I.
"TERMINAL RESTRICTED ZONE"
Miles and Sonic were sat on opposite sides of a gas cooker, heating up old pre-war cans of tomato soup for breakfast. There, they sat, awkwardly and in silence, both waiting for the other to start a conversation, but neither willing to start one themselves. That was until Sonic finally broke the ice.
"Sooo..." he awkwardly started, catching the attention of Miles. He nonchalantly leaned backward, onto the palms of his hands. "Do you wanna talk about it?"
"About what?" Miles asked.
"Whatever's been giving you those nasty dreams that leave you shaking." Sonic said, very matter-of-factly.
"...not particularly. Sorry." Miles averted his eyes as he replied.
"S'cool," Sonic shrugged. "but if you change your mind, I'm all ears, 'kay?" Sonic gave Miles a genuine smile.
"Uh, yeah. Kay." Miles replied with an awkward smile.
The sun shined brightly in the sky, beginning to finish it's climb over the horizon and begin it's ascent toward it's apex in the sky. It would have been a nice day, if not for the multi-mile tall superstructure known as the Citadel casting a good eighth of City 17 into it's shadow. A constant and bleak reminder.
In the distance, the occasional gunshot could be heard popping off. This was not new to Sonic and Miles. They had been living here for some years. 'Here,' being the twenty seventh floor of an apartment complex, who's name is now lost to time. Up this high, zombies could not maneuver around the collapsed stairwells. Headcrabs would have no reason ordinarily to climb this high, nor would the Antlions. And Barnicle spores would be too heavy to be carried this high by the winds which blew through the lifeless streets of this sector.
They both had their reasons for coming here, but through circumstance, they encountered each other, and became fast friends. They quickly established the twenty seventh floor as their home. It was on this floor where they kept all their belongings, retreated after a long and arduous day of scavenging, and hid away from the cruelty of the Combine.
Sonic noticed steam beginning to rise from the cans of soup placed atop the cooker.
"Looks like they're ready. Smells like it too! We're gonna have to let 'em cool, though."
Sonic turned the gas cooker off and allowed the cans to sit.
"Great, I'm starving!" Miles exclaimed with a smile. "Hey, how many cans do we have left, by the way?"
Sonic's joyful expression contorted into one of despair, crudely disguised with a fake reassuring smile. "Uh... Like, three?"
"THREE CANS!? Why didn't you say anything!?" Miles' expression became stressed.
Sonic held his hands in front of himself defensively. "Hey, relax man! It's no biggie. I know where to get some more. I didn't think to mention it cause I was just planning on stopping by there on our next scav run."
Miles crossed his arms. "And where is that?"
"Well, on my last scav run, I was looting this one building, I think it used to be a store, and behind the counter, I found a trapdoor, locked up tight."
"How do you know there's food down there, though?" Miles asked.
"Because what else would people have been hoarding in a cellar when the war started?"
"That's... a fair point, I suppose..." Miles put his index finger to his chin as he thought about it. "But still, you should be letting me know about this kinda stuff!"
"Right- sorry. Anyway, looks like the cans have cooled a little."
Sonic took a sizable steel knife and pushed it into the previously-carved relief hole in the top of the can. He then dragged the blade through the soft metal exterior until the top came off. He did the same for the other can, which he then handed to Miles.
"Thank you." Miles took the can and began to blow gently on the still-steaming contents. Sonic nodded in response as he did the same. Then, when they both felt the food had cooled enough, they took out their spoons and began to scoop the soup into their mouths. It was a basic tomato soup, barely having any flavor. At least, any 'good' flavor.
After they finished eating, they set the tin cans down on the floor with their spoons left inside. Then, they began to discuss the 'game plan' for the day.
"We're going to have to do another scav run. Probably today. Three cans isn't going to last us very long, even if we ration it out..." Miles noted aloud.
"Yeah," Sonic sighed. "My legs are still a little sore from the last one. You got the Manhack working again last night, right?"
Miles nodded enthusiastically. "Yep!"
"And you're sure it won't suddenly explode again?"
"I can't make any promises." Miles gave a cheeky smile.
"Very reassuring, buddy." Sonic responded with his own cheeky smile.
They both allowed themselves a soft chuckle.
"Well, better get ready for that scav run then." Sonic stood up and walked across the hall into a different apartment room. This one, Miles refurbished into a "control center" of some sort. Lots of loose wires, cables and cords ran along the floor, walls and even draped from the ceilings, traveling to a variety of destinations. Decorated along the walls were a few computer terminals and server racks. Strewn haphazardly around the counter tops and tables of the apartment were some tools, spare parts, and bits of equipment.
Sonic grabbed a large backpack and slung it over his shoulders. Then, he put a headset on, and finally, he attached aforementioned Manhack to his belt with a clip, allowing it to hang there in an inactive state.
Miles took up a chair and sat in front of a blocky computer terminal with multiple screens, and put a headset on. Sonic couldn't make any sense of what was on the screens, but Miles had told him before that they were mostly displaying un-encrypted Combine radio chatter in the area.
"Alright, ready?" Miles asked.
