John's sense of danger was going off the chart with the new wave of reinforcements forcing their way into the area and since he wasn't one to ignore his gut, he chose to trust his instincts that were practically screaming bloody murder at him by grabbing a pipe bomb, activating the explosive device, and flinging it towards the other side of the space. The bomb chirped loudly as it soared through the air and drew plenty of the zombies to its annoying high-pitched audio, and mere moments later it clattered onto the hard industrial concrete floor, which had been marked by explosive forces and dozens of ricocheting bullets.
Thankfully, it fulfilled its purpose just like he thought it would, so with quite a number of zeds distracted once again, John took this opportunity to dash over to the distressed Zoey, who was losing ground to the nonstop flood trying to ascend from the floor below. The instant he rolled up on the scene, he sent a brief look at the attractive mixed raced women and all the blood that covered her light skin and the reddish sweat jacket she was known to sport.
Not exactly a smoke show, but she's cute alright.
At the same time that thought was passing through his mind, he directed his attention to the violent horde next, that was desperately trying to come up through the hole in the floor. There were a ton of bodies down on the level below, which the infected were using to make headway, but John was intent on putting a stop to that, so his KORD went up and unleashed a non-stop flurry of automatic fire. The beefy 7.62 FMJ rounds pierced the skin of the zombies effortlessly before then going on to ruthlessly rip through their equally tender flesh, sending many of them to the true afterlife or at the very least well on their way. Though not all of them, so he kept the trigger pulled and continued filling the constant stream of reinforcements with gaping holes alongside Zoey, who was spraying them with a suppressed MAC.
Simultaneously, as this was going on, Bill, Francis, and Louis were doing their damndest to kill as many of these godforsaken undead as they possibly could. And they were quite successful in their killing… Or that was until that increasingly louder thumping grew too close.
"I got a bad feeling coming on." Bill announced worriedly as the loud stomping approached the building's exterior.
"Shit, Bill's feeling is usually right, so we better move whilst we still can." Louis shouted over the continuous, nonstop gunfire.
"Oh, and how do you expect us to do that when there are still so goddamn many of 'em in the way?" Francis added loudly.
"Yeah, I don't think they're just going to let us walk on through like that." Zoe chimed in as she kept helping John suppress the dying horde trying to invade from the rear.
John was about to add his two cents, of it probably being a really large Tank coming, but the stomping going on outside made it obvious that whatever it was, it was far, far larger than any Tank ever shown in Left 4 Dead. Unfortunately, he never got the opportunity to because the next thing he and the survivors knew, the cracked wall he had beaten the absolute hell out of with his shelling on the opposite side of the large industrial space came crashing inward as if some giant just pushed it inward.
Dust and debry immediately got thrown up with the wall coming down, obscuring everyone's vision with a dense cloud of dust. Even all of John's equipment was unable to allow him to see what the fuck was going through all this mess; thankfully, it didn't take long for it to begin clearing. But when it had cleared just enough towards the top, he caught sight of what had brought down part of the building: a massive infected head, and that most definitely connected to an equally towering and gargantuan infected body.
Looks like there are going to be more than the normal special zeds infecting this world. And yeah, there ain't no fucking way my GL will be able to put down that titan of flesh in any reasonable time frame... Or at all for that matter, so we better get the hell out of here whilst we still can.
Aware of how dire things were becoming, John opened up his mouth at the same time he was busy retrieving a bile bomb from his grenade sack. "Hey, we need to go back to the tunnels right fucking now!"
"And why would we want to do that when the path forward is just ahead of us?" Bill asked as he reloaded his assault rifle.
All the eyes landed on John curious as to why he wanted to head back into the subway tunnels but he wasn't in the mood for explanations nor was this the time or place when the titan began moving in their direction, so he pointed his empty, depleted rifle at the massive chest and head that was coming towards them. When the others caught sight of the special infected that stood nearly as tall as the building itself, they immediately knew John had the right idea.
And this was made even more so the next moment because his pipe bomb finally went off and killed a sizable patch of infected whilst simultaneously blowing a significant amount of the dust away and revealing most of that massive infected's figure. As a direct result of that, Bill, Francis, and Louis didn't say another word and quickly pulled back to Zoey and him, appearing incredibly eager to get the fuck out of here.
It's unfortunate we're leaving the minigun behind, but I'd rather find another one later than have to fight that new special infected or better said, try to survive that monster's pursuit.
Although somewhat saddened by the fact he couldn't afford to bring that heavy multi-barreled machine gun along, John still wound up his arm and flung the boomer bile filled container at the towering infected and got ready to drop down the hole to the level below. The fluid-filled container soared a short distance through the air and soon came crashing into the sturdy flesh of this new special infected. The moment the bile bomb met with the flesh of the titan, it broke and covered the abdomen of the massive undead in a putrid green liquid substance, that instantly sent the hordes of common infected surrounding it into a maddened frenzy.
While the common undead started to swarm the massive zed, John turned to the survivors. "That should keep it occupied for a few moments. Let's get out of here before we get splatted."
"We were trying to make it to Mercy Hospital for evac, but with that big fucker over there roaming the streets, traveling on the surface is pretty much off the table."Bill responded as John popped out his second spent FMJ drum for a 60 rounder quad stack.
