It was all quiet at the edge of the tree line. There was a corrugated iron shack for an outpost, where a team of Hunters kept a constant watch across the open fields surrounding the forest-based settlement. In all there were five of these lookout posts, from above they'd look like a pentagram-shaped perimeter. The safety of the people of Sanctuary was the highest priority, so having armed people at lookout posts for any visitors - friendly, hostile or undead - was a problem solved during the first weeks of the settlement's existence. Even if the town itself had some awesome walls to keep nasties out, it was better if nothing threatening reached those walls at all.

As the shifts changed on the Northern post, the guards would shake hands and exchange a few words about activity on the perimeter. The most commonly used phrase was, "Ain't jackshit out there." That's exactly how it went, and now the Hunters' newest recruit was going to learn a thing or two. Watching the line with her big brother would be fun, wouldn't it? It's not like these guys actually did anything but sit around playing cards, right?

"Now, this is our job. We watch, we don't see anything? We stay put. We do see something.. hostile? We hunt it. Head on a swivel, eyes focused on even the slightest twitch out beyond our treeline. Lives depend on it, Lucy. It's your first day so we'll just give you some pointers, teach you how to use some of the equipment."

Daniel and his sister came to the fire at the little shack for a watch stand, warming up as best they could. It was winter - a hard time for a self-sustaining settlement such as Sanctuary. The Hunters probably had the worst of it though. They stayed at their outposts even in blizzards, nothing but a fire, warm clothes and a not-so-sheltered shelter to keep them toasty and dry.

It was going to be a long watch... The weather wasn't getting worse, but something just felt off today. Well, to Daniel anyway. Dan's semi-automatic M21 was wrapped up in cloth for the season. He rested it against the wall of the corrugated iron shack, followed by his sister Lucy doing the same with her basic M4 - they wouldn't give the kid anything bigger for now. Now was a good time to show Lucy how to spot properly, before she could shoot properly.

(So, I'll spill it - something bad gets to happen at this outpost in particular! You can start here, or wherever you'd like.)

Justin Hawke sat around the fire warming his hands always wearing his combat gear his rifle always resting against him he was always scanning the distance and looking "Man, I want to go out there I wish they would give us some action already I got some places I want to map out fully." He said to no one in particular "This place is so dull all you get to do is watch rust develop on scrap metal, but we digress I guess say anyone hungry? I got some deer jerky that's only 2 years old just as young as you two."

Reading was one of Miriam's favorite pastimes, but it did have its disadvantages: For example, she hadn't shifted her position for roughly two hours, and her right leg was definitely asleep. She'd only really noticed this once she read the last sentence of the book, which was something about human evolution, and put it down. Although it was a good read she was eager to get up and stretch. Shuddering at the pins and needles shooting through her leg, she threw on a baggy jacket and a hat she'd tried knitting awhile ago (it was ugly, but it was also functional) as well as her backpack and headed outside the small shack that she called home.
The woman yawned and cast her gaze around Sanctuary. With a small twinge, she wished her parents could have made it here with her, that fate could have played out differently. She was quick to shake this thought from her head with a stern mental reminder: You should be grateful to have made it this far. They'd be proud. Maybe they are, if the afterlife is real. With this thought lingering in her mind, Miriam wandered toward the Northern guard post, which was the nearest one to her small abode. She decided that it wouldn't hurt to check that they were alright medically, and she had some food in her backpack that she didn't want.

Elijah was walking back from his post. He had just finished his shift. Letting his HK416 rest at chest level. Elijah used both hand to take off his ballistic helmet with face protection. He held it with too hands and looked into the dity blackened visor. In the reflection he could see himself being reflected. His face lined with scars, his eyes tired. All he wanted was rest. Elijah looked back up and used a hand to strap his helmet onto his sides. He slowly made his way to a fire nearby. He arrived in time to hear the last few words of one of the guards he was familiar with.
"Nothing there as usual." Elijah sighed. "I mean we should be fucking doing something not just sitting around he doing nothing. We have enough guards here would do something out there at least." Elijah complained. He opened his backpack and took out a piece of hardtack and nibbled on it, while he sat and thought to himself.

