Urban Dead: The Price of the Oath

[Cynical Cat]

"You have two day," he said.

[Caz]

"Until the horde regroups?" she asked.

[Cynical Cat]

"One day for the leaders to reestablish control and others to come. One day for the leaders to establish hierarchy among them. Two days."

[Caz]

"That's more than we thought we had..." she said, mental gears obviously turning. She then looked back to him.

"Will you stay with us? Fight them?"

[Cynical Cat]

"You are all meat. Would you trust me inside?"

[Caz]

She took a deep breath. "I'll make sure of it," she said evenly. "We have all kinds... and if you don't like it, you can always leave," she said, "we won't make you stay."

But they both knew the "enemy of my enemy" line; this was an illustrated case.

[Pcm979]

"The only problem is that now they can see us too," Sherry said. Although the tone of her voice suggested more of a 'THIS IS GONNA BE FUN!' mentality as opposed to anything regarding problems.

She grinned and linked her arm with Mike's.

"Let's see if we can get a signal and radio the guys to let 'em know," she said.

"Showtime, hey?" He said with a wink.

The Zombie was confused, as most creatures with their brains partially removed were. It was bright, and that was bad. Or was it good? What was bad and good?

Food. There was food near.

With a sudden burst of strength, it bashed against the bathroom door, pushing the desk away roughly. It staggered out and moaned in annoyance as it realised the desk was now blocking its path towards the food. Lacking the intelligence to climb over or under it, the Zombie walked against the desk aimlessly, slowly pushing it down the corridor.

And with the gusto typical of her personality, Sherry dashed up the stairs and jogged from the generator room and into the hallway, sailing through the air as she swung her axe in a broad arc, catching the zombie straight in the chin with the corner of the blade.

Completely ignoring that whatever had made the noise with the desk could have possibly been a person, of course.

The Zombie, oddly preserved from the mutations the rest of its brethren free in the city had contracted, was quite efficiently killed with this maneuver, the top of its head plopping against the floor sickeningly.

Of course, that was when the three Zombies floating in the water got up. Mike swung his axe in a broad arc, sending one tumbling into the water again.

"Mike, hang back!" Sherry said, trying to sidestep him to get a good shot at the other two. Frustrated with the lack of room to swing her axe at this angle in the thin hallway, she moved as far from Mike as she could and drew the machete from her belt loop, stabbing forward into the neck of one of the zombies.

Almost comically, it took a moment to register the impact and then swung around, yanking the blade from her hands. It raised its arms, grappling her.

Mike swung his rifle off his shoulder, clocking the other Zombie down into the water. The first one staggered to its feet, axe protruding from its chest loosely.

Sherry squeaked a bit, surprised as the zombie managed to wrench the machete out from itself. She hopped back as Mike threw the other one straight between the one she'd been grappling with and herself, then used the moment of surprise to strike at the downed zombie with her axe, hoping to just sever the fucking thing in two.

The downed Zombie was bisected, legs thrashing aimlessly in the dirty water.

Mike turned to the Zombie with the axe protruding from it and jerked the weapon out. "Thanks." He said, swinging it into other standing Zombie's neck. "I was looking for that."

Just then, the downed Zombie's torso hauled itself forward doggedly, clamping rotten teeth onto Sherry's boot and shaking its head hard.

Sherry yelped as the move caught her off-guard, pulling her down to the ground hard. Her tailbone slammed against the tile floor and she cried out, kicking viciously at the thing's head to get it off of her. There was no way in hell it could chew through the leather of her boots, but it was sure a pain to attempt to deal with. Fortunately the fight was moving out of the generator room, away from the water.

Distracted, Mike dropped his guard and the formerly-axed Zombie latched onto his back, lunging for his neck. He yelled and slammed it against the mouth of the hallway hard, grappling with its hands and head. God only knew what shit was under its fingernails, in its mouth.

Fuck "not wasting ammo."

This was as good an emergency as any.

She yanked the pistol from its holster and burst the skull of the zombie latched to her foot, then stood up and yanked her axe out of the gore pile its torso had become.

"Mike, to your left!" she shouted, lunging forward.

Despite being throttled Mike attempted to communicate the fact that his mobility was somewhat encumbered, but obligingly shifted himself as best he could. The thing's nails drew blood, and he winced.

Fortunately, he was able to move his head just enough so that she could slam the axe's head down into the zombie's skull, pinning it to the wall. She then grabbed the arm that was digging into Mike's shoulder and yanked as hard as she could.

The arm came free and Mike wriggled out, scooping up his axe and bringing it down where Sherry's left off, finishing the job. The headless thing slithered to the floor quietly.

"Okay." He said, panting and forcing himself to think rationally again. "Chuck the heads somewhere; I'll deal with my shoulder."

"The head," she said. Only one remained intact, the other splattered and the third cleaved neatly in two. She yanked her axe and machete free, wiped them on her boot, and replaced them on her belt.

And she kicked the remaining head with a bit of a cackle, watching as it pinballed down the hallway.

"That too." Mike said dazedly, plucking a canteen and a rag from his belt and pouring a little of the cheap alcohol contained inside onto the rag, then clapping it to his shoulder. He offered her a drink, sliding to the floor.

