[01] Abandoned 4 Killed!

[Kill Town]

Abandoned 4 Killed!

4-person competitive

Summary:[i] Players are teleported to an abandoned city that’s filled with crazy undead beings lovingly referred to as zombies. Weapons will be handed out to players at random – some can be useful, some may appear to be useless. Whatever the weapon may be, they can ALL do damage. Aside from that, this event is fairly free form. Band together and form a barricade, or go it alone. Regardless, survive until the end of the round to progress.

[i]Hint: Uh...just kill zombies and stuff.

Opportunity: No

Participants: Mr. Zhu, Victoria, Piper, Wolfgang

[Victoria]

“Ffffuuu-“ Victoria dropped to the ground and grabbed her knee in pain. She sucked in air between her gritted teeth, and then let it out, rocking as she rubbed her leg. “What the hell did you do that for?” She screamed up into the air, the angry clouds rumbled. His grating voice didn’t reply, which was probably for the best. Victoria rolled over and pushed herself onto her feet. She looked around, baffled. Her scraped knee began to heal, but the pain made her limp until it did heal. “Where am I now? 90210?” she grumbled, limping down the street and looking at all the large houses. Various trees waved in the wind in front of the houses, but the entire area was silent. “This doesn’t feel right,” she said under her breath, looking behind her, swearing she had just heard a noise.

Victoria walked along the street; it sloped slightly, heading into what appeared to be the center of town. She stooped, the breeze blowing against her body and her hair flowed with it to one side. Her skirt fluttered, baring her creamy thigh. She reached to her vest pocket and pulled out her cell phone. She pushed the buttons, attempting to get a hold of someone, anyone. The smiley face appeared. “What?” she said, raising it higher into the air to read the text. She stared at the disfigured face of a decrepit human. Victoria screamed and dropped her cell phone.

“Ughnnugghhhffbb?” the guttural sound made her leap forward and turn in one fluid movement. “Fffph.” It reached out a rotting hand, weather-worn skin hung from the hallow bones. Its eye’s were sunken, face pale and shrunken, and at that very moment its jaw unhinged.

Victoria screamed at the top of her lunges. “Z-z-ZOMbie?” she pointed back at the creature with her hand. “S-seriously?” she snatched her cell phone and took a step back, and it shuffled towards her. The groans that emanated from its chest were raspy, and rattled its ribs eerily. Vic caught more movement, and from every nook and cranny, a shambling ghoul came trekking towards her. Their body’s moved erratically, twitching, dripping, and wobbling in all manners.

Her feet moved of their own accord, and she couldn’t agree more with the notion of running. She turned tail and fled down the sloping street, straight into the center of town. She could hear the lumbering husks of death attempting to pursue her. She glanced over her shoulder, watching them stumble over each other in excitement over a meal on the run, and they tumbled like dominoes down the road. “Oh, shit.” Victoria felt her gut twist as she ran, a head rolled past her, eyes bouncing out of the sockets.

She stopped between the large strip malls, and took one step back. Zombies followed from behind, and from the stores, they clawed at the windows. “Ok, not 90210, more like Night of the Living Dead.” She surmised. “Think Victoria, think.” She clenched her fists and looked for a way out of the death trap she had wandered into. The creatures groaned in unison behind her, creeping closer, reaching with yearning fingers. The monsters clambered out of the shops, little bells ringing from the doorways, informing her that her number was up.

A zombie came close, hulking over her like a banshee. She squealed and side stepped its swiping hands. It fell forward in a groan, falling into a painful heap. It’s actually kind of sad. She thought, looking down at the bag of bones, it wiggled and creaked, trying to get back up. Victoria hopped backwards, barely avoiding its outstretched hand. “Right, zombies are notorious for being very, very undead.” She remarked, and jumped back again as another zombie stepped up to the plate. “Whoa,” she said, moving again to the side as more zombies approached from behind her. They were going to surround her. She could already picture it; the gaggle of beasts pulling her down with their cold hands, pulling her apart like tender chicken.

Victoria cocked back her arm, tightened her fist, and smashed the nearest ghoul in the face. Its head caved in, old goopy brain matter oozed against her fist and down the creatures face. “Uck!” she cried out and withdrew her fist, shaking it profusely. “Why zombies, why?” she cried out, and dodged the attack of another zombie, it reached for her precious hair. “No! Don’t you dare touch my hair with your dirty, crusty, undead HANDS!” she screamed angrily and snapped her foot upwards to send the groaning corpse into the nearest wall. They were coming at her like an unending wave, a wave of putrid rotting flesh.

Victoria jumped at the few that were behind her. She pushed them down with her feet, punching another as she ran by, making its head spin on its spindly neck. She ran, glancing about wildly, attempting to keep ahead of the hungry crowd. “You’d think they hadn’t had a good meal in a long time.” She said, huffing and stopping next to a large brick building. She slouched forward and held her hands to her knees, trying to catch her breath.

“Prawwnns.” The warble came from ahead of her. Victoria stood up and held a hand to her sweaty brow.

“Don’t you mean Braiinns?” she asked, eyeing the zombie. This one looks fresh. She noticed that it’s clothing was not weather-worn like the others, it had a bright red shirt with a checkmark on it, saying ‘Just do it’, and black shorts. It still had all of its hair, greasy and limp handing off its head like spaghetti. It moved towards her eagerly, more vigorous than its friends.

“Prawwwnns!!” he groaned, reaching for her cranium.

“No, you fucking idiot, you’re supposed to say BRAINS!” she yelled, and then raised her fist at it. One of its eyeballs shifted to the side, the other quivered. It raised a half rotten hand up, pointing behind her.

Victoria glanced behind, “Shit.” She cursed and saw that at least ten more of the monsters were coming at her full force. “Thanks a lot.” She remarked sarcastically and ran before it could snag a hold on her. She leapt into the street, dodging around the rusted cars on the road, and forced open the door of the store she had run towards. It was dark inside, and dusty. She could hear shuffling across the store, and immediately began rummaging through the contents of the store. She picked up a bag, a book, and muttered in the process. “Anything, come on, give me something.” She grabbed a metal object and exclaimed, holding it up in triumph. “Yes!” she stared at the spoon in her hand, and her smile faded.

The zombie rustled through the bags that were on the floor, it wiggled its fingers at her, moving towards her in anticipation. Victoria threw the spoon at it, and it bounced off its wrinkled forehead. She could hear a banging on the window, more zombies. She was in a tin can, they would have her in their not-so salivating mouths soon enough. “Not if I can’t help it.” She jumped towards the cash counter, and slid across it. She landed on the floor awkwardly. She rummaged through the shelves, hoping against hope that the owners had kept a weapon here. She found nothing, another fruitless effort.

Ghouls surrounded the counter, and she crawled along the floor and past their shuffling feet. She pulled herself up and started to run, passing through the store and skidded to a halt at the back of the store. “Sweet Jesus.” She cried, and jumped through the plastic curtains. Sitting on a bloody shelf, covered in gore, was a flame thrower. Despite her sudden joy, she felt a creepy tingle against her spine. Her eyes shifted towards the center of the room where a body laid, two creatures slurped at the juicy contents. She grabbed the flame thrower, and slowly backed away. One of the monsters looked up at her, and grunted like a crazed animal. It got up and ran at her, blood flew around it, intestines gripped in its hand, still connected to its dinner. She cried out, threw the bloody flamethrower onto her back, and fired. If it didn’t work, she was fucked.

[Piper Juunanagou]

Why were her clothes wrong?

It was the first thing Piper had noticed upon walking through the portal and entering the newly fabricated reality. For some completely awful reason, the jackass in charge of this fantasy world had decided to give Piper a new outfit. Gone were her comfortable fatigues in their pleasant shades of green and brown, and in their place, the woman was garbed in tight blue jeans, a white sleeveless shirt, and a red windbreaker. Instead of heavy-duty combat boots, the woman was now wearing a pair of black Converse sneakers.

Based on the amount of effort put into altering her appearance, Piper imagined this was some type of joke or obscure reference to something she didn’t understand. Regardless of the motives at play, the woman's irritation suddenly reached its apex.

“Oh you’ve got to be kidding me,” the Sentinel groaned as she caught site of her reflection in a broken mirror. In place of Piper’s normally scruffy and unkempt blonde hair, she’d been given long brown hair that had pulled up into a ponytail. “Did I do something to deserve this?” The woman lamented as she suddenly heard the device on her waist beep. A few yards away, a small burlap sack simply labeled ‘killing apparatus’ popped into existence and plopped onto the floor.

Wary that the object in the bag was some type of explosion, the medic took her sweet time creeping toward the sack. When she got within an arm’s length of the bag, she calmly reached out and picked it up by the bottom. Rather than picking it up and opening it up in the direction of her face, the woman tilted the bag upside down and watched as a very small red and white ball rolled out onto the floor.

“What is this supposed to be, a grenade?” The blonde-forcibly-turned-brunette spoke aloud as she reached out and wrapped a hand around the metal sphere. As she turned the ball around in her palm, her index finger came to rest on a small button mounted on the line where the two hemispheres came together. Against her better judgment, she tapped the button, and almost instantaneously, the tiny sphere tripled in size to where it was now larger than her fist.

“I think I’ll save this…” Piper muttered as she tapped the button and triggered the ball to shrink back down to its former dimensions. Sighing inwardly, the woman moved to stuff the sphere into her pocket when she remembered one of the many things she hated about wearing girl’s jeans. “Who decided to make these pockets so damn shallow?” Piper complained as she shoved her ‘weapon’ into the pocket of her jacket.

At this point, the medic really didn’t have a clue what she was supposed to do in the dingy old apartment. Fortunately for the apathetic soldier, her silence didn’t last long—slowly and steadily, a stampede of footsteps began to approach the room she’d entered into just a minute or so ago. With a heavy frown, Piper was suddenly reminded of her shady little apartment and the army of robots that ‘Gamer’ had sent to kidnap her. Was he forcing her to go through some similar form of torment?

Beep beep beep! Craning her neck, the woman’s eyes quickly found the source of the noise—a very old alarm resting atop a lone piece of paper. Walking over to the small end table, Piper placed a hand atop the alarm’s bell and scanned the poorly written letter.

