After The Pandemic: Tables Turning (2 of 2) (690 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 1.25 on 19 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Matchstick Man <i like ponies> (View user info) at 2005-04-08 16:46:52 EDT
http://www.ubersite.com/m/63675 < -- part 1
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Sky cursed himself. He cursed the ground, he cursed his namesake, he cursed the wind and all the clouds in the sky.
The Honda had failed him.
He was now in New Jersey, where apparently, it still held true that no one wanted to be there. Sky kicked the front right tire, punched the door, and realized it was futile. Returning to the hood, he looked inside. What he saw only made things worse. The serpentine belt had broken, and at least two rockers had lost their spring, making the 4-cylinder engine effectively a lawn mower engine. Knowing only how to diagnose his engine and not to fix it, and also not possessing rockers or a belt, Sky got into the trunk and retrieved as many supplies as he could carry before rolling the car into the ditch. It's common courtesy, he reasoned. Zombie bastards.
"So maybe I won't make it to Manhatten in a car," Sky said to no one in particular, "I'll make it."
And so he proceeded on foot. He would move during the night and hide himself during the day, hoping to whatever gods he could reach that there weren't any variant-Cs in Jersey. The first night he moved at a fast walking gait, praising all his hard-won stamina. He slept like a log up in a very tall tree, and awoke in the evening with terrible cramps and terrible vertigo. Maybe, he formulated, I'd be better off burying myself or something.
The second night went a little slower, and he found himself on a rather high foothill giving a business-class view of New York City and the river below him. The sun caught him off gaurd, as he had been slinking through the shadows, hoping not to be detected, and suddenly the shadows stopped occuring. Thinking quickly, he hid himself under a small bridge over a dried-up stream through a picnic area.
He awoke the next evening with slightly less back cramps and no vertigo. He rolled out from under the bridge and got back close to the road. Something odd caressed his olfactory...something old, something hideous. He stopped and looked around, and sure enough, there were a few-no more than 4-munchers stumbling up the road from the New York end. Sky shot up the nearest tree like a squirrel possessed and proceeded to make his way very slowly from tree to tree further on his course toward NYC. He wasn't going to let a few mutant zombie cannibals stop him, but at the same time, with as little activity as there was up here, even a silenced gun would make noise, and the sword would make more.
He had begun to call the gun "Maggie," after it's ammunition type, and the sword "Fred," because he really thought the sword looked like a Fred. Also, there were permenant crimson stains along the length of the blade from the blood of the hemophagists. Fred sounds like "red." There is a connection there.
After he made his way away-a very liveral distance, too-from the munchers, he encountered very little "life" along his path. There were a few bugs in the trees he climbed. There were a few birds in the air. Other than that, Sky could only find companionship in Maggie and Fred. He would talk to himself for a bit and then finish it up with, "right, Fred?" or, "do you remember, Maggie?"
He had become accustomed to human contact. This was his first mistake.
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After making his way into NYC and killing several leeches and muchers inside the city, Sky finally met the man he wanted. The leader of the local resistance had greeted him with an onion and an apprehensive stare. Sky choked the whole thing down; though he had never quite overcome the taste, he needed the vitamins, for he was running a bit low of his recommended daily allowances. Satisfied, the leader began to ask questions in a more verbal format.
"What brings you to NYC, and what's more, what brings you here?" the middle-aged man inquired.
"I'm here to kill freaks," Sky said, hoping to win moral support.
"I understand that, but how do you expect to do that with a Beretta and a knife?"
"Well, I'm faster, I'm smarter, and I'm mostly resistant to their virus. Hell, I could even beat 'em at chess!" Sky shuddered at his last statement. Maybe it was the way Dr. Cole had treated him, almost godly, but Sky felt that it was below him to swear, to use contractions, even. He would have to get over this.
"How are you faster than the supers?"
"Supers? Naw, you're just a bunch of pansies," Sky dropped two vampire heads on the table from his otherwise almost empty sack.
"Holy bejeezus, kid, did you do that or did your mama help you?"
"I did and I'm proud of it," came the response, "and I'll gladly do it again and again until I can't do it anymore."
