"Outbreak Day 3: The Risen"

"Outbreak Day 3: The Risen"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr. 

Masses of the living dead were upon them now and no normal human being could survive such an onslaught. Of course they weren't any normal human as far as their expertise went. Most humans have a flight or fight response to danger , a part of this response is to be gripped by so much terror that you flee and live to run another day. These two however were trained to fight that terror from inside of them so that outside they are unburdened  by these emotions.The result was that they could dismantle entire Zombie armies by hand. And club and sword and anything else that they could get their hands on. He was being beset by 5 or more of the creatures and he had no weapon with him. The situation wasn't so new to him at all. They were all grabbing at him from all sides and threatened to rip his armor off. With one swift motion he let anatomy come into play again. He grabbed one arm and pulled it downward. The normal arm would not break but a rotting one would and he was rewarded with a fleshy sounding "Shlunk" as the arm gave way freeing himself and allowing him to grab  one neck and to twist it. He quickly dispatched the other 3 as if they were nothing.By the look of things he just took care of a whole family.He didn't want to dwell on that. He continued his work of setting up trackers all over this cemetery area. There were always protocols to follow and this one was explained that should the causative agent come into contact with already deceased flesh before the outbreak would it give rise to Undead. The answer so far was No but he had to track the progress until Day 7.

It has already been 3 days since the outbreak began in this little town in the middle of nowhere. He assumed that the response team were on their way and would be able to contain the vastly growing number of zombies as was predicted in the Day 3 scenarios. He watched a couple of those survival Horror films that Hollywood was churning up by the dozen nowadays and he just had to laugh at the inaccuracies and feel sad at the lack of training that the soldiers in those movies were given. Most of them were overwhelmed and eaten. A single soldier from the Day Zero Project knew enough to fight his way out of a horde as well as a single one on one scenario with "bruisers" , zombies whose musculature were amplified by the causative agent(there are several after all). 

He watched with disinterest as his wife hacked 3 or 4 Zombies at a time.Most of them looked like school girls in their uniforms. She hated younger girls especially younger zombie girls.Her arms were unwavering despite the onslaught that was in front of her. 

"I can keep this up all morning you know , I wish there was really just more of them. Its getting boring with just these normal types coming around."

She couldnt keep the disappointment in her voice. 

"I just hate these Day Zero to Day 3 types...The mutations always appear on Day 5. Why do they always appear on day 5?" She slashed a zombies head in half and half turned to him expecting an answer. 

As usual she was just focused on the physical aspects of their mission. She was one heck of fighter but not too keen on the progression of the program. He gave a sigh and tried to explain to her for the nth time. Before doing so he threw a carbon bladed knife toward a zombie that came too near for his own comfort. He made a mental note to retrieve that blade. It was fast becoming his favorite as well.

"The mutations come in on Day 5 because thats when the specific hosts are found. Those bodies that are weak die off and the strong ones grow even stronger by adapting to the causative agent. So for the meantime you just have to be content with these slow moving genetic wastepools ok?"

His wife gave another swing with her Jungle Bolo cutting down 3 more in her quiet rampage. This was about the same time that he saw the thing from the corner of his eye. It darted against the group of trees where his wife was and slammed directly into her. With quick strides he went to her. The monster gave a shout and raised an arm...at least it thought it raised an arm...both of them fell to the sides...to be followed by its severed head a few seconds later. He knew that no matter how fast these things become his wife would be faster. He knew the move well , her body acts on instinct and the moment that monster slammed into her she probably had already thrown in 6 strikes at the minumum which would explain the falling off of zombie parts.The poor thing never really had a chance. 

His wife kicked the dead carcass away from her and stood up. She produced a cloth and began to clean the blood and gore from her Jungle Bolo. "Well that was a fast one."

Knowing that she was safe (though he knew she was from experience) he moved to the now twitching corpse. He ran the mini scanner that was provided in his kit and he confirmed what he had suspected the first time he saw this creature. "This is a Day 5 Mutation"

He saw his wife clutch left her side. "Sure felt like a day 5 mutation." He knew that she would be bruised there by now and this would somehow slow her down but that was like slowing down a moving freight train. Not much of a difference really but she still had human tissue to heal and he had to take care of that. He threw her the green pill that was specially made for them.He knew this pill. Part Antibiotic / Part Painkiller / Part stamina booster. Those guys in the lab did care.

"Take that and we better be more cautious from here on in. If they are mutating more rapidly then there might be Day 7 mutations that we would likely won't want to face without the support team."

Fighting off a Day 7 mutation was easy if you had the right tools and he didn't quite see that here in this cemetary.He knew that the order of the day now was to find a defensible shelter and he knew just the place. The Lighthouse on the northern part of the town. In the distance he heard a roar and he was thankful that it was still daylight. He had never faced early mutations before and he had to prepare for the worst. The Lighthouse would give him time. He retrieved his carbon blade that was still embedded to the zombies head he throw at it earlier. 

His wife seemed to have heard the roar from the distance as well and looked at him.Not with fear though but with anticipation. She knew it was a Day 7 mutation that they would be facing. She looked happy knowing this fact. He was wracking his brains to explain the rapid mutations and did not want to comment on her bloodlust again.In silence they trudged their way to the lone place where they could be safe.

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If you want to back track or move forward in the series please click on the links below.Thank you.

http://flightofideasver2.blogspot.com/2013/02/outbreak-day-zero.html - The First One...
For Part 1
http://flightofideasver2.blogspot.com/2013/04/outbreak-day-7-adam-and-eve-part-1.html
For Part 2
http://flightofideasver2.blogspot.com/2013/06/outbreak-day-7-adam-and-eve-part-2.html
For Part 3
http://flightofideasver2.blogspot.com/2013/06/outbreak-day-7-adam-and-eve-part-3.html