Chapter 0: Remnants Of A Sane Soul

My name isn't really important, well if you were too look through my eyes and see the carnage outside you would understand that it doesn't really matter what your name is your going to be dead soon anyway....Well your probably wondering why I am going to be dead soon or later well the story begins like this. I was just an ordinary university student revising, doing my work all the kinda stuff uni students do that was until that faithful day when I got off at the station, the rain was pouring in the sky like the heavens had burst from the clouds unfortunately having long hair doesn't really help in bad weather so apart from staggering around with wet hair and drenched clothes my spirit was starting to linger and give up.

It was at this point that I noticed something was wrong, maybe it was because there were no people prowling around doing their daily routine of going to their jobs or loved ones, or maybe it was the fact that there was no traffic no speech or footsteps for that matter like the world had died suddenly. I just shook off that notion probably because I was thinking it was early and there was no one up or something on them lines. After staring around not moving a muscle letting the rain hit my person drenching me even more adding more strain on my spirit and ego I decided to enter the shopping centre, I mean after all the damn thing is practically next to the station and any mortal person would run into one in this kind of weather wouldn't they?

I prowled in slowly after hearing the slow hum of the automatic doors open. I entered slowly catching my breath back and dusting the rain particles off my coat. This is when the other point hit me there was no lights on inside yet everything was still locked down yet at this time in the morning the security guards should be starting their shifts I mean shouldn't they? I looked at my watch according to it the time was 8:35 am basically the guards went on duty at 7:00 so where were they?

I slowly stood there for several minutes observing my surroundings the doors had shut behind me without anyone inside or lights on in the centre the whole atmosphere was creepy like out of one of them horror movies the ones that all teenagers get really shit scared of.

I stared around the area for a few minutes and decided to head for the 2nd floor of the centre maybe I will find someone like one of the guards I thought to myself, now when you picture security guards of a shopping centre or mall in America you think old retired people with pensions to boot I was hoping that I would bump into such a person. I slowly looked up the stairwell obviously because of the power not been on the escalators were down typical....

I started ascending the stairs slowly the only thing I could hear was the sound of my own breathing calm for now after a few seconds i was on the 2nd floor looking around, as like downstairs all the shops were locked down and as for the sign of people there was no one about, the place was deserted apart from me shame I didn't have a pin to drop because I'm been serious you would have heard it.

I stood there and looked to the end of the centre to see the exit doors shut, still and motionless the light from outside was illuminating in as it was from the glass windows above my head, on close inspection the rain was still pouring and if one could listen very carefully the rain could be faintly heard. Now I was starting to get a little panicky I was all alone no one apart from me was in this shopping centre and there was no one outside whether they were driving or walking it felt out of place you know that weird feeling we get in our stomachs when we see something out of place? Well that was what my stomach was feeling like now. I slowly started for the exit doors to get out of this place but something caught my eye on the wall as i walked up to them...

Near the guards office on the wall was the usual bulletins you would likely see on a bulletin board, lost property etc but something was smeared on the board which looked like blood... a blood stain that looked like the imprint of a hand.

Looking at this my heart skipped a beat I then started thinking to myself that would explain why there was no security as something bad must have happened and the guards have a suspect in isolation waiting for the cops, but if that was the case then wouldn't the whole centre be shut off from the public? All those thoughts were rushing through my brain and I wanted more than anything to answer the questions I was thinking but after seeing that stain I thought to hell with staying in here I ran out the exit doors back into the street in the pouring rain to the deadly silence, nothing moved nor spoke.

I looked up ahead and saw something that made my heart skip another beat for in front of me was a car crash, a truck and a car must have been one massive collision but what shocked me was that there was no barricades or cops or fire fighters there putting out the fire yes the vehicles were both on fire slightly the rain obviously putting it out but what the hell had happened here? A fire in the middle of the street and no one was around the occupants of the vehicles obviously burned to death and were was the ambulance? It was quiet...too quiet and now I was starting to feel the horror that something bad had happened and there was no way in hell I was gonna get back home alive and if I did then god I would never screw up again.

Chapter 1: The Dead City

I just stood there staring at the carnage for several minutes, the rain still falling down out of the sky in the past minutes of standing there no one passed me...no one. I decided to run back to the station to see if I could find anyone I mean there had to be someone apart from me here, but then again I didn't see any railway staff on the platforms hell I didn't see any other trains for that matter apart from the one I walked off.

