A/N: This is just a reupload. I had to fix whatever crazy stuff was going on with the text.
Gary, Indiana
8:00 AM
The Tennysons have just entered the city, with the only thing slowing them down being the traffic jam from the interstate. The source of the jam more than likely coming from the sudden outbreak, with everyone there trying to find some way, any way, out of the city before the cases rise and the military came to blockade and bomb the entire area.
After getting to a good spot, which in this case was an open grassy area, Max stopped the RV.
"We don't know what exactly we're dealing with when it comes to the source of the infection, so it's better to play it safe than sorry. Take these Hazmat suits and a couple of weapons. We should find as many people as we can and bring them to that warehouse over there." Max says and points to the warehouse he was referring to.
Max ang Gwen put on the Hazmat suits. These were the same suits that protected them against corrodium, so they should be prepared for almost anything thrown at them when it comes to the infection.
Before they enter, the group checks the warehouse to make sure it's empty. Ben transforms into Four Arms and lifts the warehouse door. Just to make sure no one is followed, he pulls it back down and reverts his transformation.
From the looks of things it's pretty empty. The group also notes that there's a back entry door as well. They walk up to the door and leave the warehouse from the other side.
"It's probably a good idea to seal this door shut to make sure nothing can get in there. Ben, go Heatblast and cement this door." Max instructed him.
Ben chooses Heatblast on the watch and cements the hinges on the door, keeping it shut.
Ben puts on his hazmat suit.
While people were still present, many of them were running for their lives. The town was starting to look more and more like Willamette. The source of the zombies seemed to be coming from a giant supermarket. And that's exactly where the Tennysons went. Into the belly of the beast to find survivors. Any zombies that they ran into were kicked, punched, pushed or blasted out of the way. The group entered the hardware section of the store and saw a father and his son desperately trying to keep the zombies back, but the numbers kept growing. Ben, Max and Gwen blasted them all into oblivion, with the only moving things left besides the trio being the father and son.
"Thank you so much. I don't know how much longer I could've lasted." The man said, with a broken computer monitor in his hand. More zombies started to appear around an aisle.
"You can thank us later. Right now we've got to get out of here." Gwen said.
Before they left the section of the store, the man went two aisles down with his son to grab a sickle.
The Tennysons led the way, destroying anything in their path that moved. They went to the produce section next.
While it seemed that no one was there, they heard banging on a door. A woman was there, pleading for help. The zombies couldn't get in, but it was only a matter of time until they broke the glass some way and forced their way inside the section, as it was blocked off by glass doors. Clearing house yet again, the Tennysons told the woman that they could take her to a safe place, so she followed the Tennysons along with the man and his son.
Continuing their search, the Tennysons looked through the entire store, finding 10 other survivors in the store. Who they ran into next however, wasn't a survivor. It was a man that had gone mad. They had gone into the clothing section and found him the fitting room area. They opened the door and closed it to make sure they weren't going to be followed in. He was in the middle of it, and his back was turned to the Tennysons so they needed to get his attention.
"Hey! Need some help?" Ben said to the man that had his back turned. He had pants but didn't have a shirt. He was unaware of the true nature of the man, until he turned around.
"Help?" The man said.
"Yeah. We can get you out of here. Take you some place safe." Ben said.
The man turned around. He had symbols all over his chest. But the most disturbing part was that the symbols were made from blood. He had some kind of book in his hand as well. Ben and Gwen gasped with Gwen almost fainting.
"What happened to you?" Ben said.
"What happened to me? ASK MY DAUGHTER WHAT HAPPENED!" He shouted before he calmed down.
"I was a magician. I travelled across the country. People were amazed at my tricks! But the person that I loved showing off tricks to the most was my daughter. She was 10. But she had a liver infection. It was enlarged. The doctors. They did everything they could. But it just wasn't enough. They said the only solution was liver surgery. My wife was killed in a car crash on her way to work. She was a fashion designer, and it was her money that would pay for the surgery while I would try to hold the fort for bills and other things. I didn't have enough money to pay for the surgery on my own. I was just some manager at a clothing store. I didn't ask my family for help because I didn't want to burden any of them. They had problems and kids of their own. Why should I put my problems on them? But if there was one thing I loved doing, it was magic." He said.
