Era of the Afflicted: VR Playtime (IC)

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The day was going great for what it was. Sandman just finished telling a long story, and put a one minute pre-recorded commercial break on. It was fairly comical, it had to do with Zombies and Subway. Okay, so it was more ironic than funny, but he thought it was good. The story could have been longer, but Sandman saw the chopper through his monitors and knew that The Elements were going to be giving him company. He was thinking of putting on some Classical music, for he knew the Irish man would put on a riot.

"Knock Knock." It was the alpha commander of The Elements who stood in his doorway. It was almost scary how he made no noise when he walked, but Sandman had become accustomed to this.
"Welcome, Welcome, Welcome frequent guest of my humble abode! What news do you bring to me today?" the slender man asked the small Hispanic man who stood before him in the open doorway, as he slouched back into his leather office chair which creaked with every slight movement. He opened his arms wide as if welcoming the other man into an embrace. He spoke with a wide grin "And have you brought me any shiny new presents?"
"What, no wine this time? your getting pretty cheap you know." The small man said. Letting out a long sigh, the taller man slowly sat forward, getting out of his overused throne of a chair. The grin disappeared from his weathered face much faster than it took for him to stand. "That's better. You know work ain't cheap, El Capitan."
"Oh Shadow, my fine young Mercenary, you are so tightly wound. You should stick around once in a while and relax!" The man said with slight curiosity as he pressed a button on the console in front of him. "This playlist should keep the classical lovers happy for now" he mumbled. Motioning with his hands for Shadow to lead the way, they began to walk down the long caramel hallways of the lonely makeshift radio station.

It has only been weeks since the initial outbreak, but the it had an overwhelming impact on the city. Loneliness seemed to be the biggest presence in the city, but it became all too noticeable in the long halls of the skyscraper dubbed Sandman's Station. The men eventually came to a larger room, adorned with huge wall paintings, giant plushy couches, and a makeshift bar. The window to right of the doorway the two men entered overlooked most of the downtown area, and had a stairwell at the opposite corner of the room that led to the top of the scraper. Sandman went behind the bar and grabbed a bottle of bubbly white wine from a refrigerator against the wall. "Ahh, this should do!" He was about to reach for glasses when Shadow spoke.
"No need, we will just take the bottle this time. Come to the chopper, there is something you should see."
"My my, such a polite attitude! Perhaps I should award you a medal for your courtesy!" Sandman retorted sarcastically as he strode towards the stairs, wine in hand. It was odd, he had never seen the alpha commander be so edgy and to the point before. Sure, he was fairly strict, but he usually had a lighter attitude. This only heightened Sandman's curiosity. The pair of men emerged into the mid-sun noon, scorching heat blasting into them. The sun always seemed hotter than usual these days.

"Cap, e is doin' it again!" a voice called out to the pair of men as they climbed the platform to the helipad on the skyscrapers rooftop. "Sandman, you gotta stop playin' dis shitty music. Wolf, e gets scary when you put it on." The booming voice was coming from a large, very muscular African man dressed in a full grey combat outfit. "I tink e is in some kinda trance. Dat or your music is some kinda witchcraft". Sandman tossed the bottle to him and continued walking towards the Chinook helicopter behind him.
"Well Grim, maybe you should forage for my CD's in a less civilized location next time then?" Sandman said with a grin as he passed, slapping the imposing man on the shoulder.
"Ha, and maybe you should pay us better den!" Grim shot back with a smile, opening the bottle and taking a swig. Turning and walking with Shadow and sandman, Grim donned a look of someone who has jest eaten a peeled lemon whole. When the men came to the copter, Wolf, the man with the Irish accent, leaped out of the copter and began two-stepping by himself, with his eyes closed. "E was always a weird one" Grim commented as the other men turned into the open hatch, practically ignoring the dancing man.

"Hey Sandman, how's it going?" A smaller man of clear Asian decent greeted the radioman, getting out of his seat and waving happily. The inside of the copter was cramped, filled with most, if not all of The Elements gear. It was almost ridiculous how much they packed in here. Ammunition, radio equipment, food and water stores, amongst other eclectic pieces of random equipment. They even had what couldn't be anything but a giant four foot Pez dispenser. It was no surprise he picked these people to do his work. But if they can take the time to find something ridiculous like that, they can find him more news, and more music. Speaking of music, the 1812 Overture that was playing over the portable radio they had was coming to its climax point. Before Sandman could say anything, Wolf, the man who was dancing outside on the helipad shouted out.
"I love this part! tis' one of me all time favourites!" His arms went up and down to the music as if he were the one conducting the orchestra. All of the men were staring at Wolf.

"Never mind him, you should take a look at this." Ping-pong said, turning around and waving for Sandman to follow him. The alpha commander Shadow and Sandman followed Ping-pong to the front of the copter. As usual, Frost was at the helm, sharpening one of her tomahawks. The tall Lakota woman was always sharpening her weapons for some reason. She turned and greeted Sandman with a bubbly attitude, not unlike that of a daughter figure.
"Hey there pop's. Glad you could make it to see me for once. Or was it one of the other ladies you were hoping for?" she said, wrapping her arm around Ping-pongs neck, giving him a noogie. The man struggled lightly against her assault, Sandman chuckling from their antics.
"Cut it out!" The alpha commander yelled at his subordinates. He turned to Sandman with a grim expression on his face, much like that usually warn by Grim. Hence the nickname. "It is very important that you see this." Shadow continued with urgency.

Ping-pong, not wanting to be chastized again quickly grabbed a dirty camcorder from one of his vest pockets, opened it up and motioned for Sandman to watch. Shuffling as close as he could in such confined quarters, he stared at the screen. "We found this on the south side, near the university. It was inside one of the homes we were scouring through. I paid no attention to it at first. Wolf, as usual, pocketed another piece of junk. Or so I though." The man on the screen looked to be in his late fifty's, with crow's feet growing at his pale blue eyes. His hair was all white, combed neatly back. He was in an apparent state of distress, and was going on about some kind of chemical formula. Shadow continued "The man you see there is Dr. Roman Peters. He carried this camcorder with him to the location we were just at, from the OCRD building south of town. The earlier recordings were before the breakout, of the staff's hypothesis and diagnosis of the patients."
"What?" Sandman said, taken aback. "That man survived?"
"Just keep watching" Shadow replied. Wolf Turned off the radio, and the atmosphere suddenly became very chilling. The only sound now was that of Dr. Peters, explaining everything. What felt like hours passed, and cold sensations ran up and down Sandman's spine. He had a stomach, of course; he watched the ravenous zombies tear bloody chunks out of people almost every day for the past two weeks. But this... this was more than fear inspiring, what the man was talking about. What the doctor was saying, it would mean...

"Dear God."

---

Somewhere in River City, a lone Zombie was hunched over a corpse of a pregnant woman. She lay in the street, and with the simple presence of the small, athletically built zombie created a morbid scene. It was using its hands to scoop out the twisted pieces of flesh, bringing the steaming warm delicacy to its cracked and blistered mouth. Black viscous blood dripped from its open maw, its lips trembling in delight as its razor edged teeth sunk into the soft organs of the undeveloped child. A gunshot sounded in the near distance, and the zombie jerked its head towards the sound, food dripping in chunks to the hot pavement. It was possible that the noise meant moving food for the zombie. Moving food was always better than still food. Dropping the remains of the child, it ran towards the sound. As it ran closer, it Picked up the scent of chemicals from the gunfire. Even closer and it began to smell the man's sweat. seconds later the body of a zombie came into view. The zombie stopped and dropped to the ground, its weight dispersed over the ends of the four limbs that were touching the ground. This was peculiar behaviour for one of their kind. From the perspective of the frightened man, The zombie appeared to be mimicking a spider, or a cat ready to pounce. The man had run into a nearby home and was watching the zombie with all of his attention from the shadows. The Zombie proceeded to walk on all fours, its chest close to the ground. It's bloody head jerked from side to side, almost as if were a dog sniffing the air around it. It began to move closer to the doorway the man ran through, and when it got close enough the man opened fire with his twelve gauge shotgun. Brain splatter painted the street, and the zombie collapsed.
"Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit" The man kept whispering to himself, on the verge of hyperventilating. He walked slowly to the corpse of the second zombie. Less than a second, and it registered. It was different than the others he had seen before....It's fingers were... Sharper.

