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Jose (concerned): "Didn't you say Sacrifice Tanks are way more powerful than normal ones?"

Luke: "Pretty much in every way, yeah."

Dan: "Okay, that's a reason to panic."

The Tank did not want to waste any time and it started sprinting towards the survivors. The survivors started spriting towards the store.

Dan: "Are guns gonna slow him down?"

Luke: "They might do it actually, just run and shoot."

The survivors desperately ran around the corner right to the store attempting to leave the Tank behind, but he was only closing in.

Luke: "Just do sharp turns, we'll eventually outrun him."

Jose ran through a nearby alley and got on the other side of the abandoned apartments. Luke stood at the entrance of the alleyway, so did Dan.

Dan (aiming his shotgun down the street): "Come on, come on!"

As soon as the Tank showed his face, Luke and Dan unloaded their clips only to slow him down by a fraction of a second.

Dan: "There, another reason to panic."

Luke: "In the alley, come on, fast!"

Jose was already at the end of the alleyway looking at the front of the parking lot of the store. Luke and Dan quickly followed. Luke stopped for a second and quickly pulled Dan and Jose behind a large dumpster that was nearby. He covered Jose's mouth and signalled at Dan to do the same. Dan quickly nodded and after a few short moments, the dumpster almost fell on top of them, shaking and quaking like the ground they were sitting on. Dan and Luke were able to catch it at the right time before they got crushed. A few moments passed and...the roaring eventually faded away into the city. Luke gestured to Dan to push the dumpster with all their strength. They did, lifting it a slight bit just enough for all of them to escape and for the Tank not to be alerted.

Meanwhile...Aiko and Will dispatched of all the infected in front of the store and proceeded to go inside since there weren't any searchable cars outside. Slight rumbling could be heard and felt. Both of them stopped dead in their tracks. Luckily, Will pointed towards the store, and they quickly hid beside a nearby ATM. The rumbling disappeared almost instantly, and Will let out a huge sigh of relief.

Aiko: "Was that...?"

Will (reaching for his walky-talky to reach Luke): "Luke, you there?"

Luke (also reaching for his walky-talky): "Yeah, we're here. You heard it too, didn't you?"

Will: "It just ran past to the west, yeah."

Luke: "Well, we're on our way, go ahead and start searching the store, we'll make it there in a few, we got some unraided smaller buildings to take a look at."

Will: "Sounds good, see ya here."

Will hung up and he and Aiko were ready to go into the store. With both their weapons prepared, they opened the door slowly and entered the store. The store was huge, a generally big marketplace. At first glance mostly all the aisles were empty, meaning they had to get into the back. Will: "Alright, Aiko, take the left side, I'll take the right."

Aiko firmly nodded and they began the search.

Back to the trio...

Luke: "Alright, there's a tobacco shop right there. Dan, check it. Jose, on me, we'll make our way through the parking lot."

Dan looked towards the shop and started walking over there. He pulled out his axe and broke the door down. There was one measly zombie which Dan decapitated. The backroom did not yield much, but a few ammo packs were enough to satisfy Dan. Dan's walky-talky suddenly went off.

Dan: "Aiko? What's up?"

Aiko: "Just checking, did you guys just enter the store?"

Dan: "I'm still exploring a nearby tobacco shop, I'm gonna hit Luke up."

Aiko: "If he didn't enter, we got a problem, someone just entered the store, I heard some guns being cocked and loaded."

Dan (calling Luke): "Dialing now...Luke, where are you and Jose?"

Luke: "We're at the parking lot. We were gonna wait for you to exit the store."

Dan: "Someone just entered the store."

Luke quickly looked over to the entrance and saw 3 figures walking in, all with dangerous-looking guns.

Luke: "Aiko, Will! Come in! You have to hold your ground, that isn't us. They're probably road bandits who snuck into the store. Just stay on alert."

Aiko and Will quickly stopped looking for supplies and started sneaking around the store. Aiko contacted Will and they met up in the middle, but they were in the very back, so they had some kind of advantage. A distant rough voice could be heard close to the entrance of the store. The 3 rough-looking bandits split up and each searched through one aisle. Will and Aiko hid between the aisles.

Aiko (whispering): "What do we do?!"

Will (after a few moments, also whispering): "You shoot down the right one, I got the left and middle one."

Aiko nodded and they both tried to get into position, but Aiko knocked a few nearby cans over and the bandits quickly rushed to the back, their attention entirely focused on the cans.

Aiko (nervously and firmly): "Well, it was a good run."

All of the footsteps stopped close to the end of the aisle. A few seconds passed and one of the bandits yelled out: "FBI, come out and put your hands where I can see them!"

Aiko and Will didn't have a choice so they got up slowly and dropped their weapons close to the 'FBI'. They were surrounded from all 3 angles.

Nearby a hand was shown counting down from 3 to 1.

3...2...1.

One of the bandits was shot in the back of the head with...what looked like an arrow. The second one had his throat slashed by two katanas, and the last one had a shotgun in his face when he turned around.

Dan: "Boop."

Dan blew the third bandit's brains out with every pellet shot hitting his target. Both Aiko and Will released a huge sigh of relief and they picked up their weapons again.

