Marked (Part 1)

September 28th

6:31 AM

TIME UNTIL THE MILITARY ARRIVES:

53:28:03

It was now after six in the morning and Ana woke up from her much-needed sleep. There was no denying how much she really needed it after having been awake for almost two days, as she did not get any sleep after the outbreak had started the night before.

But really, the rest was also necessary after having gone through the brutal scuffle against Russ Tyler, who appeared to be the bodyguard of the man who was heading the operation of the outbreak, Mr. Walters. However, the fact that she finished him off raised some concern as she didn't get enough information that she needed. On the plus side, she got the file of Mary Mitchell, who may or may not be in grave danger at that very moment.

Once she got herself up, she felt a slight pain in her midsection. The fight that she went through was clearly no picnic for her. Though she showed that she knew some hand-to-hand skills, this guy was clearly bigger and stronger than her. It would be an understatement to say that she got lucky in taking him down, but at least she wasn't hurt enough not to do anything.

She got out of the bed and put her hand on her back and also her right side. She then started to unbutton her blouse that she was wearing and then took it off. She walked over to the mirror that was in the room as she stood there shirtless, but was still wearing a bra. She turned around and noticed some bruises on her skin. Though she felt some pain, she wasn't put out of commission.

I think I may need to take it a little easy, at least until some of the pain goes away. She thought.

She then approached a closet and looked to find some other clothes for her to wear. She realized that she had spent a lot of time in her hotel uniform, even when she was out there helping Andy and Tammy, whom were also helping her. If anything, they all helped each other. What was also good for her was that he boss at the hotel was also some help to her.

She had only been working as a field agent for six months up to that point. It was a major step-up from her having been a computer technician. Though there were moments that she felt fear and concern, she had to display some courage out there, even if things were to get heavy on her. She got involved in a case to try to track down a wanted drug lord, then came the zombie outbreak, and now after having been told that the company behind making a drug that helps infected people slow down the turning process was working with said criminal, things got even heavier for her.

She walked out of the room she was in and Simpson looked up as he noticed her walking.

"Ana, you're awake, are you feeling better?" Simpson said.

"I am a little better, I just need to wait for the aching to stop," Ana said. "Are Andy and Tammy back yet?"

"No, they're still out there," Simpson said. "I will call them to come back soon, especially since the same ZDC agents are coming by in a little bit for us to discuss some things."

Ana sighed a bit when she heard him say ZDC agents. "Now that you mention it, there is something off about one of those agents," Ana said.

"What do you mean?" Simpson said.

"Kent, my boss from the hotel, he told me that after I went into the police station to go search the place, that Agent Gates was there alone but didn't go in to investigate," Ana said. "It seemed that when Park arrived with some other, they all went in. Kent went in to help me when I dealt with that Phenotrans bodyguard or whatever he was. I have a weird feeling about this."

"Maybe this guy is new at his job or something," Simpson said. "He seems like he is around your age."

"Perhaps," she said. "I may be one of the youngest field agents, if not the youngest here involved in this case, but I am rather competent at my job, whether it's being out there or in front of a computer screen. From what I saw, he seems to ditch his partner and go off on his own. It even made me wonder how they even knew that I was in the police station last night, or what they were even doing there to begin with. At least Park helped me a bit."

"Look, they are not our problem, but if anything else happens, we will let the head of the ZDC operation know," Simpson said.

Ana stood there with a look of skepticism after having been told that. She was aware of how young she was, and when she saw Tammy interacting with that guy, it appeared that he was immature, but what she had been told had little to do with immaturity. No, it was different. It could be a sign of competence at his job, or very little competence at it. Little was known about him and she may be wrong in this case, but it would be wrong to say that she trusts this guy.

"One more thing, I got the file on the girl that Phenotrans is after," Ana said. "I have it saved onto my thumb drive."

"That's great, what did you find?" Simpson said.

"There was something weird about her file," Ana said. "I looked at it and was said that she was working with Mendoza and that the arrest was made sometime recently. Also, it seemed that she was placed on house arrest. I also noticed on her mugshot that she has a tattoo of the number 40 under her right ear."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Simpson said.

