By seven thirty most of the residents of F city had finally woken up. With over five hundred thousand people waking to the Apocalypse, the city plummet into chaos. Cars swerved off roads in an attempt to avoid pedestrians and undead alike, while others just ran these people down. These reckless drivers, in an attempt to escape the disaster, would meet their own end as they crash their vehicles with one another, joining the fast growing number of fatalities. Rein, knowing the dangers that waited for him on the roads of the city, stuck to small residential streets while traveling. This didn’t come without it’s own problems though.
A screaming woman, holding her small daughter, cut across the street barefoot, wearing only pajamas. Close behind them was a man bleeding from his neck. Stumbling with each step, the undead husband chaced after the two in an attempt to feed it’s hunger. The little girl, who couldn’t comprehend what had lead up to this situation, assumed her parents were playing a game of tag. This game was short lived however, for a speeding yellow truck mowed the zombie down, crushing the monster’s skull under it’s tires. When the woman herd the rumble from the passing vehicle behind her, she refused to look back, scared of the monster she thought was still there. She could only holding her daughter closer as she ran away with the child in her arms. Only the eyes of the five year old, looking over her mother’s shoulder, saw what really happened. What use to be her father, was pulverized into a streaks of blood and gore.
“Daddy!”
The unrecognizable corpse was now just a lump of roadkill covered in cloth. When the impact happened, the little girl couldn’t help put notice that a bit of her Dad’s hair had fallen onto her mother’s shoulder, still attached to a piece of the man’s scalp.
Unaware of the trauma he’d just caused, Rein continued listening to The Cranberries, cruising the streets of the, formerly, quiet neighborhood. Humming along to one of the most ironic songs, second only to the song Ironic, the teen pulled to the side of the road, slowing just enough to let an ambulance pass by. The emergency crews were active at the start of the Apocalypse, but as the day gets older, these emergency vehicles would become increasingly more scarce. Most first respondents found themselves in various dangerous situations while responding to emergency calls, most involving the recently resurrected. Being the first to confront the undead meant being the most likely to die.
Sure enough, just as the ambulance passed, it began to swerve off road, colliding into the side of a white mini van. Totaling the smaller vehicle, and continuing to drag it a few extra feet off road, the emergency vehicle was forced to a stop. Whoever was inside the white car was defiantly dead, but there was still movement coming from the red truck. A moment later, the back of the ambulance opened, releasing two struggling bodies, one biting into the other. Over the sound of the blaring horn, an excruciating scream was herd, as an EMT had his arm torn into by a zombie. Seeing a couple people watching from the safty of their home, the man called out for help as he pushed the monster off. Struggling to get away, the man ran right towards the couple stand on their porch, the zombie not far behind him. Ignoring the escalating scene in front of him, Rein moved on, sparing only a glance into his rear view mirror. Seeing the zombie latch onto the man’s back, and pull him to the ground, Rein disappeared around the next turn.
Putting aside the peculiar situation of the apartment complex, there were actually more people than zombies at this time. The typical undead was either locked inside a bedroom, or chowing down on their family members, while the remaining few were busy terrorizing the streets. Still a bit slow after their initial resurrection, these undead were easily avoided by the public. This kept the casualties down. However, that wouldn’t stop everyone from meeting their end at these monsters. Those unlucky enough to be caught outside, were seen scrambling about the streets in a panic. Fleeing for their lives, many people were trying to escape the city. Those who were lucky, or smart, didn’t leave their homes.
Finally making it out of the neighborhood, and around the busier streets, Rein turned onto a street that lead directly into the heart of F city. Most of the traffic was headed away from the city’s center, meaning most of the traffic was now behind the him. This made things easier to navigate, but zombies weren’t the only thing terrorizing the streets. Unlike Rein’s last life, A few individuals had decided to take advantage of the chaos, and started looting the shops for supplies. Few noticed the morning robberies, as groups of people started stalking up on things like food and water. These people were the returnees. Having already set a game plan prior to dooms day, these hardened individuals payed little attention to the sudden appearance of monsters. Knowing that now was the time to take as much as they could, the survivalists didn’t waste their golden opportunity to get essentials. What they didn’t expect was having to fight other teams for these supplies.
The number of returnees was much greater than anyone had expected. While some had a whole year to prepare, others found themselves waking up only days before doomsday. This made preparation difficult for some to manage. To make up for the lack of time, these people made ‘Shopping Lists’ for the day of dooms day. Unfortunately they didn’t account for the other returnees. This caused fights to break out between these groups.
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Passing by a local hardware store, the teen caught a glimpse of a scuffle between two humans. Each wielding a bat, or other type of blunt weapon, two men continuously exchanged blows. Just short of being able to bruse the other, the first man quickly found himself flat on his back before his buddies, standing close by could move in to help. It then became one man against four, and the one was winning. This was a perfect example at of the difference in skill between someone who had experience fighting for one year, vs someone who had been fighting for multiple years.