Her eyes focused on her optics and ready to shoot any suspicious movements that she can spot. Eli was always ready for anything since those things could be so aggressive. Since the day she joined the hunters, Eli was always motivated to protect families from the undead if she could. She didn't want those children to experience the same thing she and her brother experienced.
"L, anything suspicious out there?" Her Private Ears glowed, it was another sniper yards away from where she is. She quietly answered "Not just yet."

James nearly silently walked through the forest, low to the ground in case bandits were near. The only sound he heard at the time was the crunching of fallen, dead leaves under his feet every now and then, and more rarely, some wildlife. That's when he saw a bird, specifically a pigeon. In James' eyes, this pigeon was dinner. He took out his .1911, and shot the bird, the sound of the gunshot muffled by his silencer. The bird fell off of it's branch, onto the ground. He then began to set camp up.

He began sawing off branches of trees with his knife, and built a small wooden tent-like shelter. He then got some rocks and put them in a circle, putting dry leaves, dead grass, and other good types of tinder into the circle. He then threw about seven large twigs onto the pile of tinder, and took out his knife. He grabbed a small rock and began to repeatedly strike his knife against the stone, until one of the sparks that came off created a fire. He built a small structure to cook the bird on, and de-feathered the bird quickly.

He stuck the now featherless bird onto a twig, setting it on top of the structure, letting the bird cook as the fire's flames licked it. He sat on an old log that had almost conveniently been placed near where his fire was, and he turned the bird every five minutes to ensure that each side was cooked good. After about ten minutes of cooking the bird, he took it off the twig and ate it, careful not to eat the bones, enjoying the first meal he had in a couple days.

"There's nothin' like some good old bird meat when you're trying to survive alone..." he quietly said to himself.

What he didn't know was that there was a settlement nearby called Sanctuary, and the smoke from his campfire was quite visible to the people on the walls or outside of the walls.

Thump, thump, thump. They were out of canned plastic for filling holes, so Tack was spending his day patching a woman's rusted, aluminum roof with a flat sheet of iron. Thump, thump, thump. It wasn't very fun, either. Thump, thump, thump. The sound of the metal against metal being pounded through more metal and into a supporting board was giving him a headache. Thump, thump... His eyes started to wander to the side, looking out at the wall...was that smoke? Right there, just above--

THUMP. Tack's squinted eyes widened in shock and he resisted the urge to scream out the long stream of curses that crossed his mind as he held his clenched fist to his heart. Letting out an exasperated, raspy sigh, he set the offending hammer down and took off his gloves to examine his injured thumb.

As he turned away from his work and sat at the edge of the roof for a break, a thought came back to him; why would there be smoke?

"Hey, Danny? I can see smoke out there," Lucy mentioned in monotone. Daniel grabbed his rifle from its rested position on the wall of the corrugated iron shack and started heading outside to get a closer look. The snow wasn't thick, but at this distance and with a lot of trees in the way, he couldn't see the source of the smoke stack with his eyes from here. Scoping it out wouldn't work either... It would take some footwork.

"Hey, Elijah. You wanted some action, what say we go take a look?" Daniel asked as he turned his head back to his fellow Hunter, catching a short-haired woman approaching the watch post. "Miriam, right? Can ya' do us a favour and stick around here for a while? We gotta go check something out in the forest." He turned his gaze to his sister, who was wrapped up warm in the corner of the hut with binoculars hanging around her neck, "And you don't move a muscle - just keep a good look out. Doubt this is anything dangerous, but keep your eyes peeled. We'll be back ASAP."

Lucy nodded along and hugged her rifle as the woman approached the watch post, trying to look as relaxed as possible.

As far as Hunters were concerned, any life outside Sanctuary's perimeter watch stations was hostile. Hostile, but these boys and girls were under orders to return fire only. They were to be very cautious, regardless of whatever they encountered. "Eli', ready to track 'em down?" Daniel asked.

Miriam was surprised to be asked to do anything around here, and even more surprised to see smoke outside the walls. She nodded at Daniel, slightly nervously; she just hoped that the source of the smoke was the result of some weird coincidence. "Yes sir," she replied, finally taking her eyes off the wispy cloud. She took off her backpack and sat on the ground. "Won't take long, right?" Of course it wouldn't take long. Unless it's a campfire manned by an aggressive person--Cut that out, Miriam, it can't be too serious. "Either way, I brought snacks." She took out a book and started flipping through it, not expecting to have to wait too long.

