The Beginning of the End. By : Rising Moon (A.K.A. Ryan)

Stories will be posted once I get home ladies and gents, two new chapters as well if I'm not mistaken.

Yay!!!

Can't...wait!!

This all started around three and a half years ago... a company was experimenting with a drug, attempting to create a Miracle Cure for everything, according to the pamphlets at least.. They succeeded. Their new product, N-4 was used to treat everything from the common cold to AIDs, and it worked... However, the test subjects they used soon started to... change. They became less human, more animalistic, they needed to eat and nothing else. Soon these cases started popping up everywhere, all around the United States, and soon all around the world... anybody bitten by one of the initial carriers was changed as well within a few hours...
Soon governments were closing down their borders, hoarding the people already infected into "Containment Camps"... but those failed and soon the infected were running rampant, turning many, out rightly killing many, many more... Six months later and only a few isolated settlements were left, people who held out and weathered the storm of these creatures, soon contact got established and they united into one location.. Naming their refuge Nastya's Outpost after the wife of the man who united everyone together, they set about recreating the world.

...But the Infected weren't gone, they still lived and still hungered and humanity wasn't safe just yet.

(This is the opening of the story)

A man stood atop the rooftop of a building just within the protective walls of Nastya's outpost and looked out as the sun rose, a small smile spreading across his face.
"Three years.... three long years and the sunrise is still the same", he said "it's nice that some things don't change... Isn't that right Ria?" he said to the woman standing just behind him without turning back to look.
"Yes.. it is", she said softly.
"Well, you knew I would be here and the fact that you are here means something is up... so the question is what?" he said mildly.
"It isn't like that.. can't I just come up here and visit you?"
"No... that isn't how we are anymore, and we both know it" he said, a hint of anger in his voice. "So what can I do for you this fine morning...?"
"I was just here to see if you were alright... I know about what happened in the city last week and was curious about how you're holding up.."
"I'm fine", he said curtly, ending the conversation there.
Euphoria lingered there for a second as if wanting to say something more... but saw that he wasn't going to be more forthcoming about it. "If you have the time today, they are holding a memorial for the people who died... you should go and say something there"
"Thanks... I'll think about it", and he watched the sun rise higher, not looking at her once throughout the conversation. The man stood up there and watched the Sun climb higher and higher before turning and leaving himself, just as the other inhabitants of the city began to stir, the Night Guards switching off with the Day Guards, and the other inhabitants awakening, checking weapons and barricades, ensuring the Outpost survived another night.


The man walked into one of the few remaining places where you can get a bit of food and something to quench your thirst to hear a familiar voice shout out to him from one of the stools near the "Ahoy Ryan! Up early today, looking for some grub?"
Ryan turned and saw the voice belonged to his friend Sam and nodded, "Sure, what they serving today?"
"Slop with eggs, not bad today... don't you usually make your own breakfast?", Sam said with a bit of surprise in his voice.
"Yes... well I figured it's time for a change", Ryan said, walking over and taking a seat next to Sam, nodding to the chef and pulling out his wallet.
"Good day for a change, they have coffee today"
"Oh.. and why's that good..?"
"Coffee is quite rare these days... expensive when we have it but quite tasty from what I've heard"
"I'll pass... just the regular please"
After a meal in which Sam somehow wound up stealing Ryan's eggs, the two left, Sam heading to go take care of some "Merchant stuff" as he called it and Ryan to go and prepare for the memorial later that day.

Just before Sundown Ryan walked down the streets, heading towards the Graveyard, where he could hear somebody else speaking about how, "These were the finest of the Angels..." and something about, "their souls going to a better place" and he quickened his pace, realizing that he was late. He walked into the graveyard and the crowd there turning and looking at him. A hush falling across the Ardent Angels as he walked towards where Euphoria stood looking at him also, his eyes down, not looking at anyone. He walked towards the podium Euphoria stood at and nodded slowly, taking her place and looking up at the assembled Angels.
"These..", he says his voice breaking slightly before he cleared his throat, "These were the finest people I ever knew... they didn't deserve the fate dealt to them and I wish that I could change things. I wish that I could switch places with any one of these people. Their deaths are my fault, my stupidity was their doom. I do not ask for your forgiveness... how could you forgive me, these people were our friends, our brothers and sisters... No." he said, sorrow ringing out in his voice "No... I don't ask for forgiveness, I offer an apology and a resignation. I am leaving the Ardent Angels" he said, his voice ringing clear in the silent Graveyard.
"You can't!" shouted someone.
"You'd better!" shouted another.
A fight began to brew as the Angels separated, some encouraging him to leave, others wanting him to stay until Euphoria shouted, "ENOUGH! Ryan, this is your decision... I don't want you to leave but it's up to you"
Ryan nodded and reached over his shoulder, pulling out the Katana that was given to him when he was given the position of Seraphim, "I'm sure... this is what has to happen" and with that he turned and walked out of the Graveyard, his head down as he left and staying that way as he walked toward his home.
As he entered, he shut and locked the door, then went into his bedroom and sat down heavily on his bed. He then said the words that he wouldn't say in public, "I'm so sorry... all of you... please forgive me. I do not ask the forgiveness of the living... but I ask for yours..." before throwing himself back against the bed and staring at the ceiling for the next six hours... passing the time until he would return to the rooftop of his home and watch the Sun rise yet again.

