FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Want to get the full experience? Read the previous parts first! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~CHAPTER 7~~~

No time to warn him.

In the blink of an eye, I leapt up and tackled Francis to the ground, clear out of the sniper's line of sight. If I didn't have enhanced speed, I wouldn't have been able to save him. Because by the time I was out of my seat, I heard the shot fired off in the distance, and right after we both hit the ground I could hear the bullet fly right past us. It harmlessly hit a box of cereal on a shelf behind where Francis' head was. Though shocked at first, he was quick to process what was going on, saving me the awkward moment of saying 'Yeah, someone's trying to kill you, just so you know.'

However, Harry wasn't as quick on the trigger (pun intended). He was just staring at us dumbstruck, not even noticing a red dot slowly making its way onto his head was well.

"HARRY, GET DOWN!" I shouted. "Someone's shooting at us!"

Rather than ducking, he teleported behind a shelf, just in time to avoid a second shot. But I quickly noticed that this red dot came from a different angle than the first one, meaning that there were at least two snipers out there. Whoever they were, they could see us taking cover, and decided to open fire on our location. The spray of lead quickly shattered the barriers Francis and I made to keep the zombies out, now leaving us exposed to _two _threats.

But as quickly as the bullets were flying past us, they stopped after a few more seconds. Our assailants must be reloading. That gives us about three seconds to react.

I turned my head and saw there was a door about 100 feet away from us. Must lead into the back of the store.

Two and a half seconds...

"Door. Right behind us" I whispered to my teammates.

Two seconds...

Harry was actually right in front of the door. He and Francis turned their heads and saw it. Average size, made of wood, but wide enough for only one person to go through at a time. The wall surrounding the door was made of solid concrete though. Perfect.

One second...

They turned back to me, and immediately picked up on the plan I had. We all nodded in agreement.

Time's up. Let's do this.

"GO!"

As fast as lightning, Harry aimed and fired a single fireball at the center of the door, blasting it clean off its hinges. Francis and I sped in, revealing ourselves to our attackers and prompting another rain of bullets. But at the speed we were going, nothing could hit us. We dashed into the room, and Harry zipped in behind us. Right as he re-materialized, he threw another fireball at the top of the doorframe, causing it to collapse and completely fill the gap. No amount of bullets could break through this sucker.

We all breathed a sigh of relief.

We were safe. But for how long?

After catching our breath, we stayed quiet to try and listen in on what the gunmen were planning. Even with our enhanced hearing, we couldn't hear them saying anything. It's possible they were using hand signals only. These guys must know what we are, and are taking every precaution necessary to get the drop on us. It makes sense, since they could've been watching us all day, and could plainly see we us using our animalistic senses against the zombies. Whatever they were planning, it would definitely involve breaking into the back of the store and flushing us out. That meant we had only a little bit of time to make another brilliant escape plan.

I took a minute to take in our new surroundings. Nothing in here but extra food, boxes, and shelves. In the right corner of the room, there was a small spiral staircase that most likely led to the store's roof.

_Huh, if we could get onto the roof, we could try and find out there these guys are sniping from. We know the direction, we just need a location... The only problem is that once they see us there in the open, they'll open fire again. _

I shifted away from my thoughts for a second. Though he kept his cool a minute ago, I could now see that Harry was starting to get nervous. This is exactly what we can't afford right now.

"Jesus Christ, guys, what the hell are we gonna do!? We've never been in a situation like this before! There's probably a whole freaking army of them out there, ready to burst in here any second and kill us all!"

Thankfully, Francis walked over to Harry and snapped him out of his meltdown with a well-placed bitchslap. "Snap. The hell. OUT OF IT" he said. So what if we weren't trained for this? Does that mean we're completely fucked? Hell no it doesn't! We need to think this through right now, all three of us. That includes you."

"He's right, man" I added. Francis already played the bad cop, so naturally I had to be the other guy. "There could be two of them out there, there could be two hundred of them out there. As long as we use our heads, we can outsmart them all."

This seemed to calm Harry down completely. "All right. So what are we gonna do now?" he said.

"Don't worry, I have an idea" I said while pointing at the spiral staircase. "One of us could go up there, get onto the roof, and take a quick look around. Hopefully before they notice us, we can get their location down, sneak out of here, and make our way over to wherever they are. Then we can fight them on an even battlefield"

Harry spoke up first. "But wait, what if they can see where we'd come out of on the roof, and are already expecting us to try something like that?"

"Well, there's a simple solution to that, my friend" I said with a smile. "All whoever goes up has to do is just keep moving and looking forwards. But it has to be someone fast. Someone who can literally be in one place one second and somewhere else the next."

