Eric Highland
The group had come to the square where the apartment complex was, huddled nearby were a group of the creatures they seemed to be sniffing as if looking for more victims.

"[censored] me, what are we going to do? We can't get to the apartments without being noticed" said Eric.

Peter

As Peter lay there in the bin his mind began to race with questions. What had he gotten himself into? How could he get out? What the hell was that thing he had just encountered? We there more? These questions and more were suddenly drowned out by a familiar sound. A loud groan followed by a strange hiss. Peter quickly drew a deep breath hoping to not make a single sound but the garbage bin stank and he was choking on the stench. His mind snapped, he no longer thought about the many questions that needed to be asked, the only thought he had was to reload.

Removing his spent clip, Pete reloaded his M-16 but again a moan travelled through the wind, this time it sounded closer. Pete smiled as he slung his rifle over his shoulder and began to load the bucks around his waist into the lever action shotgun. Something that would help with the close encounters, he counted as he loaded,

“One...two…three…four…five,” Pete stopped, the gun was fully loaded.

He didn’t dare [censored] it, not yet, not until he knew where that thing was. Slowly Peter began to rise and he made an attempt to peer out of the bin. The creature appeared as the others did, mangled beyond comprehension but definitely alive and moving. It was no further than 5 meters away from the bin. Luckily there was not another one in sight, so Peter took action. He leapt out of the bin and cocked the gun as soon as his feet touched the ground. The creature turned and wailed as it sprinted towards him.

Pete took aim, holding his right arm outstretched, pointing at the beasts head. It was no less than a meter away when he fired a direct shot to the head. The head of the man exploded and the body quickly dropped to the ground completely lifeless. Then there was more noise, coming from the direction he had entered the town. He couldn’t be sure if it was more of these things or actual people but Pete didn’t want to hang around and find out. It would take him a few hours to get out of town and then a few more to get to a safe distance and by that time it would be well into the night and he sure didn’t want to be around with these things at night.

Without a second thought Peter sprinted off, heading towards the centre of town. It was a long shot but since the way back was seemingly cut off, he would need to find an alternate route. But the day was a hot one and carrying all that gear whilst moving at that speed meant that he couldn’t cover the distance needed to get out of town by night. He figured he would need to stop somewhere, take inventory and conserve his energy. Already he was sweating profusely and he had used most of his canteen water. By this time he was close if not in the centre of town and so far he had encountered only a few but he had seen the destruction that they had caused.

The city was in ruins, bloodied streets and broken shards of glass lay everywhere. Rubbish along with bodies were strewn across the roads and footpaths. Luckily Pete had managed to avoid the grotesque beings but deep down he knew that a horde of these things were still out there. He knew this because he could hear it off in the distance, the gunshots, the groaning and the screams. The worst was yet to come.

As Peter moved throughout the town he came to rest in an alley behind some rubble that had fallen from one of the damaged buildings. He had reached a string of apartment blocks although it only made his situation look worse. The creatures stood at the base of these buildings, making an attempt to get inside. They knew that there were people still alive left inside and these things were hungry. Cursing, Pete knew he had to find somewhere fast, somewhere that not only offered protection but that could be easily fortified and defended. He decided to move through the alleys and work his way around the blocks to see if he could find a way in.

Suddenly he heard a noise coming from one of the nearby alleys. It was just any noise; it was pvssyr, real life talking with words. It was unbelievable and a lot more promising than a groan or a hiss. Although he still needed to be cautious, so taking a grenade in one hand and holding his shotgun in the other, Pete made his way to the alley just next to his position.

He made sure before turning the corner that he finally was dealing with real life humans by quickly poking his head around and into the alley. They already looked half dead but the people talking were most definitely human, of course a little worse for wear but all human. With a sigh of relief, Peter approached gun at the ready and grenade in his hand. There Pete stood in the middle of the alley while the others watched the creatures try to enter the apartments.

There were so many questions, so many things he wanted to say, but he could only managed to utter one thing out, “What the [censored] is going on here?!”

Colt Harris

The apartment building was crowded with zombies. Colt counted about 15, while another batch stood near the bank. There were more over there, probably 20. Each one of these mutants had changed. Their skin seemed to have completely left their body, their muscle had molded over the the bones that they had left. What was left of their arms was sluggishly pounding at the door of the complex, which didn't seem to be holding up well. All the time Colt kept his M14 aimed at the mob. All it took was one to realize they were watching, then it would be over. Miguel stood to his side, keeping his eyes trained on the horde as well. Colt nudged Miguel then pointed to the magazine attached to his M14. He mouthed out the word "ammo". Miguel held up two fingers, signaling he only had 2 mags left. Colt wasn't fairing well either. He had one more fresh mag, and his pistol had a fresh mag as well.

Trying to keep his mind of of the ammo problem, Colt turned to the other men. They were whispering about what to do. Before Colt could relay his idea, another man emerged from the darkness surrounding the alley. He was a large man, who had several weapons on him. “What the [censored] is going on here?!” he asked, confused. Colt quickly motioned to his mouth, trying to tell the man to be quiet. When he thought the man understood, he whispered several words. "All we know is some sort of virus has...infected most everyone. We don't know about the miilitarys situation, and we don't know if the government building is safe or not. We're hoping to infiltrate that apartment, and then go from there."

