Chapter 24: Dead Rising.
-
The ship was flying and at a constant steady speed. With Yori, Jolt and Lia at the main controls it was no surprise. They have yet come in contact with the enemy and if they do they were equipped with several canons that were added when the ship was upgraded thanks to the Users, that included Tron.
Tron was still getting used to the fact that he could do all the things that Flynn could now while he was in the digital world. He was both amazed and confused of what he was able to do. He wasn’t sure if it was because of his gifts or if it was because of what he was. Dean and Sam did not seem to let the surprise of new abilities effect them for long.
He watched as the two brothers were seated together on the floor in the corner with their legs folded and Sam’s bag in between them. They were going through their supplies. They had brought out a bag of tinyl white crystals and a bottle of clear liquid.
Dean removed his disk from his harness and poured a little of the liquid on it and rubbed it in.
“What the hell are you doing?” Sam asked him.
“Equipping our weapons,” Dean answered as he pulled out a few salt rocks and rubbed it on the disk. “This may not kill our demon but it will slow him down.”
“And piss him off,” Sam added as he pulled a small clear gun out that was highlighted by a few circuits of glowing blue light.
“What is that?” Dean pointed at the weapon.
“38. Caliber pistol,” Sam answered as he opened it. “Or at least it was.”
“Why does everything here have to glow?” He pointed to himself. “Even us. That’s not natural.”
“Just our clothes,” Sam said as he placed a few bullets into the gun. “And things in nature glow. There are fireflies and several undersea creatures that glow.”
“And certain parasites,” Sam Flynn said as he walked up to them. “And if they get into your bloodstream they can make your skeleton glow. At least they did on that one episode of Bones.”
“That’s the last thing I want,” Dean said as he placed his disk back. “I end up dying and my body rots away to leave behind some decoration for some emo goth punk.”
His brother rolled his eyes while the son of Flynn chuckled.
“I should learn more about these things,” Tron said as he kneeled down next to them. “Since I may be living in your world.”
“You don’t have to leave here if you don’t want to,” Sam Flynn said as he placed a hand on his shoulder. “But if you do you can crash at my place.”
“Crash?” Tron asked in a worried tone. He did not want to shut down for a long time due to a virus.
“Sorry, bad choice of words,” Flynn said as he rubbed his forehead. “That was User slang. It means to live at someone else’s place, to hang out, to chill.”
“I see,” Tron said as he pulled out his disk and separated it. “I should find a way to upgrade these so I can also be able to harm Luduserus.”
“Dad told me how you were able to take out the MCP,” Flynn said. “When you threw your disk in.”
“With a code that Alan-one gave me.” He stared at his disk. “A code written by my User. Could I write a code?”
“Yeah.” Flynn turned back to the brothers. “Do you know any type of phrases or quotes that would work?”
“We have just the thing,” Dean said as he held up a book. “Let me find something that would be perfect for him.”
Tron chose his second disk since it was not his primary disk. He didn’t want to mess with what the others are now calling his genetic makeup. Flynn helped him open it and showed him how to write and Dean showed him various Latin sayings and images that were used in sigils. Tron wrote several into his disk, not as part of his integral code, but into a blank space that was separate.
“The code Alan-one gave me was a key to a free system.” Tron stared at the newly formatted disk and could have sworn he could see some of the sigils glowing on the glossy ring. “This is the code to saving our world and their world. I mean this world and our world.”
“It’s still your world,” Flynn told him softly. “Home is where the heart is.”
“We’re under attack,” Lia’s voice shouted out through the intercom as gunfire exploded outside. “We need all guns to be manned.”
“All hands on deck,” a gruff voice ran out as an oddly dressed program ran around. He was similar to the pirate form that Gabriel had assumed earlier, except he was dressed mostly in black including the large floppy hat with a long white feather. Tron was certain that was Gabriel.
“What are you doing?” Castiel asked the pirate. He was followed by the byte.