I looked down at my watch the time was now 8:45 and there was nothing as far as I could see that was moving apart from the wild fire sparking off the car crash, I walked up the street opposite trying to find anything that could be useful, for some reason most of the buildings I passed were still locked up hell what was more creepy was that some of them had lights still glaring inside yet I could not detect no sign of life whatsoever, then something caught my eye. I looked at one of the newspaper signs you know the ones that newsagents put outside their shops with the latest articles in the news? I looked at the main headline and started reading it: "HOSPITAL CLAIMS DEAD BODIES ARE SUDDENLY DISAPPEARING" was what the headline read, I looked at it for several seconds thinking so hard my brain hurt bodies disappearing Christ what was next the living freaking dead? As soon as I thought of that I stopped thinking and breathing altogether and slowly turned around and looked around. The more and more I thought about it the more I realised that this city had become a dead city there was no one for miles no one at all only me, everything was closed or locked, I suddenly checked my phone the signal was dead, I looked at it puzzled the signal is never dead around here...never just what the frigging hell is going on around here? I started running towards my campus praying that someone was there too tell me what is going on. I ran towards the main roads and saw something that literally scared the hell out of me, cars all parked in a main road you know one of them roads that vehicles use to go onto motorways and what not completely full of cars, but that wasn't the part that shook me hard no it was the amount of blood and decapitated bodies lying around that made my stomach churn violently.

From the look of it there had to be hundreds of dead people, all in different clothing hell there was some cops too, my heart was beating fast now and felt like it was about to implode, I kept thinking to myself why had no one reported this to the army or why had nothing been done as I walked slowly towards a dead police officer, he was lying on his front with loads of blood stains everywhere I decided to do a further investigation of the body. I looked at the wounds, for some strange and unknown reason they appeared to be bite wounds, like human bite wounds.... then it all hit me, the headline I saw on the sign about loads of bodies suddenly going missing but then i straight away shook off that notion. This ain't no frigging zombie movie I said out loud to no one, besides there was no one to hear me nor talk back to me I had to face it I was alone in a dead city with bodies littering the streets, blood everywhere and corpses suddenly disappearing. Another thing then finally hit me if this happened here why the hell was I on the train coming here? Or the other thing that I thought intensely about was why did I wake up on the train I  mean I was supposed to be back home with my family and Kirsty oh god Kirsty, I suddenly thought to myself.

Kirsty is my girlfriend, I met her one night sitting on her own on a park bench her long brown hair attracted me to her for some apparent reason don't ask me why, and her features were beautiful like she was a sculpture created from marble by some famous artist. We got talking and eventually discovered we had a lot in common after seeing her a few times after that we hooked up and have been together for about 6 months now. But god when I look at this the blood, the amount of dead bodies in front of me, I felt like slowly weeping, begging for a miracle to happen and for Kirsty to run up to me now and wrap her arms around me and protect me from all this chaos. But I knew that wasn't going to happen and what made things worse was I had no way of communicating with her. I suddenly started to take deep breaths slowly Just what the hell happened here? I thought to myself as I began walking towards the cop again except....the body had vanished, I quickly blinked my eyes, wait I swear that body was just there a minute ago how the hell did it just vanish?! I quickly looked round for a reasonable answer and found none, until I heard something that made my skin crawl, something I only heard in games and movies and after I heard it I had truthfully thought I had lost it the low moan of a zombie....

I slowly turned round and there looking at me was the officer who was on the floor minutes before dead, he slowly moaned again looking at me with lifeless eyes, his teeth all smeared with blood his clothing completely bloody, I just stood there frozen unable to move I was staring at a frigging zombie looking at me, suddenly it moved slowly shuffling towards me its hands raised ready to bite me. I just looked in horror at this thing moving towards me it couldn't be real no way in hell could it be real, somehow all those times I watched those zombie movies with Kirsty and played those games I suddenly knew how to survive those kind of situations, I quickly darted into action and looked for anything that could be used as a weapon, and found nothing useful, fuck this I thought to myself I know what I'll do, the campus is only more or less up the road and since these things are so slow I can outrun it i thought to myself, so I turned away from the zombie and ran like hell not looking back only hearing the sound of my own breathing, and heart beating and the rain pouring in the sky, I was thinking as I was running not all of this is making sense zombies can't exist its impossible damn impossible, but then how could I explain that cop rising from the dead? So many questions and no time to answer them I had to find a secure place to regain my energy and the university had plenty of places to hide in. I suddenly heard something behind me the moaning but it sounded so close I then saw a reflection in a rear view mirror of a car I ran past that made my body suddenly gain even more adrenalin than usual as the officer I had ran away from was fucking running at the speed of light behind me! How the hell could it do that I had no time to figure it out all I could do was run and I did all the way to the main building that I quickly ran into and dived behind the desk been as quiet as possible. The cop ran inside I could hear his rasping in the back of his throat, I could sense he was looking for me but suddenly retreated a few minutes later back outside.

