The saga of Ivan Hennigar

-Note: Early Edition


Chapter 1:
The man ran across the rooftops, never looking anywhere but ahead. Night will fall in ten minutes, He thought. I’ve got to make it home.
He vaulted over that infected, a biter. It was looking towards the fast-fading sun, knowing it was soon to become its most powerful.
Night will fall before I reach the house.
The man paused for a second, catching his breath, checking his watch. Six minutes until night! He picked up the pace hoping to reach the house before the end. He knew he wouldn’t make it through; it was too late; he was too far. So, he did the second-best thing, ran to a nearby roof entrance, and opened the hatch. He took his pack off and searched inside. He found the thing he was looking for and took it out. A Thermal bar light. He flipped it on and powered it up. Then the man took a strap and tied it around the bar and tied it around himself.
I look weird as heck, but it doesn't matter. I didn’t survive these long years to be killed. I will see this quarantine to its end.
He checked his watch. One-minute until night. He ran.

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I woke in a cold sweat; the dream having left me in a depressed state. I looked out the window to see, no surprise, it was night. I always wake up during the night now. I got up and went out the door, onto the terrace. The night was so pretty, you would never guess it was deadly. I jumped as I heard a voice behind me.

“You had that dream again,” That was Deniz, straight to the point as always. “You should see Narada.”
“You know I don’t trust him.”
“Still, you need help, and he’s the only qualified person left.”
That was the truth. They ran a small group of survivors in the downtown area of Az-Zalla. You see, we were born in Az-Zalla, so when the Virus came, we were here. So, we’ve had to survive those 2 years stuck here. But something was changing. Airdrops were falling again, all over Az-Zalla by all reports. And another thing was happening. More infected types now existed, like the Brawlers and porcupines.
Life was hard, but at least we can get more Infected Suppressant or other such compounds. Also, with the recent discovery that Infected flesh is a great fertilizer, we can get lots of food. Yet, it wasn’t all peachy, as we had little water or ammo.
“Fine, guess I’ll talk to him.” And that was that... for now.
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I stayed up, guarding the zone, until dawn when I left. I ran across the small line connecting our rooftop to the nearby building, as easy as if I were walking on flat ground. I checked around, assuring there were no infected, then I ran the rest to the edge of the roof. Now was the tricky part, for if there were no lights, the infected would fill the streets, covered from the sun’s Thermal energy.
There were no lights.
“Damm, there are infected everywhere,” I said over the radio, “I’ll try the Sax route.”
“Ok, just get there before Night.”
“I will,” As I ran across the roof.
I jumped onto a rooftop entrance, but as I landed, I heard a worrying sound. Clicking. I quickly spun around and saw a dreaded sight. A Burster. The thing almost exploded, but I dodged behind the nearby wall.
It exploded and the guts flew by.
I ran, fully knowing Infected would come from everywhere. I dodged under the reach of the Biter, shoulder-checking it off the roof, and charged on, its buddies coming from behind. I jumped the gap between the buildings, and looked down, watching dozens of infected clambers up. I landed, crashing, on the floor. I went with it, rolling under the trap. I got up and looked back, watching the infected burn from the flame throwers. It brought a grim smile to my face. I ran on.
I jumped the last gap to the route, not caring about the connecting bridge. The soldiers, who watched the whole thing, closed the gate as I entered, slamming on a degenerate. I thanked the soldiers, as they eyed me, and left. I headed through the covered path, to the edge of the roof. There, the soldier, upon getting confirmation from his commanding officer, opened the gate for me, saying not a word.
I understood why they didn’t say anything. They knew me, or knew of my group, and they didn’t want to bug me, or one of us. I saw that the path was clear, at least until the fourth roof away. I crossed the wood bridge, built out of doors and plywood. I ran across the remaining roofs to the edge of the safe zone. It had taken me to the beginning of Night, just as predicted.
I enter the safe zone, and head to the back. I find Dr. Nara in the back, a tall athletic man with a missing, blue, eye. He always wore a frown, belaying his happy act. It was this that made me distrust him.
“Ivan, what do you want,” he asked happily.
“Just a check-up,” I said, coldly.
“Now you come, over a year since your last check-in!”
Not missing a beat, I said, “Yes.”
Nara grumbles about stupid patients, and says “Well whatever, it’s your health.”
The checkup only took a few minutes, as there were no signs of my weird, lucid dreams. I thanked the doctor for his time because, even during the apocalypse, manners matter. I made it back home without incident and headed to the kitchen.
“The usual,” I said to the cook.
“The usual?” asked another member of the group, Aylin Kaplan.
“Carrot Stew.”
“Oh.”
