For three years, Cole Asher worked as security at Harrow Logistics. He worked mostly nights shift, because it paid thirty more cents per hour and he wasn't too proud to admit thirty cents mattered. Cole went his usual checks around the floor, his boots loud on the concrete, flashlight sweeping the gaps between shelving units out of habit rather than suspicion. All he had to was show up, walk the floor, and make sure nothing happened to the shipments going in and out of the warehouse. Cole's security partner, Tann, sat in the surveillance booth, observing the cameras with his feet raised up the desk, whilst eating a bag of salted chips. "Did you spot anything?" Tann asked when Cole came back from his rounds. "Nothing," Cole said. "Same as always." He sat next to Tann and poured himself a mug of hot coffee from the thermos he'd brought from home but grimaced as the coffee tasted terrible. "Still drinking shit coffee." Tann chuckled as Cole's been brewing his coffee wrongly fo

The world around Cole was on fire, the city buildings were torn apart, traffic lights blinked green to yellow to red over an empty intersection as abandoned vehicles filled the highway. Moving along the wall of the overpass with a steel pipe in his right hand, Cole kept his boots light and his breathing controlled. ALERT ! NATIONAL EMERGENCY — PATHOGEN CLASSIFICATION: UNKNOWN — VECTOR: AIR BORNE / FLUID / CONTACT WITH AFFECTED INDIVIDUALS — CIVIL EMERGENCY DECLARED IN 47 STATES — AWAIT FURTHER INSTRUCTION The one bar signal on his phone downloaded a broadcast message in pieces and he found a slight relief knowing someone was handling the situation. Cole watched the spaces between cars for any Greys or at least a survivor, almost making it to the end of the overpass when a Grey jumped out from under a delivery truck. It gave no warning, no sound, just a slender shape crawling from beneath the truck, pale and deadly fast. Cole had half a second to react and he swung high, catchi

By the time Cole reached Dana's street, his kill count was fifteen. He'd begun counting after the overpass and along the apartment buildings on Greer Avenue, coming across fast ones, slow and injured ones, and even one that had been a teenager in a football jersey. Nonetheless, it was still four kills short from his first active combat in the military and Cole wasn't sure if that made him feel better or worse. Dana's building was a four storey walk-up on the quieter end of Greer Avenue. The building had a buzzer system nobody used because the front door lock had been broken for months and the landlord — Mr. Previtt, had never fixed it like the ceiling mold problem. Tann had mentioned this once and Cole had filed it in his memory without knowing why but now, he understood why as he pushed the front door open and took the stairs. He knocked twice on Dana's apartment and listened quietly for any response or movements but he didn't hear anything. He knocked again and whispered th

The market district seemed unusually clear from the entrance. There were blocks of shuttered shopfronts, overturned market stalls, and fruits rotting in the gutters.Cole scanned the street for a minute before moving in, but halfway through, a Grey came around the corner of a butcher shop and stopped. It looked at Cole and Dana and they stared back at it, wondering why it hadn’t attacked them yet, but in a second, it snarled hungrily and called out a pack of thirty.Cole's heart dropped to his stomach as he saw more sprinting around the corner, the sound of their feet multiplying from one alleyway to another."Run," Cole said to Dana, pushing her into the opposite direction."But Basin's Street is that way—" She said, pointing at the alleyway where the Greys ran out in numbers, snarling and coming toward them."Now, Dana!" Cole barked an order and they both ran for their lives.The Greys were fast but Dana was faster than Cole expected. She ran like she had wheels on her feet, arms s

It was cold inside the white tent as a portable AC unit blew in chilled air. The world had ended four days ago and somehow the man sitting at the far end of the tent had found time to be extra comfortable. “Ridiculous.” Cole hissed as an officer brought him to the table where the man sat with his laptop closed, his folder open and a glass of water on the right side of the table that hadn’t been touched. The man was somewhere in his mid-fifties, silver at the temples, clean shave and P.A.X uniform pressed sharp on his sturdy build. He had the kind of face that was difficult to read not because it was blank but because it was too tight and controlled. "Mr. Asher." The man rose up and smiled the minute Cole entered. "Please, have a sit.” He gestured to the chair at the near end of the table. Cole sat down, using the chance to rest his sore legs as his muscles were beginning to cramp from all the running and trekking. “My name is Director Hale and I oversee the Post-Awakenin