"Rebuild": A Zombie Survival RP

((700 posts! Woo!))

I nodded. "Well, you did kind of save my hand from a possible infection, so I guess I owe you one." I hauled the canister onto my back and grabbed Simon. I sincerely hoped he was as thirsty for blood as usual.

Suddenly, I felt an incredible weight in the air. I'd read about people sensing evil before, but I always explained it on poetic license.

Evidently that license was expired. It felt like a stream of thoughts was travelling over my head. A few were even passing through it, and they certainly weren't mine.

"Ready when you are."

Troy had heard Cassie's last words but had not been able to acknowledge them. He was a little annoyed at that and was determined to pay back this Daniel creep for making him do this. Still as she had started to walk away he had sensed the presence of something out there. It was not evil as such but it did not like them very much. He got the feeling they were mucking up it's plans somehow, and if he had to guess he would say it was how a person would feel upon seeing ants at a picnic. More pissed off than evil.

He glanced down to make sure the dogs were okay, but they just looked up at him in eagerness to be out of the cramped spot they had been lying in for hours now. He smiled then looking out the windows noticed that there wasn't a zombie in sight. Banging on the rear wall, he opened the door and signalling to the dogs to follow he quickly made his way up the stairs and into the doorway of the library, stopping just inside to allow his eyes to adjust to the light.

He moved in a little further and took cover behind a desk and waited for Ria to join him.

Ria

Climbing out off the truck wasn't too easy with the flamethrower and the extra canister on my back, but I managed to not hurt my bad ankle again.

Despite there being no zombies around, Troy hadn't waited for us, and was already at the door when I was still getting to my feet.

It felt strange to come back to the Knight in this manner. It had been my home for two weeks after all. I almost couldn't believe only four days had passed since we left. So much had happened: the zombie- ambush when we relocated, Max death the next day, his burial later that afternoon, one day of peace and then the zombie-sattacks on the farms had started early in the morning, leading to the attack around noon and now we were trying to rescue Daniel. So much happened in one day sometimes, they seemed to stretch for ever.

Carefully (half expecting an ambush, because why would it have been unlocked otherwise?) I opened the door. Nothing happened. Only Dent was breathing in my neck. It was dark inside, much darker than usual.

Troy's head peeked up from behind the checkout-desk. Cassie was nowhere to be seen, nor heard. Which scared me immensely. Only five minutes had passed since she entered. What could the entity have done to her in that time?

As silent as possible I made my way to Troy and the dogs.

"What now?" I whispered. "Have you heard or seen Cassie? Or someone else? Or the dogs?" I looked down at them, they seemed at ease.

Same time, at the King's

Norah

We were working hard, Vince, Thomas, Bob, the husband of Laura, Tony, Scott, Skip and I to re-build the fence and to build and light pyres; Dan was already working on the electricity, a cable he and I had installed this morning had fused when a truck, school-bus and another truck drove through the group of zombies milling around on the driveway and the vines along it.

Some bodies flew high through the air. The truck had a snowplowy-like thingy mounted high on the hood, the bus had a veritable snowplow up front and both spat zombies to the sides and sometimes in the air.

I almost palm-faced myself. Why hadn't I thought of that? Some large knives, more swords actually, would work very nice if mounted lengthwise along the edges of the snowplows, especially on the higher one, it would cut zombies in half before they dropped.

The old doc climbed out off the bus. And some others, but those I didn't know.

"Doc!" I yelled at the top of my lungs when he looked at the zombies behind them wearily and started to jog towards us, waving his hand. "Don't run! You would fall over a limb or such. We still have over an hour of truce."

"Truce? Really?" The doc stopped beside me, wheezing hard. He made to put his hands on his thighs, to wheeze better, I supposed, but then he put one hand on my shoulder and forcibly breathed more normal.

"Long story, Doc. Ria, Troy and the dogs are with Cassie, on the way to the Knight, to save Daniel. Come on, I'll introduce you to Maddy, the owner of the King's."

"Later, child, I need Lee now, and a clean room where I can do surgery. We have two wounded, one quite bad I am afraid." He pointed behind him, and now I saw two men carrying a stretcher towards us, and two women supporting another one with a bloody bandage around her leg.

Vince had turned the truck he used to pull the fence back up, around and drove up to the group. The wounded were put in the back, Vince drove to us and told the Doc to climb aboard. As soon as the Doc was inside, Vince floored the gas pedal and took off.

People had come out off the main door of the winery. Waving at us, Peter among them. I wondered how he always wound up with clean inside work.

"Tell them to get back in the bus, and drive it up here!" He yelled at me. Skip sniggered. I grinned.

"You heard the man," I told the two men who now had reached me. "Unload those who would help us here, and drive the rest to the castle. The children, wounded and last defenders are all there."

One ran back and some others climbed out off the bus, then it took off. The snowplow-truck stayed, the other one followed the bus. After a few seconds eight more people were working on the fence. One had informed what Dan was doing in the mud, and when I told him he was working on electrifying the fence, he turned and yelled:

"Smith! You are an electrician, aren't you?" An elderly man nodded.

The man and I just pointed at Dan.

"Would you help him, please," I asked him. "Or maybe tell him how he can help you?"

