Left 4 Derpy
Chapter 15: GET TO THE CHOPPA!
The group had found the weapons and ammunition that News Chopper Nine had mentioned next to an air conditioning unit on the room’s roof. Razor barbed wire lined the edge of the room’s roof apart from three locations: the stairs, and two pairs of pipes that ran to other elevated sections of roof. There was also a Gatling gun mounted above the room’s front door that was aimed down the body-riddled section of roof between the room and the helipad. Beside the gun was a brutally maimed police officer.
Bill knelt over the dead policeman and sighed. “Poor bastard stayed behind to cover the last evac when this place got overrun.”
“What gives ya’ that dumb idea?” Francis retorted sarcastically.
“Because there’s over a dozen corpses in the gun’s sights. Besides, his hand is still on the trigger.”
He pointed to a severed hand gripping the Gatling gun’s trigger in a death grip. Francis opened his mouth as if to make another comeback, but he closed it again and returned to rummaging through the pile of ammo by the ac unit.
Bill, on the other hand (ha, get it?), pulled the deceased policeman’s hand from the Gatling gun’s trigger before reloading the gun’s ammunition. There were three more boxes of ammunition for the gun, so it was an open option should the time come to use it.
A few moments later the sound of an approaching helicopter echoed across the rooftops. The five survivors’ spirits were raised by the sound of their immediate rescue. Ditzy was so happy in fact, that she even jumped into Zoey’s arms and gave her a big hug. Zoey returned the hug hesitantly. The embrace, while meaningful, was only momentary, ending as Ditzy flew up into the air and did a back flip.
Louis was the first one to see it as it got closer. “Look, there’s the chopper! See Francis, we’re not gonna’ die, we’re gonna get rescued!”
“Just wait; something horrible is gonna happen and we’re all going to die. …Probably starting with you.”
Ditzy flew down beside the biker. “Oh come on Francis, its right there! What could possibly go wrong?”
“Well I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”
The helicopter, keeping a good hundred feet from the building, circled the roof before slowing to a hover, maintaining its distance away from the edge of the roof. Suddenly, Bill could hear the radio crackle and say something from inside the room. He walked to the top of the stairs, stopping and turning to the group before he descended.
“You four stay here. I’ll see what he’s doing.”
The others accepted and Bill walked down the steps and turned left into the room. He walked over to the table and picked up the receiver like he had before.
“News Chopper Nine this is Mercy Hospital. Why are you not landing for survivor pickup, over?”
“Mercy hospital I cannot land. Repeat, I cannot land. There’s countless infected swarming up the hospital, both inside and out, and they are moments away from reaching the roof! Among those are the massive, boulder throwing infected. If I get within a stone’s throw away from the roof with any of those giants, they could easily bring this chopper down with a well aimed chunk of rock. This thing doesn’t turn on a dime, you know.” There was a brief pause. “…Clear out as many of those things as possible and I’ll try to get as close as I can. Until then, I’m hanging back, over.”
“Roger that News Chopper Nine. But you better not even think about leaving us here, do you understand?”
“I read you loud and clear Mercy Hospital. Just try and take those things out as quickly as you can though. Remember, the more time you keep me waiting out here the more fuel I’m burning. News Chopper Nine, out.”
Bill tossed the radio’s receiver back on the table, spinning around at the shrill howl of a hunter from somewhere atop the hospital’s large roof. He pulled the assault rifle off his back and ran up the stairs to inform the others of the incoming infected. Francis was waiting for him at the top of the stairs.
“Let me guess, the chopper can’t land until we kill a massive army of infected that includes constant specials and multiple tanks?”
Bill blinked at the biker’s surprising accuracy of the situation. “Yea, that’s the general gist of it. How’d you know?”
Francis pointed past the Gatling gun just as a tank climbed onto the helipad, followed by a wall of infected swarming onto the helipad around it. The tank reared up and let out a tremendous roar as it beat its chest like a gorilla would, the common infected running past it as it pronounced its battle cry.
“Call it a badass’ intuition.” Francis answered Bill with a smug grin.
“Right… Well then, you all know what to do,” Bill said to the group as he cocked his rifle’s pin back. “Let’s get to work.”
“I got the Gatling gun,” Louis said anxiously. He holstered his Uzi and gripped the trigger, pausing a moment for the others to open fire. “Damn, I’ve always wanted to use one of these…”
“Then what are you waiting for, your mom’s permission?” Francis said as he slung the shotgun off his back and walked over to the barbed wired edge of the roof.
“Nope. Just the glow of their eyes.”
Common and special infected alike began swarming over the roof’s edges, running and climbing their way across the multiple levels of the hospital’s roof. The others took up defensive positions behind the barbed wire at each side of the roof as Ditzy pulled out her sword. She lifted herself off the ground with a powerful thrust of her wings and a gust of air, waiting for the word to attack.
