text: I don't know what it is with me and zombie games, I just love them. A while back, I wrote a story called No Man's Land. It did a lot better than I expected, prompting me to try again. So here it is: Ultraoverlord Strikes Again, Zombie Style.
  
  A NOTE ABOUT THE GAME:
  
  The structure of this story is kind of a new one I'm experimenting with. There is only one 'win' scenario, the rest are deaths. Now, given that, there a few different ways to get there. Different choices can get you there in different states of health, with different supplies, and different people. I made this with as much replayability as possible, and there are references to characters in each storyline sprinkled throughout other storylines. See if you can find them all! 
  > start
  You watch as the coffee slowly filters out of the machine, and into your mug. After it's finished, you pick it up and take a sip. Perfect.
  
  Life in the apartment isn't easy. You and your wife don't have enough money for a house yet, and you don't have any kids, so an apartment seemed like the best choice. You have a few commodities; a microwave, a TV, and a coffee maker. You do your own dishes and drive to the laundromat to wash clothes, but you're still content.
  
  You sit on your beater couch and drink more coffee. Your wife isn't even awake yet. You wake up an hour before her every morning. The quiet is nice. It gives you time to think. You think about what you'll have to do today. Today is Sunday, chore day. You're pretty sure it's your turn to wash the dishes. You put your mug down and get up. Better to get the dishes done now than put it off.
  
  Just before you start the disposal, a sharp beeping noise startles you. It came from the TV, but nobody turned it on. You peek into the living room, and see the TV screen. It has flashing images and warnings on it. There's a national security threat. Worried, you turn up the TV's volume and listen in. Your wife, woken up by the beeping, slowly wanders in.
  
  "What's going on?" she sleepily asks. Before you can answer, a robotic voice blasts through the speakers.
  
  "ATTENTION U.S. CITIZENS. AN ACT OF TERRORISM HAS RESULTED IN A DEADLY INFECTION IN THE FOLLOWING STATES: TEXAS, TENNESSEE, OKLAHOMA, KANSAS..." the list goes on. You don't hear California, your state. You're still safe, for now. You and your wife watch as the TV cuts to live news footage. A woman stands in a demilitarized zone, with heavy fencing, and military personnel everywhere. The newslady announces that unaffected states have set up border guards to prevent the spread of disease. Forces from other parts of the world are also rushing in, with Mexican and Canadian soldiers struggling to keep the infection inside the U.S.
  
  The TV then cuts to a live shot of sick people. They aren't slow, or drowsy, like when you have the flu. No, they're the exact opposite. They're ravenous. They stumble around a a speedwalk pace, and they look dead. Bloods soaks their clothes. Their eyes are glazed over. Suddenly, a deer bounds into view. You watch in horror as the infected surround and kill the deer. The footage immediately cuts away.
  
  You wife begins to panic. You try to console her, reminding her that the whole world is fighting to keep the monsters at bay, and that you two will be just fine. Sacramento is a long ways away from California's border. Perfectly safe. Perfectly safe. You're perfectly safe.
  
  Suddenly, the TV makes an announcement: "ALL MALES OVER THE AGE OF 18 ARE REQUIRED TO LOCATE THE NEAREST OUTPOST AND CONTRIBUTE TO HOLDING THE LINE."
  
   
  > go to the border
  Panic sets in for you. You're supposed to stay, to help your wife, to be safe. You can't accept this. But you have to. 
  
  You pack everything you can think of: Clothes, food, water, towels, a book. Everything you have room for. You don't own any guns, and the knives in the kitchen seem useless against these predators. Even after loading up, your backpack still feels light.
  
  You say goodbye to your wife, once, twice, three times, and it still hurts to leave. It feels unreal, like a dream, riding the elevator down, hailing a cab, and telling the driver to take you to your own funeral.
  
  The trip takes about three hours. There are a lot of males over the age of 18 in California. When you get out of your cab, you are greeted by a steely man wearing a full set of bulletbroof armor. He orders you to follow him, and shows you to a barrack.
  
  "This is your new home for the time being," he says in a gruff voice. The room is full of hammocks. Each one has a table and a storage unit next to it. You select the cleanest-looking one and put your stuff down. "How long is the time being?" you ask. The man looks at you. "Until this all blows over."
  