Cassie thinks about ghostbusters ... or maybe just busty ghosts .

As I entered the Knight, it was darker than I had ever seen it. It was spooky as shit. There were no lights on except the emergency exit signs. I thought about that scene from Ghostbusters … the image of the undead librarian!

I think that over barring presence also added a creep factor to everything. I could tell Daniel was not on the first floor. So I headed up the stairs. I was moving like a soldier … or at least like I thought a soldier would move. I had my bow out with an arrow notched. There was some illumination in the central stairway from the skylight above. So I moved up the steps until I reach the second floor. The burn marks from my old flame thrower still on the wall.

I saw no one … so I decided to call out. I did it real quiet … I’m not sure why, kind of a compromise between yelling and remaining completely quiet.

"Hello?"

Silence.

"Uh... hello?" I said again

No answer … I saw some light switches. I could turn on the lights, but I decided not too. I’m not sure why. I realized I needed to pick one approach … be quiet and sneaky … or loud and find Daniel faster. I went with quiet and sneaky.

I’m not sure why … but I had this feeling … like I was walking into a big trap. I started up the stairs leading to the third floor. When I reached the top of the stairs, I nearly had a heart attack. There was Daniel! His arms were tied to the arms of the chair … a solitary light was shining down on him and it was all dark around him. His head was down so I could not see his face … but it was him I was sure of it.

Then I did something really really stupid. EVERYONE later told me how STUPID it was. Deacon even made me write it on the white board 100 times to make sure I would never do it again.

I spit out my pickle … and threw down my bow and arrow. I raced to Daniel. I grabbed his tied arms and tried to look at his face as I asked him if he was ok. “Daniel …. Daniel are you ok?”

His face turned up and there was an evil smile on it. The ropes fell away from his arms … which made no sense to me. The rope had not been tied. Why hadn’t Daniel try to escape? Something weird was going on.

With the speed of a cobra Daniel’s powerful arms wrapped around me and grabbed me. I was caught! He stood up and swung me around and putt me in the chair he had just been in. He was tying up my arms as I heard a voice … a female voice coming from the dark.

“She always was such a stupid blonde bimbo … I never saw what you liked about her” The voice said as it moved closer to the light. Then I saw her face … It was Thea! She was alive. I could not believe it. She reached down and removed my 9 mm.

“I think I’ll kill Ria and Troy with this weapon. Their trust in you … will be their own down fall. How fitting!” Thea said. Then hundreds of zombies … came out from behind the bookcases and started down the stairs. My eyes grew wide in total surprise.

“Yes the building is surrounded from the outside with my children … and I have more children on the roof. So Troy, Ria, and the dogs are all going to die. I will get to hear them beg for their lives … and then I will get to see the purple color … that LOVELY COLOR OF PURPLE” Thea crackled with insanity!

I had two thoughts … the first one was … this Trojan horse plan was all cocked up! Get it … it’s a pun … “Trojan” like in condom and “cocked up” ... well like a cock ready for a condom ...

The second one was … Thea did not seem to know that there was a new guy with us, Dent. That was weird. She mentioned everything … Troy, Ria, the dogs … but not Dent. She also did not say anything about Deacon. But that might be explained by Deacon being dead or captured. But missing Dent could not be explained away ... It was almost like she had read someone’s mind at the winery … but that mind would not know about Dent, as he was an unexpected add to the rescue effort.

Bart

We had turned away as our convoy was close enough to the winery to make it on their own. Hunter had not said much when he put his (my!) phone back in his pocket.

"Knights are going to do a "Trojan-horse" at the library to rescue Daniel. They request our help. Apparently something is capable of controlling the zombies, this something wants Cassie in exchange for protection of the people at the King's. In order to keep Cassie safe, some people are going to play dead bodies on the truck she is driving. They want us to go back to the city."

I did not allow my emotions to show, but I suddenly felt the weight of the world on my shoulders. Of course Cassie would be a part of a rescue team. And Ria too, probably. Two head-strong women, one impulsive as hell, and the other ... felt responsible for everyone's safety and well-being. What else she felt, I didn't want to think of. I really thought we had an understanding, Ria and I, but then someone had sent me the pictures of Lee fondling her breasts. Which still made me livid. I had kissed her twice, and cuddled once! I had felt that soft, strong body against mine long before Lee.

Except Hunter and I there were three more guards in the van. We took a vote. Only one woman -the mom of the twins, who were in the school bus- didn't want to help the Knights. So she hopped into the bus and the four of us turned when the bus and the other two cars were safe enough.

On our way to Eugene we passed by several farms, Hunter took backroads even I didn't know about, sometimes we drove up to a farm, turned in its yard and took a path between two fields to come upon a small road which he would follow until it lead him to another farm. There were a lot of zombies around. Most farms looked good, barricaded, only one had been broken into, and one was burned down. Not a bad result after all. Around the three barricaded farms a massive amount of dead zombies lay in the fields, and one farmer was pulling them out by horse. Hunter stopped and we had a little talk.

