Pastel Meltdown

The end of one chapter is the start of another

There were sounds of hands furiously beating and clawing at doors and metal trying to make entrance into a strange building of sorts. This building just so happened to be a nuclear power station. The sound of clawing and beating was coming from hordes of the undead furiously attempting to gain entrance to this.

Inside was a group of four humans sitting in a room trying to stay calm. The room was bright red as the control panels that weren't fried said 'Reactor Meltdown imminent'.
One of the four, the oldest of the group, spoke up. "It looks like our lucks run out.. Looks like there ain't a way out of this one."

"So what now?......What are we gonna do? Just sit here 'til they break in?" the younger dark skinned man asked, his voiced covered in obvious panic.

"Louis, you know it's not Bill's fault...." The woman replied, attempting to comfort her friend.

"I know Zoey, I.. I just can't believe this is really the end for us." Louis said as he buried his face in his hands.

The quieter of the group decided to speak up. "Ya know, for once, I don't think I can hate anyone but myself for what's happening."

The rest of the group went silent when he finished this, the red lights still flashed rapidly and the sounds of the undead trying to make their way in seemed endless. Finally after a few minutes of silence, the oldest of the group spoke again.

"Francis, you know it isn't your fault we're in this mess. It was my bad judgement that got us stuck here." He said as he looked down towards his m16.

"Bill, I respect you and all, but it's my fault more then anyone else's. Now we have no way of escape, and if we don't die from one thing, we're gonna die from the other!" Francis said, his voice filled with a rare hint of emotion as he grabbed his shotgun from its resting place by his side.

The rest of the group was silent, mostly because they knew it was true. Before any of the group members could speak up to Francis, he quickly went to the door, turned around, and spoke. "I don't know about the rest of you, but if I'm going to die, I'm gonna take some'a them out with me." He cocked his shotgun after finishing, a sadistic smile crossing his face. "Cause I don't know about the rest of you, but I hate those things more then anything else right now."

The group agreed with a simple nod, even Bill seemed to agree with Francis's logic on this. There was simply, no way out. They made their way over to the stairs, the sounds of the undead clearly making progress in destroying the blast doors keeping the human group and the horde of zombies separated.

As they went down the staircases, Francis decided to pipe in: "I call pushing the big red button!"

They made it to a large platform of sorts. Miles below them stood a wall of metal that had cracks and breaks on it, under which hid a nuclear generator.

"Alright, Zoey, take point and guard the door with Francis. Louis, you're helping me rig this sucker so instead of a meltdown, we get a giant boom."

After Bill had said this, an audible smashing sound was heard, followed by two loud roars and a large amount of quieter screams of undead.

"Tanks! Incoming!" Francis said as he grabbed out his pipe bomb, ready to light it. The first to crash through the stairs was a group of thirteen regular zombies. Zoey and Francis quickly took action, Zoey firing rapidly at them with her Mini Uzi. Francis taking potshots on the zombies with his shotgun, taking multiple out at a time.

More waves approached them and Zoey was needing to reload more often as the zombies piled in more rapidly.

"How we coming on making this baby go boom!?" Francis yelled, taking down a zombie with his secondary m1911 pistol.

"Almost done! Buy us another thirty seconds!" Bill screamed over the sound of gunfire and screaming undead.

"I'll give you forty!" Francis yelled as he tossed his pipe bomb at the approaching zombies.
Quickly he and Zoey took the temporary break in zombies to reload. With a loud boom, the explosion from the pipe bomb took at least fifty zombies out in total.

The zombies seemed to be failing in numbers, they had yet to see either of the tanks. This only made them worry as they dispatched the last of the approaching zombies.

"How we doing on that boom there Bill!?" Zoey yelled, keeping her eyes trained on the door.

"Ten more seconds!"

"Why'd they stop coming? Something doesn't feel right Zoey, and I hate it when something doesn't feel right." Francis cautiously said as he reloaded and cocked his shotgun.

"I know Francis, there isn't much you don't hate." Zoey said, relaxing a little as there was no longer sounds of undead screeching.

As soon as Zoey had relaxed herself, a loud thundering sound of fists hitting solid cement rocked the whole plant. Immediately, Zoey and Francis looked to the ceiling where the sound was heard. They saw a large gap in the ceiling as a Tank jumped down and tossed the chunk of cement away from him, landing on an assortment of barrels. This effectively broke them as oil spilled out onto the grate everywhere.

Both of the group defenders fired rapidly at the tank, he roared in rage as he threw a broken barrel at Zoey. She managed to jump away just in time, and as soon as she did, she pulled a molotov cocktail off of her bag and promptly lit it, tossing it towards the great behemoth of a zombie.

The behemoth screamed out in agony as its skin burned to a charcoal grey. The tank attempted to charge the two survivors, arms flailing madly as he did so, this failed as right before he got close enough, he collapsed, dead. Not seconds later Bill and Louis returned screaming "It's done!"

After Louis said this, a second roar from another tank was heard. The two didn't have time to do anything but run as the ceiling behind Louis broke. The falling debris nearly hit Louis and caused him to stagger as he screamed "Shit! He's coming!" The second tank jumped down, followed by at least fifteen zombies, some dead from the tanks flailing arm attacks, some rushing the survivors.

Bill dispatched as many zombies as he could while running for the other two. Louis accidentally dropped his secondary weapon promptly screaming "Why does this bad shit always happen to me?!"

Zoey and Francis took cover near the rail grating where it had broken and promptly fired at the fast approaching tank, being careful not to hit their friends.

Once the four were grouped together they scrambled to separate so as to not make themselves an easy target for the tank. They continued circling the great behemoth, rapidly firing as they dazed the monster. After a full minute of this, the monster fell with a loud 'thump'. A crack was heard as the grating they were standing on quickly started to fall apart.

"Hey Bill where's the button?! You know I want to press it and make the undead go boom!"

"Sorry Francis, couldn't take any risks so we set it on a timer. Thirty seconds til boom." Louis explained.
Not ten seconds later, the grating broke and fell limp, causing the four survivors to hold onto it as they dangled above a nuclear generator.
Bill decided to speak up "Twenty seconds! It's been good to know you guys!"

They all agreed in their own ways. More sounds of hungry undead were heard from the flight of stairs and it seemed less likely they would live.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'd rather fall into that thing..." Francis pointed downwards before continuing, "...than be dinner for those things!"

After saying this, The four promptly dropped from the grating, five seconds left on the timer. Undead ran straight through towards the room, some falling with the four survivors, just barely out of reach. The majority of the horde stopped at the edge of the door.

Silently, Bill muttered the rest of the countdown under his breath "Three....Two.....ONE....."

The world went into a blinding light as they were a half second from making impact on the generator itself. Right after the bright light hit, it suddenly became dark and seemed more like unconsciousness rather then death. Bill didn't know if he was dead or not as he floated around in his empty subconscious, nothing was there but him.