User:Reed Barnes

[edit] Chapter 1: The Shuffler

It was early. 1:16 am to be precise. Reed Barnes, a physics professor working at Twilight University, sat in his office flipping through one of dozens of notebooks sprawled across his desk. The only light in the room was coming from his laptop computer screen. How he saw what was on the pages was beyond anyone he ever worked with. There was an intense expression on his face. He quickly stood up, walked towards the window and looked outside.

“Sure is a windy night,” he said. He talked to himself often. He picked up the wooden baseball bat leaning up against the wall. “Sure would be a fun night to play a game.” He laughed at his pathetic attempt at humor. Reed had played minor league ball before he decided he wanted to become a scientist. He still worked out with a local team. He coached high school ball the past few years, and was still in his prime. His lab coat and nerdy behavior hid his athleticism well. “I’ve got it!” He dropped the bat as he jumped over his desk and back into his chair.

3:22 am, still hard at work

“Where was that solution, damn it? I need to find that book,” he muttered as he flipped through the pages. He liked to talk to himself. “I may have just proven that….” He trailed off as he heard a door shut. Nobody else on his floor normally worked at this hour. The weather was too bad for any of the astronomers to be in. He heard another door open and slowly shut. It was closer this time. A few seconds later another office door opened and closed. Next he heard the shuffling of feet outside of his door. Slowly, Reed closed his computer; it was now completely dark in the office. The door across the hallway opened as Reed hid underneath his desk. He was sitting next to the bat that had rolled under his desk when he dropped it. Grasping it, he waited. The door creaked open. A putrid smell filled office. Reed struggled not to cough. The desk faced the door, so he couldn't get a glimpse of who it was. The door shut. Creeping towards the door, Reed listened to the shuffling outside for the longest five minutes of his life. Eventually nothing could be heard.

"What was that?" Reed asked himself. "I don't know, but I'll call it the shuffler!" Yes, he answered himself a lot too. He laughed as he tried to calm himself. "Ok, Reed. Let's call it a night. I should get home anyways. I know she's tired of my late nights here. I just work my best at night, she knows that." As Reed collected his things, he heard a door slam open. The shuffling of feet was back. However, this time it was much faster. As the shuffling passed his door, he could hear strange sounds coming from the shuffler as it scurried by. Suddenly, there was a great moan and then a thud. Working up all of his courage, Reed peeked through the blinds covering the window and looked into the hallway. The body of the shuffler was lying there, blood pouring from its neck. Then there was a scratching at his door. From just outside the door he heard two voices chanting in unison repeating the words, “human blood.”

A third voice spoke, “We can smell your fear, human.” It was a female voice, soft and seductive. The chanting stopped. “If you come out willingly, we will make your turning quick and painless.”

“I hope this fool stays inside so we can torture him first,” the smaller underling whispered to his larger companion.

“I want to tear his heart out and drink from it while he’s still alive! I'm tired of this undead crap we've been eating!” cried the gigantic beast as he kicked the shuffler's corpse. He then sat on the floor, pouting.

Reed, shaking from fear, slowly backed away from the door and closed his eyes. As the doorknob turned, he heard a crash as the whole building shook. Gunshots could be heard from all directions. After what seemed like an eternity, silence engulfed the office. Still, Reed would not move. He finally opened his eyes. It was still dark outside. He decided to wait for daylight before heading for his truck, and home. He opened his laptop to see that the battery had died even though it was plugged in. Power was out. He grabbed the cellphone in his pocket. No missed calls.

“Is she that pissed at me? She doesn’t even care that I didn’t come home last night?” Did I mention that he really liked talking to himself. He checked the time on the phone. “3:41pm? Why is it still dark outside? Hell if I know, Reed. I better get home before she kills me.” Clutching his baseball bat, he opened the door to see numerous corpses lying around the hallways. Many of them were dressed in urban camouflage. Taking one last deep breath, he bolted for the door.

[edit] Chapter 2: The Killing Stroke

5:15 pm

Reed stands in the middle of a dark room, staring into the nothingness. He hasn’t moved in over 5 minutes, and still clutches the bat that he used to end it. It is stained with drying blood, the blood of his first kill.

1 hour earlier, 4:15 pm

“I just want to get home!” Reed yelled at the sergeant standing in front of him. “Look, the phones aren’t working, the gas stations are empty, and now the military has quarantined parts of the city! What the fuck is going on here?”