Parker, as Hunter called the young farmer, told us two female army officers had come from the winery to help them fight the zombies off. He told us they were burning the zombies at a field at the back which he had already almost harvested. A moment we debated if we should load those two in the van, but Parker almost begged us to not ask them, since then he would be on his own to fight off a new attack because his wife had to look after their two young kids and his father was almost blind.

"Right," I decided after I had looked at the other three, and Hunter started the engine again.

Not much else happened until we parked the van close to the Knight, down at the Pioneer-cemetery. We had seen zombies walking almost purposeful towards it and many more were milling around over the cemetery. They had ignored the car. Now we had to find out if they would ignore us, if we got out. I had checked my handguns a few times. No need to do it again. I opened the door, got out and crouched down beside it.

Daniel

After Big Brother had summoned my Sister, I eagerly awaited for everything to fall into place. Today, my life would be complete. I would have my revenge on the whore Cassie, and my family would be complete and ready to destroy the pathetic humans. I was shuddering at the thought of it. Finally, I could be at Home. My true Home.

My thoughts were disrupted when I saw Brother jerk in surprise. "Is something wrong, my Brother?" I asked. I so hoped nothing was the matter, not when we were so close to having everything we wanted! And we were gods! We deserved no less than whatever we desired, and any getting in our way deserved to perish.

Nothing is wrong, my Brother. I am just... surprised, is all. Something unexpected occurred down at the Winery. he explained. He touched my forehead, and I had a vision. Similar to how Spok in the 2009 Star Trek movie shared thoughts with Captain... No, I must think of my old, human life. I was a god and it was beneath me, those memories.

Anyways, this vision was accompanied by an amazing feeling of euphoria. I saw Cassie run out of the Winery, with Ria and some other man chasing after her. She screamed something, ran to the APC, and ran over Ria, who was thrown into the car, and when the other man climbed into the back, she shot his head open. I saw blood splatter everywhere, and then it ended.

I was gasping for air, amazed at what I had just seen, it leaving me literally breathless. And I knew what had Cassie had said. Somehow, probably based on some filthy human memory, I knew. "She said she is coming here to rescue me, that shepves me," I said, amazed and shuddering. As a god, I knew the love of a mere human meant nothing to me, but I couldn't shake the thought from my head. Could it be true? Cassie actually loves me?

In my head, I heard two voices; my own, and my Brother's. And they were both screaming at each other.

you love her Daniel, and she loves you! End this madness and just be happy with her! I heard my voice say.

No! She doesn't love you, she never did! She is just a cockhungry slut, and she betrayed you! She must die! my Brother's voice screamed.

Confused and angry, I grabbed the sides of my head and fell to my knees. "Brother, make it stop! I don't know who to listen to, just make the arguing and confusion stop!" I screamed. My Brother walked over to me, yet again touched my head, and then my own voice grew softer as his grew louder, until my voice was a faint whisper, barely heard over the strong, loud voice of my Brother.

I stayed there, on my knees, the confusion gone, but I just didn't feel like moving. I didn't move when my sister came here, even though I had been so excited for her arrival. I didn't move when Peter called and lied to us, and when Thea broke off the deal, I didn't even blink. And when Cassie drove up, I finally moves.

"Voice, I don't want to kill Cassie," I said plainly. Both Voice and Thea looked at me. They were incredulous. Then Thea jumped on me, and we wrestled. I was screaming for Voice to tell her to stop, but he stood there, impassive. Eventually, she won, and she tied my hands together, tightly. Then Voice walked over to me.

My, my, Daniel. It seems you made the wrong choice. You see, we are gods. We don't spare lives. We deserve to take them if we so please, and I want to take every pathetic human life in this whole town. And that will be just the beginning. Just join us, and we won't have to make you do anything...regrettable. he told me.
I know I should've been smart about what I did next, but I wasn't. I probably got it from Cassie. But I spit in his face. He looked at me, slowly wiped off the spit, and then grabbed the sides of my head.

"Arghhh! What are you doing!" I screamed, my body writhing as I felt my head split open. Not literally, but it sure felt like it. I looked at Thea, and she was smirking, laughing at me really. I saw as the Voice slowly sunk into my body, and I knew anything I did now was up to him. I would be aware of my actions, but he would control them.

"Looks like she is here! Time to kill!" Thea cheered, and then, without my consent, my muscles moved, and I smiled evily.

"Yes, it is time for more death," I heard myself say. "Time for our revenge."

Troy was about to answer Ria when he heard the shuffle of footsteps from up above and the cackle of insane laughter. Oh hell he thought as he looked down and saw both Anubis and dog with their hackles raised growling at the stairs then turning and growling at the door. Shit and double shit. Whatever they were up against had not been fooled by their Trojan horse stunt and now they were caught in a trap instead of it.

"Ria it looks like the tables have been turned on us. Whoever is here obviously knew we were coming. By the way the dogs are acting, we have hostiles above us and outside. We can try to block the entrance here but from what you have shown me there are a few other ways in that this Daniel would know of and he would have obviously opened them as well, so it might be pointless. My best plan would be to get to one of the areas on the first or second floors and barricade ourselves in with an exit through a window if possible as a last resort. Maybe we could even get to a corner room and maybe scale the outside of the building and come in behind them if we ever figure out where their holding Cassie."

