Chapter One: Departure

Thomas Rogan's POV

I hung up the phone silently. I knew what the call was about, even though my caller only asked, "Are you ready for this?" I knew it was time for G and me to leave and start what the AMS hoped was the end of these slimeballs.

I turned to my wife, Sophie, who had a basic idea of what was going on. It was just a year ago that I went into the DBR Facility and was missing for those two weeks. According to my daughter, Lisa, Sophie had never been so worried in her life: even more than when she was trapped in Curien Manor about 22 years ago. Luckily, thanks to G, Lisa, and the help of a boy named Daniel Curien, I managed to get out of there alive.

"Thomas… don't tell me you're going to leave again," Sophie almost whimpered. I gently hugged her and only replied,

"I'll be okay, Sophie, I promise."

"That's exactly what you said last year," Sophie retorted.

"That was last year. This is now, honey." I pulled myself out of the hug only to see Sophie's eyes were welling up with tears. Smiling, I wiped the tears from her eyes and kissed her gently. I will give everything to protect you, but I'm not too okay with the fact that if I die, you'll be in tears for all eternity. I knew she couldn't read my mind, but I deduced that she had a general idea of what I was thinking.

I finally let go of my wife so I could head out the door. In the path between me and the door stood my daughter, Lisa; I could tell she heard what was going on and was upset about it.

"You're just trying to get eaten by zombies, aren't you?" I figured she never appreciated my career path, even though she had to run through that place in my shoes to get me out last year.

"Maybe," I joked, hoping I could cheer her up. Instead, she snorted in frustration and walked away. Just you wait, Lisa. You can't be mad at me forever. You've got to worry about me sometime soon. With my path cleared, I picked up my rifle, which sat next to the door, which I opened, and headed out for what might be the last time. Of course, I thought that every time I had to go to work.

After a good half hour of walking, I found my old coworker, G. His black hair was now silver with age, and his "black leather agent" look was replaced with a "modest businessman" look. Except "modest business" for us is shooting zombies' heads off.

"It's been a year, hasn't it," G smirked as he greeted me. "How's Lisa?"

"Mad at me as usual," I smiled back as I shook hands with my friend.

"I keep telling you, Thomas. She may look like her mother, but she acts just like you."

"She would not like to hear that from you, G." The two of us laughed at this as a woman with medium-length black hair wearing a red dress walked up to us.

"Excuse me, but now isn't the time to be laughing," she scolded. I had heard about her. Her name was Amy. Apparently, just two years after the Curien Manor incident, an outbreak of zombies nearly destroyed Italy. In the process, Amy lost her partner, Harry to a zombie with a chainsaw. Or was it Gary? No, wait. Gary was James' partner, until he got Kate. I keep mixing the two up. "Now that we're all here," she continued, "It's time to start Operation: Revival!"

We were in an old military base, and every AMS agent in the country was in it, ready to charge out of it in an all-out war against zombies. Every AMS agent that died by zombies before now were in their graves, wishing that they had made it to this point. It was a common belief among all of us.

Amy stood up behind a podium that was elevated above everyone else as she simply said, "It's time." Every AMS agent cheered, including me and G, and charged out of the base. We split up into formations just as the military once did.

This operation was taking place in every country around the world, and hopefully, the world would be free of this nightmare. I stopped thinking about "Revival" for only one moment, and thought of my motive.

I pictured my wife Sophie, with her shining blue eyes and long, blonde hair, wearing the scarf that she hasn't taken off since our engagement party to match her scarlet dress and heels, reclining in a meadow with Lisa, with the same blue eyes and shorter, dirty blonde hair to match her orange top and black jeans, teasing her mother about wearing a scarf in the summertime. I sighed with a smile on my face with the feeling that the two of them could do it one day without having to worry about zombies eating them. But I also had the feeling that I wouldn't live to see it happen.

Either way, there was no turning back now. The fate of the world rested on all of our shoulders. It was do or die.