"All good to go." Sonic replied. "I'll turn the Manhack on when I get down to ground level."
"Sounds good." Miles gave Sonic as thumbs up. Sonic waved, turned to the door, and made his way to the stairwell. There, he descended until he reached the third floor, where the stairwell had collapsed due to disrepair. They used a ladder to get up and down, which the zombies lacked the motor function to climb. After climbing down the ladder, he walked down the last two flights of stairs, and arrived at ground level, in the reception area.
Sonic approached the front doors, a set of double glass doors, barricaded from inside with furniture, with one door being left unblocked, and broken on the half. Sonic crawled through, and emerged in the street. Surrounding him were old concrete buildings, wrecked cars, cracked pavement with weeds sprouting up, and a cold, gentle breeze.
Sonic unclipped the Manhack from his belt, and pressed the bottom red light on the front of the drone. Once it lit up, he then tossed the drone into the air, where it unfolded itself and began to hover, powering on with a distinct hum. It's razor sharp blades began to spin quickly, stabilizing itself.
Sonic spoke to Miles through the radio headset. "Everything all good up there?"
Miles responded clearly, "Yep! Feed's looking fine." Miles began using a controller to test the drone's movement. Up, down, left, right, forward and backward, as well as it's turning. "Movement controls are good, too. How's the radio sounding?"
"Clear as day."
"Nice. I'll fly above you and keep an eye on your surroundings while you make your way to that old store you were telling me about. I'll let you know if I see anything or pick up any radio chatter."
"Got it." Sonic began to walk through the streets of the restricted zone. He wished he could just quickly run there and back, but if he wasn't careful, he could run right into a patrol. He had to go slow so that Miles could guide him around all the stuff lurking in the restricted zone. The last thing he wanted was for the Combine to find out he was right under their noses.
The Manhack began to ascend into the air, reaching roughly fifty or so feet off the ground, while hovering just around Sonic. Miles used it's camera to scan the environment, which was mostly obscured by tall buildings.
Sonic navigated the urban maze with familiarity and efficiency. He'd lived here for a few years, after all. Within only twenty minutes of walking, and no encounters, Sonic arrived at the location. A corner store with shattered glass windows. He forced his way inside, the Manhack staying outside to watch the street, and slowly creeped behind the counter.
There, on the floor, obscured under trash and dust, was a trapdoor in the floor, locked up tightly with a padlock. Sonic inspected the lock curiously with his finger on his chin, thinking of how to get it open.
"Street's still clear. How's it looking inside?" Miles asked over the radio.
"All good, just gotta get this lock open." Sonic replied.
"Any ideas?" Miles asked.
Sonic thought for a moment before looking toward the shelves beneath the counter. There, he found another padlock. Picking it up, he inspected it and felt it's heft. He then struck the other padlock with it, and it popped right open. He chuckled to himself. "Yeah, don't worry, I figured it out."
He lifted the trapdoor up, and peered down. He could see the first few rungs of a wooden ladder, but beyond that, he couldn't see shit.
"Miles, I can't see anything. Can you get the spotlight in here?" Sonic asked.
"Yep! Be right there." Miles replied, flying the drone down and into the corner store. He hovered it above the counter, before turning on the spotlight on the front of the drone, and flying it down the trapdoor and lighting up the room.
"Oh, no..." Miles said over the radio.
"What? What's down there?" Sonic asked worriedly.
"There's a zombie sat on a chair..." Miles replied in a hushed tone.
"Miles, you don't need to lower your voice, it can't hear you..."
"Oh! Right."
Sonic carefully and methodically began to climb down the old wooden ladder. Halfway down the ladder, though, it collapsed and he fell to the floor with a loud crash, letting out a yelp.
"Oh crap, are you okay? That looked like it hurt." Miles asked.
"Yeah, I'm all good... ow..." Sonic felt his back with his hand. It wasn't a terrible fall, but it kinda stung and was pretty loud.
A sudden groan from across the room reminded them that they were not alone down here. Miles turned the Manhack toward the other side of the room, and illuminated in the stark white cone of light was the aforementioned zombie, now rising from it's chair.
Humans already had a few inherent advantages over Mobians in unarmed combat. Humans had the weight advantage, and their longer arms meant they could keep Mobians at a distance. Now, take all that, make it immune to pain and give it claws, and you can see why zombies are such a big issue, even for humans that didn't have brain-sucking parasites on their heads.
"Crap..." Sonic looked above himself. No way out. At least not while the zombie was coming at him. He was going to have to fight it. He picked up a piece of the debris from the ladder. "Miles, keep the light on it."
"Uh, got it!" Miles kept the Manhacks' spotlight trained on the zombie as it began to lumber closer, groaning and growling.
Sonic reared his arm back and chucked the wood at the zombie with great force. The impact hit it right in the crab, causing it to stumble backward and lose it's balance momentarily.
In that moment, Sonic darted behind it and swept it's legs, causing it to fall over on it's back.
As it fell, it's claw swiped Sonic's leg.
"AH!" He yelped.
