Day: 365

Zombies killed: 70.000

When the boat with the Happy Shrimp faction logo (for convenience, once that I was already used to it, I had decided to keep calling the group by the name I first gave it) came up the river, filled with more guards armed to the teeth, my twin sister and I had already long got off the mansion; I then observed the scene from the fallen the bridge, with binoculars, hidden away.

“Are you sure?”, Morgaine asked, getting out of the first vehicle we had found and then heavily modified. She looked extremely sad when she patted it, knowing that it would be the last ride of the car then painted black and filled with spikes, skulls, saws, barbed wires, and flamethrowers. Though the armored car offered much more protection, Morgaine ended up taking a like of that thing and kept it, and modifying it like a hobby.

“Yeah, not only there’s no workplace by the walls with the exception of the guards, they should be alerted already now, so the few workers in the outside must have been moved to the hangar by now. We will keep unrelated casualties in the lowest number possible. We want to free the other survivors, not kill them after all”, I replied entering the heavily modified car. Looking around and noticing each and every detail and the effort my twin sister put in that vehicle, I added, also tapping the car: “Don’t worry: he is, like, a hero car. I’m sure this is his will, to go to the car’s Valhalla.”

Morgaine giggled before replying:

“Take care”, we intertwine or hands. I closed my eyes, feeling her warmth thru the gloves. I would kiss her, if I weren’t probably covered in parasite eggs from the zombie I killed just before (looking back, it was a fucking miracle that we didn’t got infect back in the mall…).

“I will” I answered, and Morgaine getting back, I closed the door, started the motor, and went on. The street was filled with vehicles turned over, grass that started to break thru the asphalt, skeletons, rats, wild dogs and cats, and many pigeons. I avoided the biggest obstacles, but the car was sturdy enough to just push over bicycles, random furniture, and smaller wreckage. “It’s the last level. And I want to see the happy ending that comes after this!”, I concluded, and soon, the speedometer marking the highest speed possible to the car with so many appendices, the scenery around changed, growls and roars and screeches and purrs made themselves be heard. I was in the port neighborhood. I was surrounded by the last zombies of the city and the most mutated creatures after Target Junior. Dozens of them.

The vehicle suddenly shook and the wheels became hard to control as something hit the side of the car, but I was able to proceed nevertheless, the lights of the active factory of the Happy Shrimp faction already visible ahead.

Then, something settled over the car’s ceiling, something that made a very acute noise and, by the flying orange sparkles that I could see thru the mirrors, was able to make thru metal somehow. Bizarre and fearsome creatures being revealed by the headlights of the car one after another, and still disturbing my handle of the steering wheel, once that a long needle-like finger that was, for some reason, chromed, pierced thru the ceiling, I reached for my shotgun, pressed its barrel against the wrinkled region I believed the creature was, and shot.

There was a painful scream, blood dripped inside the car, and the shiny undead finger was pulled off the roof.

“Are you okay? I heard you shooting, but I still can see your car’s lights, and I’m able to tell that you’re still a bit soon from the port to start shooting…”

“I’m, no worries. Just some random mobs that thought they were big shit at this point”, I replied Morgaine, holding the steering wheel with both hands again; almost having lost control in the few moments I diverted my attention. “I am about to reach the wall, stay ready!”

“Of course. I just thought you could have been attacked by some kind of mechanic zombie or something”, she concluded, cutting off the line.

I had only time to sigh before the creature from before showed up again, this time sticking an entire fucking arm thru the hole made by my shotgun and revealing a knight metallic armor covering the limb while blending with root-like flesh and being incorporated in the zombie’s body.

The thing’s hand had twisted metal, bone and flesh somehow to create a finger for each job, one looking like a blade, other like a needle, a saw, and so on: all of then hurt thru my armor when the zombie attacked blindly inside the car; I felt the plates over my bulletproof vest, that didn’t hold very wall stabbing, were pressed against my clothes, cut them and carved into my skin with their sides. Putting cuts all over my armor with little effect, the creature though blind over the ceiling, changed strategies and, holding my head between its fingers, started to bash it against the window by my side while I tried to shot the thing off the ceiling, but without much effect, the damn armor and mutation offering incredible protection. My vision blurring while I had my helmet shaken back and forth, my brain pulsing with the worst headache someone could have, compared only to when I was literally shot in the forehead, I could barely see the giant undead meat tank with sunglasses and tank top before the vehicle before I hit it and loose grip over the steering wheel.

