The Loyal Ones

Police Sgt. Christopher Hammond stood at the threshold of his department's briefing room. However the normal hustle and bustle that usually filled the area was completely absent that night, only to be replaced by the occasional cough or sound of a chair moving. The entire room lay shrouded over by a blanket of darkness, with the exception of a single television at the front of the room. The desk chairs that were normally in an orderly fashion in front of their tables were now cluttered in a circle around the sole tv.

For Hammond it didn't matter if he was trying to look at the glowing screen or not. His view of the tv was completely obscured by the backs of numerous NOOSE and LCPD officers that were crowed around it. Deciding not to waste his time trying to get to the front of the crowd, he instead leaned back against the threshold and calmly attempted to make out the words coming from the tv's speakers. Finally the group in front of the tv quieted down as an elderly man in a suit nervously walked over to the podium centered in the screen. The giant circular seal on the podium was enough to tell anybody in the room that it was an adress from the White House.

"My fellow Americans.......It is with great discomfort and sorrow that I inform you this....."

The politician awkwardly fumbled with his tie before he approached the mic again.

"As of two hours ago at 1:36 am; the unknown pandemic officially spread beyond Alderney State Correctional Facility and the emergency containment camp at Francis International Airport......"

"We are also confirming the news reports that cases of this mentioned pandemic have begun sprouting in Algonquin............and so I must regretfully inform you all tonight, that a military quarantine has been enacted on all of Liberty City........To anybody in Liberty City currently, we can only offer our prayers......"

The man opened his mouth to speak again, however the tv screen turned black before any words escaped. Immediately, every officer sat up to see who had switched off the broadcast only to quickly retract back into their seats.

The black uniform, complete with a balaclava and goggles was enough to earn respect from everyone in the room. Nobody dared question the NOOSE officer who had just turned off the federal adress. The only indentifying feature about the officer was a black nametag with white text that simply read: Hammond.

Although all the officers slowly got up and left the room, there reactions were varied. Some were crying, others cursing, but most were just silent with shock. However what awaited them in the front lobby was completely worse.

Hammond walked out of a dark and dismal room, into a bright and chaotic lobby. LCPD and NOOSE officers were pouring in through the front door; some limping and others being dragged. Chris quickly began surveying the lobby in till he spotted the tell tale helmet of another NOOSE officer. Hastily pushing through the crowd in the middle of the lobby, Hammond finally reached the officer and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Uhh yes sir what do you need?" replied the officer.

Judging by his accent and composure, Hammond could tell he was a rookie but proceeded to question him.

"What's happening kid; why are all these guys here?"

"I was in a convoy with Chief Sanderson's precinct, you know the one in Dukes......and well, I dont know if you've seen the news but it's a fuckin mess over there. We had to leave."

"Ok, that explains what your boys are doing over in Algonquin...but what the hell happened to some of these guys?" replied Hammond.

"Well we're coming up to the entrance of the one of the main bridges.....and there's this huge god damn mob just swarming at the front of it. Of course our vans plowed straight through them, but the cruisers.......that mob overturned about two or three of em. We managed to rescue most of the guys in them......but.....but the ones we didn't get to in time......t-t-t-the crowd just clawed at them in till there was nothing left."

Although his face wasn't visible, Chris stood dumbfounded by what he'd just heard. And was one step short of questioning the FNG's sanity when a scream erupted from one of the back rooms.

End of Chapter 1

This is a new story that I plan to continue. It will revolve around the LCPD/NOOSE's attempt to survive and maintain order throughout the streets of LC during the outbreak. However we will see how the lCPD start out attempting to keep order by humane and morally right methods and how they'll slowly resort to more brutal and questionable methods.....

yah man this is really cool i enjoyed reading this. you should definately keep going.

This sounds great, I can't wait to read the next chapter

yah man, are you already looking for it? when yur done if u can it would be awesome if you could send me your story in an email maybe or something?

This is pretty good stuff. My only critizism is that it needs "more cowbell".

This is pretty good stuff. My only critizism is that it needs "more cowbell".

Just lol

Chapter 2:

Anybody who wasn't frozen with fear or out of earshot went stampeding to the room where the scream had come from. By the time Hammond arrived at the door of the mentioned room; there was already a small crowd of officers blocking the way. However, with a bit of shoving and cursing; Hammond finally arrived at the front of the crowd.

Chris hadn't expected what ever the hell was going on in the small interrogation room to be pretty, but the scene he witnessed far exceeded his expectations. Two policemen had another officer strapped down to the metal table in the middle with their belts. The restrained man was completely drenched in sweat and blood as he lay in a crumpled heap on the table.

