Journal:Corgano/The Nomads of Dakerstown
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This story is part of the Malton Chronicles. This story is fan-made, and is not officially part of any background history for Urban Dead. |
Dakerstown, North-West Malton, South East quadrent.
"We've got Zeds! Moving north towards the Pask Building! Everybody clear out!"
The sound of doors closing and makeshift barricades being thrown up filled the streets. Weapons were cocked or loaded. A ragtag group of defenders makes its stand in front of the derelict Necrotech Facility, so far the only place in the area they've been able to find the Revivification Syringes, and the only place where Zombies with brain rot could be revived, though their specialist had disapeared.
Three of the faster zombies charged up the street with something of a stride. Some of the defenders, armed with makeshift clubs, lengths of pipe or baseball bats broke ranks. Five others, armed with a pair of pistols, a fire axe and a shotgun with four shells left in it said their prayers and went into battle. "Charlie, Flank them! Head the stragelers off!" The man with the fire axe obliged, running down the side of the road past the zombies and hacking at them when they came close. "Jensen! I need you to pick off the ones that aren't injured." The aparent leader, carrying the shotgun and a fire axe on his back shouted his orders. "Steady..." the zombies were 20 metres down the street. "Logan! Steady!" 14 metres "Steady..." 10 metres and closing fast. "Wait for it... wait for it.." 6 Metres "NOW!" Two of those who had fled ran out in front of the zombies at the rear of the pack and began trying to stave their skulls in with crowbars and the aforementioned lengths of pipe. The zombies at the front of the pack moving a good 5 metres ahead of their horde charged Logan and the leader. Logan raised his pistol and put a shot into one of the zombies' arms. A zombie, a bit larger than the rest broke from the trio approaching and moved dead set at the leader of this pocket of human resistance. It closed rapidly and tried to strike. "BANG!" Zombie flesh and brains spattered backwards for a ways, their erstwhile owner now had a large gaping hole in his head, and went limp before dropping to the ground. "Not today zed!" The leader held up the barrel of the still smoking shotgun to the sky and yelled "Dakerstown! Strike!" From the buildings nearby, a few dozen survivors, armed with makeshift weapons such as flare guns and crowbars charged. The remaining mob of zombies was anihilated. "Alright, shows over folks. Check them for anything that might be useful. Jensen, Logan, Charlie! We need to check the barricades around the south, there might be isolated groups of them left up there. I know there were some people still holed up in Garson Towers in Roywood. I need you three to head in. Don't take any unnecessary risks. If you can, search necrotech buildings in there, we're running low on syringes and the hostpitals if you can. I think some of us might have gotten infected." The leader gestured at a few people with bite marks or deep claw wounds. "Aye, aye captian Corgano." Jensen, somewhat covered with splatter left from the nasty explosion of the horde leader's head gave a mock salute.
"Sir! theres at least 12 rotters in amongst them, i'd say a good two thirds or more of them are rotters!" One of the men, clothed in a patched army uniform was checking them with a DNA Extractor. "You three have half an hour. Make sure that watch is still working!" Corgano shouted to the trio dissapearing down the lane. "Everyone else, I want us back at the Precinct now!"
About an hour later, Palpry Police Department.
"Gentlemen, and lady, the final figure of rotters among those zombies that attacled is tpday is: Out of 23 zombies 17 of them had brain rot, and two others were unidentifiable. Ever since the government initiated a biological weapon strike on Fort Creedy, these attacks by zombies have become much more precise, much more accurate, and increasingly intelligent. Last week we saw the zombies 27 of which were identified for sure as zombies with brain rot, and two others who were identfied as a new strain of zombie. They were much stronger than the others, much faster, even than those we saw today, and much more resiient to gunfire or axeblades. We are looking at a new enemy. They are intelligent. We are going to need to adapt, and as such, I am going to put this to a vote." Here Corgano paused a momment, letting this informaiton sink in before continuing. "Dakerstown is isolated. Our best chance is to first of all, find a safer suburb, the second is to find a suburb with a high concentration of Necrotech facilities. We are going to have to become as fluid as water, as insubstatial as air and as hard as steel if we want to survive. Now-"
"With all due respect Captain Corgano, Dakerstown is much easier to defend. Due to its proximity to the danger strip it is unwise to try an travel through the area except by long and tedious routes, which will lead to the inevitable destruction of this group. We are as safe as humanly possible at present time."
