"Plain text" Speech

"Italic text" thoughts

"Bold text" Texts and writing

"Underlined text" infected speech

The streets were empty. Rubbish blew around freely in the breeze. The building and the roads displayed years of neglect and battle damage. The air was filled with the sounds of creaking metal and the growls of various creatures hiding in the shadows. A lone figure slowly stumbled out of a house, walking across the splinters that once were a door and straying into the middle of the street. The humanoid slowly stopped and looked around, uncaring about the bloody, soiled, and torn clothes the hung loosely from its bony frame or the several headless decaying bodies that laid in the road. As the figure carelessly looked around, a small red dot slowly made it way up its body before stopping on one of its temples. A loud bang echoed throughout the town, covering up the sounds of growls and the sound of another headless zombie corpse collapsing onto the large pile of bodies.

The lone survivor pulled away from the snipper scope with a small smirk as he lowered the laser-guided sniper rifle, before picking up a piece of chalk and adding another mark to a large tally. "I can't believe that was my 3,000th zombie kill. There can't be that many more in the area, can there?" He thought as he looked at the tally in thought, reflecting on his current situation. "This wasn't a big town to begin with, and most people in it fled to the countryside or to those CEDA evacuation points to get away from crowded areas. Then again most people likely weren't able to get far before succumbing to the Green Virus, so they may just be slowly walking back here constantly. I hope none of those… 'Special' zombies turn up."

He paled at the thought of facing another of those again as he looked at the other tallies on the wall, which had much fewer markings on them. Each one had a small stick figure of each of the different variants he had encountered of the year he had been surviving in the town. There were 47 marks in the Boomer tally, since they were often to see from his vantage point and burst from a single shot; 19 marks in the Smoker tally, who were just as easy to kill but were much better from hiding from his scope. The Hunter tally had 29 marks in it, as they tended to prowl around the area in search for prey and were unaware of his presence; there were also 11 marks in the Jockey tally as they were easy to spot, but their jittery nature made them difficult targets to hit. The Charger tally had 16 marks in it as they were slightly harder to kill unless you got a clean headshot; while the Spitter tally had 34 marks in it as they were easy to kill, but there had been a number of times where he had to evade their acidic spit.

Then there were the dreaded pair; the Tank and the Witch. The two Special infected that every survivor and infected fears, for good reason. The survivor had spotted 9 tanks wandering though the town and had just managed to kill 2, one with 12 headshots and the other by shooting it in the legs and throwing a Molotov cocktail at it. The survivor had spotted 6 Witches in the town, but he made sure to avoid them at all costs after the first one he killed managed to tear through a horde without issue and endured 27 shots before dying. The survivor sighed as he closed the grated window and metal-reinforced shutters and walked deeper into his shelter. "One day I'll be able to call this place home again, but not today. Not until I've make this area safe."

The room was a series of small apartments that had been knocked through to create a large area with various tools, weapons, and maps on various work stations, and several doors that led to various room such as the food storage, the bathroom, the generator room, the kitchen, and the bedrooms. He paused at the thought of other the others that use to live with him. There were originally 8 of them, but as time when on each of them disappeared until it was just him. One of them, an elderly mechanic, had died of an illness due to the fact that they couldn't get access to his medication, another, a middle aged chemical engineer, died of blood loss after her arm was ripped off by a Jockey, a youthful nurse committed suicide by luring a mass of zombies to her and detonating several pipe bombs at once, and everyone was killed off by the zombies that roamed the streets.

He shook the memories of his fallen friend as he walked into the food storage and looked over the stockpile they had gathered. There was a small stockpile of tins piled up on a shelf, a large collection of bottles of alcohol, carbonated drinks, and water on a table, shelfs with various pastas, filled jars, and sweets, and a large pile of rubbish that was shoved into the corner of the room. The survivor walked around the room and picked up a tin of meat, an open jar of sauce, a bottle of water, and a nearly empty bag of pasta, before walking out of the room with his meal. He purposely ignored the doors to the bedrooms as he stepped into the cooking area and grabbed two small pot, putting them onto separate ring of the electric camping stove and setting the meat to cook while the pasta boiled in water. Soon after the food was prepared he placed it onto a plate and walked to a small table and chair he had placed by a window overlooking the park, which was lit by the light of the sunset seeping through the grating attached to the window.