I finished eating my lunch and headed to my room. I didn’t have much, just a desk with paper for the book I’m writing, a Thermal lamp and a bed near the only window. I headed over to the book I was writing and jotted down a few lines.
If only life worked out as it does in books, I thought. Problems never seemed to be hard to solve.
I left the desk and went over to my closet and grabbed my nailed bat, putting back the knives I brought with me. I left the room and headed to Deniz’s room. I found him also getting prepared for the night run.
I said, “We’re heading out in four hours, be prepared.”
Deniz said, “Ok, I’ll notify the others. We’ll be ready in two hours or less.”
“Good.”
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Four hours later, me and the team were ready. The team was made up of the best fighters in the faction. Deniz, Kirill Kiro, a guard, and Commander Ahmet ‘Butcher’ Akbas, the leader of our group. Aylin was supposed to stay back, but of course she decided to join.
“We need you back at base, guarding it,” That was me, complaining. “Come on Ahmet, we need her back here, don’t we?”
“Come on, stop complaining, you can come Aylin.” Ahmet said.
“Fine,” I spoke. I was not liking this one bit.
“Yes!” Aylin said.
We head out.
“So, what’s the big thing were doing?” Kirill asked.
“We are going to be destroying a Hive.”
There were shocked expressions all around, none of us knew what we would be doing, except for Ahmet.
“Are You Kidding Me!” Deniz.
“What The Hell!” Kirill.
“I don’t want to do this anymore,” Aylin.
“Guys! Shut Up!” As I yelled, everyone, no surprise, shut up. “If we do this, the nights will be safer. We’ll be able to last longer at night, and there will be less infected. Just think of the possibilities.”
Everyone pondered that. Normally, I usually never agreed with Ahmet, so when I did, everyone knew it would be the right thing to do. So, because of this everyone nodded their agreements.
We head out into the night, Ahmet ordering Aylin to the point guard, as she was the sneakiest. Me and Deniz took up flanking. Kirill was a big man, so he of course would stay to the center, as would Ahmet because he carried the explosive charges. For the first thirty or so minutes, we encountered no infected.
We saw a room in a nearby building that had some Thermal, and we heard voices coming from it. Human voices. We steered clear.
I noticed a crate, so we held up as I pick locked it. Even in a mission, we still had to scavenge to survive. Inside were some flairs and an armored-up bike helmet. I tossed the helmet to Kirill, as it was much too big for me. He took off his old leather cap and tossed it aside. The bike helmet did fit his armor better than the old cap, but we still would have to change the color.
I saw Deniz pop a Thermal fruit into his mouth, so I did the same thing as him. As we continued, I realized which Hive we were going to. The Tower. The Tower was the biggest known Hive and the one most likely to have mutated Infected. It is where the largest concentration of the Infected population is. From what people heard from survivors would chill you to your core. There were mounds of bodies and blood six feet high. There were only a dozen of survivors, out of the Hundreds that have gone there or used to work there.
It was horrifying. Yet, that’s where we are going.
We made it….
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Chapter 2:
The Tower was in the middle of a large plaza, so we would have to go through hordes of Infected, then climb the fences and Military Boxes. It was going to be near impossible. But before we could go, Deniz spotted a Zipline over to the entrance, the bad thing was that it was at the top of a nearby building, another three stories up from our fourth story stance. We started climbing.
We made it to the top in about twenty minutes. Aylin went first then Deniz and Kirill. Ahmet went next. I was last, but before I could go, I spotted a horrid sight. An Unstable. It spotted me and charged at me, so I jumped on the Zipline and went. The horde knew of me, so I yelled to my friends. There was no reply. I hopped off the zipline as it ended.
I saw a fire and knew my friends had set it. I jumped off the military box I landed on and ran toward the light, knowing the horde was right behind me as I could hear there screams and shrikes. My friends saw my running toward them and saw the horde behind me. They got ready to close the door.
I reached the door and jumped through, just as the forerunners of the horde reached me. The door slammed shut, leaving a few zombies on this side. They were quickly dealt with, as they were just biters. I looked around me and didn’t see anything cool. We spent the next few hours making the room safe and making it the room from which we’ll stage our raids.
We sent out a radio signal to the main camp and our nearest outposts. We then got ready to go farther up the tower.
“Ok, once reinforcements get here, Deniz, Kirill, and I will clear the nearest levels. The rest of you, make this lobby safe from attack,” Ahmet said. “Set up a safer way inside and clear out the area immediately outside. Any questions?”
“No sir.”
“All right, get to work.”
Aylin and I got to work inside, blocking up the outer rooms for housing and shopping. We got to work shifting furniture and setting up a better radio signal. Then we waited until we got a message from the new teams. The message came.