“Sir, I need you to calm down. There has been an outbreak of an unknown disease inside of the quarantined area. I cannot let you pass this gate.” The camouflage wearing buffoon said.

“What the fuck do you mean an outbreak? An outbreak of what? Just let me in, I don’t care about catching the disease.”

“Sir, we aren’t sure what the exact disease is at this point.” The man looked away, turning a bit red. He was clearly lying. “I just cannot let you pass this gate.”

A military jeep quickly pulled up to the gate. A man dressed in the uniform of a Lieutenant Colonel got out, and walked to the Lieutenant that had been in charge of this gate. There was a brief conversation, and then the Colonel was on his way. The Lieutenant was obviously upset.

“Hey Mike, I’ve gotta talk to you for a second.” The Lieutenant called to the man Reed had been talking to. Mike walked over and another brief conversation was had. Both men looked very upset.

“Fuck me, Jim. What the fuck do you mean we have to stay here?” The news was obviously not good. The Lieutenant, apparently named Jim, trudged over to the gate and climbed upon an upside down trash can.

“Listen up, everybody.” The man said. He was obviously shaken by his orders. A group of about 40 men gathered around. “I’ve got bad news. The University was overrun last night. Somehow they got past our perimeter during the night. They have pulled back beyond the University, and are setting up a permanent line of defense. However, we have been ordered to stay within the confinement area due to a possible infection. We are trapped here men. We better make our way to Fort Howard, and begin planning a defense with the Army National Guard.”

The gate was opened and the men began marching in the direction of Fort Howard. Reed made his way through the gate and began running towards his home in Dove Hills.

“The University was overrun? Overrun by what?” He was talking to himself again. “They have to mean those…things that wanted to kill me last night. What the hell is going on here? I just have to get home and see her. God, I hope she’s ok.”

5:04 pm

Reed had finally reached his house. He was gasping for breath as he ran through the front door. The power was still out, and the sun had never come up. He couldn’t see a thing.

“Denny, I’m home! Are you here?” Reed called as he ran down the hallway. “Denny, please answer me.” He heard nothing. He ran into the kitchen and began feeling around for the flashlight that was kept in one of the drawers.

“Damn it, where is the flashlight. I knew I should keep it in the same place every time. Ah, here it is.” He grabbed the flashlight and turned it on. “At least the batteries still work.”

He ran to the garage door, and opened it. Denny’s Tahoe was still inside, but where was she? Reed, totally out of breath now, stopped in the kitchen to calm down. He held back the urge to scream. As his breaths slowed, he began to hear someone else’s. They were slow and ragged. The flashlight went out, and Reed set it on the table.

“Denny, is that you? Please tell me it’s you.” Reed whispered to the darkness. No response. His voice grew louder this time. “Is that you, Denny?”

The breathing came closer as he heard shuffling of feet.

“Not one of you shufflers!” Reed screamed. He pulled the bat out of his bag, gripping it in both hands. “Stay back! Don’t come any closer!”

The shuffling stopped. The shuffler moaned as it tried to form what sounded like words. Finally, Reed thought he could understand what was said.

“Rrrreeeeeed,” the shuffler struggled to force the word out.

“Who are you? How do you know my name? What are you?” Reed had too many questions, he only confused the shuffler.

“Noooo, Rrrreeeeed. Mmmmyy….mmmyyy Rrrreeeeeed.” Reed was horrified. It couldn’t be.

“Denny, is that you?”

“Mmmmmeee.”

“What, what’s happened?” Reed’s eyes were welling up with tears as he dropped the bat.

“Aaannswerrrs in mmmmyy offffiiicccce.”

The flashlight fell off of the table and crashed to the floor. The jolt caused it to turn back on. Reed picked it up and pointed it towards Denny. He could see grey, mangled flesh. He slowly approached Denny, and looked into her eyes. Her eyes were grey, and hollow, but he could see the love still in them. Reed could see that she was suffering. He slowly put his arms around her, and gave her a hug. She did not return it.

“Kiiillll meeee.” She said. Reed pulled away from her.

“What?” Reed was horrified.

“Pllleeaaasse. Killlll meeee.”

“No!” Reed refused. “I can’t kill you. I love you!”

“Pllleaaasse.” Reed could see that she was suffering a great deal. He came in to give her another hug, but as he did her claws raised to strike at him.

“Caannttt connnnntroooollll.”

