Final Absolution, M (P, GV)

[Occoris]

Final Absolution

Authors: Zachary Lobertini; Drew Maya; Kyla Nelson; Nicole Pownall

Short Description: The story surrounds the somewhat cliché story involving the government screwing things up (as per usual) while investigating ways to manipulate the Solanum (Zombie) Virus.
The Main-character in the government Storyline is scientific genious Redford, who finds himself haunted by his conscience and the twisted mind of Johnathan, a fellow lab-worker. Head-of-department Josef Dagda finds himself caught in the middle of their one-sided fued, and eventually must order the death of Redford.

The other, more prominent part of the storyline follows four teenagers caught up in the mess and dealing with the undead outbreak, and each other, as they travel across the States to get to the savehaven on the easter side of the wall erected as a backup form of protection in case the Zombie outbreaks ever got too out of hand.
As they go, the Kids (Dani, Drew, Jack, and Kyo) learn, bit by bit, what was going on to cause the outbreaks- But once they hit the wall and climb into its protective depths, what they find out causes them to turn tail and head back to their home, where they start to rebuild again.

(for more informaiton and slightly more frequent updates, please visit the website)

Table of Contents

Prologue/Character Introductions: 4 Pgs
Chapter 1: In Editing
Chapter 2: In Editing
Chapter 3: In Editing
Chapter 4: In Progress

Reviews
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[Occoris]

Prologue/Character Introductions

- Laguna Creek High School, 2007-

The classroom was filled with a dull roar, with students chattering away with friends, plugged in to their mp3 players, or text messaging buddies in other classrooms. Kyo was half asleep at his desk, tired from another night spent more awake than not.
The blonde-haired teen was jerked to attention as sirens blared to life. He looked directly at the source of the noise, squinting against the pulsating warning lights.
“. . . shit,” The syllable barely escaped his lips as a thin fingered, battle scarred hand cuffed his wrist and pulled him out of his seat. Kyo jerked his arm back instinctively and pulled himself upright, looking down at the officer from a height of six-foot-three. He frowned slightly and followed the man out into the open-air hallway.
Immediately, the sirens inside the school were muted, and Kyo heard the moans. He closed his eyes tightly and took a breath, grumbling to himself about “bloody fucking walkers.” After a moment he composed himself and slouched forward, now part of a crowd of other students, all of them fit and most of them male.
He felt a tap on his shoulder and looked back, taking another breath and following the second officer away from the crowd of students, each receiving a ballistics weapon of some type.
The officer shoved Kyo back around a corner and crouched down to pick up a heavy looking metal loop. The teenager grimaced inwardly and lowered his head, feeling the weight settle down around his shoulders, and he waited for the sting.
It was akin to having an electrical shock forced through his body, and he felt his bones realign themselves, his muscles following suit. The tension of his weight lifted itself off his hips, and half of it fell onto his chest, pushing him forwards onto newly grown paws. He lowered his head and flattened his ears, snarling, and curling his still-short tail underneath him. His jacket had slipped off and was on the wet ground next to him. He heard the officer speak, but could not focus on the voice, except for the tone. It was impatient.
The next thing Kyo was entirely aware of was that time had sped back up for him. He was being prodded from behind, pushed in front of someone, towards the chain-link fences that surrounded the school. His ears, perked, were sharply aware of the buzzing of electricity. Kyo stepped up to a small door next to the gate, and crouched, waiting.
CRACK!
He cringed, sensitive ears flattening themselves to his skull, and the next thing he knew he was outside the school grounds, door shut behind him. The wolf growled and leapt forward, tackling the nearest undead to the ground.

-Laguna Creek High School. Boy’s Showers, 2007-

Kyo leaned into the stream of water, one hand against the cold tile and the other at his side, his long blonde hair falling over his face, and his eyes closed.
Everyone in the showers- all of them teenagers, and all employed to fight whenever the horde bells rang- was still more or less fully clothed, but the idea of washing out the blood along with the sweat no longer phased most of them, and as long as the undead walkers lowered in number, nobody in power seemed to mind.
The showers clicked off, and in their place, the industrial fans just beneath the showerheads burst into life. Kyo put his face directly in the wind, taking advantage of the ability to dry off before he would have to go back to class.

The students grumbled when the dryers clicked off, some still sopping wet, and clearly unhappy about it. Kyo rolled his eyes. That was their own problem.
“Alright, punks- Come and get your damn socks,” one of the School’s officers, clearly grumpy, threw fresh socks to teenagers as they passed to pick up personal belongings that had been left behind in the locker room for the showers. It was a firm belief of the Elk Grove Unified School System that if the feet were warm and dry, it would not matter if the rest of the body was cold and wet.

Kyo pulled on his sneakers and tugged his heavy black jacket over his shoulders, listening to the depressed hum of the other teenagers.
“I wonder where they came from. . . . I mean, to begin with.”

-Sacramento Government Building. December 2005-

“Yes, sir. Right away,” Gerard nodded, striding down the hall, away form the head of department, Dagda.
“Damnit, You get back here.”
The scientist paused, obviously not really wanting to come back. “Sir?”
“You’re positive that this isn’t the same virus?”
“Positive, sir.”
“God Damnit, you had better be, or it’s your head.”
“No mistakes, sir. I swear.”
Dagda furrowed his brow, narrowing his eyes. “Redford had better have a clean memory by two o’clock tomorrow, or it’s your head.”
“We’ve rigged the virus to do the killing for you, sir.”
“I want to personally make sure he’s dead.”
Gerard nodded, looking uneasy. “Yes, sir.”

Dagda snorted as the scientist entered a lab. He did not entirely trust what the lab was doing with the Solanum virus. It seemed far too unstable for use in delicate situations like this. Their tinkering had already failed once, mostly thanks to Jonathan. The idiot. Dagda wished they had gotten rid of him when they had still had the chance.

By the next day, Redford had passed away. Dagda was in an uproar, and half the building was empty just to get away form his fury. He had not seen the man die, and they would not allow him to see the corpse so he could finish the dead man the way he wished. By the time Dagda had heard of it, the body had already been buried, in a shabby grave off of Highway 99.

-Elk Grove Cemetery, Early 2006-

The grave keeper shuffled between headstones towards the tractor he had rented to dig out a new plot at the end of the yard. He stretched, pausing at the foot of an unmarked grave when he heard a faint sound- somewhere between scraping and a groan. He gazed silently. That was not a normal sound here, where things generally were silent except for the traffic on two sides. The fact that anyone would build a highway and a main road near a graveyard bothered him. He crouched down, running his fingers across the wet ground. Colorless fingers were poking through the dirt, pushing it aside with short, uncoordinated movements. The grave keeper leaned forward slightly, falling backwards as a head forced its way through the moist dirt.
The dead eyes snapped to attention and a low, hellish moan emanated from its throat. Frozen in terror, the grave keeper pulled a shovel in front of his person, inching backwards.

Minutes later, the hundred-pound pressure of human jaws sank through his flesh.

-Laguna Creek High School, 2007. Later that Day-

Drew stared blankly at the reinforced fencing, considering simply turning around and going back home.
“Well. We know I’m late,” he commented dryly to no one. He glanced around at the last few men cleaning up a bit of blood, the occasional body part, and scorched concrete helped to finish the thought. He glanced back at the gate in front of him again.
“And . . . Apparently they thank me by locking me out.” That fact did not seem to surprise him. It was simply how his luck ran. He had helped quite significantly in the recent skirmish, and now he was stuck outside.

The only thing that kept him from simply jumping the fence was the fact that it had around 300 milliamps of electricity running through them at any given point in time, more than enough to kill any human or halt any zombie.
“Hey! Lemme in!” the power clicked off and the fence went silent. Drew dropped his skateboard so he could shake the fence a bit better. “Hey!”

A brown haired girl, happening to walk by, paused, looking toward the school’s fencing. “Drew?” She cocked an eyebrow and took a few steps toward the fence. “Shnap- Drew- you need in?”
The other teenager nodded. “Bastards locked me out.”
“Those bitches!” The girl chuckled and flipped her hand to the keypad, opening the gate.
Drew nodded his thanks, picking up his skateboard and stepping through the opening. The gate slid shut, auto-locking with an obnoxious snap.
The two winced. “Ack. .. Hope that doesn’t wake up any of the officers.” The girl paused, starting to walk back towards her class. “You catch the battle?”
“I killed like half those damn zombies,” Drew declared.
The girl laughed. “Shyurreeee ya did.”
Drew pulled a face, “Y’know what, Dani? Shut the hell up.”
The girl laughed, and a moment later, both of them fell dead silent, as a security guard in a golf cart rolled up in front of the two teenagers. The woman inside peered out at the two.
“Where are you two going?”
“Back to class.” Dani jerked her hand in the general direction of her destination.
“I don’t remember seeing him out here before now.”
“He got stuck outside after the attack.”
The guard watched the two with a critical eye for a moment before waving them along, muttering something into his two-way radio as they left.

-Harriet Eddy Middle School, 2007-

Jack released a breath of annoyance, pushing the hair out of her face as her pencil broke again. She stood up to sharpen it, glancing out the window. The school had just received word of an outbreak near the high school. Jack wondered how bad it had been, if Dani would come out of it alright, if there would be a lockdown later today. She sat back down and started to go over the straight lines again. The pencil tip snapped and jack tossed it to the side, digging through her bag for another one. “Fucking pencil won’t stay sharpened,” she muttered.

-The Corner of Bruceville and Seasons/Soaring Oaks, 2007-

Humans are well known for their ability to make mistakes- often those with grave consequences. And nothing about the recent Zombie attacks could change that factor.
The human population seemed to have two settings- “Complete lockdown” and “No worries.”
They were not switching gears to “complete lockdown” fast enough- and soon the City of Elk Grove would feel the pain that came from delayed reaction, for here, on the corner outside Harriet Eddie Middle School, lingered another fairly large group of ghouls. They milled about, following cars a short distance until they were out of earshot, before turning back to investigate further sounds, smells, and plausible meals.

[Occoris]

Chapter 1

~Laguna Creek, Later that Day~

The room was relatively quiet, considering the fact that there were energy-ridden teenagers anxious to leave in a few seconds. Dani was staring at the clock, testing the old adage.
“God. Clocks really DO move slower when you watch them.”
Behind her, Kyo yawned ad raised his head. “Then stop—Stop looking at the clock, then.”
Dani glanced back at him, a bored expression on her face. “Novel concept, but not nearly as mu—”
The screech of the sirens cut off the rest of her statement, and silenced the part of the class that was talking. Drew’s head moved itself upwards tiredly.
“Again?” the question was a symbol of annoyance.

A voice crackled over the intercom, dulling the sirens into an annoying background noise. { Laguna Creek. I apologize for the interruption and lockdown so close to bell, however, I ask for your cooperation until the matter is resolved. We will be attempting an evacuation through the tunnels. Those not required to participate in battle will be escorted off campus. Thank you- Have a nice day! }

Kyo grunted, “ That makes twice, today?”
Dani nodded, sighing, “Yup.”
Drew started to stand up, grabbing his backpack. “I say we leave now, befo—”
Kyo interrupted him, “’Leave,’ leave?”
The other teenaged male rolled his eyes, “No, I mean ‘stay here and drink tea,’ leave.”
Kyo stood up, “’Leave,’ leave, it is.”
The three pushed past a few students and towards the door, only to meet face-to-face with something that looked as if it had just stepped out of a Japanese Graphic Novel.
“Wait! Where are you kids going?” the man asked, looking as if they were somehow greatly offending him.
The three strode past him, Dani watching him as they went by. “We get to fight decaying things.”
The man’s eye twitched. Aware he was defeated by the implementation of “fighters” to protect the school in the case of an outbreak, he grumbled, “Alright, then.”