Troy started to move up the stairs and saw that the first floor seemed to be empty for now. "We need to make a decision quickly though. Retreat outside and into the truck, or up and into the building. Me I'm for heading in but that's probably the military "never leave em behind" attitude in me, that's why I think I should leave the decision to you."

Ria

"This is one of the stairs to the Special Collections. It is separate from the rest, it has only three accesses, two stairs and the lift. Windows in the classroom open to the roof. But only to the low part. We had a weapons work-shop in the main room and the classroom was bedroom for a few." I looked up at Troy, he was already halfway on the stairs.

"Over there," I pointed into the main hall, "are the stairs the zombies will be coming down from." I looked around. Ran too the fire doors and closed them with a bang, just as zombies barged through the main door. I sincerely hoped the fire doors on the other main door were still closed, I had no time to check.

I looked around for Dent, but couldn't see him.

"Block these stairs, Troy, I'll take the other ones and shower them with this!" I lifted the canister at my side.

"We could kill of the zombies in front, here at these doors, from the workshop!" I called out, while running towards the other stairs.

Deacon

"Bzzzzzt! Bzzzzzt!"

I still had not found a charger for my cellphone and since I was quite certain that the people have already given me up for dead, I had overstayed my absence. I had come into the city with the need to kill zombies, I found more than I had bargained for. In fact, two city blocks full of zombies. Of course that would not stop me, but what did stop me was that they seemed to gather, to prepare for an attack. There was scouts, guards, patrols and then the massive group of zombies.

Urban warfare is all about using your environment to your own advantage, using all kinds of cover to move, to use all technology and weaponry you can find as well. Sure things might seem like you're just flying by the seat of your pants, but also it is a proven fact that it always tend to work out. And that was what I counted on, that the zombies had become organized at some stage. Now the whole fact was that a group of zombies had moved out while I set up my surveillance and was busy with sorting out which explosives I wanted to use where. I spent loads of time in creating, mixing and matching flammable explosives with concussion explosives. I wanted to make things go boom and with boom I mean: KAFRIGGENBLOOEY!!

The alarm meant that a large body of zombies had moved into the range of the alarm eyes I have set up. That meant that the zombies which looked like a sea of walking cadavers, was on the move. I ran up to the roof of the building I had moved to, pulling out the antennae of the remote which was used to open a gate, which in turn activated the explosives. I depressed the button. For a fearful moment nothing happened...then...

It looked like a column of flame reached up to the heavens, buildings imploded, streets exploded, metal, concrete and other debris flew in all directions, dust blew up into the air to create a parody of the most dreaded mushroom cloud. I knew that I had used a lot of explosives, packed into buildings and sewers, but I could never have believed the destruction of my own handiwork now that I could see it with my own eyes. "Wow, now that is what I call a firecracker."

I watched the fire fall down to the ground and blow up another wall of dust, well that meant that an army had just been reduced to ash and that also meant that I had to head back, I had what I had wanted, now it was time to return to Derry and see if she still had that cute smile and lovely eyes. I returned to the room I had occupied and headed out of the building. Time to fetch Daniel and get out of the city.

Ria

I had made it ahead of some zombies coming in through the other main door -the fire door there was open too- to the stairs. On the first landing I halted, poured some of the gas-mix down and was satisfied the first zombie slipped in it and fell with his chin on the stone step. They weren't running too hard. Not hard at all. It just seemed they were trying to herd me.

Pondering if I should throw a burning match down, the floor beneath my feet shuddered and a deafening sound made me cringe. What the heck had Dent done?

Troy took up a position at the top of the stairs leading down to the main floor. He looked up the stairs to the next floor and waited. Listening he heard the sounds of footsteps on the stairs coming down and he looked for the room across the main room but all of the bookcases were in the way. He had a choice to make. Stay here and try to hold off the descending hoard or try and find the weapons workshop Ria had mentioned and maybe increase their odds of surviving.

He had only his shotgun to take on the Zombies, but with them all packed tightly on the stairs it would be a devastating weapon. He didn't think he could survive for very long though. Maybe take out the first ten or twenty before the sheer numbers over whelmed him. He looked for a different solution and saw a possible solution.

He had grabbed a few molotovs from the front of the truck on his way in. The stairwell was not that big and if he threw the few chairs and things lying around inside it he might be able to get a decent blaze going. He knew it might not stop them considering their behavior at the Winery but it would slow them down at least and cause some fatalities before it burnt out. It would also give him time to search for the weapons room.

Quickly he gathered whatever he could find and threw it inside. Chairs, a small bench, a table that had seemed to have been put here for some reason. He was going to throw in some books but didn't for a few reasons. One they would burn to easily, and two he couldn't bring himself to destroy the knowledge. Finally he had a decent pile and he was going to light it when he decided to wait and at least blow a few zombies away first before using it. Better to kill what he could then fall back. Waiting by the door he heard the footsteps grow louder and then the first figure came into view.

((Sorry to keep you waiting!))

I found my way to Ria, who was holding a lit match in her hand.

"Careful. Didn't your parents ever teach you not to play with fire?" I asked sarcastically. "No, really, what are you planning to do with that?"