I had just started the list of worst headache possible a few hours, but it was already fierce competition, and I was rearranging the positions very quickly: the car turning over and over, I was hurled to one side then another, hitting everything inside the vehicle. Normally I put the seat belt, but not that time. Then I couldn’t.

At some point, the car stop to turn over repeatedly and, upside down, was dragged over a sea of sparkles and I saw myself seated on the roof, seeing the zombie in plate armor conjured by my twin sister crawling in, the half of its body that stayed outside cut off. Having lost my shotgun at some point, I was drawing the magnum.

“Bro, you’re about to hit the wall!”, I heard my twin sister scream.

“This is actually perfect”, I said, then shooting the door open and jumping.

After lit the rest of the TNT we had hoarded since the police station.

I rolled on the ground, but stopped soon and at in time to see the car bashing against the concrete wall marked by the faction symbol and filled with confused guards and explode with such a strength that I asked myself if my twin sister hadn’t transformed those dynamites into nukes.

I felt the heat and was pushed by the wind even at the long-distance I was from the explosion. And its light, gas still burning, made the surroundings bright enough to see the super mutated zombies coming, hungry, from my back, and the guards that hadn’t died in the explosion recovering themselves to aim their guns to me. I decided to turn to the undead, though, and as soon as I exploded the head of a brain-eater who had fur covering its entire body, the armored car Morgaine was driving a little behind my own finally showed up, drifted and stopped between me and the wall, the Happy Shrimp faction’s fire.

Soon, I listened to a hatch being open, and my twin sister started to shoot the machine gun over the armored car, reducing both, men and concrete, to dust; I didn’t stay behind and with my free hand, got the mace by my waist and started to bash it around: my aim wasn’t accurate enough to kill every zombie with a single shot, but the bullets were potent enough to make such damage that the undead had problems in coming for me again, forced to crawl with their own hands or hop around as grotesque decapitated heads, and I was really good with melee combat, and the fools who managed to approach me after my the magnum barrel was empty had their skulls properly crashed. The cease-fire from my twin sister was the signal I was waiting for, and entered the vehicle thru its double metallic doors in the back.

A few handfuls of zombies were still alive and attacked the car, but none could pierce its armor, nor did the bullets from a last resistance inside the port, the blood of the soldiers over the walls dripping to the ground, and with the armored car pushing its way thru the wreckage to inside the walls, the two groups were forced to engage against each other. The driver seat was separated from the large space that was supposed to hold soldiers or criminals, and the chaotic environment outside with enemies too close didn’t make a good option for my twin sister to just pop her head up the hatch once again, so it fell on me the responsibility to shoot whoever ended up alive after the fight that the Happy Shrimp faction and the zombies were having; I reloaded my magnum while waiting for the grows or gunfire cease outside, but I put it inside the holster again and grabbed the assault rifle let inside the vehicle for that moment.

It took more time than I thought it would; the super mutated undead surprising and giving all sorts of trouble the guards; but when I heard the last roar be suddenly stopped by a volley of bullets, the Happy Shrimp faction commemorating and trying to encircle the armored car, I opened the small window by the side of the car and fired. When finally realizing that, by coming around the vehicle they weren’t putting us in danger, but only themselves, the guards scattered and tried to run, but their lack of order only made it easier for me, and firing without concern with ammunition, with a literal bucket filled with cartridge clips by my side, I let my finger glued to the trigger and the automatic gun’s barrel become red rot.

But, finally, there was nothing else.

I waited, and though I my hearing was a bit fucked up by all the shooting, there was just no movement around us.

“Is… it over?”, I asked. Closing the window by the side of the armored car and falling in one of its seats, I took a deep breath, and the pains that the thrill of fighting allowed me to ignore started to came as pulsating waves of fire and subtle twinges. I got impressed with myself about how I could be still wearing the helmet even at that point: my head seemed to be about to explode and there was blood all over my face.

“Just wait until the sword hands zombie to slice this car apart…”, Morgaine commented, but I could hear the relief in her voice. “Well, not that I see anyone around. Want to go outside and announce to the survivors that they are free and there are no more zombies around?”

