Crane woke up, surprised he'd gotten any sleep at all. He looked out the window and saw that it would be dawn soon. He stood up and grabbed his backpack. It was small so that it wouldn't get in the way, but it would suit Crane's purposes. He put his table leg and his wrench inside, plus all of the duct tape and metal parts and such that he'd found. Finally, he put his first aid kit in, picked up his pipe, and dropped to the first floor. As he reached the door and tried to open it, he was pushed back by a guard.
"Okay, new guy, be careful out there. We've lost to many already." The man unlocked the door with some keys from his belt, and opened it up.
Crane walked out into the city, and saw the very same one he'd seen from above. Flaming cars, broken everything, blood, smoke, and some zombies a few streets away. He started forward and his radio clicked on.
"Okay, noob, we've got Dr. Zere set up in a semi-trailer on a fenced-in playing court. When you leave the tower, hang a left and head due south. You can't miss it."
"It's Crane, kid," Crane said as he neared a street. Already he could see the court, but between him and it were a lot of eaters.
"All right, all right, CRANE, just keep moving. There's no time to take in the sights. And try not to make too much noise. It attracts those fuckers."
Crane knew it had been meant as a warning, but he took it as an inspiration. He pulled his table leg from his bag, just in case, and threw his pipe down the street. When the biters looked and started to shamble over there, he charged forward. Two turned back toward him, but he dodged back. A third and fourth approached from a ways across the street, and Crane knew he had to move. He hit one zombie into the other and ran past them, then dodged around the others. More and more were coming, but he didn't have time for this. He ran and jumped over a set of stairs, landing on a sunken building's roof. The dead amassed below him, but he could already see a portion of broken fence where he could get inside. He jumped to it, climbed up, and dropped into the court. It was set up like a base, with gunman platforms, explosive barrels, a gate, walls, everything. In the center was the trailer, and Crane approached it. He knocked on the door, and waited only a second before Dr. Zere answered. Crane opened the door, and realized that he never answered Crane. He was on the radio.
"Camden? Are you there? Dammit..." Zere was a darker-skinned fellow, but he was old. So old, in fact, that his curly hair and beard where frost-white. He wore blue clothes and an apron, oddly with a pair of leather mechanic's gloves under a belt.
"So... I'm supposed to get a vaccine?" Crane said.
"What?" Zere asked, then realized that Crane was talking about Antizin. "No, no. Suppressant. It's called Antizin. Suppresses the symptoms. Here, sit." Zere motioned to an old torn chair off to one side. Crane sat, and Zere picked up a syringe and a bottle. "Antizin postpones the inevitable. Best the GRE could do."
Zere handed Crane the syringe, then pulled his head back and shined a flashlight in his eyes. "Inevitable?" Crane said. "So, there's no cure?"
"It's a variation of rabies," Zere said. "There's no cure right now, but you see, I've been running tests on both Antizin and infected tissue." Zere turned on his laptop and opened a file. "A cure is possible. Definitely possible."
"No shit?" Crane asked. "You really think you can figure it out?"
"With Dr. Camden's help, yes, I think so. Uh, now where did I put that injector..." Zere started casting around for it, so Crane held it out to him. Zere took it.
"So, who's Dr. Camden?"
"A colleague trapped in Sector Zero." Zere sat Crane down again and swabbed his arm. "Where the outbreak first, well, broke out. We've been collaborating via radio." Zere injected the Antizin into Crane's bloodstream, and it felt colt, but only for a moment. "Though we would have made more progress if the connection were better."
It sounded to Crane like everyone needed a GRE radio, or at least to get this jamming shut down.
"Also if my earlier experiments had borne fruit. I tried injecting recombined versions of the virus into chunks of meat and leaving them around the city, hoping some of the infected would eat them, so I could observe and document the results."
Crane rubbed his arm and stood up. "But they didn't?"
Dr. Zere shook his head and downcast his eyes, looking at his laptop again. "It bore no fruit. I'm ashamed I wasted so much time on it. No reason to hold any Antizin in reserve now, in any case."
Zere looked at Crane, and bit his lip. "Alright, I'm quite busy, so on your way, now."
Crane nodded to him once and left the trailer, then clicked on his radio. "Rahim. Zere checked me out and gave me a shot of Antizin."
"Good," Rahim said. "That ought to hold you, for a while. Which is great because I'm starting to get used to the idea of bossing you around. So! Time for a real trial. Go talk to Spike. You'll find him near Zere's truck. He's got your first real job for you." Crane looked to the right and saw Spike. No way he was anybody else. Crane walked into the little shed and spoke.
"Hey, Spike? I'm Crane."
"Just what I need," Spike said, annoyed. "More unskilled labour. All right, shut up and pay attention: There are two types of airdrops. One has food, first aid supplies, survival gear and such. The other kind is filled with Antizin. The GRE send in one-way transmissions to let us know when they're coming. The trouble is, the airdrops with Antizin keep getting raided by Rais's thugs. And without it, we're basically screwed.
