Michael Faraway's Story

Michael listened to HQ's command with a stern gaze across his place as the chopper whirred noisily in the background. "You're to land in Black Falls - a local town located about four hours north-west of the Hot Zone. It has a few thousand survivors from around the area living in it. It's been UN fortified and protected; but has no officials currently residing there. You're landing on your own for the moment. If deemed necessary HQ will send in support officers to aid you. Do you understand?" His earpiece clicked out, HQ waiting for Michael's verbal nod across their communication devices, "Yeah HQ" he replied with a thick Australian accent, "I get it... Anything else?"

The chopper whirred louder as the pilot in the cockpit began to slow and Michael noticed for the first time the land below him. They were about five minutes from Black Falls and Michael breathed deeply preparing himself for what HQ was expecting him to do, and alone at this point. "You know what we want Officer Faraway; Samples and data analysis with the addition of survivor search and rescue if possible." Michael breathed out heavily again and replied with a "Got it." The chopper began it's descent and as Michael leaned out the side he could see a crowd begin to gather, "Great" Michael huffed to himself, "Gawkers..." Michael held an index finger to his ear, clicking on his communication, "HQ, what do I say to the current locals?" a short pause and then a reply "Don't worry Officer Faraway, we loaded the chopper with supplies for Black Falls, that should give the civies something to do. Make contact with the leader of Black Falls, they'll be able to give you a little info on the land and it's layout before you set off."

The helicopter landed and Michael jumped out the side to see a crowd waiting idly and almost with tension at what was happening. Michael turned his head to see the two massive crates of supplies sitting next to the chopper and then looked to the pilot to see her giving him a thumbs up then take off, leaving Michael suddenly with ringing ears and a crowd of people to deal with.

Michael looked across the crowd, "Officer Michael Faraway, nice to meet you all" he said with a rushed stern voice. Addressing big groups was not his strong point. "The UN has brought you supplies and aid for the next few weeks..." Michael cleared his throat, trying to search for something to say, "Is there.. Uh.. is there anyone here who is in charge...?" Michael looked out across the group of people, searching for someone to step forward so he might hand over the supplies and get on with his mission.

A young woman approached from the gathering crowd as Michael spoke, her frame was small, she wasn't typical looking of a leader. She had dark brown hair tied back into a ponytail. She wore a dark tanktop with skin tight running pants. Her eyes were stern, but she approached with a grateful look and spoke firmly, but openly, "Welcome to Black Falls..." the woman looked behind Michael to the supplies, "If you are here to bring supplies... you're pretty much too late." she said solemnly. "Black Falls isn't that safe anymore..." the woman looked behind her into the crowd then back to Michael, "What are you doing here?"

Michael was a little taken aback by the passive agression he was meeting and more so taken aback by the comment of the small, sporty looking woman Black Falls isn't that same anymore. "Uh.. ahem" he said clearing his throat, "Who are you? and who is in charge around here?" he asked a little sternly, trying to gauge her seriousness and standing within this community. The woman sized Michael over then looked back into the crowd, "Hey Kat, get up here..." the woman turned back to Michael, "You can call me Hannah.. Hannah Blackstone." As the woman introduced herself another smaller woman broke free of the crowd, this time though, the newer woman had fiery red hair and was wearing a flight suit - she was a pilot - and approached Hannah and Michael clutching her rib slightly, although it barely slowed her strong walk down. As the woman approached Hannah turned back and waved a hand to the militarized woman, "This is Kathryn... Or Kat." Hannah turned to Kat, "Is he legit?" she asked.

Kat looked Michael up and down, her eyes squinting with suspicion, "Honestly Han, fucked if I know... he looks legit enough. But really.. who knows anymore... especially with that mob back in Bridgwater Forest." Michael raised an eyebrow and stepped forward, "Hey hey hey! I am Officer Michael Faraway, I've been deployed by the UN to-" Kat cut Michael off, "So what? What good is that? Black Falls needed you weeks ago... Your supplies are next to useless now" she snapped, and Hannah stepped in front, "Kat." she said firmly, then Michael bucked up and spoke back in retaliation, "You'd have to understand better than most the difficulty the military has in deploying people..." Michael glared Kat over, "Now please, who is in charge around here... I need to talk to them and get these supplies out to the survivors."

Hannah sighed deeply, "We're in charge... if you could say that." she said solemnly, "But that's barely..." Hannah paused, "I'm sorry Michael... but... You're too late here." Michael shifted uneasily; Hannah kept talking "We've only been here for about three weeks... When we got here, the outbreak followed too... Half the town went down... We managed to kill the infected inside... but half the town has been ruined.. Everyone here is leaving for the closest living city - Lismoore." Michael took the information with distain, and thought about what he was hearing, "Lismoore is about a twelve hour drive from here though... Do any of you have working cars?" Hannah shook her head, "There's nothing we can do but leave... the infected are getting worse and staying here is virtually staying in your grave hole." Hannah looked to Kat, then back to Michael, "Whatever you're doing Michael Faraway, we thank you for your supplies, but we're not staying." With that, Hannah turned and walked back into the crowd, directing them somewhat then leaving as the crowd dispersed. Michael looked to Kat and the woman shot Michael another glare, "Whatever the governments have sent you here for, I can tell it's not to help us... Whoever still runs the world gave up on the rest of us five months ago. Leave now before you get left behind too." With that Kat turned and followed in the direction of Hannah leaving Michael a little downtrodden and staring into a crumbling town.

Michael lifted an index finger to his ear and clicked his communication on, "HQ, Michael Faraway speaking." "This is HQ Faraway, what's your report" "Command... there are survivors here at Black Falls.. But according to them it was compromised a few weeks ago. They're leaving for Lismoore, can I get permission to phone in back up to help these survivors to the city haven Lismoore?" "Negative Faraway. Your orders are to travel to the hot zone and retrieve samples. HQ will phone in help after you leave." The communication cut out and Michael sighed heavily. His mission wasn't exactly as clear as he'd like, and although he knew he was going to receive more information when he left Black Falls, he was less than excited to begin his mission alone. Michael turned on his heel, looked at the supplies then around the town, noting the lack of interest in the small help provided, "Guess I gotta get goin'." he said moving down the street towards the town's entrance.

Michael stopped at the large metal gates that towered twenty feet high. The gates were met with twenty feet high walls that circled the central business district of Black Falls town. They provided the best protection for miles around. The UN had initiated them when the fever became rampant in the nearby city a few hours away. The UN however, weren't able to completely seal off the whole town and so much of the town that lay on the other side was fair game to zombies and anyone else that roamed the outer perimeter of fallen Black Falls. Michael looked up to the top of the gates, two men were staring down at him, looking confused and suspicious of why somebody had approached the gates. Michael and the men locked gazes for a few moments until one of the men spoke, querying why Michael wanted to go through, stating that no one goes out into the abandoned parts of Black Falls. Michael pulled out his UN badge, although it clearly wouldn't have been able to have been seen; "Michael Faraway, UN official, I'm here to help!" he called earnestly. The men looked to each other and laughed hard, "Yeah right." one of the yelled down almost viciously. Michael gritted his teeth, he was beginning to feel downtrodden by the apathy the survivors of Black Falls seemed to be showing. "Listen here!" Michael yelled upwards, "I've got shit to do.. you gonna let me through?". The men moved back for a moment and Michael could see them talking. One of the men leaned back over and shouted down to Michael, "You're death wish..." he laughed.

The gate began to whir loudly as the cranks turned and the gate opened up slowly. Michael stood back and watched as the gate opened up about two feet then stopped. Michael raised an eyebrow in confusion, the gate clearly had the capacity to open at least several feet, wide enough for even a tank to go through. Michael looked up to the two men operating the doors, "Hey! What gives?" the men leaned over and shouted down, "We don't open it more than a few feet.. if the zoms' get in we're all screwed! The noise of the doors opening always attracts the dead-heads!" he shouted. Michael's skin shivered at the thought of already coming into contact with infected. "Righto" he said firmly to himself as he stepped through the small gap and out into the street on the other side.

The doors moaned as they closed and Michael began to weave his way through the cars that cluttered the street right up to the walls of the haven. As he squeezed between two cars Michael heard the jeering of the men up on the gate, "Your bosses must hate you if you're goin' alone! Hahaha.." Michael gritted his teeth and muttered, "dickheads" as he stepped out from behind the bus, finding himself at an intersection. Michael took a left and began to walk down the street, his hand gun at the ready in case he needed it. Michael took a deep breath out of boredom; he had to admit, while the thought of facing infected people did worry him, he didn't think his mission was going to start out slow.. After all, he had been sent into once of Western civilisation's hottest Nizarri Fever outbreak zones.