The other three didn't seem to care to say anything at this time and just wanted to get as far away from that mutant behind them. Taking the hint, John took point, approached the ledge and peered into the darkness below, but all he found were layers upon layers of dead bodies. He was in a bit of a rush, so once he was pretty sure it was safe, he slung his rifle on his shoulder, crouched down, grabbed the ledge, and lowered himself down onto the pile of corpses.
After John made it to the floor of corpses that awaited him below with a disgusting squelch, he hastily scanned the zone as the titanic infected caused havoc upstairs. Fortunately, there appeared to be none of the special variety stalking the space. As for the common infected, they were busy flooding the stairs going up to participate in the mosh pit popping off up there.
"Hey, it's all clear on my end, come on down." John yelled over the cacophony of zombie noises.
"You don't have to tell me twice." Francis responded and jumped down the hole unhesitatingly.
"Ladies first." Bill gestured to Zoey.
"Thanks, Bill."
"What about me?" Louis asked, anxious to get the hell away from the grim reaper, that was slowly but surely making its way over to the only living beings around.
"Sure, why not." The old vet responded with a shrug, not caring a bit who went before him.
Getting the go ahead Louis repeated the same actions I and Zoey used and dropped as the enormous, unnamed type of infected slaughtered the common infected en masse. As soon as the former retail worker took his turn, the vet wasted no time grabbing the ledge and dropping down as well. So when Bill finally dropped and joined the rest of them, the group of five quickly retreated from the hole and put as much distance as they could between it and them.
And it's a damn good thing they did because a massive hand reached through the opening and attempted to grab whatever was within the vicinity. The giant undead arm, that was a sickly color and held prominent darkly colored veins just beneath its skin's surface, fished around for the living, but its efforts proved unsuccessful, much to the John's and the survivors' glee.
"We better beat it before it widens that hole anymore than it has." Our main character spoke up as the concrete around the hole crumbled under the insane strength of this unknown undead entity.
"You seem to have a plan, so where to?" Bill inquired.
"Back to the tunnels."
"Alright, then, we'll follow your lead."
"Hey, hey, hey, wasn't the plan for us to go to Mercy Hospital to get on that evac chopper?" The biker started.
"Oh, and how do you expect us to do that with that monstrosity raising hell up there?"
"Mhm, I guess you have a point." Francis agreed after a few seconds of thought, though he wasn't entirely satisfied. "But I don't like how you've passed the torch to this stranger who we've just fucking met."
What the fuck kind of beef does this asshole got with me? I didn't even do shit to him. If anything, you could say I even did their group a big favor because I could have just as easily gone back to the safe room and left them with that monstrosity and all the infected flooding out from the subway tunnels.
"You got a better idea?"
"...No."
"And neither do I, so let's try giving the guy who appears to have one a chance."
"But still I-"
The biker's attitude was beginning to piss off John, and he wasn't going to stand for it after pulling their asses out of the metaphorical fire. "Why don't you pipe down, bud, before you get you and your friends killed."
"OH, YOU WANNA GO? COME ON THEN, I'LL TAKE YA!"
"Why should I when the infected can do the job of disposing of your dumbass for me in a few seconds here. How much longer do you think that Boomer bile is going to last whilst you're running your mouth?"
If I had a better suit of armor that I was 100% certain could tank 7.62x39mm I'd fill him with holes right this instant and without a second thought… And the rest of the survivors if they attempted to respond in kind. But I'm not so short-sighted to let myself succumb to my anger and my more volatile emotions since it could very well result in me becoming a sieve and taking a trip to the afterlife myself.
"He's right, we don't have time for your nonsense, Francis, so just shut your trap and follow along, otherwise you can fuck off and try to make it on your own."
Looks like the old man is the one who really wears the pants in this group.
The riled-up biker grumbled but nevertheless relented under Bill's pressure and the other survivors, who were now eyeing him unhappily. "Whatever, man."
Seemingly satisfied with Francis's response, the old vet turned to John. "Sorry about this moron. I'll try to keep him in line, so let's get as far away from here whilst we still have the ability to."
Cognizant of the fact that Francis was the one at fault for his own actions and not the rest of them, John didn't give the vet a hard time. "It's not your fault you got stuck having to babysit a big ole brat, so don't pay it any mind."
"Who're you calling a brat, motherf-"
"Hmm, I thought I heard something, but it must've been the wind." John commented, managing to get a small laugh from Zoey and enrage Francis further.
With the matter settled there… For now the group started moving in between the columns that held up the ceiling. That mutated colossal infected was still rampaging above and causing the ceiling and the surroundings to rattle and release a wave of dust. It honestly wouldn't have been surprising if that zombie came crashing through the concrete above their heads, so the five of them hastily moved for the exit.
"Pussy." Francis antagonized once they cleared the threshold and were seemingly out of harm's way of that beast.
"Yea, yea, keep barking, mutt."
The mad dog behind him said something else, but he ignored him in favor of rounding the corner. Right as the stairs entered his vision, he had the survivors go on ahead whilst he pulled out another pipe bomb and tossed it behind for good measure.
Hopefully, that captures their attention long enough for us to escape the area and move northward.
As soon as it left his grasp and its annoying chirping started, he chased after the survivors to the utility subway platform.