A Troll is Haunting Tex's

I dived for it and picked it up as the demon moved towards the sound, screaming and wailing and even blind it was dangerous, lashing out, those claws catching Voboy's body, sending him flying through the air to thud wetly against the concrete wall before falling limply to the floor and I figured he was pretty much fucked and that totally sucked. Jacked a shell in, pointed, pulled, arm moving automatically. Blam-blam-blam-blam-blam. All five shells in a couple of seconds at point blank range and I got it through the guts.

That burning holy water spread and I'd had three of those specials loaded and that silver and holy water hollowpoint combination blew dinner plate sized cavities in that frigging demon and those cavities burst into flames as I rapid-reloaded. Two seconds and I wasn't panicking, I wasn't panicking, I wasn't panicking and I was reloaded and this time I was going for head shots and I hit and hit and hit and hit and hit and fuck, why wouldn't that thing frigging die.

Lovecraft was up on his feet, staggering, behind that demon and he'd got his Mossberg back from somewhere and I threw him one of my ammo pouches and reloaded myself and then I was firing as that frigging demon screamed and went for me 'n I just fired into it's chest where I figured it's heart might be as fast as I frigging could and the impact of those shots didn't exactly push it back but they held it off me long enough for Lovecraft to jam his Mossberg all the way up its ass and fire and I musta tossed him a pouch of the specials coz frigging hell, it's guts just exploded.

Flames shot out of the holes I'd already opened up in that frigging monster from hell and it spun and caught Lovecraft with its claws, those six inch long talons jammed into his chest and Lovecraft wasn't a guy to give up easily coz those spring loaded knives in those wrist sheathes sprang into his hands and he drove them into the demons melted eyeballs, through the eyeballs deep into those eyesockets and into the demon's skull, hands disappearing to the wrists and then he punched through bone, and fuck, his arms were inside that demons skull to the elbows and the demons claws raked.

Now Lovecraft screamed as the demon jammed one claw into his stomach and opened him like a fish, disemboweling him, intestines cascading and how the fuck Lovecraft was still fighting I had no idea but he was twisting those knives inside the demon's skull, scrambling its brains and it was finally fucking going down and so was Lovecraft but his last act on this earth was to let go those knives, withdraw one arm and he found that Glock 17 American Eagle 124 High power of his and he emptied the whole magazine inside that demons skull and none of those bullets made it out but that demon staggered and fell to its knees and Lovecraft dropped to the floor.

His head turned, he looked at me and I was there, taking his hand, kinda thinking "fuck" coz he was the last of my buddies and he was fucking dying 'n Lovecraft grinned.

"Thank god it wasn't a vampire," he gasped. "That'd be so fucking clichéd."

His hand squeezed mine. "You get out here, Chloe," he whispered. "Take my head, I don't wanna come back as a bloodsucker," 'n his eyes closed, he groaned, one last breath and he went limp and yeah, I checked his pulse and he was gone. Surprised he lasted so long with his guts and most of his blood gone.

Whatever.

That demon was still moving and fuck that for a joke. I reached back into my camelbak and remembered yeah, that water, it was all holy water 'n I took the water bag out, had a couple of pints left 'n I unscrewed the cap and smiled as I poured it through one of those gaping eye sockets and totally filled the insides of that frigging skull, laughing as the flames erupted and that skull melted from the inside out as the holy water burnt it away. Laughing as I reloaded my Remington and pumped AP rounds into that skull until it was nothing but flaming dissolving fragments and all the life had gone from that fucker 'n it was still burning, demonic flesh crackling wherever that holy water had touched it and that was frigging near everywhere. Didn't think this one was coming back and I'd 've liked the bounty but I didn't want think I wanted to touch what was left of that head.

Didn't want anyone coming back either, so I kind of did the decent thing 'n I sure hoped if this ever happened to me, one of my friends 'd do the same for me. I knelt and I kissed Lovecraft's forehead 'n I sawed his head off with my MUSAT knife and then I checked Voboy and yeah, he was frigging stone dead as well and it was hard to mistake that when your throat had been ripped out so I did the same for him. As for 'ol Snoopy, took me a while to find the head and when I did, over by the far wall, I moved it to over to sit by the others 'n I said a prayer for all three of them.