“Louis, you take out any tanks you get in your sights first, then the other infected. Everyone else, try to take out any tanks before they get up here. After the tanks, take out the special infected before they cause us any trouble. We can’t afford to not have someone firing on all sides at all times. Other than that, shoot anything that moves. Now give them hell!”
Bill opened fire on the first zombies beginning to climb up the steps and the others opened fire immediately after. As the four humans began spraying the surrounding ocean of zombies, Ditzy launched herself high into the air in order to gain more speed when she swooped down to attack. With nothing but open sky on all sides, she knew she’d be much more combat-able than she had been before. Keeping this in mind, she took it upon herself to go for the special infected first, then the commons. Considering she only had a melee weapon, going up against the tanks would only succeed in her getting in the way.
She eyed a charger cresting the outer walls and sped towards it, spinning around at the last second to plant both her hind hooves square in its chest at full speed. The special infected was sent roaring off the roof, flailing in the air helplessly before ultimately landing in the streets with a gory splat. Ditzy cringed at the idea instinctively, but she knew this was not the time for sentiment. These creatures were already dead in more than enough ways, and they would kill her new friends mercilessly the first chance they got. But despite having to kill, she could not let her friends meet such a grizzly demise. She spotted a boomer crawling over the building’s edge across the roof, and she sped off to dispatch it post haste.
Meanwhile, Louis had begun to unleash the full fury of his Gatling gun into the upper torso of the first tank. The steady, seemingly solid line of bullets being pumped into the behemoth didn’t seem to be slowing the tank down until the eighth bullet to enter the tank’s skull finally killed it. The beast stumbled and fell face first on the ground about a dozen feet from the room. With the tank down, Louis began spraying bullets into the ocean of infected around the room, unleashing a torrent of severed limbs and exploding heads. He wasn’t aware of it at the time, but he had begun to laugh somewhat manically over the sound of the weapons constant gunfire. Despite the circumstances, this had to be one of the best experiences he had felt
Zoey looked over to Louis in concern briefly before she went to reload her Uzi. Unfortunately, she found that all of her spare mags were lying on the ground beside her, every last bullet used. She frantically shuffled through the pile of empty magazines, desperately looking for one that was not completely empty
“Shit! I’m out!”
“Grab a new gun and get back to it before they overwhelm your side!” Bill shouted as he slid a fresh magazine into his M16.
Zoey tossed a Molotov amongst the zombies swarming her side of the defense, igniting them and the surrounding zombies into a blazing inferno. She used the small amount of time that she had given herself to rush over to the ac unit. There were three guns awaiting her: an AK-47, a military sniper rifle, and a combat shotgun. Strategies and statuses flashed through her mind as she depicted which would be the wisest choice for her to use.
The shotgun, while semi-automatic, had much too much kick and was too slow and tedious to reload. The sniper rifle, on the other hand, had tremendous accuracy and was easier to reload, but its rate of fire was much too low for the situation at hand. This left her with the AK-47. It was fully automatic, was easy to reload, and had a good rate of fire. The situation called for a quick output of bullets in a short amount of time, so the kickback and inaccuracy would have to be tolerated for now.
With her mind made up, Zoey grabbed the AK and all the magazines she could find in the unorganized pile of ammunition and rushed back to her station. She brushed the empty Uzi magazines away and knelt down, looking over the mass below her as the final flames of her Molotov died.
With a cock of her new gun’s pin and an eye down its sight, Zoey opened fire once again. She was taken aback by the gun’s power at first, sending slight waves of pain through her shoulder as its bullets ripped the zombies apart even more violently than the Gatling gun was. She paused for a split second to rub her already sore shoulder and take a deep breath.
“Damn, Russians sure do know how to make a kickass gun,” she said to herself before opening fire once again.
-
The hunter was pirched beneath a satellite dish atop the highest point of the roof, watching as the group desperately tried to hold back his army of the undead. To be honest though, he had gotten lucky when it came to gathering such a horde. The initial horde had been summoned when the flying machine had attempted, and failed, to rescue a group of survivors earlier. All the hunter had to do was manipulated the feeble minds of the infected to follow him (and the sound of the helicopter).
He had continued to gather other infected that were following the flying machine’s racket all the way to the hospital. However, when he and his horde reached the building, only to discover that the noise of the flying machine was not present, something happened.
Some kind of sound wave, one that he and many others in the horde had not heard before, resonated from the top of the hospital. The sound was more intense than the hunter had ever heard before, bringing about a sharp pain that cut deep into his mind. He could tell the other infected could sense the same sound as they began climbing up the building’s walls frantically, even without him having to tell them to do so.
As he too began climbing the building, he looked down at the rest of the horde below. To his surprise, he could see countless other infected beginning to feed through the desolate streets and swarm towards the building.