“‘Dear Sarge: Enjoy the zombies—I know how much you enjoy the undead. <3 Gamer’ … Are you fu—” Piper was cut short by the grating sound of the door being torn apart by a horde of frothing, screaming infected. Spinning sharply to face the dozens of angry undead making quick work of the door, the woman immediately felt herself flashing back to about three or four different instances in the last year where she’d found herself pinned in a room by a horde of reanimated corpses.

Why can’t I escape this bullshit? Piper thought to herself as she sent the alarm clock hurtling toward the collapsing door. The antique time piece slammed into the skull of a zombie who was trying to force his head in through a jagged hole in the door. At once, the ringing stopped as the alarm exploded into an innumerable assortment of gears and metal pieces.

Instinctively, Piper reached for where her gun would normally be holstered. Unfortunately for the soldier, her hand clutched at empty air, and before she could so much as utter an obscenity, the crumbling door fell apart and the horde began to gush into the room like an ocean through a breached levy. Backing up to the wall of the apartment, Piper swallowed dramatically and proceeded to dive into the nearby bathroom. With a grunt, the woman slammed the door shut and pressed the locking mechanism on the handle. Just a few seconds after she’d shut the door, it began to rattle violently as hands and forearms began to torment it.

“Once again,” Piper whispered to herself as she looked around the cramped bathroom. “I failed to think that one through,” the soldier quipped as she stood up on the edge of the bathtub and looked up at the nearly opaque squares of glass that served to compensate for the low-quality light bulb suspended from the ceiling. Moving as fast as she could given the incessant screaming outside the door, Piper shimmed across the edge of the bathtub until she was at eye-level with the makeshift window.

“Please be poorly made…” the Sentinel muttered as she covered her wrapped her fist in a nearby towel and drove it straight into the thick glass squares. Even with the cloth serving as a guard, the woman felt her knuckle bones crack as the thick glass square broke lose from its neighbors and went plunging into the outside world. Biting down on her tongue so hard that she half-expected to taste her own blood, Piper hugged her injured hand to her chest and teleported outside the bathroom just as the door was breached.

Outside of the broken window, the woman rematerialized with a swirl of light particles, and despite the still very imminent danger of the situation, Piper immediately let out a violent, agonized scream as she clenched her mangled fist. After a couple seconds, the medic fell silent and allowed the towel to fall off her bruised hand. Looking down, she gave her hand a quick once-over to make sure it wasn’t actually broken.

“Still in business,” the soldier whispered to herself as she stopped coddling her hand and tried to focus her thoughts on the demoralizing reality of her current situation. Walking forward, Piper made her way out of the alley next to the apartment building and onto a larger side street. Much like they had been in Bellavista, the roads were littered with trash and abandoned vehicles. It was all very disheartening for Piper, who had only managed to stop having nightmares about Bellavista a month or so ago.

“It never ends,” the beleaguered woman muttered with a sigh as she relaxed against a nearby vehicle. Without any real warning, the car’s security system went off, issuing a loud, violent wailing that drove the woman to shield her ears as she backed away from the screaming vehicle. As Piper retreated from the car, she suddenly heard a chorus of familiar screams, and with a frown on her face, she turned around to see that a massive hoard of zombies had amassed from seemingly nowhere and started to charge her.

“…Shit.”

[James]

If it was one thing he was gradually getting better at it had to be recovering from a blow to the head or being tranquilized, but this knocking out and waking up thing was starting to grow on him. Beat the hell out of the dealing with the head spins afterward.

Wolfgang woke to an old dank apartment utterly gutted from the inside out and torn to shreds save a few smoke damaged ceiling tiles still holding on for dear life. A low creaking came from around the corner, down the hall and behind a partially opened door at the end of it leaning on its hinges. The noise sent shivers down the boy's spine as it deeply contrasted the silence of the building, the sound of a leaky pipe dripping over the top of an aluminum sink in the kitchen accompanied the strange distant metal groan.

His first impulse was to call out to see if indeed there was someone else in the room other than himself but considering his circumstances the desire to catch whoever it was on his terms sounded much more appealing.

The carpet was littered with broken shards and pieces of glass, a coffee table hunched over with a leg missing and the other bent sat propped against the shattered door leading out into the rest of the apartment complex. He stood looking down the long dark hallway with the only available room being the farthest from where he stood- the others having been hastily boarded up. At first his heart jump; a shadow inside the room lurked briefly through the room... and then again... and again. Wolf's eyebrow craned questionably as he stepped further towards the room and peaked inside.

Above spun the remains of a ceiling fan that had been ripped down partially but still had enough juice left to twirl on a broken track.

He breathed a sigh of relief when another figure caught his eye looking out a window with their back to him, shoulders slunk and hair matted down- brown, almost black against the significantly pale skin.

"H-hello?" he stuttered with a reluctant feeling hovering in his gut.

Instantly the figure whirled around to gaze at him, the movement shivered what portion of its jaw slung intact as an intolerable moan rippled up from its black gullet that vibrated with each step towards the boy it took.

Wolf staggered over onto his back, clawing back the other way down the hall completely unprepared for such a sight to befall him. It seemed all of Hell had reawaken to join the party as the once silently nailed up doors banged and clattered with the noise of the dead they concealed. He had scarcely managed to pick himself up off the floor when the crumbling wall beside him fell exposing a room full of the wandering undead, each filing out dragging their respective rotting appendages with them. Beneath the lot the floor groaned with the unequally distributed dead weight and began to buckle till it collapsed downward, sloping the floor under Wolfgang into a ramp and into the waiting pit of zombies below.

He screamed echoed the length of the building as he landed on top of an resurrected old man whose toupee became stuck to his pant leg relentlessly despite how hard he shook to try and disengage the hair piece. His struggle back up the side of the ramp gained the attention of the entire lot who now reached with groping fingers to intercept the supple flesh.

Hardly halfway up the side when a dripping liquid falling from above began hitting his hand. Wolfgang's eyes broadened to the sight of the drooping jaw of the first undead he encountered surveying him from above, a hand swiping down the side in an attempt to be the first to feast.

Now stuck between the two ultimatums did Wolfgang feel the crushing reality of his situation and with it came the tears. He was too young to die! Especially to a load of zombies who probably wouldn't even remember what he tasted like a day or two later. Pouring sadness and sniffles gradually filtered through his frightened exterior when the sight of a toy chest nearby somehow changed his misdemeanor. Now, it could have been the bright color of the paint or all the things he could visibly see inside but no, it was more than that... it was... a boomerang.

It had to of been about a year since he stayed up those long nights, eyes shining against the soul-dampening darkness surrounding him as his fingers danced to the beat of battle- his sword glistening, shield ravishing, green tonic an emerald display of pure strength.

He sniffed hard, rubbing his nose across his arm as he reached out to secure the bent piece of wood like destiny foretold of its placement here, that he would need it for just this purpose. Determination hardened his face beneath the caked dirt and tears, shooting a stern look up at the undead creature above.

"I-I... I'm... the Hero of Time!" crying out with enough dramatic emphasis to put a Spanish soap opera to shame, he tossed the 'rang. It spun rapidly and with surprising accuracy for it smacked the offending zombie hard upside its head, sending it toppling down the sloping floor into the accumulated pit below. The boomerang landed on the floor above and Wolf quickly ascended to reclaim it though now the fear retook him almost as fiercely as before now that every unliving thing in the building dragged, creaked and moaned on route to where he was.

He hurried into the room with the fan and glanced out the window- second floor and a fire escape he could climb down on!

From the living room he heard a smash as more ghouls forced their entry into the apartment. Short on time he tried to open the window but to no avail, desperately he bounced on his heels reluctant to break the glass in worry over the trouble he might receive if someone found out. The groans grew closer as the group worked its way down the hall towards him, at the last second he whimpered loudly and smashed the pane with the boomerang, hopping out onto the escape. It wobbled uneasily under the newly added pressure, shaking the boy to the edge where a weakened handrail gave way and sent him tumbling down into a dumpster below.

"Eww..." Wolf shook off the trashcan juices from his arm, snatched up his new found toy and jumped out of the can into a roving street gang of zombies who coincidentally all noticed his presence almost immediately.

Wolfgang's lip quivered.

From down the street he ran screaming as the group limped after him in pursuit up one avenue and down another as the mob broadened and thickened with its members coming to the calls of the frightening youth. Out of every window and store, car and even opened manholes came crawling the most diseased-ridden corpses to see what all the commotion had been about.

Rounding a final corner, Wolf sighted a car with its alarm blaring a siren loudly with what appeared to be a woman standing idly beside it who didn't look as though to have the sort of cannibalistic cravings that everyone else he's met so far had.

"Hey!" he shouted sprinting down the street in her direction... wait... sprinting? For a moment he hesitated; this had been the first time he's ever kept a pace and not fallen flat on his face trying to keep himself up. Behind him his tail wagged appropriately to his behavior till he recalled the mass of zombies dragging themselves towards him.

The boy started off once more, not several feet from the woman in red when a rush of fire spilled from a convenience store- melting undead stumbling every which way as the group inside began falling back, crippling over in the flames. In the mix yet another woman stood poised in a stance amongst her kill, brandishing a gun with a torch on the end in one hand and the other on her hip. Wolfgang frowned, looking down at his boomerang and giving it a little flick- yep, still got it.

[Mr. Zhu]

"Holy shit!" Zhu screamed out loud as he splashed into an ocean of unidentified oozing liquid.

What was to follow was a flurry of struggling to get back up to surface, and a breath of fresh air. The eunuch kept struggling, oblivious of the fact that the depth of the liquid was only hip-high. His feet soon touched the solid ground and he stabilized himself relieved that he had found hard surface, but he was still hip deep in goo.

"What's the meaning of this," he lamented.

Reaching over to the available ledge, he pulled himself out of the liquid and climbed onto shore. He took a look around the facility; it seemed to be some sort of a sewer. Quite an obvious observation since everything was wet, there were water on the floor, water on the walls, and water was dripping.

