“Captain, there’s been complaints. Not enough supplies are going round to the right people, and they’re feeling angsty.”

  The captain looks up from his paperwork, eyes tired, and hair disheveled. Rubbing his eyes with sausage like fingers, his face falling into a frown almost akin to an English Bulldog. “Right, right. We need a supply run.” Leaning back, he scratches at his beard, eyes closed as he thinks. “Gather the men. We need to talk about locations.”

  The man before him nods, looking down at his captain with an almost envious look. With a light twitch of his eye, he turns and makes his way towards the barracks. Opening up the door to a bunch of lazy metromen spread across, each with different activities occupying their time. One looks up, almost hopefully.

  “Alright boys, wake up. Captain says we need to get some supplies, we got everything the scouts from last week sorted?” He asks, looking at one of the metromen who were playing in a poker game over a barrel. A tanned fellow, with an easy grin waved at him.

  “Yeah boss-man, all the mappings done, sent a few of my boys out two days ago too, so it's recent shit.” With a nod, the man looks to the rest of the metromen.

  “Alright then. Fifteen minutes everyone. Hurry it up!” He shouts, heading back towards the Captain’s Office, but making a turn to the right near the end. A room filled with maps, files, and strings laid across a wall, and in the centerpiece a desk with even more papers.

  Heavy slow footsteps behind him indicates the Captain’s arrival. “There you are Jack. Good. Good.” Looking almost bewildered, the Captain studies the maps.

  “Recently updated, with information from Leeroy’s boys. They went out two days ago.” The Captain nods in response. His eyes slowly stop scanning the entire map, and focus on a few certain locations, slowly drifting between them.

  “What's with the new cross marks?” He says, picking up a stack of papers that have the same symbol that's spread across the map on several buildings. Jack looks over his shoulder, curious too.

  “Ah right. The new faction that you had Leeroy scope out, apparently there’s more than one. Kingdom, in red crosses, a band of raiders, recently leashed by their own King apparently. Then the farmlands and Market, in blue. Peaceful guys.” The Captain hums in acknowledgement.

  “The white ones?” Jack frowns.

  “Not sure-” His eyes open wide slightly, remembering exactly what they’re for. “That's everyone else. All the crosses are buildings they’ve claimed a stake on. Though nobody actually cares for the white ones. Usually it just means it's more dangerous to get supplies from, so the vultures are left to grab it.”

  “Ah right, them.” He almost says with a sneer, remembering what a couple Vultures tried doing to the entrance of their sewer town.

  Grabbing a piece of bread from his pocket, he takes a bite as he goes back to studying the map. Ten minutes later and the exploration team, all 8 of them, are gathered in front of the Captain. A couple extra 6 metromen stand by as well, being the team that acts as a guard convoy rather than exploration, and extraction of material.

  “Atten-hut!” Leeroy calls out, and all the men salute. “Got the men all ready, Sir. Got a couple routes sorted out, just need to figure out which is best.” He says, pointing to a couple strings that lead out of the sewer town, which is represented with a shield on the map. The strings usually lead to areas circled with different symbols.

  The captain nods. “Our main concern at the moment is medicine, scrap and military gear.. Food ain’t too bad, only fit it in if you can on the way back. This means we’ll need to switch between a couple routes. While we have plenty of ammo stockpiled, our guns are breaking, and we need repairs or replacements. Then, we need medicine. People have been getting more sick, but it's not a serious problem at the moment, and if we don’t find any good stuff, we still have around a week before it is.”

  He points at two different spots, a couple of buildings marked with bullet symbols, and then a single larger building marked with a red plus. These are also marked with white crosses. “Scrap will have to be a day three job. Our cars broke down, so we need to keep a lookout tomorrow as our engineers fix them, and the day after we can ride out all day looking for scrap.”

  “Any questions?” Seeing no response, he nods. “Alright men, let's get moving.”

  -

  Getting out of the airlock with gas masks on wasn’t that difficult, all things considered. Just time consuming. But given that the miasma would wreak havoc on them otherwise, Jack understood the need for security. As the second half of the team left the containment chamber, he finally nodded ahead to Jenny, who was on button duty. She looked at a screen hidden behind some foliage. It overlooked the street, and seeing it was clear, she pushed down.

  A loud clanging rang out, as the deadbolts quickly unlatched. Soon after, James, another metroman pushed the manhole cover out of its hole. “Clear!”

  They all climbed out quickly one after the other, with practiced ease. The Captain being last, barely managing to slip through the gap. “Alright, formations. Jack, you’ve got Jessie, James and Jenny. Fawkes, Tammy and Michael, you’re with me. Leeroy, you’ve got Kyle, and the Mince twins. Rest of you, you’re on your own squad. Ryan, you’re leading that one.”

  With the teams set up in four groups of four, they all start marching forward, in a diamond shape of teams, each team set up as a diamond as well. Jack and the Captain on each side, Leeroy at the front and Ryan at the back.