The hunter smiled to himself at the recollection. His plan had unfolded even better than he could have fathomed. In recompense, the survivors had, ironically, gathered far more of the infected than he ever could have alone. All he had to do was point in the right direction, and the survivors did the rest to bring the infected masses upon themselves.
However, the hunter knew that the fight was far from finished. He had witnessed the survivors escape many situations where the odds were against them. The current situation was no different.
He ducked down as the flying animal whooshed past him. It appeared to be excelling at vanquishing the special infected, which told him that it was a good idea to not be seen by it, lest it kill him prematurely. He knew it would be a truly difficult task to kill the creature, even compared to the four humans, but at this point the idea of its death was second only to the idea of the gruff survivor being killed.
If nothing else, the hunter swore that he would see that human dead; by his very hands if the situation reached that. The gruff survivor had made a mockery of the hunter and his brethren, even if said brethren were less notable than himself. But at last, in this place and at this time, the gruff survivor, and hopefully his companions as well, would meet his fate. This, the hunter swore to himself.
-
Another tank roared as it climbed onto the helipad, much like the first, and began rushing through the sea of common infected, smashing and crushing all in its way. Louis lined up the shot and pulled the Gatling gun’s trigger again, unleashing a string of bullets into the behemoth. Suddenly, the gun stopped its fire and clicked emptily as the barrels continued to rotate.
“Reloading!”
Louis fiddled with the empty magazine before finally pulling it off the gun and tossing it aside. He quickly picked up a new magazine and tried desperately to equip it, the tank growing nearer by the millisecond.
“Shit! Bill, how do you reload this damn thing?!”
“You just attach the ammo box to the side and make sure the new string of bullets is aligned.”
Louis looked at the gun blankly for a moment. “What?!”
“Damnit, hold on a second.”
Bill pulled a pipe bomb off of his belt and threw it into the horde on his side of the building before rushing over to Louis and the Gatling gun. He grabbed the magazine out of Louis’ hands and slid it smoothly into its slot on the Gatling gun just before the pipe bomb exploded, ripping apart numerous infected with the ferocity of any homemade explosive. By now they could feel the ground beginning to shake as the tank grew nearer.
“There, now get to it!”
Bill turned and rushed back to his side of the roof as Louis looked down the Gatling gun’s sights in time to see the tank’s unnaturally muscular body climb over the roof’s edge, brushing the barbed wire aside like it was nothing but cobwebs. Louis rolled away from the Gatling gun just in time before the tank swatted it, sending it tumbling across the roof before it smashed into the ac unit.
“We got a problem!”
“No shit Sherlock!” Francis shouted as he turned to face the tank.
Louis wasn’t able to draw his weapon before he had to roll to avoid another one of the tank’s swipes. He heard a blast from Francis’ shotgun and the tank stumbled slightly, giving him just enough time to stand and draw his weapon. However, before he had a chance to fire, a grey blur shot past in front of the tank, leaving a deep slice across the monster’s unnaturally enlarged pecks.
Ditzy circled around sharply for another pass. True, she had determined it was not best for her to engage one of the tanks earlier, but that had been when the four humans had a chance of killing them at a distance. This one, on the other hand, was in the dead center of the group. She felt more than just obligated to assist in its take down before it could harm and of her friends.
The tank saw her coming the second time, however. It swiped at her suddenly, and it was all she could do to avoid the massive fist speeding directly for her. While she was able to dodge the actual blow, the turbulence that it left in its wake were enough to send Ditzy spinning out of control for a moment. She recovered from the tumble in a flash, only to realize that the sack of muffins that she had around her neck had fallen off during the tumble, and landed on the roof near the tank. The beast roared in fury that it had missed its target, and slammed its fists into the ground.
…pulverizing Ditzy’s bag of muffins in the process.
Something in the mare’s mind snapped, causing time to slow as Ditzy reeled back in horror at the brutal destruction of her muffins. She had been saving them, hoping to have another celebratory muffin toast with the others once they were on the helicopter. Those muffins had been celebration muffins. They had been special. …But now they had been ground into an inedible dust by that big. Stupid! Idiotic! Shit-for-brains tank!!!
The mare’s expression shifted from shock to pure, unbridled rage as her eyes straightened, focusing only on the tank.
“You… mother FUCKER!”
The four humans stopped what they were doing and turned their attention to the raging pony. As the tank let out another enraged roar, Ditzy seized her moment to strike. She swooped beside the tank with a hard beat of her wings and a flash of grey. Before anyone realized what she had done, the tank’s right arm fell to the ground, streams of dark red liquids squirting from its severed joint.
The tank let out a howl of pain and stumbled at the sudden shift in weight distribution. As it regained its footing it looked to the grey pony hovering in the air above it and swung its (only) arm in an attempt to swat it out of the sky. However, the tank’s colossal hand missed Ditzy, who had swerved past the massive arm. She landed on the tank’s shoulders and looked down at its tiny head for a moment, as if giving it the chance to realize what was going on.
