HERE LIES: NO ONE [08]
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Chapter Eight: Onslaught/Wear the Machine
-“They are beautiful. They are godly. They have no constraint nor worry. They will last forever. God has come down to walk amongst us! WITHIN every one of us! ACCEPT the bite! ACCEPT the bite!!!”-
-Cult of the RedMouth, worshippers of the Zeeks
Raf looked at Jessica one last time before heading downstairs into the living room. She was laughing at something goofy Paul had said. Her eyes twinkled. Raf knew they could gleam dangerously if the situation called for it. He tore his gaze away and shook his head. Cody grinned at him, stretching out his arms.
“You look dazed; like Alex just farted right in your face.”
Raf shoved the twin and Cody did a little dance down the stairs.
“Raf likes a giiiiiiiiirl.”
“I’ma punch you in the crotch if you don’t shut up.” Raf growled.
Cody winked and blew him a kiss. “Don’t get angry princess. Now I know you like women. I was starting to think you had the hots for grumpy ol’ Park.”
The twin cackled evilly and made his way to his sleeping bag, which rested next to the couch Raf had called his bed for quite a while now. The five girls in their group had claimed the second floor of the large house as their own and so the downstairs had become the man cave for seven young men.
Raf watched as black-haired Park walked past him and into the bathroom, scratching his acne-covered face. The guy gave Cody an angry look and Raf wondered if he had overheard the conversation.
Raf stepped over Cody, who was shuffling into his bag, and lay down on the couch with a sigh.
“We have quite the love-fest going on now-a-days.” Cody purred, looking up to Raf from the floor.
“What do you mean?” Raf asked.
“Oh you know, you and miss Jess, Alex has been batting his eyes at some girl called Julia—you know, the one with the glasses and long black hair—and me…”
Raf scoffed. “You Cody? With a girl? You like women? Thought you slept with a gun down your pants all night.”
Cody faked offense. “My gun’s my secret lover. That Megan though…”
“The pretty blond?” Raf laughed. “Yeah right.”
Cody sat up. “No! I’m serious!” He shrugged. “We’ve made out more times than you can imagine!”
Raf snorted and rolled his eyes. Cody opened his mouth to protest but a Hispanic boy with gages by the name of Oscar told them to shut up—he was trying to sleep. Cody waved a hand at the boy dismissively.
“Whatever Oscar. I let you play your guitar late into the night don’t I? If I wanna stay up and talk about yummy-yummy lovin’s, I can!”
Raf and Oscar both groaned and turned away from the freckled twin. Oscar shut off the hand-cranked lantern that kept their room lit at night. Cody laughed loudly at their reaction. Soon though, the room grew quiet and everyone faded away into their dreams.
The frantic knocking awoke Raf. His eyes shot open and he sat up. The knocking continued and Raf finally heard the other noises. Screaming. Lots of it. There was sudden gunfire right outside their door.
Raf jumped to his feet and grabbed his fireaxe as Oscar turned on the lantern, bathing the room full of boys in orange light. Everyone was wide-awake, faces looking terrified. Cody was up, already with a gun in one hand and his trusted bowie knife in the other.
“Cody, check on the girls! The rest of you, arm up!” Raf yelled.
He sprinted up the stairs into the main room of the house, running up to the front door. Cameron was right next to Raf, peeking through a crack in the curtains at a nearby window. The twin looked to Raf, face pale. He didn’t say anything but Raf knew. Behind him, Cody led the girls down the stairs. Everyone convened around Raf near the front door.
“Get ready.” Raf started. “We’ve trained for this. Pass out the packs.”
Jordan, the techie member of the group who had just mastered the workings of a generator, opened a closet door and passed out stuffed backpacks to each teen. The packs contained a variety of survival supplies.
“You all have your weapons?” Raf asked, mounting his pack.
The group all collectively nodded, features etched with fear.
“They’re everywhere!” One of the girls squealed as she peeked out the window.
“What? Zeeks?”
“No way! How can that be?”
“Where did they come from?”
“We’re dead! We’re all dead!”
“Where do we go?” Oscar asked, pulling at his gages nervously. “What if they breach the house? There’s no way we can all pile up into the cars if they’ve surrounded the neighborhood.”
“Even if we make it to the cars, what will we do? Drive into a wall of them and get stuck?” someone else added.
“I know a place.” Paul perked up. “Alex, Cameron, and I noticed it a few days ago as we cleared out that avenue past the park. There’s a little fenced-off area with a tunnel leading into old drainage pipes. Bet they go for miles all through the underbelly of the city.”
“Right. That’s where we’ll go.” Raf started, “We’re prepared. We can do this.”
There was frantic knocking again. “They’re here! Hurry!”
Raf yanked open the door. Standing in the doorway was the dark-skinned lady that had given the three dog whistles to Raf. She had been the one wearing the red Avent suit, The Rhino.