The door closed behind the adolescents, shutting out the sound of the sound of the teacher relaying evacuation procedure to the class. Drew eyed the door as they walked away. “If that was any easier, I would have laughed.”
The remark was overall ignored as Kyo, in the lead simply because he had made it out of the door first, led the small group around a few buildings, avoiding security easily as they were all preoccupied with other matters. They came to a halt in a relatively cut-off area between the library and the student store, checking that the coasts on both sides were clear before pressing themselves up against a wall to talk.
“I have this feeling we’ve forgotten something,” Kyo informed them. The other two blinked for a moment, feeling around in their pockets and testing the weight of their packs.
“Weapons,” It was Drew who said it out loud.
A unanimous “Shit” made itself heard and Drew sighed, pointing out across the campus. “There’s an armory over there that’s pretty easy to get into.”
Dani glanced at him, eyebrows raised. “You would know that.”
“Lead the way.” Kyo waved the two forward.

They reached the building and Drew began his work on the door, fumbling with the lock and swearing at it a few times.
“Door hate you?” Dani smirked. Drew grumbled and stood back, kicking the door in. The fact that it caved quickly was proof as to the school’s lack of funding where it might have actually been needed.
Kyo flipped the light switch as he walked in, striding all the way across the room towards the hand weapons, and the other two moved towards melee weapons and long range. Dani scanned the short-range weapons and lifted a titanium crowbar, weighing it in her hands and then searching for a rope to secure it to her belt with. Drew grabbed a Smith ‘n Wesson rifle, pocketing a relatively large case of .45 rounds and inserting the ammunition into his backpack.
“They need exploding hand pies,” Kyo stated, turning over a Berretta handgun. The other two froze, puzzled, and stared at him for a moment, before starting the instinctive transition around the room. Drew glanced at Kyo as he walked by.
“Yeah . . . Just grab real guns this time, Kyo.”
Kyo flattened his expression, “Hey, that only happened once.”

They were halfway out the door when Kyo turned around and turned the light back on, “My collar is in here.”
“How can you tell?” Drew asked, turning around to watch Kyo walk across the room.
The other boy shrugged as he reached the crate full of blank collars. “I don’t know. Just can.”
Dani still stood outside the door, watching the campus. She glanced over her shoulder. “Hey, could you grab mine, too?” The answer that came back to her was a yes.
Drew began to look impatient after awhile, raising his voice so it would carry a little bit farther across the room. “Why can’t you just grab one?”
Kyo glanced back at Drew, picking up one of the collars and sticking it in the bag he was using. “No way. You never know what DNA could be on those. I don’t want a repeat of when Twenty tried to use Six’s collar."
Drew blinked. “What?”
Dani held the door open, waiting for the others to come through. “It’s a long story,” she assured him.

~Harriet Eddy Middle School~

Jack took a breath and stood up, moving to the door before anyone decided to yank her up and out of her seat. The alarm at the school had just faded to a dull background noise in order for teachers to be heard, and most of the kids seemed to be rather edgy.
She had almost made it halfway across the room when the substitute brought her to a halt.
“Excuse me, miss, but where are you going?”
Jack replied, “I have to pee.” The statement technically was not a lie.
The substitute looked taken aback for a moment, hearing the phrase put so bluntly. “I cannot just let you leave, miss. We’ve just entered a lockdown.”
Jack blinked a few times. “I’m a fighter.”
The substitute was clearly skeptical. “You look a little . . . small.”
Jack bared her teeth, exposing her sharp canines. The points told the teacher everything she needed to know.
“Well, well, well,” the substitute smiled, stepping out of the way. “You get your butt out there, then, kiddo.”

Jack made her way across the campus, headed for the part of the fencing that would get her to Laguna Creek in the least amount of time. It had been reported earlier that most of the ghouls seemed to be swarming upon that school. The idea of facing hundreds of the cadavers at once almost turned her towards home, or into the tunnels with the rest of her classmates.

She ducked into a box of collars and quickly found hers, slipping it over her head with a look of pain on her face before it even hit her shoulders. A tiger replaced her within seconds, crouched low and ready to spring over the fence.

The Bengal tiger hit the ground on the other side of the fence, charging down Seasons Drive.

~Laguna Creek High School~

“Which exit are we taking?” Kyo asked, pushing back his hair as he walked.
“Southeast,” came the reply. Drew fingered his revolver and glanced out through the fences as they approached.
“We’re gonna have a problem with that fence,” Kyo pointed out, casting a sideways glance at Dani and Drew.
Drew made a face. “Uh, yeah . . . about that. I was thinking maybe we could just jump it.”
“That’d be a little death-defying,” Kyo commented, appearing to accept the other boy’s sarcastic remark as the plan.
Dani blinked and raised her hand, trying to ignore the buzzing coming from the fence. The thought of 300 milliamperes of electricity coursing through anyone’s body did not appeal to her. “I vote towards not dying. Or ending up seriously injured. Please.”
A momentary silence was broken by a garbled shout from elsewhere along the fence line. Dani furrowed her brow in an effort to understand it.
“They’re throwing a charge,” she translated, glancing back at the other two as if for confirmation that the newest option was their means of leaving the campus.
The three moved partway across a grassy area for a better look at the gate in question. A horde of undead was approaching it, albeit slowly, and with each step they took, more of the kids in the back stepped farther backwards.
“We’re counting three! ONE!” The kids in the middle froze, trying to comprehend what they were about to do.
“Well?”
“That’s out way out,” Kyo decided, before anyone else could say anything. He started dashing towards the gates to joint he others.
“TWO!” Someone screamed and broke away from the larger group, running back to wards a classroom.
“This would have been useful earlier!” Drew managed to make himself head over the final count and the incessant moaning.
“THREE!”

The three made a mad dash to get lost in the chaos as the gates opened and bodies collided, gunshots filling the air. They dodged and shoved their way through both those alive and dead.
Starting to turn a corner, Drew turned around. “Just a second.”
Kyo leaned against a tree and Dani took her time to catch her breath, watching as the third teen drew his magnum, aiming the rifle back towards the mob. He fired off a single shot, nailing the closest ghoul through the back of the head. He replaced the gun, nodding once and casting a slight grin at his kill. “Now we can go.”

~En Route Laguna Creek~

Jack’s paws beat steadily on the pavement, taking her down the streets far faster than any human could run. She was drawing closer to her destination, enough so that, over the dull roar of wind and cars, she could hear the gunshots.
She slowly came to a stop when she turned a corner. There was one large figure surrounded by three much, much smaller ones. Squinting and taking another few steps forward, she realized what it was.
An incredibly obese undead was being beaten by three roughly normal-sized humans. The three attempting to bring down the large creature had their work cut out for them, it seemed. Judging by the lack of firearms present, either the group simply did not have any ballistic weapons or they were trying to bring the ghoul down as silently as possible. The Bengal tiger took a moment attempting to decide what to do. It was a no-brainer, in all reality. Better to get rid of it, before she had to see it, or anything it would inevitable bite if left to live.

“Holy fuck!”
Dani leapt backwards as a large cat suddenly came barreling down the street, launching upwards a few feet from the oversized ghoul and knocked it over, tearing into the beast in a flurry of both fur and decay.

The tiger stood staring at the immobilized ghoul for a moment longer before flicking its tail in finality. It lifted its head and turned, walking toward the three teenagers, opening its mouth as if saying “hi.”

Kyo blinked at the rather large cat as Dani stared at it as if trying to place where she had seen the tiger before.
“Hey, see?” He crouched down and reached out towards the collar on its neck. “El-Thirteen.”
“Hrm!” Drew cleared his throat loudly and gestured towards a nearby gate. “I’d rather not be eaten right now.”
Kyo stood up. “Right.”
Drew jumped the nearby fence, using the nearby tree to gain leverage. Opening the gate from the inside, he waved his arm as if that would make everyone else move both more quickly and quietly. He stepped backwards a bit to let the tiger through, watching it as if he did not entirely believe that there was a human behind the bright green eyes.

Kyo crouched down again and went about unlatching the collar, slipping it off of the head of the Bengal. The tiger stood glaring at him, but it did not make a move as bones began to crunch and for recede behind strawberry-blonde hair and somewhat baggy clothing, borrowed off of a brother. The girl standing there raised her eyebrows before setting them back into a flat position. She glanced at Dani, who grinned. “Jack! Glad you could make it.”
Jack rolled her eyes. “Try recognizing me next time.”
Kyo looked vaguely intrigued. “You’re Jack? Hey, thanks for that, back, with the head smashing. Yeah.”
Drew nodded slightly, but he seemed eager to get somewhere that was not as exposed as where they were right now. “Come on. We need to get moving.”
“Where?” The question belonged to Jack.
“I know a place, alright?”
Jack glanced at Dani, who shrugged and moved towards the gate. “Let’s go, then.”
The group had almost reached the edge f the wooden enclosure when an infernal groan sounded from the other side of the fence. The four stopped almost immediately.
“That’s . . . Not good . . .” Kyo muttered. He was answered by the arrhythmic pounding of at least three sets of ungainly hands beating against the gate.
Drew looked around, retreating around a corner to the very back of the house. "We need to get outta here . . .," He told himself, wondering if everyone would be able to make it over the fence that stood to their backs.
"Er . . .to where?" Jack had apparently heard him.