Ryan was once again watching the Sun crest over the horizon once again, alone this time and he seemed far more at ease, he stayed up there and watched the Sun… finding himself far more at peace than he had been in a long while.

Instead of lingering as he usually did, Ryan left just after the Sun rose, knowing today would be rather busy… he was no longer part of The Ardent Angels and would have to make arrangements to set things up for his actual departure and everything that may happen after.

He went looking for and found Captain Awesome where he usually was… at the strip club about to go and do a mock striptease to provide some much-needed laughter for the denizens of the Outpost and decided to wait until afterwards to talk to him. Instead he sat in the back and stared off into space, refusing to buy any drinks and just staring, his mind miles away….

After his “performance”, Captain Awesome slipped away to go and put on his usual clothing and then met Ryan outside the club and greeted him with a slap on the back.
“Hello Ryan, I heard about your… departure. I wish you would have said something but it is your choice”
Ryan nodded slowly, “I’m here to talk about that actually… I’m sorry for just up and leaving but.. it was the right thing to do. My… mistake in leading those men and women out there… is unforgivable. I am going to be leaving soon.. I won’t be coming back. I’m heading out to find my doom or find salvation.”
Captain Awesome looked upset, “Ryan… you shouldn’t.. I mean it wasn’t you-”
“Wrong. It IS my fault. Even if nobody else blames me…”
“Is there anything I can say that will stop you?” Captain Awesome asked and looked at Ryan as he shook his head, “Figured as much”
Ryan nodded and said, “Thank you… Will you see to things?”
Captain Awesome nodded, “Yeah… I’ll watch over the others… I’m assuming that you’ll be asking them to do the same thing to me?”
Ryan nodded again and turned to depart, “Thank you” being his last words to his friend…

Ryan went and spoke to a few others, asking someone to look over his home, keep his stall open and stocked with it’s usual goodies and other such things, he met and spoke with Nick, handed over a Katana as a parting gift and swore that he wouldn’t wind up in a body bag. He went and spoke to Eve and Blaqk, letting them both know that he was leaving, and that he wouldn’t be back.. all of the people who knew him well save one, avoiding this last, possibly most painful visit..

Ryan found his feet dragging, his mind trying to find a reason not to go any further, to turn back… knowing he wouldn’t get so lucky. He found himself outside of the house of somebody dear to him and he knocked once on the door, hoping against hope that the person wouldn’t hear the knock, that she was out…anything to avoid having to do this. Instead, his luck played another cruel trick on him and she was home, heard the knock, and answered.
“Ryan…”, Euphoria said softly, obviously surprised to see Ryan at her door.
“Hello… can we talk for a second?”, he asked.
“Uh, sure”, she replied opening the door, inviting him in.
“No… out here is better…”, he said stepping back.
“Alright… what’s on your mind?”
“Lots of things… but that isn’t why I’m here. I’m here to… say goodbye. I’m leaving Nastya’s and heading out into the city. I don’t know if I’ll be coming back, in fact… I don’t plan on it”
“Ryan… no… you don’t have t-“
“Yes. I do… their deaths WERE my fault… and I cannot deal with the guilt. I do care about you though, and I wish you only the best and.. I am sorry” before turning and walking away, leaving Euphoria speechless, walking off into the setting sun, his blade strapped to his back, a pistol strapped to his side, heading towards the Main Gate…

“It’s been three MONTHS Euphoria… even Ryan couldn’t survive this long. Three months and nobody has seen any sign of him, not a single angel report-“, Nibbles was saying to Euphoria as she strode out towards the Gates of Nastya’s, once again intent on going out into the City after Ryan.

“He’s alive Nibbles, I KNOW he is”, Euphoria replied, her pace quickening.

“Nibbles, is she trying to leave again?”, Sam shouted, running to catch up with the two of them.

“Yeah! Look Euphoria, Ryan would have come back on his own, would have made contact and let us know he was alright, he wouldn’t just leave us in the dark like this”, Nibbles said, choosing his words carefully to avoid pissing her off, “…look Euphoria Ryan is probably fine, he just doesn’t want to come back yet..”

“He… He needs to be here, we need him here”, Euphoria replied.
Sam caught up with them and said calmly to Euphoria, “He doesn’t need to be here… he needs to figure out that he had no guilt in what happened to those people”

Euphoria slowed at that and Nibbles and Sam both started talking frantically, trying to convince Euphoria that Ryan was alright, that he would be back soon. That he knew that he would be safe here in Nastya’s, that Ryan knew he was welcome here.

Euphoria listened to the two of them, each saying the same thing they had said before… that Ryan wasn’t dead, that he was too tough to get eaten by a buncha zombies. Her shoulders slumped down, once again kept from just chasing after him...

