34

34

South Africa, Earth

The ship landed in the middle of several small, sand covered buildings.  Spencer jumped out and was met by Arthur and Colby.

"You made it!"  Colby said.  "Thank god, we're barely holding on."

"We're here now," Spencer said.  "What's going on?"

"There's some strange things going on,"  Arthur said.  "The Empress activated some device that is, how should I say this?"

"What is it?"  Spencer asked.  "What's going on?"

"The Empress is essentially raising the dead."  Arthur said.

"You mean like zombies?"  Jensen asked.  "How?"

A loud shrieking sound echoed across the area and and a large group of, creatures, appeared on top of a small hill a short distance away and began running towards the settlement.

"They're back,"  Colby muttered as he pulled out a pistol.  "Aim for the head.  It's the only way they can be taken down."

"Wow,"  Jensen said.  "They really are zombies."

There group met up with a group of humans who must be from the colony.  They all looked rugged and wielded combat rifles.  They were alarmed at first when they saw Helena approach, but Arthur quickly explained who she was and they quickly calmed down.

"Spencer, this is Darryl."  Arthur said as he introduced a tall Black man with a bald head.  "He leads the settlement here."

"Hey, Darryl" Spencer said.

"Hello," Darryl replied.  "We have been dealing with these creatures for some time now.  They started coming when the large black ship entered the atmosphere.  I'm told you have experience dealing with them so our militia is ready to follow you and help stop whatever is raising the dead."

"Ok, uh, thanks," Spencer said,  "We should get to the device."

"All right," Darryl said as he motioned to his soldiers. "Let's move out."

With that Spencer, Helena, Jensen, Lily, Colby, Arthur and Darryl with his legion of soldiers, headed towards the Adican building that had recently been erected, into the army of 'living dead.'  

As they moved out they approached the undead army Spencer got his first good look at the zombie like creatures.  They appeared human, but there skin was a greenish grey color, and there limbs and heads seemed bent at unnatural angles.  The creatures seemed to run faster than was normal for a human and they seemed crazed at the sight of them.

The creatures sprinted towards their group and they opened fire at them.  As, Spencer fired he remembered to aim for the head.  Any shots he fired into anything but the creature's head seemed ineffective and they would continue sprinting towards them.

Their group continued to slowly move forward as they fought off the creatures.  Spencer continuously fired his rifle as it seemed there was always more creatures advancing upon their position.  Spencer looked to his right and saw one of Darryl's soldiers tackled by several of the zombie creatures.  The creatures began tearing away at his flesh and consuming it, killing him.  Spencer had to look away before the creatures further mangled his body.

About halfway to the Adican building Spencer was firing at the zombie mob when one of the creatures he didn't notice tackled him to the ground.  The creature thrashed its teeth, desperate to try and rip Spencer's flesh apart.  Spencer desperately pushed against the creature trying to keep the creature away from him.  He pushed and pushed but he was losing strength and the creature's mouth was inching closer and closer to Spencer's face.  It seemed like  the creature was going to rip Spencer apart when, bang.  The creature's head exploded and it collapsed on top of Spencer.  Spencer pushed the creature off of himself to see Arthur with a sniper rifle who helped Spencer to his feet before heading back out, without a word.

After a couple hours of slowly moving towards the building, and several loses, they arrived at the gate of the Adican building.  The Adican guards seemed very surprised to see that anyone managed to actually fight their way to the gate and the sound of assault rifles quickly dropped the few guards at the gate.  Someone pushed the gate open and the group quickly entered the courtyard and closed the gate behind them, leaving the zombie creatures, outside the gate.

There was no rest for them however, and Spencer quickly dived behind a pillar as a small legion of Adican soldiers exited the building's main doors and opened fire.  The courtyard quickly became a warzone with Human and Adican firing at each other.  Spencer saw an Adican run with a sword towards Jensen's position and he quickly fired at the soldier in the back, sending him crashing towards the ground.

Several minutes of fighting went by before silence, save the occasional zombie sound, came to the courtyard.  The Adican had all been killed, but their group had also suffered heavy losses.  Darryl was still alive, but only had a few wounded soldiers remaining with him.  Spencer found Helena badly wounded, and Jensen with a burning hole in his side.

"Are you guys okay?" Spencer asked worriedly, as he wondered how he had managed to survive the fight unharmed.

"Don't worry about us,"  Jensen said weakly as he gripped his side with one of his hands and quickly pointed across the courtyard with the other, "We'll be fine."

Spencer ran across the courtyard to find Lily standing over Arthur, who had several wounds in his chest and was bleeding heavily.

"Someone help!"  Spencer shouted looking around.

Darryl hobbled over and Spencer noticed one of his legs had two gunshot wounds.  He examined Arthur and said.  "I am sorry.  It is too late for him."

"No!"  Spencer shouted,  "You're wrong!  Please help him."

Spencer begged Darryl when he heard Arthur mutter weakly, "It's all right Spencer. It's time."  He looked up at Spencer with his eyes that almost looked dead already.  "Finish this,  For me.  You can still do it, you can still save Earth."

Arthur's head rolled back and his eyes looked up stilly.

"Arthur No!"  Spencer shouted as he watched the man he had come to know as a leader, the one who helped him off of Earth, die right in front of him.

"Spencer!"  Lily shouted as she grabbed his arms.  "You can do this!  You can finish this.  None of these people are in any shape to go into the building, to fight The Empress.  I'll make sure they're okay.  Now go!  Save Grace!  Save the planet!"

Spencer realized he was too close to The Empress, to close to Grace, to let her slip through his fingers.  He reached down and grabbed his rifle before running through the building's main doors to confront The Empress.