Stage One: Hope in Darkness

Taking Over (Lara)

The energy of the crowd was infectious. Everyone started to grab whatever they could to use as a weapon. A few rifles and ammo are being handed out. I manage to scrounge up a pistol and a knife for myself off the lifeless corpse of a guard. Something was better than nothing.

A man comes walking up to me. "Ma'am?" He gives me a salute like a well trained soldier. That is when I clock the dog tags hanging around his thinning form. The motion shocks me, and I know my eyebrows are raised in surprise. Still I give him my best imitation of a salute, not perfect but hey I am trying my best here.

"I was really impressed with how you handled yourself up there. Hasn't been that kind of guts in this place for a long time. That bastard has a way of torturing the best out of you." His words have me standing a little taller. This whole time I have felt a bit too much like I am a child wearing their parents clothes. They don't fit right and no amount of finery was going to make me a leader.

"Thanks," The words are second nature coming out of my mouth, "What is your name?"

"Sergeant Jeffrey P. Barns Ma'am" Ugh there it was again.

"Please, there is no need for any of that Ma'am business. I'm not that old," That earns a chuckle from the middle aged soldier. "Lara" I stick out my hand and he gives it a firm shake.

"Well Miss Lara, no disrespect but I can tell you are not familiar with this kind of thing. No training in tactics or the kind of team work that comes from being in the military. I am...or was at least. I know my way around a battlefield." The point he was trying to make was clear. And he was absolutely right, and I had no problem handing over control to someone with more seasoned hands than me.

"How good are you?" I ask, he gives a small soundless chuckle.

Good enough that I can assure you that I can wipe these rats off the planet." There was an odd twinkle in his eye. He had been waiting for this moment, saving whatever he could until the second the cell unlocked and he could get a good grip on his captures. Now that he had the chance to destroy them he was not going to let it go. It was easy enough to tell that things would be in good hands with him.

"Got a plan?" He shakes his head.

"Not yet. Wanted to speak to you first. Where are we going?" He wanted the information he knew he needed. Good man. I wave him over to a room containing a map of the city.

"Here is where the weapons vault is. If we want these people to have any chance they need to be armed. We have someone currently working on getting it open, hopefully by the time we get there we can get weapons." He makes a hum noise emanating from the back of his throat.

"I've passed it a couple of times," He mumbles. "Alright the best ways to get there would be through here or here" He points out a couple of streets on the map. Outlining with his fingers the path we need to take.

"Good. We need to get there and get everyone properly armed. Right now we only have a handful of fighters." Sergeant Barnes lays out a plan. Splitting everyone up into four groups so that they are not just one big walking target. The meager weapons we do had are distributed equally between the teams. Four groups of about fifty, this will give us our best chance. Now if they block a road or something then we are not all funneled into one space and taken out.

The weapons doled out to about four guns per group, at least the guns. Everyone had found at least something, brooms and mops wouldn't do much against men with guns but if they set walkers on us then at least they could defend themselves. It was going to be a mad dash to the armory. Once we got the guns then the real fight would start.

These people had been captive for so long, and like me they would die just to get out of going back into those cages. Hopefully everything went well on Shadow's end and he could get the armory open swiftly for us.Fours routes, four chances to get this right and take these bastards out.