Michael began to settle into false comfort when he suddenly heard a deafening crack echoe through the street, and the unmistakable jeering of a woman shouting above the noise. Michael's ears perked up as he concentrated on where the gunshots were coming from. When he managed to get a lock on the sound he began a fast jog in the direction of the noise, being careful not to put himself out in the open. Michael turned the corner of a nearby alleyway and rushed down it to find himself at a wire fence that made the alleyway a dead end; however, through the mesh Michael could see the unmistakable figure of a woman running across the top of cars in a carpark, shooting infected and enjoying it? Michael wondered in disbelief. Michael pulled his gun up and concentrated firmly as he pulled the trigger and hit a zombie in the back of the head, splattering it's brain across the front of the girl, "Damn it..." he sneered at himself, "Not a good way to make an impression.." he muttered. Michael aimed his gun again and suddenly saw the figure of another survivor across the parking lot - a man who began to speak to the woman atop the car "Hey, miss! Are you here for evac, too? We should make a run for it; if you kill everything in the area, there won't be anything left for anyone else!"

Michael watched the two for a moment, but the situation escalated quickly as suddenly a large group of zombies appeared down the road behind the man. Michael swore out loud - he was sworn to protect survivors - how was he supposed to help people when he couldn't get to them. He could technically climb the fence, but it would probably take too long. But there was a car backed up to the fence, maybe the survivors could climb over to his side? It would provide Michael and the other two a moment's time to escape. Michael shouted above the raucous all of a sudden, trying to attract the attention of the other two, "HEY!! OVER HERE! LOOK OUT BEHI -" Michael stopped mid sentence when he saw the scene behind the man at the the other end of the car park.

The small horde - consisting of about four or five zombies - behind the man broke out into a sprint, they were closing ground hard and fast. Michael pulled his gun up straight and aimed it carefully, pulling the trigger and shooting a bullet just past Toby and into the leg of one of the infected, causing it to falter and trip, taking down one of the other runners with it. "LOOK OUT! THEY'RE RUNNING!" Michael shouted hurriedly.

Jess spun on the car top when she heard someone yelling. It had been five months since she had heard let alone seen another living person. She stared at the man, her smile changing from the maniac adrenalin one to almost a victory looking one. She was about to take out the last zombie that was beginning its clamber up the car, she pointed her shotgun and was readying to aim when the brains splattered over her, the explosion caught her off guard and sent flying off the top of the car. She landed on her back getting winded and her shotgun flew from her hands landing somewhere she couldn't see.

Her breath was coming out ragged and uneven. She slowly started to sit up, her back aching, but more so that she was having a hard time breath. Then she heard another voice yell, it was different than the one that first meaning there was someone else nearby too. She stood up leaning against the car and squinting her eyes to look around, she saw a small alley way with a man shouting at her. His words sounded distant and muddled to her, but she had an idea it was because of something bad. Jess looked around some more, mostly looking for where her shotgun went, but also to see if she could find the other person she heard earlier and what this current guy was yelling about. She saw the latter two right away, there was a man that was facing her whom she guessed yelled at her before and behind him was a hoard of zombies running quickly towards him.

"Fuck it all," Jess said under her breath, even though she still was gaining her breath back she ran towards the guy and grabbed him around the wrist yanking him to where she saw the other man. She was running at a high speed trying to stay ahead of the zombies, her grip almost deathly tight around the man's wrist. Then she saw her shotgun and stopped mid-stride.

"You go to that alley there's someone on the other side than can help, I'll be right there," she said and took off running back towards the zombies and her shotgun. She dived behind another car and picked her gun up, but by the time she was readying herself to run back it was starting to be too late. The zombies were already a foot away from where she was, but she had to try. She shot one of the closest in the pelvis knocking them down along with another and darted towards the alley. One of the faster zombies was running beside her and clawed at her arm trying to get her to stop. She took the butt of her gun and smashed it into the zombies head, ignoring the pain of the new wound as best she could. When she got to the alley there was a car backed up to the fenced, she jumped up, threw her gun over the fence, and began to climb. A couple zombies grabbed her ankle trying to get a bite of her or pull her down, but she kicked them off and continued to climb. Jess finally got over and jumped down, landing gracefully on her butt.

"Thank fucking god," she said to herself, taking her visor off and taking heavy breaths, this time more from the running than when she fell off the car. She began to laugh, happy for the adrenalin rush and excited that she had made it. She stood up and hugged the guy that had been behind the fence when he first shouted. She could easily tell most anyone would find it awkward, but not her, she was just listening to his heart glad to have finally found other people who were alive, after five months of solitude where she had been the only one that she knew was alive.

Michael watched the whole scene with unbelieving eyes. The girl was like a rocket, and seemed to be so pumped up on adrenaline she was mad-dashing all around the car park. Michael heaved a sigh of relief when the guy came hurtling over the fence, but as he helped him down and turned back to help the girl he saw she was hurtling back into the runners. "Leave your damn gun!" Micahel yelled, but it was to no avail. The girl hit the ground hard and had managed to grab her gun, a loud crack filled the air dropping a zombie and causing a nearby runner to fumble when its brethren collapsed.

The girl got to her feet and bolted toward Michael and the other guy. The whole time Michael's jaw was parted slightly, disbelieving in this girls ability to survive. He turned to look at the other guy and just shook his head, then turned back to watch the girl smash the side of the skull of a zombie that lurched out towards her. Suddenly she was on the car and almost effortlessly leaped up onto the fence, her gun flying over head and landing a few feet away down the alley. The girl clambered up the fence, but a few zombies grabbed her feet. Michael whipped his gun up and shot once, distracting them long enough for her to kick free and climb over, gracefully landing on her butt.

Michael aimed his gun upright with a firm grip and shot the gun four times, dropping the zombies on the other side of the fence. The alley went quiet for a moment. Then the brief silence was broken with a "Thank fucking god." followed by an unabashed hug to Michael all of a sudden. Michael was caught off guard by the girl as she clamped around his waist. After a moment or two Michael backed out of the grateful hug and looked to the two survivors, "I take you haven't seen anyone else for a while then?" he said with a smirk across his face. "The names Michael" he said holding a hand out to shake both survivors. "Nice job just then..." He said nodding behind him to the car park "Just remember that the noise attracts others.." he said with an almost fatherly tone.

Michael was about to introduce himself further when his ear suddenly filled with static and HQ chimed in, interrupting the pleasantries; "Officer Faraway, HQ has coordinates to get to the heart of the hotzone. However, we require you to stop over in Bridgewater forest... There is information there we believe is crucial." Michael listened intently as the two other survivors were nearby. "Copy that HQ." Michael looked up, "Hey, listen... Sorry to duck out on you, but I've got someplace to be... If you go out this alley way and pretty much follow the main street you'll get to the Black Falls haven gate. You'll find safety in there."

Michael pushed past the two and out into the street. Looking back to them he felt a pang of guilt leaving them alone... But he had orders. Michael turned left and started down the road when suddenly a loud piercing scream echoed from a little ways down the street. Michael held his ears in pain. The noise wasn't close, but it sure gave a headache. When the screaming stopped he looked down the street to see a zombie clambering through the cars. It's body was tinged yellow - almost jaundice in colouring - and it had an extended throat and horrid welts across it's face and arms. As it clambered it suddenly spied Michael and stopped for a moment, looking him up and down. When the creature had decided that Michael was not friendly it appeared to take a huge deep breath, it's throat distending. The suddenly it screamed loudly, causing Michael to fall back in pain as the piercing cry overwhelmed him. "jesus christ!" he hissed; then Michael looked up at the creature and suddenly saw what it's screaming had done... Not only was it's voice debilitating, it also attracted other zombies. Some were shambling and some were running.

Michael's eyes widened as he saw the screamer inhale deeply. He didn't waste anytime waiting for the creature to scream again. Michael turned on his heels and bolted back down the street, turning a corner just in time to see Jess and Toby. "RUN!" he yelled atop his lungs, "THERE'S A WHOLE HORDE!" Within a moment Michael had reached the two and his eyes were wide with terror, "What are you waiting for?!" he shouted, "FUCKIN' TAIL IT!" Michael shouted.

Suddenly the screamer rounded the corner, shambling horridly, then let out it's horrifying scream. Michael's hands clasped quickly enough across his ears that it buffered the damned screamer's scream. Then the horde rounded the corner. "Let's go back to the haven!" Michael shouted as he began to lead the way. Michael ran as fast as he could. The screamer kept up it's howling and that alone was making it hard to run, let alone the scrambled mess of vehicles littered throughout this part of the town. Michael weaved back and forth and suddenly realised that the runners from the horde were clambering across the vehicles and just a few paces behind him. He looked around and saw Jess ducking and weaving and Toby similarly avoiding a grizzly fate so far...

Michael pulled his gun back out of it's holster and aimed backwards, shooting roughly at the runners behind him. He hit one and dropped it. His second bullet hit a nearby car and exploded the gas tank. A shard of the car hit the screamer and knocked it the ground. "Fuck you." Michael shouted as jumped over a car. As Michael slid across the bonnet, a zombie tackled him and he hit the ground, his arms outstretched as the damned thing tried to bite at him. Michael struggled for a few moments then he pushed hard, lifted his legs up and kicked violently, sending the zombie over the bonnet.

Michael dashed to his feet and bolted forward. Suddenly he'd lost sight of Toby and Jess, but that being said, cars and bigger vehicles seemed to litter the street closer to the safety gates. Michael reached the gates first. He looked up to the gates, shouting anxiously, "OPEN THE GATES!!! WE NEED HELP!" the gate keepers looked over and down to Michael and he could see they were about to start jeering at him, but they caught sight of the horde as it made it's way through the cars and all they could yell was "GET IN!".

