[M] Outbreak Genesis IC

[ColtenBarg]

After the station went up, they had a slight break where there weren't many walkers. Someone took out the half-torched behemoth shortly after, and they could breathe for a second. A second was no joke. Just as Neeko knew would happen as a result, a much larger horde was very close. He looked over to see an EMT administering aid to a man with a rather large piece of metal in his leg, but could see he had it under control. "We gotta move!" Yelled Neeko, trying to make sure everyone could hear. They had to get out of there.

Retreating slowly and trying his best to cover the others, he dropped multiple walkers and a couple of the hunters. Once he and the last few others were ready to bug to the back lot, Neeko popped a few shots at the behemoth to get its attention. Maybe that thing will rush me and cause enough damage to this building front to give us some breathing room. The shots did their job, and it came rushing him at full speed. Making sure to be standing in front of one of the support beams for the awning, he waited for the last second to jump out of the way. The zombie ran straight through it, but this wasn't over yet. There was still one more beam. Same plan. If I did it once, surely I can do it again. Neeko turned and let loose 2 mags to thin out what walkers had closed in on his location, then turned back to put more fire on the behemoth. With it turning back towards him, he got ready to make his move. Once the brute got close to the pillar, he made his dash to beat the falling awning. Luck is certainly on my side today. Can't believe I just chanced my life for these people. He thought as he shook his head at himself. The awning fell at an almost 45-degree angle, blocking much of the front of the building off from the horde. They could still get in from the sides, unfortunately, but it would certainly slow them down.

The awning would not buy them much time at all, so now was their chance to get the hell out of Dodge. Or in this case Denver. The heli was the better move to survive the night, so he ran full speed and hopped in, ready to lay down more fire on any walkers that manage to make it through to the group.

[Dnafein]

At the start of the attack Ash quickly retrieved his drone from the boy he sent to grab her. She still had about 25% left on her battery and that was more than enough for an emergency flight. Ash tossed the keys for his ride to the boy’s father Ash then ducked into one of the upper floor offices and sent Tinkerbell out the window.

The drone quickly zipped into the air. The pilot flicked through the different belly cameras for the best views. His eyes skimmed the screen locating the pattern of the incoming horde. Spotting the weakest section Ash called down to those loading up in the vehicles. He added instructions that once outside of town to head south. “Follow the signs to Peterson.” He shouted, bringing the drone back inside, and storing it carefully.

Ash then grabbed the phone on the desk, hearing the tone he sighed. Landlines were spotty in an emf, lacking the need for an external power supply.Flipping open a pocket notebook the former analyst dialed the first number. It rang twice and then went dead. He repeated the process three more times, each time the phone rang twice and then went dead.

On the other end of each of the dialed numbers was a phone wired into a detonator. Each of the detonators were wired to c4 Ash had salvaged on his trip from DC. Two of the four numbers were propane companies, one was a gas station, the final was to a maintenance line for a gas company. Each one blew up spectacularly, sending a fireball skyward. Each one was also blocks away and in every direction except the one Ash sent the escapees.

After he made the calls Ash made his way to the nearest helicopter pulling himself into it carefully. He grabbed a headset and upon donning it stated. “Passed along directions towards the weakest section of the incoming. Also aimed them towards Peterson, seemed an obvious regroup point. Should still get there first to work on clearing it up some though.”

[Fox Xalian]

As the helicopter and the vehicles of the main survivors were loaded up and left, the other survivors went the opposite way, towards Peterson Air Force Base. Miles watched from his helicopter as most of the precinct survivors got over run, but not by zombies. A militant group, armed with equipment better then what was at most military checkpoints, almost like they had cracked open a military installation. They had what looked like a national flag flying from one of their MRAPs, it looked vaguely American but had major changes, namely the colours, red, white and black instead of red, white and blue and had an gold Imperial Eagle on it instead of the stars usually found on the flag. Miles would radio this to the ground team, as well as him seeing the survivors that went towards Peterson being captured, or killed in some cases. This militia would spot the helo, Reggie's van and Zeke's vehicle and start opening fire. "Get out of here now!" Salem shouted over the radio.

A few weeks later, close to Halloween

The main group, after their run in with the strange militia, made it up north to Pine Bluffs, Wyoming. They had managed to clear an area around the community center, with the help of another survivor group, who was mostly made up of students from the high school and elementary school, their teachers and some of their families.