Her clothes were torn and blood seeped from a bitemark on her cheekbone. She looked sickly pale and Raf knew the infection was already rapidly spreading through her body. She could only have minutes more. Before he had a chance to respond, a blur barreled into her form, tackling her off the porch and into the bushes. A zeek. Another one joined it and began to tear open at her stomach. The woman screamed in agony as her intestines were viciously pulled out. With her no longer blocking the doorway, Raf was privy to see the horrific sight beyond the porch.
Zeeks. So many damned zeeks everywhere! Hundreds, no thousands! A parade! No a frikkin’ army of them! More than what had been at the school football field. Too many. Raf’s mouth dropped open. There was no way… no way to survive this… This… this was the end!
He watched as a swarm of zeeks poured into the home across the street, pushing their way through a broken window; well-lit by the generator the adults had set up. The noise, the light, their complacency… it had led to their demise. He could hear them screaming from within the home. Like sardines trapped in a can.
What to do… WHAT TO DO??? There was a crash behind them, it had come from the kitchen.
“Raf!” Paul yelled out. The long-haired boy turned to face the back of the house. Shadowed movements came from the dark. Intruders.
Raf snapped back into reality. The cop from the football field; his voice echoed in Raf’s head. Fight Back.
“Alex, Cameron; lead the group ahead to the sewer tunnel! Paul, Cody; you’re with me! Protect the group from behind! All of you, don’t stop moving! No matter what! Run!”
The group exploded into action. Alex, sporting a pistol, and Cameron, who held his full-automatic both jumped out of the house first. Cameron led the charge as Alex shot the two zeeks that had pinned down the disemboweled woman. In an act of mercy, Alex then shot her through the head as well.
Behind them poured out the rest of the group, shouldering their packs and readying their weapons: guns, bats, knives, crowbars, makeshift spears, and even a machete which Jessica held with confidence.
Raf turned to the back of the house, shoulder-to-shoulder with Cody and Paul. Although both Raf himself and Paul felt and looked weak-kneed, Cody grinned broadly, excitement marking every inch of his tense body. A fat female zeek rushed out of the darkness with a screech, her lips peeled back widely. Cody nimbly moved to the side and stabbed down at her temple. With effort, the knife dug in and Cody shoved down. There was a wet crunch and the blade slid in all the way to the handle. The woman collapsed, taking Cody down with her. Three more forms appeared from the kitchen and Paul stepped in, firing his 9mm Springfield in one hand and a Ruger in the other. The gunfire was deafening inside the room and in a split second, Raf could no longer hear anything but ringing in his ears. He grimaced and swung his axe downwards, cleaving open the skull of a man in a labcoat. Cody was up on his feet and the three worked together to dispatch the onslaught of zeeks. The dead kept coming, climbing in through the kitchen window. There was another crash and a zeek fell through from a secondary window. Behind them, the dead were beginning to make their way up the porch, now empty. The rest of the group were long gone, having rushed right into the hoards and towards the distant dark patch that marked the burned parkland.
“We have to go!” Paul warned.
“Right! Let’s move!” Raf yelled.
They turned, Cody at their backs, and shoved their way out onto the porch. Raf frontal-kicked a zombie into the bushes and jumped down the stairs and onto the sidewalk. All around him, moving in were zeeks. An undead wall. Many wandered about aimlessly while others made their way to the commotion at the adult’s house. Where had they come from? This mass? This very well could have been the original parade that had come from beyond the mountains and destroyed the valley.
The path leading towards the burned parklands was closed off by a shambling group of zeeks and Raf could no longer see his escaping friends. His last vision of them was Alex pulling a boy by the name of Nathan back up to his feet.
“Help!” a voice tore out into the night, coming from the house. It was one of the adults, backed up against his front porch. He swung a shovel back and forth, trying to keep the zeeks at bay. Raf made up his mind. He had to save them, if only a few.
Paul and Cody both looked to have read his thoughts and the three barreled forward, breaking through the ranks of incoming zeeks. Fingers snagged at his shirt and teeth lunged out, clacking inches from his flesh. One of the zeeks actually managed to bite down on his axe handle, a centimeter from his little finger. Raf yanked his weapon free and cut a wedge into the creature’s face.
Although Paul and Raf were holding their own pretty well in their mad dash across the street, Cody did it far better. He spun and danced around the dead, ducking and weaving, dodging and darting. He stabbed and shot, tripped them, shoved them, and most of all, laughed hysterically. He’s insane! Raf thought.
They made it to the neighboring porch, but too late. The adult had already fallen to the masses. It left Raf and his two companions trapped, backs against each other. Raf saw no way out. Thousands of zeeks pushed and trod through the neighborhood like a living carpet. They roamed between houses and cars, crawled underneath objects, and pushed into open homes.
“There’s no way out this time huh?” Cody mumbled to himself. “Alright, I can take that. I can take it.”
Suddenly, from right next to them, the garage door rolled open, rising in a blur. Figures poured out. Living ones. It was Wilson, leading a charge with a small group of rag-tag adults. They looked unprepared, armed with an assortment of weak weapons and a few guns. Wilson, holding a shotgun, fired first his right barrel into the face of some scrawny-looking zeek, then the other barrel at an incoming dead child.
“Let’s help them out!” Raf shouted.
