From one end to the other

[The Reaper]

They say the weight of a mans soul is measured by the kindness of his heart. Kindness seemed like a forethought in this world of ours, when the measure of a man was simply the slack of the rope he threw to another. While the world rebuilt from thirty something years of war and apocalypse there were still areas that looked like the first days of the outbreak.

This zone was known as the Dead Zone, a section of the central United States where the undead and BOWs were protected from the massive population of humans and the damage caused by salt water and wind. The BOWs flocked here because they had no natural predators to hunt them down, while they were apex predators, humans continued to edge them out by just being far more resourceful and determined to get back to what came before.


He arrived on the edge of the Dead Zone in a small makeshift town made up of mobile homes and recent man made structures. He was somewhere in Arkansas in the South near the Louisiana border and Texas border. Give or take he was about twenty or thirty miles from either one. The shanty town was off of i49, they called it Mecca, but how far from the truth they really were. Sure enough though, the town was home to humanoid BOWs who escaped the shelf and other parts of the states and had come here for easy work venturing into the Dead Zone. He was very much out of place upon his arrival, dressed in a spotless black suit, white dress shirt, his hair a bit messy but still pulled back, his beard still grizzled to fit his new role.

When he arrived to the gates they stared at him as he smoked his cigarette, he had no luggage with him like the others who were coming through, no vehicle, he simply came as he was.

"Excuse me, where are you coming from," the gate guard asked.

He pulled from his cigarette one last time and began rolling it between his fingers as he answered, "Raccoon City."

"Bit far from home yeah? Why come to this shit hole?"

"Work," Reaper replied, "I'm a travelling musician, where I go the music follows and then silence."

The guard looked him up and down, "you don't seem to have any instruments with you."

Reaper tossed the cigarette butt to the side with a flick and raised his head to look the guard in the eyes, the other guard put his hand on the shoulder of his co-worker and leaned forward to say something quietly to him where Reaper couldn't hear and the guard waved him through without another word. The town was well protected, he imagined where Alice's daughter came from was worse off than here but also this place was newer, built by refugees and former mercenaries. There was law here, and more important there was an understanding that you didn't fuck with Mecca.

He crossed the streets, children played, people lived like normal, this was normal life for them as their spouses worked from here, they came as families and the atmosphere felt normal and natural, something Raccoon lacked in the present day. Masse seemed to be going on in what they called Town Square, he came to the corner and leaned to listen in.

A woman was standing before many many men, she wasn't speaking yet as people gathered, a hunting party by the look of it. She began, her voice was a bit raspy and she was young, yet he saw the weather on her.

"The Hex got spotted around Keen Sight moving equipment from a Hexacore lab. Looks like they're trying to clean the lab out and they did a mighty fine job clearing the facility, the fences are holding up keeping the horde at bay as well. We're going to gatecrash them," she said and there was a handful of people who let out their 'yeahs' getting hyped up.

"Not a good idea," Reaper said loud enough to be heard, when he was walking up the crowd began parting to give him room.

"Stranger, what makes you say that," she asked.

"At least ten of the twenty six remaining demons are with them, I understand many of you people are altered, but Umbrella's alterations versus the enhancements Hexacore gave them is a world apart, you'd be walking your men into a suicide mission," Reaper said, he stopped when finally before her, the crowd gathering back up behind him, he was smacking the back of his cigarette pack to get a fresh cig and put it between his lips leaning forward with a match to light it.

"Then what do you propose," she asked.

"Fuck this guy Amy, we know what we're doing, we've killed demons before," he said.

"I propose you shut your mob up before they end up food for the horde," Reaper said tossing his match away, "and I propose you revise your plan... Amy."

"Do I know you," she asked.

"Nope," he replied, "but you want to."

"Why, what makes you special," she queried.

"I'm the successor to the Red Devil," his reply came with the shift in his eyes, she saw the red hue come and go quickly and she noticed the shadows of the crowd shift and distort before remaining still again, others had noticed it as well and whispering followed. Some didn't believe him and they made sure to say it but he wasn't focusing on them.

The legend of the Red Devil was worldwide, what he did in the Northern Shelf during the start of the outbreak carried with mercenaries who worked for Umbrella and carried with those who survived encounters because of his and Ranka's involvement. As people travelled they shared the story of the Red Devil's of Hellsing. He wasn't as famous as say Alice was but his name alone was enough to turn heads and force a shiver down your spine. No one really knew what happened to him, no one knew if he was dead or not. The truth was far simpler, Alucard knew he wasn't necessary anymore and that there was one who could control the balance of power better than him.

"Who are you," she asked.

"They called me Danny Reaper at one time," he said pulling off his cigarette and blew the smoke through his nostrils, "but right now they're just calling me the Man in Black. You should know this Amy."