Reed, sobbing uncontrollably, picked up his baseball bat.

“I’m sorry.” Reed cried as he swung and Denny fell to the floor. Reed beat Denny again and again until he was sure she was dead. The flashlight died out again. He stood there with blood and tears streaming down his face. He couldn’t believe what he had just done.

[edit] Chapter 3: Enter Lazarix

A loud clang echoed behind the house as a shovel hit the ground. A small rock could be seen at the top of an oblong dirt mound in the grass covering his back yard. The rock read, "Denny Manning".

"I figured you would want to be buried here with your kitty, Bails." Reed spoke to the pile of dirt. He slowly walked inside of the house and sat at the kitchen table, putting his head in his hands. After a minute or so, he walked down the hallway into the first door on the left. He took a long, cold shower. His face turning cold as steel.

"I have to find out what the hell is going on here." He grumbled to himself as he stepped out of the shower. He conversed with himself as he put on a tight, black long-sleeved under armour shirt, black tights, black cutoff-sleeved shirt, black athletic shorts, black knee-high athletic socks, black shoes, and his black backpack. "She said something about her office. Go to her office, or something like that. That means I have to go back to the University. Those military guys said the University had been overrun by those, things. Maybe I should arm myself." Reed walked to the kitchen again. He looked to the floor to see his baseball bat, and then shook his head. He made his way to the garage and pulled down the spring-hinged door that led to the attic.

"It's a good thing I keep...." Reed stopped and shook his head some more. "Dammit! I lent my shotgun to Rick for dove season, and he never gave it back. My rifle is at the lodge, and my pistols are stored at the range! What a dumb ass. When I really need these things I don't have them." He lifted the door back into place and let out a sigh. He looked at the ground below the pool table, there it was. A bright orange chainsaw. Naturally, it was out of gas. Despondent, he returned to the kitchen and stared at his bat. Inside of the backpack he put three bottles of water, an empty notebook, two pens, one pencil, and a flashlight with two sets of extra batteries. He arranged these in a fashion to cause as little noise as possible while running at a decent pace. He closed his eyes as he picked up the bat, and strapped it to his backpack. He looked around at his house one last time before leaving.

"I'll hope to see this place soon," he whispered as he closed the front door and began running to the University. It was still dark. It was as if the sun was eternally just below the horizon. Not quite high enough to cast a sunset, but just low enough to leave the feeling of impending doom as night enveloped the day, as darkness cloaked the light. The roads were eerily quiet as Reed traveled. Every so often he could hear the faint sound of an engine, but it was never close enough to be sure. Eventually, he made it to the outer buildings of the University. Reed's paced slowed significantly, and he found a tree he could climb and sit in as he caught his breath. He pulled one of the water bottles out of the bag and began to drink from it. An owl was sitting only a few branches away, searching for a meal. Though he didn't know why, the owl's presence comforted Reed. Growing up on a farm, there were often owls around hunting field mice. The owl spotted it's prey and left the tree. Reed watched as it gracefully snatched it's meal from the ground and flew into another tree where it feasted. It was time to leave the tree for Reed as well. As he came to the right building, the door was wide open, so he discretely slipped inside.

"Third floor, hang a left, 5th door on the left," Reed reminded himself. He dashed across the hallway to the stairs. He showed his nimble feet as he ran up the stairs, barely making a sound. He slowed as he reached the third floor and heard chewing sounds. He crept to end of the hallway, and came to a junction where he could go either left or right. The sounds ceased. He peeked around the corner and saw nothing down the hallway leading to the right. As he did so, he heard the sound again coming from the other end of the hall behind him. He quickly ducked back to remain hidden. He turned and peeked around again. He saw a shadowy figure at the far end of the hallway hunched over what appeared to be a body. It was gorging itself on the innards of a well dressed man.

"Great, how the fuck am I supposed to get in there now?" He muttered to himself without making a sound. The office was halfway down the hall, and Reed desperately needed to get in there. He dug up all of his courage and slowly slid down the hall. Meanwhile, the feast continued, without any notion of Reed's presence being known. As Reed neared the office door, the feast stopped. Reed could feel the eyes of this thing peering through him, and his breathing slowed. A few seconds passed. It let out an evil cackle that resounded through the building, and the feast resumed. It was as if the figure didn't care about Reed's presence at all. He was not a threat, and it could continue to devour it's meal in peace. Reed entered the office and shut the quietly shut the door.

