APOSTLE'S CREED - a zombie story

[TGRF]

Chapters 15 & 16:

Spoiler Alert!

Not a ton to say here. Lots of action, with the main question being how - or if - Stacey is going to survive. Also how Silvin vanished. I'm guessing King teleported him out of there or something. Also, it seems that my earlier ideas about Brooke's immunity to the zombies might be right. There's only one reason she would have cut her hand that specifically on the vial.

As always, I do question the whole plan. It seems so un-military to just drive in there at top speed with no plan, no surveillance, no nothing. I get that there are zombies all around and you can't sneak in there, but there are also rifles that can snipe. All Stacey needs to do is point out Silvin's office, then Thorn just camps out on a hill or in a tree, waits for him to show up, and drills him between the eyes. Simple and effective, and no one is put in danger. And yet such a plan isn't even considered. It's almost like Header and Thorn aren't trained soldiers - just regular civilians who happen to have guns.

All that being said, I'm interested to see where you go from here. Will we return to simple VACC-hunting? Or will Silvin crop up somewhere, extending the chase? And what will happen to Stacey?

~TGRF.

[TGRF]

Chapter 17:

Spoiler Alert!

Gauge had boarded further down. Irene moved to catch him

Mentioning Guage and then switching back to Thomas threw me for several sentences. I had to re-read it before I figured out that you were simply mentioning where Guage was, not switching to him as an object. I would revise the line to say that Thomas noticed Guage had boarded further down... that would keep the focus on Thomas.

“I don’t trust him.” Thomas flatly declared,

Took you long enough.

For all my speculation, I have to say that I never saw Brooke's immunity coming. You successfully hid that fact behind a smoke-screen of her always being with someone else, and then the red-herring (if it is such) of her cutting her hand on the cure. This also explains why King personally went after them, which until now had made no sense. There's still a question of why he destroyed the cure, and not her, if she's his nemesis... clearly it isn't all in the open yet.

Additionally, while taking the cure straight back to VACC and Nazar initially seems like a dumb idea, you did a good idea rationalizing it, and I'm behind it this time. A combination of someone literally saying it was a dumb idea, followed by a clear examination of the lack of other possibilities, and the leverage they now have over Nazar, helped immensily here.

~TGRF.

[TGRF]

Chapter 18:

Spoiler Alert!

or never be in the first place

Never be 'there' in the first place perhaps?

And another twist. I certainly didn't see Louis' betrayal coming - now I'm questioning if all the other characters which seem to serve no purpose (basically everyone who stayed at VACC) are secretly hiding something also.

Now I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure that a silenced gunshot is nothing like it is in the movies. Some Googling seems to confirm that a suppressed 9mm will still be around 120 db, which is like a siren or a rock concert. So... yeah Header would have heard that instantly.

As for the cure, the way Nazar put it, describing King's blood as poison which should kill people, makes me wonder if we're going the World War Z route, where the zombies can't sense people who are dead or dying. If that's the case, some deadly strain of infection should do the trick, provided you get back in time to get the cure.

Also, I'm beginning to wonder why Stacey is injured, from a plot perspective. I feel like she would have died on the spot if you wanted her dead, so there must be a reason she's injured instead. Part of me wonders if it's simply to keep her out of the room while Brooke's blood is being drawn or the cure discussed. Don't know why that would be...

~TGRF.

[TheAverageFan]

Man, bro's just speedrunning the story now.

I'd better continue my pace if I'm to stay ahead. Here's Chapter 29, another fairly lengthy one:

Spoiler Alert!

29
Destruction

i

____Thomas leaned against the foggy window of the Humvee, watching the landscape come and go. It was continuing to get colder: sharper and more bitter as all of nature grayed outside, and the beginnings of a faint frost was starting to fall. The vehicle bumped on the road, and all of its inhabitants were silent with internal thoughts or just wanting to be done with this business. Soldiers delivering more civvies to their ranch. For reasons Thomas couldn’t explain, he felt like a kid again sat on the school bus. Maybe it was the season or the seating, or the complete lack of control.
____He thought of Brooke, still back at VACC on her lonesome now in the clutches of all of Nazar’s men there. It was for the best, he told himself, it was for the cure. They had to get that cure… but who was he kidding? He didn’t really want it, he didn’t really believe in it. He had panicked and fled, not able to deal with the situation at all. As usual. Now he was being shipped off to some place somewhere, where he’d be crammed in with countless other helpless people waiting to be smashed to bits, where no one would listen to him and nothing would matter. All while Nazar controlled the fate of the world.
____“What am I doing here?” he said aloud.
____Gauge, sat next to him, glanced over in confusion, “Huh?”
____“What am I doing here?” Thomas repeated, “Why did I agree to come here? Why’d I leave her there all alone? How could I do that to her? I’ve got to get back to her.”
____Lt. Oakerley in the passenger seat up front leaned and faced him, “There’s no turning around now, bud. Orders are orders, and we’re too far out for regrets.”
____“If I don’t see her again I’ll regret it forever.”
____The Lieutenant was unsympathetic, having given Thomas his chance already, “If I drop you off it’ll be a helluva long hike back to the lab just for you to be shot at the gate. Got it?”
____The radio up front beeped loudly then, the Sergeant switching it on, “Londel here. Go ahead.”
____The answer flared with urgency, “VACC-102 is under attack!! Put out the call for reinforcements ASAP!! We’re getting rammed here! Respond!”
____Oakerley grimaced and picked the speaker up off the dashboard, “Oakerley speaking. They didn’t get through the perimeter already?”
____“This is the perimeter, goddammit! They’re in the building!! We need all available units back here, now now now!!”
____“That’s impossible.” the Lieutenant muttered.
____To Thomas it almost seemed like a blessing. He shot up, “Turn around! We’ve got to get back there!”
____Oakerley ignored him, “We are escorting civilians and are unfit to enter a warzone. Tandom’ll redeploy all available units from the camp, so hang tight! Oakerley out.” He switched off the radio at that.
____“Oakerley!” Thomas shouted, “Turn around now!”
____The Lieutenant shouted right back at him, “Cool your jets, civvie! Shut your mouth and sit there! I am not going to be responsible for any of you getting killed.”
____Thomas drew his pistol and pointed it, “Do it or I’ll shoot you! Don’t think I won’t!”
____The soldier behind him raised his rifle, but in response Gauge lifted his own weapon without hesitation. “You’re being held up and forced to disobey orders!” the ex-Apostle shouted, “We’re all crazy! We made you take us into battle!”
____Oakerley glared at the two of them, “You really got a death wish that bad, huh?”
____“I have to save her.” Thomas explained, “Think of what Nazar and Tandom would say. All other things expendable.”
____“Sh*t.” the Lieutenant said, “Graah…! Sgt. Londel, turn us around!”
____She looked unconvinced, “Sir, the rest of the convoy will follow us if we do. All the civilians—”
____“Do it anyway. Can’t you see this particular pack of ‘em wants to get killed?”
____She sighed and veered hard, tires sliding in the muddy road as the vehicle swerved about. Halting only for a moment, she then floored it and sped off right back the way they came. Behind the line of cars and AVs followed suit. All the civilians of the second convoy—Stacey, Irene, Gene, and Reed—would sooner fight, Thomas grimly assumed. Strangely he almost didn’t care that they might get killed. He was a man seized with regret: he had to get back to Brooke before it was too late forever.
____Some cars down the row Cpl. Thorn could see the convoy ahead changing route, “We’re turning around. What’s going on?”
____Header only grimaced, “Something’s happened: we’re going back in.”

____Fight until destroyed. King’s orders rang through Collis’ head as he paced about the open atrium of VACC’s center building. Yamato had arrived—providing the anti-aircraft cover of a SAM turret—and now hovered above his head, the great red insignia now painted across its grey shell and plain to see from a mile off: no need to hide itself in the clouds now. He looked up to it, seeing the mountain of money that had been poured into it and feeling an overwhelming sense of pride. All his life’s work, all the blood wrung from the corporate machine in decades of feigning altruism to the public and heartlessness to the inner circle. All the bullets and guns and machines and banners that evil work had bought, it made him feel grand. All the world would see Apostle here and be afraid, never knowing that they had helped pay for it all. He would give King a worthy last stand here. Better than any legacy a normal CEO could ever carve out: represented only by a stock drop and company mourners with smiles on their faces.
____Apostle troops toiled about him, preparing for battle. Two sat before him, looking over the six laptops they’d set up that served to control Yamato remotely. Its eyes were their eyes now, one turning back to Collis: “Sir, we have visual contact on the eastern side. Three convoys, two of them with armor. Estimate at least a hundred-fifty men.”
____“Yes, I expect that’s General Tandom’s response.” the old man said, peering through the grainy black-and-white of the thermal cameras displayed on the monitors, “And the civilian transport coming back as well.”
____“Civilian, sir?”
____“The ones who brought Brooke here. They were tight-knit.” Collis smirked, “Ah, Thomas, leading the charge of course. He loved her, you see. He doesn’t know his chance has already come and gone. I did tell him not to fail her. He’s about to find out how well young love fairs against billions of dollars. Wipe them out.”
____The trooper turned back to his laptops, “Deploying weapons, sir.”
____Collis stood and strode forward, drawing his pistol and addressing the remaining soldiers there, “Gather up, you! Battle is on its way!”
____Being Elias’ best hand-picked men, they stood at attention.
____He smiled at the sight of them all assembling before him, lining up in disciplined rows and standing up straight. Such good men, he thought, acting freely against their masters but still with discipline. He felt like an old Confederate general, “My friends. Not since the days of Christ have so few a number changed the world so drastically. I knew you in the old world. You were hated—be it outright or subtly—failures, homeless, purposeless, broken. But now I stand among fellow Knights of Apostle, black paladins of the new order. Fathers of a new incorruptible society! When we grew up they told us to dream. They told you that you were going to make a difference. They lied to you. I had a good view of the truth from atop the ivory towers where they felt no need to hide the scam. The cogs kept turning, generation after generation. Well, my brothers, die gladly today knowing that all of us here have made the only difference.”
____The men shouted and hollered like madmen at his words, “Apostle, Apostle! Kill! Death!”
____“The next society will kneel gracefully at our memorial, in reverence for what we’ve done here!” Collis roared back, “No more corruption! No more slavery! Death take us all! Kill all you can!”
____They scattered like rats burrowing into corpses, racing madly to their battle stations. Madness had been cast on them: an adrenaline that only fanaticism and certain death could bring. There would be blood.