Joker walking out into the streets, behind him the university where he currently is camping, its relatively quiet, he had quietly taken care of the Z’s in the campus which means new ones weren’t attracted. But today he was going for a walk, to the museum. He walked slowly into the street. It looked empty, several car were abandoned at drunken angles.

He moved out of step, which required a lot of concentration and made walking incredibly slow, he wasn’t insane he did it because he knew Zack could hear very well and when one Zack heard you others would hear the fight, then you would die. And since the most people in the city are Zacks and Zack isn’t interested in the sounds of other Zacks you have to try not to sound like a human. Cities are filled with things the creek in the wind, or flap or bang. But very few things sound like a human walking, not even Zack, since Zack only runs or slowly drags his feet looking bored. Anyway Joker got around sounding human by walking slowly and taking very quiet breaths, additionally he walked out of step, so far this had allowed him to walk by houses were Zack was feeding without being noticed.

Although today walking out of step didn’t work so well, Zack was already looking at him, sat in car at the other end of the road, looks like he still had his seat belt on and couldn’t work out how to get free, well he saw Joker and started to freak out, to thrash and moan. Joker has seen this happen before, usually a survivor would kill Zack, and then think he was safe as he walked away in a now quiet street only to turn a corner and find himself face to face with a big group of Zack that had heard him shoot their friend. That was why you didn’t bother killing the first loud Zack, because he was stationary and as such would yell and yell but not move, he would in fact attract all other Zack from near by. Joker thought all this relatively quickly; it was becoming a strangely common thought process. He gave a small mock bow to Zack as he screamed and attacked the seat belt, then walked quickly in the opposite direction.

Joker was now walking west trying to get south, south was dangerous there were more a lot more of them in the south, although west wasn’t much better, the hospital looked like a pit of hell last time he was it, everyone with a bitten friend had gone their in the first few days looking for help, there was known to be found. He starting to think, It would be interesting to clean out the hospital, maybe it could be part of the next joke, it would have to be something ironic about the explosion, classical music and fireworks had already been used, may something with glow in the dark paint, or helium so the zombie moan becomes high pitched, does helium even effect zombies? He wasn’t sure. He could just dress up in a nurses outfit and blow it up, but he was trying to get away from being a batman villain, to getting people to realise he wasn’t ‘the joker’ just Joker although dressing up a rot as batman might be funny, he could set up a bat signal and attract a whole bunch of rot’s together then boom.

Joker suddenly stopped thinking, stopped moving, in the distance he could hear the zombie still beating against that seat belt, but that wasn’t all he could hear, while he had been walking had it been out of step? Or had he slipped into a human rhyme. He tighten his grip on the fire axe, he defiantly wasn’t alone.

"Uggggggh...Mariaaaa!" the young man moaned, sprawled out in the middle of the small 2 bedroom apartment on a slightly tattered looking couch. He seemed tired, mostly due to dark semi-circles just under his eyes, but the boy was never more awake. Alexander Syks slowly sat up, knocking over the mountain of junk food rappers that had been on covering his lean stomach. Well, not so lean. He poked at his midsection a couple times, noting the softness. Gettin' a bit squishy...I should go out and exercise a bit more often... that of course was a joke. It was scorching outside and he wasn't stupid enough to leave without protection, not during midday of course. Protection. Maria. It had been almost 2 hours since she left. It never took her that long to grab something from a convenience store and bust a couple zack heads open.

A knock rang at the door. "Hmm?" no, Alex listen more closely. It a was more of a scratching sound with knocks inbetween. A zack. A smile painted on the teenager's face, he jumped to his feet and grabbed his combat knife off of the table. After clearing his throat, Alex peeked through the eyehole in the door and saw a red and blue hat with a bloodstained Dominoe's Pizza logo on it jostling around. Then he asked; "Who iiiis iiiit?" a gurgling hiss like sound was his only reply, and the scratching and pounding became more frantic. "Oh? A pizza you say? Then by all means, come right in!" Unlocking the bolts, both the original and makeshift locks, the game began. His favorite game.

Six backed up a couple steps, then opened the portal. As usual, the deadbrained zack came plowing through the doorway straight for it's 'easy' meal. So...predictable... Alex simply fell onto his back and braced his hands against the floor, simultaneously raising both legs in line with the zombie. Again, like what seemed like a hundred times before, the zack tried to lean over the boy's legs instead of simply circumventing them. With a quick jolt Alexander's body snapped taught, flinging the ghoul over his body, the couch, and the table and into a the wall. Flipping over he leaped atop the couch and leaped again to bring his knife down upon the now flailing upside down zacks head, succeeding in splattering more gore into the carpet.

After cleaning up a bit and locking up, Six took a few minutes to examine the corpse. It's a pizza boy...or at least what's left of one. His jaw had been torn off, leaving a grotesque bloodsoaked tongue lollinng out of it's open throat. A gagger... the teenager had named several zombies, just for fun. He took stock of his home...it was ok, as far as post-apocalyptic abodes went. The apartment complex remained mile or so away from the hospital, close proximity to the river. It was on the third floor of the building, so zack intrusions were pretty rare. Maybe only one or two at a time. Wrappers and cans lay scattered about the livingroom, and the bedrooms didn't look much better. "Heheh..." a stupid grin crossed his face as he thought of how much better the place looked after he had picked up Maria.

"Maria..." Alex thought to leave and go searching for her...and soon thought better of it. She's tough... and he also disliked the notion of leaving behind the air conditioning unit for wicked hot summer air. Thinking about it, they weren't going to have the choice much longer. Quickly gathering his belongings and personal effects, Six piled them onto the table and posted a note upon the edge of the coffe table. It read;

We're leavin'. No more food in this area. Wake me up when you get home, and if you've been bitten, i'd appreciate you stay outside.

-Love, Six~

With that Alex dozed off for one more afternoon nap.

"Gah!” Nienna cried out loudly, stamping her foot like a child who wasn’t allowed a cookie. “Mother mary of…” She stopped halfway through speaking, getting down on one knee to inspect the damage done to her bike.

While the overall frame was okay, the metal near the front tire on the left edge was dented in slightly. While the motorcycle was in overall good condition, she couldn’t help but be slightly dismayed while she took a long look over her precious mean of transport. It was probably the only thing she gave a damn about. Lord knows there was little left in the city to adore.

Standing up, she went to brush back her hair, her fingers instead sliding over the smooth surface of her helmet. Nina had forgotten to take it off, and instead of messing with it, she dropped her hand, folding her arms to stare at the damage done.


Taking a deep breathe after staring at the bike through her helmet’s dark visor for awhile, she finally turned around, taking a look at the streets she had ended up in. “The last time I ever hit one of those…’things’ again..” She said outloud.

Taking a seat on her bike, legs crossed, Nina continued to speak. Mostly out of the need to feel like someone was listening, or that she wasn’t alone. “Then again you better be glad you got up and managed to get the bike moving after you hit that damn thing. Better the bike than your face…”

Standing in the middle of the street, she was probably similar to an idiot wearing pink camouflage in a snowy setting. But Nina wasn’t really..sure what to do. She wasn’t much of a survivalist, or a fighter. More of the ‘get away on the fast bike’ type.

