Surviving the Apocalypse

Research Center

4 weeks later the Scavengers and builders had made it all the way to the edge of the research lab that had been their target for a month, all 6 squads looking at the horde of zombies that was milling around the Campus. Drawing them in slowly so as not to overwhelm themselves, they knew it would take a week just to clear out the hundreds of them milling around outside.

"Ma'am, drone 4 is detecting human movement on the northwest corner of the facility." Nathaniel said into her radio earpiece just as they heard the first shot ring out before the horde began moving that way.

"Copy." she said into it as she pressed the button. "Everyone, weapons hot. Seems like we have some rookies to save. Northwest Corner, Squads 3 and 4, move there now and provide support. Squads 5 and 6 will join 1 and 2 in taking them out from behind." she ordered as 10 people sprinted to the top of a small hill overlooking 20 people that were now shooting at zombies with everything they had. The rest began eliminating the ones that were right in front of them as Hanna triggered her radio to voice mode. "Base, Teams 1 and 2 are moving into protection mode with weapons hot. Send Response teams 1 and 2." she said as they began killing them.

In a month they had found even more survivors in nearly every one of the buildings they had cleared, the numbers in the Camp swelling to 1,229. They had even developed suppressors for their guns that made them nearly silent, so even though they were using them now they could barely be heard which was a benefit as they were attracted to whoever it was that had begun shooting. Despite how quickly they were taking them down, they knew it was going to be several minutes before they were able to even see the other humans that were apparently idiots when it came to dealing with zombies.

"Erecting barrier between horde and survivors." One of the Earth users on Squad 4 said into the radio before the wall burst into existence just before the horde smashed into them. The look on their faces was comical as they knew without a doubt it had saved their lives as stairs appeared for them to be able to climb it so they could keep shooting from an elevated position.

Just as they did the roar of the 6 trucks could be heard, each one holding 20 men fully armed to the teeth came barreling into the research lab grounds drawing the attention of half of the zombies that remained. Hanna smiled as their timing was impeccable as she loaded her last drum into her rifle.

"Last drum." she shouted announcing it to her team as most of them repeated it as they reloaded as well. Fortunately the response teams had a live overview of the battle from the drones, 2 of the trucks moving to the top of the hill with the same crates that were delivered to the squads who were advancing on the horde from the rear. Each of them with the same load out so that the Scavenger squads could learn with ammunition that they were desperately short on as the new arrivals began blasting away with their own suppressed rifles.

It took another 90 minutes for them to put down the rest of the horde, Hanna's system informing her that her people had killed over 700 zombies in just 2 and a half hours. There however were nearly 1200 corpses that were lying there as she watched the wall dissolve leaving the other survivors standing on the ground again as Hanna approached them.

"So which i***t among you gave the order to use an unsuppressed gun?' she demanded angrily as she looked them over.

A young woman stepped forward as Squads 3 and 4 came down the hill after emptying the crate of supplies that had been brought for them. "I did, we didn't realize there would be that many of them. Crystal Johnson, Camp Epsilon." she said holding out her hand that Hanna just stared at.

"If you had bothered with basic research you would have known there was over a thousand." she replied not bothering to shake her hand at all. "Luckily for you we happened to have reached here yesterday and we're going to begin clearing them. Otherwise you would all be joining them." Hanna said as her men began collecting the heart crystals from the ones they hadn't killed. "What the hell are you doing here?" she asked as the first corpses started being piled so they could be burned in short order.

Crystal looked like she had been slapped by the response, not sure how she should reply. "What business of yours is it? My family happens to have owned this facility before the apocalypse." she retorted as Hanna snorted.

"By all mean, go ahead and go get yourself killed than. After what you just did I have no qualms about putting bullets in your heads tomorrow." Hanna replied as Lucas walked over to them. She knew they were so low on ammunition that if they attempted to enter any one of the buildings they would be overrun by zombies within minutes.

Crystal sighed as she knew the same thing, their Camp unable to send more supplies to them out in the field like this. "We are here to retrieve a copy of the data on a secure server. If you assist us, we can allow you to have any equipment you want from the labs here." she said evenly.

Hanna chuckled with a big smile. "I will be taking that whether you say I can or not, it is only part of what I want from here. If you want access today, I want a copy of that data." she replied as Crystals eyes went wide.

"I can't allow that, the files we are here to retrieve are highly classified." she replied alarmed at the request making Hanna laugh.

