Year of the Dead

The Viral Outbreak

By

Thomas Rodgers

In the ending months of the year 2012, a plague of epidemic proportions wiped across the globe claiming billions within its path. Those unfortunate to succumb to the effects would die off, then reanimate and be doomed to walk the earth eternally, praying amongst the remaining population. In a matter of months, one by one cities began to fall, followed by states, then entire countries, until the worlds population had been decimated and humans were no longer the dominate species. There were those however lucky enough to avoid the horrible fate that took so many. These survivors fought day by day for their lives, their families/friends, and the chance to rid the earth once and for all of their undead enemy in what seemed like a never ending war, but as everyone knew only time would tell who the victor would be.

Chapter 1 -


In the early hours of December 2nd 2013, loud screams of horror could be heard by a woman somewhere within the remnants of the business district of Salt Lake City Utah. It had been almost a year since the initial outbreak of the virus that changed the world as everyone knew it, and still it seemed as though the humans were getting farther from victory instead of closer to it.
Since the breakdown of social order, so many survivors had decided to act as raiders and bandits, taking what they wanted instead of trying to help those near them. Fortunately for most however, the majority of these current day marauders had either been killed off by constant infighting, or the relentless and seemingly never-ending horde of undead that still continued to claim those who lived.
Running through a warehouse she had slipped into to try and escape her pursuers, the Utah native Alison continued to keep her pace, tiring slightly though pushing herself as she already knew the outcome if they caught up with her. Out of a group of over 30, she was the sole survivor of a massacre that had occurred within her colony towards the east side of the city just at the base of the Wasatch mountain front.
Alison hadn't eaten in days and was becoming dehydrated very quickly, however neither of these issues were on her mind at the moment, all should could hope for right now is her chance to survive. Keeping ahead of the group, Alison wasn't even sure where she would go since the last signs of life were seen months ago by a lone survivor coming to the colony entrance.
That man had succumb to the undead since those who were place in charge of their community refused to allow his request at sanctuary. One thing she did know was rumors of a survivor group located somewhere west of Utah out in the middle of the desert where there was supposedly very little to no zed activity, but it was just rumors and she was taking a large chance at going for this location.

Pushing through a door at the end of the hall she ran down, Alison quickly realized she had wandered into a fenced yard with no appear ant escape except over the top where barb wire circled in a vast amount, meaning she would become badly injured if attempted. However with the horde bursting out the same door just behind her, Alison knew she had to chance it or become a zed herself.
She quickly ran to the northwest corner of the fence and began to climb, she quickly pulled off the poorly made scrap shirt she wore and draped it over the top, hoping for it to make her climb over at least somewhat less painful.
As she began to cross over, Alison quickly realized the shirt was not thick enough and the razor sharp wire began to cut into her now bare upper body flesh along with the rest, causing her to bleed. Having that occur with the already diminished strength she had from no food or water, Alison fell to the ground and slowly climbed herself back up, falling to the ground once more only a few feet away.
Looking behind her she could see the group that had chased her was now trapped behind the fence, but many more began to approach her from all other sides. Thinking this was going to be the end of her life, Alison began to reach for her pocket and grabbed out a small revolver pistol with only one round in the chamber she had kept with her and saved just in case this time had come.
Pulling back on the guns hammer, Alison placed the barrel to the side of her head, and just as she started to squeeze back on the trigger, a loud bang sounded from her left. She opened her eyes and watched as one of the closest zeds fell to the ground, no longer moving. Then again she heard the sound she now made out to be gunfire and two more zeds fell.
In no time at all she began hearing semi automatic fire erupting all around her and looked up to see a small helicopter hovering only 30 feet or so above with multiple persons sitting on the sides firing down at the crowd.

Alison took a quick breath trying not to cry then stood and began making her way for the now cleared path. Just as she turned the corner of a group of stack pallets, she became startled to the large amount of people standing around her, none of them dead nor were any of them raiders from appearance, but possibly military by the look of their uniforms, however instead of the normal camo, all wore solid black.
A man standing about 6 feet walked up to her from the back of the group and from the way her carried himself, it was appear-ant this was the leader. He draped a jacket over to cover her bare skin and began to speak, however it took a moment for Alison to be able to make out the words due to the shock she had received.

