"This is Sgt. Usopp King, MOS 11B, with the 29th Regiment," Usopp repeated again, his walkie-talkie pressed against his cheek. "ASI designated B4. Does anyone read? Over."

"What does half of that mean?" Luffy asked, leaning heavily over Usopp's shoulder.

"My rank, my name, my unit, my specialty. Is anywhere there? I'm done talking." Usopp explained rapidly before speaking once more into the walkie-talkie, "This is Sgt. Usopp King, MOS 11B, ASI B4, with the 29th… Is anyone there? Over."

"Still nothing." Zoro murmured, tossing the gossip magazine he'd finished reading onto the floor. "So what now?"

"He comes with us," Luffy answered, playing with the curls that were just starting to grow on Usopp's shaved head. "No other option really."

"It's not smart to leave," Usopp reiterated for the dozenth time that morning. "We're safe here. We're comfortable."

"We're leaving," Luffy said, wiping his nose with his arm, "in an hour."

"Gear up," Zoro called out, rolling off his sleeping pallet. He started to gather his things, pushing everything he could manage into his pack.

"Fine." Usopp snapped, "I'm packing."

"Make that fifteen minutes," Luffy said, spinning in a tight circle to face the outdoor entrance. "Or as soon as you're ready."

"What's going on?" Zoro questioned, tossing out his flashlight to make room for a spare sword.

"It's nothing," Luffy murmured, slinging his heavy pack over his shoulders, "let's just get a move on."

"I fucking hate when you do that, Luffy!" Usopp complained, "What the hell do you know?!"

"Zoro," Luffy called out, ignoring Usopp, "Your phone has juice right?"

"Yeah," Zoro nodded, pulling his cell out of his pocket.

"I want you to find someplace for me." Luffy said. "As we walk…"

"Damn it…" Usopp whined, "What if I'm too scared to move?"

"I'll carry you," Luffy offered with a snicker, slapping Usopp on the back roughly.

"What am I looking for?" Zoro asked, following behind Luffy as he dragged Usopp through the store.

"There's someplace I've always wanted to see," Luffy answered, bending down to unlock the exit doors, "And if it's swarming with zombies, I'm gonna be pissed."

Three hours, five close calls, countless zombies, and twelve Usopp total meltdowns later, the three of them stumbled upon humans. The humans shouted loudly, waving their arms in gesture. But once the three of them moved closer the people stopped screaming, murmuring to themselves.

"Hello up there!" Usopp called out, looking around the empty street before focusing on the people on the balcony above. "I'm Usopp King with the 29th Infantry-"

"Are you the only one?" one of the men asked, his voice muffled by the bandana he wore around his face.

"It's the three of us," Zoro answered, looking from the men on the balcony toward Luffy.

"Are you the only soldier?" the men clarified, pointing at Usopp.

"Don't answer that," Zoro barked, too quietly for the men above to hear.

"Those things will come back," one of the men said, "you're welcome to come up." He gestured back to his apartment, "we have beer and food and good company…"

"I don't think-"

"What kinda food?" Luffy asked, his hands held around his mouth.

"Barbecue," another man answered with a grin, "lots and lots of hog."

"Ooooh!" Luffy exclaimed excitedly, "I love meat!"

"I don't know, man," Usopp began turning around to speak with Luffy and Zoro. "I don't mean to sound like an ass, but those apartments are hella nice and those guys look like total-"

"Hurry!" a man yelled, throwing open the door to the complex. "Those things just fucking circle around."

"Come on," Luffy said, walking, "we can take a short break after all the excitement from earlier, we're nearly there… Right, Zoro?"

"We're just two blocks away," Zoro answered, shoving his phone into his pocket, "we should just keep going. We don't want it to get too dark…"

But food was the only thing Luffy could focus on.

"My name's Bob," the man said, nodding for the three men to follow.

"I'm Luffy, this is Usopp, and that's Zoro," Luffy introduced. He extended his hand for a handshake but Bob kept walking.

"The elevators are out, but it's only a few flights," Bob explained. They passed two women in the stairwell, scrubbing blood from the steps. Luffy smiled at them but they quickly looked away, busying themselves with their work. "We've got four apartments on the third floor," Bob continued, "it's a pretty sweet set up."