While that was happening at Nastya’s outpost…

“DAMMIT! Hold ‘em off! Open fire everyone!”, somebody was shouting, spraying rounds from an AK-47 into the crowd of infected that was all around them. The loud roar from a SW 500 in the hands of another member of the caravan punctuating the spray of 7.62 mm death with .50 caliber headshots that dropped more of the infected to the ground. All around things like this were happening, as the remaining eight members of the Ascending Dawn Caravan were running back towards Nastya’s outpost, a long way away from where they were now… and with the infected closing in on them, they all knew it was only a matter of time…

“Get. The. Hell. Out. Of. My. Way!”, one man shouted, punctuating each word with a round from his Mossberg 500, the 12 gauge shells slamming into bodies and pushing the horde back just a little bit.
“Dammit, empty…”, the man with the AK-47 said, pulling out a Saiga-20 and slapping a clip of 20 gauge shells into it before opening up on the closest zombies.

“We can’t hold ‘em!” somebody shouted, as the infected managed to close around somebody else, tearing the poor woman to shreds before she could even scream.
“Run! Run! Everybody just run!”, shouted the man holding the SW 500, putting another round in a zombie before turning and doing so, everyone else just a step behind him, all of them turning back and firing when they could.

They ran like that for three blocks, all of them tiring, all of them knowing if they slowed down they would die. They came to an intersection, when they saw that they were running straight into another hoard of infected.

The man in the lead cursed, knowing nobody would make it out alive he decided to try and hunker down in the apartments he saw at the corner. He stopped, planting one foot and running towards the door, kicking it in, he shouted, “Into the building, lets go go go!” He stood there, popping off rounds while the others ran inside, the man bringing up the rear, the same one who was using the Saiga-20 backpedaled and tripped over the curb, his gun flying out of his hands as he fell, he scrambled, trying to get onto his feet.. but the infected were already around him.

Suddenly the man with the SW 500 found himself being tossed aside easily as somebody wearing a long trench coat, holding a USAS-12 one handed with a FN Minimi strapped across his back pushed him out of the way, the man sprayed the USAS-12 into the horde, pushing them back, pushing them away from the man, his expression filled with absolute rage, his lips a tight line, his eyes ablaze. He picked the man up with one hand and pushed him towards the apartments, dropping the USAS-12 to flip down, held to his body by a strap, he swung the FN Minimi up and opening up with it, the 5.56 mm rounds pushing the infected back again, the man backed up slowly, his eyes still holding that rage-filled look as he turned around, grabbed the other man lying where he’d been pushed down and tossing him into the apartments before slamming the door shut wordlessly. Cutting off the view that the Ascending Dawn Squad had on him.

They all looked around at one another, seeing nobody was hurt before one of them said, “Who..the fuck was that?”

At Nastya’s Outpost…

Euphoria was sitting in the Ardent Angels Hall, talking with Nibbles, Sam, Jin, and a few others. Seeing if there was anything, anything at all that anybody had heard about Ryan.
“From all signs though.. Ryan isn’t coming back. At least not anytime soon…”, Jin said unhappily.
“Look guys… I’m sure Ryan is fine. He’ll come back when he’s ready and not a minute sooner. In the mean time, we need to talk about the recent problems with the infected, they’re getting more bold every day”, Nibbles said “We need to get our men and women organized into squads and tell them where to fight at…”
Euphoria nodded, “That’s a good idea… see to it please? I’m going to… go for a while. I’ll be back soon though” she said standing up and walking out slowly, her shoulders slumping slightly and her feet dragging. Sam watched her go and grumbled, “Mateys… I worry about her. Ryan better come back soon before we DON’T manage to stop her from running out there..”

Euphoria wandered about the outpost, seeing people working at things, some working on making more bullets, others more weapons, a few making armor, and some just trying to keep the place tidy. She walked past most of this, heading towards the Grill. She walked inside and took a seat at the bar, away from everyone else. She ordered herself a hamburger with fries and a glass of water, and sat there, eating her food mindlessly.

“Hilo there… you certainly look down” came a voice from her right, friendly sounding and gentle. Euphoria turned and looked at the woman, wearing a slightly form-fitting shirt, a pair of pants that showed off her assets and a pair of combat boots, a SW 500 strapped to her right hip and a Katana sheathed on her back.

“I’m fine” Euphoria replied curtly, intending to end the conversation there.
“Oh.. I don’t think you are. Personally I think you need a friend right now! You certainly look like it. Sitting here all alone eating…”, the woman said, a hint of sadness working its way through her voice.

“Who are you again?”

“Oh, I’m Jarki!” the woman said happily, “..and you are?”, Jarki asked, obviously curious.

“…I’m Euphoria”, she replied.

