Dead Age Episode 1

The Cast
Rick Shaw - Half Zombie Philosopher (3rd Level Rogue)
Detective Terry Gamble - Off Duty Cop (3rd Level Warrior)
Matthew "Mr." Mann - Super Soldier (3rd Level Warrior)
Captain Lewis - Homeland Security Field Agent (3rd Level Warrior)

New Edison's Starling, Massachusetts' campus is only a few years old and a key plan to rolling out human testing for the numerous pharmacological projects they bring to market each year.

On a quiet saturday afternoon, Terry was picking up some extra money by working security at the Starling Campus, teamed with a company man named Harry Samuels.

Rick was part of "Group 7", earning money as a human guinea pig and was one of 8 others receiving treatments that afternoon on the secure 4th floor.

Mr Mann was in Sub-Basement 2 performing Classified Security Protocols.

Captain Lewis was posing as a nurse on the 4th Floor, trying gain intel on what New Edison was working on.

It was Rick, while in hour two of his "treatment" that caught a flurry of activity and screaming from the other end of the floor.  Poking his head outside he saw a doctor and nurse attacked and murdered by a berserk woman, who used her teeth to rip out their jugulars.  Rick decided to smash a chair in his room to use it's leg as a weapon and was surprised at how easy it was for him.

Going into the hall he smashed the skull of the "crazy woman" and was startled to see the nurse, with her neck ripped out getting up and lunging for him.  Rick quickly smashed her skull in as well, and began moving through the rooms dealing with the other "patients".

Lewis, unsure ow what was happening had taken cover behind the nurses station and was receiving orders on how to proceed when Mr. Mann burst up to the 4th floor.  Both men moved forward into the ward and were startled by the amount of death and gore.

They met with Rick, just as Harry Samuels made his way to the top floor and began to take notes.  Terry was given access to the security feed on the 4th floor, by Samuels and immediately made his way up.  He encountered an injured nurse fleeing the floor and told her to go outside and wait for the first responders he's alerted.

Once Terry had made it to the 4th floor he became very concerned for the situation and began trying to contact his police station, but discovered cellular and land lines were down.

As the group formulated a plan of action, they were alerted to screaming outside and witnessed several injured people brutally attacking the first responders outside the building.

They raced down to the first floor and secured the doors while bearing witness to the mutilation just feet away.

Mr. Mann decided they needed to head toward downtown and Rick decided to sneak out the back and get his beat up Ford Van.  The maniacs didn't seem to give him a second glance, and when he looked at his visage in the Van's rear view mirror, he was startled at how gray his skin appeared.

Rick easily parked his Van close to the door and they group sped off to the north, taking the Interstate.  Smoke was the first sign things weren't right coming from the southbound lanes and the Starling itself.  As they slowed toward a massive pile up of cars on the southbound side, they heard three ATV's speeding toward them and saw they were being driven by leather clad drivers with strange looking guns.

Rick decided to play chicken with the ATV's and crossed the meridian to the southbound lanes.  Two of the ATV's drivers weren't skilled enough to doge him and crashed, but the third swooped around his old Van.  Mr. Mann pushed Harry to turn around and pursue and several projectiles filled with a glowing red substance was fired at them from the ATV's driver.  Unfortunately, while taking aim for a third shot, he failed to notice a stalled car on the left shoulder and met his end in a fiery collision.

The group began to process what was occurring and Mr. Mann was e-mailed a video of similar ATV's driving through Starling shooting citizens, who quickly began to attack those around them like wild animals.

The group headed into town and discovered numerous buildings burning, with hospitals, fire stations and police stations having been targeted by what looked like bombings.

Rick drove the Van to a gas station, wanting to fill it up and get food.  While there the group met two young men who worked there, Mal and Juan.  Both of them explained how the city erupted in rioting after "strange biker dudes" began shooting the place up and then began "attacking the police."

While Rick finished up topping off his tank, he heard an ATV approaching at a slow speed and finally saw that it's driver had some strange device that emitted lights on it's tail and the driver was pulling nearly 40 "zombies", as he'd taken to thinking of them, right toward their position.

He alerted the others to the approaching horde and then plowed his van into them, moments after the ATV broke away and zipped down a narrow alley.  Rick managed to mow down quite a few, but his Van stalled and the zombies yanked him out the open driver's window.  However, they merely moved him out of their way and did not seek to attack him.  Thinking desperately, he used a handgun he'd taken from Samuels, and shot the Van's gas tank and the nearly half the horde were blown to bits.

Mr. Mann, Terry and Lewis all began opening fire on the remaining "zombies", mowing them down but at the cost of Mal who was overwhelmed running to help Rick.  Rick had been blown clear of the explosion and appeared fine, except for being hairless and naked.

The group and Juan began to look for a new set of wheels, when a sewer lid less than fifteen feet away rocketed up into the air and a monster stirred from it's filthy depths.

Something out of nightmare clamored into the dim sky, standing nearly ten feet tall the thing that faced them had six arms and stuffy legs, wired and tubes criss crossed it's pink skin.  A single, giant red eye gazed out of its small head and a mini gun grew forth out of it's left shoulder and back, an ammunition belt running out of its left leg and onto it's back.

The mini gun began to spin, it's high pitched cry cutting the eerie silence to the bone.