He rushed forward and chopped down at one of the creatures. Behind him, Paul fired shot after shot and reloaded his guns with the last of his ammo. Cody tried to use his knife as often as possible, only switching to his gun if he had to. Wilson looked back at them and nodded, face covered in a sheen of sweat. “Where’s the rest of your group?”
“Gone! They made it out!” Raf replied, dodging a lunging figure. It groaned at him and Raf kicked it away.
“Go into the garage! My brother’s in there trying to start up the suits! The dimwit completely shut them down last week! He has to do a manual restart on each of them!”
Raf turned and pushed his way past fighting adults and undead, his two friends following close behind. In the garage, he found Chase anxiously booting up the Avent suits. There was a low whirr of power and the suits came to life, hissing as they split open in segments. Parts and components retracted into themselves, showing a large cavity where an adult form could step inside. Raf could see black cushioning and white glowing sensor nodes spaced evenly every other inch. The Rhino, The Elk, and The Bull. Raf, Cody, and Paul stopped in hesitation, marveling at the sheer awesome sight. Each suit was a foot taller than them, open and waiting.
Chase turned and faced them. “I got these ready Wilson! Just like—” He stopped, seeing the teens. “Where’s my brother?”
There was a scream from outside and the four turned to look. Beyond the garage door, the adult’s defense had finally crumbled. Zeeks surrounded them from all sides. Two of the adults broke free, an Asian man limping from bitemarks and an elderly lady. Both ran off into the dark, escaping from the calamity. Wilson held out in the middle of a dwindling pack of survivors. The group fell apart as a wave of zeeks smashed into them. Wilson went down, three zeeks on top of him. Chase gave a bellow of horror and sprinted out of the garage holding onto a wrench. He’d completely forgotten the mech suits.
“We have to do something!” Paul exclaimed, his eyes wild.
Raf felt something build within him. An urgency. A calling. He turned to the open Avents, then looked to his friends.
“Suit up.”
They both stared at him with a mixture of confusion and questioning. Raf didn’t reply, but instead approached the Avent that had held his attention since the first moment he laid eyes on it. The White Demon. The Bull.
The white and black suit waited, as if asking what are you standing around for? Raf dropped his axe and grabbed at the suit’s edges, taking in a deep breath. Spinning, he pressed himself into the open chamber and fit his arms and legs into place.
There was a pneumatic hiss and the sensor nodules touching him glowed brighter. The suit came to life, parts and pieces moving and sliding. Along his arms and legs, metal and sensory covered and encased his limbs. It moved up along his torso, belly, and chest. Finally, the helm came down, covering his face. He was met with pure darkness as some sort of sealant encased around his neck and separated his head from the rest of his body. Something hummed and fresh cold air began to flow around him. At eye level, his visor suddenly went from opaque, to crystal clear and he was able to see his friends. They were stepping into the other two suits; Cody into the The Rhino and Paul into The Elk. Little numbers and words surrounded the outside of Raf’s vision.
>//Ammunition…………………….280/280
>//Activate GoreCutter?....................Y/N
>//Status check.…………………….Active
>//Health.…………..Normal Parameters
Welcome
Apply user Profile
Name Please
Raf was stunned. The interface, the mechanics behind the suit, and the technology were all far more than he’d ever expected. This was beyond any technology to have ever been created before. He looked at the words across his vision. Name Please.
He thought of the zeeks outside. How badly he wanted to kill them all. His face grew stony. Name Please.
“Reaper.”
The words across his vision disappeared. A female voice sounded out.
“Welcome Reaper. I am The Bull. Do you care to change my name?”
“Yes. Change it to…”
He tried imagining a cool name. The suit, it was a she. And she was a huntress.
“Artemis.”
“Change completed. I am Artemis, your Avent-1080 Human-Hybrid guard suit. Status: Active. Reaper, are you ready for a fight?”
Raf grinned broadly, feeling something come over him like he’d never felt before. A connection to this machine that went beyond just any relationship. He flexed his fingers, feeling the protective metal surrounding his digits. They moved without a hitch; flawlessly. He picked up his dropped axe; it felt weightless.
“I’m ready.” he growled out.
He took a step forward and it was as if he wasn’t wearing the suit. It conformed around his body, moving so smoothly that if Raf closed his eyes, it would have been like he was naked. He went from taking a step to running, leaving both Cody and Paul back in the garage to figure out the other suits themselves.
Raf sprinted out towards the adults and the suit complied and compensated. He ran as a blur, faster than he thought possible. Artemis could move.
In a split second he was amongst the dead, no longer afraid of being bitten. He swept his arm out, smashing aside the three zeeks that covered Wilson. The forms flew twenty feet back, chests and heads caved in from the vicious blow. Feeling his confidence rise, Raf let out a roar and picked up a zeek above his head. There was no weight to it! It was like lifting a pillow! He dug his fingers into the monster’s flesh, feeling the suit penetrate skin and tissue until it reached bone. With a violent tug, he tore the form in half. Dropping the pieces, he looked in wonder at his hands through the suit’s visor. Covered in dark thick blood, they glinted back to him thirstily.
