On Death's Doorstep

[ballerscuba]

Davey's right eye began to twitch as he saw his fridge being ransacked. "My...my...Mountain Dew," he mumbled to himself. Out of sheer protective instinct of his beloved snacks, he swung his sword at his mother's neck. "There can be only--" The sword stopped at her neck, knocking his mother over, leaving a cut on her neck. As she lied on the ground, continuing to squirm a bit, Davey panicked, forgetting his epic kill quote and resorting to stabbing her repeatedly in the stomach. Between each stab, he began to taunt his mother's corpse, for she was clearly dead by this point. "How dare you waste my Mountain Dew and Pizza Bites?!"

Davey began panting as he slowly began to realize what had just happened. "So, Umbrella finally released it, did they?" Davey then wished he had a shotgun to pump, but, realizing he only had his sword, he stood over his mother's corpse, one foot on either side, with her head slightly in front of his feet. He put the tip of the sword to the right side of her neck. "There can be only one!" he shouted as he did his best golf swing. However, the blade was still not sharp enough, and his mother's corpse went flying to his left. Davey lost his balance and fell over backward, his oversize sword landing between his legs, rattling on the ground. "The Lich King would've made it work," he mumbled to himself. "Damn child laborers forgot to sharpen my sword."

Davey stood up slowly, browsing through the fridge and the pantry looking for any of his favorite snacks. The frozen pizzas, the Mountain Dew, the Jolt Cola, the Doritos, the Fritos, the Funyuns, they were all gone. Then, a single tear began to fall down Davey's face. He fell to his knees. The Pop-Tarts were utterly destroyed.

Davey slowly stood up, realizing his house of 35 years was no longer a safe place to stay. If the Pop-Tarts weren't safe, neither was he. He went down into the basement, closing the door behind him and securing all three locks on the door. He looked around the room and decided quickly. He slid his life-size Yoda piggy bank in front of the door to barricade it. He pulled out his emergency supplies of Cheetos and Doritos and one solitary can of Mountain Dew and put them on his bed. He opened up his closet and began to pick out his battle gear.

As the locks began to loosen and Yoda was slid out of the way, Davey emerged from his basement, fully decked out in his battle gear. Fog surrounded him as he had turned on his fog machine a couple minutes earlier. He slowly emerged from the fog filling the basement.

Covering his face, he wore a Darth Vader helmet, though he could not afford the model with the voice modifier. He wore a bright red t-shirt with words in yellow on the front, made from his own design. It read "Yes, I Am That Epic." He had strapped his holster for his oversize sword around his shoulders and the sword rested on a notch on his upper back. Underneath the red shirt, he wore a kilt he had purchased from a Highlander fan auction. It was rumored that Christopher Lambert himself had wore it on set, but no proof of that was ever given. Realizing he could not leave his legs exposed, Davey had put on a pair of green tights he had not worn his high school production of Peter Pan. His shoes were custom ordered. They were replicas of Sonic's shoes from Sonic 2, which Davey knew was the best one.

In this outfit, Davey knew he was invincible, so he climbed the stairs to the front door, kicked it open and stomped through, standing on his front porch. "Bring it!" he said, unsheathing his sword, ready for anything.

[kain17335]

Kain, John and Kyle all stood outside Kain's old home.
"Right you two stay out here and I'll find some stuff I hid from those damn raiders".
Kain said and ran in smashing the door through with a kick.
Inside the house Kain found thing's that he had from long before the outbreak.
"Just old memories".
Kain then saw and old cat bed and remembered his old cat Aslan.
He had that cat since he was 16 and remembered naming it so long ago.
"She was so cute back then".
Kain then remembered when he had to kill Aslan..
He hated the rest of that day, it was a very bad day.
Kain then regained his composure and tried to remember the secret places where he kept the spare supplies.
On which was in a carved out bit of the fireplace which had two mag's of 45. ammo.
"One for me and one for John".
Kain put the ammo into small pocket at the back of his bag
The next was a cricket bat he had for ages.
"This'll be good for Kyle". Kain thought trying not to remember what he had to use to kill Aslan.
The final thing he found was one he thought would've been taken when it got raided.
"Well this is lucky".
Kain took out the box opened it up to find 10 assorted tins of food.
"Jackpot".
Kain then put the box into his bag and walked out with a picture of his family and Aslan from a while ago.
Kain threw the cricket bat to Kyle and passed John one of the mags.
"Right lets go".

