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Surviving the End (Continued)
By Code and The Hat of Love            
Chapter Eight
The Outbreak +150 days
It was early morning and the sun was just rising when MasterA knocked on the door of the camper van.
“Hey, we should probably get going to this base Ice was talking about.”
Carnage roused himself from where he’d been sleeping in the driver’s seat. “Yeah, sure, give us five minutes.”
And so it was that twenty minutes later they set off for Raz’s base, Ice in the front of the supply van with Dudeman and Dark, leading the others.
“Just follow this road?” Dudeman asked.
“Just follow this road,” Ice said. They continued driving down the highway which was deserted apart from the occasional abandoned car, the occasional ruined body apparently so far-gone from resemblance to a human they couldn’t even transform into one of them.
“We’ll need to be careful once we’re near,” Ice said, breaking the silence. “They’re tricky little bastards - might start shooting at us if we don’t act friendly.”
The convoy drove for what must have been hundreds of miles. Apart from one uneventful fuel stop, the monotony was endless. Most people had gone back to sleep. Hat hadn’t even woken up yet.
Finally, Ice held up a hand to Dudeman. They had been on the road all day; it was late evening and the sun was beginning to make its journey hellbound. “Slow down,” he said. “We’d better stop here.” Dudeman pulled over and slowed the Transit to a halt.
MasterA jumped out of the Ford Galaxy behind and Bagels stepped out of the Volkswagen at the back. “Are we there?” Master asked.
“That’s it, just there, beyond those trees. This is about as far as I went on my scouting missions before I gave up and went south; they promised to shoot me if I ever came back.”
“Fuck, it’s huge!” Dark said, getting out of the van.
“That looks pretty damn safe,” Phoenix said.
They were looking at a vast complex - two fences, one electric and one spiked, machine gun emplacements, buildings, watchtowers, shooting ranges and space for hundreds of people.
“This looks like a great place to live.” Huggy commented, impressed.
“Remember,” Ice said, “these people aren’t friendly. If they let you in we can still take it for ourselves later on once we’ve got Coke’s location out of them.”
“Devious little slut, aren’t you, Ice?” Ezrab said wryly.
They moved forward, nine in one group, eight in the other. Ice had stayed behind in the camper van with Exile; Ice because he would be killed on sight of Raz’s base, Exile to make sure Ice didn’t steal anything.
Sakura glanced over at Bill. “Oh my God, what is that?!” she cried excitedly.
“This is Bill,” Hat said, smiling and stroking him behind the ears. “He’s an ocelot.”
“He’s pretty cute!” Sakura said.
As they approached, they saw that a few holes had been dug around the perimeter fence of the base, presumably as defences. It didn’t look like whoever had dug them had got very far.
“These would only be good against something really big like a vehicle; I don’t know why they’ve bothered,” Sakura said.
“Hey,” Carnage said, “you can never have too many holes. I lived in one for months.”
“Oh, kinda like this guy?” Shade called, looking down into one of the holes.
“What guy?”
“This one guy who’s living in this hole.”
They walked over to investigate but all took a step back as the man Shade had been talking about suddenly got to his feet, majestically rising from the three-foot-deep hole and stepping out. He wore a long black hooded cloak that put his face into shadow and carried beside him a vicious looking scythe, long and curved and gleaming. In the dusk he looked especially menacing.
“Who… who are you?” Raptor asked.
“Me? Oh, my name’s Grimm,” the guy said in a voice that wasn’t scary or imposing at all, kind of ruining the effect. “I sort of live here. The people in the base don’t know about me but I can take stuff out of their trucks when they stop to open the gate.”
“And the cloak and everything?” Devase said.
“Seemed like a good idea at the time.”
There was an awkward silence.
“It’s really hard to take you seriously with it on,” Hat said somewhere from the back.
“I like it.”
“Well,” Carnage said, “we’re going into their base. You could… come with us if you want.”
“I guess I could. Better be careful - they’ve got guards.”
No sooner had Grimm warned them when a gunshot rang out over their heads. “That was a warning shot!” someone shouted over a megaphone. “Put your hands up! What are you doing here?”