He spotted Chase trying to lift his brother up. Wilson was holding in his insides, blood coming out of both his mouth and nose.
“Artemis! Can I talk to others outside the suit?”
“Speakers Activated.”
“Chase! Go to the parklands! I’ll hold them off!” Raf shouted, his voice coming out of the suit as a heavy growl.
Chase looked up, face covered in tears. “My brother! They got my brother!”
“Go Chase! There’s nothing you can do for him now! Move!”
Raf turned, feeling slight weight anchor his right arm. Zeeks were trying to tackle him down and bite at the metal. Raf shoved them off and the bodies went skidding across the road, tripping a dozen more forms. But more were coming. Thousands more. An ocean of the dead. Raf was unsure if even Artemis could handle a fraction of that.
There was a thunderous crash to his right and left and the other two Avents appeared. Cody, within the red suit, gave out a whoop of delight, picking up a zeek and hurling the flailing form as hard as he could. The undead shot forward like a bullet and splattered against a wall across the street. Paul stopped moving for a second and suddenly Raf could hear his voice through the suit. It was heavy yet smooth like honey, unlike Raf’s which sounded like gravel.
“Raf! This—this is incredible!”
Raf pursed his lips. “Clear a path.”
The three moved into action; like giants crushing puny villagers. Zeeks spun and danced in the air, tossed about like autumn leaves. Cody punched one in the face and it crumpled. Paul was a little more graceful in his green suit with the elk-like horns. He would jab out and snap necks, meticulously cutting down anything that stood in his way. Chase tried dragging his brother into a clear zone. Wilson was trying to shove him off. Raf could hear the dying man talking.
“You’re the only one left dimwit! Get the hell outta here! Go with them, they’ll keep you safe! Leave me!”
Chase had tears streaming down his eyes. “I can’t! I can’t do it!”
Raf let Cody and Paul fight around him. He gingerly knelt in front of the brothers. Chase turned to him with desperation in his eyes.
“Carry him! I know you can in that suit! Carry him!”
Wilson grabbed his brother’s arm. “Leave him be Chase. There’s no point. Go on. Get out of here.” Chase shoved his face into the crook of Wilson’s neck and sobbed. Wilson patted the man’s back. “I love you too, dimwit.”
Chase stood, looked once more at his brother, and began to run. Raf gave a final nod to Wilson and charged after Chase, protecting him from the parade of rot. Paul and Cody followed right behind. They formed a triangle around the running adult as they made their way towards the burnt parklands. Behind them, Wilson was quickly dog-piled by dozens of the dead.
Without warning, a house to their far right exploded outwards. They all froze in place, watching as debris and zeeks spilled across the street. Out of the darkness something moved, outlined in the moonlight.
Raf froze, breathing in the cold filtered air. What… it was…. huge.
Smashing its way free of the remnants of the house came a form that could’ve only been created from a nightmare. Raf heard himself whimper out in terror. Next to him, Chase fell onto his butt, his mouth opening and closing.
It was some sort of mutation. Some… anomaly. Raf remembered burning the zeek corpses out in the parklands. Paul and Cody bringing in a wagon and showing him two zeeks fused together. They’d found it in someone’s basement, shambling around with its head scraping the ceiling. Neckless, covered in brown boils and pustules…they had no explanation for it. Now, they were seeing something far worse. Something that maybe at one time could have been like that creature from the wagon, but now wasn’t.
“Abnormality detected. Goliath-class enemy. Conclusion One: enemy Avent. Conclusion Two: tank. Conclusion Three: armored vehicle.”
Artemis couldn’t describe it or understand it and neither could Raf. The only accurate description she had proclaimed was that it was a Goliath of sorts.
Standing at what had to be thirty-feet tall, its top level with the rooftops, the monster shuffled forward. Raf couldn’t take in all the detail at first. Humanoid with almost no neck, it had no definitive features. No nose or mouth; no detail. What looked like feelers waved about, some stunted and short, others longer and sprouting small branches. Weird lumps covered it from its stunted head-shape to its stocky legs. Raf squinted and some sort of sensor within Artemis picked it up, zooming his visor to a higher magnification. He was finally able to make out the detail. Raf choked back a scream.
It wasn’t one creature, it was many. Meshed and fused together in a mound of living flesh were hundreds of zeeks, their skin and muscles and bones interwoven with each other and mixed into a solid soup of moving meat. What Raf had mistaken as feelers and stunted braches were arms, legs, and heads sticking out from the larger body. It was all composed of bodies.
There was not one set identity. This was a conglomeration of many making a whole. The hundreds of heads turned to look at Raf and his fellow fighters. Some strained in place, not being able to see properly. Other, because their faces were half-meshed with different parts, could only swivel their eyes or single eye. The rotten bulbous flesh stretched and pulled, blood leaking from a million different tears in the skin. The mouths of all the heads opened and there was a resounding intake of breath that even within the suit, Raf could hear. It made noise.
“Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa……”
It was a whoosh of air from a thousand fused lungs. Some mouths were unable to make any noise but opened all the same. A wail and a groan. A haunting call of something ungodly. Hell had opened and released its most horrible of monsters. This was true fear.
-Cult of the RedMouth, worshippers of the Zeeks
Raf looked at Jessica one last time before heading downstairs into the living room. She was laughing at something goofy Paul had said. Her eyes twinkled. Raf knew they could gleam dangerously if the situation called for it. He tore his gaze away and shook his head. Cody grinned at him, stretching out his arms.
“You look dazed; like Alex just farted right in your face.”
Raf shoved the twin and Cody did a little dance down the stairs.
“Raf likes a giiiiiiiiirl.”
“I’ma punch you in the crotch if you don’t shut up.” Raf growled.
Cody winked and blew him a kiss. “Don’t get angry princess. Now I know you like women. I was starting to think you had the hots for grumpy ol’ Park.”
The twin cackled evilly and made his way to his sleeping bag, which rested next to the couch Raf had called his bed for quite a while now. The five girls in their group had claimed the second floor of the large house as their own and so the downstairs had become the man cave for seven young men.
Raf watched as black-haired Park walked past him and into the bathroom, scratching his acne-covered face. The guy gave Cody an angry look and Raf wondered if he had overheard the conversation.
Raf stepped over Cody, who was shuffling into his bag, and lay down on the couch with a sigh.
“We have quite the love-fest going on now-a-days.” Cody purred, looking up to Raf from the floor.
“What do you mean?” Raf asked.
“Oh you know, you and miss Jess, Alex has been batting his eyes at some girl called Julia—you know, the one with the glasses and long black hair—and me…”
Raf scoffed. “You Cody? With a girl? You like women? Thought you slept with a gun down your pants all night.”
Cody faked offense. “My gun’s my secret lover. That Megan though…”
“The pretty blond?” Raf laughed. “Yeah right.”
Cody sat up. “No! I’m serious!” He shrugged. “We’ve made out more times than you can imagine!”
Raf snorted and rolled his eyes. Cody opened his mouth to protest but a Hispanic boy with gages by the name of Oscar told them to shut up—he was trying to sleep. Cody waved a hand at the boy dismissively.
“Whatever Oscar. I let you play your guitar late into the night don’t I? If I wanna stay up and talk about yummy-yummy lovin’s, I can!”
Raf and Oscar both groaned and turned away from the freckled twin. Oscar shut off the hand-cranked lantern that kept their room lit at night. Cody laughed loudly at their reaction. Soon though, the room grew quiet and everyone faded away into their dreams.
The frantic knocking awoke Raf. His eyes shot open and he sat up. The knocking continued and Raf finally heard the other noises. Screaming. Lots of it. There was sudden gunfire right outside their door.
Raf jumped to his feet and grabbed his fireaxe as Oscar turned on the lantern, bathing the room full of boys in orange light. Everyone was wide-awake, faces looking terrified. Cody was up, already with a gun in one hand and his trusted bowie knife in the other.
“Cody, check on the girls! The rest of you, arm up!” Raf yelled.
He sprinted up the stairs into the main room of the house, running up to the front door. Cameron was right next to Raf, peeking through a crack in the curtains at a nearby window. The twin looked to Raf, face pale. He didn’t say anything but Raf knew. Behind him, Cody led the girls down the stairs. Everyone convened around Raf near the front door.
“Get ready.” Raf started. “We’ve trained for this. Pass out the packs.”
Jordan, the techie member of the group who had just mastered the workings of a generator, opened a closet door and passed out stuffed backpacks to each teen. The packs contained a variety of survival supplies.
“You all have your weapons?” Raf asked, mounting his pack.
The group all collectively nodded, features etched with fear.
“They’re everywhere!” One of the girls squealed as she peeked out the window.
“What? Zeeks?”
“No way! How can that be?”
“Where did they come from?”
“We’re dead! We’re all dead!”
“Where do we go?” Oscar asked, pulling at his gages nervously. “What if they breach the house? There’s no way we can all pile up into the cars if they’ve surrounded the neighborhood.”
“Even if we make it to the cars, what will we do? Drive into a wall of them and get stuck?” someone else added.
“I know a place.” Paul perked up. “Alex, Cameron, and I noticed it a few days ago as we cleared out that avenue past the park. There’s a little fenced-off area with a tunnel leading into old drainage pipes. Bet they go for miles all through the underbelly of the city.”
“Right. That’s where we’ll go.” Raf started, “We’re prepared. We can do this.”
There was frantic knocking again. “They’re here! Hurry!”
Raf yanked open the door. Standing in the doorway was the dark-skinned lady that had given the three dog whistles to Raf. She had been the one wearing the red Avent suit, The Rhino.
Her clothes were torn and blood seeped from a bitemark on her cheekbone. She looked sickly pale and Raf knew the infection was already rapidly spreading through her body. She could only have minutes more. Before he had a chance to respond, a blur barreled into her form, tackling her off the porch and into the bushes. A zeek. Another one joined it and began to tear open at her stomach. The woman screamed in agony as her intestines were viciously pulled out. With her no longer blocking the doorway, Raf was privy to see the horrific sight beyond the porch.