Checked that door and it was hot and when I opened it a crack a blast furnace of heat and flames roared through and that'd do 'n I slammed it closed before I crisped. I popped all three heads into one of the monster bags coz with that frigging heat I was gonna get one shot at this and then I stood behind that door and opened it and as the flames roared through I swung that bag round and through, into the flames and then I slammed the door closed and that was their heads taken care of.

Voboy. Lovecraft. Snoopy. They wouldn't be coming back as undead and they'd be happy about that and I kind of said a quick prayer and got my backup crucifix out of its pouch on my harness and hung it round my neck and said a quick fucking prayer coz if God wasn't on my side, I was truly fucked.

There's one thing worse than going in against vampires as a team and that's being down in the bowels of some frigging shopping mall with your buddies all frigging dead around you and you're on your own and you just know there's frigging vampires and zombies and other frigging monsters down there with you and there's one door that might get you out and the frigging buildings on fire and if you stay you're gonna fry and if you leave fuck knows what you're gonna run into and even worse, I had no idea where frigging Steve was.

That sucked coz the last I'd seen of him, he'd been firing rocket propelled grenades into that frigging vampires nest and I just wanted to cry.

I didn't cry.

I picked up Lovecrafts Glock and tucked it away with all his ammo. I picked up his Mossberg, checked the action and yeah, a bit burnt from the ass-end of that demon but it worked and I went through his pockets and his harness and frigging hell, he carried as much ammo as Steve did and I was, like, totally replenished with a few more besides. No point in putting this off. I swallowed, chambered a round and opened that other frigging door.

Jesus, I had no frigging idea these malls were so complicated. Air, water, sewage, Air handlers, Furnaces and I had no idea what the fuck this long corridor was for but there were all sorts of frigging pipes running along the walls and great big frigging cables strung along the ceilings and at least the lights were on and their was one route out coz there were no doorways. Not for as far as I could see so I frigging glided down that passage just crapping myself and wishing that guys weren;t so frigging heroic coz it sucked being by myself.

That fucking shriek nearly killed me by itself, I frigging jumped so high I swear I nearly hit the roof and spun around and where the fuck had that zombie covered in blood come from? That zombie wail just frigging terrified me. It was a scream from man's primeval dawn, the scream from the darkness of the tropical rainforest, unseen, terrifying, predatory.

Good thing I had that Mossberg coz I blew it's fucking head off and then I turned and fucking ran coz fuck knows what I'd passed without seeing and I didn't plan on going back to find out and when I came to that first corner I went round it so fast I cannoned off the concrete wall and fuck, I could hear shooting. Shooting was bad, it meant bad shit going down. Shooting was good, it meant someone was shooting monsters. I didn't exactly head for the sound of the guns but there was nowhere else to go so I kept on going and this zombie wail came from somewhere behind me.

I hadn't thought I could go faster but fuck, right now I was aiming to be a world record sprinter and when I came to some stairs with a firedoor at the top I went straight up them and through that door and the shooting was down this hallway to the left so I headed that way. After I shut that firedoor behind me and did my best to jam the door handle with a mop handle coz I doubted there was anything behind me in there that I wanted out.

Real quiet, I told myself. Quiet and careful and I slid down that hallway silent as a frigging snake and when I kind of dropped to one knee and peered around, a just about crapped myself coz there was some battle royale going on down the far end. Zombie screams and wails and shots and some dude standing close to me watching and I could hear him chuckling. Recognized the back, the jacket anyhow. That necromancer dude that'd summoned the demon and I could hear Steve's voice now, shouting commands over the screams and the gunfire.

Steve? I just wanted to smile.

But first? Yep, loaded and all I had to do was pull that trigger. I stepped around that corner just as that Necromancer turned and before he could do anything other than widen his eyes I pulled that frigging trigger and yeah, he mighta been a Necromancer and shit but he was human and he was too frigging dumb to be wearing Kevlar and the frigging hollowpoint round blew a hole through his chest to his spine 'n the blood gouted as he kind of staggered and choked and the double buckshot round that came next ripped a dinner plate sized hole out his back and the next one splattered his frigging head over the walls and fourth blew a hole through his waist and took his spine out and I guess he was fucking gone and the zombies hadn't even noticed.