“What am I doing?” The pirate asked. “What are you doing?”
“Now is not the time for these shenanigans,” Castiel told him.
“I am getting everyone pumped, ready to fight,” the pirate said and shifted form into a different man. “And that word you used. I don’t think it means what you think it means.”
“Stop that,” Castiel said and turned around and walked away from him.
“He may have a point,” the byte said. “But I am impressed.” He floated after the other angel.
“He just doesn’t want me to have my fun,” Gabriel said as he changed back to his usual form. He clapped his hands. “Look alive everyone cause we got trouble.”
Tron was on his feet before he even realized it but kneeled down again to assist the brothers in packing up their supplies before he rose again, only to nearly fall forward when the ship lurched.
“What’s going on?” Dean asked, trying to hide the panicking tone in his voice.
“We are shooting and they are shooting back,” Flynn said.
“It’s not just that,” Dean said as he braced himself against his brother. “We are descending. Can anyone feel that?”
Tron did feel a slight drop in his stomach. He wondered if an engine or another crucial part of the ship had been shot out and immobilized. He worried about Yori.
“Sorry about this everyone,” Yori’s voice came out through the speakers. “We have to take her in for a landing. The good thing is we are close to Master Control’s central core.”
“Dean, here,” Sam handed him the small gun. “I got the rifle.”
“I have my sword and disk,” Dean said.
“I have the rifle, my knife and my disk. Take it. I had the bullets made from the melted down silver cross from that abandoned church.”
“Demons don’t like that cross.” Dean smiled as he placed the gun into a different holster.
They felt the ship come down to a landing and while it was no longer in the air into was still moving. The aircraft slid several meters before it came to a stop.
“We don’t know how many are out there,” Sam Flynn said as he pulled his disk from his back.
“Here,” Tron said as he handed him the blade he was issued for that Bogs and Hobs game.
“Thanks,” Flynn said as he accepted the weapon.
They ran to the upper deck that had yet to see any battle. There was not a single recognizer to be found in the sky and Tron believed they had taken them out. He looked down on the ground and saw several soldiers racing up to them.
Tron jumped down and kicked his legs out, knocking two of the soldiers out from the force of his kick while he brought the sharp edges of his disks against two more soldiers. He ducked when a fifth swung at him and blocked the attack from a sixth before he rose up and slammed one of his disk’s into the neck of the fifth soldier before he derezzed the sixth.
Several more soldiers came running up to him. Tron was ready for them and he wasn’t the only one.
Quorra jumped down with her disk and sword in her hands. She derezzed one of the soldiers with her disk before she even landed upon where she used her sword to take out two more.
Sam Flynn landed on top of another soldier while he swung his blade killing two more in the process and used his disk to take care of the third.
The Winchesters and angels were the next to land into the melee. The two brothers were able to take out three guards each upon landing with their disks and blades. Castiel cut throw two of them while Gabe swiped a baton from one of them, rezzed in a staff and used it to delete three more.
More of the enemies swarmed in but more programs on their side also jumped in, ready and full of fight. By the time Yori, Lia, and Jolt jumped down the battle was over.
“Should have saved some for us,” Jolt said as he folded his arms.
“Those were all of them?” Yori asked suspiciously.
“Pretty much,” Flynn said as he flexed his arms and gave his limbs a shake. “I thought they would me more from above.”
“We took care of them,” Jolt said as he made his thumbs point up. “We had the best gunners take care of those bit brains.”
“Several did fly off,” Lia said. “No doubt trying to find more to back them up.”
“Then we should get moving,” Tron said as he glanced towards the direction of the old MCP core. He could see a slender beam of red light extending to the sky and beyond. “He has to be there.” He pointed at the light.
“He is,” Castiel said.
They ran towards the direction, not at the fastest pace they could run, but at a rate that was slightly faster than a jog.