However the torn up officer's unconcious state didn't last long as his limbs began to violently spasm, and a series of distored grunts began to emit from his mouth. It was at this point that many of the opratives who had just come off the chaotic streets of Algonquin began to leave the room. They knew what was coming next.

Like a flash of lightning the mutilated officer shot up and began shrieking at the ceiling. The noise was unbearable and many more men began to leave the room with their hands over their ears. The leather belts tied around the crazed officer's wrists strained as they held back his body weight. One of the policemen next to the table gloomily unholstered his handgun and held it to the lunatic's forehead. Hammond at this point had seen enough and began walking away from the dismal scene. Even though he had reached the front lobby by the time he heard the gunshot, it still made his hair stand on end.

The police sgt. was still recovering from what he'd just seen, when a hand coming down on his shoulder brought him back to attention. Turning around, Hammond came face to face with another noose oprative. The man looked like any other typical swat officer. He was an averaged sized African American and was donned with the normal gear, with the exception of a baseball cap instead of the standard issue helmet.

"Your Chris Hammond............right?" yelled the man over the noise of the lobby.

"Yeah.....yeah that's me, what do you need?"

"It's about fucking time I found you.....Listen, my name's Captain Parker, you've just been transfered into my squad, and I need you loaded up and ready to roll out in five minutes."

"What!? Under whose orders?" yelled back Chris.

"Chief O'Brien's, so you better get your ass ready."

"Fuck.....well the last thing I need is a pay cut.....alright which truck am I reporting to sir?" asked Hammond.

Captain Parker stared quizically at Hammond before beginning to chuckle.

"Oh shit, you're being serious...... You haven't been outside have you? All of the damn roads are gridlocked, there's no way we're getting a armored truck through that shit. Besides the streets that aren't jammed are already full of those.......things."

"Well if those things are anything like what I just saw a couple minutes ago, you can count me out." replied Hammond angrily.

"Sorry, you don't have a choice right now, so go grab your equipment, meet us on the roof. We gotta helo prepped and ready."

By the time Chris had loaded up and reached the roof of the station, the chopper had already started up and the squad was climbing in. Captain Parker spotted Hammond jogging over to the helipad and moved over to make room for him. Once Chris was aboard and strapped in; Parker looked over to the pilot and gave him a thumbs up.

"Alright Hammond I heard about your service days during the San Andreas riots, and I'm impressed. Thats why I requested you in my squad. We're going over to the UN building to assist in the evacuation of the diplomats.....The LCPD already has set up a barricade at the front gate, but the crowd in front of it's growing too big for comfort."

"Wait a minute; what about us Captain!?" yelled out one squad members.

"These diplomats are priority number one right now. They'll work on getting us out after." Replied Parker.

"Alright cut the chatter" yelled the pilot over his headset. "We're leveling out our altitude then we're gonna........jesus christ......"

Obviously at ground level, nobody in the chopper had been able to see it. But now at a higher altitude, the true chaos of the situatioin was apparent. The once beautiful Liberty City skyline was now filled with pillars of smoke, as orange blazes glowed from where entire blocks used to stand. Every man in the maverick remained silent and attempted to absorb the situation, in till the pilot's voice broke the eerie silence.

"Alright guys...we're almost there. I'll be up here putting my spotlight on that crowd to help you out a little."

The helo almost instantly began to drop speed and descend towards the dark green helipad on the smaller UN complex's roof. Hammond took a deep breath as he felt the chopper's skids hit the pad and jumped out.

End of Chapter 2

This is turning out really well. Thanks for giving me something to do during prep.

interesting in fact if i were steven spielberg i would recommend this so far....

Nowice nowice... Check some spelling, and what not but, great so far. I like to know, however, a little more about the character. Maybe, some indirect background information through dialog and what not.
It is your story though. I find it to be really good writing and obviously, you should keep it up.

YES!! Another one of the ungoing stories of Undead xbox which 3 people actually read.

Hammond and company lept out of chopper and immediately began surveying the UN courtyard below. Two public transport buses had been hastily parked in front of the complex's entrance, with the letters LCPD poorly painted on the front of them. Barbed wire had been layered across the top of them and the windows reinforced with a thin layer of chain link and sheet metal. However, the most horrifying and unusual aspect of the situation was the massive mob of people swarming behind the makeshift barricade.

"You guys can stare at that all night, or get you can get to work."