The gates moaned as they began to open and Michael looked behind him, searching the vehicles for Jess and Toby, "HURRY UP!" he shouted as he backed towards the gate. From above Micheal heard the gatekeepers shouting at him to hurry up, but he wasn't going to leave Jess and Toby to die. As Michael made his way through the gate, he caught sight of the two bolting through the vehicles, the horde on their tails.

"GET IN HERE NOW!"

When Michael left, Jess wasn't sure what to do. Being an adrenalin junky this was always the problem, when the rush started to die down. Usually how she would deal with this would either be working on her car's engine or watch a movie and drink a beer, but as she couldn't do either of those, she was stuck. So she turned to the other man beside and held out her hand.

"I'm Jess," she said, after a moment of silence she awkwardly added, "So want to help me find some food?" Then suddenly a nasty scream echoed through the streets, making Jess flinch at being caught off guard and Michael running back screaming.

"THERE'S A WHOLE HORDE!! FUCKIN' TAIL IT!" Jess leaned around the corner and looked a zombie stood in the street, her mouth open wide as she prepared to scream again and a large horde of zombies running and crawling behind her. Jess grabbed the man's wrist and yanked him after her as she raced after Michael, her adrenalin firing back up in bloodstream. When they turned another corner with tons of cars abandoned in the street, she let go otherwise she would have lost her balance trying to run through them. The screamer still behind them and screaming, but the loud noise didn't phase her as she was used to it from her car's engine and how loudly she used to blast ACDC while working on her car with loud electric tools. A couple of zombies had gotten close to her, adding more scratches to the previous one.

"This is why I never came to town," Jess whispered under her breath as she bashed as many zombie heads as she could, not getting enough time to take aim with her shotgun needed to shoot them. She heard Michael yell incoherent words and saw a gate slightly open up ahead. She looked around quickly to see if she could see the other guy, he was making his way through the maze of cars and fending off the zombies well enough. She was finding that moving through the cars was going to slowly and she was getting too many scratches from being on the ground, so she made a snap decision. Jess climbed up on top of a car and began to jump from car to car, slipping a couple times as they were a couple yards away, but it certainly made things go faster. The zombies couldn't catch her because they would get left behind by they finally scrambled on top of the cars. Her limbs, especially her arms, were stinging sharply from all the claw marks that were now bleeding profusely onto her used-to-be white shirt. She finally made it to the gate and slid through, she would have done it safer, but sliding was more fun. Only this not only left her arms stinging, but her legs as well because of her new skinned leg.

She stood up and dusted herself, off not because it would work, but because it made her look cool; for show. She smiled at Michael, feeling the rush of running for her life and loving it. She looked back to the other guy who was still fighting his way through, "Should we go back and help him?" she asked Michael, she stepped forward wanting to go and bash all those zombie's heads in with her fist, maybe even pull a few heads off. The man was almost to the gate, the zombies almost getting him every second.

"COME ON!! FASTER!" Jess yelled, cupping her hands around her mouth as if that would make her call louder and therefore get him to run faster and make it before the zombies did. And during this high stressed situation with a life on the line, one of the gate keepers still managed to have his mind wander. Apparently, it had been a while since he had last seen a woman because he dropped something on her head and when she looked up he winked at her. She just gave him a disgusted look and took another step towards the man, really wanting to make sure he would get through the gate okay. Another thing dropped on her head, it wasn't bigger than a pebble, but it still hurt a little, causing a small sting on her head.

"Would you quit that?" Jess yelled at him, "Seriously I don't think this is the time, that man might die!"

"You meaning we can pick this up later?" the man called down.

"No! I - are you kidding me right now? Don't make me go up there and tear your eyes out because I will!"

The man just smiled and licked his lips, "That's sexy, why don't you?" Jess let out a growl, not unlike that of which the zombies were giving, rolled up her sleeves and actually started to climb the gate to get at the man so she could throw him over the side to become zombie food; and she was dead set on doing that. She was also hoping that by doing so the zombies would be distracted enough by him and would ignore the man who was currently running for his life towards the gate.

Michael just watched in suspense and horror as the scene unfolded around him. The fiery girl covered in blood made it through the door in one piece, or as close to one piece as possible. Then the gatekeepers became distracted and before Michael knew it Jess was clambering up the side of the tower the gatekeepers were in, and then Michael saw him... Another man up top, looking out down the street across the wall to the massing horde. Michael heard the scream again and his gaze fell back down to the street just outside the gate. "COME ON!" he shouted earnestly to Toby as he rushed through the cars. Michael aimed his gun upwards and shot out into the crowd of infected that now moved like an angry mob through the discarded vehicles. One, two, three shots and Michael had managed to stop two out of three zombies rushing forward to Toby, the third one tripped over its brethren, luckily for Toby.

Michael suddenly heard the groaning of the gate as apparently the gatekeepers or at least one of them had turned the switch to close it. Michael looked up in shock and saw Jess and the unidentified guy were sort of shuffling around up there. Michael clasped his hands over his mouth in attempt to make his voice louder as he yelled, "DON'T CLOSE IT! WE STILL HA-" Michael was cut short as a loud thunderous boom as suddenly the cars down the end of the street erupted in fiery explosion. As the charred and dismembered bodies flew into the air Michael recoiled slightly and looked up as a fighter jet roared across the sky. "Holy jesus..." Michael called out, a small grin cracking across his face as his intercom buzzed to life, "This is HQ to officer Faraway... Black Falls is safe, it's residents have been protected. Continue on your mission, we'll extract you in five days from Alpha Point in the hot zone." Michael's grin faltered as suddenly another explosion filled the air and the screams of people a few blocks away could be heard. Another plane soared across the sky and then another explosion on the road outside the gate burst the street apart, slowing the horde slightly.

Michael's finger hit the communications button on the bluetooth at the side of his ear and he spoke loudly and angrily, "No you haven't HQ! You're bombing Black Falls! Why! The people here are not infected." More explosions filled the air as suddenly more jets flew overhead. "HQ! HQ! Come in! You need to stop bombing Black Falls! Repeat, Black Falls is ok!" More explosions rocketed, the town was being blown apart. "HQ, FUCKIN' ANSWER ME!" Michael yelled as a rocket fired from a jet overhead landed to the side of the gate on one of the protecting walls, blowing it apart. Michael fell over from the shock of the impact and landed on his arse as Toby burst through the gate just in time as the gate faltered and slammed to the ground.

Michael stood up and helped Toby up right and suddenly HQ clicked on "Officer Faraway, Black Falls has been compromised, you need to leave asap. We will not stop sanitization of Black Falls. Repeat. Black Falls has been compromised. Leave asap, don't approach further in. There are no survivors. Michael's eyes widened at the lies HQ was telling him, clicking his device on taking back, "What are you talking about HQ?! There are survivors.. you're killing them! HQ!?" more rockets hit the ground as more jet's flew over head. Michael looked up into the air and caught sight of the gatekeepers perch looking at Toby and the other guy on top. "You need to get down here!" Michael shouted suddenly. There wasn't much time... Between the bombing and the horde that Michael could now see scrambling through the destroyed part of the Haven walls, Michael didn't have time to debate HQ's choice to destroy this town.

When Jess and the other guy hit the ground, Michael just looked at them sternly then to Toby, "We need to go asap. C'mon." he shouted as he he turned on his heels and dashed madly up the street towards the centre of Black Falls into a rushing crowd of panicked survivors. The small haven was a horrific sight; building were aflame and debris and brick was strewn across the street and survivors who had once thought their slice of safety was unbreakable. Michael searched through the panicked people running about, screaming for help. Michael turned to Simon and made eye contact and even though he didn't know him, Michael suddenly felt guilty, his bosses had just created this mess. Michael looked to Jess and Toby and the same guilt filled him, "Fuck it" He hissed as he searched through the crowd looking for something to escape on. "We need to go" Michael repeated with urgency as suddenly a chilling scream toppled the noise of the crowd. Michael looked behind him and the three others as he saw the horde from before rounding the corner of the street, "Damn it.. they got through the wall..." he hissed as he turned back to the three, he looked to Simon and Jess and Toby, he shook his head as he couldn't believe what he was about to suggest; getting out with these survivors, "We need a vehicle or something that can hold us four and get us out of here and where I need to go... Who can drive fast and well?" he asked firmly as he looked across their faces, "I'm gonna need to direct and keep our cover in case, so I'm gonna need someone to drive.."

When Jess finally got to the top she didn’t waste any time trying to attack the guy. While he was still gloating, thinking he was going to get some, Jess punched him breaking his nose on impact. Blood spurted out and over his suit. This he didn’t expect and now he was going into his defensive mode, though a little late for that was Jess’s thought. She punched him, hard, two more times before he finally fell back and onto his butt.

