Welcome to the End

Chapter 02: Protect and Serve

Kevin Scott dived across the counter in an abandoned department store. Stacked boxes of men's ties were scattered in all directions when he struck them in passing. Rolling back to his feet on the other side, he kept running.

Despite his heavily muscled 6'5" frame, Kevin was remarkably agile and quick. He needed every bit of it to survive today's encounter. This expedition had started out with Kevin being the hunter, but the roles had suddenly reversed.

Movement to his right caught his attention, and he turned quickly, bringing up his shotgun only to discover his own reflection staring back at him from a mirror.

Kevin had a slightly rounded face. His black hair matched his skin tone in color and was cut very short. He wore the black, white, and gray of urban camouflage on his pants and short sleeved shirt. Both had received splatters of mud and blood, and numerous holes had been either caused by excessive wear or damage from enemy weapons.

Kevin still carried a police badge on his belt. He knew it didn't mean much to anyone out there in the world, but he didn't wear it for them. He carried his badge to remind himself of who he was inside. Even with the world collapsing around him, Kevin stood for honor and justice. If he ever forgot it, letting himself be consumed by self serving thoughts of survival at the expense of others, he'd become as mindless as the zombies.

He left the menswear section of the store and paused by the doorway into the next area. Filled with lawn chairs, picnic tables, and other items for summertime, the seasonal section looked untouched.

Hearing the rapid footsteps closing in on his position, he knew why no one had bothered the items stored here. Entering cities was always an insane risk. Those not overrun by zombies were populated by something far worse, and Kevin had found one of the ones that was worse.

Putting his back up against the far side of the doorway, Kevin waited for his pursuers. As the first came sprinting into the room, Kevin swung his shotgun and clotheslined the man in the face, dropping him onto his back. Flipping around his weapon, Kevin leveled it toward the trailing two men and fired. The first kicked over backwards in a spray of red mist.

The empty shell ejected, spiraling away on a thin trail of smoke as Kevin pumped his shotgun to chamber the next round. The final attacker came rushing at him, screaming incoherently. The gun thundered in Kevin's hands as he put him down.

"Scavengers," Kevin practically spit the name of his defeated opponents.

Dressed in piecemeal portions of tattered clothing, the dead scavengers resembled a primitive tribe. Two of them wore long strands of gold between various piercings on their faces and ears. Their hair had either been shaved or spiked. Tattoos and burns from branding irons marked the three men, covering the exposed skin of their arms in ritualized designs unique to their individual scavenger band. Bones from vanquished opponents also served as decoration for their ragged attire.

The scavengers started out as gangs and looters when civilization had begun falling apart. The more police were called to combat the undead threat, the less attention the criminals received. This allowed them free reign to do anything. As the years passed, they became more and more like animals, fighting and killing anyone they found, and taking whatever they could lay their hands on. Some groups had even been reported as being cannibals, but since no one had survived a visit to the scavenger camp, the reports were unsubstantiated.

Kevin had been around for the initial outbreak of the zombie infestation. Still a police officer back then, he'd witnessed the growing threat of the gangs, but his orders had prevented him from actively doing anything about it since headquarters felt the undead were the primary threat.