[The Reaper]

Part 2
Whose Gonna Hold This Chain

He was strumming a guitar sitting at the corner of the tavern where they gathered to get ready for the nights deploy. His words couldn't sway them to change course from their plan, this Amy was certain they had the man power and many of them were sure they could kill the ten or so Demons that were there. Reaper knew better but he'd still tag along, his target was beyond those doors and these peoples sacrifice would be enough to get him beyond the gates of hell. They were all lightly drinking to get the shakes out of their bones for the upcoming fight, a couple were getting drunk but the stims they used would sober them up before the fight.

His voice carried finally, in a somber tune, "This time is different, it's not like the times before. I crossed my heard, that I wont kill no more. Jesus watch over me, keep my anger at home, you better bless these wicked hands cause they got a mind o' their own."

The change in atmosphere was enough to lighten the mood so he carried on strumming lightly on his tune, between the verse he whistled a light tune before continuing to sing, "Devil whispers in my ear: It's time for your curtain call. So I dress myself up with alcohol, step aside, step aside, oh let the whistler through. There really ain't no help at all for folks like me and you."

Someone was approaching him holding a full beer, ordered for him, he continued to play as they approached and waited, he growled the next lyrics loudly, "Get your god damn hands up, don't you look at me, no one's dyin' here alone! Well I came to get it on! Lets get it on!"

The music slowed and he played the last notes and his voice softened again, "this time was different... Not like the times before... I'll cross my heart that I wont kill no more..."

As the song finished he lifted his hand and took the mug by the handle and thanked the man and everyone began to clap lightly around the room. Several of them recognized his voice now, they knew who was here from the stories from Raccoon, from the radio waves in those parts in the early days of the Outbreak. Many of the men or women here were part of the super soldier initiative, their designations were mixed from the 200s to the 300s, but many didn't even know what they were called, they just knew they survived.

"Mr. Reaper," came a voice.

"Danny is fine," Reaper replied.

"Sorry, do you really think this fights a suicide run," they asked.

"With our current plan it doesn't look good," he came back.

"What do you propose then," came Amy's voice from the bar, she was leaning against it with a beer in her hand.

"Let me move in first."

Zero Hour
Hexacore Facility

The night was pretty still, the moon was all the light they needed to see across the landscape and the Hexacore facility had running generators that lit the place up. Part of what made the Dead Zone so terrifying was the lack of predators to the zombies themselves. The other part was the origin of the zeds, many of them coming from the Hexacore labs after the Outbreak began sweeping the country. The mid west and central area of the country was relatively the last place to become infected solely because of the lack of major infrastructure and massive cities. It took possibly around five to ten years for the Dead Zone to even be recognized as the most dangerous place in the country.

Little did anyone else know though that Hexacore and Umbrella were secretly waging a war in the Dead Zone, their zombies didn't mix, they targeted one another because Hexacore infected weren't technically dead while the T-Virus zombies were. Hexacores infected weren't exactly bright, they were rage driven and avoided light, this kept them in locations like office buildings and apartment buildings. Another reason the Dead Zone was that much more dangerous, a lack of safe locations to hole up. The T-Virus roamed the streets along with other monster BOWs and the buildings were occupied with the Hex Zeds who were constantly mutating as time went on.

With them was around a hundred or so men, Reaper moved far ahead of the pack. Their entry point for the facility was originally on the back side of the horde, where it was most guarded, but with Reaper they were moving straight at the horde. Something began to block out the moon as dark fog rolled in, it was unlike anything the area ever produced and was thick and dense. Reaper disappeared through it and Amy told her men to continue forward hoping to god he was still moving ahead. Finally the battle had began, one shot was fired and they could trace the bullet hitting targets and suddenly it turned and whipped through several more.

Amy and her folk finally came to the clearing where the fog had let up a bit to see farther than feet in front of them, a black haired woman sat on the ground in a black suit, she had her hair pulled back tight and wore circular glasses, in her hands was an old style rifled that she leaned back with holding the rifle steady with crux of her boot and heel while shouldering the rifle and fired again, her bullet was unnatural as it zipped sideways almost but hit a dozen targets. The woman didn't acknowledge them, she was ghostly pale and just continued to fire.

Before they knew it another set of gunshots was heard, loud and brutal when they saw a man in red walking down the horde with two massive pistols in hand. A roar followed and a railgun fired through the crowd as a winged monster flew overhead through the fog. Amy finally spotted Reaper, he was beyond the fence with a huge revolver in his hand firing down Hexacore guards. Her men began a frontal charge at the thinning horde it was time.

In Reapers hand was a revolver custom created by Walter, a weapon created using railgun technology as well as the High Frequency tech from Big Boss's forces. The weapon was intricate looking almost out of this world with its design, but it had its practical use with its somewhat outlandish design as it vented fire from the holes of the firing cylinder and the rail track that ran the length of the revolver. When its shot met the mark, the mark literally exploded from the impact leaving a crater in the armor and bodies of those unfortunate souls.

The horde was beaten down and his familiars made their leave as Amy's forces made it through the fence and joined him in the fire fight. This was the easy part, the demons were beyond the doors into the facility.

The fog rolled back, no more gunfire was heard and a man looked from the top window to see a path of gore left behind from their slaughter. He set the facility in high alert as they entered the building through the front doors.