A lot of dialogue in this chapter, not much action, mainly back story and bridging. Hope you enjoy it, I'll have the next chapter up in a few days.

Also, there was recently a massive earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand. I experienced it first hand. It was pretty scary. Gave me lots of ideas for my writing, though.

Remember to read and review!

I came to about fifteen minutes later, still exhausted, a pounding headache, on the couch in Louis's residence. My head was on Heidi's lap, and she was stroking my hair.

I sat up. "What happened?"

"You've not been out long." said Louis, sitting in a leather arm chair across from us. The soldier and vortigaunt were nowhere to be seen, James and Olivia were sitting side by side on another couch, "We got Olivia sorted out, the bullet only grazed her, I've just been explaining to them what I know."

I cut him off, "I need a cigarette. Mind if I smoke in here?"

Louis pointed to a vent on the ceiling. "Extraction fans, my good man. Not much fun to crawl around in, but yeah, you can smoke."

I took out a pack and lit one. "Anyone want one?" James and Heidi each had one. Neither of them was a regular smoker, Heidi would sometimes have a cigarette when I was having one, and James would generally only smoke when he was drinking. I saw a scotch on the table beside him.

After a few good puffs, I spoke again. "Talk to me, Louis. What's going on?"

"We've been picking up radio chatter, all over the world. This crisis is international. These... Combine... have coordinated a massive attack, striking the population centers all at once. Most countries have had their defense systems fail."

For a second time, I stopped him, "We know that. Are you safe here?"

"I think so. There are no records of this facility, and we've set up everything so that it can't be detected by even the best of today's reconnaissance technologies. Although, we don't know what the Combine have. I do, however, believe that we could hold off an attack from them."

"Alright. We're gonna keep moving. The soldier and the vortigaunt, they're free to come with us, but if they don't want to, can they stay here?"

"Of course. People will likely start turning up soon. I believe there are thirty people on the register to come here in the event of... this. We have plenty of room."

"Good. Now, it's... five AM now, we've got about an hour and a half of night time left, and I'm kinda hesitant to be driving in daylight. However, we can't possibly keep driving now. I propose we crash here for a few hours, then spend the rest of the day prepping ourselves better to continue to the coast."

"Yeah, I wouldn't recommend you drive right now, either. You don't look so good."

It was true. I'd been up since 6am the day before, had only had a few hours sleep before then, and I think I was coming down with the flu. I'd been running on adrenaline the last few hours, but I couldn't sleep yet.

We unloaded our stuff from the cars, the plan was to repack everything more tidily and replace some of the items. I located my pack of codeine in my apocalypse bag and swallowed two dry. When that was done, we left the bags in the car park, Louis took us to the communications room.

"We've not yet contacted any of the group. Just you guys, and the rest of the night has been spent listening to chatter. I'm assuming Leon is on his way up North, so I'll try his radio. But for now, let's give Anna a call."

Anna was another one of the member's of our group. She'd never been as concerned about a disaster as we had, but she had listened to our plans.

Using a secure line and a bunch of complex methods, Louis's communications expert managed to call Anna's cellphone. It rang eleven times before she answered.

There was a burst of static and a lot of background noise. "Hello?" she yelled into the phone.

"Anna? Anna, what's going on?" I spoke into the microphone,

"Harry, is that you? We're under attack, where are you?"

"I'm at Louis's. What are you doing?"

"Met up with Thomas. He gave me a gun, now we're desperately fighting them!"

"Anna, we don't want you getting hurt. If you can, get yourself and Thomas out of the city. Head for Leon's up North, or Louis's."

"I'll do my best! Hey, I'll chuck on Thomas."

There was a brief pause.

"Hey, this is Thomas. What can you tell me?"

Thomas was another member of our group. He's always been pretty reckless, and was more concerned with killing other people than protecting his own life.

"Thomas, this is no game. You've gotta get out of the city!"

"I'll see what I can do." I heard an explosion, "Oh fuck, gotta go. Good luck, man!"

He hung up.

We tuned the HAM to the band that had been agreed on for this sort of event.

"Hello? Hello, anyone here?"

"This is Leon. I'm alive and well. Who is this?"

"This is Louis. I've got James and Harry and Heidi and Olivia here, what's happening with you?"

"I'm at my shack. I've heard the news, but nothing that you won't already know. I take it you guys are safe?"

"Yeah, we're fine. A bit shaken, I hear James and Harry encountered a bit of trouble on the way here, but everyone's alive. Alright, there's lots to do, so I'm gonna go. Over and out."

He turned the radio off.

"Alright, I'm exhausted. I gotta get a few hours sleep. Louis, have you got a spare bed for Heidi and me?"

"Of course. Right this way."

He led us to one of the rooms, giving James and Olivia the one beside ours. It was just like a hotel, apart from the lack of windows. A nice couch, double bed, en suite bathroom and a desk. There was no TV, but there was an antique radio. Just like in Louis's residence, there was a vent in the ceiling, along with an ashtray on the desk. I barely took all of this in, dropping my bag and falling onto the bed beside Heidi.

"It's been a long day..." she said. I hugged her closely,

"It has. Let's get some sleep. I love you."

"Love you too."

As tired as I was, I barely slept. I got about half an hour of sleep, but was too stressed to sleep well. I dreamed of fire, gunshots, helicopters, death. At 6am, I gave up, took two more codeine and got up.

Finally, I had a chance to get properly set up. Knowing this complex well, I went to the carpark and retrieved my sub-apocalypse bag from the RX-8. I always kept this bag in my car, and it kept the less essential items; clothes. I took this bag back to the room, Heidi was still fast asleep, and got changed.

I put on a better pair of jeans, a decent belt and clipped my knife to the belt. Put a pair of hiking boots on. Loose t-shirt. Kevlar vest. Shoulder holster, desert eagle. Four spare magazines. Leather jacket back on. Back holster, shotgun in it. Twenty spare shells on my belt. Pack of cigarettes in one pocket, codeine in the other. All my other supplies in the main apocalypse bag. I was carrying a lot of weight, but it would be worth it. When all this was done, I gave the sleeping Heidi a kiss on the forehead and left the room.

Louis was in the main congregation area. Like an employee's lounge, but much nicer. He was sitting at the bar with two others, all sipping drinks and talking quietly. I sauntered over, climbed over the bar and poured myself a whiskey.

"I've got a feeling we're in for a rough few days."