Our instincts force us into confliction. Do we do everything in our power to help our neighbor, whether friend or stranger? Or do we run, finally against the true face of death and yearning to live another day?
We often never know until the time comes.
When it comes down to the most basic of terms, you can only ask yourself one simple question…
...How far would you go to survive?
The news feeds continued to rage across the array of television sets. Each had been set to a different news channel, each covering the same story. News anchors stood atop buildings, inside helicopters, and inside news rooms. The view behind them showed city streets holding massive running crowds. What they were running from couldn’t be seen, as if this terrible force was invisible. But, as Grey continued to watch, he realized the crowds were not running from any kind of weapon or form of destruction. They were running from each other.
Hundreds swarmed the streets. Grey couldn’t tell which were still human and which…weren’t. All of them were covered in blood. Then Grey realized what the difference was. It was in their faces. Their movement. Their eyes.
The humans ran in any direction, hysterically screaming while their faces held looks of terror and sadness. They limbed, they bled; Grey could tell which were human by their pain.
The animals…they ran in with a specific goal. They ran towards the ones running away. Pure anger fueled their eyes. With each news feed that showed the last glimpse a camera man had before being attacked, Grey could see into the animals’ eyes. The animals never limped or slowed from fatigue. They just ran and ran until they caught their prey. They felt no pain. No suffering. Everything had been taken from them.
As his view panned from one television to another, he noticed from his peripheral vision a television revert to static. When he looked up to that set, he noticed another go out as well.
Grey looked to a set showing a woman in a hotel room, looking out the window to the crowds below, all swarming the entrance. Her panicked face went to the camera as he screamed her pleads which Grey could not hear. Her eyes went to something behind the cameraman. As the camera spun to the door of the hotel room. A maid, covered in red, was seen for a split second before taking hold of the camera and throwing it to the floor. That set went to static as well.
Over the span of just a few minutes, the televisions sporadically went to the snow. A small part of Grey’s whole was relieved, glad he didn’t have to look at the swarm he was running from. Thoughts went through his mind as he feared the inevitable. The people he was with…he would eventually have to choose between his life and theirs. He knew it would happen. He just didn’t know when or where.
The cold grip on Grey’s shoulder made him shudder. He turned from the televisions and faced his friend.
“We need to go, Grey.”
He said nothing and nodded. As his friend walked away, Grey glanced back to the televisions one last time. Black and white. That’s all it was out there, the static spoke for the news anchors that were most likely all gone. All that was left were the living and the dead. There were no more gray areas, innocence had left the world. Now, you were either a Survivor or an Infected. Grey turned and went back to the few he had with him. As he surveyed them, he knew his choice.
Scoop:
1. If you are particularly offended or queasy by the thoughts of gruesome and/or frightening scenes of violence, I would suggest not joining.
2. If you cannot sit through movies such as Twenty-Eight Days Later or Dawn of the Dead for primarily reasons of offense or fear, I would suggest joining to help you get out of that state.
3. Follow my typical guidelines of sexuality but be free to expand of your use of language and violence in this story - just don’t be obnoxious or plain disgusting for the sake of being disgusting.
4. Be aware that I may kill your character at any moment - just be aware of that and act smart.
5. If you make a stupid mistake you will be killed. My way of spicing up the mundane continuity storyboards. Besides, it’ll only be the extremely stupid of you that will die.
6. If you do die, don’t worry, I’ll let you cook up a new character. Maybe you’ll be smart with this one.
7. Characters may kill another character BUT it must be with the dieing character’s consent - a character may attack another character at any time they feel like it but no auto hits. If you don’t know what an auto hit is: look it up or don’t bother joining.
8. I will allow some auto hits but only to my creations (Infected, not Survivors) and as long as you don’t go over the top with them. If you need an example: You run into a mob of zombies and kill them all with a bat - I would reply to this, correcting you - You run into a mob of infected, hit one on the head before the rest turn on you and rip you apart. The rest of the party shakes their heads and moves on.
9. The ninth and most important: Your characters are NOT going to be the ideal hero. They are not absolutely selfless, as many imagine themselves. Of course, they could think that when the time comes they would sacrifice themselves (and I will allow this since it really does happen) but a majority of you have to put into the equation the strong factor that they may choose to save their own skin. I’m not being pessimistic or cynical, just try to make your character real. I’m not saying no heroes, by all means create one if you want to. I just don’t want them all to be heroes.
10. This story will be sent in England. I’m going to try and refrain from using official town and city names because a) I don’t know any and b) I want this to have the feeling like it could be anywhere. Despite the fact that I’ve already stated it’s in England. You’re characters can be from anywhere in the world, though.
11. At first, you’re not going to know a lot about the virus. You’re not going to know how contagious it is, if it’s airborne or not, how far it has spread, how it is spread, how much time it will take to effect, its origin, its purpose, etc. You’re pretty much just going to know it’s bad.
Name: Dictionary.com defines name as a word or a combination of words by which a person, place, or thing, a body or class, or any object of thought is designated, called, or known.
Age: Any age you want at all. But, if you chose a toddler or senior citizen, expect a very difficult time surviving
Physical Description: Describe or post of picture
Race/Country of Origin: Pretty dam simple.
Occupation: Keep in mind I want some variety so if there’s more than one in an occupation, ill be disgruntled. If there are more than one occupation, I’ll also decide which is the better and probably only choose one. Then again, you could press your luck. Do you feel lucky?
Recent Events: Don’t bother writing up miniscule things. Just tell me if there’s been something big. Besides the impending and inevitable armageddon of infection.
Relatives and Minor Characters: People related or close to your person.
Personality: Fill this out. Flesh this out. It’s the single most important part in this story. This isn’t a superhero or fantasy storyline. You’re characters are going to be really real. Really really real.
Before the Outbreak: Another way for me to say ‘background’
Trivial Facts: Not an original idea anymore but it‘s still cool
The Outbreak: An optional option to write how your character first learned something was wrong. No specifics because you don’t know anything.
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