Outbreak

September 24, 1998

Jack's Bar was it's usual self as Kevin Ryman and the other patrons enjoyed themselves. The waitress he always failed to flirt with, Cindy Lennox, was performing her usual duties.

The local investigative reporter, the handyman, the two security guards, subway staffer, and surgeon all enjoyed themselves as the news played on the nearby television. The last one to join them was a young asian woman in a green jacket.

He had very little going on. Life seemed to be going nowhere for the RPD officer. He was twice a failure at trying to join STARS. His carefree attitude failed to secure him a position among the bad asses before they were taken out of commission by their jerk of a boss. And now Chris was gone, the only one of his two shooting competitors left. He had the new guy to look forward to breaking balls with when he finally rolled into town but that was the extent of it.

The blithe cop enjoying the calm. Then the noise of the streets demanded his attention as a news report came on just as the door opened. Kevin's eyes still fixated on the commotion in the distance.

He hears chatter.

The door opened.

Will, the waiter greeted the new customer with a "Welcome, sir." Only to notice something off. The man had blood on him, more than anything from a small cut; making him look as though he had been in a nasty wreck recently. "Are you okay?" Approaching.

Then Ryman pried away from the window to see the man himself and was seconds away from advising Will against getting nearer to the stranger and nevertheless it was too late.

The man bit down onto Will.

Kevin pulled himself out of the seat, as did the handyman, David King. Managing to unfasten the stranger's jaw off Will's neck. Angered, the waiter grabbed hold of the man and threw him out the door.

Will rested himself against the door, blocking it with his body. Whether he was doing so intentionally to keep the man who hit him out or he was in too much pain to do anything else was debatable.

"Oh my god…" Cindy gasped.

"Yeah, it doesn't look so good." Kevin said, kneeling on a knee to examine Will's wound. The security guard, Mark Wilkins, added "He needs a medic."

"You think?" Kevin asked flippantly.

"It's not just him that's in trouble." The surgeon, George Hamilton said.

"What are you talking about?" Kevin asked.

Then the cop looked over his shoulder to see Cindy and George were not looking at Will, but out the window which Kevin had been beside a moment ago. He joined them in looking outside and then their horror was joined by his bewilderment.

The scene in the streets was a horrifying level of uniqueness. Zombies, zombies and more zombies. Like something out of House of the Damned or one of the House of the Dead movies to crop up when he was going through police training.

It was strange that such a thing could happen.

There had been an incident with the Raccoon Sharks game earlier that day requiring Chief Irons to dispatch some of those SWATS he had begun replacing the STARS with as a remedy to the situation. But Kevin thought little of it—chalking it up to a sports game getting out of hand, as it was not completely outside the realm of possibility (the people there were not as rowdy as Bostonites, but he could see them doing such a thing).

Oh, boy…

He looked to the door and drew his Colt .45, rushing toward it and sliding the three bolts into place to keep the door shut a smidge longer.

It's just like….just like…Christ, Chris and Jill were not just going crazy.

He remembered his colleagues' report of what happened in the Arkley Mountains—hearing some of the claims and wondering if his buddy Chris snapped under pressure of a bad situation. But it was real.

A twinge of guilt protruded within, knowing he failed to have his buddies' back left a bad taste in his mouth, however it was short lived as there was no time for that. Both his flippant nature and sense of urgency required Kevin not to dwell too long. He needed to get moving—everyone in the bar needed to.

Then the undead legionnaires noticed them looking at them and saw their next meal to pursue.

"Oh, crap."