After a few minutes had passed I slowly breathed in air thinking about how the hell he could run or hell the how could it even frigging exist. After a while I checked my watch it was now 9:20 I slowly poked my head up from behind the desk and saw something I didn't want too see not here... everything was a mess papers scattered here and there, blood stains on the floor strangely no bodies, this meant my hope of finding anyone alive here had died along with my ideas of how the hell I was gonna escape this hell hole with my life, and not only that trying to evade zombies that can run, I then at this point sighed deeply and thought of Kirsty, of how much I missed her and how much I wanted to cuddle up to her now and feel her body against mine, I stood up and walked behind the desk and looked outside I saw several zombies shuffling around outside in the rain looking for fresh meat and here I was all alone trapped here, I had to find  something to keep me alive or find someone anyone, I slowly breathed a massive sigh and said to myself I have entered the world of survival horror good luck...

Chapter 2: The campus from hell: 9:40 main reception

I stared outside thinking how the hell I was even gonna be able to run around this campus for all I know all these stiffs could be shuffling around wanting to take a bite out of my neck. The first thing I had to procure were items to gain energy and anything that could be regarded as a weapon. Now obviously there ain't no gun shops in this area so I'm screwed for firearms.....

I suddenly sneaked from around the desk and entered the first room in the building. As I looked inside I saw several things out of the ordinary, the first main one been a soldier lying there motionless with his guts splattered all over the floor, also there was several bodies on the floor that looked like some of the students....Or maybe they were zombies I dunno, I didn't care all I wanted to do was get out of this hell hole. I slowly walked over too the body of the soldier and started to examine it. I dunno if he or she was a simple army or navy seal hell I didn't care, in one of the pockets on the flak jacket was a diary and several handgun clips I straight away looked for a handgun and what do you know the soldier actually had one I quickly grasped it from the soldiers hand and ejected the clip all 15 bullets remained and looking at it made me realise it was none other than a beretta M92FS, basic handgun to non gun people. I finally had something to protect myself with unfortunately I knew jack about firing a gun, got all the time in the world to learn I thought to myself as I sat on the desk diary in hand.

I slowly started reading the diary:

May 23rd 2008

Roughly several members of our platoon have been cut off from the main extraction point, Out of the main 150 that were sent in only 25 remain alive scattered throughout the city. Basically we thought this was gonna be a simple recon mission hell were we wrong. Me and Scott were taking a basic survey of the main surroundings of the campus when suddenly those fucking mad fuckers ran at Drew and his platoon and wiped them out. Me and Scott stood there guns raised looking at these things tearing away at our comrades, eating their very flesh, stripping it clean from its bones that sight will forever haunt my mind.... Me and Scott ran as fast as we could god could these bastards run, we must have done 4 frigging blocks when we dived into the nearest door.

On entering we discovered we had found what looked like a store room, those things were not at all in here thank god I thought to myself. I sat down and removed my mask catching my breath back, Scott sitting there his eyes full of terror and panic, like he had just seen one of them horror movies.
"Did you just fucking see that?!" he said to me in a freaked out voice.
"Yeah.....Jesus we need to get out of here." I said back to him looking at my watch. We had to be at the main point by 12 it was now 11:45.
"Shit we need to get to the main point now." I said to Scott who was reloading his MP5,
"OK but Jesus how are we gonna fucking outrun these mindless bastards?!" he exclaimed.
"I don't know but we need to move now!!" I said as I ran out the door, Scott running after me through the streets.

We managed to get to the main point but oh god.....The Town centre was a mess... bodies everywhere blood, guts you name it it was all there....as was the remains of the squad who we were supposed too meet up with. Scott just stood there like the world had been finally killed off, he pointed the gun to his head and pulled the trigger a horrendous explosion of bullets filled the air and then a massive thud later as Scott's lifeless corpse hit the floor, there I stood alone.....Or so I thought till I looked around and saw those bastards lurching towards me, Ran in the opposite direction into a block of flats and dived into the first open room and slammed it shut remaining quiet inside.

May 24th 2008

I've been checking the radio all morning nothing.....not a whimper or bang at the other end just static... I've been sat in this room all night listening to all the wailing outside of the living dead all wanting to claim another victim or maybe they were wanting me I dunno and don't fucking frankly care, I'm all alone in this flat. As far as I can see there are no survivors none, those fucking things are everywhere. I decided to do a quick run of the perimeter this morning and saw a sight I never wanted too see.... I saw Scott prowling around his eyes lifeless, his very form different and several of his ribs were poking through his flesh from the massive rips in his chest, I had no choice I walked up to him and quickly snapped his neck it was the least I could do. Time was now 10:20 am and I was still prowling around the campus looking around for survivors, I stumbled upon a room in the main building and investigated to find several students who had also become zombies without hesitation I gunned the bastards down, was doing fine till I felt the sharp pain in my knee I quickly looked down and saw one on the floor sticking a frigging knife into it!!!! I fell over and suddenly felt fresh pain over my body as those fuckers bit into my body, somehow I managed to kill all of them, but unfortunately it's too late for me... I'm probably infected so I finish this hoping that someone will find this diary and find it useful, there should be a chopper squad arriving on the 25th at about 1pm get there and you can escape, just don't let the same fate happen to you as it did to me...

