The fire in the pit crackled and spit sparks while casting evil shadows all around. They danced around the cabin as roofing fell from hits upstairs. The shaking walls were built of uneven material hand milled by an amateur and no match for space junk. The windows shattered into exploding broken glass impacting the floor like shurikens. The first asteroids impacted into the nearby hills, shaking the place like it was a maraca. Snow still fell outdoors as a front door creaked shut. A figure was trapped underneath a partially collapsed ceiling struggling for breath. A faint sound of classical music emitting from somewhere as Bessie started hacking.
“Chop, chop, chop,” went her hatchet cutting into a wooden beam trapping her underneath.
The first square spruce beam was full of knots and bends that made even the sharpest of blades dull quick.
“C’mon you bastard,” she said, attacking the object like a trapped animal.
Only a thin thread of wood remained when an eruption of deafening gunshots directly outside. Bessie froze her momentarily in place. She heard the creaking of boards as someone climbed the basement steps. She strained grunting to reach for her gun but it had fallen underneath some ruble and wouldn’t be pulled out at this angle. The hairs on her neck stood up straight as the main entrance to the log cabin creaked open.
“Heading to safety don’t friendly fire me,” announced a whiny voice called from the other side.
"Ok I'm already in the basement. I hope everyone is alive," a muffled voice called from below the floorboards.
She was surrounded and stuck between two enemies.
"Nope."
“BOOM!”
A soldier tumbled through the door as a meteor blew up the woodshed behind him. There was ugly screams of pain outside as someone was thrown a considerable distance and leaving the smell of burnt hair behind him. The remaining were in full retreat towards the log cabin. They blasted randomly into the dark just in case Jed decided to do anything funny if he even still was alive.
“Target neutralized we need to get to cover now!" yelled a sprinting soldier.
"Heading right into your line of fire headquarters over,” another cried, jumping over his smoldering comrade.
“Leave him,” another scolded.
The hesitating teammate caved to his nerves the impacts of the destroyed moon were only getting worse. A nearby growth of trees was blown to smithereens.
BOOM!
The section of the log cabin collapsed blocking the main entrance right when the troops had almost entered. One was crushed underneath and started thrashing. Another guy pulled him out, still alive but dazed, and concussed.
“We gotta use the basement entrance around the back,” he yelled, helping the other guy to his feet after dragging him through an area of little weather underneath an eave.
Meanwhile inside the burning building Bessie struggled to breath and reach her rifle with a soldier on top of her strangling her neck. Her hatchet was out of reach having been thrown with no other option. The weapon lay wedged into the neck of the guy who had tumbled through the front door. He gargled, spitting blood as he convulsed in the corner. His comrade stopped his choking momentarily to see his friend dying. He turned spit in her face, but resisted the urge taunt knowing it was time real serious about ending her existence as quickly as possible. She began to thrash about as his grip intensified.
“Bye bye grrrrr,” hissed the soldier, trembling on account of adrenaline overdrive.
He slowly squeezed out another human's life for the first time not having the courage to look at anything but the roof. With her mostly limp he removed one hand off her neck and reached for his pistol to make it quicker and easier. This was rough business, but he had signed up for Killin company. The basement door swung shut as the cabin seemed to roll like it was out at sea. Cans and vegetables rolled from side to side due to the storm. Bessie's light going out while the fire intensified. She spit right back into the attacker's face.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“Bang!”
He blindly shot the wall above her head. She kicked him in the crotch and he shot again.
“Uggh."
She grabbed the extended barrel of the big iron revolver, spun it round to her hand and reversed the barrel back on the owner.
“Bang, Bang!”
The dude fell off her dead leaving a red plaster of brain matter imprinted behind him. Bessie’s other shot had blasted away the remaining pulp wood she hadn’t yet chopped. She threw off two pieces of heavy timber and climbed to her feet. She was freed, but alive at the cost of ears screaming and ringing. She wiped a face that was coated with gunpowder with an early coated arm. Outside the explosions continued now much more muffled on account of the damage. She limped to retrieve her hatchet while her victims gargling reached heart attack levels on approach.
She entered the basement gripping the railing. The building rattled threatening to collapse whatever hadn't fallen. One of the steps broke, throwing her down thudding onto the hardened cement.