"Hello." Usopp said awkwardly, walking through the narrow space of the hallway, between loitering people.

"Here's the security room of sorts," Bob said with a laugh. "There's a lot of kick ass in there."

"I see." Usopp nearly whispered, wondering why he was the only one talking.

"This is the vice room," Bob murmured, rasping his knuckles across the third door.

"Vice room?" Usopp questioned.

"It's exactly what it sounds like," Bob replied, wiggling his tongue in a crude way, "Hot fucking pussy, man."

"Oh…" Usopp groaned, wishing he could disappear.

"And here we are, headquarters!"

"Hey," Usopp murmured, stepping into the crowded apartment.

"My name's Michael," one of the men said in introduction. He was a tall, white man with a shaved head, tattoos covering nearly every inch of visible skin. "Welcome to our stronghold."

"I'm Luffy," Luffy said.

"Usopp."

Zoro looked around before begrudgingly adding, "Zoro."

"Is that a machine gun?" Michael asked, nodding toward Usopp.

"Nope. She's an M24 Weapons System with a Remington 700 cartridge," Usopp replied matter-of-factly, "And she's shy. She doesn't really like people talking about her."

"Where'd you get something like that?" one of the others asked.

"Uh, sniper school," Usopp replied with a shrug. The men laughed and Usopp wondered if they realized there was, in fact, a sniper school and he wasn't making a joke. He smiled politely before looking at Zoro uncomfortably.

"How'd you make it? It's chaos out there."

"It's a long story," Luffy said, sitting down on the couch. He didn't realize the way the men were watching him. He was completely oblivious to their stares as he leaned forward to grab a soda from the cooler. "But it's been the three of us for a bit now."

"You a solider too?" someone asked Zoro.

"Nah," Zoro answered, shaking his head, "I'm a bartender."

"So a spic, a nigger, and a Chinaman walk into a bar," Bob began, much to the crowd's delight. "And survive the fucking apocalypse…"

"Excuse me?" Usopp asked, blinking slowly.

"Just a joke," Bob groaned, laughing boisterously, "just a joke."

"But I don't think it's funny," Usopp spat in aggravation, licking his lips.

"Come on," Michael said, waving his hands as if to diffuse the situation, "A peace offering." He clapped his hands together, "Take a seat, relax. The girls will bring you something to eat."

"I'd rather just go," Usopp murmured, locking eyes with Zoro.

Zoro nodded. He walked behind Luffy on the couch, placing his hands on Luffy's shoulders; he leaned down and whispered, "These people are dangerous."

Luffy turned slightly, a surprised look on his face. Zoro thought he looked particularly young and vulnerable in that moment. Luffy nodded in understanding, "Okay. Let's just go."

"You can go anytime," Michael said, raising his hands. And then he smiled, forced and barefaced, "After you drop those packs and that gear you're carrying."

"That's suicide." Zoro snapped.

"That's just too bad." Michael replied.

"Fuck that!" Usopp shouted, lifting his rifle, "We're leaving now."

"Come on," Zoro breathed, hooking his arm around Luffy's.

They backed slowly out the door, Usopp's gun trained on Michael, "We don't want no shit," Usopp barked, "But I will fuck you all up if I need to…" Usopp fired one shot, accidentally, as a club smashed violently down on his head. His vision swam, a strange warm wetness dripping down his face. And then everything was black.

..

"Pssst! Wake up!"

Usopp grunted sleepily, his head aching.

"Dumbass! Wake the fuck up!"

Usopp opened his eyes. "What the fuck?!"

"You got knocked the fuck out," Zoro breathed, twisting at the ropes binding his arms.

"What?" Usopp nearly cried. His head dropped down to his chest. It felt so heavy and slow.

"Come on, don't pass out," Zoro pleaded, his fingers pressing painfully into Usopp's bound flesh. "Stay awake." It took another second or two for Usopp to realize that he was tied to a telephone pole, back to back with Zoro. He heard moaning a street or so down and he was about to scream when Zoro stomped on his foot, "Don't you fucking dare scream, Usopp…"

"What happened?" Usopp asked, gaining his senses.