Drake Wallace captain 23 platoon AWS.

So the soldier was called Drake....Jesus what the fuck was happening in this godforsaken place, I stood there for a minute paying my respects to Drake who had given me the vital information and a map, now all I had to do was somehow stay alive until 1. I slowly walked outside the room shutting the door silently behind me suddenly I heard something, a gunshot from the 2nd floor I quickly darted through the door and ran as fast as I could up the stairs, slammed into a door at full pelt and entered another part of the main building...

As like downstairs there was mess everywhere, blood, books everything and a slight smell of gunpowder still lingered in the air....I slowly drew the pistol and edged towards the T-junction in front of me. As I turned the corner I saw the corpse of a security guard looked like he had just been shot....I looked around slowly not saying anything in case those things were in the vicinity looking for a cheap chew toy. I turned around and saw as well as felt what was there for standing there was a girl holding a machine gun like the ones the soldiers were wearing pointing it at me....
"ARE YOU ONE OF THEM!!!!" She snapped at me cocking the machine gun.
"NO I'M NOT ONE OF THEM DON'T SHOOT!!!!!" I quickly exclaimed.
"Wait...." She started to give me a glance over.
"So your not one of them.....thank god." she sighed deeply.
"I take it it was you shooting up here?" I asked her.
"Yeah another one of those bastards to add to my count." she replied back as she sat against the wall the gun she carried now holstered over her back.
"How did you survive?" she asked me looking into my eyes.
"To be honest I don't really know, I got off the train and ran into all this chaos" I said to her.
"A train you said? Shit we have been trying to find a way out of here for 3 days."
"3 days?!" I said.
"Yeah....Anyway the names Chris" She said to me.
"My name's......" I slowly thought to myself I had better not give my real name away, in case I get asked a whole bunch of shit, considering this Chris was wearing the same sort of uniform Drake was wearing, which meant she was military or some sort of military unit.
"The names David" I finally replied keeping my real name intact.
"David huh....so are you a student around here?" She asked me.
"Yeah I ran all the way here trying to find help, obviously I found nothing...." I said.
"Like I said I have been here for 4 days, seeing survivors die hour by hour." she glanced at me.
"4 days....So you and your platoon been here that long?" I asked her.
"Platoon....Hey..how did you know that?" she looked at me suspiciously.
"I found the body of a guy named Drake, and read his diary." I said slowly.
"Drake......." she closed her eyes for a few seconds looking at the floor.
"Yeah.....we are a platoon, we got sent in for no reason that we could think of. We located this campus and set up a small base of operations to try and secure as many civilians as possible."
"What went wrong?" I asked her.
"Well we ain't trained for this kind of situation, zombie outbreaks Jesus its like a typical zombie film, or a bad dream you can't wake up from...." she looked at me. Her accent sounded American but I couldn't be too sure.
"So are you the only person still alive in this building?"
"No there are a few more...I was on my way to find them until i bumped into you." she replied back.
"I see." I slowly stood up.
"Let me guess you ain't ever fired a gun in your life before right?" she said as she stood up also.
"Only in games" I said back.
"I see...well it might not help but when you have to engage those brainless fuckers think of the games." she replied back.
"I have to get you back to the base, its situated on the outskirts of this campus in a police station."
"Ok, that's a lot of ground to cover ain't it?" i asked.
"We gotta get there, so we can resupply ok?"
"Ok....just one question before we go if I may?" I asked her.
"You brits, yeah sure but be quick." she giggled slightly.
"What part of the states you from?"
"California" she replied, "Now can we go?" she asked as she started to walk down the fire exit stairs.
"Yeah i'm following" I said as I followed her to the ground floor.