"Councilmember Takahashi, we are as vulnerable here as anywhere else. Even with the threat of zombie spies eliminated by the disolution or destruction of most of the organized zombie hordes, we cannot afford to stay here and be whittled away to nothing or besieged. Frightening though it is, nomadic traveling has proven to work in the past. Though it is not possible for us to do this without a map. We need to send a detachement ahead of the main group. Our map is outdated, frankly, the best thing we can do is try to hack what's left of the necronet at the Pask Building." A rather elderly gentleman for a survivor, he looked about fifty years old, though the stress made you look older, stood up. "All in favour of Captain Corgano's plan to raid the Pask Building, say 'I'". A general murmer of agreement passed around the table. "Good, now where is the food and drink, I am famished!"
Dakerstown: Pask Building 7:00 PM
"Alright. We've left a back door towards the right side of the building when facing it from the street, it's small so Jensen will have to go through and open it for us. The baarricade will fall apart after that. We should leave it as is, it'll be loose enough but we should manage to fool the zeds if we fix it up a little." The group communicated over the radios they were carrying.
"This is Jensen, I've retuned the radio and restored power to most of the place. Toguh though, I've had to shut off the main breakers. We won't have long. You should be able to get in." A series of nods circled the group as they rounded the buildings and snuck in. "JENSEN!" The name echoed around the empty halls. All of the sudden it felt like something had come in after them. Corgano whirrled around, shotgun raised to chest level...
"GAH!!! Bossman! careful where you point that thing!" The ghost pale face of Jensen appeared with 4 flashlights and weapons trained on him. "I thought you might need help finding the NecroNet acess point. Follow me." Jensen motioned towards the door and tiptoed off towards the newly working computer terminal. "Charlie. I want you to start hacking. Logan, take these, go to the roof. Keep in contact. If you see anything, and I mean anything report it to me." Corgano handed over a pair of binoculars around his neck, and directed with hand signs. "Jensen, search around, kill anything, living or dead, you find. Oh and Logan, carry this..." A flare gun flew through the air towards Logan as he moved for the stairs. At the top of the toss Charlie dashed out and grabbed it. "Thanks. I'll fire it off if I see anything suspicious."
"Alright then, let's see whats left of this network." Charlie spun over an office chair and cracked his fingers. He began typing away a storm.
"Accessing NecroNet..." The computerized voice was vaguley feminine. "NecroNet Access Approved" Charlie typed in the following comand [Acess Files 810912A to 811001A_] The cursor flashed for a momment and a propmpt appeared. [Enter Password] "Damn, I don't have the power to try and run a dictionary attack, nor the time for that matter. We're going to need to find the main server in this place and remove the security programming by hand." Charlie extracted a rather hightech looking piece of hardware from his satchel. "I'm hooked in wirelessly to this station, so I should be able to access it once the blocks are removed." Charlie got up and held the flashlight. Crackling came over the radio for a momment, followed by Jensen's voice. The fear was dectectible imediatley. "Uhh... boss, you might want to see this. I'm on lab level C. These NecroTech people were into some really funky shit here. There's mutation timelines, all sorts of stuff, its all displayed on some huge monitor here. And there are specimens, tissue cultures by the looks of it, and actual zombies, nothing like what we've seen in those attack groups... or anywhere else for that matter, what the hell should I do?" "Jensen listen carefully, I want you to get up here with me and charlie, seal off the room if you can, if not, when you get up, barricade the door to that level and shoot out the elevator controls, I don't want anything comming up from there." Corgano turned aside to Charlie. "Where would the main server be?" Charlie paused for a momment and extracted a small computer. He strapped it to his wrist, and began pushing keys. "Well, judging by whats left of the schematics I've been able to pull, the server is actually in three components, the uplink hub, the mainframe and backup storage. The way I see it, we've got two options, rip the files directly from storage, which is basment sub level 4, about 3 storeys underground, or we remove the protection from the system at the mainframe and the hub. From what I can tell, the uplink hub is just below the dish at the top of this building. Its a simple mater to remove the drive that feeds it the security information. The mainframe is a problem. We need to get up 4 flights of stairs. That level, according to the last scouting report, is infested, at least seven decent strength zombies. We might have issues." Charlie took in a large breath, and exhaled slowly. "Charlie, please tell me there is another way down to the backup other than the elevator." Corgano grabbed Charlie by the shoulders at the elevator reached the level they were on. Jensen stepped out. "All done bossman, the elevator is shot, the entire level is blockaded off. It'll take whatever's down there AGES to get up." Jensen was practically beaming waiting for congratulations. Charlie grinned nervously "Bad news, the elevator is the only way down. Structural collapses have left all of the stairways down there a wreck, you can't even tell up from down." Corgano sighed and let go of Charlie. "We're going up, can you give Logan the instructions for the uplink over the radio?" Charlie was pensive looking for a momment. "Should be able to, provided he isn't an idiot..." "I HEARD THAT!" Logan's voice came out from the radio at Corgano's belt. Jensen laughed holding up his own radio next to Charlie. "Alirght, you need to go down to the level below. Right underneath that dish there should be a large metal box..." Charlie whispered to Corgano and Jensen, "we may as well start walking, there was only ever the one elevator and its twenty four levels to the mainframe." He continued giving Logan instructions as the group moved towards the stairs.