The pounding halted for a moment before the wind changed again. There was another moan and the beating continued.
Dani opened and closed her hand nervously. "We need to get moving. Like, now. Before we're zed f—"
There was a snap as both hinges and wood broke, followed by the rattle that always seemed to come with falling wood. Another thudtold the group of teenagers that at least one of the undead had hit the ground, trampled by the others and tripped by its own lack of knowledge as to the fact that there was wood in the way of its dragging feet.
Four walking dead rounded the corner, in a slow-motion race to get to the group of humans first.
"Aw, cock it!" Drew breathed, pulling out his rifle and taking aim just in time for Kyo to shoot his target with one of his 9 millimeters. Drew could not help but snicker sadistically at the brain splatter.
Not seeing the point of pulling a longer-range weapon in a close quarters situation, Dani pulled out her crowbar and vented years of anger into the skull of the nearest ghoul, bludgeoning it to the ground and kicking its battered skull just to make sure it was dead. She panted and turned around, drawing her Glock for her second target.
Jack grabbed her collar back form Kyo and slammed it over her head, shifting as quickly as possible and tackling another ghoul, tearing into its neck with her claws and getting ready to smash the connection between head and body. Dani stepped up to finish the job with a bullet to the head.
The tiger lowered its head and stood up in full human form. As she turned, the last ghoul caught her from behind, pulling her in towards an open mouth. She closed her eyes, bracing herself against the ghoul's pull when suddenly she fell forward, covered from behind with brain matter and bits of hair and skull.
Drew sneered, holstering his rifle, "Hah. Stupid maggot-faced walkers. Didn't stand a chance in HELL."
Jack glared at him, “You could have hit me!”
Drew arched his eyebrows, still enjoying the gore. “Well . . . I didn’t.”
“I think now would be a good time to leave,” Dani suggested, attempting to avoid a fight.
“Anyone happen to have a plan?” Kyo inquired, strapping his 2 9-millimeters into their respective holsters.
Drew looked thoughtful for a moment, and opened his mouth to comment when Jack cut him off.
“There’s a house for sale down the street- two stories. If we just kill the stairway, we should be alright.”
Kyo stroked his chin. “Yeah, or there’s always the pie eatery.” Jack glared at him.
Drew held up a hand. “No, that’s a good i—hey, how about the apartments over by Wackford?”
“You mean where Wackford used to be,” Kyo corrected, crossing his arms. “And how is that any better than the house or the pie store?”
“Anything is better than the pie store, Kyo,” Jack informed him.
Kyo rolled his eyes. “Yeah, but look at it this way. We’ll never go hungry.”
Dani glanced at him, “Yeah, but neither will the zed.”
Drew shook his head slightly, “Enough about the pie for a second.” He waited for all the eyes to be on him. “I figure, first off, that the stairs will be easier to break down than those in any house. Give Kyo here a skill saw and they’ll be down in half a second.”
Jack nodded slightly. She had rather liked her idea but the logic made sense. Dani chuckled.
“And then there’s the wall. It’ll give us a little bit of time and some extra defense against the walkers on the outside.”
“Okay. Then what about food?” The question, unsurprisingly, came from Kyo.
“Well, there’s the Albertson’s right across the street. Once we get set up we’ll be able to raid the store. And up until the power’s out we should be able to get perishables, too.”
Jack looked somewhat pleased, “Okay. And until the power’s out?”
Drew thought for a moment. “There’s an alarm system and heating and air. And a fridge.”
Dani grinned slightly. “Sounds like a catch, then.”
Drew nodded. “And I’ve got a friend who lives next door to the place we’re looking at. Uh...Ed. He’s in the Ee Gee Special Tactics and Biohazard Response Team.”
There was a look of surprised relief. The E.G.S.T.B.R.T. was a section of a statewide defense core against outbreaks just like these. If anyone was the best person to be nearby during an outbreak, it would be this friend of Drew’s.
“Then let’s go,” Kyo said, walking towards the battered fencing. Everyone else followed without a word. Now that they had somewhere to go, they wanted to get there.

The owner of the house threw a dish into the sink and took a double take of the window. He grunted and shoved it open. “Get the hell outta my backyard, damned kids!”
The shortest of them, a girl with brown hair, glanced at him, snaring and pulling a bloodied crowbar off of her belt.
The house owner widened his eyes and retreated into the house, muttering about “Kids these days, no respect for their elders.”

~En Route apartment complex~

The group walked in relative silence most of the trek toward the apartment complex before Jack spoke up. “Why aren’t we raiding the stores now?” She figured it might save them time.
As if in answer to her question, an S.U.V. shot out of the side road in front of the group and barrel rolled across the center divide, smashing into a sedan on the other side of the street, bringing an immense amount of pain and death to four screaming passengers and the three undead clinging to the roof.
Jack’s eyes widened slightly, “… Ah.”
Dani could not take her eyes off of the wreck, “If I didn’t know any better,” she started, “I would’ve thought those zed were enjoying themselves.”
Kyo grinned, “The ride of their afterlives.”
Drew chuckled.

Moments later, they found themselves hidden from the street by a curtain of overhanging branches. Even through the foliage, two people bleeding from crushed, teeth-marked limbs managed to spot the group, pleading for help. Kyo, drawing his eyes level with the two, abruptly took a very serious body expression, drawing one of his two nine millimeters and, before either one had the chance to think, he had shot both of the bite victims down.
“Sorry . . .,” he mumbled, then turning and firing through the branches. Four undead came into view as they hit the ground.
Dani, Jack, and Drew all stared for a moment.
“Whoa,” Came the unified response.
They stepped out of the overhang, now in full view of the apartment complex ahead and the shopping center across from it. The entire area was in chaos. Smoke drifted through the air, disrupted by moans and yells from the still living. Occasionally a gunshot went off.
The brave owners of the few houses left along Bruceville were defending the dead, weed-covered land adjacent to the apartment complex, though to little avail. Standing alongside the brick wall outside the apartments were what looked to be a dozen undead. They stood, staring into nothingness, aware neither of themselves nor of the pandemonium around them.
Someone whooped and the four found themselves sprinting towards the horde, guns drawn where possible. Kyo caught the ghouls’ attention.
“HEY YOU! Hey! Look at me when I’m talking to you! Yeah!”
Dani stopped when she ran out of breath and aimed her Glock, closing her right eyes and managing a shot into the cheekbone of the closest ghoul.
Drew leapt forward, right into the middle of the group, and brained one with his trench spike, pulling out and turning to handle another just as it reached out to grab his shoulder.
Kyo unsheathed his katana and went about dealing with the three nearest him, kicking one out of the way.
Jack threw on her collar and pounced, bringing down a few of her own and making sure the last fallen really were dead.
Making her way over to assist, Dani found herself suddenly surrounded. Panicked, she yelled, “Kyo! Collar. NOW!” The back of her head wondered why he had her transformation collar.
Kyo blinked, looking around as the ghoul he had been holding off grabbed his wrist. “Wha?”
“THROW THE FUCKING COLLAR!”
“Collar! Right!” He reached into the bag by his side and whipped out the heavy piece of metal, cracking the ghoul that had grabbed him over the head with the device as he did so, sending the undead sprawling.
Drew turned and aimed carefully at one of the last remaining undead, managing both a clean hit through the skull and missing Dani, just as the collar landed with an uneven thud on her shoulders. Jack tackled one of the others to the ground as Dani lunged in a flash of fur at the undead behind her, clawing open the rib cage and working her way up the neck in a panic, trying to get through the necrotic muscle tissue so that she could sever the neck properly.
Preparing her tongue over the back of her mouth so that she would not swallow, she bit down hard on the back of the neck, shattering the vertebrae in one concentrated position. She shook herself out and backed away as a shot fired through the head to finish the corpse off. Dani spat out the dead flesh and allowed herself a moment to catch her breath.

Drew approached the corner as Dani removed her collar. He peered down Di Lusso Drive, assessing the situation before glancing back at the others and called them over. “There are less walkers over here.” It was a good choice, or at least one better than trying to get in at the gate on Bruceville, as the main opening seemed to be plagued with a decently smaller number of ghouls.
The tallest started to open the door, only to find it locked. Drew grumbled and stepped back, getting ready to jump the fence. Jack beat him to it, leaping over the wall and switching back to her human form behind the brick before reappearing at the gate. She opened the pedestrian door and closed it when everyone had gone through, checking it through the bars to make sure it was still locked.

Not pausing nor looking back, Drew began to explain their destination. “We’re looking at a second story flat.”
“We’re sure it’s vacant?” Kyo inquired as the group passed the somewhat over-decorated rental office.
Drew led them up the stairs to apartment 7-C. “There’s nobody here. Trust me.” He went to work on the knob with a few randomly selected picking tools. The group was silent, straining to hear the faint clicks over the background noise that was the rest of the world.
Drew turned the knob, and the door swung open, revealing the relatively spacious three-room apartment. Off to one side a sliding-glass door opened to a rather miniscule balcony. The kitchen seemed to draw most of the attention, with the couch a close second. It almost looked as if the tenants had just left earlier that day.
Kyo walked over to the kitchen as Drew mentioned something about an attic, opening the fridge. “Hey look. Stale pie,” He said, lifting the tin off of the middle shelf. Dani rolled her eyes, leaning against the couch and in the process of catching her breath, “Please, don’t eat that,” she panted, sounding rather like her own mother.
Kyo tossed the pastry back into the refrigerator and shut the door. “Yes, Mom,” he managed to say, before a box of equally old doughnuts collided with his head.
Jack made a point of pointing to Dani as if the shorter girl had thrown them, when, clearly confused, she had not.
“Hey, where’d Drew go?”
Everyone else shrugged, and ignored the problem for a moment as they started to look through the kitchen and the front room a bit.
It was not long until Drew reappeared, a spyglass in hand. “I’m goin’ to the roof,” He said, closing the door behind him.
There were a few thuds from outside and Kyo popped the last part of a doughnut into his mouth.
“It’s like we’re all roommates.”

~Sacramento Government Building. May 2004~

At an average height, with nondescript brown eyes and hair, The man shuffling down the corridor was not the first one would expect to slide a high-entry card key into the slot of Lab 204, however Redford defied his average looks with his above-average intelligence and organizational ability.
He pushed the clipboard into the crook of his elbow and slid the key into the lock, waiting for confirmation that he could still enter the restricted room, and stepped inside.
The Lab aide inside looked up from his work. “Good morning.”
Tell me what’s good about it and we’ll talk,” Redford muttered, sipping his coffee. He eyed the being inside the containment chamber that filled the center of the room over the edge of the mug. “Update?”
The intern straightened up and fully faced his superior to give him the news. “I have yet to be able to attach reading tools to him today. He’s been a little too skittish.”
Redford snorted into his cup. “Skittish” was not exactly the word he would have chosen. “Body condition?” He did not press the issue of the reading tools, as he had not expected mush else.
“Showing minor decomp in right hand. Looks like he had carpal tunnel syndrome when he was alive,” The aide said, turning back and glancing at the creature as it ran itself into the wall a few more times, There was a sickening crack and the intern sighed, typing something into the computer. “And now he’s got a broken arm.”
Redford nodded absently, staring at what had once been a human. He could remember interviewing this one. The meetings he had with the humans to be tested sickened him. He found it incredibly hard to believe that anyone would willingly become one of the monsters like the one before him, and yet he saw more and more coming in as depression and various ailments drained the human’s mental capacities, They came in in response to the ads. Most did not have any family to keep them from going through with their decision. Others were just lost and looking for meaning. Still more even found the concept appealing.
Redford turned and began to leave the room, “Try to hook it up to a scanner before you feed it again. After that, bring it to the stables. We’ll be needing him for the next group of Lycans coming in.”

Redford turned a corner, finding himself face-to-face with the cocky form of Johnathan. He cleared his throat and tried to step around his co-worker. “Hullo, Johnny.” He grumbled.
The younger man held out his arm to stop Redford’s progress. “Haven’t seen you in training for awhile, Hawkeye. What’s taking so long? Busy?”
“They’re rebuilding my collar,” Redford grunted, pushing Johnny out of the way.
Johnathan stroked his chin. “Ah, that’s right . . .How did it break again? You ran it over, right?”
Redford did not look back. The smirking face of Johnathan was not what he wanted to see. After all, violence was not allowed in the workplace. “You know very well how it broke, Johnathan.”
“You know, for someone so intelligent, you sure are rather clumsy.” Johnathan let the silence sink in for a moment, mocking Redford with his facial expressions and body movement. He turned to walk the other way. “Oh, by the way. Dagda says he wants to see you.”
Redford glared at the wall across form him for a moment, listening to Johnathan’s footsteps disappearing down the hall. He clenched his clipboard tightly and strode towards the office of another coworker, head of a separate department, one Josef Dagda.

