When John turned up, Bill asked whilst he scanned the surroundings. "Which way now?"
"Over the rubble and down the tunnel." Our protagonist answered straightforwardly before approaching the pile of rock and beginning his ascent over it.
The infected weren't far behind, so if they were going to lose them, they needed to put as much distance as they could between them, hence the four survivors hastily followed after him. John, although in a bit of a bad mood due to Francis, still did the right thing and helped the survivors over the unstable rubble. Bill climbed up first with surprising speed for an old-timer, and then came Francis.
"I don't need your help, bitch."
"Get moving then, dickhead."
After the biker asshole, Louis climbed up and over before Zoey finally reached the top.
But before she could begin her descent down the jagged rocks, she took a stumble; luckily, someone was there to catch her.
"Watch your step. This stuff isn't stable." John told the young, attractive woman as he stood her upright.
"Thanks for the save... Ah, I don't think I caught your name before."
"You can just call me John, and yours?" He replied in kind, already well aware of who she was.
"It's nice to meet you, John. I'm Zoey, by the way."
"Likewise, though I gotta say I do wish it was under better circumstances."
And not even a moment after those words left his mouth, the pipe bomb he had preemptively tossed previously blew and boomed deafeningly throughout the area nearby as well as down here in the underground.
"Ditto." She followed simply just before the both of them joined up with the rest of the squad who were waiting for them below.
With the bomb's constant chirping having gone mute, the hordes of undead were no longer being distracted, meaning the time to move was now. So John raised his primary means of self protection, held onto it tightly, directed it and its attached taclight towards the darkness, and started pushing into the tunnels he'd yet to explore. Their initial foray into these uncharted waters was uneventful because of how many infected they had killed previously at the holdout, but that changed after covering several blocks of distance underground.
Yeah, that crying has got to be coming from a Witch. I mean, no sane person would be sobbing that loudly in this undead-filled world unless they had a death wish.
"Quiet! I hear a witch up ahead." John whispered in a hushed tone to the others, who were trailing him only a handful of steps behind.
The four survivors appeared to know what that was because the quiet chatting they'd been doing immediately halted entirely. Seeing the four of them shut the hell up, he slung his rifle over his shoulder, swapped to his Glock 20, changed the big stick mag filled with full metal jacket for the standard 15 rounder filled APDS, chambered a round from it, and stuck the spare 10mm FMJ round in his pocket.
I don't care what tough stuff a Witch is made of, but this should have no problem going right through its skull.
Ready to dispatch this special infected, John signaled for the survivors to shine their lights at the walls, so they wouldn't aggro her as soon as they came up on her. They understood the command, so he turned off his own next and began moving as he scanned the darkness with his quad nods. He took one quiet and cautious step after another, and soon enough, a thin, sickly gray-colored figure sobbing on the ground came into view. John needed to headshot her to take her out in one shot, so he scanned the zombie from the bottom to the top and honed in on a set of huge elongated claws that were obscuring her face along with her distinct silver hair.
Man, that's a fucking set; she might as well be a Deathclaw straight out of Fallout with claws like those.
Weary of the Witch's built in weapons and the large health pool she had in the game, which likely equated to increased durability, John raised his full auto handgun, centered its red dot on the zed's head, and fired one shot at its head. He didn't know if she was going to go down with only a single shot, so he got ready to unload the whole magazine into her head if she survived. Fortunately, the armor-piercing round he fired entered the female zombie's noggin effortlessly before shooting out the back of it and sailing into the darkness to God knows where.
"Well, that was easy."
"And anticlimactic."
"For sure… Let's keep moving."
With the Witch having been dispatched rather effortlessly, John swapped back to his near recoilless Russian assault rifle and strode into the darkness.
…
The journey through the metro system running under the city of Fairfield wasn't a pleasant one to say the least with the large swaths of infected they needed to clear to make headway combined with the general nastiness and danger they had to trudge through here in the tunnels. John, would've been fine if that was all he had to put up with, but when those stressful events were stacked with the annoyance that was Francis, he really started to seriously consider whether he wanted to stick with these people or just say fuck it and go off on his own like he had been doing prior to their fateful meeting.
Phew, we're almost there. There's only a bit further to go before we reach the next platform, so I need to figure out if I want to stick with Bill and the gang or go back to doing my own thing. There are a few ways to decide, but I suppose weighing the positives versus the negatives would be the best way to figure out what I wish to do.
First off, staying with them would undoubtedly bring safety because there is power in numbers and the fact that five guns firing is far superior to my one. Having them to rely on would also lighten my load significantly since I would be able to split gathered resources amongst five instead of just one. But besides the safety they would bring, the social interaction would be nice since I doubt I will be getting much of it from the infected population.