Luke: "That was smooth AS FUCK. Good work, lads."

Aiko quickly hugged Luke out of reflex, Jose and Dan walked up to the group.

Jose (turning to Dan and offering a fist bump): "Well done, mate."

Dan (accepting the fist bump): "Same, pal. But, guys, there's no guarantee more won't come. We better get moving.

Will: "Good point. Also, this useless ass store has nothing to offer."

Luke: "Out of stock, I guess."

Everyone shared a few good laughs and the group started moving after a gesture by Luke in the direction of the exit. The fresh apocalyptic air was welcoming, for once. The group walked to the same street in front of the store.

Luke: "Any convenient signs that tell us where we need to go around here?"

Everyone looked around.

Jose: "Boom."

Jose shot an arrow at a billboard next to the store. The billboard read: "Dortmund bus stop, THE place to travel."

Dan: "Well, ain't that useful, it's in English, too, who would have thought."

Luke: "It says it's...exactly in the direction of the Sacrifice Tank. Well, we're gonna have to deal with it. Come on, guys."

The group started marching down the street, killing some straggling infected on the streets. A few Spitters showed up on the rooftops, but it was nothing Aiko and Jose couldn't handle, several Hunters and even a Charger or two showed up.

Dan: "Busy street, huh?"

Luke: "You said it."

A few Hunters tried pouncing Luke, but he kept dodging to the side and eventually had 3 Hunters trying to pin him down. He slashed one of them at the last moment while he was finishing his leap, shot another one down with a clip of his Uzis and threw one of his katanas at the last one. It stuck into his shoulder and Luke walked up slowly, grabbed the katana and pulled it out, leaving the Hunter yelping in pain while he swiftly decapitated him.

Jose and Dan made small applause.

Dan: "Good showmanship, dude."

Jose: "Great stuff."

Luke took a small bow and noticed a Charger attempting to plough himself through the mob of infected, but Aiko picked him out of the crowd and shot him once. The Charger charged anyway, with Luke quickly shifting to the Charger's left side and slashing him twice while he was charging. He fell at the end, dead in his tracks.

The second Charger charged from a nearby dark alleyway. Aiko was the intended target, but Will pushed her out of the way and the charger took him and rammed him into a nearby wall. Aiko quickly sniped it and Dan severed both of its legs away with one swoop. A huge rock came out of nowhere and nearly hit Dan as he was getting Will up. Both of them ended up dodging. Luke was dispatching the horde up front, along with Jose, but they were done and both turned towards the source of the rock, it was the Sacrifice Tank from the same alleyway like the second Charger.

Dan: "THIRD TIME TODAY...IT'S A REASON TO PANIC!"

Everyone moved up to the front with Luke while shooting the Tank, but he didn't slow down at all.

Luke: "Our best bet is to kill him right here. (drawing both of his katanas out) Dan, let's do this."

Dan knew what to do. He grabbed his axes and stood beside Luke. The Sacrifice Tank was coming closer and closer. Jose, Will and Aiko opened fire.

Luke: "EVERYONE, SCATTER."

Dan quickly sprinted to the left of the Tank, Luke to the right and they both got his attention. He swung from the weirdest position and nearly hit Luke. The punch was so powerful when it slammed into the ground and nearly broke the road into several chunks. Luke and Dan got a few strikes in while the Tank had it's hand down, but it swung once more, barely missed Luke again, but the Tank was persistent, this time swinging faster and more accurately into Dan. Dan guarded with his axes but was still sent flying into a nearby building. Dan quickly shifted his axes to the building and absorbed the impact, rubble, smoke and bricks all over the place. It suddenly focused on Dan and ran straight towards him. Dan was just starting to regain his consciousness and he had a Tank on him. Luke threw both of his katanas into the Tank, both of them sticking to the Tank's head and spine, neither one slowing him down. The Tank was being shot this entire time...but it did start to slightly flinch while being shot with the weapons of Aiko, Will and Jose. The Tank quickly grabbed Dan and flung him back towards Luke. Dan yelled out in pain and Luke barely caught him.

Dan (coughing up blood): "I'm down, incapacitated."

Luke: "It's alright, just shoot him down. Do you have your axes?"

Dan: "No, they are over by the bricks where I got thrown into the wall...Never thought I'd say that."

Luke nodded and Dan started shooting the Tank with his shotgun. Luke quickly sprinted towards the Tank, sliding under both of his arms and legs, grabbing both of Dan's axes. It seems like Luke's katanas WERE slowing the Tank down. Luke quickly grabbed both of Dan's axes and, with full power, stuck them into the Tank's eyeballs. The Tank stumbled around while Luke grabbed both of his katanas out of the Tank, took a deep breath and slashed at the Tank faster than he has ever slashed before. The Tank finally collapsed, and a few moments after he did, so did Luke. He fell to his knees and gasped for air. The rest of the group rushed over to him, but Luke held his hand up for one second. He got up by himself and with every bit of strength he had left, spit in the Tank's face.

Luke (severely gasping for air): "You get what you fucking deserve."

*End of Chapter 9.

It's action-packed, so hope you guys enjoyed and stay safe with the whole Corona bullshit happening. See ya :D.*