This Isn't A Game Anymore (VenturianTale fan fiction)

Chapter 15- Curiosity Doomed the Cat

        Isaac awoke to screaming and gunfire. One moment, he was asleep, trying to convince himself that this crazy mess was all just some sick and warped dream, and that any moment he would wake up and be at home. Of course, the moment the safehouse doors opened and he woke up that fantasy shattered, spiraling into a thousand pieces and being replaced by the war and chaos that was reality. 

        A shriek from far beyond the doors was the first thing that the survivors heard on that chilly morning, as the smog from outside drifted inside and caused them to shudder in their sleep. One of the Special Infecteds had evidently been waiting outside (a hunter to be precise), and leapt into the room and gave Nick a nasty scratch in the arm. Nick awoke with a start and threw the zombie off of him, reaching for one of the guns o the table and blowing off said zombie's head. Blood splattered all over Rochelle and Ellis's face, which was what woke them up. Coach woke up a few minutes later, shouting about how they were snoring too loud. After he was belittled with snide remarks about his sense of hearing and countered that they could sound incredibly like zombies when they wanted too, he turned and woke up Isaac.

        Isaac was slower to wake than the others, rolling around for a few seconds and then opening his eyes.

        "Kid, get up! The doors are open!" Ellis said, grabbing a gun. "Ain't got time to lose!"

        Isaac was confused for about a sixteenth of a picosecond, before he remembered the events of the previous day.

        Crap.

        A little bit too quickly, he stood up and leaned against the wall, breathing heavily. He got dizzy and the room spun for a second before coming into focus.

        "O-okay." He said shakily. "I'm up."

        "Good," Said Rochelle. She tossed him a shotgun, which he caught, dropped, and then finally picked up. "Let's move."

        Isaac nodded, fingering the weapon in his hands. Despite the myriad of times that he'd used the exact same gun in the game in which he now found himself trapped, he had no idea how to fire it besides the basic "use the thing to reload the thing and then pull the trigger." He didn't account for recoil or anything of the sort, unfortunately.

        "Follow me," Said Nick, nodding towards the door. "We'll explain on the way."

        "A-alright," Stammered Isaac, following. "What do I do?"

        "Honestly?" Laughed Ellis, as if this was an everyday thing for them. Which, Isaac reasoned, it probably was. "Shoot anything that moves!" After Isaac's blank expression, he added "Except for us of course."

        "You boys finished talking?" Rochelle said, rolling her eyes. "Let's see how much ground we can cover before the infecteds realize that we're alive."

        Ellis nodded. "Right. Let's go, then!"

        The five of them charged out of the safehouse, Isaac taking the back. The air outside was thick with the odor of gasoline and petrol, smog covering the skies. Smoke billowed in tall towers in the distance, the sound of screeching echoing throughout the landscape of the ruined city.

        Isaac coughed, covering his eyes. He wasn't able to take in the dismal view for long, as the group was already charging forwards away from the safehouse at speeds that Isaac didn't think possible of people who had just woken up. Blinking away the dizziness in his eyes, he followed diligently.

        A screech signaled that the infecteds had put two and two together and figured out that the humans had woken up and were still alive. There was a sudden onslaught of zombies. They swarmed around the area like ants on honey, minus the useful side effect of getting stuck in the metaphorical honey, as fortunate as that might have been.

        Isaac took a few shaky breaths, readying his gun. "Does that count as moving?" He asked, trying his best to be calm.

        Ellis nodded, grinning. "Yep. Fire away!" He crowed as everyone opened fire on the horde. Isaac included. The recoil was a bit for him to get used to at first, but eventually he started to get the hang of it.

        They exited the area, which resembled a crumbled building and into the open street, blood painting the streets. Decay littered the abandoned town, with oddly no bodies. Isaac reasoned that this was because all of said dead bodies were the reanimated corpses that were currently trying to kill them.

        Many of the zombies attacked, but none of them proved a large threat against the weaponry that Isaac and his allies possessed. There was the odd fast zombie(which Rochelle had called a "hunter"), which was extremely fast and reminded Isaac of the odd little things from Ocarina of Time that clung to your face. They creeped him out, so he made sure to shoot them whenever they appeared.

        Everything proceeded as planned from then on out. A few more of the Special Infecteds appeared, but most of the time he was instructed to stay back while the others took care of it. He half wished that he could see them in the flesh, but his more sensible half reasoned that he probably would be dead. He sided with the latter.

        "The next safehouse is up ahead!" Coach called, breathing heavily as he tossed aside his gun to replace it with a discarded chainsaw.

        Isaac nodded. "Right!" They were so close! Just a bit more to go and then he would be that much closer to home. Which mean that he was that much closer to his siblings as well.

        Lost in the thoughts of his happy daydream, he didn't even notice the Special Infected hiding in the rubble of the ruined house that he was passing. He also didn't notice that he had strayed a few feet from the group, who were occupied with a large zombie that resembled The Hulk. The final and quite possibly the worst thing that Isaac neglected to take a note of was the fact that the particular Special Infected happened to be running after him at a very high speed.

        "LOOK OUT!" Shouted someone towards Isaac.

        Isaac assumed that they weren't talking to him, since as far as he was concerned they had a lot more to deal with than him.

        That was a mistake.

        The Special Infected screeched and lunged at him, lashing its abnormally long tongue that dripped with some green residue. Half of the thing's face was mutilated by deformity, the skin forming bubbles that dripped down onto its chest. A tentacle like growth protruded from its back, following its movements. It was, in short, a monster.

        Isaac turned around a fraction of a second too late and the thing's tongue wrapped around his neck, strangling him. He gagged, coughing and dropping his gun. The thing yanked him back, the tongue acting as an extra limb. Isaac's head struck the side of the building, sending his vision into a blurry mess of black white blurriness. Nick was the first one to make it to Isaac, cutting the tongue off of the creature, which wailed in pain. It didn't stop it for long, because before Isaac could get his bearings once again it lunged, sinking its jaw into his arm.

        Isaac shrieked as a thousand invisible knives were dragged up and down his arm, blood spurting from it and staining the walls behind him. Nick's eyes widened and he filled the zombie with bullets. It crumpled to the ground with another word.

        Nick was silent for a long time. "Are you alright?" He asked finally, expression not changing.

        Isaac gasped and shook his head no.

        Nick nodded. "Right. Kid, follow me."

        Not in the mood to argue and certainly not in the mood to wander off again, Isaac obeyed.

        The large zombie had been killed, and the other survivors met them in the center of the street. "What happened?" Asked Ellis, seeing Isaac clutching his arm.

        "Got bit." Huffed Nick, frowning dangerously.

        "So that means...?" Coach asked, trailing off.

        "Yeah. It means that the kid's Infected."