Suddenly a lady holding a gun exited the shop, shooting at the the group of men. The one who had been winning was seen scrambling to safety along side his enemies from before. Stepping on the gas, Rein sped up, refusing to get caught up in the mess. Shaking his head, the boy could only laugh at what he just saw. A man can improve his fighting skills as much as he wanted, but in the face of a gun, he was still at a disadvantage.
At this point in time, abilities users were non existent, for their abilities had yet to develop. At best their abilities were only just starting to show. This evened the playing field between groups. If these abilities had actually manifested themselves at this point, then the fights would have been a lot more dangerous. That didn’t stop these looters from killing though. While some returnees still shared a bit of respect for human life, or apathy in Rein’s case, others had developed a disdain for it. To these people, anyone who wasn’t strong enough to help themselves, was just a liability to the human race. This thought process mostly stemmed from the ability users from the last life. Back then, it was common for people to be treated poorly on the basis of not having an ability. Rain had chosen to cut through the center of the city because of this. Though some might view this as a suicide, seeing as there would be a lot more zombies the further you went, he knew that there would be less returnees who would dare venture in this direction.
Still avoiding any main roads, Rein was careful to take as many side streets as he could while traveling. Every now and then a couple zombies could be seen chasing after another victim. Rein didn’t pay any attention to these people, for he had his own life to take care of. At least that’s what he kept reminding himself. Besides, if people couldn’t outrun underdeveloped zombies on day one, they’d be a burden once these monsters evolved, gaining their full mobility in a few days. More than once people ran up to his truck, banging on the windows for help, but the teen steeled his resolve and pushed forward. Eventually these people went away.
The closer Rein got to down town, The Taller the buildings around him became. Eventually the light from the morning sun was blocked by these buildings, casting a long shadows over the streets. Though there were more buildings, there were a lot less people, and zombies, in the streets. These zombies became increasingly less bloody as well. These were the businessmen, and women, who worked in the office buildings surrounding down town. Most likely having turned on their commute to work, these people remained trapped in there cars. Only a couple zombies managed to make it out into the streets. One zombie, a man who turned while crossing the road, was still standing in the crosswalk, the same place he turned. Not having fully developed it’s Zombie habits yet, the undead remained still, making a perfect target for a yellow moving truck run him down. As black blood spattered against the side of the truck, adding to the previous stains.
A few feet away, the truck finally came to a stop in back of a tall high rise bank. Hidden from view in the small alleyway, The van fit snugly between the walls of two buildings. Getting out of the truck, the small teenager quickly shut the door, doing his best not to make any extra noise. This was going to be his first stop of the day. Though he would of liked to settle down, and breath after all the stress from earlier, the amount of looters he saw on the way had concerned him. If he wasnt fast enough, then he would no doubt run across even more problems than he was ready for. Securing his car keys, Rein didn’t lock the door of his truck. Though he didn’t want the vehicle stolen, he still needed to make sure he could make a quick exit, just in case he needed to leave in a hurry. He had the only keys anyway, so it should be fine. He might have been worried someone would try to hot wire the truck, but he made sure to reinforce the electrical panel so that it wasn’t so easily accessible. By the time he was done with his ‘errand’, any thieves would already be caught. It would be a bit weird to have his stolen truck stolen from him though.
Armed with his crowbar, and a duffle bag, The hardened youth started crossing the street toward the a mall, passing a parking garage along the way. For a moment Rein’s mind wandered to the memory of his death. Seeing the empty concrete building reminded him that these things would later be a shelter for monsters. When the summer sun became more prevalent, the zombies start to decay rather quickly, causing some corpses to dry up and mummify. To avoid this, the smarter ones started to hide from the sun when there was no prey to consume. These pre made underground ‘nests’ were the first places they gravitated to. Pulling himself back from the trauma, the young returnee continued to cross the street, reminding himself to keep a better eye on his surroundings. Once again he ended up spacing out, leaving him vulnerable. Scolding himself, the boy pushed forward. Reaching the sidewalk, Rein passed a set of stairs that lead down into the subway station below the street.
Coming up onto the large building, Rein listened closely to his surroundings for any sounds of activity. Normally Rein would feel the urge to fill this silence with some kind of humorous melody, especially when he was by himself, but in light of what happened at the apartment complex, he thought it would be best to keep things a little serious. Right now, he had to make sure to get all the supplies he needed, and be at F city’s military base in a week. He still had a few things to work on with the truck, and that would mean he’d have to find a secluded place to work while making noise. For now though, it was better to get the remaining supplies he needed.