Long live the king.

Those four words had been buzzing around in Chris' head for hours now, ever since he had been thrown into the small broom cupboard that had become his prison.

There was only just enough room for him to lie down on the rough carpet, the bare whitewashed concrete on all sides offering no chance of escape, and the movement of shadows underneath the door betrayed the presence of his two jailers. He didn't know how long it had been since Sunil had given him the ultimatum. Submit to him and his insane leadership, or watch helplessly as everything he loved was torn apart, and Eliza was made to perform unspeakable things upon all of Sunil's army.

The answer seemed obvious, and yet Chris just couldn't let the old world, and its morals and ideals, just slip through his fingers. Just because walking corpses roamed the earth didn't mean he had to let thugs like Sunil rule over him. He knew the army were out there, not Sunil's gang, the old military of the UK, and that when they came for Sunil all of his plans and schemes would be torn to pieces, and this bandit army would crumble and die.

But he had no idea how long it would be until order was restored. The capital was a warzone, and the British Army and Sunil weren't the only ones fighting over this dying city.

His thoughts were interrupted by the slam of the door being wrenched open, and he found himself faced with the barrels of two heavy black shotguns, their owners, clad in the crimson painted body armour that had seemingly become the official uniform of Sunil's army, keeping the guns aimed upon Chris as a third figure stepped forward.

For a second Chris blinked in the dazzling sunlight spilling in from a window opposite, and felt a slight flash of hope as a soft female voice, but with a firm edge to her posh North London accent, spoke up.

"Lower the guns boys…"

He struggled to stand, feeling a gentle but firm hand reach up to help him out, and, as he stepped out, he finally saw the figure revealed for the first time.

The woman standing next to him was of a similar height to him, but slim and wiry, her slim face bright and cheerful, laughter lines just visible around her mouth, currently set in a genial smile, and her long red hair done up in a tight bun, secured with a slim shaft of steel which glinted in the sunlight. Looking down at his hands, expecting a beating from this new enemy, he noticed the clean white lab coat she wore over a bright blue shirt and army combat trousers and boots, giving her a professional air, as if he was safe whilst with her.

"Daphne Vickers." She said cheerily as she held out a hand, Chris looking warily at the two armed men beside them before weakly shaking her hand. "Doctor Daphne Vickers." She added with a slight smile. "I didn't spend ten years in medical school to not use the title."

Daphne laughed but Chris remained silent as they walked through the luxurious wood panelled corridors of the hotel, groups of men and women rushing past with weapons or boxes of supplies, not seeming to notice him at all. Any sense of loneliness however, was lost as Daphne talked almost nonstop from next to him.

"Sorry about the wait but it takes time to get an audience with the king, you know! I mean, just because I'm his chief medical officer…sorry, 'court physician' doesn't mean I get special privileges."

Glancing over to see Chris' blank look, she laughed slightly.

"I know, this whole 'king's court' crap must really be annoying you at the moment but, trust me, after a while it kind of grows on you. Even some of those tough guys that Sunil likes to surround himself with have started calling themselves knights. It's kind of cute actually."

Chris looked around at the men and women standing around the grand oak doors they were walking towards. 'Cute' was not a word he would have thought of to describe the hard faced figures glaring at him, hands on evil looking swords and guns at their hips.

"Go on in then. Can't keep the king waiting!" Daphne said cheerily as Chris walked to open the doors.

Suddenly he felt a slight whoosh of air from his right, and recoiled back as a wide bladed sword, its edges slightly weathered and battered from obvious use, moved to block his path, a towering figure, bald headed and built like a professional wrestler, stepped forwards, seeming to stretch the black shirt and red body armour he wore as he sheathed the blade and folded his huge arms.

"Seriously Carl?" Daphne snapped, pushing Chris behind her as she jabbed a finger into the centre of the huge man's chest. "Did you really have to scare our guest like that?"

Carl shrugged his giant shoulders, both the size of Chris' head, and let the two of them pass, the other guards quickly moving aside as well.

"Man of few words, our Carl." Daphne said as they made their way to the doors, two men with black G36 rifles moving to open them as they came closer. "But I've seen that sword of his cut through two men at once so don't let that silence of his make you think he's soft."

Then there was no more time to talk as the doors were hauled open and they stepped into Sunil's throne room.

If the room he had first seen Sunil in was opulent, Chris couldn't even think of a term to describe the room before him. It must have been a ballroom before, and the chessboard style pattern across the tiles only added to the regal feel of the room, accentuated by the gold leaf covering the pillars and patterns across the red walls, and the elegant blue carpet leading from the doors to a raised dais at the other end of the room.

