Here it is! By the way, not all of the OC's will be in every chapter until they all meet up. OC's in this chapter will be Tristan and Alice. Next chapter will have Ryan Mattson sent in by stormrunner74 and Alec.
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It was quiet in the bunker, the only sign of life the lone guard standing by the entrance next to the alarm. He yawned, checking the time. Hi eyes lit up, it was almost…
The bell rang, and right on schedule the men and women of the bunker got out of their rooms to start their daily duties. Matt walked up to the guard, flashing him a smile. "I'll take over, go get some sleep night owl."
The guard tipped his hat tiredly, heading off for his room.
Alice peeked out of her room, rubbing her bright blue eyes and brushing her orange hair out of her face as her dad pushed past her to head for the engine room. She turned to her mommy, still lying in bed. She walked over, leaning in and pecking her mommy on her nose, waking her up and bringing a tired smile to her face. "Morning Allie."
"Morning mommy!" She chirped. "The bell rang, are you getting up?"
Her mother shifted uncomfortably. "Erm… mommy has a sore back, she needs to lay down for a bit, okay sweetie? Why don't you go find David?"
"Okay, feel better Mommy!" Alice said, running out of the room and down the hall.
As she walked, she looked around as all the adults walked around, some stopping to smile and say good morning to her, her always flashing her pearly grin back and saying good morning back. The gray walls of the bunker were dull, but she didn't mind. The ragged stained clothes of the occupants of the bunker, the abundance of brown and gray throughout the walls and floors, the stark white ceiling with dim light bulbs swinging from them… she didn't have a lot of memory of color to compare it to, considering she had spent more than half her life in here. She had turned 9 in March, and she was told that they had been here for the past five years. She couldn't remember why they were down here, all her mother said was that the outside world wasn't safe.
"Alice!" came a high voice. Alice grinned, turning to hg her friend as he ran to her. David was the same age as her, a mop of brown hair covering the top of his head and falling over his brown eyes. His toothy grin lit up his face. "Hey, I found an old checkers board, do you wanna play?" he asked.
Alice nodded excitedly, grateful for something to do. He took her hand and led her to the main hall, a large room that looked like the inside of a shipping container. Main reason being that it was the inside of a shipping container. The adults bustled about as David sat at the table, setting up the board and taking out a bag. "I couldn't find the pieces, so I went to the recycling area and they gave me some water bottle caps and soda bottle caps. Do you want soda or water caps?"
She sat down on the other side of the table, resting her chin on her hands. "I'll be water, please."
He nodded, setting the caps on the board as she watched. As he set up the game, her eyes wandered around the area. She smiled as she saw Sam sleeping at the end of the table. Everyone in the bunker said he was a bum, her daddy called him a greasy hobo jackass. But she liked him, he was always nice to her and David, and the other kids too. He always had candy with him, and he always shared, which was nice. Though he stared a lot, particularly at her and David, which was creepy sometimes. "Hey, Sammy!"
His head shot up, and he coughed as his piggy eyes roved the room to see who had called his name. He grinned when he saw Alice, he was missing a few yellow teeth. "Hey, Allie. Hey David. Watchu kids playin'?"
"I found a checker board." David answered, finally finishing. "Water bottle goes first."
She giggled, moving a piece forward. As David moved his piece, Alice spotted her father walking angrily towards their room. Uh oh. Her face fell, she knew mommy would be coming out soon, and she wasn't going to look good. She sighed, moving her piece, interest in the game lost.
Sam moved over to them, the stench of booze engulfing them. "Checkers, huh? Been a while since I played that. Never got the hang of that chess game."
"Chess is hard. "David said, frowning.
Sam nodded, then grinned. "Hey, I got sumtin' for you kiddies." He rummaged in his trench coat, pulling out a handful of wrapped candies. "Jolly Ranchers."
The kids' eyes lit up as he handed them each one, popping a green one in his own mouth. David closed his eyes, letting the tart taste travel across his tongue. Alice sucked on hers, the cherry flavor bursting over her taste buds.