And then suddenly, earthquake. The ground beneath my feet seemed to move on its own, and the walls were shaking. I was heavily confused, which explains the poor decision I made just then.

"Ria! I'm going to go find out what that was!" And with that, I ran downstairs - and slipped on some gasoline. That explained the match.

When I reached the bottom, there were no less than twelve undead waiting for me.

Shit, blood rage incoming.

Suddenly, Ria's face appeared in my mind's eye. If she saw me going berserk like this...

And then I realized.

………
………

I'm still in control?

Perfect.

Smiling, I put my staff into a one-handed reverse grip behind my back.

"Come at me!"

The Entity

The Entity which controlled Daniel’s body was formed from the masses of zombies walking in and around Eugene-Springfield Metropolitan area. The spore/virus combination that was in every zombie. These zombie brains produced brain waves/psychic energy along with the spores that allowed the zombies to influence each other. Each infested person … zombie or the “Napoleon” virus humans form the base for the mental messages and control network between zombies.

Very special humans can use the network to control the zombie. People like Thea and soon Daniel. But who controls them? The Entity! But what is The Entity? It is the network. It is tens of thousands of voices all combined. The cacophonous thoughts from the masses of zombies. Male and female all mixed up into The Entity.

These combined thoughts are extreme and negative. Jealousy, anger, or other negative emotions. The overriding thought from the zombie minds is to find food. Other lesser thoughts involve finding a good “blooming location … or stopping whatever is killing the zombies.

Those special case humans are the organizers of all those thoughts. They help the network talk and think. The visiting 'ghost' is generated by the host but is also partial controlled by the host.

This helps to explain why The Entity wanted to capture and ultimately kill Cassie. In Daniel’s mind, he talked the entity into capturing her. But actually, Daniel was in large part talking himself into it doing it. His mind as a special case human had a strong impact on The Entity’s thoughts.

Thea’s negative emotions are also added to The Entity. She ran when the zombies approached, that first day the knights left the library. Her cowardice cause the loss of her sanity. She wants to remove all traces of that event. She wants to kill all the knights and anyone they ever talked too. That is why she prepared two waves of zombies to go against king’s estate winery. To ensure all that knew of her actions were DEAD.

Lastly, The Entity cannot exist unless there are enough zombies for a healthy network. University of Oregon's Autzen Stadium seats ~54,000 people. It was full that Saturday, the day of the outbreak. A large percentage of the people in attendance that day turned into zombies. It is estimated ~40,000 zombies were “born” that day in the stadium alone. An additional 40,000 were created outside the stadium, mainly in areas downwind from the stadium. This population of 80,000 zombies killed almost 150,000 unsuspecting unprepared citizens of the Eugene-Springfield Metropolitan area. Again most of the people killed were in the Eugene city limit, which has a population of ~156,000 people. These deaths were not all caused by zombie mobs. There was trampling, starvation, car accidents, power outages, heart attacks, and suicides.

The population of 80,000 zombies has slowly been going down. This has mainly been the result of human resistance. Fire, bullets, hit and runs, and explosions. The single biggest loss of Zombie life occurred today. Humans from the Knight Library with their allies from the king’s estate winery, local farms, and the “frank’s” street group decimated over 11% of the zombies. ~500 from a roving Armored Personnel Carrier, ~2,500 were killed in the farming areas, ~2,500 in and around the winery, ~4,000 in a massive explosion engineered by a human named “Deacon” near the peacehealth medical facilities.

This 11% drop in the zombie network effected The Entity’s abilities. The Entity’s ability to influence Daniel and Thea dropped as the members in the network were killed.

Daniel and Thea knew none of this about The Entity. But after the massive explosion … both knew something had changed. The real Daniel had a bit more wiggle room in his own mind. For Thea, the threat to her children, her control network, and her “godhood” were all at stake.

The Entity inside of Daniel

With Cassie’s hands tied to the arms of the chair, Daniel removed the last of her weapons, her hunting knife, and machete. While he was doing this … Cassie was talking to him.

“Daniel … this is the virus … you have “Napoleonism!” You saw what it did to Peter. Stop … think about this. Killing the people that you have been trying to protect? Killing the people that have been trying to protect you? … it makes no sense?” She told him

“Cassie … Daniel is not here anymore. I’m in control … and I want one last look at those big tits of yours … and then I’m going to kill you.”

“Why … why are you doing this? … I was trying to save you!” Cassie said she could hear that Daniel voice sounded odd. It was not him. But she tried to talk to him anyhow … maybe the real Daniel could hear her inside his possessed body.

“You killed my children … I saw each death … from my children’s own eyes … as you ran over them … you FILTHY WHORE!!” The possessed Daniel yelled. But the voice sounded female. The voice kind of sounded like Thea.

“Daniel … they’re zombies … not your children! Get a grip … you sound like Thea! and she as crazy as batshit!” Cassie barked back at him.

Daniel slapped Cassie in the face so hard her head turned sharply to the right. He was powerfully built, a lumberjack from Canada.

“YOU WILL NOT CALL MY SISTER THAT!” Daniel yelled.

