Laura came to out of the pod with a start. She swiped her micro-transmitter away hastily as she struggled to determine where the source of the attack was coming from. The control room blinked red and yellow as the sirens continued to blare throughout the bunker. The rest of the Misfits were starting to wake up but she wasn’t going to wait to determine what was going on.

“Aeon. What is the status of the base?” she asked.

Aeon’s neutral female voice came through the loud speaker, “There are multiple undead humanoids in the mess hall.”

“Lock down the command room immediately,” Laura responded.

With that she shook off the last of the stiffness in her muscles and stood. Miles was the first to awaken from the stasis but the rest of the Misfits were rousing. While they were struggling to figure out what was going on, she moved to the command console and shut off the manual control to override the alarm. Now that they knew what was going on it would just add to the confusion and it certainly wouldn’t stop their attackers.

Laura couldn’t imagine how the undead had gotten into the base from the outside. The bunker had been built to withstand a nuclear blast and had the capability to completely seal itself from the outside world. They had their own air pumps, water and food sources. Yet, somehow invaders had reached the inside despite all the precautions that Mr. Tiel’s designers and contractors had put into the place. There was probably something obvious that she was missing.

Sean and the rest of the team were now fully awake and Sean demanded to know what was going on. Laura brought them up to speed and let them know she’d temporarily locked them inside the command room.

Tim was the first to ask a good question, “What about the ventilation systems? The bunker typically only runs on recycled air when the bunker is on lock-down. How have they been running for the past month?” Laura thought about it – she didn’t actually know.

“Aeon, what is the status of the ventilation system?” Laura asked. The command room map lit up and everyone took a look at the screen. It showed the bunker’s systems and it looked like something that jammed one of the vents that was used to temporarily provide air exchange when the bunker wasn’t locked down. However, it wasn’t supposed to stay open.

“How long has that vent system been jammed Aeon?” Sean asked.

“Approximately fourteen days,” Aeon replied.

That was about the same time that they had evicted Kevin from the group. Had he set this up as a last act of vengeance? Theoretically he knew where all the systems were for the bunker. Still, that didn’t make a lot of sense because wouldn’t he have just snuck back into the base? Perhaps he’d set this up and lured these monsters out here. But why wait two weeks? The whole thing didn’t make a lot of sense.

Miles spoke up, “Sorry to interrupt this interesting discussion but we have a more pressing issue. Do we have anything in the bunker that will allow us to kill these creatures? We don’t have access to any of our main avatars here.”

“There is a gun vault in the bunker that is for emergencies such as this. The only problem is that it is in the hallway,” Laura offered.

“It looks like the creatures are still in the mess hall. We could try to make a break for it,” Miles suggested.

Tim shook his head. “That’s extremely risky. We need to remember we aren’t our avatars – we’re just regular people.”

Sean walked over to the corner of the room and broke a pane of glass. The emergency alarms had already been shut off so no further alarms triggered. He grabbed the ax that was behind the glass and pulled it out with a grin. “Looks like we have at least one weapon. We may not have all our powers but we aren’t defenseless. We need to do what we must,” Sean said.

The rest of the group nodded and Laura ordered Aeon to open the door. Laura could just make out the face of a zombie on the other side of the door as soon as it opened. If she hadn’t been so inured to crazy looking monsters already playing AO, she would have screamed. As it was she simply took a step back and was shocked for a second.

Sean and Miles weren’t fazed. Sean swung the ax down on the zombie and took off its head in a single blow. He moved into the hallway and stood outside the mess hall and gave Miles and Tim a nod. The two of them leaped into action and made their way to the gun locker. Miles watched for zombies as Tim entered in the combination code on the lock that Laura had provided them. Emmy had rushed to be at Miles’ side and carefully kept watch over the door leading to their bunks. Even Alison stood at the ready behind the team. Laura couldn’t remember when it had happened but at some point, she’d come to realize she was one of them. She was proud to be part of the Misfits. Under crazy circumstances like these they were still a team and ready to take on whatever dangers they had to together.