Sighing, he attempted to dry his sleeves over the cement wall only to find his Taoist robe replaced by some sort of heavy duty vest over a white tank top and some sort of cargo pants. Not his choice of clothing ever, after all he was as pale as paper and looked like a woman with his arms showing. He also didn't like the extra weight, and the fabric of the whole thing was a joke. Back in the Forbidden City, he would never be forced to wear such an abomination like this.

Now that his head was a little clearer, he began to recall his memory. The last thing he could remember was some sort of project for the East City Mafia and meeting some midget. This was screwed up, because he had no idea where the midget went, and it seems like a promotion was beginning to slip out of his reach. God damned mafia, he really had to switch up his career one of these days.

"Bah, forget it" he thought as he began to prod forward, expecting some sort of an adventure.

An adventure was exactly what he was going to get, and he was convinced of it five minutes after his awakening because of his run-in with a massive green gumball. It was human, definitely; at least it was once human. Worms teased their beady heads through the eye socket of the green humanoid, it was clearly their habitat, and it had been disturbed because the monster saw Zhu.

"Holy shit..."

Without a seconds thought, Zhu booked it the other direction and rounded a corner. He backed himself against the wall and peeked towards the direction he came from. There were no signs of followers on his tail, all he could really see was a long trail of muck accented by its horrible scent. It was most likely coming from Zhu.

"I did not sign up for this," he banged his fist into the wall like a hammer as he took a moment to catch his breath.

Cough

Suddenly, a shroud of smoke covered Zhu's personal space and before the eunuch realizes a wet slippery object had caught his neck and was squeezing the air out of his trachea. Through panic, the skinny man reached for his iron claws that were supposed to be attached to the side of his Taoist robe, however, in its place was something else, a frigid, long object. With not another moment to think, he grabbed it by its handle and slashed through the slippery grip.

"RAWAARRR!"

Zhu looked towards the direction of the sound and saw a shadow creep by the wall, he couldn't make out what it was, but it definitely had mean intentions as it just tried to choke him out a second ago. Now realizing his weapon was none other than a samurai's katana, he was disheartened by its existence. After all it wasn't exactly his weapon of choice, but it'll have to do for now.

The eunuch sprinted towards the zombie's shadow and turned another corner to find an entire swarm of them, sitting, awaiting their prey.

"Umm," he began nervously, "clearly you're all busy. I'll be back later"

Zhu turned and ran towards the direction he came from and half-way through the route he realized that he'd have to go back to that fat thing with worms coming out of its head if he continued. He took a second to contemplate the situation, as he did so a rumbling sound began to overwhelm in the backside. There was no time, he just ran.

The green gumball still sat in the same position, picking at its earlier meal. It was clearly not enough for the insatiable monster, and its intestines made a large gurgling noise to request for more flesh. Conveniently, Zhu ran its way. A hint of joy could almost be traced from this green wad of rotting flesh, but it wasn't allowed to be lasted as Zhu ran directly towards it and jabbed the tip of the blade through the monster's gurgling intestines.

A tiny explosion met with the blade as it made contact and more goo was thrown on top of Zhu. It smelled sour, but it was too vague to tell. However, it did have some kind of acid effect to it, as it started to burn into Zhu's skin a little bit. It was definitely some sort of bile produced from the body of the green thing, but there was no time to think further as the rumbling grew.

Running through the maze, many times he thought he had successfully fled and had a chance to rest. But the harmony never lasted for more than a few minutes. It seemed as something was clearly leading the mob of monsters towards him, but he couldn't make out what it was. His only chance was to keep running.

Alarms sounded from a far away distance, but he couldn't really make out where it was coming from. But clearly there were other fugitives running from the same fate he is trying to dodge right now. Who would be so sick as to play such a joke on them?

The runaway soon stopped at another corner. A dim ray of light shone through the exit of the hell hole and blasted into the rapidly running goo in the middle of the sewer. Zhu had been so busy running away from the zombies that he hardly had enough time to realize a fact, he smelled like shit. Pinching his nostrils together with two fingers, he scuttled towards the exit and looked up at the ladder and narrowed his eyes.

"This is going to be one fucking long climb..."

The eunuch slipped his katana to the side of his cargo and hopped on to the beginning ledges of the ladder. For a minute he fought the idea to climb far up, but the battle won by the climbing as he saw the crowd of relentless creatures swarm towards him. He could still feel the stinging from the goo the green thing puked up at him, but not enough to bother him; he pushed through it and finally made his way up the ladder.

Zhu was now out of the monsters' reach, but he was still susceptible to getting owned if he somehow dropped from this spot. He took a minute for himself, and then poked his head out of the sewer hole to find himself better off not doing so.

He saw a woman and a young boy running his way, behind them an even larger swarm of monsters on the chase.

[Piper Juunanagou]

“Run!” Piper screamed as she turned away from the approaching horde of zombies. With a loud gulp, the preteen boy who’d stumbled onto her position turned tail (quite literally) and joined the woman in her retreat. A few paces ahead, the soldier caught site of the same exact woman she’d nearly killed a few days ago. Despite the short length of time, the pink-haired warrior was completely healthy, which Piper figured could be due to her regenerative constitution or simply a side-effect of their simulated reality.

“Damn it, I said run!” The blonde-turned-brunette screamed once again as she snatched the younger woman by her armored wrist and began to drag her away from the hoard of screaming, foaming undead abominations. Although she initially seemed confused and mildly irritated upon being grabbed, the woman’s disposition quickly warmed up when she caught sight of the horde barreling down upon the trio.

Up ahead of the mortified survivors, the fourth member of their quartet stood waiting for them with a long sword drawn as if he was planning to us the weapon. The moment he realized the group was in full retreat, the pale man in the military beret immediately abandoned his defensive stance and joined the rest of the group as they continued to flee from the zombie onslaught.

For a few seconds, it seemed as if the group was starting to put some distance between themselves and the horde, and all of a sudden, a soundtrack comprised mainly of drums with a light accent of brass instruments began to blare from seemingly every different. The ominous and foreboding music quickly overshadowed the roaring of the zombie horde, and brought the quartet to a stumbling halt.

“Where the hell is that music coming from?” Piper demanded as she turned to look at the zombie horde that was still a block or two removed from their position. Squinting her eyes, she felt her heart skip a beat when she noticed the massive, hulking form literally stampeding its way through the veritable army of zombies.

With arms easily the width of tree trunks, the giant smashed, bashed, and crushed any of its smaller brethren unlucky enough to be in its path. Emerging from the forefront of the group of zombies, the hulking abomination let out a terrifying roar that was more than enough to put the fear of death in anyone, let alone the quartet of mortified, confused ‘survivors.’ The monster then proceeded to charge forward with its giant fists serving to prop up its oversized torso, akin to a gorilla.

“Run or shoot?” The preteen asked as he lifted up his wooden boomerang and flashed his wary eyes to his three ‘teammates.’ “Run or shoot?!” He shouted with a degree of terror when he failed to receive an answer after a few seconds.

“Both!” The unnaturally white man in the fatigues shouted as the hulking creature lumbering toward them paused to scoop up a Volkswagen. With a barely human roar, it easily hoisted the car up over its head and sent it bowling toward the group of survivors as they fled into a nearby hotel.

“Up the stairs, we can try and hide from it!” The pink-haired girl barked from the rear of the group as the car erupted through the front wall of the building—missing them by mere inches as it tumbled to a final stop somewhere deeper in the hotel. Glancing over her shoulder as the quartet reached the second story landing; the Sentinel could see that the oversized zombie had almost made it to the hotel. Swallowing down the lump forming in her throat, Piper followed the others through a nearby door, and they all quickly dispersed to different suites in the hopes that they could wait out their horrifying aggressor.

Moving as fast as her already fatigued legs would permit her, the soldier yanked open the door to room 103, slipped inside, and then softly clicked the door shut behind her. Reaching for the deadbolt, she calmly slid it shut before also securing the chain lock. Once she was confident nothing was going to come casually gallivanting through the door, Piper let out a long, pent-up sigh and made her way over to the sofa in the corner of the apartment.

Why am I here? She soon found herself wondering as she heard her group’s mutant aggressor lumber his way into the adjacent hallway. I think we’ve established by this point that apartments aren’t defensible locations… Despite her sullen thoughts, the thudding footsteps of the hulking creature grew further and further away until Piper was left in complete silence.

“It worked,” she whispered under her breath as a smile spread across her pale visage. Unfortunately, lady luck never had a history of being kind of Piper Juunanagou, and apparently she didn’t feel like starting today…

Rargh!

Upon hearing the high-pitched scream from within the apartment, the soldier snapped up off the sofa and up to her feet. Before she could get an idea of what was going on, she was suddenly tackled to the floor by a man in all black. With a dull thud, Piper hit the ground and her attacker began to tear into her with broken, ensanguined claws where its fingertips should have been. Fueled seemingly by instinct alone, the soldier’s hands shot up to her attacker’s neck and violently and unceremoniously snapped his neck before he managed to tear through her windbreaker.

“Get. Off.” The woman shouted as she shoved the limp corpse to the wayside and slowly pulled herself up off the ground and up into the sofa. From that far more comfortable vantage point, she watched as a giant fist erupted through the wall of her hiding place. “You’re kidding me…right?” The woman growled as she reached into her now utterly ruined jacket and retrieved her ‘instrument of killing.’ As the second fist came cleaving into the compromise hull of her suite, Piper clicked the button on the red and white sphere and sent it hurtling through the original hole.

The ball slammed right into the chest of the hulking undead creature, and much to the confusion of Piper, it bounced off his fleshy chest and back into the room. Realizing that the device probably had a timer, the soldier recoiled and watched as the sphere—upon landing on the ground—cracked open along the black line that divided its hemispheres. As the ball popped open, it released a giant discharged of brilliant white light that came arching back at Piper, causing her to once again recoil until she saw it strike the ground in front of her.

A few beats later, the lighting, now an amorphous blob instead of an erratic bolt, began to rapidly fade. As the scintillating mass of energy faded, it revealed in its place what seemed to be a yellow, foot-tall rodent. The small, chubby mouse had a tail the shape of a lightning bolt, tall pointy ears, and two rose-colored circles beneath a pair of oversized black eyes. With the color still draining from her features, Piper pointed dramatically at the creature that was ripping apart the last bits of wall still acting to prevent it from tearing Piper to shreds.