Cassie’s eyes filled with tears. But she had a weapon now to use against Daniel or whatever was inside Daniel. She thought to herself “Whatever is in him, it included Thea and some of Daniel. That explains why he wanted to look at her big tits … and then kill her.”

“What does Daniel want? The real Daniel ... a friend? a lover? someone that put her life on the line to save him? Or does the real Daniel want revenge for someone running over zombies. Which is it … you can’t have both … you have to choose!” Cassie said.

It was at this moment that the explosion rocked the upper floor of the library. It also caused both Daniel and Thea to become unstable. Thea SCREAMED and grabbed her head. It only lasted a second … Then her eyes turned red with hatred and she ran down the stairs with her zombie children ... the 9 mm out and ready to fire.

Ria

Suddenly Dent came down the stairs. I was glad he had made it upstairs before the zombies came in through the main door; up here, in this part with only the two stairs and the one lift (which was blocked easily with a chair keeping the door open at our end) he would be as safe as Troy and I, and he could help us to keep the zombies from coming up.

One by one we would take them out, and then we would be able to look for Cassie.

"Careful. Didn't your parents ever teach you not to play with fire?" Dent asked sarcastically. "No, really, what are you planning to do with that?"

Before I could answer him, the floor shook. An earthquake here? In the North? Wasn't California the part of the US most prone to earthquakes? Were we feeling the waves from an earthquake in California? Before I could finish my thoughts, Dent jumped down the stairs.

"Ria! I'm going to go find out what that was!"

"No! There are" I yelled and ended softly, already blowing out the match and getting my sling out, "zombies down there. A lot."

I saw Dent slip on the gasoline, and then he invited the zombies to come at him. One thought prevailed in my mind while my first shot hit a zombie in the head: Great. Cassie in male.

Around twelve were still close to the foot of the stairs. One had broken its neck when it slipped on the gas and knocked its chin full-force on the stair, one I had taken out just now. More were coming in through the door.

But they seemed confused somehow. I decided to take out as much of this new group as I could, before they found their bearings back. The air around me was filled with the rising damps of the gas I just poured down the stairs, and my eyes started to water, making it difficult to aim with the sling. Nevertheless I made four or five zombies go down before I looked back at Dent, to see if he needed help.

Bart

The zombies hadn't reacted when I opened the car door and crouched down beside it. Hunter and the two others got out too, each taking cover behind a door, ready to jump back in and close the door if the zombies would charge at us.

We would take out as much as we could, but saving our own hides was more important than saving the Knights, we had decided on the way here.

The cemetery was an eery place with all these zombies milling around on it. The trees hindered my sight, but I was sure there were more zombies closer to the Knight. The place seemed to attract them. With only one person inside, this seemed very strange. I wondered how zombies had managed to get on the roof of the library.

"Don't forget to kill those farthest away first," Hunter hissed. "The others might need some time to realize why there friends are dropping down like flies, and then it might take them some time to realize where the shots are coming from."

Of the four of us, only Hunter and I had killed before this all started. Taylor and Marshall, the two young men with us, were cracks at paintball. However, they had survived when they came back into the city late on sunday night after their weekend at the camp, ignorant of what had happened here and too drunk to note the people around on the street weren't people at all, they not even asked themselves why so many cars war standing on the streets. And they had survived in their apartment on monday when they decided to not go to classes because they felt a bit sore. On tuesday they had called friends to find out what was going on. Because only then they had realized something was very off with the world.

But still, after that they had survived for over a week, until Hunter and I picked them up when we got the supplies from the Pancake-house. They handled guns well enough, and hit targets, it only took them some time to get used to the difference in recoil.

I sighed. We had put down around fifty zombies in the short time these thoughts had been on my mind. Only once I had to shoot a zombie coming from behind, it passed the car much closer than others still coming to the cemetery. Now some started to look why those farther up were dropping down.

But strangely they didn't come for us, most stumbled a few steps in our direction and turned to walk to the Knight.

I followed them, putting down the stragglers. I heard Hunter curse but didn't stop. I glanced back, not many were behind me. Taylor and Marshall took them out while Hunter climbed back in the van. Only when I heard the engine start and rev I turned around fully, ready to run after them.

To my surprise Hunter navigated around and over graves, Taylor and Marshall walking beside the van and shooting zombies.

I was very pleased we were well stocked with ammunition. The raid to the police-station three days ago had been well worth the risk.

Troy waited until there were about ten zombies coming down the staircase before he let off the first round. He aimed high and pumped three rounds up the stairs. The front rows heads exploded and the ones behind were also shredded. The ammunition he was using was actually called shredders and was designed to fragment after leaving the barrel doing maximum damage in a small area. His shotgun would not be as useful in a normal gunfight, but in this situation it was going to be devastating.

He looked at his handiwork and all of the zombies were effectively down. Only the ones right at the back had not been blasted to bits and they had still had their legs and lower extremities shredded. The stairwell was awash with green blood and slowly moving half bodies. They would have trouble getting to him through the barricade and by the time they became a threat he would probably be setting it alight anyway. Troy set the dogs to guard his back and waited for the next mob to flood the stairs.

I saw Ria coming down the stairs with a sling as the posse of undead approached.

"Ah, great," I said. "I see you're armed, but I owe you one for the hand. Allow me."