____The engine revved and the Humvee bumped at every divot in the road as it sped toward VACC. The building was in view now, far off and partially obscured in the increasingly bad visibility. It was cloudy and windy, everything pitched in dull gray, the white flakes of sleet falling and speckling all in partial white. It seemed misty beyond in this cold moisture, and the building looked only half-formed in the distance with such poor visibility. But that was their target and there was no turning from it.
____Only the glaring of bright red lights penetrated through all the weather beyond, Thomas feeling his chest suddenly tighten at the recognition. That vast gray airship hovered now before the VACC building, very low to the ground and directly in their path. It was rotating gradually to meet them: the flat of its square shape facing the oncoming row of vehicles approaching the base.
____“Here we go…!” muttered Oakerley up front. He loaded his rifle meticulously, even in the violent thumping of the car as it had veered off the road, “This is gonna get real bloody, civvie. Hope you know that.”
____Thomas said nothing but Gauge spoke for him: “We’re prepared for anything.”
____“There’s the General’s men coming up on the right. Where’s the damn air support?”
____A shrieking came from the overcast skies above, followed by a bright light and a flaming hail of metal and plastic falling from the clouds. Londel veered hard to dodge it, only narrowly avoiding the falling wreck which exploded in a huge ball of fire and flung dirt behind them. CRASH!!!
____Oakerley swore and snatched up the radio again, shouting into it, “Damn hell, GC! Tell us when there’s a drone in the air!!” Some reply came back, lost in the terrible racket of the Humvee flattening the perimeter fence and jostling further on the bumpy terrain beyond. The Lieutenant continued yelling as they raced further, “Yeh, this is the second convoy. We’re entering a hot zone now with the other troops. Yes, I know there’s a SAM, goddammit! I’m lookin’ right at it!” He scowled at the airship, “We’ll disable it shortly.”
____The blimp’s flight lights glowed red with a cold malice that penetrated the snow as the convoy drove closer, bounding across the vast yard of the VACC perimeter. Now a siren was blaring loudly from the base, a deafening wailing filling the air. All on both sides were readying for the contact. From the airship a line of small lights flickered along its flat hull like a series of sparkling stars. From those lights several streaks of smoke rose up into the air, shining bright against the gray sky.
____Oakerley saw this and snapped his fingers at the Sergeant next to him. Londel near slammed on the brakes and turned the vehicle as it skidded to a sudden halt. They both grabbed their weapons and threw open the doors, the Lieutenant shouting at the other passengers, “Get out of the car!!”
____The smoking lights had climbed higher in the sky and arced downwards, moving in their direction. Thomas put two and two together and escaped the vehicle hurriedly. Everyone abandoned the jeeps and ran as fast as they could away from them, stumbling in their panicked haste. The smoking missiles had quickened their movement, shooting down and crashing into each of the cars in a massive explosion.
____“Sh*t!” Thomas felt the heat and force at his back as the jeep burst into a heaping wreck of flaming metal, shrapnel flying high into the air. He looked up at the blimp that had fired the missiles, hovering over the building: a gigantic obstacle erected between him and Brooke. More lights were shining across its hull. He and the other troops were horribly exposed.
____Oakerley led the charge, “Keep moving! Go! Run!”
____Everyone scrambled across the open fields, the VACC building still over a hundred feet off. The terrain appeared flat but was bumpy to sprint across, Thomas trying his best to cover such a distance despite his lack of athleticism. Cold wind and light snow whipped across his face, juxtaposing the heat of panic he felt internally.
____Rockets continued to launch from the dirigible, flying overhead to the vehicles still behind Oakerley’s company. Thomas flinched at each explosion behind him, just gripping his pistol tight—handle freezing in his palm—and continuing the race forward. All the field of VACC was swarming with soldiers now, scrambling across it through the snow toward their target. But they all had a long way to go yet.
____Far still from their charge Collis stood comfortably in the atrium, supervising the cameras of his great machine and watching all the soldiers run about. He smiled gleefully and stroked his beard, glutted with the feeling of power, “Look at them all racing for their lives. See what their loyalties to king and country have brought them.”
____“Wind speed and direction won’t permit gas canisters, sir.” the trooper manning the laptops informed him.
____“Cut them down the old fashioned way then.”
____The airship was alight with activity now: firing rockets across the perimeter and catching return fire in bursts of sparks. From somewhere atop it missiles launched into the sky, chasing unseen targets in the air. Below a bright green laser shot out from it in the charging troops’ direction, shakily running along the ground as it tried to line up to a target.
____“Sh*t! Sh*t!” Thomas watched the laser dart around him, knowing that it indicated a gun aiming, immediately trying to run in a less predictable pattern. The whirring from the airship was soon followed by a loud buzzing noise, the ground around him spouting dirt as bullets tore it apart. The line of bullet-spraying moved along, following the laser sight. Two soldiers fell as it cut across them. Everyone else left them behind. No one could stop.
____The charging troops neared the base. There was activity within: Apostle soldiers were firing on their position, bullets whizzing past Thomas in an inaccurate spray. He stumbled in the snow, feeling the chunks of metal flying all around him. This close to the base there were undead in the yard, racing to meet the newly arrived living. Slumping in the chaos and panic, Thomas fell prone and at last stayed put, aiming his gun and shooting down the first zombie to approach him. It was normal and fell easily, but was soon followed by another: a Daddy-Longlegs dropped from the womb of the airship crawling up and hissing madly. Thomas paled as he watched it approach.
____He was saved by Lt. Oakerley, launching a grenade from his rifle and taking the monster down. The soldier raced to Thomas’ side, forcibly hoisting him to his feet. “Stop and you die!” he shouted, “This was your idea, wasn’t it civvie?! Come on, there’s no cover—!”
____BZZZT!! As if to prove that point the green laser came swinging back, sweeping along the ground and filling it with bullets about them. Thomas’ left ear exploded and he fell back down. All the world was buzzing and ringing and spinning, the cold rushing into his head while the blood seeped out. He lay there dazed as the battle raged on around him, only barely able to hear any of it all.
____The blurred whining of the siren sung above him, accompanied by the soft beating of distant explosions and the muffled shouting of men and zombies. The whirring of the airship’s guns was a constant distant buzz. Thomas stared up at the sky. There was a terrible pain in his head. But of course there was: he’d just lost his ear.
____He’d only been clipped by the large metal locust the beast above was spitting out in the hundreds. Rolling over he could see Oakerley lying there beside him. He’d been hit by three even in the swift passing of the laser sight and now lay there dead, killed by the desire to rescue Brooke. Thomas stared at the Lieutenant. They couldn’t just be cut down by a machine here. If they were going to die it had to be for something. It just had to be!
____“Thomas!” he could barely hear on his right side. Or at least he thought it was his name being called. There was Gauge, not missing his friend amidst the carnage and corpses and upturned earth and snow. His arms grabbed Thomas and yanked him up, Gauge shouting something he couldn’t hear and continuing the mad sprint to the VACC building.
____Thomas couldn’t even manage to stutter a thank-you and followed close behind, stumbling along, only able to hope that they wouldn’t happen to be struck down before they made it. All those ahead that he’d shared the Humvee with had been killed: piled soldiers upon the snow as their side just threw all their infantry at the enemy—having no time for any other strategy. He just kept running.
____The main force had mostly crossed the way by now, soldiers all about even as dozens of them were cut down and vehicles were destroyed. They had the numbers to sustain such violent losses. As whoever was left neared the facility, they passed under the shadow of Yamato and were relieved of its wrath for the time being. The massive airship was low to the ground, its flat gray hull hovering only a few stories’ height above them. It continued firing on other distant targets, hot bullet casings raining down from above as Thomas passed under it.
____Now that the building was near Thomas could see the black armor and helmets of Apostle soldiers looking out the giant glass panes lining the eastern wall. He was going into battle like an unwilling drafted soldier storming a beachhead. His stomach turned as his head pounded, knowing his life stood on a ledge at that moment.
____But no. He wasn’t unwilling. He’d been told to leave and refused. Brooke. He had to save her. Or avenge her… No, he wouldn’t let it come to that. He couldn’t. He couldn’t. Not after all this. She couldn’t just die. He couldn’t just get shot now.
____More Longlegs fell from the belly of the giant machine above their heads, countless hands and feet catching their hard landing and immediately scrambling to devour any prey nearby. Thomas ran faster, caught between the monsters behind and the human enemies ahead. He bolted to get inside.
____He entered with Gauge and two other soldiers. Gauge rushed in first, not showing any fear if he was feeling it, kicking the doors in and immediately leveling his rifle to his right. Sure enough there was an Apostle soldier near the corner, Gauge shooting him in an instant. Generous amounts of blood splattered the wall as bullets punched through the man. He slumped down, the LMG he’d placed at the window leaning limp in defeat. There was a second Apostle who was ducking into a door on the right, shooting wildly as he retreated, and the two soldiers barreled in after him. Gunfire echoed down the halls as the door shut behind them.
____Thomas himself only sheepishly shot a remaining trooper trying to escape up the stairs. He yelped in a voice too young for a combatant, falling down and wailing in the agony. It wasn’t his fault, he was trying to say, when Gauge finished him off with a dreadfully liberal amount of gunfire to his chest. He had no patience for mercy right now, even knowing how he himself came to be rescued from Apostle.
____Roaring came from behind the two, the Longlegs hot on their trail. Gauge instantly yanked Thomas away from the door, beginning to ascend the steps, “This way! Hurry!”
____The two staggered up the flight, Thomas stumbling after Gauge. Only stopping to check his corners kept him slow enough for Thomas to keep up with. The reaching arms of the Longlegs followed him, Gauge spraying some fire at it and pulling Thomas along up to the third floor.
____Like the area below here there was only a single door to the right, Gauge kicking it open and advancing on ahead. A large long rectangle of an office lay before him, generous daylight pouring in from the glass panes making up the wall to his right. The bodies of soldiers and staff and zombies littered the floor, the enemy having made no effort to clean up even their own in the bloody battle previous. With no enemies to fight the two ran unhindered down the office.
____The Yamato still hovered just outside the building, low enough to be level with this floor and parallel with the wall of windows. “Keep running!” Gauge shouted at Thomas, “It can’t see us!”
____Along the edge of the armored balloon were a series of metal domes, glinting with the shine of the bright red navigation lights. As Thomas and Gauge raced through the office one of the domes slowly split open, a single gray turret barrel poking out. It aimed at the windows, gradually tracking the two’s movement as they ran.
____Thomas paled at the sight of the cannon, “I think it can!”
____Pshh! A streak of red smoke shot out from it, a canister shattering the window and rolling over in front of the two. Generous amounts of gas poured from it, filling the office quickly even as the harsh wind outside stole some of it out. Seeing this, Gauge immediately grabbed Thomas and fell to the floor with him. He drew his mask and held it tightly over Thomas’ face, “Don’t take this off!”
____Thomas nodded his thanks and squirmed along the floor, away from the spreading gas as fast as humanly possible. Gauge, being immune, was the opposite: racing over and scooping the canister up in his gloved hand. He ran to the window with it.
____The turret seemed to notice him running casually through the smoke, unaffected by its poison. The cannon withdrew, dome closing back over it, and another one adjacent opened up. From behind this shield came a rack of about a dozen small missiles, slowly turning to Gauge as he ran.
____He was too busy with the poison in hand to pay all that much attention to the new threat, simply disposing of the canister by lobbing it back out the window: chucking it right back at the blimp as hard as he could, “Return to sender!”
____Something miraculous then happened. By sheer dumb luck the lobbed can of gas happened to line up with the trajectory of the firing missile right as it left the chamber: exploding prematurely. The rocket and canister exploded together in a blinding burst, throwing Gauge back crashing into the cubicles around him. BOOM!
____He landed on his ass and sat up in shock, seeing the dome rent and the missile rack within in flames: shrapnel and fire penetrating into the other rockets. The rest of the payload…! He rolled over and clambered across the collapsed cubicles, hiding as the remaining rockets also exploded in their crib. This was even more violent and blinding, shattering all the windows across the entire floor in their wake. Thomas too was thrown back. BOOM!!!
____Even in their distance the intense heat of the flaming aftermath licked at the two, coupled by the violent winds now sweeping through the entire office. All the gas was sucked out already, sleet wetting the carpet as it invaded the destroyed floor. Thomas struggled to sit up, shielding his eyes as he beheld the blazing crater in the Yamato where the missile rack had been. Glowing-red strips of metal bent and twisted like exposed intestines around the opened hull: red flames lapping away and slowly spreading across its exposed wound. The massive airship was already listing heavily downward, so it was now or never to book it. It didn’t burn as fast as he’d seen dirigibles in movies, but knowing all the weapons on board Thomas expected it to explode a third time any moment now. Scrambling to his feet, he ran to Gauge’s side, helping him up and ushering him out of the room. They fled further into the base.