Cocking a brow, the mouse turned around and proceeded to somehow summon a massive lightning bolt from within its twelve-inch body. The outrageous bolt of lightning struck the hulking zombie square in the chest, and instead of rage-filled roars, the creature began to scream in pain as its entire being was doused in a visibly lethal dosage of electricity. Within just a few seconds, the overgrown abomination was dead—its hulking figure collapsing sideways through the very wall it had nearly breached before its painful and untimely demise.

“How the fuck?” Piper gasped as her jaw fell open and her mind tried to wrap itself around what had just transpired. “What are you?” The woman asked as she stared down at the tiny rodent.

“The correct inquiry is who are you, you moron. I’m Pikachu,” the yellow mouse replied with the clearest English that Piper had ever heard. “So tell me…who the fuck kidnapped me, Homo sapiens? The warlord is going to have my head if he realizes that I’m not at my station!”

[Victoria]

Thump!

Victoria jumped, grabbing at the side of the bathroom doorway. Her heart raced, her eyes darted from side to side, and a dribble of sweat slowly crept down the side of her face. They had run into this building, her idea, but so far the idea had been flawed. This room would be her doom, if she didn’t find some way out. The behemoth of a ghoul had not followed her, no; she had run further down the building and into a dank suite. She could hear it pounding at the walls further away, but something was coming for her, and it gave her the chills.

Eerreeek!

Like fingers dragging across a chalk board, she heard the awful scratching coming from her door. She took a step away from the bathroom, and bumped into an old lounging chair. It slid slightly, causing a creaking noise to emanate from the room.

Thump.

The footsteps of a monster edging closer, it sent chills down her spine. She moved quickly towards the window, looking out past the ratty curtains; she could see zombies massing down below. They know where we are.

Bang! Thump! Rattle!

The door vibrated from the force of rotting fists pounding against it. She turned quickly, grabbing at the dusty curtain in sudden fear. Oh God, they’re going to get me, they’re going to eat me! she thought in terror. If I use the flamethrower, I might set fire to this whole place, and then the zombies will have us as B-B-Q. she tried to think of a plan, anything, but the knocking on the door made her unable to think.

Victoria moved fast, an idea formed in her mind instantly. She pushed the bulky chair towards the door, and then proceeded to move the rest of the large furniture towards the door as well. Soon a barrier was formed between herself and the zombie knocking and groaning on the other side. It scraped at the door, but could not damage the wood, and resorted to banging again with its lifeless hands.

The noise stopped, and all she could hear were the groaning and shuffling ghouls from outside. The creatures were mingling like a crowd of mosh pit head bangers. There was no escape here, her only way out was from the window, and waiting below was her untimely death. She felt a moment of safety, but the groans from outside seemed to grow louder and louder. She edged towards the window, and screamed in horror as zombies began to climb in through the open threshold. “Shit, shit, shit!” she cried and backed into her makeshift barricade.

The animated cadavers move towards her in haste, there could only be one option for her, to fight them off. With flamethrower in one hand, and her other hand clenched into a fist, she jumped into the fray. She swiped at the beasts with the weapon, using its metallic form as a means to slash and stab them. Her fist came in as she moved back and forth, jabbing the creatures in the face if they got back to their feet. From the two windows the zombies climbed in, but they were slow enough for her to take them down in a timely manner. The decapitated bodies fell in shambles, groaning no more, but when two fell, two more took their place. “How are they doing this?” she cried, fighting with more vigor.

She took down the last two, just as a pair of mangled hands gripped at the window sill. She ran towards the wall, and looked out. The zombies had begun to climb the building, helping each other by forming a zombie wall, and climbing the length of the building and into her room. She slammed the window shut, cutting off the unsuspecting monsters digits, and sending him flailing backwards towards the ground.

This didn’t stop them, it only made them bang at the window and slobber on it in an attempt to get to her. Goopy green liquid dripped from their jowls. She twisted her face in disgust and slammed the other window shut. She ran through the small apartment and towards the bedroom. She crept inside, eyeing the moldy mattress and the clothing that was scattered along the floor.

A shadow moved, and she turned towards it with her weapon raised. Another shadow moved on the other side of the room, and she turned again in agitation. The bedroom door slammed shut, and she jumped. The floorboards creaked, and she could hear a noise, much like children laughing. The dark room gave her the creeps, and she went to the door to open it, but cried out as her heart nearly stopped.

Standing between her and the door was a young boy, not so unlike the boy that had held the boomerang early. “Y-you okay?” she asked, and the boy stared at the floor in silence. “Hey, what’s the matter with you?” she reached for the child, and he looked up at her grotesquely.

Black matter oozed from the child’s lips, he garbled incoherently at her and jumped at her. His black soulless eyes bore into hers as she fought him off. She fell onto the floor, the abomination clawing at her face. Victoria screamed, and grabbed the dead child by his wrists, fighting him off of her. She pinned the demon child to the floor and proceeded to punch him in the face. Relentlessly he fought back, clawing at her arms, and kicking beneath her. He spat black ooze into her face, making her recoil and pat at the sickening slime in horror. He weaseled his way out from her grasp, and scuttled about the room like a wicked shade.

Victoria hollered in pain and fell forward; the little brat had his teeth in her shin. His razor sharp teeth had gone right through her leather boot and had her skin ripped to shreds. She drop kicked the boy with her other foot, smashing her heel into his face, and scrambling away in pain. “You little shit,” she yelled, looking at her wounded leg. The blood dripped upon the dusty floor, mixed with tainted black drool. “Oh no, does this mean…” she paused and looked up, the young boy was stirring. She got to her feet and limped over to the boy, she slammed her foot onto his neck, and although the pain was agonizing, she suffocated the little wretch with her boot until he ceased struggling.

“Great, now I’ve been bitten.” She groaned and limped out of the room. The zombies were no longer at the windows, all was silent.

Knock, knock.

Vicky jumped, her heart pounding.

Brains! Brains!

The knock ensued, but did not sound like the rattling of crazed zombies. The silence made her hope that perhaps it was over, a glimmer of optimism that her companions may be the ones knocking. Is it a joke? she wondered, limping closer to her barricade. Or is this bite effecting my judgment? She hesitated before speaking.

“Are you survivors thanking the only thing that got you through the Zombie Apocalypse? Or are you zombies hungering for my brains?” She asked, leaning against the barricade, listening for what may be behind the door.

“Zombies,” came the response, raspy, but coherent. “It didn’t feel right to lie to you…”

The door rattled with the many fists of zombies, and Vicky ran back, shocked. “You have got to be kidding me!?” she cried, and aimed her flame thrower, it was now or never.

[James]

Without any regard to the noise of the door, he slammed it closed and made quick work of locking the deadbolt from inside the room not sure what good it would do against the might of the behemoth chasing them. He slid down and crouched at the foot of the door, bringing in his knees close still holding on tightly to the little curved piece of wood that so far hadn't been too effective on the run.

Leaning his head back made a thud resonate from its contact against the thick wooden door separating him from the groans trekking up and down the hallway, their weight dragging across the carpet just outside with a hint of their shadows visible from under the door.

"Where did everyone else go?" Wolf frowned at the boomerang almost wanting an answer from anything now that he was by his lonesome. "Always happens-"

Stopping mid-sentence to a sound that seem to come from all corners of the room, a chorus began to sing at an amazingly high pitch to the guidance of a piano tapping its highest octave. The boy's palms began to sweat- maybe this was the same as the last one, that whatever it was the music was signaling stood right outside the door waiting for him.

He stood, running further into the suite and into the master bedroom where he slammed the door shut behind him yet the music deepened, growing thicker with pounding drums. From behind him came the sound of someone sobbing deeply yet muffled as though they were crying into their hands, mourning rather than a cry of pain or fear. Wolfgang swallowed hard and turned around slowly to find the room empty, in a relatively organized manner with the exception of the door to the bathroom left wide open with the lights flickering from within.

Against his better judgment he started towards the doorway, tightening his grip around one end of his throwing stick I'll be okay, I'll be okay, I'll be okay unnerved by the weeping he still continued forward. Rounding the last inches enough to look inside to see the form of a girl sat leaning against the far wall with her tucked down still bawling loudly.

"A-are you hurt?" his words had hardly reached his own eyes when her head shot up, eyes glistening red in the dark flickering of the lights as she stood with her eyes keenly kept on the boy the entire time.

No longer a slave to her lament she began growling as Wolf backed away from the doorway slowly, teeth chattering along with the full length of his body by this point causing him to fall backwards onto the floor. Startled by his sudden movements, the female zombie shrieked loudly and charged towards him into the bedroom.

Wolfgang yelped, flipping over and hopping over the top of the bed and onto the other side, crawling underneath it for cover as the undead cretin lashed out with her long bony fingers at his leg. Much like his pursuer had been, the child began sobbing under stress of the situation trying to figure out a way to get as much distance between him and the manic undead as possible. Across the way at the other end of the suite sat an open hole in the wall- a dumbwaiter used to send food to and from the room would drop him right into the kitchen below.

The boy bit his lip at the distance... he could probably get half way before she would catch him then it would be all over; if there was a way to distract her then there might be a chance.

He yelled feeling a cold hard nail scratch his pant leg open, drawing blood as it ripped across his skin which only served to hasten the woman's desire to procure the child though still too big to fit underneath to actually achieve that goal. Instantly Wolf realized- if he could flip the bed onto her then maybe he could get across in time to climb inside! But the bed was far heavier than he was nevermind the thought of actually lift the hulking mass onto someone. He had to try, there was no other options.

Curling up beneath the frame, he began pushing up the king-sized bed as high as he could, to no surprise this allowed the demon woman ample space to crawl further towards him. Just as her hand was in reach of his ankle, Wolf leap out from under the frame and like a mousetrap, it came crashing down onto the girl effectively catching her if only for the moment.

Instantly he was off and running towards the miniature elevator with his legs pumping harder than he'd ever ran, behind him the ghoul had worked her way out from her deluxe trap and started again after the preteen.

