Risen World

A loud crashing sound at the front of the fire department grabbed the attention of everything in the immediate area. Shards of glass careened off of the barrier of tables and sand bags before falling to the floor. For a while there was no more noise until the shuffle of multiple footsteps approached the barrier. Soon creatures started to pile up around the make shift barricade as they tried to force their way through. At first it was one or two, then there were five or six, and finally what seemed like more than a dozen of the abominations could be seen clawing their way through the sand bags.

While all this was going on six people looked on from atop the building at the small crowd below. Joshua being the agreed upon leader of the group pointed them over towards the fire escape ladder on the side of the building. While the group made their way down and away from the commotion Joshua made sure to keep an eye for any straggling creatures that could surprise them.

Before Joshua followed the others he made sure to check his newly acquired gear one more time before leaving the building. He had a rather hefty tool holster slung across his back and waist. Along his waist he had his own hammer strapped in alongside a brand new mallet shaped one that weighed a good eight pounds. He also had a few screw drivers on hand that he could use as disposable weapons if necessary. He had a rope hooked up as well just in case he needed a way to get down a building without a ladder.

On his back he had a fire axe ready for use just like the Carsen brothers and couldn't wait to see how useful it would be against those things with his absurd strength behind it. The one tool he got from the storage that just brought a smile to his face was strapped to his back right next to the fire axe. A large thirty pound sledge hammer set snugly in place slightly poking its handle over his shoulder. Although it might be too heavy for others to use repeatedly, for a man of his size and strength, it was like swinging a baseball bat. It was a weapon that would allow him to swing through multiple opponents at once and also from a good distance away with his long arms.

After climbing down the ladder and joining the others he took up the rear position while the three fire fighters took the lead. The group headed in the direction of the police station not too far down the block while making sure not to attract the attention of the mass of creatures they had left behind at the barricade. Along the way a few stragglers popped up trying to head towards where they came from, but they were quickly taken care of by the fire men with one quick swing to the head.

As they approached the police station a scream of pain grabbed their attention followed by a man crying out for help. "Ahhh, oh god, someone please help me!" Running close enough to get a good view of the area the group came across a horrible scene. Just ahead of them they could make out a group of five people trying to fend off what looked to be at least fifteen creatures. In the group there were two men, one old and one relatively young in comparison, along with three women.

Of the five people only three were wearing police uniforms and two of the girls were in plain street clothes. Outside of the old man all of them looked to be in their twenties age wise while he looked to be at least forty. The scream of pain came from the young man as one of the creatures had latched onto his leg. Its claws were digging into his calf as it bit down onto his thigh.

The man tried to get away to no success, he took out a gun and constantly pulled the trigger only for nothing to happen. There was no clicking sound to signify an empty clip, it was as if he was trying to shoot a toy. When he noticed it wasn't working he started bashing the creatures head with it in a wild attempt to get away. Throughout his crazed attempts at freedom he didn't notice the pale clawed hands reach around his shoulders from behind. A large mouth of fanged teeth snuck around his neck before plunging into his shoulder with a heart wrenching crunching sound.

"David no!" shouted a young woman in a police uniform. She tried to rush over to help, but was held back by the older man of the group. He struggled keeping her in place with one arm while using the other to bat away a creature that tried to sneak up on them.

Having seen enough of the horror occurring just ahead of them Joshua and the others rushed over to try to help out as much as they could. Joshua was the first to arrive and immediately cut the head off of one of the creatures that the older man was struggling with. He then slammed his shoulder into the other two creatures that were about to lunge at the hysterical girl.

The Carsen brothers followed up after him and took their axes to the back of the fallen monsters heads. They quickly tried to form a line of defense against the oncoming swarm of monsters.

"Over here you damn freaks!" Joshua shouted trying to grab the attention of the creatures away from the struggling policeman and the other two survivors. The older police officer gave him a silent nod of appreciation as he pulled his younger crying coworker out of harm's way for the moment. After the loud shouts all of the remaining creatures turned their attention towards him. There were at least twelve more of the things and he could see the faint signs of more coming their way beyond the haze.