About 20 minutes later.
"Alright, the little blinking lights around the drive should all be off. Are they off?" Logan's voice came over, practically oozing success. "They're all off, so I just push the big blue button next to it to remove the drive?" Charlie sighed and hung his head before continuing. "Alirght, thats it, you just push the button, and pull out the drive and we should be fine." Logan's triumphant cry came over all three radios simultaniously. Charlie came up next to Corgano. "Captain, I think we might have to throw Jensen to those zombies..." Corgano smiled and turned to Charlie. "What do you think I've been trying to do, throw him a birthday party?!" Jensen leaned over the railing, about a flight of stairs up from them. "HEY! I don't approve of that remark!" Corgano rushed up a flight of stairs and yelled back "Since when have I asked for YOUR approval Jensen!" "Okay, this is it, level 34. The barricade here is heavy, and the door's been tagged up. It says, Do not enter, do not remove barricades, do not continue. Its been stamped, I don't recognize the symbol though." Corgano proceed up to the door. "Thats a really old logo, definetly, its VIPER for sure, I knew they got trounced in this suburb but I never knew it was here." He hung his head. "Jensen, let's start clearing this away, Charlie, you've got 7 minutes once we open this door, once you have the offending programs removed, I want you to hightail it back here. Go down two levels and stay in the office area there. You'll be safe, I sweeped it myself on the way up, before Jensen got ahead of us when we were resting in there. You'll need to access the map while you are there." Corgano brought the radio to his mouth. "Logan, I'll need you down here with us. We're 6 levels down, I want you watching on the 8th level okay?" there was static for a second. "Sorry there Captain, dropped my radio. Yeah, I'm heading down right now." Jensen was by now, busy hacking away at the various bits of debris and garbage that made up the barricade.
"I've got it. Weapons out everybody. We're going in." Corgano opened the door slowly and played his flashlight around the room. The zombies were all congreated in the middle of it, slowly swaying. Their bodies were huge, several of them still had tatters of uniforms, and the viper logo showed promiently on the backs. "Poor bastards. We need to take these things out..." The claws on the zombies were elongated, almost serrated in appearence, and on one of them, it appeared that it was growing spikes out of it's spine.
Charlie ran over to a blinking box of lights, and looked it over a few times. He extracted a thin cable from the computer on his wrist and pluged it in, looking nervously at the zombies.
"What the hell are these things? Don't even look like zombies, like something out of a surrealist horror movie, eh?" Jensen regarded the zombies slowly. "Damn, these things look dangerous. Charlie, you hurry up man, these things are giving me the creeps!"
Corgano looked at them, definetly stronger than your average corpse, the flesh had already settled into an advanced state of rigor mortis, firearms wouldn't be much good. They had vestigies of a greenish foam at their mouth, and the hands were extremly developed. Corgano whispered to Jensen "These things are definetly not from the new breed. But they are extremly advanced zombies. They haven't been revived for some time..." He turned to Charlie, and holstered his shotgun as he did. "I suggest you hurry up. These things are definetly more than we can handle. One of them on its own would be bad, but there's five of them!" There was an honest note of fear in Corgano's voice. He hadn't been a zombie for a while, and he'd gone straight for the revive point, destroying any undead in his way, he had no intention of going back to muching on brains and rotting flesh... Corgano jumped as Charlie started talking.