"What the fuck was that?" Reed said as he calmed himself. "Focus on the task at hand. Ok, now. What the hell am I looking for?" Reed began searching the drawers of Denny's desk. He saw a paper lying in her fax machine. He noticed the word "Lazarix" in the letterhead. "Lazarix? Denny never mentioned anything about Lazarix before. Maybe this is what she meant." Reed continued to search the desk for anything else with Lazarix on it. He found a thick, unmarked vanilla envelope with about a one hundred page document in it. He pulled it out, and the front page was clearly marked Lazarix. He turned to the table of contents and noticed a section dedicated to genetic mutations and another to a "sub-race". Reed was confused because Denny never mentioned anything about genetic experiments. This had to be what Denny wanted him to find. A thorough search of the office led to nothing else involving Lazarix. He placed the document into his backpack and pulled the second water bottle out of the bag. He opened it and drank it's contents before braving the hallway once again. He looked to his left to see a corpse, the feast was over, but there was no sign of the shadowy figure.

Reed ran for the hallway and down the stairs. When he made it to outside of the building, he was relieved and stopped to assess his surroundings. Suddenly he heard the engine sound again. He couldn't tell where it was coming from. It was muffled by large building behind him. It came closer, and to his right a jeep drove around the corner and came in his direction.

"Freeze! Put your hands up!" yelled one of the two men in the jeep. The jeep stopped and both men jumped out and ran toward Reed pointing their assault rifles at him. He put his hands up.

"What have I done?" Reed inquired. But before he received an answer the butt end of a rifle landed straight between his eyes, knocking him unconscious.

[edit] Chapter 4: The Guardsmen

Some time later

“Shit! I don’t know if we’ll make it.” The voice came from the darkness. Reed slowly sat up and groaned.

“We should be able to make it back. It’ll be our last trip in luxury though.” The second voice could be heard over the rumbling of an engine. He turned to face Reed. “Hey, looks like you’re still alive. That’s a good thing since our superiors have some questions for you. What’s your name?”

“Speak up!” The first man said as he slapped Reed’s face with the back of his hand. He was obviously upset about something. Reed tried to bring his hand up to rub his cheek, but realized his hands were tied behind his back. He tugged at them only to realize he was also tied to something else. “I said speak up!” The man punched Reed’s face. Unable to catch himself with his hands, Reed fell over a rail to see quickly moving pavement. The tether caught him before he lost his face.

“Watch the road! You almost lost the prisoner.” Apparently the abusive one was driving. The passenger pulled Reed back into the vehicle. Reed looked around to find himself in a military jeep. The two men were wearing fatigues and looking pretty haggard. “Your name, what is it?”

“It’s Reed.” Reed muttered. “What the hell is going on here?”

“Exactly what you said, hell. That’s what’s going on here.” The man had a rather cheerful face for what he was saying.

“I mean why the hell did you hit me and tie me up? And where the hell are we going?”

“I didn’t hit you, he did.” He said as he motioned at the driver.

“Figures.”

“Stop talking to the bastard and keep a look out!” The driver said, still agitated.

“Don’t mind him; he’s just worried that we won’t make it back.” The passenger said.

“Who are you guys? And where exactly is ‘back’?” Reed asked angrily. He was finally conscious enough to realize the extent of the situation he was in. Suddenly a burst of static came over the radio. As it cleared up a voice could be heard.

“Steveoreeno, 2D, you guys out there?” The voice came over the radio. The passenger grabbed the radio and spoke into it.

“2D here.”

“2D, are you and Steve headed back yet?”

“We’re on our way. Found a guy sneaking around the University. We’re bringing him back for questioning.”

“Good, Mike wants to know what’s going on in that part of town. Get back as soon as possible, there’s been a break in but we took care of it. Just hurry your asses back here. The zed activity is really high out there right now.”

“Will do. 2D out.” 2D put the radio back down. He looked a bit worried, but the cheerful face quickly returned.

“High zed activity? Great, we’re gonna be out of gas in the middle of a swarm.” The abusive driver, Steveoreeno, said.

“Don’t worry, Steve. We’ll make it.” 2D assured him.

“Zed activity? What the fuck are you two talking about? What the fuck is a zed?” Reed questioned.

“A zed, a zombie, an undead, brain-eating sack of shit. Haven’t you seen the movies?” Steve said as he turned back to 2D. “I knew there was a reason they had us training for a zombie apocalypse. It wasn’t just for shits and giggles.”

