The hallways they were in would lead them straight to the elevator, and finally they could see if there were more survivors to be found.
With the group once again readied, this time with one extra weapon, they moved out. The entire journey had taken them around twenty minutes; the primary factor increasing the time was, of course, the debris and the brief stop to search the extra rooms.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, they reached the elevator, though Ridge noticed something different about it from the rest of the ship as soon as they got close.
"Hmm, the debris has been moved. Be careful; we are likely to encounter someone or something once we make our way up," he said firmly.
Entering the wide elevator that could luckily fit all of them at the same time, Ridge clicked the panel, displaying the bridge option of the elevator, and with a whirring sound, it came to life and began to lift them. While inside, Ridge made sure to position the group so as to keep the vanguard unit of three in front at all times with their swords naturally at the ready. After a minute or two, the elevator doors opened, and the first thing that came into view was a group.
Not just any group; it looked to be a large amount of infection banging against the door where the bridge was. Groping around with his wrist panel, Ridge began to type out some words quietly while the rest sat quietly, trying not to draw attention from the now distracted infected. Once he finished typing, he sent out the message locally.
'There are a ton of infected at the end of the hall seemingly trying to get into the bridge; we will have to use the plasma guns to mow a lot of them down and then have our three swords used to finish off what remains. This will likely damage the ship, but not enough to the point where it will be substantial. The bridge is the most reinforced part of the ship, so don't be afraid to cause damage.'
Reading this, the group made way for the gunman. Being Ridge, Caroline, and Morad, of course.
"Okay, with the amount of ammo we have, we could probably kill quite a few; however, this hallway isn't particularly long, so it's likely we'll be able to only shoot off three bursts. Luckily plasma rifles also have a penetrative quality to them so as long as you don't miss and hit the ship the infected should die in three or more at a time with the guns," Ridge said while whispering very quietly, " George, Falley, and Sonny, you guys will take the swords and stand behind us in the meantime while we're shooting and once we can't shoot you move forward and begin slicing like your life depends on it."
The five members nodded, and the rest of the crew also acknowledged the plan. Ridge sighed aloud, and before they began, he abruptly lifted his head as if a lightbulb had lit up; he came up with another idea.
"The rest of you will also stand behind us, but after we finish shooting, toss the rest of the debris you're carrying at the infected. With the size of the pieces we have, we could trip up a few of them once they get closer, which will make it much easier for our swordsmen to clean up. Hopefully, there will be a small amount left so that they can quickly kill with as little trouble as possible using the help of the extra debris blocking the pathway," Ridge said while slightly smiling.
Seeing him so confident also managed to bolster the morale of the others who were a little more worried. Luckily, this group consisted of a mix of trained and disciplined soldiers as well as engineers who, generally speaking, had some physical training while under Caroline.
"Let's do this," Ridge said before grabbing his rifle and an extra magazine just in case. The others also followed suit, and they were ready to fight.
With six of them moving in front, three with rifles and three with swords, they lined up facing the end of the hallway that had a bunch of infected. Seeing that they weren't paying attention, Ridge immediately let out an order whilst aiming down sights with his rifle, Fire."
Tightening his finger, he pressed the trigger, and immediately a slight powering up sounded out, and three bursts from each person zapped out from the rifles. Zooming sounds emitted from the lasers that shot out.
The lasers from each person penetrated the backlines of the group of infected, killing around nine immediately. Seeing the results, Ridge was happy; however, because of the noise and also the commotion from the nine infected dying, the rest of the group immediately turned around and began roaring towards them.
With wailing sounds that mimicked the sound of humans screaming with a hoarse throat, they charged quickly. Ridge, seeing this, immediately aimed to fire another round. The others also quickly followed suit, and once again the humming of the rifles powering up sounded out; following this, green lasers zoomed out of the barrels and killed another batch of zombies.
Feeling the gun heat up a bit, Ridge was slightly worried. As he was aiming up, he noticed that the zombies were closing in quickly. Their lines were thinned out, but they still looked to outnumber them!
"Fire quickly! Also, get ready to move back a bit; everyone else, get ready to throw your debris," Ridge quickly barked out while aiming down sights.
Once again, another volley of lasers shot out and penetrated the group of infected. With the collapse of their frontline, some tripped over now fully dead bodies and got pierced by sharp pieces of metal on the ground, but others advanced at a very rapid pace, and they began to close in on the group, being only a few feet away.
With adrenaline pumping, the three quickly moved back, and the other three swordsman took their place, not before, of course, everyone else threw over a bunch of metal debris that even managed to skewer a few infected. Unfortunately, none tripped, and Ridge's genius idea didn't do much except kill a few extra infected.
A clash inevitably happened, and the three swordsmen Sonny, George, and Falley took a defensive stance. With grunts, they blocked plenty of claw-like attacks and even some infected trying to bite them. Occasionally managing enough space to swing their swords, they managed to cut down a few, but they were only three after all, so they were having difficulties.
Ridge, seeing this, aimed his gun once more and reloaded it with the extra magazine and quickly pulled the trigger. Three bursts of plasma lasers bypassed George's right ear, who was left immediately stunned, and in that time, two infected in front of him died.
Getting out of his stunned state, George took the space to swing his sword wildly and managed to cut down another two that were about to close in on him once more. Doing this freed up room for the others, and soon enough they seemed to have found their groove with the help of some of the others who grabbed more debris to throw; they killed every single infected, leaving a hallway of dead bodies. The short battle lasted a good five minutes, and after they had finished, George, Sonny, and Falley quickly sat down to rest while panting.
Ridge quickly came up to them and inspected them for noticeable injuries. "Everybody good?"
"Yes sir, no bites or anything, just out of breath. I didn't expect them to turn out so strong," George answered while panting, and the other two simply nodded.
Seeing that everything was fine Ridge let Aleah who knew first aid examine them and he quickly called out to the rest of the group, "The rest of you grab the supplies we have and get ready to move out," looking at the end of the hallway while speaking he continued, "Since the infected were accumulated here, the rest of the survivors will probably be in the bridge. Here's hoping."
The group grabbed some extra debris for weapons and carefully avoided the corpses of the infected. Ridge also unloaded the magazine from his weapon and looked at the indicator at the top. It was no longer green, but more of a yellow color. It still had a couple shots left in it, so he inserted it back in.
The other two also made sure to check their ammunition and reloaded with some of the extra magazines from the bag.
With everything seemingly safe, Ridge wanted to quickly move to the bridge and find out if the others had survived, but he knew the group needed some time to rest and let the adrenaline die down. So he just had everyone rest for a little while to ensure they were ready for anything past the closed-off door at the end of the hallway.