"It didn't look like a tattoo that symbolized anything, but rather that it was written when she was given it," Ana said. "Like if someone was to write a number with a pen, but maybe this was done with the needle or whatever was used to have it down, like maybe she was number 40 of something."

"Maybe she had pride in her days of being on a high school sports team," Simpson said.

"I suppose," Ana said, though on the inside, there was more than met the eye. Sure, it is plausible for someone to take pride in jersey numbers and whatnot, but something told her that the tattoo meant something else, especially because she was arrested, and also that Phenotrans is looking for her. The number would look different if she were priding in a jersey number.

MEANWHILE, OUT IN PALM TREE CITY

7:12 AM

Andy and Tammy, along with Deidre, were out all night which broke into the morning to see if they not only could find other living people out there, but also kill any zombie who got in their way.

Deidre seemed to have shown that she was capable of dealing with zombies. For some reason, she was still wearing a certain perfume that for some reason, zombies can't stand the smell of, which even applied to the other strippers that were taken to safety. When Andy and Tammy arrived to the strip club the previous night, the couple was surprised at how zombies just continued to walk around and not try to eat the two women. Even though it was hours later, the smell remained on Deidre's body, but who knew when the smell would wear off?

Along the way, Andy saw a comic book store, and the trio then went inside to take a breather and to keep safe before anything happens. At some point, Andy noticed a few flyers lying around with advertisements for events that were supposed to take place that weekend.

The one that stood out to him was a flyer for a convention that was supposed to go on that weekend. On the flyer for the convention, there pictures of who were supposed to be there. The main attraction had a picture of a fit and muscular professional wrestler who had long brown hair and an attractive brunette woman by his side who had tattoos on her arms. The picture depicted the woman admiring and embracing the buff man. Under the picture, the name card read "Gary 'the Ax' Finkel and his valet and wife, the lovely Sweet Rhonda." Another part of the flyer read cosplay contests, as well as an appearance from a professional gamer named Eric Masters. Another couple of flyers had ads for a live performance at a club from Angel Lust, a metal band whom also had survived the Fortune City outbreak.

Another flyer was for a show at a comedy club, with one of the opening acts being Royce St. John, another person who also survived Fortune's End.

From a distance, the two ladies turned around and noticed that Andy was rather albeit very distracted. Tammy approached him.

"Hey, Andy, what are you doing?" Tammy said.

Andy jumped when he heard his girlfriend's voice and turned to face her. "Oh, sorry, I was a bit distracted. I found something."

Tammy approached him and turned her attention to the flyer on the door.

"So, what's the deal?" Tammy said. "This isn't the time for any of this."

"Look, it's possible that some of these people are here in the city and haven't gotten bitten," Andy said. "I also wonder if some of these people had gotten here before the outbreak began."

Tammy came to a realization that she had witnessed something like this.

"You know, you might have a point," Tammy said. "Yesterday, Ana and I rescued those beach volleyball players, whom weren't even informed of the cancelation of their tournament. What surprised me was that one of them managed to clear away some zombies by doing a hard serve. Then again, I did the same thing."

The two paused for a second.

"Well, I am also a fan of Gary Finkel and I would like to meet him," Andy said. "Or was it that I had a crush on Sweet Rhonda? It seemed that my focus was on her when I watched a Gary Finkel match."

Tammy shook her head and scoffed and then tapped him on the shoulder.

"Oh, come on, I was kidding," Andy said. "Besides, you are my Sweet Rhonda, anyway."

Deidre was looking out the windows and noticed some zombies crowding around the store that they were in. Some zombies even put their hands against the windows and then snarled at the trio.

"Um, guys, we have company," Deidre said as she turned around towards them.

Andy and Tammy turned their attentions towards the windows, but surprisingly, none of them were close to the door. Tammy got up with her shotgun axe. Throughout the entire night that they were out and about, she reloaded on the shells. She slowly approached the door with the weapon drawn while Andy looked on with some concern. It didn't matter if she had been involved in the action; his greatest fear was her getting bitten and turning into a zombie. Sure, he was man enough to face zombies and such, but also maintained a fear about them, mostly because he was afraid of Tammy becoming one. Those nightmares had quite an effect on him.