I tried to put my helmet again, but not only the thing was dripping blood, it also hurt as hell to try to equip it once more, so I just tossed it away; both of us had checked around and there just wasn’t any signal of life (or “un-life”) around, fuck it.

“Yeah. Let’s do this and then go to the soldiers guarding the border to call that woman and get us out off here”, I agreed, going to the door.

Morgaine get out first, but fortunately, no sword-zombie showed up, and I could listen to her careless steps outside. I opened the door and followed her.

Or at least that was my intent, as I was pushed back into the sealed metallic room of the armored car by a pair of heavy boots straight against my chest; the doors were closed, locked and I saw a tall blonde man with a necklace full of stones pointing a pistol to me.

He shot, but I had rolled to the side just in time, and the bullet ricocheted on the metal and came back straight at his hands, ripping off two of his fingers and forcing him to let off the gun.

I took my own magnum out of its holster and shot back, but the result wasn’t different, and the guy having spun to the side, the ammo came straight back at my shoulder.

My flesh wasn’t putrid, so my entire arm wasn’t torn off, but while a small hole only was visible where the bullet came in, I could very well feel a large wound at my back, and that it was leaking even more than the cuts in my head.

There was no time to scream, though, as the guy jumped over me with a knife, having learned his lesson:

“Wanted to cut off the head of the guy of the turret first, but he didn’t come out off the hatch this time, and I wasn’t in a good position to catch him then…”, was he hiding at the ceiling?! I blocked the blade with my good hand, but the tip was coming closer as the metal cut slowly thru my armor and into my flesh as the man that I recognized as the leader from before, maybe that captain guy, talked.

“Fuck you”, Was all I could say, eyes fixed on the shining gray coming closer.

“You shouldn’t curse, boy, it’s bad for your chi. Look at me, I don’t curse and I’m strong enough to be just a single centimeter from killing you!”, the captain brought up his wounded hand, and then bashed it down the handle of the knife.

“Physical strength has nothing to do with it!”, I screamed while forcing my free arm to my helmet, my destroyed shoulder spitting blood like a geyser, and used it to attack the captain over me hitting him in the head before he could execute his attack.

The horn on the helmet cut the face of the tall man e over me and I kicked him to the side, without losing a single second more and jumping over the captain, holding his wrist and twisting it so he couldn’t use the knife on me again.

I thought about shooting him on the side of the head, but my arm just wouldn’t move again, no matter how much I wanted to do it, so I opened my mouth as much as I could, showing my teeth. This time, though, was the captain who moved first and, instantly noticing what I was about to do, sank his teeth on my neck.

“Fool!”, he said thru his teeth and my flesh and blood. “You blind fool, I have 74 pots positioned all over this place in a perfect feng shui balance! This makes me a god in this helm, didn’t you know?! If only those scientists had this kind of knowledge instead of letting themselves be blind by their own ego… like you, fool, this tragedy would have never happened!”

I couldn’t breathe, and my mind was going blank in pain. I knew I was just about to faint, my grip over that captain guy's wrist was getting loose, and soon, more than his bare teeth, I would have an entire blade stuck in me.

But I couldn’t just give up now! We killed 70.000 zombies! We destroyed the evil faction in the infected city!

We!

I opened my mouth once again, spitting blood all over myself and the captain. Then, I bit.

Not into the tall man, however, but into the grip of the metallic window by the side of the armored car, pulling it to the side and open.

The tip of the spear came cleanly thru the captain’s throat, and he immediately stopped all resistance.

I fell over the wall and kept hold of myself just enough to drag my feet to the vehicle door and open it.

I fell forward, but didn’t felt the hard ground on my face, but a gentle hug.

I closed my eyes, listened to some kind of argument, and fainted.

I opened my eyes and saw helicopters… they were shooting on us.

I opened my eyes and saw the police station... Morgaine dragged me inside while firing to somewhere behind of us.

I opened my eyes and saw dirt… all around. It was darker than the night there, and while my twin sister said shaken words to me, she pushed forward with a light in one of her hands, and my shoulder in another.

I opened my eyes and saw the sun again. There was another helicopter and… the woman in black. I could understand only fragments of the conversation: “secret passage… how do you know we were here…”, Morgaine said; “Do you think doves are a real thing?”, the woman in black said. She seemed tired.

I opened my eyes. And wasn’t in the infected city anymore.