The man went on to explain his up and coming as a magician. "When I got off from work, the one thing that made me happy every day was doing magic tricks. And it made my daughter happy too. That smile. I remember it all too well. It was that smile that made me forget about the problems of the world. It was as if she was never sick. But when the show was over, reality returned. The grim reality of not having enough money to pay for her surgery, and me being powerless to help. But I couldn't tell her that. What that could do to her mentally and her heart may have been too much for her to handle. Daughters and sons love their mothers. But there is a relationship with the father that can't be replaced as well. Fathers are there to protect their children, share their wisdom, shower and provide them with things in life they could never have or could only dream of having. I couldn't provide those things to my daughter working as a manger. I failed her. But I wanted to give her hope even if I didn't." He said.
The man opened the book. Ben wasn't sure, but he could have sworn that he heard someone else in the room. "I told her that I'd find some way to pay for the surgery. To make her feel better, and not have to sit in a hospital bed all day. She could be like any normal kid. In school, playing outside, watching TV. The usual life of a kid. I caught my first source of extra money when I performed parlor tricks in the street. People liked it and I got 70$ in earnings. So I tried going bigger. I did birthday parties and special occasions. Then, I decided that it was time to go big or go home. I performed in theme parks, cities, and live shows. The last live show I did was the one that took me over the top. Not for fame, but for the money needed to pay for her surgery. They did it. She could live a normal life. I was happy, but most of all, she was happy. And if she was happy, that was enough for me. Yesterday was her first day out of the hospital. I promised her that I would take her into the store and we could shop to her little hearts' content. The first thing she wanted was this book." He referred to the book that he had in his hand.
"It was a spell book. I bought it for her. But then, this infection started. People were dying. Some turned into zombies. I tried to get her out. I didn't really care about myself as much, because I knew I could hold off anyone that would get in my way. I WOULD survive and find my way out. I kicked away a zombie. It was behind me. And then another was behind it and it tried to climb on to my back. Before it could bite, I knocked it on the aisle shelf." He explained.
At that time, which was 7:00 AM, the man just ran past any zombie in his path because he knew they would be too slow. He didn't want to run them over and get their blood on him, because he didn't know if that would infect him or his daughter.
"Daddy, what's going on with those people?" She asked.
"Laura, those aren't people anymore." He told her and left it at that. He didn't want her asking more questions and making her more afraid.
He was going down an aisle when the aforementioned zombies got behind him.
He was running, and he ran past a pharmacy. A scientist and a pharmacist were running ahead of him. He was able to catch up to them.
"Hey! If you guys need some help come with me!" The father said. "We can head some place safe!" He continued.
"We can't. We need more samples. We're working on a possible vaccine to the outbreak but we need two more samples." The scientist said.
"All right. I'll help you. We'll kill two of these things, you collect the samples and we go." The father said.
They killed two and the scientists collected the two samples. "All right. You got your samples. Now we need to get out of here." The father said.
Suddenly, they injected the sample into his daughter.
"Ow! That hurt!" Laura said.
"What are you doing? What did you do!?" The father said hysterically.
"We have multiple test samples for the vaccine, including samples from a child male, an adult female and an elderly male and female." The scientist said blanky.
"The only thing we need now is a sample from a female child and a male adult. You two are perfect." The pharmacist said.
"So you inject others with the same blood and DNA from a zombie? Are you crazy? She could get infected!" The father said.
"The vaccine we are proposing needed the DNA and blood samples from the undead and the living. By fusing the two into one, we could engineer and create a cure from it." The scientist said.
"Because using zombies as a subject for infusion pose the biggest risk for our safety as we could get infected, we would use people. While the others were easier to convince, there was no one else we could get samples from. We considered cutting our losses, but seeing you two, it was a perfect opportunity to get two more samples." The pharmacist said.
"Let me get this straight: You're willing to possibly infect innocent people, just for your experiments! I don't care if a vaccine is made from it! There's zombrex until a humane solution is created. There has to be another way!" The father said.
