Surviving the Apocalypse

First mission

Hanna watched out the window as the two squads drove down the street, carefully maneuvering around the vehicles and debris that covered most of the roadway, trying to make as little noise as possible. As soon as they got to the gas station where the evacuation points had been they parked the vehicles and got out. The cargo trucks still at the base while they cleared both sides of the street to the point where they were clearing today.

Each squad went to their respective sides of the street, the side Hanna was on with her squad including Lucas having a house to clear first while the others had a pharmacy that they would be working on. She knew they had all day to complete their objective, none of them knowing just what they would face. Their first priority, clearing the zombies from this block of buildings so they could loot the stores and houses properly without as much fear of being attacked.

Without hesitation she drew her sword as Hammond picked the lock of the house so they made as little noise as possible. It didn't take long before he nodded and swung the door open, the stench of death overpowering them as they found the bodies of 6 children and a couple. Each one had been shot through the head, making it impossible for them to ever rise as zombies.

"Make note of the corpses, they will need to be burned with the rest of the zombies." Hanna ordered as they carefully entered the house, everything they saw being automatically noted by her system so that they would know what they had to work with. After 10 minutes the house and yard were cleared, her map graying the area out to show there were no zombies whatsoever as the others began loading the food stores into their bags as she loaded everything else into her storage space. She had no desire to make anyone else enter as they carried each of the bodies out to the curb of the street before they moved on.

The electronics store next door had a lot of useful things they could use, only 2 zombies inside that she had killed with a stroke of her sword as Lucas and the others watched her cut their heads in half. As soon as she did, they fell dead before she got a new quest.

'New Quest: Kill 50 zombies. Any member of scavenger team 1 will count towards this total.' it said displaying a counter that already had 5 kills counted. It also had a two hour timer, which was the exact amount of time they had left to complete the mission before the trucks would arrive.

Without preamble, she led her squad to the next building, the other teams that would be coming once they secured the area responsible for gathering everything as they had discovered 5 others had storage abilities. Each one of them had volunteered and were training to become scavengers, they however hadn't been cleared for this duty yet as they still had a lot of training they needed in order to be combat effective. She wouldn't risk the lives of her people unnecessarily, and so far they were too green to risk in the clearing portion. Especially where their goal wasn't to evade the zombies, but to eliminate them.

After they searched the entire building they went to the back yard of it, where 5 more zombies had been trapped. Lucas got the first kill, using a mace that splattered the brains of the zombie as its skull caved in, the rest of the team wasting no time in eliminating the others as quickly as they could. They didn't reenter the building as a gate led back to the street they had been using. They approached the final building on their side of the street, the massive thing looking intimidating as Hammond picked the door that had been locked. Normally it was opened by an electronic keypad, it however had absolutely no power as the power plants had been shut down when the outbreak had started.

As soon as it opened and they entered, they saw blood all over the place, but absolutely no zombies anywhere in sight. What they did see was clearly a research lab, Hanna absorbing every piece of equipment and reagent into her storage space as it was something she knew they needed desperately. Especially since it was all state of the art equipment meant for research, but could be repurposed for their own uses once the doctors figured out what all of it was.

'New Quest: Rescue remaining research team in building before zombie swarm breaches their safe zone.' her system displayed in her mind for several moments before it faded and showed that they had 15 minutes left. She informed the team who sped up their search, as when it didn't tell her the reward it was usually something they needed more than they would ever know.

Within 5 more minutes they cleared the first floor in its entirety, Hanna still taking every piece of equipment, including the desks. They went up the rear stairs to another secured door, Hammond taking only seconds to open it as the lock itself was simple.

As soon as they stepped into the second floor office, they could hear the pounding against a wall. The cautiously entered, looking to the right to see at least 30 zombies on the other side. To the left was a secured lab, where she could see 8 scientists freaking out behind the door.

"We fight the zombies before we rescue the people. They would only make the fight more difficult, feel free to use your abilities in any way you can." she ordered as she started absorbing the equipment and work stations into her storage, the glass that the zombies were banging against holding steady until they heard a screech from one that made the others move as it ran into the wall at full speed. The impact resonated through the glass, the cracks expanding quickly as the zombie backed down the long hallway and did it again. "Guns only if it is necessary, we don't want to attract any more zombies here if we can help it." she said as the second impact shook the entire wall of glass and made the pane it hit c***k even more.

The 5 of them took up positions around the room, giving themselves plenty of space to use their weapons and abilities without much risk of hitting anyone else. The third impact sent the glass flying as the zombie stormed the room, it clearly being a level 1 strength ability as it ran straight at Hanna as she was directly in front of it. She dove to the side, her blade singing as she took off a leg with one clean s***h if her blade before she stood and came back around before it could compensate and took the top part of it's head off.