Euphoria had spent the remainder of the evening talking with Jarki, swapping stories about the events since the Infection had started, neither talking about their past, both seeming to understand that the past was just that. Euphoria laughed at some of the stories Jarki shared, Jarki giggling at the stories about Ascending Dawn, Dreadhawk and Katejina’s antics, and about her former second-in-command Ryan.
“So… We were pinned down in the city, no way out and Ryan just grinned at the three of us and said, ‘Watch this guys!’ before jumping over the car and slicing one of the creatures head clean off, shouting ‘BOOM HEADSHOT!’ and going at a second one the same way before pulling out his Python and putting six rounds into the nearest one, then beating an infected over the head with the empty revolver. Captain Awesome jumped up and shouted, ‘Vrrrooommm Vrrrooommm!’ and followed in Ryan’s wake, cutting a path beside him with his Chainsa-“
“The Sawesome, if you please”, came a voice from their right, Jarki turning and giggling, Euphoria turning and smiling slightly, “Hello Captain, you want to tell the rest of this or should I?”
“Nah… you go ahead. I’ll correct the parts that I think need correcting”, Captain Awesome replied, sitting down on a stool next to Euphoria and leaning against the bar.
“Alright, so he goes chasing after Ryan with the Sawesome, calling out a count of the infectee’s he dropped, Ryan laughed and started competing with him. Before I knew it, they had cut down roughly eighty infectee’s between the two of them”
Jarki gave a laugh, “Sounds like they were pretty good friends… Where is Ryan though?”, Jarki asked, “If I understand right… he and you would be.. well.. inseparable..”
Euphoria’s smile faded slightly and Captain Awesome cleared his throat.
“Oh… uh.. I’m sorry I didn’t mean to bring up something… uncomfortable..” Jarki said apologetically.
“Ryan… left because he… felt that he had… you know what, I really don’t understand why he left…” Euphoria said, her expression turning thoughtful.
“Well.. I do believe we need a change of subject, what do you guys think about my cape? Should I dye it rainbow colored? Or maybe pink?!” Captain Awesome said, trying to sound excited and happy, getting a laugh from Euphoria and Jarki both.
“Well… as much fun as it would be to help with THAT… I do have to leave. We should do this again sometime though Euphoria”, Jarki said with a smile, getting up and giving Euphoria a friendly hug, looking at Captain Awesome for a second before giggling and hugging him too.
“Yes we should Jarki, I really… thanks”, Euphoria said hugging Jarki back.
“Next time be sure to wait for me to show up, it isn’t a party without the Captain”, Captain Awesome said, patting Jarki once on the back before leaning against the bar again.

Jarki smiled and nodded, walking out of the bar and skipping off into the night…


Outside of Nastya’s Main Gate…

The three men and women wearily came upon the Main Gate, all of them covered in blood, some of it their own, most of it the Infected’s. The man in the lead, staggered forward, his AK-47 hanging loosely in his hands, his feet dragging with obvious exhaustion, called out in a hoarse voice, “Open… please…”, then collapsed.

Standing on the scaffolding overlooking the Main Gate

“Open… please…” the guards heard faintly, their spotlights flashing in the direction the words had come from, spotting the remaining two standing forms and the prone third form, instantly recognizing that these were humans, they shouted for the gates to be opened, a dozen guards ran out, guns locked and loaded, two picking up the unconscious man and carrying him inside, two more helping the remaining AD members into the safety of the gates, the remaining eight had their guns aimed out, waiting for some motion to indicate the Infected falling back in lockstep, each man moving with one another as a single unit until all of them were inside. Medics were called up to see to the wounded and the soldiers stood down and shouldered their rifles.

The next morning, the news had gotten out that an Ascending Dawn Caravan had returned, obviously weakened but the details weren’t known by anyone. Dreadhawk requested that the survivors be transferred to the Ascending Dawn compound for treatment. He wanted to insure that the survivors were taken care of as best as could be and wanted to talk to them, find out what exactly happened himself…

Euphoria heard the news at the same time as Nibbles and Captain Awesome, who had been visiting to speak with his former commander. Captain Awesome sighed and said, “I warned the Dawnlette’s not to go out without me and the Sawesome… how bad are they? I assume that they are only a little dinged up?”
The AD messenger looked at Captain Awesome and replied, obviously saddened, “Twelve… twelve didn’t make it”
Captain Awesome’s jaw dropped, “Twelve? How in the…?”
“We aren’t sure of the details… Dreadhawk will be meeting with the survivors as soon as they are fully conscious, he requests that you be there Captain, and he says that you can come as well Euphoria”
Euphoria nodded, “Tell him I’ll be there... and that I am sorry for the loss”
“Will do”, the messenger said before departing.
“Twelve…”, Captain Awesome said still shocked by the number.
“That definitely isn’t good… We should head over there now” Euphoria said to both Captain Awesome and Nibbles, standing up with the two of them and walking out.