“That’s what get for messing with me,” Jess smirked over him and then there was a loud creaking noise that was the gates closing. She looked and noticed the other man still running towards them, “Hey fuckball!” she shouted to the other gate keeper, “What are ya doin’?” He didn’t respond and to try and help, Jess stood looking at the gears figuring out which one would keep the gates open. Instead of actually figuring it out she just picked one and pulled, she wasn’t sure what it did even after she pulled on it, but it did seem to slow the closing down a bit. Then bombs started to fall, forcing Jess off the top of the tower place she was on. She caught hold of something just before she hit the ground and instead dropped down gently. She walked over to Michael who was talking into what she could only guess was an ear-piece, that or the voices in his head.

“What’s going on?” Jess asked, he didn’t respond to her because he was yelling at whoever was on the other end of the call, someone named HQ.

He finally responded saying, “We need to go asap. C'mon.”

Jess looked to the exploding sky and could only imagine this is what World War 2 looked like to the people, the end of the world, “I’ll say,” her voice wasn’t excited or chipper like it had been the rest of that day and her smile was gone. She just couldn’t understand how other non-zombie-fied humans could do this to their own people at a time like this where other live people was a rare sight. It made her sad, especially with the old war stories her great grandpa used to tell her dad and then her dad to her. ‘And then the world was consumed in fire,’ she thought to herself before running after Michael. They got into town which was complete chaos with people who weren’t hurt or killed by the explosions running around screaming, some were even little kids; and there was nothing she could do to comfort them, only to keep running for her own survival.

They finally stopped, Michael looked around and then to those who were following him with a guilty expression on his face. Jess wasn’t sure why, but she knew enough that it wasn’t his fault, but someone else. “We need a vehicle or something that can hold us four and get us out of here and where I need to go... Who can drive fast and well? I'm gonna need to direct and keep our cover in case, so I'm gonna need someone to drive.."

This made Jess perk up a little because that was one thing she did know how to do was drive and drive fast, a huge smile spread across her face, the excitement of being able to feel the purr of the engine again after five months almost overwhelming. “You are so lucky you found me,” Jess said jumping on top of a car looking at all the others for just the right one, it was even luckier she knew how to high-jack a car as well. She found one that would have to work for now, it was a huge tank-like van, it wouldn’t be able to go very fast very quickly, but she knew the model well enough to know that it would go fast enough and that it could plow through most of this without breaking down and that was what was important.

“There!” She yelled pointing to the van, she jumped down and pushed her way through the scurrying crowd, trying not to get trampled or to trample someone else. When she finally got to the van she pulled out two small wire pieces and began to fiddle with them in the lock, feeling her way until there was a click. The door unlocked and straight away she reached under the steering wheel and pulled at some wires till they broke and fell down. “You know it’s not your fault right?” Jess said to Michael as she looked for the right wires, “This whole disaster with the bombs, it ain’t your fault and I can vouch for you if you need me two. Done!” she put a combination of wires together till the car roared to life, sweet music to the girl’s ears. “Come with me if you want to live!” she yelled and ducked into the driver’s seat, opening the door across from her for Michael.

Being behind the wheel of a car again was a miracle to Jess, even if it wasn’t her precious she had spent years working on. Her hands were tightly gripping the steering wheel, so hard that it was squeezing the zombie’s blood from her gloves. When she heard all the car doors close up she found a clear way to go where she could blast through without hitting anybody, though she knew it wouldn’t matter because they would most likely be dead soon, but she wouldn’t and couldn’t bring herself to kill someone knowingly. So she slammed on the gas pedal and the tank of a car lurched forward towards a small alley that would normally not be able to hold this big of a car, but Jess was making it work. She took all the back roads, trying to get out of the exploding town as fast as possible without hurting or killing anyone who was still alive, zombies however were free game. Then when they were coming out near the end of the end of the town, so close to making it Jess saw a bomb like thing fall from the sky heading right towards where they were heading, and if she kept with the speed she was going the speed she was on the bomb would hit them. But Jess shifted the gears and stepped on the gas even harder, the adrenalin of driving firing up her blood and dare-devil instincts. The car began to speed forward even more, slamming Jess back into her seat and permanently gluing the smile on her face there forever.

“Come on, come one, you can do it baby,” Jess whispered to the car, in her mind’s eye suddenly she was back on the tracks almost to the finish line and though she wasn’t the first place winner the competitiveness still evident. “We can make, we can make it,” and sure enough they sped passed the explosion behind them and actually pushing the destroyed tank forward slightly earning a yell of approval from Jess.

“Can I get a high-five?” Jess yelled, putting her in the middle so that anybody who wanted to give her a high-five could, “So where to now boss man?” She turned her head quickly to glance at Michael, not able to get any happier than she was at that moment.

Michael sat rigid the entire ride through the destruction of Black Falls. His eyes were widened with terror and his mouth dropped agape when Michael looked forward and saw the missile flying directly towards them. He looked to Jess in horror as he saw a smirk appear across her face and a determined pout to beat the explosive hurtling through the air. "Oh god... " Michael muttered as he leaned over the passenger side trying to take control of the wheel. Before he could do anything though, Jess was saying "We can make it, we can make it" and sure enough the van they were riding to hell in zoomed forward and the missile explosion behind them sent the van forward, violently lurching and causing Michael to fall back into his seat, completely flabbergasted. Jess had a self-impressed grin across her face and Michael sat gripping his seat tightly as they hurtled through the town and out onto the open highway, leaving the smoldering, destroyed, hopeless Black Falls to become nothing.

Michael looked forward, still rigid as Jess asked if she could get a high-five and where to next. Michael just turned to her, that same grin across her face and he nervously laughed. "Straight... uh... forward" he muttered still bewildered. Michael began to settle as he reasoned within that this girl Jess was more than capable of keeping them safe in this deathtrap of an escape. "Uh.. thanks for that" he said breathing out heavily, "Impressive driving..." Michael looked to the back of the Van and made eye contact with Toby, "How you goin'?" he asked with a warmer smile, trying eleviate any tension he might have.

As Michael looked back to Toby it dawned on him for the first time the other guy they'd run with wasn't in the van. "What happened to other guy?" Michael asked worriedly and with a pang of guilt. "Damn" he cursed, "He must've been separated from us... the poor bastard..." Michael's fist clenched at the thought of letting someone senselessly die. Michael turned back around and faced Jess, "You need to keep going down this highway... It won't be long before we hit Bridgewater Forest.. it's about an hour and half trip through that forest then a two hour trip after that to the city... that's where I've gotta go.. that's where HQ will..." Michael trailed off, a concerned look came across his face. "HQ..." he muttered under his breath, "Just keep going forward... I've gotta get in contact with someone." Micahel said sternly as he raised a finger to his ear...

"HQ, this is officer Faraway, what the HELL was that?" he said sternly. A few moments of silence passed as Michael sat in growing rage, "HQ" he repeated, "Why did you sanitize Black Falls? There were survivors there an-" He was abruptly cut off "Officer Faraway this is HQ... Black Falls was sanitized due to infection contamination. Proceed to point Alpha in the Hot Zone and you'll receive further instruction" Michael hit his fist on the dashboard, "No HQ, I want answers! Black Falls wasn't compromised until you fired your damn missiles on it.. why did you do that!? What's goin' on?" Michael asked frustratedly "You're not telling me everything!" Michael held his finger firmly against the communicator on his ear but HQ remained silent, he'd either hit a nerve with them or they were deliberating the perfect response.

When no more but silence filled his ears Michael turned to Jess. They were just entering the outskirts of Bridgewater forest. "Here we go..." Michael said breathing deeply. "Be careful driving..." he said with quiet tone, "It should be a smooth ride through..but you never know." Michael settled back into his seat as he caught a glimpse of the morose smoke plume behind them in the distance.. "We're gonna get answers when we get to the city... I promise you that" Michael said sternly as the trees slowly grew taller.



The woman moved silently through the street with determination and fearlessness. She wore tight fitted cargo pants with a long sleeved skivvy, the sleeves pulled up slightly so her forearms were shown slightly. She wore combat gloves and had a knife holster belt tied firmly around her left arm, a hunting knife firmly clasped into it. Her skin was a light tan colour and her eyes were a dark caramel brown. She was slim and curvaceous, and very attractive, but her face was stern and cold to look at. Across her torso was slung duel gun holsters with two handguns stuck into them, tightly clasped much like the hunting knife strapped around her left arm. As she moved long dark hair swished about her back, held together in a tight ponytail, but long enough that it sat just midway down her back. Sweat was beginning to form across her brow as he dodged in and out of cars, trying to avoid sight of anything that might pose a threat to her mission at hand.

As she pushed past a bus and out into an intersection, suddenly her ear was filled with jumbled transmissions "Agent...You... Fara... Approaching... Falls... San... Suarez..." The woman stopped in the middle of the intersection, a pained look smeared across her face, she spoke firmly and hastily, looking around her constantly checking for enemies, "HQ, you're cutting in and out.." her voice had a heavy latin accent to it, "HQ? What is it you want me to do? I'm almost at rendezvous point ALPHA... Come in HQ?" a thick silence filled the air as the woman waited patiently, but nervously. She didn't like being out in the open. Suddenly a moan filled the air nearby and the woman turned to see a shambling infected woman coming out from the bus the woman had just moved out from behind herself. "Damn it" she cursed, pulling a gun from one of her holsters. "HQ, I really need to know what it is you want me to do?" She shouted hastily into her communications device, the shambling woman was soon accompanied by a small horde appearing from between the abandoned vehicles down the street, "fuck it" the woman shouted as she fired her gun off a few times. One, two, three infected dropped to the road, small bullet holes between their eyes. "Hah!" the woman gloated.