  The next thing you know, you are kneeling in front of a human-shaped target, with an assault rifle in your hands. 
  
  "The first rule of operating a weapon is to never have your finger on the trigger unless the barrel is aimed at your target," the instructor says. All these military people look so similar, you could swear this was the same guy who showed you to your hammock.
  
  After you're shown the proper way to fire the monster in your hands, you are ordered to take a shot. You aim directly for the target's chest, and open fire.
  
  You are successful only in breaking the cardboard hand off the target. Your shoulder aches from the recoil. "Don't get discouraged, you'll get the hang of it." the man doesn't really seem to care about you in particular. You pause to look down the row of trainees. They are all just random people with expressions of fear or pain on their faces. As you look at their weapons, you conclude there must somehow be a gun shortage. Three of the trainees are using BB guns.
  
  After three rigorous days of training, you're almost dead. Your shoulder is in immense pain. You want desperately to call your wife, but any and all electronic devices were confiscated, 'for security reasons.' You hate this. You just want to be back home. You just want things to go back to how they were...
  
  You are suddenly called up, along with all the other recruits, to grab your guns and march to the battlefield.
  > The Battlefield
  You are down on one knee, behind a metal wall. There is a hole, just big enough for you to see and shoot out of in front of you. Ahead is a grassy field. The trees were cleared in anticipation of the dead. All to your left and right, a line of hardened soldiers mixed with scared civilians stands ready to fire, as soon as the signal is given. Your heart is pounding in your chest.
  
  Suddenly, the line of trees is broken by a small pack of the dead. Before you can react, a machine gun takes out the whole horde. After that, it's a steady stream. The infected march through the trees, only to get shot down once in full view. All around you, gunshots ring, commands are yelled, and the groans of the dead get louder and louder. 
  
  You succeed in taking down a few zombies. Most of the time, as soon as you set your sights on one, someone else kills it. You try to calm your nerves and pretend it's just a game or something. Point and shoot. Simple as that.
  
  After about an hour, the undead conga line shows no signs of stopping. The commander is just about to give the order to pause and reload when his walkie-talkie begins to crackle. He answers, and proceeds to shout to his colleagues that a large section of the blockade down south just broke. Hundreds are already dead and the zombies have made it to civilian territory. Instantly, your mind flashes to your wife. You can't let her die.
  
  You pull away from your post and address the commander. "I have to go," you say.
  
  "Absolutely not," the man responds.
  
  "Please," you beg. "My wife, I have to-" the man cuts you off. "Teams have already been sent out to round up women and children. They're being taken up to Washington. It's more safe there. Don't worry about your wife," he says. You catch a tone of uncertainty in his voice. Suddenly, another soldier shouts. You look over the wall and see that you won't make it. The zombies and advancing faster than they're being taken down. You look back at the soldier. He can see it too.
  
  "RETREAT! RETREAT!" you hear as you run for your life. Behind you, you can hear screaming. You drop your gun, it's only weighing you down, and you aren't very good at using it anyway. Retreat, you hear as you run up to the gates. Retreat, you hear as you hastily get in an abandoned car. Retreat, you hear over the deafening sound of the metal walls collapsing.
  > retreat...
  You speed away from the military zone. The terrain slowly morphs back into city. But it's all empty. Nobody is around, and it seems like the power grid is gone. But that doesn't matter. If everyone's gone, that means the military evacuated them, and that means your wife is safe. Now you just need to worry about you. As you drive on, you see a sign declaring that you have 80 miles until you reach Sacramento. That's no problem. You have a head start on the dead, and a car.
  
  Just as you pass under a bridge, you hear a loud pop noise. Just as you feared, your tire popped on shards of glass. You look around. Actually, this whole road is covered with an even layer of glass shards. Thank goodness you're wearing shoes.
  
  The car is useless now, as all four tires are popped. You couldn't even push it forward, because the traffic up ahead is deadly. The streets are full of abandoned cars, some with their lights on, some with doors still open. You don't know how long you have before the dead catch up with you. You look around and hastily make a choice.
  > get food
  Food is always the top priority. If you're going to survive, you'll need food. Period. You look around. Nothing is in the immediate vicinity, so you'll have to do some exploring. You head toward the traffic jam up ahead.
  
