Spoiler: Memory 1

Inside a dark, abandoned building, a group of five people were running as fast as they could, trying to escape with their lives. Carrying backpacks stuffed with food, water and various supplies they gathered, they put as much distance as they could between them and their undead pursuers. When they lost them, the survivors breathed easier, but didn’t slow down as they quickly searched for a way out of the creepy building.

As they ran while closing any doors they could behind them, they reached a glass wall that allowed them to see the floor below them. It was crawling with zombies that were aimlessly walking about. If they fell down there, they would be torn to shreds in an instant. One of the survivors looked up and saw the floor on the opposite side that also had a glass wall. Right after, it shattered and a body was thrown out to the lower floor, causing him to stop in his track.

His group, who noticed that he wasn’t following them, ceased running as well. They turned towards him with puzzled and impatient looks. They didn’t have time. Although they were carrying handguns, rifles and shotguns, ammunition was sparse and the noise attracted the undead mob. Moreover, night was coming which was when the most dangerous infected group ventured out.

The survivor pointed at the glass wall and everyone took a look. Watching them from the opposite side was a hooded man in a black jacket. They could see that he was wearing goggles and a gas mask that covered his nose and mouth. From the backpack he was carrying, they guessed that he also came to scavenge for supplies.

After several seconds of silently staring at the other, the unknown survivor bolted off out of sight. The group that watched on hurriedly did the same when they heard a loud roar that sounded neither like a human’s or an animal’s. The sun was setting. The sky was darkening. Night was going to dominate the day.

They were coming out to hunt.

Spoiler: Memory 2

Ryner ran through the desolate streets of the city. There wasn’t a single living soul in sight. The only things present were abandoned cars, scavenged houses and the rotting undead that shambled around. Moreover, a horde was chasing him, running while dragging their feet and stumbling about. He turned into an alley to lose them, but it was a dead end. The wall was too tall to climb over and there were four idle zombies present. Their heads snapped to attention when they saw him and they stared at him with their foggy eyes.

Since he couldn’t escape without a fight, Ryner pulled out from his back a FN Five Seven handgun that he stuffed inside his pants. He shot the four zombies and turned towards the pack that followed him. While slowly walking backward, he accurately shot them in the head in quick succession. One bullet for one undead. Thirty infected were eliminated in less than thirty seconds.

Two remained, but his extended magazine was empty. He switched the Five Seven to his left hand and his right hand went for the holster tied to his right thigh. From it, he pulled out a magnum, fired twice, and killed the last two. Once he was done, he made sure the area was clear before putting the magnum back in the holster. Then, he reached for his last remaining magazine hanging on his belt behind him and reloaded his Five Seven. Checking that the coast was clear, Ryner escaped from the area before more infected showed up, attracted by the gunfire.

He blundered. The trip was a waste of ammo.

Spoiler: Memory 3

It was raining. The dark clouds covered the sky and hid the sun. It was great weather for the survivors since they could collect water.

Ryner was in the middle of the street, scavenging for usable parts and supplies. Abandoned cars were everywhere. Luckily, there was no undead shambling about. Some parts of the city were almost devoid of them. They were relatively safe zones during the day. Other parts were more dangerous, even impossible to come back from.

Ryner was operating in one of these more or less safe zones. He used a rubber hose to retrieve the gas in a car and filled the gas tank he had with him. Next, he unlocked the door of the driver’s seat, entered and closed the door. As he looked around, he saw a shadow walking down the middle of the street in the rearview mirror. Instantly, he jumped in the back seat and crouched in the corner. He knew what it was. Sometimes, mutations occurred among the infected. Each variation were stranger, creepier and deadlier than a regular undead.

A while later, the grotesque shadow appeared next to his car. It was the moving corpse of a man with rotten, grey skin. Its arms were shriveled up like dead fruits and limply hung on both sides. From his shoulders, two huge arms were growing out like bat wings. The forearms and the hands were big like those of a gorilla, yet appeared to have only skin and bones. The skinny fingers were long, crooked and sharp. The creature’s head was hairless and only a huge mouth filled with rows of fangs could be seen on its face. It had no face.

