The Gramophone

"Come on! We're close! Just keep firing!" These words echoed out of the mouth of Tank Dempsey and around the expansive chamber of "The Crazy Place". A rocky chamber ventured to by using certain music on various tunnels of excavation site 64, the place where the Germans had unearthed element 115 and an ancient evil: Zombies. The chaos that went on in The Crazy Place included falling bits of the ceiling, massive amounts of elemental energies unleashed by four humans wielding the ultra powerful Staffs of the Ancients, and a huge amount of the undead.

   "A good warrior, never loses his head." A Japanese man by the name of Takeo Masaki spoke his words calmly whilst launching a trio of red rocks onto the ground from his staff, Kagutsuchi's blood, a fire staff overcharged with element 115. The rocks exploded as soon as they hit the ground spreading three pits of burning magma which incinerated the zombies that walked into it. The staff was a long wooden pole with various metal indents all the way up to a blue checkered handle. The head of the staff was a bulbous circle with black studs jutting out of it; every one of the four staffs had this basic feature. The Tip of each staff was unique though. On the end of the ancient staff was a dull golden ring. Attached to the ring was a bright ruby crystal. On each side of the crystal, starting at the side of the ring were a pair of matching gold claws with iron bolts in the middles. Jutting out of the side of each claw was a silver edged blade.

"Takeo! Now is not the time for that philosophic bullshit!" Dempsey yelled in return, not looking over his shoulder. The group of four were back to back on a large electric blue circle in the middle of The Crazy Place. They were on the final step to freeing Samantha from Agartha, and in doing so, opening up escape for themselves. After 5 days of hell at the hands of the relentless undead, they would finally be able to go home and end this nightmare. Their two other companions Nikolai Belinski and Dr. Edward Richtofen said nothing but continued to fire their staffs: Ull's Arrow, the ultimate Ice Staff, and Kimat's Bite, the ultimate Lightning Staff respectively. Each zombie slayed would send their refocused energy into a small glowing blue ball in a dark hole above the circle.

Dempsey pointed Boreas Fury, the ultimate Wind Staff at a large group approaching from their side, sneaking in behind a fallen piece of the ceiling. The marine held down the pin on the side of the staff's handle, eyeing the fast approaching horde with expert precision. The cylindrical crystal right above the staff's handle began to glow in a bright amber light, and the main crystal followed soon after. A hissing sound resounded through the hot air and Dempsey released the pin. A large blast of air hit the horde with incredible force, the initial blast was rapidly followed up by a quickly spinning tornado which sucked in any zombie that was'nt instantly destroyed by the first blast. The marine cracked a smile at the carnage. Blood and organs covered the ground around the group.

They air smelt of cooked flesh and was becoming blisteringly hot. After a good 30 seconds, the small ball expanded to show a upside down funnel of slowly rotating clouds. At the center, a bright light obscured by the clouds above. A light ding pulsed through the air. Nikolai quickly looked up and his eyes widened.

"Hey comrades! Look!" The Russian pointed up. As the four looked up and saw the funnel cloud, they recognized it immediately. Nikolai charged his staff, the crystal glowing a bright icy blue, and fired it at his feet. A circular storm of icy enveloped the four survivors protecting them from the mass of zombies outside.

"Zhats the-" Richtofen was interrupted by an ethereal voice speaking to their minds.

"You've done it! I'm free!" Samantha spoke, joy very evident in her tone. The ice storm died down and the four returned to repelling the zombies. Richtofen looked back down and was face to face with a zombie. The skin was peeled back revealing rotting red flesh with pus dripping out of open pores. The doctor swung his staff around, landing one of the side spikes in the creature's glowing orange eyes. The white fluid dripped down the the spike. Richtofen jerked the spike out and pushed the now fully dead corpse into a group running up the short steps, before firing several bolts of lightning at the horde.

"Alright little girl, if you haven't noticed we are kinda fightin' for our life's here! How about you get us out now, we can't hold out much longer!" Dempsey yelled angrily, continuing to turn zombies into red mist with his staff.

"..." A pause."I...can't" The ethereal voice answered in a low flat tone.

"WHAT!" Dempsey and Nikolai exclaimed at the same time. Takeo's eyes narrowed and Richtofen grit his teeth.

"I knew you couldn't be trusted." Takeo growled. Samantha responded quickly.

"I can't get you out directly, but I know how you can escape! Combine your elements, Use the music to open a gateway! I haven't been there but I know its better than here!" With that the voice was gone and the funnel of clouds Vanished.