Brian Stacey

Upon the new mans arrival, which was most timely considering the fact that he was heavily armed and obviously from out of town (that much Brian can tell by the many subtleties, after all, he'd lived in town all his life), Brian hatched an idea. That man had some serious firepower, including a bandolier of grenades, an lever action shotgun, and an assault rifle of which sort Brian didn't know. They all looked the same to him.

"We need to get into that house. As you can see it won't be easily done, so we need to create some type of diversion to distract them." At this time, he looked directly at the new man. "Your the new guy in town, and you have the most firepower, so you picked unlucky stick. Unless you can convince someone here to help you," Brian didn't yet trust the man, obviously. How could he? But at the same time he didn't want to come off as an [censored]. He added, somewhat grudgingly, "I'll help you if you gime me a gun and a grenade."

Charlie Moore

We had arrived at the town square, I was panting heavily, and all that running had made me lose my breath. It was obvious that getting into the apartment complex was not going to be easy, the square had at least fifty zed crawling all over the place, and we did not have enough bullets, to put one in each brain, so we had little choice. The rest of the group huddled and started trying to formulate a plan, one stood guard with his rifle pointed out into the square, keeping watch.

“What the [censored] is going on here?!” came out of the alley. I turned to see a man standing there; he was strapped with what appeared to be an M16, some sort of Shotgun and more than a handful of grenades. The man covering the square motioned to him to be quiet before calmly explaining that FEV or some such [censored] had infected a bunch of people.

"We need to get into that house. As you can see it won't be easily done, so we need to create some type of diversion to distract them. You’re the new guy in town, and you have the most firepower, so you picked unlucky stick. Unless you can convince someone here to help you," another man said to the stranger, and then added, “I'll help you if you gimee me a gun and a grenade."


Some chump who has never handled a rifle before wants a gun, bah, he probably does not even know how to use it.

Then I chimed in, “I got quite some experience with firearms, and I worked at the store Ballistics and [censored] before everything went to hell, I think I can handle a firearm better, I’ll help you out, but you gotta gimme a gun, and trust me, I’ll be keeping my distance from the mutated freaks.”

Peter

In his mind, Peter cursed; he had revealed himself too early. Half of these people weren’t even armed and even the ones who were armed barely had any fire power. Now they were asking for some of Pete’s gear, not just grenades but a gun as well. He had just met them and there was no way he was going to trust a stranger with one of his guns.

Pete tossed them a grenade,

“Consider yourselves lucky I didn’t pull the pin, that’s all you get until you can prove you’re smart enough to create a diversion that’ll work.”

With that Peter drew in closer to the group and began to look out at the apartments. They wanted to distract the creatures that had been infected by this mystery virus but it all looked to hopeless to Pete. There were about 15-20 of them, all crowded and moaning. The creatures were fast too, damn fast, the only real way to take them down would be to take most of the group by surprise then pick off the rest.

“Way I see it,” Peter said, “we’d need a perfectly thrown grenade to land right in the middle, and then we’d need to open fire on what was left before they got a chance to get close. So we are going to need more than just two of my guns, what kind of weapons do you guys have? And how much ammunition have we got? If we don’t have enough we’ll have to look elsewhere for an entrance.”

Watching the others bicker over creating a diversion I quickly formulated a small plan for when we got into the apartment... Then that plan quickly mutated into something much smarter. Motioning towards the man dressed in a repairmen's outfit he came towards me; stifling a chuckle I quickly cleared my throat. "Ok, you know how all of these buildings have failsafes built into them? These idiots seem to have forgotten that, I don't know exactly what they do, but I know the lowest level of failsafe blocks off the front door. If we could sneak into the apartment we could work on the failsafe to block everyone in, or maybe there's a higher level that does something better," I whispered out.

When he gave me a surprised look I shrugged, "It probably won't work, but maybe we'll get lucky and.. Giant lasers will pop out of the building or something! At least we can block off the front door, then we can go to an upper level window and snipe them or something. But don't tell them, they'll assume you can hack a computer instantaneously. Let's just act like pansies and sneak off into the building? I'll only come to warn you of attack and hit one of those things over the head if it gets too close. Normally I wouldn't ask a repairmen to hack a computer, but you have the most experience." I frowned.

"Do you think your up to it?"

Brian Stacey

EDITED (* is where it starts)

The man who had worked behind the gunshop desk spoke up now, “I got quite some experience with firearms, and I worked at the store Ballistics and [censored] before everything went to hell, I think I can handle a firearm better, I’ll help you out, but you gotta gimme a gun, and trust me, I’ll be keeping my distance from the mutated freaks.”

This was better than Brian doing it, he barely knew how to use a weapon. He was just glad someone was willing to put their life on the line. The newcomer grunted and threw the man a grenade. It almost made Brian jump out of his skin, and if he wasn't crouched he would have. What was this man thinking, throwing something so dangerous at the group of us? If a gun had accidentally want off, we'd all be zombie meat.

He had half a mind to bring this to the new mans attention, but now wasn't the time fore self-imposed bickering, and Brian wasn't that kind of fellow anyway. He simply sighed and swallowed his oppression.