____Less than thirty meters away Lt. Header hid behind a small utility shed just outside the base, gripping his rifle tight and peering around the corner. The entire convoy had been dragged into this encounter, and he and Thorn had been not far behind Lt. Oakerley’s men leading the charge. He’d watched them get torn to bits and now warily eyed their killer: that thing up in the air. Cpl. Thorn stood behind him, staying real close to Stacey who’d followed them into this warzone with no more than a knife. The First Lieutenant found her more stupid than brave for doing so.
____The blimp was far from the only problem here. Header could hear the Thum Thum Thum of artillery shells firing across the open field at their position. Apostle personnel had helped themselves to some of the armor still at VACC at the time of the attack, leaving him on the receiving end of the IFVs.
____One of their air-bursts exploded much too close to their cover, Thorn and Stacey visibly flinching. The Corporal shouted over the din, “Where’s the damn air support?!”
____Header gestured to the blimp, “That thing’s got SAM turrets on it. We’ve gotta kill it outta the sky first.”
____“How’re you supposed to do that without help?! You’ll get torn to shreds just getting close!” Stacey protested loudly over the gunfire.
____Thorn only smirked at her, “You’re starting to learn the plight of infantry!”
____Header heard the explosion above, peering around the corner again and seeing the airship list hard. The gaping wound revealed itself as it slowly rotated, trying in vain to right itself.
____“There!” Thorn shouted, “Now, old man!”
____Header aimed his rifle. He’d loosed an underbarrel grenade at it already, caught prematurely by the trophy systems aboard the vast ship. He’d like to see it work on a part of the hull already blown open.
____“Goliath, meet David!” With both speed and precision the First Lieutenant fired his weapon: the little gray golf ball that was the grenade arcing through the winter air and diving into the flaming wound. It detonated deep inside, compounding with the further explosives within and rending metal hull and fragile balloon both.
____The explosion shook the grounds all the way to the interior of the facility, as all the laptop screens before the Apostle operators went dead.
____“No!!” Collis screamed, watching the tower of red flame and black smoke as his billions burned, “My ship! No, no, no, no!!”
____The giant vessel fell, dust and snow flying outward in a great heap. Vast serpents of fire ran along the long branches of metal, bursting with further flame and burning a violent red as the gaseous virus within went up in smoke. Snow and undead both around the wreckage could be seen melting in the infernal heat.
____“Another gold star, Sarge.” Thorn told Header with a grim smirk.
____“That’s First Lieutenant to you, kid.” Header barked back, shouting into his shoulder speaker as he led the charge across the gap up to the building. IFV shots were still flying overhead, “The SAM is down! GCS-7, I repeat the SAM is neutralized! Bring the hammer down on these bastards now!”
____Frost and flames whipped about him as he raced into the building’s interior, shrapnel flying into the air just behind. He whirled around and yanked Stacey inside, hitting the hard floor just as an IFV drove past. It was firing with reckless abandon into the base, knowing that troops had made it inside. Header could hear another further on, cursing to himself as he fumbled for a grenade reload.
____“Stop circling an’ come in!!” he shouted again, another explosion sending papers and glass scattering all across the ravaged lab floor, “Come in, GCS-7! The enemy SAM is offline, I repeat, the enemy SAM is offline! Where is the second MQ-9, goddammit?!”
____“H-Hello?” fizzled out the meek reply on the other side, “Is this Sergeant Header?”
____He groaned loudly, “First Lieuten… nevermind—yes, goddammit! Where is the second MQ-9?!”
____“I don’t know. This is Abbey.”
____That voice had no right coming through here. Header crouched under a desk to continue the conversation as the battle raged outside and inside both, “Abbey?! Heaven on Earth, woman! The damn hell are you doin’ on here?!”

ii

____Everything had happened so fast. Alone, Abbey had found a spot by one of the locked little white buildings to sit down and shiver by. She had seen soldiers shouting and running about and departing en masse, while those who remained muttered something over their shoulder speakers before confronting the suited man in charge. Suddenly they were arresting him.
____He resisted and they shot him, then deftly advanced to the building she sat by even as people screamed and scattered at the gunshots. In response two haggard men by Abbey stood and drew weapons of their own, shouting “CIA!” before firing into the troops. Chaos overtook the entire compound, Abbey caught in the middle just clutching her head and throwing herself to the frosted pavement as bullets flew all about her.
____When the firing ceased only one soldier remained standing, and with the agents dead he continued onward to the building and quickly shot the hinges open, “I’m seizing this compound under the orders of the Commander—!”
____“Apostle—!!” came the answering cry from within, before two gunshots went off. Abbey saw the soldier fall, his own weapon discharging even as he collapsed.
____Silence followed, save for whipping winds and the hissing static and hectic shouting over the radios within the building: “Come in, GCS-7! Come in, GCS-7!”
____Everyone else having fled, Abbey finally lifted her head and crawled over to morbidly peer inside. It was dark save for the artificial glow of blinking lights, emerald-colored radar screens, and black-and-white thermal cameras. Dead men and women lay limp in the seats, including the lone gunman who himself had been slain as he’d killed the last soldier.
____It was Header’s voice over the comms, so Abbey shakily donned one of the killed men’s headsets and took his seat: grabbing the reins only because nobody else was about to, “H-Hello? Is this Sgt. Header?”
____“First Lieuten… nevermind—yes, goddammit! Where is the second MQ-9?!”
____“I don’t know. This is Abbey.”
____“Abbey?! Heaven on Earth, woman! The damn hell are you doin’ on here?!”
____“I don’t know.” Abbey repeated, “Everyone just suddenly shot each other. Everyone in here’s been executed and I don’t know what’s going on.”
____“Sh*t’s sake.” Header’s mutter managed to pick up on the receiver before he continued at normal volume, “Lock the door in there, woman. And check th’ screens there. There should be a, uh, an aerial… a bird’s eye view camera!”
____“There’s a lot of cameras.”
____“I KNOW—!” Header forced a sigh even as the office around him was torn apart, “…I know. Just try to find one in black-and-white. Overlookin’ the VACC base. There might be a giant plume of smoke outside.”
____He could hear Thorn exchanging fire and the violent hisses of undead just outside the little desk he was hiding under as he waited on her, “… … …Maybe this?”
____“Good! Sit down there; see if there’s a keyboard an’ a joystick. An’ a little switch says ‘Armed’.”
____Abbey searched and found it, “Okay.”
____Another explosion shook the First Lieutenant, “NOW FLIP—now… flip that switch, press the 1 key, an’ aim the camera with the joystick, right down onto the plume.”
____She obeyed, seeing the camera thrust down closer and closer to the target. Header curled tight and waited, hearing the faint shrieking making its way down to the earth, growing more dreadful as it neared, before all the ground shook and smoke flew through the shattered windows of the lab.
____“Did I do it?” Abbey asked.
____“YES! Yes woman!” Header shouted, “Now do the same with the 2 key, an’ aim for the vehicle just outside that plume. Careful, it’s moving.” He scrambled to his feet, “Let’s move, kid! You too, sis!”
____“This is insane!” Stacey complained, but she obeyed nonetheless, Header leading them away from the windows even as the IFV outside sped along and continued to fire after them. Header didn’t need to look back, hearing the screaming of the coming missile and diving just before it landed.
____The entire armored vehicle was obliterated behind them. Chunks of metal flew through the windows and scraped along the ground about Header’s boots. He grinned for once, “Jus’ like that, woman! Kill ‘em all!”

____The tide was turning hard. The drone above continued hurling death down onto the Apostle targets still throughout the site, destroying IFVs and sending clusters of soldiers or zombies flying. The superior numbers of the surviving US troops now stormed the base mostly unimpeded, hindered only by the small arms fire of any further Apostle soldiers or undead large enough to pose a serious threat.
____Collis slowly backed up, seeing the smoke in the air of the missile strikes and feeling a sudden loss of control. All the grandiose poising the advantage had permitted him was now gone, and he grit his teeth in the actual realization of bitter suicide. He had wanted to kill so many more before things ended.
____Thomas and Gauge fought their way through and came out to the far side of the office, having now a view of the atrium courtyard and its occupants below: the soldiers, their little command center, and the leader. Only an idiot could see Collis there with the Apostles and realize anything other than the obvious truth of the matter, Thomas scowling hard at the sight. His blood fumed with the heat of hate at the betrayal.
____“COLLIS!” he shouted down to the courtyard below, “What did you do?!”
____“T—Thomas!” the old man yelped in disbelief. He put on a sincere face of desperation, “They took us! Help me!”
____“You’re wearing their symbol right on your suit!”
____“Oh, right.” Collis quickly aimed his pistol and offed a few shots up at the two. He missed and as they returned fire, killing his men, he turned and fled into the building behind, “I know what became of her, Thomas! But you’ll have to catch me!”
____“Come on, after ‘im!” Gauge shouted, still relentlessly leading the charge. Thomas followed but as they ran an Apostle soldier leapt out from behind the corner ahead. This one was monstrously huge, batting Thomas aside with ease and ramming Gauge so hard he went crashing out the window down to the floor below. The ex-Apostle landed hard and rolled over wheezing in realization, “Oh sh*t. It’s Mardew.”
____The giant left Thomas and leapt down after Gauge, landing with a monstrous thud and lifting him up in one hand. “Hullo traitor!” he said, “I always knew you’d puss out sooner or later!”
____With another thrust he threw Gauge down again from second to ground floor, the ex-Apostle landing in the withered atrium grass gagging and not getting back up. Mardew again bound down after him, leaving Thomas alone back up on the third floor still struggling to his feet. He peered down with pistol aimed, unable to see the two from here. Gauge didn’t stand a chance against that man, but Collis was getting away… Thomas thought, thought, then turned and ran: keeping up the pursuit even in his injury and exhaustion. Collis couldn’t be permitted to escape. He knew where Brooke would be, that Thomas knew for certain. He couldn’t abandon her, not now, not again. Never again. And so he abandoned Gauge for her.

____Mardew hoisted Gauge back up, punched him down, then yanked him up again. “It’s a wonder King hasn’t executed you already, you spineless simpering little pup!” he bellowed, “I’ll do it so he don’t have to!”
____“…!” Gauge could only gasp in resistance, limply pounding on the man’s arm. His world was still spinning, thrown down so many times over.
____“Contact!” shouted a voice amongst the explosions all around, and Mardew whirled even as he was shot in the side. He didn’t seem to care. There was Header, moving deftly in with his weapon raised. But Mardew grasped Gauge and held him as a shield. The First Lieutenant flinched.
____“…!” Gauge failed to say again, seeing the uncertainty written on Header’s face. He could’ve sworn the soldier would just shoot them both, the two of them there being Apostles after all. And yet even now in the chaos of battle he didn’t. Mardew grinned under his helmet and rushed forward, throwing Gauge right into Header and knocking them both over. The First Lieutenant fell back, Gauge rolling limply off of him.
____Mardew pounced on the soldier and the two wrestled as the M16 was flung aside. Gauge could only lay there and watch the fight: too battered to even move. It was a rarity to behold: the First Lieutenant battling with someone larger than himself—not counting freak-of-nature zombies—and it did not suit him well. Mardew caught his enemy’s punches and bent his limbs back with relative ease, even as Header’s muscles bulged with effort. The Apostle was younger than him too, that was something Gauge had never considered of Header. For the first time it really occurred to him that Header was too old to be doing this.
____The giant knocked the First Lieutenant back against one of the shredded office walls and then with terrible force punched his torso right in the heart. Header gasped and seized. Only then did Thorn and Stacey catch up, the Corporal yelping at the sight of his superior, “Sir!!”
____Mardew turned, saw the two, and seized Header to shield himself just as he had done with Gauge. Holding the First Lieutenant in his immense strength, he charged right for Thorn, closing the distance.
____“Ah!” Unwilling to shoot his friend, the Corporal let the gun fall from his hands and went to draw his knife. But the enemy already was on top of him, crashing into him with his hostage. Thorn fell back, Header on top of him.
____Grinning, the Apostle stooped to freely retrieve the Corporal’s rifle. He practically ignored Stacey, who stood there watching wide-eyed, her knees shaking. She remembered him all too well from her time in Silvin’s custody, and stood stricken in fear of his unbridled presence here with no boss to hold him back. She felt more restrained by herself in that moment than any of the physical bonds she had suffered then. But seeing him batter the soldiers aside, seeing him reach for the weapon to finish them all off, she knew she couldn’t kill them all through weak inaction on her part.
____Taking her knife, Stacey pounced. She stabbed it right through the black glove groping for the carbine, drawing blood and hearing him yelp in frustrated pain. He glared up at her, furious that she hadn’t chosen to just stand there in shock. “B*tch!” he roared, wrenching his hand back to free it from her blade despite the tearing and bleeding, standing upright and striking her.
____“Oh!” Stacey was flung back, Mardew storming over. He kicked the knife from her hand and stooped, gripping her neck tight and lifting her up with one arm. Squeezing.
____Stacey gagged and wriggled against his grip, finding him unstoppable even as she felt the warm blood welling fresh still in his stabbed palm. But he didn’t seem to care. Even as he throttled her he turned and walked back over to where the rifle lay, tucking his boot under it and flicking it up into the air to catch it in his free hand. Then he faced the two soldiers, and as he did so both he and Stacey—out the corner of her rolling eyes—saw Thorn sitting upright with his knife in his raised hand.
____Mardew lifted the rifle to shoot but the Corporal had already hurled the blade. It flew with a deadly gracefulness, spinning and sinking into the Apostle’s face nearly to the hilt. He staggered, dropping gun and girl both, then fell back dead with a tremendous crash.
____Stacey gasped, coughing and forcing deep breaths as she was freed. She looked to the dead giant then back to Thorn in thanks, but he was squirming his way out from under the First Lieutenant: all his attention now focused on Header’s stiff seizing body. He didn’t have the time to miss a beat, killing a man and instantly turning to try to save another.
____“Sir!” Thorn rasped, feeling his superior, “It’s like he’s choking!” He began pounding on the Lieutenant repeatedly without success, each hit more panicked as the condition worsened. It was as if he were suffocating with nothing blocking his throat, “Sir, no!!”
____“…Out the way…!” gasped Gauge, crawling over.
____He cupped both hands and pounded Header’s chest, ramming his heart back into beating. Thorn watched morbidly, holding Stacey tight as she crawled to his side, and she could feel the fear in him as he did so. This old man had been his crutch for years, she knew, and so she held him as they both watched Gauge work.
____“Come on…!” Gauge scolded the body, refusing to fail this man after being spared at his expense, “Come on!”
____Now Header gasped wordlessly, snapping back upright and inhaling in great heaving breaths. Gauge smiled at his success and collapsed again, the Lieutenant nodding with fatigued appreciation, “Thanks. But get yer head off my lap.”
____“You save me I save you.” the ex-Apostle muttered, “Just glad you didn’t shoot me.”
____“Thought about it.” Header leaned back, “Damn did I think about it…”
____“Sir!” “Header!” Thorn and Stacey shouted together, hugging him, Stacey adding: “Don’t do that again! You scared Thorn to death!”
____“I tried not to…” the First Lieutenant mumbled, “But I am startin’ to think I’m gettin’ too old for this. Now would you kids give an old man some space? There’s still a battle goin’ on!”
____“I think we’ve battled enough.” Thorn told him, the four of them lying there in the wreckage, permitting the swelling numbers of soldiers to catch up and storm the place for them. Though the fighting would continue, the outcome was now already quite clear. For them at least.