As the first one reared its ugly head - ugh, that sounded so cliché - I brought the staff onto the side of its skull. Hard. There was a sickening crunch as it caved in. Hey, people called me crazy for bringing a five-foot solid metal staff to the annual Zebra Lover Festival, but as luck would have it that was the day of the outbreak.

Anyway. The second one lunged at me after seeing its comrade slain by my hand. Stick. Whatever. Without missing a beat, I added another hand to my grip and attempted a vertical cleve to the top of its skull in the manner of a two-handed sword. The pole made a small dent, but like almost everything else I've ever done, it was otherwise insignificant. This saddened me, and I beat a hasty retreat to Ria's side.

Speaking of insignificance, I decided at that moment at that moment to tell the truth about something.

"Uh, in case we're about to die, and according to that insignificant blow I just dealt we probably are, I just wanted you to know that I lied. I'm not a martial arts instructor. I'm a Youtube commentator. I mainly played fighting games. Sorry if I just got us killed."

It felt so good to get that off my chest. I could literally feel the weight being lifted off my shoulders.

Wait, shoulders? That's where I keep my staff!

Sure enough, a quick turn of the head told me that it was missing. I must have dropped it during my retreat, and that was very, very bad.

I had to find it, and fast.

Thea

Thea mind was a blur of hatred … the old inferior humans were killing her children. Her mother’s instinct to protect her children kicked in. She would be as ruthless and sadistic as possible to rid the world of this old human pest! Her mind spun in to a deep psychopathic personality type that was bent on breaking down her victims and destroying them at all costs.

She had no fear as she ran down the stairs … she was special. She was a goddess! But at the same time the explosion had weaken the entity … the transport network and a small peek of the real Thea was breaking through. The real Thea was full of self-hatred and loathing for what evil she had done. This mixed with her entity driven malignant narcissism into a toxic soup of mental unbalance. She was going to get her revenge on everyone … even herself. Kill everyone in the library and then kill herself … her hatred evil self … she would become the hero!

As she reached a good firing point at the top of the staircase she took careful aim with Cassie’s 9 mm.

“This is for killing my children … bastard” She whispered to herself. Troy never saw it coming. Zombies had no ranged weapons and so he was ready with his short-ranged shotgun out in case the zombie came again. He was right out in the open. Thea shot was true and struck Troy in his chest … knocking him flat on his back. There was no question he was dead.

Well, unless he was wearing bandoliers of ammunition under his jacket which might deflect the bullet. But who would do that?

Thea turned the 9 mm towards Ria and other person she did not know. Unfortunately, Ria had heard the gun go off and had taken cover.

Thea cackled totally insanely “RIA … BITCH … ITS THEA …. The one you left for dead … the one you abandoned … I’m going to kill you … or my children will … you can’t fight both of us … and then I’m going to KILL all the knights … for what they DID TO ME! and then … I’m going to make sure your family in Holland DIES TOO” She screamed.

The zombies advanced on Ria position and Thea got behind the cement railing and took careful aim so as soon as Ria showed herself Thea would fire.

Troy had heard the sound of a shot and then had felt the impact as the bullet had struck his chest. It had felt like someone had hit him with a sledgehammer and knocked all the wind out of him and he struggled to remain conscious and get air into his lungs.

He lay on the floor for what felt like minutes, but must have been only seconds before he could finally gasp in some air. As he winced and breathed some more he knew that he had bruised ribs at the best, broken at the worst. Still it was better than a big gaping hole gushing blood. He was glad of the extra ammo he had decided to pack under his shirt. Glancing up he saw the next lot of zombies descending the stairs and the raving crazy girl who had shot him standing on the second floor. She had turned her back on him obviously thinking him dead and was concentrating on Ria. A big mistake. "Anubis Take down," He said pointing at her, and he took off up the stairs through the Zombies with them ignoring him as usual.

Troy dragged himself back up into a sitting position and found some cover behind his barricade. He would have to start shooting again and he didn't want to make himself an easy target like last time, although he thought she would have a lot of troubles of her own in a second.

You know that feeling you get when somebody looks at you when you're not looking at them? As a hunter you also at times feel eyes looking at you with a fearsome hunger. That is usually a predator. I got a feeling like those two now, like something looked at me as I climbed into the Hummer, I looked up to find a female zombie standing there on the sidewalk. She didn't do anything, she just stood there...looking. Now that in itself would be a strange occurence, but to make it even weirder was when two more zombies showed up. They came stumbling from behind a corner and came to stand next to the first one.

I sat there, checking the road behind me, that stayed clear, yet more and more zombies approached, after a while almost eighty dead fuckers stood there looking at me. Still the road behind me stayed empty, like they wanted me to go in that direction. I waited and somehow even more zombies showed up, swelling their numbers. "Well fuck this." I moved over to the gunner's turrent, opened the trapdoor and took a stand, "OI! GO TELL YOUR AUNTS AND MOTHERS THAT I'M HERE." The group stood still, then I whipped the tarp from the gatling gun I had mounted in the place of the machine gun, it came from a tank, but I knew that the Hummer could take the recoil. I cocked the weapon and depressed the triggers, the electric motor started up with a whine and moments later hot death decended on the gathering of zombies.