"Fuck yeah! Let's go check this shit out." Elijah said with a bit of excitement in his voice. Elijah grabbed his helmet from his side and placed it on his head. Once it was on he had his HK416 in his hands ready for action. He saw the Daniel was talking to two other people. One of them was his sister who was a new recruit, who hadn't proved herself yet. The other was one of the hunters who appeared not to care "Yo! Wolf, you ready to roll? Hey Miriam! He asked you to keep a look out not read. That means get a gun and keep our asses covered. " Elijah said. He moved closer to the exist. "I'm ready. Let's roll." Elijah said.

Shit shit shit this is bad Bede thought as he sprinted amongst the trees. An infected suddenly appeared in front of him from around a tree with its jaw gaping. Bede sprinted forward then jumped into the air and did a side kick yelling "nae bangsig eul bakk-eulo segseu bad-eul!". The kick connected with the zombies chest knocking it down and Bede continued running. He started panting and he could hear rustling behind him the tell tale sign of infected.
Turning Bede slid the masamune katana that had once been his mothers out of its sheath on his back. The four foot blade gleamed in the dying light. Grinning Bede said "well if ive gotta die I guess ive gotta die. Devil must be finally here to collect his due. Allright then! WASEO NA-EGE DANGSIN EUN NAPPEUN NOM EUL EOD-EUL!". Yelling at the top of his lungs Bede charged the undead and slashed with all his might. Soon the grass around him was painted with blood. He continued to slash at the oncoming undead yelling insults and curses alike never seeing the smoke directly to his left.

Eli heard something and pointed her gun on that direction. She looked carefully at the forest through her scope. She searched for whatever was making that noise. Then she found something moving around in an odd way. She held her sniper rifle still and was about to fire it but then something was off with that thing. She looked at it closely. Eli gasped at the sight of a human trying to beat all those undead creatures coming. What the heck is that guy doing? He can't kill all of them! She quickly clicked her Private Ears and sent a voice message to her comrades. "Affirmative. A group of undead creatures are attacking a human 2700 yards away from the gate. I repeat, A group of undead creatures are attacking a human 2700 yards away from the gate." She immediately fired her gun on each of the "their" heads making them look like a puppet that lost their strings.

James got up, unholstering his .1911 at the same time as he got up. He heard gunshots in the direction southeast from the direction he was looking, and heard a man yelling to his direct left. He left his camp, and walked towards the source of the yelling. Suddenly, he was ambushed by another group of zombies. He simply chuckled at them before going to town on them with his .1911, the majority of his shots hitting their heads.
*Click*
After a few heads were taken, he had ran out of bullets. He holstered his .1911, for there wasn't time to reload. He took his bayonet/knife out and began stabbing into zombie heads, making sure he hit the only possible area that was working in a zombie's brain: the cerebellum, located at the back of the head.

Justin Hawke, heard Eli talking to him over his helmet radio, he stood up and flicked the safety off his rifle sighting the man being chased and sighting the infected who were following him, "Cover, you're ears girl." He shouted to the girl with the book taking his first shot sending it down range and dropping one pulling the bolt back on his rifle ejecting the spent round and pushing the new one in, in a split second and dropping another one, Rinse and repeat.

After dropping a couple he stood back and let Eli take care of the rest "Nice shooting." He shouted over the noise "Except we are probably going to draw more so stay sharp." He told her.

Miriam shut the book with the slightest scowl after being told to. The action that unfolded was sudden, she hadn't been at all prepared for it. The sound of gunshots pounded her eardrums, making her shudder and jump to her feet. She wasn't all that good with guns, especially under pressure, and right now she could feel every beat of her heart, quickened by adrenaline, and almost feel the blood being diverted away from her digestive system and to her limbs. Breathe. Breathe. They have it under control. She watched the action and picked up a spare gun, hoping that no one would be counting on her to fire it.

She heard gunshots and knew her allies were responding to her message. "Nice shooting. Except we are probably going to draw more so stay sharp." She rolled her eyes after hearing Justin say that. "I know that. What do you think I'm doin?" Eli mumbled to herself while shooting each of the undeads heads without mercy. Ugh! Sickening pests! She told them in her head. Weirdly a zombie, with half of his brain exposed, looked at her direction which made her scoff. "What? You heard me?Sorry dude" She said while sighting the zombies head. "Sayonara, smelly meat!" She pulled the trigger and let the bullet pierce through it's skull.