Joshua quickly swapped his axe out for his sledge hammer so he can take out more of them in one swing. "Stay as far away from me as possible. I need some space to swing this thing." Joshua warned the others before stepping forward and positioning himself between the oncoming creatures and his group. The three creatures at the head of the small hoard shambled his way and were getting ready to lunge towards him, but just as their legs started to bend into position Joshua let lose. He swung the sledge hammer in a large ark that connected with the first monster snapping its head off and sending it soaring off into the other creatures following behind it. The momentum of his swing continued forward into the next one, smashing its head into bits before finally running out of steam as it knocked a third ones jaw off sending it flailing to the ground with a screech.

Joshua quickly stomped the screaming creatures head in bringing the surroundings back to the quiet shambling and clicking of the group of creatures ahead of him. Before one of the creatures could lunge towards him it was taken out by a screw driver that Joshua had thrown at the tail end of his follow through. He then took another swing into the chest of the leading enemy sending it sprawling back into the hoard and knocking most of them onto the floor.

Most of the others watched on in stunned silence for a moment at how easily he was dispatching the creatures that they had just been struggling against earlier on to take out one at a time. Out of everyone only two people had an odd reaction to the situation. Both of the civilian woman that were with the police officers had two very strange yet different reactions.

One of the girls was fairly covered up in a grey and black hoodie with a red shirt underneath. She had a mask covering her mouth making it harder to make out her face as she covered her head with the hood of her hoodie. She had what others would presume to be long wavy black hair do to the fact that the hair in the front of her face hanged down in long wavy black strands that she had tucked away into her hoodie. She stood at around five foot seven inches and was of a rather petite build, though it was hard to tell with the hoodie and long baggy jogging shorts that hid most of her body from view. Her deep brown eyes stared fixedly at a pair of the creatures that were coming towards the group from the side. She held onto a crow bar as she silently headed in their direction.

The other girl was even odder. She wasn't as covered up as the other mystery of the group as she just wore a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. She had short blond hair with purple high lights throughout and light blue eyes that were focused on Joshua. She was a couple inches under six feet tall and held a bloodied metal bat over her shoulder. Instead of surprise she held a scowl on her face as if someone was taking away her fun. Soon she charged in Joshua direction to try to get in on the action.

Joshua noticed her approach and was about to yell at her to step back, but was shocked when with one swing of her bat she sent one of the creatures head soaring off into the distance. She shot him a challenging look as she charged towards her next victim. Joshua smashed another couple of creatures that had tried to sneak up on him in his moment of distraction before turning around to check on the others. In that moment he was able to see the other girl with a crow bar silently standing over some dead creatures. Her crowbar seemed to be letting off steam in her grip as she turned towards another creature further away.

"You better not steal all my kills you overgrown bastard. Just step back and let me handle it." The blond haired woman growled out as she gave him a sadistic smile. Joshua merely nodded in reply and focused on cleaning up his group as the crazy girl charged forward like an enraged beast swinging wildly at the creatures in front of her. Each creature that was hit met its end in a shower of gore.

Joshua turned around to see the others about to come help them out when he signaled them to stop. "Don't worry about the creatures, let us handle them for now. See if you can fix a quick barricade in front of the police office like you did back at the fire station. Will try to thin the numbers enough for us to catch a breather inside afterwards." Joshua said before dodging to the side as a creature lunged at him. He quickly took his combat knife to the back of its head before it could jump back up.

"Alright, will do it as quickly as possible." The older police officer responded while the three firefighters nodded in acknowledgement as well. The group rushed inside and started to grab anything they could to start building a barricade. Joshua turned back towards the front and noticed that what seemed like another large group of creatures was heading in their direction. Joshua put the sledge hammer back on his back and took a heavy handheld metal mallet off his belt and quickly finished off the stragglers of the previous group along with the raging girl.