“Time to clear the yard,” I said to Aylin.
“Ok.”
We opened the door as the new team ziplined in. I charged out, smashing my bat into the closest zombies. Aylin tossed a few flares into the zombies, stunning them. Then she fired the crossbow into the infected. Meanwhile the new team landed and went to work shooting and slashing and bashing the zombies.
“Just like old times, huh!” I yelled to one of the soldiers I recognized.
“Yeah, except we never cleared towers!” the soldier, Boris, yelled back.
“Too true!” Another soldier yelled.
I quickly linked up with the squad, clearing a path to the lobby. After I linked up, we quickly cleared the rest of the infected.
“Boris, how have you been?” I asked.
“Good, how ‘bout ya?”
“Meh.”
“Really? What’s been going on?”
“Uh, I’ll tell you when we’re done strengthening the lobby.”
We work on the lobby and armor up the yard. We station guards, Aylin and another person. Fires are lit, rooms are worked, nearby zombies are killed, and we check in with Ahmet, who has cleared the first three levels and are moving back down here. I tell Boris everything that has happened since I had woken two days earlier. He isn’t surprised.
“I know what we’re doing here,” Boris stated suddenly.
“Yeah, we’re clearing this Hive so nights will be safer,” I said.
“No, we’re claiming this structure for our faction. Why else would we be instructed to make a safe zone and clear every floor? Because were making this our HQ.”
“Makes sense, I mean this is one of the largest structures in the city, and definitely one of the safest. It’s also near one of our allies.”
“But still, we were lied to.”
“True, but maybe so any spies among us wouldn’t know what we’re doing.”
“Yeah, let’s drop it for now,” Boris said.
I was introduced to the other two people. I knew their names, Mark and Cory Smith, and it turns out they were brother and sister. They used to be in the same military platoon together. That brings their squad up to four. Boris, Mark and Cory, and the other soldier, Vera. Cory and Vera became quick friends with Aylin, as they had the same interests and were all girls. Meanwhile Boris,
Mark and I talked about battles each of us have been in.
“-so, I dodged under the swing of the basher, and came up, smashing the things arm while crushing the head,” Mark was saying
“Nice, nice. But one time a horde of zombies was surrounding a building a family was trapped in. So, I pulled out my grapple and used it to swing to the roof of said building. I slid down to a window and bashed it open,” I said. “I evacuated the family to the roof and asked if any of them knew how to fight. The mom and dad said they could, and so did the older sister.”
The parents told their daughter to stay up here and protect her sisters, while we clear a way of the roof. The mom and I went down, off the roof, while the dad provided cover fire with his crossbow. Soon I and the mom had cleared a way to the nearest roof that we were confident even the small kids could get to.”
“Jeez. What happens next?” Boris asked.
“Well, after we set up the path, we got the kids to go up. Then the older daughter then the dad. The Mom had gone first, mind you, so I took up the rear. The zombies, with them being stupid, didn’t notice us.”
“That it?” Mark asked.
“N-No,” I said stammering. “We all made it up to the roof safely, but of course, all things end. We had gotten up here when it happened. A sniper shot a bullet towards us. It hit a gas valve that caused a small explosion, the noise brought zombies from the nearby area towards us. So, we ran, trying to get somewhere safe to hold up-“Ahmet and his group came down, so I stopped with the story.
“I’ll finish the story later,” I said.
We set up the plan. Boris, Deniz, Kirill, and I were going to punch up to the roof, while everyone else would kill off any remaining infected and work on the levels.
We head out, bringing supplies, like flares, ammo (Arrows, Bolts), and materials to block separate rooms with too many infected.
We head up the first three floors, killing any infected that were not killed earlier. Then we reached the boarded-up entrance to the fourth floor.
“Ready to go to hell?” I asked.
“You bet ‘cha,” Boris answered.
“Yeah,” said Deniz.
“Hell yeah,” Kirill stated.
“Good, let’s go then.”
We took apart the hastily set up plywood barricade that kept other infected from getting to these levels. The thermal light also ended here, so we would be in total darkness and without safety the rest of the way, unless we set it up. The rest of the plywood was removed, and beyond the light afforded by the flare, was darkness, and quite possibly, danger.
We head into the darkness, making sure to spread out, as if a burster comes upon us, it won’t kill us all.
“Ok, this is the next floor,” I said, “Deniz, you stay out here, if it gets hot, close the entrance, even if we aren’t out.”
“Ok Ivan. But I don’t feel good about this.”
“Hey, wait, why can’t I stay out,” Kirill said. “I mean, not to sound like a coward, but I was part of the other raids, and I had little time to rest.”
