A/N: *Disclaimer* I have no affiliation with the Walking Dead or any of the characters with the show. Just a fan! Also, I just wanted to say that this is new to me, and I would greatly appreciate any reviews, good or bad. If you like the story, follow it. I'm not sure yet where I'm going with this, and any ideas would also be appreciated. I hope you guys like it. We have some old favorite characters, as well as some fresh out of my imagination. Enjoy!
It seemed to take them forever to reach Washington. The group had thinned some, leaving only the nine of them left. Rick, Carl, Michonne, Carol, Daryl, Maggie, Glenn, Abraham and Eugene. The rest had been lost along the way. The journey to Washington was a long one, with a lot of stops and heartache. It had taken a lot out of them. Now they were finally there, and they weren't even sure if it was for any good reason.
"Have to admit, it doesn't look half bad," Michonne commented as they walked down the street. "Most of the buildings have been boarded. There's no cars just littering the streets. No walker bodies laying around."
"What's with the red 15's on everything?," Glenn asked as he squeezed Maggies hand reassuringly.
"I'm sure there's some sort of reason for it," Rick said as he peaked through the windows of the closest store front. He noticed that they were wiped clean. Figured they probably all were.
"Some sorta trackin' system," Daryl commented as he looked inside another.
"If anyone of importance is here, I'd have to guess they'd be holed up at the White house," Abraham guessed. So they continued forward, following the map they had until they had come to what was left of the place. It was roped off, but looked to have been part of an explosion, as half of it was missing completely.
"Someone's taking care of this place," Carol said as they stopped to rest. She leaned against a building. "There's no walkers out here. No mess. I mean, aside from the obvious," She said gesturing back toward the white house. She ran her hand through her hair. At that exact moment, a bee buzzed by Carols head, and landed on her shoulder. Carol was a strong woman, but damned if she didn't hate bees. She jumped and turned, giving her eyes a whole other view of the street behind them. One sign was all it took to put them on the right path. "Guys," she motioned for them to come over. "Abraham! Is this was we're looking for?"
The sign was large, painted to the side of the building. "HOME UNIT 15, THIS WAY. BY ORDER OF THE PRESIDENT." Then in smaller print. "By order of the president of the free world, and of Home Unit 15. If you come upon this sign, you are to report directly to Home Unit 15 to contribute in the rebuilding of America. Unit President: S. Malone."
In another place, this sign would've meant certain death. They had followed the signs to Terminus, and they all knew how well that worked out for them. But isn't this what they came here for? To help in the reconstruction of the lives they used to know? To be helpful? With nothing left to lose, they followed the signs.
"We have a supply retrieval mission in the morning. Please inform all available men and women that we depart at sunrise. General, see if any of your men are willing to accompany. No one has time for babysitting so please make sure all needed information is given before departure," Stephanie Malone said as she rested against her high backed leather chair and threw her hair into a messy pony tail.
The conference room was basic, clean as Stephanie commanded. The world around them might have been in utter chaos, but there was no reason Home Unit 15 should ever be. There were seven troops in the unit, each one designated a specialty that helped Unit 15 run smoothly and more efficiently then most of the other sixty Units in the world. Each troop had a leader, and each unit had a president. Every night the eight of them gathered in this conference room, President Stephanie Malone at its head.
To Stephanie's right sat General Alexander Pierce, head of Troop 1, defense. He was an older man in his sixties, an army general before the world was infected with Ophioyaws, or in more understandable terms, zombies. Next to him was Dr. Manuela Vasquez, head of Troop 2, medicine and recovery. Manuela graduated at the top of her class from Harvard Medical School, seven years before the outbreak. She had received her first grant for Ophioyaws research when the once carefully contained disease began to spread like wildfire. Stephanie felt privileged to have her on her team, especially since she was the one that had discovered a variation of the cure that could potentially put this world back in order.
To Manuela's right sat Private Gordon Levitz, Troop 3 leader, secondary in defense and Unit police. He was young, mid 20's with a strong head on his shoulders. Next was Vincent Furillo, Troop 4. His group ran the retrieval missions and collected supplies that couldn't be provided, for the Unit and all the residents inside. Vincent had an urge for excitement and the ability to think quick in high pressure was younger, around Stephanie's age and had been best friends with her husband, Ian, before he had become infected and disappeared.
