Day 4
They're barring up, Aiello spots a group of teenagers outside, being attacked. He quickly heads out the door to save them, successful in rescuing two of them, Keith and Kevin, however, Keith reveals himself to be bitten. As Aiello examines the bite wound on his shoulder, Atticus takes a hammer and swings it against Keith's head to prevent him from reanimating. Tensions rise between Aiello, Evan, Atticus, and Kevin as they all sit down to eat food and watch the news. There is rioting all across the country. The seven of them turn in for the night, several police officers break into the home and take every single survivor inside into custody.
Day 4,612
Pretty soon, when he was on the highway leading to the border to Canada. He met another herd of zombies. His motorcycle ran out of fuel anyway and he decides to do the same thing as before. He entered through the sewer systems, once again dodging another bullet.
He walked for several minutes directly underneath the herd before he found another manhole. He was about to climb out of the manhole until he saw light coming in from a flood drain. Curiously to see what Canada now looks like, he takes a peek outside.
He sees a city of debris with nature overgrowing some parts of the city. He sees a couple running away from something while one of them was clutching their stomach. Gunshots and bullets sprayed their way and the couple was dropped to the ground, dying instantly.
Aiello sees three more people running towards the corpses while dressed in leather jackets and cargo pants. They were armed with automatic rifles like M4s and AKs. Aiello knew these three people were robbers.
The oldest one of the trio bent down to loot the two corpses while the black one and bald one took watch.
"Hiro, loot that one," the leader ordered, The bald one named Hiro looted the male corpse. "James, keep a lookout for any other trespassers."
"Roger that," James nodded. "Jeremy, how do you think these guys got into the city without us knowing about it?"
"All I can think of is the sewer system. We got to set up some guards down there just in case."
"But if we do that, then that means the chances of having a trespasser are less likely and we wouldn't have as much fun as we are right now."
From hearing these words, Aiello knew that the robbers wanted trespassers so they could kill people. They may be survivors, but they are psychopaths in nature.
"These guys got nothing. Let's regroup with Andrew, Freddy, Lee, Sal, and Chris," Jeremy considers, "Let's go." The three robbers walked into the city and out of view.
Aiello crept away from the flood drain, suddenly feeling claustrophobic. He knew he had to escape the city, it was too late to not be an intruder. He was in their territory, the lion's den.
He puts away the image of the dead people and continues to follow the path down the sewers.
When he came to another manhole, he looks through the drain to check for any robbers. He crawls out of the sewers and into the ruined city of the unnamed Canadian city. Cars were piled up and plants were growing in places you never expected to grow, like in the street. Aiello had been told as a kid if humanity were to stop fighting off mother nature, then mother nature will take over pretty much every place it can get its weeds on.
This city was an example, but the robbers appeared to be fighting off nature.
Aiello chambers his gun quietly, making sure not to draw the attention of any nearby threat. The first rule of scavenging: Anything can be useful.
Aiello was walking downtown, following a small crowd of zombies. He saw that the zombie leading the group was wearing a police uniform. Usually, Aiello liked to call whoever leads a zombie horde the 'Brawns'. He noted that Brawn zombies tend to be the primary catalyst of a horde forming and that he is the one who usually sets off the mob mentality. Granted, they are just regular zombies, he thinks of them as something more.
Just as the zombie group turned around, Aiello dived for the nearby alley, hiding behind a dumpster. He waits patiently for the group to leave before he sighed and looked around. He heard the familiar sound of a gun being cocked and he could practically sense a barrel aimed at his back.
"Don't move. Turn around slowly," a voice threatened behind Aiello. He did as he was told and turned around very slowly. He saw a young man with dark hair and light skin aiming a handgun at him. Behind him were four others. "Put your rifle on the ground and kick it towards us."
Aiello did as he was told. "A pistol is better than my rifle. Let me keep it, I need it to survive."
"We need it more you, robber."
Aiello sported a confused look. "I am not a robber. I just came into the city through the sewers, honest."
The survivor didn't buy it. Aiello knew these guys were not robbers, trespassers like he was. The female behind him walked up towards Aiello and dragged his Ruger 30 away. "You think we're stupid or something?" she asks.
Aiello notes how she has chocolate brown hair and spoke with a Brooklyn accent like Carmine. "You sound like you have the intellect of a seven-year-old."
A male survivor with the orange hair that fell to his shoulder walked up and frisked Aiello. "You don't look so tough," he spoke.
"I am so tough, I can take you all down in one strike," The oranged haired survivor appeared to be amused because he was smiling. He throws a punch at Aiello, but it was deflected easily. He tries to punch him once more, but his blow was blocked by his forearm. Aiello sweeps the orange-haired survivor off his feet before he could even react.
Aiello held the orange-haired survivor in a chokehold and using him as a human shield against the one who was drawing a gun at him.
"Let Vincent go," the pistol survivor demanded.
"I'll let Vincent go once you hand me my Ruger 30 back," Aiello demanded, ready to kill the survivor in his hand if necessary. "And let me walk away. I will not hurt you or anything else, I will just find my way out of the city and I will be out of your hair forever."
The girl with Aiello's rifle aimed it at his head. "You're lying. We let you go and you will go back to your robber friends and warn them about us."
"I am not a robber," Aiello tried to tell once again.
