What begun as a rumor, and was initially dismissed after making rounds on social media turned out to be terrifyingly real. A vaccine intended to protect the world from a flu-like virus which had slain two hundred thousand Americans turned out to be the worst thing ever invented. Any person who died after being injected with the vaccine rose again as a flesh-eating monster, and anyone they bit was similarly affected. This is how the modern world dies...
The United States of America's first biracial female president instituted martial law, and the armed forces were brought into America's cities to stem the tide of chaos. Soldiers and police officers didn't fare much better against the living dead than their civilian counterparts did. There is a big difference between fighting human beings and fighting zombies. The zombies are ravenous, mindless, and know no fear, only hunger. Mankind is doomed.
"Boston is falling to the Zombies," said Captain Mitchell Whyte of the Massachusetts National Guard. The tall, dark-skinned, heavily muscled officer looked at the men and women gathered in the command center, his face grim. Around the world, mankind was fighting a war against the living dead, and the living dead were winning. Every human injured or slain by a zombie reanimated as one of the living dead, and thus, their numbers could only rise...
"Fuck that, Sir, this is our city," replied corporal Nikita Abramov, and the pimple-faced, chubby redhead, originally from Russia, glared angrily at her Captain. Captain Whyte held the corporal's gaze and the young woman shook her head sadly, blinking back tears. Around the command center, everyone looked sad, and downright demoralized. All except one, a mysteriously quiet young man.
"We should leave before it's too late," said Jarrod Mendes, one of the new recruits, a tall and brawny young Cape Verdean man originally from Brockton. Everyone turned to look at Jarrod, and the young man shrugged his massive shoulders. Can't blame me for saying what we're all thinking, Jarrod thought, standing his ground. The living dead were eating their way through cities around the world. They weren't about to be stopped by the Massachusetts National Guard.
"That's defeatism, young man, I won't tolerate this kind of talk," Captain Whyte bellowed, and Jarrod fell silent. The weekend warriors gathered in the command center were ordinary men and women, schoolteachers, grocery store clerks, construction workers, people who served their country basically one weekend a month, as part of the U.S. Army National Guard. They weren't special forces. They were definitely not ready for what they were facing.
"New York City has gone dark," said a petite, short-haired young servicewoman named Lena Yamamoto. She held her cell phone, and regaled everyone in the command center with the image of Times Square swarming with the living dead. In spite of his innate toughness, Captain Whyte repressed a shudder, and corporal Nikita Abramov looked away. Jarrod stood stock-still, almost statue-like.
Jarrod appeared perfectly calm, but he was storming inside. Born in the environs of Brockton, Massachusetts, to a Cape Verdean immigrant family, Jarrod is the son of two very different worlds. He attends Massasoit Community College where he studies criminal justice, and hoped to become a police officer someday, well, until the Zombie apocalypse came along and fucked everything up.
Jarrod's family, consisting of his father Jacinto, his mother Amelia and his older sister Ramona had already fled New England, heading for the remote wilderness of the Appalachian Trail, reachable through the state of Maine. Jarrod was the rebellious one who opted to stay behind because he would not abandon his friends, his job, and the life which he was still building. He wasn't feeling great about his decision right about now, that's for damn sure.
"Jarrod, my son, the humans are finished, we must go," said his father Jacinto, his eyes aglow with the unnatural light that separated their kind from ordinary mortals. Since ancient times, a secretive species known as the Bultungin has roamed the world. They look like people most of the time, but sometimes, they go about in their true form. They resemble anthropomorphic hyenas, for the most part. Shape-shifting is but one of many abilities which separate the Bultungin from humans...