He quickly retaliated with a swift kick to the parasite latched on the human's head. It was sent flying into the concrete wall, where it splattered it's yellow blood against the white paint and let out one last squeak.
He held the now-open wound for a moment. His red blood stained his white gloves. Quickly, he took out a bandage and wrapped the cut. It hurt like hell, so he wrapped the bandage tightly to create as much pressure as possible.
"What happened? I heard you yell, are you okay?" Miles asked.
"He got my leg, but the crab's dead. I'll be fine." Sonic pre-emptively dismissed Miles' concerns for his safety.
"Well, if you say so..."
Sonic let out a sigh of relief and looked back down at the human. The light from the spotlight bouncing around the room barely illuminated it's face- no, his face. This used to be a person.
'Man... I hope you weren't conscious for any of that, whoever you were...' Sonic thought silently to himself.
Sonic tried to remove his mind from the thought of the human still being conscious for that torment. He was, at the very least, glad that Headcrabs weren't able to do the same to Mobians, and that they could only cause minor lacerations with their beaks and claws.
He took a look around himself. He thought he could make out the vague forms of shelves on either side of the tiny, rectangular room. Miles turned the spotlight onto them and, low-and-behold, the wall was lined with metal shelving units, holding tin cans on them!
...They were all open, though...
Sonic began to look through each one, trying to find even one that hadn't been touched yet, but to no avail. He let out a frustrated sigh.
"So what are we gonna do now?" Miles asked.
Sonic thought for a moment. He looked back at the spot where the Headcrab impacted the wall.
"How does Headcrab sound for tonight?" Sonic asked Miles.
"I guess that'll work."
Sonic said no more as he moved to the Headcrab's body and placed it in his backpack. It was a heavy one, probably had been gorging itself. More for him and Miles tonight, he supposed.
Sonic would then be forced to move a box under the open trapdoor, which strained his leg greatly, in order to climb out. It wasn't made any easier by the heavy headcrab in his backpack, which he for some reason didn't think to take off.
Heaving himself up, he stood atop the box. He tossed the backpack up, and then jumped to grab the ledge of the trapdoor. He'd then pull himself up with great effort, rolling over and lying on the floor to catch his breath. The Manhack soon followed, and Miles would disable it's spotlight.
"Are you gonna be able to make it back?" Miles asked.
"Yeah, I'm- ow- all good." Sonic managed to paint a smile on his face despite the nasty cut he received. He put a thumbs up to the Manhack's camera, but not too close obviously.
"You don't sound like it... But if you say so. I'll do the cooking, and when you get back, there'll be a bed ready for you."
"Could definitely use a lie down," Sonic replied, chuckling to himself.
Sonic would limp all the way back to the apartment complex, the Sun reaching it's apex soon after he departed. When he returned, Miles already had a pot with water boiling, ready to boil the Headcrab.
Just as Miles said, a warm bed was waiting for Sonic, as well as medical supplies for him to disinfect his wound and change the bandage, while Miles watched the Headcrab boil. When it was ready, they split it evenly. It did not taste very good, boiled Headcrab never did, but it was fresh meat regardless, which they were thankful for.
Sonic would fall asleep first, atop a worn, old mattress placed on the floor. Miles would follow after, but not after first turning the Manhack off and placing it on the counter top in the computer room.
Miles would remove his coat, and settle in for the night. Today had been... eventful, and short. It was getting closer to winter, so there was less sunlight hours, he figured.
…
A pair of cold, rubber boots marched through the streets of the Restricted Zone. They belonged to a soldier of the Overwatch Transhuman Arm, a Grunt with a tan helmet, air-tight jumpsuit, and a gas tank attached to the back of his chest harness. His helmet's eye pieces create two cones of orange light from them, illuminating some of the space in front of him.
He bent down, holding his Pulse SMG in his off-hand as he inspected a peculiar droplet of blood on the pavement. It was pretty fresh. Someone had been here. He looked up to his comrade, another Grunt.
"Hey, get over here." He beckoned the other Grunt. The other Grunt obliged and approached.
"What is it?" he asked curiously.
"That blood look old or fresh to you?" he pointed to the droplets on the pavement.
The other Grunt looked down and inspected the blood.
"Looks fresh. Call it in?" the other Grunt asked.
"Yep- tell the Ordinal." he instructed.
"Got it." The Grunt placed his hand on the side of his gas mask as he opened his radio comms with his squad leader. "Ordinal, we have blood on the pavement here. Looks fresh, possible contaminants in this sector."
The Ordinal responded. His voice was far more garbled and robotic than the Grunts, who were only lightly modified in comparison.
"Copy that. Prepare comms for extended conflict and stay low." The Ordinal responded.
"Copy." the Grunt responded coldly.
The other Grunt closed comms as the Ordinal called it in to Overwatch, the AI created by the Combine to manage Earth's police and military forces.
The Grunts now stood next to each other, observing their surroundings, their eye-pieces casting a dull orange light in front of them.
The sun sets on City 17...
END, I.
"TERMINAL RESTRICTED ZONE"
NEXT:
II.
"INOCULATION AND INQUIRY"