"Those skinheads knocked you out, stole your gun," Zoro growled, "Fucking idiot."

"Well, uh," Usopp whispered, trying to make sense of it all, "How'd you get down here too?"

"Shut up." Zoro snapped.

Usopp scoffed, "Excuse me? So it's my fault that I got knocked out but whatever happened to you is just-"

"SHHHHHHHHH!" Zoro spit, "there are fucking zombies out here."

"Oh, well, sor-ry, you're the one who woke me up!" Usopp complained. "Where the hell's Luffy?"

Zoro was silent. The silence was heavy enough to let Usopp know that Zoro was not playing. Zoro was furious. His rage seemed to radiate off his body in heat. He started moving again, fighting against his restraints.

"Something smells good," Usopp realized, inhaling deeply.

"Yeah," Zoro breathed out, "and it's gonna get us killed."

Usopp didn't have to ask what Zoro meant, because the men that emptied out onto the balcony were obvious enough. They meant to watch Zoro and Usopp get torn apart by zombies. And they planned a fucking barbecue to accompany the show.

"Oh, sweet Lord and baby Jesus," Usopp began to murmur, his eyes closed, "I know I have sinned. I know that I shouldn't have borrowed Nicky's ipod without asking. And I should've told him when I dropped it and cracked the screen. I lied, God, and-"

"Usopp," Zoro snapped, "God isn't real, zombies are. I don't want to fucking die. Get to work."

"And how exactly do I get to work in this situation?" Usopp questioned, batting his eyelashes even though Zoro couldn't see him.

"Climb."

"Climb? What do you mean 'climb'?" Usopp wondered.

Zoro twisted around suddenly, nearly dislocating Usopp's wrists. Usopp cried out but the moment he saw Zoro's face he swallowed down the complaint. Zoro kneeled, letting Usopp step up on his leg. And they started their awkward climb with their muscled thighs, hands bound, up the telephone pole.

..

Luffy knelt on the ground, the cement cool through his thin clothes. He tried his best to ignore the timer, counting down the seconds until he'd officially failed. He wiped the sweat from his brow. He tried to focus. The timer kept ticking downward and he panicked. He screamed in frustration and jumped to his feet. "I can't fucking do it! Leave me alone!"

"LUF," one of the facilitators called out. "Time is still on the clock."

He shook his head, tearing at his hair, he cried out, "No, leave me alone."

"The clock is still counting down, LUF. Time is running out."

When Luffy came to he was on the floor. Luffy groaned, grabbing his stomach in agony. Blood stained his teeth and he tasted it in his mouth. He fought the urge to vomit as he sat up, pushing himself against the wall in the corner. He finally opened his eyes, the cramped room coming into focus.

His hair was wet, with what he assumed to be sweat, but after he ran his hands through it his fingers were crusted with bits of dried blood. "Where am I?"

The women around him were silent. Finally, a young woman with beautiful ginger hair replied, "Hell."

"Where's Zoro and Usopp?" Luffy inquired, wiping at the blood that leaked from his nose.

"Those the guys with you?" she asked, her brown eyes downcast.

"Yeah," Luffy confirmed with a nod, "The tall Japanese guy and the black guy with the shaved head."

"They're dead," she said simply, "Or they will be soon."

"What do you mean?"

She shrugged, wrapping her arms around her knees, "It's like it sounds," she pushed her hair back behind her ear and Luffy could see the bruises on her wrists, "They kill the men they can't recruit and throw the women in here."

"They didn't recruit me," Luffy said, feeling repulsed by the thought, "There's no way I'd-"

"Look," she said, her tone softening, "I didn't mean that," she looked around at the other women before sighing; "Can't you just figure it out on your own, kid?"

"I've gotta go," Luffy murmured, using the wall to push himself into a standing position, "I've gotta save Zoro. And Usopp."

"You won't be able to get out," she warned, "they've got us blocked in."

"I am getting out," Luffy clarified, "would you like to come with me?"

"They beat the shit out of everyone who tries," she explained, "two girls already died."