As he ate his meat and pasta he looked over the empty park, as the view was quite beautiful in the light of the setting sun like it was a painting made by a skilled artist. The brown autumn leaves blended with the fading red sunlight, and several animals walked through it without fear as there were no human activity to scare them off. He watched as a Hunter prowled around the park looking for food, and it paused as it spotted a badger drinking from a pond. It dropped itself to the floor and went dead silent as it glared at its prey, before slowly crawling forward when it saw the badger hadn't reacted to it. When the Hunter was approximately 20 foot away from the badger, it tucked its legs under its lower torso and patiently watched its prey while lightly growling, causing the badger to break away from its drink and look around to try and find the source of the noise. After a few moments the badger settled down and went back to drinking from the pond, and the Hunter wiggled in preparation before leaping at the prey with a bloodcurdling screech. The badger looked at the giant predator in fear before trying to scamper away from the screeching foe rocketing towards it, but by that time it was too late to flee as the Hunter slammed down on the badger with its claws.

The survivor watched as the Hunter played around with the dead badger for a few moments, before picking it up by the scruff of its neck with its teeth and carrying it away as if it were a cat. "At least the badger had a quick death, not like the rest of us." He thought has he picked up his empty plate and fork and taking it back to the cooking area, cleaning off the subdue sauce off them with a paper towel before putting them both back in their respected cupboard. After that he walked around the perimeter of his base, checking every window door to make sure that they were still in good condition. Each of the windows had several layers of fence wired nailed to the outer wall to make an improvised grate and indoor wooden shutters that were reinforced with a plate of metal, which prevented any of the zombies from breaking through the windows. The door was a solid steel door taken from a safe room that was wrecked by a tank, which led to a set of stairs that were blocked off by piles of furniture and metal fences and an elevator that he used to climb up and down the building to help prevent any zombies from climbing up to him. Satisfied that the area was secure he picked up a bag of empty bottles of water and walked over to a window protected by a solid metal shutters, and he opened it and stepped onto the fire escape.

As the survivor climbed up the roof, he checked up on the defences protecting the fire escape. The fire escape was protected by a number of metal fences that were bolted to the frame of the building, and each fence was interwoven with barbed wire to prevent any creatures from ripping up the fence and climbing inside or climbing up through the lower parts of the fire escape. At the top of the fire escape it opened up to the roof, which was protected by a perimeter of fences that were installed by the building previous owner and had been coated in barbed wire by the survivors when they first arrived. On the roof there were 3 things of interest for the survivor; the solar panels that powered the base, the cloth-covered dumbs that were modified to serve as makeshift water collectors, and the large greenhouse. The survivor walked over to water collectors and started to fill the bottle by using the tap that was welded to the side of them. "I'm glad that John rigged this up" the survivor though bitter sweetly, remembering how John had taught everyone how to use various mechanic tool and how to repair and make basic machines.

The survivor finished filling up the bottles and packed all but one of them into his backpack, before walking into the greenhouse and inspecting the plants. There were potatoes, tomatoes, and cucumbers that were grown by Betty, who was a retired airline host who enjoyed garnering. The survivor' frown deepened as he remembered how kind she was, and how it was a tragedy how a Smoker grabbed her off the fire escape and caused her to fall to her death. He shook his head to remove the memories as he use the water bottle to water them. "It's going to be winter soon, so I'm going to need to rely on my supplies downstairs to cope. I just hope it isn't cold enough to damage anything, or else I'm going to be in trouble trying to repair it." The survivor thought bitterly as he filled up the last bottle, feeling the bitter chill of the cold wind start to nip at him as it blew his hair over his eyes.

