WARNING: THIS IS A REEEEEEALLY LONG CHAPTER!!! BE PREPARED!
Chapter 5: The Grand Scheme of Things
Nekrozoa and Balto-Boy stood before the ruins of the insanely tall tower... at least a part of it. Only about one hundredth of the tower was still standing, but with the tower's original height, that still leaves about 3,000 feet. Balto-Boy and Nekrozoa stood in front of two fallen sections of the tower. The split between the two laying sections made an entrance to a dark inside that looked, at least from the outside, a cave. Smaller sections and pieces of framework laid all about the huge, dented sections of the tower.
Nekrozoa was now missing half of his sweat-shirt's left sleeve and had a blackened eye. He had apparently lost his shotgun, yet again, because he didn't carry it any more. Balto-Boy had blood smeared across his chest and jeans. The stick he was holding was virtually soaked from top to bottom with red.
"You're sure they're in there?" Nekrozoa asked.
"Honestly, I can't truly say. They just told me this is where they were going to set up their shelter. It's the best place to start, as far as I can think up."
"If no one's in there after all of that crap we went through, I'm kicking your ass."
"Yeah right." Balto-Boy smirked. Both of the Brawlers headed inside the dark crevice of the tower sections.
Nekrozoa suddenly grasped Balto-Boy's shoulder. "Waaait a second..." he said. "What if they're zombies in there?"
Balto-Boy simply turned his head and smiled. He held up his gloved right hand. It suddenly glowed with a green and yellow light.
"Very sly..." Nekrozoa admitted. With that, they continued into the ruins. The first thing they stepped into was an area littered with office equipment. Destroyed computers and office desks along with miscellaneous papers were scattered across the ground. Nekrozoa and Balto-Boy lifted their legs high over all of the clutter to trudge through. As Balto-Boy waved his hand around to light their path, the clutter was a constant theme all around. The two continued to look around, but with every step, they encountered only more and more junk. Occasionally, there was a piece of iron framework sticking out of the tower's wall (which now worked as the ceiling).
Constantly, through what seemed like hours of searching, there was only this same result: busted office equipment and papers clogging up the ground. That is, until, Balto-Boy smelled something... something very familiar. Suddenly Balto-Boy started leaping and hurtling through the wreckage, leaving Nekrozoa behind in the darkness through the excitement.
"Hey! Jackass! Wait for me!" Nekrozoa gave off in a whispered yell. With that, he saw that Balto-Boy was holding his hand up to give off his lighting. Nekrozoa stumbled and fell through to get to the light. When he finally got to Balto-Boy, Balto-Boy was knelt down, his nose sniffing a desk, and his right arm held up. Balto-Boy lowered his arm once Nekrozoa arrived to his side.
Finally, Balto-Boy reached into the pile he was sniffing and pulled out a plain, white shoe.
"Told you she was alive." Balto-Boy calmly stated. Nekrozoa scoffed at him.
More time passed by. Balto-Boy and Nekrozoa were still searching for any sign of life aside from the discarded shoe. After minutes, there was nothing. Half an hour passed. Still nothing. Hours started to go by. Still nothing. Just desks, papers, and computer monitors. Nekrozoa finally told Balto-Boy it was time to call it all off. Reluctantly and quietly, Balto-Boy agreed.
Balto-Boy and Nekrozoa shifted through the rubble to reach the sunlight outside. Nekrozoa leaped to the outside. Balto-Boy was sliding his feet and his head was hanging down. Nekrozoa walked normally, but Balto-Boy was slowly sliding his feet after him.
Nekrozoa looked back at Balto-Boy. He finally looked up and gave a very deep sigh.
"Balto..." Nekrozoa started, "I've got to say, I admire your intentions and I know you mean well, but you've got to recognize the astronomical odds involved here. It's been almost 4 years since the original outbreak. I'm surprised
we're still alive at this point."