Zeeks. So many damned zeeks everywhere! Hundreds, no thousands! A parade! No a frikkin’ army of them! More than what had been at the school football field. Too many. Raf’s mouth dropped open. There was no way… no way to survive this… This… this was the end!
He watched as a swarm of zeeks poured into the home across the street, pushing their way through a broken window; well-lit by the generator the adults had set up. The noise, the light, their complacency… it had led to their demise. He could hear them screaming from within the home. Like sardines trapped in a can.
What to do… WHAT TO DO??? There was a crash behind them, it had come from the kitchen.
“Raf!” Paul yelled out. The long-haired boy turned to face the back of the house. Shadowed movements came from the dark. Intruders.
Raf snapped back into reality. The cop from the football field; his voice echoed in Raf’s head. Fight Back.
“Alex, Cameron; lead the group ahead to the sewer tunnel! Paul, Cody; you’re with me! Protect the group from behind! All of you, don’t stop moving! No matter what! Run!”
The group exploded into action. Alex, sporting a pistol, and Cameron, who held his full-automatic both jumped out of the house first. Cameron led the charge as Alex shot the two zeeks that had pinned down the disemboweled woman. In an act of mercy, Alex then shot her through the head as well.
Behind them poured out the rest of the group, shouldering their packs and readying their weapons: guns, bats, knives, crowbars, makeshift spears, and even a machete which Jessica held with confidence.
Raf turned to the back of the house, shoulder-to-shoulder with Cody and Paul. Although both Raf himself and Paul felt and looked weak-kneed, Cody grinned broadly, excitement marking every inch of his tense body. A fat female zeek rushed out of the darkness with a screech, her lips peeled back widely. Cody nimbly moved to the side and stabbed down at her temple. With effort, the knife dug in and Cody shoved down. There was a wet crunch and the blade slid in all the way to the handle. The woman collapsed, taking Cody down with her. Three more forms appeared from the kitchen and Paul stepped in, firing his 9mm Springfield in one hand and a Ruger in the other. The gunfire was deafening inside the room and in a split second, Raf could no longer hear anything but ringing in his ears. He grimaced and swung his axe downwards, cleaving open the skull of a man in a labcoat. Cody was up on his feet and the three worked together to dispatch the onslaught of zeeks. The dead kept coming, climbing in through the kitchen window. There was another crash and a zeek fell through from a secondary window. Behind them, the dead were beginning to make their way up the porch, now empty. The rest of the group were long gone, having rushed right into the hoards and towards the distant dark patch that marked the burned parkland.
“We have to go!” Paul warned.
“Right! Let’s move!” Raf yelled.
They turned, Cody at their backs, and shoved their way out onto the porch. Raf frontal-kicked a zombie into the bushes and jumped down the stairs and onto the sidewalk. All around him, moving in were zeeks. An undead wall. Many wandered about aimlessly while others made their way to the commotion at the adult’s house. Where had they come from? This mass? This very well could have been the original parade that had come from beyond the mountains and destroyed the valley.
The path leading towards the burned parklands was closed off by a shambling group of zeeks and Raf could no longer see his escaping friends. His last vision of them was Alex pulling a boy by the name of Nathan back up to his feet.
“Help!” a voice tore out into the night, coming from the house. It was one of the adults, backed up against his front porch. He swung a shovel back and forth, trying to keep the zeeks at bay. Raf made up his mind. He had to save them, if only a few.
Paul and Cody both looked to have read his thoughts and the three barreled forward, breaking through the ranks of incoming zeeks. Fingers snagged at his shirt and teeth lunged out, clacking inches from his flesh. One of the zeeks actually managed to bite down on his axe handle, a centimeter from his little finger. Raf yanked his weapon free and cut a wedge into the creature’s face.
Although Paul and Raf were holding their own pretty well in their mad dash across the street, Cody did it far better. He spun and danced around the dead, ducking and weaving, dodging and darting. He stabbed and shot, tripped them, shoved them, and most of all, laughed hysterically. He’s insane! Raf thought.
They made it to the neighboring porch, but too late. The adult had already fallen to the masses. It left Raf and his two companions trapped, backs against each other. Raf saw no way out. Thousands of zeeks pushed and trod through the neighborhood like a living carpet. They roamed between houses and cars, crawled underneath objects, and pushed into open homes.
“There’s no way out this time huh?” Cody mumbled to himself. “Alright, I can take that. I can take it.”
Suddenly, from right next to them, the garage door rolled open, rising in a blur. Figures poured out. Living ones. It was Wilson, leading a charge with a small group of rag-tag adults. They looked unprepared, armed with an assortment of weak weapons and a few guns. Wilson, holding a shotgun, fired first his right barrel into the face of some scrawny-looking zeek, then the other barrel at an incoming dead child.
“Let’s help them out!” Raf shouted.