The smell.. it was always the smell that got most people... One could handle a sight, but a smell.. oh that was much harder to deal with it. Always the sickeningly sweet smell, like bad candy mixed with coppery vomit.

It was the smell of rotting and decaying flesh from several horrifyingly disfigured bodies lying in the heat... The kind of summer where the sky looked to be on fire, and in truth, your skin was. It always burned your outer shell like that of a fried lobster.. and it peeled off in the same manner, in tiny flakes.

The city, a once beating heart filled with happiness despite its harshness and poverty.. in-fact, any hell was better than the one now. A small universe trapped in a outer one, and no way out.

It was here they would perish, or become one of the damned that made up this violent city... It was a poetic way of saying, "We're fucked."

Maria took one last look at the mutilated bodies, her hair covering her facial features despite its bob cut. This was mostly because of the tall womans habit of looking straight at the ground.. it was really a bad habit, as she constantly looked at the corpses that filled the city streets.

The violent often scared faces of women, men, and children alike.. Those lucky enough to suffer too much damage to become turned or killed before becoming one of them..

Who was them? The sickening damned, the scorned horde, or those "Fucking Zombies" as most people knew them, or rather, those still human enough to call them that.

The woman shifted her body, which was clad in quite effective riot control gear, though now stained with blood and skull fragment as she held the club loosely in her hand... She was amazingly strong for a woman, and the several corpses around her were easily missing parts of their skulls from what looked like huge crushing motions.

She slowly began to make her way back "home", or rather a place where they had rested awhile.. Slowly she made her way up the stairs and noticed that something had made its way up there...

She readied herself, the huge fiber glass shield in front of her and the mace held at ready.. in truth, no member of the horde could easily get through that, and she wasn't about to get "bitten". They were like rabid animals, and the only way to treat them is to destroy them.. in truth, if she had the fire, she would burn every corpse...

She made her way up the stairs now, her body looked like some kind of modern day knight, and underneath the plexi glass helmet, one could see her saddened eyes and the wicked scars.. A gift of the new world.

When she was younger, she was quite beautiful.. but those days were long gone. She made her way to the top now... and relaxed as she read the note scribbled out to her.

The body didn't faze her much, as it wasn't moving so naturally, it was dead.. The "kid" as she called her mutual friend, learned a bit on how to fight. Still all it took was one mistake. These creatures were not like the horrifying ones she saw in other areas.. ones that scratched large dents inside the fiber-glass and one time broke her arm by striking it... Lucky kid.

It didn't take her long to find him, and she kicked him slightly, though oddly affectionately. Those damn food wrappers, the kid was a pig. "Wake up, Six."

Six and her went awhile back, and he probally woulda died if she didn't happen upon him. This area used to be so insanely infected, it took her weeks to stem the flow.. it was a difficult battle for sure, and one that terrified her to this day.. there had been alot more people too.. now it was just her and the kid.

Joker frowned, he had heard it again, a scrapping sound, a moist, sickening scrapping sound. It was Zack, although this time he was legless, using his arms to pull himself along the ground as his blood poured out around him. Joker let out a sigh, walked over and smashed Zack’s head like a pumpkin hit with an axe, or a head hit with an axe. Joker walked on wiping the mess from his axe with some cloth, hygiene was a real danger; there is more then one virus that can kill you.

It was then that the situation deteriorated. From all around, Zack started to emerge, from door ways and alleys. Joker put the fire axe on his back, he had attacked a shoulder strap to it, and from his pocket he removed his 10mm pistol. Now he started moving, he ran to the nearest building, it was a shoe shop and tried the door, locked, of course. He shot the lock and moved inside. Zack had seen him and heard the shot, Joker was only just inside the door when fists started beating at it behind him and hammering on the windows. Their must have been at least 20 outside, more would be coming. Joker only had time for when breath as he held the door shut, and then the windows broke, large display windows, Zack was through in seconds.

Joker shot the first one through, downing it; he had gotten good at aiming for the head. Then a second. He missed the third it fell over the bodies of the previous two just when Joker fired. He only had 9 shots left. Time to beat a retreat. He ran towards the back of the shop, behind him Zack followed. He fried a few wild shots behind as he ran, kneecapping one and missing another. 7 shots. The back of the shop was a storeroom, he closed the room behind him and as he leaned on it began to grab what ever was in reach onto the door to hold it. Which was mostly boxes of shoes, not really the most weighty of items.

Then he heard a noise from inside the store room, alone Zack stumbled out of the shadows, an employee but the looks of the uniform. Joker fired, missing the first shot, the stress was getting to him, he took a deep breath and fired again downing the creature. 5 shots. This rot had been locked in, he must have locked himself in, and there couldn’t have been any other exits since employee Zack would have wandered out looking for food.

Joker reloaded then holstered the pistol and drew his combat shotgun, so much for running, the exit lay behind him and the longer he waited the more Zack would arrive to beat on the door and the door didn’t look like it was up to much.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Morgan stood looking out into the city, he was on the roof, he liked it up here, it was quiet, well quieter, the city had a new sound, not the sounds of life but the sounds of death, gunshots, fires and the ever constant moaning of the zombies bellow swarming around the barricades. He slipped his coffee it was hot. He surveyed the ruin and hell that was this city. He told himself that he had done all he could, he protected his men, he also killed most of his men, but what was left he protected. The nine that were left.

He considered his coffee again, it was only half a cup full, he was rationing the water and soon power would be a problem was well, he might have to send the troop out on a raid, George and Hugo were beginning to get restless and it would be a good way to remind the troop to keep their guard up. They needed power, it was a fact, so solar panels or wind turbines. Maybe a petrol powered generator, petrol was common enough in a city of cars but no one to drive them. He would discuss it the troop. And water, well thank god the city had a river, but with zombies about would it be safe to drink, he didn’t want to chance it yet, there were water powers they could raid before hand.

He sighed the future seemed dark at the moment, at times he envied the day by day survivors, they accepted they would probably die so didn’t have to consider the future and even better they seldom had anyone to look after. Morgan and 9 people in his protection, more then that he had 3 full squads, he had failed most of them, and he wouldn’t fail those that remained.

Morgan walked back into the bar, around him the men did their duties, cleaning, guarding; it was mostly busy work, to keep them occupied. Mary had gotten up before all of them, done her duties while it was still dark then left with her rifle to patrol. The night guard has seen her leave. She was having a difficult time, she hadn’t spoken about what had happened to squad 3, no one mentioned it, usually she would seem normal, around the guest especially, it seemed that she was more concerned about the other troops. Morgan sat a table and nodded at those few guest that were enjoying breakfast. He asked David who was on the bar if there were any papers today, David smiled, it was a running joke they had about what was missing in this city. The list was behind the bar, news papers, tv, new films, new clothes, the decency to wash, the list went on and on, everyone missed something and it was nice to know you weren’t alone. It was also rather depressing when you considered the things everyone thought put didn’t right on the list, such as, the living, safety, a future, children, innocents. Most children had died, there was the odd one or two about but they weren’t children anymore, the light was gone in them, the joy and happiness was gone. No innocents because everyone in the city was a killer, you had to be to survive.

Morgan picked up his book and slipped his coffee, it had cooled, he was reading a nice little book ‘the zombie survival guide’

'Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me'

Sparra sang quietly to herself as she slunked down behind a half deteriorated car. The fear gushed through her body like a river, but Sparra had learned to embrace life for what it was now 'A sh*t Heap'. Celebrating her birthday was not the first thing on her mind, it was survival right now.

