So uh, while I've been writing stuff for this Half-Life 2/Telltale's Walking Dead crossover fanfic, I might as well write something I've been thinking on for a bit. Been a fan of Dead Rising for a while, since the original one came out in '06. So I thought "Well, why not combine The Last of Us, The Walking Dead, and the Dead Rising series into some sort of amalgamation of a zombie fiction?"
Then this came to mind.
This is obviously gonna be a one-shot series. But! If any of you are interested in seeing something like this expanded upon, please, feel free to say so. Otherwise;
I regret nothing, you silly bastards.
Fortune City. A place where one could win it all one second, then lose all of it the next. Where poor men are made millionaires and millionaires are reduced to nothing. All of this could happen within a single night...well, except for the Zombie Outbreak that ravaged the city as a whole. Barely anyone made it out of the initial onslaught, and those that did make it out would be left inside the various safe houses that dotted the city. Then there were those that weren't so lucky, those who never made it to the safe house before the doors were sealed. Those people usually ended up blocking off some small section of the city, from an abandoned pizza parlor to a kid's toy shop and more. Chuck's job was simple: Find these survivors, bring them back to the safe house, and maybe figure out what the hell happened in the process. Problem is he has to deal with not one, but two infected individuals: Frank West, photojournalist and veteran survivor of the Willamette incident, and Katey Greene, his own daughter. So not only does he have to escort survivors back to the safe house, but he also has to contend with getting two doses of Zombrex back as well; a feat made increasingly difficult with looters running amok, taking what they can (including the expensive drug itself). Chuck growls a bit as he realizes he needed more Zombrex for Katey and Frank, and begins his supply run out towards a nearby pharmacy. Luckily for him, the place wasn't completely ransacked, and there were barely any zombies nearby to cause him any trouble. With that in mind, he checks to see if the doors were locked, which they would be, and so he looks around for something suitable to smash through it.
Eventually, he grabs himself a trash-can heavy enough to shatter the glass on the doors, and he proceeds to throw it with all of his might. Luckily he threw it with enough force that it would break the glass on the door, but the noise that it made would definitely attract trouble. Quickly, Chuck sprints into the pharmacy and makes his way towards the back counter, vaults over it, and quickly crouches down in order to find a key to the storage room. If either by sheer luck or mere coincidence, he would manage to find the key hidden underneath a pile of pain killers, and with an ecstatic grin he quickly unlocks the door leading to the storage room. Inside he would find the usual medication for all sorts of ailments: cough medicine, more pain killers, cold and flu medication...and Zombrex. About five or six boxes, a rare find even by his standards.
"Nice!" He thought to himself, as whoever had the money to stock up this much Zombrex must have been saving it for something. Like a bolt of lighting he zips over towards the stockpile, stuffs as much as he could into his bag and makes off with the surplus of the magic drug, dodging loose stragglers as they shambled on towards the pharmacy.
After Chuck makes sure the coast was clear, he lets out a sigh of relief and feels his bag. A find like this was worth celebrating back at the safehouse, so he made sure to grab a bottle of wine on the way out of the business district. Before he could continue on towards the safe house, someone cocks a rifle behind him and before he could even react, a girl's voice harshly speaks to him.
"Hands in the air, bud. Right now."
"Ah, crap…" Chuck thought to himself, and he slowly raises his hands into the air. Whoever was robbing him would walk forward a bit, perhaps close enough to make a fatal shot if she could.
"Turn around, slowly. Make any sudden movements and I'll blow your goddamn head off." The girl commands. Not wanting to die before he figured out who started this whole thing, he complies to the girl's demands and turns around. To his surprise, this girl would turn out to be much younger than he originally envisioned, noting her height and appearance. Her shirt and pants were well worn, her face slightly dirty here and there with her greasy red hair tied back into a rough ponytail. She also had various markings on her face, most notably a scar on her right eyebrow, but beyond that she looked like an average post-apocalyptic fourteen-year-old training a hunting rifle on him.
"Your stuff. Hand it over." The girl says.
"Look, this is all I have here." Chuck pleaded.
"Does it look like I give a shit?" she responds. "Throw it over here. Now." Reluctantly, Chuck would unstrap the bag from his shoulder and tosses it over to the redhead's feet. Slowly, she crouches down and opens up the bag to see the five boxes of Zombrex, which catches her off-guard.
"Well well...been stockpiling since everything went to shit, huh?" She would say in a mix of sarcasm and mockery. "Well, don't mind if I do."