"I am getting out," Luffy repeated, offering her his hand, "would you like to come with me?"

"Yes," she answered, her breathing hitching forcefully, "I want to leave."

Luffy walked over to the window, it was a straight drop, three stories. Luffy walked over to where the door of the bedroom should be. The door had been removed and a mysterious rust-colored stain in the doorway had been lazily half-cleaned up. Luffy peered around the corner.

There were two men on the couch, a third at the front door of the apartment. Two women stood in the kitchen, their eyes downcast. Luffy looked around the room he was in for only a moment before walking into the living room. "Hey," Luffy called out, "where's Zoro?"

"You're awake," one of the men murmured, grabbing his walkie-talkie, "that's great. We thought Chris mighta hit you too hard."

"Where's Zoro?" Luffy demanded.

"Go look out the window," the other man instructed, chewing messily on a pouch of tobacco, "probably fucking road stains by now."

Luffy turned right back around. He leaned against the window, the glass cool on his skin. He looked down, finally seeing his two friends across the street. They were about twelve feet off the ground, their legs wrapped tightly around the telephone pole. A dozen zombies were below them, reaching and clawing upward.

"Shit, we gotta go," Luffy realized, turning toward the ginger-haired woman, "Ready?"

"Ready?!" the woman exclaimed in horror. "For what? I'm not going out there!"

"It's going to be safer out there than in here," Luffy explained, grabbing the woman's hand, "Trust me." He paused in the door, looking toward the other frightened women, "I can't promise you'll be safe, but if you follow me, I promise you'll have a chance."

"Where you going?" one of the men barked.

Luffy raised his hands, an impish smile on his face, "Restroom."

"All of you?"

Luffy turned to look at the group of women standing behind him. He nodded, "Uh huh." And without waiting, he herded all the women down the hall to the restroom, "it's kinda an emergency."

"What the fuck?!" one of the men growled.

"There ain't even a window in there," another replied, "quit bitching. They ain't going anywhere."

Luffy locked the bathroom door behind him, squeezing past the women and climbing into the bath tub. "Alright, ladies, this is where I need your cooperation."

"What are you doing?" the ginger-haired woman sighed, devastated. "I thought you had a plan of escape or…"

"Get in." Luffy said simply. "All of you."

"In the tub?"

"Yes," Luffy confirmed. "All of you. In the tub. Now."

The women hesitated, but when the ginger-haired woman climbed in, the others followed. She let out an irritated sort of huff before asking, "Now what?"

"Jump."

"What?" the woman's face changed from a mask of disappointment to one of pure terror. She threw out her arms, her brown eyes wide, "You wouldn't!"

"I am!" Luffy shouted, jumping up and landing hard against the bottom of the tub. "Now come on, we don't have any time. We need to jump!"

The men outside were tearing the door off the hinges by the third jump. But by the fifth the tub had collapsed through the floor, spilling them into the apartment below. Luffy climbed to his feet, immediately grabbing the ginger-haired woman's hand, "Everyone get somewhere quiet with doors that lock. Run. Hide."

"What about us?" the woman asked.

"We have to save Zoro and Usopp," Luffy answered, running out of the apartment and down the hall.

"Where you going?" she called, "the stairs are the other way!"

Luffy paused at the end of the hall. He looked out the window to check on Zoro and Usopp before turning back to the woman. "I'm going out here," Luffy explained, "You hide in this apartment. Don't leave. I'll be back. I promise."

"There isn't an exit here," the woman pointed out.

Luffy nodded, "there's too many fucking creepy people in here. I don't have time to fight my way outside."

"What does that mean?" she questioned.

"Apartment 214," Luffy said, "That's where I'll be checking when this is all over. I hope you're there." Luffy gently pushed her into the apartment. They could already hear the men shouting, their feet pounding against the steps. "Good luck."

The door shut just before the men spilled onto the second floor. They saw Luffy and they shouted, firing a handgun. The glass window behind Luffy shattered and without overthinking his rash decision, he leapt out the window. He fell two stories, landing in some shrubs. A branch stabbed through him, cutting his arm. He bounced off the plants, hitting the ground and rolling, sliding across the cement forcefully.