"Wha... what did you say?" Alison asked. "I said I'm Captain Thomas Rodgers with the Spectres, were here to help, your safe now" The man quickly replied.

Alison just let out a slight grin then fell to the ground, becoming quickly unconscious due to the lack of nourishment and injuries she had sustained. Thomas caught her as she fell and motioned to a couple medics nearby for help. "She appears to have taken a beating, load her into med 1 and stabilize her" Thomas order to the three soldiers.
They all just nodded and carried her off to a nearby lifted 1977 Chevy Blazer painted solid primer black with only a small primer red cross painted on each of the doors and the spectre symbol on each front fender. Thomas just watched for a moment then looked around to the remaining men he had.

"Ok, that makes our 7th rescue this trip, lets go ahead and pack it up and head back to base" He spoke out to the crew, followed by looking up at the helicopter, motioning for it to return to base. The copter changed course and began to head west and all the men on the ground quickly loaded into nearby vehicles that made up the search and rescue convoy.
Thomas walked over and stepped into the lead truck, a 1977 Chevy K10 truck painted the same primer black, it bared the same symbol of the spectres on a small section of the front fender on each side of the vehicle. The Spectres actually began as a security company based out of Las Vegas which Thomas was the owner of before the outbreak. After everything had happened, Thomas took as much equipment and as many survivors as he could gather and headed north to the small city of Wendover Nevada where he had purchase some land and placed a warehouse on it, filling the building with vehicles and alot of equipment.
Once they had secure themselves within the city, Thomas just named his community after his company name and the spectres are what the community members call themselves.

Once settled into the passenger seat, all of the vehicles began pulling out of the industrial hell hold and made their way west, going back to wendover where the group all lived.

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Slowly opening her eyes and glancing out the passenger rear window just to her left, Alison quickly realized she was in a vehicle but where it was going and who these people were still was a mystery to her. She slightly tilted her head upwards and looked around, she noticed three persons, one female and two males sitting only feet away from her, two in the front driver and passenger seats, the third sitting on a side mounted seat just to her right side.
Alison then looked down and noticed the bandages covering her arms and could feel more across the rest of her body, and realized she had been covered up with clean wool blankets. Trying to comprehend the thought of everything that was occurring, and trying to deal with the horrible headache she currently had, Alison sat up slowly, quickly catching the attention of the female medic sitting next to her.


"Whoa there, take it easy, you had some serious injuries and need to rest" The female medic said to her. "Where am i, and who are you people?" Alison replied, looking around cautiously at the group. "I'm Sergeant Alvarez with the Spectres, its ok now, your safe". Alison just glanced at her for a moment then tilted her head down, closing her eyes and trying to let the pain from her head dissipate.
The female medic opened a small box and grabbed out some items. She handed them towards Alison, which she quickly recognized as food rations and a water pack. Alison quickly grabbed the items and tore them open, not caring what anyone around her thought of the rude eating habits. Alison took a couple bites of the food and sipped at the water then swallowed the contents of her mouth.
Looking up again at the medic, Alison just repeated her first question. "So where am i and what are the Spectres, are you all some sort of mom and pop bike gang or something" Alison said with a slight grin. She could see the expression on the medics face turn to a slightly hateful look at the comment made, Alison didn't care much because in her mind, she was technically being kidnapped, the thought of rescue wasn't on-top of her mind.

