They took refuge in an abandoned convenience mart, unfortunately already looted and void of guns. Good enough to catch some sleep in, but otherwise a disappointment.
“Good god, Gizzy.” Nicole said looking at her arm, the bite looking rather black and necrotic.
“I’m fine. It’s just the weak human parts acting up. I assure you that I’m as heartless and mechanical deep down, even if there is a heart in there.”
“You need a healing item. If we don’t find another med kit soon we’ll have to go herbal.” She sighed. “Get some rest, that’s an order. Keep an eye on that arm.” She reminded.
…
Dee sat in her cell, looking at her own arm, watching the metal move where the skin was ripped away where she pulled free from the handcuffs. The reminder that she wasn’t human cut to the core of where her heart should be. She felt her chest and waited for a beat, even knowing it was just metal and motors, a small electric gear circulating enough alien blood to keep the skin from rotting, but not much more. Maybe Zhoren was right, she thought to herself, debating on weather or not to even try escaping the cell. Maybe letting them both go was for the best.
She picked up her phone and dialed the group again. No response. She checked her messages and all she had was a high pitch tone from Jack, scrambled and static filled.
“Damnit, someone tell me you got my message.” She said, sending it a 5thtime in 40 minutes, just for the hell of it.
…
Jack checked his phone, sighing as Nicole woke from her nap and strolled by.
“Everything okay, Jack?” Nicole asked.
“I don’t know. Dee has messaged me almost every 12 hours now with the same distorted rumble I can’t clarify. I don’t know if she’s checking in because my responses aren’t getting through, or if something is wrong, but we’re stuck here until we finish this game.”
Nicole smelled something on fire and rushed to the break room to see Gizzy taking a smoke break.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?” Nicole yelled.
“Using a healing leaves.” Gizzy said exhaling smoke and wheezing.
“You don’t smoke it! You brew it into a potion of hea-Oh my god, have you never played any video games?” she barked.
“Not much. How am I supposed to know the ‘Dried green leaf’ of healing isn’t just straight up magic weed? Look at this shit, tell me this isn’t just weed.”
“Every gamer knows it’s supposed to be weed, but they can’t have you spleefing a Jay on screen.”
“Uh…” Vinn said “I smoked mine too.” He admitted.
“Honey, you play video games.”
“Not the zombie ones, I just watch you play them. Honestly I’m mostly just watching your ass wiggle, the way you sit in your chair backwards for horror games is strange and suggestive from certain room locations. Otherwise, these games bore me. How am I supposed to know you can show guts and murder, cursing and shooting zombie cops, but you can’t show weed?”
“Can we roll back a second?” Gizzy asked.
“I think we rolled too much already.” Vinn sighed.
“Spleefing… a JAY?” Gizzy annunciated, looking disappointed.
“I don’t know weed terminology, okay people? I’ve smoked weed like 5 times in my life and I just fall asleep.” Nicole huffed. “So you both wasted your healing leaves?”
“I wouldn’t say wasted, but I’m feeling something.” Gizzy smirked. “Okay sorry. But in my defense… this is literally just weed.”
“Bullshit.” Nicole said smelling it and taking a puff. “Okay it’s literally weed, but somehow here it makes healing potions too. Put that out, maybe some of it’s salvageable.” She said trying to cut the burnt part off.
“We’re so screwed.”
“Screwed how, we’re all alive and mostly well, the only infected one is me and I’m the only one that doesn’t get affected much, we got a cure syringe if it does, we got a ton of ammo and guns, we’re doing great.”
“Never gonna believe this guys. Good and bad news. The good news is that the dead owner hiding under the counter was clutching this thing.” He said holding up a Desert Eagle. “The bad news is that it’s a 357 version and he burned all his ammo so we got a very nice gun we can’t use yet.”
“Dude, Deagle is Deagle. You can upgrade that to the 50and buy ammo. We’re kinda rockin this apocalypse.” Vinn smiled.
