Racing for the locker room doors we hear the first one. Hear it in our bones. The band saw sound. Half cringe, half sprint the Cavemen are running. The Cavewomen too. Six for the doors, ten guarding the doors, five guarding the Guests. Xander and I are in the first group. Always. Never send a soldier to a place you don't dare tread yourself.
"They're in! Lock down that fucking exit!!" The order comes from me but the group is already in motion. Not our first rodeo. We all have our parts. "Controlled shots! Cover the sides!"
The screeching grows massively louder as more and more funnel in. The clacking of their feet against the tile floors is a grim reminder of what's to come. We've never really fought these things. Two. Only TWO out of over three dozen were dead. Those two were hard enough.
"I'm goin in! Watch my ass!" DUDE7, in full sprint throws himself against the door. Bad move. The odd muscle structure of the creatures becomes evident at once. DUDE7 is thrown 30 feet through the air the moment the first PaleFuck charges the entrance. He lands in a sickening pile, motionless. No time now. Get to him later.
At once we all open fire. Front row on a knee. Back row laying into the open doorway as they advance. One, two, three...They keep coming. Four, five, six, the bodies are starting to pile up. Slowly, methodically they approach the door. The back group of ten Cavepeople reach us just as the PaleFucks stop. Everything stops.
All at once there is a dead silence. Hearts pumping, Xander and I charge the doors. We drop our guns and take up arms. D34TH sings as she's set free. Xander pulls both machetes off his back and we are thrown into hell. Three PaleFucks break through the threshold and are on us in an instant. Fuck they're fast!
D34TH takes a Pale life as the first monster slashes at my head. It misses as I step under its arm and rise through the bloated body. For all their muscles, they don't do well against my Steel. The gut sack bursts open as the Pale falls to the floor. In two.
Xander, on overdrive, charges his knees into the chest of the next Fuck and is claiming it's head before they hit the ground. A scissor action from both machetes assured him of this trophy. The third gets away.
It's too fast for our gunners and quickly get us into a crossfire situation. Too fuckin smart too. Xander and I maintain our focus on the locker rooms while the others handle the situation behind. The straggler leaps over our lines with ease and is upon the Guests. Too close for guns.
The creature rips into a mother and daughter as they scream. The mother covers her daughter as best she can. It shows no mercy. Leading with its claws it quickly kills it's meal. The mother stops screaming. The child doesn't. The crowd panics and runs towards the back wall. It sees them. It chases them. It catches one. A large man by the name of Edward is taken down like a safari dinner. Tackled from behind he heaves as he makes contact with the court. At once the monster runs his fingers through Eddie's skull. Ed's dead baby. Ed's dead.
"FUCKER!!!" LADY2 drains the Pale with the .12 gauge and sprints towards the little girl. Stacy is only 8 years old. She's terrified. LADY2 is on her in an instant and wrapping her wounds. Stacy's bleeding from the head, arms, back. Her mother saved her life. Barely. "You're okay...you're okay...you'll be just fine. Don't worry...."
Two more Pales want to try their luck. DUDE3 and LADY3 put an end to that. One bullet in one eye each. Dead aim. I charge forward, with Xander just behind. Four more break into the gym. Too close to us for the group to open fire. So we handle it.
Two jump at Xander. One catches a blade, the other catches Xander. With a swift hook across the soft jaw Xander topples the beast. Armed with a single machete he takes over the role of Hunter. The Pale is actually running from Xander as LADY7 separates its head from its stomach. Piano wire and a weight make for a surprisingly affective medium range weapon. If used correctly. Which she does. The wire wrapped around its neck, and with a tug, trophy time.
"That was mine!" Xander loves trophies. He's smiling.
"Doors!" LADY7 yells as she throws Xan his other machete.
Back at the doors I had my hands full. The two wights charge me. One survives. I pivot passed the first and thrust into the mouth of the next. It slides down my blade and I can see it's face. For the first time. Featureless skulls wrapped in skin. Massive jaws and mandible muscles. Elongated, brown, shark teeth lined the mouth. Deep sockets containing bulging red eyes. Racquetballs. These things are built to hunt at night. Efficiently.