"L-luffy?!" Zoro shouted from the telephone pole. He slid down a few inches causing Usopp to scream in terror.

Luffy climbed to his feet, blood oozing grotesquely from the gouge in his arm. He yanked the branch free, letting the blood spill over the ground. He whistled musically, swinging the branch through the air, "Red light," Luffy breathed out, waiting. And then, like a switch, the zombies had found a new target, "Green light."

"Luffy!" Zoro shouted, unable to do anything but watch as the zombies tore after Luffy.

"Five," Luffy counted, his eyes closed, "four, three," Luffy could nearly feel the heat of the zombies' breaths, "two," he opened his eyes and punched a zombie forcefully in the head, "one."

And then he ran. He ran back into the apartments, nearly running headfirst into the men chasing him. At first they didn't realize what he had done, who he was bringing. But as soon as the zombies cleared the front doors, all hell broke loose.

Luffy dodged gunfire, launching himself up the stairs. He heard a man scream and he knew that, for better or worse, his plan was coming to fruition. Luffy jogged up the stairs, careful to stay out of reach, but close enough to lead them on. He approached the women cleaning the stairs and cursed at himself before yelling, "Run!"

He shoved them onto the second floor, hurrying them along as best as he could, warning them to stay silent. The zombies hesitated at the second floor. Luffy squeezed his arm, smearing fresh blood along the wall as he climbed, "Come on. Come on." He paused, meeting one of their wide-eyed gazes, "Just a little further, please."

The zombie moaned, pressing its hand against the stain of Luffy's blood. It licked the stain hungrily, its eyes still focused intently on Luffy. Luffy shook his head, "I don't know how to help you. I'm sorry."

And like a switch had flipped, the zombie screeched, rushing up the stairs. The others followed, crazed and ravenous. Luffy took no more than two steps on the third floor when bullets rang out. He dropped to the ground, a stinging pain in his left thigh. He crawled forward as the zombies erupted over him, stepping on him on their way to the others. Everywhere people were screaming. Everywhere people were dying. Everywhere people were turning.

Luffy forced himself to his feet. He grimaced, rubbing his hand over his leg. He walked over bodies until he reached the fourth room. He pushed his way inside, and dropped onto the ground in front of the television. He collected the supplies that they'd ripped from their bags and thrown on the floor. Almost as if he was invisible, neither human nor zombie attacked him.

When he finished collecting their stolen supplies, he rolled a dying person over, yanking the nicked rifle from his hands. He slung it over his shoulder and walked out. He took the stairs down to the second floor quickly. And looking as if he hadn't a single care in the world, he knocked on the door of apartment 214.

"It's me." Luffy called out, knocking again, "I didn't actually tell you my name and I don't know yours, but if you're the lady with the pretty hair I'm the guy who had the bloody nose…"

"I know who you are," the woman groaned, opening the door. "Just can't believe you're still alive."

"I'm good," Luffy said with a snicker. He extended his hand, blood dripping into his palm, "I'm Luffy."

"I'm… Holy Shit, dude! You're fucking bleeding all over the place…"

"Got a nickname?" Luffy joked, "that's a little long to remember."

"You're hurt, dumbass!" the woman snapped, hitting Luffy on the shoulder. "Be more careful! Jesus!"

"Okay," Luffy agreed, nodding slowly, "it hurts. I don't like it either."

"You're Luffy?" she asked quietly, looking down. "I'm Nami."

Luffy smiled, "Nice to meet you Nami."

"Is it safe?" Nami asked, peering down the hall.

"Not for long," Luffy admitted, "we should go now."

"Thanks, you know, for getting me out." Nami murmured, following Luffy outside.

"No problem." Luffy said, struggling to hold all three packs. "But my friends are still stuck on that pole," Luffy remembered, "can you help me cut them loose?"

"Those guys?" Nami asked, hitching her thumb toward Zoro and Usopp.

Luffy looked up at them. And he had to admit, while it had worked, they looked ridiculous. He smiled and nodded, "Yeah them. Wanna give 'em a hand?"

She pulled the knife from the mesh pocket of Zoro's pack, she smiled for the first time, radiant and warm, "If I must."