He was the man with the temper, or at least the one that seemed to boil most easily. He glanced at the clock and drummed his fingers over the desk, grumbling to himself, “Where in the hell is he?” In answer, a sharp knock struck the door, ringing through the air. “Come in!” the man snapped, trying to reel himself in from the edge of his patience.
Redford nodded politely as he entered. “Good morning, Mister Dagda. You wanted to see me?”
Josef Dagda skipped the pleasantries; “My team believes they’ve found the answer to one of the kinks in your virus.”
“They do?” Redford’s eyebrows arched in amazement. They had been having trouble with progression for a while now; long enough that the government was threatening to pull their funding out from under them.
“Indeed. The one who finally figured it out is a sharp tack, too, Redford. You’d like her, I think. You go down to section See-Seven, ask for Rais. She’ll fill you in.”
Redford had an extreme look of relief on his face. “I’ll be there straight away, sir.”

~Apartment Complex, Present~

Drew walked into the front room, placing the cap over two new AA batteries he had just placed into one of the pair of 2-way radios he had found in a closet. He looked up at the group, tossing one up and down a few times. “Alright. Last check, things were cooling down a little bit, at least in the shopping center.” He was aware of the fact that, given the chaos that had unleashed itself there earlier, that did not mean much. “Except…”
“Except?” Kyo asked from his place on the easy chair.
“Well… Just judging by the number of walkers we had to face on the way in here… We aren’t going to have nearly enough supplies for the weapons.”
“Multiple stops, then?” Jack asked. There was a general groan. That would make everything that much harder.
Dani spoke from her place on the counter, “Jack, you didn’t grab weapons back at school, did you?” She had not seen anything attached anywhere on her friend, but that did not mean much, she knew.
The taller girl shook her head. “I guess I’m going, then, so I can get something I’ll be able to use.”
Dani grunted slightly, “I think I’ll stay. At this rate I’m never gonna recover.” She still managed to be breathing heavily from the earlier exertion.
Drew nodded and tossed her one of the hand radios, “I’ve got both of these set on channel four, My friend Ed, if you need him, is on six. I’d stay clear of seven, that’s the police channel. We wanna keep in touch, though, just in case.”
Dani turned the device over a few times, looking at it. She tested the “Talk” button and heard her voice come out the other end. “Right, then.
Drew, Kyo, and Jack closed the door behind themselves, dropping themselves over the edge, where the stairs had been earlier. Dani, meanwhile, attached the radio to her belt and moved toward the bedrooms, looking for ways to make their shelter a little more zed-proof.

Drew dropped from the wall into the mostly empty lot, followed by Kyo. The area was splattered with blood and bits of flesh, as well as a few broken weapons. Jack, having taken the form of the Bengal again, landed soon after with a measure of grace unexpected form either an animal so large as a tiger, nor Jack herself.
Kyo took a good look across the street. “I say we hit Albertson’s, first.” The name had changed somewhat recently, to Save Mart, though heaven itself only knew how many people actually called it that.
Drew nodded. “While we still have daylight, then.”
Jack padded behind the two humans as they stole across the street and through the parking lot. Everything seemed rather quiet, especially considering what had broken out earlier. A few car alarms were dying in overturned or otherwise battered vehicles. Blood trickled along grooves in the asphalt.
Drew paused at one of the wrecks as the other two kept walking ahead, gazing silently at one of the bodies. “… I thought you’d make it out …,” he murmured, before turning, and with one last glance, continuing on.

Drew jogged long enough to catch up with the other two, who were jumping and waving at the sensor bar on the door in a frail attempt to both get it open and ass the time until Drew caught up with them.
Kyo waved at it again before looking around. “Hang on a sec… I’ll go get something to smash it with . . .”
“Wait a sec,” Drew held up the hand signal for “halt.” “Never mind that.” He slid the brass knuckles over his hand, and pulled the trench spike from its sheathe. He slid the sturdy piece of metal into the rubber that protected the twin doors, and braced himself before he began to pry into them. He glanced at Kyo, slightly annoyed when he did not do anything at first. “Give me a hand with this?”
The blonde boy grabbed the door opposite drew and pulled. Between he two of them, they managed to break the doors into an open position.

“Okay. I’ll go to the pharmacy and get some first aid kits and medicine and stuff...You guys go get food,” Drew decided, already starting off. Kyo called him to a halt.
“Jack, you smell any in here?”
The tiger lowered her head for an immediate area search, and then broadened it by raising her head. Air currents naturally would throw off the guesstimate, but it was better than nothing. She carved a number into the floor with one of her index claws.
“So that’s, at least one walker. Maybe more. Keep an eye out.”

Drew jogged to the pharmacy and vaulted over the counter, right past the mangled corpse leaning across it. He could not help but stare for a moment, inwardly mortified. “Gross . . .” he muttered, finally tearing himself away and disappearing between the aisles of medicines.

Nearly all the way across the store, Kyo and Jack had started in the fruits section. They would be able to hold on to a few fresh fruits for maybe a week, if they were lucky, so they naturally jumped at the chance. Most of the load seemed to go into one of the packs that had been harnessed onto Jack’s back via quite a bit of rope, which annoyed her somewhat, though she was not able to say anything.
Trotting down one of the later aisles, Kyo glanced at a large bottle of some sort of energy drink. Jack raised an eyebrow at him, and he shrugged, tossing it into his own open sack, “For when we really run out of energy.” Jack rolled her eyes and went around the corner of the aisle to look at some canned food on display there.
Kyo reached up for a bottle of V8- because Dani had mentioned it at some point, he vaguely remembered- and in the process of bringing it down from the top shelf managed to knock over a Boom Box that managed to be on the top shelf. It crashed to the floor with a nerve-wracking bang, and almost immediately blared, “IT’S PEANUT BUTTER JELLY TIME, PEANUT BUTTER JELLY TIME!!”
Jack darted back around the corner and did not hesitate to smash the portable radio to bits.

Drew froze as one of the moans that had come in response to the mishap across the store sounded in the aisle behind him, and another came from over at the pharmacy’s counter. “Shit,” he said, under his breath. He turned around in time to see the grisly form of a pharmacist that had managed to get on his bad side stumbled around the turn.
“You!” Drew growled, springing forward and kicking the undead’s feet out from under it, before backing up and drawing his revolver to finish it off. He grazed the head, but the impact of the bullet behind the head managed to finish it off anyway.
The mangled pharmacist from before, however, was having a rather successful time climbing over the counter. Before it had its chance to collapse into a heap on the floor outside of the pharmacy itself, Drew shot it, as well. “Shoulda stayed dead!” He taunted the corpse. It collapsed into its heap on the ground and twitched as the electricity left its system for the second and last time.
The human decided that by now it was no time to waste time. Zipping up his bag, he made a beeline for the door.

The two walking dead came around separate ends of the aisle, one toward Kyo, and one to Jack. The tiger spun on the spot and pounced, crushing through the vertebrae in the neck and then slicing through the remaining tissue. The movement was fast enough that by the time Kyo had backed up far enough that he could effectively shoot the ghoul in front of him, she had already thrown the head across the aisle. It sailed through the air and accidentally took the undead assailing Kyo off of its feet. The human took a breath of slight relief and aimed one of his Berettas at the body, shooting it twice in the head, then doing the same with the dismembered head.
They too headed straight for the door, where they met up with Drew.

The group headed out into the lot and parked themselves behind an abandoned car, taking a moment to breathe and calm their nerves.

~Apartment Complex~

Dani was dragging her second mattress into the room she had decided was closest to the center of the building, as had just begun to lean it over the gaping hole that was a window when her cell phone rang. Startled, she flipped it open.
“Yo,” she answered.
“You have detention today, kiddo?”
“Not today, Dad,” Dani switched hands and started to manipulate the mattress so that it covered the window more effectively.
“Where are you, then?”
Dani stuck her tongue between her teeth and heaved, forgetting she was on the phone for a moment.
“Dani?”
“Sorry. Got distracted. I’m, uh, out with some friends.” She cleared her throat. “Jack, Drew, Kyo.” She knew her dad would not react very well to the mention of the boys at the end of that comment. “We’re over in the Target area, lotsa people. I’ll be home before dark, alright?” She stuck her head into the hallway and saw how far down the sun had fallen since she had last checked.
Her father did not say anything for a moment, before his voice brightened. “Well, don’t get your arm bitten off, alright?”
Dani laughed. “I’ll be fine. It’s not like I’m walking alone. It’s the cat I’d worry about.”
There was a chuckle from the other end. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow, then.”
“Love.”
“Love.”
Dani clicked off the phone and clicked it back onto her belt, next to the two-way radio. She leaned against the mattress, happy for the momentary muffling of the groans coming from just beyond the wall. She fiddled with the dial until she hit channel seven. She paused, hearing the broken police chatter. Careful not to hit the talk button, she entered a random burst of paranoia and brought the speaker up to her ear, turning the volume down until she was comfortable enough to be sure that nobody- or thing, would be able to hear it.
~“—Ll sides. Looks like the entire area’s pretty well banged up. Think we should call an evac t’morrow? Try’n have out maybe by next week?”
“Maybe. Ain’t our place to say, anyhow. Call for backup. Right now we’re trying to prize a few officers outta San-Fran—”
“Only way they’ll all come out is if we promise to strip for ‘em.{/font]”
“[font=sydnie]Heh. Anyway, Galt and Sac say they’re on their way.”~
Dani clicked back to frequency number four; half expecting to hear one of the three that had gone out say something.

After a moment of screwing her head back into place, Dani picked up her phone and dialed her Mom’s house, hoping all the while that she would not pick up.
The other end rung one . . . two . . . three times before it clicked to the answering machine. Dani mouthed the words as they were cited, and proceeded to wait for the beep, as instructed by the voice on the other end.
“Hey, mom. Calling to ask if you’ve seen the news? They’re calling an evac tomorrow. Hey, I won’t be able to get home tonight. Do me a favor and get yourself, Dirk, and Pops plane tickets to anywhere. Preferably... like, out of the country? It all makes sense. Try to leave sometime today or early morrow. I’ll be alright- I’m with people who know what they’re doing. Just, do me the favor and get out. I love you. Kick Dirk for me, love the cats. Kick the puppy, too. Give Dad a hug, if you’re not still mad at him. Maybe go see Leeann? Anyway… rambling. Love, call me when you get there… even though I prolly won’t answer . . . Yeah . . . Love. Talk to you… later.” A short pause lingered before she hung up the phone.
As she moved to check on the running bathtub, Dani had the sinking feeling that the rest of the day would be very long, indeed.

~Save Mart Parking Lot~

Drew stood up, catching his breath. He had decided that the adrenaline was a good thing. As long as they kept moving, they would be able to make it in time. He was worried, though, because as he glanced up over the rooftops and saw the sun sinking behind them, he knew that the group was not likely to make it back to the apartments before dark.
“Come on…” he muttered, starting to move away and in the direction of the Big 5 that he knew carried ammunition and a small amount of general hunting gear.
They had made nearly all the way across the parking lot when a mass of black helicopters flew overhead.
“The heck?” Kyo blinked, tilting his head. “Where d’ya think they’re goin’?”
Drew shrugged. “Dunno. They’re really hauling it out for this one, though.”