[i]"Agent... Fara... orest... Hour... Go.. To Point Alpha... wait for...ommand" The woman rolled her eyes and fired two more times as more zombies began to appear, "Alright command... I'm heading to point alpha and I'll wait for my next directive.." The woman turned on her heels and fired once more, this time the gunshot echoed loudly across the seemingly hollow city, filling the air with a cold bang as the woman dropped another infected.

After a while of no high-fives for her amazing driving skills, Jess brought her hand back onto the wheel and stared straight ahead. Even with being left hanging on the high-five, Jess was feeling proud and happy at herself for making it. She continued straight ahead, checking every now and then on the gas level. It was fairly low and she wasn't sure if it would make it all the way to the city, but she was hoping to get them close enough before it ran out, so they wouldn't have far to walk if they had to.

She heard Michael say, "Impressive driving..."

Jess smiled at the compliment, "Well it should be, I mean I have won some metals after all." After that she shifted gears and sped along the highway, tuning out everything else since she didn't have to look for corners to turn on. There was a moment however, that her foot slightly lifted from the gas pedal as they passed her hideaway, and her race car. Even though she hadn't driven it for months, it was still sad to leave it behind for her. She looked out the window to her left at the building, her smiling faltering a bit and a small, almost silent sigh escaping her as she said goodbye to her car in her head. Even with the slight change in speed, they still sped passed it quickly and so her eyes woefully returned to the road straight ahead, flickering back to the side mirror to look at the building fade into the distance. She promised that someday if she survived this that she would go back and get her car to start a new life, if it was still there when she got there, and who knew when that would be.

Michael began to yell into his earpiece at 'HQ', the same person who set the orders to bomb Black Falls. A vein in Jess's forehead pulsed thinking back to the kid she saw on the street and what had inevitably happened to them and the others. 'Whoever that HQ person is, is no better than Hitler,' Jess thought to herself. She tried distracting herself from these thoughts by just focusing on the road ahead and the purr of the van as it flew on the road well over what the speed limit would be if society hadn't crashed.

After some silence when they entered the forest Jess worked up the courage to ask Michael, "Who's HQ?" She glanced at him quickly to see if she over stepped her line, though she wasn't sure where that line was she knew that with Michael you wouldn't want to over step it. Though her curiosity at who this person might be was burning too intensely inside her for her to just ignore the question. After thinking that long HQ had taken a form that was like a mixture between Darth Vader and werewolf; that was her imagination, weird and with no clear pattern. Glancing at the gas meter she noticed they were almost out, the light to tell them they needed to refill had been on for a while now and she wasn't sure how much longer they would have. It seemed they were in the middle of the forest and Jess could already tell that they were beginning to slow, though it was very subtle.

"I don't mean to alarm everyone, but we're almost out of gas," Jess informed the others. She kept her glance on ahead and her hands firmly on the steering wheel. She knew that the others might get frustrated with not getting to the city, but in all honesty Jess was pretty impressed with how much gas there actually was in the car because leaving it outside for five months she would have figured that most of it evaporated already. She did figure this would happen when they first set off, but kept it to herself not wanting the others to start yelling and making a bad situation worse. However, now that the car was slowly beginning to loose speed it was hard not to let them know. Pretty soon they would have to get out and start walking, Jess only hoped she got them close enough to the city that the walking portion wouldn't be too long since they didn't have any supplies other than weapons and whatever they could pull from the car.

As the van passed through the forest, Michael sat in quiet silence trying to figure out what HQ was doing, and why they had done what they had. When Jess spoke up and asked about HQ Michael sat up rigid, but answered her questions, in all fairness, what they had done at Black Falls, they deserved to lose Michael's confidence and he didn't feel the need for secrecy around anyone at the moment...

"HQ are my bosses - Head Quarters - They tell me what to do and when to do it..." Michael looked down the road, grimacing as the van was beginning to visibly slow, it was taking time for it to do so, but he could tell they were dropping speed. "I've been sent here... to Black Falls, I mean, on an information and recovery mission by HQ.. I'm supposed to go out to the city, take samples of infected, record their habits and so on... then I'm to return to.. what was... Black Falls, get picked up and take what i've learnt back to them." Michael chuckled sarcastically, "HQ told me my secondary mission was to rescue survivors if I found any..." Michael looked back into the van to make eye contact with Toby, and then looked to Jess with a confused face as he continued to speak, "I just don't know why they sanitized Black Falls... They knew it was a safe zone... One of the safest zones. It doesn't make sense... And when I asked them why? All they did was tell me it was compromised and to continue on with the mission... Something isn't righ-"

Suddenly the van completely halted and Michael looked to Jess disheartened slightly. "Damn... guess we're walking." He said as he hopped out of the car. As Michael exited the vehicle he felt the cool air brush across his face and for the first time, noticed that the forest was eerily silent. "That's odd..." Michael said cautiously, "We need to stick together, and I think it'd be best to follow the road for the meantime..." Michael looked to Jess again, "Thanks for driving... I'll make sure HQ looks after us when we get to the city..."

Suddenly Michael's earpiece buzzed to life "Officer Faraway, why have you stopped proceeding to point Alpha in the hot zone... it is imperative you get there asap." Michael gritted his teeth, trying to hold back another outburst at his bosses. "Because HQ, i'm stranded at the moment with two civies. Our transportation broke down..." Michael thought about it for a moment and then bit the bullet, "HQ, why was Black Falls -" Michael was cut off abruptly, "Proceed two miles down the road and turn left at Lauderdale Junction.. There's an old estate down that way, maybe you can find transportation there." HQ cut out and communication ceased.

"God damn it" Michael cursed, kicking his foot to the ground in frustration. "I just don't get it... There's somethin' they're not telling me." He said looking to Jess and Toby. He sighed deeply and shook his head, "Fuck it." he said, "We gotta go two miles down the road and turn left at some junction... HQ says there some kind of estate thing... maybe we can get another ride there..." Michael looked up to the two again, "I'm sorry..." he said apologetically, "I'll find answers as soon as I can and we can get outta here..."

Michael turned on his heels and began the walk down the road.




The woman was fighting off the oncoming horde with one bullet at a time. Her training had paid off and two out of three infected dropped like led balloons on the first time most of the time. "HQ, this is Agent Suarez, i've been cornered by a horde, I need immediate evac." The woman pointed her gun firmly at a fast running zombie and let the trigger go as she stopped it in its tracks. "Hah!" she chided the horde as it closed in slowly, "You think you can beat me!?" she taunted in her thick latin accent. She backed away a little more, trying to provide herself with as much space as possible, but she soon found herself backed against a nearby building, "HQ! I need evac..." she said firmly. The woman showed no sign of panic.

A nearby zombie lunged out and the woman ducked swiftly, bringing her leg up and around to connect with it's skull, causing the creature to hit the ground with a blood curdling crack. "Fuck you" she spat as she turned to see the horde going into a frenzy. Any sign of blood and that triggered them like sharks in chum. "Damn it" she hissed as she holstered her gun and removed the knife from her arm. "Let's get personal." she said as she began a fight through the crowd.

The woman picked a lighter patch of the crowd and ran forth, pushing over the first few infect and managing to make her way into a small clearing amongst the horde. Her clothes were made of a tough material, teeth had a hard time tearing it.... But it wasn't indestructible. The woman slashed her knife back and forth, the horde seemed to be cognitive that Agent Suarez wasn't an easy meal. She stood firm, ready to fight off any attack, unsheathed her gun again, sensing she needed all the help she could get and fired once when suddenly the horde went flying through the air and a car broke into the woman's circle and narrowly missed her as it turned to avoid hitting her.

The woman made eye contact with the driver as he swerved around her. Her face was emotionless, but her stance was that of someone frightened. Pulling her arms back to avoid having them ripped off, she jumped backwards just in time. The car hurtled into a lamp post and for a few seconds there was still. A man stepped out and yelled "GET IN!" but the woman just looked at him, this time a more baffled expression across her face. She looked him over and his car too, deciding that she'd rather take her chances elsewhere, but as she turned to make a run for it, leaving the man as her bait for her escape she saw the horde she'd created had now nearly tripled in size from his car antics. The woman turned around to look back to the man, that's when he shouted more urgently, "Damn it. If you wan't to live get in!"

The woman turned back to the horde and fired twice into the crowd dropping two infected, starting a mild frenzy within the horde who became slightly distracted by the officially dead zombie. She turned to the man ran to his car, opening the backseat door and diving in. "Ok, go!" She shouted firmly, "get us out of here!"

