ready to deflect if she decided to shoot at me.
"Do we really have to go through all of this again?" Roy asked. "I got my nose broken once, I don't really want to have to go through it again."
"Put the bow down, Marta," Jemison said. "We can kill her after she tells us what she has to do with Umbrella Corp."
Not if I have a say in that. I thought to myself, but I wiped my swords off and stowed them in their sheathes.
"My connection with Umbrella Corp is that I'm their worst enemy." I said, feeling my lips stretch into a feral grin. "And they haven't a clue how to stop me."
Whoops. I think I went a little L4D on this chapter. Oh well, as long as it's zombie killing, I suppose it's all right.