Sparra had not really had human contact since the break out, she hadn't many friends and the one's she had were now... well the infected. For the past 30 minutes she had been running through the streets to try and find other humans, the only thing she had on her to keep her safe were her rosary bead (Even though there wasn't a religious bone her body) and a kitchen knife from her grandparents house. Her Nani and Papi as she used to call them had became monsters, Sparra regretted having to leave them bitten but she couldn't afford to die, she needed to live... not because she wanted to but to prove a point.

Since she had set off from the old folks, with a bag full of the essentials... food, water, underwear and well there was a study guide in their for university but something was telling she would never need it again. No more rejections from those highly prestigious school's, it was learn from life now. She had travelled down a main road to get here, she had a bike for a while, but ditched it when a Z had hooked to the back of it... near death experience.

Now she found herself in the Subs, she thought somehow there would be at least one human here.. maybe even someone she might know.

CLANK

Sparra's whole body jerked at the loud sound coming from the other side of the car. She shakily put her head to the floor to see a pair of shoes... human of Z she couldn't really tell, had she really let her guard down long enough to let something that close. All she could do know was make a run for it down the street, hoping she was fast enough to find another hiding place.


1,2 ,3... Go

She jumped up and sped ahead, fear was like a petrol to her, it made sure one foot landed in front of the other. A load screech could be heard, and heavy footsteps behind her... it obviously was not a human on the other side of that car.

Something was poking his ribs. It felt like...a boot? Oh... the teen thought with a sudden flash of recognition. "Ah, Mariaaaa...!" Six groaned, "five more minutes..."

"Wake up, Six." he heard her say. She sounded like a mom...in a wierd, zombie slaying warrior kind of way.

"Meh..." for the second time that day, Alexander lifted himself off of the ground with wrappers cascading off of his stomach. Glancing up at his protector, he noted the look upon her face. The look she'd kept on her face since they first met. It almost never left her face. It was an expression of sadness, and maybe anger...but not at him. At something beyond his current knowledge, something that Maria had not yet confided in him. Thinking about it, the notion was understandable. He was only 16, and even with his knowledge beyond his years, most people wouldn't trust a teenager with personal thoughts. Soon enough then. Assuming we survive.

After about 10 minutes of double checking their gear, Maria and Six got to traveling. The boy had grabbed all the water containers he could manage without making movement a chore, as it might be a while since they come near the Blue River again. While bounding down the stairs, the boy looked up into the summer sky. He'd been asleep for only about an hour, as the sun hadn't made much progress through the sky since he had dozed off. If Alex had to guess, it was about 2 to 4 in the afternoon. Damn...time always seems to slow down when some crappy event is going on. he snickered, still faster than school though. Maria must've noticed his private laugh because she gave him a questioning stare. Few words were shared between the two, but a mutual understanding was there. He found the supplies and kept them out of Zack-heavy areas, and she got the supplies and got them out of the more unsavory situations. After his making eye contact with her, he merely smiled and entered the alley next to his old apartment building. The alleyways in this neighborhood ran parallel to the street, allowing unhindered travel with minimal chance of running into an infected. Plus, the alleyways were narrow, allowing for in easy defense if spotted.

Ten minutes of silent alley-stalking passed. Then twenty. Then at thirty, he heard a loud bang, probably a collapsing board or something. The duo was about halfway to the Sacred Heart Church. "Booored..." he whispered, checking back to see if she was even still there. She was. It was hard to tell, as both Maria and Alex had learned to make their footsteps make less than a whisper of sound, even while encumbered. They were coming up to an open spot, an area where the alleys opened up into the street before entering another alley. Damn... waving his hand back, calling for a halt, Alex peeked to the left side of the opening down the street. Clear. Then to the right side...the young man's face paled. Zacks. Alot of them, like at least 20. They were about 7 blocks away, and gunning it. Alex would've moved on, if not for the target of the zombie's desire; some cute girl sitting on a partially wrecked bike in the middle of the damned road a small ways up the street, maybe two blocks.

Without really thinking about it, Alex whipped out his pistol and made a mad dash for the girl. "What the hell are you doin'!? Run!" he kept running, the zacks outpacing him greatly. They were less than 5 blocks away by the time he had covered his first. What the... once he'd gotten within ten feet of the girl, the zacks were barely 2 blocks away. Six lifted the gun and blasted one of them, then took a second shot at it bringing it down. The other zombies simply leaped over the downed corpse and Alex prayed to god Maria was right behind him. Reaching for the girl, the blood was pounding in his ears. If Alex hadn't been so nervous, he would have noticed that the zacks, although running at top speed, made no sound as they padded along. Their feet ended in fine claws that kept the soles of their feet from touching the ground.

"What the hell you doin'? Run!"

Nina drifted back into conciousness slowly, her eyes starting to focus after she had dazed off into space until she heard someone calling to her. Had she not taken her helmet off earlier Nina probably wouldn't have heard the shouting or sound of someone running straight towards her. Finally looking up after taking her sweet time, her mouth dropped to see some boy trailed by a large amount of Zombies making a crazy sprint towards where she was sitting on her motorcycle. Her helmet fell from her lap and onto the ground with a clatter.

"No fucking way he's going to outrun them."

Standing up quickly she kind of spun around in a circle, only to sit down in a panic back on her precious ride. Grabbing the key to the ignition on her Harley and twisting it violently she only heard the untimely stutter of the engine. "No no no damn it!" She cursed, the boy coming up quickly behind her, the undead mob just behind. Twisting it twice more, the engine continued to sputter, at the last moment starting up with success. Revving the motor twice Nina kicked the break up, her left foot still on the ground. Looking behind her, Six reached out towards Nina, and she did the same, grabbing firmly onto his wrist as she tried to yank him onto the Harley behind her, the custom softail sparing an extra seat for a second rider- just in case.

Nienna wasn't sure if he was going to willingly come with her or not. She didn't know if this stranger was accompanied by someone or if he had some clever trick up his sleeve, but what Nina was sure of: that damn bike was way too precious to leave behind. That and she doubted very seriously that with a large approaching crowd of the hungry balls-o-joy making a roaring dash towards them, that they would be able to outrun them on foot.

She spent another second or two trying to safely wrestle the boy onto the bike, not wasting another second to throw the bike into motion launching it forward with no hesitation.

Quickly reaching out for the woman to take his hand, blood still pounding in his ears, it took a moment for Six to register what just happened. He was on the bike with the girl, throttling at top speed down the blazing hot blacktop. She had mistaken his proposed aid for a plea of help, and mounted him onto the seat behind her. Instantly Six felt the pull of the bike starting and grabbed hold of his supposed hero for dear life. Just as the dumbfounded teen regained enough of his wits to form a coherant thought, he found his mouth couldn't form the required movements necessary for speech. In fact, his body felt heavy and rigid. Shit...lag...why now...? and without another sound, Six drifted from the concious realm, his arms wrapped securely around the waist of his hog-riding...savior. Ma...ri...a....

At the beginning of the infection, when zombie groups roamed about the streets en masse, Alexander counted his insomnia -a trait that he had cursed most of his life- a blessing. It had allowed him to keep watch for 4 to 5 days at a time, so severe was his affliction. At best, he could just close his eyes and not move in a form of primitive rest, like he had done ealier that day. He was the ultimate sentry, and barely needed rest. Once in a while though, his body would force REM sleep to occur, due to an overall lack of sleep. This manifested itself in the form of passing out for 5 to 10 hours at a time with nearly no chance of him waking up before then. This was the sleep he had missed out on, crashing into his body all at once. Alex named the phenomenon, 'lagging'.

Bouncing along on the bike with the woman, unaware of the blistering heat of the late afternoon sun, the young man dreamed. He had the dream again. It wasn't some preternatural sixth sense kind of dream, or some premonition. Just plain wierd. He was...eating. Something sweet...his blurred vision cleared to reveal his mystery-food. It wasn't something, more like someone. Ugh. realizing it was just a fabrication of his subconcious mind, Alex just mentally let go and let his dream play out. Something interesting always happened in the end.

