Chapter 3: Movin' Out
Nekrozoa stood helplessly with only his burlap sack in the middle of a circle of carnivorous corpses. As if tauting him, they started to slow down their pace. Still holding their grins on their faces, they were walking closer and closer to Nekrozoa.
Nekrozoa still looked around, seemingly in vain for a gap of some kind in the massive herd. For a second, he glanced at AppleCore. It was giving Nekrozoa his evil-eye stare still. Nekrozoa could hear AppleCore make some softer muffled noises that were huffed out in a pattern that made it seem as if it were laughing at him.
As the zombies moved in on him, they also moved away from each other. There was a small opening at last. It would definately work. Fast as a jackrabbit, Nekrozoa dashed at the hole in the zombie wall. However, right before he could reach it, one of the zombies stepped in front of him. It was a little shorter than him. He knew who it was immediately after he saw its white hat with a red "M" printed on the front. Nekrozoa was forced to run back to where he was, but another zombie blocked him off. At this point, the zombies were so close to him that he would be lucky if he could take a step without getting bitten. Finally, he just fell on his bottom to just sit on the pavement and wait for the seemingly inevitable.
Then all he could see was green. An intense green light flashed before him and then went away. After readjusting his eyes, Nekrozoa saw an entire column of zombies knocked over. None of them appeared to be dead, but he could easily jump over them. Taking his chance, Nekrozoa got up as fast as he could (still holding the burlap sack) and leaped with a running start over the disabled group lying on the pavement, struggling to regain their balance. After that short hurtle- and avoiding some of the lundging towards flesh around him- Nekrozoa booked it to the only intact structure in the neighborhood.
Immediately in his view of vision were three people. All of them wore some clear, plastic goggles over their eyes along with small surgical masks covering their nose and mouth. One of the people had long brown hair, wore a rather large green tophat and a red-and-green kilt. Another had brown fur with the head of a fox. That one appeared to be wearing only a pair of jeans and a golden glove (which was now giving off and odd-colored smoke). The last of the three appeared to be the youngest. He had messy brown hair and eyes that were all completely blue. This was was running behind the other two.
"Oh, thank you God!" Nekrozoa practically yelled. "I could kiss you guys right about now!"
"Don't thank any of us yet!" Balto-Boy yelled back through his mask. "We've still got to get away from these guys!"
Nekrozoa ran up next to the group. He stood before them, panting slowly and constantly. "Well, you saved my ass nonetheless. Thanks for that."
Out of nowhere, the youngest one, Blue, asked "What's in the bag?"
Nekrozoa looked at his prize and then looked back at the curious child. "Oh, this? Long story. I'll tell you later. Right now, I suggest we get the hell out of here. Any ideas?"
"Let's just get back to the house," Blue boasted out.
"Wouldn't work," GrimScott said. "They know where we are now. They'll just follow us."
The zombies were changing course towards the conversing group the entire time. They were making progress towards them.
"Well, we've got to go somewhere and lose them in the process!" Balto-Boy told them.
"You guys think you can make it to the city gates?" Nekrozoa asked in a quick and anxious tone.
"I'd say so," answered Balto-Boy. "It's not too far is... DUCK!"
Listening to him, Nekrozoa bent down and covered his head. Balto-Boy raised his glove and fired a bright green ray at a group of zombies that were litterally inches from them. The ray managed to knock them down as it did before to the other group. Quickly, the entire group ran away from the legion of undead about 50 yards back to the still-standing house at the dead end. Their conversation continued.
"I'm no good with directions," Balto-Boy yelled at Nekrozoa. "Which way is it?"
"We're going to have to go through that," Nekrozoa told them while gesturing at the zombies behind them.
The other three just stared at Nekrozoa. The tension broke when GrimScott gave out a very clear "Aw, shit".
Balto-Boy looked to his side to see her. "I think it's our best shot as of this point."
"Well, you're a moron!" GrimScott yelled at him.
Balto-Boy suddenly became angry "You got any better ideas, you-"
"Hey," Nekrozoa interupted. "Uh... wasn't Blue with you a bit ago?"
Both Balto-Boy and GrimScott looked back to only see the road on which they were standing. They then looked at each other, worry obviously present in both of their faces. Suddenly, there was an explosion followed by a loud "Yeeeah, bitches!" that was apparently coming from the crowd of zombies. Without any other words said, the remaining three immediately ran to Blue, who carelessly ran head-on into battle.
Blue was throwing grenades that resembled small sheep into the large group when the other three joined him. Balto-Boy started shooting green auras at the heads of zombies while GrimScott started slashing and hacking her way through with her scythe. Nekrozoa, having no real weaponry left, held back behind the other three. He would only kick at the zombies if one got a bit too close for his liking.
A couple of minutes passed before GrimScott spoke up. "This isn't gonna work! We need to go around or something!"