I can't wait another second. I continue my blade upwards through the base of it's brain and finish the job. This next Pale was a smart fucker though. Kept me between himself, and our guns. Most of which were still trained on the door.
"You good!?!?" DUDE3 yells.
"Fine for now!! Watch the door! NO MORE GET IN!!" I yell back. All focus is now on the door.
With one exception. LADY3 is running to help me. I don't need it. The maggotfarm in front of me screams as it swipes for my legs. I move in time. Just. I feel it's nails rip at my body-armor. It holds. Just.
LADY3 reaches my side and the skinny Ramone looking bastard takes notice. She stands ready just behind my left shoulder. I try to block her but it's too damned fast. It takes its shot. It hits. It pivots to its right and runs LADY3 through the shoulder. Four fingers deep. I take the thumb in my bicep.
In one, flawless, effortless motion I attack. D34TH in my right hand and death in my mind. I swing tight across my body, under the monster's right arm. I remove it. I follow the flow up and around into its left shoulder and out through the right armpit. It dies. She falls.
The four fingers that were in LADY3's shoulder are now out. The thumb is still in my bicep, deeper now. She hits the floor. I charge the door. The fear for her is hurting more then the arm. I remove the pale arm at the thumb. Not sure if it hit the artery. Not gonna take that chance. But her...
The others are already surrounding the door. They are ajar and we can see the light from outside trickling in through the dust in the air. Occasional shadows break the light. We tense up. These things are smart. Fucking smart!
I have our braces in hand sprinting towards the others. One PaleFuck rips the silence like lightning in the sky. The loudest and highest pitched yet. A horrible sound that deafens. A concussion grenade in your eardrum. We're all stunned. But even more so when the other Pales start to leave. Not quietly. Every single one of them sounding off as they exit the building. They took our numbers down. We did better.
"They're.........leaving?" LADY3 asks through the pain. Her voice distorted by the ringing. Her hair covering her face. Sticking to the cold sweat. She smiles at me. I run to her.
We batten down the doors and barricade ourselves in. They kept at it all night long. PaleFucks singing us to hell. No one slept. Not that night. Some of us didn't sleep for weeks afterwards. But it still wasn't over. Not yet. We had wounded. We needed supplies.
I was sitting with LADY3 in my arms. Gently holding her and treating her wound the best I could. She's lucky. It just got through muscle. No major damage. But she bled a lot. She's weaker then I've ever seen her. It surprises me. She sees it.
"I'm fine." she says through a meek smile. Trying to comfort me. "Really. It just hurts. I'll be okay."
"I know....I just..." She's smiling at me. I can't help but smile back. I lean in and kiss her on the forehead. She takes a deep breath.
"AAAAGH!!" DUDE7 has a few broken ribs. X and LADY1 are bandaging him. Doesn't help the mood.
"We need to get to the hospital guys. We NEED supplies."
"I agree with Xander. We need supplies bad. Plus, we can always take more for later." I tend to agree with X. That's why this works.
"Well we're not going anywhere tonight. We should wait for morning. See if they go away." LADY2 was right. She sat holding Stacy in her arms. The little,terrified, motherless girl was finally quite. Might be shock. LADY2 managed to stop the bleeding but we needed something to treat the wounds.
"If I had to make a call, I'd say their skin doesn't hold up well to the sun." LADY1 interjects.
"Or at last doesn't SEE it much..." I counter.
"If we go out, who goes?" LADY4 asks.
"Xander and I will take DUDE4, DUDE3, DUDE5, LADY5, and LADY1." Only one person questions me. X.
"You good?" referring to my arm. He already knows the answer. It's all for show.
"Course I am, asshole. " I smile. We had carefully removed the thumb from my arm when I realized my blood flow was okay. Still hurts like hell. Some kind of bacteria in there. We need Antibiotics.
"Then it's decided. All in favor of waiting out the night and going for supplies tomorrow?" Xander takes a vote. We all raise our hands. Even some Guests. They don't count. "Good. Then a small group'll go out for supplies tomorrow. The rest need to defend this shelter. We may be here for a while..."
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