Laura got the guns ready. She knew the basics since it had been required for everyone who worked under Mr. Tiel but it was obvious that Tim and Miles had never held a gun before in their lives. When she looked pointedly at him, Miles shrugged. “Hey I grew up as a nerd. Not everyone in the hood is a gangster.” Once everyone was armed they decided to clear the bunks first. From the control room Aeon gave them updates on the positions of the zombies and it looked like they were mostly confined to the mess hall.

While Miles watched their backs in the hallway, Sean and Emmy opened the door to the bunks. A zombie popped up as soon as the door was open and while Sean prepared to attack the creature Emmy blew it’s head off with a pump action shot gun. The rest of the Misfits filed in after the two of them and quickly the room was cleared of the enemy.

As they were wrapping things up they heard the report of gunfire from behind them. Exiting the room, they found Miles fighting to keep the door to the mess hall closed as two zombies attempted to claw their way out. Smoke from his gun was visible and he was trying to aim it for another shot. Emmy stepped up quickly and shot the two zombies in the face in rapid succession, pumping the shot gun between rounds.

Miles shut the door quickly and re-secured it. “Where did you learn to shoot like that?” he asked, his eyes wide.

Emmy shrugged. “My dad taught me how to hunt when I was six. He was one of those paranoid prepper types and insisted I learn about survival.” Pretty crazy that her dad’s crazy obsession would turn out to in fact be useful. Who’d have thought they’d be fighting for zombies in the real world?

“Ready for one last raid boss?” Emmy asked, her voice steady.

Everyone nodded. This time Sean and Miles had Emmy take point while the two of them supported her. Miles tried to act like he knew how to hold the 9 mm in his hands, but hoped he wouldn’t have to test it. Emmy was the strongest shot in the group so it made sense to have her go in first. Laura heard several shots fired and could just vaguely make out the forms of half rotted people rushing towards her friends. She wished she was a bit more useful in this situation although she had remembered the gun locker. Taking on these creatures with nothing more than the fire ax that Sean had found in the control room would have been suicidal.

When the smoke cleared there were six dead zombies in the room. Sean started coordinating the group to take out the dead bodies to where they dumped the rest of their trash. Aeon sent in a few of the robots the bunker kept on hand to help and clean up.

An hour later the Misfits met back in the control room. “I think it’s time you provided a few more answers, Aeon,” Sean said his voice firm.

“Certainly, what would you like to know?” Aeon asked.

Sean looked thoughtful and replied, “What can you tell us about how these creatures got inside the bunker? I thought this place was supposed to be completely secure.”

“As you may have already surmised, it appears to be sabotage from your late guildmate,” Aeon replied. “I have taken some additional steps to fortify our defenses.”

Sean nodded. “Good, let’s make sure that we keep security our top priority,” he said. “Also, we found Mr. Tiel. He had been turned into a giant mutant. What can you tell us?”

“It appears that Mr. Tiel and many of the other humans that survived the initial apocalyptic event were still subject to input from their Seemi. As you know the Seemi is both an electronic device and Net connected. I had presumed that it would no longer be functional after the events two weeks ago. However, it appears that Precious One has instead managed to keep these devices functioning and is reprogramming them in ways that have not previously been considered. Additionally, some of the chemical warfare devices that were detonated during the last few weeks contained nanobots. While I have only begun compiling all of the data, my hypothesis is that a combination of Seemi reprogramming and inhalation of nanobots have begun changing certain creatures here on Earth in ways that we’ve not previously seen,” Aeon explained.

“So, what you’re telling me is that we’re seeing creatures like dinosaurs that haven’t existed for tens or hundreds of millions of years ago, or even mutant monsters that only exist in imagination coming to life because people are being reprogrammed at both a neurological and genetic level?” Laura asked her voice rising.

“Essentially, that is correct, Doctor,” Aeon replied.

The Misfits looked at each other quietly. “How long was the ventilation system open? Have any of us been infected by the nanobots?” Laura asked.

Aeon was silent for a moment, “The ventilation system just began malfunctioning an hour ago. I will have to run some tests on you before I can conclude that you haven’t been infected.”

The group looked at each other wondering how they would react if one of them were to be changed. Could they kill one of their own to protect the rest?