Happy Zombie Apocalypse

== Introduction ==
Happy Zombie Apocalypse, abbreviated 'HZA', is a three part series of tales of a large plethora of side characters that would later be incorporated into the main storyline. The series, as per hinted by the name, is about a viral infection that causes people to become happy- too happy. They are so happy that they want to make everyone else happy, which of course spirals out of control.
Surprisingly, the Happy Zombies themselves actually only last until HZA 2, but the cast remains in chronicles.
==Happy Zombie Apocalypse 1 (2015)==
The first story begins in 2015, in a private lab corporation known as 'Blinksin Laboratories of Biology', somewhere in Nevada, situated between Mount Tobin and Mount Moses. It is unknown how the virus itself was spread, but Blinksin had been experimenting with many things. It was probably around morning time, where the story starts with an employee conducting a routine experiment with a test subject in a glass chamber. Meanwhile, the infection has spread to just behind the door of the control room of this experiment. A zombie stumbles into the room silently, as the controller goes to radio in a missing test subject, which has vanished from the glass chamber.
Roughly 15 minutes pass after first infection, and the facility is placed on lockdown. Despite the short frame of time, nearly half of the staff have already been infected, and are running rampant through the facility. The story pans on a group of employees, who hastily rush into a room with a bulky metal door closing behind them. Amongst a group of surviving employees and scientists, we first become affiliated with our protagonists: Terrance Lee, a nondescript employee of Blinksin, and Colin DeMaro, an on-duty security guard. Later, they would come across an Unnamed Vigilante, who happens to be armed with an SMG, as the rest of their group; estimated to have been about eight strong, slowly perishes throughout the day, leaving the three of them left by the time rescue comes, which now also have to deal with mutated test subjects that have been set free by a happy zombie security officer in a control room.
As the trio works towards their escape, Terrance is exposed to a radioactive substance, which surprisingly does nothing to him. Later on, his foot is taken ahold by a mutant, but he kills it, fleeing without injury. The trio misses the first wave of rescue helicopters, and has to return in to find a flare gun to signal them, where Colin is attacked by a black creature that claws his arm open. Still holding together, they continue forth, where Colin instantly begins showing signs of change. The group is once again interrupted, when a green mutant creature breaks through the wall, bites Terrance's right hand off his arm, and dies after the unnamed vigilante guns it down. The group battle through waves of happy zombies before setting a flare off, which alerts several helicopters to their position. Before a helicopter arrives, Terrance stumbles, and finds that his hand has mysteriously grown back. Colin now shows extreme signs of mutation, so that when the helicopter arrives; the group now pursued by roof shambling happy zombies, Colin is left behind as Terrance escapes on the helicopter. (The happy zombies leave Colin alone because of the fact he is now a mutated being.)
==Happy Zombie Apocalypse 2 (2020-2021)==
5 years later, the Blinksin Laboratory has been thoroughly abandoned for quite some time. The place was successfully cordoned off when the incident happened, and henceforth the area was shut to the public. The happy zombies within had also all been killed, after the US military, notified of this situation, developed and dropped an experimental bomb onto the laboratory a month later, which killed the zombies, but left the mutants alive.
Enter Terrance Lee, which is now apart of a non-specific special task force, supposedly private in origin. Him and his team of five are tasked (or possibly self appointed, it is unknown if they had any superiors) with investigating the site of the laboratory to see if anything has survived all of these years. Terrance leads the exploration, finding many corpses and skeletons of what once were mutants, zombies, and other employees that perished. He takes the all-too-familiar path that he took five years prior, stepping onto the roof of the building.
Terrance, who has creaked open the old rusty exit door, catches the attention of his old acquaintance, who roars at him. The two stand tense at one another, as Colin speaks to Terrance, demanding he remove his helmet. Colin is struck with familiarity, as he realizes, by Terrance's head wrap, that he's looking at his old friend.
Terrance's team catches up with him as Colin cowers from Terrance, feeling unworthy to be seen as a disgraceful monster. Terrance realizes who he is, and the two share a hug of joy, which is interrupted when one of Terrance's teammates comes running in, screaming at the top of his lungs. Such an outbreak causes Colin to lunge at him and kill him, which causes him to feel even worse about himself. The rest of Terrance's team arrive to be introduced:
There is T, 'The Tail Guy', literally an average man with snake pupils, snake fangs, and a snake tail.
Next is Kyle, 'The Banshee', another average looking man who has the ability to scream at supersonic levels.
Then there is Bob, which is a stick figure (and is stolen from me, the creator, by The Paradoxist) which apparently can lay chicken eggs.
Terrance tells Colin he too has been mutated, but obviously these members don't have as much physical changes than gaining of abilities.
Colin inquires why they are here, when Terrance goes to explain their objective. This is interrupted by a mutant, and even after dealing with it, their goal is never shared.