Wolfgang pulled himself up into the dumbwaiter without a moment to spare, closing the mesh metal curtain to the elevator, bouncing inside to try and force the box down yet it refused to budge. Suddenly the whole cage shook, flaming red eyes pierced through the darkness as the creature's black claws poked through the small screen trying to reach the morsel inside.

Looking around he caught sight of a metallic cable above that attached the box to the series of lines used to move it between rooms, without thinking he began slashing at the cord with the boomerang hoping it was rusted through. He heard the weakening of the cage's frame and knew it wouldn't be long before he was the main course, just then the line broke and he was sent tumbling down through the shaft into the darkness below. Quite suddenly he was shot out of the elevator into a slide across the cold tiled ground of the bottom floor kitchen, spinning before coming to rest with his back against a stove.

Wolfgang blinked several times trying to clean out the dust from his eyes with his hands but even here the noise of the living dead was rampant throughout. He stood, creeping over to look up through a small window into the dining hall to see yet more of the rotting deceased moping around for anything to come their way.

He sniffled away a desire to cry out of hopelessness and slid back down to the floor. The other three had to be somewhere back up in the rooms where they split up, that was if they managed to get away from that muscled-out giant that stalked after them. If that wasn't enough, his ankle still was bleeding quite profusely since whatever it was decided to tried pull his leg, no pun intended.

Ripping a piece of his shirt, he remembered to tie off the wound till it clotted up on its own- he saw it in a movie once.

"Let's see now- we can't have that. How about we update your duds, bud." Gamer cackled, fingers worked melodically across a keyboard as he brought up several programs before him on a screen bearing different titles. With a few clicks of the mouse he felt almost accomplished that he was able to bring such wit and hilarious use of inside jokes to his masterpiece.

As an extension administrative work, Wolfgang's cloths rippled to his surprise and rematerialized as a brown shirt and gloves with a olive green coat and a beret. But what came to him as the biggest surprise was the thickly grown beard he now possessed from the alteration.

"Son of a bitch." Wolfgang's hands shot up over his mouth, what did he just say!? Zombies, girls with flamethrowers and now preteens with full beards? This is nothing like the end of the world I thought the boy said, itching his facial hair.

[Mr. Zhu]

“Up the stairs, we can try and hide from it!”

By the time the pink-haired woman expressed this, Zhu was already ahead of the pack. Though they were the only survivor now known, it was still every man for themselves. Sprinting straight up the stairs, not even bothering to check on his companions, he made it through a door as the booming grew distant.

Smiling, he leaned up against the wall and choked on his own breathe for a second. He couldn't remember the last time he had done so much cardio, running and running from the start of the street to the end of it and hopping up several flights of stairs. Not exactly what he had in mind when he thought he was out on some mission for the mafia.

As he rested towards the wall, his ears were on red alert exploring the area for any hostile units. After a few minutes of sitting in the dark by himself, he finally convinced himself there were no dangers ahead and was set to explore the floor a bit to find for anything that can be used to help him get the fuck out of this city, or possibly a weapon. After seeing the flamethrower on the back of the woman, he found his own weapon to be quite useless as a melee weapon.

Making his way down the corridor now, he peeked into every door and every washroom stall to look for anything that seemed useful at all. He found absolutely nothing, not to his surprise.

"Fuck this shit man, they got nothing useful here. Why did I even think that I could possibly find something." he complained, "What is this fucking world doing to me, can't even think straight anymore."

He always took pride on his wits and cleverness, but it seemed that being in this game made his senses dull. He was no longer as keen and sharp as he was before, this was a bad thing because intellect was the one thing he excelled over others. Intellect with the combination of dashing street smarts. He was rather glad however, the others turned into the scapegoat of his fate. He wondered if the colossal mess was tearing up the guts of his "companions" right about now.

"Well," he continued as he kept checking every single room and behind every single door, "at least I lost those losers and that thing."

At the end of the hall, he came across a huge metal door that seemed to be sealed tightly for some reason. Being the curious nature that he was, he had to go in, besides if it was sealed there was obviously something very valuable in there. He grabbed his blade and started poking towards the door. It didn't budge.

"I was hoping I didn't need to resort to this," he said as he attempted to roll up his sleeves to find that he didn't have any sleeves, "Fuck, why am I wearing this."

He took a step away from the door, and dropped into a horse squat. As he channelled his inner ki with his breaths, the senses in his finger tips began to heighten as a surge of red ki emitted from his fingers. The eunuch gripped his fingers together then let it loose, and then tensing it again in the form of a tiger claw.

"Wu Xing Au Yi," he chanted as his red aura blasted into bright colors, "Crouching TIGER!"

Aiming his fingers towards the door, he plunged it deep through the threshold, and tore the metal apart with his fingers completely. He couldn't see anything inside the room but a shroud of dust that irritated his itching nose. Suddenly, that wasn't the main problem anymore.

THUD!

He crashed against the wall immediately, creating a sizable crater in the bed of cement. Focusing his vision he saw a green thing emerge from the darkness with its shoulder directed towards him, and ran towards him again. The eunuch crashed against the wall again, this time much harder. He could not detect any ki from this horrible monstrosity, but whatever he was doing, it was fucking hurting.

The monster moved back to charge again, but this time Zhu let out of the way and as the monster crashed directly into the wall, Zhu kicked the back of its head to increase the velocity of the crash. Holding his abdominal muscle with one hand, he slipped his other towards the katana he was given. Gripping it with both arms, he stuck it right through the spinal vertebrates of the monsters body where spikes emerged.

"RAWRRR!" the thing grunted in pain.

Zhu smiled in pleasure as he retrieved his blade from within the monster's body. The corpse slowly slipped lifelessly on to the concrete floor. As he examined this abomination he noticed that its right arm was a couple of times larger than its left. The unnaturally white man shivered at the sight, and turned towards the door that he had freshly ripped open.

"I wonder what the fuck else is in here..." he inquired as he took a step towards the door.

Cautiously approaching now, afraid something else might be lurking inside and attempt to ambush him. The pain in his abdomen subsided as he realized it was more the shock that paralyzed him and not really the pain. Inch by inch he proceeded deeper into the room, one hand kept to his side tensed into a tiger claw and the other holding the katana with a tight grip.

As he searched further into the room, the lighting grew darker and darker; soon he could not see anything, not even the shining blade in his grasp. "There's gotta be some sort of light switch some here, or maybe a god damned flashlight at least!" he muttered under his breath.

Now feeling around the room in the dark, he came across several things. The lining walls and some sort of desk until he felt another door, it connected into another room but once again it was sealed. The eunuch took a deep breath and kicked the door straight out of its bolt and it flew deep into the room and landed with a crash.

There was a light switch in this room, and he felt it on the wall adjacent to the doorframe. Switching on the lights, to his demise, he realized he had made another wrong choice. In the room was a lined up army of zombies staring directly at him, the line was disrupted by the door he kicked in which crushed a couple of the undeads to the walls.

"Oh hell no..."

He turned and ran, through the dark room and straight into the empty corridors. Connected to the corridor on the other side, he realized there was another connected hallway. He rounded the corner and saw an elevator stall peacefully sitting there. Not willing to run the risk of running into the hulking behemoth by taking the stair, he sought to give the elevator a try. Letting loose his fingers, he caressed the button and it immediately lit up. A lonely numbered appeared at the top of the elevator's frame as the elevator descended towards him.

[Victoria]

Fire roared in front of her, it licked at the wood and cloth that made up the small apartment. All things considered, it wasn’t her best idea. “Fuck,” she cried and dodged a piece of flaming debris that flew towards her. The fire had eaten away at her barricade, and the wall, but the smoke began to suffocate her. She ran to the window and pulled it open, although a few zombies lingered outside; most of them had found a way in. She looked back at the disaster she had created, eating away at the building. She grunted and climbed through the window, keeping her eyes off the ground, and her feet steady, the last thing she wanted to do was fall.

Victoria scaled the outer wall of the building, the wall of zombies had gone, but the ones below looked up at her in freakish delight. She didn’t go far; she shimmed down the brick wall and used her feet to smash in the window. Climbing through, she fell to the floor in a crouch and surveyed the room. The ceiling was beginning to burn, the fire would have its way soon enough. At least this way most of the zombies will get roasted. she mused, and crossed the room.

A ghoul jumped out at her, arms raised, mouth agape. Vicky smashed her fist into its face and pistol whipped it with her flamethrower attachment. It fell to the side groaning. “No,” she pointed at it, “bad zombie.” She gave it a swift kick and then opened the apartment door. The hall was empty, but soon zombies would flood after her, it was what they did best.

She jogged down the hall; smoke began to linger in the air, a sign of their impending doom. She had to get out, but she couldn’t leave the others behind. She cursed the morality of her choice and turned a corner. Zombies stood, wavering like flags in the hallway, hopelessly searching for brains. Victoria cocked her flamethrower upwards and let loose the disastrous element. The rotting creatures groaned in agony, running at her in flaming glory, and she knocked them down with a flourish of movements. Flames licked at the walls, and she knew that soon this floor would be consumed by fire as well.

Vic repeatedly stabbed at the little elevator button, she looked behind her at the smoking walls and the hellish flames. The smoldering zombies twitched, while more of their kin began to foolishly come at her through the dangerous path. The fire lashed at their putrid flesh, burning them, but not hindering them. No pain, go figure. she stabbed the button quicker, feeling her heart quicken as the burnt zombies began to jaunt quickly towards her.

The doors slid open and she jumped into the elevator. She turned and let loose a cone of flame, toasting the unsuspecting zombies thoroughly. She ceased the flame as the door slid closed and leaned back in relief.

The elevator slowly moved down, calmness filled the small room, and soft music played in the background. She nodded her head to the beat, watching the numbers blink while the elevator crept down floor by floor. Movement stopped as she passed two floors, and she screamed as a hall packed full of zombies stared at her. Victoria clicked the button on the wall to close the door, the creatures reached in for her, their hands becoming caught in the mechanism. She smashed the butt of her weapon onto their limbs, bones and tissue flew wildly about the elevator. Finally the doors closed and she fell backwards from the lurch of its descent. The music resumed, and she stared in shock at the remains of the zombies twitching hands.