"Do you realize how much money is made by Phenotrans because of the drug that they've created? If we create the vaccine, a permanent solution instead of a temporary one, we could make more than anything Phenotrans has made!" The scientist said.
"That's all you care about? Money? What about your family? What would they have to say about this?" The pharmacist said.
"They'd say we're American heroes. And that's what the entire country will think of us being as well. We can say that the subjects volunteered for humanity. No one is willing to go deeper than that, considering the general intelligence of this country is low." The scientist said. He then attempts to administer the shot. The father dodges, but the pharmacist grabs and holds him still to allow the scientist to give him the shot.
"If a few lives have to die to save millions. Then so be it." The scientist says before injecting the shot into him. Before he could be successful, he headbutts the scientist, causing him to drop the needle.
He pushes the pharmacist off of him using his head to hit him in the face, as the pharmacist was behind the man. Zombies were coming. He didn't have time for this. He needed to get Laura out of this store.
The scientist and the pharmacist both got up to take him down as a team. Because they were by items in the store, he picked up anything he could and threw it at them. The last thing he threw was a refill soap bottle which , he ran out of things in his general reach to throw. The zombies were getting closer. Time was running out.
"Daddy, I feel funny." Laura said.
"I'm coming!" Her father said.
The scientist and pharmacist got up again, but the scientist slipped, and the syringe that was on the ground had stabbed him. He screamed as the liquid went into him. The pharmacist, however had a different fate. After trying to charge the father, he simply dodged it and pushed him forward, making him stumble and fall. Getting up, the pharmacist realized that zombies were right behind him. He was focused more on surviving at that point and tried to run. He was never seen again and his fate was unknown.
"I feel funny daddy." Laura said again.
"I know. I'll find some way to make you feel better." Her father said. There's gotta be some Zombrex here or something!
He fumbled around the aisles for medicine. But there weren't any to be found.
"I'm sleepy. Goodnight Daddy." Laura said before dozing off.
"Laura?" He tried to shake her awake. But it was too late.
Suddenly, her skin became pale. Blood came out of her. Her eyes were completely white. She had become a zombie.
"No. Nooo….. NOOOOOOOOO!" He screamed.
All he had to remember her at the moment now was the book that she wanted and a picture of her in his wallet when she first came out of the hospital.
On the back of the picture, handwriting was seen on it that said: "Laura: The only magic Harrison Wheaton needs."
He ran. He didn't want to have to kill his daughter. And he didn't want to see her like that. A bright smile to a sickly gray.
"I'm sorry." Ben said.
"Sorry? She was just a child! She didn't ask for that to happen to her! To be an experiment! This book may be the last memory that I have of her now, but rest assured, we'll have many more soon…." Harrison trailed off.
The trio heard another noise that was muffled, and heard moving and struggling.
"There's the noise I heard again!" Ben said. He went to open one of the fitting room doors and saw that a Caucasian woman who looked to be in her late 30s with long blonde hair was hanging from it. Struggling to try and get free and had her mouth duct taped. Max and Gwen noticed her too.
"What are you doing in here?" Ben said, more to himself than anyone else. He went to the door on the opposite side and opened it. He saw something that terrified him. A lifeless corpse in a magician box with knives in it.
"What are you doing to these people?" Max said. Harrison was silent. "Answer me, now!" Max said.
"This book…. this book may be all that's left of my daughter. But it's so much more. It's a gateway to see her again." Harrison said. The way he said it made it seemed that he was struggling to believe this himself and was teetering between sanity and madness. "With this book of magic, I can bring her back. I just need the blood of the living! The blood of the dead aren't enough. I need 10. I already have the blood of four. I have three more waiting to give their life." Harrison said, pointing to the stalls.
"You can't seriously believe that'll work do you?" Gwen asked.
"If you had a daughter or son, wouldn't you do anything you could to bring them back? You seem like you have a family. You understand right?" Harrison asked Max.
"Yes. I do have a family. I have grandkids, a wife, a nephew, a son, the list goes on. I will travel the ends of the universe. Of space and time itself for them! But that doesn't make what you're doing right. Now I'm sorry for what happened to your daughter. But these people had nothing to do with your daughter dying. What makes their lives less important? Why should they die for your daughter to live?" Max said.