____Thomas raced down the stairs and into the tunnels below the ground level, following with his remaining hearing the sounds of Collis’ footsteps running away. Gunshots narrowly missed him as he stepped into the white underground hall all full of corpses, Thomas pressing his back against the door and hearing the old man retreat off further. He scowled furiously and then ran out to recklessly pursue, still feeling light with bloodloss.
____“Where’s Brooke!!” he shouted as he ran, having to stop to shoot a lone zombie still meandering in the corridors down here, “Collis! Where is she?!”
____“Nowhere you’ll ever find!” the old man’s reply echoed back.
____“Traitor! Murderer! You sold her out! She trusted you, and you sold her to them!”
____He caught a glimpse of Collis as he rounded the corner, keeping up the chase. Only a few shots of Peyton’s panicked fire kept him at bay.
____“I did, I did.” the traitor said as they both hid and reloaded, “How I’ve premeditated on this, Thomas! Even after that idiot Louis made his move and nearly ruined everything, still she insisted on absolute faith in her fellow man. So I taught her a little lesson in what altruism gets you.”
____“Bastard! How could you? What do you have to gain?”
____“Karma, boy. Karma and balance.” Collis’ reply came from down the hall, easier to discern now that the two were further from the gunfire and blasting of the battle above.
____“Bullsh*t!” Thomas stormed after the voice as he heard it slink away, “You had it all! You were an inspiration to her! Everyone here loved you!”
____He could hear Peyton’s laugh, “An inspiration?! Another lesson to learn then! I had it all, you say? Shallow, misguided, clawing hopes and dreams. I had nothing, boy! You’re young, Thomas, even now. Well here’s my youth: I tried to make my way through the straight and narrow. I obeyed every rule, told every truth, did everything clean and by the book. I failed. My business failed. Dreams shattered. I was a failure. People hated me.”
____Thomas turned the corner, finding Collis ducked around another bend in the hall waiting. He quickly lurched back and fired around the corner, pulling back as Peyton returned the favor. Neither struck true and the traitor fled, Thomas cursing and pursuing, “So what?!”
____More zombies filled the vacant hall, the old man putting them between himself and his pursuer. Thomas stifled his rage and forced himself to slow down, taking out the shambling monsters one by one. Again he spotted the old man aiming around the corner, Thomas grabbing a lurching zombie in panic and shielding himself with it as the bullets shot his way. The biting mouth snapped inches from his face, Thomas quickly finishing it off as he saw Peyton retreat further.
____Collis’ voice mocked him as he trudged through the mindless enemies, “My ideals broke. So I tried again, and this time I cheated. Fixing, insider trading, fraud, book-cooking, deceiving investors, tax evasion… you name it and I did it. It was all bullsh*t, and I played it for the bullsh*t it was. Of course I became immeasurably successful. The secret rule was to break all the rules. I became a business icon. Everyone loved me. Everyone but myself, because I knew what had become of my principles. Brooke looked up to a fraud, Thomas!”
____Thomas gave chase and found no one, glaring about the empty crossing of halls around him and calling out, “Who cares?!”
____The sound of the answer guided him, “I cared! I started to loathe everyone: those who scorned me when I was true but failing and adored me when I was successful but false. I hated the ones around me, my fellow lying cheating smiling swindlers. I even hated the common man: cluelessly permitting it all, just looking for immediate pleasure like animals. We all deserved each other. All of civilization is a sham: a machine grinding up men and dreams and giving nothing in return! Do you understand, Thomas?”
____There he was. Thomas chased after him, loosing shots in pursuit as the two raced from one tunnel to the next, shouting all the while: “I don’t care about any of that! You stabbed an innocent girl in the back and twisted the knife!”
____“Oh yes, poor thing. Destroyed by something she didn’t even comprehend: the fate of all commoners, like a naïve soldier pointlessly cut down in the—” Collis was halted as one of the shots finally landed, taking the pistol right out of his hand and leaving a bloody gash in its wake. He clutched his shot palm and fell, Thomas racing right over as the old man gasped out the rest, “—the, the mud, lesson learned too late…!”
____He had no mercy for this traitor. Even bloodied and fatigued as he was, the old man was no match for him. Thomas pinned him easily, punching him hard across the face and sending blood smearing the neat tiled floor, “Bastard!!”
____Collis only laughed, straight teeth stained red like a peppermint stick. “I’m afraid—I’m afraid, boy, that it’s only one final casualty of the old society. Death throes are a b*tch, aren’t they?”
____“Don’t tell me life before was so unfair as if I didn’t know!” Thomas punched him again, “Where’s she?!”
____“If you hate it so much then why do you fight to perpetuate it? Just think… when everything’s leveled, we’ll all be able to see eye-to-eye again. That’s why I gave King everything. Every penny of that ill-gotten fortune, the blood money fresh from the corporate grinder, all to him! All from a toothpaste salesman they let cheat his way to the top!” Peyton cackled madly.
____A third punch, “I said where is she?!”
____Thomas struck him too hard, knocking him down and gasping. He lessened his grip, realizing just how frail the old man might be. And for all his anger Thomas did not kill him. Not when he had information to impart. That alone staved off the fervor.
____“Yes… Yes…” Collis rasped at last, “Yes, you might’ve noticed a lack of a body anywhere here.”
____“Not here? Are you saying she’s alive?”
____“All hope is venom. Am I cruel enough still to give it to you, Thomas?” Peyton pondered, “Yes, she’s alive. It was Elias who took her, and she’s safe and sound in his company now. But you won’t ever find her again. There’s no one among our noble ranks to betray her to you.”
____Thomas said nothing, scooting back away from the bleeding Apostle and staring up at the florescent lights above. Dull white. Brooke was still alive. He didn’t even question it, only knowing that it was for one purpose: so that he could save her.
____He could hear gunshots getting closer, accompanied by the sounds of boots tramping down the halls. The soldiers had caught up and were in the tunnels, clearing out the last roots of enemy resistance. It didn’t make him feel any better. What good had the guards of this place done for Brooke? What defense had Nazar given her? Nothing. They would try to take her back too, all of them. She’d be torn apart by Apostle and Nazar and the government all clawing at her, pulling her in different directions until she was utterly destroyed. He didn’t care about the cure anymore. He just had to get her back.
____Thomas stood as soldiers came into view, putting away his pistol and gesturing simply to Collis there on the bloodied floor, “I’ve captured the enemy leader. Do what you will.”
____They nodded a simple thanks and moved to apprehend the old man. Thomas left the Apostle and the soldiers both to their devices, just walking away. Not telling them where he was going.

As always let me know what you think.

~TAF

[TGRF]

Originally Posted by TheAverageFan

Man, bro's just speedrunning the story now.

I just have a half hour slot nearly every day where I read - I finished the book I was reading and decided to get caught up on this during that time before I start anything else. So you can expect something nearly every day while chapters last.

~TGRF.

[TGRF]

Chapter 19:

Spoiler Alert!

using the narrow hallway to clearly separate him from everyone else gathered around

Himself.

I have to admit that I felt a sense of disappointment at the idea of another trek through zombie-infested lands. I mentioned before how the last one was starting to feel meandering, with nothing concrete to measure progress off of. This feels like it will be more of the same. Hopefully I'm wrong there - time will tell.

He had his chance with you here before and he did nothing!

This is something I've been wondering as well. I feel like I asked this already, but if time is so much of an issue now, why didn't Nazar try to make the cure earlier? He and Brooke were both in VACC back in TMHW.

For that matter, if Brooke is the one shot they have (excluding those unknown relatives Nazar mentioned), why did Nazar dump her on Header and Thorn? They could have just walked right through the zombies, found a helicopter, and been well out of harm's way from the beginning.

Also, what exactly do they think is going to happen here, on this new trek? If they assume that Apostle knows the importance of Brooke, just how long do they think they'll last? King found them apparently all on his own, and could have easily slain them all. What's to stop him from finding them again? It seems like to me that Nazar certainly isn't trustworthy, but they have no other option than to take his offer. The others can make the trek. I get that Brooke doesn't want to allow that, but she doesn't really have a choice with King out there, capable of tracking them.

“Are you sure that’s not time we don’t have for someone who doesn’t deserve it?”

That's... a lot of negatives. I get what was said, but three negatives in one line makes for some hard reading.

Talking about putting Stacey in the car made me question why she at least can't go with Nazar. He's taking the doctors - what does he care if he brings Stacey along? His objection was to bringing the whole group - for obvious spatial reasons - but Stacey won't take that much room. She needs urgent hospitalization. Seems odd that no one at least mentioned it.

The leathery squeezing sound of Gauge’s gloves tightening against the gun he held could be heard from the back seat.

A nice description which I enjoyed. Paints the picture nicely with the viaualization of sounds, but the word 'squeezing' is also great at having a double meaning, serving to illustrate Gauge's mood.

~TGRF.

[TheAverageFan]

Spoiler Alert!

Originally Posted by TGRF

If they assume that Apostle knows the importance of Brooke, just how long do they think they'll last? King found them apparently all on his own, and could have easily slain them all. What's to stop him from finding them again?

I will at least explain this. It wasn't magic that King found them the first time on the highway. They were on that particular road because Louis told them to take it during their dialog with VACC in Chapter 3. He insisted that they go that way. It's no coincidence that the group was plagued with Apostle attacks wherever they went, while Brooke chatted with Louis every stop of the way. In fact it's no coincidence that Elias showed up in TMHW at the lab to destroy Joetex's cure shortly after Thomas shared the news of its existence with everyone at VACC.

Talking about putting Stacey in the car made me question why she at least can't go with Nazar. He's taking the doctors - what does he care if he brings Stacey along? His objection was to bringing the whole group - for obvious spatial reasons - but Stacey won't take that much room. She needs urgent hospitalization. Seems odd that no one at least mentioned it.

This genuinely slipped my mind. Nazar probably wouldn't care about Stacey's well-being, but the Doctors at least would have agreed to take her.

But they are ultimately heading to the same destination. Surely it won't take too long to get there

~TAF

[TheAverageFan]

All the way up to the big three-O:

Spoiler Alert!