“We’re survivors!” Huggy called back, panicked, “We’re looking for a place to stay!”
There was a pause while the guards (they could see there were two in a watchtower near the entrance) thought about this.
“What?” the guard shouted back over the megaphone.
“Can we come in?” Huggy shouted.
“I can’t hear you!” the reply came, “Hang on, I’ll open the gate for you.”
The guard clambered down from the watchtower and unlatched the two gates. The group walked into the base.
“What did you want?” the guard asked them.
“We wanted to come in.” Dudeman said.
There was a pause while the guard realised he’d already opened the gate for them. “Fuck!” he cried. “I wasn’t meant to let you in, was I?”
The guard’s partner called down from the tower, “Sarge, Realm’s on the radio; he wants to know what the noise is about. He’s coming out to check.”
“Shit! Okay, you lot are gonna have to go back out before Realm sees you here. Quickly!”
The large group hurried back out. “Thought Ice said this place was organised,” Bagels muttered.
A scary-looking man had walked out of the base’s main building and jogged over.
“Sarge, what the hell is going on? Who are those people?” he gestured vaguely in the direction of the survivors.
“Er, they wanted to come in.”
“Okay, well, let them in; if they want a place to stay we can give it to them.” He turned to the survivors and shouted, “We’re going to open the gates; you can come on in!”
“This place sucks already,” Bagels said as they walked through the gates again.
“Oh, you’ll want to be here when the things come,” Grimm said.
“We’ve dealt with plenty before,” Phoenix said, thinking of the horde that killed Code.
“No,” Grimm said, “not the zombies. The things. The… the really big things. Haven’t you guys seen them?”
Huggy stopped dead. “What things? What’s around here?”
Grimm gave him a worried look. “You guys are in for a shock.”
Chapter Nine
The Outbreak +150 days
“Get inside!” Realm suddenly shouted at the group, “and someone close the gate!”
“What is it?” Sarge said, looking around, panicked.
Realm did not reply but ran off to the main building of the compound, talking hurriedly into his radio. “Yes,” they heard him say, “it’s one of them. I hope your reinforcements are up to it, Raz.” Squinting into the distance, beyond the gate, a small blur was making its way towards them, gradually getting bigger. They could already feel the ground moving beneath them.
“Is this one of the things you meant, Grimm?” Raptor asked.
“I guess so.”
They watched the blur get slowly bigger before Sarge came to his senses.
“Come on, let’s get the gate closed,” he said. “2,” he called up the other guard in the tower, “get down here; not good to be up there if it brings down the tower!”
“I want to know what this ‘thing’ is,” Sinder said.
“No,” Sarge said, pulling the gate across, “you don’t. Get inside.”
An older veteran and a younger, imposing soldier were running out of the compound. The veteran was carrying a large weapon; it looked like an RPG but much more impressive, with all sorts of bits added in such a way that you couldn’t tell what was what.
“Hey, you lot, get inside,” Sarge said again.
“No,” the younger man said. “I want them here where I can keep an eye on them.” Then, to the other guard, “Just the one?”
“Looks like it,” 2 said to him.
The way the others look at the soldier made it plain that he was in charge around here. “You’re alright to take it down, Melon?”
“Should be good to fire,” the veteran, Melon, said.
Melon carried the equipment over to one of the gun emplacements and lined it up. The blur was now much closer and less blurry. The group could see that it had four legs and, apparently, two things sticking out its side like wings but an odder shape.
“How good’s the range on the thing?” the commander asked Melon.
“Should be able to get it soon. Don’t want to miss though.”
The thing that everyone seemed so afraid of was approaching worryingly fast; it had closed the distance between them very quickly and was almost in clear view.
“What is it?” Slowbro asked.
“I don’t know,” Kitty said, anxiously looking. “Something big?”
“Yeah, like a rhino or something,” Saviour said.
“But with wings,” Hat added.
Huggy gave him an odd look. “Wings?”
“No, they’re arms!” Phoenix said
And now they could see it clearly: kicking up a huge plume of dust behind it was some sort of mutated rhinoceros, two huge, purple, veiny arms sprouting out of its sides like some hideous alien monster. At the end of the arms its fingers were replaced by four two-foot-long razor-sharp claws, dripping with the scrappers’ flesh.