Nobody'd noticed so I did that reload, not so quick with Lovecraft's Mossberg coz I wasn't familiar with it but quick enough and then I started serving targets, one at a time, aiming for body mass coz I didn't want to hit anyone at the far end and I could see Steve's head and I could see that kukri swinging and it was like a little piece of heaven to know he was alive and he'd made it and the others were with him.

"Steve," I screamed, "Steve," and he heard me.

"Chloe?" he called out. "Chloe, where are you?"

"Other side of the zombies," I yelled, excitedly. Then "Oh Fuck!" Coz the zombies'd heard that too and the ones nearest me were turning and I didn't have any more time to call out coz I was shooting as fast as I could 'n I didn't bother reloading, I dropped that Mossberg and switched to my Remington and then Cuddles burst through in a spray of heads and zombie parts and he was too busy biting and chomping to even wail and I'd never been so glad to see anyone or any drop bear in my entire frigging life and I'd have hugged him except Steve was there too 'n I hugged Steve like I was never letting him go.

"This way," some cop I didn't recognize yelled and there were a bunch of cops as well as all the team and Steve was dragging me along as we bolted back the way we'd come and some of the team were falling back shooting behind us.

"Vampires behind us," Steve explained as BB's Purdey frigging thundered and in that confined space it was deafening. Bear's frigging cannon fired next and the two of them were a deep bass to the staccato cracks of Lee Enfield .303's and the occasional burst of what sounded like submachinegun fire.

"Aussies and Brits holding the rear," Steve said. "Where's Lovecraft and Voboy and that friend of yours."

"Dead," I said. "Demon. I killed it and got away."

"Tell me the details later," Steve said. "We got the main nest, killed the Masters, just gotta get outa here alive now." The cop took us up another flight of stairs and through a door and I knew where we were now. On the basement floor level of the mall and there were some escalators. And some zombies.

I recognized the zombies as we came through the door and I didn't wait. I started clearing and a couple of the cops were either side me of with M4's and then BiscuitHammer and TP and NotWise and Tex and Lori and MelissaBaby and just everyone and I wanted to cry from sheer happiness as I shot the shit out of everything in sight.

"Escalator," Steve yelled, at the doorway, "get to the top and cover us, clear some space up there."

BiscuitHammer and TP and Zeb and NotWise and I looked at each other 'n I started to move 'n NotWise grabbed my arm and held me back as Zeb and TP charged up, rapid firing on the move and then BiscuitHammer and Doom and finally NotWise ran with me and we were up and the guys were firing everywhere around us coz whatever else they were, these weren't people. Zombies, that's all there were.

"BB, take these guys and get out fast." Tex'd taken command and he grabbed people as they came up the escalator and threw them at BB and yeah, there were cops and people I'd never seen and BB kind of organized them and Magica was in the middle and I offered her a gun but she kind of waved it away but I knew she was thinking about it and they moved off in a fast wedge, heading for one of the entrances, shooting as they moved, the noise drawing the zombies but they were moving fast.

"With me," Tex yelled, collaring more of the team, a few morecops and he was moving out with them and there were only a few of us left and Syeve was still down there, pouring out the fire as the zombies swarmed from every frigging where. Quick look and it was me, MelissaBaby, Barefootgirl, Doom, BiscuitHammer, Gus, Bramblethorn, TP and here came Ogg, up the escalator with his Bren, and there was only Steve left down there.

"Get up here, Steve," I screamed, coz we were on the main level of the mall again and the zombies were turning and there was a body at my feet. A couple of them, guys in body armor, police they'd been half eaten but TP musta killed the zombies coming off the escalator coz there were a pile of them and Barefootgirl was already double tapping them with her Smith and Wesson. Good thinking, and the bodies both had M4's beside them and those guys had handguns, police-issue Glocks, 9mm.

"Cover the escalator," I yelled to BiscuitHammer and him and Gus both did, laying down the fire as Steve backed up and that Predator of his was seeing some heavy frigging use this morning. Was it still morning? I had no frigging idea and now wasn't a good time to be thinking coz while we were close to a mall entrance. We were even closer to a lotta zombies and when they heard the voices, they frigging turned with that mindless shuffle they had and scented the air and they knew we were there.

"This fucking sucks," MelissaBaby said and she was on her knees, taking one of those Glock's and rifling the half-eaten bodies for ammo and me, I picked up of those M4's and I dumped the mag, loaded a full one off of one of the bodies, tossed it to Doom coz all he had right now was his frigging hammer and he opened up while I scrambled around grabbing any other mags they had and stuffing them in Doom's pockets while he fired and thank Christ he was wearing cargo pants.

