"Declare this an emergency,
Come on and spread, a sense of urgency
And pull us through~
And pull us through~
And this is the end,
This is the end, of the world!"

-Apocalypse Please by Muse

....Leon....

DAY ONE


Quiet.

Everything was quiet.

Not a car drove by, not a single bird chirpped happily from within the trees. There were no pedestrians, no beggars, nothing. The world seemed as if it was frozen in time, putting a halt toall movement. It was strange.

Scoping the surrounding area, there was nothing remotely captivating to behold. Life had vanished right before him. He knew there was something alive somewhere, but everything hadbeen forced into a temporary form of hibernation.

Maybe it was the flu that had been going around lately. Everybody seemed to be catching it.

He first noticed when several of his fellow employees had arrived at work, swollen-faced and hacking up a storm with what seemed to be a terrible cough. They disappeared days laterand nobody had seen them since. "Just the darn old flu," everybody had been saying, but he knew it had to be far greater than that.

One day, while returning to his desk to butcher a stack of paperwork, he noticed one of his friends bent over their chair in such a fashion that could not be normal. Upon closer inspection he noticed that Laurie, one of the secretaries, was looking extremely ill. Her long blond hair was plastered to her skull as sweat dripped down her forhead. Her breathing was irregular, almost forced, and her eyes were fixated on the ceiling above as she completely ignored him.

"Are you okay?" He had asked, reaching out to touch Laurie's shoulder.

In a slow, terrifying movement, Laurie's neck snapped back, revealing her swollen glands that pulsated and were yellow in colour. Before he had time to react, Laurie's skull suddenly came flying foward.

"Watch out!" Somebody yelled from behind.

He watched in horror as Laurie, all bent up and sporting an unnatural pale-blue look, rose from her office chair and fell towards him. But it wasn't that she fell by accident, she purposely fell and did so with her jaw wide open, revealing her yellow, decaying teeth.

Quickly moving out of the way, he stumbled back into an office desk and crawled over it backwards, knocking months and months worth of paperwork on to the floor. It didn't matter now, Laurie was ill and obviously completely out of her mind.

"Call an ambulence!"

"Laurie's flipped her lid, stay back!"

"Leon, are you okay?"

"Leon?"

"LEON!"

Snapping back into the reality that now faced him, Leon quickly eyed his surroundings, making sure that nothing had snuck up on him. He was certain that illness had something to do with the sudden disappearance of everybody. Perhaps they were just waiting it out, or perhaps it had managed to take down the entire population in one night....

A sudden disturbance in the bushes near by caught Leon's attention. Slowly, he reached into a black leather bag that he now carried with him everywhere, and withdrew his weapon. Raising it, Leon focused on the foliage and zoomed in, looking for anything suspicious. A furry leg thrust itself outwards and a medium-sized canine burst through the leafy coverage.

Leon steadied his arm, focused once more, and took the shot.

"Gotcha."

The canine stopped and gave Leon a puzzled look as the hitman put his camera back into its bag. After the sudden disappearnce of human kind, several animal species had been running loose. They were the only ones that lived in the city now.

Rushing towards Leon, the canine showed a lopsided smile. It was glad to finally meet a human that was friendly. Leon lowered his hand to greet the furry creature when suddenly it stopped, took a stance of defense, and curled it's lips back. A low growl echoed throughout the park as the canine stared down Leon.

Except that it wasn't Leon the dog was threatened by, it was what stood behind the man that sent the canine into such a fit.

Slowly, listening for any sudden movements, Leon turned around once he figured out that he was not the cause of the dog's misbehaviour. And for the first time that entire day, Leon came face to face with another human being.

A lifeless, rotting human.

The pale body lunged forward but Leon was already on his feet, ready to flee. The creature was slow, but it was deadly and meant business. As it advanced towards Leon, the dog let out a string of sharp barks, trying to warn the walking dead to stay away.

Unfortunately, lifeless things can't take a hint.

With there being no point in sticking around, Leon separated himself from the lifeless creature and the park, frequently checking over his shoulder. He hated the feeling of being followed, it sent shivers down his spine. But for the life of him, he couldn't get rid of that feeling, even when he confirmed that nobody was there every time he glanced backwards.

His flight to get away from the lifeless creature took Leon to a maze of office buildings, local grocery stores, and winding streets that lead to places unknown. He knew this was a dangerous area to tread in, but there was nothing he could do to avoid it. This was the only obstacle between him and escaping the city.

Leon had been avoiding this for quite some time, but there was no other way. He had to get out and to do that he needed to be a man and get over his fears. As he wandered down an empty street, Leon noticed that cars had been abandoned left and right. He contemplated stealing one, but it would be impossible to make his way through the jumble of machinery that was spread out before him. There was also no point in making unnecessary noise, it would only attract unwanted attention.