Reed was in shock, he was thinking back to the night in his office.

“So that’s what that thing was,” Reed mumbled to himself. “It was a zombie. Those other things couldn’t be zombies, they could speak just fine. And Denny, was she a…, she was a zombie?”

“Earth to Reed. Are you there? Can you hear me? I think he’s gone bye bye, Steve.” It was 2D, about an inch from Reed’s face. Reed snapped back into reality.

“So, there is a zombie apocalypse happening? And you two are in the military trying to stop it? Then why are you taking me as a prisoner?” Reed inquired.

“Well, it’s like…” 2D began until Steve interrupted.

“Because the leader of the Army National Guard wants to know what is going on at the university. He was there when it was attacked in force, and he thinks the zeds are looking for something there. We were ordered to find any humans there to find out what is there.” Steve was calming down now. He had the look of a soldier preparing for a fight. Reed began to worry.

“There’s the Steve I know. He’s normally not such a bad guy Reed.” 2D alleged. He was oblivious to the reason for Steve’s change in tone. The fuel gauge was down below empty, yet he didn’t seem to have a care in the world. Even when the inevitable happened, the engine stopped.

“Fuck!” Steve screamed as he grabbed his rifle and got out of the Jeep.

“Shut up, dude!” Reed yelled under his breath. “You want them to hear you?”

2D hopped out of the Jeep as well, and began to untie Reed. He was loose from the Jeep, but his hands were still tied.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Steve asked 2D. “Tie him to yourself so he can’t…” Steve trailed off as he motioned behind 2D and Reed. They both turned around to see about a dozen zombies trudging towards them. They quickly began walking in the opposite direction. Reed thought about running away, but without the use of his hands he wouldn’t get far. His only chance was to stick with the two guardsmen. Less than 100 feet from the Jeep they ran into another group of zombies in the darkness. They turned back to see themselves surrounded.

“Let’s shoot our way out!” Steve yelled. 2D quickly obliged by opening fire on the group of undead. Steve also began attacking the zombies. They each took down a zombie, and began to push their way forward. 2D was running around like a crazy man cackling loudly as he emptied clip after clip into the horde. Reed stuck near Steve, as he didn’t have the energy to keep up with 2D. A couple more minutes of intense fighting led them nowhere. For every zombie they shot down, two more emerged from night. They had been pushed back to the Jeep. The two groups of zombies had merged and had the men surrounded.

“I’m almost out of ammo, 2D. How about you?” Steve said as 2D dropped his rifle and pulled out a machete.

“I’m just great Steveo, time to get up close and personal!”

Reed was searching the Jeep, and found his bag with all of Denny’s notes still in them along with his baseball bat. He looked up to see a zombie grab Steve from behind. The foul beast’s jaws were closing down on Steve’s shoulder. Without hesitation Reed dove at the zombie and hit its leg. It lost its grasp on Steve and he turned and shot the zombie in the head.

“Guys, come on!” 2D exclaimed as he pulled his machete from the skull of one of the zeds. 2D had created an opening in the horde. The three men sprinted through the hole. After a couple hours of running, they came to a large wall.

“We’ve made it. Fort Howard here we come!” 2D shouted.

“Wait.” Steve said. He turned towards Reed, and grabbed his arms. He pulled out his knife and cut Reed’s hands free.

“Why are you…”

“Go.” Steve cut Reed off. “You saved my life, now go before I change my mind.”

“Steve, we can’t let him go. Mike wants answers!” 2D said. Steve turned to 2D.

“You know what Mike will do to him. We’d never see this guy again if we turned him over. Besides, I owe him one.” Steve turned back to Reed. “What are you still doing here? Go!”

“Thank you.” Reed said, backing away from the guardsman. “I’m searching for answers myself. I’ve been thinking, and I don’t think zombies are the only monsters out there.”

“What else is there?” 2D asked.

“I’m not sure, but I hope to find out. They may be more of a threat than zombies could ever be.” Reed explained.

“Look, when you find your answers come back to Fort Howard. We’re planning on protecting this place, and making it a human stronghold in this hell hole. We could use all the help we can get. Good luck.” Steve said.

“Thanks, good luck to you. Stay alive you two.” Reed headed into the twilight, armed with a little more knowledge of what was going on and some new friends to see when his mission is complete.

More to come...

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