She took a sip and sat down, groaning a bit. "Talk about a bad time for a fight," she said with a chuckle. "But hopefully that'll do it for surprises for now, eh?"

"One can only hope. We better get the rest down before we open that door to the medical wing." He commented, relieving her of the bottle and taking a sip himself.

She nodded. "Yeah, sounds like a plan."

Hopping to her feet after a moment, she looked to him.

"You really think this is gonna work?"

"I never said that." He replied seriously. "But it's either try this or freeze, starve and die in a variety of unpleasant ways." He levered himself to his feet, capping the canteen and clipping it back to his belt.

She nodded, then watched him for a moment in contemplative silence.

"I never would've expected something like this from you when we first met," she said. "It's... really brave."

"Needs must." He said dismissively. "Like I said when we got the Mall -Christ, that's nearly a month ago now- some of us had it, and some of us didn't. I was lucky."

She smiled, tiny and appreciative.

"We'll get 'em," she said. "We've got more than survival to fight for now."

He grinned and ruffled her hair in liu of kissing her heavily greasepainted face.

"Hell yes. Now, let’s get those slackers down here, hey?"

[Cynical Cat]

"You would trust me around children? You lie," he said. He stood. "I will gather meat." He began to methodically reload. "Kill shamblers. Kill leaders. Hang the meat. Make my own lair. See if girl dead yet. Fresh meat."

[Caz]

"Girl?" she asked, peering at him.

[Cynical Cat]

"Smell her. Near my . . . . roost. Not dead yet. Not well. Horde passed her. Two shamblers came for her. Now hanging in my . . . larder."

[Caz]

She thought for a moment. The woman that the first had run into? Trouble? That could be her... however, that didn't mean Melanie had any idea how to deal with that situation. She did, however, have an idea.

Unclipping the radio from her belt, she handed it to him.

"You can reach us on channel four," she said.

[Cynical Cat]

He took it, rattled it for a moment, and then hung it from his bandolier. "You want me to bring girl? If alive."

[Caz]

"I don't know," she said for a long moment, then: "My friend is the one who found her and put her there. He'll come back for her. So we shouldn't move her..."

Glancing back to the mall, she then said:

"If I give you something, would you bring it to her?"

[Cynical Cat]

"Yes. You want me to watch her?"

[Caz]

She then remembered something and pointed to the radio.

"Ask for Trouble," she said. "We'll see if she's okay."

[Pcm979]

The Leader was a mass of scars, almost every part of him having been chopped off, blown apart, set on fire and then run over. He was, however, heavily muscled, his modified biochemistry pumping all nutrition into the construction of bone and sinew. There was still a gaping wound in his side, restricting his movement.

His bodyguard -The strongest and fastest Zombies under his control- dragged a moaning Human towards him. The... Man had been crushed under a building, ribs caved in in multiple places. He would die soon unless given immediate attention.

The scarred Leader reached over and ripped the man's left arm off, tearing hunks off it greedily. The wound on his side began knitting together almost instantly.

[Cynical Cat]

Wendigo nodded and collected the whetstone and the oil. He turned north and began to walk.

[Caz]

"Uh... be careful!" she called after him rather stupidly, then stood there for a few moments. When she looked back, everyone on the mall's rooftop was standing there, staring.

"The fuck are you looking at!?" she bellowed, wandering back to the lift lines.

[Pcm979]

Something caught Punt's eye. His... Other eye.

"What th' hell?" He muttered to himself. The... Aura on that one was bizzare.

He was, of course, 'looking' at Reaper.

[Caz]

When Melanie had made her way back onto the roof, the first person who caught her eye was Punt, who was looking off toward the distance. She grinned and slapped his back with enthusiasm.

"You feeling better?" she asked, hopeful. "Your arm?"

[Pcm979]

For once, Punt hadn't been totally aware of his surroundings. Reaper's... Signature was just that strange. He wheeled around, relaxing when, after looking down quite a bit, he spied Melanie. Good, he knew where he was now. Ms. Booth = Boss' mate. Boss' mate = Temporary Boss.

"'M fine. But th' Chief's out." He said, chewing a wad of tobacco. It helped him think.

[Caz]

"Chief?" she asked, wondering who he meant. She was also running on resever battery power here, having not slept in quite some time. But thankfully, the sludge that doubled as coffee 'round the mall was enough to function on.

[Pcm979]

"Mr. Silver." He clarified, turning around again and hopping onto the roof's wall easily, crouched with his elbows on his knees. They were almost at head height now.

His 'bad' hand clenched and unclenched subconciously. He peered over the scene, Zombies ripping each other to shreds.

"Should do som'n." He muttered. "While they're like this. Confused."

[Caz]

"I don't know what we can do," she said, "Frank wants us to keep up with the preparations and I understand that..." She sighed. "This is the goddamn worst possible time for this to happen..."

Glancing to him, she said:

"Any ideas?"

[Pcm979]

"Small team. Quiet. Sneak out there, kill th' leaders." He said concisely, still looking down at the mob. Why, she couldn't imagine. They were too far away to make anything out in detail, surely?