Hanna looked her dead in the eye before she responded. "First, the Government and Military that classified those documents no longer exists. Second, without the help from my teams, the servers you are trying to access will be gone before you are able to return. 3rd, if you try and stop me from doing so, we will kill you here and now and take them anyway. 4th, I am Colonel Hanna Storm of the United States Army with a classification level of Alpha 1. So I have clearance for any files stored in there." Amy told her with a completely serious face. "So, you can either agree to my terms and give me a copy of the data you want, or we will take it anyway and decrypt it ourselves without your assistance and you will never see it again. Make you choice quickly. As soon as my team is done cleaning up your mess we will be moving into the first buildings we need to clear for our own gains while you go wherever it is your Camp is to rearm. By the time you return tomorrow morning we will have finished our work and there will be nothing left for you to recover."

Crystal was stunned as one of her men stepped forward. "If you are a Colonel, which Camp are you in command of? There is still a chain of command from the last remnants of the military that survives." he demanded making Hanna look at his uniform that showed he was a Lt. Colonel by the name of Dearborn.

"My Camp falls outside of the chain of Command. I refuse to follow orders such as rescuing only the men and people with abilities. In fact we rescued over 120 women and children they abandoned when the military fled the city. To answer your question however, I am the Leader of Camp Hope. You have about 20 minutes to reach a decision before my men finish cleaning up your mess." she said as the first pile of corpses was doused in a highly flammable liquid that ignited the entire pile of corpses they had made before they moved to the next section and repeated the process.

Crystal watched their fluid movements, knowing exactly what they were collecting and why. They had developed their own method of purifying the Heart Crystals to empower their ability users, but it was labor intensive and took them three crystals to make a single dose compared to her one. "You seriously think you can clear all these buildings before dark?" she asked.

Hanna shook her head knowing that their construction team was erecting fences around the perimeter to secure the area from further invasion as they spoke. "Nope, not a chance. But we will finish before dawn which is when you will be able to safely return. Gives us plenty of time to kill the zombies inside and loot the equipment and servers we need." Hanna told her honestly. "If you think we are dumb enough to wipe the drives by trying to decrypt them you are sadly mistaken as well. I assure you we will get the data with or without your assistance. The only question is if you will assist us and get a copy as well."

Crystal was stunned she put it so bluntly as she looked at the Lt. Colonel. "Can we still clear the building we need?" she asked.

"No, we don't have the ammunition. Intel suggests-" he said before Hanna cut him off.

"There are 427 zombies inside the main building. By my estimates, your team has less than 100 rounds of ammunition left and will be wiped out within 2 minutes of opening the doors without suppressed weapons. Even with full load outs you only have a 32 percent chance of success using your current weapons. Your only hope for true success is to accept my offer and hand over a copy of the decrypted files and take one for yourself. Either way, the actual hardware is ours as without my teams, you would all be walking corpses by now." Hanna told her as he looked at her.

"87 rounds between all them men ma'am, her assessment is nearly dead accurate. Which division were you with before the collapse?" he asked her.

"Strategy and tactics. You now have a full assessment of your odds, what will it be Ms. Johnson?" Hanna asked.

"We need more than that, some of those Crystals belong to us." she said defiant making Hanna smile.

"You are exactly right. Tell ya what, we will trade you 50 doses of Evojuice for the crystals." she said holding one out to her from her storage. She just happened to have exactly 50 of them in her space just in case something like this happened.

Crystal took it and held it to the light, noticing it looked just like water. "Your sure this is Evojuice?" she asked.

"I gave it to you to test by drinking it, not looking at it in the light." Hanna said as she watched the woman pop the cork out of the vial and drink the diluted dose so it wouldn't overwhelm the system all at once. Crystal however was close enough to leveling that she did just that, the rush of power making her a little light headed as her eyes widened.

"How pure is this?" she asked.

"99.8 percent purified Evojuice. Do we have a deal?" Hanna asked her.

Crystal nodded before Hanna pulled out the tray of doses and looked at the team from Camp Epsilon. "Everyone with abilities take a dose." she ordered after taking it from Hanna.

Hanna looked at them with a smile as she pulled out 3 additional ones. "You, you and you. Take these ones as well. We may have need of your enhanced abilities." she said as the 3 she indicated stepped forward and took them as well. "What are you waiting for, bottoms up." she told them all as they drank.

They all watched as the 3 people she had singled out leveled up to 3rd level abilities, their powers increasing dramatically as they were all stunned and Crystal put the doses in her own storage space. "How did you know?" she asked Hanna.

"My ability, since you are out of ammunition and we aren't using uniform weapons, my squads will take the lead. You will provide access and the data, we will ensure you survive the night. Any objections?" she asked before Crystal shook her head no. "Excellent, you tell us which building we need to go to. We will lead the way. Anyone with a useful ability is welcome to join our attack teams, if you follow one rule. Those guns are weapons of last resort. All teams, weapons cold." she ordered before Crystal pointed the way and all of her squads pulled out their trusted melee weapons.