Then, in the blink of an eye, Ditzy stabbed the katana through the side of the tank’s neck before spinning the blade around, launching the behemoth’s head into the air with a string of blood in its wake. Ditzy then stabbed the sword violently into the bloody, open neck, burying the blade into the tank up to its hilt. According to her on-the-spot calculations, the blade had passed through the tank’s heart.
She twisted the blade suddenly, resulting in a muffled crack as it snapped any ribs it had penetrated. Ditzy pulled her blade from the beast and lifted herself into the air as the tank’s corpse began to fall forward. She looked down at the slain beast as the puddle of blood around it began to grow.
The four humans stared at Ditzy in a mixture of shock, surprise, and even a hint of horror at how easily she had taken down the tank. Even Francis realized his jaw was gaping, however he quickly regained his composure.
“Yea, well… I softened it up for you…”
Ditzy’s expression wavered at Francis’ statement, causing her to snap out of her blood-rage. Her eyes derped again as she looked around to the other survivors, then back down to the bloody tank.
“I… I…”
“…Shit, kid; I didn’t know you had it in you.” Bill said, turning back to his edge of the roof. “But in case you people forgot, we still have a big-ass horde to clear out in order for the chopper to land.”
The others turned back to their respective sides of the roof, realizing that the zombies were on the brink of pushing past the barbed wire. Ditzy continued staring at the dead tank, still trying to think of how she could have possibly committed such a horrid act of brutality, even if it was for the greater good. She felt a hand rest on her shoulder.
“Come on, we need you to help us,” Zoey said comfortingly. “I’m sure what you’re going through is hard, but right now we need you. Alright?”
Ditzy nodded and scrunched her eyes closed, rubbing a tear from them with her hoof. Zoey gave her a reassuring smile and a gentle pat on the back before returning to her side of the roof, beginning to unload into the ocean of infected once again. Ditzy shook her head and looked around at the masses of zombies. There would be a time for her to deal with her thoughts later, but now she had to get back to helping her friends survive.
Bill noticed the helicopter circling the hospital another two times before stopping at where it was before. Suddenly he heard a voice crackle in the radio speakers over the constant sound of gunfire and screams from the zombies. He turned to the others momentarily.
“The choppers trying to say something over the radio.”
“Yea, So? Its not like we can just drop what we’re doing and go say hi!” Francis replied, keeping his focus on shooting the massing zombies.
“Damnit, what if it’s important? You want to risk getting left here?”
Francis looked up from his shotgun’s sights as the thought rattled around in his head.
“…What did you have in mind?”
“I say we move downstairs and defend from there until we know what he wants. Then we can move back up here if we need to.”
“Sounds simple enough.” Zoey said, trying to sound confident.
“Alright then, everyone move on my mark. One… Two… Mark!”
Everyone, including Ditzy, rushed to Bill by and the stairs before running down them and into the empty room. Francis and Louis took up defending the two doors as Zoey began firing from the window beside the tables and radio. Bill picked up the microphone in his left hand as he continued to grip the rifle in his right.
“News Chopper Nine, repeat your last transmission, over.”
“I said it doesn’t look like any of those giant zombies are near the roof yet. If you can clear a way to the helipad, now would be a good opportunity for me to pick you up, over.”
“Roger that. We’ll see what we can do, over.” Bill tossed the receiver back on the table and turned around. “You all catch that?”
“No shit, Bill. But in case you haven’t noticed, the zombies between us and the pad are thicker than shit!”
Bill looked to the propane tanks as an idea struck him. “Louis, do you still have that tape you found on the subway car safehouse?”
“Yea, why?”
“I’ve got an idea on how we can get to the helipad. Toss me the tape.”
Louis tossed the roll of tape across the room. Bill snatched it out of the air and moved to the propane tanks as he pulled a pipe bomb from his belt. He pressed the pipe bomb against the tank as he wrapped the tape around the two objects a few times. He stood up and looked over his work and smiled.
“The plan is we use these two propane tanks to blast a brief path through the horde and get to the helipad. The pipe bombs will attract more of the horde, thus ensuring more are killed. Then, while we have the chance, we make a break for it.”
“Sounds like a plan if I’ve ever heard one.” Zoey said between spurts of gunfire from her AK.
“Louis, you got another pipe bomb?”
“Yea, sure.” Louis tossed the homemade explosive to Bill, who proceeded to tape it to the second propane tank.
“Alright, now we have to figure out how to get them into the horde…”
“I could fly them out,” Ditzy said as she landed beside the veteran.
She was still getting over her spit of rage, but she was feeling more level-headed than before. A touch of concern could be seen in the man’s eyes as he looked from the haphazardly rigged tanks to the mare.