“Consider yourselves lucky I didn’t pull the pin, that’s all you get until you can prove you’re smart enough to create a diversion that’ll work.”

Yet again he'd entered a place that wasn't his. He was the newcomer he had no right to be so confrontational.

“Way I see it,” the man said, “ we’d need a perfectly thrown grenade to land right in the middle, and then we’d need to open fire on what was left before they got a chance to get close. So we are going to need more than just two of my guns, what kind of weapons do you guys have? And how much ammunition have we got? If we don’t have enough we’ll have to look elsewhere for an entrance.”

"All I have is a pistol and a box of ammo, and the rest here have rifles. As far as looking for another entrance, why don't we just enter from here? How about this," Brian took this time to shift his weight, and check back on the hissing group of walking corpses. "How about you and you, run out and create a distraction, and once they give chase, you can drop the bomb and head in with us. The complex has two entrances one here, and one in back, and they are both in this square. The back door stays locked because they never use it, and the front should be open because no one would have had the time to lock it.

That's why I'm proposing you distract them, and the rest of us run in, the you can bring up the rear while we shoot them from indoors. I don't like it as much as you, but that's the best we have that I can think of."

*

Just then, another man, this guy more youthful than the rest, motioned Brian over. As Brian closed in, he realized it was the guy with the guitar on his back. He hoped the guy would be able to last long with just that. "Ok," he started " You know how all of these buildings have failsafes built into them? These idiots seem to have forgotten that, I don't know exactly what they do, but I know the lowest level of failsafe blocks off the front door. If we could sneak into the apartment we could work on the failsafe to block everyone in, or maybe there's a higher level that does something better,"

Brian gave him a look of shock. He really expected the two of them to survive a mad dash for the apartment? There were too many creatures out there to take that crazy risk. He did have a point, this was the good side of town, and most buildings had failsafes, like Whitney's bank, but it was risky.

"It probably won't work," he bagan again, reading the surprise on my face. "but maybe we'll get lucky and . . . giant lasers will pop out of the building or something! At least we can block off the front door, then we can go to an upper level window and snipe them or something. But don't tell them, they'll assume you can hack a computer instantaneously. Let's just act like pansies and sneak off into the building? I'll only come to warn you of attack and hit one of those things over the head if it gets too close. Normally I wouldn't ask a repairmen to hack a computer, but you have the most experience. Do you think your up to it?"

Brian nodded. He thought about what he'd have to do. He'd done few jobs in this area, had only needed to reboot a couple monitors, or fix a slightly broken security system. Still, electronics weren't his strong suit. But it was the best they had. He walked to the edge of the cover they were at, looked at the guy, and nodded again. "Go!" He whispered, and turned the corner, roadie running towards the door. His did his best to remain quiet, and had his eyes trained on the doors ahead of him. Soon though, a zombie turned around and spotted them. Its mouth was pink from foamy spittle and blood, and it roared at the two and began to run. Brian ran faster now, fully erect, towards the door. He reached it, threw it open and headed for the back where he hoped the basemant was at.

"Do you know where the basemant is? I don't--oh!" As Brian turned he noticed the zombie was trying to get through the door. "Smack it!" Brian yelled out. And as he turned, he was again face to face with another.

"Oh [censored]," I somehow managed to blurt out as I ripped the guitar case off my back. I hoped that it would still work after this, grabbing the area where the fret board was inside the case I used it as an oddly fashioned club and heaved it at the zombie in front of us. As it made contact there was a great cracking sound, continuing the swing I brought it over my head and slammed it into the zombie's back as it lay on the ground. Was I really just thinking of them as zombies now? Shaking my head in my own mind I turned and struck at another zombie that had started making it's way to my friend, hitting it's teeth into the back of it's skull I looked at the case quickly.

"I can't keep this up, the case is starting to crack, that and I don't want to break my guitar that much; my life means more to me than music but still..." Trailing off I looked around a little, my case was the biggest, heaviest blunt object in view; what else could I do? Cursing quietly I followed Brian into the apartments, it was quiet if you counted out the noise from the zombies outside, quietly whispering to him I said, "Okay, basemant is... There!" I said, pointing towards a small door that led into darkness. "I can't follow you down, so if you see something that looks like it could be used as a weapon, grab it. Also," I continued, by shoving my backpack off my back and rummaging around it.

Quickly pulling out an emergency-grade flashlight I handed it to him, "Should help, it's my only one and it'll burn out like a mother-[censored] if you keep it on for too long. But you might as well use it now." Motioning to him I slowly added, "Now hurry up, if I'm going to die at least let it be so you live, I won't hold for long if they keep coming."

Quickly turning I saw three zombies attempting to claw their way through the door, as one of them hit it hard enough to make the hinges rattle I roared and sped to it, heaving the door open I quickly made contact with my case to the zombie's head. As it flew backwards the other two rushed me, pushing one back with a kick to the stomach and hitting the other with my left elbow to the face I followed it up by beating them with my guitar case. Panting heavily I stepped back a bit and fell down to the ground, How the hell did people keep this up? It's been less than a minute and I already almost can't lift the case anymore! Shaking my head slowly at myself I got back up and lifted the case again.

"Bring it Zed, bring it."

