I wake up to the pounding of fists on my door. Nira shifts beside me, still sleeping. I groan irritatedly and get up to go yell at whoever's bothering us. Just in case it's someone with a grudge from my Freelancer days, I grab one of my custom M1911-A16's. I open the door and am immediately grabbed by the person outside.
"The hell, dude?!" I yell, before noticing that the person grabbing me appears extremely decayed, and acting animalistic.
"The fuck? A zombie?" I ask, and I shove the person away and pull my pistol.
"Listen, jackass," I say, "If this is some kind of prank, you have three seconds to leave. If not, you get a bullet in the head. Your choice."
The man moans and staggers towards me.
"Three... two... one... I warned you," I say, and I pull the trigger. The round tears through the decayed skull, detonating it and sending blood and brains everywhere.
I step forward, and for the first time, I get a good view of the world outside. The nearby city is on fire, and I hear scattered gunshots and explosions. Moans and screams fill the air, and the stench of blood and decaying flesh is overpowering.
I slam the door shut and run to my room to find Nira already awake.
"What's happening?" she asks, "Why did you fire shots?"
"Nira," I say, "I know I sound crazy or stupid when I say this, but the zombie apocalypse is here. Just look out the window."
She does so and sees the chaos. "Oh my god," she says.
"We need to get dressed," I say, "Keep it tactical. Nothing baggy or easy to grab. I'll get our guns."
When we left the military, the Freelancers and Spartans were allowed to keep their AIs and customized weaponry. I rush downstairs, grab the massive box of weapons, and carry it up the stairs. I grab my battle rifle and my other pistol, and I slam magazines in and chamber rounds. Nira pulls out her custom revolvers and assault rifle and checks them, then she too loads them. As we put silencers on our weapons, I rush over to the dresser and grab combat boots, black cargo pants, and a green and yellow t-shirt. I finish dressing and put on my watch and earpiece and call up Leonidas.
"Leo," I say, "Call all the other watches I gave out. That means Freelancers and sim troopers."
Moments later, a display comes up with all of the faces of my fellow Freelancers and the Blood Gulch simulation troopers, in varying states of alertness.
"Guys," I say, "Get up now. The zombie apocalypse is here. This is not a joke, the goddamn zombie apocalypse is here."
Everyone else is instantly awake. They all yell in shock, and I see some move to nearby windows and gasp.
"Listen, people," I say, "Get dressed in clothes that aren't easy to grab, and get any weapons you can. Put silencers on your guns, these things seem to be attracted to noise. I'm establishing a group of rendezvous points based on where we all live. Go there, and once you're all accounted for, head to North and South's store. Sarge, that means no killing Grif or leaving him for dead or anything. Church, get Caboose released into your care then head to your RV. Bring bags of ammo, medical supplies, food, water, and spare clothes for weather changes. We also need tools, fuel, and vehicle maintenance supplies. If anybody has a bike, bring it - we'll need a mode of transportation that doesn't make noise. And whatever happens, don't get bitten, and cover up any open cuts you have; contact of bodily fluids leads to infection."
Everyone responds in the affirmative and logs off, and I check the extending knife in my watch, grinning as it shoots out. Nira puts on her custom pistol holster and tosses me mine, and I quickly put it on. I holster my pistols and pick up my battle rifle, then head downstairs. We pack all of the equipment we need, then Nira reaches into a display case and pulls out her most prized weapon: an energy sword in the shape of a katana, crafted by an Elite who defected to our side during the war. I grab and put on my custom-fit, reinforced fingerless leather gloves, and toss Nira hers. We check the windows to make sure no zombies are nearby, and our yard is luckily clear. Nira heads out to start our car and load our bikes in, and I head out on to the doorstep to clear us a path. As I do so, I decide to try and find out what the government is doing about the situation.
"Leo," I whisper, "I need you and Maya to get access to the government networks, figure out what they're doing, and what the military policy towards civvies is."
"Okay," Leonidas says into my earpiece, "Working on it."
I see a small group of zombies just down the road, and I silently and efficiently take them out, my silenced battle rifle barely making any sound. Nira pulls out of the garage, and I leap into the seat beside her, slamming the door shut. I pull up a map on my watch and within seconds we're on our way to our rendezvous.