She felt a figure loom over her, and she turned to see her father standing behind her. His hard green eyes pierced hers, his handlebar mustache twitching. But he had a weird smile on his face. "Come on, darlin'. We need to talk."
Sam glared at him. "And by talk, I'm guessing you mean take her to your room and give her another shiner?" he asked bitterly, a scowl showing beneath his graying beard.
Her father glared at Sam, and his fist shot out and gripped Sam's collar. "Watch it, hobo. I don't lay a finger on my family, I keep telling all you fuckers that."
Sam didn't answer, only slapping the hand away. "Yeah yeah, whatever." He grumbled.
Alice looked in fear at her father as he grabbed the back of her flowery shirt by force and dragged her back to the room. She looked back at the worried David, but she knew better than to try and resist. She just had to pray.
As they went down the hall, Matt watched in disgust from the main entryway's screen door. Everyone knew what that bastard did, but unfortunately neither the daughter nor mother spoke out against him, and he was the only one in the bunker who could keep the power generators running smoothly.
Then goose bumps shot up all over his skin. A knock clanged against the door, then another… another.
He slowly turned to look at it. The knocks came again, this time more frantic, and a muffled voice tried crying through. He moved cautiously over, and opened the sliding panel to look outside. He jumped back as a pair of terrified eyes stared back at him, and the woman tried sticking her fingers through the opening. "Please, you have to help me! They're coming! I-I don't want to die!"
Matt stood paralyzed. He wasn't supposed to open the door, not for anything. But… this woman looked terrified. No one had ever come to the door asking for help, or for anything, period. He took a shaky breath, and started undoing the locks. He slid the door open, and the woman fell inside, breathing ragged. "Th-thank… you…" she choked out, and then she coughed up blood. And Matt's eyes fell to the woman's shoulder. He had thought she was wearing a patterned shirt, but now he saw that the blouse she wore was white. And spots of red stemmed from her shoulder, which had a gaping wound in it. A bite mark.
He groaned, and panicked, started trying to shove the woman back out of the door. Then a groan hit his ears, and a monster flew in the door, tackling him. He screamed as the monster tore the flesh from his throat with its teeth, the walls staining crimson. As he died, he heard a chorus of moans and groans and growls as the zombie feasted on him, its companions shuffling inside after it. What had he done?
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Alice squealed as she was tossed in the room, her mother trembling in the corner. "Gary…" she pleaded.
"Shut up, bitch." He growled. He turned to Alice, taking out his belt and wrapping it around his fist. "Alright, darlin'. Where is it?"
Alice backed away, shaking. "Wh-where's what?"
Her dad put on a sickly sweet smile. "Honey, you know how Daddy gets when he doesn't get his drinks. My stash in the engine room is gone."
"I d-didn't take it…" she stammered, tears forming in her eyes.
"Well your mother didn't take it!" he shouted, anger exploding across his face. "She's not stupid enough to do it! And you're the only other one who knew about it!"
"I didn't t-take it, I s-swear!" she stammered, fear etched into her face.
Her father growled, raising his fist as her mommy screamed at him to stop, when someone else's screams were heard. Her dad stopped midswing, looking back at the door as more screams were heard. Her father bolted out the door, Alice following despite her mother yelling at her to come back.
She stopped and stared in horror, monsters were running around the bunker, skin gray and peeling, blood dripping from their jaws as they… Oh God they were eating people!
Guns went off, and Alice's father grabbed her arm and dragged her put of the way of a particularly fast monster that leapt for her. He was cursing, dragging her away from the horde of monsters.
A big, bulging one started walking towards them, growing bigger as it got closer. Alice screamed as her father pushed her towards it and ran in the opposite direction, and it loomed over her as the twitching increased.
Sam pulled her away as it exploded, blood and fluids staining the white ceiling and bone fragments flying everywhere.
Sam picked her up in his arms, hugging her close as he carried her to safety. "I grabbed David, we're going to hide out in my room." He whispered, barely able to be heard over the screams. Alice was part of the screaming, burying her face in his coat. They made it to his room, and David was already in there waiting. When he saw Alice, he hopped off the bed and latched onto her, crying with her.