Ryner let it pass as it carefully moved around, relying on its sense of touch and hearing. Its arms that could reach the ground were being used like legs and supported its body. It felt the area around it while growling and screeching. One of its giant hands that could easily wrap around a grown man’s head was placed on the window of the car’s door. The glass cracked and the vehicle shook.

Even so, Ryner remained perfectly still in the corner and waited.

Spoiler: Memory 4

The house was empty, abandoned.

Anything of value was already taken, either by those that had lived there before, or by those who came after to scavenge for supplies. Ryner was one of them.

It was the middle of the day, but the interior was dim and gloomy. The place looked as if a hurricane passed by and turned everything upside down. The broken television was on the ground, drawers were pulled out, the fridge was wide open and most importantly, there was nothing useful to take.

Ryner looked through the kitchen, but he didn’t find anything like conserved food, knives or spoons. He went to one of the bedrooms that were on the first floor. The place was cleared out as well, but a few dusty clothes for a ten year old child were discarded on the floor as well as toys that wouldn’t have been of use. He crouched down, picked up a shirt and examined it. He took off his backpack to put it inside since it might be useful later.

Suddenly, he heard the floorboard creak.

Slow, rhythmic footsteps were drawing closer.

Leaving the backpack and shirt on the floor, he swiftly and silently went next to the opened door, used it as cover and glued his back to the wall.

A man smelling of rot entered the room and stopped at where Ryner dropped his backpack. He was weakly moaning and groaning in a hoarse voice. Ryner could barely feel his presence even though he was so close.

It was because he was already dead.

The man was infected with the virus that created moving corpses, grotesque monstrosities and creatures of the night. But, he was a normal undead, the type that was easy to deal with when they were alone.

Damage to the head was enough to kill them and that was what Ryner did.

He pulled out the butterfly knife from the sheath strapped to his left forearm under his jacket’s sleeve and sneaked up behind him. Before the rotting infected could notice anything, the knife’s blade was embedded in the back of his head.

Ryner pulled out his weapon and didn’t spare a glance at the corpse that fell down.

Spoiler: Memory 5

The roofs were not safe, but they were the safest means of travel. Most of the undead couldn’t climb up there and were too dumb to look up. So, Ryner would often use them when he wanted to get around the city. Of course, this was only during the day. When night came, the roofs, and the city, belonged to the worst of the flesh eaters.

However, besides the infected population, there were others that also hung out on top of the buildings.

Ryner, looking down on the streets while sitting on the edge of the roof, saw a couple of survivors. It had been a while since he last saw any living humans. Carrying large backpacks, they were moving swiftly and cautiously, hoping to avoid any infected.

However, they were suddenly gunned down and fell limply on the ground.

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The next moment, Ryner felt a chill go up his spine and reflexively leaned back. A bullet flew passed his face.

From its trajectory and the sound of the gunshot, he determined the position of the shooter.

More shots came, but none hit him since he stayed down and hidden from view. He crawled to the adjacent edge of the roof and took out his revolver. Getting to his attacker would be too difficult when he needed to hop from one roof to another. Getting down on street level would be a bad idea since every infected in the area heard the gunshots and were probably converging on the gunner’s position.

That was why Ryner stayed in cover and checked the bullets in his firearm. After confirming six shots were in the chambers, he spun the cylinder and patiently waited.

He wasn’t the friendliest survivor, but he wasn’t the worst either. They were some that killed people to steal their supplies while others did it for the thrill.

Today, he would be the former.

Spoiler: Memory 6

Ryner was negotiating with the leader of a group of survivors. They were an all-female group that took refuge in a hotel and didn’t exactly like men. Still, they allowed him to enter their hideout and were offering him a reward for helping them out.

Although the hotel was barricaded to keep unwanted guests out, human and infected alike, it wasn’t completely safe. Undead roamed several floors and all they could do was blocked the passages. The noises they made at night, coupled with the monsters that hunted in the dark, terrified the children and the adults.