The whole squad wheeled around with their weapons leveled, only to see a scruffy looking security guard jogging up the stairs to the helipad. Finally reaching the top, the man dotted his half finished cigarette and wiped the sweat from his brow with his sleeve.

"Where's Captain Moriarty; we were supposed to link up with his squad first." questioned Parker angrily.

"If you're talking about the squad that got here before you then you're not finding them. They're somewhere down in the lower levels of the building helping us bring ammo topside." replied the guard.

"Don’t tell me you've been firing into that crowd." commented Hammond.

"Naturally; you have no clue how many of those fuckers have tried climbing the buses. Usually the barbed wire stops the ones who aren't sick...........but the ones who are.........god damn........................Anyway you guys are here to get Representative Doyle the hell outta dodge so I'll take you to him."

The nonchalant security guard motioned for the squad to follow him down the stairs but stopped them half way down as he reached in his pocket. Pulling out a pile of ear plugs he began distributing them to Hammond and his squad as if it was part of his daily schedule. The reason for this action became all too clear as the group reached the bottom of the steps and a mixture of growls, shouts, and screams became audible from behind the buses.

Every second the squad spent in the courtyard as one full of chilling and un-natural noises. Hammond almost let out a sigh of relief as they reached the front lobby of the UN complex and the guard slammed the glass doors shut behind them. Two LCPD officers were standing in the only open elevator and were preparing to use it before the security guard quickly jammed his baton in the door.

“What the hell do you want!?” yelled one of the officers.

“We got noose coming through; clear the fucking way!”

The pair of cops looked up at the waiting operatives and rapidly scrambled out. As they stepped in, parker glanced at his watch. They were already about five minutes behind schedule, so there’d be no time for formalities. In this case that was a blessing. Representative Doyle was the stereotypical ivy-league educated bastard that thought they knew everything in the world and then some. The second Hammond and his squad had walked through the door he was already ordering them to hold his suitcases and luggage while he yelled into his cell phone with one hand and took the occasional gulp from a bottle of whiskey with the other.

“Well he’s handling this well…..” commented one of Hammond’s squad mates.

“Yeah why don’t you tell him that.” replied Parker with a smirk.

Annoyed by the background noise, Doyle shoved his phone into his pocket and turned around to face the squad. His face immediately scrunched up into one of anger and disgust.

“What the fuck is this shit. I specifically asked for military assistance and they send you weekend warriors. Hell, they could’ve even sent the god damn national guard and I would have been satisfied.”

“That better be the liquor talking or this is gonna be a long flight to the mainland.” muttered Hammond under his breath.

“You wanna say that again big man? That’s what I thought; you better watch what you say around me.”

Captain Parker stepped forward and opened his mouth to speak right before a terrifying sound reverberated through the room. It was the sound of bending metal and shattering glass; shortly accompanied by gunshots. The amount of gunshots everyone in the room was hearing was unbelievable and seemed unrealistic at the same time. However the noise suddenly ended as quickly as it began.

The security guard that had them escorted from the helipad came running back in.

“Guys I just lost contact with three squads down in the courtyard……..You remember what I said about getting the hell outta dodge? Well yeah…it’s that time now.”

“Shit….alright we’re moving out right now. The bird will be waiting on the roof; all we have to do is take th---.”

A deafening sound suddenly made its way through the entire building, accompanied with what sounded like almost every window shattering along with it. A wave of pressure surged down the walls and through the room, knocking everyone on their asses.

Hammond shakily stood back up and began helping another operative next to him back up.

“What the fuck just happened! Did a god damn gas line just blow?”

“Impossible; the few gas tanks we have are located in the basements. Besides there’s no way they would’ve done that!” yelled back Doyle.

“Ok….well there’s now way the bird’s gonna land on this bitch now so what the fuck are we gonna do!?.” yelled Hammond.

Parker stared in thought for a few seconds before looking back up with a sudden coldness in his eyes.

"We're going down to ground level......"

Everybody in the room went dead silent, with only the sound of the crackling fires and falling pieces of debris present. Everybody in the room was coming to terms with the fact that they were charging into a hornets nest.

End of Chapter 3 (zed killing in the next chapter)

bump for criticism and explanation for slow moving plot.

The reason for the first three chapters being slow (with only the zeds being spoke of like legend) is to give the reader an impression on how LC was in the beginning stages of the outbreak. Also expect to see The Loyal Ones (the LCPD) still eargerly taking orders from the government; however like many people and things in this story, that will slowly change..........