As usually the dark brown haired leader sat on her throne, well it technically wasn’t a throne, just a plain black office chair she stole from West End Mall. She claimed it as her own and if anyone so much as tries sit in it they would have a bullet in their head. Her fake green eyes stared blankly at map of River City that they had sprayed onto the cement wall before she gazed towards the two youngest dancing around in circles to the classic music that was playing in the background. She was rather annoyed at the fact that Sandman kept playing such old boring songs, she would have to try and get in contact with him some how so she could request some better tunes. She took a long drag from the cigarette as she sat there comfortably in her usually position. She sat there more like a guy then a young lady. She was half laying across it, her legs up on the chair, one stretched out hanging over one of the armrests and the other bent, while one of her arms rested on other the armrest and with her right she held her cigarette. It had been a slow and peaceful morning which she was rather happy about since last night they had a few problems with the security. Some zombies decided to come pay them a visit but soon after they set foot on her property they found themselves in body bags.

Addie glanced over at Big U who sat next to her in her own chair looking rather stiff. For some reason that girl never seemed to be able to relax and it just made Addie uncomfortable having to look at her all frozen solid in position. Her eyes trailed along to the next person, Double D who was busy checking herself out in a broke mirror, making sure all her strands of hair were in the right place. Addie couldn’t help but chuckle a little shaking her head wondering why DD would even bother trying to look all perfect, it wasn’t like there were any blokes around she could impress anyway. Just then Tech came racing up the stairs from the floor below screaming, “INTRUDER ALERT INTRUDER ALERT!” As usual she was smiling brightly getting rather excited as she raced over to the plasma trying to find the intruder/s on one of the webcams. Addie sat up a little waiting to see who came to visit. “Oh false alarm it’s just Harry,” Tech’s excitement seemed to drop instantly as she turned towards the rest of the room and then gazed at Addie waiting on orders.

A few others seemed to call out in disappointment as well annoyed that it was just Harry before most of them returned to what they were going earlier. “Someone please go get him before he set of all our traps,” Addie rolled her eyes a little before the two youngest came running up to her doing a little salute before they spoke. “Can we pretty please go get him?” They smiled cutely as Addie gazed around the room to see what the others thought. Of course XO was shaking her head; she didn’t like seeing the little ones get hurt. Both Tech and DD were nodding their head quite forcefully but when she looked at Big U her face stayed perfectly still. I’ll take that as a yes. Her eyes trailed back to the two girls given them a nod of approval as they raced off to the roof, XO threw her hands up in the air and went back downstairs to the kitchen. Harry worked in a small deli; he is rather skinny and doesn’t work out so the two young ones would easily be able to take him on.

They made their way down the fire escape ladder before walking around to the front where Harry stood. Addie, Tech, Big U, DD and a few others watched closely the plasma screen to see what was happening. One of the girls pulled out a pistol aiming it at Harry as they got closer, “FREEZE!” Harry jumped a little from surprise as he didn’t seem them coming. His hands immediately went up seeing the gun, “I got some information…” He was shaking rather badly as the two girls walked closer towards him. One then quickly searched him for any weapons and then goes, “This might hurt a bit but we have to make sure you’re not hiding anything there.” Harry looked a little confused at the girl before she kicked him straight in his privet area. Harry cried out in pain clutching his stuff as he fell to the ground. Everyone watching on the screen bursts out laughing even Big U who never shows any emotion. The girl turns to the one with the gun smiling brightly, “All clean.” “Follow us,” the moved back up the ladder Harry following behind them.

Addie turned the radio down as Harry and the two little girls entered, she gave them another nod and smile before waving them off to go down stairs. Harry very slowly moved towards her still shaking. “What do you want?”
“I saw some people riding on your tracks…and I was thinking that maybe we can do a little trade…like I tell you the names of the people and you maybe give me….” His eyes trailed around, “one of these AK47.” He picks up one of their guns half smiling as he turns back towards Addie. Big U all of the sudden gets to her feet and just as she does Harry quickly drops the weapons. Addie just sits there smiling before clearing her throat, “how about you give us the names first.”
“Um...okay sure thing,” he nervously stares at Big U as she cracks her knuckles. Harry swallowed hard before continuing. “It was Ringo, Will and John…their the ones that just live next door to me.”
“Thanks for telling us that…now can you please leave,” she didn’t really care that those boys decided to ride on her tracks because as soon as Tech successfully hacked into the railway system no one was going to ride those trains but them. Harry all of the sudden half dives towards her shoes, grabbing her foot as he started pleading, “Please I can’t defend my store with just a pistol….please I need some weapons.” Her face became tenses as she stared at his hand on shoes, how dare he touch her. Without warning she kicks her leg, flinging his hand off her shoes before she gets up. She walks towards the map on the wall, “You won’t need any weapons as long as we are around….I thought I made it clear to you last time that as long as you play nice little deli owner we will protect you and your store…unless you forgot, I’m sure Big U will be happy enough to help you remember.” Her finger trailer along the railway tracks in the north as she spoke. “You better be gone before I turn around.” Harry quickly got to his feet before two girls linked arms with him and escorted him back off their premises.

Addie turned back to the rest of the group, “Tech get your stuff ready cause we’re going to hack into those computers today…I’m feeling lucky ladies.” She smirked.

Death and Despair. These lucky ladies know nothing about what their names stand for. Oh, he would show them. He would show all of them. There was not going to be one single stench ridded rotbag left in His city! Oh no sir, he would hunt them down and tear them to shres with his hands. Hell hath no fury like a father no more.

KA -- BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The apartment building just off to the left of where Chew was standing had explosives rigged to it's supports. Well, half of its supports. He had done it himself earlier in the day, feeling the need to create some widespread carnage. Oh, and the few hundred zombies that were running straight for him? That was the product of some very intricate planning: Jumping up and down, arm flailing, screaming at the top of his lungs all manners of profane language...Pretty slick if he could say himself.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Oh yeah, that was the other apartment building across the street. It was over far enough that the two buildings would not collide with each other should they fall. And fall the did! Chew bent over in a typical "I'm a woman trying to seduce you" pose, and blew a kiss to the zombie horde that were sprinting for him. Just as Chew had planned, the duo of massive six-storey apartment buildings crashed down onto the zombie horde, instatly silencing hundreds of moans and shrieks. Dust clouds sprayed the streets, coloring a wide area in the grey-red color. It whooshed past the tall man, his eyes closed and arms spread out. His hair and clothing whipped rapidly against the short but powerful onslaught of the man-made wind. He revelled in the cloud, imagining himslef atop a giant battleship cruising at an unrealistic speed, crushing zombie sharks under its deadly hull. When the dust settled, he dropped his arms to his side, and opened his eyes to meet the sun in the sky.

"You like that? Do you? HA-HA, You pieces of worthless flesh, you are Nothing! NOTHING!" He screamed with all of his primal fury, his back arched further than a normal person should bend. "AaaaaaHH!!" And with the closing of his feral scream, he said out loud "That's right bitches, I'm right here. I'm still in the flesh that you want so badly, but you can't have it. Not till I'm done with it." There was not another sound, not even ther moans and shrieks of the zombies that plagued the city. Nothing but the beat of his heart and the beast-like inhale and exhale of breath. He brought his head down to level and turned around.

Inside, he giggled a little. "Man, I have always wanted to do this."