Thank god I had finally found somebody, unfortunately I didn't trust this girl, don't ask me why, maybe it was the whole military outfit thing I don't know. In a way she reminded me of Kirsty, oh god.....in all of this confusion and mayhem I totally forgot about her. I prayed to god this thing had been contained to here and that she was safe, Kirsty meant the world to me and if something happened to her and she became one of these mindless flesh eating things....I wouldn't know what to do. I followed Chris up the main road in front of the main campus building, on route we encountered some of those zombies prowling around eating flesh, that was until Chris unloaded several rounds of machine gun fire into their skulls causing them to explode in a violent explosion of blood and gore. We eventually reached the town centre.
"Hey wait I remember Drake going on about this..." I said to Chris.
"Drake? Did he write it down of something?" she looked back and asked.
"Yeah I found a diary on his body, he mentioned this whole area had been completely vaporised." I said.
"You still have this diary?" she said.
"Yeah." I said slowly.
"Did he at all mention where he stayed before he came into the campus?" she asked.
"A block of flats, don't say where."
"Hmmm..."
"But he did mention that he had too kill his buddy called Scott because he came back as one of them and found his way close to the flat he was holed up in."
"We need to find that flat" she said suddenly.
"Any reason why?" I asked her.
"He was the squad leader of platoon B so he would have access to the master files that squad leaders are given."
"master files?."
"Information regarding this situation." she said.
"Well all I can say is its one hell of a situation. Like those movies you watch, about society falling after some outbreak of a killer disease that infects the living turning them into mindless zombies."
"Obviously you spent way too much time watching these things"
"Those films taught me one thing.....and that's how to survive, by running stocking up and escaping."
"You do realise we ain't got a chance in hell of escaping don't you? We are contained and there are no back doors."
"How do you know that?" I asked looking suspiciously.
"Because......"
"Are you working with the government or something? Did they send you in to clear this mess up?"
"No, we were sent in for reasons unknown, the government have nothing to do with this."
"Ok...."
"You have to trust me David, When we get too a secure location you can ask as many questions as you want" Chris replied.
"Ok then let's look for this Scott then." I replied as we scuttled around in the pouring rain looking for Drake's flat that might hold a few clues to this outbreak, and other things like....how are we going to escape?

11:45 Block of flats on the east side of the city centre

We both finally discovered Scott's body near the flats that Drake had been holding up in while the dead roamed the place looking for fresh meat, obviously there was blood and body parts everywhere. Chris slowly opened the door and entered the room looking to see if any zombies managed to break in, several seconds later she came back to the open door and signalled me in.