[duskskully]

Kyle then caught the cricket bat and blew a puff a smoke in the air and said,"Well this will do for now until it breaks but, anywho thanks Kain." Kyle then thought of his other question that was never answered and asked it again,"Hey Kain you never answered me about my girlfriend, have you seen her?" Kyle then readily the cricket bat.

[kain17335]

"Nope I haven't seen anybody for a while actually".
"She's probably at a holdout somewhere".

[Mog]

Sergeant Connors sat at his post looking over the river at Chesapeake and sighed, putting down his binoculars. It had been hours since they lost contact with Denton. The Captain would be pissed, another man gone and all...

And now Connors was worried. Not so much about Denton, cruel as that may sound; he was likely in a better place now.
His squad had recovered quickly. They'd seen enough to harden themselves against anything like this. In fact, they were in comparably high spirits. However, Connors's problem lay in the fact that he'd seen a lot more than any of them.

They had sighted less of the undead walking around in the open recently, giving the squad reason to believe that the stupid creatures had finally figured out what a few well-placed shots could do to their skulls. Better still, a couple of the boys had spotted a few pairs of zombies tearing one another apart over the last four or five hours. Most of the squad, while glad to be pulling out of the North side of the city, believed that the monsters were finally dying of hunger, too stupid to figure out how a tin-opener worked.

Connors had grown up in Alaska, raising dogs in the snowy wilderness. Tough dogs at that. The kind that gave chase simply because you were running away. Seeing how secluded the mob of undead had become, watching them violently attack each other in a fit of rage, he had remembered something. A pair of yellow eyes staring out from between the trees, the absolute lack of excess noise and movement, the pride...
Now, looking out over the river, Connors couldn't share in his men's hopeful elation. He, unfortunately, was the only one who knew that somewhere, in that forest of broken buildings, a wolf prowled amongst the frightened dogs.

[Pulse]

Grasping her trusty pipe in the midst of her pain, Lucy was only barely able to stay on her feet as the scream ravaged her mind; it felt like a gang of steel-toecapped clad midgets had decided to curbstomp her in unison...never a particularly great feeling. Still not sure where she was going, Lucy bolted up the highway, myriad cars sprawled across the sub-beaten concrete. And so she ran under and over long-abandoned vehicles of questionable taste, all her efforts to gain ground meaningless to the horde, inhuman as they were. No! She could not- would not simply lay down and die in the face of these monsters.

[arentheawesome]

Ichiru snapped her head around at the hiss, and froze up, if only briefly. At once, she gripped her sister's arm and ran with her, feet pounding against the pavement. Migaki didn't know what was going on, but when she heard the multiple screeches and footfalls behind them, she figured it out pretty quickly. They were being hunted, so soon from leaving the house. Migaki made sure not to drop the backpack, her heart racing, able to see the gun shop quite a distance away. All of the twins' energy right now was focused on running.
Ichiru dared a look back at the zombies, and caught her mistake. They were gaining distance, quickly in fact. She shouted a scared whimper, and almost tripped, her free hand having instinctively gripped her gun and attempting to take it out without her knowing, but she stopped it, and looked back to their goal, her hand tight on her sisters'.

[duskskully]

Kyle then heard the sound that he wished he would never hear again and started to run towards it,"Oh shit, this is not good." Once Kyle got in sight of what was happening he saw two girls running from a horde of 25 or more after them, then he said,"Damn it all to hell." He then yelled at the girls,"Hey you two get here now I'll try to keep some of them off you understand?!" Kyle then pulled out his revolver and started to hum I won't back down by Johnny Cash to help his mind calm down a bit.

[ThatOneGuysBro]

John stayed outside with Kyle as the two waited for Kain to return. In the meantime he absent mindedly stared at his surroundings. Many buildings, some old, some new, had succumbed to one form of destruction or another. Some still on fire, some reduced to mere rubble, the houses' very foundation laid bare, yet others with gaping holes that pierced their walls, but all eerily painted with blood, presumably of both humans and revenants alike. Man holes were uncovered, there were small craters in the streets, even trees were toppled. The streets were covered with cars, dented, shattered, ripped in pieces, some turned over on their sides, some housing the bodies of the deceased. Most of the bodies were found on the street or or in ally-ways. John noticed one body impaled through the torso over a shard of a broken window, arms and head dangling downward. Turning his head, he even saw a police officer, sitting on the street side,back leaning on a brick building with his head hanging low. There was a splatter of blood on the wall behind his head and a small pistol placed between his legs on the ground. John turned his head, trying to take his mind off the dreary atmosphere. Most notably was the stench that settled into every street, as they were also littered with many bodies, most of which were not found in full, missing limbs or even severed from waist to torso. The death profusely invaded the airs of Huntington with it's stench which greatly sickened John since the outbreak turned violent.