"Woah, woah, hold on a second. You can take what you want, but you gotta leave me the Zombrex. Please." Chuck says
"And why should I?" She asks.
"Because that's for my daughter. And...a friend." Chuck states.
"Yeah? Well I need this stuff too, so that's too bad for you." The girl spits, and so she quickly zips up the bag and straps it onto her back.
"Wait wait, come on, why don't we just split this? You leave me two boxes, and take the rest for your mom or dad, whoever." The girl hesitates for a moment, almost as if she actually considers this option...but then she just shakes her head and backs away.
"No way. I need this stuff. All of it."
"I've got an infected daughter! You can't ju-" Suddenly, the girl fires a warning shot near Chuck, causing him to quiet down.
"Shut the fuck up man!" The girl yells, obviously agitated. "Say one more word and I will put a bullet in between your eyes, alright!?" Chuck nods silently, in order to prove that he understands. She backs up a bit, keeping the rifle aimed at his head.
"Now...if you follow me, I will kill you, got it? Don't you dare come looking for me." Just like that, she turns around and makes a mad dash towards parts unknown.
"Dammit!" Chuck yells in a frustrated manner. All that work, all that Zombrex, just to be taken away by some kid with a gun. Things would go from bad to worse when he hears his radio going off, and all he would do was groan.
"Great. Just what I need, a lecture." Chuck would grab the radio and flicks it on, responding with "Yeah, what is it Stacy?"
"Hey, it's Frank man!" A male voice responds through the radio. "Did you get the stuff? Any Zombrex?"
"Yeah, Frank, about that…" Chuck just hesitates, before he lets out another sigh, thinking to himself 'This is gonna bite.' He then says "...I was mugged, alright? Some kid had a gun on me an-"
"You got robbed?!" Frank would yell through the microphone, causing Chuck to recoil from the noise. Before he could even answer Frank's question, he would be interrupted by more yelling.
"We only have five more hours until we need our next dose, Chuck! What were you thinking?!"
"Yeah, well making me deaf in one ear isn't gonna help us either, Frank." Chuck groans. "Can you check the security cameras? She just ran off not too long ago, we could catch where she's hiding out."
"...Alright...well, what does she look like? Hair color, eye color, face, anything?"
"Red hair tied in a ponytail, blue eyes, clothes that look like she came from an actual apocalypse, and she's holding a bag full of Zombrex."
"Well if that's the case, let me see here." Frank responds. After a few minutes of silence followed by Chuck finding a more secure position, Frank would get back onto the radio.
"Yeah, I saw her. She ran out towards Uranus Zone...looks like she's hiding out in the...uh...theatre?"
"The Theatre? You sure there's a theatre in the park?" Chuck asks, a mixture of doubt and suspicion seeped in his tone.
"Whatever it is, it looks like a Theatre. Look, I'll go out and meet you there, alright? Seeing as how you can't handle disarming a kid."
"Hey, she had me at a distance, how the hell would I disarm her from ten feet away?"
"You could have used that imagination of yours." Frank replies, and ends the transmission on that.
"What an ass." Chuck would say aloud, stuffing the radio into his pocket. He then grabs what he could - that being a baseball bat, a metal pipe and a bag of chips for safekeeping - and makes his way over towards the famous space-themed park.
It took nearly an hour and a half to get to the theatre thanks to the amount of zombies that crowded around the entrance and the park itself, but once Chuck got through the crowd he would find Frank waiting for him, surrounded in zombie corpses.
"Well it's about time, Chuck!"
"Chill out, Frank." Chuck says, holding his bloodied baseball bat in hand. "You sure this girl's in here?"
"Yeah, saw her run in by herself, before all these zombies came in and blocked off the door. You ready for this?"
"As ready as I'll ever be." Chuck mutters, and the two bust through the doors. Inside the theatre was completely empty save for the few dead zombies that dotted the aisles. Frank would quickly sprint down the right aisle, looking for a door or something where this young mugger would be hiding.
"Hey! Keep it down!" Chuck 'quietly' yells to Frank. "She doesn't know we're here yet!"
"Okay, alright!" Frank 'quietly' yells back, and the two would begin to scour the theatre for any evidence of life. Eventually, Chuck would find a door leading to the upstairs area and carefully opens it. To his surprise, he hears the mugger softly talking to someone, though she would be too far away to hear anything of note. With that in mind, Chuck would slowly and quietly walk up the stairs, careful to not make a sound until he reaches the staff room. There, he would be able to hear the girl more clearly than when he was downstairs.