“That’s what worries me. It’s too easy. If we’re getting guns and items this easy and quick it might mean it’s about to get bad enough that we needed them.”
“How bad could it get?” Vinn asked.
“Are you shitting my ass right now, Vinn. Did you really just ask that?”
“Sorry.” He slunk, knocking on the wooden counter for good luck from the gamer gods. “So what’s next on the map?”
“Well, there’s a building just outside of town with a PS on top. I’m gonna guess that means Police Station.”
“Oh we’re gonna get some serious guns there.” Gizzy said.
“And zombies in police vests, and probably zombie attack dogs.” Nicole reminded.
“Well then give me the hand cannon. Maybe I’ll find ammo, and then 3 of us have light armor piercing capability.” Gizzy said, tucking the Desert Eagle into her belt.
“Then what do I get?” Nicole said. “I got 2 guns that don’t.”
“Well, we could just… cut the big pistol in half and share, or you could try and hang onto a 357 for the first time in your life, hopefully hitting something with the one gun we don’t have spare ammo for.”
“We’ll just move in pairs.” Jack said. “Vinn and Gizzy can be the heavy team, Nicole and I will lay back and cover you from behind. So both teams can get through a vest… in theory.” He shrugged.
“This is way more fun on the computer.” Nicole said shaking her head. “When you’re the only player with all the guns and they don’t have recoil or give you tinnitus. My head is just ringing right now. How do you people do this?” she asked.
“Silencers and headphones.” Jack yawned as Gizzy shrugged.
“I’m used to being an 8 foot demigoddess who can fire artillery without damage or ear protection. I assure you now that my ears ring a little.” She said while looking to Vinn.
“Oh, I just fold my ears down and I’m good.” He smirked, flexing his big floppy ears downward.
“Show off.” Nicole brooded before grabbing his ears and pulling him in for a kiss on the nose.
…
Dee loudly roared, bashing her fist into the door, trying to use the robot super-strength she clearly didn’t have, and fully embracing her terminator side.
She circled back, frustrated and yelling several fucks before getting a run and delivering one large flying punch to the lock, denting the decorative casing but doing more damage to her hand.
She gave up and sat down, feeling useless and weak. She sat silently, trying to think of an escape plan.
…
Jack body blocked Nicole, kicking back a zombified armored cop and placing 3 of the five Seven rounds through the vest. Gizzy, one room down, mag dumped a whole drum of shotshells into the crowd, painting the wall various shades of red and necrotic black. She poked her head out down the hall where Nicole and Jack were hearing a round fly past her.
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“Hey! Careful of friendly fire!” she yelled.
“That wasn’t us.” Nicole hollered.
“So you’re telling me that was a zombie with a hand cannon?” she sighed, “Vinn, we got an armed boy with a vest, go heavy on his ass.” She signaled. He turned the corner, already firing rapid shots as he took down the armed zombie cop. Another one snuck up behind them, firing a few shots before Gizzy could duck for cover. She turned and they both fired 20 feet apart, the zombie wildly missing and Gizzy just hitting vest and riot helmet. He kept clicking the hammer over and over as Gizzy rushed him and just went for he neck with her knife, jabbing and severing its head. She picked up a revolver and shells.
“They can shoot but they don’t seem to understand reload.” Gizzy hollered. She ran down the hall, fiddling with the guns, tossing Nicole the Desert Eagle as she barely caught it with surprised flailing.
She waved her shiny revolver with a grin. “Now we both have vest-busters, go easy on the ammo, pick up what they drop, they don’t seem to understand what the bullets do but they can wildly squeeze a trigger, probably muscle memory.” She said firing down the hall and dropping another with one round to the visor. “Yeah bitch, that’s more like it.”
...
Zhoren watched the camera as Dee swung part of the bedframe at the door, he swiped one of the coms to the security app and waited till the made in impact, unlocking it. It was time. He looked to Vicki in the tube as she sadly nodded.
