2023
The First Day
Today is like any other. Metropolis is quiet and the sky is a pale orange.
Waking up has never been hard for you, no matter what circumstances or how many hours of rest you got during the night. It seems that the amount of sleep you get has no effect on your fatigue at all. You grin when you see your fellow militiamen yawning and stretching at their posts while they load their weapons and suit up for the day ahead of them.
Your gun clicks and snaps with the fluid movement of your hands. You're a veteran at this now, with the best aim and reflexes of anyone in your troupe. In all of the years you have been part of The Guard, you have never been promoted. It isn't like you care at all. Promotion means so very little. Just more access to the limited areas of Metropolis and more inside information on how things are going. You'd get no extra rations. Besides, as a militiaman, you get a thrill of watching the walking flesh drop when you drill holes through their foreheads. The higher you are in ranking, the less undead you get to kill.
Smalltalk and jokes get made until the first of the zombiekind waddles into sight around a tall building located blocks from the walls of Metropolis.
Everyone leans forward and peers into their scopes. It used to feel weird to be in a city within a city. You've since grown used to pale, dead buildings of the old world. In your scope, you see the head of the intruder explode a split second after your neighbor calls the kill.
The count begins for the day. Seven zombies wandered within range during your watch today, four of which fell victim to your shells.
At the end of your watch, your troupe covers a scout as he climbs down from the ramparts, sets fire to the bodies from today and hammers through any that have complete skulls, then returns to the ranks. There is some delight in seeing the flames lick at the remains of those plague-ridden creatures.
You return your artillery to the weapons cache, and start thinking about the new Ocean front Metropolis has. What if a zombie comes walking through the Ocean? All Metropolis needs is one zombie and it's finished. You figure Master Obreal has everything worked out perfectly, the tactician he is, but you can't help but to worry a little.