"The Fortress: A Zombieland Story"

[TommyLee97321]

The Fortress:

A "Zombieland" Story

This thread is a separate chapter from the universe of
"Zombieland"

If you are interested in either thread
or wish to start a new thread in this universe,
feel free to PM me.

The Story:
A virus is killing most of the world's population
and turning many of the dead into zombies.

In a Police Station nicknamed "The Fortress"
a handful of cops, crooks, and others
find themselves under siege by a biker gang
eager to get their hands on the weapons inside.

Location:
Coopersville, Oregon
Population: 50,000 (pre-virus)

Characters central to this thread:
Ray Thomas, Coopersville Police Officer -- TommyLee97321.
Penelope "P-Dub" Wang, pop singer/dancer -- CutiePie1997
(More coming)

Other characters from the "Zombieland" universe:
Tommy Lee, book maker/gambler/small time (non-violent) thug -- TommyLee97321.
Sharla, call girl (from Seattle) -- CutiePie1997.
Steve Carlsen, farmer (from Coopersville's outskirts) -- Knightmare27.
Maria Valdez, college student (Coopersville Community College) -- CutiePie1997.
Max Richards, escaped convict/lifelong violent criminal -- TommyLee97321.
Clara Barnes, married barista/college student (CCC) -- CutiePie1997.
(Others coming)​

 

[TommyLee97321]

Post for Ray Thomas

18 July 2020
Yesterday:

I plopped down before the television in the Rec Lounge just in time to catch the beginning of the most incredible press conference I'd ever witnessed. The President of the United States and a half dozen others -- from Cabinet Secretaries to Department Directors to CDC Doctors -- explained that the sicknesses and deaths being seen all across the country were being caused by a new killer virus that had been spreading across the country and the world for more than two months. When asked why they were only just now revealing it, the Secretary of Homeland Security claimed that there had initially been terrorism implications that needed to be investigated. Those fears had been discounted, though: the virus was found to be entirely natural with no human manipulation, weaponization, or tinkering.

To date, the virus had been found in all 50 US states, most of the Canadian Provinces, several Mexican States, England, France, and China. And it was killing people at an exponentially increasing rate. A CDC doctor said there were four dozen deaths confirmed to have been caused by the virus, but that there may be hundreds, possibly thousands of others that fit the disease's symptoms.

The worse news was that the government had no way of fighting the virus. They'd tried dozens of vaccines, new and old, and nothing had even slowed the virus, let alone stopped it.

There was a lot said in the press conference, which ran more than two hours, but the one thing about which the people at the podium wouldn't comment was the rumors that there had been a mysterious uptick in horrific violence in the neighborhoods where the dead and sick resided. I don't know, maybe it's just my paranoia. But when I see entire neighborhoods exploding in crazed violence and there are also people dropping dead from a mysterious disease, I can't help but wonder What the fuck?



19 July 2020
Today:

It was all becoming hopeless. Fucking government announcement. Couldn't they have given us a little advanced warning...?

The announcement of the virus had led very quickly to social upheaval, marching, rioting, looting, killings...

And now, people were eating other people...!

Seriously!

It was happening! I was seeing it!

After a night of failing to contain the normal rioting and looting downtown, Command pulled all of its officers back to the station to regroup. As the sun rose, we were about to redeploy when right in front of the station we found three guys eating another guy. It was unbelievable!

We used a stun grenade to break it up, but that only worked for a minute or so. As we hurried out to the street to help the victim, the attackers writhed about on the ground for a moment ... then rose again in an attempt to go right back to eating the guy! One of the ERT members packing an automatic assault rifle riddled the crazies with bullets. They all three dropped, but ... they didn't die! Although some couldn't rise because bullets had ripped through their legs, they all tried to get to the bodies that we had pulled away from them.

Several of my fellow officers rushed out into the street and began shooting or beating the perpetrators with what ever we were packing. But the fight only attracted more of these crazy cannibals. We ended up in a serious fire incident that ultimately involved more than two dozen officers. I couldn't believe it. We were shooting down people left and right, and all they did was stand back up and come at us again.

"Head shots!" some one hollered. "Head shots!"

Pretty soon, we were all pumping rounds from pistols, shotguns, and assault rifles into the skulls of those coming at us. And after what seemed like forever, the action finally came to an end. We were surrounded by bodies, more than 60 of them, including eight of our own. Blood flowed over the pavement. Bodies were ripped apart, both by the damaging bullets and by the vicious cannibalistic attacks that continued even as we were shooting the attackers.

When I finally got a moment to take a breath, I instead leaned over and vomited all over myself. I dropped to my knees, trying not to look about myself until I'd recovered. Finally, I and my still living fellow officers gathered our dead and pulled them into the relatively safety of the Station.

We spent several minutes discussing what had happened when the unbelievable happened. A loud scream filled the lobby. As I rushed out expecting to find more of those crazies coming through the door, what I found instead was one of the dead ERTs now alive and biting into one of the living cop's necks, streaming blood out all over both of them. I put a bullet through the dead officer's brain, dropping him like a rock. But as I watched, the other dead officers began to rouse. They weren't dead at all. Or, they weren't dead still.

"Whadda we do?" I called to the others as they joined me in the lobby. "Whadda we do? They're cops!"

The sound of gunfire filled the room as some of my fellow officers pumped rounds into the brains of their former fellow officers. When it was all over, the Lieutenant stressed, "They weren't cops anymore."

We spent several minutes discussing, arguing, even crying before we began a serious conversation about what to do next. We were supposed to protect the community. It was our job. But, that battle was lost. There was only one thing left for us to do.

"Get our families here," the Lieutenant said. We spent the next several minutes calling family members, determining their security situations, and making a plan for using the fortified vehicles to get as many of them as possible back here to the station. Once we had a plan, the Lieutenant deployed what was now a Search and Rescue Team, saying, "Good luck."

I stayed behind to protect the station. I had no family in Coopersville to be rescued. I spent the morning helping a handful of others secure the lower floor and mount weapons in the windows of the upper floor and on the roof above. Every time I passed through the lobby past the neatly stacked bodies now lining one wall I cringed, thinking, What the fuck ... What the fuck is happening?

<<<<< >>>>>​

OOC: This first post is a combination of two posts from the parent thread, "Zombieland": Tommy Lee's 1st post (Post #3) and Ray Thomas's 1st post (Post #37). I have combined them here and edited them down to give the reader only the information they need to understand this chapter of the story.

 

[TommyLee97321]

Introducing Officer Ray Thomas:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/Police_officer_in_riot_gear.jpg

38 years old
5'10", 200 pounds; solidly built.

Currently: Sergeant, Coopersville Police Dept (CPD) (14 years).
Previously: Corporal, US Army (6 years).

History: grew up in Portland, Oregon. No family to speak of.

Personality: dedicated to protecting the innocent and punishing the guilty (and now undead).

 

[TommyLee97321]

Okay, CutiePie and Knightmare27, you both can feel free to post profiles for "Fortress" characters and your introductory posts.

Make them for Day 2 of the mayhem.

In contrast to the original "Zombieland" thread, there will be the following characters from me:

• Another 2 cops, both of whom are expendable, one in the short term, one in the long term.
• Another 3 convicts, each of whom is expendable.

CP1997, I know you wanted to write a female cop.

And KM27, I know you are writing a brother biker to my brother. You are welcome to write a second character if you wish, either long or short term. No pressure to write more than 1.

I have to go back to work. I don't normally post OOC comments like this in an IC thread, but I did this time because I plan on using this post for other purposes in the near future.