"Alright kid, you got some spunk. Welcome aboard."
"Much obliged."
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For a month or so, there was a lot of give-and-take. The sunrisers would take a block or two, and then the vampires would sneak in through the basements and take the buildings in the daytime. It was a very dastardly and also very cunning tactic that led the resistance leader to believe that it was time to change gears. For a while they had been harboring an AH-64J attack helicopter in a garage in their heavily barricaded complex. For a while they were hoping it wouldn't come to this.
They had enough fuel for at least a dozen local sorties, and another thing they had would make even a brave leech cry.
They had the next best thing to a giant Molotov cocktail; two dozen fuel-air bombs. Containing a very hazardous mixture of pure ethyl alcohol and hydrogen under massive levels of pressure, these bombs also had a small detonation device that would trigger a massive burst of flames over roughly a four-block area. This would be their "scorched earth" policy. This policy had won the war against Germany for the Russians, it had won the revolution for the Americans, and it would win a little more survival for the sunrisers.
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After weeks of suprise bombings, the mutants were now far too afraid to leave their holes during the daytime and were very much frightened to enter any human-occupied structures at night, due to a strikingly vicious tactic the leader had developed, involving entering a building at night, pretending to fortify it, and leaving during the day, dropping C4 charges among the foundation of the building. The "fortification" prompted the leeches to attempt to take the building at night, and, meeting no resistance, they would take the building as their own. Some hours later they would die in a fireball straight from Hell and straight back there, too.
Sky had become tired of the lack of action. He had become tired of not killing. He lusted to shed the tainted blood of the infected humans. He hadn't come all this way to be a morale-boosting icon, he had journeyed for days to be a morale-boosting hero, or just a serial murderer of the walking dead. After he'd finally had enough, he decided he'd strike out on his own. He thanked the Luke Cell leader for everything, packed up a bag with some food, and made his way toward Manhatten, where he'd heard there were the mythical variant-C vampires, strong, fast and as capable of walking in sunlight as Christopher Walken*.
He thought he'd go put an end to this. He had gathered up plenty of spare ammo for Maggie-no one at the compound used magnum-calibur weapons anyway-and had significantly sharpened Fred's edge in the makeshift machine shop. He had also snuck several pounds of C4 under his food; though it would shorten the time he had to do so, he would take the plastic explosive and destroy as much of Manhatten as he could. He had heard over the ham that another resistance group was planning a frontal assault and he realized it would be suicide for them to attempt this unaided. He would take a zodiac boat in by day and plant as much explosive as he could around the largest buildings he could find, and he would slip out as undetected as possible, unless variant-Cs really did exist.
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The day came when Sky was ready to execute his devious plan. He took his tiny inflatable boat to the shore and mounted his plastic oars. He stowed his bag under a bench, and pushed the boat into the water. Jumping in and making himself comfortable, Sky began the arduous row across mined waters. This would be tough on him, as Sky was definitely not a man to play the waiting game, but he was very much better at it than most people he had met so far.
A few hours later, Sky had successfully navigated around every mine in his path, and the sun was coming up. Perfect, he thought, I can do my dirty work right now. He thought he saw some movement up in the distance and looked with his binoculars. Sure enough, there were a pair of munchers, too stupid to know the difference, their blood boiling under the sun's almighty wrath. Still, sky thought, I'd better be careful, unless something tries to get the drop on me.
He made his way inland and proceeded to the largest building he could find. There was a brass plaque on the base that probably held the place's name at one point, but it had been pocked and scraped by gunfire and the best that could be made out was "Ch....l.r ....d...ng." Sky dared not to venture inside so instead he just decided to plant C4 all around the edges of the building. He placed each charge about 20 feet from the last, and managed to make it all the way around with 2 packs left, which he placed on a neighboring building.
He was sure this would work. It had to work. It would work. Suddenly, Sky was interrupted in his little self-help seminar by the sound of feet. He rushed toward the nearest cover he could find and peered out meekly. These were no zombies. These were no leeches. These were either the most distorted people Sky had ever seen or they were daywalkers, the nightmare of the sunriser resistance. Apparently the virus had mutated at some point and let them retain opaque enough skin to filter out the most harmful of the sun's rays, while still giving them a pasty grey and decrepit color.
