Dead Rising: Off the World

Chapter 8 - An Old Foe, A New Friend----------

Frank didn't like forests. Heck, he didn't like trees either. He remembered that a zombie popped out of nowhere and nearly bit the shit out of him in mere seconds; he had to thank that Gordon dude for saving his life.

It was nighttime, and the photographer was crossing the forest once more. He needed to meet a familiar yellow Pegasus before running the hell away from the face of the town. From the beginning, he did not like this place, but as his visit grew longer and longer, he felt like his sanity was toying with his brain.

The dirt beneath him scrunched on every step he took. He got used to it after being in Willamette, but it does get annoying when a crapload of zombies mix the noise with moaning.

"Jesus, and here I promised not to remind myself of Willamette..." muttered Frank.

However, on the way to the Pegasus's small cottage, Frank noticed something strange. Something red was painted on the trees, and it certainly didn't look like tomatoes or ketchup. He walked up to a strong looking tree defiled by the stench of...

"...Blood... Human blood..."

As if right on cue, he heard a voice shout far away,

"Get away from me, you insane lunatic!"

Frank stiffened. From what he learned, no one in the town would say swear words like he casually does. And here he was, hearing another voice shouting out insults.

'I gotta go, that dude must be fighting someone! Or worse, a psychopath! And if he's another human like me, then maybe I could actually have a chance of keeping my sanity...'

Instantaneously, he began running towards the source of the noise.

----------Earlier...

...

...

...

His family was the first thing he thought of when he woke up.

Losing everything... his wife... his daughter...

He lost everything back in Willamette, and he hated to think about it. No, he craved to destroy that memory if he wanted to. Cliff Hudson just wanted a normal life, and he never thought about becoming insane.

Another thing that popped up in his mind was the man who killed him. The man who served justice and serenity to him. Yes, the fellow photographer had done a good job of giving him peace, but apparently, his efforts had become in vain. Here he was, lying down on the grass. And now he wanted to die once more.

Cliff didn't know why he was alive, and he didn't want to stay that way. He should've gone back to his family, where everything was perfect and... right...

"This shit is getting on my nerves..." mumbled the man.

He sat up slowly, cracking several bones on his back. Judging by how many bones did crack, he had stayed sleeping for several days by now, and he was really hungry. The man stood up, now wanting to satisfy himself.

'But wait... if I feed myself, then I can't starve to death. Why am doing this, anyways?'

For several minutes, he stood there, staring at a weapon before him. It was the machete he had apparently used against zombies, as well as the photographer. He was missing his wallet, making him curse once more.

After using his ample time wisely, Cliff decided to go hunting; it wouldn't be that hard if he could catch jumping Vietnam soldiers, but that memory just pained him. Grabbing his bloody machete, he began walking towards something that looked like a road.

But he didn't. No, he couldn't.

For a psychopath like him had popped out, ready to gut him inside out.

Psychopath Battle - Sean Greywood

The instant moment he saw a man pop out with some type of weird weapon, Cliff instinctively jumped back. Before him was a very dirty looking man; he had black messy hair, dirt on his face, rags, and incredibly deep dark-circles. Although the newcomer had a good body build, his eyes seemed to ruin this; Cliff felt as if the bulging eyes tried to gaze into his mind, making him feel disturbed.

"You... aren't one of them?"

Cliff nodded and replied, "Just cruising by... in fact, I just arrived here in a very strange fashion."

Unexpectedly, the man took a big step to take a good look at Cliff. It was creepy, seeing a man observe your face for what seemed like an eternity. Especially with those eyes. After what felt like hours (which only went by seconds), the man covered in dirt muttered something quietly.

"Er, what did you say?" asked Cliff.

He was taken aback when the man shouted,

"WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?!"

Fear filling him in, Cliff began to back away from the man, who went on continuing in a quieter voice.

"Oh, I see now... you... you're just like one of them. Those nobodies who ignored me when I only wanted to save them. You're just like those fuckers who wanted to die in a brutal fate, when I desperately told them to follow me to a safe area! But no, I'm going to change your fate now..."

The weapon the disturbed man carried made Cliff worry. It was a normal machine gun, but what made it intimidating was the ridiculously sharp-looking blade duct-taped at the tip of the gun. The gun itself looked like a spear, but with bullets included. And it seemed like the lunatic was going to use it on him.

