Standing outside the grocery store the group took the time to get ready. Akane and Columbus stretching, the petite woman showing up the young man with more profound and exaggerated movements to limber up. Leah double-checked her throwing knives and tomahawks, which she picked up in Scouts. Orlando (Nora) was checking the cars for any hidden dead while Logan and Tallahassee were looking at the back of the Cadillac at an assortment of makeshift weapons. Logan watched as the cowboy played with a few garden implements before grabbing an axe, garden shears, and a baseball bat with a weighted ring attached at the base.
"Little light don't you think?" Logan said as he cast his gaze out to Orlando and the rather large number of cars in the parking lot. Given the amount numbered at least thirty-nine which meant the amount of dead inside might be a bit more than a few improvised melee weapons.
"I don't see you walking in with anything?" Tallahassee said as he looked at Logan up and down. Logan raised a brow and pulled his Jacket out to the side to show the 590 shockwave Mossberg he took from the cocktail waitress. He received a quiet hum from the Texan before getting a nod. "Okay, Fine. I guess I just like to see life finally leave the eyes of these dead fucks, okay? Besides, I've always got my tried and tested baby," he said while tapping his mare's leg.
"Ah, so this is just some fun for you then?" Logan said with a smile on his lips and Tally smiled with glee.
"Absolutely son! Do you know how many times I've had to turn the cheek, say sorry, and just generally be kicked around during the day of human civilization?" the man asked with clear steel in his eyes.
"Too many fucking times" Logan answered without a hint of question in his voice. Tally pointed a finger at his face with a smile on his face again.
"Exact-a-fucking-lutly" he said while closing the back of the caddy. "And now I get just to cut loose, break a few heads open, take a piss where I want when I want. You can't tell me that doesn't just put a smile on your face as well. Besides" Tallahassee says while looking over at Akane and Leah with a knowing smirk. "not like many women would be willing to share so willingly in a working world hmm?" Logan smiled crookedly at the older man, internally laughing at the hidden knowledge of his wife being the one who pulled Leah into their bed and not him.
"I get your point," Logan said, walking to the store entrance with Tallahassee, as the others joined up when they saw the two were ready to go. Orlando walked back to the car where Buck was firmly locked and took a post by the back doors. The two had explained to the others that she had always watched after Buck while Tally did the searching of any unknown store, as they didn't want to endanger the young boy for no reason. The fact that, before the three moviegoers showed up, Nora could kill a hoard on her own due to her cultivation made it an obvious choice. Still, even with it suppressed now, it didn't mean she couldn't get Buck out of dodge before a hoard did show up.
As the five of them walked to the store entrance, they could hear rather numerous moans inside, signaling that they might be dealing with a truly packed store.
"You know, umm, here's a thought, maybe I stay with Orlando and watch for any incoming zombies," Columbus said with an awkward stutter in his speech. "You never know when one could be sneaking up behind you ready to bite down, plus I only have this double barrel, and reloading it takes so long that I just don't know if-"
"Do I need to smack you?" Tallahassee asked as the nerd started making excuses. Columbus flinched and shook his head.
"No, no, I'm good, just making sure we know our options. All our options" he said quickly while looking away. Tallahassee nodded turned back to the store entrance and started to walk forward. Logan and the girls followed next after Columbus waved a hand for them while saying "Ladies and gents first" before following behind with a shaking raise of his shotgun. When Tally reached the bloodstained automatic doors they hissed open. Stepping in he gripped the axe tight and took stock of the full aisles of dead. They came in all shapes and sizes as they flicked their dead gazes at the five who stepped into the store. From old to young men and women, fat to muscled brutes foaming at the mouth, short and tall dead monsters who only wanted to feed off of your dying body after they tore your throat out.
For a moment, the two groups looked at one another as the in-store speakers blasted out what seemed to be the end of a slow, sad country ballet. When the song finished its final notes, the store was only filled with the growls and rasps of the dead in front of them. That was until the next song came on, bringing a smile to most of the group's faces. "Well now," Akane said as the first slow notes of Freebird started to play out, "what a fucking fantastic soundtrack we have for our gore-filled shopping spree." With a rise of her now pistol-laden hands, she pointed to the crowd of dead in front of her. With a somewhat childlike fashion, she started to flick the barrel of her gun down each aisle, "Enny meany miny moe, catch a fucker by the nuts. If he hollers, then slit his throat!" she sang while switching what head she was aiming at.
Each time she earned a growl and twitch of the dead as they slowly grew more and more agitated. "My little demon on my shoulder told me to kill..." she continued, flicking the gun left and right in a more sporadic movement as the song slowly ramped up to the moment she wanted. As she sang, both Tallahassee and Columbus looked over at her in sick fascination at her remix of the nursery rhyme. Her two fellow moviegoers simply waited with smiles for her to start this blood bath.