Sky decided he would kill them.
He jumped out of his hiding place and shot the nearest one in the shoulder, then the heart, then the face, then the heart twice more. His gun issued five slight chirps.
Sky loved his silencer.
He put one foot in front of the other and tore at the second, pistol-whipping him across the temple and kneeing him in the gut. He jumped, spun, and brought the arch of his foot against the third variant-C's face, breaking his nose and dropping him to the ground. Sky used his sword to sever both of their heads.
Sky wiped his brow and hoped this would be his last encounter for now. He managed to get himself a few blocks away, into a nice park down the road which still had a clear view of the now-doomed Chrysler Building, and hit the detonator with the words "burn in hell, you goddamn freaks." The building's base erupted in flame. The building itself rumbled, shook, rattled, and began to sank; its foundation had been compromised and several I-beams had been warped. Very quickly the once-proud monolith sank into a pile of its own rubble. Sky sprinted at full speed back to the water, where he found his zodiac boat and pushed off hard into the water.
He didn't know whether he'd just done much good, but he assumed that since this was the tallest building on the island, anyone who thought highly of themselves would defintely lodge up in the top, and Sky was sure that he'd just brought them back down to earth in a very sudden and abrupt way.
He made his way back across the river quite slowly and carefully, and the sun was far past noon. Sky glanced at his watch and it showed him roughly 7:30. This would give him just less than the amount of time he needed to get back to the compound before sundown, but the little bit of action he'd had on the island had whetted his appetite, so Sky walked intentionally slowly and before he was halfway back the sun had retreated completely. Almost perfectly according to his plan, two blocks later a pair of vampires were viciously beating a once-female muncher a few yards into an alley.
Sky walked over behind them, almost on top of them, and got as close as he could. He then shot his foot out into the back of the knee of the nearest leech and dropped it to the ground. The zombie groaned as the second one turned around to bring his face full into the path of Sky's oncoming fist. Sky whipped out his beretta and shot them both in the heart twice.
The muncher groaned again, reaching for Sky's ankles with its broken arms. Sky sighed and brought out his sword again, slashing its head clean off. He was tired now, and headed back to the compound. He made it to the front gate and, seeing no gaurd on duty, made his second mistake. He yelled for someone to come let him in. One guard came out of the main building and looked at him for a second, then slowly ambled toward the gate. When he came into view, Sky saw something that made his skin crawl. He knew this man. He had talked with this man about what it was like before the plague.
The man had been infected. He was a leech.
Sky brought out his beretta, did some quick math, and realized that there were four bullets left in the clip and one chambered. He drew a bead quickly and downed the infected host, and jumped clear over the front gate. It was time to raze this castle of the damned.
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*Robot Jesus
User Reviews
Submitted by matchstickman (user info) at 2006-07-21 03:08:18 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
sorry to anyone this offends, but a while back my palm pilot died and i lost the entirety of what i'd written so far.
i have no plans presently to continue writing this series, but if you'd like to see another episode or two of ATP greatness, send me an e-mail at serastasio.at.gmail.com and i'll see what i can do.
rawr.
Submitted by matchstickman (user info) at 2005-10-18 16:46:17 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
sky's coming back... i'm writing the finale chapter, 'sky is falling,' on my palm pilot in my room during my free time. hopefully i'll be able to transfer the document onto my computer without too much trouble. anyhow, i'm doing everything i said i would and then some, just watch out for all my mad plot twists. anyway, it will blow your mind, and i'm just giving everyone the heads up. heads up!
Submitted by notyou (user info) at 2005-07-12 19:36:27 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
No Comment
Submitted by nrduncan (user info) at 2005-05-12 17:57:08 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I have just got done reading these all and I have enjoyed them all. Great work everyone, +2's for all!