After I entered the room Chris locked the door and placed a chest of drawers in front of it in case something tried to force its way in.
"Don't worry this place is secured, it's just the case of finding anything that can be useful to our escape" Chris said to me as my eyes focused around the room slowly scanning for anything out of the ordinary. Suddenly my eyes gazed on a laptop on a desk maybe a few feet in front of me.
"Well what have we here..." Chris had re holstered her machine gun and was inspecting the laptop
"Typical some semi naked chick as a wallpaper, some men..." she began saying,
"Found anything useful?" I asked her.
"Well I've found about several gigs of porn, photos of family and friends maybe, and hmm now this file looks interesting." Chris clicked a few buttons when suddenly a piece of software started running, it looked like one of them CCTV programs security systems run, like in town centres etc.
"This could prove useful." she said as she started flicking through the cameras systematically, on close inspection some of the cameras were not functioning possibly because of this outbreak. An outbreak oh jesus...sounds like one of them games again, them ones where zombies are created by some virus that suddenly escapes in a lab.....Then it suddenly hit me.....How did Chris know it was an outbreak?
"Chris....you mentioned that this was an outbreak?" I asked her slowly.
"Yeah....it is a outbreak."
"Of what exactly?" I replied.
Chris slowly exhaled a massive sigh "Basically there was some sort of radioactive chemicals been transported through this city, somehow the truck transporting them crashed causing a massive spill of these chemicals, anything it came into contact too basically did nothing on its own its not fast enough, however anything that was dead that somehow inhaled this virus suddenly regenerated and since you watch all these zombie films you should know the rest". She finally paused.
"Ah I see...and you were sent in too help rescue any civilians right?"
"That's right, of the many that we found your the only one still alive. What I can't understand is how you survived and all those others perished."
"Guess I have some immunity to zombies." I chuckled.
"Ha I guess you have" she replied. Chris stared at the laptop again and found something that she was obviously looking for.
"AH HA this is the file I was looking for!" She exclaimed quickly.
"What file?"
"Its the location of the extraction chopper, and funnily enough its only on the top of this roof" Chris produced a walkie talkie from her belt,
"This is Chris, platoon C please respond." She spoke into it.
"This is platoon C, Location over?" a voice responded back.
"At current coordinates 67, 23B over".
"Ok Chris we are on our way did you by any chance locate any survivors?" the voice asked her.
"Yeah I've located a student of the university, we will wait here to you arrive over and out" Chris finished and replaced her radio back on her belt, she then looked at me.
"Since we can relax now, Do you have a significant other in your life David?" Chris asked me.
"Yeah I do....She's from further up the line where i'm from, hope this shit ain't happening there." I said back.
"What's her name?"
"Kirsty" I said to her.
"Kirsty huh, not a bad name" She said back.
"What about you then?" I asked her.
"With all the shit I go through its kinda hard trying to find someone who you can see yourself with in a few years time". She replied back slowly stripping off her flak jacket exposing her army top underneath.
"Guess you have been in the army long huh?" I asked her.
"This is my 3rd year in the battlefield, great huh?"
"Jesus your 3rd year....I don't think I could cope with that kind of shit" I said back.
"Don't blame you really." she answered.
"That dude you were talking to on the radio, is he one of the members of your platoon holding up in the police station?"
"Yeah in the main wing of the building, we had to find the extraction point because firstly some of us want to live and basically if we found any survivors we had to escort them to the chopper also."
"So the point is just on this roof?"
"Yup so we can relax for a while" Chris smiled finally in the few hours I had just started to know her. She looked beautiful with that smile, like one of them film stars you see on the TV, its a shame she was in a hell hole like this.
"You said you walked off a train here didn't you?" Chris asked me staring from the laptop.
"Yeah must have dozed off or something, the train was in the station so I just walked off and headed for the shopping centre right next to it."
"That's weird......" she said.
"How is it weird?" I asked slowly.
"Well i'm looking at the monitors there now...and there's no sign of any trains down there, come and take a look." she said.
I slowly crawled over to her and gazed at the screen, there was several of those things standing there looking for something to snack on, and for some strange reason there was no trains at the station, none at all.
"Wait...this don't make any frigging sense, I woke up and walked off that platform there" I pointed it out to her.
"But there's nothing there to indicate otherwise David." She replied back calmly.
I slowly sighed relaxing slightly "This doesn't make any sense" I said to her.
"Don't worry about it, it could be further down or anything, just try and relax ok?" she reassured me.
"I wish I could get a call into Kirsty" I said to her.
"Here use this then" Chris handed me a satellite phone, it had range, I quickly pressed in Kirsty's number, my heart skipped a beat when the dialling tone began, several seconds later the automated message kicked in. Weird I thought to myself, she never leaves her phone she always picks up....
I tried a few more numbers and to no avail, no one picked up...I started fearing the worst and that this whole incident had become global.
"Anyone picked up?" Chris asked me.
"No one...not a peep, its like their dead or something...." I cut myself off at that point, I couldn't think like that I refused to Kirsty was still alive probably all warm and cosy in her bed wanting me to get in it with her and snuggle up kissing her, our bodies touching showing the full extent of our love for each other. But no, I was here in this hell hole with zombies prowling the streets, the chain of command broken, all outside communication tampered with there was no one out there who knew what was going on here and we had no idea if this outbreak had broken out of its quarantine zone. I looked back at Chris, her gaze meeting mine. We stared at each other for several minutes.
"Sorry." she said blushing at me.
"It's ok don't worry about it" I replied back.
"I just haven't seen a nice looking guy like you in several days, it feels like a dream come true if you get me?" she said.
"I get you." I replied back smiling at her. We both fell silent only hearing the pouring rain outside, nothing more or less, no people running or cars driving past no all this was replaced with the sounds of numerous zombies prowling around wailing in pain at what they had become, wanting to feed on anything living to get rid of the pain anything. This felt so unreal like I was literally in a game the only thing I had to remember was that there was no reset button or cheats for infinite lives, if I died I died, that was it. I couldn't die I had to survive to see Kirsty again, to hold her and tell her she meant the world to me, to be able to get down on one knee and ask for her hand in marriage, this is all I thought about as I heard a massive bang at the door Chris suddenly picking up her machine gun pointing it in the direction of the sound till several voices were heard.
"Chris its Aaron and the squad open up." someone said without hesitation Chris pushed the drawers back and unlocked the door, seconds later several people appeared all decked out in the same military uniform, the door then got locked and secured again, seemed like Platoon C had finally arrived, I looked down at my watch the time was now 12 noon bang on. Only another hour to go I thought to myself, might as well relax a bit.

Chapter 3: The Last Resort

The Platoon had so many different members, who also had so many weapons... You know how people watch some news  bulletin reporting from a war zone? That's exactly what this was like, the only difference been that the enemy were corpses that were already dead great eh? The 12 that had entered all wore the same uniform, had several bandaged areas indicating vicious battles hopefully none had been bitten.
"I take it this is the survivor Chris?" One of the soldiers said as he walked over to me looking at me , he had semi long blonde hair and was wearing a bandanna.
"Yeah his name is David, found him in the campus" Chris replied.
"David huh... Well the names Aaron" He said to me, I just nodded back in confirmation.
"Take it you don't have many communication skills huh?" He said to me, judging by his accent he was of Irish heritage.
"I do...I'm just shook up about this whole situation." I replied back.
"Yeah I don't blame you, we have all been on edge lately" He looked at the others and then back at me.
"Mind if I ask how this whole thing happened?" I asked him.
"Since we have time to kill why not?" he replied back.
"How did this all start?" I asked.

