Officer John Reeves, a rookie with the BCPD, was fresh out of the police academy and got assigned to a training officer to follow out on his first patrol.
That was 107 days ago.
To this day, he still carries the badge and pistol of the oldest police establishment in what was once known as the proud state of Massachusetts.
During the first hour on patrol, his training officer began passing the wisdom of age onto him, and from the stories he heard, his TO was rather easygoing compared with the other rookies who had joined the department not long before him.
He was lucky to have him as his TO, but two hours into his first day, he was performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation on his lifeless TO, whom he had had to shoot with the gun he had just been issued.
Before it even started, his career was over—not because of such a fatal professional error, though, but because the world was being actively overtaken by monsters.
The incident began with a 245 report over the radio. This immediately presented a messy first case for them, as they were the nearest squad car, his TO noted, given that the radio code indicated an aggravated assault case.
The two men rushed, the elderly officer taking the lead, and as they entered an apartment building, they saw people rushing out from downstairs, all reporting something weird attacking people in the parking lot. The officers reported it on the radio and proceeded downstairs, covering each other. Before entering the garage, Officer Reeves only saw something big and green moving at a blinding speed, and just as he was about to warn the TO, who didn't seem to notice anything, the green flash struck him from the side, launching him into the air, where he crashed into a nearby car.
"Rookie!" His TO shouted as he tried to cover himself from whatever had struck him, taking calculated steps towards his collapsed trainee. But only Officer Reeves could see what was lurking from a point his TO wasn't even considering.
"Up… Above!"
He could barely speak or give out a warning. The elderly TO looked up, shots fired, but the monster was already right above him, pressing him down with its immense weight.
"Shoot! Rookie! SHOOT IT! NOW!"
The rookie tried to aim, but he felt a burning sensation in his left shoulder, making him unable to support his pistol with only one hand. His hand shook, but before he could do anything, another round of brutality was inflicted on his TO by the green monster, gnawing at his bloodied shoulder as the old man howled in pain, losing an entire arm while the monster's brutality never ceased.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Officer Reeves could no longer bear the scene and fired his gun at the monster, hitting it, but it didn't seem to kill it. The monster still flinched from the pain of such a weapon, which defied everything it knew, but with cunning brutality, it raised the elderly TO between its fangs as cover.
Seeing his dying TO so motionless, fear and survival instincts took over Officer Reeves as he emptied the entire magazine, shooting without even aiming.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! CLICK! CLICK!
Just as the bullets ran out, the monster seemed to have spilled its green blood all over and chose to run away behind the cars. Officer Reeves rushed towards his dead TO, tried to do anything to save the man, reported it on the radio, asked for an ambulance, prayed for a miracle, and did all he could.
His TO died, and all he could do was kneel in front of the elderly man who had sustained two bullet wounds in his chest and torso from the firing spree he had just unleashed.
Fate, however, was a merciless mistress on that day—D-Day, as it was called by survivors—and the underground parking lot Officer Reeves was in happened to be a place where a Rift was just opening.
The monster he had just repelled was merely the first being to come from the other side, and what followed was an influx of smaller versions of that thing, walking upright, crude weapons in hand, and malice in their eyes, as they slowly emerged from between the cars.
The larger monster returned as well, used as a mount by a larger variant of the smaller ones, and the world fell to the horde.
Officer Reeves opened his eyes, rubbed his beard, rubbed his badge, and stepped out of the squad car in the night.
This beast of a car endured alongside him for all these days, took hits no other car would endure, and failed many times, but still woke up again and again for its new master.
A loyal beast, he called it, but it was in fact the skills of a mechanic's son turned police officer that kept this beast alive to this day.
No radio, no backup, no command—just one man and one squad SUV on a mission against the apocalypse.
He looked at his face in his car's side mirror and saw the system pop-up that greeted his weary face, reminding him of the powers he had accumulated to this day. He was a Fighter, no less, a survivor, and he had a stats score that could be considered among the best in humanity.
Still, this didn't mean he was unkillable. Indeed, he had been almost killed too many times; it was a miracle he still lived. But he never felt bad about it, since it was the nature of monsters to kill and invade. What weighed heavily on his heart, however, were the humans who tried to kill and betray him.
He was a police officer who tried his best to reform a group around him that could do the same—rescue others and reclaim the city. But after he got back to his family's garage one day, he found out that the group he had organized had turned to thieving and assaulted a group of survivors.
The moment he protested, they turned on him and tried to take him down. He was already so adept at combat that he managed to take down two of them before rushing back to his squad car and escaping under fire.
A few days later, he returned to stalk the people whom he once called comrades, now fully intent on taking revenge as well as retaking the family garage where he had buried his parents and brothers.
But then, something disturbing happened. The group that he wanted to take out started shooting frantically; the garage became noisy, and the fortifications he had made became active, with flashlights searching through every corner of the garage.