“We need you with us, Kirill. You’re the strongest.”
“Fine, guess I’ll stop complaining.”
“Good.” And that was that.
The room we entered was horrid. There were blood and bodies everywhere, but no Infected. I and Boris hit up the next room while Kirill checked the closet. All was clear.
“Where are all the infected,” Kirill whispered when he joined up.
“Eyes open. Look around.”
We entered the next room and met our first infected. We dealt with them.
“What is that sound?” Boris asked, as he had the best hearing.
We all heard it now. Clicking and tapping. Click, tap, click tap.
“It’s coming from up… there,” Kirill said.
We all looked up. Up there were hundreds of rags, hanging from the ceiling. Suddenly, the rags moved, jumping from celling towards. Some came off the walls and attacked us.
“AGAINST THE WALLS!” I yelled.
We ran to the wall and backed ourselves against it.
“We need support,” I yelled into my radio.
“Ok, where are you,” Ahmet said over the radio.
“Forth floor, third room.”
“Support is on the way,” Ahmet said calmly.
I joined the others, fighting and killing the charging infected. I bashed into a zombie’s head, crushing nearly straight through. I changed the direction of the swing, still using the force of it to smash into a second infected, but the infected dogged under the swing.
A fighter infected, I thought, They doge attacks. Well let’s see if she can doge this.
I came around with a over hand smash and, predictably, the infected dogged. But it was just a feint. I changed my grip and came in with a side swing that took the Infected’s head clean off its shoulders. Then I realized my mistake.
“F**k,” I say as I notice the zombie head on my bat. I got it off, shoving at the head.
That cost me precious time, and the other infected quickly surround me on the sides aside from the wall. One of the infected lunged at me. It grabbed onto my arm and tried to bite down. Luckily, my arm guard, bracer, protected me from the infecting bite. I threw the zombie off, into the other infected. I followed that by lunging forward, preforming an overhand chop at another biter. Soon, I cleared a way to meet up with Kirill.
Kirill was slashing at Infected with his giant axe, cleaving infected in half with barely a movement. He spun as he heard me approach him, but, when he realized it was me, went back to his fight.
From there we linked up with Boris, and went into a side room, boarding up the door with furniture. I tossed down a thermal flare, lighting the room.
“Ok, when the relief squad gets here, we leave the room and attack the infected, then link up. Try to stay together, we survived that fight, but we might not be so lucky next time. Understand?”
“Yes boss,” Boris said sarcastically.
“Understood,” Kirill said, earning a smile from Boris, and a grin from me.
“Great, get some rest, we don’t know how long we’ll be here.”
Relief only lasted ten minutes, by that time there was fighting in the outer room.
“GO! GO! GO!”
We smash down the barricade, and charge into the infected, as they turned to the noise of the fight. But, as we immediately mowed down the frontal infected, death falls. Literally.
From an upper level, the floor breaks, and crashes down. I’m hit with a falling body, knocking me to the ground. I look around as chaos unfolds. The infected are sunned, and several are crushed, but there are still about a dozen up. Consequently, several people are put out of commission, like Kirill and Boris being covered up with floor pieces, and Ahmet and Deniz. Two of us are up and fighting, but I don’t know who they are, or even if they survive.
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3 HOURS LATER
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I wake up in a cold sweat, but not the reason for which you believe. I had no dreams nor nightmares. And no, even though most people rarely remember dreams, but I’ve remembered ever dream of mine since the pandemic started. So this was crazy, thus me waking in a cold sweat.
“Your up, eh?” Said a voice near me. I turned my head to look that way. The words came from a man I’ve never seen before.
“Wh-Where am I?” My voice was horse from the inhalation of dust.
“You don’t recognize this place?” the man asked. “Take a look around.”
I sat up and discovered this was basically torture. Yet I powered through it and looked around.
We were in a room with whitewashed walls and a dirty carpet floor. There was a single bed which I occupied currently, as well as a desk and chair which the unfamiliar man sat at. There were two doors out, one to a closet and one on the opposite wall, which lead out to a hallway.
The strange thing was, though, the furniture all had a strange symbol. And I recognized the symbol. It was a star-like purple thing with a white slash across it. It was the symbol of the New-Order, a religious group who believe God has left us, and the only way to bring him back was their complete and total rule.
Then I recognized the room. It was one of the ‘cells’ in one of the New-Order’s camps. Worse, I’ve been here before. This cell.
“Wait, I thought this camp was destroyed!?” I said in anger and disbelief. I had destroyed this camp long ago.
“Yes, well, the New-Order had abandoned this camp, so they’re not here. But us, the Moon Knights, have taken it as a headquarters.”