"No! You don't understand then! You have your family! You have a kid that got to live! My daughter couldn't even have 24 hours of a normal life!" Harrison said. "The show must continue. And I'm going to continue that show in the way that I've always been successful so far." Harrison picks up a knife and opens one of the fitting room doors. An African-American woman was there tied to a chair and also had her mouth muffled. She screamed when she saw the knife, struggling to get free. But it was futile. "With the power of magic!"
Ben runs up to the man and grabs his arm with the knife. The others follow.
"I'm sorry. But we can't let you do that." Ben said.
"You three are in no position to stop me. But thank you for volunteering!" Harrison said. "A change of plans!" He says to the woman. It isn't heard by the rest, but she breathes a little easier knowing that the three stopped him. "You three will be the main event before I get on to the final act!" Harrison said.
Harrison says a spell without looking in the book.
"Undead! I possess the blood of those that have no future ahead! I command you to fill these three with dread!" Harrison declares, bringing zombies into the fitting room. Unbeknownst to Harrison, the Tennysons had the tools to dispose of the zombies quickly and with ease.
He casts another spell that renders all of their weapons useless. The weapons are destroyed in their hands and Harrison pushes the three into the group of zombies outside of the fitting room. The Hazmat suits were able to protect them, however and they avoided getting infected, bitten or killed. Using everything they had in the store, they were able to make quick work of some of the zombies and simply push the rest out of the way, reentering the fitting room.
Seeing that the trio weren't going to just roll over and die like he thought they would, he pulls out all the stops and uses more spells to send more objects their way, followed by running up and sweeping Gwen. He takes a knife from his pocket and attempts to stab Gwen.
"Gwen!" Ben and Max said together.
Gwen, thankfully dodges and kicks him in his most sensitive area. Harrison howls in pain from the kick, and uses a spell to push the three outside while he recovers.
When he does, Harrison comes outside and shouts out: "You three think you've seen the fullest extent of my magic! I still have a trick or two up my sleeve to use. The act's not over!" The Tennysons looked on at their foe. He may not be Hex, but he wouldn't go down quietly. They were in for a fight.
9:00 AM
Gary, Indiana(27 Hours until next Zombrex dose is needed)
Frank had arrived in Gary, Indiana. By way of Rebecca that is. While Frank made the initial trip to the state, Rebecca and Frank had met when she arrived 30 minutes later at 8:00 AM. The two had already discussed how they would get there, with Rebecca volunteering to pay for a helicopter to drop them off over Gary. They instructed the man to only fly over again to pick them up if they give the say-so. If they don't contact him within three days, then they're probably dead. If they do, he told them to expect him to arrive within four-five hours of the go-ahead. Frank didn't want the same mistake to happen with this guy like it did with Ed.
"I hope you two know what you're doing. Be safe out there." A bald light-skinned man said.
"Will do." Frank said, before the chopper hovered from the helipad and flew away.
They walked back into the building they were on the roof of via the door on the rooftop. Thankfully, no zombies were there in the building at all. But then again, no one was. Everyone skipped town.
"Huh. You would have thought the military would have blockaded this place by now." Frank said.
"Guess we got lucky then. Maybe the military's getting sloppy." Rebecca said.
"I doubt it. Something tells me they're on their way. And we'd best not be around when they do get here. Last time I got trapped in Willamette when the Special Forces first arrived I barely made it out alive. It's best not to try your luck too much. Because there's gonna be a time that you need that luck now more than ever and it won't show up." Frank told her.
"Let's just hope today isn't one of those times." Rebecca said.
"Yeah. Let's get the scoop, find any survivors and get out of here." Frank said.
The two walk outside and see zombies starting to enter other areas. But it was one place, where the zombies seem to be in its largest numbers: A supermarket. They only guessed that the Supermarket was where the infection spread. Someone there got infected, and then the whole outbreak started.
Frank took pictures and eventually recorded video footage of Rebecca for her.
"This is KDED news reporter Rebecca Chang. I am here in Gary Indiana with Willamette survivor and photojournalist Frank West. The outbreak has begun to spread. While it seems that most if not all survivors have fled the city, the infection appears to be coming from one place, a Supermarket." Rebecca says as Frank turns the camera towards the supermarket and zooms in on it and the zombies.