"Your in one of our vehicles apart of Sierra Romeo 3, and the Spectres are not a gang, we are the ones who just saved your ass, so show some damn respect" The medic replied angrily. Alison just allowed her smirk to grow larger and looked forward and behind the vehicle, realizing there were many more around her, at least 9 or so.
She took another bite of the food and dropped the wrapper next to her instead of placing it into the trash bin just a few feet away. Sergeant Alvarez just shook her head and picked up the wrapper, putting it into the trash bin herself and looking back forward to the other two medics. "Go ahead and get on the comm, let Captain Rodgers know she has waken and seems to be ungrateful we had grabbed her" Alvarez ordered.
One of the medics just grinned himself and grabbed the radio mike, pressing in the button and calling out to the lead vehicle where the group commander resided. While she could lightly hear the conversation in the background, Alison just thought for a moment.
She remembered the name Rodgers being mentioned before, however couldn't quite remember who and where. After a few minutes it had dawned on her, Rodgers was the man who had first spoken to her before she had passed out. Just as the radio traffic ended, Alison leaned forward, placing her hand on Sergeant Alvarez's shoulder.
"I want to speak with this Captain Rodgers" Alison said, almost ordering the request. "Don't worry you will, once we get to the emerald city, you will be put thru decon and taken before Major Rodgers, at that time you will be given the chance to stay or leave if you wish" Alvarez replied. "The Emerald City, whats that?" Alison asked. "The Emerald City is the nickname given to our community, its just something the children started after seeing the wizard of oz played out by a few of our drama experts we picked up about a month ago and it kind of grew on everyone else" Alvarez replied, trying to make Alison aware of the type of community they lived in.

Alison just looked at her for a moment and laid back down on the stretcher placed under her. She had lost so many friends, so many of those she would call family back at her colony in salt lake that it actually scared her in some sense at the thought of trying to replace herself into another group.
Alison just looked out the window up at the sky which was now starting to light up with the coming day, wondering how she could deal with a new set of people and whether or not she should stay in the group or just leave back into the dangerous wasteland, but going that route meant almost certain death for herself.

(-----------------------------------------------------)

Opening her eyes once more, Alison slowly sat back up and looked around for a moment. She hadn't even realized she had passed out till this moment. Alison looked at he medics, all of which seemed to now be ignoring her, probably due to the fact of the way she acted earlier, so she didn't really blame them for their dislike of her.
Just as Alison began to speak, to try and apologize, she leaned a bit more forward and could see a small city in view directly ahead of the convoy. She recognized it from her early teenage years when she had gone there with her parents, she could see it was the town of Wendover Nevada.


"So is that the Emerald City?" Alison asked. Sergeant Alvarez just looked back at her for a moment, then stared back forward keeping quiet the entire time. Alison quickly realized how she was acting and placed her hand on Alvarez's shoulder once again.
"Look, i didn't mean to offend you or anyone else apart of your community, you have to realize i have been running for my life for the last couple days, and i have always been kind of an ass to boot.... So please, take my apologies and let us start over, i don't want any hostilities between us" Alison said, basically pouring her heart into the words.
Alvarez just stared at her for a moment, then brushed the hand from her shoulder. She returned her eyes to the front of the vehicle, and just as Alison began to sit back, Alvarez started explaining to her where they were.

"That is not the emerald city but a section of it does run through. The emerald city is located just south of wendover in the old Army Air Field, that's where we are going" Alvarez said, still with a hint of hostilities towards Alison, though you could definitely tell she was calming down. Alison just smiled largely and sat back, awaiting their arrival into the city.

Alison watched as the vehicles all drove down the main street of wendover blvd and crossed under the sky walk that connected the two hotels stateline and silversmith. Glancing up she could see a couple guards standing inside with what appeared to be sniper or hunting rifles with scopes, obviously they were meant to be forward sentries to alert the colony of any arrivals from that direction.
Speeding down the city streets, Alison did quickly noticed that no where through the town did she see any zeds, moving ones at least. All around laid the corpses of multiple infected, though she thinks they were left there intentionally to throw off outsiders, since there was no where near as many bodies as there should be for the size of the city they were in.
Heading west through the town, the vehicles all quickly turned left and made their way down a short road to a large wall and gated entryway with a security bunker built over top the main entrance. One by one the vehicles would pull into the first gate, it closing behind them and trapping them in a box style area while the vehicle occupants got out and were looked over for any signs of bites by her guess.
It took over an hour for all 10 vehicles to be shuffled in, but once they had finished, all the community soldiers went off towards a group of buildings, while the seven survivors were shuffled to a single building that looked to be an old aircraft hangar. Once inside the hangar, each person was separated and placed into single cells where clean cloths, a tray of freshly prepared food and water was waiting for them.