The elevator stopped again, and she raised her weapon, still seated on the ground. The door opened revealing one of her would-be companions. He stared at her, and she looked up. “Z-zombies.” She pointed up as she spoke. “And fire, which is my bad.” She climbed to her feet. “You don’t want to go up there.” She ran past him, and stopped in the darkness a foot away.

“That’s great, zombies above, and zombies below. Fantastic idea coming here.” He replied, obviously fed up. “Add in the fire, and I don’t think things could get much worse.” He added.

“Actually…” Victoria replied, glancing down at her bloody boot. Her skin had mostly healed, but she knew it was too late. Oh, the irony. She turned to the man, gripping her fist tightly in determination. “We’re going to get out of here, all of us, and these bastards are going to burn.” She said, staring at him with wild eyes. “Follow me.” She turned away and started to run down the hall.

I have to get out of here, and away from them, before it’s too late. she surmised, and turned the corner of the hallway. Zombies ran at her full force, and she ran into them with little care for her own safety. She began to fight them off, fists as weapons, and her vigor the fuel. She cut them down with her combative tactics, screaming a battle cry for victory.

“Keep this up and you’ll get yourself killed.” The man called at her, turning the corner. He gripped his own weapon, but stared at her with unease.

“What’s the point in living if you don’t fight as if it’s your last day on earth?” she cried back, kicking a zombie in the face repeatedly. “I’d rather die fighting, than running away.” She jumped over the fallen bodies, brandishing her flamethrower and flashing him a quirky smile before disappearing into the consuming darkness.

“W-wait up!” he yelled, chasing after her.

Victoria pushed through the doorway that led to the stairwell. It was empty, but she knew by now that emptiness meant nothing. The ghastly beings could be lurking below, or above, or simply be. She couldn’t explain her logic, but “the company’s nice.”

“What?” the man asked, stopping behind her and holding the door open.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to say that out loud.” She replied, and stared down the stairs.

“The whole reason we came here is to avoid that massive beast, and now you want to go back through the stairs and possibly run into it again?” he asked, staring at her incredulously.

“Well, yes, do you have any better ideas?” She turned to him, raising a brow. “Like I said, fire and zombies.” She pointed towards the ceiling with her flamethrower. “If that thing is in our way, we kill it, simple. No more running, I wasn’t train to run, alright?” she stepped up to him, her nose in the air. Unfortunately she only came up to his chest, so the emphasis was lost on her.

She turned away and leapt down the first set of stairs, landing and ready to rock. “Follow me, if you want to live.” She called and started down the next set of stairs. She stopped at the last floor, ready to kill anything that stood in the way. “At first I was afraid, but now I have to fight. It’s too late for me, but not for you, or the others.” She declared, walking carefully through the apartment lobby.

“What the hell are you talking about?” he asked, stepping down the last step.

“All in due time,” Vicky looked back, hesitating.

The room suddenly swarmed with undead, they ran out from the side rooms with hungry vengeance. “Attack!” the girl cried, running at the beasts with her weapon in hand. She flamed the oncoming ghouls, and fought off the ones that came close. She didn’t pay attention to her comrade in arms; she had eyes only for the mindless people that she knew she would be joining. The horror, the agony! she thought to herself, knowing that the single bite that had been delivered to her shin would be her demise. There’s only one thing to do.

The zombies were hacked, slashed, and roasted to death. She jumped upon their bodies, smashing in their decomposing faces, and dancing around the fray. She dodged a feisty creature, avoiding its dirty claws, and jumped as another came from behind. A zombie fell to her feet in two, and she looked up at the pale man.

“I told you, you’re going to get yourself killed.” He said, not so impressed.

Victoria ignored him and body chucked the zombie that stood in her way. “The others, they’re still inside.” She said, looking back at the staircase.

“Leave them,” he replied gruffly, walking past her. The zombies had been defeated, for the moment, but more would come. They never stopped.

She stared morosely at the stairs, and the bodies upon the floor, and then followed the older man outside. The fresh air filled her lunges, and she breathed deeply. A small respite, just what she ached for, no, not a break, something else. She looked at the man, and reached for him.

“It’s too late!” she cried, “I’m a goner.” She drew her hand back to her chest, clutching at her shirt in distress.

“What is it now?” he demanded, staring at her irately.

“I’ve been bitten.” She showed her shin, the ripped boot and the healed wound. “Well, the wound healed, but still!” she looked at him in horror. “I can feel the yearning, the need to feed” she reached for him again, and he slapped her hand away. “I’m going to become a zombie, oh, I’m too young.” She held a hand to her brow dramatically, and staggered on her feet. “Kill me now, before I attempt to eat your brains.” She grabbed his shirt. “This happens in all the movies, you know!”

[Piper Juunanagou]

“And that’s when we ran into the main bulk of their military forces,” the rodent began—raising his hands up in the air and moving them apart to better simulate the enormity of his tale to his captive audience (Piper and a few charred corpses). “You see…they thought they had us, you see. They believed they’d managed to somehow pin the warlord up against the Atlantic, but they failed to realize it was all a clever trap!” The tiny mouse suddenly smacked his hands together, causing Piper to jolt just a little.

“Your leader had some sort of grand scheme in place?” The medic inquired.

Try the best she could, Piper couldn’t help but be at least somewhat engrossed in the grandiose tales of military conflicts that ‘Lieutenant Pikachu’ had been telling her for the last several minutes. From the regions and peoples he described, it was clear to the Sentinel that the sentient mouse wasn’t from her planet. In the back of her mind, Piper even flirted with the idea that, on the off chance that the little rodent wasn’t the by-product of some very good programming, he might be from another reality. After all, she was from the future, so what’s to say the little creature in the ball hadn’t originated from some parallel existence?

“Of course he did!” The mouse replied loudly, his tiny chest swelling with pride as he proudly hoisted his chin into the air. “Just when their army thought they had routed the warlord, the four underground divisions erupted up through the enemy ranks. In the chaos that followed, the warlord slammed through the middle of their line and utterly obliterated their forces!”

“This leader of yours sure sounds like one lucky fellow,” Piper said as she stood up off the tattered sofa.

“He’s a genius, you ignorant primate!” The anthropomorphic rodent rasped as tiny bolts of electricity began to dance and sparkle across his tiny form. Recoiling slightly at the outburst, Piper lifted her hands up in a show of capitulation, which prompted the incensed mouse to calm himself. “That’s what I thought,” Pikachu growled as he crossed his tiny arms over his fluffy chest and began to glance around the room. “So how do we get out of this ghetto?” Despite the rodent being quite vocal about his loathing of Piper’s species, he still seemed intelligent enough to understand the situation and maintain his composure.

“I don’t know,” Piper offered as she walked over to a nearby window. Placing a bare hand on the window ledge, the woman wiped away some of the grim that had accumulated and proceeded to take a gander at the outside world. “This entire place is—along with that carnival—a facsimile…I’m not even sure what action to take if we make it out of this virtual reality and back to the one we started in…”

“Damn it,” the mouse growled as he trotted on all fours over the woman and climbed up onto her shoulders to see out the window. With an arched eyebrow, Piper turned to glance at the tiny rodent now perched on her shoulder. As if he could tell exactly what thoughts were running through the medic’s head, Pikachu once again crossed his pudgy little arms across his chest. “You tell anyone about this, and I will reduce you to ashes,” he threatened with a heavy scowl as Piper tried her damnedest to stifle a grin.

“When the group I was with fled from the zombies, we passed a tall bell tower,” the Sentinel remarked as she poked on the smudged glass in an attempt to point out the tall tower to her small companion. “If we can make it to that tower without attracting too much attention, we should be able to hole up there until Gamer decides to end this stupid little contest.”

“Astute observation, human,” the yellow rodent remarked as he narrowed his eyes and leaned a little closer to the window. “Is that smoke that’s obscuring the window?” He inquired as he turned his large black eyes back to Piper. Furrowing her brow, the medic reached down for the security latch and proceeded to gently tug the window open. Almost immediately, the medic and the pocket monster were engulfed in the cloud of smoke that came rolling into the apartment.

Clenching her eyes shut, the Sentinel wrapped her fingers around Pikachu’s chest and the two of them vanished amongst a swirl of lights particles. A few stories removed from the smoke-filled apartment, the two shimmered back into existence. Disoriented from being teleported along with the woman, Pikachu let out a groan, clutched a tiny hand to his forehead, and almost fell to the ground before Piper snatched him. Despite having the tiny pocket monster’s best interests at heart, the medic’s attempts at fealty were met with overwhelming irritation

“Too much touching!” The rodent seethed as he pushed himself up onto his hind legs and proceeded to jump down onto the ground. “Do it again and you’ll pull back a stump,” Pikachu added as he pointed a tiny index finger up at the bewildered woman. “It’s bad enough I’m forced to work with you to slaughter the infidel who kidnapped me…I don’t need you touching me with your sweaty monkey hands!” He decreed as he smacked a small mouse foot off the tiled floor of the hotel lobby.

“Understood!” Piper said with a mock salute as the rodent began to tremble with rage. “Now can we get out of here? I’m beginning to believe that this place is burning down,” she remarked as she began to jog away from the fuming mouse.

“Why’d this bullshit have to happen to me?” Pikachu complained loudly as he scampered after the woman on all fours. A few beats later, Piper reached the front door and proceeded to kick it off of its hinges. As the door exploded into the outside world, the medic threw open her arms and smiled as she exited the burning structure.

“This happens in all the movies, you know!”

Upon hearing the voice of the younger woman she’d fought prior to their separate kidnappings, Piper turned and saw that two of her three fellow survivors were standing a few feet away from the front entrance. In quite a departure from her previous—almost prudish disposition—the pink-haired woman seemed to almost be play acting as she staggered around on her feet and grabbed at the pale man’s clothes. Had Gamer done something to fry her brain?

“Where’s the little boy?” Piper asked as she walked over to the pair of survivors. Behind the medic, Pikachu followed after her—his malignant gaze boring deep holes into the two other humans. When the soldier received nothing but shrugs and confused looks from her fellow ‘competitors,’ she proceeded to shove both of them to the ground. The sudden and violent outburst caused the tiny rodent to clap his furry little hands in approval. “You let a kid wander off in that building that is very clearly on fire?”

