Fighting the Oppression
Author's note: Hello, all of you. I know it's been a while since I've done anything for this anthology, but as noted in a past chapter, it's mostly a side thing. Sometimes things will inspire me out of the blue.
It's amazing how long it has been since I had started it, as well as grown a lot as a writer over time that I look at the earlier ones and compare to the more recent ones. Some chapters for this I am not a big fan of, despite writing them.
Also, what led me to doing this, as well as updating my Dead Rising 1 anthology was the whole Coronavirus pandemic leading me to play them again.
Anyway, the following is something that I had been meaning to do. Like in my Dead Rising 1 anthology, this will be the first time I am touching on a psychopath character for this one.
Enjoy!
It had become pandemonium in the plaza of Fortune City, when all hell broke loose the moment the undead had risen out onto the depths of the plaza.
Members of Citizens for Undead Rights & Equality, better known as C.U.R.E., had protested the Terror Is Reality show that took place at the Fortune City Arena. They believed that the show was barbaric and mistreated the infected.
But it didn't matter. Thousands of people had attended the event, even though somehow a lot of zombies were brought in as part of the cannon fodder used for the contestants of the show. Whether it was the event of Master Shafter, Ramster Ball, Pounds of Flesh, among others, including the Slicecycles event that it was known for.
Brandon Whittaker, one of the newest members of C.U.R.E., had joined in on the protest against the event, along with its leader of the Nevada chapter, Stacey Forsythe. Others among the protest were Camille Payne, as well as her daughter Lillian.
C.U.R.E.'s cause was for the undead to have rights and to be seen as the people that they once were, not used for entertainment or experimentation. Which was all the more reason why Ms. Forsythe led the Nevada division to protest against the event. Of course, the reason he had joined was because he had a thing for Stacey. He wasn't so sure about joining until he saw the attractive redhead protesting one day he was getting high with some friends. But then another girl caught his eye. A young blonde girl named Vikki Taylor who was more about saving nature, but wasn't opposed to giving the undead the rights that they deserved either.
The undead had been quite known for a while now. Ever since the Willamette Incident, outbreaks had occurred in small towns such as Coyote Springs and Still Creek back in 2008, as well as Las Vegas, which made a lot of rounds in the media. It was a known fact that the undead was far from a novel concept.
But when all hell broke loose, Brandon fled to the Americana Casino to seek refuge from the undead. He split from his fellow C.U.R.E. members. Some likely died, others' statuses were unknown. The young man with dreads witnessed many innocent people get devoured by the walking corpses, as well as becoming one with them as well. Could this be the way to end the oppression? Was this what C.U.R.E. wanted?
For a few hours, Brandon had scoped the area, whether it was in the Americana Casino, or even in the Platinum Strip. Several more lives had ended in the process, but what really caught his eye when went inside Dining at Davey's to find some food and found a TV in there.
The first thing that was shown when he turned it on was the news. News reporter Rebecca Chang noted that it was Chuck Greene, an alleged member of C.U.R.E., had set off a bomb and unleashed all of the other zombies that T.I.R. had left over from the show.
Such was the key to Brandon wanting to bring peace to the infected. It had now hit him. Greene had been noted as a member of the organization. Maybe those gruesome images that Brandon had witnessed out in the Platinum Strip, the Americana, or even in the arena. Actually, everywhere in the Fortune City plaza had people dying and/or turning in the process. This whole fiasco may be what C.U.R.E. had wanted this whole time. To him, the undead was striking back against the oppression.
Though his initial reasoning to join was to meet the two young ladies, the whole outbreak gave him a whole new outlook on everything. When he saw the bodies of some of his C.U.R.E. comrades, as well as attendees of the event, after he saw the news report, it seemed that to him, the outbreak was the only way to get C.U.R.E. to fight the good fight. After all, even some of the fatalities led to some the living becoming one with the undead. This could be all that could lead to the equality that C.U.R.E. oh-so-desperately wants.
He went back to his hideout, which was the men's restroom in the Americana Casino, which was right next to the unfinished women's restroom. He walked up and back right in the corridor that divided the stalls and the urinals on the left side of the restroom.