Officer Reeves tried to take a closer look, but he heard strange static from his car, and he could swear he heard the address of this place. Immediately, he returned and tuned the radio to the signal, before hearing a broadcast message: a feminine voice speaking and calling down hell on this group.
The place would soon turn into a war zone. Officer Reeves knew that whoever had done that was someone desperate enough to call down hell upon this place. Knowing this, he reversed his squad car, hid it well inside an alley, took out his rifle, and started walking around the block.
He knew this area far too well for him to fear anything moving through it, as it was the neighborhood he grew up in. He knew there was at least some time before people would come here looking for the promised military-grade loot from the message, so whoever had broadcast the message must have left something nearby.
After a few turns, Officer Reeves finally found a minivan parked in an alley, with its engine running unevenly. Some young people were fussing over the engine that kept failing, as it seemed they were waiting for someone to come out and sneak away together.
Officer Reeves could easily figure out this situation on his own. So, he approached the minivan cautiously, gun in hand, and picked up a stone from the ground. Once he saw someone stepping out of the vehicle, he threw the stone towards a trash can past that individual, knocking it down.
The survivors immediately aimed their guns at whatever that was, revealing armed figures. Officer Reeves effortlessly snuck behind the one closest to the car and made him aware that a gun was aimed at his neck, before quietly disarming him.
The other one noticed the officer, but it was too late, as his friend had already been taken hostage.
"Alright, calm down, man," the young man said as he averted his pistol from putting his friend in harm's way.
"I'm calm," Officer Reeves replied, nodding his head sideways. "What's in here?"
"Nothing to loot, man. Just our friends. They're wounded," Toby replied, waving his hand. "Qasim can open the door for you. Seriously, nothing of value on us. Even the car won't start."
"Alright, open it," the officer stepped back and looked at the interior of the minivan as Qasim opened it for him.
Just as they said, there were two young people, a male and a female, lying unconscious, their bodies burning with fever, with cold compresses all over their bodies that seemed to have dried.
"What happened to them?" he asked.
"They got injured; their injuries became infected," Qasim replied.
"So they'll turn into Blighters," Officer Reeves said.
"Not if we boost their immune system. They need rest and nutrients," Toby replied.
"This stops the infection?" Surprised, Officer Reeves asked, as it was his first time hearing of carriers of the Host infection being rescued.
"It usually does," Toby nodded.
Officer Reeves shook his head in frustration and put his gun away, causing the other two to breathe in relief.
"You're telling me the infection could easily be averted with meds and rest, and I had to put down at least a dozen guys whom we thought were lost?" he asked with an exasperated gesture, almost punching the alley's wall.
"It's a fucked-up world, man. We did the same," Qasim replied as he went inside the minivan, checking on the body heat of Justin and Sarah with the back of his hand before turning to Toby. "We need more water."
Toby shook his head, indicating that they had run out of water. Officer Reeves saw that and put down his backpack before opening it and taking out some blue gel patches from his medpack.
"They aren't as cold as they're supposed to be, but they'll take the edge off. Put them on their thighs, underarms, and necks."
Receiving the cooling gel patches from Officer Reeves, Qasim and Toby looked at each other, confused at first, but Qasim still received them with a thank you.
"Why are you helping?" Toby, however, couldn't help but ask.
Maybe guilt, maybe desperation, Officer Reeves couldn't decide which, so he just pointed to his badge on his belt:
"BCPD, protect and serve."
Toby looked at the badge and the body armor, which were mostly police issue, prompting him to ask:
"Are there still cops?"
"Not as far as I know. I'm the last, most likely."
Toby and Qasim exchanged one more look at each other, causing them to ask him why he trusted them and even helped them.
Officer Reeves explained the distress call Megan had made from inside the garage, which terrified them both, as they realized that Megan might already be dead.
"You can't stay. The place will be overrun soon," he said and nodded sideways. "You'll need to move fast."
"Where?" Qasim looked around. "The van won't start."
"Yes, your ignition coils were fried, just from the sound of them," Officer Reeves said and offered a way out. "If you can move your friends, I'll take you to my car."
"What about Megan?" Qasim asked.
"Those guys inside are animals; I wouldn't hope for much if she gets caught. Their radio is in the deepest part of the garage, so… I'm sorry," Officer Reeves apologized and switched to his rifle.
"But…" Toby wanted to argue.
"Just leave her a note. Tell her you met a cop who will take you to a place you know. Don't say where. If she doesn't get there by morning…" Officer Reeves laid down a plan for them.
"Those two don't have until morning," Toby said.
"Then we pray and do anything we can," Officer Reeves said and urged the two young men to move the other two.
Qasim left a hasty note for Megan, as, by the time they started moving, the sound of gunfire made them all twitch and look back, realizing that the madness had just begun.
Quickly, they all scurried towards Officer Reeves's squad car, but none of them realized that they were being followed.
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