30
Imminence

i

____The battle had been an absolute massacre. The frontal assault against Apostle had cost over a hundred lives, including Lt. Oakerley and Sgt. Londel both. All of the VACC personnel within the base had been executed before the fight even began, and none of the Apostle troops survived save for Mr. Collis. He’d been taken into custody. All the zombies on the grounds were corralled and killed, and their rotting corpses littered the yard with the rest. The snow had continued only long enough to sprinkle the dead like a funerary dusting of sugar, and had now ceased.
____Amongst the carnage there was nothing for the group to do but reconvene together on their own, away from the soldiers. They were still divided between those taken to the safety zone and those Thomas had dragged back to VACC. The two soldiers, Gauge, Stacey, Gene, Irene, and Reed: none had perished in the assault, but they hadn't gained anything either. Brooke had not successfully hid herself deep in the lab as hoped, leaving them with nothing other than Collis’ word that she was alive and with Elias. Wherever he was.
____Thomas sat with his arms crossed as Thorn patched him up. The ear had been completely blown off, and still surged with pain that he struggled to ignore. He’d been lucky not to have had the bullet pierce his head, but that fortune was wasted on his fury: with his enemies, his allies, himself. He trembled, “She’s out there still.”
____“Elias couldn’t have gotten far, could he?” Gene asked.
____“There’s no knowing where he’s gone.” Header dismissed. He stood solemnly away from the group, counting the bullets of a pistol he'd taken from one of the slain troops.
____“I have to try.” Thomas said.
____The last bullet was jammed in hard. “Look, once and for all, leave it to the army.”
____Thomas stood, earning pain at doing so while Thorn still worked on him, “Damn them! To hell with Nazar, and your generals and all the king’s men! What good did they do her before?!”
____Header stared at him gravely, “Lt. Oakerley and his men died doin’ what you asked of them. We took the base back ‘cause all those men behind was gettin’ cut down when you wasn’t.”
____“I know that! …But I just can’t trust anything anymore. I have to do this. I have to.”
____The First Lieutenant frowned, “This is about more than just yerself, boy.”
____Stacey stood, “You’d really risk everything going after her, Thomas? Not even knowing where she is or if she’s okay?”
____There was no room for doubt in his reply, “Yes.”
____She nodded, “Then I’ll go with you. Brooke always believed in us, did everything for us. I’ll gladly pay her back. She’s my friend—I owe her that much.”
____“All for a maybe?” Irene asked.
____Gene chuckled, “Well, that’s how we got Joetex’s cure in the first place! Things go better when we do them ourselves, don’t they?”
____“Lead the way, Thomas.” Thorn said.
____Lt. Header shook his head, “We don’t even know where they are!”
____Gauge—battered and winded still—trudged his way forward. “Yes we do.” he said, staring at Thomas as he spoke, “There’s an Apostle lab—I know where it is. There’s only one in the area Elias could’ve gone to quickly. Thinking about everything Brooke taught me, I know now why I’m still alive. King has no say in it. There are greater goods out there, more powerful than him, keeping me here so that I can take you to her. That’s why I’m here: because I know this thing, because we will save her.”
____Thomas put a hand on his shoulder, managing a smile. They leaned on each other, joined next by Stacey then by Thorn, Gene, Irene… together in support of each other and this purpose.
____“Heh, haha…!” Reed laughed at them, “In this day and age, you seriously wanna storm the castle, get the girl, and ride off into the sunset?”
____“Yeah, why not?!” Stacey snapped back at him.
____He shrugged his shoulders and bowed slightly, “No no no—I’m all for it! Nazar and the General and Apostle can all shove it where the sun don’t shine. We want something done right we gotta do it ourselves! That’s the way it’s always been!”
____Header stood and slowly approached the group. He stared down at Gauge, “Do you really know of a lab close by?”
____“I do.”
____There was suspicion glinting off that visor of his, “Sittin’ on intel. Why didn’t you tell us before?”
____“I was afraid I’d be killed if I started to.” The ex-Apostle shook the shame from his face, “But I’m not scared anymore! I’ll do anything if it means saving her!”
____“Would you be willin’ to share its location with the General?”
____Gauge stared at Thomas and then back at Header, “…Not right now.”
____The First Lieutenant nodded, “Then you’d best at least show us. Come on, we can’t have a minute to spare, can we?” He slung his M16 and AA12 both over one large shoulder, and holstered his pistol.
____Gene broke off the group hug, “Gosh, how right you must be! Hugs later, action now! Let’s steal some cars! My favorite!”
____Thomas nodded and led the hurried way to quietly borrow some wheels before they were noticed. He knew he couldn’t trust any VACC or military supervision right now. He didn’t know for certain if Gauge’s intuition would be correct, but all he could do was hope for the chance to rescue Brooke once and for all, before the window closed forever and he was rendered miserable again until all things ended.

____“Sir, we’re here.” Lavender deftly moved to open the door for Nazar. He stepped out and surveyed his destroyed lab: seeing all the bodies littering the lawn and the great massive heap of metal still burning where the crashed Yamato lay. The damned Apostle sign was everywhere: on the ship, killed men’s uniforms, and crudely sprayed all about the building outside and in. He straightened his jacket and entered.
____The General was waiting for him inside, surrounded by fresh troops who’d escorted him in and continued to secure the perimeter. “Nazar, sir.” he said with a swift salute, “The place is clean. We’ve taken Peyton Collis, the ringleader, prisoner. No other survivors.”
____“Dr. Lance?” Nazar asked simply.
____“Killed, sir. He didn’t have any samples on his person.”
____“Brooke, then?”
____Tandom gave a perplexed grimace, “We can’t find her, sir. She must be dead, sir. They only commandeered one helicopter to escape, and we shot it down about sixty miles east. We’ll have confirmation once the crash site is checked.”
____Nazar whistled: a single tune diving in pitch, “Do you know how they got in?”
____“No sir. I thought they’d dug their way in, but there’s no evidence of this in the tunnels. And Collis didn’t have the access to orchestrate an entry on this scale. Or any entry at all, for that matter.” Tandom stopped him as he moved to pass, “One more thing, sir. I heard what you did to Merne.”
____“Yes, terrible business that. But he declared himself aligned to Apostle right in front of the Commander and me. What else were we to do?”
____“He did not.” Tandom growled, “It’s a disgrace to our country what you two have done. Causing needless bloodshed in your mutiny. Our armed forces are here to protect this republic, not seize it for themselves. I won’t stand for it.”
____“You’re going to have to, for the time being anyway.” Nazar told him, “And don’t get mad at me. Grimm’s in control. This was his idea.”
____“Sure he is. Sure it was.”
____“Either way your feelings are irrelevant. It’s perfectly clear that the troops side with Grimm. The only issue with the coup was its poor timing.” Nazar said, “But I’m dealing with it. You’ll find it to be a temporary inconvenience to your ideals or whatever, but it’ll save more than it’s killed and that’s the only thing that matters.”
____“One day you’re going to find out that there’s a lot more that matters than the only thing that matters.” Tandom answered, releasing him then.
____“Only if we grow old.” Nazar dusted off his sleeve and continued further into the lab, gesturing for Lavender to follow. He moved deftly and with purpose, heading straight to the makeshift cell the army had set up in one of the quarantine chambers: a small enclosed space where a zombie could amble about to its heart’s content while it was studied safely. It had but one guard staring forward, pretending to ignore everything around him. Nazar smirked and knocked on the wall by the man’s head.
____“Yessir?” the guard questioned.
____Nazar nodded at the closed door behind the soldier, “How’s he holding up?”
____“He’s been self-mutilating, sir. We had to bind him down. Other than that, he’s alive.”
____“Good. You’re dismissed.”
____The soldier nodded and walked away, Nazar waited for him to be out of eyesight before creaking the door open. He glanced back at Lavender before going in, “Stay out here.”
____She nodded curiously, “Yes sir.”
____He slipped in, Lavender silently peering in from the ajar door behind him. Inside the cramped closet of a room, empty save for a single folding chair right in the middle, sat Collis: arms behind his back and legs tied to the chair’s. His head was hanging low, and blood was dripping from his hands onto the white floor. Behind him was a messy painting of blood depicting a large Apostle insignia, inked from memory as much as he could before he’d been caught and tied down. Nazar merely smirked at the ugly symbol.
____“I had my assistant peruse your corporation’s store of copyrights.” he said, “Turns out the blueprint for your blimp was stashed in a bundle of patents your company purchased six years ago. The weight capacity is truly impressive, but I suppose the world just didn’t care enough. Considered overpriced and unworkable and sold alongside other useless such patents. It’s tied directly to you. Knowing your love of the wunderwaffen of wars past it’s no surprise you’d invest in something ludicrous.”
____“How terribly clever, young man.” Collis muttered, still not looking up.
____“I also had Lavender look into your company’s last moments on the market. Turns out nearly the entirety of the corporation’s net worth dried up in only one year; very curious. Every tangible asset quietly liquidated, while all the stocks were sold off in one twenty-four hour timespan… that’s a lot of money. Of course, you can imagine why it didn’t make the front page that day. Outbreak and all that.”
____“Still clever. Go to hell.”
____Nazar scowled and deviated from his typical confident speechifying, drawing his pistol and striking Peyton across the face with it. Blood splattered the wall, Collis spitting out another mouthful of it and grinning up at Nazar, missing teeth. Now they had each other’s attention. Both had things to say.
____Nazar began: “You know, for all my brother’s intent and ability, he could only cause so much damage on his own. After all, the real power in this world isn’t magic—it’s money.” He rubbed the wrist of the hand he’d struck with as he spoke, “But you, you unleashed him onto the world as far as I’m concerned. Collis Corp and its subsidiaries: five-hundred and eleven billion dollars! Nevermind all the other idiotic one-percenters and government officials he brought under his sway with that devil’s silver tongue of his. You all came together to make him the wealthiest man in the world. You gave him everything he needed: money for influence, money to develop his virus, and even enough money to fund a little personal army afterwards.”
____Collis only smiled, gray facial hair and remaining teeth wet with blood, “It was all dirt-cheap compared to the cost of keeping the machine running. And infinitely more influential.”
____“I blame you more than him.” Nazar said coldly, “This’ll be your legacy. Not the success, not the charities, none of it.”
____“But I wouldn’t have it any other way, Nazar. He can have my money and my legacy: for the Kingdom of Heaven is like the treasure hidden in a field, for which the man sold everything he had to buy.”
____“Vengeance trumps it all, eh? How very human.”
____Collis’ turn to smirk: “It’s true what they say: society is to blame.”
____Nazar narrowed his eyes. This man was little more than a cult’s pawn, looking to base answers for complex problems. How lucky King was to come across such a wealthy imbecile. Yet now Collis still held the high ground in regards to what Nazar wanted. He was a dumb rich man to be sure, but a stubbornly loyal one.
____“Society.” Nazar echoed, “Do you really think Apostle will give you the one you’re looking for? Do you really believe that a new society is what King has in mind?”
____“That depends on who’s still around when everything is said and done. It doesn’t matter to me if I’m among that number. As long as the old world is destroyed I can rest in peace. Let the ignorant commoners burn in their stables, and ensure that none of the elites escape the justice they’re owed. Those wise enough to reject this system will build the most beautiful world afterwards, that none of us could even imagine.”
____“How truly equal it must all be!” Nazar said with blunt sarcasm, “And yet, if my eyes do not deceive me, it seems the symbol on your tailor-made suit jacket features so much more detail and quality than the ones stamped on the uniforms of all the killed grunts I see around this place. Did you think you deserved a fancier insignia because of your monetary contributions to the organization? And a military leadership position to play general as well, despite your lack of experience?”
____Collis said nothing.
____“Where does King find all you idiots? Can’t you sense bullsh*t when it’s being peddled to you? There will be no society after he’s done! Anyone can see that! You’ve been told what you want to hear and pranced along to that tune while he bled your capital dry.”
____The old man shook his head, “It doesn’t matter. I know I won’t live to have regrets.”
____“Despite all you’ve done, you still could survive. I want to know about Brooke. The General believes she was killed in that one stolen aircraft, but I suspect that to be a falsehood. …Talk.” Nazar commanded bluntly, “Talk, and you’ll live.”
____Collis beamed in defiance, “Never.”
____“Talk, human!”
____“There’s nothing you can bribe me with. Apostle is my one and only loyalty. I cannot be swayed by worldly words and vices.”
____Nazar again handled his pistol, aiming and shooting the man right in the foot. Bang!! “Where is she!?” he screeched.
____Collis screamed as blood fountained out of his wound, wriggling in place still bound to the seat. Nazar pushed the pistol into his leg and fired off several more rounds, the noise and blood terrible in such a confined space. Bang bang bang bang!!
____“Ah! Ah…!” Peyton gasped in shock and pain, leg riddled with holes. Generous amounts of blood began welling up around the chair.
____Nazar pressed the gun against his other leg, never letting the man’s pain drown out his words, “Why did you take her alive?! Why?!”
____Collis moaned in agony, avoiding eye contact. It only earned him more bullets, shredding his left leg in point-blank gunfire.
____“Tell me! Tell me why you didn’t kill her!”
____Nazar now simply pointed the weapon back and forth, shooting Collis across both wounded legs as well as his shoulders—anywhere relatively nonlethal. Though that was a rather moot point given the number of shots loosed. Lavender watched and winced.
____“You had the chance to win right then and there!” Nazar screamed, “There was no reason not to kill her! Why’d you take her alive!? King wouldn’t do it unless there were some reason!! He doesn’t do anything without a reason! Is it because the blood wasn’t working?! Why did you take her!? Tell me!!”
____Finally Collis choked out something intelligible, cackling in a broken old voice. He looked more than ancient in the wretched disarray and blood: like a corpse still clinging to the last color of life. Still he smiled amidst it all, managing to lift his head and glaring at Nazar.
____“You’re clever…” his old voice mumbled with a dying clarity, “But you’re still not as smart as your brother. Was that always the case, I wonder? Have you been playing catch-up and failing all your life? Or did you teach him and he’s since outgrown you? I never could tell which of you was the elder, after all.”
____“What?!”
____“King knows your plan. Don’t you get it? Your trump card is our trump card.”
____Nazar stared down at him: teeth clenched, thinking, computing, mind racing… then his eyes suddenly widened with realization. Collis still held the advantage over him. He promptly held the gun to the old man’s forehead and fired. Bang!!
____Blood and brain matter splattered over the red Apostle emblem on the back wall—the coating that sign deserved—Peyton going limp in an instant. Dead.
____Nazar slowly exhaled, staring grimly down at the corpse in fury. He hastily wiped the blood from his jacket and sleeves, turning to find Lavender silently watching him from the cracked-open door. She was staring at him sheepishly, tablet clutched tightly in her hands. She’d seen a side of him: he’d shown his human temperament.
____It didn’t matter. He straightened his coat and walked back out into the hall, facing his assistant, “Get someone to clean that mess up.”
____“Yessir.” Her eyesight lowered to her tablet, issuing commands from there. She didn’t look back up.
____“And Lavender…” He glared at her until she gave him eyesight again, “Where did Thomas Santeri and that ex-Apostle soldier run off to?”
____“Them, sir?”
____“Yes, where are they now?!”
____Her eyes fell back to the tablet, “Not here. They were last seen departing southeast, sir.”
____“They know something. They’re going after her. And we’re following them.” Nazar stormed down the hall, “We have to leave. Now.”
____“Sir?” She followed him.
____But he was focused still only on thoughts of his brother, “I’m going to lose everything I worked for, unless you and I can thwart him.”