Tron had noticed the air around them had gotten cooler and the land was softer and a bit damp. When he looked down he could see the ground had changed and instead of dry land it was a bit moist as if it had rained two days ago. There were dead leaves scattered around as well as patches of grass.
“Is this area glitching?” Dean asked.
“I’m not sure,” Tron said and looked up as dark trees without leaves formed along with curved slabs of stone and stone figures of programs or Users in long gowns and wings on their back
“Ah crap,” Sam Flynn said and pointed at a building that had just formed. “That’s the remains of the Helios corp building.”
“Ah damn it,” Dean grumbled. “He’s right.”
“What does that mean?” Tron asked.
“Luduserus just created a scene from Two A.M. Hollows,” Sam Winchester said.
“Uh-oh,” Quorra said. Her eyes widened in fear.
“What kind of game is that?” Tron asked and noticed how frightened the other programs became. Only Castiel did not seem to express any emotion.
“ENCOM’S own zombie apocalypse game,” Flynn explained. “And before you ask these zombies are different from the character you can become in Epic Frontier.”
“Then we should move before the sprites attack us,” Tron said.
“Avoid the building,” Flynn said. “Head straight for the mesa.”
They had ran only a few meters before several programs tripped and fell on the ground. Tron looked down and saw a skeletal hand with flesh peeling away from them shoot out of the ground and try to grab him. He slashed down with his disk and derezzed it.
The hands were easy to destroy and avoid but they were soon accompanied by large purple creatures with hardened bodies, several legs and pointed skeletal tails that skittered across the soil. The other Users compared them to something called horseshoe crabs.
The closer the got to the mesa the more beasts appeared. The crabs and the hands were soon replaced with cat like creatures with no hair and missing chunks of flesh. There were also two and three headed like rodents. They were stronger and more tenacious than the previous creatures.
The dirt exploded when Tron was about to run across a rise of land in front of one of the stone slabs. A pale gray woman in dirty and tattered clothing rose from the ground. Her dark hair was in tangles, eyes completely white, lips rotted away revealing broken and rotting teeth. She reached for Tron with long thin limbs.
She was derezzed in an instant.
More zombies shot out of the ground. Several walked towards them, moaning and trying to grab them. Others stood where they were and only lashed at them with their arms at lightening speed. Those were the easy ones.
There were several odd zombies. There were female ones with long sharp claw like fingernails that lashed at them. Another kind that exploded when anyone came too close to it and gathered it’s limbs back together to try again. There were a few with limbs that were three times as long as the others. Another kind was able to throw it’s head full of sharp teeth at them.
“How do you still have ammo?” Dean asked his brother after Sam had fired at another of the head throwing types with his shotgun. “I never really had seen you reload either.”
“I ran out a while ago,” Sam Winchester said. “This just seems to be firing pure energy shots.
“Well it’s working,” Dean said as he ran his sword through the chest of another zombie.
“Don’t have to worry about running out,” his brother said as he fired his weapon and took out two more of the zombies. “Good thing cause we haven’t come up against the big three yet.”
“The big three?” Tron asked as he derezzed another sprite.
“Totems, Steeple-Tops, and Death Trees,” Dean answered. “And we just had to go and open our big mouths. Here comes a Totem.” He pointed to a small tower of zombies, except they were not complete, just heads and torsos with arms.
The tower or Totem came spinning around. The mouths of the heads opened and either green liquid or sharp bony projectiles. One program that came too close was struck with the green liquid. The poor program’s body melted before he derezzed.
Tron threw both disks at the monster while Sam fired his rifle at it. He grabbed each of the disks upon return and threw them again. It took three blasts from Sam’s gun and several tosses from Tron’s disks to derezz that creature. He hoped to not come across something like that again.
Low and groaning sounds brought Tron’s attention to his right as a tall creature came walking towards him. The lower half was similar to a human or a program while the top looked like the roof of a house with a tall pillar. A window opened and sphere blasted out.
