Part 3 The zombie asylum: Verrucket
Fox stood up and training kicked in; he shouted for everyone to move to him. When Krystal took a step her boot pulled a thin string and the vixen's ears picked up the sound of a bow string tightening. She turned to see a volley of old arrows falling her way; she moved to Fox as fast as her legs would allow her to. The arrows punched the ground behind her as she ran past Fox into the building behind him; as did Dempsey and Nicholai. Fox slammed the wooden door shut as the arrows punched the door. Fox signed in relief, but their troubles were far from over, for once the door had shut the whole room began to shake and the first thing he did was shove Krystal into the next room and then roll after her as the entire enterance way collapsed. Fox stood and helped Krystal up then he apologized.
"Well now where are we?" asked Dempsey.
Fox looked around and saw a sign on the wall that read
Wermachena Asylum
The group started looking around now wondering what to do; they were stuck in some building that could collapse at any minute and with a hoard of undead on their tails with all intent to kill them this was the least of their worrys. Dempsey looked out of the window in front of him and said, "I think we should head there."
Fox looked at the window next to Dempsey's and saw a room glowing blue with sparks falling out the window and dropping to the ground. Krystal followed Fox as he started to try and pry a door open using a piece of wood, but the moment she stepped through a doorway the lights started flickering and a door slammed behind her. The power was dead, and the group was separated.
Krystal started pounding on the door hoping it would open; no luck.
"Dempsey, Nicholai, head to that room on the other side of the Asylumget it on as soon as you can." ordered Fox.
Dempsey (being as stubborn as an ox) protested, "Fox, you have a door to pry open and Nick and I would have to clear a stair case. I think you should get the power on."
"Fair arguement; we'll get the power back on as soon as possible." replied the vulpine. Fox then turned to Krystal, "Cover me while I get the door open."
Krystal nodded and readied for anything. There was a scream, and she turned to see in the courtyard outside; zombies rising out of the ground. She leveled her Thompson and fired a few bursts taking three down. Fox stuck the wooden stick he'd found earlier into the crack between the two steel doors and pulled as hard as he could. Grr, he growled, what I would give for a crowbar right about now. Finally the doors rolled open and they went through, Fox noticed the stair case that was blocked by debris.
Fox slapped his forehead, "You have got to be joking!"
Krystal drew out of Fox's pocket one of the M2 grenades pulled the pin and rolled it under the debris, the resulting explosion sent the debris scattering across the room.
"And the stairs were cleared," said Krystal.
Fox thought, wish I thought of that earlier. In all the running Fox had completely forgotten about the M2s that Nicholai had given him in Untodon. The two moved up stairs and to another set of steel doors. Fox looked around and found what he wish he'd had earlier; a crowbar. He grabbed it and stuck the steel bar between the doos and forced them open. They moved through all the while using their ammo to pick off zombies that had made the mistake of following. Fox rounded a corner and looked into another set of doors and saw two things they needed; the power switch and the mystery box. Without hesitation he forced the doors open with the crowbar and was about to flip the switch when he noticed the severed hand hanging on to it. He'd worry about that later and flipped the switch up.
Dempsey and Nicholai had their hands full with zombies until the doors that wouldn't budge opened and they ran through reuniting with Fox and Krystal. Fox opened fire on the zombies following them, as Dempsey taunted them saying, "I thought I told you we weren't on the menu."
"You have no fear Dempsey," Nicholai commented, "like me."
"Not the time for taunting guys!" Fox shouted. "I could use some help."
A zombie managed to jump at Fox and land on him. The undead human stomped on his chest with it's steel toed boots. Fox felt a rib crack as the human kicked him aside. He tried to stand, but the pain brought him down. He drew his pistol and made sure they didn't forget he was still alive; then fired into the endless hoard of zombine ranks taking three down and wounding five others. Finally one acknowledged his exsistence and tossed him out a window. Fox expected to fall to his death but he hit a balcony instead; he couldn't stand because of the emense pain that shot through his body. Finally he forced himself up as an adreniline surge kicked in; the vulpine was pissed now and without grabbing a gun he charged in and began demonstraing what a black belt in hapkiedo can do. A zombie charged him and he tripped it and stepped on its chest, then using a two-finger fist struck its head, his finger punched a hole in the undead flesh of the ex-human's head. Three others rushed him, Fox just grinned as if he'd been possessd by a demon; he jump kicked two in the face then as he fell to the ground the vulpine tail whipped the last one's throat. Blood spewed out of the humans juggular vein; he didn't realize how hard his tail had stuck the zombie but he felt no pitty, for now wasn't the time for pitty. Fox could fell his adrenline wereing off; the vulpine moved into the power room and drew the first gun he could get his hands on from his back. It turned out he grabbed the WonderWaffle; not caring he squeezed the trigger. A lightning bolt shot out of the barrel and struck the closest zombie; the bolt traveled to one behind that one and ended up traveling all the way down stairs, putting every undead freak in the asylum back in their graves. As the last one died; Fox's adrenline surge wore off and dropped to his knees. Krystal looked up from behind a door that Dempsey had forced open. She saw Fox on his knees and coughing. Immeaditaly she rushed to his side, and Dempsey and Nicholai covered both doors.