Aaron slowly breathed in sitting down on the floor getting comfortable as if readying himself to tell a war story.
"All we know is there was a transport of a chemical through this city, unfortunately there was some kind of complication during transport and the vehicle transporting it crashed. The chemicals went airborne within minutes. For some reason it didn't affect anything already living, but anything that had died recently or whatever suddenly was revived, and its simple instinct was to hunt for the living, praying on them stealing their humanity. When we first entered this hell-hole we weren't expecting walking corpses or zombies whatever you call them. Almost immediately half of our squad were overpowered and killed, eaten alive by those.....things. The remainder of us stuck together and decided to hold up in the old police station further in the city. And well we ran all the way here to the point." He finished slowly.

"Did the government have anything to do with this?"
"What are you some sort of journalist?" Aaron replied.
"No I'm just curious." I said back.
"Yeah well don't be, thinking like that will get you killed understand?" he shot back at me.
"Ok forget I asked...." I said back.
"Ok now explain to me how the hell you survived?" Aaron asked me.
"Well I woke up on a train at the station, walked off it as usual but something didn't seem right you know, I made my way to the shopping centre and things fell into place that made me realise something was seriously wrong with this city, that's when I discovered the stiffs prowling about I got chased all the way to campus by one of them. For several minutes I took shelter inside the main building did some investigating and found Chris and the rest is more or less self explanatory." I replied back.
"You look a little too old for a uni student, how old are you" he asked me.
"I'm 27" I replied back.
"27 and still at uni, jeeze." Aaron replied back.

Suddenly a massive sound erupted the silent room from outside like an impact on a window, but it sounded huge and heavy like a human banging against the window.... none of this occurred to me as the window exploded and the glass shattered, sending fragments everywhere, nor did any action occur to me as an entity entered the window by jumping through it but my blood ran cold when I realised who it was for standing in front of me was the copper who had chased me to campus, who now looked at me with those lifeless eyes like he had some sort of lynch mission on me or I had some bounty on my head. And nothing in my body moved till it realised there was blood been splashed by the other zombies that had entered who were feasting on some of the team who were stood next to the window, soon as I saw the scared look in their eyes as they saw themselves been bitten in the neck unable to prevent it. I ran after the others who had already smashed the front door and were heading up the stairs, to the top floor. I quickly gave chase too catch up with them hearing the familiar rampaging pace of the zombies, wanting to kill me, to wipe my very existence out, this gave me new adrenalin that got me up to the last floor outside in the pouring rain, as the door was slammed shut and heavily barricaded. Several bumps were heard as those brainless friggers were pounding against it.
"We've lost O'Reilly, Kenneth and Bayman" said one of the soldiers.
"Damn you you frigging mindless bastards!!" Aaron screamed.
The other soldiers stood their in silence, letting the rain hit their bodies.
"We come in to calm down rioting citizens and what do we get...FRIGGING ANNIHILATED!!!!" He said out loud, he looked like his mentality was starting to grow thin, could you blame him his comrades who he probably served with him in war zones had just been eaten by some frigging zombies that could not exist but they do, it was like some sick dream that had some how become a reality. I stared at him for several seconds wanting to say something to him, anything to take the pain away, but nothing came out. I looked at my watch it was now 12:35, not long till the chopper arrives for pick-up, as soon as it did I was going home, to see my family, to sneak into bed and snuggle up with Kirsty and put all this behind me, but then I suddenly thought of something... remember all those games you played where you thought the game was over? You had survived all kinds of hideous freaks and now you were going to escape and rejoin civilisation, when something horribly went totally wrong? I stopped thinking like that, they were games, not a real life situation like this, and that could mean a successful extraction not a typical bad ending where I would have to find another way out of here.