“We’d have to activate them before you flew them out. And are you sure you can even lift them? …I would hate to see you get killed now of all times, especially after all that’s happened tonight.”
“Yea, I can do it.”
Ditzy tried her best to put on a confident smile, but the ever-growing weariness made it difficult. Bill gazed at her for another moment before closing his eyes and rubbing his brow.
“Alright, but only if you don’t get yourself killed.”
“Now hang on just a moment.” Francis stated gruffly from his doorway. “Two propane tanks, even with pipe bombs, won’t be enough to keep these bastards off us long enough to get to the pad, even if we run.”
“You got a better idea then?”
Francis ceased fire for a moment of thought, looking at his bandaged right arm. He could see a tuft of grey hair pushing its way between the bandages. Maybe if he… No. That would be stupid! Why would he risk sacrificing himself for these bunch of pansies and their pet freak?
…Because they were a team. Because they had been through the thickest and the thinnest, all in one night. This was no longer a ‘one man show,’ not since they were the only people left alive that cared enough about him to not let the mutated freaks eat his guts while he watched. Maybe, just maybe, it was time to do something truly helpful in return. Besides, it’s not like he had much of anything to lose; what with the freaky ‘rash’ spreading across his entire body, causing who knows what kind of effects underneath the foreign fur.
“…I’ll man the mini-gun and cover you guys to the pad.”
Zoey and Louis turned, somewhat flabbergasted at the biker’s suggestion, but Bill seemed unaffected.
“In case you weren’t watching, the tank smashed the Gatling gun into the ac unit.”
“It didn’t seem to do that much damage to be honest. Besides, you and Louis had just put in a full magazine. Seems like the best option if you ask me.”
“Well that has yet to be determined. Besides, what’s with the sudden act of kindness? That last tank hit you in the head when I wasn’t looking or something?”
“What, can’t a guy just risk his own life to help a bunch of pansies not get their asses kicked?” Francis asked sarcastically as a smirk spread across his face.
“Not someone like you, no.”
“Yea well, shut up before I change my mind. If the gun still works, I’m doing it.”
Bill stared at him in thought for another moment before grumbling something under his breath. “Fine! Just don’t go all suicidal and stay behind.”
“Aw come on, surely you know me better than that by now you crazy old bastard.”
Francis chuckled as Bill rolled his eyes and walked back to the radio. The veteran picked up the receiver again and put it up to his mouth.
“News Chopper Nine, you still there, over?”
“Roger that, I read you loud and clear. You guys have a plan to get to the pad yet?”
“Roger. We’ll have a brief window of opportunity here, so you’d better get in position really quick.”
“Copy that. …But before I let you people on, I have an important question to ask, over…”
Bill groaned. There always has to be something, doesn’t there? “Yes, what is it?”
“About your group… Just what the hell is that thing I’ve seen flying around? And was I seeing shit, or did it take down one of big zombies down all on its own; cause I don’t want something like that sealed in a helicopter with me!”
Yep, there’s always a problem. “…It’s hard to explain, but it’s with us. And we are not, repeat, are NOT leaving without it.” Bill could practically feel Ditzy smiling behind him.
“…Fuck, just… You’d better not be screwing with me, cause it’s your own damn life on the line if that thing causes a ruckus and makes us crash! Now hurry up with that plan of yours before anymore of those big freaks get to the roof, over!”
“Roger that News Chopper Nine. And rest assured, you’ll get an explanation when we’re airborne. Mercy Hospital, out.” He tossed the receiver on the table and turned to the group, grasping the rifle in his hands tightly. “Alright people, let’s get back to the roof and get the hell outta here!”
Bill and Francis each carried one of the propane tanks as Zoey, Louis, and Ditzy cleared out the zombies on the stairs and the roof. Bill, after setting down his propane tank by the side of the roof facing the helipad, walked over to the Gatling gun and examined it. He clicked a button, causing the barrels so spin with a high pitched hum. The ammunition cartridge was still attached and intact, as were the gun’s other key components. However, the stand it had rested on, while still attached to the roof where it had been before, had been bent in every way but the one it needed to be. Plus, the joint that the gun swiveled on had been ripped out.
“Well, the gun still works, but the damn stand is shot to shit. And unless you’ve gotten stronger in the last ten minutes, I don’t think you’ll be able to hold this thing and fire with an accuracy that doesn’t include shooting us.”
Francis walked by the edge of the roof in front of the stand and kicked the barbed wire that the tank had mutilated, causing it to fall from the roof and into the faces of the zombies beneath it. He then walked to the gun and picked it up with a strained grunt, carrying it to the side of the roof and setting on the ground. Its multiple barrels rotated in the air as Francis rotated the gun on the edge of the roof.