Shade cried out, “What the-“
“Fire!” 2 called.
“No, not yet,” Melon said, adjusting the sights on his weapon.
The rhino was barely a hundred metres away.
“Fire, Melon!” the leader shouted. There was a note of worry in his voice.
“Hold on…”
But Melon had waited too long. The group caught the look of surprise on the veteran’s face as the rhino cleared the holes outside the base in one giant leap and smashed through one fence, then the next, in two seconds, if that, then carried on charging, its head lowered, right at the gun emplacement where Melon had only time to wonder how the hell it had moved so fast before the rhino’s horn drove through his shoulder. It flicked its head upwards as it ran, throwing Melon forty feet through the air onto the ground where he lay still.
Panic, everywhere, spread. The group, 2 and Sarge scattered, running, vying not to be the one left closest to the monster. It had kept running but stopped incredibly quickly and turned around and charged back towards the weapons and the young soldier who led the base who was standing there.
But if there’s one thing that defines a leader, it’s quick thinking. In the few seconds he had he jumped to the gun, span it round and, without bothering to aim, pulled the lever on the top that acted as a trigger.
The bullet travelled so fast towards the rhino that no one saw it until it hit its head, exploding in a ball of flame. The monster was felled immediately but its momentum carried it towards the gun emplacement. The soldier threw himself out of the way just in time to miss it.
The rhino lay still on the ground.
“Raz!” shouted Sarge as he ran over to his leader. But Raz ignored him. He picked himself up and sprinted towards an out-building near the entrance of the base where the body of Melon lay.
“Sarge, get Cloverton!” Raz shouted.
“Melon’s still alive?”
“Just get him!”
Sarge sprinted back to the main building but another man was already running out, carrying a first aid bag.
“Clover! It’s Melon, look at this shoulder!”
Cloverton contemplated the injury before him, then grabbed hold of Melon’s arms. “Sarge, take his legs. We need to get him to the hospital wing.”
Clover and Sarge carried the unconscious body between them. Raz walked over to the new group who had remained silent. “Who are all you people? What are you doing here?”
“We’re just looking for a place to stay,” Carnage said. “Room for more?”
“How many?
“Eighteen, plus another in our van. And an ocelot.”
Raz opened his mouth to say something but just as he drew in breath a voice cut across him.
“Raz! Horde inbound. It’s a big one too. Up to a thousand, judging by the radar.”
“A - what?! But look at our base!”
The fences that protected the base were in tatters. After a moment, Raz came to his senses. “Okay, Bvigil, organise defences. We’re going to need everyone.” He turned to the new group. “Can you guys handle guns?”
Bvigil looked unsure. “Raz,” he said in an undertone, “Are you sure? I mean, these people have been here ten minutes. Can we trust them?”
“We need all the help we can get! We’re outnumbered a hundred to one and there’s nothing between us and them!”
“We can help you fight,” Bagels said.
Which was just as well, considering that at that very moment, a low rumble echoed around the darkening sky.
Raz turned dramatically. “They’re here.”
Chapter Ten
The Outbreak +150 days
For a moment all anyone did was stare into the distance at the oncoming horde of zombies. It was more than any of them had ever seen: thousand upon thousand of infected moving as one towards them. Some were quick, darting low, others much bigger than usual, like tanks in their bulk.
“We’re fucked,” Dudeman summed up.
Raz broke into action. “Right, roll call - we’ve only got a minute or three before they get here - who have we got?”
2 spoke up, “Ninja, Bvigil, Wunderrofl, Mr Fuzzy, Realm, Banana, Sarge and Garlic, plus us.”
“Only ten?”
“Melon’s out and Clover’s treating him.”
“Could we make a break for it?”
“We gave that other guy two of our trucks. We couldn’t get everything out even if we had the time.”
Raz sighed, “Fine.” He turned to the new guys. “Who have you got?”
Carnage said, “In our group there’s me, Bagels, Devase, Sinder, Hat, Ezrab and Phoenix. And Exile’s back in our van.”