"I don't feel very well.", he said, his face turning pale as his knees began to wobbly frailly. Immediately after he ran for a street trash bin, oddly untouched by the chaos that ensued, and he regurgitated for a short while. The stench had grown too powerful for him to bear. Shortly after he came to, regaining his composure. He John slowly made his way back to Kain's front door Kain himself emerged. He tossed the .45 mag which John fumbled with before he caught it. He looked at it quickly then slid it into the back pocket of his pants. The group then further forged their way to the police station.

On their way the ground nearly vibrated, a faint sound heard in the distance. Many small stampering sounds could be heard, none in unison, and they progressively got louder and louder. John then froze as he spotted on the horizon a large shadow that filled the street. Only one thought rose to his mind at that moment. 'Are these survivors, or an unsavory company?' A brief moment further allowed him to see the worse case scenario quickly turned to reality. This was the first time John was confronted by such vast numbers, more so than the assault on Bob's Guns. All of a sudden his body stiffened, refusing to move. A single drop of sweat slithered down the side of his face, the rest of his body becoming warmer, perspiring from sheer fear. In his mind-numbing fear he dropped his crowbar, which caught his attention, snapping him out of his trance. It was then when Kyle too charge and began to fire at the mob of the undead that John realized they weren't alone. He was shocked to see two young ladies running in their direction, or rather, away from the impending assault from the revenants that gave chase, some at a remarkable speed. He stared shortly at the girls, both quite cute to his eyes, which soothed his senses for but a fleeting moment. He then came to, picking up his crowbar, he did what knew must be done.

"Kyle! We can't take them on! We need to run!" He looked to Kain for a sign of approval. Regardless, if they stayed to fight, John knew he would flee. Against these numbers, low on supplies, it would be foolhardy to meet them head on. He waited for a few brief seconds to see what his companions would do, before taking matters into his own hands.

[lukuz13]

June 24th, 2022 Friday (Present day): Huntington, West Virginia

-As Davey walked out of his house, he was greeted with the harsh sunlight, at least he was pretty sure that is what it was called, and there out in the street was a pile of corpses, mostly picked clean by scavengers, namely those crows sitting on a nearby bench that were staring at him. Bright red eyes from the fence, several set at least 7 all watching his every move. Otherwise the street seemed mostly empty, besides the neighborhood Davey had grown up in rather busted and worn, with no sign of its former inhabitants. At least, none that yet live. From his doorstep, Davey looked to his left seeing 3rd street which he knew lead to 8th avenue, the highway nearby. Davey also recalled the Police Kiosk isn't far from there, right across the train tracks. Just as he thought this, he suddenly heard the sound of footsteps, running specifically. Looking to his left, Davey saw as a young woman ran past with short black hair that curled as she ran black to match the oil that stained her shirt, a woman named Lucy. Behind her a growing congregation of relatively slow moving creatures, weaved through the stopped cars on the street like water, as Lucy did the same, as the stench of death and the sound of groans filled the air the more that gathered.

-Ichiru and Migaki could see the group of men much better, but the growls and hisses of bloodlust from behind them kept any relaxation from setting in. Instead the group closed in fast just as the girls ran right past Kyle, who stayed in place, taking aim with his revolver. John could see by now his intentions, at least, that he had none to run, quickly turning tail up the street and dashing in the direction the girls were heading anyway. Kain, Ichiru and Migaki followed suite after him, the sprinting group indeed distracted by Kyle, the meat remaining behind them. Kyle unloaded all 6 shots into the horde, though the revolver was powerful, all it succeeded in doing was punching a few down, two shots landing on one creature and sending it to the ground in a blood fountain, the others paying no heed to their fallen comrade. Kyle miscalculated their speed, from this close a range he could not turn tail quick enough, and as one of the beasts, a male who seemed in his late 40s , at least at one time, in a checkered shirt and black pants sunk his crooked gnashing teeth into Kyle's shoulder blade, letting out a wild hiss of pleasure from the rush of blood. Kyle grunted in pain and twisted just enough to slap the infected thing off of him with the bat he had just received, and took off running as well. With a bleeding shoulder, Kyle was far behind the others, as the horde began to turn like a wave, when suddenly they stopped, abruptly, turning back their attention obviously caught by something, towards Bob's Gun shop. The music by now, even at their distance was loud, it seems Bob himself had opened a window of some sort, because now the music was amplified throughout the block. The horde, now enticed by the new sound split off, a portion heading off to the new source of sound -and they hoped food- while the others continued stalking the now thrilling scent of blood. Luckily, the delay had given the survivors a head start, by now making their way past the railroad tracks, and approaching the place Bob mentioned, Susie's Bar, Kyle making his way back up with them, all of them winded by now as the roaring creatures from before started to catch up again.