Brian Stacey

The man jumped to the rescue before Brian could aim his weapon, mashing the guitar case against the zombie's mouth, smashing all its teeth. It fell to the ground because of the impact, and my bullet finished it off. He turned to me, "I can't keep this up, the case is starting to crack, that and I don't want to break my guitar that much; my life means more to me than music but still..."

Brian immediately got the thought of giving him my pistol, but them it bore on me that there may be more downstairs. He then thought about giving him my hammer, but realized that he just might need it. While he was still thinking of something to give him the man shoved a high-powered flash0light into his hands. Brian had already had a pocket flashlight, but this was indeed better. "Should help, it's my only one and it'll burn out like a mother-[censored] if you keep it on for too long. But you might as well use it now." Brian nodded. It was good that the man came, things would have been a lot harder it it weren't for that. Just then, the man turned around and cursed. Brian looked and his stomach dropped. The door was reeling with more of them, clawing and wedging into the building. The man simply charged into the fray, whamming at them with his case. It was this act of bravado and the horrible odds that convinced Brian to relinquish his weapon.

"Catch!" Brain called out, tossing his pistol, then took out his switchblade and headed for the stairs. Immediately, he was greeted by darkness and near silence. The only sounds to be heard now was the dripping of water. The basemant was illuminated by small red alert lights, and Brian had no idea where the switch was. He turned on the light and began the slow walk down the halls, looking at the walls and at each room. He noticed the blood stained hand-prints on the wall, and the missing articles of clothing as he headed down the halls. Each room had something in it, but never what he was looking for. Storage, bathroom, inventory, heating room.

He froze. He was approaching the end of the hall, and he had begun to hear a sound. It wasn't growling or panting, but something different. It almost sounded like smacking or lips. Like . . . chewing. His heart began to pump faster as he identified where it was coming from. The door ahead was closed, and marked Security. The sound wasn't coming from that room, but the one next to it. And the door was open. Brian knew what was happening in that room, but he also knew he needed to get past it. He needed to kill it.

As he approached the door, heart beating almost out of his chest, fear gripped him and caused his skin to begin to perspire. His fingers tightened on the knife, he was painfully aware that it was quite inadequate too kill something this ravenous. His heart was in his throat now, which was now dry and aching. He swallowed, and edged ever closer to the door. The sound was sickening, as the feral made a ripping sound, followed by a greedy growl as he fed. All in moment movement, Brian turned the corner, and the monster looked up, skin and intestine hanging form its mouth. It dropped it and at the same time Brian, who had been rushing to it, smacked the flashlight against it with all his might, and they both fell to the ground. While Brian was pinned on top of it, he stabbed it repeatedly in its belly, and it roared in refusal to die. Blood was spewing from the wound, and still it writhed under Brian. It finally got a hand on Brian, and was about to push off. Brian realized this and cut more furiously, going all the way across its torso, and then next thing he knew he was in the air.

He landed in the hallway, under a red light, slamming into the wall. He was pretty dazed, but instinctively went for his hammer next. Thanks to the adrenaline, his vision was returning back to normal quickly, fast enough to notice the ghoul burst from the room. Brian used the wall to stand slightly, and brought the back of his hammer down on the creatures skull, lodging it in. The impact sent the monster, and all its momentum downwards. It hit the ground jaw first, and Brian pulled the hook part down and out, ripping off the things skull and a piece of its brain. Had it not been for the moment, Brian would have easily thrown up, but he didn't he stomped on the creature as it tried to rise to its feet. And stomped and stomped. He stomped until it was pink and read matter all over the floor. until the ground no longer felt hard but mushy. Until he could feel the squish on his feet.

When he was done, he took the knife from the beasts torso and collected himself, before heading into the control room.

As my friend left the room he threw me his weapon, thanking my lucky day I quickly shoved my guitar case down and nudged it over to the side. Checking it I realised it was a magnum, lucky it was because my Father used to go to a gun club and this was his favourite weapon. I'd only gone once or twice but I had managed to hit was I firing at, quickly checking it I found that it was completely ready to go; 6 rounds. Pulling the hammer back to full [censored] I aimed down the sight, right into the face of a zombie. "[censored]!" I yelled and quickly pulled the trigger, as the creature's brains flew out of his body it fell to the ground in an almost sort of pain.

Re aiming at the door I saw more and more zombies flocking towards the sound of the gun, could it be they were attracted to sound? What do we do then? Cursing again I aimed at the head of another zombie, but as the one beneath began to stir a part of me thought that might not be smart. Re-aiming at the one at my feet I quickly shot it straight through it's chest, as it made a few gurgling sounds it stopped moving. The spine? Maybe if I shot it through the spine it wouldn't be able to move... Or the heart. Does it's heart still work? I'll have to check it out later. Aiming again at the one's at the door I aimed for the chest and started firing, I took down another three before I ran out of rounds.

Cursing loudly now I hoped that someone would come after us now, there were too many for me to handle and I realised I had a cut on my left arm. It wasn't a bite, but a cut, and it was bleeding profusely now that I noticed it. Leaning against the wall for now I looked up, the Zed were milling around about ten metres from the shambled door. He better hurry up... My case won't survive hitting another zombie and without any rounds...

I was screwed.