"Wow Fox, you just..." she stopped.
"I'll be fine, just help me up." said Fox; he hissed at the pain of his possibly broken ribs. Krystal took his hand and helped him up, they readied for another onslaught but instead they heard the voice from earlier.
"Congradulations," it said, "you've survived the first wave and managed to also survive first level as well. But I can promise you, you will not survive this place; welcome to Verrucket: the Zombie insane asylum."
"How original," Fox said, "an insane asylum with zombies in it; never seen that before."
The voice growled, "Not original eh? We'll see about that Fox; just wait."
Oh man, Fox thought, me and my big mouth are going to get me killed someday. Fox suddenly heard a loud crash, and he intisntivly leveled his rifle.
"I would save the Waffle's ammo if I were you," suggested Dempsey.
Fox strapped the Waffle to his back and leveled his shotgun. Suddenly the voice gave an order saying, "Fetch me their souls!"
The word 'fetch' gave Fox a bad feeling and suddenly appearing in bolts of blue lightning were black rotwielers with bloodied teeth and glowing yellow eyes. They started barking upon seeing them. Fox for a strange reason refused to fight these Hellhounds. He didn't know why but he knew it had something to do with the fact that they were a cousin spieces andhe hated watching Lylatians die on the field of combat and he wasn't about to be the killer of some kind of cousin. Fox then realized he should've left his feelings at home; show no simpothy; for once it clicked that they were already partily dead one had pounced on him and he reacted with no more remorse and no sense of mercy; Fox grabbed the dog's head and spun it as hard as he could; the vulpine's ears detected a satisfing crack. The male then stood and dusted himself off ready for more. He got his wish; five more dogs charged through the doors. Fox grinned and fired off his shotgun's slugs. The round punched holes in the hounds, but the didn't return to the ground, rather they combusted and jumped on him again, but this time a bullet save him; Krystal and her new red pistol fired at the dogs, killing them instantly. Fox's face was drenched in blood and he stood up; now reloading his shotgun as Dempsey and Nicholai came out with their machine gun blazing fire. The dogs fell one after the other as rounds flew through the air and into their mangled and damp fur. Fox's shotgun spat its last round and he then leveled his B.A.R. and fired. The dogs stopped coming after a few minutes and they regrouped.
The voice started speaking again, "Hows that for original?"
Fox was about to comment, but instinct to him to keep his mouth shut and this time he listened. Instead he ignored it and walked to the box and opened it. The weapon assumed many forms before stopping on a gun he'd seen before: a Moray automatic. Fox tossed his empty shot gun aside and took the weapon out. He examined it and found his name etched into the side. This was his rifle; he hadn't gotten a chance to use it yet, so he figured now would be able to test it. Nicholai moved to the box and opened it recieving an FG42 assault rifle. Dempsey then opened it and got a bottle of whiskey with a piece of cloth in the end of it. Dempsey curse, "I have the worst luck."
"Why? What are those, Tank?" asked Fox
"Malotiev cocktails. Essentially a bottle of whisky with a burning cloth fuse. A bomb in other words."
Fox shrugged, "At least you didn't get that damn bear."
Krystal opened the box recieved another strange weapon, a marching cymbal monkey with dynamite sticks on its back.
"Aw, cute." joked Dempsey
"The perfect children's toy." added Fox
The two laughed, but Krystal just raised her brow then shrugged and set the monkey/bomb hybrid in Nicholai's backpack. Fox then opened the box again and recieved the red pistol that Krystal had.
"Exactly what does this shoot?" asked the vulpine as he looked down the site he spotted a stray zombie and pulled the trigger. A green ball of plasma shot out and burned the zombie's head off.
"Okay, I'm keeping this." he said as he set it in his holster.
Dempsey then looked out and saw a machine.
"Hey," Dempsey said, "what's that?"
Fox looked and saw the machine; it resembled a soda vending machine and they moved in to get some fluid in their systems; Dempsey was sweating profusely and he wiped his forehead. Fox and the others were no exceptions they were dehydrated and needed a drink. When they got to the machine it read on the front: Speed Cola. Fox kicked the machine and the plastic covering cracked open and he drew out four of the lime green bottles then passed them out.
"I don't care if it's a nasty drink," Fox said prying of the cap, "I'll drink anything at this point."
Fox tipped the bottle and chuged the soda in a few seconds. He nearly lost it, that soda tasted like rotting fish guts. But on benifit came with it, he felt as if he were somewhat faster now.
"God, that tasted disgusting," Krystal commented, "but I feel...different."
"You feel a lot faster," Fox said, "don't you?"
Krystal nodded.
Dempsey and Nicholai finished theirs and tossed the glass bottles aside.
"Blessed ghost," Nicholai said, "that almost made me sober."
Dempsey didn't comment on the taste. Rather the started moving throughout the asylum looking for supplies, in their search Fox came across two other soda machines, one gave a drink called Juggarnog juice and the other gave Double Tap soda. They took the drinks and now all felt like they could take on an army of zombies without breaking a sweat. However problems arose when they regrouped at the power room, the box was once again gone.