By the time she recovered the other zombies were swarming the room, the others of her squad hitting the front wave with a powerful wave of lightning, fire, water and earth abilities that were all at least level 2. Each zombie they struck instantly went down as they aimed directly for the head, using as little energy as possible as they had learned that exhausting their powers would leave them to weak to fight. Most of them focused on Hanna whose natural speed was the same effect as having a level one speed ability, her blade singing through the air as she didn't particularly care what she cut through as it did affect the zombies. Even without a direct killing blow she was giving them an advantage, several of them having their heads severed cleanly at the neck, just below the brain stem.

Just as the team thought they were going to be over run, Hanna used her own lightning ability that she had obtained, sending a pulse of three bolts from her sword that dropped six zombies at once before she made a wall of flames between them and the remaining dozen zombies that came running through it. 4 of them dropped dead as the blaze was more intense than the Napalm the military had dropped, the other 8 heavily scorched and slowed dramatically as the muscles and tissue from their legs melted leaving the bones exposed. They were relatively easy to kill at that point, all of the squad converging on them in a single attack that took out all 8 of them as their powers converged into one powerful blast that extinguished the blazing wall of fire.

As soon as it was safe, they heard the door open just as Hanna was notified that both quests had been completed, all of the heart crystals automatically looted from the corpses. She saw that her system even separated the ability crystals from the others, two of them showing they had gained a speed and strength ability that she knew she was going to use herself.

"Thank you, we had no idea what we were going to do. I am Doctor Michael Harrington, head researcher here." he said as he led the others out into the now open floor.

"Hanna Storm from Camp Hope, are there any more here?" she asked looking around.

"No, that is most of the staff. We were in the secured lab doing research when the virus broke out, the zombies in here going after the others on the first floor. We shut the door hoping it would be enough, but we knew it was a matter of time." Harrington told her as she nodded and looked at the door.

"We are going to secure the rest of your equipment before we take you to our Camp. Is there any other floors besides the 2?" Hanna asked him.

"There is a basement with power equipment, backup generators and servers. In order to continue our research, we need all of it." he answered quickly.

"Lucas, take the team and secure the basement. I will secure the equipment here and lead these people to second squad before I join you." she ordered as her men obeyed without question. She turned to Doctor Harrington while the 4 men went through the wall the zombies had busted through, clearing the remaining offices and labs on the second level before they disappeared down the far stairwell. "Give me a few moments to gather the rest of your equipment and we will go meet the second squad before we retrieve the equipment in the basement."

Harrington nodded as he led her into the secure lab, this one on its own generator power that she noticed was powering a containment unit. "That needs to remain powered, if it isn't the resulting loss of our work would set us back weeks." he told her as the generator and containment unit went into her storage.

"It will remain perfectly fine where it is being kept until we return to the Camp. What exactly are you working on?" she asked before all of the other equipment began disappearing as well until the room was completely empty.

"In this lab, the zombie virus. It is a long story, but we have been working on it for years before it combined with the recent Coronavirus and became the monstrosity it is now." he answered. "Others are working on other military research projects, the details of which are on the server in the basement."

Hanna was surprised at that, realizing the last time they must have fallen or died when the zombies broke through their defenses. "Well, I am glad we found you then. If you will follow me we will gather the rest of the equipment from this floor before we take you outside." she said easily.

"Where exactly is all the stuff going?" another researcher asked.

"Are you aware that certain zombies have abilities that aren't natural?" Hanna asked as they walked with her in the lead.

"Yes, it is part of what we were researching." Harrington replied.

"Well, Humans are also developing abilities. One of mine is the ability to store objects in a dimensional space that perfectly preserves whatever is stored inside of it. Everything is going into it and once we find a proper location for your new lab, it will all be setup there so you can continue your work. Do you think you will be able to develop a vaccine or cure?" she asked as she took everything from the first lab as they watched.

"It will take time and resources, but I believe so. The problem will be it has combined with an extremely volatile virus that has increased its lethality exponentially. The original virus took 6 weeks minimum to consume a victim, now as we witnessed ourselves it can do so in minutes." Harrington replied as they walked down the hallway.

2 hours later every one of the trucks was loaded with supplies and 2 dozen survivors, the other squad locating 16 survivors in one of their buildings who had agreed to join them. When they got to the Camp, the squads were the first ones examined before they began with the scientists directly afterward.

Lunch was being served, the newcomers amazed that there were hundreds of people living like the apocalypse outside on their walls was little more than a nuisance.