Brain Stacey

Brian was relieved to see that the main unit was seething he'd worked with before. It was a Strouss-20p dock. It took the removal of a couple nails, then some good plier work, and he had the main cubby opened. It was then that he saw that the pipes had fallen loose, along with a couple copper wires. It took him all of forty-five second to redo what was needed to to reboot it. After that, he looked up at the main interface with disdain, for that part was something he never worked with. He always fixed the toys, but never used them. He flipped a few switches, pressed some buttons, and eventually found one that said failsafe on the screen. He navigated to the activate option, and pressed the 'yes' button. Soon, the hissing could be heard. Not bodily, but mechanical. A single terminal off to the side slid into view from what seemingly was the wall. He ran over to it.

He chose the necessary options. He activated the indoor locking mechanisms, and the two ground floor protectrons, along with mass reprogramming all robots in the building to kill everything in sight. Lastly, he turned on the indoor speakers and spoke out to the man he hoped was alive. "I've turned on the robots, and they programmed to shoot to kill. I gave the building a thirty second delay before the building locks down, head to the second floor, room 205. That one is registered as the secondary supply room. Once the time is up, you'll have a one hour waiting period before you can open the doors again. Meet you there."

With that he sprinted up the steps and through the door to the first floor. By now there were only 20 seconds left. "HEY, GET IN HERE!" He called, alerting whatever zombie hadn't been notified of his presence.

Colt Harris

Colt heard it.... the countdown. He had no idea what it was counting down to, but the idiots who had ran in earlier must have done something right. "We gotta go!" he hissed to the other men. There were now about 10 zed left, clawing at the doors. Colt brought up his M14, and sprinted towards the door, followed by Miguel. He questioned why he was running towards the mutants now. There were so many....so many. At first only two noticed him. They ran with unusual speed straight towards Colt. With shaking hands Colt brought up his rifle and fired. The first zombie fell after two bullets penetrated its chest, the second fell after his right kneecap was splintered.

Now he had alerted the whole crowd. The countdown was at 20 now. They had one choice. "Split up!" he yelled at Miguel. The boy ran to the left, while Colt sprinted to the right. The beasts were confused, exactly what Colt had wanted. Several fell over, only to trip the others up. Now about 7 were on the ground, trying with all their might to lift themselves up. One came after Colt, but didn't last long as a volley of 2 bullets tore his chest to peices.

Colt was inside now, along with Miguel. The zombies were starting to regain their balance, and making headway on the two men. Before Colt could shoot, he heard the intercom buzz throughout the room. Then a voice was heard. "I've turned on the robots, and they programmed to shoot to kill. I gave the building a thirty second delay before the building locks down, head to the second floor, room 205. That one is registered as the secondary supply room. Once the time is up, you'll have a one hour waiting period before you can open the doors again. Meet you there."

Colt smiled. They had done it. Maybe they were smarter than he thought. So the two men clambered up the steps, and carefully checked for room 205. When they reached it they carefully opened the bloody door, hoping only humans were inside.

Charlie Moore

I had a grenade now, thanks to the new comer, soon I was told that I needed to take off and assault the horrid abominations with only a grenade. That made me laugh a little, did this idiot really expect me to run at the beasts with a grenade! Soon after though, he and another man went headlong into the group, they miraculously got into the building. A few gunshots could be heard and the twisted creatures went at the door more viciously then before. While contemplating using the grenade, a countdown began.

Another one of the men took off; he fired a few shots of the rifle, and him and what appeared to be his younger brother split up halfway to the building, confusing the brain dead abominations. The confused mass of creatures was moving in two directions leaving a gaping hole, a pathway right to the door of the apartment complex.

This is my chance.

I took off headlong into the direction of the building; I was closing the distance quickly, the adrenaline pumping through my veins was helping with that too. I arrived at the door, it was covered in saliva, and was looking pretty beaten, I grabbed the handle and pulled the door open. I was in the clear, or so I thought. Two securitrons were in the lobby and they asked me for identification, or die.

I slipped through the doorway into the basemant, behind me I heard the hiss of lasers, as they burnt the nearby walls of the building, I expected the robots to follow me, but I guess they had bigger problems, like the horde of twisted mutants ruining the lot.

The basemant was dark, but every few seconds was illuminated by the flashing security lights, I made my way around the building, looking for a freight elevator or something I could use to go up a floor, as he had missed the grace period to get to room 205. In my wandering I found a room labeled security. Seemed like a good enough place to start looking for some extra help.

As I opened the door, it slid open with an eerie creak, lying there in the floor was a man, he was mutated by the FEV, but by the looks of it, he had put a bullet in his brain before he turned into a human eating monster. I doubled over and vomited, before closing the door and reaching for the handgun lying beside his corpse.

During his time as a scavenger, Corynthias had done things that he regreted since he concieved the idea in the first place. He'd done things that even chem-addicted cannibals would frown upon, things that wwould have earned him a first class ticket to the hottest spot in hell. But of all these horrible crimes to humanity he had done, killing one of his few friends with his own two hands was the lowest of the low. As Corynthias rose to his feet, he wiped away his tears with a blood stained hand. Taking one last look at the writhing mass on the floor that he once knew as a dear friend.

