Omega Rising

Chapter 1: The Outbreak

I'm in the yard when it happens. That's the only reason I make it out alive. Probably the first lucky break I ever got in my life, and it figures my big streak of luck would begin in a prison exercise yard, surrounded by dozens of hungry zombies. The first indignant scream doesn't draw much attention. The guards here don't care if someone is shanking you in the ribs, unless you're one of the tweakers willing to bang a guard for some junk. So I don't pay any attention to it either, just finish my last rep and put down the dumbbells. But then there's a wave of shrieking, real panicked, and I stand up, half expecting to see a fight happening.

But it's not a fight. It looks like something out of a movie, and I freeze for a second before it starts clicking that this is happening. Everywhere I look inmates and guards are clawing and ripping each other apart. Literally. Across the yard, people are down on the ground, while others hunch over them, pulling away chunks of skin and muscle and shit I can't even identify. Their backs rock like starving animals and I think for a second, vampires? But the ones who can get back up are running too, grabbing anyone they can reach and sinking their teeth into them. Jesus Christ.

Everyone's screaming, and my slayer instincts are freaking out so hard I can barely think. One of them, those things, grabs me and wrenches my arm up. The bitch is strong, but I'm stronger, and I yank back before she can get her teeth in me. She stumbles aside dumbly, reaching for me again and I shove her, it, away. More of them start shuffling toward me, realizing I'm one of the few left on my feet in the yard. I gotta get out of here. I try the doors going inside, but they're locked, and if the zombie on the other side trying to chew through the Plexiglas means anything, that's not a way out anyway.

Looks like my only choice is up and out. The walls around the yard gotta be 20 feet high, and it's not like I've been practicing my jumping skills in this shithole, but it's that or become a snack. I start at a run, dodging zombies and trying to get enough speed up to make it up the wall. I'm almost there when I hear a small voice call, "Help me! Please!"

I'd have to be crazy to stop. I ignore the cries and keep running. A group of zombies is kneeling on the ground, fighting over Carla, one of the girls in my block. Too late for Carla now. I leap as I reach them, pushing off the back of one of them, and I'm up, flying through the air, my palms outstretched and reaching… Amazingly, I make contact with the edge. I claw at it, desperate to hang on. The concrete digs into my knees as I jam my toes into the wall. I just gotta get a better grip. I take a chance and let go with one hand, reaching up further to grab the wide edge. There's no real place to grab, but slayer strength helps, and I haul my ass up there, collapsing on top. My heart's racing like it hasn't in months. The land in front of the prison is flat and empty. I look back the way I came, and it's a mass of moving, moaning zombies. Everyone is dead. Except one girl, crouching behind an overturned table. She's crying and staring right at me. She must be the one who called for help.

I should just go. I'm gonna get killed if I jump back down there. Plus it's not like she's an innocent. She's a convict. Probably a baby diddler, I tell myself, even though I know they don't keep them in my cellblock, so they're not in the yard now. I turn to leave. But I'll be damned if there isn't a little voice in my head telling me I gotta go back. My subconscious doesn't have to try that hard either. One little what would Buffy do? and I'm saying fuck it and jumping into the zombie horde.

My ankle turns funny when I land, and it hurts, but I'm on the move before the dead can reach me. It's not far to the table, but I gotta evade six of them before I reach it. They move slowly, like they don't know how to use their bodies anymore. I got the slayer speed working full throttle so even the ones who grab at me stumble off as I keep charging by. I throw myself behind the table with the crying chick. They're gonna be crawling back here in a second so we gotta move fast. "Hey," I say.

"Hi." She sniffles, peering around me for imminent zombie approach.

I skip the pleasantries. "So look, here's the plan. I'm gonna run out, and you stay right behind me. If one of them slows me down, run for a clear spot at the wall. I'm gonna boost you up."

"It's too tall," she protests, like she didn't just watch me jump it myself. She starts crying harder, huge fat tears dripping off her chin.

We do not have time for this shit. "What's your name?"

"Kim," she manages in between gasping sobs.

I grab her wrist and squeeze it a little too hard so she looks at me. "Kim. I'm Faith."

She nods politely like we're meeting in a bar and not under a table in Zombie Nation.

"Stand up," I order her. "We're getting out of here. Now, when I say so, run."

I pop up from behind the table without waiting for a response. If this fish ain't gonna follow me, I'm not gonna stick around here and be dinner for Zombie Carla and the rest of them. I start moving, kicking anything that comes close enough to grab me. Kim's behind me, back to the wall, holding my shirt for dear life. The problem with these things is they don't have any reason to stop coming at you. Nothing I do seems to hurt them. They just get back up and try to bite. My new best friend screams my name and I see what used to be Doreen, one of our more decent guards, pulling Kim's neck toward her waiting jaws. My scissor kick snaps Doreen's head back, and the zombie falls. She doesn't get back up and I realize I broke her neck. So that's one way of getting rid of them. Kim's hands are yanking on my shirt hard enough to choke me, but I still fend off the next two coming at us. Only a couple more yards and we're home free. I think we're going to make it, but one of them falls forward onto me so suddenly that I can't evade her. She tackles me and we roll around on the ground. Thick globs of reddish brown drool fall from her mouth as she opens wide and comes at my face. Kim's screaming but I don't know what she's saying. I wanna puke when I have to grab the zombie's face, but I somehow keep it down. I twist her head until I hear a crack, and she slumps over on top of me.