“But then why have you not removed the symbol?”
“We just moved here. We haven’t had time, or reason, to remove the symbols.”
“Ok. But why this building?”
“Well, it was already stocked, and generators were already set up. Plus, it was already boarded up. So, it made sense to go here. And it was toward the center of the city.”
“Ok, now that that’s been answered, where are my friends.”
The man looked sadden, and said, “We were only able to save you. The others were already dead or missing.”
“You sure?!” he nodded. “Damn, we need to go back and check!”
“No! We don’t have the men!”
Suddenly, a sharp stab of pain went into my chest, and I passed out.







Chapter 3:
The man ran and ran, the hordes chasing him far across the roofs. If he could just make it home, he’d be safe. He jumped the gap between the two roofs, sliding as he landed to get through the gap in the wall. As he slid through the gap, he fired his silenced pistol through the gap at the infected trying to get to him. As he came out the gap, he sprung to his feet and continued running.
Damn! How was I seen! The man thought, confused and angry.
He had to duck under a jumping Unstable, then continued running with a semblance of normalcy. He reached the end of the roof and jumped the gap to the next one. The landing was near perfect, but near perfect was not enough, for he slipped. Luckily, it saved him from a spike that was about to take off his head. He crawled through the gap into the safe house.
“God damn your lucky!” yelled the man in the camp, laughing. “Thought you’d die, Akiki, I mean, that spike near took off your head!”
“Ha, well it didn’t, did it?”
“Naw, Naw it didn’t.”
“Hey Akiki, how ya doin’,” asked another man coming into the room.
“Good, though I don’t know how I was spotted.”
“Hmm… true, true,” Garvey, the man in camp said to Akiki.
“Well, I’m going to get some sleep.”
“Ok, stay ‘way fro’ the window room, a biter got in ther’ las’ night,” said the man coming into the room, George, said seriously.
“Sure, Mom,” Akiki said sarcastically.
“Ha! If only he were his mom!” said Garvey, chuckling. “She was a nice lady. She probably could have talked the zombies into being good.”
“Ah, shu’ up,” complained George, failing to stop his chuckling.
We went back and forth, teasing and insulting each other, for over and hour, laughing and chuckling.
“Well, goodbye,” Akiki said, after laughing hard enough to fall out of his chair.
“Bye,” they chimed together.
Akiki went to his room, third door on the left, and made sure his thermal light was powered and running. Then, he went to his desk and read his book for a bit. He went to sleep when he heard the others heading to bed.
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I woke, my chest heaving, sweat running deep into my eyes. I couldn’t see, my eyes stung. I shrieked.
Deniz and Kirill came running into my room.
“What, What Happened!” Kirill was yelling.
“Was it a dream,” Deniz asked calmly.
“Y-Yes, but th-there were new pe-people,” I said terrified, knowing something terrible was going to happen to them.
“What happened,” Deniz asked, trying to sooth me into what happened.
“Their-Their names. I-I heard their names.”
Deniz looked shocked, then asked, “You-you heard what.”
“Their names.”
“Damn. What were they?”
“Akiki, George, and Garvey.”
He was stunned. “Get to Ahmet.”
“Wait, how are you there. Why am I here. I was in a New Order base.”
“Damn, that’s the lie they told you, huh.”
“Wait, what do you mean? Who told me what?”
“Dream Creatures, beings that live in the human mind.”
“You’ve got to be making that up! Those can’t be real.”
“Ok, Ahmet should tell you the truth.”
“The truth about what?”
“Everything.”







Chapter 4:
“What’s the truth then?” I was asking Ahmet.
“We can’t tell you here.”
“We, who’s we? You’re the only one here. And why can’t you tell me here.”
He looked pained. “I can’t say yet.”
“Why?!” I asked, exasperated.
“We just can’t.”
“Ugh, fine. Just take me where I need to go.”
“Good.”
I couldn’t move without causing a lot of pain, as to because the floor had fell against me. He pulled me out on the gurney, difficultly, as it was so unwieldy. Ahmet brought me down the hall, then turned into his room, the first time I’d ever been in here, as we’d just got the tower a day or two ago.
His room was sparsely decorated. A wardrobe was on the far was, and a table and chair were to the left, with an open laptop on it. An open door was on the right, and in it I could see a bed and a dresser, with a Thermal lamp on it. The walls were colored a dark blue, with a black floor and ceiling.
Ahmet pulled out his radio and sent a transmission to Boris, Kirill, Deniz, and another man, Frank.
“Who’s Frank?” I asked Ahmet.
“A visitor,” Ahmet answered.
“A visitor from where?”
“No more questions.”