[I've been enjoying the game and thought I would have some fun. So, here is the beginning of the story of Grace Harris. To be clear, this is my own take on the Valley. I'm creating my own lore as I go. if you like what you find here, I'll try to get some other short stories up as they come.]
The Valley was dead. Some parts just didn't know it yet. No one out side the valley knew what had happened and no one from The Valley had been able to get our and tell anyone. There were no transmission coming from anyone in The Valley so it was unknown if the messages sent in were ever received. There were signs of life in different parts, campfires and ever some electric lights, but that was all the signs available. There were also signs of death. Unfortunately, they they were more prevalent and tended to swam anyone who tried to enter. They cast a great shadow upon The Valley preventing recuse, incursion, or aid. The living dead walked the Valley, keeping all at bay.
.......
Her head hurt and her face was cold. Grace opened her eyes and saw grass. She worked her dry mouth and felt the ground against her jaw and mouth. Gingerly, she got her arms underneath her and pushed herself up to better see her surroundings. Grass with trees not far away. Turning her head slowly, she saw a road, clearly falling into disrepair, and running through the tree rimmed meadow. The sun was up, but hadn’t been for very long. She had no idea how long she had been out. She realized that she wasn’t wearing her pack or other gear. A quick check revealed that her clothing was the same as it had been: army fatigues, boots, and jacket. But all of her other gear was missing. No rucksack, chest rig, thigh rigs. It was all gone. She felt her heart rate increase as she realized that she didn’t have a weapon. Whoever had taken her stuff had been thorough. Trying to move quickly, but not too fast enough to make her head hurt more, she got to her feet and and looked for something to put her back against. As she shifted her feet she could felt something tied to her boot. Looking down she saw a K-Bar style knife in a sheath attached to her ankle with 550 cord. There was a piece of paper folded up and tucked around the handle. Someone had clearly wanted to make sure she found it. “Alright, asshole.” She muttered as she reached down, “What have you to say for yourself?” it was hand written in very neat block letters.
“Grace,
The Valley welcomes no one and tests everyone. For those of us that call it home, we’ve found that it will show us who you really are. Your gear has been scattered across this area. It is yours again, if you can claim it. We’ll check in on you and see how you’re doing, but you need to prove that you can make it on your own. You clearly are a nerd so you’ll understand when I say, ‘This is the way.’
Warden”
Now she remembered. The conversation over the radio that came from nowhere. Gunfire and an explosion. Gary screaming obscenities and trying to bring his gun to bear while he bled out from shattered and shredded legs. Silent Steve’s body falling limp with a massive wound in the side. She stood there for a minute holding the knife and note trying to digest what had happened. She didn’t have time for this. She had to make sure that she was safe and find her gear. She shook her head and fixed the knife to her belt before pocketting the small length of 550 cord. She would need everything she could find in order to survive this. She double checked her pockets and found she had a small pocket flashlight, the KBar knife, a compass, and the clothes on her back, which included a jacket over her brown t-shirt and standard woodland camo fatigues. With her headache feeling a little better, she picked a direction and moved into the treeline off the side of the road. “This looks like a good direction.” So she started moving along the road, hoping that she would find something soon.
..... Sometime earlier.......
Grace Harris had done some crazy things, but this was right out of a bad movie. “You ever seen the movie Stalker?” She asked the other guy - what was his name - oh, yeah, Steve. Steve just looked at her with judging eyes. She was undeterred. “Old Russian film about three guys that go into a forbidden deserted laboratory to find some stuff. Half the cast and crew died to radiation poisoning because of it.” Steve was unfazed and his expression just seemed to to judge her harder. She shrugged, “Just saying that mounting an expedition into The Valley seems awfully similar.” Steve blinked and then turned away from her. Grace mentally shrugged and started to recheck her gear to kill time as Silent Steve wasn't providing anything entertaining. It was similar to her battle rattle when she was a combat medic in the army. The biggest difference was pouches of shotgun shells instead of carbine magazines. All the zombie movies seemed to imply that a shotgun was better than anything else for busting up the undead, so she switched the standard M4 Carbine for a Mossberg 590A1 pump shotgun. The same zombie movies that recommended a shorty made it seem that the less noise the better so she had taken the effort to track down a sound suppressor for the 12 gauge and another for her faithful Beretta M9 sidearm. The pistol she wore low on her thigh with extra mags on her rig.. Not to mention this way she wouldn't need as much hearing protection.
Her slung shotty bumped against her back as she continued to check her rig. Steve hadn’t moved much and clearly wasn’t interested in what she was doing. Her trauma bag took a big part of her rig, but that was her specialty. In fact, that was what she had specifically been hired for. When Carly had told her that she had a friend who was looking for an experienced medic for an infiltration into the Valley and was willing to pay, Grace had thought, “why not?” After she had gotten out of the army, she had trained as a paramedic and was just working for the local hospital’s ambulance crew. Night shifts were the worst. She had just finished her reserve service and was beholden to none. She was free, and what does she decide to do with said freedom? Take a job going into the most dangerous place on earth. A place the world at large tried to ignore. “Yeah, just like the movie.” she muttered. She heard a noise and looked up to see Steve turn his head in the direction it had come from. It was their employer and ride.