He brushed the hair out of his eyes as he carried the water bottles downstairs, shutting the window and the steel shutters after stepping in before dumping the water bottles in the food store room. After that he slowly wandered towards the bedrooms, looking at each of the doors nostalgically as he read each of the names on the doors. "Betty, John, Sarah, Annabelle, Mary, Philip, Tony…"

He paused as he looked at his own door, with a clear label clearly displaying his name like each of the other doors displayed each of the names of the previous occupants. However, it had been six months since he had heard anyone say it. Since months since he heard anyone other than himself speak. Six months of isolation in a dead and dying world. After staring at the name, he spoke out loud for the first time in weeks "Mike."

He stepped into the room and walked towards the ensuite, pulling of his t-shirt and undoing his jeans so that he was just in his boxers as he entered the bathroom. He used the toilet to relieve himself before cleaning his teeth and washing his hands and face, looking in the mirror to make sure that he had gotten the mud off. Empty eyes stared back at him, framed by the black bags around them and the pale, scarred skin that they were sunken in. Sighing, he walked out of the bathroom and fell onto the bed, wrapped himself in his blanket as he slowly sunk into a dreamless sleep.

"Where is it?" The Hunteress grumbled in frustration as she ran through the dark tunnel, the spongy floor dampening the sounds of her footfall as she looked around the stone maze. As she ran she came across several of the dumb humanoids wandering around the area aimlessly, but since they didn't respond to anything other than the loud prey she ignored them. After a while she had grown angry at the area as it kept her from eating, as it had captured her in the tunnels and was actively preventing her from escaping and tracking down some prey to eat. She ran down another hallway looking for an exit, but stopped when she saw that one of the alcoves had a medium sized gap in the wall. Smiling at her lucky break she crouched down facing the hole and prepared to jump out of the hole, before leaping out of her prison.

She hadn't expected the hole to be covered with an invisible force field that would shatter into sharp shards, but she managed to escape from the trap and land on the road with minor cuts and clothing damage. She stood up and yelled in joy at her newfound freedom and looked around her surroundings, but as she looked her initial joy slowly faded away as she came to a realisation. "Where is all of the prey? There used to be loads of them running around with those loud tube devices they use to erase those other prey-killers." She thought as she looked around the empty street, frowning at the fact that she couldn't see or hear any signs of any prey in the area.

Her thoughts were interrupted as she heard the faint sounds of a creature crying. Her frown turned into a look of confusion as she turned towards the direction that the noise was originating from, which was coming from the inside of a nearby large cavern. She got onto all fours and started to crawl towards the source of the noise, supressing her urge to growl in order to prevent her potential prey from being alerted to her presence. As she crawled into the cavern she looked at the location that the noise was coming from, which turned out to be from behind several large wooden cubes in the centre of the cavern. The Hunteress smirked to herself as she crawled towards the noise and crawled on top of the cube, before looking down at her target.

Several feet away from the cube a humanoid creature sat facing away from her with pale skin and white hair, both of which were stained with dirt, mud, dust, and dried blood. It wore two small pieces of faded brown cloth across its chest and crotch and it covered with its face with its claws, which were about 12 inches long, razor sharp, and covered in dried blood. Around it was a mass of bloodstains, bones and the various strange devices that several of the prey used, and she was emitting a constant cry of various high and low tones. "Oh, it's one of those clever prey traps that uses a noise to draw in other prey before killing them to gather the meat and eat later. If I were to approach the prey from behind, then I should be able to kill they prey before it notices me." The Hunteress thought as she nodded in confirm her plan of action, before slowly jumping off of the cube and quietly landed several feet behind her prey.

The Hunteress started to crawl towards the prey but when she entered the circle of dried blood, the prey stopped crying out its tune, causing the Hunteress to pause and watch her prey for any sudden actions. After a few moments of tense waiting the Hunteress decided to slowly start crawling closer to the prey, being careful to not to make any noise that would alert it. When she had gotten half-way across the circle, she stopped when the prey growled out "If you dare come any closer to me, I will rip you to shreds quicker than a Smoker can shoot out their tongue."