Alice hugged him back, then turned to Sam, wiping her eyes. "D-did you see mommy? Or daddy?"
A somber look was on the old man's face. "I… I'm sorry, Allie. They're dead. They were caught up in the horde. I'm so sorry."
She didn't hear the last part of his answer, her mind latched onto the words, They're dead. It couldn't be true, Mommy and Dad couldn't die, they couldn't leave her alone.
She fell to the floor, dazed as she started to cry. David knelt with her, wrapping his arms around her and crying with her as Sam looked on.
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It felt like hours had passed, and there was still groaning throughout the bunker. Alice and David sat curled up in the corner as Sam walked back in, having gone to see if anyone had made it out alive. Alice was smart, she could tell by his face no one had.
Then a creepy smile came over his face as he sat down next to the kids. Alice rested her head against his shoulder, not noticing the grin, not realizing what he was doing as he slowly started rubbing her back. David was on the other side of him, and he started doing the same to him. "You kids wanna play a game?" he asked.
Alice shook her head, then perked up. Was that music she heard? It sounded like the music the Chef listened to while he cooked, ABCD? But she had seen him get bitten.
Her attention snapped back to the room as David gasped, Sam's hand had moved down, and he was grinning wide. "Five years, I haven't had the chance to indulge in life's pleasures for five years. Now," he said, chuckling. "Now there's no fear of consequences."
David squirmed as Sam kept a grip on his crotch, pulling the struggling Alice towards him. The music had gotten louder, then suddenly shut off as she screamed. "Sam, please! What are you doing?!" she cried.
He held her down, shoving David down next to her. "Taking what's mine." He said, a dark glint in his eyes. He slowly started lifting up Alice's skirt, and she started crying. Then they all froze at the sound of the doorknob jiggling. It stopped for a moment, then jiggled some more, followed by the sound of the door unlocking. Then nothing. Sam stared in fear the door, slowly getting up and walking over drawing his knife. He shakily opened the door, slowly, cautiously.
As soon as it opened, he jumped back as a shadowy figure stared out of the darkness of the hallway, a bright grin visible under crazed eyes. A gunshot sounded, and blood flowered across Sam's wife-beater shirt as he fell to the ground, gasping as he smacked his head against the bed. He looked up in fear as the man waked in, followed by a very large Doberman. He was tall, almost six and a half feet. He wore a shirt with red eyes and a toothy grin, Disturbed scrawled across the front in red. Over this we wore a tough looking black leather jacket, with a satchel over that. He wore black biker chaps over black jeans, with military steel toed combat boots that clinked against the ground as he approached. His legs were loaded with a pistol holster and a couple knife sheaths, a katana scabbard slung across his back. His eyes were a dark brown, and had an evil, insane light to them, his wide grin unsettling and malicious. His short, brown ruffled hair was covered by a black fedora. He looked like a sinister version of Indiana Jones. "I heard what you were saying to those kids." He said softly, his grin never leaving, but rage in his eyes. "And I'll be honest, I didn't like it. No, no, not one bit." He said, kneeling to look Sam straight into his horrified eyes. "You know, people like you make me sick. And do you want to know what I do to people like you?"
Sam shook his head, unable to form any intelligible words. The man grabbed Sam, and hefted him up and tossed him against the wall. "I kill them." He stated plainly. "Shoot them, stab them, skin them, feed them to my dog." He went on, the dog licking its chops as it glared menacingly at Sam.
Sam raised his hands. "N-no! You got it all wrong, I wasn't touching them!"
"You touched David in his pee pee place and tried to take my skirt off!" Alice said angrily.
This threw the man into a rage. The grin gone, now only murder across his face as he grabbed Sam by the throat. "You fucking sick pedophile." He growled, choking Sam. "You'll suffer for this."
Sam scratched at the man's arm in desperation, but to no avail. "No, no please! I-I don't want to die!" he pleaded.