He rushed forward and chopped down at one of the creatures. Behind him, Paul fired shot after shot and reloaded his guns with the last of his ammo. Cody tried to use his knife as often as possible, only switching to his gun if he had to. Wilson looked back at them and nodded, face covered in a sheen of sweat. “Where’s the rest of your group?”
“Gone! They made it out!” Raf replied, dodging a lunging figure. It groaned at him and Raf kicked it away.
“Go into the garage! My brother’s in there trying to start up the suits! The dimwit completely shut them down last week! He has to do a manual restart on each of them!”
Raf turned and pushed his way past fighting adults and undead, his two friends following close behind. In the garage, he found Chase anxiously booting up the Avent suits. There was a low whirr of power and the suits came to life, hissing as they split open in segments. Parts and components retracted into themselves, showing a large cavity where an adult form could step inside. Raf could see black cushioning and white glowing sensor nodes spaced evenly every other inch. The Rhino, The Elk, and The Bull. Raf, Cody, and Paul stopped in hesitation, marveling at the sheer awesome sight. Each suit was a foot taller than them, open and waiting.
Chase turned and faced them. “I got these ready Wilson! Just like—” He stopped, seeing the teens. “Where’s my brother?”
There was a scream from outside and the four turned to look. Beyond the garage door, the adult’s defense had finally crumbled. Zeeks surrounded them from all sides. Two of the adults broke free, an Asian man limping from bitemarks and an elderly lady. Both ran off into the dark, escaping from the calamity. Wilson held out in the middle of a dwindling pack of survivors. The group fell apart as a wave of zeeks smashed into them. Wilson went down, three zeeks on top of him. Chase gave a bellow of horror and sprinted out of the garage holding onto a wrench. He’d completely forgotten the mech suits.
“We have to do something!” Paul exclaimed, his eyes wild.
Raf felt something build within him. An urgency. A calling. He turned to the open Avents, then looked to his friends.
“Suit up.”
They both stared at him with a mixture of confusion and questioning. Raf didn’t reply, but instead approached the Avent that had held his attention since the first moment he laid eyes on it. The White Demon. The Bull.
The white and black suit waited, as if asking what are you standing around for? Raf dropped his axe and grabbed at the suit’s edges, taking in a deep breath. Spinning, he pressed himself into the open chamber and fit his arms and legs into place.
There was a pneumatic hiss and the sensor nodules touching him glowed brighter. The suit came to life, parts and pieces moving and sliding. Along his arms and legs, metal and sensory covered and encased his limbs. It moved up along his torso, belly, and chest. Finally, the helm came down, covering his face. He was met with pure darkness as some sort of sealant encased around his neck and separated his head from the rest of his body. Something hummed and fresh cold air began to flow around him. At eye level, his visor suddenly went from opaque, to crystal clear and he was able to see his friends. They were stepping into the other two suits; Cody into the The Rhino and Paul into The Elk. Little numbers and words surrounded the outside of Raf’s vision.
>//Ammunition…………………….280/280
>//Activate GoreCutter?....................Y/N
>//Status check.…………………….Active
>//Health.…………..Normal Parameters
Welcome
Apply user Profile
Name Please
Raf was stunned. The interface, the mechanics behind the suit, and the technology were all far more than he’d ever expected. This was beyond any technology to have ever been created before. He looked at the words across his vision. Name Please.
He thought of the zeeks outside. How badly he wanted to kill them all. His face grew stony. Name Please.
“Reaper.”
The words across his vision disappeared. A female voice sounded out.
“Welcome Reaper. I am The Bull. Do you care to change my name?”
“Yes. Change it to…”
He tried imagining a cool name. The suit, it was a she. And she was a huntress.
“Artemis.”
“Change completed. I am Artemis, your Avent-1080 Human-Hybrid guard suit. Status: Active. Reaper, are you ready for a fight?”
Raf grinned broadly, feeling something come over him like he’d never felt before. A connection to this machine that went beyond just any relationship. He flexed his fingers, feeling the protective metal surrounding his digits. They moved without a hitch; flawlessly. He picked up his dropped axe; it felt weightless.
“I’m ready.” he growled out.
He took a step forward and it was as if he wasn’t wearing the suit. It conformed around his body, moving so smoothly that if Raf closed his eyes, it would have been like he was naked. He went from taking a step to running, leaving both Cody and Paul back in the garage to figure out the other suits themselves.
Raf sprinted out towards the adults and the suit complied and compensated. He ran as a blur, faster than he thought possible. Artemis could move.
In a split second he was amongst the dead, no longer afraid of being bitten. He swept his arm out, smashing aside the three zeeks that covered Wilson. The forms flew twenty feet back, chests and heads caved in from the vicious blow. Feeling his confidence rise, Raf let out a roar and picked up a zeek above his head. There was no weight to it! It was like lifting a pillow! He dug his fingers into the monster’s flesh, feeling the suit penetrate skin and tissue until it reached bone. With a violent tug, he tore the form in half. Dropping the pieces, he looked in wonder at his hands through the suit’s visor. Covered in dark thick blood, they glinted back to him thirstily.
He spotted Chase trying to lift his brother up. Wilson was holding in his insides, blood coming out of both his mouth and nose.
