It's a cold quiet evening as the few remaining human survivors of the Albany relief camp struggle to keep themselves warm from the harsh blizzard that's sweeping through the region. That winter proved to be especially brutal, being more relentless and unforgiving than the previous one's.

Day in and day out, from sunset to sunrise, the small camp of survivors are hit by a Neverending barrage of snowstorms, coupled with the increasingly devastating attacks of the necromorph horde that hunts them and seeks to finish them all off once and for all, it seems that all hope has been lost.

Every day brings death for them. Survivors die of starvation, freeze to death or simply commit suicide, unable to cope with the reality they live in. But no one blames them, especially in times like these. Everyone knows they're going to die. It's only a matter of how and when. Will they starve or freeze to death? Will they or some deranged psychopath who's lost it take their life? Or perhaps the one they they all fear the most, will those walking nightmares come and drag them off to god knows where?

Even with all this floating in the minds of every survivor, why do they even bother? Why bother living anymore when there's no hope, no hope for a future or anything to fight for.

They bother because everywhere you turn are families. Families that despite the circumstances they find themselves in, continue to hold on to that small glimmer of hope, even if it is by a longshot. They continue on living, fighting to stay alive and make it from day to day for their loved ones.

But even that hasn't proven to be enough.

Every day, the haunting cries and screams of men, women and children break the silence of the howling cold air as they watch the lifeless bodies of their loved ones are hauled off to the seemingly endless pit of corpses and burned.

The image's, screams and everything else in between takes it's toll on everyone, even on the few remaining military personnel that struggle to live in this world they call "home".

Dante Adams is one of those few remaining warrior's that refuses to give up, despite the circumstance he's in, and will fight to his very last breath.

A mute with eight years of service in the U.S army, he continues to take a stand and fight the creature's that threaten the few remaining survivors of the Albany relief camp, the only remaining group of human survivors in the entire United States and possibly, the world.

But like so many, the very question that so many ask themselves also lingers in the deep bowels of his scarred mind.

why bother?

He sits in his cold, dark quiet room asking himself that, while staring at the loaded 9mm in his hand, contemplating suicide and just ending all the pain and misery he's endured for the past twenty-eight year's of his life...


"why bother?"

"Why?"

I've been asking myself that question for so long that frankly, I can't even answer it anymore.

And yet, here I am once again, alone in the darkness of my room, staring out into the emptiness of the outside world and holding my pistol.

I've been sitting here for so long that my ass-cheeks have gotten numb from sitting on this piece of shit I call a "chair".

Despite the tingling numbness, I chose to stay put for the next few moments, until I heard my door creak open.

A voice, a familiar voice called out to me.

It was James, the only person I was friend's with since joining the military and come to think of it, since ever, since I would never bother trying to make friend's.

I can't talk so why bother?

I met him in basic and like me, he's been an outcast his whole life. Maybe not as bad compared to my life, but enough to where he would usually keep to himself...usually.

We quickly outclassed our fellow trainees and flew through the ranks the army had to offer, eventually joining the 1st SFOD-D.

We've been through hell and back together and despite the nightmare we find ourselves in, we continue to support and watch each other's backs.

But since the start of the outbreak and in the year's that followed, thing's took a turn for the worse.

Throughout our military career we've seen thing's, things that would break a normal person and carried out questionable order's to commit unspeakable acts of violence. The image's and memories haunt us, even to this day, but neither of those thing's come even remotely close to what we've experienced here at home.

Fighting horribly disfigured creature's that were once ordinary citizens, watching on helplessly as former friend's and colleagues are torn to pieces before our very eyes, or having to put them down after they had been transformed into walking abominations.

It gets to you.

It breaks you.

Even for experienced operator's like James and I, it all becomes too much to handle. But all that matters is we're still here, and that we may have a chance to save the few of us that are left.

As he opened the door, I quickly holstered my pistol.

"Adams? Hey Adams, colonel Johnson wants us up in command in five."

I just turned my head and nodded in response.