  Hours later, they’re out of the main deadzone, and stop by a police station, set up as a small checkpoint. “Mask’s off!” He calls out, and they take them off one by one, keeping an eye out. Soon, they’re moving again towards a smaller town.

  They’re all on edge, waiting for an ambush, a zombie, or any noise other than their own footsteps crunching against gravel, dirt or cracked pavement. But nothing comes. And soon their guard slowly lowers. They find themselves in front of a military checkpoint, a sign with a white cross marked on it further down the road. “Ryan, Jack, take left side, Leeroy, with me.” The group splits into two, and they slowly comb through the checkpoint.

  Jack sighs, as he goes past another empty locker. Overlooking his team, he smiles at his idea being implemented perfectly. Two guards, two explorers, and four teams that have a main focus of guard and exploration leads. Him and the captain making up the main guard teams, and Leeroy with Ryan making the exploration teams. Redundancy, thy name was perfection.

  A noise alerts him, and he looks out the closest window. Ryan’s team is outside, and by the looks on their faces, the building they were in is just as empty as Jack’s. Looking towards the ashen wasteland, he frowns.

  “Fucking military.” He looks to James looking out the same window. “Waste of good buildings bombed.” He spits out onto the floor. “And all for naught. Fuckers gave up halfway, and now we’re stuck in the dumping ground of the world.”

  Looking at his leader, he sheepishly smiles. “Sorry ‘bout that Jack.” He rolls his eyes, not caring that much. Not like he didn’t sympathize.

  Soon after, they were leaving, packing up what little guns and parts they could find, and heading towards the hospital. Jackson looks towards the horizon, towards the wall surrounding the entire state. It's too far away to make it out properly, but 100 feet high and probably 100 feet thick, the wall was visible to the naked eye out here in the ashen wasteland. It always made him feel like a convict, a prisoner.

  Ironic, he used to be the one locking people up, then he beats the life out of one guy who touched his daughter and now he’s in prison, leaving only because of the outbreak, and finding his daughter in even worse shape. His fists tighten at the memory, remembering her smile, and the undead face he had to shoot afterwards. He shakes his head, eyes scanning the sand.

  Movement.

  The sand shifted, unnaturally so, and he squinted his eyes. It was hard to make out through the gray dust, but that was definitely a zombie crawling out of the ground, a single hand outstretched as if reaching for God. Too bad for the poor sucker, God was nowhere here. He looked towards the Captain, scanning the other side, everyone else a little less on guard, and not noticing the zombie.

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  Maybe this was his chance. Finally prove himself and get the Captain a retirement. Maybe then he’d stop eating his feelings out on the job, and do something more useful. He looks back at the zombie, seeing more shifting around it.

  With his mind made up, he hurried the pace of his men along. Better they make it to the hospital first before the zombies do. Then swoop in and save their asses before the Captain can delegate it to someone else.

  The hospital itself was in many ways, a monument. Large, imposing, with vines crawling down the sides, and a history of what it used to be. A place of healing, later repurposed by the military as a base, but then turned into a graveyard. The barricades, the half eaten corpses and the smashed windows all pointed towards danger, yet this was their best chance at supplies.

  Everywhere else was running dry.

  Jackson had plans about self-sustaining themselves with more primitive but readily available medicine, only leaving the good stuff for when it was necessary. Too bad the Captain didn’t think it was worth it, setting up a whole division just for that alone. Better to risk their asses outside rather than learn how to make medicine themselves.

  Looking up at the building, he noted the exits. Ground floor, three different entrances at the front, with a garage connecting to the basement, and a most likely nonfunctional elevator. Funnily enough, a zipline to another building, a large empty car-park with ruined scrap huts strewn all over.

  One of the guys at front whistled to him, shining a flashlight through a window. He approached, trying to see what James was pointing at. Keeping their voices low, they spoke.

  “It’s not a hive. Neither is the car-park. Closest one is the train station down that way.” James says, pointing beyond the hospital, towards a small entrance a couple blocks away. “That means we get, what, an hour?- After we make some noise before they all come crawling out.”

  Jack nodded, pointing to the car-park. “Secondary exit up there with a zipline. We find some sturdy rope or metal bars, we can go through there. Seems like an old base.” He turns to the Captain, waving him over, relaying the same information when he gets there.

  The Captain nods in response, and silently approaches, eyes darting left and right. Paranoid, but for the right reasons. “Right. We’ll have Ryan as the backup, and look-out. We’ll clear rooms out squad by squad, till we get to the roof. Basement is a no go.” He says, looking at the ramp leading down into it from the outside.

  “Ambulances down there, it's a glorified car park and graveyard. We’ll use the zip-line as a last resort. It's old, so it's likely to make noise. Understood?” The squad leaders nod in response. “Alright, let's move out.” Ryan pulls his squad to spread out slightly, keeping an eye on each other and the surroundings.