"Rais and his boys only operate during the day, because going out at night is a dandy way of getting yourself killed. But the next to Antizin drops are coming right at sunset tonight, and Brecken means to go after them. This may be our only chance to reach the airdrop."
"What's my part here?" Crane asked.
"Well, as I said, going out at night is basically suicide. Or it would be, if I hadn't been setting up safe zones and traps out there for weeks now. Which I have." Spike stood up. "Brecken and his team will be okay tonight, so long as you go out there now, and arm those traps. That's your part."
"Alright," Crane said. "What are these traps and how do I arm them?"
"You'll see," Spike said. "I'll be talking you through it. Just remember," Spike sat back down. "Without those traps, Brecken won't survive the night. And if he doesn't come back with the Antizin, we are lost. Before you head out there, grab some firecrackers. Made them myself. Make a fine distraction if you get stuck out there." Spike motioned to a pile of red cylinders wrapped in bundles of fuse. Crane took some and put them in his pockets, then moved out.
He jumped the fence, and moved forward cautiously. The dead had since spread back out, but they were still dense around here. Crane found a propane tank, and knew just what to do with it. He unscrewed the top, letting propane leak everywhere. Then he threw it, and it worked like a charm. As it landed, the tank threw sparks and skidded across the road. As those sparks came up, they ignited and detonated the line of gas, and several of the infected on the street.
"Ha!" Spike said over the radio. "Good way to kill the biters, but now you've got some Virals to deal with."
"What? 'Virals'? What are you talking about?" But then Crane heard a scream, from right behind him. He turned with his table leg up, but there was nothing there. More screams, all seeming to come from right over his shoulder. He spun around, and then he heard the footsteps. At least three sets, all running as fast as any man could. Crane's eyes widened. He didn't have Amir or Jade to help him this time. He ran and jumped, pulling himself up onto a rooftop and turning around. Four Virals sprinted toward the rooftop.
"Most eaters are bad at climbing," Rahim had said. Crane was counting on that, but he shouldn't have been. The Virals neared, disappeared below the eaves, then reappeared right up in Crane's face. He smacked one in the head, and it fell over. The next one got it's knee shattered by Crane's foot, and fell off the roof. Two down, two to go. Crane smacked the other two, but then realized it wouldn't be so easy. The first one had gotten up, and now attacked crane with a broken arm and half a head. Crane smashed its not broken arm, now putting both out of commission, but now it started to bite. Crane broke its jaw with the table leg, and that about did it. It's eyes rolled back, and it slowly fell off the roof. Crane turned around again, in time to see the other two Virals dodging around. He smacked one in the knee, then the other in the head. Finally, he smashed the last one's head against the roof, and his table leg shattered. The third one was getting up, now, and Crane knew he couldn't pull out his wrench in time. Instead, he grabbed it by the shoulders, turned, and hurled it head-first off the roof. Finally he was able to move on and do the job for Spike. Just ahead was a parking lot, and Crane decided that was a good place to stop.
"Okay, first, the car," Spike said. "Open the hood and connect the battery. That'll arm the trap."
Crane opened the hood and flipped a switch, then connected a wire. There was a red light on the window, and it turned green. Crane shut the hood and clicked on the radio. Instead of Spike, though, Jade responded. "Jade here. Is anyone outside right now? Urgent help needed."
"Uh, I'm outside, working for Spike."
"You're Crane, right?" Jade asked, but didn't wait for an answer. "Listen, our Runner's trying to secure one of our safe houses for Brecken's mission." Crane walked out of the parking lot and saw lots of zombies, more than his wrench could handle. He found a gas pipe in a dumpster nearby, and jumped from it to a rooftop to listen to Jade. "He's in a courtyard by Vefa and Mirmar, surrounded by zombies. We gotta help him!"
"Alright," Crane said. I'm on it." He glanced at his map, found Vefa and Mirmar, then started running. He found a safe zone, or what would be if there weren't two zombies inside. "Alright, I'm here, along with some infected."
"Watch yourself, Crane."
The infected pounded on the door to a shack in the corner of the safe house, and Crane knew what to do. He grabbed one zombie by the head and smashed its face into the brick wall, then dropped the other with his wrench. The first one didn't stand up, but the second one tried to. He kicked it back down, and shattered its skull with the wrench.
"Sit down, bitch," he said to the now-dead eater, then used his wrench to break the lock on the door. He opened it quickly. "You okay man-" the man turned, his face and arms bloody, and charged at Crane. Crane fell to his back, letting the zombie run itself onto his feet, then kicked it over himself and several yards away. "Ah, shit. I think it's too late for this guy."
"Shit." Jade said. "Alright. Finish it, just... don't let him suffer."