Troop 5 leader, mousy Valerie Smith, ran the home division. She took direction of the care of the units children, and well as of preparation of daily meals and the cleanliness of their home. Troop 6 was agriculture, led by cocky, angry and annoying Kevin McAllister. He led the care of the livestock and the produce fields in the 12 ft tall gates behind the sky scrapper they occupied in what was once known as Washington DC.
Finally, troop 7. Led by efficient and genius Tabitha Womack. Troop 7 was one of the most vital troops in the unit, and assured that the unit would have running water and electrical services throughout this apocalyptic type era in time. Where once technology and running water was vast in the world, they had become obsolete due to the fact that there weren't enough people to keep things running. Luckily, a few smart people, like Tabitha Womack, made it once again possible with generators, solar panels and brains.
After the vast spread of Ophioyaws disease, cities ceased to exist. Populations dropped by the thousands in each state daily until whatever uninfected they could find were finally gathered and located in one safe place, known as a Unit. Each place was simply labeled by the state or even in some cases the continent in which it once occupied, and each state allowed one safe Unit. Washington, as it was now simply known, held Unit 15. Stephanie's unit.
Ophioyaws hit the world hard two years before. Only a select few people in cahoots with CDC (center for disease control) knew of its existence until 3 months before the massive outbreak. The disease itself was said to have come from Europe with one person who had contracted Yaws disease. This disease causes painful sores on the contractors face, legs, arms and feet. This same person then contracted a parasitic fungus, a species of Ophiocordyceps. Once this happened, the yaws was no longer treatable and effectively killed the carrier. As soon as the heart stopped pumping blood, the fungus spread rapidly through out the corpse, and settled into its brain, causing the corpse to reanimate and to seek out human flesh. The parasite receives its nourishment from the live blood cells it ingests, keeping the "zombie" moving and eating. This was the quickest way the virus killed.
Sadly, it was also airborne, and once you were around someone who had contracted it, the virus itself burrowed into your brain, waiting for the brain stem to shut down. Once it did, the virus jump starts, and reanimates.
Once you have been bitten, the virus takes anywhere from 30 seconds to 6 hours to kill, consume and revive. It took a year and a half year for Manuela to discover a variation of the cure. OYR (Ophioyaws Revival) not only kills the fungus upon vaccination but also kick starts the heart, which in turn sends blood through to the rest of the brain. In Unit 15 they have captured and immunized over 200 of the infected. Sadly, before the cure was perfected, they killed the majority of them. But the last ten seemed to be a success, and were being carefully monitored by troop 2 in the basement of the complex.
"It's getting late and we have a big day ahead of us, ladies and gents. So let's get started, shall we?," Stephanie said looking from person to person. "General. Please inform us on the status of Troop 1." The troop leaders took turns, specifying what they needed for their different divisions.
"Vincent, is all set for the run tomorrow?"
"I have ten men and women including myself ready to go . Looking forward to being out there in the excitement." Vincent had always been somewhat of a thrill seeker. The essential bad boy, Stephanie hadn't even liked him when he had been best friends with her husband. If anything, Steph was always trying to keep Ian as far away from Vincent as possible, claiming that he was a bad influence. Now, she couldn't even imagine Vincent not being there to have her back. He had become her best friend through the chaos, and she was so grateful for him. It was just a shame that she couldn't tell Ian that he was right about Vince all along.
"Be sure your troops know their orders. I don't want to have to run through it in the morning," she sighed. Vincent swallowed hard, not knowing that
Stephanie herself was planning on coming along.
"I wasn't aware that you were planning on coming with us, President Malone," he said calling her the formal name that he knew she couldn't stand.
"I wasn't aware that I had to inform you on my personal decisions, Vincent." Vince leaned back against the seat and crossed his arms, obviously frustrated. The tension flared between them and the group shared an awkward silence before Stephanie moved on to the next person. Finally, it was Dr. Manuela Vasquez's turn and all eyes found her expectantly.