"Shut the fuck up! You deserve worse than death!" The man roared. "If those kids weren't here, I'd castrate you and feed your balls to the zombies." Sam choked at this. The grin returned, and the man drew his katana from its scabbard. It was sleek and black, with a silver dragon climbing up the flat of the blade, silver fire around it. He stood back, and put the tip under Sam's trembling chin. "I may do that anyway…" he mused to himself. He glanced at the terrified kids. "Nah." He said aloud. "I'll just turn you into a kebab."
Sam barely had time to scream as the man suddenly ran his sword through his chest, through his lung. He gasped in pain, wheezing as his lungs filled with his blood, and he started choking. Blood dribbled from the corners from his mouth, his eyes bugging out as he twitched. He fell still, his arms falling to the ground as a pool of blood slowly formed around him.
All the while Alice and David watched in horror at the murder, then squeaked as the man turned suddenly towards them, a spray of Sam's blood across his face as he wiped his sword's blade clean on the bed's blanket. He looked back at them, and his face transformed from homicidal and terrifying to warm and concerned in an instant. It was such a drastic change that Alice was caught off guard as David continued whimpering.
The man walked over to them, kneeling down to look at them eye level. "Are you two okay?" He asked, offering a warm smile. "He didn't hurt you?"
David had stopped crying and started just staring at the man, whereas Alice slowly detached from her friend and got closer to the man. He was warm and inviting now. "N-no, he just t-touched us…"
The man scowled at that. "Well, he got what was coming to him then." He said bitterly. Then the smile came back, but this time it was full of pity. "I'm guessing your bunker was overrun? You're the only survivors?"
David nodded, but Alice was more hopeful. "Did you see a lady? Orange hair like mine, blue eyes like mine, freckles and a bruised eye? She was my mommy."
The man's smile fell. "No, I'm sorry. I didn't see anything alive out there, it's a God damn blood bath out there."
Alice gasped. "You're not supposed to say that…"
The man raised an eyebrow, and then gave a small laugh. "I'm a bit vulgar, as you'll find out. Just a bad habit and I don't care enough to try and change it." He stood up, and offered his hands to the kids to help them up. The dog came over, sniffing the kids. Alice hesitantly reached out, and looked to the man for permission. He grinned. "Don't worry. He only bites bad guys. He loves kids."
She grinned, petting the dog, David joining her and scratching him behind the ears. The dog, in turn, growled in pleasure, his hind leg scratching at the floor as they hit the sweet spots.
Tristan chuckled, looking back at Sam's body. "Alright, this place is completely overrun. Let's get the hell out of here."
He heaved up Sam's body, dragging it out the door and leaving a blood trail. Alice and David followed apprensively, the dog running ahead to grab Sam's leg in his jaw and help carry him.
They reached the main hall, and Alice felt a painful pang in her chest. The dull steel walls she had come to know and become so acquainted with were painted crimson and marks and stains showed where bodies had been before they reanimated. At the moment, a group of zombies were huddled together in the center of the room. The man soundlessly pointed to some crates for the kids to hide behind. They complied, and the man drew a knife and jabbed it into Sam's skull, then soundlessly carried the body into the open. He set it down, then quickly snuck back to the boxes. He grabbed a fallen hunk of wood, and tossed it near the body. It hit the floor with a thud, and soon after zombies made their way over to start feasting on the corpse.
The man reached into his satchel, and pulled out something. "Cover your ears." He ordered, and after seeing the kids comply he pulled out a pin and rolled the thing over to the zombies. Alice realized it was a grenade right before it went off, limbs flying out of the explosion. The sound resounded through the bunker, and to the kids' horror the man pulled out an iPod and started blasting music. "Stay here." He said, grinning. He walked out into the open as groans drew near, tapping his foot to the beat. "Aw, yeah, I love this one!" He started dancing, mimicking a guitar in his arms as the lyrics starts, him singing aloud.