The prey turned to face the Hunteress, revealing herself to be a female with red eyes and sharp teeth that marked her as one of the non-prey humanoids that wander around her hunting grounds. "It's rare to come across a non-prey that's smart enough to talk though." The Hunteress thought as she examined the figure sitting in front of her "She looks like she would be a good Hunter, but she's uses prey tactics in order to gather food… Maybe she lost her Hunter cluster and had to use prey tactics in order to gather enough food to survive. I should show her how Hunters should hunt!"

The Hunteress' thoughts were interrupted when the non-prey' stomach started to growl, making it to know to its owner that it was time to go out hunting. Hunteress watched as the non-prey stopped glaring at her in order to clutch her stomach area, causing the Hunteress to notice how thin she was, and that none of the blood in the area was no less than a month fresh. "She's been starving!" The Hunteress thought as she watched as the non-prey straighten up and continued to glare at the Hunter, an obvious display to disguise her weakened state.

"Stay here, I'll be right back." The Hunteress said before turning around and jumping on top of the wooden cube in a single bound, then using the momentum to jump straight out of the cavern and into the open air. She looked around the area in order to identify which area nearby would have the highest chance of having prey, stopping when she spotted the large area of red and brown plants. "Living plants means that there is water nearby, which means that there will be a lot of prey there drinking the water. Don't worry, non-prey, I'm going to be back soon with a feast!" The Hunteress thought as she ran towards it, jumping into one of the trees when she had gotten close enough.

As she crawled through the treetops, she realised that her worn, torn green clothing stood out in the dying leaves and red setting sunlight, but it didn't matter too much as most prey were incredibly unintelligent. She stopped crawling through the treetops and sat still, watching the animals crawl around on the floor. The Hunteress frowned as she looked amongst the creatures in disappointment, noting that most of the creatures were too small to bother hunting as it would be a waste of energy. After a short while the Hunteress spotted a large Badger walk into her line of sight, and she smirked as she watched it walk towards where she was hiding. When the Badger was directly underneath her, the Hunteress jumped straight down onto the prey and snapped its neck upon impact, killing it instantly.

She smirked at another successful hunt as she sat on her heels and lifted up the dead Badger, but her smile faded as she remembered the non-prey she wanted to train to hunt. "This isn't going to be enough for the both of us, and it'll be too much to ask her to hunt in her condition." She thought as she looked around the area, placing the prey in her mouth and carrying it with her teeth as she started to crawl around the area in search of more prey.

After wandering through the park for a few moments the Hunteress caught the scent of another Badger, so she placed the dead badger at the base of an oak tree and started to silently crawl towards the origin of the scent. As she followed the scent, she looked around the area in order to see if she could visually locate the Badger, stopping when she spotted it drinking from a pond nearby. She smirked as she started to slowly crawl towards it until she was within jumping distance when she got into a pouncing position, but as she did she couldn't shake the feeling that she was being watched. She looked around the area and growled in order to see if she could locate where the secret watcher was, but after not being able to spot it after a few moments she decided to ignore it and turn her attention back to the Badger.

The Badger was looking around the area as well but quickly stopped and started to drink again, causing the Hunteress to smirk at how well her hunt was going. She primed herself to jump before jumping at the prey, a joyous screech emerging from her voice as she flew at the prey at the perfect angle to kill it immediately. The Badger finally realised that she was attacking, but it didn't have any time to react as she slammed it in the neck with her palms of her claws and immediately snapped its neck. She poked it a few times to make sure that the Badger was dead before picking it up in her teeth and ran to the other badger, picking it up and holding it in its claws and running towards the cavern that the non-prey was in.

Hunteress reached the cavern just as the sun had disappeared beyond the horizon, meaning that the cavern was nearly pitch black inside, but as a skilled hunter she was able to navigate the cavern with ease. She leaped onto the wooden box and looked down at the dry blood circle, expecting to see the non-prey sat in the centre like she was earlier. However she was nowhere in sight and the Hunteress couldn't hear her cry in the area, so she jumped off of the box and walked into the circle to see if there was any areas that the non-prey could have gone. Looking around the area she realised that it was too dark to see beyond jumping distance, but she could smell the scent of dried blood wafting from a small cave to her left. She ran down the cave as she blindly followed the scent of blood, taking several turns that led her deeper into the cave system before slowing down as she reached a large alcove that contained the source of the smell from within.