Their leader asked Ryner to clear out those areas for them in exchange for supplies. He accepted, but asked not for supplies, but for her to sleep with him.

She snapped, pulled out a gun and threatened to kill him. The other women in the room glared daggers at him and were also ready to shoot him dead.

Ryner shrugged his shoulders, aloof even with several guns pointed at him. He told them that he didn’t mean it, that it was a test. Then, he picked up his bag and headed for the door. The leader asked him if he would accept their request for supplies, but he refused. He didn’t want to work with people that would kill him in a heartbeat because of his gender, regardless of their circumstances.

The leader clicked her tongue and apologized. So, Ryner accepted to help them, but said that she really had to sleep with him now.

His demand stirred up a commotion, but she grudgingly accepted in the end.

Afterwards, they gave him a smartwatch and an earpiece before he went off to kill all of their undead vermin.

Spoiler: Memory 7

Ryner carefully walked through an alley, making sure that nothing noticed him. Turning a corner, he saw the street which caused him to stop, crouch down and slowly back away.

It was crawling with infected.

He was currently inside a mid-danger zone. In this area, the undead were greater in numbers compared to a low-danger zone. But, that also meant that the chances humans had time to plunder every supplies was lower. As such, Ryner had come to these more dangerous parts of the city to scavenge for food, clothes and anything that could keep him alive.

Still, seeing the street packed with rotten and groaning bodies that were slowly shuffling about made him wonder if it was such a good idea. He looked around to find a way to get on a building’s roof.

At that moment, a mutated monster passed by in the crowded street. Ryner hurriedly shifted back a bit more while carefully peeking from the corner.

It was a man that was crawling on all fours while spewing red gunk from its mouth. The reason it couldn’t walk straight was because of the giant zit filled with white pus on its back. That dome was actually bigger than it and caused it to clumsily move at a slow pace.

When Ryner saw the infected, he found it a shame that it was surrounded by so many undead. Killing it and harvesting its pus would make for a good biohazardous weapon. He had seen that substance melt people down like acid. Moreover, these types of mutations were easy to deal with. So long as he kept his distance, they could be taken down in one hit. After all, they were basically moving bombs.

He just had to pop its zit.

Spoiler: Memory 8

Scavenging.

Every day, Ryner would scavenge the ruined city and bring back whatever he found useful to his hideout. It was an apartment in a building complex that was located in a rather safe zone with few infected. His place was on the higher floors and off the ground where the undead roamed. Moreover, it was big enough for him to store all of the supplies he secured during his trips through the city’s streets.

This time, along with food, water and other items, he took out from his backpack several books. The first one was some girl’s diary. Skipping to the end, he found that she recorded the first few days when the dead started walking.

The second one was about mechanical engineering. The world’s technology was familiar to him, but there might be some finer points that he didn’t know of. That was why he grabbed the tome.

Finally, the last one was about cooking. It was useless to him.

So, using a box cutter, he cut a rectangular hole through the several hundred pages. Once he was done, he placed a semi-automatic handgun along with a magazine clip inside and closed the book. Then, he placed it on the shelf of his bookcase in the living room, which was where he kept his other books.

Afterwards, Ryner organized and went over what he had stocked up. The canned food, the water bottles, the medicine, the clothes, the tools, the miscellaneous items and the weapons were all there, placed in various places around his apartment.

And now that he had more supplies, he decided to increase and maintain his arsenal.

He made gunpowder.

He made Molotov cocktails.

He made smoke bombs.

He made explosive grenades.

He sharpened his blades.

He cleaned his guns.

He counted the bullets left.

Eventually, he had to turn in for the night. The sun was about to set. So, Ryner made sure that the windows were barricaded and blocked, the door was securely locked and his escape route was cleared. Then, he just needed to wait for dawn without being found.

It was going to be another sleepless night.

Spoiler: Memory 9

A woman’s voice coming from the earpiece asked Ryner his current situation. He stopped, crouched down and looked at his watch. The black screen lit up and showed not the time, but a numerical value as well as a red arrow that pointed straight ahead. Using this function that showed the way and distance, Ryner told her that he was almost there.