Kim's getting hysterical now, as I shove the dead thing off me. "Get to the wall!" I howl, and she nods, running the final few yards as fast as she can. I shake my clothes out and tell my stomach not to heave, lurching after her.

It's like every deadhead in the yard is shuffling our way now, and they're almost here. I'm a good fighter, but I'm out of practice and these odds are insane. "Up!" I bark to Kim, crouching down and threading my fingers into a little step for her. She braces her hands on my shoulders and puts her right foot in my fingers. "I'm gonna throw you. Hard."

"Okay." She sniffles, watching them walking toward us with fear plain on her face.

"Kim," I say, and she looks down at me. "We got one shot at this. I'll get you up there. You just gotta hold on."

"Right," she agrees, trying to act brave.

I nod and brace myself. The first zombie grasps at my ankle as I shove my arms upward with every ounce of strength I have. The girl goes flying up, her hands stretched toward the sky. I don't have time see if she makes it, because I'm busy smashing my palm into the nose of the body pawing at my pant leg. She stumbles back and I look up. Kim's dangling by one hand, obviously on the verge of falling. I'm gonna have to jump straight up now; this area is too thick with the dead to take a running start. I turn to face the wall and crouch, ready to spring. A searing hot pain floods my leg and I kick out blindly. Another thing that used to be a guard tumbles backward. I kick off, using my feet to keep pushing off the wall as I jump upward. I barely grasp the top of the wall, a couple feet away from Kim, who starts screaming at me to help her. Her fingers are slipping. On the ground under us, the zombies are trying to climb the smooth concrete. Their horrible moans almost block out her shouting.

I yank myself up, skinning my palms. My knees are aching from the beating they've taken going up this wall twice. Scrambling across the concrete, I grab her wrist. "Give me your other hand."

"Pull me up," she begs. "Please pull me up!"

"I'm trying!" I growl. "Give me your damn hand."

She nods, and I can see the terror in her dark eyes. She swings her other arm up toward me, fighting gravity to reach my hand.

I grasp and miss. "Again!"

Tears stream down her face. Below her dangling feet, the dead have started climbing over each other, not caring they're smashing one another into the wall, trying to reach Kim.

"Come on!" I yell, trying to force her to focus. "Reach for me."

She takes a deep breath and contorts her body again, desperately reaching. I lean further over the edge, risking falling face first into the mass of frantic bodies. Our fingers touch, slip, and then I've got them again, and I'm dragging her up onto the wall. She hugs the top of the wall, and we both lay there for a minute, panting and trying to calm our racing heartbeats.

"Thanks," Kim wheezes finally.

"Yeah." I nod. "You ready to go down the other side?"

She looks more nervous, like she forgot we couldn't stay up here. "We have to jump?"

Gesturing around us, I raise my brows. "You see any other way down?"

Kim shakes her head.

"Alright, so, you ready?" We gotta get moving. For now, the way we have to go is clear. But who knows how long it's gonna take until the meat puppets down there get smart enough to figure out they can get out the doors.

"We should just stay here. Someone will come and get us."

I stare at her. Is this chick for real? "Like who?"

"Well, I'm sure some guards will see us and come help us down."

Let me get this straight… "You wanna go back inside?"

"You want to be a fugitive?" Her chin tilts up.

"Ain't a matter of wanting to do it, princess." I don't bother softening the blow, because I gotta get out of here whether she's coming or not. "Everybody in that place is dead."

"What?" Kim starts to tremble. "No, they can't be."

Okay… This girl isn't all there. "I saw them," I jerk my thumb toward the yard, "inside. Believe me; nobody's coming to get us down."

She's starting to cry now.

"What?" I joke. "You gonna miss the warden?"

Licking her lips, she pulls her arms around her stomach. "My best friend was inside."

"Oh." Well, now I feel like a jackass. Still, it's better she finds the truth out now.

"Okay." Kim unfolds her arms and rubs her hands across her face. "How are we getting down then?"

I can probably take the jump, but she's a regular person. Gonna break a leg for sure with this kind of drop, but there aren't a lot of options. I get on my knees and position myself to start backing over the edge. "Get on my back."

"What?"

I roll my eyes. "Get on my back. I'm gonna hang on to the edge. You slide down my back as far as you can and then let go."

She's looking at me like I'm crazy.

"It's only about ten feet down then. You should be okay."

Kim's shaking her head. "You can't hold us both; we'll fall!"

I smirk. This girl could be from Sunnydale with the amount of repression she's doing. "You know a lot of people who can send you flying twenty feet up a wall?"

She shakes her head stupidly.

"So then what's the problem? Get on my back. I got you."