“Hey, you did the same thing!” The unnaturally pale man retorted as he stared up at Piper from his haunches. “It’s too late to go back for him now,” he added softly as the fury in the medic’s gaze forced him to look down at the ground.

“Damn it,” the Sentinel growled as she turned to look at the burning hotel. The flames had already consumed the majority of the already dilapidated structure. Even if she wanted to go charging into the inferno, the floor that the group had taken refuge on was being devoured by the flames.

That poor kid…

“The little fucker’ll be fine,” Pikachu remarked, tearing Piper’s now morose stare away from the crumbling hotel. “The bastard in charge of this competition obviously didn’t kidnap a bunch of retards when he was deciding on his housemates.”

“The talking rat has a point,” the pale man offered as he slowly began to rise from his posterior.

“I’m not a rat!” Pikachu growled as electricity once again began to well up within his minute frame. “I’m a Pokémon, you sparkling bastard,” the scathing remark was more than enough to startle the man into slipping and falling back onto his behind.

“All right, enough,” Piper groaned as she turned to face what remained of the original four survivors. “We need to get moving before we trigger another horde of zombies to come screaming for our blood from out of nowhere.”

“It’s no use!” The younger woman with the flamethrower shouted erratically as her paranoid eyes began to dart to and fro. “We’re all going to succumb to the zombie curse sooner or later,” she added, prompting Piper to slap her across the face with more than enough force to return her to the ground.

“What the hell is the matter with you people?” The Sentinel shouted as her eyes moved between the two remaining survivors. “One zombie apocalypse and you all look to be falling to pieces. You know how many times I’ve dealt with zombies? Three times. And you can make that four if you count this one time I fought an acquaintance of mine who was technically dead at the time. So why don’t we all just buck up, okay?”

“Yea, sure, okay,” the pale man offered halfheartedly as he slowly and carefully stood up off the ground. “No need to scream,” he muttered as he began to brush the dust and dirt off his military fatigues.

“That’s the attitude I like to hear,” Piper said with a broad smile as she turned to see that the pink-haired woman was also on her feet, and much to the pleasure of the Sentinel, she seemed to have calmed herself down. “Let’s get moving over to that little park down the block,” she ordered with a wave of her hand.

“You military?” Pikachu asked quietly as the group slowly (and slightly begrudgingly) began to move down the road.

“I got promoted, but they have me working at a desk,” Piper said with a chuckle as the group caught site of a giant mob of zombies forming down the road. From the looks of it, the horde wasn’t going to willingly let them get through the fence and into the park without one hell of a scuffle. “All right people, let’s look lively!” The Sentinel declared as she uprooted a street sign and proceeded to hold the end out in front of her like a spear.

“If it wasn’t my main goal in life to slaughter each and every member of your species, I’d have to have a word or two with your CO,” Pikachu said with what sounded like a grain of sincerity. Before Piper could poke fun at the Pokémon for complimenting her, music began blaring down from nowhere and the horde descended upon the survivors.

[James]

A roaring clatter of pots and pans dangling from hooks suspended above the stoves jingled in distress, swinging from side to side bashing into one another not much unlike the situation going on just outside the kitchen door. The weakening structure of the building revealed its true colors under the strain of buckling supports from above, the fire on the upper levels had started eating away at the stability of the rooms above it, adding weight to the foundation below.

Something upstairs crumbled, shivering the room with trickles of dust wafting down from above, a piece of ceiling tile fell squarely over the top of the gruff child's head.

"Damn it!" he cried waving off the chunk still stuck to his beret. It wasn't looking good, another twenty minutes of this and the entire weight of the hotel would be bearing down on him if he didn't find a way out quick. Another inspection into the dining hall offered no relief to the mass of zombies stumbling down the stairs from above, maybe it was the smallest recollection of the meals once served here that drove their stomachs to this place? A likely possibility, one to consider that they could have the slightest capacity for thought, least enough to know not to eat one another despite their hunger. Wait... that was it!

Wolfgang hopped down off the counter and flashed his right leg, removing the blood spotted strip from his leg and bringing it to his face, twisting out as much of the soaked in blood over the top of his as he could. Discarding the rag, Wolf glanced at his reflecting in the side of a well polished washer, fingering some of the liquid to give himself more of an "undead" appearance. Though he was convinced with the facade, there was still something was missing...

He took another look at the mannerisms of the ghouls pacing about outside in the dining hall carefully; it looked as though they were sleepwalking. He looked at their faces, vacant with a hint of sadness- or a drunk who's lost a bet.

With some success he was able to pull off a slouching drag similar to what he saw the animated corpses preforming with the exception of the groan, the long winded, drawn out moans that they beasts whimpered during their excursions. It was mournful, sorrowful, like they were dead and hated it.

"Ugggh." reproducing something of a groan not nearly as satisfying than he hoped for, it would do.

Reaching the door into the dining hall, Wolfgang breathed in deeply ruffling his artificial whiskers in a last second bit of mental preparation. He pushed open the door, dragging his leg as if wounded and groaned with every step out onto the floor practically covered in the treading feet of the zombie menace.

All appeared to be going as planned- they hadn't noticed the small bearded child as he made his way across the room towards the staircase but that wasn't to say he didn't get a few looks. He twinged suddenly as a small hair from his mustache lodged itself so daintily within his nose, he squirmed in protest until a breath caught him off guard causing him to sneeze loudly practically dead center of the flock... dead indeed. At once the huge gathering turned their attention to the small pretender they had in their clutches, the boy still pretending to play off being a kin of their own.

The sound of their breathing began closing in, tightening the space between their rotting bodies, squeezing out any chance of escape till the child clenched his fists and shot his back up straight from the hunched over position he had assumed.

Above the dreadful sound of groaning ceased as a bassline and synthesizer hiccuped a rhythm loud and clear.

Eyes still closed shut, Wolfgang staggered steps forward to the sound of the beat, shrugging his head to one side at specific points in the melody while drifting back to where he stood. The movements caught even the mentally challenged undead off guard who wavered slightly, spacing themselves unconsciously still keen on the boy who repeated his initial movements once more only this time with a handful of the creatures mimicking his movements.

Shooting an arm out to either side, he began walking forward once more moving his crotch in a swaying motion with a quick leap thereafter, bending over and back to quickly grab his groan, giving several good thrusts.

The contagious choreography spread throughout the length of the dining hall to each undead who now moved with an uncharacteristic grace, as though some black-turn-white magic had overpowered their need to feed and replaced it with groove.

Bending his hands at the wrists, Wolf threw them up to one side and walked in that direction, turning back and heading the other way in the same strange fashion replicated throughout the zombie ranks following.

Wolfgang has earned the achievement "THRILLER KILLER"

In the mix of the 80's oriented dance he had worked his way to the stairwell leading back up to the main floor above- not a moment too soon as a large piece of ceiling came tumbling down, taking out a good handful of ghouls in the process. Now woken from their trance, the group turned towards the fleeing child who hurried up the stairs, weaving past another few before emerging from the hotel doors into the street.

Breathing rapidly, he threw off a odd white glove that had materialized on one of his hands and beat a hasty retreat up the street, out from under the burning tower who he had a vague guess at who might have started.

If they made it out... the boy looked around crossed, scratching his head contemplatively. I would go someplace wide open. coincidentally the sign "Zombieland City Park" lay nailed into a turned over telephone pole at the corner of the block. With another deep breath, he started off to regroup with his lost comrades.

[Mr. Zhu]

With one last look at the zombies and nowhere else to run. Zhu gulped to himself and looked at his "companions." They wanted nothing to do with him, neither did he want anything to do with them, especially that rude rodent that won't keep his mouth shut. Claws tingling, Zhu abandoned all thoughts of retreating again and decided to engage the horde. The eunuch slid his hands to his side and reached for the metal handle of his katana and drew it close to him as his teammates did the same with their weapons.

The pink haired girl readied his flamethrower for combat as the soldier-woman put up a boxing style defense one hand tightly gripping the street sign, even the rodent had a karate stance going into the fight. Zhu held his breath and looked as the pink haired girl began to sweat and the other woman's eye beginning to twitch a little bit. The zombies lined up neatly in a battlefront position, a clear leader showed at the very end of the group. It was roughly twice the size of its minions and had a rusted crown tilted halfway down his face. Both sides were armed and ready, all they needed was an initiation.

"So um," started the brunette half-smiling, "how are we going to divide this shit up?"

Zhu ignored the brunette's half-witted joke, but the pink-haired girl answered. "I think we should just go about it at our own comfort? Or did you want to divive it into rows?" She kept thinking and began to roughly estimate the group of zombies. "I think there are roughly around 300-500, maybe we should each take 100 something?"

"Shut up!" the rude, yellow rodent piped up.

Zhu began to snicker now at the conversation. Maybe this was the feeling of desparation on another level, right before one was about to die. He was rather disappointed though, contrary to what he had heard before, his life did not flash before his eyes. Without that sensation, he really couldn't put a label on what he was experiencing. It may still not be his time yet.

The awkward silence continued as the massive army of undead stared solemnly at the four. As some sort of a ritual, even the moaning sounds they made were monotonous and symmetrical. Almost unanimously, they all put their hands up together, and as soon as their leader made some sort of really loud noise they began to charge towards the survivors.

As Piper, Victoria, and Pikachu dashed towards the zombie crowd head on, Zhu slipped to the back of the group and began to observe a better spot to cut up the crowd of zombies. Victoria led the group into the fight, engaging with a head kick to a random zombie picked from the group. She followed it up with a burst of flame towards the rest of the troop.

The yellow rodent dived into the air, and unleashed a storm of thunder and lightning, picking off the zombies with great accuracy. Piper followed him and began to beat up the zombies with her post, smashing it into skulls and ribs all over the place. She targeted well and aimed all the shots at weaknesses, virtually one hitting all the zombies.

Zhu slowly swiped his sword from side to side and finally jumped into zombie mob, one thing in his mind, the leader. There was an old chinese saying, "to capture the thieves, first you must capture the head." This was exactly what he had to follow to break up these zombies, he had to find the leader and kill him. It was the only way this zombie horde will disband.

