A heavy clatter rose forth from a black SUV as a man rose from the trunk with a casual smile on his lips. Closing the back with a loud thunk, Ethan Smith went back into the gun-shop to be sure he had everything he needed. With the recent scare up north, preppers were sure to be on edge. This Ethan knew well, as he had exploited their fears plenty of times in the past and had walked away with many happy customers and a larger account balance each time. One last check at the store inventory before he headed back to the vehicle, and he knew everything was in order.A nice selection of about a dozen handguns and revolvers, a half dozen rifles old and new for either persuasion of fanatic, And of course his favorite to show off, the M249 S.A.W. With guns in place, ammo loaded, price figures memorized and seat-belt on, Ethan began his trek towards the lovely, hopefully wealthy city of Redfield.<br/><br/>Once he was finally out of Las vegas, the traffic lessened by quite a bit, outgoing and incoming. The trip was smooth sailing from hear on out with not a cloud in the sky. The Mojave was blistering as usual, but the air conditioning worked fine and Ethan hadn't a care in the world. The city was eventually visible in the distance on such a flat road and he could already see the populace rummaging outside.<span style="font-style: italic">'Wow they must be really panicked if they're running around outside like that. I should have brought more stock.'</span>He kept his speed heading into the city until he saw something out of the ordinary. It looked like blast marks, but instead of charred earth there was what looked like gore of some kind. Juvenile prank maybe? He didn't have the time to ponder as a blast rocked his SUV up slightly before swerving uncontrollably to the side of the road just outside the city. Cursing, he stepped out of the vehicle to check the damages.<br/><br/>The front passenger side tire was shredded, but what was most curious was the marks on the body. Splatters of blood marked the area near the tire, and he'd have thought he ran over a critter if not for the tire looking like banana peel. "What in the fuck..." he said to himself, hand to his head in astonishment. Gathering his thoughts, he took the keys from the SUV and started walking towards a small group of people hoping for some help. Luckily it looked like they took notice of him as well and were making their way towards him. Waving them over he smiled grateful for aid, but they made no gesture in return. Feeling a bit put off he started walking towards them, and noticed something else off. Their clothes were smudged, dirty, and their hair completely disheveled. They walked with an odd gait and continued to pay no heed to Ethan as he called out to them, continuing instead to just walk forward. Put off, he looked back to his SUV and started making his way back, thinking that going unarmed may have been a bad decision.<br/><br/>The walk back was short but did nothing to relieve his stress. The group he approached was not alone. Everyone he could see was making their way towards his SUV.<span style="font-style: italic">'Ok... what the fuck is going on.'</span>he thought to himself, grabbing a Beretta M9 from his stock and loaded the weapon. Keeping his hand on the holster he confronted the approaching group again as they got within earshot. "Alright whatever the fuck is going on you folks need to back up right now." They answered quickly and efficiently with further steps forward. "Jesus Christ do you know what this is?" He screamed, pulling out his gun, aiming it towards the ground. "It's a gun you dipshits, back off!" If they were frightened by the display, they knew how to not show it. They seemed to be muttering amongst themselves which gave Ethan no comfort. "I'm warning you god damn it!" He shouted now, desperate to get them to stop and raised his gun to the lead mans face. "Get out of here!" The man answered with a guttural growl that shook Ethan's calm. His finger twitched and the recoil pushed his hands back slightly.<br/><br/>The growl ended abruptly as it fell, but more began as the rest of the men and women labored forward. As if the gunshot was confirmation for their advance, they increased their effort in getting to Ethan, who was quickly loosing his cool. Sprinting back to his SUV he fired blindly behind him as they mass of humans continued their march. He'd just killed a man, but this was not the kind of reaction to death to be expected. The more he looked around, the more of these people he could see. All the ones he passed closing into the city. Were they all like this?<span style="font-style: italic">'What the fuck is going on?!'</span>He screamed in his mind, rushing into his cases and pulling out a more clips of ammo. Running into his vehicle and slamming the door, he started the engine and tried to get out of there. It was no use. With the tire destroyed and the axle damaged he couldn't get out of the ditch. "Shit shit shit shit" he chanted as he exited the SUV once more. He clambered onto the thing and crawled over the roof staying as low as he could. As they closed in he continued to scream at them to stop but the only replies were growls and screams. With nothing left, he fired, dropping as many as he could and screamed again, but this time to anything that could hear.<br/><br/>"SOMEONE HELP!! PLEASE WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING?!"