“And we,” MasterA said, “we’ve got me, Huggy, Kitty, Shade, Drk, Boxhead, Dudeman, Raptor -“
“My name’s Cocoon!”
“Cocoon, Saviour and Slowbro.”
“And don’t forget me,” Grimm said.
“So that’s…” Raz counted on his fingers, “twenty-nine people. Shit, we must be outnumbered a hundred to one.” He turned to 2. “2, get everyone to their positions - now!” He spoke then to the other eighteen. “One of you go and get Exile -“
“I’ll do it,” Devase said, running back outside, where the zombies were even closer. The leaders were approaching their vans.
“- the rest of you gather your weapons. Go to the armoury and get a gun if you haven’t got one. Go!”
Those without guns rushed to the armoury Raz had pointed to. Shade had his sniper with him. Hat was armed with the pistol he had found. Bagels had taken their other pistol. A few from MasterA’s group also had pistols. Phoenix, MasterA and Drk had emerged from the armoury with sniper rifles. Other had automatic rifles. Grimm had taken out a machine gun and was setting it up in front of the gap in the fence. Bill the ocelot would be fighting stragglers hand to claw.
Devase was halfway towards the van when Exile and Ice emerged, the zombies right behind them. “Run!” Devase shouted.
“What do you think I’m doing?!” Exile shouted back. They sprinted back to the base as the scrappers swarmed over the vans they had left behind.
“Grab some guns and take up positions!” Raz shouted as they passed the perimeter. And then, as the zombies, came within range, he called, “OPEN FIRE!” and a storm of gunfire rained down on the horde. They infected were cut to shreds by the bullets. More came forwards but the gap in the fence was only a few yards wide and they were able to mow them down as fast as they came in.
“Reloading!” Grimm called as he fed another chain of ammo into his machine gun. Phoenix took aim at a scrapper that had broken out, faster than the rest, and sniped it in the head. Grimm started firing again and the wave was held back.
It was only five minutes later that things started to go wrong. Hundreds of the zombies lay dead in the gap in the fence and now the live ones were pressing up against the fence.
“Grimm, get back!” shouted Kitty and Grimm scrambled back, dragging the machine gun with him as the fence collapsed under the weight of the zombies. The fighters run backwards, firing blindly into the mass of the zombies but with their defence gone they couldn’t stop them.
“Get to the main building!” RealmHunter shouted, “We can hold out there!” They scrambled to the building in the centre of the complex. There were three stories with plenty of spaces for sniping out of the windows. Wunderrofl was first to the door and he punched some buttons to the right of the garage door at the front. It slid upwards and they dived inside.
“Barricade the inside door and get upstairs!” Raz ordered. “And someone throw some nades in there!”
“Fire in the hole!” Fuzzy shouted as he tossed a grenade into the oncoming mass of zombies. There was a small explosion and smoke started pouring out of place Fuzzy had aimed for.
“No! Frag grenades, not smoke grenades!”
“Shit…”
They sprinted up the stairs, Realm and Banana throwing chairs in front of the door to try to barricade it. “Everyone to the bedroom windows - we can shoot from there!” Raz shouted
“Er, maybe not my room, Raz,” Ninja said but already everyone had already rushed to the windows and were firing down.
“How are we doing?” Ezrab asked.
“No idea,” Bvigil said, pointing his rifle at the scrappers. “Can’t see because of Fuzzy’s smoke grenade.”
“I’m out of ammo!” Phoenix cried.
“Same,” Hat said.
And then a crash behind them told them that the zombies had broken through the doors, they were coming up the stairs. “Concentrate fire on the ones up here!” Raz commanded. The door was thrown open and they opened fire on the zombies that rushed forwards. Blood splattered all over Ninja’s room. Ammo was running short. The zombies were still coming. And then, outside, there was the sound of vehicles pulling up and heavy gunfire.
“Keep that chain gun running, Lolmat!” called an authoritative voice.
“Who is that?” Bagels asked.
“More of your team?” Kitty said, still keeping her finger pressed on her rifle’s trigger.
“Sort of…” Ninja said, looking outside, “I think we’re saved.”