-"The university has been completely secured Captain Garcia." A young recruit reported in, the tent flap blowing gently in the breeze as he approached the large man in a green military decor, decorated with several badges and stars of rather impressive standing. The Captain seemed to barely hear the young man, instead gazing intently at a map of the city laid out in front of him, several colors laid out over it as if factions warring with one another.
"Any supplies?" He muttered simply, never tearing his gaze from the map, tracing a few streets with his hand for a moment, breathing a deep sigh.
"It seems like we have all the buildings we need, the wall set up will assist in defenses. We found a large number of canned rations in the cafeteria, otherwise? We're on our own." The young man detailed.
"Good...at least we have this place secured." Garcia murmured more to himself, before looking up with sudden interest. "Any word yet from reinforcements?"
"Sadly no sir, no contact outside the city since the blockades were set into place, and Sergeant Connors reported that Denton lost contact several hours ago."
"Damn it!" The Captain cursed, slamming his fist into the table, knocking over a few figures set up there for representation, before sighing and turning up to see the man standing before him. "Tell Conners to seal off the bridge, it's nothing but a liability now."
"Sir? But what abo-"
"Don't argue with me private... anything that shuffles? Are target practice." Garcia spoke sharply, his voice heavy with malice.
"Understood sir... anything else?" the young man said cautiously.
"Yeah... tell Connors to bunker down for the night... I've got a bad feeling."

[ballerscuba]

As Davey looked to his left, eying the woman running down his street, his jaw dropped, though it could not be seen through his Darth Vader helmet. Seeing only that she wore a mechanic's uniform and was a brunette, he let the word "Letty" escape his lips. Instantly deciding to follow her, he slowly stepped out into the street.

Holding his sword in front of him, he whispered to his life-long love, though he knew she could not hear. "chugh SoH DIchDaq ghaj jIH jIH DIchDaq muSHa' SoH reH." He lowered his head, letting go of his sword with one hand to rest over his chest, the tip gently lowering onto the concrete. "I shall be your hero," he muttered under his breath.

Davey raised the handle of his sword high into the air, the tip pointed down, in the middle of the street. He shouted, making even the Darth Vader mask tremble with the force of his words, though the sound outside the mask was still very muffled. "YOU SHALL NOT--"

As he stared in the direction of Lucy and her pursuers, it was only then, mid-movie quote, that he realized how many zombies were actually behind her. All that could be heard as Davey turned around and flung his sword back on his holster on his back was a prolonged F sound.

He began running as fast as he could in the same direction as the zombies were running. "Why," Davey muttered. "Why couldn't they be Resident Evil zombies? Why did it have to be Zombieland? And where the hell is Tallahassee?!"

Davey's mind turned to Lucy. "Trudy Chacon," he said, and he began to slow down to let Lucy catch up before picking his speed back up. "I know of a police kiosk around here," he said as clearly as he could to her. "If we can lose these zombies..." A shock shot through Davey's mind. "Come with me if you want to live." Lucy could not see it, but Davey was grinning ear to ear at that line. "I'm so in," he thought. He then made his way toward the railroad tracks, running with a huge smile on his face.

[ThatOneGuysBro]

As he took off down 1st Street, John looked back to see Kyle overwhelmed by the assaulting zombies. 'Damnit!', he cursed silently in his mind. He stopped in his tracks. He sprinted foolishly to Kyle's aid. As Kyle wrested the zombie off his shoulder, John stood a few feet from him. "Lets go.", were his only words as he looked solemnly at Kyle. Suddenly he noticed an approaching revenant charing quickly. On impulse he drew his right arm back and then lunged it foreward, throwing the crowbar. It landed, knocking it in the head, but merely serving to slow it down as it fell. The two promptly ran, John particularlly faster than Kyle, feuled by adreneline wrought forth by fear.