Andy got up and got his barbed wire bat out in case something was to happen to her. Deidre got out an axe that she had been using up to that moment. Tammy slowly opened the door and to her left, a zombie closed in her as she jumped and screamed. Andy quickly pulled her back inside when that happened. The zombie was too close for comfort that she could have easily been bit. The door remained open, however, but once Andy released Tammy, she drew her weapon again but whacked it with the axe side in the chest, which knocked it outside, but didn't kill it. The zombie was one the ground with its mouth open, and Tammy turned the weapon over with the shotgun heading towards the zombie's open mouth. Once it got inside, she pulled the trigger and the zombie's head exploded with the blood and brains splattering all over the ground.

"You know, I think we should get going," Tammy said.

"You're right, angel, let's get out of here," Andy said.

Before they got going, Andy picked up the flyers in case they needed to check the places. It was possible that some people had come to Palm Tree City for those events and had not canceled, or had not been informed of the cancelations.

Once they got out of the store, Andy had gotten a call on his earpiece. He answered the call as they looked around for another car to use. The car that Andy used before broke down at some point.

"Hey, what's up?" Andy said.

"Andy, this is Ana."

"Hey, what's going on, how are you feeling?"

"I'm better, but I'm still somewhat in pain," Ana said. "Anyway, Simpson wants you all to come back. Some of those ZDC agents are coming for a meeting."

"We'll be right there," he said, and hung up, and turned towards the ladies. "Hey, we have to go back to base now."

All three people walked closely together, even though there was a large group of zombies nearby. As they walked, several zombies tried to grab each of them from behind, but then gunshots were heard as three zombies that were walking behind them all fell to the ground face down with gunshot wounds in the back of their heads.

"What the hell…was that?" Andy looked around in shock. "Let's get going now!"

Andy and the two ladies ran towards a pickup truck that was parked on the side of the street. All three of them got in and Andy started the truck and put it in drive and hit the gas so that they could get out of there.

"What just happened?" Tammy said to Andy. "Was it those gang members again?"

"I think it was a sniper," Andy said.

"Wait, gang members, what are you talking about?" Deidre said.

Tammy turned around towards Deidre, "We dealt with some gang members yesterday. They were pretty ruthless."

Then it hit Deidre, "Wait, are you talking about the Caribbean Boyz?"

"Do you know them?" Andy said.

"Yeah, they cause a lot of shit around here," Deidre said. "They sometimes harass random people for fun."

"Well, it seemed a little different yesterday," Andy said. "But I don't think it was them who shot the zombies. For all we know, they're helping us out."

As they pulled away, from a rooftop that appeared to be on one of the hotels on the beach resort were three women. One appeared to be in her early 50s, while the other two looked like they were in their early 20s. Two of the women were Caucasian, like they could be mother and daughter, while the other one looked Hispanic and was wearing a hat and had a bandage under right ear.

"Great work, girls," said the older woman.

"Thanks, Mom, but we could have shot those three people," said the daughter. "They were so close. We could have waited until they were a bit further."

"Erin," the older woman said. "I know what you mean, but sometimes you can't do anything. Besides, your father always taught us the ways of survival. Remember when we used to all go hunting? Your father and your brothers died trying to survive the Willamette outbreak. I still wonder if they died at the hands of zombies or a person. It's hard to tell these days if anybody is crooked or not."

"Yeah, Mom, but I don't feel good about shooting innocent people," Erin said. "I miss Dad, Jack, and Thomas, too. I think about them all the time, but it's been seven years and while I agree about trying to survive this outbreak, I don't feel good about shooting people."

"Don't try to downplay your father and brothers' deaths! They died trying to survive and we weren't there to help them or anything!" she yelled. "If Roger were here, along with Jack and Thomas, we would all be safe and we wouldn't be in all this mess. Your dad was great at hunting. We're also trying to carry the Hall family tradition."

Erin looked at her mother Sheryl with skepticism. She knew where she was coming from, but the fact it had been years since the deaths of her brothers and father in the Willamette outbreak, it made her wonder if her own mother was going crazy because of the outbreak. She missed her father and her brothers dearly, but this seemed to be in a different level.