Harry looked confused. I can't believe he hasn't caught on yet. "But can't we all kinda do that? Who..." He stopped mid-sentence. He figured it out.

Francis walked over to him with an even bigger smile on his face. "Who indeed, Harry?"

~~~

"You know, this isn't something I say often, but I fucking hate you guys sometimes..."

"Relax, Harry" Francis said. "Just jump out, and keep teleporting in different spots. Don't use a pattern of any kind, just go somewhere different every time. After you can see where their laser sights are coming from, teleport back down here, and we'll figure out what to do next."

Harry looked even more nervous standing in front of the door to the roof than he did when we sealed ourselves in here. "I know we don't really have a lot of options here, but are you SURE this'll work, Greg? Because I REALLY don't wanna get shot in the head today."

I put on my serious face. "Yes, I'm sure this will work---

Dear GOD I hope this plan works...

---and I'm sure that you won't die. It'll only take you about ten seconds, anyway. Just remember what Francis said, and you'll be fine. On the count of three, just do it."

Harry sighed deeply. "All right, start the countdown." He readied himself to quickly turn the handle and run out while taking deep several preparation breaths.

"Three...... Two...... "

But before I could say 'one', I was interrupted by the sound of gunfire. I tried to listen in on where the bullets were hitting the supermarket's walls, but everything was quiet in here. They'd have no reason to shoot unless they saw their targets. Whatever they were shooting at now, it wasn't us.

Harry looked confused again, but decided to follow through with my plan anyway. In one swift motion, he turned the handle and opened the door, already disappearing and leaving behind the familiar red smoke. Francis and I shut the door and waited for ten seconds, after which Harry swiftly returned, nearly out of breath but smiling to himself. This can only be good news.

"Guess what? Turns out there are only two of them, and they're on the middle floor in that really tall building across the street. When they were shooting at us earlier, the gunfire attracted every zombie we didn't kill yet, which is apparently a lot more than we thought. They broke into the building, and the snipers are fighting for their lives over there! The walking dead are actually helping us for once!"

"Fascinating" Francis replied. "But who are they, though? Some hicks with guns, or are they from the real army? Because HAC and the US government weren't in cahoots before the outbreak, and if they're looking for us it won't be easy to hide much longer."

Harry shrugged. "I don't know, Francis. All I could see was that they were wearing black body armor and helmets."

"Seriously? Helmets while sniping?" I said.

"Yeah, they looked like a mix between the EVA helmets from Halo and the ones from that Tron sequel. Probably got an HUD on the inside and everything."

Well, no matter who they were underneath their armor, the fact remained that they were distracted, and we now have another chance to make a move. Even if they kill all the zombies attacking them, they'll run out of ammo and won't be as much of a threat. One on one, I could probably handle both of them.

"All right" I said while walking over to the wall opposite the barricade we made. "While they're preoccupied with the 'zombs, we need to get as far away from here as we can. We can't fight them with the zombies in the way, so we're gonna give them the slip. We'll find a car and haul ass to the next town. I'll call HAC command on the way and let them know what's going on."

The guys nodded in agreement. I'll admit, sometimes I really like being team leader. When I talk, people listen. But if I didn't have a plan here, I'd be open to anything, that goes without saying...

"Harry, blow a new hole in this wall" I said while pointing at it. "I saw a few cars around here that look like they might still work."

Harry walked over to the wall and threw a small fireball at the bottom, creating a small crawlspace. It didn't make as much noise as the snipers were making, which was important. They still haven't run out of ammo, apparently. But that didn't matter anymore. We crawled out, and found ourselves in a back alley leading away from the store. We ran through it, took one left turn, and emerged back into the broad daylight. But what was waiting for us at the end of the alleyway stopped us dead in our tracks.

Standing there, waiting for us was another person wearing the armor and helmet that Harry had previously described. It looked like Kevlar plating up close, meaning that this person could take a hit. I could also see a symbol on the left shoulder pad, but I couldn't quite make it out. The big surprise, however, was that this person was unarmed. No rifle, no ammo, not even a visible sidearm. It's unlikely, but maybe he wanted to negotiate.

I stepped forwards. "Listen, If you and your goons over there have been following us all day, then you know what we are and what we can do. You can't beat all three of us. We won't hurt you if you just let us go. Deal?"

Whoever this person was, he didn't respond, instead just staring at us, me in particular. But then he started to slowly walk towards us. I could tell by his body language that attacking us anyway was the only thing on his mind.

"Stop!" I shouted. "I'll say it one more time, back off and let us pass, or we WILL kill you."

