Author's note: Hey guys so here is my updated version of my previous story. I think this ones better than what I did before. I got these first three chapters done and I plan on updating as soon as I can, should be at least a week between chapters if not more. So without further ado I bring you the first chapter "Finding Who Was Lost"
Finding Who Was Lost
Just about ten miles outside of a small town, a man walked along a long deserted stretch of road early in the day. The road was flanked on both sides by a lush forest, and the sounds of wild life hidden by the clusters of trees. The road was littered by empty cars, rotting corpses, and luggage of people who were just trying to survive. A flock of crows flew by as the man continued on to the town, trying to load up on more supplies. Sounds in the nearby shrubbery alerted the man, and he gripped the knife he had sheathed on his chest, he had it that way cause it was similar to a character he saw in a video game.
The man crouched and started heading towards the cluster of bushes to his left and readied his blade for whatever was behind them. As he was a few feet from the bush, a rabbit hopped out from behind them, the man chuckled to himself as he thought "gonna have some rabbit stew tonight". Just then a walker came shambling from behind a tree to the right of the man, he immediately stood up, pushed the walker to the ground and stabbed it in the head. The rabbit took this chance to run off, "goddamn asshole you let my food get away!"
The man went back to the road, seeing a road sign that let him know he was ten miles out from the next town "gettin close". The man pulled out his backpack with the name "Richard" printed on the front; to check the current stock of supplies. Seeing he was still good on food and water, but unfortunately didn't have any meds left. Richard threw the backpack on and then picked up the two weapons he kept over his shoulders.
His main weapon of choice was a M4A1 Carbine, which he found in a place he's been calling home for the last five months. The rifle had a small sight mounted on top and a silencer that Richard found in a camp a couple weeks back. He also carried a simple bolt-action sniper with him, it wasn't anything fancy, just a normal rifle favored by hunters. Other than those two Richard kept a pistol he called his "baby" in a holster on his side. The gun was a 1911 model .45 caliber handgun, something that Richard always liked for a reason he still doesn't know; he just always thought the 1911 models of handguns were cool.
Six months back people would've thought that Richard was some type of crazy guy that was gonna shoot up the place, but not now, now he just looked like a survivor. The outbreak that made the world what it is today started about six months back. Starting overnight, the world was thrown into chaos by the end of the first day, no one knew where the proverbial "patient zero" was but one thing was for sure: no one was prepared. The government set up safe zones at various CDC centers but it didn't take too long for those to fall. By the end of the month society was brought to what it is now, people trying to survive the dead.
Instead of the world being separated by countries, ideals, race, religion, it was simply split into the living and the dead. But some of the living didn't see it that way and fought among each other to get what they wanted. Richard wasn't one of those people, he drifted from place to place, while setting up outposts around his home. As he drifted he helped anyone who needed it and gave a choice to those who wanted to take whatever they wanted, the choice was leave or die. Richard didn't like to kill in cold-blood, he gave these people the choice to walk away and when they didn't what happened next was their doing.
Richard wasn't really anything special. He was 5' 3" and before the apocalypse, wasn't really that fit, he's always had his speed though. He was white and had dark brown hair, and a dark shade of blue eyes. His hair was hidden underneath a black cap, and he wore a black duster with a red button-up shirt, on top of that he had a military vest he found a week ago. Other than that he just had a simple pair of blue jeans and black sneakers, some people would say he looked like a cowboy, thinking of him as the Lone Ranger.
Richard strolled into the town and took a look around at the various buildings that were on each side of the streets and intersections. Most of them were made of bricks, and half of them had the same shade of red paint on them. As Richard walked around the town he began jotting down some places worth looting, or making his last outpost to fill in the circle around his home. He saw a police station that might make a good spot, he noticed a five story hotel off in the distance, about two blocks away and decided that would be his outpost, it had the best view of the surrounding area and he could store so much crap in it. Heading towards the hotel he noticed a local clinic and figured that would be his first stop after clearing out the hotel.