Though the past hour was quite possibly one of the worst in his life, Corynthias had to get down to business. Grieving could be done after the crisis, and breaking down now would be the death of him. He needed a weapons and equipment if he was going to survive the swarms of infected deeper inside the city, and as he opened the door into Creely's dimly lit garage with all of his completed and in progress projects. Unfortunately, Creely didn't refurbish weapons, as Rust City required merchants to buy a rather expensive permit to even handle any weaponry. However, that didn't stop Corynthias from being creative. From an equipment rack in a storage area, Corynthias found a well-used fire axe, which Creely used for hacking open old metal containers or jammed doors. The blade wasn't very sharp, but Corynthias intended to use it as a blunt instrument, and if he needed to cut into something he could always reverse the weapon to use the steel pick on the back. Instead of the unstable wooden handlebar, Creely had wiseley placed a steel strip of 1/4 inch rebar through the length of the weapon's handle to increase it's strength.

Now that Corynthias had a weapon, he needed armor. Without armor, he would be too vulnerable to the infected attacks. Based on what he's seen, he didn't want any major parts of his body exposed to the infected. From a sealed storage crate, Corynthias pulled a black suit of Scouting Armor. There was nothing advanced about the apperal, other than the dark coloring that concealed the wearer in low-light conditions. Other than that, the suit came equipped with two shoulder pauldrons, a chest pate, and two plates on the outer thighs all made out of light-weight carbon fiber material. After ripping off the right sleeve, so as not to interfere with his mechanical arm, the suit was ready.

In addition to the armor, Corynthias needed some type of protection to the virus in the environment. Corynthias' bandana wasn't adequate for filtering dense amounst of the airborn virus, so he needed something that would supply him with a fresh supply of oxygen. After some digging through piles of old equipment, Corynthias finally found a gas mask that was practically undamaged. With an oxygen-recycling cyclinder he pulled from an old rebreather with a broken mask, he quickly jury-rigged the hose protruding from the mask to the valve on the recycler. Once he was sure the seal on the valve to the mask was secure without leaks, Corynthias strapped the mask onto his face, and took a few deep breaths to test the flow of oxygen. When everything was satisfactory, Corynthias took off the mask and grabbed a light-weight traveler's backpack and slipped the recycling cyclinder into it.

After stuffing the remaining space in the bag full of food, fresh water, and a medical kit, Corynthias was finally ready to step into the equipment and begin his search for survivors in the inner-city. After stripping out of his garb he wearing on the trip to the scrapyard, Corynthias pulled on the dark suit. The suit fit loosely around the legs, but at mid-calf leather straps and cloth bound the material tightly to the leg and into a pair of dark military boots. The upper body was covered by the armor plating built into the fabric of the tight-fit suit, finishing with cloth wrapped around the hands. Next, Corynthias slipped into the backpack and clipped the shoulder straps over his chest to secure it tightly. Finally, he fit the mask over his face and flipped up the hood on the dark suit. The gas mask featured two circular portholes over the eyes, with exhaust vents angled away from the mouth. A rubber tube connected directly inbetween the two vents and fed out of the mask, under the left arm and into the backpack with the oxygen recycler. Gripping the fire axe's taped handle in both hands, Corynthias felt ready for anything the city had to throw at him.

As he walked through the from door out of the scrapyard office, Corynthias couldn't shrug the feeling in the pit of his stomach. He couldn't possibly leave Creely's body to waste away in his own house. Corynthias had no idea if the infected he'd seen actually ate human flesh, but judging by the shrieks he'd heard ealier, the infected definitely weren't running around hugging people. There was no way he could possibly leave his body to rot, or worse; eaten. After standing by the front door for the longest time, Corynthias finally made up his mind. Though he didn't have time to bury the body, he could still do one service for him.

Some time later, Corynthias re-emerged from the building, smelling heavily of oil. Corynthias struck a match on the side of a matchbox filled with gasoline-saturated cloth. After igniting the box, Corynthias tossed the burning matchbox through the door and shut it.

By the time Corynthias was out of the scrapyard, thick black smoke was rising from the rear of the yard where the office was. Looking back for the briefest of moments in reverence, Corynthias headed off in the direction of the marketplace as the black column rose solemnly into the sky.

Eric Highland
The group was huddled in the alley way they were discussing what they had to do to get into the apartment complex.

“What the [censored] is going on here?!”

Eric looked over to see that someone else had come, it was clear he wasn't from the city. Eric didn't care he looked back at where the zombies were. Suddenly two of the men made a run for it towards the apartment.

What the [censored] are they doing their going to get us all killed though Eric.

Eric looked back to the group they were still focused on the new comer, Eric sunk out into the court yard. The zombies were preoccupied. Suddenly their was a gun shot, the group had obviously decided to attack the zombies.

Eric was behind the zombies now he grabbed his pistol and started to shoot, the zombies didn't pay attention to him. Then their was a large siren, it was a count down.

"Go go go, I'll hold them off" yelled Eric running towards the zombies.

He charged into the zombies, because of his power armour he didn't need to worry about them scratching or biting him. One of the people stopped and looked at him unsure at what to do.

"Don't worry about me get the [censored] in the building" he roared,"You want some more mother [censored]".