He had a frigging woody? My hands in his pants? Or shooting zombies. I gave it a flick with my finger and frigging laughed. Guys. Laughed and went back down to the floor and picked up that other M4 and a couple more mags and started using it myself, rapid fire, clearing the walkways to either side as Steve backed up and all three of them were shooting down and fuck that for a joke. I had six grenades and three of them were white phosphorous I used them all in about twenty seconds flat and by the time I finished a few things down there were on fire and a lot of dead meat was lying around.

"Fall back to the entrance," Steve called out. "We're getting out of here."

Fuck, that entrance was only a hundred feet away but there were frigging zombies everywhere and it wasn't so much fall back as fucking charge and fuck, there weren't any survivors left to rescue. Whoever'd been in this mall when we came in, they were frigging dead now and I almost puked when I saw a dead body and some zombie with its head in the guts and when it lifted, it came up with intestines in its teeth and it was swallowing them 'n I just doubled over and frigging puked but not before I'd double tapped the fucker straight through the skull and watched it go down and it didn't move.

"Fuck," Gus said, and when I looked up there were a hundred zombies between us and the entrance and more coming the other way, coming up behind us and there was shooting from the far end of the mall. Lots of frigging shooting and there was frigging nothing we could do. Doubt they'd be able to do anything for us either. It was every frigging team for itself time 'n I could see Steve speaking into his headset but mine 'd long gone and thank Christ I'd had those spare earplugs or I'd be frigging deaf by now.

"We gotta get out fast," Steve said, 'n I could see why coz there were flames shooting out of that frigging basement level. Guess I'd sparked off a bigger fire than I intended but what the fuck, it was all good. Steve peeled off his grenades, pulled the pins and threw them, one after the other. Three or four through shop window glass and the rest at the zombies between us and the entrance and that took a few down.

"Flame the shops," Steve yelled at Bramblethorn as the grenades went off, whooshes of flame and smoke and sparkles and those were the white phosphorous ones he'd been carrying and those shops went up in an instant, flames licking out, spreading and we sure as fuck hadda get outa there real fucking fast coz this mall was seriously on fire now and Ogg was down and using a mall cart to brace his Bren on and he was hosing down the zombies stumbling up behind us, taking 'em down and I hoped to fuck he had enough ammo coz all of mine was aimed at clearing a path to the front entrance and I'd shot every one of those M4 mags I'd picked up and then I'd dumped it and I was back to my DD and I was ripping through those DD mags like there was no frigging tomorrow coz if we didn't clear a path, well, there wouldn't be any frigging tomorrow would there. Not for us.

TP was working his shotgun, Steve was blowing them away with his Remington, MelissaBaby had her frigging itsy bitsy Glock out and she might as well 've been using a peashooter for all the effect that frigging 9mm was having. Took an entire mag to take down one zombie and she kinda looked at it and went "fuck it" and threw it at the nearest zombie and then her axe came over her shoulder and she screamed like some frigging Valkyrie out of Valhalla and fucking charged the zombies and frigging heck she was good.

Cleared a swath half way to the front entrance and then I let the sling take my DD and my katana came out and I screamed, except my scream was more pure panic coz I sure as fuck didn't want to get left behind and I didn't want my ass barbecued and that was what it was starting to feel like and I was gonna get out of there or die trying and that first zombie that came close I took its head in one cut and then it was all fucking on and thank Christ for that Kevlar. Steve was right there, that giant frigging kukri of his lashing out like a striking snake and every time he swung a head flew and he wasn't exactly fucking around and I was frigging jealous coz he made it look so frigging easy.

Me, I had to put everything I had and a bit more into each cut coz I'm just frigging small and I'm lightweight and the only thing I had going for me was I'm way the fuck fast and my katana was razor sharp but after you've sliced through a couple of dozen zombie necks and spines and arms and armbones and a hacked into a few skulls really fucking hard coz you gotta split that head in half to put a zombie down for good and that takes everything a girl's got, that razor sharpness begins to dull and it gets harder and harder and Steve was ahead of me, him and MelissaBaby side by side just cutting them down and me, I was on Steve's left kind of keeping his back clear.