Jess looked behind them at the road they had just come from before jogging to catch up with Michael after saying quiet goodbyes to the car, "I know you're only trying to help, but if you plan on meeting up with 'Head Quarters' again then I'm going to have to split. I don't trust them, not after what they did to Black Falls and all those people. Honestly, I rather take on the zombies by myself than be in the same building as them." She turned her head away, feeling as though she had almost insulted Michael. In fact, the more she thought about it the more she realized how bad what she just said sounded. She quickly turned her head back to the man walking next to her with an apologetic smile, "I'm sorry, I'm not blaming you, I just don't think we should trust people who just bombed survivors for no apparent reason and who keep secrets about it. It's not safe and I know you're just trying to help, but you shouldn't trust them either. That's just asking for trouble. When we hit the city I'm splitting and going on my own."

With that she rubbed the back of her neck and sped up her walking so she was a couple ahead of the other two. It felt secluded enough for her and was still safe in case they got attacked. Jess couldn't shake the images of the kid crying in the middle of the street as the sky dropped bombs on them and world collapsed into fire and rubble around them. It was exactly how her grandfather described World War two and it was exactly why Jess couldn't trust HQ because in her mind they were the bad guys, they were the nazis and the zombies were just wild creatures they had to watch out for. There was no smile on her face now, but there also weren't any tears; though her body language would give off that she was sad or upset, her face was was set in a slight scowl as she watched the ground at her feet. And even though she was walking in front she didn't know where she was going, she figured that either Michael would yell at her if she started to go the wrong way or she would get lost, but even if the latter were to happen in her mind it was better than heading to the city with HQ.

Her mood was sour and taking a few deep breaths wasn't going to make it go away, so she did the only thing that ever made her calm and that her grandfather did whenever he started thinking back to the war, she started sing. "Leaves from the vine, falling so slow. Like tiny fragile shells, drifting in the foam. Little soldier boy, come marching home. Brave soldier boy, comes marching home," she sang, closing her eyes and thinking of when her grandfather used to sing it, "Those leaves did grow, from branches overgrown. Drifting slowly down, resting in the loam. Little soldier boy, taken from home. Forced to fight a war, that's not his own. Leaves from the vine, falling so slow. Like tiny fragile shells, drifting in the foam. Little soldier boy says, 'Carry me home.' Sleeping soldier boy, is carried home."

Michael was a little taken aback when Jess said she'd go her separate way when and if they made it to town due to her not trusting HQ, and Michael was struck speechless when she suggested he discard them altogether. When the woman walked ahead and began to quietly sing to herself Michael just walked back a few paces taking in the harsh, but possibly true words of the woman.

Michael turned back to look at Toby and they exchanged a small glance of solemn woe. The truth of the situation, while it stung Michael like a wasp, was that; HQ wasn't telling him everything, but did it mean that he shouldn't trust them. All his career and most of his adult life he's been under the command of someone else. Michael has had to follow orders practically his whole life, and never has he had any negative impact or outcome because of it. He constantly put his life on the line for someone higher up, who always provided him with direction, reason and praise when he followed through with what he was told perfectly. But now... Now Michael was stranded in the middle of humanity's greatest shit storm. "What are you doing to me HQ?" he thought to himself.

As the group marched on down the road in a sad line, with Toby silently bringing up the rear, Michael had to turn his head as the distant roar of a motorbike grew louder and louder. It was only a moment or two after the noise first reached his ears when the biker raced past, slowly just long enough for Michael to glimpse of the rider - the man from the gate at Back Falls. Michael let out a "hey!" but the man was well and truly gone before Michael could even ask for his help.. Then again, what was Michael going to ask; "Give us all a ride will ya?" Michael bowed his head in frustration and just sighed as he exchanged a keep walkin' look to Jess and Toby.

As the sun arched upwards, higher and higher into the sky Michael began to grow restless as he realised patches of the forest were periodically going quiet. He looked up towards Jess, she seemed ok, then back behind him to look to Toby to see if he noticed anything and that's when Michael saw them... Just down the road; 400 or so metres. Standing about the trees, watching them silently - people. Michael stopped mid walk and mumbled out forward, "J-Jess..." he looked down the road towards the woman, she hadn't initially heard him, "Hey! Jess!" He turned back to look to Toby, "Can you see them?" Michael asked nodding down the road. Toby turned but suddenly there was no one to see. "They were there.. two seconds ago!" Michael turned his head back to Jess, "Did you see them?" Michael looks back down the road, "There were people, standing in the trees just down there... But..."

Suddenly the forest calm stops and the birds begin to sing again, filling the cool afternoon air with a sweet scent. The tension that had been hanging over this patch of the forest highway had lifted and Michael felt a cold shiver run down his spine. "We need to keep moving... Who knows what kind of crazy is sitting out here in the forest..." Michael moved past Jess and took the lead again, walking for about ten minutes when the group intersects a crossroads. "Left here..." he mumbles as he turns down a road and ten or so minutes later a stopped short by an elaborate iron gate that leads down an equally elaborate driveway of some sort. "Looks like a private estate out here..." Michael says out loud. He pushes the gate open and the group of three makes their way down the driveway for about fifteen minutes until suddenly a break in this part of the private forest lands reveals a huge dark grey structure that towers well and truly into the sky, casting an ominous glower across the forest. "Black Falls State Prison" Toby murmurs as the three pass a large sign denoting the structure before them.

Suddenly Michael's intercom bursts to life "We think you may have a usable vehicle in cell block D Officer Faraway" Before Michael can even reply HQ cuts out and his ears go silent. "What the hell is going on?" He asks back to HQ, but once again, no reply. "You might just be right..." Michael says grimly glancing to Jess and then Toby... "Whatever is going on... We have a vehicle in cell block D... come on." Michael says briskly as he steps through the initial the doors of the prison and into whatever lays inside...



The woman stepped out of the car slightly disorientated. The turmoil of an escape drive back to James' hideout knocked her around a bit. While tough, she wasn't indestructible and she smashed her left hand under her bodyweight against the back of the drivers seat... For the moment, it was useless. The man before her was more than keen to say the least to meet her. He introduced himself eagerly and extended a hand, "“Hi. Names James… I’m glad we got you out of that mess.”

She looked him up and down. "Barely and adult" she mocked sighing quietly. She pushed past him to take in her surroundings, eyeing his makeshift safe house with fascination, silent admiration, although she'd never show it, and disgust at how messy it was in some places... Mostly her disgust was aimed at the blood stain on the concrete nearby where a few undead, lay dead, for good now, on the other side of a fence.

She turned around and looked him back up and down, "I've done worse..." she says shrugging coldly. "You can call me Sierra Suarez" she says curtly. "I suppose I owe you a thanks..." she adds further, "Sincerely too" she added. "What is this place?" She moves around the courtyard initially, taking it in, the somewhat collapsed tarp that hangs across it, "Nice set up you have here" she says in a thick accent which masks too much whether or not she was using sarcasm or sincerity. "How long have you been here for? Surely not five months?"

Sierra moves forward to a nearby door and peeks inside to the pottery room. "An art studio?" She pulls her head out and looks him up and down, "I should have guessed" she says nonchalantly, "I guess it's true what they say... anyone can surv-" Sierra is cut off suddenly as her earpiece buzzes to life, "Agent Suarez... repor.... upda...Alpha... Far..y.. Companions... Test phase... don't...ort...Stay put."

Sierra sighs heavily leaning against a wall, grooming herself by rubbing off the blackened tar that is undead blood from her clothes. "Whether you like it or not..James" she says with a pur, "I'm going to be your new flatmate for a while..." She smiles coyly at James and turns away stretching. "So are you going to give me a grand tour or what?"

As Simon drove, what appeared to be a box wrapped in newspapers crashed into his face. Simon did not crash, and swerved only very slightly for for the instant it took him to remove the box. He kept it under his arm after shaking the box to determine that the contents were not heavy, like some types of explosive. Simon thought of how it might still be an explosive: It was something that had to be concealed with newspapers, after all. If someone wanted to confuse him with whether he should throw the package away or not, it worked. Sort of. Simon kept it.

Simon followed the car to it's destination, avoiding any of the creatures along the way. The man who stepped out of the car with the latin-american woman locked the gate as he made his way to within it. Oh well. Simon was used to being locked out of people's homes. He stopped the motorcycle, the whir of the engine ceasing slowly. As he came to a stop, and parked the motorcycle by simply leaning it against the side of the building, Simon reached into his pocket for his trusty lockpick before realizing he did not have it., It was lost sometime he could not remember. The time had to do with last New Years', and a funny situation with zombies and fireworks. Simon smiled for the happy memory. Things like that kept him going, no matter how cold or rough life would be to him as he pursued more memories like that. You could only experience so many things while well-fed. Checking the contents of the box, Simon found what appeared to be a box of beef jerky. Neat. He had been wishing for food, and something that would expand in a stomach was good for traveling with. Why else would so many people have dried food in the past? And now, the world is, unfortunately, more primitive again. Long story short, Dried food is amazing. Simon looked up the gate, and decided to trespass a little.