As he reached a distance he deemed safe, he stopped. He began straightening his jacket, dusting off his clothes, and even took to running his hands through his hair several times. Satisfied, he reached into his pocket, felt a small box, and fingered the button. "Whoo, I hope this looks just like in the movies." He took his hand out of his pocket, and began to walk with much more swing than before. If he could describe it, kind of like the action hero of a movie, walking away from a large --

KAABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM!!!!

Orange yellow and white swirled together like the tail of a phoenix to form a small mushroom cloud of fire and heat, sprouting from where the two apartment buildings had fallen. This hellfire engulfed the apartments, charring the stone and melting it into molten slab. The air around the blazing pillar warped and twisted wildly with a ferocity of a thousand stampeeding elephants, lashing out at all the surrounding buildings, shattering the glass as if were thrown conffetti. A magnificent flash of light obliterated all the shadows in a one block radius, and the shockwave of the blast shuddering the foundations of all of the surrounding buildings. Black dust barreled out of the light, covering everything in soot. The sound of the explosion would sound for several miles easy. Hell, old man Tehan Peta might even see this beautiful display of pure wrath. Whatever existed of the horde of rotting decay after being squished to re-death, existed no more.

Oh yeah, he pulled it off and then some.

Combat shotgun is a vague term, it’s just a shotgun used in combat, in this instance it’s a 12 gauge semi automatic shotgun, M4 super 90, made in Italy, used by the United States Marine Corp. 50 meter range and 9 shot internal magazine tube. This is what Joker held in his hands.

He moved the gun into a firing position, and then slowly began to turn while keeping a foot pressing the door closed. Then he moved back fully, the door opened in seconds but Joker had fired before he had seen the first one, which meant the shell impacted just as the door opened. 3 rots were blown backwards, one killed. Then he fired again and again, bellowing back further rots and clearing the doorway for a few seconds as more distant rots raced into the breach.
Joker took a step backwards, as they charged him. He fired another shot, then another and a third. The rots fell to the ground, he had another few seconds before those he had shot originally were back on the their feet, that’s the problem with shotguns, the shot isn’t that great at keep rots down. He put the shot gun down and drew his pistol, firing five shots in succession, with which he downed three rots and tripped 2 others. He moved back again, now in front of him 5 remaining zombies charged, he dropped the pistol and grabbed the shotgun up firing the last three shot in the magazine.

Then there was a pause, he reloaded the shotgun, put it over his shoulder, picked up the pistol, reloaded. And started to leave, stopping every now and then to give a rot a second shot, just to be on the safe side. He walked out into the street, it was quiet, obviously there would be more, there was always more, but for now he had some time.

Thinking quickly he walked back into the shot, found the body of the employee rot and checked his pockets, bingo, car keys. Joker walked back outside, clicked the auto unlock and there not far off he found a nice little car, a ford fiesta, 2 litre, perfect city car.

Driving was more dangerous as where ever you stopped the zombies in that area already knew you where there since they had heard your car, on the plus side it was fast, much fast. Joker had been heading south again, when the started playing with the radio, he got a signal, which wasn’t surprising, Joker had heard about Sandman before, he had heard his broadcasts. Screw the museum he thought, I’m going to get a request on the air, maybe two if I’m lucky.


Joker crossed the river and started heading for the radio station.

Blaze grinned, dashing past zombies and dodging around them, this was quite fun, with the backdrop of a boiling city it could be some kind of twisted action movie. His footsteps could hardly be heard as he ran, he had tucked a thick cloth into the top of his shoes, muffling the noise that was made when his foot hit the floor. He took out his beretta incase one was quick enough to catch him when he ran past them, there were a few like that, that were quick enough to swing out an arm and grab him.

Blaze stopped to rest, the nearest zombie having not seen him. A moan from behind. He turned and saw a zombie,
"how the-?" he was cut off when it grabbed for him, and the flesh was countered when a gun muzzle smashed into it's face. "The pterion is the weakest part of the skull." he muttered to himself, and swung the gun at that part of the head. A slight cracking noise sounded as he hit the lower part of the pterion section. He grinned, at times brute force is a stupid thing, tactical thinking is better. The Z stumbled backwards, but it was still not dead, so Blaze hit it again, hitting about the same part of it's brain-cage, as his father had used to call it. He recalled the last text message his father had sent him. It read:

Jmes, get out of twn. exprimnt gone bad, theyll eat u, go. take food.

He had paid no attention to it at first, in fact, he had not even heard it buzzing as he walked to the library. But now here he was, running around, playing a sick version of tag. He heard zombies very far behind him as the other, faster, Z fell to the ground, but nevertheless they were coming. He took off, dashing round corners and into alleys, out of those and into less packed streets, Blaze didn't stop until he was sure he was safe, and near the center of the city, he had heard something of an army captain who gave hot meals to people in exchange for something, and he could just give them his cans of baked beans and the like in exchange for a proper meal.

Sparra ran as fast as she could down the darkened streets, hearing what could only be described as, as moans.

Her heart was beating a mile a minute, and sweat trickled down her well tanned face.
What if I die... What if I die now she thought as she picked up speed.

Sparra hadn't remembered the last time she felt this frightened, in fact she never really had a time when she had been this scared of being killed... losing her life. She dropped her speed a little, her body just couldn't keep up with this speed forever, she was tiring out.

Screeeeech..

The sound of tires skidding along the tarmac send a bone chilling whip down her spine. It had to be another human, as far as she knew Zack's could not drive, and if they could of Sparra would have been dead by now. A ford fiesta, a small smart car, perfect for city driving had just crossed the bridge directly in front of Sparra.

The fear set in, no matter what Sparra was getting in that car, because she would not survive alone... whoever was driving it would have to help her.

Please dear God, see me and stop she thought as she ran forward, waving her arm to show she was all human. What she hadn't realised was the amount of Zombies that had followed her after she had ran. There was about 6-7 and they were all catching up.

Please... please... please stop repeated in her mind as she continually ran forward waving even more.

Addie grabbed her shotgun that was leaning up against the wall along with some of their other weapons, strapping it on her back as she waited for the others. Only four of them would be going today because it would be too risky to send more out since the number of infected increases rapidly each day. No matter how many get killed by survivors the total infected seems to always be increasing. The four going are her, Tech of course since she’s the expert, Big U and the new girl Milly since she hasn’t been out with them before. Once they all got their stuff they headed down the ladder leaving DD in charge of the rest of the gang.

Addie brushed her side fringe out of her face as she watched Big U pull the stained cloth off the four motorcycles that stood near the back door. They would only take two with them since Tech couldn’t drive herself she would just sit at the back of hers and Milly would share the other bike with Big U. Milly whistled with excitement seeing the motorcycles before asking if they had any helmets. They all turned towards her with eyes all wide before they all laughed a little. Addie pulled her aviators out of her leather jacket, smirking as she put them on before hopping onto the yellow bike, “We didn’t have time to get them.”
“And also because we like taking risks,” Tech joked before hopping on behind Addie wrapping her arms around her stomach. Addie flicked her cigarette butt in the dumpster next to them before pressing down the clutch and shifting it into first gear. She slammed her foot down on the kick started before revving the bike a few times enjoying the sound it made, “Let’s head out!” She turned the choke off revving it a few more times before she was happy with it and took off. Big U followed behind her as they drove off the property and onto the streets.