Leon wasn't sure what it would bring, but he had a feeling that those infected with the strange flu might come around. As he wandered along, the street split up into three different directions. Unsure of which way to take, Leon chose one of the smaller side streets.

The tall, almost eerie cement buildings blocked out most of the sun as Leon walked along. The absolute silence that befell the city was bothering him, as if a great force was at work that would unleash its rath without any notice. Trees that had been planted years ago within the cement sidewalk creaked as a breeze made its way through the mass of buildings.

All of the small noises, the emptiness, and the incredible silence were getting to Leon's head. In a moment of sudden panic, he took off down what he thought was another small street. As he made his way down it, Leon came to realize, much to his horror, that it was a dead end. An old back alley that just had to be a dead end.

Quickly turning around, Leon sprinted back towards the street he had been traveling down earlier, before his fear overtook him. Just as he was about to set foot into a much wider area, a limp body flung itself in Leon's way. Stumbling backwards, Leon avoided an almost fatal accident with his attacker's teeth. A decaying arm swung towards him, hoping to catch its prey, but Leon was gifted with more agility and managed to miss another attack. Pain coursed though his veins, sending such an adrenaline rush throughout his body that Leon dodged the undead attacker and ran as fast as he could out into the open area.

As he tried to remember the way back to the park, Leon began to notice human forms emerging from behind all of the abandoned vehicles. Unable to tell whether they were alive or dead, Leon continued on until he ran directly into something disgustingly soft and limp.

The stench of decay filled his nostrils.

"Get the hell away from me!"

Pushing back, Leon swung around and was faced with what he had been afraid of all along. There had been something following him all along. It wasn't alone, however. There were several of them. Lifeless, disgusting human bodies limped towards him.

Not one, not two, but several hundred.

Alone, stuck in a maze of buildings with nowhere to hide, Leon faced the horde of the undead.

....Claire and Chris....

DAY ONE


The television set had once been filled with cheesey soap operas, infomercials, and "ground-breaking" news. There were always too many channels to count, but they all had one thing in common: they were boring. As each day passed lately, there were less and less channels appearing as different television shows suddenly went off air or were doomed with the word canceled.

The first day they began to disappear was when several people had caught a vicious new breed of the flu, sending them straight to bed rest and were unable to move as the virus spread throughout the body. Several medical experts predicted that it would pass within twenty four hours, but so far nothing had changed.

After a few more days the only channels left were three news stations. One from the city itself, one from overseas, and one from the North. They never mentioned what was going on in the world, whether a new Prime Minister or President was elected, which natural disaster struck where, or how bad the war of whatever was. They talked about the flu.

From her spot on a rather plush couch, Claire flipped through the three remaining channels, hoping that there was a break in the continuous coverage of the flu. She had no luck.

On the station that was broadcasted from her city, Claire noticed immediately that one of the news anchors was sick. His neaty combed hair was glued to his head by sweat, his clothes were stained and sunk to his shriveling skin. A sickly colour tainted his flesh as he tried hard to focus on the telepromter.

"And... and i-i-in the news... t-t-t-today..."

His fellow news anchor took over quickly, nerviously throwing her blond hair over her shoulder.

"There have been more reports of the ill showing animalistic behaviour. Several have attacked their friends, family, and other loved ones. The mayor was unable to issue a statement as he is currently in the hospital, recovering from a bad cold. Get well soon."

Claire watched on as the male news anchor began to shake violently, his limbs flying in the air with unnatural movements. There was a short surprised scream from his fellow employee as he fell off his chair and began to flop around as the flu took over. Somebody from behind the camera urged the female news anchor to continue on and she did so with a look of fear painted on her face.

"This just in..."

A video began to play, showing what it was like from within the main hospital. The camera was shaky, but Claire could still make out what was being shown.

"They're all dead," came a voice, probably from the camera man. "They're all dead!"

The video showed rows of several hospital beds and within each one lay either one of two bodies. They all looked the same: deathly pale skin, yellow blisters, soaked in sweat and obviously accomplanied by an awful stench.

"This... this is just so unbelivable!" The camera man choked as he neared a corpse. Zooming in, he showed just how deteriated the body had become. "The flu has... killed them all..."

The camera shut off and it was immediately set back to the news anchor.

An awkard silence befell the studio and it was several minutes before the terrified woman was able to speak again. Tears were evident in her eyes and she began to figet in her seat.

"G-God help us all..."

Claire sat at the edge of her seat, watching intently as the fallen news anchor began to rise from where he fell. The terrifed woman on the television was oblivious as to what was happening until a pair of overpowering arms fell on to her shoulders. She spun around and was met by a set of disgusting yellow teeth.

There were screams of terror and pain as the ill-stricken man bit violently into his co-anchor's head. Blood began to stain their desk when the camera was shut off and yet another channel went off air for good.