At the Ascending Dawn compound…

Captain Awesome led the way in, Euphoria and Nibbles right behind him, all three headed towards the Infirmary, arriving there to find Dreadhawk watching over his wounded clan mates.
“I’m so sorry for your loss Dread… the men and women who died were…”, Euphoria said, her voice full of sorrow.
“I’m sorry about what happened out there, I’m sure they died fighting though”, Nibbles added.
“..Twelve..”, Captain Awesome said still slightly shocked.
“Captain.. thanks for coming back this quickly. Euphoria, thank you for coming… and Nibbles, my thanks..”, Dreadhawk replied, turning to face the three of them “Akraix is awake now… and I figured you should hear what he’s saying Euphoria…”

Dreadhawk turned and walked into the room behind him, leading Euphoria, Nibbles, and Captain Awesome into the Ward, leading them over to Akraix’s bed and saying, “Hello AK… Feeling any better?”
Akraix grumbled and said, “Yeah… I’m going to assume that these are the people you want to hear what happened..?”
Dreadhawk nodded, “Yes. Captain Awesome you already have met, this is Nibbles and this is Euphoria”
“Man… you look like crap”, Akraix said to Captain Awesome.
“Haha… because you look like a million bucks”
“Well.. I’m going to get to it so I can rest. We were out in the City, on a loot run headed for the gun shop we’d heard was around fifty blocks from Nastya’s when we were attacked. The Infected had apparently been biding their time… or it was just that convenient. Either way we were forced to stand our ground. Two of us were taken out before anybody could do anything, the rest of us quickly took cover at a former police barricade, using the cars to block off the infected, fighting them off as best we could… three more died when one of the Behemoth’s we’d heard about came charging up, two more to the Infected… the remaining eight of us were going to try and hold out, wait for the Infected to stop coming but we soon were nearly dry on ammo. We were forced to retreat, we ran for ten blocks straight south, only to find ourselves facing off with another large group of Infected, about to sandwich us… I was in the back of the group, gunning down anything that came too close to catching us when Wonder kicked open the doors to an apartment building and shouted for everybody to come inside… I was using a Saiga-20 then to push the horde back, trying to buy time when I stepped back and tripped over the curb, they were all around me… the Infected swarmed over me and I thought I was done for.. next thing I know they got blown off of me, some man wearing a trench coat over some sort of body armor was shooting a combat shotgun into the Infected, blowing them away from me and boy did he look PISSED… the guy grabbed me one handed and threw me into the apartments before backing up, picking up Wonder and tossing him in as well, then he shut the door, we heard him yell loud as hell and we assumed he was dead and that we would have to…”

In the apartment complex

“..fight ‘em off everyone, that guy needs our help”, Akraix said, reloading his AK-47, the Saiga he had been using now outside “reload and get ready, we’re busting out through that door as soon as everyone’s ready”
The remaining eight members of the Caravan reloaded weaponry, slamming clips into Assault Rifles, sliding clips into pistols, placing rounds into revolvers, sliding shells into shotguns, and others wiping the blood off of crowbars, Katana’s, and a fire axe.
“Ready everyone?”, Akraix asked.
Wonder put his SW 500 through a spin and nodded, while the others hefted weapons, all nodding at once.
“Alright then.. now!”, Akraix said as he kicked open the door, his AK out in front of him, ready to shoot anything that was moving.

…Instead the members of the Caravan found themselves looking out over the corpses of a hundred, maybe more Infected, all blown to pieces or pierced by high-caliber rounds. The stranger who had saved them was nowhere in sight, they all exchanged glances and set off at a run, heading towards the outpost as fast as possible.

They heard and felt the ground itself shaking just as they ran out into the middle of a street, as suddenly two behemoths came charging at them. Every member of the Caravan opened up with rifle fire, slowing but not stopping the creatures, they came at them, gaining momentum with each step, both of them slapping a member of the Caravan aside, one of them also crushing one under its feet, dropping three more members of the caravan. One of the behemoths falling to the ground from the concentrated fire of the Caravan members, the other attempting to crush Akraix, who threw himself back and fell to one knee, firing his AK-47 up into the creatures skull shouting, “DIE YOU BASTARD!” at the top of his lungs. The creature gave a loud roar and fell, nearly landing on Akraix who rolled sideways, a fellow member not being so lucky got crushed by the creature, his body exploding from the force of it's landing.

“We.. we’re alive!”, somebody said. Akraix stood up and dusted himself off, ejecting the banana clip and sliding another one into place, pulling back the feeding mechanism and sliding another round into place.
“We got lucky… come on”, he said, stepping forward as the remaining members of the Caravan fell into formation behind him, everybody reloading as they started off running once again.

Thirteen uneventful blocks, then the chase was on in full, the sun setting down behind the buildings as the day turned to night, they found themselves in a desperate run and gun situation, firing for effect rather than to kill, trying to hold the horde of infectee’s off of them… one person falling and getting ripped apart before anybody could help him, exhaustion showing on all of their features, all of them stumbling, barely able to hold onto weapons…

They stumbled into the row that would lead them straight to the gates of Nastya, the horde hot on their heels as they all began to slow, losing hope that they would make it. Suddenly they heard a familiar sound, the same high-pitched whip-crack that they’d heard earlier that day, and looked around, spotting the same man atop a van, spraying rounds into the horde behind them. They all began to stumble a little faster, realizing that even he couldn’t hold the horde forever they moved, everybody calling on their last bits of strength, all of them stumbling and tripping..