"Doctor Vasquez. Please inform us on the state of Troop 2." Manuela smiled genuinely at each of her fellow leaders and stood, bowing slightly.
"Well, as you all know, the developed cure for Ophioyaws is currently being tested and is beginning to show signs of success." Everyone around the table claps. "Thanks guys, but as exciting as this is, we are not out of the woods yet. We have tried variations of the cure on over 200 of the infected since Spring. Now Winter is upon us and our success rate is only 1 percent. Granted, it's pretty much taken us this long to find a variation that hasn't immediately killed the carrier."
"You've done amazing things, Manuela. You are the reason our Unit is number one. We're very proud of the progress you've made, not to mention the pride that you have brought to our home Unit," Steph said sincerely as the others nodded in agreement.
"Thank you."
"How many unaffected are currently being treated in hospice and for what ailments?."
"Sixteen. Most are for due to the change in weather and the colds that accompany it. Then there's the few who have never left hospice with incurable mainstream diseases. Nothing has come up that is out of the ordinary."
"And how many do we have in the Oph treatment center?"
"All 40 beds are occupied in recovery except 3. We're pleased to say those 3 beds are empty because 3 people are being held in a special observation chamber, due to the fact that the cure seems to be working."
"What do you mean working? Are these people coherent? Can they communicate?," McCallister asked quickly. Stephanie knew the answers to these questions, but if Kevin hadn't asked, she would have said nothing. Manuela smiled.
"We will be holding a special conference Friday night to tell our people the results, but since I know you are all trustworthy and won't share the news before its time, yes. They are coherent and are communicating with us. This conference isn't just for the people of our Unit, but will be televised throughout the other 59 units and to the Supreme President himself so that we can tell him of our findings and get this variation of the cure worldwide." Another round of applause erupts from the 8 troop leaders and from Stephanie herself.
"What is it that your troop needs to gain from our retrieval mission tomorrow, Doctor?," Stephanie inquired while making notes in her journal.
"Of course we need any medical supplies that you come across. And as you mentioned earlier, we need three more infected brought in for potential treatment. Please remember that the ideal candidate is walking, between the ages of 5 and 50, with no visible head or heart trauma, and recently turned. For a best case scenario, we want to have to fight only the disease itself. Any other affliction will complicate the healing process."
"Noted. Thank you, Manuela. Is there any other business any one would like to discuss, or questions any one has for any other troop leaders?," All hands shot up. "Any questions not regarding the cure, in which we will discuss at length during the conference Friday?," she corrected. The hands went down. "In that case, have a good night everyone. We will reconvene on Wednesday night when we return from our mission. In the interim, please be aware that General Pierce is in charge until my return. Meeting dismissed."
Ricks group stood silently, staring up at the large skyscraper that loomed before them. How they hadn't seen it through everything was beyond them. It was massive, and it had lights on. Electricity. They couldn't even imagine.
Twelve foot walls encircled the perimeter. They could see the guards on top of them, but they didn't notice them yet, too busy joking with each other. Rick stepped forward, calling out.
"Excuse me, gentlemen," he called out. They turned to him, guns raised. Rick held up his hands. "We're here to help." They lowered their guns and pushed pulled a lever, opening the gates.
"That's all we needed to hear," they said smiling. "Keep your weapons, but don't try any funny stuff, because we have no problems putting you down if need be." The group nodded, understanding, as they walked hesitantly through the gates.
"Welcome to Home Unit 15," a grounded soldier said, reaching out and shaking Ricks hand, sensing that he was their leader. "I hope ya'll will like it here."
A/N: So, okay. I know it's starting off a little slow. But it's only the beginning. I really hope you keep reading because there's going to be so much happening! :) This story is not just going to be a ten chapter and done story.. I've got separate parts planned. I know there's no Richonne in this chapter, but just because it's not laced with smut doesn't mean it's not going to be just as entertaining. (Not that there's anything wrong with smut.) ;) You have to be invested in the whole story line to get to the good stuff. Eventually, I will earn the M rating. Hope you stick with me and see what happens! Thanks for reading guys! Don't forget to review and follow! I update almost daily.