Submitted by matchstickman (user info) at 2005-04-10 16:53:22 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
well...i'll finish up the last chapter sometime...i hope.
what with keeping up with forums, conquer, school, and other spontaneous events my parents throw at me, i hardly have time to sleep
Submitted by munkeypants (user info) at 2005-04-09 21:20:50 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-04-09 07:31:48 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Submitted by matchstickman (user info) at 2005-04-08 16:47:16 (#)
Ranking: 0
I know it says part 2 of 2, but I intend to finish this one up with a post of present/flashback/present/flashback type of creepy climax thing, and then I would like to ask the very extremely talented thecaes to take my uberhuman under his creative wing for a bit...I'm kind of sick of writing a "Blade" clone.
You down, thecaes?
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Thanks for the compliment. Uh, I could take a whack at it, but I'm kind of in the middle of writing my own thing, which is currently spiraling out of my control. Also, I don't think I'd be able to tie him in to my story very well, if that's what you're hoping, because this takes place 30 years ATP, while mine is only 5. But I could probably work something out...I just need to figure out how mine ends first.
A couple of other people have said this, but I'll reiterate: you need to put your protagonist in danger, otherwise no one will care about him. Also, this guy seems kind of like a loaded gun left unattended at a daycare. "Well, I'm bored, I think I'll go blow up the Chrysler building." Jesus. The action scenes were cool, and they're paced a little better than the first episode -- nice one.
Anyway, thanks again. It's flattering that you wanted to tie your guy in to the story I'm doing.
Submitted by Revolutionman (user info) at 2005-04-09 03:56:46 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Lil rough around the edges, but I like.
Submitted by matchstickman (user info) at 2005-04-09 00:20:19 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
getyourvoltronon:
Seifer, FF-VIII
another silver-haired gun/sword wielding badass
if i dug, i could find at least a dozen. what makes this guy really unique is that he has no father, no parents, no lineage, no past to look back on. he's just kind of there. it's like Big O without the whole "i've lost my memories" thing-they were never there to begin with.
i do intend to have him stumble upon a hive and have flashbacks to when he was first learning the art of the kill in ottawa, and i intend him to suffer a grievous wound and perhaps another more talented writer can pick it up from there...i'm running out of words in my mental thesaurus.
Submitted by BillsSBChamps (user info) at 2005-04-08 22:05:50 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
still crap.
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2005-04-08 21:15:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
This is good, but I agree with an earlier comment. This guy needs a weakness, a little more humanity. Keep writing, though. It's fun seeing that this series is still going.
Submitted by getyourvoltronon (user info) at 2005-04-08 20:11:18 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Silver haired, long coat wearing, gun/sword wielding badass that kills the undead? He should change his name to Dante, and have a father named Sparda.
Submitted by apollo88 (user info) at 2005-04-08 18:49:33 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
so these get +2's because of the tile, yeah?
Just so I am up to speed.
Submitted by hcp28 (user info) at 2005-04-08 18:25:47 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Very nice but I would agree that he needs a arch nemesis or something of the likes to compete with. The mass killing is great and all but he needs someone out to kill him. Maybe just a really smart and very lethal vampire. You know experience over strength kind of thing.
Submitted by matchstickman (user info) at 2005-04-08 17:36:09 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
i've been developing this character for a really long time...
he's mostly the result of data tweaking in diablo and morrowind; the silver-haired unseen assassin.
he pretty much is untouchable, but i hope to have some parts in the next one where he has brushes and his life flashes before his eyes.
Submitted by DavyJones (user info) at 2005-04-08 17:30:03 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Your hero needs to run into some trouble. Right now he seems nigh untouchable, and hey, I enjoy zombie killing as much as the next guy, but the drama of a possible loss would add to it.
Submitted by Yes (user info) at 2005-04-08 17:26:20 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
very cool... I hope to see this guy whip all kinds of ass in a few more installments.
Submitted by Feijuada (user info) at 2005-04-08 17:22:16 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I didn't read this, nor have I read any "After the pandemic" posts.
Submitted by matchstickman (user info) at 2005-04-08 16:47:16 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
I know it says part 2 of 2, but I intend to finish this one up with a post of present/flashback/present/flashback type of creepy climax thing, and then I would like to ask the very extremely talented thecaes to take my uberhuman under his creative wing for a bit...I'm kind of sick of writing a "Blade" clone.
You down, thecaes?