Dead Rising: Off the World

Chapter 10 - Meet the Element of Kindness / Family Man Encounter

Cliff opened his eyes to notice that he was sitting on a sofa. He wouldn't have given a crap if he realized that he had been ambushed by someone, or in this case, something. In front of him was the yellow Pegasus, but she seemed to show no signs of suspicious activities. The pony (somehow) carried a cup of tea and placed it on his lap, only to quickly retreat. Cliff only raised an eyebrow at this.

The man drank some of the offered tea and found it pleasant and warm. He sighed as he began questioning the owner of the cottage.

"So you're the one in charge here, am I correct?"

The Pegasus flinched at the deep voice of the human in front of her. She quietly squeaked back,

"Yes..."

"You must've practiced a lot to pull off that trick on me."

Cliff chuckled as he sipped his tea, only to nearly spit it out when the pony suddenly gasped,

"No!"

...

The hatchet man gulped down the tea he had sipped earlier as he placed the cup on the ground. Cliff felt some interest towards the yellow Pegasus.

"Then how did you pull it off?"

"...U-Umm...Angel kicked you..."

Right on cue, a white bunny stomped on Cliff's head, much to his chagrin. The pony gasped and told the bunny to stop making grass out of the man's head... or something like that.

'So I got my ass handed to a white bunny...this would definitely lead to the Matrix if I get a mission to *follow** it...'*

After the pony was apparently done scolding Angel, the human decided to continue their conversation,

"What's your name?"

"..."

The pony whispered out,

"Fluttershy..."

Cliff nodded and looked around the room. He found his hat sitting on a desk nearby him. The man grabbed the hat and wore it slowly. His strength had been depleted because of how comfy the sofa was, which made absolutely no sense to him. He tipped his hat so that Fluttershy wouldn't see his face.

"Outside, there's a friend of mine that wants to meet you. I think he's easier to talk to than me, and I think he's a good guy."

Fluttershy nodded and began trotting towards the barricaded door. She moved the contents back to their respective places, which caused some dust to scatter. When she was done, the pony was about to open the door when Cliff stopped her.

"Just a reminder, but he acts like a dick as well."

Although she didn't exactly know what the comment on Cliff's friend was supposed to mean, Fluttershy nodded and stepped out of the door...

Frank West saw a Pegasus walk out of the cottage.

Frank West said 'Hi'.

Frank West went home.

That's would've happen if Frank wasn't so cocky.

The photographer saw a yellow pony trotting towards him. He pointed at the winged female and shouted,

"Hey... you're Ms. Dash's girlfriend, RIGHT?!"

Before Dash could slam him onto a tree, the yellow Pegasus shyly blushed and shook her head.

"N-No... not at all..."

The unexpected quiet volume of Fluttershy's voice seemed to startle Frank. He gazed into her eyes (with sunglasses on), while she shyly took a look at him. The man walked towards the Pegasus and kneeled so that he could take a closer look at the pony.

'Interesting...is this what Japanese people call *moe** or bi?...'*

"So I heard you're Fluttershy."

"Y-Yes..."

"I heard that you're kind."

"...I guess..."

"I heard that you're bi."

"...I-I'm not..."

'She's bi.'

Frank sighed as he patted the Pegasus's back and whispered so that only Fluttershy could hear,

"You're much better than these loud 'friends' of yours."

The Pegasus did not respond to this and only looked down on the ground. Twilight asked Frank,

"Introduce yourself, Mr. West. I'm sure she would be curious about who you are."

'No shit.'

The photographer stood up and put his hands in his pockets. He made a quick 'ahem' and said,

"The name's Frank. Frank West. And I broke your window."

While Twilight and Dash facehoofed at the last remark, Fluttershy squeaked out,

"I-It's alright... y-y-you don't have t-to fix anything, sir."

"That'd be Frank for you. I don't like formalities, it makes me sound like a king being ruled under a queen."

The Pegasus only nodded in confusion as the photographer cracked his back. He asked Rainbow Dash,

"Soooooooo have you seen Cliff?"

"I think that dude went into the cottage..."

Frank chuckled as he whispered something in Dash's ear, and surprisingly, she gave off a goofy grin. Fluttershy tilted her head in curiosity while Twilight clearly knew what was going on.