"Hello all and welcome to the Emerald City, i am Lieutenant Gregory Gallagher and will be your host this evening. We do apologize for having to take these measures with you all and lock you up, but until you are all fully looked over and interviewed by the commander, you will not be able to join the general population.... Now do any of you have any questions?" Gregory said spanning back and forth at each person. One man raised his hand and Gregory just stared at him, slightly grinning. "Please sir, this is not grade school, what is your question?" Gregory said.
"How long will we have to be in here?" The man asked, slightly cautious as though afraid to do so. "Again i apologize for keeping you in here, we do it to all outsiders so please don't be alarmed.... Anyways it should take about two days to get you all processed.... Once we have finished, you will be given the option to remain here with us, or leave if you like, you are not prisoners so please do not feel as though you are." Gregory said in a very low and calming tone.

After realizing there were no more questions from the group, Gregory just nodded his head and stepped down from the elevated platform he stood on, making his way out of the building, the doors closing behind him by two heavily armed men, both apparent guards to the cell block.
Alison just took a breath then went over and looked down at the items left for them. She picked up the clothing and put them to her face, taking a deep sniff. It had been so long since she had seen clean clothing and wanted to remember just how nice it was. Glancing towards the back corner of the cell, Alison noticed a wall just high enough to cover up to her neck with a shower head directly above it.
She stepped over and pulled on the faucet, and let out a chuckle as clean, warm water poured out and onto the ground below. Alison quickly removed her old clothing and stepped in under the water, letting her head fall back as the stream hit her face. She could already tell she was going to love living here, and now realized she would not be leaving.

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Three days had passed since Alison and the other survivors had arrived at the emerald city and only now was she getting her chance to speak with the community leader. All the others that had come with her had already been spoken to and released, in order of when they were rescued from what she had found out, and since Alison was the last to be saved, it was now her chance.
Two guards stepped up to her cell and opened the door, motioning for her to follow them. She took a deep breath and stood up following the first guard and turned to see the second guard close the cell door and catch up just behind them.
As the three stepped out of the building, Alison had to cover her eyes for moment, shielding them from the bright sun she hadn't seen in almost a days time. Looking across the property, Alison could see quite a bit of activity from multiple persons. All over were people wearing the same black military style clothing she had basically seen the entire time she was on-site. However Alison did notice others amongst the group, people wearing regular clothing, children playing, just like she remembered from her community, except the fact that everyone here seemed so much happier.
As the three got to about 50 feet or so from the cell building, Alison noticed a cargo truck stop and multiple persons get out of the back. From the way they were dressed, she could tell they were the new batch of survivors brought in by the search and rescue teams.


Alison just grinned a moment when they walked by and spoke out to them all. "Good luck everyone, you will need it". The group all looked at her for a moment then turned to themselves, following the guards as they motioned them to the cell building.
It took a few minutes because of the size of the base for the three of them to reach the operations building. In front of her was a small, two story structure with a tall, old style metal control tower directly behind it. The guards ushered Alison into the building, there she could see alot of people, some manning equipment and monitors, others standing around a large table, obviously the team commanders going over some sort of pre plan they had come up with.
Alison was pushed through pretty quickly to a back door, just outside was the beginning of the stairs that lead to the top of the tower. The two guards stopped at the base and turned, motioning her to go up. Alison did so without question and started the climb up the 70 foot structure.
Once to the top, she peaked inside and saw a man discussing different things with two other soldiers, one a sniper lookout, the other his spotter. The taller man of the three looked down at Alison then nodded to the other men, both of which going back to their lookout positions. The tall man Alison recognized as Thomas, the man who she had first seen at the beginning of all this. He stepped over and placed his hand out, gesturing an invitation to come fully up the stairs.