After kicking one of the zombies solidly in the chest, Balto-Boy answered back. "Good idea!" Balto-Boy pivoted on his right foot to face the very edge of the mob. He shot a very large aura at them to blast them off their feet. Seizing the moment, all four of the Brawlers ran as fast as they could in front of the fallen zombies, making sure none of them grabbed their ankles or anything else. GrimScott hacked through some of the zombies that got up faster than the others while Blue and Nekrozoa kicked and punched at the ones that she missed.
They rounded the corner of the zombie mass when Balto-Boy fired again to knock down the next group of zombies they'd have pass. But, eventually, even though the makeshift plan was working brilliantly, things turned for the worst.
The very edge of the zombies was reached, but the zombies managed to surround the next house the Brawlers would have to run aside. Because of this, the Brawlers were blocked off by a large rectangle formation of zombies. They stopped in their tracks, looking around for another option; GrimScott, Blue, and Nekrozoa still attacking the closer zombies.
Balto-Boy looked at Blue. "Blue! We need one of those sheep grenades!"
"I can't make anymore!" Blue yelled back. "Why do you think I've only been using hand-to-hand for so long?! I'm too tired to make more of them!"
Balto-Boy could easily see the grogginess in Blue's face now. He also saw Blue's chest rising up and down more deeply and realized he was breathing through his mouth. This didn't help the fact that dozens of flesh-hungry people were circling in on the group at a steady pace.
"Balto! Blast a hole through them! We can run on top of them!" GrimScott called back, still hacking away.
He didn't need anymore explination. Balto-Boy blasted another aura through the zombies. All of the zombies in its path flew back on their back, smacking on the ground below them. The sudden seperation of the zombies slightly resembled the parting of the Red Sea. "Let's hit it!" Balto-Boy yelled at them.
Balto-Boy ran at the opening. Blue, Nekrozoa, and GrimScott followed right after him. They ran over the befallen zombies as fast as they could. The soft road laid out was slowly beginning to rise again. If they were to look back (which they didn't dare do), they would've seen the zombies they just trampled rising back to their feet and turning to chase after them once again.
The wall around the zombie road was starting to close in on the Brawlers. Zombies started to latch on to them and they had to peel the few zombies off of them. The road ahead began to rise before them. They ran even faster. The walls were closing in. There was hardly 12 inches left to move. More zombies started to latch on. Faster, faster, faster, and faster everyone ran while peeling more and more zombies off. Nekrozoa started using the burlap sack he has been holding as weapon, occasionally swinging it like a medieval mace. Balto-Boy started making leaping strides towards their only exit. Nekrozoa continued running normally, but Blue followed Balto-Boy's example. The exit was constantly closing up almost nothing. Soon, the only thing that could really be seen was the zombies. Some of the sky even managed to get blocked out.
The Brawlers were just feet away from freedom. They ran even faster now, ignoring the severe cramps they may have had in their lungs, hearts beating so fast that they could've busted out of their respective ribcages. Their lungs were struggling and pleaded for them to stop running. They closed in on their way out, but that way out conitinued to close up. Balto-Boy, in desperation, swung his gloved arm wildly around him and dived forward.
Balto-Boy laid flat on the pavement. Nekrozoa and Blue, just now catching up to him, grabbed his arms at the elbows and lifted him to his feet. They continued running away to safety. The zombie road they once forced their way through was finally behind them. They were now running to a hill in the road that would block them from the zombies' view once they got over it. Balto-Boy looked around and his face gave off a sense of confusion and worry. He slowed to a walk and finally stopped altogether.
Balto-Boy looked around frantically until he finally asked his question. "Guys! Where'd Grimmeh go?!"
Blue and Nekrozoa, slightly ahead of Balto-Boy, now were stopped. Blue walked back to Balto-Boy, but Nekrozoa stayed right where he was.
"Oh, crap!" Blue responded. "She must still be in there!"
"Forget her!" Nekrozoa yelled back. "If she's still in there, then she's screwed! We've got to go now!"
Blue wouldn't take his stare off of the zombies behind him, but Balto-Boy shot an angry glare at Nekrozoa. "We can still get her out of there, you know..."
Nekrozoa looked stern. "If she's still in there, she's as good as dead at this point."
"Not necissarily, we can go back and-"
"Fine! Do whatever you want! I'm going back to the shelter whether you're coming or not!" Nekrozoa then turned back around and ran over the hill. Blue looked up at Balto-Boy and then, reluctantly, followed Nekrozoa.
Balto-Boy continued to stare at this zombie mesh, which was now much closer than it was before. Balto-Boy shifted his glare from the zombies back to where Nekrozoa and Blue were running. Then he looked back at the zombies. Slowly, still looking at the zombies, he started to pick up speed again. After jogging forward about 10 steps, he finally turned around completely and ran in the same path as Nekrozoa and Blue.