Still no response. Just more slow walking. Now he was starting to creep me out.

Don't say I didn't warn you...

"All right, screw this. Francis!"

"Way ahead of you" he replied. With no effort at all, he sent an ice wave on the ground straight at the individual, perfectly encasing our mystery person in ice. He didn't even try to fight it.

"Nice job, man" Harry said. We started to walk past our assailant, and out of the alley.

"If you make a Popsicle joke, I swear to God I'm going to do the same thing to you."

"You already did two days ago! It took me a half hour to thaw myself out!"

And right on the subject of thawing oneself out from being frozen solid, the second most unexpected thing of the day happened.

We were right in front of the frozen body when its hands started to glow red. Before any of us could react, the slab of ice violently shattered, spraying steam and ice shards everywhere. Harry and Francis winced in pain as some shards grazed them, but none of them hit any vitals. My armor protected me from most of the impact, but I was just as shaken up as they were. When the steam cleared away, the person was still standing in the same spot, innocently cracking his knuckles.

This guy has powers too? Why? How, for the most part!? HAC never said anything about giving people just superpowers! Unless...

But before I could answer my own question, the individual's hands started to glow red again, and he started to lob what looked like blackened, flaming balls of napalm at us! This time, however, we were ready. The three of us dodged the attack, and sped/teleported around him and out into the open street, giving us ample room to fight back with. But right as we readied ourselves for more, the two snipers from before came down the alley and sided themselves with their comrade, thankfully with no guns in hand.

Damn, they fought through all those zombies? But wait, if this guy has powers like we do, then it's possible that...

As if reading my mind, the two of them clenched their fists, which instantly started sprouting ice. In about two seconds, they were both holding large shields and spears made of ice, which looked much sharper and durable than your average frozen water.

"Looks like we've got a fight on our hands now, guys" I said.

"Hmph, we can take them. At least now you two don't have guns, so you can fight us like men. And die like men" Francis said to the former snipers.

The one on the left stepped forwards. "We have no quarrel with you hybrids, but our orders are to eliminate you. Don't take it personally." He spoke with an English accent.

"Why?" I said. "And who sent you? Was it Human Advancement Companies? Are they finally convinced we've outlived our usefulness?"

"No" he replied.

Wow, what a letdown. I had always been slightly suspicious of HAC waaaay before it was cool....

"Then who do you work for? The military? The remains of the US government? Or are you just trying to seize power for yourselves after discovering the science behind superpowers?"

He chuckled at that last part. "Oh, Mr. Ossland, you know so little..."

He knew my name. That rules out freelancers and thugs, these guys must be with the government.

"We will not share any additional information with you three. If it were up to me, I wouldn't anyway. But fear not, my young friends. Because, as the old saying goes, in death, all the answers come!"

On 'come', he and the guy on the right launched themselves off the ground with ice, each landing on one of the building walls that make up the alley. Before we could react, the silent pyrokinetic reached down and touched the pavement, creating a wave of what looked like black oil that homed in on us. It ensnared us from the waist down, restricting our movement. The oil mass was somehow preventing me from using my speed to break free, and I'm sure that same was happening to Harry and Francis. Spears at the ready, the cryokinetics launched themselves off the walls directly at us, determined to kill.

But they overlooked one thing: my arms were still free. I reached around to my back, where my swords were attached to my armor by a series of weak metal strips, and broke them loose. In one swift motion, I swiped at the oil mass holding me to the ground, immediately dissolving it and freeing my legs, and leapt up to meet the ice thugs in midair. Since I was now free to use my enhanced speed, I spiral-slashed in the air, chopping their ice spears into pieces. I would've lacerated their bodies as well, but their shields and body armor protected them from any further harm.

Once they processed what just happened, the cryokinetics landed behind Harry and Francis, and immediately began to create new weapons. I landed right between where they were originally standing. Which, thankfully, was right on top of the fire/oil man. The impact knocked him over, breaking his contact with the ground and, by extension, breaking his hold over the oil. My friends were free, and our enemies just had their strategy broken. Not too bad for a total of two seconds' work.

"That was freaking AWESOME, Greg!" Harry shouted.

"Save your praise for later, Harry" I replied. "You and Francis take care of our silent friend over there. These guys are MINE!"

~~~~~

Due to me adhering to my "one chapter every week" schedule, the REAL fight will happen next week. This chapter was to show how well Team Omega actually functions as a team. Which, in retrospect, is kind of important in a zombie apocalypse.

Rate, comment, and subscribe! There'll be a reward for whoever becomes my tenth subscriber!