As they walked Chris felt the eyes of everyone in the room fall upon him, the guards in full armour lurking by the walls, the groups of people clad in slightly ruffled tailored suits and dresses, and the dozens of tough looking men and women stood on all sides, all clad in the same crimson armour, but all obviously lethal fighters in their own right. He felt a slight sense of awe at this strange gathering of people, until a very familiar voice called out from the other end of the room.

"Kneel for your king!"

The effect was instantaneous.

Every single person in the room fell to one knee in a heartbeat, their tough expressions and arrogant swagger replaced by complete subservience as all eyes looked up at the dais.

Chris felt his eyes widen in horror as he saw what lay at the other end of the room.

All around the dais clustered a motley collection of armed guards, men in suits, women in revealing dresses. One man in particular, a balding middle aged Asian man, clad in a simple black jumper and jeans, two machetes and a black revolver at his hip caught his eye, the man glaring at Daphne as they approached. And, at the centre of it all, sat casually with one leg draped over the other, was Sunil, his grey suit immaculate and his face clean shaven, the crown of bones atop his head and two monstrously large grey mongrel dogs, both with thick collars and chains holding them in place, sat at his feet. His handsome face broke out into a smile as he saw Chris drop to the floor, his own sense of self-preservation overriding any personal pride.

"Christopher!" he cried out jovially, stepping out of the surprisingly plain oak wood chair he sat upon and walking down towards him. "I'm glad you came, and showing the correct sort of respect to your king as well! Very pleasing, I must say. Have you met my queen yet?" he added, his bright white teeth set in a wide grin, standing just in front of Chris and Daphne's kneeling forms.

Chris couldn't see clearly from his position, trying to keep his eyes to the ground, but he smelt a blast of perfume and heard the clatter of stiletto heels upon the tiles as another figure approached, and he raised his eyes, keeping an eye on Sunil, who only grinned jovially.

"Anna, I believe you may have heard of our friend Christopher?" Sunil said with a slight laugh, the rabble of soldiers and courtiers all laughing along loyally as Chris looked up to see a slim but pale woman, her blue eyes wide with shock and concern as she bent down to his level. She brushed aside a lock of her long curled blonde hair, her elegant red dress settling across the floor as she gently reached out a hand to touch his face, as if to check if he was actually there.

"Enough." Sunil said sharply, and the pale hand withdrew, and Anna stood up, seeming to shrink back in Sunil's presence, as the man nodded at Daphne who firmly but gently dragged him to his feet.

"I see you've already met my court physician." The self-proclaimed king said simply, Daphne smirking at his remark. "Now, Christopher, I believe it was…harsh, to just make you rot in a cupboard when there is so much happening in the world out there. I think you would appreciate seeing a bit more of our workings. I mean, you are going to be a valued member of my kingdom, aren't you? I'm sure our mutual friend Eliza would very much appreciate you cooperating." He added coldly, before nodding at Daphne.

"Take him to the Armoury." Sunil said shortly. "Let's show our newest recruit how our organisation works."

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'The Armoury' as Sunil had called it, turned out to be the restaurant of the old hotel, the tables now laid out in long rows, the expensive white tablecloths splashed with grease and oil as a small army of surly looking soldiers, all dressed in some kind of red clothing, with everything from crumpled overalls to sharp suits, looked over and checked the hundreds of weapons laid around the room.

When Daphne led him in, Chris couldn't believe the scale of the operation, the green military crates piled high around the walls, the boxes of bullets and ammunition under every table, and the countless guns and other weapons laid out or being worked upon by the room's occupants.

"Oh…this is for you." Daphne said as she led him to an empty bench, motioning for him to sit as she laid his Browning pistol on the table, then gently placed his other weapons and holster next to it.

"W-what?" Chris stuttered, slowly reaching out to touch the cold metal, as if he expected it to explode in his hands at any moment. His companion however seemed unfazed as she explained simply.

"Sunil thought you couldn't exactly help our little operation if you weren't armed. Can't have a walker or something just…"

Her words seemed to become mere background noise to Chris as he looked blankly at the gun laid out on the table.

'This isn't a gift', he thought to himself, 'This is a curse'. Having his weapons with him again didn't make him feel any safer, and he could now see clearly that this was just another ploy by Sunil, another attempt to make him feel small and powerless. Having a gun at his side just brought the reality of his situation crashing down on him once again. The second he so much as thought of aiming that pistol at Sunil, he and Eliza and Gage were dead already. Sunil had him trapped, and there was no way out for him.

As he looked in despair ahead of him, the ranks of workers giving him no thought as they methodically looked over the evil looking assault rifles and machetes they were working on, before painting them all in the same crimson as everything else in Sunil's vile citadel, he noticed what Daphne was doing, and felt his skin crawl.