[Victoria]

“Zombies,” Victoria pointed with her hand, “to the left!” She jumped back and let loose her flaming weapon, roasting the fiends where they stood. Given their tenacity, a few still climbed to their feet with verve. Groaning angrily, as if they could feel the emotion, they charged in numbers at the group. Each member of their brigade fought with their own weapon. One member wielded her pseudo pole arm, whilst another gripped his katana, and Victoria held up her valuable flamethrower. The added bonus of the small otherworld beast gave them that added edge. Its lightening strikes put the zombie hordes into shambles, greatly increasing their odds, and yet the monsters did not cease.

“Where in God’s name are these foul wretches coming from?” the coral haired hunter whipped around and slashed the throng of ghouls in her path. They stumbled, tripped, and pulled themselves back up again.

“Where else,” a voice called, “they’ll stop when he’s had his fun.”

Fun, right, she sighed and mused to herself. This was a game, as real as it felt, she had to remember that. A cold hard slap was what it took, she had foolishly fallen into the nightmare that this place had been made into. She couldn’t be a zombie, she wasn’t really here, and she would be fine. As long as we keep him entertained, I imagine he’ll keep us alive. As long as I can win this game, I’ll be okay. She surmised, and gripped her weapon tightly in her hands

Victoria ran through the horde, dodging claws and teeth. She looked grimly around herself, staring at the rotting flesh, and her comrades fighting bravely. She had found a raised hill, flamed the dead beings with her trusty weapon, and used the height for some advantage against their enemy. She spotted the pale man, he moved about the battlefield with skill, taking out the ghastly foes with his metallic weapon. He headed in the direction of the would-be boss, and she couldn’t agree more with that idea.

She turned sharply as claws ripped through her shoulder. “Argh,’ she cried, and returned the attack. Three nasty figures took up arms against her. Their decomposing digits had found their way around various weapons. A short axe slashed close to her gut, while a short sword followed in an attempt to pierce her side. “Super Zombies?!” she asked, and continued to dodge as the third, with nails like daggers, swiped at her with great precision. Vicky shot off a burst of fire, stunning the trio, but they pushed through the flames and pressed their attacks. She moved backwards, dodging left and right, nearly taking a hit to her face with the rusted axe.

The sword wielding zombie stopped dead in his tracks, and his head rolled off his shoulders. The girl stared in awe, and his companions hesitated. Another quick hit came from no-where, cutting off the axe man’s hand, and he stared at the loss of his limb in sudden remorse.

“What the fuck?” Vic asked, bewildered. The wooden boomerang slashed right through the two zombies, cutting them down, and leaving the woman speechless.

“I…I thought you could use the help!” he called, catching his boomerang as it curved back towards him. He stumbled with the catch, and then held the weapon tightly to his chest.

“Thank you,” she replied, taking down another zombie as she walked towards the boy. “I was afraid you wouldn’t make it, but here you are.” She said, looking down at the boy. “For a kid, you’ve got guts.” She gripped his shoulder and gave him a stern look, and then a confident smile. “Dig in, there’s plenty more zombies to slaughter.” She clapped him again on the shoulder and moved away, jumping into the jaunting beasts.

“At this rate we won’t make it to the tower,” Victoria said. She gritted her teeth and fought off another of the cretins.

“Coordinate your attacks, you stupid monkey’s .” Pikachu yelled, he let loose another bolt of lightning on a group of groaning undead.

“The rabbit is right, take down the one with the crown.” Victoria pointed towards the zombie warlord; he stood larger than the rest, directing attacks. The older man was already on it, almost at the target in question.

“R-rabbit?!” the yellow Pokémon replied, aghast. “First a rat and now a rabbit, your stupidity ceases to amaze me.” A bolt of electricity struck a zombie near Victoria, she could feel the energy singe her arm, but she pretended not to notice.

“Rat, rabbit, poke-whatever, this is no time to argue.” She spat and ran past the small warrior. She jumped around the zombie lackey’s and passed the other member of her team, the female she remembered very well.

“Let’s do this,” she nodded at Piper, showing her extreme determination. “They both have the right idea, if we fight together, we’ll have that bastard on his knees wishing he were really dead.” She held her weapon ready, “take point, I’ll cover you.” She nodded to the defending monsters, ready to kick ass and win this game.

[Piper Juunanagou]

Despite her previous training as a field medic, Piper had never once actually been on the frontline. Sure, she’d been part of the first medic battalion for numerous operations in her previous life, but that group had always swept in behind the first wave of soldiers. Never before had the woman actually experience the insanity that was fighting on the front line of war, and even still, she’d never actually engaged in said war with a horde of zombies. At its worst, Bellavista had been little more than urban warfare, but this…this maelstrom of gore that she was knee-deep in was something far more mortifying.

Swinging the weapon in an arch in front of her, Piper cleaved through the group of five frothing undead scrambling for her brains. As that quintet fell apart, they were quickly replaced by another group of rampaging corpses. Sighing inwardly, the soldier lashed out once more; however, she was intercepted this time by an attack against her flank. With a single punch, the zombie charging at her from the left managed to stagger her—causing her grip on the signpost to become comprised long enough for it to be ripped from her hands.

Cursing inwardly, Piper turned and made short work of the zombie who had cost her the weapon. As that zombie fell backwards to the pavement—its brain now caved in like a decomposing pumpkin—the group advancing on Piper’s front pounced at her. Like rabid dogs, the screaming undead ripped at her windbreaker, but before they could penetrate the woman’s rapidly deteriorating jacket, she teleported five feet behind her former position.

As the zombies came screaming back at their elusive prey, the Sentinel ripped her unwanted jacket off of her lithe frame, balled it up, and sent it hurtling at one of the stampeding undead. Although the impact wasn’t enough to kill the zombie, it was more than enough to topple the decomposing corpse. Grinning at her remaining adversaries, Piper telekinetically called a nearby piece of asphalt into her outstretched hand. When the first zombie reached her, his entire face was promptly smashed in by the chunk of rock and tar.

Spinning around her first foe even as he was still falling to the ground, the woman sized up the next zombie and sent her makeshift weapon hurtling at his face. With a violent snap, the cadaver’s neck snapped back and its twitching body managed to run a few more paces before collapsing forward into a motionless pile. Turning to her last attacker, Piper smiled faintly and grabbed the zombies outspread arms. Smiling faintly at the rage in the creature’s eyes, the Sentinel proceeded to violently twist the creature’s arms like corkscrews.

Screaming furiously, the zombie tried to press forward only to have the woman release its ruined arms and clasp a hand around its neck. A heartbeat later, Piper jerked her hand back and smiled faintly as the abomination’s neck snapped and its body went limp in her grip. Still grinning, the medic hoisted the corpse up above her head with both her hands and hurled it into the mob of zombies combating the other ‘survivors.’

“A girl could get used to this…” Piper added with a murderous gleam in her eyes as she advanced into the mob.

[Kill Town]

After Wonderland…

“Alright, so that was nasty,” Lance frowned. “Can’t you, like, turn off the blood or something?”

“Nah,” Keith picked his brain apart for some sort of excuse. “I like the realism.”

“You’re sick, but…alright, whatever,” his friend merely shook his head. “What’s next?”

Gamer flicked his joypad, summoning the next video feed. The surreal sights of the Wonderland shifted quickly into the dark streets of a city, although there was just as large an amount of blood flowing as there was in the last shot. Four of his players—three women and a man, or…wait, no, two women and two men had been fighting their way through zombie after zombie, using their “God-given” weapons to absolutely annihilate any form of rotten flesh that happened to get into their way.

“Oh sweet, Left 4 Dead,” Lance whistled.

“Err…right…” Keith muttered, slowly lifting a hand to cover the event name in the lower left corner of the screen.

“Hey, hey! Move your hand! I can’t see the screen! Something’s happening!”


“Hey, watch it, you human motherfucker!” Pikachu roared after he found himself having to duck under a flying boomerang. “You almost hit me!”

“Watch out!” Wolfgang shouted out, pointing at his weapon as it made its trip back towards his hand.

Pikachu gasped and ducked again, letting it narrowly scrape the top of his head. “Where the fuck are you throwing that, anyway!? I’m three fucking feet tall!”

“I don’t know if you noticed, but there are a lot of zombies around us right now!” the man shouted back.

And there was, two zombies were spawned for every undead creature that had been killed—some were created far away while some appeared mere feet away from the group, but all of them eventually found their way to the middle of the city, where every Kill Town player had wound up. Victoria grunted as she squeezed the trigger of her flamethrower, lighting several of them on fire, though none of them died (again) immediately. Like any good zombie does, they all wandered around like headless chickens, sometimes lighting other zombies on fire as they frantically made their way around. Why anyone, undead or not, would follow that logic and not, for instance, the “stop, drop, and roll” theory was beyond anyone who stopped to think about it.

“Oh man, this is intense,” Baller said, eyes still glued to the monitor. “But why did you make Pikachu talk? It makes no sense.”

“I didn’t,” Gamer blinked. “I…he just started doing it on his own.”

“Ahaha! Die, your zombie bastards!” Pikachu cackled, shooting sparks of electricity outward as his “trainer,” so to speak, warped about the area and doing her own kind of damage to her undead foes. “Yeah, get ‘em, Piper! Yeah, you sexy motherfucker!”

“Oh gawd…” Piper shuddered. “Why does my weapon have to talk?”

“Does this hoard ever end?” Zhu moaned as he sliced through another beast. He turned to his comrades and laughed. “Dunno about you guys, but I’m getting tired of this!”

Gamer took heed of the man’s comment and typed a few keys, stopping the zombie spawn mechanism. If they could defeat the remaining zombies, then they would be safe for a round. In some ways, the teenager was actually pulling for them—they had been doing amazingly well to that point—but of course, he was also secretly pulling for a bloody demise. That was, after all, the name of the game.

Thirty-seven stabbed, electrocuted, bashed, and burnt zombies later, the only four figures remaining were the ones that the event began with.

“Jesus,” Lance shook his head. “I do not want to fuck with those guys.”

1st: Victoria – 40 monies
2nd: Piper – 30 monies
3rd: Wolfgang – 20 monies
4th: Mr. Zhu – 10 monies.