Charlie Moore

I grabbed the pistol, I was studied it for a moment trying to figure what type it was, but as of now my mind was drawing a blank. The security room was not well illuminated but I assumed there might be some weapons or something down here. I passed by the security terminals, the cameras did not work now, but if there was some way to get the network backup they would be most helpful. Unfortunately that was something I did not know [censored] about.

I found a door, I looked around for the sign that would tell me what it was, once I found it I knew I had hit the jackpot, this was the places small armoury, probably inside was a few pistols and maybe some Kevlar vests or something. I put my hand on the doorknob and twisted. A loud noise came forth, and a light switched to red.

“[censored] I need a pass card,”

I turned and left, as I left I noticed the room to my right, a corpse lied face down on the floor. I could not take any chances; I lifted the gun, pointing it at the body. I fired 3 rounds all of which connected with the torso. By now he would have had to be dead. I approached the body and bent low, placing my pistol beside me. I rolled over the corpse, lucky enough I found a pass card on the dead man’s body.

‘Sorry to leave you like this…,” I was searching for a name to call him, then I looked at the pass card, finding his name written upon it I finished my sentence, “Reggie.”

I grabbed the pistol and went back into the hallway, and then into the security rooms and back to the armoury. I was very excited knowing that this room contained some armaments. I swiped the card, the light flicked over to green and I opened the door. I put the pass card into my pocket and stepped into the room. Two men were inside one was sitting and another was standing over top of him. Both were adorned in security uniforms.

“Hi,” I managed to say, before the standing one turned around. Something was definitely wrong; his skin was a pale colour and beginning to turn a sickly greyish blue colour. His hair was falling out and he did not speak. Finally it clicked in my mind, he was infected. His mouth opened as if trying to say something, but then he just took a few steps forward.

I lifted the gun and fired 3 rounds at him; the Kevlar he was wearing managed to stop any of them from doing serious damage, but he stumbled backwards, I bolted out of the room heading for the hallway. I moved through the maze of tunnels, shrieks and groans from the infected were coming from behind, I hoped I was faster.

At last I found what I was looking for, a freight elevator, I moved in the grating clanking under my feet as I hoped on. I hit the button for floor 2, and the doors began to close. The zed was racing towards the closing doors; I opened fire with my pistol hoping to slow it down. It kept coming it was almost through the doors when they closed, a snapping sound could be heard as they closed around it’s arm, howls of pain came from the beast and the elevator began to move. Another loud crack as its back was broken against the ceiling; it was being pulled up through the floors by the elevator. I put my back against the wall and slid down until I was sitting on the floor.

“Holy [censored].”

Brian Stacey

Brian, after relaying the message, headed up to the room he had just called out. He stopped in his tracks when he noticed his friend with the guitar case on the floor, panting. The gun was on the floor near him, and he seemed out of it. All over him were cuts and scratches, he looked like he'd put u a hell of a fight.

"Come on, we don't have too much time," Brian said calmly but urgently. He grabbed his gun and loaded it while traversing to the second level

Once he reached the second floor via stairs the Protectrons he could hear were just booting up, and he barely caught a glimpse of a robotic arm before he headed in the room. Next, he needed to hide in the room and await till the countdown ended. http://www.modresdes.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Modern-White-Apartment-Interior-Living-Room.jpg was both stylish and bland. Mostly white, with a relax area on the left side, while a kitchen was on the left. The bedroom was straight back, while the bathroom was around a corner (this much Brian had to deduce because it wasn't visible when you first entered). He rushed to the back of them room and lay down behind the bed, not closing the door out of fear it would make too much noise. He hoped the man would have enough energy to place himself somewhere safe.

Colt Harris

As the two men entered the room, they heard the clanking of the protectrons making there way down the hall. The room was a brilliant white, almost as if it was glowing. Colt had no time to admire the room, as the noise was getting louder. He saw the man who was named Brian run towards the back and hide behind a bed. Colt looked around. There was a small room of to the far right, the bathroom. The door was already closed, a good sign that the protectron would not try to open the door. Clutching their weapons, the two men walked over to the door.

Colt carefully opened it, hoping it was empty. To his relief, it was. The two men carefully entered, then softly closed the door. The room was small and cramped, but Colt was glad to be somewhere that was somewhat safe. Ironically, Miguel took a seat on the toilet. Not to relieve himself, but to simply catch his breath. Colt took a seat on the shower wall, drew his pistol, and kept it aimed at the door. Atleast what he thought was the door. It was quite dark, and turning on the lights would likely alert the protectron. So the two men sat there, waiting. All the time pondering what happened to the other rangers, and of course, Cato.

As the man came back and urged me on I got to my feet unsteadily, he was already moving quickly away and I managed to follow him somehow. All around were the sounds of yelling, mechanical whirring as the protectrons came to life and the inhumane roars of the infected. Shuddering I followed the man through the twists and turns of the building and we eventually made it to a room, he fled inside quicker than I could see and I could hear footsteps behind me. Quickly bolting in I fell behind the kitchen counter and made as little noise as I could. The other two men rushed past without noticing me and entered the toilet, this is starting to get insane, we're supposed to be safe and we're hiding?