They headed north to station six which was were the main control centre for the Industrial Rails was. The streets were rather quiet until all of the sudden they heard a loud explosion. Addie braked immediately placing her foot on the ground and she turned the bike around to watch the small mushroom cloud in the west. Big U quickly stopped as well as they all gazed at the smoke. “Looks like someone is having a little fun….oh well as long as it’s not near our home we are fine,” Addie smirked before kick starting the bike again and they continued on their way. They drove side by side on the road since there weren’t any other cars around; the only thing they had to watch out for was the stupid infected who tried to jump in front of their bikes. Tech decided to have a little fun as she pulled out her pistol and start firing at the zombies that stood near the side of the road. She laughed rather evilly as she hit a few of them, but Addie told her off. “Stop wasting your bullets we might need them for later…and its not like these suckers can get us on these bikes,” she smiled before pulling the handlebars back doing a wheelie. Tech clutched tighter around Addie so she wouldn’t fall off. They both laughed as the bike’s front wheel hit the ground hard nearly knocking Tech off. They continued before they noticing a truck up ahead, Milly signalled them to take the truck over. Both motorcycles come up beside the truck before they purposely cut in front of him; the driver sounded his horn looking rather pissed off. “Watch this…” Milly slowly and carefully turned herself around so that she was now sitting backwards on the bike. “OI CHECK THIS OUT DRIVER!” She waved her hands around to get the drivers attention before she pulled up her top and flashed him. Addie and Tech burst out laughing as the driver lost control off the wheel and swayed left and right before he got the truck back under control. They speeded off down the road laughing before they moved the bikes closer to each other so that Tech and Milly could high five. Although there is a deadly outbreak spreading across the city the Iron Maidens still seemed to be able to have fun and joke around.

They finally arrived at station 6, parking their bikes right in front of the control building as they hopped off. Addie quickly pulled the strap of her shotgun around to the front as the moved towards the door. There appeared to be no one inside as Big U kicked the door open. Tech quickly raced towards the computer and started setting up her stuff before she got to work. Milly was told to wait at the bikes and keep watch for any infected. Big U stood outside the door while Addie watched patiently over Tech’s shoulders before turning towards the T.V. screens that should all the cameras on the trains. There were a few people on the train at the moment which she made her smile because very soon they are going to get kicked off. It took Tech a couple of hours until she finally overrode the system she jumped with excitement, “We are in!” But just then Milly comes running in, “We have a gang of zombies heading our way.” “Big U go help Milly take care of them while we quickly finished,” Addie grabbed the microphone that was linked to all the trains and stations in the North, clearing her throat before she began to speak.

“Good afternoon fellow River City citizens, Addie from the Iron Maidens here…I’m sorry to be bearer of bad news but the Industrial Railway now belongs to us….so if you don’t mind hopping off at the next station that would be greatly appreciated…even you lady in the red.” She smirked at Tech before continuing on, “and for you Railmen and Mercenaries we have a rather special offer….you are all fired…which means you won’t have to risk your life anymore for other people….aren’t we just lovely…now if you don’t mind making your way to station 6 and handing over the keys.” Addie put the microphone down and high fived Tech as they made their way outside towards the platforms waiting for the five trains to arrive. They heard gunshots coming from where their bikes were but knew that Big U and Milly would call for them if they needed help. The first train arrived and Addie gripped her shotgun tighter knowing that if you got on a Mercenaries’ bad side it could get violent. The Railman and his mercenary stepped out onto the platform and walked towards them. Addie just smiled, “nice to meet you…just drop the keys there and move off.” The Mercenary was about to step closer and she quickly aimed her gun at him. “I don’t think so….seriously you should be happy because it means you won’t have to be on these trains 24/7 putting your lives at risk, for what? To save some ungrateful River City citizen life because they are too lazy to walk ….we also let you keep your weapons….and by the way be my guest and take any of those cars parked in the parking lot,” she smirked and watched them closely walk away. “That went better then I thought it would,” Tech whispered over her shoulder. The rest of the trains arrived soon after and no one seemed to have much of a problem with being fired and the Railman and Mercenary were rather eager in stealing the cars it wasn’t like anyone was going to come pick them up.

The perfect headshot is just that. Perfect. It was so much more than that tired line, "One shot, one kill." So much more. You had to line up the shot, aiming right between the eyes, a little above the brow line, a little below the center of the forehead. Straight down from the widow's peak, if the target had one. The shot had to be taken directly from head-on. No diagonal angles would do. Straight on...just like that. You had to make sure the sight was calibrated just right. It couldn't be more than a millimeter to the right or left. It had to be PERFECT.

Then, you had to exhale slowly. It slows your heart, therefore your pulse, therefore your natural body shake. It calms you down, and gets the adrenaline flowing. It focuses your mind. You have to make the shot perfect. Then, you pull the trigger. Just like that. You have to watch the bullet as it flies straight towards the head it was designated for, made for. The lead would impact the skull at varying velocities, but the end result was the same. Unless you used AP rounds. That made it more fun.

The skull would shatter at the point of impact, just a little bit of it. The bullet would continue through the cranium to the brain, where the gray matter would scramble and explode, leaving your target clinically dead almost instantly. Clean. Then, if the bullet still had enough velocity, it would travel through the back of the skull, and to whatever was behind the target. And then, the poor bugger would fall, first to his knees, then faceplant on the ground. If you're lucky, you could still hear the casing *clink* on the ground.

Perfect.



Scar rose from his prone position on the rooftop, looking over his planned headshot, sighing in lost wonder. If only... Nowadays, you'd be lucky if the target even had a forehead left. That was the depressing part. The brain wouldn't explode like it usually would. It would just seep out the already-open cracks in the skull. No excitement there. Time to move on.

Scar stretched a second, then moved to the other side of the rooftop, to the wide plank of wood connecting this roof with the next. The one good thing about River City was that, on most blocks, the buildings were relatively close. Scar could've jumped the divide, but he decided to save his energy. He might need it later.

Traversing the sturdy bridge, Scar came to the next rooftop. The door to the lower levels was his destination, leading down to his sanctuary. Well, temporary sanctuary. The entrance to the base was on the other side of the city, too far to be easily accessible. So Scar had made himself a temporary home, and made sure it was secure. Moving down to the top floor, Scar took a look around the empty area. It wasn't finished yet. That's what Scar had liked about it. Plenty of space to spread out.

Moving down three more levels, Scar came to the twenty-sixth floor. He knew there were eleven more levels beneath him that were secure, made so by the curious lack of intact stairwells. He'd made sure of that when he blew them. Explosives came in handy every once in awhile, Scar found. He'd simply used a batch of home-made thermite to melt through the supports. After that, the structure crumbled upon itself, leaving at least three floors of inaccessibility between him and the meatsacks.

Moving into his "office" of sorts, Scar sat down at the makeshift desk - a small, overturned packaging crate - and looked over the map spread out on the surface. Taking out a small red marker, he marked off yet another intersection as "Bad". He was finding potential safe routes throughout the city. Despite what people might think about the fluidity of zombie movement, certain intersections were less crowded than others. Usually, they were the ones that didn't have big buildings and the like. They were marked in green. "Good". Busier intersections were marked in yellow, "Dangerous", usually were around office buildings and small condos. Really busy intersections, the ones marked in red, were generally around tall buildings and what used to be high population densities.

There were three "Safe" routes through the city, so far. The only problem was that the nearest route was ten blocks to the south. And every intersection between where Scar was and there was marked in red. He'd have to find some way to either traverse the rooftops or go underground to get there.

Bugger...

Joker had been driving relatively slowly given the fact the roads were filled with undead and therefore the chance of hitting another moving car was rather low. But Joker had learned early on that the roads these days were far more dangerous then before, abandoned barricades and cars parked in the middle of the roads were the new risks. But he was making good time, well better then on foot at least, Zack was having a party running after him, but they usually gave up and when after something else. If he had been in a large car he would have reversed over the Zack following him to slow them down permanently.

He had heard some distant explosions, slightly larger then normal. He had been mostly focusing on the road and what songs he was going to ask sandman to play. The list had been cut down to 5, Down with the sickness, this a must in a zombie apocalypse. Captain Morgan’s Revenge, because it’s a good song and it would make Morgan happy and maybe get Joker a free night. Don’t Stop Believin’, because it’s a good song but also everyone saw it in that family guy episode. The final countdown, just because it should be the theme music to life. Finally, Welcome to the jungle, no explanation needed.