Inside a room in the community center the main group sat, like before in a meeting. "Our communications people have heard two distress calls, one from a camp near an amusement park and one from...we're not entirely sure actually they wouldn't say and we're having a hard time triangulating it" Maisie reported. She had been made the second-in-command of Alpha, or A-Team under Grimm, the ground team of their group. The rest of A-Team consisted of Reggie, Zeke, Ash, Kodis and Bryce. "That nearby gas station has increased our operational range so either one would be good" Miles, the lead of Bravo, or B-Team stated. His team consisted of Becky as his co-pilot in the chopper, Andi, Rayne, Biscuit and Neeko. "We've also been very lucky not to run into that militant group again, and from reports from people who have run into them, anyone they capture can be effectively written off so that group from Denver wont be saveable" Maisie added. "So...amusement park or get ready for the trip to the unknown signal?" Miles asked. "It'll take us a couple of days for that one, we'd be heading out on Halloween if we did" Maisie added.

[Highland Sniper]

"Uh, if I may?" He started, "We know the one group is at the amusement park, so we can look for them and see if the mystery signal is close by. If not, then we know. But the mystery signal could also be another gang that just wants to tear our throats out." He shrugged, "Either way, we're gonna walk into trouble everywhere."

He took a sip of some cream soda he managed to snag at the said nearby gas station. Wasn't all that cold, but it was nice all the same. He put the cap back on it and put it in one of his big pockets.

[ColtenBarg]

What a few weeks it has been. And still no closer to finding out the truth behind this outbreak. Thought Neeko as he sat on a bench outside. He had been with these people for almost a month now and still knew nothing more about them than their names. Perhaps that was for the best though in a world like this. Anyone of them could die at any moment, himself included. On the bright side, the gas station they had secured had loads of Copenhagen. Maybe throat cancer will be what gets me after all. He thought to himself with a little chuckle as he put in another pinch.

He heard some voices inside the community center and decided to go see what was going on. It was a good thing he did since he walked in on what looked to be a meeting. Miles and Maise were laying out the basics on what to do next. So, an amusement park or some unknown location. I was never much for rollercoasters. He thought. "My vote is for the unknown signal. Whatever it is, it has a higher chance of giving us some answers than Six Flags." He said to the group. This could finally be the chance he had been waiting for. It had also been too long since he had seen any action worth his time. Hopefully, they would make a move rather quickly and he could fulfill his contract.

[SikstaSlathalin]

While the Techies, hanger-ons, and Soldiery types talk go plans and raiding amusement parks in one of the lower levels Zeke was engaged in matters of the utmost important. Moonshine, the fuel of the South, and with the help of Miss. Science teacher Andi DuPre parts of each still were being used to make antiseptic, explosives, and maybe even some talks of fuel.

There wasn't much yield at this point, but Zeke had plans for more and maybe even come up with a mobile still to keep in the back of his jeep. But for now he was just working on some sipping juice to tide him over until he can find some beer of his liking. He was sure any plans the smarties made would find their way to him so he'd just keep doing this until then.

[Alura]

Reggie sat with an almost untouched beer next to his work boot, hands busy toying with a busted radio he had found in one of the rooms of the community center. He'd spent a fair bit of his time repairing the blessedly minor damage to his repair van and assisting others with their vehicles also. After taking inventory of his own situation, he also began doing basic maintenance around the place. He had some ideas for defenses after quietly shuffling around with the group that had initially inspected the center after it was cleared. There were some decent raw materials, from the wooden pallets lying outside the kitchen doors to the fire axes encased near some of the emergency exits. Thank God for fire code. The crumpled paper in his breast pocket kept a tally of anything useful he'd seen.

His head stayed bowed over his work as he listened to the others, and he scratched the back of his neck idly.

"Park might have food, nurse station with supplies." He offered, looking up to Maisie. "Unknown might be in more immediate danger. I vote for the unknown signal also. Let's help them out and then see if we can recover supplies from the park while helping out later?"

*******

Scratching the inside of her wrist and her palm, Becky slumped into the back of the room late with a hand-rolled smoke between her lips. She leaned against the back wall, heavy-lidded eyes focused intently on the process of cleaning soil from under her nails. Some of the survivors had found seeds and basic gardening supplies used to keep the community gardens going. As soon as she had heard about it she had made a beeline to get involved, helping revive those that had begun to wilt and expanding it. She'd even planted a couple of seeds for ornamental potted plants for herself and had them sunning in a window in what had appeared to be some sort of pottery studio.

If she was being honest, she really didn't see the point of wasting time or resources investigating either of the beacons. It seemed unlikely anyone they found would know more than they did about what was happening. More people meant more drain on resources, but... It also meant more hands to build up wherever they found themselves, more hands to fight.

Shrugging her shoulders noncommittally to express her disinterest in voting at all, her wandering attention zeroed in on trying to form the perfect smoke ring.