If Dad, Jack, and Thomas were all here, we would not have moved out here. She thought, though some good had come out of it as at some point, she met someone who became something of a sister to her.

"Well, Maria over there seems like a natural at this," the older woman said. "Isn't that right?"

Maria moved her face from the scope after having heard her name and it brought her back to reality.

"Yes, Sheryl, I think this is the way of survival," she said with a Spanish accent, but was articulate with her English, like she had lived in the states for a long time enough to pick up English well.

As Maria looked through the scope, she saw some guys dressed in black wielding guns. She looked with some shock on her face, enough that she shot one of them dead.

THE MENDOZA MANSION

8:03 AM

The trio had made their way back to base. Once they walked through the door, they noticed Simon and Brad talking with Ana and Simpson.

"Hey, so what's going on?" Andy said.

Simpson heard Andy and turned towards him, "Oh, we were just talking about how Ana found some information last night. Oh, and have you met the ZDC agents here? This is Park and Gates."

Andy looked towards Simon, who looked directly at him. Tammy looked away, as she did not want to think about what could happen between those two. Although Simon had told her that he was over her earlier, something told her otherwise, and because her current boyfriend was in the presence of her dreaded ex, there was no telling what she felt in that moment.

"Hello, you must be Andy," Simon said as he extended his hand out.

"Yes, that's me," Andy said, as he extended his hand out to shake Simon's hand. "Tammy has told me a lot of things about you."

"I would certainly hope not," Simon sarcastically replied.

"Wait, is there something going on here?" Simpson said.

"No, it's nothing important," Simon said, and then got back to business. "What did you find?"

Ana told all of them about the information of Mary Mitchell that she found at the police station, and how she was recently arrested and placed under house arrest for some reason. Her suspicions were running wild about all of this, as if the girl was arrested with no evidence and was placed in preventive custody, rather than placed in jail. She also showed them a picture of her, which was her mugshot.

"I also noticed something weird about the tattoo she has," Ana said. "It looks like it was written on there, not so much a tattoo used for decoration, but that she was marked as number 40 for something."

Andy and Tammy opened their mouths and were shocked at what she just heard. Because both of them read "The Willamette Incident," Frank West, the author and journalist who covered the outbreak, had noted something about a list of orphans who were scattered all over the country. However, as suspicious as they were of this, neither of them can confirm this, but why else would Phenotrans need to find her? If she was one of the infected orphans, how has she not turned and started an outbreak by now? It's not like she was able to use the Zombrex drug because it didn't come out until 2007, the year after Willamette.

"Do you know where we can find her," Tammy asked.

Ana replied, "On her file, there was an address of her residence and…"

Then it hit her. The thought just sprung to mind as to why she was placed under house arrest to begin with. It was then she had to say, "We must find her as soon as fucking possible!"

Agent Simpson said, "Hey, I make the orders around here."

"You don't understand," Ana said. "I finally figured out her odd sentence. I think the people at Phenotrans set her up and they are bound to find her at that particular address."

"Give us the address and we'll look for her," Andy said.

"No," said Simon, who stood near him and interrupted. "You leave it to the professionals on this. You're nothing but a civilian who will only get killed and you have nothing to do with this."

"Oh come on, we're still here, we know what we're doing," Tammy said. "This isn't the first time we were in a zombie outbreak, but we know what we're doing out there."

"Yeah, right, you and your little boyfriend think you could just save everyone out there," Simon sarcastically said with so much condescension.

Andy cut in, "Hey, you don't talk to her that way!"

Simon got closer to Andy's face, and it was shown that Simon towered him by some inches.

"Who do you think you are, fool?" Simon said. "You're nobody. I bet you got bit earlier and you might even turn soon. Also, I bet you wouldn't want Tammy to get bit, right?"

"SHUT UP, SIMON!" Tammy yelled. "LEAVE HIM ALONE!"

Andy looked at him with a fiery scowl on his face. Though Simon had a point, he had no right to even tell Andy anything, especially since he and Tammy had been assisting the feds on this case and rescuing survivors out there. But the condescension and disrespect was uncalled for as far as anyone was concerned, even Brad and Simpson.