"Livin' easy! Livin' free. Season ticket on a one way ride!" Zombies began to pour into the room, attracted to the music. He drew his katana, not breaking tune as he decapitated the first zombie that got to him. and he drew his sword to decapitate it, not breaking song. "Askin' nothin', leave me be! Takin' everythin' in my stride!" Three more zombies reached him, he twirled behind them, slicing them up. "Don't need reason! Don't need rhyme! Ain't nothin' that I'd rather doooo! Goin' down, party time! My friends are gonna be there toooo, yeah." He drew a pistol and in the space of two seconds shot five zombies between their eyes. "I'm on the Hiiiiighway to Hell! On the Hiiiiighway to Hell! Hiiiiighway to Hell! I'm on the Hiiiiighway to Hell!" The entire time he sang he cut down zombies with his sword and shot them down, his dog joining in, tearing out throats and biting down on skulls. "No stop signs, speed limit! Nobody's gonna slow me down!"
David was watching in awe. Alice was wondering just what was wrong with the man. He was attracting all of the zombies throughout the bunker, singing and killing.
"Hey momma! Look at me! I'm on my way to the promised lannnd, yeah. I'm on the Hiiiiighway to Hell! On the Hiiiiighway to Hell! Hiiiiighway… oh, they're all dead." He remarked. He put out his hand, and his dog high fived him. He switched off the iPod, and walked over to the kids. The crazy look had once again been replaced by the soft look. "Alright, let's move."
As they walked towards the exit, David tugged his sleeve. "Why were you doing that? It brought all of the monsters to you."
"Exactly." He replied. "That way, I know I killed them all. True, it's dangerous and stupid, but it works wonders. Much like most things I do." They reached the exit. He started to open the door, then stopped. He turned to them. "Have you guys been down here since Z-day?" They stared at him in confusion. He smacked his head. "Right, you're bunkies. You don't know about all the new terms and how 'society' is now. Z-Day is what we outsiders call the day when these monsters showed up."
David nodded. "Yes, we've been in here for five years."
The man grinned. "Ready for your first breath of fresh air in five years?" They nodded excitedly, and the man opened the door. Instantly, they were hit by waves of bright light, colors, and smells. The blazing sun illuminated the pine trees, bright greens and reds and yellows, and a brilliant blue sky with white wisps running through it. The natural heat of the summer sun warmed their skin, so deprived of natural light for so long. As they stepped out, gravel and leaves crunched beneath their worn shoes, a breeze providing occasional breaks from the sun. It was glorious, they couldn't remember the outside world being so beautiful, they had been down there for so long. As they stared in awe as they followed the man, the bodies strewn along the roads escaping their attention, as did the overturned vehicles, houses overridden with vines and ivy, the years old blood stains painting the ground and walls, the overall destruction of the neighborhood. Alice spotted her old house down the street, it was one of the few sights she had retained in her young memory from before the days of the bunker. The canary yellow paint she had loved so much had faded, now a dull, close to white pale color, the paint peeling and the windows smashed from looters. She started noticing the bodies as a zombie impaled on the fence in front of her house growled at them. Suddenly she wanted to go back in the bunker.
David tugged her arm, pointing at a large RV the man had walked over to, though one could just barely tell it was an RV. With metal plating screwed on over the initial covering, a series of spikes and blades along the sides, and a cattle catcher from a train on the front, it looked more like a war machine. There was a machine turret on the top that added to that effect. He opened the door, and gestured inside. When Alice and David stepped in, they gasped. The inside was a stark contrast to the outside, which made it look like a tank. Inside, it looked homey, with a couch, bed, fridge, stove, bookshelf, even a TV with a DVD player. Alice recognized an Xbox underneath the TV, David had taken his into the bunker, but it had broken down nearly two years ago.
The man sat down on the couch, and his dog jumped up onto his lap. "So, introduction time. My name is Tristan. Supreme badass and enormous geek. I travel the ruins of our old society and kill zombies, and help people that need helped, like you kiddos." He said, grinning.
Alice sat down next to him, David on the other side. "I'm Alice, that's David. We went into that bunker on… what did you say? Z-Day?"
Tristan nodded, and gave a warm smile. "Yeah. Z-Day. Nice to meet you both." He stretched his arms, getting up and heading over to a couch set up in place of the driver's seat, starting up the vehicle. "Don't worry." He said, a shine to his eyes as he smiled at them. "I'll make sure you guys stay safe."
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