"Yeah, I'm aware of that," Balto-Boy sighed. "I don't know... I still had some hope that maybe the Good Lord was keeping some of them-" He suddenly stopped speaking. He looked back at the giant structure they emerged from earlier. He had a similar look as to the one he used to observe the landscape back in his old shelter. "Did you hear that?!"
"What? I didn't hear anything." Nekrozoa replied. Then, very faintly, but still audible, there was a jingle from some kind of bell.
"There it is again!" Balto-Boy almost yelled. He started walking slowly towards the entrance.
Nekrozoa took a step and held his hand out towards Balto-Boy. "Hey, watch it, Balto!" Nekrozoa told him.
"I know..." Balto-Boy said back to him. "I've just got to check it out." Balto-Boy, slowly and carefully, took steps towards the source of the noise. As he stepped closer, the jingle could be heard again.
Finally, the source of the noise showed itself from the darkness. A slightly larger than normal cat leaped out into the sunlight. It wore a blue collar that had a toy bell attached to it.
Balto-Boy was instantly excited. "Oh, yes! What I tell ya, Nekrozoa! C'mon, Purplecat! We're getting out of here!"
"Balto..." Nekrozoa warned.
"Hold on, Nekrozoa. He's coming with us."
"Balto, he's not going anywhere. We should probably go."
Purplecat just looked on at the two. Behind him, stepping out from the darkness, emerged two more creatures. One was a small, child-like figure wearing an orange headband and a dark cape. The other had bright blue jeans and had bright green eyes that matched the headband across his head. The one with a green headband gave off a snarling roar.
"BALTO! RUN!"
Balto-Boy ran back to Nekrozoa. He was looking back and blasting his auras back at the purple cat that was running after him. Apparently, the cat understood the concept of dodging, because it managed to run and bounce inbetween each one of Balto-Boy's shots. Balto-Boy looked forward at Nekrozoa, who was filling up his 9mm with rounds, and then looked back at Purplecat. He stopped, spun around 180 degrees, and held up his stick. As he started to swing the stick, Purplecat leaped into the air and latched onto Balto-Boy's furry frame. Balto-Boy tripped backwards and was now laying on the ground, wrestling the angry cat.
The other two figures dashed past the two fighting on the ground and headed straight for Nekrozoa. Nekrozoa raised his 9mm and fired. 3 shots rang through the air, 2 went through the green-eyed monster and the other went through the chest of the other one. Nevertheless, the one with the orange headband kept running and eventually tackled Nekrozoa to the ground. Nekrozoa plopped on to his back and his gun fell behind him.
The creature tried to bite at Nekrozoa, but he was using his left arm to hold the creature up and keep his bites away. Nekrozoa was struggling trying to keep himself from getting bitten. The creature with the orange head band and cape was pushing himself to sink his teeth into Nekrozoa's neck.
Nekrozoa, still holding the monster away, started to look around. In front of him, he could see Balto-Boy and Purplecat rolling across the ground in a heap. He looked back and saw his gun laying on the floor. With his unoccupied hand, Nekrozoa reached back for his handgun. He could slightly touch it with the tips of his fingers. Steadily, Nekrozoa, tried to scoot the gun towards him with what little grasp he could get on it. He was almost there when the creature attacking him forced its head forward and Nekrozoa had to use most, if not all, of his arm strength to keep it from biting him. Nekrozoa pushed it back up and continued to try and pull the gun back. Nekrozoa was reaching as far as he could to try and grab the weapon. He was milimeters away from grasping the angles. The creature's drool was dripping on Nekrozoa's shirt. He continued snapping at the disabled Nekrozoa and was getting his head closer and closer to Nekrozoa. The gun was being worked towards Nekrozoa's hand. As the gun was getting closer, so were the creature's snapping teeth.