“Problem solved. Now, whenever you’re ready…”
Bill nodded and turned to Ditzy, who nodded back to him. “Alright, I’m going to activate the pipe bomb, and you fly it out over the horde a ways. Get back here as fast as you can and we’ll repeat the process, only you’ll need to carry it a lot further than the first. Understood?”
“Right, got it.” Her smile had begun to show true confidence by now.
Bill turned to Zoey and Louis. “When the first one blows, we jump and make a run for it. Francis will cover our backs, so we’ll only have to deal with any remaining infected in our way after the second one blows. Then we will, in turn, cover Francis as he gets to the helipad. Everyone got it?”
The two nodded and made sure they had full magazines and Bill held up the first tank. Ditzy wrapped her front hooves around it as the veteran activated the pipe bomb, resulting in the usual high pitched beeping.
“Now go! Hurry, before it explodes!” He said as she drifted heavily above the mass of zombies. Once she thought she was far enough away, she dropped the canister and sped back to the roof. Francis, watching the horde while he waited to open fire, saw the tank crush a zombie that it landed on. He chuckled at the instance before returning his focus back on the rest of the horde. Bill held up the second propane tank for Ditzy as she returned.
“Remember, you’ve got a lot less time to fly this thing out there before it blows.”
Ditzy nodded as she wrapped her hooves around the canister like before as Bill activated the pipe bomb. As she flew back over the horde she saw just how many zombies were clustered around the last tank she had dropped. The first pipe bomb’s beeping increased suddenly as she flew above it, and she was able to swerve and avoid the following explosion and shower of gore. She heard Bill shout for the others to go as she continued flying forward.
Unfortunately, her weariness was beginning to creep back at this point. The tank slipped in her hooves and she lost height and speed in order to retain her grip. She could hear the sound of her companion’s gunfire growing closer as they blasted their way through the survivors of the blast. Her grip grew weaker as her energy continued to dwindle; the night’s events suddenly beginning to weigh down on her.
Suddenly the pipe bomb began to beep rapidly. Knowing all too well what followed, she released the bomb and sped away just before it landed amongst the horde and exploded. The blast opened up the rest of the way to the helipad as the three humans continued running to their destination, unwavering from the relatively close blast. Ditzy pulled her sword back out and began helping clear the remaining zombies out of the way, though she was beginning to slow down due to her fleeting strength.
During the rush through the horde, the helicopter had pulled around and was hovering level to, but not directly above, the helipad. As Ditzy and the others climbed up onto the pad the helicopter’s sides slid back as the pilot began shouting for them to hurry up. Ditzy noticed how the pilot was giving her strange looks, but she decided to focus on that when their lives were not in as much peril.
The humans stopped at the edge of the helipad, only a tiny jump’s distance from the open helicopter, before they turned and fired back on the zombies trying to fill the remaining gap in the horde. Bill stopped firing long enough to achieve eye contact with Francis, who was still relentlessly gunning down the zombies with the battered Gatling gun.
“Francis, move your ass! The gap is closing and the chopper isn’t going to wait much longer!”
Francis ceased fire. “No thanks, I think I’ll just chillax here for a while.”
“Damnit Francis, we don’t have tim-”
“What; are you as stupid as you are old? I was only screwing around!”
He released the gun and leapt from the rooftop, giving him a good start as he began to run around the numerous corpses. He picked his shots carefully, only shooting the ones that he couldn’t simply push out of the way. Unfortunately, the gun quickly ran out of shells, and, knowing this was neither the time nor the place to reload, he slung the gun on his back and whipped out his baseball bat.
He was about two-thirds of the way to the pad when a loud scream echoed across the rooftop. Startled, Francis looked up just in timed to see a deep-blue blur tackle him to the ground, knocking the breath out of him. Although he was somewhat dizzy from the impact, he was still able to nail the hunter in the side of the head with the butt of his bat. However, the blow did not seem to work as he still felt the zombie’s weight holding him down.
“Someone get this damn thing off me!” he shouted instinctively as a pair of razor-sharp claws sliced across his chest. Luckily, his vest had fallen open when he fell on his back, so it was not damaged.
As his eyes began to gain focus once again he realized the hunter’s glowing red eyes were staring straight into his. An aura of rage, fury, and malice radiated from the pair of orbs as they stared down upon the biker. Francis blinked, breaking the eye contact before he noticed a swollen, blackish-blue oval on the side of the hunter’s head. Francis’ eyes widened in realization as the hunter raised his other claw to further slice the man’s chest open.
“Oh you mother fuc-” A grey blur and a gust of wind cut him off.
The arm that the hunter had raised fell to the ground, its fingers twitching slightly before the limb went limp. The hunter let out a shrill cry of pain at its severed arm, grabbing at the bloody stump with its other hand. Francis, on the other hand, took immediate action at this opportunity and slammed the butt of his bat into the hunter’s face, causing it to fall off him and begin writhing in pain.