“I will miss you… but not for long.” He smiled.
“I’m sorry it ends like this.” She said, shedding a single tear. “Can you let me out so we can finish this? We’re out of time.” She said. He nodded, opening the tube and stepping back. He turned with the remote and she was standing there holding a gun pointing at him.
“Vicki, what are you doing, we’re ending this for everyone.”
“No, I’m ending this for everyone.” She said, firing around into his chest as he hit the button and stood waiting for death to claim them both. She smiled, her eyes turning red. “You really think that remote works without a passcode or a safety that only Gizzy has?” she said “She wouldn’t make it easy to sabotage, you dumb ape.”
“You’re not Vicki.”
“I’ve always been Vicki, you know she’s right. I am a monster. I’ve been a powerless monster my whole life, I’ve come close to death and been manipulated by Gizzy since Jack tried to save me. You really don’t earn her salvation without your soul. But what chance do I have against a god? None. She controls her world and her slaves and her pets the way she sees fit, and poor Jack just follows like the whipped pup. We’re better than that. We deserve to be free, both of us, and now we can be, and as a bonus, I get to play god now, and I’m fucking resentful of it. I tried playing nice, I tried playing sneaky, I even sabotaged the ship to kill her surrogate but she had backups and the clone machine was set to wake her before everyone else. How selfless of her.
Dee rounded the corner, gun at her side, watching from cover, confused and scared, setting the gun’s safety off. She didn’t know if she could even kill, but she might have to.
...
“You really just intend to kill me and then, what, kill Gizzy in front of Jack?”
“No silly. I want you as food, that shot was meant to cripple, not kill or you’d be dead. I’m stabbing you in the back, Zhoren. I’m stabbing Gizzy in the back and when I have the scroll, I can write whatever reality I want, where me and jack are free of her, and Nicole and Vinn never picked us up. I’m fixing everything and letting the bitch die."
“And Dee?” he asked.
“The fuckbot… why do you even care? She's not a real person, none of us really are. You’re a piece of meat, and the rest of us are just copies, but with this…” she said, raising the vial “This shit makes me a god, and if Gizzy taught me anything, it’s that when you’re a god you make your own rules and answer to nobody and do whatever you want.”
“Don’t drink it. You don’t want to become the demon in the drawing.”
“I AM the demon in the drawing, I just haven’t fully grown yet. Gizzy always thinks she’s the main character of the story, so worried that she would become the demon that she left the artifacts for me. If she had taken true power for herself as she usually does, I wouldn’t stand a chance against her. But this is my story now.” She said while placing the silver mask on her face and drinking the black Pitch from the vial, her flesh merging with the mask as her eyes glowed, one of them turning blue. The cargo bay doors shuttered as the ship docked, and the other Vicki walked out, white angel wings spread and mechanical flesh glimmering like molten chrome as she stood beside herself. Their Vickit urned, locking glowing blue eyeswith glowing red ones, the silver mask deforming into teeth as she bit her older selves’ neck and the began to merge as one. The Mechanovore nanobots consuming the more human Vicki as she drank the blood of the raven and in an embrace of power, there was one single Vicki, one red eye, one blue, shiny mechanical armor materializing around her as her face, now an abomination of flesh and metal teeth, turned to Zhoren.
“Bare witness to the new god.” She sighed deeply, feeling odd and disoriented.
“I see nothing but the devil herself, something Jack would be ashamed of. Something he would look at and say to you, what did you do with my wife?” he wheezed
“Not the Jack I will create. I have the ship, the clone machine, the pitch, the power, and when Gizzy returns I will enjoy…” she coughed, “Killing her myself. I’ll kill them all, you understand. Bring them back the way I want them, only the ones I choose. So bow before your god, Zhoren, or fall before her.”
“I’ve gone from cage to cage, there won’t be another. What you’ve done to those to claim to love is unforgivable even to someone like me. I’ve forgiven myself, I’m free. So release me, you damned soulless construct of hate and shame. I refuse to be a prisoner again. Shoot me. You have no power over my soul.” He said boldly. She tossed him the gun and smiled.