"So what should I do for the cause?" Brandon said out loud. It was clear that there was nobody present, as he was merely thinking out loud.
"What could be the best way to fight for the cause?" He said.
He walked outside of the restroom and noticed a lot of zombies on the moving walkways, leading to the area where The American Historium was, all the way leading to Bennie Jack's.
He stood there and slowly walked to towards the open area. A smile rose on his face as he moved his right hand close to his chin. Even right in the casino, it became an epicenter for some more people to turn or get eaten. It was a sign, a sign of things to come. This could be the biggest chance to bring equality and make peace between the living and the infected.
He then saw a zombie coming right towards him. He gave a gesture to it, signaling so that the zombie could follow him. The zombie slowly walked towards Brandon, as he continued to guide it into the men's room. He then saw an open stall. He quickly went inside it as the zombie continued to come right for him. But he thought ahead and climbed to the stall right next to him and immediately opened the door so that he could close the door to the stall where the zombie was.
A huge grin emerged from his face as he put both of his hands together with the tips of his fingers pressed against each other.
This is going to be great! He thought.
In that time, he then saw a man running for his life.
"Hey man, over here!" Brandon yelled.
The man looked over towards the hallway to the restrooms. He slowly walked towards the end of the hallway until he felt something grab him. Brandon picked him up and then threw the man into the restroom. Brandon then picked up a glass bottle and smashed it.
The poor man slowly crawled on the floor until he saw the broken bottle right in front of him.
"Don't move," Brandon said.
The man then felt his left him go right to his back. A clatter occurred as the bottle felt to the ground as the man felt his right arm go to his back. It wasn't long until both hands go together as something seemed to be tying them together.
"What the hell are you doing?" the man said.
The man looked up and saw Brandon standing right next to a bathroom stall.
"I'm just trying to end the suffering, man," Brandon said.
He then opened the door as the same zombie from before started to walk towards the man. The man's eyes widened and his shoulders started trembling and then started breathing hard. The man barely saw that the zombie's hands grabbed his shoulders even while he knelt on the ground. The man felt some teeth touching the left side of his neck.
Brandon stood there and watched as the zombie bit away at the man. Blood sprinkled, flesh broke open. It wasn't long until what was left of the man lied there in a pool of his own blood.
Brandon smirked and nodded his head right towards the zombie.
At some point that same day, he saw a familiar facing walking through Fortune Park carrying a potted plant. In fact, the familiar face turned out to be Vikki Taylor.
Even amid all of the undead swarming the area, the young girl was careful and went so far as to find a plant in the process.
"Vikki!" Brandon yelled.
Vikki turned her head and saw him coming up from the stairs right next to the Royal Flush Plaza. Even in that moment, while the undead was swarming, it wasn't all too bad in that very moment.
"Brandon, you're alive," Vikki said.
"Yes, I am, and I came up with a solution for all of our problems," Brandon said.
Vikki looked at him with a minor squint in her eyes as she backed up a tad.
"What are you talking about?" she said. Even though they were in the middle of an outbreak, she couldn't help but feel confused.
"I realized that for our cause, we need to show that the undead should not be oppressed and that in order to get the naysayers to shut up, maybe we need to show them what's up," Brandon said.
"Are you serious?" Vikki said. "I mean it's bad that zombies get treated like that in that horrible show, but what you're saying is insane."
Brandon looked directly into Vikki's eyes. "Look all around you. This is what C.U.R.E. needs in order to show the world what we want for the infected."
Vikki shook her head a bit, even while gripping the plant pot in her hands. "I don't agree with this. While I do get your point, what if for some reason the city gets bombed? Besides, I feel that we should also save some of the plants that originated here."
Brandon gave her a minor glare. "Oh, come on, listen to yourself. You heard what Stacey said in that news report. We need to take drastic action now. Maybe this 'drastic action' that's going on around us is what we needed in the first place."
Vikki then turned her head and watched a lot of carnage take place. Zombies eating the flesh and taking out some organs from innocent victims, others were struggling as their skin started to fade and get paler. It was apparent what was going on.
"Listen, you can do what you want," Vikki said. "But I want to help save this type of plant."
She shook her head a bit and turned around in the opposite direction. "You're crazy, Brandon."