Brad got closer to the two men. "That's enough, you two. Besides, it's not your call to say who can or can't help on this. It's Simpson's call."

Tammy added, "Andy and I have been out there looking for people to bring here that are still alive. Sure, we're no special agents or anything like that, but we have been quite a help to Ana and Agent Simpson. So who are you to say that we can't do anything? You're not in charge here."

Oh, feisty one, aren't you, Tammy? Simon looked at Tammy with so much shock that there was mixed emotion. Different than how I remember.

Agent Simpson added, "The young lady is right. I was iffy about these two helping us out before, but they've been quite a help to us. Torres vouched for Mr. Talbat at first. We can't have them not be involved now."

Brad looked at Simon with some disappointment. "That was uncalled for. You should apologize to that guy right now."

Simon took a deep breath and faced Andy. "Hey, I'm sorry about that. What I said was out of line. We have to work together on this."

Andy responded, "I accept your apology, but only because we have to work together."

Andy was unsure if he should trust Simon on this. What Tammy had told him about the guy was irrelevant, but Simon's behavior towards him was just uncalled for on different levels. Andy and Tammy may not be federal agents or anything like that, but they have survived the hell that Palm Tree City had become and it was only a matter of time until a rescue were to come, or at least a way to leave the city if certain paths on the nearby ocean weren't blocked off by the Coast Guard and Navy.

"I just have one thing that I need to say," Andy said. "While we were out there, I noticed some zombies getting shot by snipers."

"Snipers?" Simpson said. "That doesn't sound good."

Ana added, "I will stay here and keep a watchful eye on the feed with Paulson to see where the snipers might be coming from. I will also try to keep an eye on those thugs who tried to attack us earlier. It doesn't seem like they are going to quit. I need to recover for a bit."

Ana then looked towards the couple, "Hey, I need to talk to both of you right now. Follow me."

The ZDC agents and others were seen exiting the mansion, while Andy and Tammy followed Ana somewhere, which was somewhere a little quieter and away from everyone else.

Now that everyone was gone, especially the survivors who were saved, Ana couldn't wait to say what needed to be said.

"I don't trust that guy Gates at all," she said. "I noticed the way he talked to both of you, but also something just doesn't seem right about him."

Tammy added, "I don't trust him, either. I didn't like the way he talked to Andy, but what makes you so sure that he can't be trusted on this whole case?"

"Listen, to keep a long story short, he seemed like he abandoned his team at some point and happened to find me at the police station, and the way he was talking to Andy just didn't sit well with me," Ana said.

"I know, I wanted to slap him for doing that," Tammy said, and looked to Andy. "I noticed you got pissed when he said something about me."

"It is more than what you would think," Andy said to Tammy. "I love you so much that I can't let anything bad happen to you, and as much as I want to keep you safe, you have saved me and Ana a few times. We are all in this together and after this shit is done, everything will be better."

Ana replied, "It seemed like he really got under your skin with that remark about Tammy."

Andy stood there in silence as he tried to fight off some emotion, and then told Tammy to excuse herself for just a bit.

"Why, Andy?" she said.

"I just need a moment to tell Ana something," Andy said.

Tammy then walked away but turned around and noticed that Andy started to feel sad, even though it was clear that he was trying to fight it off. Tammy wanted to go back, but Ana signaled to her to walk away.

She was now gone, and Ana said, "Andy, what's wrong? You look like you're about to cry."

"It's time I told you this, the reason I don't want Tammy around is because of what I had told you recently," he said. "Before we went on this trip, I had been having nightmares about zombies. The one nightmare that really stood out to me was when that took place on our wedding day and a lot of people started turning into zombies, even Tammy. The dream ended when she turned into one and then was about to eat me. I also had another dream earlier about her turning into one again."

Ana had a shocked look on her face, "That's why you didn't want her around. Also, because you had planned on proposing to her, you didn't want to give her any ideas about that dream you had."

"I just don't want to see anybody I love die right in front of me," Andy said. "It happened in the Fortune City outbreak, sometime before I met Tammy. Do you remember my half-brother Adrian?"