  As you weave your way through the cars, you notice something odd. A lot of the windows are smashed, and there's blood on the inside and outside of most of the cars. The military wouldn't do something like that. A thought crosses your mind: You left a while after hearing that a southern wall fell. The zed could have already been here, which means you're already too late.
  
  You pick up the pace, dodging cars and debris. As you pass an SUV, a zombie pops out of one of the windows and swipes at you. They were definitely here. You break into a run past all the cars.
  
  After finding clear roads again, you spot a road sign. It advertises hotels and shops, and tells where they are. You see a supermarket that's very close. You set off to find it, and hope that it wasn't picked clean.
  
  After navigating the roads, you see the supermarket. Unfortunately, a fair amount of zombies surround it. You watch to see if there's any way to slip through, but the zombies all wander aimlessly and block the entrances. Besides, even if you got in, you wouldn't be able to get out.
  
  Just as you are about to give up, a boy, no older than sixteen, goes running into the market. He must have been watching, just like you. But unlike you, he found a way in. He dodges the zombies and makes it to the doors without ever touching one of them. A minute goes by, and the boy comes up onto the roof with a bag of food in his hand.
  
  You and the boy realize at the same time that getting out won't be so easy. There's nothing to jump on top of, and the zombies were drawn by the noise. They've surrounded the building, and are starting to climb the dumpsters and cars onto the roof.
  > help the boy
  You decide that the boy is worth saving. If he can run like that, he'll be useful to you as a partner. The only question is, how do you go about saving him?
  
  You know they're distracted by noise, so you start there. You see a truck on the opposite side of the road. It could work. You run over and see if the truck is operational. To your surprise, it's in almost perfect condition. However, when you try the door, you find out it's locked. You look back at the store. The boy is running out of time. In a moment of panic, you slam the car window with your elbow. This shatters the window and sets off the car alarm.
  
  The boy is as startled as you are. As for the zombies, you delayed them. About half the group splits away from the store and targets you. You realize this is a big mistake. You didn't stop the zombies on the roof, and now you have a sizable herd following you. You turn to run an abandon the boy, when you see that he made it. The small lapse in attention for the zombies let the boy jump off the roof. He hits the ground and sprints off into the trees. Instinctively, you follow him.
  > follow him
  You can barely maneuver around the horde. You manage to escape and follow the boy. He's definitely a better runner than you, but you can keep him in your sights. He doesn't go far before entering a large storage warehouse from the back door. You know the boy saw you, so you continue forward.
  
  When you reach the warehouse, you peek through one of the industrial windows. To your surprise, there are three people in the warehouse. The boy, a girl roughly his age, and another woman, presumably their mother. You watch as the boy unpacks the food bag. He was able to fit a surprising amount of food into the bag. The girl picks it up and adds it to a large pile of canned goods in the corner. The three begin to talk, and then the boy turns and looks directly at you.
  
  You panic and duck. They probably think you're a creep now, or worse. Your best bet is to get away from the warehouse. You get down on all fours, and make it a few feet before you hear the boy behind you.
  
  "What are you doing?" he demands. You turn around. The boy has a Glock pointed right at your forehead. As soon as you turn, the boy's expression changes. "Oh. You're the guy the broke that truck window, aren't you? You want a reward or something?"
  > Yes
  Getting a reward is reasonable for saving this boy's life. "Yes," you say. The boy rolls his eyes. "Great," he says. "Come inside."
  
  The boy leads you inside. The woman stands defensively between you and the girl. "Mikey, who is this?" the woman says. Mikey doesn't reply. He walks over to the food supply, picks up a can of peaches, and throws it, more at you than to you. You catch the can and examine it.
  
  "Where are you from?" the girl asks, before her mother shushes her. You answer anyway. "I'm from Sacramento. I was out fighting for the border, but it collapsed. Now I'm here. I don't have any supplies, or a home, and I don't know if my wife is alive."
  
  The woman seems genuinely sorry for you, but Mikey isn't convinced. "Thanks for the sob story," he says. "Now leave."
  
  The mother shoots him a scolding look, before addressing you again. "Feel free to stay here a few nights. You can have some of our food, providing you're willing to help out."
  