The members of the platoon were mourning the loss of their comrades in their own ways, one of them suddenly walked near the edge of the building looking over the side, everyone including myself looked at him thinking what he was going to do and unfortunately predicting what was gonna happen, the guy just threw himself over the side, obviously with the death of his comrades and surviving this whole incident must have taken his soul over the edge....no pun intended with that remark. There was now 7 of us including me, we sat down keeping our eyes on the stair door in the pouring rain the bashing against the other side had stopped a few minutes ago possibly because those freaks had caused a massive blood bath already. Chris stared at the floor her gun holstered over her shoulder.
"You ok?" I asked her.
"Yeah.....just shook up if you get me?" she replied back.
"Yeah I get you...." I was suddenly cut off by the sound of a rotor blade above in the clouds obviously the extraction chopper coming to pick us up. Few seconds later and the chopper was right above us just hovering not landing, the surviving members were lighting flares and shouting up to them to land but all the chopper did was throw down heavy looking cases and suddenly pulled out leaving us on the rooftop alone again....I guess that worst case scenario happened, I wasn't going to escape this hell-hole, hold Kirsty again see my family......This was just like a survival horror game except this had no typewriters to save at, no stupid vaccine that we could take if we were bitten, there was no reset button and here we were standing looking at our escape leave us alone...

"Why didn't the idiots land?!" Screamed Aaron, he looked really pissed off.
"What are these supposed to frigging be?!" Asked another member of the squad.
Chris opened one of the cases and found a laptop, several backpacks, some supplies and some first aid kits nothing more.
"Wonder why there is one of these in here...." Chris said as she switched on the laptop. Suddenly some sort of transmission occurred and on the screen was a soldier, in some sort of tactical armour who looked like he was ready to address all of us.
"I see we have several survivors" the man started, he looked like he was in his fifties at least, he had the typical moustache that some old skool war veterans grow.
"Its amazing too see people. Anyway your probably asking yourselves what has happened and why the chopper didn't pick you up right? Well you see here is the situation, you have all been selected by the government due to your prowess in the battlefield, and well ladies and gentlemen you are here in United Kombat. Yes this is a game so to speak, the city was deliberately nuked with that virus to cause the rise of the living dead think of it as an additional challenge. Oh and those rucksacks in the cases are your survival packs people. You see the aim of this game is too be the last person standing, hopefully you understood me there if not I will repeat it: THE AIM OF THE GAME IS TO BE THE LAST PERSON STANDING, SO THAT MEANS KILLING EVERYONE YOU SEE, THAT'S RIGHT EVERYONE! And Don't think we won't be watching, funnily enough this is live so I know that there is one civilian there isn't that right Kirk?" As soon as he said that all my energy suddenly drained from my body..somehow this guy knew everything about me.
"Well lets cut too the chase people its simple. There will be other combatants shortly arriving and for the next 3 days yes that's 72 hours you are going to kill each other till only one of you is standing, sound easy for you maggots?" the dude on the monitor paused. The irony had suddenly flushed into my mind, here I was telling myself it was all just a bad nightmare that this situation was not gonna end up like some frigging video game and look what happens....just like that film too god a sick game of death and destruction....what kind of sick bastards were watching this? I suddenly felt anger hit me I wanted to hunt the bastards who had set this whole thing up and kill them, let them get eaten by some zombies and see who was laughing then.
"Ok now the briefing is over, take your ruck sacks and have fun, oh and by the way even though this is called United Kombat there is no teamwork I mean who actually trusts anyone nowadays right? Anyway your time starts now maggots have fun, oh and we will be monitoring your progress so listen out for our frequent broadcasts hehe." the laptop switched off leaving us all dazed and confused. We were all in a city full of zombies cut off from the outside world, there was other people been sent into this place for a game the government wanted to play and now we must kill each other till there is one of us left standing... jesus.

Everyone stared at each other, these people had worked as a unit at one point in time, working together surviving together and now all of that was going to be put to the test, and here I was with a handgun in my hand loaded and there was the soldiers with all kinds of guns who could instantly blow me away. Suddenly Aaron spoke.
"I won't let this bastard force us to kill each other, I'm going to find these survivors and help them, together we can find a way out of here and tell the whole world what the hell is going on."
"I'm with you sir!" said a few of the troops, the others picked up their bags and left the rooftop obviously they wanted to kill everything, Chris was siding with Aaron she then looked at me.
"You with us or against us Kirk?" she asked me.
"......I......" I didn't know what to say.
"Well?" she asked.
"I don't wanna die and I wanna escape and help people...so count me in." I finally said back.
"Ok here's the plan, we look at this equipment we have been given and use it find the point where these people are going to arrive and find a place to hold up."
"What about the army of stiffs?" I asked.
"This is where it gets difficult, we have to contend with the living dead also but I know if we work as a team we can do this." Everyone finally agreed on what we were gonna do, I sat there the rain still hitting my person making my spirit linger, I had to escape to survive and if it meant killing to do that I was for it but I won't kill anyone innocent, the timer was ticking slowly or maybe it was fast and the amount of zombies would soon increase, I slammed a clip into the handgun and said to myself, let them come all of them will fall, just hang in there Kirsty keep the bed warm for me i'm gonna be home soon....