The three made their way down the streets, trying for as much silence as possible while still moving fast enough to get where they were going before nightfall.
Jack growled, calling the attention of the other two as the wind shifted slightly. Sure they were both looking at her, she nodded down the street, making a low sound that somewhat resembled the compound word, “a lot.”
Drew and Kyo did not have to wait long to translate what she had said. Around the corner came a lone ghoul, and as the wind shifted yet again, it let out a low moan. Drew and Kyo pulled off an echo swear. The walker that had seen them began its uncoordinated gait towards the group.
In response, Drew shot off of the road, trying to break contact with the ghoul. The other two followed him almost immediately, Jack having to shove off her collar to ensure that she would fit in the bushes between the sidewalk and the brick wall.
Drew craned his neck around to peer through a gap in the bushes, assessing the situation as even more ghouls shambled into sight, drawn by the call of the first to have spotted the teenagers. He, and, he assumed, Kyo and Jack, did not want to deal with the undead at this moment in time. It was getting too late, and their nerves were already almost shot.
“We need a way around those guys,” Kyo pointed out the obvious as he looked past Drew.
There was silence, save for the low rumble from the walking dead that rendered the three unable to think clearly for several moments. Moments that stretched far too long. Finally, Jack spoke, pointing to the top of the wall she sat next to. “We should be able to walk along the brick walls there,” she said, half-whispering.
No sooner had the words left her mouth than there was a shriek from just behind the wall. The three of them winced. The sound had been just one more thing to draw the undead towards their location.
Drew’s brow furrowed in worry. “We need a distraction . . .,” he muttered.
Kyo glanced at Jack, as if to ask whether or not she had a suggestion. She opened her mouth, and had just barely begun to speak when a familiar-looking S.U.V. plowed through the crowd of ghouls. Aroused by the new, much livelier sound, the crowd attempted a rather complicated u-turn, and shambled after this new bait.
Jack wasted no time slamming her collar onto her shoulders, and the group took a simultaneous breath of air, as if diving into water, and leapt out into the road, taking off, as quietly as possible, down the street.

As the three finally drew closer to the building, the shattered glass and strewn bodies that littered the parking lot and front of all, but especially this store, came into sharp focus. There was a silent pause for a moment’s time before the three drew themselves back up to height and picked their way through the mess.
What was left of the doors in the facility hung limp on their hinges, swinging with the faint breeze, a fading echo of what had been here before.
Drew, able to push past the emotions of the place first, stepped inside, glancing around to make sure the coast was clear.
“Okay,” he said, finally, “Kyo, look for something . . . useful, like, food or, something.”
Kyo nodded slightly and pushed through the turnstile, off into the scattered racks of clothing. The Bengal tiger leapt over the counter and bounded towards the back of the room.
Drew nearly vaulted over the weapons counter, searching out the proper ammunition, silently thanking the fact that most of the group seemed to be partial to the nine-millimeter rounds. He knew that the tendency would save a lot of space, especially if they had to get up and leave their safe house one day. He scanned over the weapons, vaguely wondered why Dani had only grabbed handguns, and then half-wondered what Jack would prefer, so that he would know the right ammo to get. And then, as his eyes crossed a formidable-looking rifle, he remembered with a grin that Kyo had not chosen for himself a long-range weapon. Just as he reached out to grab it, he paused, checking the rounds it would require. Shrugging off the difference in size, he decided that the weapon, in the group they were in, was still a good addition. He Lifted it from its casing and set it down on the counter.
After foraging for more rounds, He stood up straight, and called out, forgetting the rule of general silence for the moment, “Jack! C’mere for a sec!”
The tiger bounded across the room, knocking over a few displays that were already standing up by miracle alone, and jumped to a stop just a few feet short of the counter, wavering precariously on her too-closely-placed paws for a moment. She looked up questioningly.
“You said you didn’t have a weapon,” he gestured to the somewhat limited array before him.
Jack stared for a moment, testing in her minds eye what she would be able to use and what she would not. After a few minutes of scrutiny, she flicked her tail toward a Ruger .22 pistol, a nine-millimeter carbine-style Beretta rip-off, and an 18-inch machete.
Drew pulled them each from their places and either put them into Jack’s “saddle bags” or found a way to attach them to the harness.
The faint sound of bones popping either into or out of place was followed by a deep, almost moaning sound. Drew tentatively placed his hand on the handle of his revolver, narrowing his eyes. Kyo shuffled tiredly around the corner.
“Oh. It’s just him.” Drew snorted and released his hand from the weapon. “Don’t do that.”
“Nice to see you, too,” Kyo mumbled, inquiring as to the weapon on the counter and then glancing at the door.

The trio crossed streets, staying as much in the shadows and downwind from the undead as they possibly could, given Jack’s currently sensitive nose. The group looked like a walking disaster survival kit, in a way that, had it not been such a grim truth, might have been amusing.
They were racing what was left of the light, albeit there was not much left to race against. But they were determined to reach their lodging before the undead lurking in the streets of Elk Grove had the full advantage.
Drew shoved his hand into his pocked, and tossed the two-way radio to Kyo, glancing over his shoulder.
“Make sure we’ve got a clear way in.” Drew abruptly dropped back form the group.
Kyo glanced back after him, but the tall figure was soon swallowed by the darkness that was setting in. He turned his attention back to the radio and turned to a channel he could not see clearly in the fading light. “Hello, this is Kyo and the Raid Group. Dani or . . . uh… Drew’s friend there? We’re heading in.”
He released the button for a moment. Static. Kyo was just about to return pressure to the “speak” button when a voice made itself intelligible.
~“Hello?”~ The voice was unfamiliar.
“Uh, Hi?” Kyo’s voice was almost puzzled.
~“This is Ed. Pretty sure ya don’t know me, but trust me on this one- All’s clear. Now, get your butts up here before the sun’s all the way down.”~
Kyo nodded slightly, acknowledged the “all-clear” and relayed it to Jack and the reappeared Drew.
Jack took advantage of the situation and, eager to set herself down on the other side of the fence and shed her heavy bags of supplies, managed to lift herself up and over the brick wall. The other two jogged around the corner, nearly stepping on the feet of the man dressed in a dark E.G.S.T.A.B.R.T. uniform, carrying a specially designed nightstick and Kevlar riot shield, as well as, Drew had assured them at some point, a gun or three.
“Hey, Ed,” Drew greeted.”
“Hey, Drew, listen- I’ve got this place wired now. So we’ve got ourselves an electrified fence at least until the power goes out.”
A slight grin began to cross the faces of the boys in front of him, just in time to hear jack at the gate, tired and clearly somewhat annoyed that she had no better future than opening and closing doors.
“Hey! You guys comin’ in?”
Ed glanced back at the gate where Jack stood, arms crossed.
“Better hurry back if we want that fence shocking somebody other than ourselves.”

Dani started when the sound shook the door. As soon as she registered the sound as a knock, She looked up, yelled “Half a sec!” and ran to turn off a bathtub’s faucet, tossing a few things out of the way.
She appeared at the door a moment later, grinning slightly. Noticing the haul that Jack was struggling to pick up, and the packs that weighted down both Drew and Kyo, she commented, standing aside to let the group in, “Luck, I see.”
Jack was content with leaving her load just inside the door, collapsing on the couch. She was panting, from physical as well as mental strain- in part caused by the switching back and forth she had been forced into so often during the errand run.
Ed kicked Jack’s pack in a few paced further, and out of the immediate walkway, closing the door ad Drew and Kyo set down their sacks on the kitchen counter.
Dani, clearly in need of something to do, started filling up a few cups of water by way of a newly washed, brimming-full sink. She maneuvered through the people and bags that lay in her way, handing a glass to jack and leaving the other three on a table.
Taking a little bit of time to look at the bags, she applauded the three that had gone out for supplies. “You guys hauled in quite the catch.”

[Occoris]

Chapter 2

~Apartment Complex~

Almost nine O’clock. Better judgment said that the night watch should start soon. The four teenagers had decided the order that they would go in, had roughly calculated how long each person would spend staring out beyond the boundaries of the apartment complex from the roof of their building.
All of them wide awake, with supplies stowed safely in the next room for inventory the next morning, Kyo blinked around at the other three. “So. It being entertainment time, pray tell me why there is no entertaining.”
Jack cast a bland stare over at the blonde boy, stating simply that he had eagerly suggested that he take the first round of nightly stress-relief.
Kyo leaned back and stoked a nonexistent beard. His face lit up. “Okay. When Twenty stole Six’s collar.”
It clearly took a moment to register in everyone else’s head as to the topic Kyo had chosen. “So, Twenty, Dunno his name, he’s the guy who used the wrong collar. The guy they always talk about when they tell you not to use somebody else’s.”
“It’s supposed to be a myth,” Jack interjected. Gravy shook her head.
“We don’t know till Jamie and Adam have a crack at it.”
Kyo waved the comments off. “Anyway. Twenty. He was an asshole. One of those guys you knew and just didn’t like from the get-go, they say. Bloodthirsty desire for power, and if he couldn’t get it, then at least to see the guy who had it meet some sort of horrible end. Broken ankle, broken neck, either way. He had a tendency to pick at Zoanthropes most. ‘Specially the ones above him. Because he knew how to hit them where it hurt the most.”
“Their collar?” It had been intended as a statement, but Jack’s tone had forced it into a question.
“Yeah. Well… anyway. Twenty, he decides to go in for this other guy, Six. I guess he figured he could pass himself off as Six if he wore the guy’s collar for a coupla hours. Y’know, goes from fox to wolf and spins Six off as some sort of nut job. Clean deal. Well, He puts on the collar, and like anybody who’s ever seen any movie woulda known, it all goes wrong. All of a sudden, we’ve got this freaky-ass, half hawk, half fox thing. They say, he went completely nutso from the pain, and the way the two creatures had mixed. He… single handedly managed to wipe out over a third of the fully trained zoans in the army. If it weren’t for Six… Shit. We wouldn’t even be here right now. I guess they had to destroy his collar, in the end, make a new one. Same with Twenty.”

The four had already resigned themselves, at the start, that they were not going to be home for a long time. They had not, however, taken into full consideration the fact that they would be forced to keep to the same apartment for all purposes, including sleep. They uneasily wound around each other, unconsciously attempting to find places somewhat away from everyone else, settling or openly accepting places ranging from pulling a mattress from a wall and into a different room to keeping to a closet with a flimsy blanket. They muttered vague good-nights as they finally found their places, and Kyo called out the last “G’night” of their first day, disappearing to his self-designated place of first watch.

Kyo wandered out onto the landing, glancing sideways almost as if to make sure nobody was watching, as if anyone except for the undead would be out that night, before hoisting himself onto the roof. He surveyed the relative quietness of the city, distant to the moans and screams that filled the air. He felt safe up here.
For lack of entertainment, Kyo pulled the sniper Drew had so kindly stolen for him, and settled it on a protruding part of the roof, lying down behind it and peering through the scope, attempting to identify those still living from those once lived. In their immediate area, life seemed lacking, in more than one way.
He relaxed and pulled the switchblade he kept on him, fiddling with it. He was surprised to find how shaky he was. He half-rolled his eyes and reached into his messenger bag, fiddling with the contents where only he could see them for a moment before pulling out a pill and popping it into his mouth, struggling to swallow without the aid of water. He took up the switchblade again, and waited for his muscles to relax. He closed the blade and brought himself level with the sniper again. He slowly moved it to one side, getting a better view of the destruction. The effect of common stupidity is amazing . . .
He paused, noticing the stiff, staggering form of something. It looked to be missing a limb (or two) from this distance, and he did not want to take the risk of meeting it again, later. He aimed, taking full advantage of his relaxed muscles.
“Night, night,” he muttered, pulling the trigger.