  That sounds like more than a fair deal to you. You accept, then sit down against one of the walls. "Oh," the woman suddenly says. "How rude of me. I should introduce myself. I'm Barbara, and this is Megan," the woman motions to the girl, "and this is-" Mikey cuts off his mother. "I'm Mikey."
  
  "Well, what should I do?" you ask. "Oh, we're just waiting around right now. The sun will set soon, and Mikey just brought more food, so we'll be fine. Feel free to get a book, or something to entertain yourself. Mikey, will you roll our guest an air mattress?" Barbara says. Mikey shoots a dirty look to his mom, then you, before dragging an air mattress out from one of the units and dropping it on the ground.
  > settle in
  You read a book from the pile, then pace around the warehouse, examining everything. The warehouse is big enough for 1000 people to stand shoulder to shoulder in it. There are a few storage units within the warehouse that the family is using for backup. You note that the only gun in the warehouse is in Mikey's possession. Each family member seems to have a sort of 'cubby' for personal stuff.
  
  Hours pass, and nighttime is upon you. You watch out the window. A few lone zombies wander across the roads. The warehouse is actually quite hidden by trees, so you feel safer. "Okay," Barbara says."Bedtime. We'll need our strength for tomorrow." 
  
  You start to go over to your air mattress. "Oh, not you," she says. "I just mean the kids. They need all the energy they can get. As soon as they sun goes down, so do they!"
  
  Barbara pulls a Sudoku book from the pile and starts to entertain herself. You sit on your air mattress and decide what to do. 
  > talk to Barbara
  You go sit next to Barbara and watch her play a Sudoku game for a few minutes. "How did you end up here?" you finally ask.
  
  Barbara explains that her husband was also drafted, so she took her kids to somewhere safe. When they happened upon the warehouse, it was abandoned and empty, but also out of the way of the dead. The perfect base. "I'm sorry your first impression with the kids wasn't that great. Megan can be shy, and Mikey gets worked up easily, but they'll warm up to you. Say, did you see my husband? His name is David, he has brown, curly hair, and he wears a necklace with him all the time."
  
  You try to picture him in your head, but you can't. "Nope, didn't see him." Barbara seems disappointed. "But I'm sure he's fine," you say, a little too quickly. "Most of the civilians and soldiers were evacuated when the walls fell."
  
   
  > go to sleep
  After fully inflating the air mattress, you decide to get some sleep. As you lay there, you think about the day. So much happened. Last night, you were in some military barrack hammock with ten other strangers, and now you're in a warehouse on an air mattress. You make one last promise to yourself before nodding off: you will find your wife.
  > In the Morning
  When you wake up, everyone else is already up. Megan is setting up a breakfast of canned fruit, Barbara is rolling up the air mattresses, and Mikey is nowhere to be found. 
  
  You sit up and do your best to fix your hair with your hands. You probably smell terrible, but whatever. Megan puts a plate of dried cranberries and an apple in your lap. You thank her, and eat quickly. You haven't eaten since yesterday afternoon, back at the barracks. After breakfast, you stand up and decide what to do with the day.
  > supply Run
  The warehouse has very little in the way of weaponry. If you're going to survive, you'll need weapons. You tell Barbara that you're going on a run, and leave the warehouse. You take a backpack with some meager supplies.
  
  The zombies have mostly cleared out. That works to your benefit, since you have only your fists for protection. You don't know this area very well, so you head in a random direction, remembering street names as you pass them.
  
  Eventually, you come upon a tank in the middle of the road. The hatch is still open, and blood is splattered on the side. You climb inside. After searching the tank, you come up with a walkie-talkie and a water bottle. You try the walkie-talkie, and every channel is silent on the other end. You decide to leave it in the tank so you know where it is if you need it.
  
  As for the tank itself, you've never seen the inside of one before, so you don't know if it's operational or not. You decide to not touch anything, and exit the tank.
  
  You are disappointed at the lack of supplies in the tank. Shouldn't there be some rocket launcher, or at least a flare gun? You are very disappointed. So disappointed, in fact, that you almost miss the man running from a horde of the dead out of the corner of your eye.
  
  You turn to look - it seems like you've found the owner of the tank. The man is clearly a soldier, he is dressed in all camo, and has a large, scary-looking gun over his shoulder. Closer inspection reveals that the gun has no clip, and therefore no ammo. The man swears and looks back at the herd, causing him to trip over a fire hydrant.
  