Akraix managed to get a look at the mans face, still locked into that same expression of borderline rage, his finger white knuckled as he held the horde off long enough for everyone to make it past him, jumping up suddenly and backpedaling with them, Akraix right in front of him, the man shouting in a voice that was barely audible over the gunfire, “Run faster!”, urging him on, the man stopped at an intersection, emptying a clip from his USAS-12 into the creatures, dropping more of them, he suddenly turned and ran down the street to the left, leading them deeper into the city rather that back to Nastya’s. AK saw this.. and kept running.

Ten blocks later, they stumbled into the waiting glare of the search lights mounted over the Main Gate, Akraix whispering hoarsely, “Open… please…” before collapsing…

in The Ward of the Ascending Dawn Compound…

“So… there’s the story..”, Akraix said softly, obviously spent, “I don’t know who that man was.. or what he was doing out there but I owe him my life…” before dozing off.

“Euphoria… it can’t be..”, Nibbles began to say.

“Shh.. it… it could be…he.. he’s alive”, Euphoria said, hope spreading a smile across her face.

Dreadhawk watched all of this and slowly shook his head, nodding to Captain Awesome who stepped closer, “Captain… gather up a search party. We need to find this man…”

Captain Awesome nodded solemnly, “I’m going to go for now… I will be back”, he said before turning and walking briskly to his own quarters, donning his armor, sliding a clip into his Desert Eagle and strapping his chainsaw across his back…

I see no new chapters!

*has to retype as Word decided to screw him over*

Sorry for the delay everyone. Don’t worry though; more is yet to come I promise you that!


Somewhere in the City…

The Warrior awoke, his shotgun still held tight against his side, his eyes looking up at the same patch of bare ceiling he’d fallen asleep looking up at the previous night. He sat up, swinging his legs off of the bed and standing up. He walked through his sanctuary, the last place he was safe at from everything. As he walked towards the kitchen, he passed a small sheet of notebook paper. He closed his eyes and recited each of the names on that list from memory, not sure who they were, but knowing that was the right thing to do.

After finishing his recitation, he calmly walked towards the kitchen, still holding his shotgun tightly, setting it down on the table and fixing himself some food without looking at anything, his mind far away as he recounted what had happened yesterday. He was unsure what made him react that way, what had made him save those people… but he was fairly certain they were safe. He had drawn the attention of most of the horde, leading them through much of the city before dropping down into the sewers to lose them, as they don’t seem to be able to detect his scent down there.

He thought long about this, deciding after a while to go check on the few people he had managed to spare. He grabbed his machine gun, sliding another box into the holder, laying the first of the belt-fed rounds into the gun and pulling back the mechanism, he strapped it across his back, picking up his shotgun and donning his cloak, he stepped out onto the fire escape and looked down.
He stepped up onto the fire escape, and then off it, dropping down five feet before grabbing a length of rope and sliding down it. Landing lightly on his feet he walked over to the end of the alleyway, pushing at the van he’d moved into place to block it off, shoving it back slowly.
He slipped out, shotgun raised in case any infected were waiting…. There was nothing.

Three hours later, he was standing at the spot where he’s drawn the infected to himself in order to spare the others. He looked around carefully before spotting what he wanted. A long line of 7.5 mm rounds, fired from the AK-47 the group leader had in his possession and he followed it, carefully making sure to avoid any infected as he did so. He followed the long line of bullets back to just outside the perimeter. He looked up and his jaw dropped open. He was looking at the Outpost, Nastya’s outpost some part of his mind chirped in. HE ignored the smaller voice and focused on what he was seeing. He felt… warm all over, like he knew that he once belonged there…

He scowled, he’d never been in a group, he’d always been alone and he knew that. The Warrior growled deep in his chest before turning and sprinting back into the City, heading towards his Sanctuary. Confused about everything…

He arrived, shoving the van back into place and simply leaping overtop it, he leapt from the hood of the van, catching the dangling rope and hauled himself up. Hand over hand until he was at the fire escape, he swung his leg up and threw himself inside, he dropped his weapons, shrugged off his trench coat and threw himself onto the bed… closing his eyes and forcing slumber to come upon him…

Five hours later…

The Warrior awoke, hearing the staccato of gunfire, the screams of a man dying and the battle cry of a group of humans. He leapt to his feet diving forward, grabbing his weapons and slinging them across his back, pulling his trench coat on as he climbed to the top floor, throwing himself off the edge seemingly without a care, plummeting down the thirty feet, twisting in mid-air so he lands feet first on an infectee, his shotgun sweeps out, spraying dozens of rounds into the crowd. Knocking many clean onto their backs, dead before they hit the pavement, many others lost limbs or were pushed back. Buying time for the other humans. They were formed in a tight circle, shoulder-to-shoulder firing their weaponry, rotating as they went and leaving no openings for infected.

He leapt up clean over a lunging infected, snapping his foot down and crushing its spine as it tried to grab him. He landed and spun on the spot, firing a full clip from his machine gun into the crowd of infected. Stopping as the last one fell, a single shot from one of the females in the group.

He stood there, looking at them, and they stood there, looking right back. All of them breathing hard, half of them wearing a patch on their right arms with a pair of A’s on a set of wings, the other with what appeared to be a Sun and the letter’s A and D on it. He noticed an Asian female amongst them with no markings, who giggled when he looked at her.