Dani snorted to life, staring up at the figure that had invaded her closet-space so unannounced. “Dani, you’re up,” it whispered. She grabbed at her glasses, which were tucked safely in someone’s shoe, and groggily got up and out of the confined area. She had barely gotten to sleep when Kyo had come to get her.
She made her way outside, putting the plastic table to good use, helping her up onto the roof- she could not see anything except for the parking lot from that particular vantage point, and that in and of itself took away the entire point of having a night watch.
She rolled onto her side at the apex of the roof and stared out into the distance, listening to the gunfire that cut the air with such ease, it frightened her, as if one of the bullets would stray and head for her relatively safe place up on the roof. She could tell that the response team Drew’s friend Ed belonged to was working hard, but her general mistrust of government planted a gut feeling in her stomach that the team was not working hard enough. She fingered her crowbar, not entirely sure why she had taken it up here, well aware of the fact that it would do her no good, except for a distraction she did not need at the moment. A groan set her even further on edge, and she dropped the crowbar with a clatter onto the rooftop. Swearing, she snatched her arms out to catch it. The moan changed pitch, and as if the ghoul could reach up and grab her, Dani fell into a panic attack. Fleeting images of everything from heads spontaneously exploding, to death at the hands of the undead stormed through her brain and left her trying as hard as she could to get rid of the excess adrenaline.
Dani opened her eyes some time later, still shaking off small amounts of energy that had no outlet in the surprisingly confining space of the rooftop. Flames flickered in the distance, giving a grim idea of what Hell might be like, providing it existed. A scream pierced the air. She shivered and sat up, intent on keeping her wits about her for the rest of her shift.

Jack rolled off of her mattress with more ease than Dani had expected from her, and palmed her face, moving to the doorway. With the assistance of a table on the landing, Jack sat on the edge of the roofing, and waited.
An hour came and went. Jack was tired, naturally, but the thought of her somehow failing the simple task of watching undead that had hardly any chance of getting in kept her eyes glued wide open. 110 minutes to go . . . She thought, tearing her eyes off of the street below to look at her watch. Her eyes started to water after an exact 14 seconds. Groaning, she closed her eyes tightly for a moment. The sound was echoed by a single moan, several yards form the base of the building. Jack looked up in time to see it shuffling towards a dumpster, where, no doubt, it would find some poor sod to eat, be it human or animal. She let out her breath, slowly, and instinctively pulled herself completely onto the roofing, as if the “somnambulist” in the streets below would have much chance at getting to her even if it had seen the human.
Jack looked down at the book she had accidentally left on the table when she had first come up here. It was only a few months old, maybe, but it showed the handling of a good few years. She slowly slid herself off of the roof and stood at the table, flipping through the pages and stopping momentarily to read.
The power and accuracy of a modern crossbow can send a “bolt” (crossbow arrow) clean through a zombie’s skull at over a quarter mile.. . . Jack frowned when the article mentioned the weight and how difficult simply loading a crossbow could be. Those two factors put the crossbow out of the question. . They would be traveling soon. Traveling as lightly as possible, too. She did not know when, exactly, but her intuition knew it to be true. Everyone else seemed aware of it, as well. They did not know why, or how, but Elk Grove would not be lasting long.
Drew stood up to leave as jack came in, holstering his weapons to him as if he had not been asleep, which was most likely. The wind had picked up since midnight, carrying the stench of the rotting flesh and burning everything to his nostrils. The night was dark, in the way that it only is just before dawn, and Drew found himself pacing the roof, muttering to himself. “They’re really burning the midnight oil, aren’t they?” Shouts echoed from a few blocks away.
At some point, he stopped, glancing over at the Wackford Center. He furrowed his brow and took a deep breath. The noises were not the same this time around. It was quieter. Muffled, even. Resigned. The occupants of what was left of the Laguna area were giving up, he figured. It was depressing, in its own way. The Elk Grove S.T.B.R.T. was putting out effort, but Drew felt like it was not enough.
He sat down slowly and grunted, staring over at the remains of the Recreational Center. Slowly his head began to filter out the noises around him, until that which he heard clearest was the screaming . . .
He was running towards the street, friend in tow. The outbreak was heavy in this building. They did not know why. They did not care. There was screaming, Chaos. Drew made it to the street, tripping over himself with adrenaline and the teenager sense of invincibility.
“It’s about time we got some good karma, Eh buddy?” He turned around and crouched slightly, panting. “Buddy?” Drew’s eyes widened in shock. His friend was just barely coming through the crowd, when he tripped and fell. In uncharacteristic speed, the undead were upon him, pulling him back, holding him under. Drew stared, frozen in horror before the anger kicked in, and there was a lot of it to back him up.
He darted to a truck, grabbing a propane tank and opening it. “FUCKING WALKERS!” was the only thing he could scream as he tossed his lighter in after the decapitated gas can.
A closer, louder moan brought Drew back into reality. Snarling, he raised his rifle and aimed at the figure beneath the street lamp. “Cheeky Bastard.”

~Sacramento Government Building, March 2005~

Redford locked the door to his office and jogged down the hallway in the direction of the lab, glancing at his watch. He was almost late. He was never late.
Dagda had decided, though, to send his summons late, possibly to seek some long-past revenge. The intern who had delivered the message had said that they were at the point they could begin to test their new Solanum strain (Type 45) on human subjects. The traits they had been selecting were chosen for certain abilities- the induction of amnesia, for one, and the fact that if they played their cards right, the strain itself would be harmless and die off within a matter of days. Redford himself has proposed the idea, and knew that other strains were being worked upon, even though the dangers of the RNA virus made everything, including the original product, far too unlikely.
Redford straightened his lab coat as he approached, running a hand through his hair to flatten it. He knocked on the door once before entering, and found himself greeted with the faces of Josef Dagda, Jared Rajhes, and various others who had been working on the same project.
Dagda straightened his papers and cleared his throat. “As you all had been informed, we have reached a new breakthrough on Type forty-five. We believe it is suitable for human testing.” Dagda handed around medium sized packets of paper. “Inside you’ll find a full synopsis and what we’re about to do. Redford. I need you to look over the test subjects. Rajhes, make sure the zoanthropes don’t catch the new strain. I’ve got a full list of the antibodies that should be able to fight this one in there.
“As for the rest of you; if you need any questions answered, I suggest you ask Redford or myself. I need you to read through your packets and be ready in the lab in half an hour. And be careful wit this one. We need something as close to perfection as possible.”

~Elk Grove Cemetery, Present~

The deadraggled Redford limped to the gate again, groaning and pushing against the wrought iron bars, pushing at them again. They were bent from a good three days worth of intermittent work, but the endeavor was only useful when he perceived food on the other side of the cemetery’s distinctive outline. He grunted faintly as a panicked bicyclist rode straight through the small group of terrified, migratory humans that had caught the undead’s attention. They scattered, one thrown right up against the bars of the cemetery. She screamed and scrambled to get up, using a short stick to help her. A older individual turned and screamed, grasping around for something, anything to throw.
The small boulder his Redford square between the eyes, and he shook himself out, bringing himself back around in time to see the group scurry away. He looked down at the rock and picked it up. Curious, he began to bang it against the gate in various places, until eventually he found the hinges and it began to creak open. He let out a low groan and slowly worked his way through the gate’s small opening, trudging down Elk Grove Boulevard.

~Apartment Complex, Present~

Drew let the blinds flap closed, lifting the glass of water to his mouth to swallow down part of the overly dry bagel half. He gulped. “Where are they all going?”
Dani leaned over and held open the blinds with two fingers, swallowing the last bit of her own bagel half so she could talk. “iunno. . . ,” she shrugged and let the blinds snap close, having forgotten for the moment the police transaction she had heard the day before.

Kyo turned the dials on the camping radio, headset on haphazardly and one hand on the battery crank. Not much to his surprise, though he complained anyway, every station that came in was covered in news. Grumbling halfheartedly, he took off the headphones and unplugged the jack.
~“—datory evacuation of the Sacramento country area by Monday of next week. Traffic is expected to be heavy along all major highways, all the way to the mid-contingent divide.”~ Jack leapt up to turn down the speakers when they blared to life with the message, as Dani and Drew pointed their heads toward the rechargeable device. The message replayed itself in Spanish and it was a few moments before it ran again in English.
~“The evacuation of Sacramento county is to be completed by the following Monday. We recommend that you and your families take only necessities. Airlines will be crowded, as will major highways. Passes will be open to out-of-state only until further notice.”~ The message continued with similar information.

A common mixture of curiosity and boredom soon took the better of the four, dragging them down to the parking lot and exchanging words with families that were already prepared to leave.
“Yeah. We’re just about movin’ half the house. Our kid’s about fiven.. me an mah girlfriend.. hurt our backs …” he struggled to find a tasteful way to explain “ . . rearranging the front room.”
Someone snickered as they walked by and the man cleared his throat. “Anyway.. sos we need some help clearing out . . You kids think you might be able ter..?”
Kyo grinned “No problem. Which one’s yours?”

Drew pushed the last box into the back of the S.U.V. as Kyo hauled the little kid into the car seat next to the cat that Jack was cooing to. The man they had been assisting came up to them with a giant grin, despite the situation he was about to drive into. He tossed the keys to the apartment to drew and double checked the bags, pausing and coming back to face the teenagers “I really can’t thank you enough, kids.. You sure you’ll be aright?”
There was generally unanimous nodding. “We’re good.” The man prodded for another few moments before he was finally convinced. Looking regretful, he backed into the S.U.V. “Well.. Good luck, then, kids.” He stuck his hand out the window and waved before taking off.

Jack slammed closed the trunk of a sedan and nodded a silent “good-luck” to the roommates driving away. She turned away from the gates and sighed, bringing Dani’s head to vague attention as she walked past.
“What’s up, Jack?”
The red-haired girl looked up, hugging her shoulders. “These people we’re ‘helping.’ They’re just gonna end up out there . . .” She raised her head and looked over at the gates, which opened and closed almost rhythmically as the cars and pedestrians evacuated, swallowed into the streets beyond. The boys could be seen engaged in target-practice.
Dani nodded quietly and placed a hand firmly on Jack’s shoulder ad she got herself ready to move again. Quietly, she said, “I’m just hoping we don’t end up eating each other.”

Drew loaded another eight rounds into his revolver, taking careful aim at nearest lumbering ghoul.
“Hey, how long d’ya think we’ll last?” Kyo asked. His tone could have gone in either the direction of the “game” they had made out of the slaughter, or the survival they all knew lay ahead.
Drew fired and readjusted to make up for the flaw in the sight he had been having problems with. He would have to fix that later.
“God, and here two more pop up.” Kyo remarked after a moment, in a futile attempt to lighten the suddenly sullen mood.
Drew nodded. He had noticed the “hydra effect” as well. Wiping the brow still visible under his beanie and the mop of dirty blonde hair, he finally answered the first question. “Longer than those guys.” He shot a ghoul away from the driver-side window of the S.U.V. they had helped load earlier.