Kim puts her shaking hands on my shoulders and steps around behind me. Her legs squeeze around my hips, and she winds her arms around my neck.

"Hold on tight." I back up slowly, gripping the inside ledge. First one knee over the edge, digging into the outside of the wall, then the other. Kim's shaking like a leaf, holding on to me tightly. We're hanging now, and I dig my toes into the wall, trying to decrease the weight I'm holding on my hands. Moving my left hand first, I transition my grip to the outer ledge. This is as close as I can get her. "You gotta move down now."

"I can't." She's starting to cry again.

This is not the time to tell me this. "The hell you can't," I growl. "Just move one arm."

I feel her grip loosen.

"Good. Now put your arm around my chest."

Kim does, her hand now gripping my left boob. "Sorry," she mutters.

"S'fine. Move your other arm."

She's getting the hang of it now. Her legs loosen and she's sliding down my thighs. Then her ass is at my feet and she freezes.

"Alright. You're doing good."

"Okay." She sniffles.

"Now, move your left leg… that's it… just try to brace your foot against the wall." Her movements are shaky and I'm afraid she's going to fall. "Hold on to me with your arms, okay? Move your other leg down."

Kim's panting now, her arms obviously not used to holding her entire body weight 15 feet in the air. The force of gravity pulls her down until she's barely holding on to my ankles. "You're bleeding," she calls up to me.

"Must have cut my leg." I forgot about that. "You're not too far up now," I assure her, even though I have no idea how far up she is. "Just gotta let go and land."

"That's it?" She asks incredulously.

"That's it."

"Okay." She takes a deep breath. "Okay, I'm gonna let go."

"Right behind you," I promise.

Kim screams a little when she lets go and screams louder when she lands.

"Okay?" I shout down because I can't really turn to see.

"I-I think so!" She calls back, sounding surprised.

"Good, now move over. I'm coming down." I give her a few seconds to move, then I hope like hell I don't break something and let go of the wall.

I land on my feet, dropping my body into a crouch and rolling onto my side. My sore ankle aches, and I lay there for a moment. Kim scrambles over, trying to help me up. I wave her off. Gotta sit here for a minute. My hands are almost numb from the marathon hang session we just did up there, but the rest of my parts are in working order. She's crouching right next to me, looking around like zombies are gonna charge us at any moment. Which I guess they could. Even with the wall between us, I can still hear the thumps of the dead bodies trying to get to us. And the moaning all of them are making. My stomach lurches again.

I get to my feet, and Kim jumps up too, standing close to me. The prison's out in the middle of nowhere. Bumblefuck, California. Still, as long as we don't meet any of our new undead friends out here, we should be able to follow the roads out. I gotta get to Angel's place, see what he knows. For the moment it looks like I've got company.

We're at the back of the compound, so I start walking. Now that we're no longer in danger of being eaten or shattering our legs, I'm kind of freaking out. I've seen plenty of crazy shit in my time. Kakistos. Body swapping. Vampires with souls. Hell, my old boss turned into a giant snake. But this is on a whole other level. Those were demons. These were just people. People who I knew and lived with, becoming zombies. And it moved so fast. Within a minute of the first bite, they were back on their feet, trying to eat the person next to them. Their skin changing colors so they looked like giant bruises. And their eyes. Crazy bloodshot eyes with nothing left in them. I don't know what this is. But it's bad. I just hope it's only in the prison. Because if it's not… well, the world won't need slayers anymore. There won't be a world worth saving.

Kim grabs my arm as we round the corner to the front of the building. There's a car on top of what used to be the fence blocking the entrance driveway. The windshield's broken but you can see the blood smeared on the inside. More blood at the guard shack. It's easy to see what happened here. Someone who was already infected ran the gate and when the guards went out to help, they were bitten. Poor bastards. Probably never knew what hit 'em.

On the grass ahead of us, broken glass mingles with a lot of blood. Two stories up, there's a broken window. It must have been one of the offices. The rest have bars over them. "Do you think someone got out?" Kim's voice is hopeful.

"Someone or something." I shrug. I'm not gonna give her false hope. What are the chances it was her friend who made it out this way?

As soon as I say that, some more glass falls, landing on the shards on the ground. Fuck. Zombie in the window. Not that it knows enough to climb out… Fuck. Another one of them comes up behind the first and shoves. The zombie tumbles out, landing in a heap a few feet from us. It blinks slowly, like it's surprised. Then it sees us, and its bleary red eyes focus. It moans and the other one, now leaning from the window, moans back.

"Start moving," I mutter at Kim and she starts to jog away. The thing gets to its feet, its now broken arm dangling uselessly from its frame. Poor, pathetic bastard. I kick it as hard as I can in the temple and when it falls, I yank its neck toward me until it stops moving. Kim's at the dirt road waiting for me, and I make it over to her before I bend over and lose my breakfast.

"You okay?" She asks me.

"Five by five," I reply and start walking. We're not gonna reach Angel's place tonight. But we'll put some distance between us and this place, and we'll get to LA tomorrow. I hope to hell it's better there.