The application that the woman on the phone programmed made finding his way through the city a bit easier. It would have been better if he had gotten some weapons as well, but the group of female survivors didn’t like him enough to share their precious guns with him. The two sides were cooperating, but they weren’t exactly comrades. Putting it bluntly, they were making use of each other.

That was why Ryner was out shopping for them and in return, the survivors would give him what he asked.

Still, the woman on the phone was rather friendly, despite how her group distrusted men. Although, Ryner wished that she would stop reminding him to get her some good booze every ten minutes. Besides daily necessities, his shopping list also included things like makeup, skincare products and children’s toys.

There was a lot to grab to keep a group of individuals alive. To get all of these items, he had to go to a certain location that was pretty much infested with zombies.

The mall.

Spoiler: Memory 10

Surrounded and outgunned, Ryner had no choice but to obediently raise his hands in surrender. The bunch that he was dealing with had short temper and not the friendliest welcoming. If he made the wrong move, a firefight would ensue, which was not what he wanted.

One of the men that were aiming his gun at his head asked him a few questions. During the tense interrogation, the others kept their eyes on him, mostly on his gear.

Ryner had quite a few items that they could take. There was a revolver in his leg holster, his clothes were of good quality and his backpack actually had a shotgun in a remodeled side pouch. Moreover, although it was a bit on the thin side, they got themselves some fresh meat.

It was a good catch, one that these survivors hadn’t had in a while.

As the interrogation continued, some impatient voices kept asking why they couldn’t just kill the stranger. People seemed just about ready to pull their trigger. Those who didn’t have guns were stroking their machetes in anticipation. They all eyed the object that they wanted to take. Some wanted the shotgun, others the backpack. There was also someone whose stomach growled.

In this volatile atmosphere, Ryner calmly repeated that they shouldn’t fight and that they didn’t have time for this. Yet, no one paid attention to his warnings.

As a result, they couldn’t react properly when a pack of infected suddenly attacked them. During the chaos, Ryner quickly escaped, shooting down any human and undead in his path.

Making contact with this group of survivors turned out to be a bad idea. Then again, in the wasted city, there were some that could be reasoned with, and some that couldn’t.

Still, Ryner couldn’t just leave empty-handed. So, he took a car that they managed to modify and reinforce. Besides, it didn’t look like they were going to need it anymore.

Spoiler: Memory 11

Having managed to escape from his pursuers, Ryner looked at the room that he ended up at. Various antiques were carefully stored around the tidy and well-lit place. It was just like a museum.

The person who owned the building was probably a fan of history and possessed a varied collection. Besides clocks and paintings, a few firearms were stored behind glass cases. There were blunderbusses, muskets and pistols. Furthermore, every gun was a well-maintained replica capable of firing. Moreover, primer, bullets, gunpowder and other supplies were also on display.

The museum looked more like an armory to Ryner, which was rather useful considering he lost his weapons before his escape. He needed to get out of enemy territory and it didn’t look like he could sneak past detection.

So, for the moment, Ryner helped himself to what was in front of him. Turning into an antique thief, he broke multiple glass cases and took whatever caught his eye. He picked a few pistols, a musket with a bayonet attached and some supplies to reload his firearms. For some reason, only one pistol was a breech-loading weapon and the rest all used either the flintlock or the percussion cap mechanism. As such, reloading was going to take time.

There was also a black powder revolver that was capable of firing buckshot which was put on a pedestal. The gun practically glowed because of the strong light from the ceiling that was shining down on it. The way it was displayed was as if it was the centerpiece of the room. A short explanation was inscribed on a plate next to it which stated that the revolver once belonged to a famous general.

It was in working condition and it looked useful, so Ryner took it.

After he was done borrowing various items, he began arming himself. Luckily, gun belts, pouches and bags were graciously stored around the room.

With these weapons, Ryner was no longer unarmed. Still, he’d probably die in a straight up gunfight.

That was why they were mostly for the horde of infected that flooded the place when the gate was breached.