As Richard continued walking the streets he was surprised that he had only encountered a few walkers, usually the towns had a bunch around. Richard shrugged it off though, another walker killed another living person saved. He rounded a building that was to the right of the main road leading towards the hotel but ducked behind the wall when he noticed two guys guarding the front of it. Rich looked around, spotting a nearby three story building that would serve as a good lookout point. When he finally got up there he took out his hunting rifle to scope the building out, trying to see how many people were actually there. Rich was seeing way too many to risk heading in, securing the place would be more trouble than it was worth.
He scanned the last floor, not seeing anyone yet, he was about to put down his rifle and start looting when he saw a boy run out of the room to the glass balcony. The kid stepped on the bar above the glass, ready to jump and Richard's eyes widened, internally screamed not to do it, as the kid was about to step off and plummet to his death he was grabbed by some guy. The man pulled him back over the ledge and that's when Richard noticed the scars over the kid's back, now he was starting to get mad and understand what was going on. He watched as the man started shaking the boy, yelling at him before smacking him down, if there was one thing Richard hated the most, besides spiders, was someone abusing a kid.
Richard watched as the man bent over the boy, his hands around the kids throat as he continued to yell at him, then he did something that Richard knew deep down was gonna happen but didn't want to think about. The man, who Rich had decided to call "Asshole" for now was reaching for the kid's pants, trying to undo them as he held the boy down. Richard wanted nothing more than to shoot this asshole, his rage nearly taking over as he started to squeeze the trigger but then thought as he figured that when he killed him, all the guys in there would be alerted and the kid wouldn't be able to make it out, just like Richard wouldn't get in.
As asshole had succeeded in pulling the kid's pants down and began to undo his own, Richard had to look away, covering his ears as he heard the screams coming from the hotel. Richard got up and pulled out the duffle bag he kept underneath the backpack he carried, sure it was a lot of weight but Richard was used to carrying a lot of weight. He rummaged through it trying to block out the noise coming from the distance, he pulled out his shotgun, putting the hunting rifle in it's place and began pulling out all the excess ammo. He pulled out the bandoleer and began loading it up with shells, his hands shaking as the rage was building inside him. Taking out a couple extra mags for his carbine to put in his vest, he also pulled out a spare mag for his handgun.
Once he felt he had enough he put in his headphones as he blasted his loud rock music to wait for night to take everyone of those bastards out, he hated leaving the kid there another minute but Rich needed to be smart about this, he wouldn't be good to that kid dead. Getting a couple hours sleep Richard looked at his pocket watch and saw that it was almost nine "alright that's enough time, I think it's time to let the demon out, hang on kid I'm coming".
Richard crept up to the side of the hotel finding a door unguarded. "guess these idiots think everyone will walk trough the front". Richard inhaled counting to four and exhaled counting to four, then slowly opened the door. Rich aimed his carbine down the hallway, seeing no one and the place being barely lit excluding a couple fire barrels here and there. Rich started checking all the rooms finding sleeping idiots as he did, "hate to do this while they're asleep but It's gotta be done, can't have anyone coming behind me, sorry." Rich stabbed everyone he came across before doubling back to the front door, Richard shot one in the head and the other a couple times in the chest as he turned around, gathering their weapons, Richard had made a pile in the front to take later.
Rich continued through the floors, only finding a few guys awake, he kept on killing them, everything was going smoothly until, he got to the forth floor. When Rich opened the first door on his right he found four people playing poker, the man at the backside of the table spotted Rich immediately and raised his gun to fire. Richard sprayed his carbine from his hip, hitting everyone at the table, but not before the man at the back got a shot off, grazing Rich in his left arm and alerting everyone else in the building.
He heard the shouting of the men in rooms around him and the sound of footsteps rushing around. "fuckin great, thanks dick." Richard opened the door to his room, only to find a man right in front of him, holding a revolver. Richard punched the man across the face and slammed his arm against the door frame trying to knock the gun out his hand.
The guy dropped the gun but then punched Rich in the face making him stumble back, Rich then drew his .45 and fired three times into the man's chest. He heard more footsteps rushing down the hallway, picking up his carbine, Richard reloaded before forming up on the other side of his doorway, leaning out to the hallway. Rich heard a shot whiz right by his head and pulled back into the room. Getting against the doorframe again, Richard blindly fired his carbine back down the hall, hitting one guy in the arm and killing another, making the rest of the gunmen take cover.