"Will do." Crane stood up and walked over to the Viral, which was trying to stand. It didn't get the chance. Crane pushed it back down and bent his wrench over its skull. Instead of throwing it out, Crane took some of his wire and aluminum shards, and got the bend out, then supported it with the metal. New and improved. "Okay, it's done. Fuck."
"You had no choice. He wasn't human anymore. Now, hurry. You still need to turn on the lights. That's the only way to make this place safe at night."
Crane found a blueprint for an electrified knife, which would be useful if he had a knife. And electricity. He pocketed it anyway, then found the breaker box and flipped all the switches on. Outside, UV lights turned on and washed the whole place in the painful purple light. Time to contact the GRE again, Crane supposed. But when he raised the radio, he noticed he didn't have a signal. He'd have to climb up higher. "Shit." He saw a pole in the corner of the safe zone, and jumped onto it. Trying not to fall off, he climbed up as high as possible, then over the fence and onto a building's balcony. There was an infected and a box here, likely locked. He kicked the infected off the roof and turned to the box, pulling out one of his lockpicks.
"How's it coming?" Jade asked. "Got the lights on yet?"
"No, I hit a snag. Just gimme a second." Crane lied, and kept on with the lock. Once he had it open, he finally found himself a knife. And batteries. He immediately took to batteries out of the box and attached them to the handle with some of his duct tape. Then he fed some wires and wrapped them around the base of the knife blade, and wrapped the handle in duct tape just in case. Now he had that electrified knife. Finally, he climbed to the roof and turned on his radio.
"Crane here."
His supervisor responded instantly. "Report."
"Okay, I met this doctor. A scientist type. They've got him set up in a sort of research trailer, and he's working on a cure for the virus. His name is Zere."
Nothing.
"Hello? Do you copy?"
"Affirmative," his handler said finally. "Secondary objective added. Maintain your cover, and secure all of his research. Acknowledge."
"Your stolen file still takes top priority, though, right?"
"Affirmative," she said again. "We find it unlikely that a single researcher working out of a trailer could produce any significant results, but if he does, we want to see it."
Crane flipped his radio back to the Tower frequency, and hoped Jade was still listening. "Jade? It's done."
"Good," Jade responded. "We'll need to prepare more places like that one. We've got more places picked out for future safe zones. Spike will mark them on your map later. And Crane?" she asked as Crane dropped from the rooftop. "Thank you. Back to you, Spike!"
"Right now," Spike said, "you need to get back to out main task and arm the next trap. There's another car nearby."
Crane ran through the alleyway and reached the street, and saw hordes of zombies milling around the car. "The infected are all over the street!" Crane said.
"What does that tell you? Keep off the street," Spike said. "Try to stay on the rooftops where they can't reach you."
Crane threw his wrench at a zombie, and climbed onto an overhang. Further down the road was another car with a light on it, but this one was completely surrounded. "They're all around the car, Spike," Crane explained, and ran along the roofs toward the car.
"You still have some firecrackers, don't you? Just throw some into the crowd. Those dead bastards are easily distracted." Crane threw a pack of his firecrackers, but didn't wait for them to detonate. He dropped to the street and opened the hood of the car, connecting the battery just as his firecracker died down. Crane slammed the hood shut, then pulled himself up onto the car. There was one more car trap, just ahead, also surrounded by zombies. Crane threw two firecrackers in different directions this time, leaving the dead to mill around in confusion. He connected that battery, just made it to the roof, and flipped on his radio.
"All done with the cars, Spike."
"Ooh, keep on like that and you just might make it." Spike said. "The next trap's close by. And I shouldn't have to tell you, but don't get caught out in the open."
"Spike," Crane said, jumping across an alleyway. "these freaks are everywhere. If I need to use a trap, how do I activate it?"
"You can't." Crane got back down, crossed the street, and climbed onto another rooftop, on the way to the train yard. "I told you, they're only for the night mission."
"Shit," Crane said. "Okay." Crane made it to the ping on his digital map, and found a light post with a lot of wires and its own breaker box. "It's quite a contraption you got here," he said, opening the box and flipping on all the switches.
"Three times brighter than an ordinary street lamp," Spike said. "Gives the infected quite the sunburn."
Crane raced toward the train yard, turning on another lamp on the way, and found one that he might have trouble getting to. He couldn't climb the pole without getting electrocuted, so he would have to find a way to get onto the small platform connected to it. There was a rooftop he could get to it from, but it would take a lot of skill he wasn't sure the GRE had given him. He climbed to a train car, up to the roof, and went back to the pole. That platform was very small, basically a stick. Crane jumped across the gap, braced for the landing, and fell past the platform. His upraised hand barely caught it, and he was left swinging over four infected. If he fell, he was a ham with broken legs. If he climbed back up, he was stranded on a pole.