“Artemis! Can I talk to others outside the suit?”
“Speakers Activated.”
“Chase! Go to the parklands! I’ll hold them off!” Raf shouted, his voice coming out of the suit as a heavy growl.
Chase looked up, face covered in tears. “My brother! They got my brother!”
“Go Chase! There’s nothing you can do for him now! Move!”
Raf turned, feeling slight weight anchor his right arm. Zeeks were trying to tackle him down and bite at the metal. Raf shoved them off and the bodies went skidding across the road, tripping a dozen more forms. But more were coming. Thousands more. An ocean of the dead. Raf was unsure if even Artemis could handle a fraction of that.
There was a thunderous crash to his right and left and the other two Avents appeared. Cody, within the red suit, gave out a whoop of delight, picking up a zeek and hurling the flailing form as hard as he could. The undead shot forward like a bullet and splattered against a wall across the street. Paul stopped moving for a second and suddenly Raf could hear his voice through the suit. It was heavy yet smooth like honey, unlike Raf’s which sounded like gravel.
“Raf! This—this is incredible!”
Raf pursed his lips. “Clear a path.”
The three moved into action; like giants crushing puny villagers. Zeeks spun and danced in the air, tossed about like autumn leaves. Cody punched one in the face and it crumpled. Paul was a little more graceful in his green suit with the elk-like horns. He would jab out and snap necks, meticulously cutting down anything that stood in his way. Chase tried dragging his brother into a clear zone. Wilson was trying to shove him off. Raf could hear the dying man talking.
“You’re the only one left dimwit! Get the hell outta here! Go with them, they’ll keep you safe! Leave me!”
Chase had tears streaming down his eyes. “I can’t! I can’t do it!”
Raf let Cody and Paul fight around him. He gingerly knelt in front of the brothers. Chase turned to him with desperation in his eyes.
“Carry him! I know you can in that suit! Carry him!”
Wilson grabbed his brother’s arm. “Leave him be Chase. There’s no point. Go on. Get out of here.” Chase shoved his face into the crook of Wilson’s neck and sobbed. Wilson patted the man’s back. “I love you too, dimwit.”
Chase stood, looked once more at his brother, and began to run. Raf gave a final nod to Wilson and charged after Chase, protecting him from the parade of rot. Paul and Cody followed right behind. They formed a triangle around the running adult as they made their way towards the burnt parklands. Behind them, Wilson was quickly dog-piled by dozens of the dead.
Without warning, a house to their far right exploded outwards. They all froze in place, watching as debris and zeeks spilled across the street. Out of the darkness something moved, outlined in the moonlight.
Raf froze, breathing in the cold filtered air. What… it was…. huge.
Smashing its way free of the remnants of the house came a form that could’ve only been created from a nightmare. Raf heard himself whimper out in terror. Next to him, Chase fell onto his butt, his mouth opening and closing.
It was some sort of mutation. Some… anomaly. Raf remembered burning the zeek corpses out in the parklands. Paul and Cody bringing in a wagon and showing him two zeeks fused together. They’d found it in someone’s basement, shambling around with its head scraping the ceiling. Neckless, covered in brown boils and pustules…they had no explanation for it. Now, they were seeing something far worse. Something that maybe at one time could have been like that creature from the wagon, but now wasn’t.
“Abnormality detected. Goliath-class enemy. Conclusion One: enemy Avent. Conclusion Two: tank. Conclusion Three: armored vehicle.”
Artemis couldn’t describe it or understand it and neither could Raf. The only accurate description she had proclaimed was that it was a Goliath of sorts.
Standing at what had to be thirty-feet tall, its top level with the rooftops, the monster shuffled forward. Raf couldn’t take in all the detail at first. Humanoid with almost no neck, it had no definitive features. No nose or mouth; no detail. What looked like feelers waved about, some stunted and short, others longer and sprouting small branches. Weird lumps covered it from its stunted head-shape to its stocky legs. Raf squinted and some sort of sensor within Artemis picked it up, zooming his visor to a higher magnification. He was finally able to make out the detail. Raf choked back a scream.
It wasn’t one creature, it was many. Meshed and fused together in a mound of living flesh were hundreds of zeeks, their skin and muscles and bones interwoven with each other and mixed into a solid soup of moving meat. What Raf had mistaken as feelers and stunted braches were arms, legs, and heads sticking out from the larger body. It was all composed of bodies.
There was not one set identity. This was a conglomeration of many making a whole. The hundreds of heads turned to look at Raf and his fellow fighters. Some strained in place, not being able to see properly. Other, because their faces were half-meshed with different parts, could only swivel their eyes or single eye. The rotten bulbous flesh stretched and pulled, blood leaking from a million different tears in the skin. The mouths of all the heads opened and there was a resounding intake of breath that even within the suit, Raf could hear. It made noise.
“Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa……”
It was a whoosh of air from a thousand fused lungs. Some mouths were unable to make any noise but opened all the same. A wail and a groan. A haunting call of something ungodly. Hell had opened and released its most horrible of monsters. This was true fear.