"What the fuck!"
Aiello looked around and saw eight robbers staring at them in shock. They open fire at them.
Aiello saves Vincent by pushing him through a window leading into an apartment. Aiello dives in after him through the window.
The other survivors ran into the building and hide wherever they could go. Vincent and Aiello hide behind a stove just as the eight robbers broke their way inside the apartment.
"We have trespassers inside the building." Aiello recognized that voice. It belonged to Jeremy. "Hunt them down and kill them. No exception."
Aiello crawled through a hole in the wall and was followed by Vincent. They met with the other survivors on the other side.
"How can we trust that you are not one of them?" the one with the pistol asked as he pressed his back to the wall.
"If I was one of them, then I would have yelled at them where you guys were, but I didn't. I am just a survivor just like you guys are. We are all in the same boat so we all might as well fix the leak before any more damage is brought to us."
The survivors believed him this time and, they saw how he saved Vincent's life. "Abby, give the man his gun back."
Abby gives the Ruger 30 back to Aiello. He introduces himself. "I already met Vincent and I just learned your name is Abby, so you guys got names?"
The lean and tall one introduced himself as Oliver and the second girl of the group, who had white-blonde hair identified herself as Sadie.
"And I'm Tai. We have another one with us, his name's Luis."
"How old are you guys, you look to be quite young?"
"We're all in our early twenties. I'm in my mid-forties. You?"
"Me, twenty-nine. What are you guys doing in a city like this? You should be with your families."
"We all lost our families when the outbreak started," Abby answered. "We tried to look for a haven in this city, but the plan backfired on us."
"Guys, I am part of a group of survivors. You guys are more than welcome to join us. We're called the Moral Ones, we're based in Vancouver currently. If you guys can follow me, I will take you guys to a haven, we will find a place for you and the others. So what do you say, you want to become a Moral One?"
They all accepted the answer.
"Now, all we have to do is find Luis and then all seven of us can get out of this freaking city. But first, we have to deal with these guys."
"Even if we take out these guys and regroup with Luis, how are we going to escape the city? Through the sewers? We already tried, the robbers have already put up defenses on the sewers at the main door. Every single exit into and out of the city is blocked off by cars and those cars are monitored by those robbers."
"We'll find a way. Adaptability is the key to surviving this world," Aiello reasoned. "One way or another, we are getting out of this hellhole because I have a son in Vancouver and I made a promise to return home to him. No matter what."
"How old?" Tai asked.
"Four."
"You for reals have a son?"
"Of course. I used to be a murder but I am now a husband and she is my wife." Aiello looked through the hole to see where the eight robbers were. Not a single one of them was in sight. "Where's Luis, because I don't want to do any unnecessary double backing?"
"He's in this building, on the eighth floor," Sadie answered. "He holed up in room 8133, we gotta save him quickly."
"Well then, by all means, let's go get him and then find a way to sneak past these goons."
Aiello walked in the opposite direction of the hole and up a flight of stairs. He knew better than to take an elevator, the robbers could easily set traps or they could plunge to their death.
"You guys stay close to me. You do what I say when I say, you got it?"
The others got the picture.
"Okay, now I am a survivor, I know how to deal with people like these. Immoral people who don't give a damn about killing people."
Several floors above, Jeremy and his gang of robbers already reached the eighth floor and were waiting for the survivors to come up so they can ambush them. They had two robbers guarding the main flight of stairs with the others guarding each other.
"Lee, Sal, keep a close eye out for them," Jeremy ordered again, "Jame, Hiro, you two act as backup. Anything happens, you take over."
"What of us sir?" Andrew asked.
"You, Chris and Freddy will stay here and arm yourselves with molotovs just in case." Jeremy tucked his pistol away and grabbed a bottle filled with vodka from a desk. "Take this and turn them into cocktails."
He tossed them three more bottles filled with alcohol. They turned them into Molotov cocktails.
Aiello climbed up the ladder of the elevator shaft with the others below him. He knew better than to take the stairs, but he also knew that the best way to get the drop on someone was to climb the one place no one would ever expect.
He looked down into the darkness. The ground was exactly seven stories below. A fall from this height was a death sentence.
Reaching the eighth floor, he climbs with caution through the open elevator door and sees the backs of the eight robbers. They were aiming at the stairs, and not at the elevator. Even though they could have easily climbed another floor through the elevator shaft, Aiello decided to just take out his adversaries since they have the drop on them.
The closet one to the open elevator door was Freddy. He had his rifle shouldered and his right hand holding a lit up Molotov.
Aiello sneaks up to Freddy and chokes him. He yanked the Molotov out of his hand and throws him towards the open elevator.
His screams as he plunged to his death alerted the robbers, but when they turned around, a Molotov was thrown at them.
Day 18
Two weeks after being held in custody, the disease spreads all Quebec, infecting thousands of people, reanimating them. The military and police have set up guards at the border to ensure that the infection does not spread. The family is being kept in one room, the teenager in another, and the two criminals in another. The military and police are experimenting on their enemies, trying to determine how this virus works. Aiello watches in horror as an escaped prisoner from the prison is shot dead and tossed over the edge and left to reanimate in a grinder. Aiello is horrified to learn that Garrick, the police chief, plans to grind them into meat.