"Alright, I've got the first few levels down. They shouldn't come back up. Theres at least three more levels of encryption to go, but we should have that map in five minutes tops." There was a crackling sound, like airfilled packaging being run over by a car. Corgano drew his axe and turned around nervously. "Charlie.. you don't have five minutes." One of the zombies rose from where it had been crouching, and turned. It had a feral look in its eyes and the acountrements to match. It moved unsteadily, and you could see the ribs, it hadn't had meat in a while, and it wasn't going to pass up this oportunity. "Charlie, I want you to rip the map out by force if necessary, and get the hell down those stairs." Charlie began tapping furiously on the keyboard as the zombie juggernaut advanced. Corgano carried his axe low, and when the creature struck, ducked out of the way. A simultanious strike with Jensen's flare gun delivered an excellent cry of pain from the creature, as a greenish solution spurted out of what was once its jugular vein. Corgano ducked back, holding the axe with both hands and brought it down on the creature's shoulder, causing the greenish fluid to come out in large quantities. He grabbed the axe handle, having let go durring this brief waterworks, only to be flung off while as the zombie turned to face where he had been. Jensen tossed him a flare gun and raised his own. The two were standing towards the back corner of the room, near the window, trying to draw the juggernaut-like creature away from Charlie so he could finish. The two fired simultaniously at the zombie, the red-white luminescent balls of fire hiting its already damaged neck, setting some of its flesh on fire. The creature charged at Jensen, who promptly attempted to roll out of the way. The zombie wound up running its skull into the concrete wall where Jensen had been. It turned around, almost foaming at the mouth with rage, and attempted to charge again. Jensen raised another flare gun and fired. The shot went wide as he dodged, and it set the cheap celing tiles alight. They burned up quickly, leaving a massive hole in the celing, and exposing several pipes and electrical conduits. "Done! we'll be able to access it once we get the hell out of here!" Charlie sprinted past the zombies and out the door, like you wouldn't believe he was human. Adreneline will do that to a person. Corgano drew a pistol, waiting for the creature to charge, and shot out several conduits. One of them leaked an amber fluid that was almost certainly gasoline, which drenched the zombie. A second pipe began hissing, and a strange smell, like that of rotten eggs, permeated the room. "Jensen, get out the door, cover Charlie, get out of here with Logan and Charlie as fast as you can." Corgano raised the flare gun and aimed for the zombie, who was just about to start its charge anew. He fired. the ball of fire hit the zombie's head dead on, setting it alight, and igniting the natural gas that had now floated throughout the room. The place became an inferno. Corgano dashed for the door, the zombie began pursuing him. Corgano leaped the railng to the next landing and continued down the stairs while the zombie stumbled its way after him. As he caught up with the others he shouted after them. "Go out the door there, and jump out the window, and remember: TUCK AND ROLL!" Jensen yelled back "What about you Captain?" Corgano almost smiled and yelled down "That thing stil has my axe!" The trio below dashed out the door and ran headlong through the window, shielding their eyes with their arms. A full storey drop. Corgano pulled a fuel can from his satchel and opened it. He dashed through the same door and spread some of the fuel in a line between two ransacked crates. He popped open a large barrel sitting in the corner by some wrecked office supplies and after tossing them around placed the barrel by the door. He lit the line of fuel as the juggernaut, still alight, walked through the doorway. It was a gruesome sight, the flesh had been burned off of its mouth and left a permanent grin to the creatures once snarling face. He held the last flare gun in one hand and rushed through the flames at the creature's shoulder. Ripping out the fire axe with one hand and simultaniously kicking off with one foot from the creature's ribs he dashed for the window, throwing the can of fuel back as he did. He jumped out the already shattered window and shot the flare gun at the canister. Corgano never saw what did happen next. The flare collided with the fuel can, setting the gasoline inside alight as it did. The paper and wood and plastic caught alight, creating a barrier between the zombie and the window. The fire spread rapidly towards a second trail of fuel and lit the contents of the larger barrel, causing a massive cascade of fire to spread towards the window, flash frying the zombie in the process.
Corgano fell, and hit the ground, with his shoulder, creating a rather sickening 'pop' sound as he did. "Aghh!" Logan and the others rushed over to their Captain. Corgano passed out from the pain, still holding the charred handle of the axe and the smoking flare gun as the group lifted him up and carried him back to the Precinct.
At Palprey Road Police Department, The next day
"Steady there captain, you've dislocated your shoulder. I've managed to get it in a sling, but you won't be hacking at any zombies for quite a while." Corgano tried moving his arm and found it was secured quite tightly by a series of cloth bands. "What were you doing up there last night, you could have killed yourself, falling out a window like that!" Corgano opened his eyes and looked up in a bright light. H wasn't wearing his uniform, nor was he able to see through the light. A head shaped shadow moved in front of the light and a hand pulled him up. "I was doing my job. Now who is that? I can't see properly." "Doctor Johnathan Faustus at your service. Technically my name is Herman, but I prefer this one." The shadow resolved into a blury skin coloured head-shaped blob. "Where am I?" Corgano raised his free hand to his head in order to support it. "Well you are currently in my makeshift hospital at the Palprey Road Police department in what used to be one of the holding cells, I'll have to leave you. The attacks have stirred up a small army of zombies, your friends are putting up quite the fight though." Corgano's vision finally resolved itself into something coherent. "How many?" "Dead none yet, though some have taken some fairly nasty wounds, and the zombies have ransacked the nearby hospital, so we can't get any First Aid Kits. Theres about 16 wounded in here, which I will now go attend to."
