Author's Note: Okay, usually I'm gonna put these at the end, but I just want to tell you guys, that yes, it is VERY reminiscent of a certain show on AMC, I would like to say that this is sort of a cross-over, but since I don't think I'll be sticking to that storyline very closely, I didn't actually make it a total cross-over. Um, This first little section is just some character background, which I'll refer and expand upon later... Oh yeah, I don't do lemons, yaoi, yuri, and I don't actually write bad language down (but I do half write it/ refer to it), but this is going to be pretty violent, so yeah, it's rated T (but could change to M). (just to be safe. I don't want hate mail front FanFiction about it not being rated properly.) Um, that's it. Read, Rate, Review, and enjoy! (p.s. This one is short since it's the prelude.) BTW, if the words are too close together, you can sort of adjust it over there. ^ (I don't know how to adjust it on my end.)

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, blah, blah, blah, or zombies.

Prelude:

Skidding across the concrete alley and subsequently slamming into the dumpster to stop, effectively scaring the daylights out of the drunken hobo that lived around the other side, he picked himself up for one more time. Vision blurring red from the gashes on either side of his eyes, he looked into the eyes of his would-be murderer... and smiled. Would today be the day he died? Or would this be just like every other job he'd pulled, narrow escape and all that? Well actually, his partner was out for the day, so his chances were looking kinda slim, which is exactly the type of thrill that made this job worth it. Money helped too, of course. Spitting out a few pebbles and a tooth, he stepped towards his attacker once more, "That all you got?"

Biting back the tears, she tried to push the voices out of her mind. But really? She couldn't. They were always there, and they made it hard to focus on anything. She was in her favorite place and sighed heavily as she laid back and tried to forget everything... and block out the voices that never went away...

Sitting impatiently in the waiting room, he said a silent prayer. Finally, the doctor came back, and his hope sunk to the pit of his stomach as he heard what the doctor said. Was that really all that was left? What was he supposed to do now? Hope was all he'd had left...

Scrubbing harshly, she sighed again as a customer made a rude comment about her rear and she wished again for that hero she used to know. A well out in the cold... Strange how nothing turned out right for her. Ever. She went away again to that place and ignored the drunken idiots as they made passes at her or tried to slap her butt.

Staring complacently out the window, she wondered how things were back in her homeland. Wondered how her father was faring. Why should she? He was the one who'd sent her away! Without even batting an eye! She hated him...more than anything...

Laying in a world of white, he asked if this was what death was. He couldn't find his way out and the fleeting voices he'd heard had stopped. He'd wandered here for who knows how long, but now he'd given up and laid down. If death was an eternity of nothing then maybe that's why everyone feared it so much.

Death was the beginning...

It was chaos. He was running frantically down the streets trying to find his goal when he saw one of them attacking a girl...he didn't get there in time. It ripped out her jugular with its teeth and started gnawing on her open wound. Eating through muscle and even bone, their hunger never ending. With a swift motion he beheaded the thing with the huge sword he had, but it still clicked its jaw back and forth as though trying to continue eating the girl. Looking back, if he'd known that you had to destroy the brain or else they'd rise again, he would have and he'd more than likely never reached his destination in time, so as luck would have it, he didn't know at the time and he raced past the girl and the half-dead thing that was still clicking its jaw open and closed. When he reached the hospital, he realized just how bad it had gotten. There were no doctors or staff of any kind, not living at least, left in the building, and there were several corridors he had to avoid, slamming doors behind him and barricading them as best he could not wasting any time. He'd been in the army, the special unit called SOLDIER actually, and so he new what was heading this way, which is exactly why he'd left his post and come here. His brother, an infantry grunt, had been injured on a mission and med-evac'd here, to one of the best medical institutes around as per his own request, but now that this... He had a limited amount of time to get him and get out. He was running out of time, if only he could find the nurse's station that had information on where his brother was! He was running down a corridor when suddenly a ax swung near his head, actually it would have been his head except he dodged it in the nick of time. The red head who was wielding the ax stated "whoah" in response to the swift dodge and immediately followed it with "You ever been to Costa del Sol?" To which he replied, "What?" "Oh, you're cool. Sorry, my bad, I thought you were one of them." "How do you know I'm not?" "They don't usually talk to you before eating you." "Hey, do you know where the head nurse's station is?" "Yeah, you were just running away from it." "Crap!" "Hey! Don't go back there! They're everywhere back there! What do you need from there anyway?" "A patient file. My brother..." "Look, uh, dude most of the patients, well they were easy to catch as they couldn't run, so..." "Blonde, spiky hair. You seen him?" "No, dude, what I'm saying is... Hey! Wait up!"

Who was this guy? Running around like a chicken with his head cut off lookin' for this brother of his. Yeesh, trouble if ever it was definable. So he followed him.

Finally, he actually almost didn't even see him, but out of the corner of his eye he caught a glimpse of yellow and quickly halted and turned back busting into the room without even thinking. The red-head following him whispered something inaudible behind him, most likely a swear of some sort, and he came into the room as well. He was trying to unhook the machines in as fast a manner as he could without totally hurting his brother whom they were attached to. "Dude, some of this is like, life-support. What's gonna happen if you remove it?" "... He'll be fine. Won'tcha buddy. Yeah, we just have to get you outta here." The sound of jets over head resounded through the complex making the glass tremble and crack in some places. "Crap! Crap! Crap!" he shouted as he moved faster. "Help me out, okay?" "Sure! What was that?" "That was the jets flying in because they're gonna level this whole city in a strafing raid in about... three or four minutes." "SHIIIIIIIIII-"

Pulling his brother over his shoulder while his red-head friend broke the window (heck if he was going to run through the halls again with those things out there and an air-raid on the way!) he jumped out of the window and the two hastily ran toward a direction that seemed to be out of town.

They made it but just barely, as the shock-wave from the huge blast behind them knocked the flat on their faces and sent his brother flying through the air from impact. He wasn't sure just how long he'd been out, but he was brought to by a dog licking his face. It was a big red dog of some sort (it looked sort of like a maned wolf mixed with something else, actually) and it had a collar on it but on the dog-tag was only the Roman Numeral XIII. He looked around to see his red-haired friend wiping drool of his face and saying, "Yeah, he got me too." Then he realized his brother was missing and sat up quickly while spinning around trying to locate the blonde. He found him, a few feet from where he himself had been. Except for a few more scratches and bruises, it seemed they'd gotten out okay, well actually his friend had a broken nose which he was snapping back into place and cursing as he did it, but it was really hard to understand what he was saying because of the funny way he spoke with an injured nose. After snapping it back into place, he grabbed a piece of bandage which he'd "acquired" at the hospital and promptly shoved it in his nose to stifle the bleeding. "Wdel? Wdut dow?"