"Alright," I say, "When we get there, we're going to be meeting with Maine, Megan, Wash, and Colorado. I hope Maine brought his brute shot, we may need it if we run into hostile survivors."
"Oh, dear," Leonidas says, "It seems the military is taking the 'shoot on sight' approach, and the government's already collapsed."
"Damn it," I say, "Whenever a zombie apocalypse happens, the military just runs around like a headless chicken and starts killing everyone. Find whoever's in charge of the military remnant and try to convince them to rescind the shoot-on-sight order on civvies. Until you do that, tell the others to avoid the military at all costs. And do me a favor, locate the base where all our armor is stored, we're probably going to need it."
"Alright," Leonidas says, "The base is marked on the map, and I'm gaining access to the military network now."
"Good. Pay attention to their comm channels, I want to know if they're nearby."
"Got it."
"So what are we going to do?" Nira asks as she weaves between cars and piles of debris.
"Well," I say, "Our first goal is to get our armor, and a good supply of food, weapons, and ammo. Then we should find a place to bunker down and start clearing the city bit by bit. Our base should be somewhere we can easily defend from both zombies and other survivors, even the military if necessary."
"The military?" she says, "Our duty is to the military."
"Our duty is to humanity," I say, "If that means surviving on our own, then so be it."
"You're right," she says, then stops the car, "We're here."
I check the area, then step out of the car, weapon at the ready. I hear a noise behind me, and I turn to see Megan pulling up in a civilian warthog, with Maine in shotgun with his brute shot. I walk over to them and lean on the hood.
"Hey, Maine," I say.
"Hey," he says. After we thawed Maine out of the ice, one of the first things we had done was fix his larynx. After several surgeries and a few months in a hospital, he could finally talk again.
"Did you get the info from Leo?"
"Yeah. Military's gonna make it hard for us."
"Yeah, but we're Freelancers. We can take them."
"True."
"Hey," I say as I hear a vehicle approaching, "Someone's coming. Get ready in case it isn't one of ours." Wash then pulls up in his car, and waves at us. A few minutes later, Colorado shows up in his sports car.
I wave to the others to follow and I get back in the car with Nira. "Let's go," I say, and Nira starts driving.
Half an hour later, we reach North and South's gun store. Most of the others are already there - Tucker, Sister, Junior, and Alabama have yet to arrive. Doc is in a military ambulance crammed full of supplies, and most of the others are in cars or pickup trucks. Tex has a motorcycle, and a rocket launcher strapped to her back. Grif apparently highjacked an 18-wheeler, and the others are busy loading it with supplies.
We pull up and get out, and the others seem glad to see us.
"Hey, guys," I say, "So, as soon as North and his group get here, we're going to head to the military base where they stored our armor."
At this the group cheers, eager to have something other than flesh between them and the zombies.
"Leonidas has it marked on our maps," I continue, "But for now, we need to scavenge everything we can from these buildings. I want groups of no less than five, and absolutely no one alone. Clear?"
Everyone says they understand, and we all split up. The Reds head for a nearby grocery store, the Blues enter a nearby hospital, and several groups of Freelancers enter nearby buildings. Nira and I head into a nearby apartment building, methodically clearing each room. We run into zombies once or twice, but they aren't much of a problem. We easily dispatch the zombies and grab anything useful, stuffing things into backpacks we found in a closet. At one point, a zombie gets Nira pinned against a wall and is about to bite her, but a running punch from me sends the creature flying, half of its skull missing.
We return outside to find that the last of the group had arrived while we were searching, and I quickly outline the plan for the group: "Okay, so once we get our armor, we're going to have to find somewhere to dig in. We aren't going to be staying in the city, there's just too damn many zombies. We'll be heading to the rural areas outside the city, and hopefully there will be a farm or something where we can grow our own food once our supplies run out. Everyone understand?"
Everyone understands except, obviously, for Caboose. We get back into our vehicles, and we drive off towards the military base where Leonidas found our armor. Every now and then, we have to run over some zombies or stop to clear a barricade, but nothing too serious comes up.
Yet.