The group explore through the ruins of the laboratory, coming across many hostile creatures. T is killed by a large crab-like creature that eats his head off, causing the group to flee in terror. Colin falls and is left behind, where he witnesses the birth of several more crab-like creatures, one specifically finding interest in him. The smallest crab creature, now named 'Clip' by Colin, accompanies him in his adventures with a signature of friendship via crawling under his helmet.
Meanwhile, the group of three come across what could be perceived to be their objective, three mutants:
'J.A.W.S', 'The Beast', a black creature with long clawed hands, and whisks of black hair mottled across its body.
'Vision', 'The Mindkiller', a thin creature with several horns and a pair of mandibles, which, like Banshee, has the ability to emit supersonic waves.
'Steel', 'The King', a giant pterodactyl-like creature.
The group flees from them, heading further upward.
Meanwhile, Colin tries to pursue them, but is knocked out, revealing that a second group of people, trained soldiers apart of a private military, have also infiltrated the facility, set on finding and capturing as many mutants as they can. The majority of the mutants are successfully captured and air lifted by the soldiers in large cages, also including Colin, Terrance, and Banshee, who have all been captured. (Bob mysteriously disappears from existence, as is his norm.)
The trio, separate from one another, are transported to 'Specula', a newer biological facility that ironically is based only 80 miles East of Blinksin. Terrance and Banshee are held hostage for questioning, whilst Colin is left caged like the rest of the mutants. Just before the two can be interrogated, a vigilante who introduces himself as Pike, comes in and shoots the interrogators, breaking Terrance and Banshee free. The three attempt to escape the facility, whereas Banshee shows off his power against some soldiers, and Terrance reveals that he's grown a third eye under his bandage, which allows him to move at a rapid speed in a charging manner, and break through materials, such as a tank that he explodes.
Specula requests support from the PMCs, but they refuse, as their contract has expired, leaving them to fend for themselves. The group is on the verge of escaping, before they are taken down by a pair of guards with tazers.
===Part 2===
One year later, we find out that Colin, whose body has changed slightly since the last time, has been working at Specula with his pet Clip for the majority of the year after it was cleared up he had significant intelligence, and a proper background for such a job. He sees Terrance pass by in a hallway, noticing he's not seen him since the incident a year earlier.
Terrance has also gained employment at Specula. (Banshee has also vanished from the plane of existence) On this set day, Terrance, accompanied by a new character, Jake Fildel, a guard, have been assigned to testing an experimental ray on a test spider. The experiment goes wrong as the ray overloads, causing the spider to triplicate in size, and break out of its containment, causing Jake to force a lockdown in their sector. Within 5 minutes of the spider escaping, it presumably does something to the facility's power, causing a shutdown of all containment protocols, allowing the escape of a multitude of mutants. Amongst these are JAWS, Vision, and Steel.
Also among these is Pike, who has been experimented on so much so that his skin is now dark gray, his eyes are pure white with outlined pupils, and his ears have pointed. Pike develops his characteristics of loving large guns, and killing lots of people, as he discovers a laser rifle named the 'Eon' sitting conveniently outside of his cell. Colin, confused, peers out of his office to see people murdering each other. Terrance and Jake, maneuver their way through the facility, coming across happy zombies that had been replicated by the corporation. Terrance and Jake then come across Steel, which has become way cooler and now has become a dragon bird since the last time they saw it. The three engage in a fierce battle, but Steel is defeated with a single bullet that travels through his neck, killing him.
Meanwhile, Pike moves quickly through the facility, searching for Terrance as he mercilessly guns down personnel.
Meanwhile again, Vision crawls its way through the facility, murdering vulnerable soldiers. He takes control over the mind of a happy zombie, and forces it to spread the virus to others.
Colin casually walks through the facility, looking for his friend Terrance, when he comes across Pike, who has massacred atleast a dozen guards and employees. Colin recognizes Pike by his voice, as they had met within the year, prior to Pike's experimentation. Pike explains that he's currently suffering some sort of amnesia, and shock from his bodily changes, and embarks on a journey for a shirt.
Back to Terrance and Jake, Jake has been struck by a stray pipe explosion. Terrance leaves him in an indoor atrium, and goes to look for medical equipment to stabilize him.
By this point, with the breach being an hour under way, US Military Personnel are deployed to the facility via helicopters, where they enter in and begin mercilessly eliminating all possible threats. Alongside them are the PMC from earlier, which have infiltrated via ground vehicles. The military come across the spider, which has made its way to the outside.
Sadly, three pages of the story have been possibly lost to time, so, cutting to the next part:
During a fierce battle, Pike also escapes from the facility, and steals a military Chinook, flying off as the soldiers are slaughtered. Terrance hangs on to his mind as Vision tries to scream him to death, when suddenly another Unnamed Masked Man comes behind Vision and stabs it to death. The man pries out a gem (which is later to be found to be an Omnicrystal) out of Vision's head, and tosses it to Colin, who has reunited with Terrance. He eats it, because he doesn't know what else to do with it.