  You feel like you should help, but you don't want to get in this man's way, and besides, what could you do? You're defenseless. You watch as the man pulls out a knife and starts to hack away at the group of zombies. Unfortunately, he quickly falls. You've never seen them infect someone, and it's not a pretty sight. The man's screams soon die down. After another few minutes, the horde wanders away from the man.
  
  After they're a safe distance away, you inspect the corpse. Bite wounds cover the man's arms and torso. You don't know how long you have until he turns, so you move quickly. You take the gun off of him and check his pockets. He definitely was out of ammo. You also get his knife out of his hand. It's a durable, large knife, one that should have a holster or some sort of container. If it did, the man doesn't have it.
  
  You come back to the warehouse with your finds. It's not a lot, but it's something. When you ge there, Mikey is also back. He succeeded in getting more food. You set the gun off to the side, and pocket the knife for yourself. Barbara notes your findings, and puts the gun in a storage unit. "So the kids don't get at it," she explains.
  > dinner
  Dinner consists of canned meat and bread. The four of you eat in silence. Today was certainly a productive day. You sit and think about the next day.
  
  The silence is broken by someone pounding on the back door of the warehouse. You sit up. Everyone glances around nervously. Finally, Mikey gets up and looks through the window.
  
  "It's just a zombie, I got..." Mikey trails off. You get up and look through the window.
  
  A hundred. No, a thousand. The streets are filled with zed. A small pack have found their way to the warehouse. "We can't risk killing them," you say. "Opening the door would be a bad idea. We need to hide, and be quiet."
  
  Megan hurriedly blows out the candles you used for light. You hide behind a storage locker, while everyone finds a quiet place. The inside of the warehouse is silent. From the outside, you can hear moaning and pounding. The small pack is attracting more zombies.
  
  "This isn't going to work," Mikey says. "We need a better plan." You hurriedly think of a way out of this. "We need to distract them," you say. "Is there a way onto the roof?"
  > The Roof
  You climb up onto the roof using a ladder, and taking out the skylight. The roof is curved, so keeping your balance is a struggle. You look out into the sea of the dead. It doesn't look as big from here, but it's still too many. There's no chance of distracting them. Unless, somehow, you could sneak through them.
  
  You climb back down the ladder. "There's no way through that," you say. "We're surrounded." Mikey walks over to the door. "I bet I could get through," he says. You open your mouth to stop him, but Barbara beats you to it. "Absolutely not. You won't be able to run through that, no matter how fast you think you are."
  
  Panic begins to set in. The walls feel much closer than they are. The groans get louder. There really is no way out of this.
  
  Suddenly, gunshots rip through the air. You watch through the window as the horde of zed quickly hit the ground like dominoes. In a matter of seconds, the road is clear. You rush outside to see who, or what, killed the zombies.
  
  Parked on the road is a large passenger bus and a big rig. Several men armed with various types of guns are set out the bus windows. They killed all the zombies. The door to the big rig opens, and a man steps out. He wears a bright orange vest over a bomber jacket, and wields a machine gun in his hands.
  
  "Hi, folks," he begins with a creepy smile.
  > attack him
  Without hesitation, you tackle the man. The machine gun flies from his hands. As soon as you hit the ground, three bullets from three different guns hit you in the side. You topple over in pain, and the man gets up. 
  
  "Well, that wasn't very wise, now was it?" he taunts, before kicking you in the face. The pain in your nose makes you see flashes of light that aren't there. You lay on the ground, motionless, while the man laughs. Eventually, you finally bleed out.
  > reset Game
  I don't know what it is with me and zombie games, I just love them. A while back, I wrote a story called No Man's Land. It did a lot better than I expected, prompting me to try again. So here it is: Ultraoverlord Strikes Again, Zombie Style.
  
  A NOTE ABOUT THE GAME:
  
  The structure of this story is kind of a new one I'm experimenting with. There is only one 'win' scenario, the rest are deaths. Now, given that, there a few different ways to get there. Different choices can get you there in different states of health, with different supplies, and different people. I made this with as much replayability as possible, and there are references to characters in each storyline sprinkled throughout other storylines. See if you can find them all!