"Spike!" Crane shouted, pulling himself up. "I need this lamp to light up, NOW!"
"I'm sorry if you're in a bind," Spike said, "but you can't use the traps. They are only for Bracken's night mission. You use that one, he'll try to. It won't work. He'll die. You want that on your conscience?"
"I don't use this thing, I'll die. Then I won't be able to arm the next traps. Brecken will try to use them, they won't work. He'll die. You want that on your conscience?"
Spike growled in indecision, then spoke. "No! Find a way out of there. There's plenty of rooftops, and you still got a weapon, don't you?"
Now it was Crane's turn to growl. "Fine!" And so he sat, stranded in a sea of gathering dead, waiting to be eaten.
"Just tell me when you're out of there, and Crane?" Spike asked. "Be careful."
"Yeah, thanks, Spike," he said sarcastically. He didn't have the running jump he needed to get back to the rooftop, and jumping to a train car might well get his legs broken. The only other option was the ground, which was a lot closer and a lot less metal. "Fuck." he said to himself. If he went down there he'd be massacred. Unless...
Crane pulled his water bottle out of his bag, thankful that it was a reused glass bottle. He tossed it, and it shattered against the pole he was on. The mass of dead were all soaked, and Crane dropped his electrified knife. It stabbed one zombie, and the rest were fried, leaving Crane to drop to the ground and climb onto a train car. "Okay, light's all set."
"You're ready for the next one, then. Better hurry!"
"Hey Crane, guess what?" That was Rahim's voice. "I'm up on a balcony, and I've got eyes on you from here. Looks like you're doing okay. For a newbie!"
"Gee, thanks," Crane said.
"Just try to get back here in one piece, all right? I don't wanna have to train someone to replace you."
Crane got his new ping from Spike on his map, and he looked at it. It was right behind him. He turned and saw another box at the other end to the train car. He walked over to it and turned in on, then looked at his watch. Before he could read the time, the light buzzed and died. All the street lamps, light traps, and everything else deactivated.
"Fuck, Spike! The whole goddamn district just went down. What the hell's going on?"
Spike growled. "Not again. All right, listen. There's a power substation near you. Check it out." Spike sent a ping to Crane's radio map and he followed it. "This blackout has really put us in a tight spot. We're defenseless here, plus the safe zones, and some of my traps are out, too. We need to get the power up and running ASAP."
Crane neared the substation and jumped the fence, passively reading the DANGER: HIGH VOLTAGE sign as he did. "Got it. I'm going as fast as I can." Crane dropped and rolled, then took a long look around. Off to the right was the panel, so he ran to it and started to open it.
Crane heard a dragging sound to the left, then a yell. When he looked, he saw the entire fucking garage door get blown off by something, and he stepped back. A zombie in an orange construction jumpsuit walked out, dragging some rebar with cement on it like a hammer. "Fuck, what is this...?" The zombie roared, bringing the rebar down at Crane, and he jumped back to hide behind some box. The thing tried to hit him again, but he couldn't let that happen. He dove aside, jumped onto its shoulders, and tried to break its neck.
It didn't work. He bas bucked off in seconds, left to slide back into the garage area. Behind him was a zombie, and... a half-barricaded door. He slid under it as Rahim had shown him, and instantly saw a power box. He opened it, flipped a switch, and turned to find the last room open. Inside was a box, but it was locked. He didn't have time for this shit. If that big-ass dude tried to break the barricade, he could do it. Crane unbolted a back door and ran outside into the darkness.
Darkness.
"NOOOO!" Crane screamed as he sprinted for the safe house. He could not face the Hunter like this. All he had was a refurbished wrench and a single first-aid kit. As he climbed to a balcony and saw another locked box, he growled. "Yeah, and fuck this!" He kicked the lock off, and opened the box. Inside was, praise fucking God, a hunting knife. He pushed it into his belt and threw his wrench at a zombie, then climbed to the roof and dove into the safe zone trash pile. As he approached the shed, he heard a growl and looked left. There was a zombie on the wall with some kind of green blisters all over it.
"No, shit!" Crane pulled his knife and ran forward to intercept it, but it disappeared over the wall and ran. "...the fuck is that?" Crane turned on his radio. "Hey, Doc? This is Kyle Crane."
"Crane?" Zere said. "What can I do for you?"
"I just saw this fuckin' weird zombie, it's covered in green blisters. It hauled ass as soon as it spotted me. Do you know anything about it?"
"Hm," Zere muttered. "Not enough information, I'm afraid. But if you see another one, do let me know, will you?"
"Yeah, will do." Crane said, and walked into the shed. He shut the door behind him, found a bed, and dropped into it. This time, after all that exhausting bullshit outside, he had no trouble falling asleep.
Good night, Crane... the taunt started, but he wouldn't let it.
Yeah? And fuck you, too, Amir, he thought, and slipped the rest of the way to sleep.