The insane man concluded, "Instead of falling to the dead... I will make you fall. And you will regret for the stupid decision you made. Sean Greywood will give you a ticket to hell with ease if you just cooperate. My way to kill..."

Sean raised the gun and pointed it at Cliff with a murderous look on his face. The fearful man lifted up his machete, waiting for a battle that will inevitably occur.

"... will be your way to die."

Instantaneously, Cliff rolled away when Sean had finished his little showoff. He felt bullets whiz past him by only millimeters, and he felt the urge to press on. When Cliff found a tree, he hid behind it, sighing out loud. However, what confused him was the fact that the loud noise of a gun stopped firing.

He knew he was lucky when a blade barely missed him and hit the tree.

The man attacked his opponent with his machete, but a new problem came up. Apparently, Sean also had a combat knife as well. And he blocked the machete.

"Oh, fuck my life!" yelled Cliff as he backflipped away from an incoming knife swing.

"Don't worry! This isn't even the first surprise I have for your death!" said Sean.

"Get away from me, you insane lunatic!"

Clearly disobeying Cliff, Sean pulled his gun-blade away from the tree and swung it at his opponent. He barely missed his target, making him grunt in annoyance. Cliff took this small chance to graze the lunatic's right arm, which carried the machine gun. The insane man cried out in pain, but he began laughing as he began to reach for something behind him.

Sean put away the knife, only to bring out a pistol. Or what looked like a pistol. When it began firing out bullets, Cliff saw flaming bullets flying directly at him. However, due to the modifications made into the gun, the bullets did not go as far as Cliff thought it would. When he dodged all of them, they conveniently fell into a pond. However, this gave the psychopath to gain the time to pick his machine gun. Cliff thanked the pond before-

'...Wait, a pond?'

Cliff managed to run up to Sean and kick him in the stomach. The psychopath cringed as he began swinging around the gun once more.

'That's it... he has a shitload of an arsenal at his disposal, but the most dangerous ones can't be used in water since they're guns! Now to find a way of how to kill him in the pond, that's a different story.'

When the family man thought about it, he came up to one conclusion.

'Grapple the shit out of him.'

Cliff ran towards Sean, causing the psychopath to raise his pistol up once more. The sane man dodged a bullet that engulfed a bush into flames and tackled the insane man. He quickly changed the direction of where he was facing and began to charge into the pond. Much to his pleasant surprise, the psychopath was successfully flown into the pond.

He jumped in as well to begin the final phase. Cliff readied his machete as he saw the man desperately trying to fire bullets at him. With an immense amount of strength, he swung the blade at Greywood, but his opponent managed to deflect it using his combat knife. Sean was in a state of panic because his movements were sluggish, and his oxygen was depleting. When he lunged towards Cliff, however, his worries evaporated into nothingness.

Cliff stabbed the psychopath, receiving an incoherent amount of bubbles blown into his face, as well as the familiar sight of blood in the water. He looked into the eyes of his enemy, waiting for the moment to go back up to the surface. But there was no need to do so, as Sean Greywood's eyes were now lifeless as a corpse.

The feeling of fresh air filling him once more felt refreshing. Cliff swam towards the edge of the deep pond and got out of the water quickly. One problem was gone, but now another had entered. He originally needed food, but now he always needs warmth. The man shivered in the moonlight as he began walking towards the dirt path once more, only to hear a familiar clicking noise.

He spun around, only to find an incredibly bloody psychopath he thought he had defeated. Sean looked like a madman that Cliff had never seen before, and now he knew that he couldn't do anything to prevent the inevitable from happening.

"Did you not hear? I did say that my way to kill..." Sean raised his gun up as he concluded, "...is your way to die."

A loud noise of a gun boomed out in the night-sky.

Cliff had closed his eyes, expecting pain, but he had never found any. He opened his eyes, only to find himself bloodier than ever. But then he noticed something.

It wasn't his blood.

The man looked up to find Sean with a red, bleeding hole his forehead. Horror was painted all over his face as he fell down to the ground with no energy at all. Cliff turned around to find a familiar man stretching with a gun on his right hand.

"...I am sure we had met before." said Frank quietly.

It had been several hours since their meeting, and Frank had begun filling in information to the man he had killed back in Willamette. Sure, it was very awkward, but they found themselves become close very quickly. Cliff had a horror-struck expression as he whispered,

"So we're in a land full of ponies? And a shitload of them aren't straight?!"