"While the Military have yet to arrive to contain the outbreak, we can expect to hear and see from them soon. More information about outbreak will be available soon. This is Rebecca Chang from KDED news, signing off." Rebecca said. Frank stopped recording.
Rebecca looked at the footage. "Hmph. Looks like you're not too bad with handling a camera after all." She said after looking at the footage. The two walked towards the supermarket.
"Anything else you'd like to tell me you were wrong about?" Frank said.
"Yeah. I made a mistake not having you work with me sooner. How about after this I get you a job in the news working for me?" Rebecca asked.
"Sorry sweetheart. Already spoken for. I'm freelance for a reason. Can't blame you wanting me though." Frank said.
"Freelance doesn't exactly give you media passes." Rebecca said.
"Who needs media passes when you've got a New York Times Bestseller?" Frank said.
"Touché." Rebecca said.
A flash of green comes from the Supermarket.
"What in the world?" Frank asked out loud.
"Probably a good idea for us to check it out. Whatever it was might lead us to the source of all these outbreaks."
They enter, with Frank and Rebecca pulling out their handguns, shooting any zombies that got in their way. They couldn't find any survivors anywhere, but there was a huge commotion by the clothing section. They ran to see what it was, with seemingly no further interference from zombies. They seemed to be in some kind of trance and they ignored the two even when Frank hit one of them.
Before they rounded the corner, a flash of red was seen, blinding everyone.
They looked around the corner of a sports section, silently observing. Frank didn't let the opportunity to silently take a couple of pictures go to waste though. Whatever was happening, no one was close enough to hear them or see the flash, and the zombies for whatever reason were ignoring them.
"What is this?" A man asked with a book in his hand.
Ben gave a weak chuckle. "Uh, if you give me just a few minutes I'll bring another volunteer onto the stage. You understand, being a magician and all right?" A boy asked in green cargo paints and a white t-shirt with a black line going all the way down the middle. Two others were with him. Frank had to guess those two were with the boy. And that the guy with the book was another psycho that had found these three who were trying to escape.
"We've got to help them!" Frank whispered to Rebecca.
"I'd agree but we're surrounded by zombies. How do you suppose we do this without getting torn apart?" Rebecca asked.
"I've got a plan. You stay here." Frank told her before taking a hanger, and a metal rod that had fallen.
"Keep watch. Wait until I give the signal. When I throw this hanger, that'll be your signal." Frank told her as went around another way through the clothing section.
"I hope this plan of yours works." Rebecca said.
"Ben, this isn't looking too good. And I dropped my spell book the last spell I did." Gwen said.
"So? You can still do spells right?" Ben asked.
"Yeah, but he won't stand still long enough for me to blast him. And if I try to camouflage our way out, we could end up getting bitten!" Gwen said.
"Bring them to me, so that I may use their blood!" Harrison said.
The zombies walked forward slowly to them.
"You don't mind if we have one last family moment do you?" Ben asked.
"Do it. I will have all the time in the world with my family. It is only fair that I allow you to relieve your last moments with yours." Harrison said. The zombies stopped.
"Hey Gwen?" Ben said to her.
"Yeah?" Gwen asked.
"I always thought that I was smarter than you growing up. After all of this, and knowing that we're about to be eaten by zombies, I realize that nothing's changed. I'm still smarter than you. I just never applied myself in school." Ben said.
"Oh, give me a break." Gwen said.
"Okay, I'm-" Ben said before he was interrupted.
"Hey!" A man said, getting everyone's(except the zombies attention).
"Mind if I get a picture of you? I'm a photojournalist. I don't know what's going on but I'll tell your story to the world." The man continued.
"My daughter was taken from me. I don't see how that sounds like front page news material to you." Harrison told him.
"Yeah. And I'm sorry for that." Frank said with a straight face. "But I heard you're a magician as well. Show me some of your tricks! I'll get pictures, use them to promote you and that money can go to you!" Frank said, brightening up a little.
"Who exactly are you?" Harrison asked.
"Frank. Frank West."