Brandon stood there and watched as Vikki started walking away. The eyebrow area started to wrinkle a bit, while his bottom lip started to open a crack to expose his teeth a tad as his jaw area started twitching.
While Vikki may have had a point about Brandon's newfound vision on the cause for C.U.R.E., to Brandon, it seemed that she mostly cared about a plant more than the cause. She had joined the organization as she didn't agree with the treatment, but it almost seemed like her own personal cause was about making the world green again. But wasn't that also C.U.R.E.'s own agenda as well? After all, as the undead had become more common up to that point, they were likely fighting for peace for them, no matter how dangerous they could be.
Vikki walked off while carrying the plant, but Brandon rushed towards her. He went right behind her and grabbed her by her right shoulder. He grabbed her so hard, as the potted plant slipped from both of her hands. She felt it slip, as she saw the pot fall right the ground and break.
"Oh no, not the Fortunea Aspidistra!" Vikki yelled. She quickly turned around with a minor scowl and then felt something grab her legs and then felt her feet lift from the ground and then bent over. The only thing she saw was the ground and the back of Brandon's green shirt.
"Let me go!" Vikki said.
But Brandon said nothing. He had only one thing on his mind to help end the oppression. In his mind, Vikki seemed to have betrayed the beliefs of C.U.R.E. For that, he was going to make her pay.
He continued to carry her. He didn't stop until he reached the front doors to the Americana Casino. Nothing could stop him, as he passed by any zombies were on the casino floor, even when there were a couple of live people rioting the slot machines. The man and the woman trying to loot paid the insane man no mind, and Brandon paid no mind to the two looters. He was solely on a mission.
Before long, Brandon had brought Vikki to the men's room. He set her to the floor. But Vikki had other ideas. When she hit the floor, she started to quickly crawl away. But Brandon grabbed her by one of her boots. He turned her body right onto her back and then got into her face.
"Don't move!" Brandon said with such rage in his voice. "Or else!" He immediately put a glass shard right to her neck.
The blood in Vikki's veins flowed rapidly, as her heart started pounding. Her shoulders trembled and she started breathing hard like she was running out of air.
He quickly turned her body face down and quickly got out a rope to tie her wrists together. What could this man possibly be planning? Vikki didn't want to know, but she had a good idea.
Another note: So I decided to end it here, as it would lead to the psychopath boss fight with Brandon. I like to think that Vikki was probably a C.U.R.E. member, but her main focus was trying to help the ecosystem.
I also recently had started wondering if I should touch on the survivors from "Case Zero" and "Case West," and if I do, should I include them in this anthology? Or should I do a separate one? Because the number of survivors in "Case Zero" is rather small, while the one for "Case West," that all depends on which scientists have any stories that I can do. So should I do this? If so, should I include those particular survivors from CZ and CW in this or in separate ones? I will note that I included some "Off the Record" characters in this, but then I also used some for my spin-off, "Dead Rising: A Dead Getaway." Though the use of OTR survivors were more like "what if" scenarios. I have even thought about doing one on Dead Rising 3 survivors, particularly the posse members, but I don't know yet. What do you think?
It's been almost eight years since I had started doing this. It's amazing that I still update it from time to time, but at the same time, it makes me wonder if I should continue for it or start something new. For those wondering, yes, this is the first chapter I did in which I made a psychopath as the focal point. You could argue about the one with Bibi and Angel Lust, but this one was about a psychopath that you actually FIGHT. I must say that I sometimes look back on the Bibi/Angel Lust one and laugh about it, but it was pretty much a comedic chapter. In my headcanon, I like to think it was just Jeanna and Bibi that collaborated, not the rest of the band.
I also will say that I had thought about doing another spin-off. Not in the sense of "A Dead Getaway," by any means, though I will say that I enjoyed writing that one a lot and wouldn't mind doing one like that again. I also recommend you check out "The Haven City Outbreak" by Alex Sorrow. Anyway, regarding the potential spin-off that I am considering, I might touch on a "pilot" sort-of story for it, but I don't know. I don't know if it should be on here or if I should start fresh.
Anyway, I have some other ideas for this and my Dead Rising 1 anthology. Peace out.