The PMC group retreats from the facility after sustaining too many losses, leaving behind whoever doesn't make it back to their vehicles. With the death of the giant spider, the military also pulls out from the facility, leaving it basically in ruin as they battle off the remnants of the mutants.
Pike sees Terrance, who has gotten outside, and picks him up in the Chinook, when they realize they've somehow lost Colin.
Colin, who has found a random zipline, makes his way off of the facility, and into the nearby woods. At the same time, a missile is launched from an unknown location, and strikes the facility, totally obliterating it, killing everyone in and around it. Several military personnel are killed, and Colin survives a premature drop from the zipline. Terrance and Pike would have successfully escaped with the Chinook, but remaining military personnel are able to successfully shoot it down, causing them to parachute into the nearby forests, escaping unscathed. Jake escapes through unknown measures.
More of the story is lost, so we continue to:
Many months have passed since the second incident. Jake, now apart of the PMC group, which has transformed itself into a group that contains mutants, rides in the back of a convoy, transporting what was left of the mutants of Specula. The convoy is suddenly interceded by a group of motorcyclists, who begin engaging the convoy with sidearms. Several persons are killed, not before one attempts to stop the convoy with an explosive. Before the motorcyclist can sap the convoy, Colin jumps out of the local wood, grappling the driver with the explosive, sliding down the roadway before exploding. Jake is astonished at what happens, and has his head attacked by a hot projectile helmet. He comes to realize it is Colin's old security helmet; now all battered, covered in ash, it's letters barely even visible anymore. He would keep this with him for as long as he could.
==Happy Zombie Apocalypse 3 (AKA 'The Breach') (~2038)==
===Prologue===
Happy Zombie Apocalypse 3, codenamed 'The Breach', takes place several years in the future, and is a key part of the main storyline. The story begins with Terrance and Pike, now hardened by their past experiences, keeping watch of a tall black creature suspended in ichor in a vat positioned in the center of a room. The location is run by the PMC group from decades back, now known as 'Bedfrake Labs', now somewhere in Germany since then.
A few days prior, near the (fictional) town of Lüxfur, Germany, brothers Jerry and Harold Karlstat camp on the grounds of an old ruined research center, that of Bedfrake Labs, which had been burnt down and destroyed years prior after an event close to that of that in HZA. The two had embarked on this long journey on the adventure for a very specific item: to collect the helmet of Colin DeMaro. They had succeeded in this, as Jerry was successfully able to find it amongst the rubble of the old foundation. It had been brought all the way there to Germany by Jake Fildel, who had had ownership of it until his job with Bedfrake came to an end with the burning down of their top research center; the very grounds, forcing him to leave the helmet behind. Harry had had an attraction to the helmet, as he had become close friends with Jake and Colin during his time at Specula. Jerry, although vaguely aware of the story, conversed with his brother about his experience from long ago. The two return to Harold's old truck, now in possession of the helmet, where they embark on a long journey Southward to Munich, where Jake supposedly now lives.
Back to the present, Terrance and Pike are forced to evacuate the lab as they discover the creature, known as 'Wraith', has awoken and escaped from its vat.
Fast forward to a few days later, where Jerry and Harry have arrived in Munich, looking for Jake. They successfully get ahold of information regarding his address, and they visit, breaking in to see if they can get further info, where they come across an aging Jake, wielding a shotgun at them. The two tell him they are there regarding Colin, which pacifies him. Soon, they are back on the road, aimed for home with their newfound information.
Meanwhile, in Russia, we're reintroduced to Felix Kel from the main series, shown blowing up a giant creature known as a 'Nolgoroth', its guts going everywhere. He gets a call, alluding to his need for assistance by the gang.
===The Breach===
Meanwhile, back at the facility, Wraith goes about slaughtering any living being in its path. Heavily armed guards try their best to contain it, standing by the gates of its containment chamber, as it had only bypassed a single door at this point. It was stopped from its spree, however, with the sound of a low growl from behind. Standing behind him was Terrance, although not like he once was. Over the years, his abilities had changed, whereas he now become a creature tall like Wraith, muscular yet slim, with an excess of teeth in his mouth. He roared at Wraith, who prepared to attack him.
Not too far down the road, Harry and Jerry, on their way back home, hear on a walkie talkie they'd picked up from Jack a distress call being sent out by the Bedfrake's location nearby. They arrive at the location: 'Bedrock Labs', and decide to break in through the roof through non-human means. (As they are part another species...)
Inside, Terrance and Wraith battle it out, slashing one another in a fierce fight. The guards attempt to sedate the two of them, doing successfully so with Terrance, causing him to return to normal. Wraith is unaffected, however, and storms out, killing most of the belligerents, and venturing further into the facility. One guard is left behind alive. He vows to kill Wraith, if its the last thing he does.