"Yes, I do remember him," Ana said. "He looked just like you and if I remember, you two had the same dad but different mothers."

"I don't want to get into that, but he died at the start of the outbreak and I felt like it was my fault because I felt like I ditched him," Andy said. "I was so depressed those days that I was ready to end it all."

"And then you met Tammy," Ana said.

"Wait, how do you know?" Andy said.

"She told me how you two met, but she didn't say anything about your brother," Ana said.

"It's not something that I like to talk about," Andy said. "Sometime after we started dating, I told her, but she was able to see that it's a story that makes me sad. So even when telling others about how we got together, she leaves it out."

A tear trickled down Ana's eye after hearing that.

"I have something that I want to say, too," she said. "I never really got over you. Sure, I have dated here and there, but when you and Tammy arrived at the hotel a couple of days ago, it's like my feelings just came back, but I see that you love Tammy so much and that she also loves you. You two are blessed to have each other."

"I tell myself all the time that she is the greatest thing that's ever happened to me and everyone around me sees that," he said. "She even told me that I am the greatest thing that ever happened to her."

"Well, I also want you to know that it was my fault that it didn't work out for us all those years ago," Ana said. "I took the opportunity to go to the University of Miami and I just stayed here and just lost contact with you at some point, even though I did see you at times when I came home. Plus, I was a bit stubborn at times, but that was so long ago. But I still like to think of you as one of my best friends. I also think that when this is all over, I might go back to Carson City to visit my family."

"That would be a great thing for you to do," Andy said. "Also, I still plan on proposing to Tammy. I don't give a shit about the zombies. I am still going to pop the question, even if it's not on the day I planned, which was yesterday."

"Promise me that you'll invite me to the wedding," Ana said.

"If everything goes well, you might even be in the wedding," Andy said.

Ana smiled at that and hugged Andy again. "You should get going now. She is waiting for you."

Andy took a deep breath and then walked back to his lady.

"Ready to go, beautiful?" Andy said to Tammy, who stood right by a wall and saw Andy walk up.

"Oh, I'm ready, handsome," Tammy said.

As they were walking away, the couple was approached by two people, who were Marcus and Deidre.

"Hey, you guys aren't going out there alone, are you?" Marcus said.

"No, we aren't, actually, you can join us," Tammy said. "We need all the help we can get. Besides, it's getting more dangerous that maybe we need more people involved."

Then out of nowhere came Gregory, along with Tomomi, who overheard them.

"We can help," Gregory said. "I'll try to keep a lookout for any of those gangsters who were after you. I dealt with some of them on the beach before."

"Alright then," Andy said. "Let's move."

Andy headed for the pickup truck that he took. The other survivors who joined them were armed with various weapons that they found in the armory in the house. Though Tomomi and Marcus said that they could use their hand-to-hand skills in combat, they felt it would be better to use other weapons in case things got messier.

Andy and Tammy rode in the front, while Deidre and Tomomi sat in the backseat, and Marcus and Gregory sat on the bed of the truck. There was no time to lose, as it was only a matter of time until someone catches that girl.

September 28th

8:57 AM

TIME UNTIL THE MILITARY ARRIVES:

51:02:23

They had finally gotten out of town and Andy realized that he forgot to ask Ana something. He got out his cell phone and texted her to ask what the address was. After only a few seconds, he received a reply that showed the address and then entered in into his GPS. Now it was time to follow the navigation on the map.

It appeared that their house was located in Little Santiago, which was where they were the previous morning and were ambushed. A lot of zombies were found on the streets, but along the way, Gregory and Marcus drew a couple of rifles that they took and started to fire away at the undead. Andy didn't want to make any stops, so he just kept going until he reached his destination. It didn't take long until they got to the house. All six people exited the vehicle and noticed that the front door was open.

"Shit, are we too late?" Andy said.

"Let's find out for ourselves," Tammy said.

The others stood outside to stand guard in case any zombies or other shady-looking people were to come by.