"God damnit Samantha!" Richtofen screamed in rage. The doctor pulled a toy monkey off his side wound it up, and tossed it away, distracting the zombies."Come quickly mein comrades!' The German ran for the wind section of The Crazy Place, the other three behind him bore similar expressions of anger, with Dempsey uttering a few choice words. As the monkey exploded in the distance Richtofen smaked his hands on the faintly glowing yellow circle beneath them. Rocks began to build a rectangular portal behind the circle. The doctor turned around to see his allies covering the two small staircases leading up to the section. Dempsey had a Magna Collider out, his empty staff on his back. He was covering one of the stairs, the upgraded light machine gun ripping apart the large horde of zombies closing in on them. Nikolai and Takeo were covering the other stair case. Takeo was holding a Spatz 447+, taking mesured shots and blowing the heads off the undead in a splash of blood and bone. Nikolai on the other hand was wielding The Afterburner, firing the pack a punched mp40 from the hip ripping through the bodies of the infected. Richtofen stood up and pulled out his boomhilda. The doctor fired the upgrade pistol, lasers destroying the zombies jumping down behind the four. The German mused to him self as he blew off both a zombies legs and then shoved his knife into its head. " The staffs will be useless without something to power them up. Maybe we will find some element 115 where we are going" The doctor thought to himself.

An odd pulsating song pulled Richtofen from his thoughts. The rocks had formed a portal its colors solid yellow, and it seemed to beat like a heart. "Lets go!" The three whirled around and ran towards the portal. Richtofen jumped in behind them.

As they exited they fell on the on the rough dirt, out of breath, the adrenaline working its way out of their system. The four got their feet and nodded to each other before walking up the path up into the main site. Light bombarded their dilated pupils, The Crazy Place being very dark. The enormous funnel of clouds with a bright light up in the sky was the only source of light. Richtofen got on his knees and pulled the four different gramophone records off his side and set them up: One on the top, one below, that, another on the side, and the last one on the other side. The doctor put the white vinyl in the center.

" Alright." Richtofen sounded out of breath. "Lets hope this works"

"How do you know how to do this, German?' Dempsey asked distrustfully.

"I don't" The doctor stated simply."I'm guessing off what that damn girl told us."

"Fine" Dempsey accepted it.

"Alright, I have just enough power in this staff." He pulled out Kimat's Bite." to put a cloud of lightning on this Group of records. The 115 should be enough to make this portal Samantha was hinting at us. The others nodded grimly. The Downpour was drenching their already dirty, bloodstained clothes. The doctor leveled his staff at the white vinyl, held the pin, waited a few seconds, and then fired. The slow moving ball of swirling violet energy settled on the white record, its tendrils reaching out and touching the other four records. The records were soon engulfed by a bright light. With a loud 'ping' the light vanished, leaving a transparent cut in the air a couple inches across. The portal swirled in a whitish color.

The silence was broken by familiar moans and screams. As the undead began to crawl out of their graves a loud siren echoed. The survivors looked at each other with dread. Zombies began to come towards them and a zombie in a massive suit of armor rashed down a few meters away from the portal. The four tried to make a run for the portal but the armored zombie shot something out of one of its claws. A grip seized Nikolai and began to pull him towards the iron monster. As he was pulled the zombies began taking swipes at the Russian cutting and scratching him arcoss his legs. Nikolai cried out in pain as the monster began to burn him with its flamethrower.The man was suddenly let go and dropped to the ground, groaning at his injuries. His comrades killed all the zombies around and the armored undead exploded sending Nikolai back a few feet. Dempsey grabbed his arms and pulled him back towards the portal, Takeo and Richtofen covering him.

"You okay Nikolai?" Dempsey sounded worried.

"Ill be okay Tank" Nikolai laughed weakly."I've had many wife's, it's gonna take more than that to keep me down.

"You're a tough son of a bitch Nikolai." Dempsey smiled. The Russian just grunted in agreement.

The three looked at each other and nodded before going through the portal, leaving the site filled with empty corpses.

The journey though the portal was filled with odd colors and shapes. Incomprehensible Images and sensations. As they fell through the portal and landed on hard stone, they groaned in pain. The aches were much worse than the feeling of going through a normal Gramophone portal. The four opened their eyes and stared in disbelief. They were in a dark, dimly lit cave. The light source was the amazing thing though. A glowing horn on the fore head of a purple equine with five other equines behind it. The six had expressions of shock on their faces.

"Wha...What the fuck!" Dempsey managed to utter.