The lab coat she wore, which had looked so innocent before, had been blown out by a draught of air, and Chris' eyes widened as he saw the glint of steel on the dozen or so knives and other blades, all different sizes and lengths, but all in perfect condition and ranked in some way he couldn't figure out.

"Ah, checking out the arsenal, are you?" Daphne said breezily. "Impressive, eh? I was a surgeon before all this, you know… Had to fight my way out of the hospital with nothing but a scalpel. Everyone else, patients, doctors and police officers, their getting torn apart all around me, and I just run, this puny piece of metal in my hand. I'm almost at the main entrance when this walker comes up right in front of me, must have been a policeman before, he was covered in blood and has this heavy baton in his right hand, and I'm stuck there, nothing but a scalpel, remember, and my mind just goes blank."

She moved her hands in a theatrical gesture of nothingness before she started laying out some of the blades from inside her coat on the table, and continued her story, polishing each one with a clean scrap of fabric.

"I mean knew you had to hit them in the head. I saw a group of police shooting a few out in the street and they only went down when a lucky bullet got them between the eyes. But still, how I was going to do that, I thought. Then I just have a flash of inspiration, all those lessons and lectures back in medical school come flooding back to me, and do you know what I realised?"

Chris turned to look at her, and the cheery smile and upbeat attitude the doctor had had seconds before was gone, replaced by a cold and calculating frown, her expression seeming to have darkened instantly.

"That we're nothing but a bundle of nerves and blood vessels and, if you know exactly where to hit those pressure points, then nothing can stop you. No matter how tough an enemy is, you hit them in the right places, the right weak spots, and they'll fall…"

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After a brief stop in the Armoury, during which Daphne had systematically cleaned and looked over every last knife and blade in her vast collection, whilst Chris silently pretended to check his own weapons, all the while trying to work out why someone like Daphne was working for Sunil of all people, they were once more walking through the decaying luxury of the hotel. Chris was now on edge as he finally realised how large this operation was. At first he had thought Sunil a mere bandit leader but now, after seeing the scale of the Armoury, and now the amount of red armoured soldiers hurrying past clutching military grade weaponry or carrying heavy crates of ammunition and supplies, he was now terrified for the military encamped only a few miles away. Sunil wouldn't stop until all of London was at his feet, and now Adam Ratcliffe's boast that the British Army would triumph was starting to sound hollower by the second.

"The labs are just ahead." Daphne said cheerily, pulling her lab coat around herself a bit more as a group of nearby soldiers leered at her. "Where all the magic happens!" she added with a grin.

Up ahead Chris could see a set of nondescript whitewashed doors, which burst open to reveal Sunil, grinning widely, his jacket off and his white shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbows, a set of black rubber gloves, stained with blood and flecks of grey, covering his hands.

"Lovely to see you again Christopher!" he said with a laugh, clapping his hands together, sending a slight spray of blood across his shirt. Peeling off the gloves and handing them to a small woman behind him in a blood-stained lab coat, he slapped Chris on the back. "I hope you enjoy what surprises we have in store for your friends at the Westminster Safe Zone!"

And with that, and a squeeze of Daphne's arse, which she laughed at, he was gone, disappearing down the corridor, a group of guards forming up around him.

"Now we can have a quick glance into the…" Daphne began as they walked towards the open doors of what was evidently the lab.

Suddenly there was a dull moan from behind the doors, and Chris felt his hair stand on end and his hand go to the gun at his belt as they were pushed open and a lone walker stumbled out, blood covering his decaying mouth, the army uniform he wore ragged and torn. Instantly Daphne stepped in front of him, her hand reaching into her lab coat, drawing out two thin bladed knives, both just under a foot long.

"Leave this to me." She snapped, rushing forward and, ducking under the walkers clumsy grab attempt, slashing the tendons in its arms, causing them to flop drunkenly to its side. The thing went to bite her, but the doctor only stepped back, her blades a blur of silver as she sliced at its face and, as she moved to the left to dodge it again, Chris watched in amazement as its jaw detached from the rest of its head and fell to the floor. Rolling between its legs, Daphne slashed the backs of both knees, throwing both knives aside as the walker collapsed to the floor and, removing the steel hairpin in her coppery hair, letting it flow freely down her back, she rammed the sharpened end into the walker's eye, the creature struggling for a second before falling silent.

Seeing Chris with his hand on his pistol, Daphne stood up, still smiling but her voice was firm as she said simply.

"If you even think of betraying us I won't waste any time doing the same to you…"

As she said this a man in a torn lab coat, an obvious bite wound on his arm, stumbled out of the lab.

"I'm so sorry Doctor Vickers!" he spluttered. "I couldn't…"

In a heartbeat Daphne turned and threw the steel hairpin, hitting the infected man right between the eyes.

"I won't even hesitate." She said softly as the dead man fell to the crimson carpet.