The biker rolled over and climbed to his feet, turning to the pegasus beside him. Ditzy was crouched, her wings spread and the bloody katana in her mouth. After double-taking the mare’s angry expression, he realized that her eyes had straightened again.
“You owe me. …Again,” she said through the sword’s hilt.
“Later.”
The hunter began to stop writhing before it got back on its feet and turned to its two opponents. A smirk spread across mouth as he made eye contact with the special infected again.
“Thanks for the save, but I got it from here. Make sure we’re not interrupted.”
Ditzy looked up to the biker, the look of anger wavering. “Are you sure?”
“I’ve never been too sure in my life,” he replied as his grip on the bat tightened.
The hunter crouched as best it could with a single arm as Francis spread his arms and legs in a defensive fashion, ready to evade any incoming attack. Ditzy launched herself into the air once again and continues slicing the incoming zombies as Bill and the others continued shooting the ones they could from where they were.
A second of tension between the biker and the hunter ensued.
Suddenly, the hunter leapt forward with a loud shout. Francis took a step back before the hunter pounced upon him. The moment that Francis landed on his back, the hunter froze as a wave of pain shot through his chest. Francis had placed the tip of the bat in the middle of the hunter’s chest; so when he fell to the ground, the butt of the bat had landed on the ground, causing the momentum to crush the hunter’s ribs as he landed.
Francis pushed the bat against the stunned hunter, causing it to fall on its back beside him. Francis stood up again and looked over the wheezing hunter with contempt. It looked back at him and tried to growl, resulting in a disgruntled gurgle as blood began running from the sides of its mouth. Francis scowled and removed his bat from the hunter’s chest, replacing it with his boot.
“Hey, there’s something on your face.” The anger on the hunter’s face grew more intense. In the blink of an eye, Francis removed his boot from the hunter’s chest and slammed its heel into its face, crushing its skull with a sickening crunch and a splatter of blood.
“…It’s my boot.”
“Come on, it’s time to leave!” Bill shouted angrily from the helipad. Francis removed his boot from what was left of the hunter’s head and turned to the helipad.
“Yea, yea old man. Don’t get your beard in a knot!”
Francis began running for the helipad once again, smashing any zombie that was in his way in the face with his bat. Ditzy was following close behind, still slicing away at the oncoming zombies. A chill ran down everyone’s spine as a guttural roar echoed across the roof from someplace past the horde. Francis turned to see where the tank was, though he didn’t dare slow down for an instant.
Suddenly, and without warning, the side of the room facing the helipad exploded, sending chunks of plaster and rock raining down across the horde. The tank roared again and beat its chest as it stood in the freshly-smashed hole in the room’s wall. Francis let out a “fuck!” and picked up the pace, not bothering to smash the zombies in his way with the bat.
Ditzy paused at the sight of the tank, her blood running cold as her remaining strength seemed to vanish. She was snapped back to reality as the behemoth began smashing its way through the horde relentlessly as it came to murder them.
With the tank on hot pursuit, Ditzy spun around and sped towards Francis, grabbing his bandaged arm and pulling at him to try and make him go faster. Her pulling did help, but the tank was still rapidly closing in. However, she was not aware of it, but her tugging at his arm had begun to rip some of the bandages.
Bill and the others ceased fire as Francis and Ditzy reached them, and they all jumped into the helicopter before the side slid shut behind them. The tank climbed onto the helipad as the chopper began to pull away and roared with fury. It ripped up a chunk of the helipad and threw it at the air craft, which lurched to the side and dodged the slab of rock. The tank roared again as it saw the helicopter fly away into the sun-rise, but was cut short as the entire helipad collapsed beneath it due to structural integrity.
On the helicopter, Zoey had squeezed into the co-pilot’s seat and began explaining the whole situation with them and the pony as the others tried to relax after their narrow escape. Francis took to reloading his gun, as was Bill There was a few moments of relative silence, aside from the air craft’s engine and blades’ non-stop noise.
“Damn,” Louis began, sounding slightly out of breath. “I can’t believe we finally made it.”
“Thank Celestia that’s finally over.” Ditzy said faintly as the night’s occurrences truly began to sink in. She shut her eyes as tears began to form. “…Now all I need to do is find a way home…”
Louis patted her on the back. “Don’t worry Ditzy, it’s alright now. It’ll all be alright from here on out.”
“Don’t be too sure about that Louis,” Francis said as he slid the last shell into his shotgun before pumping the stock. “Any moment now something bad will happen and we’ll all be killed.”
Louis noticed that a section of bandage on Francis’ arm was dangling loosely, though he couldn’t get a good look at what it had been covering.
“Hey Francis, your bandages…”
“Huh?” he looked down to his arm, seeing the dangling strip. He swore under his breath as he tried wrapping it back around. Eventually, he licked the end and stuck it back where it had been.
“There. Good as new.” As if on cue, all of the bandages on that section of his arm came loose and fell to the floor the instant he said that.
