NOVEL WEB S2E64 – Gun Them Down
*PSH-PSH-PSH!*
The crack of bullets ring out as the small herd fall one by one, barely even reaching the gate before they find their skulls aerated. My points go up, slowly but surely as they fall one by one. By now, we’ve gotten used to the smell of rotten flesh for the most part, so the sickeningly sweet scent does nothing.
Looking over my left shoulder for a second, I see Andrea, Shane, and Rick all gunning down walkers with efficiency. Over my right, Tony, Glen, Maggie, and Daryl. Maggie, being the newest of the group, misses her shots the first couple times before getting it down.
Daryl works with efficiency, no wasted bullets. His successful count being just behind mine. As I aim back down my barrel and fire another shot, shooting through the mask of one of the riot walkers, I’m interrupted by a familiar screen,
[Rifle Shooting 1 Level up!]
Immediately, my shots become more accurate, and more deadly. My bullets rip through skulls left and right, easy as could be.
After about two minutes, the suppressed gunshots stop, and we’re left with the soothing sounds of groaning walkers echoing out from inside the prison.
I speak to the group,
“Alright, reload your empty mags and get ready to head indoors. Make sure you’ve got a pistol and a melee weapon as well. Remember; switching to your secondary is always faster than reloading.”
Tony chuckles as I say this, but everyone else nods along. We take a few minutes to make sure we’ve got everything before heading up the caged entrance and into the prison itself. Luckily, the front door is cracked open, so it’s super simple to get in.
The metal door creaks loudly as we push it in, earning a low growl from behind it. The walker’s alone, so I take out my gladius, not wanting to waste a bullet. I wait for it to get closer to the door, then I slam into it with all my might, knocking the rotted carcass off its feet. I see that the walker’s wearing a guard uniform, and has its hands cuffed behind its back. As it sits up, I slash across its head, cutting the skull—and brain in two.
We come into the room with the small tower overlooking the small mess hall. I look around for a few seconds before stating,
“Well, if we wanna look for the backup generators, we may wanna start up there. You guys keep watch while I head up there, don’t wanna be getting surprised.”
Everyone nods. As I start walking up the stairs, Shane calls up to me,
“Don’t forget to grab any keys. We’ll definitely need those.”
I nod to him. I reach the door, and find the guard stationed at the top with a bullet hole straight through the temple. Still, I’m not taking chances so I give him a poke to confirm he’s actually dead. I search around the tower, finding documents strewn about randomly, and eventually spot the map I was looking for. It shows the ground floor of the prison, which is where the generators are located. I don’t remember if the generators had fuel in them already or not in the show, so here’s hoping.
I take out my knife and cut the keys free from the guard’s lanyard. They chink in my hands as I stuff them into my pocket. As I come down the stairs, I notice that a few walkers have come up to the grate in cell block A, unable to get through the locked door. I dunno how these doors got locked if all those walkers still managed to get outside, but let’s not question it.
We take a few minutes to clean those up and watch as a couple more start to fall down from the railing. We unlock the door and walk in, killing the few that can stand and finishing off the others. There’s a few on other floors that fell onto the grating to keep prisoners from pushing eachother off. Other than that, we check out the showers and bathrooms, finding nothing of note. With that, we declare cell block A clear.
Standing in front of the dark pathways through the rest of the prison, I feel a bit of trepidation. I look over the group and say,
“Alright, guys. Daryl, Glen, Maggie, I want you guys watching the rear as we head forwards. You see even a single walker behind us, you let us know and you take it out. We’ll be using melee weapons on any group over a size of five. We’re taking as few chances as we can, alright?”
As they all nod, we head inside to try and find the generator room.
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[Narrator POV:]
Situated about a mile off the crowded highway back to Hershel’s farm, a single column of smoke rises. It’s a camp. A smaller-sized camp, only about twenty people strong. A man stands beside the campfire currently being used to cook some skewers of random meat. His hair is a buzz cut black, and a long scar runs from his cheek up the side of his head just above the ear, creating a long bald spot through the buzzcut.
Beside the fire is a group of five men, throats slit open and eyes gouged out. Two of the men are extremely familiar. Theo and Ricardo, the two who followed Penny from the town.
The scarred man flicks the nearly burnt out cigar in his hand into the fire, cinders landing on his dark olive green jacket. A second man comes up to him, on the younger side. His hair is long, brown, and covered in grease. He speaks to the man with an unnervingly enthusiastic voice,
“Yup! They were right! There’s a big ol’ farmhouse up the road, the group there was much smaller than they said, though. Like half the size.”
The scarred man nods his head and speaks with a gravelly voice,
“Alright Skyler, you’re gonna stay here. Go through with these idiots' previous plan, set up on the highway. Shoot any car that passes by that isn’t us. Use the abandoned cars as a trap. This group is a pretty decent size if these idiots are to be believed. We wanna thin ‘em out as much as possible before goin’ through with my plans. You know the Governor’s policy.”
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