The smoke was clearing and, looking down, they could see three vehicles and at least fifteen people rushing through the door below them. The stream of zombies was thinning. “Hold your fire!” called the voice from the end of the corridor.
A figure appeared at the doorway, blasting the last struggling zombie between the eyes.
“Slim!” Raz cried.
“Honestly, I leave you guys for one day and look at this mess,” SlimJim said.
“Couldn’t have cut it any finer, could you?”
“You’re welcome.”
“It’s kind of crowded in here,” Sinder said, “Can we go outside?”
They stepped over the endless bodies and out into the bright sunshine.
“Urgh…” Carnage said, which was a pretty good summary.
And now they were outside they could see the rest of their saviours and their saviours could see them.
“Who are these guys, Raz?” one of them asked.
“Oh, hi, Numpty. They just came today.”
“More, importantly,” Slim said suddenly, “WHAT THE FUCK IS HE DOING HERE?” He walked up to Ice stood over him.
“Ah, yeah,” Ice said nervously. “Fancy seeing you here, Slim.”
Chapter Eleven
The Outbreak +150 days
“Why the fuck is this traitor here?” Slim demanded.
“Traitor?” Sarge asked. “He came in with those guys,” he gestured to the new group.
“Okay, then,” Slim turned on them, “why was he with you?” No one answered. “Well? Why’s this scum here?”
“We met him,” Dark said defensively, “He led us here.”
Slim turned back to Ice. “You led them here? Why, going to attack us, were you?”
“No, Slim!” Ice said, “They just wanted a place to stay! I led them here, I wasn’t going to come in if it wasn’t for that horde. I didn’t mean to see you again.”
“Good,” BlackAdder spat, “we didn’t want to see you again either.”
“We agreed we’d kill him if he came back, didn’t we?” Lolmat said, the same hate on his face as all the group that had just arrived to save them.
“We did,” Slim said. He pulled out his gun. “Goodbye, Ice. Whatever you were planning, it ends here.”
“Woah, Slim, stop!” Raz said suddenly, “There’s no need for that…”
“You wouldn’t say that if you knew what he’d done.” He was still staring at Ice, his finger on the trigger.
“Well, what has he done?” MasterA asked.
“HE KILLED MY MATE!” Slim shouted. “That’s what he did!”
“No!” Ice cried. “Herodui lit the gas! I was lucky to escape!”
Wings stared at him. “That’s bullshit.”
“That’s what you said to these people?” Slim said.
“That’s what he said, yeah,” Dudeman said.
“And you believe him?”
“Slim, Slim,” Raz said, “I trust you, I’m sure you hate this guy, but I can’t just let you kill him like this.”
Slim paused. “Then send him outside. I don’t want him in the base.”
“With hordes like that, he’s as good as dead.”
“It’s what he deserves!”
“He stays.”
Slim looked away from Ice, at Raz. There was silence for a long moment. “Fine.” He threw his gun down and walked away. As he passed Raz he muttered, “We’ll talk about this later.”
They remained silent and watched Slim storm back inside the building.
Realm broke the silence. “Ninja, Bvigil, get some people to help you clear up all this mess. New guys, over here, I’ll find some new rooms for you.”
Carnage and the rest of the group followed Realm. “So, who are those guys?” Carnage asked.
“Oh, Slim and the rest? Slim arrived here a while back with a few others. He left soon after to find the rest of his groups. That’s who these guys are, I take it. I should probably ask.” He stopped and turned around. “Hey, newer guys, you’re with Slim aren’t you?”
“Yeah,” Wings said. “Slim’s our commander. He split us into three groups. I was in charge of one, Taco,” (he gestured to a woman next to him), “was in charge of another and he was in charge of the third.”
“Names?”
“Wings.”
“Anarchy.”
“Bagel.”
“Irock.”
“MasterWu.”
“PwnGrif.”
“MamaTaco.”
“Bacon.”
“Cookie.”
“Googly.”
“Red.”
“Luna.”
“Good to meet you.”
Realm showed them their new rooms. There were now fifty of them in the base and the main building was getting cramped. The base had been adapted from an old military station that was only designed for a small number of personnel. Raz and his team had also converted many of the bedrooms into admin and planning rooms.