ii

____Thomas’ head was spinning as the Humvee rumbled along, thrusting itself across the empty frostbitten landscape at maximum speed. There was no time to go any slower, no need to hide or take it at an even pace in quiet caution. If they were seen and killed they’d be seen and killed—without Brooke a damn-it-all attitude had come over them like a madness. They had to get her back.
____He could hear Irene to his right, “Are you okay, man?”
____“I’m fine. I just’ll feel better once I know Brooke is okay.”
____“Are you even fit to partake in a rescue mission? You’ve lost a lot of blood and you look a little… out of it.”
____Thomas shook his aching head, “I have to be there. I have to make sure she’s safe. It’s my fault she was taken in the first place!”
____“It is?”
____“I wasn’t there for her. I agreed to leave her in Nazar’s hands, and left myself in the military’s hands. How could I be so stupid?!” He glared at the seat ahead of him, a blank canvas of hateful waiting, “The only way she’ll ever be safe is if I’m there for her—if we’re together, alone, away from all these organizations trying to get her!”
____“Gene!” Irene said, “Thomas has lost it. Should we turn back?”
____He craned his neck from the driver’s seat, “Huh? No way! The group sticks together. Don’t you worry one bit, Tom—we’re in this to win this. We’re gonna get you your girl, no matter what it takes.”
____Gauge was sat beside him, pointing at the horizon ahead, “There! That should be it.”
____“Where? There’s nothing. It’s just a hill.”
____“I know. Drive around it.”
____The little line of cars made their way over, circling the flat rise in the endless grasses of this empty nowhere between counties and highways. Gauge signaled to stop as they neared and hopped out of the car. Already he was checking and loading his weapon, freshly stocked from his slain former allies at the base.
____“I remember Nick telling us about this place, should we ever be separated.” he told the others, “The compound is almost entirely underground. It’s the closest place Elias could’ve taken her, and the only one housing any medical labs—if that’s what he took her for.”
____“Mentioned in passing to you once?” Reed asked, eyeing Gauge warily, “This is convenient of you.”
____“You still don’t trust me, huh?”
____“I’m only still thinking of what Nazar said of ya.”
____Gauge shook his head, “I know now why I’m still alive, and Apostle has nothing to do with it. There’s no room for doubt anymore.”
____Thomas staggered his way out of the Humvee, “Reed, if you don’t have the spine then wait in the car. We don’t have the time for wishy-washy hesitance. God knows what they’ve done to her already.”
____Reed shook his head, stepping aside to let Thomas pass, “Then lead the way, hero boy. What do you have to worry about, if things are going to go so amazingly?”
____“Nothing.” Thomas said grimly, shouldering past him, “I have nothing to worry about. I’m going to save her.” He breathed, thinking of Brooke’s precious certainty, “It’s going to be okay. It has to be. It’s all led up to this for a reason.”
____Gauge led them across the empty field, the thawing of the frost on the grass felt under their steps, soon followed by the feeling of hidden metal under the turf. It was fake here, and the movement of air escaping from hidden vents could be felt. Ahead, behind the hardest slope of the hill, was a door snugly placed against the counterfeit wall of the ground. Gauge opened it, showing nothing but darkness on the other side, save for the faint sight of steps leading down, down, down. Thomas stared at the gaping maw of that bleak corridor.
____Gene put a hand on his shoulder, “Well, in we go?”
____“In we go.” Thomas drew his weapon and led the way down.
____There was a chill as he descended. This place was unlit and buried in steel walls that offered no insulation from the cold of the earth. But there was more than that: an unwelcome feeling of something… something sharing this space with the living daring to enter. Senses that were rarely raised in an entire lifetime stirred within Thomas as he went, suggesting subconsciously that this place was haunted and that he should leave before the presence was enraged. But he forcibly smothered it, knowing better than to fear ghosts, and knowing that he had to press on no matter what stood in his path.
____Feeling the same, all the others followed: Gauge and Stacey fearlessly first, then Reed right behind them, Irene and Gene following with a little more hesitancy. The two soldiers entered last, and the darkness surrounded them completely as the door behind was reluctantly closed.
____This place was different than the Apostle lab they had found Joetex and his cure in. It seemed more like a military base, bereft of scientific equipment but still absent of all living things. And it was darker somehow, black even as Thorn made his way to the head of the party and shone his flashlight. The only life to be found here were the occasional flickering of tiny green lights in the dark. Little electronic lights on cables running vertically about the walls. And there was a dreadfully faint buzzing sound below the floor they stood on. There were machines beneath them.
____“Where is everyone?” the Corporal asked as loud as he dared to whisper, “I thought we’d have to fight our way through. Are you sure she’s here?”
____“She has to be.” Thomas told him, “She just has to.”
____“If the power’s on, she must be.” Reed said, “Just don’t know why nobody else is home.”
____“Everyone was killed at VACC.” Gauge reasoned, turning on his own light, “But that doesn’t mean we won’t have to fight our way through.”

____Everywhere across the country boots were tramping through offices and bases. Comm. Grimm ducked his way into the eastern command center, freshly arrived straight from the landing pad outside VACC where the coup had begun. His orders had gone on ahead of him and by the time he’d arrived here the previous tenants—two of the co-directors and Senator Hallasey’s handler (some smug young dipsh*t named Wallace)—had already been arrested. The Senator himself had resisted and been shot. Everywhere the military moved to cast off the yoke of the bureaucracy and free itself to properly do battle with the enemy. Now there were only soldiers left to command, and Grimm reluctantly admitted to himself that he liked the feeling.
____“Get me in touch with the admiralty outside of New York!” he barked as he entered, viewing all the screens set up about the dim room, “Tell them we have the go-ahead for the evacuation on all fronts. Same to all the FOB commanders outside the safe zones. All convoys are to depart immediately!”
____There hadn’t been so much commotion to behold on the cameras since the day of Operation Urban Retrieve: hundreds of thousands if not millions of zombies littered the east coastline, and hundreds of thousands of civilians had to get through to the other side in this short window. The same would be true for the western shore. Grimm faced his subordinates at the comms, “The longer we wait the worse things’ll get. The enemy’s been piling on all the Rottens they could find in our path while we dilly-dallied with the brass. Send word to all the operational zones to move on full speed ahead. We’ll follow Nazar’s advised routes to the evac sites the Navy’s secured.”
____“Yessir.” came the simple reply.
____“I want all available birds in the sky, all armor up front. Cut a path through and secure our flanks for the evac. Tell the field operators to use their best judgment on the spot—there won’t be time for waiting on go-aheads. If we don’t bust our way through fast and hard and then keep it that way it’ll all fall apart. Send every report and kink straight to my desk.” With that, the Commander turned to take his quick leave. He stopped only to yank on a drawer by his seat, where a bottle of bourbon and two featureless tumblers lay hidden. He poured himself a glass for the heavy task ahead, knowing that King himself would be his opponent sat on the other side of this game board—so monumental and vital an undertaking as it was—then exited out into the open hall.
____He nearly walked into one of the scientists still in the compound, recognizing him as one of Nazar’s men, “Ah, sorry Commander!”
____“Dr. Helfer!” Grimm said.
____“Brett is fine, sir.” the Doctor corrected, “Sir, what’s going on around here? Where’s Nazar?”
____“He’s gone off on his own, regarding the Arnakis girl. But that’s VACC business—we have bigger fish to fry here. We only have one chance to make this exodus work. If we try to take and hold those positions in a flaccid manner then there won’t be many people left to cure. Everything’s in motion now.”
____“I can’t help with that, I’m afraid.” Dr. Brett admitted, “I feel useless here.”
____“If Nazar and that girl make it back in one piece, you may prove to be the only one who can help get that cure from her quickly. VACC-102 was wiped out.” Grimm frowned at himself, “I shouldn’t have said that. Things are hectic, forgive me. Here.” He handed the bottle over, keeping only the glass for himself.
____Dr. Brett took it and nodded solemnly, “The only one… Nazar will be very upset if he has to rely on me to finally get that cure from that sweet girl. Thank you, sir.”
____He sulked off on his own from there, returning to his cramped little office where he had been sequestered away after VACC-104’s abandonment. This closet was no place for a scientist, fit only for one shuffled out of the way.
____Brett took a seat and poured out two shots, then lit two cigarettes and placed one in the ashtray to burn out. Sitting there alone while all the soldiers scurried about outside, the Doctor held his smoke and his drink in solitude, mumbling to himself, “It’s no fair at all: going and making me wish you’re right, Lance. If you are up there, if you can hear me, mock me all you like. Down here things are dreadfully dire. And dreadfully lonely.”