Quickly catching up to the group, John heard the booming radio emenating from Bob's Guns. His eyes grew wide as he realized what that meant as the mob split in two and took off in a different direction. 'Damnit, why didn't he learn the first time?', he swore to himself yet again as he clenched his fist. John had to make a split-second decision. Go to Bob's aid, or find shelter from the rampaging stampede. At that moment a large building caught his attention as it was not as ravaged and worn-torn by the outbreak as the surrounding infrastructure. Susie's Club. The front door was opened a crack, and on instinct he motioned, waving his left arm in a wave-like manner. "In here!", he panicked. He quickly drew the kitchen knife that he haphazardly concealed in his other back pocket quite awkwardly.

As he opened the door he whipped out his gun, now in his left hand, holding the knife with his right in an odd fashion. Trying to alleviate the stress of it all he attempted to jest to himself. 'I've been playing too many video games.', he thought, taking a stance likened to that of Snake. He scanned the darkened room, save for the little sunlight that poured through the windows, for any signs of life to secure the location. His attention was torn between the zombies that followed from outside and what might be lurking in the darkness of the building he was in. A stark contrast to the somewhat clam facial expression he wore, his thoughts poured forth frantically, his mind nearly in shambles as the stress grew.

[Mog]

Connors almost smiled when he got the message from Garcia. He didn't need telling twice. Partly because it was beginning to get dark, but mainly because there was some sort of shuffling congregation of undead making their way across the bridge.
Moving down to the controls, Connors began the bridge closing process as around him a few of his men took out the undead leading the pack with the best rifles a never-quite-enough military budget could buy. There were a few clunking noises as the bridge came to life and began its slow ascension. Connors sighed to himself, it looked as though he'd be able to sleep relatively soundly after all.
Or perhaps not.

There was a gasp from his men, the shooting stopped, and one of them called Connors over. The Sergeant snatched one of the rifles and stared down the length of the bridge through its scope. Then he saw it, running in front of the screeching monsters was a single barefoot girl, her clothes stained with blood and her face a mask of terror.
"Help!" she yelled, her voice barely reaching the post from such a distance. Connors acted fast, calling for the other riflemen to take out her pursuers while one of his privates reversed the bridge.
"Help!" came the yell again, clearer this time. Connors fired like a pro, practically blowing apart the heads of the undead chasing the girl. He grimaced, they weren't shooting fast enough, and they weren't going to make it.
"Help!" ... God, she was covered in blood, he'd have to confine her to be safe... and what was with that voice...? The first strike hit Connors.
The second came when, for barely a second, one of the undead behind the girl passed her and continued running before it was hastily put down.
Finally, the third came when Connors glanced into the girls eyes between shots. Three strikes, he thought. He realigned the rifle, yelled to one of his men to close the bridge, and fired.
The bullet hit the girl in the chest, and continued through her body to hit one of the undead behind her. The force of Connors's shot was so much that the girl was flung into the air, spinning, only to crash into the water below as the bridge began to open beneath her. The rest of the undead also toppled into the water, emerging and striking out wildly, unsure of how to swim. They were quickly put down by Connors's men before they, like the girl, finally sank for good.

Connors handed the rifle back to a confused looking Private and sighed. He'd have to answer for that sooner or later. Knowing the Captain, he'd understand, or at least he'd rather be safe than sorry. As for the men now eyeing him confusedly, well, Connors wasn't entirely sure how he'd justify a mere feeling he'd had. Behind him the bridge clunked into its closed position and quietened.
"Alright, everyone inside, we're shutting shop for the night, I want the barricades up in 15 minutes."
There was some muttering amongst the squad, but they got to it. Connors, walking back toward the building, thought about those eyes for a moment before turning back to his men momentarily.
"And I want a detachment of you downstream at first light tomorrow to sweep the south bank."

[duskskully]

Kyle then started to run while he limped to follow the others to the building. He then felt someones hand on his shoulder and saw it was John helping him to run and then said,"Thanks for the help John." Kyle then limped into the building. Kyle then sat down on a chair near by and said silently,"Damn those sons of a bitchs, they got me." Kyle then decided to cock his shotgun just in case he started to change and then said,"Hey, if I can't shoot myself when I change Kain I want you to do it if I do change ok?" Kyle then started to cry and pray to god.

[Pulse]

Wind flowing through her hair, Lucy ran alongside this...strangely garbed man, his ridiculous sword weighing him down far too much, the fool. "What the hell are you on about?" she panted, the stench of death still all too overwhelming, "Can't you see we're BOTH being chased by a zombie horde?" Even on the severe edge of the trainyard, the scenes of devastation were terrible to behold - smoking ruins of old traincarts, half eaten workers over whom the crows fought, buildings ravaged by the horde. "So much potential here..." Lucy managed to whisper wistfully, ignoring the battle theme Davey was humming so diligently.