Simon climbed the gate instead. Breaking the lock would not be something that would be beneficial to anyone at this moment. He landed as quietly as he could, out of old habits of stealthiness tempered by a need for sneakiness in his former occupation and times he used to play pranks on others. Pranking was a nice hobby. The two appeared to have left, the only sign Simon had that their exit inside was not a mirage, besides the lock, was that he had heard conversation. He didn't hear it very well, but no matter. Gazing at the handicraft of makeshift buildings reminded Simon he should not enter it. Rube Goldberg might have traps for him in there. Who knew what makeshift traps people would make? Simon didn't, and that is why he stayed out. Instead, he turned his attention to the pile of corpses in the exterior courtyard. Raising his knife, he decapitated each and every single one, just to be sure they were dead. It was a simple matter. Simon cleaned the blade using one of the disposable rags from his suitcase, and then searched each body. finding nothing substantial, and letting curiosity getting the better of him, he decided to enter the building. He waved his hand out from behind the first pathway curve, and called out into the building.

"Hello?! Anybody here? I was walking by, and think I could be of use, a little, sort of. I am a doctor, or could be, kind of...I have beef jerky!" Simon mentioned. Simon waited in the entrance, waiting to see if anyone would come.

They continued to walk by themselves until Jess her name being called, "Hey! Jess!", she turned around to Michael staring at an area in the bushes, she saw them rustle, but nothing else, "Can you see them?"

Neither she nor Toby answered.

"They were there.. two seconds ago!" he turned his head towards Jess, "Did you see them? There were people, standing in the trees just down there... But..."

Jess wasn't really sure how to react, she saw a bush rustle and even though part of her wanted to just discard it and continue on another part in her head, the part that had kept her alive for five months, said to trust Michael and that there had been people standing there. "Well should we fight or what then?" Jess asked, not stating out right that she believed him, but knew he would have a plan of action either way.

"We need to keep moving... Who knows what kind of crazy is sitting out here in the forest..." Michael had rushed passed Jess as she stood and looked around. Something had changed, she could feel, but she wasn't entirely sure what it had been. It was silent, though she couldn't really know this for sure because she hadn't exactly paid attention to the noise around her when they were walking a few minutes ago. She kept her eyes on the trees getting her shotgun ready to fire, just in case and began to follow Michael. As they continued to walk Jess could hear Michael mumbling to himself, mostly because now she was very aware of the fact that the forest was indeed silent. She began to fidget a little with her gun, her fingers moving worriedly. Then they came to a large gates and a driveway.

"Looks like a private estate out here..." Michael said out loud as if still in his own world and forgetting she or Toby were there with him. They finally came to a building and a small open area in the forest. The building was a big grey cement block, cold and unfeeling. 'A prison', Jess thought and sure enough she heard Toby mumble, "Black Falls State Prison", as they walked by the sign.

As they neared the cement building it seemed Michael's earpiece had something to tell him because he suddenly stopped and Jess could hear a buzzing noise coming from his general direction. "What the hell is going on?" He asked 'HQ', but all was silent. "You might just be right..." Michael mumbled as he looked back to Jess. Jess bowed her head and smirked silently. She knew she was right especially after this 'HQ' person had bombed a town of survivors with no explanation to the person working for them. Though she was trying to hide the smirk because Michael still trusted them and even though they were in a dead society that doesn't mean that respect for others suddenly dies. "Whatever is going on... We have a vehicle in cell block D... come on."

Michael stepped inside, Jess held her shotgun at the ready and followed him in. Inside gave her the creeps she would admit; it was complete chaos inside. There were no lights, all the light bulbs looked like they had been shattered and all along the wall were scratch marks, some just small indents, but others outlined with blood. The only light was coming from the open door and that was slowly fading away from there view, meaning they would have to rely on their hearing and how best their eyes could adjust. Subconsciously, Jess moved forward a couple steps trying to get closer to Michael, though in her head she figured it was just because she tripped on something. In her head she knew this was the part in a horror movie that people would scream out "Don't go in there!", and she wasn't really sure if she should. Though it did give her an adrenalin rush, this rush was different and one she wasn't too fond of. It was less of a thrill and more of a chill. She hoped that they would find the supposed car, if there was one because she highly doubted that there was one, before zombies started attacking them in this little hallway.

"Do you really think this is safe?" Jess asked, to no one in particular, "I mean, can't we just walk the rest of the way, exercise won't kill us..." she looked turned around and walked backwards to see behind them. She kept looking around the silence stronger in here than it was out there and their feet echoing around. Then she heard something rasping, like wind coming and going through small holes. She looked into a room and noticed limbs, at first they didn't move, but then slowly the shifted slightly.

"...but they might," she whispered. Toby ran into Jess, making her stumble and knock some rubble on the ground alerting the zombies who were now standing up. "I think we should run," she said, shoving Toby towards Michael and raising her gun, she stood her ground backing away from the, "Go run! RUN!" she yelled, the zombies were now standing up and walking and running towards them, "I'll hold them off as long as I can, you two run for that car!" she shot a couple fires at the faster zombies, trying to take down as many as she possibly could. She didn't look back to see if they had actually ran, she just stood her ground taking the occasional step backwards and continued to fire. Then there was another problem, she was running low on bullets, her pockets were feeling lighter and lighter even though more zombies piled out of the room.

Michael stepped further and further down the hallway of the prison, light dimming as they went deeper in. "Was this some kind of high security prison?" Michael asked out loud, "I mean... there are next to no windows." Michael moved a little further, straining his eyesight to see into the blackening abyss of the prison's hallways; that's when Michael noticed why there wasn't any light... Sheets, wooden boards, anything that could block out light had been strung up, nailed over and used to cover any windows or light sources. Michael turned around to Jess who suddenly, it seemed, became much more cautious of the groups situation than before.

"Do you really think this is safe?" Jess asked out loud. Michael could tell this was not a comfortable situation for her, "I mean, can't we just walk the rest of the way, exercise won't kill us..." Jess turned around and walked backwards to see behind them. Jess kept looking around, then something rasping violently could be heard through the halls, like wind coming and going through small holes. Jess looked into a nearby room and noticed limbs, at first not moving, but then slowly shifting, "But they might" she whispered.

Suddenly panic hit Toby as he ran into Jess, making her stumble and knock some rubble to the ground. The infected we alerted immediately, the subdued state now fully gone and their heads propped upwards to locate the sounds origins. "Fuck" Michael hissed as he heard the shuffling through the dim light. Michael fumbled for a moment as Toby suddenly slammed into his body and the shouts of Jess echoed heavily through the prison "Go run! RUN!" Michael got to his feet in a few seconds and remembered the torch he had built into his headpiece. He switched it on and for the first time the reality of what the prison looked like hit him.

Blood splattered the walls, dry and black in colour. Limbs and bodies were strewn and built up in corners of the prison, almost deliberate in appearance... "what the hell?" Michael said recoiling at the sight, but his thoughts were soon cut off when Jess yelled again "I'll hold them off as long as I can, you two run for the car!" Jess fired a few times stopping a few zombies in their tracks. Michael's light provided some relief in the darkness as it showed him exactly where he was treading, but the trade off was the horror sight he saw across the floors and walls.

Michael moved forward down the hall, watching as Toby ran forward off into the darkness, "TOBY STOP!" Michael yelled, "You'll get lost!" BANG! BANG! BANG! Michael stopped running as he turned back to look down the hallway as Jess was slowly stepping backwards, but managing to keep the zombies at bay. Suddenly an ear splitting ringing filled the air as the prison's lockdown alarm began to wail. "What the hell!?" Michael cursed to himself over the din as he clasped his hands over his ears.

The noise was deafening, and Michael knew it would be attracting more zombies at any moment, and that was something Jess wasn't going to be able to handle alone. He looked down towards her, she was still holding them off, but the noise was definitely distracting. Michael looked down the other end of the hallway to see Toby standing there shouting something to him... Suddenly Toby fell to the ground without any sign of what happened to him. "Shit" Michael hissed as he bolted forwards without thinking. Michael was a few feet from Toby when suddenly a barred door slid shut cutting the hallway off and separating Toby and Michael. "Toby! TOBY! Are you ok?" Michael tried to yell over the alarms ringing. Michael clasped his hands around the door trying to slide it back open but it was no use... This was a prison after all and when a prison locks down... it stays locked down.

Michael jumped back though after he reasoned he wasn't getting to Toby through that door. "Hold on Toby!" he yelled, "I'll get you-" Michael was stunned when suddenly two figures stepped into Michael's light's way... Two men stepped out of the dark shadows, dressed in ripped jeans, and t shirts, covered in thick black dried blood, wielding a hand gun, rope and plank of wood. They weren't zombies thank god but it didn't more than a few seconds to realise they weren't here to help. "Leave him alone!" Michael yelled above the noise, but it was useless. "Fuck" Michael yelled as he watched the two men ignore his presence and effortlessly tie up and drag off Toby.

Michael yelled pathetically after the two captors of Toby but when he realised it was no good turned on his heel, withdrew his handgun from it's holster and pelted down towards Jess who by now had seemed to have made it halfway back down the hall. As Michael neared Jess he pulled his handgun up and pulled the trigger once, twice, three times, taking down two of the infected that were dangerously close to Jess. Michael grabbed her shoulder and pulled her around so she faced him as he mouthed "We have to run, Toby is gone!"

Michael turned around, looking for a way out of their situation and grimaced when he looked down the end of the hallway Jess and backed from... His light shone bright enough to see a whole horde of at least twenty infected shuffling - thankfully - not running, towards them. "Shit shit shit" Michael hissed. He turned around again and saw that he and Jess were in fact, standing at a T-Intersection. "Come on! This way!" Michael yelled as he pulled Jess down the hallway and Managed to get them both through another sliding gate just before it closed.