____Lavender descended the steps deeper and deeper into the dark lab, having only the small light projected from her earpiece to guide the way. She kept her pistol drawn, on guard for any glimpse of the faint glow of undead eyes in the darkness. But it was deathly quiet this far down, save for the deep humming coming from behind the doors ahead. From above it had sounded like the rumbling breath of the earth, but this close it was unmistakable as the whirring of machines.
____Lifting her hand to her earpiece, she reported in to Nazar, “Sir, I’ve made it to the lower levels.” It was exactly as he had instructed as soon as they arrived, her boss insisting that they split up and specifically sending her down here while he searched for the civilians they’d followed himself. The idea worried her, “Are you certain you’ll be all right on your own, sir?”
____“It doesn’t suit you to fret, Lav.” his relaxed voice answered in her ear, “Worry about yourself. Only one of us is invisible to these brainless monsters, after all.”
____“You’re sure you can recover Brooke by yourself, sir?”
____“Thomas and his posse are already on the case for that. But we have to be certain they succeed, and that’s the part where things are in doubt.” She could hear him forcing a stuck metal door in his path open, grunting with frustration, “Time is of the essence. Everything is on a knife’s edge now.”
____“Very well sir.” Lavender went on ahead, opening the doors before her and shining her light in. Before her was a long hall, lined on both sides with rows and rows of loudly-humming servers, stacked up to the tall ceiling. The volume of the noise now explained, she advanced, keeping her pistol up for any zombies that might be hiding away between the rows of machines. The musk of dust and metal down here could hide even their scent. But none appeared, and the weapon was soon lowered as she reached the end of the hall and was taken by the sight. The room here expanded further on all sides: a circular crossroads of more halls in all directions, all lined with more machines just as the corridor behind her was. There was a second level below with the same layout: like a vast library of endless bookshelves. The floor could not be seen down there, carpeted with the countless coiled snakes that were all the cables strewn about. A handleless catwalk led across the upper level she stood on. Lavender looked all around her as she slowly crossed, for once floored at a sight, “What is this place for? I’ve never seen so many servers in my life.”
____She could hear Nazar scoff, “Yes, doubtlessly one of many such Apostle sites across the globe. Constant communication, encryption, and scores upon scores of data collected to determine our strengths and weaknesses… numbers and calculations of when and where best to strike. There were of course so many factors to consider for when to stage the outbreak: from population density to economic factors to political unrest, and even the temperature! Perhaps you thought all that knowledge was divinely given to my brother! It wouldn’t surprise me if many of the machines you see were built by King himself. He always did have a passion for hardware, back in the days of Sunholly Avenue.”
____Lavender could only shake her head, “I had no idea, sir.”
____“Is it surprising to picture, Lav? Don’t be deceived by his new holy appearance, how he intends to be perceived. Apostle had to be birthed somewhere, formed once upon a time when radicals had to lay low and did not yet have something to band them together, and where King was but a faceless username on a forum in the deep places of the net. It’s there he first put down his roots: planting the ideas that the world should be destroyed, and the foundations that it could be destroyed.”
____“I see, sir.”
____“Perhaps now you understand why I wanted your services so badly.” Nazar said, “I need you. At this moment, it may be our only chance to thwart them.”
____Lavender crossed the catwalk, standing there now before the wall of servers at the farthest end of the room. She shot the lock open and then slid the protective glass pane freely, counting across the rows of mechanical slices before sliding one open. The pistol was put away and a new weapon drawn in its place: Lavender inserting a stubby USB stick into the exposed server rack and waiting for the little drive to start flashing red. She held up her tablet and connected it also.
____“I’ll see what I can do, sir.” she said, standing there alone surrounded by looming machines on all sides, hoping their humming didn’t mask the sound of any undead that might sneak up. The connection was established, and she began to work, “Without any system compromises—passwords, encryption keys, human error—I’m going to be fighting an uphill battle here, sir. This wasn’t set up by pushovers.”
____“You weren’t arrested for simple phishing scams.” he reminded her, “I know you can do it. Gain access and find where they’re stowing her. It shouldn’t be difficult: it’ll be the only part of this place above up and running.”
____Lavender smirked at how he oversimplified things, “And what about you, sir?”
____“Isn’t it obvious? I’m going to save this world.” he said, pausing then for a moment, “…But only if you can get this elevator working.”

____Thomas deftly moved down the dark halls of this dead facility, stopping only to kill any undead that popped up in his way. It seemed like the only active things here were the dead, meandering corpses left to rot in these Apostle places to act as shambling guards. But they were too spread out (and the intruders were too well-armed) to pose much of a threat. Everyone here but Stacey had a gun, after all. They didn’t come all this way just to be stopped by a zombie. The stakes were too high. Their drive was too much. Even the appearance of a Doorman lunging from the darkness ahead wasn’t sufficient to stop their hurried advance, mowed down to hamburger meat and falling killed to the floor to slide to a bloodied halt about their spent casings. Thomas spat and kept running. King’s dead puppets wouldn’t keep him from his one chance at happiness.
____Despite the pounding he still felt in his head close to the wound, Thomas didn’t allow himself to slow down. Every minute counted now, with no sign of Brooke in sight and a whole facility to comb through. Somehow he knew she was here somewhere, having to be, waiting for him. He couldn’t even permit himself to think about what Elias might be doing to her, only wanting to get her back and leave any questions for later. He had only this one time to make things right, to have her and again hear her music. She had to be permitted to be free of this nightmare, where she could be with him and finish their song. He could hear its tune in his head as he raced down corridor after corridor, searching for her.
____Everything in his life had led up to this, he knew. Every bad decision, every regret, every unfair circumstance, every ominous change beyond his power to control—forced to watch as the world got worse and worse without his say or ability to affect any bit of it. It all laid the way to this moment here, paved brick by miserable brick as he lost and lost and grew ever more bitter. He couldn’t do anything to prevent that before. He wouldn’t permit himself to suffer a second catalyst now, not while he could affect it. Brooke was still alive so he could still save her and escape with a glimmer of happiness in spite of all other things. He would have her back, and he wouldn’t lose her again. Not to Apostle, not to anyone. This one thing he could affect.
____They’d have to escape shortly after her rescue: off somewhere remote where no one would ever think to look. Not everyone in the group would understand, Thomas figured, especially the soldiers. They would still be too trusting of their government or too fearful of Apostle’s reach to understand him. He might have to hold up Lt. Header in order to get away. Even Brooke herself might not understand, so wanting to help the world that she didn’t see that none of these factions could keep her safe.
____Do you not hear yourself? His own thoughts struggled to make themselves heard, This is insanity. How can you alone possibly hope to have her, against all these forces clamoring with a thousand-fold the resources? You could never hope to succeed with such a plan, not for long at all anyway. Where has your rationality gone?
____But he hated his rationality right now, and shelved any hesitations away. They made his hurting head ache more, and were only the ghosts of past cynicism and not his true self. He wanted nothing to do with somber reflections of misery, welcoming only the company of Brooke and the happy emotions she embodied.
____“Where are we going?!” he heard Irene shout as they raced down one hall after another.
____Gauge, possessing the fanaticism and lacking the fatigue of Thomas’ fresh wound, pointed as he led the way, “Follow the signs! There’s only one place I can think of that they’d take her!”
____There were many rooms and passages marked on the corners of every corridor, but one stood out above the other more technical or militaristic branches printed there. The medical wing. Gauge led on. They kept going. Only several halls down did he slow to a stop. Everyone behind halted as he did.
____“What is it?” Gene asked him.
____“I don’t hear the dead.” Gauge explained, “…There’s something else in here.”
____He’d stopped at a junction in the dark halls, Thorn glancing to their left and Irene to their right. Black passageways on all sides, with only the faint glow of electronics seen here or there in the dark, dotting the corners or the far walls. Thomas looked around, seeing nothing in what little light they had to shine about themselves. But he could hear it now too.
____Shh shh shh…
____“Well, we must be heading in the right direction.” Gene noted, a little too loudly, “They’re guarding themselves with something.”
____“There’s something there.” Stacey said, pointing directly ahead, “There! There’s something there!”
____Some of those lights ahead were eclipsed, and then visible again. Movement. Up came silent footsteps as it neared. Thorn aimed his rifle and shone his light down the hall, but he only illuminated more black.
____There, taking up the corridor, was some creature: some black inky mass lacking all features. There were legs carrying it, and the pronged tendrils of appendages upon its body, but it had no head or face. This was no zombie, or it lacked all features of one, being completely devoid of any human form. One could only startle back at its inexplicable and unexpected appearance there in the halls.
____Despite its size, its steps made no noise as it walked toward them, tendrils waving about, “Shh, shh, shh!”
____“Fire!” Header roared, and all the passageway was illuminated with gunshots. The bullets sank one after another into the monster, but it did not halt. It wasn’t even remotely affected.
____Reed was the first to stop firing, “Screw that! Run!”
____He turned and bolted, everyone else getting the memo alone or in pairs and following his retreat. Gene alone remained gawking unfathomed at the monster, Header having to grasp and yank him along into a run, “Come on!”
____They all ran for it.

Trembles have been added to the Enemy Journal in the OP. Another entry will be added every time a new type of Zombie appears.

____The crackling whisper of the Tremble followed as they fled, and it silently pursued at a steady walking pace. Reed had darted to the left, and so they ran that way quickly, hoping that they could somehow circle around and not be chased all the way back to the entrance. They had come too far to be thwarted, even by such a monster as this.
____The medical wing was no less dark or complex than the rest of the lab, and Reed ran and ran keeping his eyes on the signs all the while. Alert for any direction that might take them to Brooke.
____“Shh shh shh.” Came the noise, and he startled back at rounding a corner, only narrowly avoiding running straight into a second Tremble occupying the hall, barely visible in the dark. Reed reeled back, yanking on Thorn to avoid the same fate as he too rounded the corner, and the group diverted another way. The second monster followed behind, inky tendrils lapping at the air behind them.
____“Just keep running, just keep running!” Reed barked at them all, rounding another corner and seeing a closed door. The labels on the hall still pointed to a Testing Wing, so he assumed it to be no dead end. He grasped the handle and yanked it open, “In here, quick!”
____In everyone piled, escaping the monstrous whispers behind, and Reed slammed the door shut and pressed tight against it. Whatever those creatures were, they wouldn’t fit through any normal-sized door.
____“The hell are those things? You’ve really learned how to pick our battles, Thomas!” he muttered, glancing around, “Where are we now?”
____“I don’t know.” Gauge said, “This doesn’t look like it fits.”
____This area was little more than a gray cube of a room, as perfectly tall as it was wide and in no way matching the cramped corridors of the underground lab surrounding it. It was deathly quiet. Another door beyond sat on the opposite end, and in the middle was a simple pedestal with a single light above shining down upon it as if it were a lone opera singer. Sat upon that short pillar was a large clump of meat: bleeding red, type of flesh unrecognizable.
____There was a tag attached to it, a note in red ink which Thomas read as he cautiously approached: “‘Is this the pound of flesh you wanted?’ That’s all it says.”
____“What does it mean?” Thorn asked him.
____Thomas shook his head, in no mood for pondering, “Who cares what it means? I don’t have time for games or supernatural mockery. Let’s keep going.” He faced the door ahead and motioned for the others to follow, having to do so twice for Gene, who looked strickened by the sight and didn’t immediately obey, “Gene, come on!”
____“I, uh, well, okay.” he said.
____Whatever it was—possessing no meaning for Thomas himself to guess at—Gene must have thought it was for him. Thomas didn’t care to press it. There would be time to ruminate on it later, for days and days for all he cared. He only wanted Brooke back.
____Thomas opened the door and found that it led back out into the dark halls of the lab. Still the letters printed on the corridor corners read Testing Wing, so that’s the way he went.
____There were eyes in the dark, glinting and dead. Thomas raised his weapon and fired, killing the zombie he knew was there in the shadows. All the hallway was illuminated for a brief moment in that gunshot, and there above hung a sign: “<- Surgery Rooms 1-4”
____“This way!” Thomas ducked into a sprint, rounding the hall and continuing down that way. But there again in the dark came the form of the Tremble, and he threw himself back as its black appendages reached for him.
____“God damn it!” Header swore, “Everyone back, back!”
____He drew his AA12 shotgun and began unloading it into the monster with reckless abandon, each quick spray of shot falling upon the inky flesh and sinking into it. Still the creature advanced. From another hall a second Tremble’s eerie muttering could be heard as it slowly closed in upon them. Nothing was working.
____“Sh*t. Hold up!” Reed shouted above the din of the shotgun blasts. He forcibly lowered Header’s weapon and shoved anyone close away, “It ain’t working! Go around, all of you! Leave these things to me!”
____“What’re you gonna do?” Stacey demanded.
____The Trembles neared.
____Reed just shrugged as if there was no risk involved at all, “I ain’t scared. Just leave them to me. There’s no time to argue, just back up until I can lead them down another corner, ‘kay?”
____Stacey frowned. What could he possibly do? How long could he possibly last down here in this unknown place circling such anomalies? But he was right: there was no time to argue. Thomas at least nodded, “Okay. Just stay alive, Reed.”
____“Ha! I’m the one who gave King the slip, ain’t I? Give me some credit.”
____Stacey shook her head, not knowing how he’d managed that either, “That was crazy enough. If you really dodge that and this both then you have the devil’s luck.”
____He only shrugged again in answer, and the group backed away until they were again at a four way junction. Reed remained at the crossing and waited, and as the Trembles caught up he stood until they were much too close before ducking down a separate hall, shouting for them to catch him. Seeming to want, the beasts followed silently after him into the dark, and in their absence the others continued on ahead unimpeded. They did not see him or the Trembles in that place again.
____Silently giving Reed his thanks, Thomas led the way onward. Again he followed the signs to the surgery rooms, hoping to at last find his captured hope there. Any zombie in his path he blew away, and he raced past one empty room after another. Only the flashing of a bolt of black lighting sprouting from the floor made him flinch, and he staggered and swore at the suddenness of it. No explanation could be given—to these or the inky monsters or the cube-space they’d passed through—other than that reality was seeming to crumble about this place. But even this Thomas didn’t care for, navigating forward through all these things as if passing through a dream. He did not question the monsters or the lightning crackling in the corridor before him. Only his one objective mattered, and so he forged on ahead despite it all.
____There at the very end of this passageway he could see a pair of closed double-doors, with a long-awaited light source escaping out from under them. The lights were on in that one chamber, giving itself away to the rescuers, and he could hear the faint sound of desperate screaming.
____That had to be it! It had to be! Thomas ran. I’m coming, Brooke!!