Looking back out, Richard saw the last few guys reloading their weapons and went to fire on them but his gun clicked, meaning he was out. Instead of reloading another mag, Rich pulled his shotgun around and fired down the hallway twice, hitting the three men. Unknown to Richard the door behind him back to the stairwell was opening, as two men came through. One fired at Richard, hitting him in the shoulder of his left arm, making him drop his shotgun. "goddamn it!" Rich drew the pistol from his holster and fired at the two guys who came from behind him. Rich had hit one in the head and the other a few times in the chest.
Retreating back into the first room Rich took the time to reload his Carbine and pistol, smacking his head when he realized he left his shotgun in the hall. "son of a bitch. Why do they keep hitting the same damn arm?!" Rich said to himself as he brought a hand to his shoulder, wincing in pain as he felt his wound.
As the last two men slowly crept up to the room Richard was in, rich took out his pistol, but held the carbine in his other hand, he then formed up behind the door. As the two men entered he kicked the door, bashing one of them against the wall, he smacked the other to the ground with his carbine, he then pushed the first guy up against the wall holding him up with his arm as Rich fired four times into the guys chest with his pistol.
The second guy got back up hitting Richard in his chest before charging Rich back into the hall. As Rich hit the wall he recovered in time to move to the left of the man's fist and he hit the wall instead. Rich then elbowed the man in the face and kneed him in his stomach, before throwing the man to the ground, when the guy started getting back up Rich roundhouse kicked him across the face, knocking him out. "Sorry bout this but I need to make sure you stay down" Rich said as he stabbed the guy in the head. He then went back to everyone else on that floor and did the same thing. Rich picked up his weapons and stumbled up to the last floor.
As Richard slowly opened the door to the last floor he was shot at by someone, "hey asshole just leave, who do you think you are Batman or something?" one of the two men said. "well no, no, not really because one: Batman doesn't kill, two: my name is Richard, and third: I think I'm more like the punisher considering what I just did to your friends back there." Rich replied. "fuck you!" the other man spat back.
"Listen I don't know how many of you are left up there but one way or another I'm saving that kid in there and I'm going to give you the choice of putting your guns down and walking away, otherwise I can't guarantee you'll live" Rich informed them. The two guards just looked at each other "what do you think we are stupid? what assurance do we have that you'll keep your word, you just took out everyone else here."
"Fair point, ah" Rich said as he held a hand up to his shoulder. "Listen I know my word doesn't mean much at this point but I promise if you walk down that other stairwell and away from here I won't come after you." Rich told them. Checking his ammo, Richard noticed he still had one full mag left for his carbine and pistol, granted he did have a lot left for his shotgun, he was still hoping they just left, Richard didn't want to get shot at anymore.
Hearing footsteps rushing towards the door, Richard backed down a few steps as one of the men kicked the door down. Rich immediately blasted him with his shotgun, sending him back before the other guy came in and started shooting at Rich. "Motherfucker!" the guy screamed as he fired at Richard, but Richard just jumped to the right firing his shotgun at the man as he did so, hitting him in the chest. "Man that was fuckin awesome I was like Max Payne or some shit!" Richard said to himself.
Rich was a big nerd, he played a lot of different game series and quoted or acted like some of the characters from them. "Alright I think it's time for the boss, let's hope he's easier then the fourth floor from hell." As Richard walked into the hall of the fifth floor he noticed there were only three doors, one of them said roof access by the side. Rich checked the first door on the right but found it was only a supply closet. "Well then let's see what's behind door number three". Richard formed up on the only door on the left side of the hall. Richard inhaled, counted to four, then exhaled and counted to four, Richard then kicked in the door, ready for this madness to end.
So there's the first chapter, for the most part it follows the same path as before but with some things changed or expanded on here and there. The second and third chapter are the one's where I really change a bunch. I'll be posting those tonight as well, then I'll get to work on the fourth chapter.