Frank grimly nodded as he felt the urge to cry. He seriously did not expect to meet a bunch of pony lesbians in one day, but it felt good to share it with another. Especially since it was a person like him.

"And all of them could talk?"

The photographer nodded again.

"And there are flying Pegasuses and Unicorns? And absolutely every one of the special ones are lesbos?"

Frank shed a tear as he patted Cliff's back, who had begun to shed a manly tear as well.

"Yup." muttered Frank.

The two sat there for a while. It was good to find serenity once again, but the two felt very uneasy now that they knew they were the only ones that were sane humans currently.

"Hey..." began Cliff, "Thanks for saving my ass back there, though. It's hard to imagine you're the same man I met back in Willamette."

Frank took a glance at Cliff before looking at the stars once more.

"Couldn't leave a man in distress now, can I?"

Two chuckles were made, only to be interrupted with a sudden blue thing popping out of a bush. What Cliff saw made his mouth agape in fright.

A cyan-pegasus had appeared in front of him, and it began shouting at him.

"You! Are you a spy?! Are you somehow affiliated with this man in evil corporations or something? Huh?!"

"Dash!" said an aggravated voice. A purple unicorn slowly trotted out of the bushes as she continued, "I think he's a friend of Mr. West here, so I don't think it's best not to bother him."

While Frank prayed to God that the ponies would be sent to Duke Nukem's world, Cliff thanked his luck that he left his machete inside the dirt. He also felt relieved that the body was removed, along with the blood on Cliff (though some water made him feel even colder).

Dash let out a big 'Hmph!' as she crossed her fore-legs. Twilight asked Cliff,

"So... who are you?"

The man answered simply, "The name's Cliff. Cliff Hudson. Don't ask anything more on personal things."

The response seemed to startle the purple unicorn, as well as enrage the Pegasus. Twilight then managed to ask another question, this time with some thought put into it.

"So... are you friends with him?"

Cliff looked at the photographer still praying to God. He smiled as he looked back.

"I guess so."

Much to the two human's relief, the ponies had only arrived a few minutes ago. The group of four walked towards the cottage as many conversations went on. However, Cliff managed to stay silent despite the fact that Frank and Rainbow Dash were constantly arguing over relationships with female ponies. The two stopped and argued like children, while Twilight attempted to stop them. Much to her surprise, however, Cliff ignored the argument and went up the cottage. He knocked on it in the best way possible.

Knock. Knock. KNOCK.

When he knocked, everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at him. He looked back and shrugged sheepishly.

"Instincts."

When he was done, a familiar duo full of anger began to argue once more. Twilight walked towards the door and looked through the peep-hole.

"U-Umm, it's covered right now."

"...What's that supposed to mean?"

Twilight gulped and tried to keep her cool and said, "I think she's hiding and barricading the door."

Cliff turned back to stare at the door intently. After a while, he took out his machete, which Frank had cleaned for him when the ponies weren't looking, and began the chucking the dirt near the door away using his hands and his weapon.

"What're you... doing?" asked Twilight.

"Making a path."

The purple unicorn gulped as she took a look at Cliff's expression. It looked quite emotionless, which had scared her partially. She was surprised when the man finished the path quickly.

"I'll pay for the wood later. In the meantime, I will meet whoever's alone... alone."

Before Twilight could say anything, Cliff quickly scrambled into the path, only to cover it up with dirt once more. Frank had stopped arguing, making Dash ask him curiously.

"Why're you giving that face to me?"

"...I forgot to pay for a window."

The two ponies face-hoofed instantly.

(Author's Notes)

Hey guys! I'm pretty sure that you were surprised at the fact that Cliff was actually a sane man. The reason why I picked him? He seemed to have a grasp of reality when he died in Dead Rising 1, so that actually gave me a good excuse of keeping him sane when he appeared in Equestria.

Also, Sean Greywood is the first psychopath I had ever made. The one thing that's unique about him is the fact that he uses Combo Weapons like Slappy and Reed Wallbeck in DR2. His pistol was slightly based off Slappy's Fire Spitter, but the machine gun took me some time to think about. At first, I considered the fact that Sean could use a chainsaw, but that would lead to the weapon genre itself being abused, so I replaced it with a gun attached to a blade via duct tape.