Nightshift 42: Central Street
[from here]Punching zombies was almost mechanical now, though Wally wasn't sure if that was from having hit so many or from blood loss kicking in. Maybe it was even both? He'd been punching so many, following Bats as he led the way down the street running down the centre of Doyleton, that they'd all started to blur together into a rhythm of 'punch
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Under normal circumstances. But real-life "zombie apocalypses" weren't normal, and neither was the steady, red stream dripping down Wally's arm and shoulder. A wound that Bruce didn't understand the reason for, a wound that shouldn't have been there because sometimes, being a normal human does make you inferior because metas alone can take advantage of their powers to dodge or fend off attacks when a normal human being would just have to deal with being ( ... )
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That was when the ground started sprouting zombies.
"Oh, come on!" Bart said, slapping his own forehead. "Is this the best you can come up with now? What, is someone in Programming bored? Or did you all just run out of good ideas ( ... )
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Too bad the answer seemed to be a 'no' on that one. It would have made things a lot easier.
"I- yeah. I can make it," he answered. It might have been more convincing if he hadn't sounded so tired, but he was determined to make it true, even if he had to ( ... )
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The same way you still have some of your powers? Batman thought sardonically before he could stop himself. He sent one more corpse flying with more force than strictly necessary, and the splatter from the blow drenched his upper right arm almost completely.
Whatever had made these corpses the way they were...Batman had to hope weren't spread from skin-to-skin contact. Or maybe, he didn't need hope to guess that the zombies' "illness" couldn't be spread so easily. He remembered the look on the doctor's face from last night-the clean, calculating precision that defined the lines of his silhouette and his weapons. The doctor bore the look of a man too focused to approve of indiscriminate, large-scale slaughter; the zombies were likely here not to destroy them, but test them. Either that, or weed some of them outBatman looked at Wally. His shoulder was still bleeding ( ... )
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Somebody shouted something, but Bart wasn't listening, already turning to keep track of Wally. At first, he couldn't even register what he was seeing; the Flash, grappling -- grappling! When he should have been using the same hit and run tactics Bart was using, that he'd first learned from Wally! -- with the zombie, blood pouring from his shoulder. That. That was just so wrong! The Flash wasn't supposed to get hurt, not like that! He was way too fast!
Forgetting about the other zombies already closing in, Bart joined the melee, trying to to bodily drag the zombie off his cousin and punching it in the head at speed when ( ... )
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Blood and rot made it difficult for him to get a good grip on it, but he managed, at least enough to keep it from biting him like the other one had and things looked like they might be working out okay in a hopefully-not-getting-chewed-on way--
At least until Bart, instead of getting some distance like Wally had hoped, jumped straight in, first trying to drag the zombie away from him and then punching it when that didn't work. The blow only stunned it for a moment, then the creature lunged at Bart, mouth wide and lined with rotted teeth.
"No!" Wally yelled. There was no way, under any circumstances, he was going to let Bart get hurt while he was around. Not after last night. And he'd been ( ... )
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The utter coldness of the voice that'd spoken was matched only the brutality of the actions that followed next. There was no more warning than the sound of corpses being shoved aside and broken through before a pair of hands came into view from behind the corpse biting Wally. A pair of hands that proceeded to rip the corpse's spinal cord from its neck, and from the opening that the bone left, reached inside and took hold of the zombie's central nervous system in the most direct way possible.
The Batman said nothing more as he proceeded to tear the creature's brain out. Movements revealing nothing more than detached, absolute efficiency, he said nothing as the back of the zombie's skull shattered and cut into his forearms as he yanked out the greyish matter, exterminating the corpse in the one way that would not cause the teeth in Wally West's arms to sink in deeper-- by moving the corpse less.
But that terrible look in his eyes.
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And then Batman came out of nowhere and ripped the zombie's brain out.
Oddly enough, that helped calm Bart down and bring him back to himself. Everyone knew Batman was brutal and freakish; maybe not usually 'rip the bad guy's spine out' brutal, but these weren't real people they were dealing with after all, they were zombies. It ( ... )
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--ripped the zombie's body apart.
With his bare hands.
If that hadn't been enough to send an icy knife of fear into his gut, the other man's face would have done the trick. He'd seen that expression before, last night on the TV screen. And he remembered all too well what had happened then and how Bruce had been after. Again he had to wonder why the zombie attacks had to happen tonight, of all nights. But he had a feeling he already knew the answer to that. Somewhere the Head Doctor was laughing, he just knew it-
A zombie moved up behind Batman and Wally tensed up, knowing that it was impossible for him to do something with how things were now, but trying to think of a way around it anyway.
"Look out!" He didn't even manage to finish the warning before Bart was there, hitting the thing hard enough to stun it. Wally sagged in relief, but it wasn't over yet. He was beginning to wonder if it ever would be.
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Just the way it should be.
Time had stopped, but when it began moving again Batman removed the stony, evaluating look from Bart Allen's person and redirected it where it was needed most.
He said nothing this time as he went to work. Nothing so much as a hold still or stop talking for warning before the Batman took hold of the zombie's skull firmly in hand-one on the bottom jaw, another on the top-and began the grim work of prying the destroyed creature's maw off.
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And besides, punching zombies helped him avoid thinking about what just might be wrong with Wally...
His bandages hands were coated in gore at this point, but Bart tried to ignore it. Wally needed him, and as completely screwed up as that entire concept was, Bart wouldn't, couldn't let him down. The zombies could try to close in all they wanted, attracted by the smell of blood, but Bart was holding them back. For now.
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"Ahead. We're making a right on Wicker Street and heading for the repair shop."
He didn't look at the Flash again when he began to run-even the brief pause before his movement was spent leveling a cross between a wary and expectant look at Impulse, anticipating the boy's superspeed run ahead of them.
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He could even think about it without freaking out too badly, if he thought of it as escort mission. And ignored the fact that he really sucked at those.
"What happened to you?" he hissed at Wally, falling back to guard the Flash's injured side as all three began to run. He carefully didn't look at his shoulder; he wasn't sure he could look at all that blood for too long without freaking out again.
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Noticing Bart's worried look, Wally flashed a quick smile down at the kid, doing his best to look not 'I think I'm on the verge of passing out'.
"Don't worry about me," he said. "With you and Bats here, I'll be fine." It was hopefully true; they were definitely making better headway against the zombies anyway. But still, even as they rounded the corner into the street Bats had indicated, Wally couldn't help but try and keep an eye on both of them, just in case. Bats might be pissed at him for getting bitten twice, but the fact of the matter was that if it was that or one of the others getting hurt, Wally would cheerfully do it again.
[to here]
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