Jerry and Harry, under the guise of fellow employees, are found out after they wander into an area a person of their disguised level would not be in. They successfully hide in the vents, and continue on.
Felix, who has seemingly magically gotten from Russia to Germany in under an hour or so, grips Terrance in his hand, standing next to Pike. They attempt to flee the facility with Terrance in tow.
Terrance later wakes up, thinking he is with them, but is surrounded by bodies, as an intense battle takes place between the beings holding him, and many guards. They successfully squirm behind a bulky door, and turn to Terrance, placing a bag over his head.
Felix and Pike later come across Wraith, who sits, smearing blood on his face as he is mentally spoken to by what could possibly be a bipolar mind. He notices the two standing there, who prepare to fight him, but leaves, chasing after Terrance, which he is able to mentally track.
===The Kidnap===
Terrance is taken from Bedrock Labs by a couple of unknown persons, escaping from the situation in a red truck. They take him to a roadside gas station, where they go to deal with business, that gets bloody quickly. Terrance takes the opportunity to slide the bag off of his head, and jump through the window of the vehicle, escaping with his hands bound. The two kidnappers quickly run out of the gas station, bullets behind them, and flee in their truck as Terrance runs in the opposite direction. He is greeted by a man whose face is covered with a bandana, whereas he transforms into his larger self, murdering the man.
Terrance wanders for quite some time down the highway, as his captors realize they no longer have him in possession, causing them to turn right back around.
Felix, driving a flashy black car, finds Terrance walking down the roadway with Pike. They go to collect him, when they notice in the rear mirror that the Wraith had followed them all the way down the road. Terrance uses the roof of the car as a trampoline to launch himself onto Wraith, who soon overpowers him. Wraith is about to finish him off, when the red truck comes by, driving on and over Wraith. It screeches to a stop, the two getting out to quickly grab Terrance as he returns to normal size, taking him away, leaving Felix and Pike in shock, and Wraith on the ground.
The two wait, instead, for Bedfrake's arsenal to come to their location, and resecure Wraith as it wakes up. They then begin to follow the trail of these kidnappers.
In a place not too distant, underneath the soil in an old World War 2 bunker, Terrance, being dragged around by the two captors, is thrown into a cell to be held. He of course prepares to escape.
Wraith sits in captivity, being told by the voice in his head something will come for him.
===The Tracking===
Meanwhile, Terrance gets some information out of a conversation within ear reach. He, meanwhile, literally breaks the wall open, and begins digging his way out through the dirt, when the two return to see he has escaped. The madman literally digs his way to the surface, where he is tracked down by the two. He breaks into their vehicle, causing it to crash, whereas the two flee from him in his tall form. One drops incriminating evidence behind, because the Creator said so.
The two persons return to their bunker to patch the hole, only to have it blown it up again by Terrance who returns. They trap him with another wall, and go to explain who they are to him, when Wraith breaks through the floor, and attempts to kill Terrance. It's revealed that the two are on Jerry and Harry's side, as the two come into the chamber in their Talafel forms, fighting Wraith. They win, revealing that they were the captors all along! Then the story gets weird as the AETF appear, as well as the Bedfrake personnel, and Xander, who is bent on revenge. The Empire also show up, for some reason, and so does a possessed Nolgoroth, which after lots of monologuing, all retreat, leaving the protagonist group alone as Wraith breaks away from the control of Xander, who had been controlling him with a chip, hence the voice in his head. Wraith, after seeing Terrance, who had been stricken by Xander by an energy beam, fatally wounding him. For support reasons, Jerry places Colin's helmet next to Terrance, which seems to cause Wraith to recognize it, and begin wandering away, leaving the group in confusion as it begins journeying.
===Epilogue===
The story then turns to the main storyline of Torn Earth, a little way down the line in 2040 or 2041, where we see how Archigegis escapes from the grasp of Enigma, escaping back to Earth, where he launches himself into space, leaving a large trail of red behind, and Enigma, feeling like a failure, taking a human shape to hide from his shame. The story also jumps back a year or so, going deep into space where Derth, an old rival of Felix, has been found floating, and has been delivered into the hands of Xander. The story also takes us to the homebases of the AETF and The Empire, with both leaders reacting differently to Archegegis' return as the world raves about the strange red beam.
== Importance ==
HZA is one of the first side stories that existed in the Torn Earth series. It introduced Colin, Jake, Terrance, Pike, and a few other characters as members of the protagonist crew in the main storyline, and filled in a little of the timeline of Torn Earth with some interesting tales. Although rather filled with the constant cliche of secret laboratories and containment breaches, the story still holds up the fundamentals for the storytelling of the world in this universe.
Category:Side Story
Category:Story