Tron threw himself to the ground and tried to attack with his disk. His weapon bounced off the creature with no result.
The window opened and a winged creature flew out.
Tron threw one disk and derezzed the flying creature. He threw his second disk and once again it bounced off. He took a deep breath and aimed for the legs. Once his disk had made contact the beast cried out in pain and staggered backwards.
“So that is your weak spot,” Tron said as he threw both disks again and hit both legs. He heard gunfire again and watched as another shot of energy fire strike another leg. Tron threw the disks again and Sam Winchester fired twice.
The monster staggered and fell backwards but it did not derezz, not until Quorra leaped onto it and shoved her blade into the center.
“Tron look out,” Sam Winchester cried out.
Tron looked up just in time to avoid being struck by a large hand full of dried out talons. He rolled out of the way and jumped up to see that he was up against a large tree with a hideous stretched out and knotted face. It had an open maw with long sharp wooden teeth that dripped with both golden and red energy. It had several arms that reached out for him and there were more zombies, hanging by their necks.
A glowing disk flew through the air and derezzed a zombie before it spun around and flew back to Yori.
“Good shot,” Tron told her.
“I helped take out one of these things,” she said as she threw her disk again and narrowed her eyes when it missed. “You have to destroy the zombies in the trees first.” She caught her disk.
Tron threw his disks, derezzing two of the zombies in the process. He and Yori took out the last three together.
“The four main limbs,” Yori said as she threw her disk at one of the limbs.
Tron struck one branch with both disks. It needed two shots before it could derezz. He took out the one above it and turned to see if Yori needed help, but she was able to take out the remaining limbs.
“Now the mouth,” Yori instructed and threw her disk at the tree’s mouth
It took them three shots each before the whole tree formed fracture likes and derezzed into a pile of pixels.
Tron stepped back from the monster and surveyed the battle scene. There were still many zombies and one more of those Totems. He kept stepping backwards until his back came into contact with a hard rock wall. He turned around and saw they had reached the foot of the mesa.
The others fought their way to it and to Tron’s disappointed he saw that several of their forces were taken out. He shook his head. Now was not a time for grieving. They will do that later.
“How are we going to get up?” Flynn asked.
“Cables,” Lia explained and grabbed her belt. She dragged out a long glowing soft blue cable and hooked it to Dean’s belt. “Now that you have been connected to me you can connect to someone else.”
They passed the cables around until everyone was connected. Once they had three chains formed three of the programs fired special guns at the mesa that hooked the cable to the rock and began to climb.
Tron was one of the last to go up, along with Sam Flynn and Gabriel. Those that waited to climb used their weapons to keep the zombies at bay.
“This is a horrible game,” Tron complained. “What kind of User would want to make this?”
“And what kind of User would want to play it?” Yori added. She glanced at the direction of Flynn and the two brothers who all had sheepish grins.
“Not any more,” Sam Winchester said as he started to climb up.
“I’m going to be the last to go up,” Gabriel said when it was down to the three of them.
“We are not going to leave you behind again,” Tron told him.
“Start climbing,” Gabriel said and pointed to all the zombies that were running towards them. “I’m the only one with grenades.”
Tron climbed up several meters and looked down and watched as the angel threw a grenade at the hording group of zombies before he climbed as fast as he could. He caught up with Tron and threw another one, this time taking out another tree monster and steeple creature.
They climbed the mesa as fast as they could, barely stopping even for a second. Tron had looked up to see how the others were doing and noticed that Castiel had almost went slack before his grip increased and the byte that was with him flew away.
“Clever brother,” Gabriel said as they continued to climb.
Tron felt like he could breathe again when he, Flynn and Gabriel had reached the top and was pulled across.
Their break ended when they heard marching. Tron looked over to where he heard the sound and saw several soldiers led by Sark and Kruz head straight towards them.
-
A/N: I got the title from the name of the zombie game.