  Everyone else, heads inside, guns pointed forward, and their eyes scanning dutifully. This is where the hard part was, keeping calm while heading into an unknown location. While it wasn’t a hive, there was always the risk of it being extremely well hidden, or stragglers staying behind that could alert the main hive.

  But everything was silent.

  Room by room, little was found, be it useful or dangerous to them. A single zombie, taken out by a scrap knife, and barely any medicine, let alone medikits. The silence may be comforting, but that same eerie quiet kept them on edge. The need to break the silence that broke other teams, but not them. Floor by floor, until they reached the fifth.

  Stopping at the stairwell doorway, waiting for the other two groups to catch up, Jack peered inside the hallway. A single shambler, plus a few bodies spread out, not damaged enough to be fully dead. He swore silently under his breath. Pointing at his team then through the window, they came to look with him.

  “Shit.” James whispered. They couldn’t risk taking out the loner, without the others possibly waking up. And once they did, they’d stumble over the equipment all over the floor. “Skip?” He asks, looking up the stairwell.

  “Wait, Captain.” He says in short bursts, keeping as quiet as he can. James nods. Once all of them are up, they quickly converse, before deciding that the fifth floor was a bad idea, and they went up another floor.

  Step by step, eyes looking forward and to the side, constantly looking for corners where anyone could hide. One by one, they made it up. And then Leeroy looked up. A dozen eyes stared down back at him, beyond a broken staircase, several floors up. He stopped dead in his tracks, everyone behind him stopping too. Those in front stopped after hearing no footsteps behind them, and they turned around.

  They all looked up. The thing looked down at them. Jenny raised her gun quickly, and that movement only alerted it. It fell, five claws extended like guillotines, and they all fired at it. A giant mass of eyes, claws and armor, bullets plinking off it, until it crashed directly on top of Leeroy.

  “LEEROY!” Someone shouted, but it didn’t matter. The weight killed him, and now they had to kill whatever this thing was. One shot landed in its eye, and it roared, smashing a claw into another person, Tammy, who was flung onto the other side of the stairwell, tripping down a couple steps, and landing with a crack on her neck.

  “MOVE AWAY FROM THE FREAK!” Jack shouted, firing a pistol directly into another eye, as he opened the sixth floor doorway, and let everyone on his side of the monster through as they rushed out. Everyone on the other side ran past Tammy to the fifth, the monster thrashing about uselessly, roaring in pain. A second later, it was jumping after the lower group, one of the Mince Twins getting crushed under its weight. “NOOOOOOO!”

  And soon the second one was being held in its claw, after rushing at it. Her body bisected, and fell down the stairwell through the middle. Kyle being the only person in the fifth floor, he couldn’t stop the beast from breaking through the door, while dealing with the now awake zombies rushing at him, and he was soon overwhelmed.

  They heard the crunching of bones and screaming grow silent, and everyone still alive did their best to bar the sixth floor. Pushing every piece of machinery, rubble and furniture they could. The Captain and Jack kept an eye out on the hallway, while Fawkes fumbled with the radio in his pack.

  “Come in, Ryan, Come in.” He spoke into it with a rushed tone. Nothing but static in return. “Shit.”

  “If we get to a window we can figure out what's going on down there. And warn them if they’re still alive.” Jack said, knowing they were probably snuck up on by the horde in the ash. He should’ve known everything would go to hell. And now he had to pay the price-

  CRASH!

  The door shuddered, a scream ringing out from behind, yet the barricade stood firm. “Fuck, its quick. Everyone, head up the other stairwell, we’re going to the roof.” They all nodded, except for Michael, who was on the floor, muttering quietly, holding himself.

  The Captain picked him up. “Come on, Michael. You have to move on. You can’t let her down now.” They looked in each other's eyes, Michael searching for something, anything to push him forward. The Captain's eyes were firm, yet understanding. “We are going to make it. Don’t fall now.” Michael nodded, stumbling away, towards the rest of the group, before running along with them.

  At the other stairwell, they started running up it, one by one, Jack keeping the door open and making sure they ran through. Someone was missing. He looked back, across the hallway, where the Captain stood, loading up his rifle with fresh bullets. One last glance at each other. They understood. And they nodded, as Jack ran up.

  All the while the door kept shuddering under the freak’s weight and power. Jack didn’t look back. He didn’t expect him to live. And soon enough they were at the roof, quickly making handles for the zip-line. “Let's go, people!” Jack shouts, sparing one last glance at the floor, where a steady stream of zombies shambled into the hospital proper, covered in ash and dust, as well as a larger group further behind them.

  -

  “The hospital was lost, and the Captain died in a valiant effort to save us all. We shall honor his memory, and remember him in his last moments. A hero.” He said, waving a toast to the group underground. A whole ceremonial funeral for those who were lost.

  It was only after the whole fiasco, did they find a military supply drop hung up in a tree by its parachute. Unopened, thankfully. And they had plenty of medical supplies to help themselves for a while.

  But the victory felt hollow.