The two burst through the the sliding door and Michael tripped and rolled across the ground, slamming against a wall as the door closed, the alarm stopped ringing and the small horde behind them was left trapped. Breathing heavily, Michael looked to Jess wide eyed and confused, "What the fuck just happened?"



“There is no electricity or windows, and this place is pitch black at night.” James said firmly. Sierra shrugged nonchalantly, quietly reasoning with herself that things could be much worse. She followed James quietly, listening to him as he spoke, but couldn't help but smirk coyly as spoke with slight irritation as he showed her around; “This is the cities college. Particularly the Art building.” He pointed to the clay room and said shortly, “This is the clay room.” He walked into the door way of the studio room and said even shorter and more irritated sounding, “Studio room…”

Sierra actually laughed as he showed her his safe haven and for the first time realised she must be sounding rather distant and... Well, like a bitch. James pointed to a mattress, and said “there’s where I sleep…” He paused for a moment. Even though she had been rude to him, her behavior had not shadowed his own innate generosity. So he said rather reluctantly “Your welcome to it.” Pointing to the next door ahead he said, “That’s the sculpture room… my only rule here is don’t touch my things without asking…” Sierra poked her head into the sculpture room, but the dimming light over the city was making it hard to define anything past silhouettes. "You seem talented" she said turning around, that was as good as an apology she reasoned internally if she had sounded brash earlier. He looked rather annoyed at this point with how she acted and said “If your staying I need to trust you… Who was that you spoke too?”

Sierra was honestly a little taken aback at his brazen questioning all of a sudden and for the first time saw a glimpse of why James had stayed alive for so long. "Hmmm" she said with hyperbole as she made a show of contemplation on whether or not she should tell James. She decided it would be ok. "They are my bosses..." Sierra said mysteriously, smirking while she spoke, "I work for the UN.. I'm a special agent, specifically, rescue..." Before James could ask why she hadn't phoned in to have him and herself rescued Sierra continued "UN official rescue and recovery."

Sierra leaned back against a nearby wall, "I'm waiting for an Officer who has been tasked with coming to the city... he's been held up." Sierra shrugged, "Apparently I am to wait in the city for a little while longer than anticipated." She looked sideways to James, "I'll help you out as much as I can..." She pushed off the wall, "But don't expect a-" Suddenly Sierra was cut off by the sound of another voice, "Hello?! Anybody here? I was walking by, and think I could be of use, a little, sort of. I am a doctor, or could be, kind of...I have beef jerky!"

Sierra looked to James, a look of stern concern coming across it suddenly, Sierra was kicking into special agent mode - be wary of everyone and trust nothing.

As Jess was yanked along down a hallway by Michael she shot a couple more zombies, then he tripped and slid across. Since his grip had still been on her, she went down as well; sliding to a stop, the door closing just a couple inches from her feet with a loud heavy thud. She sighed to herself, grateful that she had actually passed the door completely, even if by a couple inches. She got to a sitting position on her knees in order to catch her breath and checked herself for injuries; bruises and scrapes, but thankfully no bites.

"What the fuck just happened?" Michael asked Jess, the look on his face disconcerted her a little, thinking at how calm and straight his face usually was.

"I don't know, a trip wire maybe?" Jess offered, she said this more as a joke to help lighten the mood because she knew it must be more of a rhetorical question than one that he was actually wanting an answer for. Though, it might also be that he really did want an answer that he knew Jess wouldn't have, but still felt the need to ask it as if that would help whatever was going through his mind. Jess gave a short laugh to herself at the thought of all this just being caused by a trip wire, then she remembered what Michael had said about Toby being gone.

"So...um....what exactly happened back there?" she asked tentatively, "Where did Toby go?" Her breath finally caught up, she stood up and dusted herself off. She walked over to Michael offering a hand to help pull him up, her shotgun loosely held in her other hand. She looked around, her eyes adjusting to the near darkness they had wandered into, if it wasn't for Michael's light they would be in complete darkness of that she was sure. What could be seen there wasn't much of, some rubble, the scratched walls, a couple cells. Then there were numbers on top of the cells, she wondered if they could use those to navigate through; to the car in cell block D, to find Toby, or to get the Hell out.

Michael pulled himself up and into a standing position, cracking his neck to the side and heaving heavily as the horde of undead moaned and gurgled at him and Jess through the barred off door. As Michael moved around the new uncharted hallway, Jess offered small anecdotes that Michael half acknowledged as he looked down and up the hallway, spying the blood smeared across the hallway, dried, blackened and tar-like in viscosity. Michael turned around and faced back to where they had come from, the horde was clawing longingly out to them. Michael shivered in repulse at their insatiable hunger.

Then Jess broke his train of gruesome thought with "So...um...What exactly happened back there?" Michael shook his head and rid it of all the worst outcomes possible that could happen at this very moment. "The powers not out... Someone is controlling the prison" Michael said matter-of-factly as he motioned Jess to follow him. "Look up at the ceiling..." He said pointing up towards the lights. As the two passed each one they could see how the lights were all smashed or missing... Every single one. "Whoever is here... they've set this place up to be a maze..." Michael moved towards an intersection and suddenly as he went to turn right a sliding door abruptly shut blocking his and Jess's path, "And whoever it is took Toby and they're pushing us towards somewhere..." Michael kicked the recently closed door and pushed on with Jess, "They took Toby..." Michael said morosely, "And the people who took him... they sort of looked like the people I thought I saw down the road..." Michael moved towards another door and as he passed through it another alarm rang and suddenly he and Jess were separated.

Michael turned around suddenly and a loud "FUCK!" echoed through the hallway. "What the hell! What do you want!?" Michael yelled outwards down the hallway. Michael shone his light down past Jess and before he could properly communicate why she should run the two men behind her began to shout "Don't move and we won't we kill you" they said angrily. Michael looked down the hallway and began to panic for Jess, although he somewhat suspected that being the thrill junkie she seemed to be would probably enjoy a little more action... Michael was about to yell instructions to Jess as he unclipped his torch from himself and handed it through the bars of the door, but suddenly an ear splitting screech filled the entire prison followed by a solid thud and loud boom.

The two men who were on their way to Jess stopped to listen to the sound and Michael cocked his head to the side to try and determine the sound, swearing for a moment he could hear the distant whirring of a helicopter. Michael turned to Jess and quickly hissed "Go down that way, we'll meet up at cell block D! I'll find Tob-"

Suddenly a loud crash and the sound of rubble collapsing filled the air too and down the hall where Jess's would be pursuers stood a hulking great beast burst forth through the wall, allowing daylight to dimly light down the hallway. "What is that?" Michael said in awe, his jaw dropping at the monster that Jess now faced. It lumbered at first, the effort in breaking the wall must have temporarily stunned it... "Jess... You need to move!" Michael shouted, alerting the monster suddenly.

It turned slowly in the direction of Michael's voice. Slackjawed with human like teeth, it bellowed a loud growl down the way towards Jess. It's body couldn't be seen from their position, but the creature was jaundice in colour and thick veins pulsed around it's skin. It had sallow eyes and gaunt cheeks. It's eyes were swollen but it was clear it could see well. The creature was clothed - barely - in some sort of leather, although that only covered it's lower half.. But most strangely, the creature had a small metal plate across the back of it's head, that had a small glass dome over it, with a small red light illuminating gently in the partial darkness as it began a slow jog towards Jess.

Michael yelled again, as it seemed Jess was momentarily shocked by the raucous on her side of the hallway, "RUN JESS!" Michael shouted as he turned himself and made a run down his hallway and turned the corner, hoping Jess would do as Michael urged, and that she'd survive whatever had just made their shitty situation shittier.

Simon remained waiting for a moment. It was not only rude to be kept waiting, but also insane to not want beef jerky. this was the stuff empires used to be made of, and now, of all times, was the perfect piece of history to begin swarming all over the dehydrated food market. Simon stopped this conjecture, and decided to step in. It was against his better judgement, but he would rather invite himself in, and decided to explore a little as well. The entire area was well-fortified. It was like a spider, who would continue building the same web more and more and more, if left alone. Simon smiled. This was someone who could probably help rebuild society. They already looked like they were doing a great job, at the moment. Simon moved towards the various areas, observing them. He enjoyed how they looked. School was a great memory for Simon. Good times of great things. He was not very artistic, though. He just couldn't take the effort to create something from scratch. This area seemed dedicated to artistic pursuits. The voices he heard speaking in this area seemed to have come from the nearby studio room. Simon waved his hand into the doorframe, waving in what appeared to be a hello, but the axis seemed to be from the side of the door frame, before stepping into the room. The woman he saw earlier looked like a professional. But he doubted she was actually trigger-happy. People who did not practice excellent gun safety wouldn't survive easily...usually. Welp, whatever. His hand appeared before him, and he made sure to enter the room slowly, hands raised to the sides, his suitcase full of supplies hanging from one hand.

"I know I might be interrupting, but you obviously do not know the value of beef jerky."