We are very nearly done. Let me know what you think

~TAF

[TGRF]

Chapter 20:

Spoiler Alert!

I don't really have too much to say here, not even any corrections to point out. It feels like the lull before the storm, with our characters getting into position for the finale. Whatever that may be.

So because I believe that all criticism can be useful - if only to tell where the reader is at - I'll take this time to speculate on my issues with Thorn. I've touched on this before, I'm sure, but his entire vendetta with Silvin just feels off.

I went back and skimmed Thorn's backstory just to be sure, and the most connection he and Silvin seem to have is that Silvin used him once to laugh at the government, Thorn took it personally, and ever since Silvin has treated Thorn's vendetta as a big game, laughing the whole time. Certainly that's enough to get anyone riled up, and I can understand Thorn wanting to get Silvin for it, up to a certain point.

But that's the key here: up to a certain point. Now, Thorn's personal vendetta is repeatedly threatening to put others in danger and jeopardize world-saving missions. And that's fine - there's plenty of media where the protagonist pursues a personal vendetta despite the cost and the audience is behind him. But not so here. And I think I know why.

Thorn can back down. The only thing - the only thing - keeping him from just forgetting about Silvin and focusing on the mission is his own stubborn refusal to let his vendetta go. And that's not enough.

If I were to ask Thorn what he would lose by putting the mission before Silvin, I can't imagine him being able to justify himself. The best excuse he could say would be that Silvin would continue killing people, but that holds no ground when Thorn himself is on a mission to save mankind. I get that Thorn is defined by this vendetta, that without it he is nothing and has nothing, but that is a selfish reason. It alone can't justify his actions to the reader.

What is missing? When I create a story, I will sometimes 'develop the conflict,' which means I run it through a series of tests. One of these tests is to make sure that it is Unavoidable. This is what Thorn's conflict with Silvin is missing: Unavoidability.

Unavoidable simply means the hero can't walk away. I don't mean he doesn't want to walk away, I mean he can't walk away. There is something pressing him up against that conflict, forcing him to confront it, and turning away from it is simply not an option. To the point where if he does turn away, he will end.

I say end here, because the hero needs to die as a character, not necessarily literally die. Everything which defines and supports them needs to be destroyed if they turn away, and they essentially need to stop living - even if they go on existing.

It seems extreme, but that really is what a good conflict needs. The longer the story goes, the higher the stakes are, and the more desperate the measures to achieve the goal become, the more you need that unavoidability.

Now maybe it's there for Thorn. His life was certainly a mess before he found his mission. But the inclusion of things like his mission to protect the civilians and his love for Stacey both work to undermine that, suggesting that if he let Silvin go, there in fact would be something left.

If that's not actually the case, then we the readers need to feel that. We need a taste of everything Thorn stands to lose. Thorn needs to recognize the possibiility of leaving Silvin, try it, and get burned so badly that we the readers know this is not an option.

But Thorn doesn't do that. It seems like the moment Silvin is mentioned, he has to practically hold himself back from charging out into the night after him. I as a reader see that he has more to live for than the vendetta, and with no evidence to the contrary, his actions feel unsupported, selfish, and callous of those he would put in danger.

---

Now that's a lot of negative I just wrote, and I want to explain why: Partly it's for you, partly it's for me. I want to give this story a fair review when it's over, and that means leaving notes like the above for myself on my thoughts as I read. Otherwise I'll start forgetting things. Additionally, I firmly believe in being brutally honest, especially when there are things which do or don't sit right with me as a reader. It makes my own writing better when you critique my work, and I believe it can only do the same for you.

~TGRF.

[TheAverageFan]

Reply:

Spoiler Alert!

Originally Posted by TGRF

Chapter 20:

Spoiler Alert!

I don't really have too much to say here, not even any corrections to point out. It feels like the lull before the storm, with our characters getting into position for the finale. Whatever that may be.

So because I believe that all criticism can be useful - if only to tell where the reader is at - I'll take this time to speculate on my issues with Thorn. I've touched on this before, I'm sure, but his entire vendetta with Silvin just feels off.

I went back and skimmed Thorn's backstory just to be sure, and the most connection he and Silvin seem to have is that Silvin used him once to laugh at the government, Thorn took it personally, and ever since Silvin has treated Thorn's vendetta as a big game, laughing the whole time. Certainly that's enough to get anyone riled up, and I can understand Thorn wanting to get Silvin for it, up to a certain point.

But that's the key here: up to a certain point. Now, Thorn's personal vendetta is repeatedly threatening to put others in danger and jeopardize world-saving missions. And that's fine - there's plenty of media where the protagonist pursues a personal vendetta despite the cost and the audience is behind him. But not so here. And I think I know why.

Thorn can back down. The only thing - the only thing - keeping him from just forgetting about Silvin and focusing on the mission is his own stubborn refusal to let his vendetta go. And that's not enough.

If I were to ask Thorn what he would lose by putting the mission before Silvin, I can't imagine him being able to justify himself. The best excuse he could say would be that Silvin would continue killing people, but that holds no ground when Thorn himself is on a mission to save mankind. I get that Thorn is defined by this vendetta, that without it he is nothing and has nothing, but that is a selfish reason. It alone can't justify his actions to the reader.

What is missing? When I create a story, I will sometimes 'develop the conflict,' which means I run it through a series of tests. One of these tests is to make sure that it is Unavoidable. This is what Thorn's conflict with Silvin is missing: Unavoidability.

Unavoidable simply means the hero can't walk away. I don't mean he doesn't want to walk away, I mean he can't walk away. There is something pressing him up against that conflict, forcing him to confront it, and turning away from it is simply not an option. To the point where if he does turn away, he will end.

I say end here, because the hero needs to die as a character, not necessarily literally die. Everything which defines and supports them needs to be destroyed if they turn away, and they essentially need to stop living - even if they go on existing.

It seems extreme, but that really is what a good conflict needs. The longer the story goes, the higher the stakes are, and the more desperate the measures to achieve the goal become, the more you need that unavoidability.

Now maybe it's there for Thorn. His life was certainly a mess before he found his mission. But the inclusion of things like his mission to protect the civilians and his love for Stacey both work to undermine that, suggesting that if he let Silvin go, there in fact would be something left.

If that's not actually the case, then we the readers need to feel that. We need a taste of everything Thorn stands to lose. Thorn needs to recognize the possibiility of leaving Silvin, try it, and get burned so badly that we the readers know this is not an option.

But Thorn doesn't do that. It seems like the moment Silvin is mentioned, he has to practically hold himself back from charging out into the night after him. I as a reader see that he has more to live for than the vendetta, and with no evidence to the contrary, his actions feel unsupported, selfish, and callous of those he would put in danger.

---

Now that's a lot of negative I just wrote, and I want to explain why: Partly it's for you, partly it's for me. I want to give this story a fair review when it's over, and that means leaving notes like the above for myself on my thoughts as I read. Otherwise I'll start forgetting things. Additionally, I firmly believe in being brutally honest, especially when there are things which do or don't sit right with me as a reader. It makes my own writing better when you critique my work, and I believe it can only do the same for you.

~TGRF.

All I would say to all of this is that much like Jaxson's selfless absolutism, the events of Apostle's Creed so far call into question whether or not Thorn's dogged pursuit of Silvin is in fact actually a negative, not a positive. He absolutely could walk away but insists to himself that he can't, and his decision to attack the factory was unsupported, selfish, and brought harm to others. His section in this chapter is him beginning to grapple with that.

~TAF

[TGRF]

Spoiler Alert!

Originally Posted by TheAverageFan

Reply:
All I would say to all of this is that much like Jaxson's selfless absolutism, the events of Apostle's Creed so far call into question whether or not Thorn's dogged pursuit of Silvin is in fact actually a negative, not a positive. He absolutely could walk away but insists to himself that he can't, and his decision to attack the factory was unsupported, selfish, and brought harm to others. His section in this chapter is him beginning to grapple with that.


~TAF

Huh. Very interesting... So it seems like you're trying to do something similar to what I tried in Dawn of Darkness, where people make gray or bad decisions, and it's up to the reader and other characters to judge if it was right or not.

I can't speak for how DoD worked - my intention was just that: to present the questionable decision and let the reader form his own conclusions as the results unfolded.

Here, I obviously had a completely different reaction, assuming that we were supposed to be on board with Thorn's vendetta completely, causing me to note the issues with it like I did above.

It seems clear that, since that was my reaction, either I'm completely off my rocker (a strong possibility at all times), or Thorn's vendetta needs to be reframed somehow.

I'm no expert in this field, but my own encounters with such situations would suggest that we need a character or characters, who we the readers strongly identify with, who does exactly what you the author want us the readers to do.

In DoD, that was Taelord. He questioned the decisions around him, presented the arguments, but rarely reached conclusions. He invited the reader to see the decisions as he saw them: up for debate.

Note that Taelord's decisions are never presented as being up for debate... there is likely something there worth considering.

Here I see the decisions as what I the reader am supposed to root for. There are a variety of reasons this could be the case... I may need to go back and reread the Thorn passage in the last chapter.

~TGRF.

[TheAverageFan]

Spoiler Alert!

Originally Posted by TGRF

Spoiler Alert!

Huh. Very interesting... So it seems like you're trying to do something similar to what I tried in Dawn of Darkness, where people make gray or bad decisions, and it's up to the reader and other characters to judge if it was right or not.

I can't speak for how DoD worked - my intention was just that: to present the questionable decision and let the reader form his own conclusions as the results unfolded.

Here, I obviously had a completely different reaction, assuming that we were supposed to be on board with Thorn's vendetta completely, causing me to note the issues with it like I did above.

It seems clear that, since that was my reaction, either I'm completely off my rocker (a strong possibility at all times), or Thorn's vendetta needs to be reframed somehow.

I'm no expert in this field, but my own encounters with such situations would suggest that we need a character or characters, who we the readers strongly identify with, who does exactly what you the author want us the readers to do.

In DoD, that was Taelord. He questioned the decisions around him, presented the arguments, but rarely reached conclusions. He invited the reader to see the decisions as he saw them: up for debate.

Note that Taelord's decisions are never presented as being up for debate... there is likely something there worth considering.

Here I see the decisions as what I the reader am supposed to root for. There are a variety of reasons this could be the case... I may need to go back and reread the Thorn passage in the last chapter.

I mean, you might be off your rocker given your assumptions. Nothing that I’m aware of in the text so far suggests that what Thorn chose to do was intended as the right decision that the reader should get behind (some in the group were quite resistant to the idea). I would be curious what gave you such a strong impression otherwise.

~TAF