It was late when someone knocked on Carnage’s door. “Bagels?” Carnage said as he opened it.
“Yeah, I wanted to talk about something.”
“What’s up?”
“Ice,” Bagels said. “Slim and his group came to save us. They’re not the kind of people to threaten to kill someone for what Ice said happened.”
“Didn’t Ice say they thought he’d killed one of them?” Carnage said.
“Yeah, but I’m just saying, if there’s someone here who could leave someone to die… I’d guess at Ice.”
Carnage thought about this. “So Ice is lying?”
“I think so.”
“So we can’t trust Ice?”
“No.”
“Shall we tell the others what we think?”
Bagels thought. “Hat and Sinder and the rest? Yeah. But not Master and all his guys. They’re not with us.”
It was even later when someone knocked on MasterA’s door. “Huggy?” Master said as he opened it.
“Do you mind if I talk to you about something?”
Master shrugged, “Sure, what’s bothering you?”
“Slim,” Huggy said. “He’s talking about Ice as though he’s a traitor. And Ice is talking about Slim as though he’s a liar. Who’s telling the truth?”
Master thought about it. “Do you trust Ice?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“Do you trust Slim?”
“I suppose so. Ice said they didn’t trust him when he said that he tried to save the other guy. I guess that’s believable.”
“Yeah, Ice isn’t a bad guy.”
“I’m glad you think that,” Ice said, appearing round the corner.
Huggy and Master exchanged glances, “Didn’t realise you were there, Ice.”
“Oh, it’s no problem. I’m glad you believe me, at least. Listen, you remember why I led you here?”
“’Cos the people here know something about how this started, right?” Master said.
“That’s right, they know where Coke is, I’m sure. You guys are going to have to find out on your own, he’s not telling me. If worse comes to worst, are you guys with me?”
“We’re with you, Ice.”
Slim and Raz were in the command room on the third floor. A few others were round the outside, watching monitors. They kept their voices down.
“I know you don’t trust, Ice-“
“No, I don’t, Raz. And I think it’s a mistake to let him stay here.”
“All the same, he may have killed Herodui but does that give you a right to kill Ice?”
Slim fixed him with a stare. “Ice is up to something, I know. He’s the kind of person who cares more about his own life than anyone else’s, he’s not going to lead twenty people here out of the goodness of his heart.”
“I’ll keep an eye on him, okay, Slim? First sign of trouble and he’s out.”
“The first sign of trouble and it’ll already be too late.”
Ice lay in bed but he wasn’t asleep. MasterA, Huggy and their group were on his side. That was a great development but it wasn’t enough. He needed more if he was really going to cause chaos here. He had overheard Carnage and Bagels and he knew that their group would be harder to crack. Still, all in good time…
Chapter Twelve
The Outbreak +152 days
“There’s just so many ways this could go wrong,” Kitty said.
MasterA and Huggy had called a meeting with Kitty, Dudeman and DrkInferno. They’d told them about how they believed Ice, how they needed to get Coke’s location out of Slim’s group and how far they were prepared to go to find it.
“But it’s necessary, Kitty,” MasterA said. “We need to find where Coke is; if he started all this, he can stop it all.”
“If he started it. We don’t know that. You’re talking about killing people, war, we’re not supposed to be fighting each other!”
“No, Kitty, they’re right,” Dudeman said, “we need to find this out and we can’t let them keep it from us.”
“Slow, Boxhead, Saviour, Cocoon and Shade should be with us, what about the others?” Huggy said.
“Carnage and all that lot? We can sway them. We start firing, they start firing back, we can tell them all that Slim’s team is firing on them; then they’ll be on our side. We might even be able to convince the people from the base, Raz’s side, to help us.”
“Devious, Master,” Drk said.
“Can’t we just ask them?” Kitty said.
“We’ll ask first,” Huggy said. “It’s only if they don’t tell us that we go all out. We really need to find where Coke is; Adder, Star and all that lot must be on his side.”
“When are we doing this? Dudeman asked.
“Now.” MasterA went into action. “Drk, go get the rest of our group to the armoury and arm up. Tell the guard we need the weapons for target practice. Dudeman, you can ask Adder about Coke.