As for the negatives, they are quite obvious. For one, I would be competing with them for kills, which I need to acquire to grow in power and complete my mission. Two, I'll have to convince them to go where I wish to travel to instead of escaping to the west. Not to mention the managing of relations, I'll need to actively take care of on a daily basis with them.
In addition to that, I have some major concerns regarding my system and its abilities being exposed. Like how would I explain away my seemingly magical ability to find specific ammo whenever I need it or my convenient replenishment of equipment and throwables. I figure I could just say I'm going out for a scavenging run or something whenever I need to restock, but anyone with a functioning brain will eventually start questioning how in the fuck do I keep coming back with pristine loot and where the hell it keeps coming from.
Yeah, that would be hard to pass off, I gotta say… It'd be one thing if I was so powerful that I was basically an untouchable existence, but I am light years away from becoming anything like that. If its existence were to be exposed I could see all sorts of governments and three letter agencies coming to find trouble with me, hence it would be wise to keep the existence of my system and its abilities secret or restricted to only those who have shown they can be trusted with such pertinent information.
John's thoughts remained on all the negatives that could come about if that information got out before he had the power to truly guarantee his safety, but he soon moved past it.
Alright, that's enough about that. The only other issue I have with staying with the survivors is pretty much just Francis and his asshole personality, which I'm sure will come to bite me in the ass in due time. I suppose he could learn to grow on me, but I got a feeling that ain't gonna happen for some odd reason. So although the negatives will hamper me some I'd say the positives far outweigh them.
However, the question I really gotta ask myself is, can I seriously trust these people to watch my back. I mean, I will need to pass out and get some rest at some point, so I'll be in my most vulnerable state when I'm sleeping… Mmm, I can't say I can with Francis's antagonistic behavior towards me being a thing. If he weren't here, I would risk it since the others seem to be decently upstanding people and probably wouldn't try to kill me in my sleep. That said, I can't expect them to ditch Francis for me when I'm pretty much a stranger to them.
"Let's step it before we die of old age, newbie. I ain't getting any younger here." The asshole jabbed once more.
…
Yeah, fuck this shit, I'm ditching these guys the minute we reach the next platform.
Sick of the ingrate of this group and the lack of admonishment from his compatriots, an angry frown found its way onto John's hazmat covered face, and though he was pissed off and very much wished he could swing around and beat the ever living shit out of the motherfucker, he held his tongue and remained silent and continued as normal through the dark metro tunnels. John led the group through the length of tunnel they'd been using for quite some time, and soon he caught a glimmer of light coming from just around a bend ahead.
Release is in sight
Excited to dump these four and be back on his very own again, he picked up the pace and a couple of minutes later; he rounded the bend and found another subway platform, one that should be connected to a station if the map he had in his possession was accurate. However, before he could get rid of them, the infected that inhabited the area needed extermination, so they got to it. He was about as motivated as one could be; hence, a job that would've taken a good while to complete was achieved in a matter of minutes.
"Alright, I think that was the last one. Let's get out of these tunnels and head back topside." Bill declared, looking ready to leave these dark and dreary subway tunnels.
The other survivors agreed with brief, simple responses, so seconds later they began climbing the stairs that would inevitably take them to the surface… However, John did not.
"You're not coming?" Zoey asked, surprised.
"Yeah, nah, I'm good." John answered nonchalantly, much to the disbelief of the whole group, minus the biker, who was more than pleased to see his departure, of course.
"Oh, come on, it'd be practically suicide to go it alone."
"As I said, I'm good. I got my own plans."
"You sure?"
"Yeah, I'd rather go it alone, and besides, I don't plan on leaving the city just yet."
Zoey and Bill were about to say something but were once again interrupted by the unhappy bastard of their little group.
"He said he wants to be on his own, so let him." Francis butted in, ready to get rid of John and get on their way to Mercy Hospital.
"Pipe down, nobody asked you."
"Alright, I've got shit to do, so I'm off. Good luck with getting to that chopper and getting out of here."
Responding with a simple wave, John watched their departing backs as Bill and the gang started having a go at Francis and his attitude that caused them to lose yet another potential gun. Our main character, although happy to be free of them, still remained where he stood as the group of survivors ascended the concrete steps and seriously thought about doing the world a favor and just dumping a mag into Francis's back. But he nevertheless held back on that idea, and when they disappeared from view, he began considering his next move.
Now that I've gotten rid of the annoyance and the money stealers, I think it'd be in my best interest to repack all my spent mags since I'm running hella low on ammo. Yeah, if I don't have my mags filled, I won't be able to do shit against a horde in these tunnels, if all I have to rely on is my brawn and the few melee weapons I possess. That said, I can't just do it right here in the middle of this subway platform since that would be foolish, so let me find a utility closet or something else I can feel safe in… Preferably with a door, a solid one.