Joker started crossing the river; the last few blocks had been rather quiet. As he crossed he saw someone, a girl, she was running towards him waving her arms, Joker drove closer then stopped. Zack didn’t wave it just ran. Joker opened his door and stepped out; he already had his pistol draw but was keeping it at his side, no need to start a fight by accident.

He was happy to see another alive human, but he had heard enough stories to know that not all humans were friendly these days. Some wanted your stuff, some wanted you, and some were just crazy. But to be fair this girl didn’t look like any of these, she looked scared and in trouble, Joker waved to her, indicating she should get in his car.
Joker laughed at himself, he must be losing it, she looked just like a girl he used to know and know well, hard to tell at the distance, peoples faces had changed so much since the Zack arrived on the block. He was probably just insane, what were the chances of someone you know not only surviving but also bumping into you.

--------------------------------------------

Morgan looked up from his book, it was proving less useful then he had hoped, although he was really only reading it for a joke. The book discussed various situations and reactions to those situations, but Morgan had little control over his situation. According to the book this was a class 3 outbreak, they were rather well set up inside this apartment block, although ultimately screwed in the long runs, since they could farm, could produce what was necessary for repairs, additionally the book specifically states to avoid cities. Although this wasn’t a normal siege, the book expects zombies to be in charge, but they aren’t, currently this is a quarantined outbreak and there is nothing in the book to help you with that.

Morgan stood and looking out into the city considering the situations, they needed more ammo, if they want to purify the whole city. But that seems almost impossible, you would need every survivor still alive to help, and most weren’t logical enough to cooperate. Plan B, leave, not just the city but the whole area; get beyond the wall, also impossible.

Both have common needs, survivor unity and weaponry. The city would have the requirements to achieve either. High grade explosive or even better a tank might be hard to get hold of. But Morgan hadn’t been the only captain deployed into the city, another squad might have had a tank or at least grenades. Delivering an explosive at the wall would be even more difficult, ram the wall with a car on auto packed with explosives would probably be the best plan.

Morgan walked over to the radio set and picked up the transmitter. ‘Morgan to Sandman, come in Sandman.’ They weren’t what you would call friends; they had nothing against each other but for Morgan to call was unusual. But Morgan knew Sandman had better connections and could spread the word. The guide had given several useful tips, especially the fact that, no place is safe, only safer. They could sit in this apartment block and watch the world rot, or they could leave and live again, or at least kill enough Z’s to make life easier.

Sparra ran toward the man, he looked rather familiar to her but right now she was too frightened to take note. She jumped into the small car and quickly shut the door... she shuddered and hung her head down.

Thank you.. she gasped trying to catch her breath.

She kept her head down, wiping her eyes and holding her chest tightly, she even ran her hands down her body checking this was really happening. She really didn't care how she looked as long as she was OK, she felt safe in this car, especially since she had caught a glimpse of this mans weapon before hand.

Lifting her head back up, she checked her small tanned face in the mirror, she looked dirty her hair was losing its colour, and the dark of her roots were showing. So much for a good birthday she thought as she turned her direction to the man next to her.

Realisation hit..

Jacob???? she paused Is that really you>

Sparra fell back into her seat, Jacob had been an old childhood friend of hers in England, they had lost contact a year ago, but she always remembered him. She knew a lot of private things about him, and she remembered telling him a lot too.

People always say, when your in times of trouble there is always one other you can trust... Sparra remembered for years in England, Jacob was that person. Yet as always Sparra did not show any real excitement to see Jacob, only relieved she was alive... and he had probably forgotten her anyway, she had technically became a nobody.

“Sorry ladies to disrupt you but it’s time to go,” Milly looked rather distress as she approached Addie and Tech who seemed to be taking their time getting together all the keys. All of the sudden they heard someone swearing rather loudly before a few shotguns went off. They all kind of smiled knowing it was probably Big U before they moved back around the building towards there bikes noticing the large number of zombies coming towards them. Addie couldn’t help put jokingly pat Big U on the back before saying, “Good job in holding them up,” she smirked and Big U returned the smile before they all hopped back onto their bikes. “Time to head back to HQ….Tech fill free to shoot any of the bustards on our way home,” Addie kick started her bike again before doing a small burn out and then speed off towards the main road again, Big U and Milly following behind.

As they turned the corner to their surprise there was a group of about five coming up the street towards them. It was getting late which meant more zombies active. Although there were only five they could’ve easily moved out of the way to get passed them but the group where in an uneven line therefore blocking nearly the whole street. The gaps in between were rather small and a sudden unwanted movement from the infected could result in them trying to move out of the way and end up hitting another infected. Addie signalled the others to turn back around and go straight instead. She had studied the map on their wall quite a bit and knew most of the roads in the north part. It wouldn’t take them long to find an alternative route home.

“Fuck…what the hell is it with these fricken zombies,” they only just got back onto the street from before and there were already more infected coming their way from the right. Tech starting shooting at some of them before Milly called out to them, “Let’s head off road.” She pointed towards the off-road tracks which followed the train tracks. Addie nodded as they moved off, the track was rather rocky and bumpy and they all seemed to jump and down on their seats a little. Tech could’ve help but laugh as she kept bopping up and down before gazing over her shoulder and watching the zombies disappear behind them as they picked up speed. “We finally lost those suckers,” she grinned as Addie and Big U reduced their speed a little until finally they decided to head back to the main streets as their butts started hurting from all the jumping.

“Next left,” Addie signalled with her hand in the air she remembers where they were. They were only about three streets or so away from HQ and it should be an easy ride home unless of course they bump into a few more of their friends. It was rather strange today that they had seen so many unaffected people in the streets today, usually they didn’t see a lot. People obviously have started running out of supplies and need to get more. Addie noticed a group of boys smashing in store windows and stealing some valuable goods; they would probably try and trade them for other good with other survivors. Money wasn’t very valuable anymore so there was no point in trying to get your hands on some. Addie didn’t pay much attention for a second on the road and didn’t notice the two zombies that jumped out from behind a parked straight into the middle of the road. “ADDIE!” Tech screamed as Addie got so surprised she lost control of the back as she tried to brake.

Addie pulled the handle bars around to quickly trying to turn the bike before they would hit the zombies. The bike moved away under them as it collapsed onto the side and skidded along the ground. The metal screeched along the ground as both Addie and Tech fell off the bike and skidded across the ground as well. Addie’s hands scrapped across the cement ground and it felt like a carpet burn except 10 times worst. The bike finally stopped as its front wheel hit the parked car. The two zombies jumped back a bit not really knowing what had just happened. Addie could feel her hands burning as some of her skin was scrapped away, she slowly moved her head up feeling some pain in the back of her neck as she noticed one of the zombies make her way towards her. It was drooling so much that it dribbled onto the ground as it move towards her. Her hand slowly reached down to grab her pistol in her holster but it wasn’t there. Panic seemed to sweep over her as she gazed along the ground to find her pistol seeing it laying two metres away from her. She would never reach it in time but just then she heard the screech over tires and then two shots being fired. The shots echoed between the large office buildings as her gaze shifted back towards the zombie which was now on the ground.

A sign of relief swept over her but just then she felt something pulling at her leg. Her eyes immediately widened thinking it was another zombie. Without looking she tries to kick her leg free but all off the sudden hears someone swearing. As she looks around she realises it was just Tech, who was now rubbing her head from getting kicked. “Oh sorry but don’t ever do that again,” they both half laughed but then stopped feeling the pain rushing over their bodies as they laughed. Milly and Big U quickly came running over helping them up.