It's been weeks since we've seen any sign of help from the government.

Their presence was never heavy to start with. Within the first few hours of the outbreak, they made a big show of swarming into the city, specialists on helicopters dropping in and extracting the 'important' people- mainly government officials, military personnel, and their families, but also anyone who was rich enough to persuade any of the former into getting them one of the limited seats on an extraction chopper. The rest of us rushed into our cars, packed all of our belongings, and took off, only to find that the bridge connecting the floating metropolis the mainland was shut down and blockaded by the military. They all urged the citizens to calm down and wait to be cleared for exit, but panic set into the crowd as we watched the growing line progress slower and slower. Some people were crying and screaming, having been separated from their loved ones and fearing the worst. Suddenly, the atmosphere of random chaos changed as a topic of conversation slowly made its way from the back to the front- how fast could they get out, and how fast could the infected get here? Some people were trying to reach friends who had lagged behind or tried to go back into the heart of the city, to get this tool or that item of clothing. In all, there were maybe 20,000 people near the front of the huge bridge alone, and perhaps 100,000 behind them, but this was in a city of one million residents. How many had already fallen victim to the plague? How many in the crowd were going to become victims themselves?

Then it happened. There were specialists in HAZMAT suits at the quarantine boundary who were checking people to make sure they were fit to leave the city. One man had just begun to be checked out when he lurched forward and vomited blood- a dark red with streaks of black mixed in. He looked horrified and then started to back up, raising his hands up as if in a plea. Gunfire broke out as his body was riddled with bullets that tore through him, spilling more blackened fluids to the ground. He fell to his knees and slumped onto the ground, and then a soldier walked up to him and fired a bullet right into his heat for good measure. People shuddered and prepared to move back into their previous line formation, but then the officer overseeing the whole operation appeared on the wall of the boundary, megaphone in hand. "Attention, civilians of Peregrine City! We will no longer be allowing people to pass the quarantine line! The virus has reached the boundary, and until the evacuation zone is sanitized, moving people through the boundary would compromise the integrity of the quarantine. We understand this is an inconvenience-"

That was the last word I heard him speak, because the grumble of the crowd had turned in a roaring wave of fury. People were yelling and threatening the man, who looked nervous at the reaction, but he held his ground. Suddenly, people began to rush the gate of the bridge, pounding at it as though they could force it open with brute strength. Amplified loudspeakers crackled from the platform where the man had been standing- "We are authorized to kill anyone who attempts to compromise the quarantine! Please, for your own safety, back away, calm down, and wait until we are confident that the area is sanitized!" The people kept pounding. The man turned around, spoke briefly into a radio, and then turned back to the crowd, which had lost some of its inertial rage but was still pounding the wall. "This is your final warning! We will open fire if you do not exit the buffer zone between the city and the quarantine line!" As he spoke, the distinct sound of chopper blades became audible as three helicopters flew towards the gate- they'd been hovering off in the distance in case they were needed. The people kept pounding the gate. "You all have 10 seconds to comply!" The choppers drew closer. The people kept pounding. "5 seconds!" As the helicopters pulled close to the gate, they all turned 90 degrees to give their gunners a clear line of sight. The people kept pounding. The man looked stricken, but he had a duty to uphold. He raised the radio once again. I could see his lips form two words- Open fire. Instantly, a storm of metal shrapnel erupted out of the broadside of the choppers, massacring the hundreds of people who had swarmed the quarantine line. Everyone behind them began screaming in horror and fury; some people in the crowd who had brought small arms actually began shooting at the murderous helicopters, but their ineffectual attacks went totally unnoticed. The buffer zone was now overflowing with crippled bodies; most people were mercifully dead, but some of them, moaning and trying to move, were clearly in torturous pain. Nobody dared to go help them.

I was too shocked by the betrayal of the government to really notice it at first; I don't think many people did. God help the few unlucky bastards who saw it coming, because they must have all been up front, with nowhere to run, forced to watch in horror as the massacred bodies turned into beasts. All I remember is hearing renewed screaming as the line folded in on itself and people started running everywhere. Mass panic set in as everyone hightailed it out of there, most of us not even knowing what we were running from. Interestingly enough, the soldiers never opened fire from that point on- the official explanation would be "fear of hitting a civilian".

I went back into the city. It wasn't much better there. People were rioting, looting, mugging, murdering, raping. It was hell on earth. I somehow managed to find my way back to my apartment without getting killed. I locked the door and blocked it off with a bookshelf, then boarded up the windows as best as I could- luckily, I had had the supplies on hand in case of a hurricane. Never imagined I'd be using them for this.

Life never really did go back to normal. The usual bustling noises of city life I was accustomed to hearing were replaced by screams and gunfire for the first few days. Then, those, too, were replaced- by silence. A dreadful, eerie silence. No sounds outside. Rolling blackouts. Batteries for my portable radio were dead, but I was sure the networks had all stopped broadcasting anyways. I was starting to run out of food, and sitting inside all day for a week by myself was taking a serious strain on my mental health. I hadn't slept properly since the incident occurred, and was a jittery mess. I had no choice. If I wanted any chance of survival, I had to go outside. I took nothing but my keys, my flashlight, and my gun, pocketed them all, and then shouldered my bookshelf out of the way. I opened the front door and walked outside into the blinding sunlight, shutting and locking the door behind me. I was expecting something more... dramatic. There were crashed cars here and there, piles of trash, broken windows, and so on, but there weren't heaps of bodies, there weren't any burned buildings, there weren't any rioters smashing up everything they could see. It was all so very strangely quiet- I didn't even hear any birdsong.

There's no going back now. I can't keep looking back on the past. It's time to sort things out, and that starts with finding food, and maybe some people to help me out. I don't know what I plan to do, but I need to be at least steadily surviving somewhere before I even begin to think of plans. No matter what I come up with, though, I need to get the hell out of this quarantine...
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Before I roll:

I need your starting locations. Feel free to get creative with these, but they can range, as an example, from the following:

• House
• Apartment
• Store
• Office
• Library
• Police Station
• Hospital

Your location will affect how quickly you meet up with the other survivors. It will also affect what items you will be able to scavenge early on in the game. It will also affect how many infected will be near you when you begin. As a rule of thumb, there are few infected near residential areas (homes, apartments) and more in the "core" of the city, where many of the more desirable start locations are (store, police station, etc) Feel free to have a location different than the ones listed, but it can't be something unbalanced like "ABANDONED MILITARY BASE GUARDED BY AUTOMATED TURRETS" or "UNDERGROUND REINFORCED BUNKER" or "NUCLEAR AIRCRAFT CARRIER".