"I'm glad you could join us Alison Murphy, welcome to the Emerald City" Thomas said shaking her hand. Alison just stared at him for a moment then turned and looked out the window, glancing over the entire span of the base.
She could see people everywhere, most hard at work, but others were children or those tending to them. Across the old aircraft tarmac, Alison could see multiple helicopters lined in a row, all set up as though ready to be used at a moments noticed. Vehicles could be seen driving back and forth, even a couple golf carts were noticed shuffling people back and forth on the large property. Alison turned back towards Thomas, who just stood waiting for a response from the woman.

"So where do you all come off thinking you can keep us locked up?" Alison asked, returning to her hostile and untrusting nature. Thomas just smirked a little then stepped over to a table grabbing a sheet of paper from the top. "Yes i have read our reports on you, one of the first things it mentions here is the fact you constantly use sarcastic and belligerent wording during most if not every conversation you have had... A defense mechanism i would assume towards those you do not trust, or perhaps just a constant hatred you have towards the world?" Thomas replied, intentionally trying to get some type of reaction from it, smiling once it did.
Alison grabbed the paper from his hand and began looking it over. Her face turned red with the amount of profile it had on her, as well as the other survivors they had brought in. "This is an outrage, you have no right to put down this stuff about these people, especially me!" She said, almost screaming loud enough to be heard by persons outside the tower.

Thomas just walked over and grabbed the paper from her hand, placing it back on the table and stepping over to a window facing the city of wendover, folding his hands behind his back. "I have every right to do what i please at this base. You and those other people are guests for now, not residents. To become a resident and member of the family, you have to prove you are trustworthy, something you yourself are far from with how you have been acting. We bring everyone we find here and do the exact same thing, all are treated well as you were and all are given the chance to live amongst our group. Most accept our proposal, others do not and it has led to problems for us in the past with the location of our community being brought back to raiders and thugs attempting to take what they want from us.... Many have tried and all have failed because the people here work their ass off to ensure the survival of this community" Thomas said, continuing with his words.

"So dint think for one minute you can come here and act as though you own the place. We are offering you the chance to stay and live with us but you must earn the right to be trusted and cannot continue with your hostilities towards these people..... If you do not wish to follow my words you may turn and leave this base now, i will have our men give you some food and water rations, a gun with some ammo and send you on your way.... If you do wish to stay, you must start acting as though that's what you desire, is that understood?" Thomas said turning and coming face to face with her, raising his own voice to counter hers.

Alison just stared for a moment at him, shocked by the way he had spoken to her about the issue. She had expected a push over, someone trying to buy her trust by basically begging for it. However this was not the case, and she actually kind of liked how he spoke to her.
However she felt about it, Alison knew she had to ease off with her constant attitude and try to adapt and fit in better with the people of this community. Alison took a breath then raised her hand out to Thomas. "Alright, i promise to try and calm down some.... I do want to live here with you and the rest of these people and will do whatever is required" Alison said as Thomas raised his hand, shaking hers.
Thomas just smiled for a moment then released his grip, turning and making his way over to a lock box. Opening the small door, Thomas grabbed out a single key and closed the box up again, turning around and walking over to Alison. "Here is the keys to your new life, they will allow you access to room 143 on building 57. There you will find a bedroom, bathroom, and i will have some fresh clothing picked out for you as soon as we decide your occupation within the community.... Which will be decided tomorrow, until then i have some things to attend, so please have a look around, and welcome" Thomas said nodding his head slightly, then walking down the stairs out of the tower with a man that had summoned him only a second earlier.

Alison stared down at the key for a moment then looked out the window, glancing across the property. She could see in the distance, the row of buildings Thomas had pointed out to her when mentioning her new accommodations, but also could see it was quite away from her current location and would be one long route if on foot. Alison noticed a passenger golf cart pulling up just at the Base of the tower. She quickly ran down the stairs to catch up, hoping should would make it in time, if not there was one long trek ahead of her.