“…Fuck.”
Louis’ eyes widened at the sight of Francis’ exposed arm. Although, exposed might not be the correct term, considering there was a solid layer of grey fur across the bandage-less section of arm. Louis looked between the arm and Francis’ face several times before he was able to speak.
“W-What the hell? What is that?!”
“What, never seen a real man’s arm hair? Surprising, considering how many showers you’ve had with them.”
“Now’s not the time, Francis.” Bill said sternly, having been watching silently up to this point. “Now what the hell is wrong with your arm.”
Francis’ scowl twitched. So much for trying to keep it a secret. “Ask Derpy Dunce over there! She’s the one who bit me, remember? Oh, and Bill? I fucking told you so!”
Bill and Louis turned to Ditzy, who had curled into a corner. “I… I don’t know what it is. Really, I don’t. I didn’t do it on purpose either; Celestia knows I would never do such a thing intentionally! …I’m sorry…”
“Yea, well… It’s a bit late for that now in case you haven’t noticed!”
Bill looked to the arm again. “You think we should, I don’t know… amputate it?”
“A little late for that, I’m sorry to say.”
Francis grumbled as he pulled his bloody under-shirt up slightly, revealing numerous red splotches with fur beginning to grow in them. He lowered the undershirt back down. Bill rubbed his forehead as he leaned back.
“Well… What are we going to do about this?”
“It… It could be nothing.” Louis offered. “Just some kind of… freak allergic reaction?”
“Like everyone else had a ‘freak allergic reaction’ to the green flu? Bull-shit.” Francis picked the bandage off the floor and began wrapping it back around his arm. “Louis, give me some of that tape.”
Louis obliged, and Francis taped the bandages together to make sure they wouldn’t fall off again. The following silence was rather unnerving, especially on Ditzy. Finally, Bill spoke.
“Well… I guess we can deal with this later. You’re not feeling like a zombie, are you?”
“Well considering I’m immune, I wouldn’t know. …But if I had to guess, I’d say no. it’s just itchy as all hell and burns.”
“Mmm… Well, we’ll sort this out when we have the chance. This is neither the time nor the place to do it though. We’re lucky the pilot let us on as it is.”
“Let me guess; he was scared of the infectious flying horse.”
“Not the way I would put it… but true.”
Ditzy curled up tighter in her corner and tried her best not to begin crying again, given the situation. She felt like all of these bad things were her fault, and yet she never wanted any of it. Louis extended his hand, hesitating for a second before rubbing her back reassuringly.
“It’s ok. …It’ll all be ok…”
The silence following Louis’ words was cut short when they heard the pilot groan…
- Ten minutes later -
Ditzy lay curled up under her seat, holding the sheathed katana tightly against her chest as if it would protect her. Tears were streaming out her eyes, despite them being shut. It had all happened so fast. The pilot had said something about a street pickup, he began to groan, then Zoey had shot him…
Now the helicopter was out of control. She couldn’t see it, but she could feel the pressure of the cabin shifting as the air craft spiraled towards the ground. Bill was leaning over the dead pilot trying to grab the cyclical as Zoey was mashing buttons in an attempt to make the alarms to stop beeping. Francis and Louis were arguing about something, but she didn’t care to know what it was about.
Even if the helicopter’s doors were open, she wouldn’t leave. She couldn’t. She couldn’t leave her friends to die while she escaped; not after all the trouble and hurt she felt that she had caused already. She would not add abandonment to that list, even if there was a chance for escape.
All she could do was lay there, clutching the only thing she held dear in this world, and wait for the inevitable contact with the ground…
- - -
The four survivors looked over the flaming wreckage of what had been their salvation mere minutes ago. While they had miraculously survived the crash, none of them felt that their morale had. Even Louis felt down-beat. Zoey looked between the others, but not finding the face she was searching for.
“…Where’s Ditzy…”
The others looked around before turning back to her.
“You don’t think…”
The helicopter’s fuel tanks ignited, resulting in a sizeable explosion from the wreckage. The others looked into the fiery wreckage, the same, grim thought echoing in their minds. This continued until Bill sighed.
“Well… As long as we never forget, she’ll be with us.” He paused. “…But we need to get moving before all this noise attracts too many zombies.”
Bill slung the rifle onto his shoulder as he began to walk away, Zoey and Louis following behind. He stopped when he realized Francis was still by the chopper.
“You coming?”
Francis continued staring into the flames, his face devoid of any expression.
“Francis!”
The biker blinked and turned to his addresser. “Yea… I’m coming.”
He began to follow the others, turning back and looking at the chopper one last time before he continued. An unbearable itch washed over his back, and he reached under his vest to scratch. As he did so, twinges of pain stabbed him when his fingers ran across two hard knobs, one on either side of his spine.
“…Fucking pony.”