Nekrozoa took one last long reach. His face was sweating furiously and wrinkles from strain laid all across his face. That reach was just enough to get the base of his fingers on the gun's handle. Using his fingers, he gave the gun one last, small pull and finally grabbed a hold of the gun. He looked back at the creature with a furious, gritted stare and slammed the side of the gun against his face. The creature rolled on the ground and Nekrozoa rose to his feet. Nekrozoa looked down and him and fired his pistol. The shots sunk in and forced the creature's body into the ground. Bloodied and dying, the creature let out one, loud screech at Nekrozoa, who proceded to finally kill the beast with a well-aimed shot through its forehead.
Nekrozoa panted. He took out the clip of his gun and looked inside it. He replaced the clip with a fresh one. Remembering that he didn't travel alone, he turned and pointed his gun at where Balto-Boy was fighting. The struggle has ended. Purplecat's head was forcefully pressed into the ground, cracks in the earth around it. Balto-Boy was standing up and looking at Nekrozoa. His fur was severely ruffled and he was no longer wearing his glove. Balto-Boy was looking at Nekrozoa with his severely angry stare again and was breathing heavily.
"Balto. Are you okay?!"
Balto-Boy started to step towards Nekrozoa, but stopped. His body was struggling to walk forward. Balto-Boy started to snarl and shiver violently. Foam was starting to drip out of his mouth.
Nekrozoa started to look both worried and curious. Balto-Boy took another step, the only sounds coming from him were the snarls. His body still struggled to move, as if something were keeping Balto-Boy from walking forward. Nekrozoa continued staring in awe when something aside from the snarls came from Balto-Boy.
Between snarls, Nekrozoa could make out something Balto-Boy was at least trying to say.
"Kill.... me..." he struggled to say. "Kill... shoot.... now...!"
Finally, Balto-Boy couldn't hold himself back anymore. He sprinted at Nekrozoa on all fours as a dog would, slime and foam dropping from his mouth. Nekrozoa raised his gun and fired off more rounds. They made contact first with his his leg, then his shoulder, then his arm, and finally his cheek. Balto-Boy skidded across the ground and started to squirm around, clutching his cheek. Nekrozoa ran up, looked down at Balto-Boy, and fired off the remaining rounds into Balto-Boy's head. He finally stopped moving.
Nekrozoa couldn't help but stare. He eventually looked up and around. Something golden was lying on the ground. Nekrozoa walked over and grabbed the object, which was Balto-Boy's glove. Nekrozoa stuffed the glove and the belt attached to it into a large pocket in his ammo belt. There was no way he was going to let more zombies get it in case they figured out how to use their powers.
Something managed to catch his attention. A rumbling noise came from a section of the insanely tall tower. Then an explosion blasted through the air. The fire blinded Nekrozoa for a split second. The aftershock knocked him to the ground. When Nekrozoa stood back up to look at the rubble flying from the frame of the remains of the tower, a large chunk of cement skidded across the top of the head. Nekrozoa fell to the ground and his vision started to fade. He remembered seeing some weird group of people holding military rifles running at him. Nekrozoa blacked out.
He woke up very soon after, but his vision was blurred and there was a deep ringing in his ears. There were more people around him. The first one he noticed was being shot at by someone else. He had large, glowing red eyes and was shooting back with what looked like an AK-47. Next to him was another figure. This one wore a blue facemask and cape and out of his mouth shot, what he was sure he was hallucinating, a large string of "LOLOLOLOLOL...".
Nekrozoa could feel someone drag him violently through the dirt. He was lifted up to his knees to face a figure with a very dark face and a green mullet. This figure was saying something to him, but the ringing in his ears blocked it out. Another figure wearing jungle camoflauge on his face and an older army helmet ran next to him and started to speak to the green-haired figure. Again, the ringing blocked out everything they were saying.
Nekrozoa was being lifted onto the green-haired figure's shoulders as the figure started to run when he began blacking out again. As he blacked out once more, the ringing started to fade away and he was starting to hear the chaos and madness surrounding him and these strangers.
Nekrozoa heard a few words right before he went back to his sleep, though he didn't know who from.
"...why'd we let him trick us?"