"What the hell is going on?"

Claire rose from her spot on the couch, leaving the television on behind her. The first thing that

ran through her mind was to gather as many weapons and supplies as possible. She was currently employed with the S.W.A.T team that handled any risky situations that arose within the city. Claire had the skills and the knowledge of how to react to certain things, but this was beyond anything that she had been taught.

Another thought crossed her mind: where the hell was Chris? They both worked alongside each other on the team, but he hadn't been around for days. She was hoping that they'd show something about the S.W.A.T team on the news, but there was nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Just as Claire was about to gather any canned goods she had in the kitchen, the phone began to ring.

At least the power hadn't gone out yet.

"Hello?" Claire asked, wondering who it was.

"Claire! Claire, where are you?"

"Chris?"

"Claire! We need your help! Can you make it down to headquarters?"

Claire tried to image what was going on. She had been sent home on a sick leave, just to be careful, but she was fine. Maybe her other team members hadn't caught the flu either.

"Chris, what the hell is going on out there?"

"Sorry," Chris said, his voice rising above loud static in the background. "I can't talk now, you've got to get down here as fast as you can! Hurry!"

"Chris, I.."

The line went dead.

Thinking fast, Claire immediately grabbed her firearm and a bullet proof vest supplied by the company. She had no time to grab anything else. Within five minutes she was out the door of the apartment she shared with Chris.

Upon heading outside, Claire immediately noticed how quiet the streets were. No cars were running, no joggers jogging, nobody walking their dog. Nothing.

Headquarters happened to be only a few blocks away. Picking up a steady pace, Claire made her way there by foot, keeping a close eye on her surroundings just in case anything decided to make a meal of her. There was no place safe now, not even the neighbourhood she had once called home.

The S.W.A.T headquarters was located inside a solid brick building, built a good eighty to ninety years ago. It was deep red in colour with a large set of marble steps leading up to a large bullet proof glass door. There were no evident lights on inside from what Claire could make out, and it appeared to be abandoned.

Making her way up the large stairs, Claire cautiously entered the old building with her firearm drawn. Once she set foot inside, several weapons were aimed at her head.

"Woah, it's okay guys, it's Claire."

The weapons remained drawn. No one was willing to take a chance.

"I'm fine," Claire said, waving her gun in the air. She spotted Chris behind a few of her fellow team members. "Chris, where the hell have you been?"

Chris moved through the mass of weaponry as they were all slowly lowered.

"I've been helping out around headquarters, but no time for chit-chat. We need to head to the south and build a baracade before things get out of hand."

"Why would we build a baracade?" Claire asked.

"Orders from the big cheese. We're to head out immediately, did you bring any protection?"

"I only had time to grab my vest since you scared me half to death."

"I see, well, we should really get going now!"

Everybody essembled at the main entrance, going over their mission. First, they were to build the baracade to prevent anybody from coming into the city or going out. Second, they were to use any amount of force necessary to keep civilians at bay. And third, they were to remain at their posts for a week before a far greater messure would be taken to get rid of the problem.

Claire figured that nobdoy had been watching the television except for her. They clearly weren't aware that the infection was everywhere, not just here in the city.

Once gathered, the team of highly trained officers loaded into a large company vehicle. The machine was made with enforced extra strength metal, bullet proof glass, and a large supply of deadly weapons. There was room for everybody and with little time to prep, they were off to the baracade point.

While traveling down several long and narrow streets, Chris noticed a large crowd gathering in a small closed off area.

"Wait! Stop!"

"What is it Chris?" Claire asked.

"There's something over there!"

The vehicle came to a sudden halt. Each member of the S.W.A.T team watched as a lone man was bombarded by a mass amount of ill-stricken bodies. He seemed to have noticed the large vehicle and immediately began making his way towards it.

"We're got to help him!"

The team unloaded from the vehicle and rushed towards the crowd. Within seconds they were swamped by the undead. Gunfire rang throughout the empty city.

Claire pushed her way through waves of grasping hands and open jaws. On several occasions she had to use her gun to either shoot or to knock the lifeless creatures away. She wasn't too far away from the man in need, but it felt like an eternity to even get half way.

"Help! Help!"

The voice wasn't coming from the man ahead, but from behind.

Claire risked a quick glance backwards just to see her entire team overtaken by the mob of the undead. Fear-stricken, Claire scanned the swarm for her brother, but could not find him anywhere.

"Chris! Chris! Where are you?"

She received no answer. The only noise that filled her ears were the moans from the recently deceased. Spinning around and around, she still saw no sign of her brother. Panic began to take over and the sudden urge to flee was in her grasp, but she couldn't. She was frozen.

Claire watched on, frozen by panic and fear, as the undead advanced.