Christmas of Blood:
(Earth #8189, Zorrin-Tower, New York City, New York, New-Years Eve 2012)
No one believed it at first; who could? It was just too crazy. It started as just rumors on the internet and random acts of violence on the news. However, as the days wore on and the news got worse, people realized the truth. On Christmas Eve I watched the coverage of the battle of San Francisco as the U.A.E. (United American Empire) Military, the S.F.P.D. and the W.L.H. (West-Coast Legion of Heroes) clashed with what we were told was thousands of violent rioters.
I threw up as I watched the massive horde swarming, ripping apart and eating every soldier, officer and W.L.H. hero they got their hands on. Luckily, an evacuation had been ordered for the entire city six days before, so there weren't too many civilians left in the city. No matter what the police, military or heroes did, the rioters just kept coming, like a tidal wave of bloodshed and death. On Christmas Eve, when the last shot was fired in San Francisco, over four hundred officers and soldiers were declared dead along with every member of the W.L.H. and the city was lost.
An hour later I watched the U.A.E. Secretary of Defense being questioned about the fall of San Francisco. He called it a virus, spread through a currently unknown means, that efforts to develop a cure were ongoing. There was a moment of silence, tension filled the air... then someone finally asked him the horrifying question. The question we all knew was coming, but no one wanted the answer to.
"Mr. Secretary, are the rumors true? Are these infected members of the living dead as some have suggested?" Again there was silence as tears of fear and shame showed in the secretary's eyes. The world seemed to hold its breath for the answer. The secretary sighed deeply before answering.
"Yes, the rumors are true... I'm so sorry... god forgive me," cried the secretary as he pulled a concealed handgun out of his coat and splattered his own brains all over the wall behind him. A self-execution, live for all the world to see. The world watched that moment unfold in horror and the weight of it changed everything. A gunshot heard around the world. After that, the fear was absolute as people were faced with the dark, ugly truth. In that moment it all became so clear to everyone that nothing was ever going to be the same, that this would be the world's last Christmas and it would be a Christmas of blood.
My name is Ashton but my brother and his friends just call me Ash. At the time of the outbreak, I was in New York with my big brother Edward. As CEO of one of the world’s most powerful corporate conglomerates; Zorrin-Industries, my brother often has to travel all over the world on business but this time I begged big brother to take me with him. I had always wanted to see New York at Christmas Time, the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, the beautiful lights… central park covered in glistening white. Honestly, not the Christmas I was hoping for. The trip was also supposed to be special in another way because most of my brother’s friends were also in New York for the 1st Annual S.P.C. (Super-Powered Community) East-Coast Convention and we were all supposed to meet up and spend the holidays together. We had been excited about the convention and the progress towards greater public tolerance it represented for the super-powered community. Neither big brother nor I have powers but our closest friends… our family by choice… the only family we have do. After all the hatred, mistrust and bigotry they have been forced to endure from society in general over the past few years, they deserved a convention like this. We were honored to be invited to share in the experience with them. However, with the outbreak, all those plans changed. We don’t even know if our friends made it out of the city.
Luckily, Edward has always been a bit eccentric and… perhaps a little paranoid. So when the outbreak first started getting bad my brother ordered Zorrin-Tower where we were staying to go on full lockdown as he tried to confirm the location of our friends and arrange evac for us back to our family estate in Nornland, Scotland. It made sense… Our family estate is fairly isolated, fully-stocked, self-sustaining and easily defendable in its own way but things got bad so quickly and all travel to and from the United American Empire was grounded.
Even if we could get into the air, going home would not be an option as the G.G.E. (Greater-German Empire) had already ordered a complete lockdown of all its territories including Scotland. Big brother and I were stuck and things were only getting worse. New York City was hit hard by the virus and the order of evacuation came too late. Desperate to avoid another Battle of San Francisco disaster and to slow the spread of the virus, the U.A.E. locked down all of New York City, declaring it preemptively lost without a fight. They blew the bridges and set up massive barricades equipped with anti-air defenses. New York now belonged to the dead. No one in and no one out. The E.L.H. (East-Coast Legion of Heroes) did their best to defend the city they called home but they were quickly overwhelmed.
Luckily after several days of recon looking for our friends using Zorrin-Industries Stealth-Drones, big brother observed a larger undead horde overrunning one of the deployed A.A. System Sites, creating gab in the Military’s Anti-Air System enclosing the city. It was hard, but we knew we couldn’t wait any longer. We had to hope our friend’s powers would be enough to keep them safe. This was our best and only chance to get out of the city… We had to take it.