I heard the door slowly close after a brief moment and listened to his footsteps leaving the vicinity of my room.

I pulled out the crumpled picture I kept in the pocket closest to my heart and looked on to it as memories came rushing back to me, tears streaming down my cheeks.

I nearly lost my train of thought when I remembered the colonel wanted us up in command, so I took one last glimpse at the photo.

"Don't worry, we'll be together again...soon."

With that, I tucked the picture away, sniffled and wiped away the tears on my cheeks and was out the door to meet up with the other's.

A few moments later...

After walking through the silent filled hallways of the hospital remains we were held up in, I finally reached the cafeteria where whatever was left of the U.S military had set up command, and where the other's were awaiting my arrival.

I barely set foot inside when a commanding voice indecently welcomed me.

"Well how nice of you to join us specialist, you're only two minutes late."

It was colonel Johnson.

If their was anything that absolutely pissed him off, it was being late, even by a second.

Being a grouchy old man in his early fifties with over thirty years of service in the army, it'd be understandable as to why being late is perhaps his biggest pet peeve.

But he was more than just our CO.

He served as our mentor, and to some extent, a father figure to us all.

He's been there for us from the start, leading us through the depths of hell and back, consoling and guiding us both on and off the field and overall just being there for each of us when we need him. Even through these truly dark times, he still manages to hold it together and keep us all alive and in one piece. It's not secret, if it weren't for him, neither of us would be here.

I was about to take out my pen and small handbook to write out a small apology when I heard another all too familiar voice.

"Yeah, how nice of you to join us. What, were you playing with yourself again Dante?"

Ruiz, the most arrogant piece of shit I've ever met.

I glared over him leaned up against a table, with that stupid-ass smirk on his face.

I had just about had it with him; before I could go over and beat the living hell out of him, the colonels commanding voice stepped in.

"Ruiz shut you mouth! Adams, take a seat."

I tucked away my pen and handbook and made my towards the nearest vacant seat.

"Fucking-asswipe" I said to myself as I walked past Ruiz.

"Corporal, light's."

The corner of the cafeteria we were in suddenly went dark as a projector came to life and the colonel began to speak once more.

"Alright, you may be wondering why I called you all here. Well it turns out we may finally have a chance to end this nightmare once and for all. One of our researchers may have found out what's controlling those abominations out there, I'll let her explain more, doctor."

The colonel stepped aside as a, what I would assume to be in her late twenties, possibly early thirties brunette with glasses stepped in began to speak.

"Hello, I'm Doctor Susan Ross, now as the colonel mentioned, we managed to find what we think is the source of the necromorphs."

Image's of New York appeared on the wall as the Doctor began speaking once more.

"If you'll look here, this building in time's square seems to have an unusually large number of necromorphs surrounding it. We enhanced images of this building and there seems to be a strange energy field originating from this building. I've spent the past few year's studying the necromorphs, their origins, anatomy, everything basically, and apparently these markers give off a frequency that reanimates any dead tissue within range, resulting in these creature's. We strongly believe their is a marker somewhere inside this facility. Upon further inspection, this building is...was a building used for scientific and medical research. Guess they were looking into more than medicines and ways to power a light bulb."

I silently chuckled at the last bit as she said it in a contempluos tone.

But like everything, the boy genius Ruiz just had to open his trap and say something "smart."

"Ok so you found a marker thing that makes them so what? What does this have to to do with us?"

I rolled my eyes and shook my head at his ignorance.

"We believe if you destroy the marker, the signal it's giving off will cease. The necromorphs should...die, hypothetically speaking. It may kill the one's in our region, perhaps the entire United States or maybe even the world."

"Excuse me Doctor, I have a question" said sergeant Matthews raising his hand.

"Yes?"

"How exactly do you expect us to destroy that marker? We only have a few sticks of C4 left and that may not be enough, and even if we set them to bring that building, those things' ll swarm the five of us before we could even set them in the right place."

"Six"

We all turned to see the colonel holding a black case.

"I'm going with you."

Our eye's widened in disbelief as well all looked at each other.