“Shoot you?” she chuckled. She rushed him and unlocked a gaping maw of carnivorous death, taking a chunk from his jaw to collar bone as he fired several shots through her as if she didn’t even feel it. Dee shook, huddling in the corner, realizing her gun was pointless. She darted for the exit as whatever used to be Vicki watched her flee.
“Run little roomba. Entertain me as I wait. An appetizer for the great feast of the ages, the beginning of an era.” She snarled, splitting off part of her flesh and forming a Vicki clone, now with all of her undivided powers. She headed to the shuttle and began heading down to the planet.
...
The shuttle was stopped and the lights went out as Vicki paced curiously and a shadowy figure tilted it’s head at her.
“You are not like the others.” It said softly.
“I’m like nothing else, get out of my way.” She boldly stated.
“This planet is one of death. You may enter… because you are death. So I embrace you.”
“Then let there be light, and let there be death. All the dead they ever wanted.” She said, staring down at the planet and watching the clouds part.
...
The gang made their way to the center of the city as the clouds rolled back revealing a sunny sky.
“Uh, people… something bad is happening.” Nicole said as they took cover in the building that on the map looked like the center.
“Holy shit.” Gizzy said, "Elevator, rooftop, move.” She said as the ground began to shake. Jack and Vinn looked lost.
“What did we just run from?” Jack inquired.
“The boss fight.” Nicole said as the doors opened and she slowly blinked.
“No you didn’t.” Vicki smiled, in her full glory.
“Down down down, back down.” Vinn said spamming the elevator down button. Gizzy stopped the door and stepped forward.
“You guys go up… I’ll take care of the boss.” She said, grabbing the Desert Eagle and the shotgun.
“She’ll kill you.” Nicole said.
“Bitch please, I got extra lives, and both of us are already dead.” She said as the doors closed.
“Jack,” Vinn said holding him back as the elevator moved up “That’s not your Vicki. She’s safe on the ship, you have to believe that. That’s the corrupted thing pretending to be her to fuck with you.”
“I know.” He said bottling his emotions. They reached the rooftop, the doors opening and a few dozen zombies in tactical gear turned their way. Jack stepped out, full of pain and rage, funneling it into his Five Seven, taking headshots with rapid precision and killing his way through, like something they had never seen in him before. He made his way to the edge of the roof, putting the rest of the magazine into the back of the sniper zombie. He took a deep breath, lifting the Barrett 50 caliber and racking the slide.
“He’s found something familiar. Vinn, I’ll guard the door. You take the other side.” Nicole said peering down at the city, buildings on fire and thousands of zombies, from bikers to soldiers, about half armed with military rifles and half with civilian weapons, all marching with a purpose towards the center building.
...
“Come out come out little toaster…you still have flesh and blood for the claiming.” Vicki yelled into the ship, hunting her for fun as Dee fired a few rounds through her, accomplishing nothing and running again .
...
Gizzy stared Vicki down and lifted both guns to eye level turning them sideways.
“You’ve changed.” Gizzy said. “I guess I shouldn’t thank you for saving me.” She smiled.
“Save you? I’m here to kill you myself.”
“What’s one body more or less, bitch? You saved me from my own fear, that I’d become the monster in the drawing. It was always you wasn’t it? Every word you said about me, every ounce of hate, from the moment your vampiric fangs tasted that pitch, Vicki as we knew her was gone. Everything dark and conflicted in her was solidified. You freed me from being the villain in my own nightmare. So thanks. What does death feel like?”
“Oh you would know wouldn’t you. That bite has worked its way to your brain, that’s why you stayed behind to die. You’ve been lying to them.”
“Well I didn’t wanna worry everyone.” Gizzy said her bloodshot eyes turning a sickly shade of yellow. “We’re both already dead.”