'Let's just hope he's ready for an ambush...'

Cliff had been sitting down for quite a long time by now. The silence was something he loved, and it probably loved him as well. He felt confusion slowly shatter in him as he began putting the pieces of events together ever since he came to the pony-infested world.

The man was now staring at his machete. It was both his partner and his nightmare to him. The machete itself had helped him survive in several battles, but at the same time, it made him into a killing machine back in Willamette. And not only that, but he seemed to be under the weapon's control whenever he fought others with it. He tossed the machete to a chair far away while attempting not to break it.

'I'm just a slave to the misery...'

Footsteps were made in front of him. At first, Cliff disregarded the noise. He would've continued to disregard it if he hadn't noticed that they were human footsteps. Not only this, but he heard Frank laughing in a dumb way outside.

Someone else was alone with him.

He looked up to find himself face-to-face with a man wearing a jacket that had 'IJIEK' written on it. The man had messy hair, an unshaved beard, and eyes that showed he was clearly driven mad. It was yet another psychopath, and Cliff was in a situation where he could not retaliate if the newcomer attacked him.

Cliff had heard about him from Frank earlier; he was a man that went insane after his daughter died in Fortune City. Apparently, the photographer had defeated him once back in Nevada, but much to Cliff's surprise, Frank claimed the fact that he fought the man in the 'lesbo-land'. The man's name was Chuck Greene.

"You're not from here, are you?" asked Chuck.

Cliff shook his head slowly. He had to pick his words wisely, and he needed to make a plan. There were currently two options...

"Me neither... and I'm probably not going to stay here after I hunt down this crazy nutbar I fought earlier..."

One option was to find something that could kill the psychopath. However, there were hardly any tools that were lethal enough to do the job excluding the machete, which was quite far away from him. There was a kitchen knife, but it still had quite a distance from Cliff. The other option...

"He's some type of photographer... I don't know, but he... he... murdered my daughter... I saw the look on her eyes. The look of lifelessness..."

...was to run. Run the hell out. He didn't know how he would do that, but he needed to trust his luck on that one. It should normally be a last resort plan, but he didn't want to take any chances of missing the exit.

"I... I completely changed my goal by then. I felt the impulse to get him back... avenge Katie for what he did..."

Cliff decided to hear out the man a little more.

"I had a daughter to protect. I had one valuable thing left to me, only to lose it when I got careless... it's people like me who would know what to do in order to get revenge..."

Just when the hatchet man decided to make a run for it, Chuck looked towards the broken window and walked towards it. Cliff eyed the insane man closely, but he found out that he was unarmed. The ex-motocross champion looked back at Cliff and said with sorrow,

"I used to have a daughter to protect... but now I have a daughter to avenge. I won't let anything get in my way, and I'm going to do everything in order to kill that murderer."

Chuck jumped out of the window and began running towards a deeper area of the forest. Apparently, he knew that the front door was occupied.

Cliff let his head rest on his hand as he felt tears swelling up in his eyes.

'And I would never have a reason to avenge my own daughter... ever again...

He remembered his memories with his family. The peaceful times where he would hug his daughter, spend time with his wife, and laugh with joy. The memories of him watching his daughter slowly grow up. The memories of him watching movies with his family. The memories of seeing them die in front of his own eyes...

The man stomped his foot on the ground as he silently cried. Although it did feel good to be alive, he was missing an incredibly huge piece of his life. He wanted to meet his family, but he knew that the only way to do so is by death. And there were already several creatures that are trying to be friends with him.

All he wanted was to be reunited with his family. Instead, he found out that living without a family could make things go horribly wrong.

Cliff Hudson had never felt such torture because of his missing family.

(Author's Notes)

Chuck reappears! And then he quickly disappears...

Also, the end was supposed to give off a tearjerker feeling, but I suck at those moments. Remember, psychopath ideas are still open (in fact, they're WAY too open. someone send an idea, dangit!). Frank's still a jerk, and we're going to introduce the two humans the Element of Generosity in the next chapter.

So right now! Let me hear you... MAKE. SOME. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOISE! (a cookie for those who recognize this line in DR2)