(my brain died halfway through editing this, but I wanted to write it so much)

Honestly, none of them could recall how they ended split up at the city's outskirts, bombarded from all sides by freaks. Nick shot down what he could on the ground while Charlie was chased around the lake and up the large hill overlooking the east city. Ness tried to run after her only to be overrun at the bottom.

Luckily, none of them were mutants, allowing Nick to easily shoot most down and ram the hilt of his gun into the skulls of the others. Dodging the horde, he ran into a secluded area of rocks. He backed up against a boulder, planting his boot against the rock to kilt himself up just higher enough to aim down at the advancing zombies.

With the last freak down, Nick looked up at the hill, scouring the heavily wooded forest up to the very top just in time to see Charlie surrounded on most sides. She backed up towards the nearest cliff, long sparks of her taser ripping into them.

Just as the horse was starting to thin out, she backed a bit too far and stepped right off the hill. She fell only a few feet, sliding through hardened rubble and slamming her head on the way down, before grabbing the overhang. She dangled for a few seconds, clinging to what looked like a loose tree root for dear life.

"Charlie!" Ness and Nick yelled.

The zombies took up the free space, grappling at empty air and reaching for the girl now dangling high above the lake. Charlie clung to the ledge with her right hand while stabbing wildly at the zombies' feet with her left.

Nick glanced around him. He'd managed to back himself in the middle of the remains of an avalanche. He would have to go all the way around to get to the bottom of the hill, taking way too long to get to Charlie before either her grip gave way or the root did.

Kneeled down on top of a tree, the half-zombie was setting fire to small freaks darting around aimlessly and kicking at the ones who found a way to climb up towards them. "Ness, climb up to get to her! I'm too far away!" Nick shouted.

Ness kicked one last freak way then climbed up the hillside, bouncing from rock to rock like a jackrabbit with a metal tube stuck to its back. Nick raised his gun and shot point blank at the zombies crowding the cliff. Knife stabs that made them stagger paired with head shots took some down. Others went toppling over the edge, just barely missing hitting Charlie and taking her down with them.

"Ugh, this is taking too long." Ness yanked their flamethrower off their back and took down the trees ahead of them. The flames scattered quickly, taking over the leaves and leaping to surrounding trees.

A few straggling small freaks scurried after them that Nick took care of. Just barely getting the necessary fatal headshots, he mentally took note to make time for fast and tiny target practice. The bullets just grazed their speeding bodies as they tried to nip at Ness' legs barrling up the hill with a trail blazing behind them.

Ness reached the hill summit and let loose on the horde. Flames enveloped them in no time, not deteriorating their attempts to get to Charlie but slowed them down as they crumbled to their debilitating knees. The zombies quickly burned to a crisp and disintegrated to nothing, leaving the summit open and Nick with a slower heartbeat.

Nick watched Ness pull Charlie back to semi-safety. When they didn't start moving away, he looked over the hillside. The mountain had a skirt of fire all around the farther side, blocking any path back down. He cursed under his breath. "You're surrounded!"

"Yeah I gathered that!" Charlie yelled back, clearly panicking. She looked down the cliff at the lake below, glancing back and forth before Nick realized what she was thinking.

"Oh, no no no!" He objected. "You'll crush yourself jumping!"

"You got a better idea? It's just water, it'll be like taking a dive into a pool," she said rapidly.

"You're the equivalent of four stories up! Your bones can't handle that impact!"

She paused and deflated. "Oh, ri-"

"Mine can!" Ness perked up, as much as they could anyway. "Can't they?"

"We don't know that for sure!" Charlie protested.

The fire sparks caught onto the grass, quickly taking over the summit. Nick gritted his teeth. "It's worth a try at this point."

Charlie bit her lip. "Maybe we can climb down the cliff side or land on a tree-" A burning branch fell behind them with a loud crack and she jumped. "Okay okay! Jumping it is!"

She held Ness' hand and the two jumped off. Falling faster and faster, Ness grabbed Charlie and hugged her to their chest just in time to break the fall into the lake. They disappeared under the murky water with minimal struggling. Nick ran around the shore and reached under just as they both popped their heads back up.

He helped drag them out, them sopping wet and dripping water all over the grass. Above them, the fire quickly consumed the rest of the hill summit. Dark smoke rose up into the sky like a signal, high enough for anyone their side of the city to see.