Eventually, she paused on the aisle right in front of her and took aim "And you are it," she said as she fired the first shot into the head of the dead clerk of the store. Signaling the start of the bloodshed.
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[Freebird by Lynyrd Skynyrd-the solo]
As if a dam had burst, the dead surged forward, trying to swarm out of each of their packed aisles, only to be met with the five armed survivors. Columbus, in a smart move, got behind Tally as the older cowboy quickly swung his axe through the air in a horizontal swipe that took clean the heads off of four undead before being embedded in a fifth. Said fifth, started to lunge at Tallahassee before the butt of Columbus's shotgun knocked the dead off of the cowboy's axe and away from the man himself. Not missing a beat, the cowboy shifted forward to deliver a downward strike into the dead to finally end its life. As he did, Columbus brought his double barrel up and fired into the nearest dead in the hoard, sending the few encroaching zombies flying back in a torn-up mess that gave Tally time to rip out of the dead his axe was stuck in and bring it across on more undead. This allowed Columbus to swing his double barrel to the other side of the Texan to send back another few dead that were getting too close.
Flicking the camera away from the unlikely yet well-working duo, we see a dead receive twelve inches of cold steel right between its eyes, ending its undead life. As it falls fully to the ground, the blade is grabbed by Akane, who has rushed into the crowd in front of her. She was currently dodging a swinging clawed hand from a dead with a downward slide. Pulling out the blade, she lunges upward and quickly slices at the tendons of the walking corpse's arms and legs along the way before using it as a platform to launch her onto the top of an aisle shelving unit. Before the dead dropped to the ground on now-useless limps, Akane sent a round into the head of the undead in a well-timed double tap. Now standing on the shelving, she aimed and quickly flung the throwing knife back into the back of the crowd before she pulled out her second pistol and started sending precise shots throughout the crowd around a now acrobatic Leah, keeping her safe from the random dead that she couldn't get to fast enough.
Leah, for her part, slipped and spun around the dead, two tomahawks in hand, as she cut off limbs and heads in an expert display of combat prowess. The dead around her died or were made useless in seconds as she practically ran through the crowd with a smile on her face. When she finally slipped through the crowd to the back, she sent one of her tomahawks flying up into the air as she started to spin herself in a crouch using the knife that was lodged in the head of the dead Akane had flung it at, as a pivot point. With a quick movement, she sheathed her still-held tomahawk before reaching out and grabbing the descending one as it fell back down onto the ground. With a squelch, she pulled the knife out and stood back up. She saw the still rather large crowd of standing undead that she dodged to get to the back. Spinning the knife in one hand while flicking off the blood of the Tomahawk she just caught, she looked to Akane who smiled at her.
"Have fun, hun; I'm gonna go see how hubby is doing," Akane said before the bark of a shotgun rang out, signaling the smaller woman to leap off of the shelving in a backward flip. Leah smirked and simply stared at the now-rushing dead who was too braindead to flee. She stretched and soon rushed back into the crowd. With a leap, she stepped on a middle shelf before leaping high to bring down as much moment to send the next head flying.
Dragging the camera down to the next aisle showed a path of carnage of shredded flesh, empty plastic shotgun rounds, and bashed heads of the dead. Logan moved like a robot as he fired another round into the dead in front of him before shifting his grip to slam the handle of the Mossberg into the head of the next dead. This was joined with a kick to the next dead's knee hard enough to snap the thing sideways. dropping the dead to its other knee, where Logan brought the barrel of the shotgun to rest against its head. Like an executioner, he blew the dead's head off cleanly before swinging the gun like a club to crack the head of the next undead. Like a surgeon, Logan cleanly cut down each and every dead in front of him without fanfare, with only the shotgun in his hand.
Each reload of his shotgun was a practice in close-quarters combat as Logan would reload after bashing, shifting, and generally throwing the dead around him in a defensive way to give him time to reload. Once he reloaded, it would all start over again as he cut down every dead with a quick blast that barely made his shoulder buckle. By the time He cleared the hallway and was at the end of the aisle, he was covered in brain matter and blood-drenched Mossberg without a care in the world. The sound of squelching boots slamming down in blood. Looking over, Logan saw his wife gazing at the carnage and then at him with a shiver. "Mmmh, I just love it when I see you covered in blood with a bunch of fuckers dead at your feet," she purred, and Logan chuckled.
"That happened only one other time," he said and she nodded.
"I know, far too few times in my book," she said while reloading her pistols. Logan just shook his head and walked over to the firecracker that was his wife and leaned down to give her a kiss he knew she wanted. The man then pulled back when she started to introduce her tongue while trying to shove her hand down his pants.
"No, we need to clean up and likely see if the two grifters are still alive," Logan said making Akane whine in displeasure.
"Fine, just know that you're eating me out tonight for making me wait all day~," Akane said before walking past and slapping Logan's ass as she did. The man raised a brow and turned to walk with her.
"You say that like it's a bad thing," Logan said as the two checked on the others.