At first he was surprised by how well the two mystery girls were handling themselves, but as he watched them use their absurd strength or weird techniques he started to notice two important things. They seemed to be getting slightly stronger after a few kills, their attacks seemed more powerful and they seemed to move slightly faster. While on the other hand they both seemed to have no experience whatsoever at how to fight.

One was silent and relied completely on sneaking up on her targets to kill them with a quick strike from behind with her crowbar. If she was spotted she'd scramble out of the way of a lunge and use noises of pebbles to distract her opponent long enough for her to go back to her silent attempts at kills. She had no certainty of being able to kill one of the creatures head on.

While the other one showed extreme signs of unparalleled strength even beyond the capabilities of Joshua as she hit heads off the creatures as if she was hitting home runs. The problem was the fact that she had no technique, bad reflexes, and a horrible sense of danger as Joshua had to kill creatures that were about to lunge on to her back on multiple occasions.

As he smashed the head of the last creature that had been knocked flying towards him from a stray glancing swing from the blonde, Joshua urged the two girls over towards him before the next wave of creatures could reach them.

"What do you want?" The blond girl said as she frowned at being interrupted before she could charge inn to the next group of things for her to let loose on. The silent girl merely looked in his direction signaling he had her attention.

"We shouldn't rush out to kill these things. The direction their coming from is the center of the haze. The closer we get to it, the harder it will be to be able to see the things around us. Although you two seem to be able to handle yourselves it would be a bad idea to charge head in under the circumstances." Joshua laid out his thoughts getting a shrug of agreement from the hoodie girl, but not so much from the crazed one.

"Who are you to tell me what to do? I'll do whatever the hell I want." She said stepping past him before rushing towards the group. "Come here you bastards, mama wants all the kills."

Joshua shook his head in frustration as he watched the crazy woman bulldoze her way through the creatures and out of his line of sight. The girl he was now mentally referring to as the silent hooded wonder went off to kill some of the creatures on the fringe of the group. He let out an audible sigh before hurrying over to try to avoid letting the two clear amateurs get themselves killed right in front of him. Soon he was starting to doubt that he would be able to.

He took the sledgehammer back off his back and immediately took out another four creatures with one two handed swing. As he joined the mix he was able to see the other two fighting again. The first thing he noticed that was bad was the fact the blonde had charged her way through to the other side of the street in front of a store with broken windows. She had gathered the attention of most of the creatures in her wild charge and was now yelling at them to egg them on.

Joshua took in the scene and immediately noticed the broken windows directly behind the rampaging girl. The broken windows could only be a sign for one thing in this situation. "Blonde get back over here now! Get away from the buildings!" Joshua shouted trying to get her attention. His shouts grabbed the attention of some of the creatures as they turned around and shambled towards him.

"To hell with you asshole. These bastards are mine! Step off!" She shouted back as she swung her bat around like crazy at the crowd of creatures in front of her. "Come for mama, your all mine!" She shouted with a crazed grin and purple blood splattered all of her clothes and skin.

"Damn it, you have to get away from…" Joshua started to shout back before a creature came flying out of the store behind her and latched onto her back. "Shit!" Joshua thought as he tried to rush over, but had to fight his way through the crowd between them.

"Ahhh, get the hell off of me." She screamed as the claws dug into her shoulders. Before the thing could bite her though she slammed the bottom end of her bat into its face crushing its skull in the process. Just as she thought she broke free another one lunged from inside the store and instead of trying to latch on with its claws like the first, it immediately bit into her waist. "Ahhh, get off."

As she struggled to get the proper angle to smash its head two of the creatures from the crowd in front of her jumped into her knocking them all sprawling through the broken window out of sight. Soon screams of pain followed as more creatures shambled their way through the broken glass to join the feast.

Joshua smashed the heads of the nearest creatures in frustration at his inability to save her, but immediately froze up at the grunt of pain he could here from a different direction. He quickly turned around to see the hoodie wearing girl knocked to the ground as a creature was on top of her while two others seemed prepared to lunge in as well.

Joshua rushed over after disengaging from the large crowd that were all focused on the screams of the dying blonde. He charged directly towards the aid of the one he still had a chance of saving.