DISCLAIMER: Bad Girls and its characters are the property of Shed Productions. No infringement intended.
CHALLENGE: Part of the 'Ground Zero' series and Vampires, Ghosts and Zombies challenge.
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author
Ground Zero - London, 11.19am
By ralst
Nikki kicked the nearest zombie in the head; the sound of breaking bone, quickly followed by the thud of the corpse hitting the floor, lost in the general melee. For every walking anachronism that she put down, another soon took its place, their hands grasping at the air and groaning for attention. If it weren't for the lack of beat and smell of alcohol she could almost have believed herself back at the club, being groped by feckless hands.
A scream from G-2 caught Nikki's attention; the sound decidedly alive in nature, although for how long she couldn't tell. The area above was supposed to be clear, a safety zone between the fighting and the feeble, huddled together on Enhanced. If it was overrun, they'd soon be facing attack from above and below, which would reduce their chances of survival to somewhere below zero.
"I'm going up," she shouted to Crystal, before cracking the skull of the nearest zombie and charging at the stairs; her clothes and skin tearing at the barbed wire defences, the smell of blood guaranteed to get the attention of any hellbound wannabe that had infiltrated their ranks.
Cheers rose up from down below and Nikki knew without looking that another screw had been reduced to inanimate flesh; the opportunity to insert a little gaol house justice, even if your tormentor was technically already dead, was too tempting an opportunity to pass up. She just hoped she hadn't missed the chance to skewer Fenner.
"Nikki, get out of here!"
Nikki just had time to turn in the direction of Helen's voice before her legs were taken out from under her and hands started clawing at her skin. She didn't have time to question how Helen had managed to survive her encounter with Betts or whether her little boy-toy had been similarly lucky; when the chips were down saving herself from being eaten by a rabid Dawn was much more important than some jealousy routine she should have grown out of in junior school.
Dawn's head split open, the disgusting mess within spilling down Nikki's arms and ruining yet another of her ensembles. The second body, the one that was trying to gnaw on her leg, was soon dispatched by a similarly placed axe to the face.
Nikki brushed herself off. "Where'd you get an axe?"
"Emergency supplies." Helen brushed ineffectually at the grey mess covering Nikki's right side. "I never did like that shirt."
"Everyone's a critic."
Groans issued from the other side of the walkway, quickly followed by the rhythmic sound of banging.
"Someone's having fun," Nikki quipped.
Helen rolled her eyes. "Trust you to finally discover the lighter side of life during a zombie attack."
The groaning intensified and even Helen couldn't stop the tiniest of smirks from appearing when she saw Simon Stubberfield come lumbering towards them, hitting every obstacle in his path.
"All yours, love."
With a swing of the axe the former governing governor was no more.
"If you repeat this to anyone, I'll deny it, but that felt good." A hand to the front of Nikki's soiled shirt soon had the lifer's lips within easy reach, and Helen quickly followed up her latest bout of murder with a bruising kiss. "But that felt better."
"You do pick your moments, Miss Stewart." Nikki nodded towards the cell from where Stubberfield had emerged, the entrance now blocked by two more lumbering corpses. "After you."
The axe, frequently passed from woman to woman, made quick work of the remaining zombies, before being lowered to G-1 so Crystal could continue her mission to behead as many sinners as humanly possible.
"She's loving this, isn't she?" Helen asked, as she watched Crystal decapitate two bodies with a single swing.
"Nah, she's just found her calling." Nikki pointed to the pool table, where Yvonne stood terrorising the poor, defenceless zombies. "Yvonne, on the other hand, is in her element."
Helen watched as a pool cue was embedded in a sightless eyes, before being yanked free to impale another hapless corpse. "Remind me never to piss her off."
"Too late." With far too much cheerfulness, Nikki pointed out the uniform wearing bodies littering the area around the pool table. "You're a screw, which means the second you turn grey, she's gonna pluck your eyes out and feed them to Denny."
"Charming."
Stepping over the corpses, Nikki took hold of Helen's hand and began to lead her in the direction of the stairs to G-3. They would have to rejoin the fight soon enough, but while they were up there it made sense to check on Barbara and the others hiding out on Enhanced.
"Nikki, wait."
"What? Come on, we haven't got time to piss about."
"Interesting choice of words." Nikki gave her a puzzled look. "I need the loo," Helen whispered, as if afraid of embarrassing herself in front of the piles of rotting flesh.
"In the middle of a life and death fight?"
"A fight that's been going on for hours," Helen defended. "I have a small bladder."
With a sigh of put-upon disbelief, Nikki pointed to one of the cells, "You've got two minutes."
Helen cursed and grumbled, but her need for relief outweighed her desire to trade insults with her former lover. She'd just wait until it was Nikki's turn for the bathroom and then mock to her heart's content.
Five minutes and two small arguments later, the pair made their way onto Enhanced. Early in the fighting Barbara had been given a set of keys and told to lock herself and several of the others into the cells furthest from the stairs. It had been Yvonne's idea, and although altruistic on the surface, its true purpose was to keep certain people from getting under foot and hampering the slaughter.
Nikki banged on a cell door. "You okay, Barbara?"
"Fine, thank you, Nikki."
Helen and Nikki exchanged looks; the normalcy of the reply both reassuring and rather frightening all at once.
"Is there anything you need?" Helen asked.
"Miss Stewart? Oh, I'm glad to hear you're alive, Nikki was quite frantic earlier."
Helen looked at Nikki, who just shrugged and muttered, "She's deranged," under her breath.
"We're both okay, for the time being." Helen smiled at the cell door, as if somehow hoping to reassure the woman behind the metal barrier. "If you need anything . . . ?"
"We're fine. Food will become an issue if this siege lasts too long, but for the moment we still have a packet of Chocolate Digestives we stole from the Officer's room."
At the thought of chocolate biscuits, Nikki's stomach decided to protest the lack of attention it had received since being woken that morning; after four years in Larkhall it had learnt not to expect much but starvation was still a step too far.
"Come on." Helen pulled at her arm. "If we can kill everything between here and the servery, I'll make you a nice sandwich."
The End