Slowly stepping into the room Hunteress spotted non-prey in the centre of the room, wandering around the area with her claws covering her face. When non-prey looked in her direction, she stopped and lowered her claws as she gave Hunteress a look of surprise and said "I didn't expect you to actually return, much less with food."

The Hunteress threw the Badger in her arms at non-prey and spoke, causing the Badger in her mouth to fall onto the floor with a wet thump. "Well I wasn't about to let a friendly non-prey starve to death, especially one with a lot of potential to be a great hunter."

The non-prey instinctively caught the badger, the surprise evident on her face as she gave the Hunteress a strange look before looking down at the badger in her arms. She lifted it to eye level in one claw as she spun it around, glaring at the dead animal with a suspicious look as she examined it. The Hunteress quickly got bored of watching the non-prey' actions, and instead decided to sit on her heels and start feasting on the badger she had dropped. Her claws easily dug into the flesh and broke the fragile bones of the creature, allowing her to shovel the meaty contents of her prey to be easily shovelled into her open maw. All too soon the prey was reduced to a pile of broken bones with patches of flesh and fur attached and a stain around Hunteress' lips and claws, causing her to frown slightly as she rubbed her stomach. "That will stratified the hunger for now, but it won't keep it at bay for long." Hunteress thought as she looked up at the non-prey, who was slowly consuming her own badger. "After non-prey has eaten and rested, I'll teach her how to hunt on her own. Otherwise we won't be able to gather enough food to survive the winter."

The Hunteress instinctively shivered as memories of the last winter resurfaced, of how her Hunter cluster had squandered their food during the summer; of how they had to hunt for the few prey that were still awake during snow storms, and how they had to fight off other non-preys in order to keep their scraps of food. Hunteress frowned slightly as she kept looking down at the remains of the badger. "How many Hunters have I seen die because they were not prepared for the harshness of winter, or the ferocity of the other non-preys?" She thought as she looked up at the non-prey in front of her, who was now holding the dead badger in both claws and was slowly devouring it. "I can't let this one die off like the others…"

"How long has it been since you've last eaten, non-prey?" Hunteress asked, causing the non-prey to look up from her food and give her an annoyed look. It slowly turned into a look of thought as she withdrew from the badger' gaping chest cavity, swallowing a chunk of meat that was still in her mouth before replying. "Let' see… It would have been about… 2 or 3 weeks ago? Yeah, about 16 days ago, when I came across this Deer walking in the road. Also, don't call me non-prey; it's degrading. My name is Olivia."

"Olivia, huh? Nice name for a non-prey, Oli. Mine's Emily, but call me Em." Emily the Hunteress declared, sticking out a clawed hand towards Olivia as a friendly offering. Olivia the Witch looked at the hand for a moment before looking up at the Hunteress in suspicion, but soon sighed as she accepted the offer and shook her hand. "Yeah, I'm just going to call you Emily." Olivia said as she let go, dropping the badger' empty corpse with a hollow, wet thud.

They both looked at each other quietly for a few moments, both of them unsure about what to do next. As the seconds pasted the silence between the two became increasingly awkward, as Emily covered her mouth and yawned as she waited for Olivia to continue. Olivia also yawned as she stretched, before looking at the Hunteress and speaking in a tired voice. "Thanks for bringing me a meal." Olivia gestured towards the Badger as she sat down against the wall. "I'm going to go to sleep now, so feel free to pick a room to sleep in. But I will warn you, if you try to kill me in my sleep, then I will make sure that you die a quick and extremely painful death."

"Well if that is how you would prefer it, then ok. But be sure to be up early in the morning, as I have a lot to teach you." Emily said before leaving the alcove, not noticing the confused look that Olivia was giving her. Emily entered the tunnel and sat down next to the alcove entrance, feeling the fatigue of today' hunting excursions taking hold and slowly causing her to drift off to sleep. As she drifted off, her last thought of the day was "Well, I'm going to need to start with the basics tomorrow, but I'll need to set up several easy hunts to help her out…"