Call of Duty Stories

Chapter 1 - Bus Depot

"And what will that be?"

"No idea," Marlton said with a small shrug. "But anything'll be fine, as long as we're progressing."

"Are we almost there?" Stehulinger asked all of a sudden, looking out one of the windows. He found it both funny and kind of sad that the zombies were on fire, and running after the bus. It was laughable.

"We have to go around the entire route first," Marlton replied. "We'll be nearing the Diner in just a minute, though."

After a few moments, TEDD trilled, "Welcome to our first stop!" He span around to face the group.

"Well, we'd better get moving," Misty said, getting off the bus. Russman stepped off after her.

"You going?" Stehulinger asked Marlton.

"No. I'll stay and alert you if the robot-thing says it's time to leave," he said. Stehulinger shrugged and got off the bus.

He turned up his nose at the smell of gasoline, mixed with smoke and decay. He followed the other two into the small Diner, hoping to get away from the smell.

"Anything of note in here?" He asked, looking around.

"No, besides a part. Russman thinks it's for a weapon!" Misty replied.

"Oh," Stehulinger nodded, although she wasn't looking at him. He shrugged and walked outside. The smell had been no better in the Diner. If anything, it was worse.

He paced around outside for a few moments, wondering when the other two would be done with whatever they were doing. Why did we even get off here? It's just a wasteland. It's unsafe. We should have probably skipped it--

He jumped as he heard a scream coming from near the bus. He began to jog over, his gun loaded, thinking it was Marlton.

"What's wrong? Marlton?" He called, stepping onto the bus.

"It's out there!" Marlton said, pointing out a window. Sure enough, there was someone running in the fog, a small creature latched onto their face.

Stehulinger stepped off the bus, running to the person's aid. Marlton wasn't too far behind.

"GET IT OFF!" The man was yelling desperately, trying to pull the creature off with his hands. Stehulinger whipped out his knife and lodged it into the creature's head, before yanking it out and taking a step back. The creature fell to the ground.

"A Denizen," Marlton commented, kneeling at the creature. "You must have been out in the fog. Did it cut you up bad?"

The man had a few claw marks on the sides of his face, but he seemed fine otherwise. He was tall, with broad shoulders and a beard. He had a pair of goggles on his head, paired with his clothing and backpack of sorts.

"I don't know. How bad is it?" He asked. His accent was Russian, it sounded.

"What was all of that about?" Stehulinger snapped. "All you have to do is stab them. You'll attract all of the zombies from here to the bus stop!"

"Hey! I had never seen one of them before. Fuck you!" The man retorted. Stehulinger scoffed and crossed his arms. He didn't get good vibes from this man.

"Whoa, wait," Marlton said. "They aren't deep, you should be fine. What's your name?"

"Nikolai Belinski."

"Ah, okay. My name is Marlton, and this is Stehulinger. Nice to meet you," Marlton said, holding his hand out to shake. Nikolai slung his shotgun over his shoulder, not noticing Marlton's offer.

"Okay then, thank you for your help. I cannot stay though; I need to head back to my group."

"Group? You mean other people?" Marlton asked, dropping his hand to his side. Stehulinger narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

"Yes," Nikolai replied. "My group had split, because the bus left me and Takeo behind. Dempsey and Richtophen were on the bus when it drove off. We tried to catch up, but the bus wouldn't stop. We yelled for them to meet us at the city."

"Sorry to hear that. We're heading that way top, why don't you come with us?" Marlton offered.

Before Nikolai could reply, Stehulinger turned as he heard Russman shout.

"Come on! He might need help!" Stehulinger said, following the sound. He heard Marlton following close behind.

Russman had his gun aimed at a man standing about seven feet away, a katana in his hands. The man backed away a few steps, his eyes narrowed.

"WAIT!" Nikolai shouted from behind them. "TAKEO!"

Russman jumped, training his gun on Nikolai. "What the hell is this?" He demanded.

"It's okay Russman, you can lower your gun," Marlton said. "It's just-- we found him being attacked by a Denizen a little ways off, over that way."

Nikolai walked over towards Takeo, and muttered something to him. Takeo lowered his katana, still looking hostile, but not as much as before.

"My apologies. I did not notice you until you had shouted." Takeo said cooly. Russman nodded, but he still looked unsure as he lowered his gun.

Misty came outside after a moment, carrying something with her. "Hey ya'll, I found some--"

She cut off, seeing Nikolai and Takeo. She reached for her gun.

"What's going on here?" She demanded, looking from Marlton to Russman for an answer. Takeo tensed, his eyes narrowed.

"We'll explain on the bus," Stehulinger said, his arms crossed.

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Finally, chapter one's finished! Chapter two should be out sometime this week, I can't wait!
Please be sure to give me feedback if you have any, or any ideas you might have! I was this to be a kind of interactive thing.
Word count: 1462 words