"Alright, hold still...it'll sting a bit, but it's for your own good…" she says softly, and the only response Chuck would hear was a small groan of pain. Soon enough he quietly opens the door to see the red-head applying some Zombrex to another, smaller girl wearing a red sweatshirt and a ballcap, the ballcap having a large pronounced 'D' in the center. She would also be covered in bandages, especially around her arms. She applies the needle to the neck of the smaller girl, who responds with a pained yelp.
"Hey, hey! It's alright! Okay this stuff is good for ya, Clem, don't struggle alright? Please…" As she attempted to calm this girl down, Chuck would slowly make his way towards the two, making note of the bag of supplies that sat at her right, while her rifle was sitting to her left. Before he was even inches away from grabbing the rifle, Frank bursts right on in and yells "There you are!" This catches her by surprise, and Chuck dives for the rifle. Soon enough the two of them would struggle briefly before Frank moves in to help. He quickly grabs the red-head by the arms and pulls her away from Chuck, struggling to keep her in his grasp.
"Let go of me, you fucker!" She yells, kicking and screaming in the process.
"Not until you calm your ass down, missy!" Frank yells back, still struggling to keep her in his grip. "Chuck! Are you gonna do something here or am I gonna have to hold onto her all by myself!" Groaning, Chuck takes a hold of the rifle and aims at the girl, saying "Calm down, right now! You've lost, alright?!" Seeing the fact that Chuck had a gun aimed at her, she slowly stops struggling, which causes Frank to let go of her. With her hands raised, she slowly moves over towards the wounded child and says "...Well...now what are you gonna do? Kill me and her?"
"What? No!" Chuck shouts. "What, you think we're as bad as those psychos out there?"
"Well, she did mug us of our Zombrex." Frank mutters.
"Hey asshole, we all need this stuff lately!" The red-head yells, making it obvious that the wounded girl next to her was infected. Chuck just sighs and lowers his rifle.
"Look, we're not gonna kill ya, but why the hell are you going off mugging people here? If you'd just said 'Hey, buddy! My friend's been bitten, can you please help?' I would have brought you two back to the safe house."
"Yeah, sure, trust some random guy who robs a pharmacy on the first day, that's smart." She says sarcastically. "Look, you wanna know why I mugged you? Fine, simple answer: She just got attacked by those things down there, when we got seperated from...well...from our guardians. I'm sure as hell not gonna let someone turn into those freaks, especially after all the shit we've been through, alright?"
"...Admirable for a kid your age." says Frank. "Look, sorry for the whole 'keep you at gunpoint' deal alright, but we need that Zombrex. I need it, and Chuck's kid needs it as well. How much did you use?"
"Only a single dose." the girl says. "And it's Ellie, alright? Not 'kid'."
"Alright. Ellie. I'm Frank, and this here is Chuck." Frank states casually. "Whose, uh, the infected one?"
"Clementine." Ellie states. Before she could continue Chuck sets the rifle on the ground, making sure the safety was left on as he did so.
"Look, we can take you two to the safe house. We got plenty of food, water, and even some Zombrex on the side. What do ya say?" Ellie seems to hesitate for a moment, considering her options.
"...This safe house...is it secure? No one's looking to rob the place in our sleep."
"It's locked by a blast door, and the only way to get in is a ventilation shaft that only me and Frank know about."
"...One last thing...is...is there either a 'Joel' or a 'Lee' in there? Both are southern, one's from Texas, the other's from Georgia."
"Don't think we have, kid, but we'll be sure to keep an eye out." Frank states again.
"It's Ellie, old-ass." Ellie retorts, causing Chuck to suppress a laugh. Soon enough she grabs her rifle, straps it onto her back and says "Alright...well...I guess we have a deal then."
"Right. Well...who's the one that will carry her?" Frank motions to Clementine, who would still be lying on a bloodied sleeping bag. Ellie would quickly chime in, before anyone else could make a decision.
"I will. Made sure she made it outta that initial shit storm, might as well make sure she gets out of it again."
"...Suit yourself then." Says Frank, who then turns to Chuck. "Alright Chuck, grab what you can and let's get back."
"Sure thing, Mister Frank." Chuck says in a sarcastic tone. With that in mind, he goes over to retrieve his stolen bag of supplies while Ellie kneels down next to the wounded Clementine.
"Alright, Clem, I know this will suck, but I need you to get up for me alright?" All she would get as a response was another groan. Sighing, Ellie wraps Clementine's arm around her neck, and gently stands her up. She then looks over to the two adults, who've re-armed themselves with an assortment of weaponry, and she nods.
"Alright. Let's get the hell outta here."