The couple entered the house and noticed that it had been ransacked. Tammy looked at some pictures that were on the wall and what confused her was that they were of Caucasian people who may have lived there. One picture that she saw had a husband and wife with two boys and one girl. The girl looked younger than the two boys, like if she was the baby of the family. However, another thing drew her attention.

"Hey, Andy, come and look at this," she said.

Andy walked up and saw a picture of the daughter with who appeared to be the girl from the mugshot. The girls looked like they were teens in the picture, as the daughter looked older than how she was in the family portrait that Tammy saw at first. She took a closer look and saw that same tattoo under her right ear. Though it was hard to make out what the number was, it matched the one that was seen in the picture.

Andy then turned around and saw something lying on the ground. It had a red light blinking and made a beeping sound, and had a band around it.

"Um, baby, I think I found something here," he said.

Tammy turned around and saw what was on the floor.

"Is that an ankle monitor?" she said.

"It seems that way," he said.

Footsteps were heard in the house and the two looked up.

"What the fuck is going on?" Andy said.

The footsteps got louder and closer and out from behind a wall stood one man dressed in black clothes with a pistol in his hand, along with a couple of other men with firearms dressed in casual wear with Cuban and Puerto Rican flags on their shirts.

Holy shit. Andy thought. What the fuck is going on here?

"Who the fuck are you?" Tammy said.

"Not important," said the man in black. "The question in my mind is why are you here."

"Not important, either," Andy said. "We just wondered if things were okay. My girlfriend and I are neighbors and wondered why the front door was open."

Tammy looked at him with so much concern. Andy knew that lying to them was a bad call, but he had only thought of that on the fly as he faced some armed men and that if anything else happened, they were goners. What was bad was that they left their weapons in the truck.

However, one of the gangsters leaned over to the more professional-looking man and whispered something in his ear. The man then nodded his head.

"You know, I think maybe you are at the right place now," The man sneeringly remarked. "One of our bosses told us about you."

"Wait, what?" Andy said.

"He said that you have been causing trouble for all of us," the man said. "But he said that a bonus was involved if we were to just take the girl and then kill you."

The man was not clear about what he meant by "the girl." Was he talking about Mary Mitchell? Or was he talking about Tammy? Even then, what would he want from Andy?

"Hey, the girl is not here, in case you're wondering," Tammy said.

"Who said anything about Number 40?" the man said. "We will find her soon, but now that you guys are here, it's the bonus round."

"What? What do you want from us?" Tammy said. "We don't know what you're talking about."

"We may have come here to get Number 40," the man said. "But now that you guys showed up, it got even better."

The man raised his gun and pointed it at Andy's face. He shook just by seeing the gun right in front of him. He was sweating all over his face, but he was ready to seal his fate one way or another. And then a gunshot was heard, but not from the gun in his face or even the other two men, but from behind him, as Gregory fired a warning shot with his pistol and then holstered it and got out his rifle as he stood in the doorway.

"Put the gun down," Gregory said.

"You're outnumbered, officer," the man said, with the two gang members having their weapons pointed at him, despite Gregory holding an even powerful weapon.

From behind, Deidre walked up and drew her pistol, and Marcus and Tomomi walked in as well with guns drawn. Though Tomomi was a martial artist and would rather use melee combat, this was a different situation.

"Now who's outnumbered?" Andy said.

The man and the two gang members didn't want to listen as they attempted to fire away, but Gregory, Marcus, Tomomi, and Deidre fired away at them and their bodies fell down onto the ground.

However, the man in black was still breathing as he lied there. Andy and Tammy walked up to him.

"Just tell me one thing, who ordered this so-called hit on me?" Andy said.

"He didn't say his name, but he sounded young, and apparently there is a price on your head," the man said.

"Who would want me dead?" Andy said.

"It's not clear, but maybe it's the leader of the Caribbean Boyz, Ricardo Colon," the man said. "He said that you all killed his men earlier."

The man then lost so much blood that he died right there.

It was clear that Andy was a marked man at that point, but what confused him was why keep Tammy alive. Though a gang member tried to assault her the previous day, it seemed a bit farfetched to want to go after her and keep her alive.

