Thread: Breaking Quarantine - Survivor00 & [s]laughter

??I Am Legend ?? Breaking Quarantine? Survivor00 laughter ?---? 2009 ???In accordance to the U.S. Army??s ??Safe Haven?? Plan, the city of Pittsburgh has been placed under complete martial law. Pittsburgh will be the first of several Refugee Cities established across the United States, in order to provide emergency residence and treatment to KV refugees. Local law enforcement agencies will be cooperating with federal troops for the next several days until the city is effectively barricaded. If you have not already been evacuated to a Safe Zone, it is imperative that you do so immediately?? ?---? November 17th, 2012 ?? Pittsburgh, PA 605 AM Daybreak. The sun slowly began to rise over the sprawling ruins of Pittsburgh, its rays pushing down through the thick layer of fog that hung over the city streets like a shroud, their warmth beginning to heat the air enough to make it start to evaporate. Without its former human caretakers, the city was gradually falling into disrepair. The towering glass faades of PPG Place had long since shattered, exposing their insides to the harshness of the elements. The massive fountain at Point State Park had stopped functioning nearly a year ago, the pipes rupturing when it had not been drained the previous winter. The streets and parks, once clean and manicured, were now overrun with vegetation, already turning orange and brown from the coming winter. Dozens of buildings across the abandoned city were bound in telltale opaque plastic, with warnings of infection blazoned in fiery orange text. Of the many bridges that once proudly spanned the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers, only a few remained standing, the rest had been destroyed, leaving only piles of rusted scrap settling into the silt at the bottom of the rivers. The rising sun drove the last of the hemocytes ?? the feral and vampiric shells of what had once been normal people ?? shrieking and barking back into the darkened ruins to sleep. Their guttural sounds echoed through the city before finally fading away into silence, only the sound of the wind blowing and the occasional animal cry to show that the world was still turning. Even though the noises had faded away several minutes ago, Arthur Turner still refused to leave his shelter, not until he was sure that there were none of them still out there. The only immune person still left living in the city, he had spent three years alone and isolated, but alive. He clutched the M16A4 rifle close to his chest, keeping his eyes trained on the hatch at the rear of the Army APC he had chosen to call home. His eyes were ringed by dark circles, deprived of sleep. He looked down quickly at the bloody gauze on is arm, making sure it had stopped bleeding. He had gotten careless, made a mistake, and had paid the price for it. He groaned, standing from the bench that he had been sitting on, walking over to the driver??s seat to peer out the window slit, to determine if it was bright enough to leave safely. There were certain areas he would want to avoid, of course, but he could venture outside of the APC, at least. He lifted his arm, testing to see how well it could work, wincing in pain. Well?he wouldn??t be lifting anything heavy for a while, but he wasn??t crippled? He activated the hatch at the rear of the APC, opening it only slightly, waiting, just to see if any of the bastards tried to get in. After thirty seconds of silence, he opened it the rest of the way, quickly sweeping his field of vision with the assault rifle. Four of the creatures lay sprawled on the grass around the APC, bloody holes ripped in their chests. He quickly poked one of the bodies with the gun, before he was satisfied that it was dead. He reached down and grabbed the body by the leg, dragging it away from his shelter, over to a shallow pit in the ground where the dirt had been scorched and blackened by numerous fires. He always burned the ones he killed?just to be safe? He quickly doused the bodies in gasoline, lighting a match and setting fire to the corpses. The stench of burning flesh that quickly rose in the cool air was revolting, but sadly?he had grown used to it by now. Arthur quickly checked the watch on his wrist. 717 AM. It was still too early to venture into the city, so he headed back to the APC to disinfect his arm again? ?---? ??I still don??t think this is a good idea?? Arthur stood before the massive steel and concrete containment wall that stretched from one side of the city to the other. Soldiers patrolled the top of the massive structure, scanning the streets below for any hemocytes. He turned his head, looking at his girlfriend, feeling her arm hold his a little more tightly. ??What are you talking about?? Andrea looked up at the wall as well, shaking her head. ??I just?they say we??re safe but?how do they know? It spreads so fast?what if it gets in the water? Or the air? What do we do then?? She asked. Arthur didn??t know what to say?he didn??t want to think like that. For right now, they were safe, and that was all that he cared about? ?---? ??Ghuh! Wha?? Arthur jolted awake, looking quickly around the APC. Sunlight filtered through the open hatch, and he quickly reached for his rifle, his heart pounding like a jackhammer in his chest. After a few tense seconds, he realized what had happened. ??God damn it! You can??t keep making fuck-ups like this!? He snarled at himself, slapping his palm against the side of his head. He looked at his arm, where the bite wound had sealed with a series of nasty-looking scabs. He had ventured out too far without giving consideration to how the sun set earlier now. He had been jumped by one of the hemocytes right before he had reached his shelter. He had managed to wrestle it off and shoot it, but the sound had drawn the rest of them even faster than normal. He had barely got the hatch closed before they were upon the APC. He rubbed his eyes quickly, pushing himself up from the seat. He shook his head, pulling out an old NOS Energy drink from a cardboard box. While not the best thing he could have had, he needed the energy right now. He would suffer the crash tonight. Arthur tried not to think of how this was a common drink of his when he attended college? Setting the bottle down, Arthur checked the map of the city that he had taped to the wall. Numerous small X??s marked sites that had been cleared of supplies, either by himself, wild animals, or the hemocytes in an effort to stop him. They were smart, smarter than he wanted to admit, they found where he scavenged food and destroyed them, making his search more difficult as the larger distances made it more likely he would get caught. It was dangerous, him leaving the familiar areas of the city to find food, water, and medicine, forcing him to look in potential infected locations. The damned containment wall also made things much harder, cutting off a whole expanse of city that could have been used. His destination today was the Giant Eagle store on the South Side, a mile outside the city. It was nearly mid-day now the sun had warmed the air enough that he didn??t need a jacket to go outside. Arthur grabbed a backpack and threw it over his shoulders. Pushing the mountain bike outside, he climbed on and began pedaling out into the city. The Point State Park had quickly overgrown with vegetation, fast taking on the appearance of a small forest. Ivy had taken over the few small structures, while the wooden benches had started to rot away. Nature was gradually purging itself off all traces that humanity had existed. Boulevard of the Allies was surprisingly barren. The military had removed all the cars from the streets and either pushed them aside or dumped them into the river. Only a few lone military vehicles remained here, a tank, a Humvee, abandoned since the night that the quarantine broke. That night had been hellish. He didn't know who had become infected first, but once they started to change, it was too late. The virus went airborne, spreading like wildfire through them all. Those who didn't turn were either killed by the infected, the military, or by their own hand... He had cowardly hid inside an abandoned APC, even as the screams and shrieks of infected and dying swarmed his ears. When he awoke, the city was eerily quiet, he was the only human left...