Shaking the voice out of my head I sat there in silence and hoped either the doors would seal soon, or the protectrons... Maybe they would recognise us as human? Unless the man had set them to 'complete liquidation' in which case we were a target just like anyone else. Deciding against taking the risk I let my breath come back slowly, realising one of my cuts was bleeding quite badly I took my backpack off my back and opened the top compartment. Inside were some medical supplies, pulling out a small rag I got up slowly and looked around, seeing no protectrons I walked over to the sink and let some hot water run. After it was hot enough I soaked the rag with it, turned the water stream off and sat back down.

Wiping the blood away as best I could I quickly followed with a gauze bandage and then a compression bandage. [censored] job, but it's the best I can do without diagnosing myself as nearly dead.

Eric Highland

As Eric holding back the zombies he realized something about the sirens was familiar. He quickly grabbed his pistol and shot one of the zombies point blank in the face. He quickly got up and ran as fast as he could towards the door, he made it into the apartment. He turned around and shot one of the zombies in the chest, it fell backwards by the force of the shot. He closed the door as much as he could and ran down the corridor, he made his way to where the others were. He quickly jumped through a door just before it closed. The others were there they looked surprised they must have thought that he was dead.

"What did I miss out on?" asked Eric.

As I sat panting a man rushed through the door before it slammed shut, it was the guy that was with the group earlier. Shaking my head I quickly stood up and yelled out to the others, "Ok, the doors are closed. You can come out now!" Everyone filed out of their hiding spots, each looking a bit sheepish as no protectrons had actually gotten through to us. Laughing at them quietly I spoke up, "Alright, so we made it to a safe place, minus the robots and swarm of things down at the front of the building. I'm pretty sure they're gonna end up killing each other though, I'm putting my money on 'them', they seem to be able to take a lot more punishment than those robots."

Sighing lightly I rubbed my face lightly, helping my sinuses, "I have no idea what to do guys, I'm just tired. If you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go take a nap on the couch while the rest of you do whatever you want. I just... Yeah." Walking past the small group I layed my things next to the smaller couch in the small area and put myself down onto the couch; quickly closing my eyes. At first I didn't think I was going to fall asleep very quickly but I managed to drop off pretty quickly, lucky me.

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

As I opened my eyes to the sound of conversation I yawned and stretched my tired limbs, someone had thrown a small blanket over my torso and I had to remember to ask that when I woke up. Getting up into a sitting position I slowly stood up and walked over the dark window, the sun was falling the last few ticks of land as it turned to night. At least it wouldn't be a blood red landscape anymore, laughing to myself I realised that maybe night wouldn't be any better. Looking out to the front of the building I nearly fell down in horror, there was... http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_85otoKCACkQ/SwdZA0R0RrI/AAAAAAAABeA/0XGB7oSJM5M/s1600/mutated+zombie+copy.jpg staring straight up at me. It had glowing green eyes that somehow lit up most of it's body, it's muscles quivered and spasmed in the gloomy light and it's teeth looked sharper than any of the other things I'd seen.

It looked up at me with a half-smile and I felt myself drawn to the terrifying creature, this is not possible; it feels like it's in my head.

Oh, but I am; you can't escape me.

That was when I started screaming.

OOC: take control of my char if necessary

Colt Harris

Isenes heard the boy screaming, and walked over to him. He was looking at something, something in the small square outside the apartment complex. Colt cursed, and with a burst or anger and strength slamed the shades down over the window. Seeing the other men around, he decided to at least organize the men until they had another plan. Walking in to the center of the room, he announced his simple idea. "Well, we need several people to take up the responsibility of night watch....just in case. I volunteer myself, but we will need others. Anyone interested?"

Eric Highland

Eric was thinking when suddenly there was screaming he looked up to see boy who made the mad dash to the apartment. Eric shook his head, he realized he was still wearing his helmet.

"Well, we need several people to take up the responsibility of night watch....just in case. I volunteer myself, but we will need others. Anyone interested?"

Eric stood up and took his helmet off.

"I volunteer to be in the night watch" said Eric.

Everyone went quiet and looked at Eric.

"Oh, yes its me Eric Highland owner of Highland Merchandise, but long ago I was apart of the Brotherhood" admitted Eric.

Charlie Moore

I had barely made it in time; I sneaked in just as the guitar man entered the room. He began a small speech basically saying he was going to get some shut eye. He flung himself down on the couch and fell into sleep in no time. I grabbed a nearby blanket and threw it over him, and moved myself into the kitchen where I went straight for the fridge. Quite a few assorted foods were inside but I settled on drinking a Nuka-Cola and eating the part of the steak salad. Upon finishing my meal, I lay down upon the floor in the living room.

The time passed quite quickly, there was little conversation, I thought that was normal as everyone was likely still shocked. In hours the man on the couch awoke in a fright as he saw something out the window down in the square. Another man quickly closed the blinds and asked the question of who would like to go for night watch.

Taking off his helmet a different man announced he was Eric Highland, owner of Highland Merchandise, and ex-Brotherhood soldier. I was surprised, but continued on with my thoughts, “What do you mean night watch, and seriously, introductions are very much in order. The name is Charlie Moore, I traveled the wastes and lived with tribals a few years back, now I work at a store that sells weapons, there thats me in a nutshell, how about everyone else.”