As if things couldn't get any worse, Andy had to watch his back even more. The zombies were one problem, but now that there were people who were out to kill him for a contract, things escalated. He wasn't about to give up, though, as he was set to find out who did this.

Tammy looked at him as he looked down and then walked up to him.

"Baby, who would do this?" she said. "This is getting worse."

Andy then hugged her. "We will make it out of here, trust me."

The transceiver then rang in Andy's ear. "Hey, what's up?"

"Did you find the girl?" Ana said.

"No, she wasn't here, but something else was brought to my attention," Andy said. "Somebody must want me dead, because some people were here at this house and mentioned a contract on me."

"What? Why?" Ana said.

Andy replied, "No time to explain. We still need to find the girl, though. Tammy and I found some pictures in this house and it seemed that she may be connected to this family at some capacity. The ankle bracelet was found on the floor."

Tammy then noticed something on the floor as well: a cellphone. The battery was at a decent percentage. On the main screen, it read "Maria's Telephone." The picture on the cover page also had her with the two women that she saw on the portraits, though the older woman looked older than she was in the family portrait with the three guys. The name was Maria, not Mary, but there was a hunch that she had that maybe one of the names may have been real. After getting a look of the mugshot from earlier, it seemed that "Mary Mitchell" was a fake name.

"Um, Andy, I found something," Tammy said.

"Hold on, Ana, Tammy needs to say something," Andy said.

Tammy held up the phone, which seemingly belonged to the girl who they were searching for.

"Shit," Andy said. "Tammy showed me a phone that may belong to the girl. It seems she is trying to avoid being tracked down."

"Did you find any names of the people who live there?" Ana said.

Andy looked around and saw a couple of envelopes on a table. One was addressed to a Sheryl Hall and another to an Erin Hall.

"I found a couple of names," Andy said. "Can you try getting any records or something on Sheryl or Erin Hall?"

"I'll try, but if I do, I may need to send you an app to use to track their phone signals," Ana said. "I'll let you know if I find something."

"Please do this, it's only a matter of time until they get her," Andy said.

Or if I am dead. He thought.

"I'll get on it ASAP," Ana said and then hung up.

"Hey, Andy, I'm starting to think that the name on the file is fake," Tammy said. "The phone said Maria on there, but the pictures of the girl that I saw around her matched the description of what I saw on the mugshot."

"I am starting to feel the same way," Andy said. "Ana said that there might be a way to find her, though. We just have to wait."

Andy then got a notification on his cellphone that said to download the tracker app. He questioned the legality of it, but that wasn't important now. It was now time to track this girl down, before Phenotrans would get to her.

September 28th

9:59 AM

TIME UNTIL THE MILITARY ARRIVES:

50:49:48

TO BE CONTINUED.

Author's note: This part of the story is not over yet. I will continue it on a second part of this chapter soon.

As some of you may have noticed, I included the widow of Roger Hall from Dead Rising 1 in this story, and I also included a daughter. It was never clear what happened to Roger's wife, who was the mother of Jack and Thomas, in the game, so I wanted to bring someone connected.

I also must note that the names are somewhat of tributes to a couple of singers. Sheryl is a tribute to Daryl Hall of Hall & Oates, while Erin is named after Aaron Hall of Guy. The singers are in no way related, by the way.

Regarding the topic of Adrian, I know it may seem like a retcon of "Survivor Stories," when I covered how Andy and Tammy met and got acquainted. I must note that I wrote the chapters on those two for that story years ago, and Adrian Lee being a half-brother to Andy didn't come to mind until sometime recently. It would make sense for Andy to be depressed about that when you meet him in DR2. Plus, because those two shared the same face model, why not make them brothers? They're half-brothers because of the difference in last names, by the way.

I also made references to a few survivors from Dead Rising 2, as well as couple of major characters from Dead Rising 3. Will I include them in this story? Wait and you'll find out. I'll get on them soon.

One more thing, the name Gary "The Ax" Finkel (Yes, I mean the same Gary from DR3) was based on Larry "The Axe" Hennig, the father of the late Curt Hennig (AKA Mr. Perfect), and grandfather of Curtis Axel in WWE.

Stay tuned for the second part.