Dani shuffled out of the kitchen, face set in a “go away” expression, half-heartedly offering the ingle glass of water to everyone a few times before gulping it down herself. Drew was massaging his temples in vague irritation, staring at the gun that did not really need to be cleaned. Jack and Kyo were engaged in a distracting game of rock-paper-scissors.
It was only the third or fourth day locked up in the apartment. They were doing fairly well, they supposed. They had not gone completely insane – yet. Any consolation came from the fact that they must have somehow been better off than people trying to survive in the area, and that the walkers had yet to catch them. The water lines were down and there was a permanent brown-, soon to be black-out covering just about every grid.
After a point during which Jack got distracted and accidentally won a round of the hand-game, Dani set her glass on the table and moved to the front door, explaining in a quiet mumble that she would be on the porch if they needed her, which she kinda doubted, but hey. Drew took her lead inadvertently and stood up sharply, leaving his dissected gun on the floor and going into the “recreation room.”
Jack and Kyo could head faint notes coming from an acoustic in the rec room, and muffled singing from outside, both intermittent. The red-haired girl stretched her back and looked around nervously, grabbing the headphones and listening to the news repeat itself for awhile until Kyo left. She grunted and tossed them to the table, moving to the kitchen.

Psycology was starting to work against them like it already had everyone else.

~A week later, Apartment Complex, house C-7~

A week and a half into the siege. The four tried their hardest to stay inside save for the nighttime watch. They hardly slept, even at night, and kept to themselves in the rec room, where the moans were the least potent.

During this time, the group broke out into chaos. Emotions flared for no reason better than the fact that they were besieged. They yelled, they fought, and they swore. Items flew, knives lodged in walls, and the safe haven was a hazard in its own right.

Ed knew this. He knocked loudly on the door in faint hopes that his news might be able to calm them down, at least for a short while.
After a moment, he raised his hand to the door again, ready to pound it. He knew that they probably could not hear him from the rec room, but he needed to be heard. He opted to hammer on the wooden plank with his foot, and it broke in a jagged line down the middle.
“HEY, guys!” he called, shutting what was left of the door out of habit. “Guys! I’ve got news for you!”

The two rooms down the hallway, kyo looked up from the game of go-fish that the group had started on just moments before.
"You guys hear that?"
A general shrug and a grunt. before the game continued.
"Sorry I threw the knife at you."
"'t's fine."

Though battle-worn and clearly coming bearing news- wether good or bad the teenagers could not tell- Ed looked somewhat pleased. He had noticed that the four were getting along better as of earlier that day.
He also looked sad. Like he knew that they would most likely be annoyed at what he had to say.
He took a breath and spoke, after hurried pleasentries. "Got some news for you, kids." He waited unti he wa sposotive that he had their attention. "Heard from a coleague this morning, they're gonna burn down elk grove and most of the smaller cities and towns where the outbreak is real bad. We're gonna have to pack up and leave."
The three stared at him somewhat blankly. When things finally clicked, someone half-yelled "Damnit, Ed!" As if it had been the man's fault. Ed had to fight to avoid the sudden violent outburst.
"What in the hell?"
"Why?!"
"It can't be that bad!"
"Where the hell'll we go?!"
Who said what was unimpoirtant and non-discernable- and it was some time before Ed could calm them down- kind of- again.
"Don;t shoot the messenger, guys."
the teenagers looked doubtful of that claim.
Ed took a breath.
"You've got two weeks till it's all burnt down. I can help you guys get ready... but after that I've gott o go start getting the san-fran area ready to go, too--"
He was cut off as he realized that the four were not listening to him any more. They had already started argueing again.
Ed cleared his throat. "How are you all on supplies?"
The four looked up at him again, and all spoke at once.
"We'll need a helluvalot more food.. i mean . . ."
"more loaded clips, we need."
"need to actually PACK the water.. "
Uh. . . yeah . .."
"Well- i can get you guys ammo and stuff like that- but food is up to you. I'll see you guys next week with an escape route."

The next week, Ed returned. He announced himself by kicking the door closed and calling "Hey, kids!" through the apartment. He was answered by silence, but the ones in the other rooms came out with their bags to listen.
Ed set the paper bags he had hefted with him on the counter. "Okay. You guys are mostly Nine-mil, right? Good. I've thrown some forty-five in there, and then the twenty-two you wanted." He set things out on the counter as he mentioned them. "I got some clips, too, that should fits the guns you've got. I emphasize should. I filled 'em up for you in my spare time so you won’t have to worry about it right away." He pushed the rest of the bags towards drew. "You guys have an escape route?"
More silence.
"Figured. I've got one mapped out for ya." he tossed the weighted paper to Jack, who caught it and looked at it. "Study that, get your asses moving tomorrow.
“Oh, and kids?" He had already started to leave. "Don't splurge."

~Sacramento Zoanthrope Training Center, Time Indefinite.~

Nathan stepped through the glass doors and put on his protective gear. He would not being going full out today. His fox form was not ideal for what he was about to do. It never seemed to be.
He moved out into the main arena, where the stable hands were already letting the walkers from their cages. Nathan ignored them, striding with his normal air of superiority to meet the class standing at the other end of the stadium.
"Zoan class of oh-five. You need to be aware that this will not be like your previous training exercises. You will need to find out how to defeat this enemy on your own. They do not feel, they do not think. They will not care that you are wounded or if you need to take a break.
“And neither will I. I am sending you out here in full confidence that you can take care of yourselves. You will not be the first ones to go out into deadly training exercises.

“Just remember: Use your head. Cut off theirs."

[Occoris]

Chapter 3

~Brown’s valley, CA~

Drew poked his head around the bush, eyes narrowed, rifle at the ready. He had no intention of letting any of the damned ghouls close enough for him to need the revolver or –god forbid- the trench spike. Crouching as best he could behind the limited foliage, he steadied the barrel of the weapon, aimed through a small gap, and pulled the trigger.

A shot rang through the air. Groans paused, redirected, intensified. The still-echoing bang gave them something else to target. The single bang told the wolf all he needed to know. It was the sound he had been waiting for. The human had revealed himself, and the wolf now knew with more certainty where he was, and in which direction the undead would be headed.
He leapt upwards and tackled one to the ground, beginning to tear into the neck and towards the spine when a bullet whizzed just barely over his head, missing the undead it had been intended for by a fraction of a millimeter. The millisecond he had been distracted had been enough for the ghoul he had been assaulting to begin to turn the tables.

“Shit- sorry Kyo,” Dani clenched her teeth and took a step back, pressing herself against one of the maybe two trees in the area, both of which were being used to hold their equipment for the time being. She closed her left eye and tried to aim at the walker she had missed before, before a groan from behind caught her full attention. Her breath caught in her throat and she whirled, heart pounding and eyes wide. It was a point-blank shot.

She Missed.

She was almost immediately thankful for two things she generally took for granted: The fact that she had at some point learned how to break the simpler wrist holds, and her friend Jack.
The tiger leapt from the overgrown brush just as Dani managed to break the hold. The ghoul’s moans were stifled and then extinguished beneath the bulk of the Bengal tiger, and Dani aimed again.

More shots from nearby. Nine mil, as if it mattered. Drew was just happy that he was not in this alone. The area had, to begin with, only a few hundred people, if even, but every single one of them seemed to be hunting the group down.
Drew pressed his back against the half-torn chain-link fence, cursing as he slammed in another clip and looked around in an attempt to locate a better way out of the area. He would jump the fence- but the way it was coming down might not make it worth it. Or he could always—shit.
He turned and slammed the butt of his rifle into the face of the ghoul that had taken advantage of his thought and snuck up beside him. He growled and turned his gun on the next closest.
They must have been popping out of the ground, the way the walkers just kept coming.

Kyo used the tree as a turning point as yet another shot rang out, launching himself at an inattentive walker. Snarling, he thrust all of his weight onto the ghoul’s nose, pushing what little cartilage was left up into the brain. The wolf snorted and turned around, kicking off his collar and scaling a tree. He snatched his rifle from where it hung on one of the branches and started to cover as best he could for Drew and Dani, the two farthest form his location.

Jack just barely made out the whuz of air the sniper released as she scaled her own tree and pawed off the collar.
She could just barely hold off the ghoul at her feet with her machete and the .22 Browning. The height of the tree assisted, but not much, and she was losing hope for one of many countless times within the time since they had left Sacramento County. Panicked, she reached for Dani’s nine millimeter, adjusting to the weight before struggling to aim through her shaking arms.

More shots. They were growing faint, and Dani had no clue if she would be able to get back to her friends in time if they needed help. Part of her wondered if she would go back at all- a part she quickly pushed aside. She was aiming for the barn they had been headed for when they horde had set upon them. It held a mountain of hope, or at the very least a night during which they need not feel entirely like sitting ducks, just waiting for the hunters to come along and . . .

BOOM. Drew slid himself back along the fence and eyed the horizon. Seeing the barn in the distance and the black and brown speck practically soaring toward it, he began to search for a convenient way to move their bags. Something twisted in the back of his head wished the undead would notice the German shepherd dog and follow it instead. After all, it was barking its head off . . .

Kyo swung the sniper around again and steadied himself, wishing he had a spotter but knowing full well that he would have to live with it. He aimed, fired . . .

Jack nearly fell out of the tree as the ghoul that had occupied her attention suddenly exploded. Brain matter flew everywhere, and bits of skull battered her face. She grunted and slipped herself off, regaining her bearings. She raised Dani's gun again, and had been ready to shoot when a sharp, though somewhat low, bay cut through the groans and redirected quite a few of the wandering dead.

The black and brown ball of fur hurtled to the chain-link fence, barking and looking back at the barn in the distance. he was doing a decent job of confusing the ghouls, but that state of matters would not last forever.

Drew looked around, and a shout from Jack brought what he had been searching for to his attention. A cart, at the base of one of the two trees. Jack was already throwing her stuff down into it.
The girl leapt down in a sudden flurry of orange fur, and picked up the ropes.

Kyo grabbed the bags from his own tree and nearly flew across the clearing, tossing his stuff in, throwing his collar on, and going to assist Dani in the distraction of the ghouls.

Drew leapt into the cart and leaned against one side, rifle leveled over the edge. he shot, and missed the head. Growling, he resigned himself to the "back seat", wishing to some extent that he had the capabilities the others possessed.
As the cart began to move, Dani leapt into it, panting, hard.
Great . . . She's like this when she's a dog, too.
“Thanks,” Dani managed to pant, just after Drew had reached over and unlatched the collar, setting the heavy metal object on top of her bag.
He turned and aimed as Jack got the cart moving, leaving Dani to inspect the weapons on board. The clip in her nine-millimeter was empty. “What in the hell?”
A crack echoed from Drew’s rifle. “Prob’ly grabbed by one of us when you were gone . . hope it was useful.” Another crack, muffled by the wind.
Kyo came hurtling out of the grasses, trailed by undead that were, at the moment, more interested in the wolf out in the open than the humans momentarily hidden in the cart by luck alone.
The wolf forced a sound resembling that of a bark, bringing Drew’s attention to the ghouls closest. Dani slammed a clip into place and tried her best to aim alongside.