The basement was nothing but smelly darkness. Bessie lay gripping her gun while her head spun. She couldn’t hear, or see any enemies in her condition. The pain overwhelmed her senses, but there was a good chance somebody was down here. The time to use her adrenaline reserves was coming to an end. Her recovery was going to be a process she thought while dissociating into a brain fog and drifting off.
“Thud, thud, thud."
She winced as something attacked a metal door exit at the fire end. A tiny amount of light entered from a torch on the other side.
“Let us in before we perish out here what the fuck man,” screamed a man beating on the other end like his life depended on it.
“Let us in at once Bobby before you have to live with killing your friends,” cried another.
Meanwhile Jed crawled through the burnt smoldering crater left from the impact of a chunk of moon rock. Another soldier hadn’t been so fortunate. His charred boots and feet were the only thing that remained in the blast zone. He skirted the heat around the edge and peaked out the other side cradling his rifle. The cabin in front of him was half collapsed next to an untouched guard tower.The woods around them were beginning to thin with the bombardment that hurled millions of pine cones smoldering through the air like bottle rockets.
“We are so screwed,” a voice yelled somewhere nearby.
The basement door dented as the troops attacked it with a stick. The improvised battering ram splintered apart to nothing.
“Clear out I gonna cut it,” said a soldier priming his crystal cutting sword.
It started slowly being driven through the metal. He started slowly cutting upwards like a can opener. Another troop touched the weapon's extended handle providing stability.
“This is going to take at least 15 minutes, we're dead,” whined an onlooker.
“Well then go run into the forest and take your chances,” said the fourth crouched near the two at work holding a light.
The dark valley continued boomed with a torrential onslaught. The hairs on the back of Jed’s neck stood straight up as he heard dirt shuffling behind him. He spun around to see two skeleton hands reaching from the soil. The white roof of a skull was slowly exposed. The dug up sand was thrown in his direction as a smile was revealed and the edges field tested Elf plotting armor. Jed sprinted into the open as the reanimated corpse exploding into a cackling fit louder than anything else around.
"Hehehe it's raining women," Nancy cackled, exposing herself.
Jed ran for the cabin with no other choice.
"Eddy wait I just reincarnated you don't run away on me again," she blindly grasped at straws.
Jed watched from behind the corner of the building. He had tried to crawl through a crack but the fire pushed him back. If Bessie was in the basement she was going to have to get out before suffocating. He crept forward around the other side. If she was still alive down there the remaining four soldiers had her trapped. He peeked around to the other side not realizing more bodies were rising just behind him. He had to think of a good plan fast.
The soldiers slowly cutting the door briefly paused. The sword was removed, then rotated 90 degrees. They struggled as one hammered the end to reenter from a new angle. One of two sides down, now the top of the entrance was being cut. The explosions hitting the forest had reached a deafening encore.
More and more of the many lights from outside were starting to force into the basement. Bessie coughed as she came to her senses. The smoke wafted down the stairs from above while the hot blade sawed away. She spun her revolver around and tossed it to the side empty. She used the but of her rifle as a stand to lean on climbing back to her feet. The cement hadn’t been smoothed and thus was spiked. She crouched behind an overturned shelving unit covered in dust, and a vintage push reel lawn mower. The gun was propped on a box aiming towards one avenue of danger.
“Come on down,” she taunted, making sure the round was fully chambered.
“I know he locked the tunnel, a basement above a burning building ain’t no use,” moaned the pacing soldier, pushing his long hair back underneath his helmet.
“Shut up,” yelled another.
They all turned to the sound of something winding up and four jaws dropped. Their heavily armored soldier friend who had been shot in the head was slowly approaching while his gun spun. They looked on in complete confusion until his face came into view. The first soldier ran away followed by a second. One of the guys holding the sword was left behind as the third sprinted away yelling.
“Bzzzzz”
The guy left out in the open was mowed down by the heavily armored cadaver.
“Hahaha,” it laughed.
Nancy joined in the cackling in the background. The undead chants intensified as another dead soldier rose from the ashes. Jed ran away from the building in front of the three who took potshots at him. They quickly gave up the idea and decided on concentrating on running in panic after him. One of the three dropped their gun behind. Jed jumped the edge of a massive crater and continue running.