The plan was set; Ice had played them all well
Unseen, Kitty slipped out of the room.
Adder was on his way to the top floor for a Command Meeting. Dudeman was coming the other way down the corridor.
“Oh, hey, Adder, isn’t it?”
Adder eyed him suspiciously. “Yeah, what do you want?”
“Uh, well, you know Coke?”
There was an awkward silence. “Yes, I know Coke. Who told you about him?”
“Well, Ice.”
“Yes, I suppose he’d have said. Well?”
“Where is he?”
“What?”
“Well, I was just wondering if you knew where he was.”
“What? You think if we knew that we’d just be sitting here? You think we wouldn’t have done something?”
“It’s just Ice thought-“
“Oh, Ice thought did he? Think about what you’re saying next time.”
Adder stormed off. Dudeman unclipped a radio from his belt and spoke quietly into it.
“Yeah, he completely overreacted. Flip the switch.”
Slim, Raz and Star were already waiting. “Hey, Adder,” Raz said. “Something up?”
“I just had this really weird conversation with Dudeman, one of the new guy. He said-”
Suddenly an explosion rocked the building.
“What the hell?” Ninja said from one of the control desks.
“What was that?”
“Explosion.” Bvigil said.
“Thanks.”
The lights and control panels in the room went out briefly before being replaced by an eerie orange glow.
“They’ve taken out our power,” Ninja said. “We’ve only got the backup generator.”
A voice came in through the window; someone was speaking through a megaphone. “This is your last chance to tell us where Coke is.”
Confused looks were exchanged. Slim shouted back out of the window, “We don’t know!”
MasterA put down the megaphone. “Pin them down in there.”
“Where the hell has this come from?” Star said. “They want to know about Coke?”
“That’s what Dudeman was talking about to me!”
A bullet, shot in through the window, buried itself in the ceiling.
“We’ve got control of your armoury and none of us are letting you out until you tell us,” said the voice through the megaphone.
“Oh, this is fucking ridiculous,” Cloverton said from a console, and flipped open a panel on the wall, revealing racks of weapons.
Raz grabbed a rifle and went to the window. “We don’t know where he is, you know that; let us out or we shoot.”
Raz waited, then shot the megaphone right out of Master’s hand.
“Oh my God did you see that?! Right out of this hand! That was awesome!”
A floor below Kitty burst into Carnage’s room. Carnage quickly minimised his Internet browser and looked round. “Kitty? What’s going on? I thought I heard shots.”
“The others! Huggy and MasterA!”
“What about them?”
“They’re gonna start a war!”
“A wh-“
“They believe Ice’s crap about Coke and they’re gonna try to take the base.”
Carnage stood up and hurried out of the room. “Get Bagels, Devase, Phoenix and Exile. I’ll get Hat, Ezrab and Sinder. We need to help out with this.”
“Help who though?” Kitty asked.
“Raz and Slim. I don’t trust Ice any more than you do.”
“We can stay in here,” Slim said. “Nothing they can do.”
“What is all this crap about Coke?” Star said.
“Ice,” Adder muttered. “Dudeman was talking about how Ice told them stuff about him. I bet he started all this.”
Three pairs of eyes turned to Raz. “And you,” said Slim, “let him stay.”
Raz sat and stared at the wall. “Well, this sucks.”
“Huggy, shall we keep firing at them?” Slowbro asked
“Yeah, we can keep them in there as long as we like. And if they don’t give in, we can always use our ace in the hole.”
“I can’t w-aargh!“ Slowbro was cut off as a bullet shot over his head.
“Get to cover!” Huggy cried.
“It came from the warehouse, not the main building,” Drk said as they scrambled behind the sandbags of the target practice arena.
They could see now where Carnage, Hat, Kitty, Sinder, Ezrab, Phoenix, Bagels, Devase and Exile had set up camp on and around the food store, giving themselves good vantage points from the roof and upper windows. Raz’s and Slim’s teams were not without allies. And this base was not going down without a fight.
Carnage gave the order. “Open fire.”
And the war began.
To be continued.
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