"Die motherfuckers die!" I laughed in glee as the zombies suddenly lurched into motion, but the hail of lead cut them to ribbons. I kept checking for sneak attacks, but nothing happened, I stopped firing as the last zombie fell, I spat in their direction, slipped back inside, closing the hatch and getting into the driver's seat, already a few more came into view, I jammed my foot onto the accellerator and with a throaty roar the turbo charged diesel engine jumped forward, the huge wheels and perma 4 wheel drive making short work of the bodies underfoot and the new ones trying to step into my path.

Bart

It was too easy. It was way too easy.

I was worried to death things would turn around any minute and the zombies would attack us.

We walked on over the cemetery between zombies we had killed, killing more of them every second. Marshall and Taylor just shot at them randomly, taking out a zombie here and there, and leaving others, close or closer to us, walking around. With a few grunts I got their attention.

"Taylor, those on the left, and all of them, Marshall, the same at your right. I'll take those in front of us."

"The roof," Hunter hissed. "Put those on the roof down, it looks as if they are entering the Knight through a hatch."

Alarmed we looked at the roof. The zombies seemed to center at one spot now instead of just milling around like they had done before. It was difficult to see what was going on exactly, because we didn't have an overview over the many different levels of the roof. Why hadn't they build the thing with one flat roof?

"Back," I ordered. "We can't see enough."

"The only building higher than the Knight is on the other side, beside the Schnitzer museum," Taylor offered. "From there we could shoot everything on the roof."

I nodded.

"That is no option," Marshall grumbled under his breath.

I wanted to know why.

"Well, when we finally reach the roof there, not knowing what we have to fight in there maybe, the roof of the library will be empty anyway, I think," he said slowly. "But we could enter the library at the back, where the service and maintenance sections are. There are some small windows just at ground level there.I am not sure if that is a good idea though."

"It is," took Hunter the decision out off my hands. "Get in. I'll drive us around."

A loud series of explosions at the other side of the town, close to the hospital, made us look around as the ground beneath our feet shuddered.

Ria

A gunshot sounded from a wrong direction. Cassie? Was she firing at zombies? Or Daniel?

“RIA … BITCH … ITS THEA …. The one you left for dead … the one you abandoned … I’m going to kill you … or my children will … you can’t fight both of us … and then I’m going to KILL all the knights … for what they DID TO ME! and then … I’m going to make sure your family in Holland DIES TOO.”

"Thea?" I whispered, not able to believe my ears. Thea had panicked and run away from our little party when we left the Knight for the very first scavenging party. Just as the doors closed behind us and we killed our very first zombies, she took off. Zombies had followed her, we had done our best to distract them, we even killed a few with our slings, John and I before they were out off our range. And not even that had made me stop shooting at them.

What had we done to her? What did she think we had done to her?

Al this whirled through my brain in the half second I needed to take cover behind the bannister.

What now?

Zombies were advancing to the stairs I was on, Dent was nowhere to be seen, some zombies had reached the stairs.

Sitting on the top step, I used my sling to knock them back down. More zombies clustered together at the foot of the stairs. I needed a distraction. I needed to kill those zombies.

But how? I wasn't able to shoot fast enough, even if some dropped as the thoughts popped up in my brain because I kept loading stones and bolts in the sling and it swirled around my head so fast it almost obscured my view.

Or was my view hazy because of the fumes rising up from the gas mixture I had poured on the stairs? Should I light it? What would happen to Dent, if I lighted it? It wouldn't burn very long though. But if some zombies caught fire, they could stumble into bookcases ...

What should I do?

I could shoot them with Lee's handgun, but ... That would give my position away. With a heavy heart I reached for the matches and lighted one. Getting up in a crouch, I dropped it on the second step below me, where I had poured the gas out from.

Its raining zombies and dogs!

Thea was so pissed! Her trap for Deacon had been destroyed. How that “old” human had sensed it, she did not know. She had her children planted explosives at the base of a building near where Deacon was. All that shit needed to do was drive in that direction and the explosives would have collapsed a huge part of the building on him. But Deacon’s gatling gun had thwarted the plan! Thea hated Deacon even more than before.

She screamed in furstration. She wanted to kill something ... she wanted to kill Ria. NO ... she wanted to capture Ria. Then she could torture Ria before killing her. THAT WOULD BE SO FUN! Troy's death was too quick ... she did not want to kill ... she wanted to hurt and then KILL.

But she did not see Ria. Suddenly a huge animal leapt on her. She was knocked sprawling onto the floor. It was a dog. Where had it come from? Thea did not know. Thea screamed for her children to protect her as the dog jumped on her. She was on her back, trying to fend off the dog’s biting jaw.

The area filled with an orange light. The smell of burning gasoline filled the library. Thea felt her children start to burn. This just increased her frustration, as the zombies near her pulled the attacking dog off her. Suddenly, the Library’s sprinkler’s systems activated. Water sprayed everywhere, in the darkness of the library as Thea laughed insanely "YOUR FIRE WILL NOT PROTECT YOU NOW RIA ... JUST GIVE UP SO I CAN TORTURE YOU!!!" She screamed