A woman holding a rather large looking revolver stepped forward, smiling hesitantly and saying, “R…Ryan?”

In the City, unknown location, the Ardent Angels and Ascending Dawn rescue party…

Euphoria stepped out from the circle formation and said hesitantly, “R…Ryan?” The man who stood before them had long hair, pulled back behind his ears, the same dark brown, nearly black color that Ryan’s hair was. His eyes though.. looked nothing like Ryan’s. His eyes were cold, calculating, but strangely empty. He looked into Euphoria’s eyes when she said Ryan and his eyes clouded over with confusion. Suddenly they snapped wide and he smiled slightly, looking past Euphoria to Jarki and smiling a bit more, then he simply collapsed.

Euphoria shouted, Captain Awesome swore, Jarki made some noise caught between a shriek and a shout. She ran forward as Ryan collapsed, lifting his head up and sliding it onto her lap, looking down concerned before leaning close and putting her ear just above his mouth. “He’s breathing!”, Jarki said.

Captain Awesome stepped forward, saying, “We have to get moving…” as he lifted Ryan up sliding one arm under his shoulder as Jarki helped, “..Dawnlettes! Over here. Carry this man as if he were a baby. That means GENTLY for you less intelligent ones…” he said with a note of authority. “Euphoria… we have to move”, Euphoria turned and rejoined the circle as it tightened down around the two carrying Ryan, Jarki’s eyes flickering to his face every now and again. Concern showing in her features, the group moved quickly back the way they came, hoping to avoid any messy encounters. Luck was on their side…

They reached Nastya’s before nightfall without incident…

Inside of Ryan’s mind…
He looked up into the sky, seeing it blue… not the usual cloudy, muggy skies that he was used to, but a clear truly sky blue sky. He blinked, thinking it to be a trick, but it looked the same. He sat up, looking around him, seeing himself in a field, grass all around, trees off in the distance… no place NEAR Nastya’s or the city. He forced himself up and onto his feet, looking around again, seeing that the place was still the same… he shouted, “Hello?!” and waited.

Hearing nothing… he started to walk forward, not knowing which direction he was heading, just moving. He was walking when suddenly he heard a loud shout…

In the Ascending Dawn Compound, the Ward…

“…medical opinion is that there is NOTHING at all wrong with this man”, a woman wearing a nurse’s uniform, blue hair, a pair of cat-ears on her head and a nametag that read, “Katejina – Neko Nurse” pinned over her left breast. “He’s not sick, there’s no fever, he’s breathing, his ears aren’t blocked, he’s got full brain functionality, he’s not infected with N-4… there’s nothing wrong with him, Dread-Kun…”
Captain Awesome grumbled out, “Other than him being in a bloody coma… sure he’s fine”, Euphoria nodded and Jarki giggled, Nibbles rolled his eyes and DreadHawk sighed, then said, “Well then… we’d best leave him be...” Katejina nodded up at him, “Yup, that’d be my recommendation”

Suddenly, Ryan grabbed his side, his eyes flying open, a scream of pain dragging itself out of his chest…

Inside of Ryan’s mind, at the field…

…coming from somewhere ahead of him, an answering shout coming in return, then the sound of metal on metal. Ryan started running, three steps bringing him to his full speed and he dashed across the field, even faster than he usually was, covering the field in a matter of seconds, breaking through the trees and finding himself standing in front of a huge building, looking similar to a church.

He ran up, kicking open the door to see himself swinging a blade at himself, getting parried, then punched across the face… He shouted, “What the hell?!” and the two combatants stopped, then looked at each other, then back at him. “You can’t be here…” one of them said.

“Who the fuck are you two?”, he asked, confused beyond ALL recognition. The one to his left slowly smiled, “Well… I’m SettingSun.. and this bastard here is Rising Moon…”, he said with hate in his voice, “…and you’re Ryan.. and you can’t be here!” He looked honestly scared, the other looked somewhat scared, but not so bad as this SettingSun fellow…
“How do you know me?”, Ryan asked, “…and why do I feel like I know you both?” The one to his right spoke up now… his voice sounding like something dragged over sandpaper, “We. Are you. Parts of the whole. We make up you. You give us life. Without you, we would die. Without us, you would have died. Here though, we fight for control. Your presence, bad.”

Ryan saw the two of them exchange a glance and suddenly realized they both had swords… and he had his fists and nothing else at all. He saw a glint in their eyes… and threw himself backwards just in time to avoid getting impaled by their blades, rolling backwards and coming up in a crouch, throwing himself to the right of the door, finding himself in front of a suit of armor… and spying the blade it held, yanking it out and holding it, finding it to be balanced… just in time to catch SettingSun coming at him with a horizontal slash, which he blocked and countered with a kick.

He spun, running through the hallway, blade held close to him, throwing himself through the door and planting his hand on the ground as he came through, flipping himself up and over Rising Moon who had come running at him… landing lightly on his feet and staring at both of them.