"I'm fifty-three year's old I'm an old man, I figure I'll be dead soon, either by normal means or by one of those thing's. I don't know about you boy's, but if I'm going to hell, imma take as many of those bastards with me as I can."

We all stood up and cheered in approval, except me of course, I clapped and nodded in approval.

"Corporal, light's."

The sudden surge of light blinded me for a second, as did everyone else.

After recovering, the colonel set the black case on a nearby table and flipped it open.

"This, sergeant, is how we're going to destroy that damned marker."

Our eye's widened and mouths fell agape as we stared at was inside the case.

After a moment of silence, Sergeant Matthews managed to stammer out a few word's.

"S-sir? Is that a-a nuke?"

The colonel simply chuckled and nodded.

"Why yes it is son. See, we're aren't just leveling that building, we're leveling New York."

I just sat there, dumbfounded and in awe.

"B-but sir, why destroy the entire city along with the marker?"

"Because those five sticks of C4 won't be enough son. Besides, New York has an infestation of those thing's, and we're gonna flush em out, all of em. Does anyone have any questions for Doctor Ross?"

As if on que, we all shook our head's.

"Doctor Ross, thank you."

"Your welcome colonel" said the Doctor with a smile and gentle nod, before walking away.

The colonel layed out a tattered map of New York on a nearby table and began explaining the plan as well got up and gathered around.

"Alright, imma make this short n sweet so listen up. The building that marker is located in is here, in times square. We're gonna rope in by chopper in grand central park, here. Once we're on the ground, we'll make our way down 6th Avenue, then cut down through 46th street to reach times square."

Before the colonel could continue, Corporal Bennings spoke up.

"But sir, why not go down 7th Avenue? Seems to be the most direct route. Or why not rope in on the target building?"

"Well to answer your first question, the creature's surrounding the target building will no doubt see us coming in and they'll most likely head down 7th in order to reach us. So by going around em, we'll be keeping our asses alive longer and saving ammo because trust me, once we're inside that building, we'll need all the ammo we got. To answer your second question, like I said, the one's outside will see the Blackhawk and they'll swarm the building. They'll slaughter us in seconds. Any other questions?"

We all shook our heads as the colonel continued.

"Alright as I was saying before, once we're in time's square, we'll locate the building and enter it, locate the marker and arm the nuke. Once that's done, we'll fight our way up the building to the roof where the Blackhawk will be waiting for extraction. Once we've exfiled and cleared the blast radius, we set off the explosive."

The way he described it made it all seem so simple, but I knew better than that.

I know in my mind, and heart, that this wasn't going to be that easy. A sick wrenching feeling reared it's ugly way throughout my body as sick horrid thoughts ran through my mind.

But I chose not to "speak up", instead choosing to pretend to act fine and keep my cool.

I once again almost lost my train of thought when the colonel once again spoke up, his voice bringing me back into reality.

"Adams"

I softly shook my head and widened my eye's at him.

"I want you with a m203 in case we need the extra firepower."

I nodded, as my expression returned back to normal.

"Ruiz, I want you with an m249. Bennings, I want you to stick with Ruiz and give him ammo when he needs it. Matthews, I want you with an m16 to back us up. Lieutenant Pierce, I want you with an AT4 in case the m203 isn't enough and we run into one of those big fuckers."

We all stood there in silence for a moment, no doubt taking in the importance of this mission.

After what seemed like an eternity, the colonel broke the silence.

"Make no mistake gentlemen, the future of the human race is in our hand's. We leave a o-four-hundred, so go on back to your rooms and rest up. Dismissed."

With that, we all filed out and headed back to our rooms.

Before I entered my room, I paused, as the thoughts of death and despair returned. I was greatly dreading this mission.

The six of us against an entire horde of those thing's.

I wasn't really warming up to the odds, but the colonels words echoed through my head. We're humanity's only remaining hope for a future, and if we fail, our failure may very well sound the horn of death for humanity.

I sighed, before opening the door and entering my room to rest for the big day tomorrow.