The shots were still echoing when the heavy barn doors swung shut behind the teenagers.

~Sacramento Government Building, April 2005~

Dagda placed the mask over Redford's face carefully. "Count backwards from one hundred."
Redford rolled his eyes at him.
Dagda’s face was broke into a barely perceptible smile beneath the required surgical mask. "You're sure you're okay with this, Julian?"
Redford nodded. "Of course, Josef. Don’t know how I could live with myself if I weren’t."
". . . You know that this isn't necessarily permanent?"
Redford nodded. " . . That's why we test..."
Dagda slowly showed his agreement with the obvious. He was not entirely set in his views upon wiping the memory of someone who had once been his boss. But he knew all of the reasons behind it, so as soon as Redford fell into his anesthesia-induced sleep, Dagda slid the somewhat larger needle into the crook of the older man's arm, and pressed the stopper down with a care that he might not have shown with other patients.
Dagda looked up at the nurse. "Wheel him out to the recovery room . . . Call me when he wakes up. I need to be there to fill him in."
He turned and walked out of the room, taking a deep breath and wondering if that had not been one of the times to ignore strict orders.

~Abandoned Barn: Present~

Dani kicked Kyo’s bags enough out of the way so that she could level herself up against the window, peering to the undead that were still making their way towards the barn. They had secured themselves well enough, and had then taken up residence in the loft. Jack was distracting herself by occasionally bursting out in yelps of “Diediedie!” and stomping on arachnids that nobody else had time to see.
Drew was arranging things in the loft to work to their advantage during their stay, and Kyo had taken to the opposite window, watching quietly.
Tensions began to rise before they noticed it, the silence echoed by the gentle throb of moans interrupted only by empty lungs.
Drew clenched his teeth and faked a smile. “.. How about that weather, eh?”
Kyo craned his neck to get a better view from his window. “. . . Gray.”
Anger flared back into Dani’s eyes. “I wonder what the zed smell like in the rain?”
“. . . I don’t really want to find out..” Jack mumbled, looking up with a forcibly blank expression on her face.
They all took a breath before the facts of the matter finally reared its head. Another, closer moan snapped them out of denial again. “Kill the lantern.” Drew’s words were an undeniable order. It was dark enough that the light would have been obvious. Jack snuffed the flame and the four stood deathly silent, waiting for the tell-tale signs that the ghouls had followed them.

Another moan, still a ways off but louder.
“Kyo, roof,” Drew had dropped his voice to a whisper. The blonde nodded sharply and stole up the makeshift stairway to the roof, leaving the other three in the empty silence.
Kyo came back down, solemn.
‘How many?” The question had not needed to be voiced.
“I could only make out one. It gets too dark too fast”
There was never just one, the trek from Elk Grove to Brown’s Valley had taught them that much. The fact that the area itself had started out under-populated gave the idea a chance, though, Jack pointed out.

Kyo and Drew were back up on the roof in seconds, sniper at the ready. Kyo aimed, drew his breath, and fired.
The bullet passed easily through the makeshift backup silencer on the Barrett, bearing down on the ghoul. From the distance, all Drew could see was the body stagger, then fall.
“You’re getting good at that.” He raised his binoculars and focused elsewhere in the field. “. . . oh.. damn. . .” he clenched his hands tightly around the dual scopes. “. . . There’s definitely more than one.”
“Where?” Kyo leveled his rifle and peered through the scope.
Drew relayed the information- two to either side of the taller grass, a few more heading in from the main street of town. Time passed with no rounds fired. Drew glanced over. “What’s wrong?”
“I’ve got a better idea.” Kyo scanned the edge of town until he found what he was looking for: a lone cow, tied to a tree, tugging at it with all its might just to get free.
“Sorry, Bessie,” he murmured.
The round passed easily through the flank of the bovine, and its cry broke the evening air. The undead that had previously headed toward the barn, or even away form it, turned with surprising speed and dragged themselves toward the now frantic cow.

“What the hell did you guys do?”
Drew glanced over at Dani. “Kyo maimed a cow and left it o die.”
“Hey, her name is Bessie.”
“And, the walkers?” Jack’s voice was quiet but clearly wording what Dani had been wondering as well.
“’Bessie’ was lucky enough to avoid McDonalds.”

~Early Morning~

Redford stumbled through the city streets at a slow awkward pace, his fogged brain trying to take in what he was doing, where he was, who he was. He was hungry, insatiably hungry. The wind shifted enough to lead him to the now-dead cow, still fresh enough to be worth following.
His low moan as he paused to lower himself to the meat raised the momentary attention of the other two ghouls still feeding, before they began to ignore him.
He paused, confused, and caught another scent nearly overridden by the decaying bovine. Intrigued in the vaguest manner, he shuffled around slightly, leaning forward and making his way towards the structure in the distance.
He had no real idea why he was headed there. He just knew he wanted to go.

Dani woke up, cold but hardly noticing it, until Jack mumbled that she was, as well. Dani grunted something flippant in reply. They had all been cold, every morning and ever night since they had left Elk Grove. They would continue to get cold- they were heading north at the moment, after all.
Jack mumbled something about raiding a Kohl’s, and was met with an equally witty remark about how many walkers there would be there.
Kyo grunted and shoved Drew off of his hay bale. “You want breakfast?”
The thud of Drew’s weight hitting the loft floor coincided perfectly with the bang on the giant double doors of the barn. He swore under his breath and leapt to his feet.
Drew pulled the ladder up into the loft as jack grabbed what she thought she would need.
“Check the roof!”
Dani was up within seconds, with Drew close behind. Kyo had barely noticed they had left when they sprinted down again. “Two in front, Six gaining! We need to spread out!”
Jack slid out one of the windows onto the roof of the chicken coop, dropping to the ground and picking off the two around front. Dani and Kyo punched through another window, dropping down into a pile of something that definitely was not just hay. They ignored it and kept moving. Drew lowered the ladder, and then threw it to the floor, running to a smaller exit way near the rear.
He raised his rifle and drew a deep breath, firing off shots as rhythmically as possibly to keep himself calm.
The closest looked up at him as a bullet whizzed by the creature’s head, and locked eyes. Drew felt a shiver run down his spine, and his finger reacted, pulling the trigger on his Smith ‘n Wesson without aiming. The round pierced the shoulder of the walker, and Drew immediately clicked another round into place.
The ghoul started, looking at his shoulder in something that could only be confusion, or fear, and then looked back at Drew. A low groan escaped the undead’s throat and it limped off, cradling its arm.

~Sacramento Government Building, Present~

Gerard pushed the door open without knocking, breathing heavily through his nose.
“Dagda, sir! The recon team!”
The man looked up, weary. “What of it?”
Gerard took a deep breath, trying to catch it again, “The recon team just sent in a report, Redford’s been spotted b civilians.”
Moments later they were both in the intelligence room, Dagda very much awake.
~”Six-fifty-six, ay-em. Shadow Recon. Group of four armed teenagers emerged from an abandoned barn, Brown’s valley. We spotted them dispatch the walkers surrounding the building with relative ease. They’ve been doing this for awhile, I would assume. One made contact with Redford, however hesitated. His current location is unknown.”~
Gerard lifted his finger off of the play button
“What time is it?”
“Eight ay-em, sir.”
“Tell the recon team to follow these four, unless Redford changes course. I want the progress sent directly to myself from here on out. They’ve survived this long. I want to know why they have and why they didn’t straight out kill Redford. Now.”
“Yes, Sir, I’ll inform them immediately.”

~Abandoned Farm: Outside~

Ghouls lumbered in the distance, but even that was too close for comfort. Shadow One sure as hell hoped that Three was doing his job and keeping the monsters as far away as possible. He was preoccupied following his own orders. The tall boy in the brown hoodie was still only pacing, and picking off a few of the walkers on occasion. They needed something solid. Something that would tell them what he was doing out here when so many others had already reached the Green Zone on the other side of the Mid-U.S. Divide Wall.
“Shadow Two- Any audio?”
“No, sir. Adjustments still being made.” He exhaled sharply and ran a hand through his growing tawny hair, making a mental note to cut it before pulling his balaclava back over his face and pressing his ear into the receiver and adjusting a few of the knobs. The words were coming in better, though it was nto what he had hoped. Two sighed and scribbled down on the pad of paper at his side.
~“. . . Wonder if we’ll – Ke it to—e wall”~
Two wondered vaguely what the eyes of the operation were seeing, twisting the dial again barely a degree.
~“. . . Before we completely fall apart. . .”~

Drew paused and lanced over his shoulder, leveling his rifle and aiming momentarily before firing. He squinted after his bullet. “Damnit. Not the smart one.” His voice was quiet, almost disappointed. He sighed and disappeared down into the barn.

Shadow One lowered his binoculars. “He’s the one we’ll want . . . He ran into Redford first. Three! Switch. Tell me anything eventful during the rest of the rounds. Take audio. Two, you’re on watch, I’m going to go look for Redford.”

~Abandoned Barn~

Dani was munching on some eggs left over from the day before, more out of nerves than anything. Jack commented on whether or not she ever stopped eating, and only received rolling eyes in response. She glanced back at the bit of outdated reading material she had found on god-only-knew-what.
Kyo was out on patrol at the moment, and Drew was pacing the edge of the loft floor. How did it know to look up? To run away? Granted it had not run, exactly. . ..
Jack glanced out the window at the barely brightening sky. “. . . We need to get moving again. Soon, guys.”
“We will Jack- jeeze. Can’t we relax a little, at least?”
Jack shot a glare at Kyo, who was coming down the steps from the roof, and muttered something about relaxing later. When there was someone -not them- on watch. And when they could not hear the undead outside.

The sun was just visible over the horizon, enough to give the teenagers some peace of mind that at least they had their sight to aid them, and dark enough to give the black-clad “Shadows” an advantage in the lingering darkness.

Kyo’s head snapped upwards. “What was that?”
Dani looked over at him, head titled, before shrugging and tossing him his collar. “Go check it out.”

Shadow One froze, making a series of hand motions to his comrades. One of them might have heard us. He might be a zoanthrope. Be careful.
Shadow Two pressed a hand against his headgear and listened. . . . I think we’re clear.

Kyo slipped his collar on and leapt up onto a crate towards a window, as much in the direction he wanted to go as possible.
“What’s up?” Drew had been temporarily pulled from thought when the wolf had started his ascent.
Kyo glanced down at the loft and shook his head, lowering it below his shoulders to convey a shrug.

The Shadows watched the wolf poke his head out a window overhead, looked around, and pull it back in. Shadow one released a slow breath and muttered into his communicator. “Move out.”
The four disappeared into what was left of the night.

Kyo dropped back down onto the loft, pawing off his collar. The group looked up at him as he straightened up.
He took a breath. “I think. . . Somebody’s watching us.”

The term “rest easy” suddenly gained another dimension of unlikliness.

[Occoris]

Well, some of my laziness left for a little bit-
So, while I'm relishing my awesome non-homework-ish-ness, I'm getting back to writing some more.
this means: Much needed edits and updates to Final Absolution.
YAY!