They came at him, and he parried both their blades aside, then swung at Rising Moon, who locked blades against him, while kicking SettingSun away, intent on killing Ryan and taking control of the three of them. Ryan pushed back, thinking that he would be stronger, but found himself perfectly matched, muscle for muscle.. he was not stronger than this Rising Moon… he spun, hitting him in the back with his palm and launching him forward, jumping over a cut from SettingSun and swinging back, aiming for his head, SettingSun managed to throw a block up, knocking the blade aside and he responded by slashing at Ryan’s leg. Ryan tried to step back, but wasn’t fast enough and was slashed across the thigh, he reached down with his free hand and shouted in pain…

…Inside the Ascending Dawn Compound, the Ward

…Katejina jumped, turning around and running over, strapping Ryan down firmly against the bed, running across the room, Akraix looking over at Ryan in terror, not sure what the hell was going on... having been awakened by that scream. Katejina grabbed a syringe and filled it with Morphine, turning and running back towards Ryan as DreadHawk, Euphoria, Jarki, Captain Awesome and Nibbles spilled through the door. Captain Awesome being tripped accidentally by Nibbles who went sprawling onto the floor, tripping over his own feet somehow, “Dammit Nipples!”, Captain Awesome shouted and forced himself up onto his feet, untangling himself from Nibbles.

Jarki was at Ryan’s side, looking down at him, as was Euphoria and DreadHawk, Katejina was trying to find a vein to stick the needle into, thinking to dull the pain, when suddenly Jarki just reached down and slapped her hand over his thigh where he had slammed his hand down on, applying pressure, which made Ryan sigh, the pain seeming to be gone…

…Inside of Ryan’s mind, at the Church.

…he felt the pain dull right away though and he went at SettingSun furiously, knocking his blade aside and slashing at him with a lightning fast Z-shaped routine, down at his waist, up at his chest, across his throat. His first two slices hitting, the second not hitting, as SettingSun managed to throw himself back.

Ryan swore and tried to pursue, only to have Rising Moon assault him from the right, barely getting his blade up in time, knocking aside the blade Rising swung at him, spinning around, slashing at his knee, managing to gash it…

Just as SettingSun came back at him as well, bleeding and furious, his strikes coming impossibly fast, Ryan matching them with desperate parries, constantly on the retreat as SettingSun advanced upon him…

…Inside of the Ascending Dawn Compound, the Ward

…Jarki kept her hand there, Katejina dropped the syringe on the table and looked at Ryan, tilting her head, seeing sweat start to bead on his forehead and wrists. Euphoria took Ryan’s right hand in her hands, slowly kissing it while Captain Awesome did the same until he noticed DreadHawk’s amazed and slightly amused look, then just held it tightly, Nibbles stood at the foot of the bed, looking up at him deeply concerned.

DreadHawk wrapped his arms around Katejina who looked extremely confused and more than a little worried about what was happening, Nibbles moved, setting his hand on Euphoria’s shoulder and squeezing reassuringly, “Ryan’s tough… I’m sure he’ll be fine. He has never lost to anything before, whatever this is he’ll beat it”
Captain Awesome nodded, Jarki looked confident in what Nibbles had said. DreadHawk nodded as well, knowing from Ryan’s personality that it would take a whole lot to put him down…

…Inside of Ryan’s mind, the Church

…Ryan’s desperate parries couldn’t keep up, so he did the only thing he could… went on the attack. He parried, then swiped at SettingSun with his right leg, kicking his legs out from under him, he then kicked the blade out of SettingSun’s hand and threw himself forward, rolling and slapping his hand down on the hilt, coming up holding both blades as he saw Rising Moon coming at him with a wicked grin and a pair of blades himself. Setting Sun, obviously beaten just laid there and swore.

Rising Moon stared at Ryan, Ryan staring back as they advanced and circled each other, blades crossing as they held them in mirrored stances… Ryan made the first move, slashing across with his right hand blade as his left hand blade came slashing up, a cross shaped slash.

Rising Moon’s blades crossed an X-shaped parry downward, knocking Ryan’s blades down and trapping them against the floor, reacting quickly, Ryan snapped his foot up into Rising Moon’s face, knocking him back and dazing him. Ryan pressed the advantage, blades crossing in front of him, coming up, over, around Rising Moon’s blades, forcing them out wide, then Ryan slid his blades in close thrusting them at Rising Moon’s chest, penetrating into him. Ryan shouted and pushed harder, pinning him against the wall.

Rising Moon looked up at Ryan, hatred in his eyes. “You. Win”, then closed his eyes. Ryan pulled the blades out… feeling the world spin… then suddenly he blacked out. Out cold before he started falling towards the floor…

…Inside the Ascending Dawn Compound, the Ward

They all watched as a look of ease came across Ryan’s face.. Jarki smiling as he slowly relaxed, Captain Awesome grinning widely, DreadHawk smiling and nodding, Katejina making what looked like an anime happy face, Euphoria smiling slightly as she squeezed Ryan’s hand, Nibbles gave a whoop and laughed. “I TOLD you Ryan was too tough to die”

more pl0x?

Go check DF.

...more is coming... i can feel it.