Ch. 1 Introducing the Zoldyck twins

On a foggy morning a young man in silk pajamas sits at the balcony of his penthouse suite in Silicon Valley looking out over the cityscape below while enjoying tea and a bagel with strawberry jam. Looking down at all the antlike figures bustling about below always made him feel good, like he was a god watching over the lesser beings. However, the natural high he was riding began to fade when he noticed a small procession of all black vehicles pulling up to the building. Men in black suits spilled out and entered the hotel.

"Well, I guess I should get dressed…today is already off to an annoying start," he sighs biting into the bagel. He goes and makes a call on the room's phone, "Morning Heather, do me a favor and tell the scary looking men in black I'll be down in thirty- no make that an hour. Thanks!" He hangs up without waiting for an answer and goes on about his business without a care in the world. An hour later the bathroom door swings open, and the young man danced out to MC Hammer's Can't touch this. He is dressed in business casual slacks and a button up shirt with his hair slicked back. Halfway through the last verse when one of the two agents sitting on the couch interrupts with a cough.

The one who spoke was noticeably older, frown lines and heavy bags from many stressful and sleepless nights were deeply set onto his face. Despite him looking like a battle-hardened vet he carries himself with a very relaxed demeanor. "Glad you're having a good morning, Mac." The agent says helping himself to a cup of tea. "You always keep top quality stuff in these little safehouses, if only you kept booze. That'd be a good day," he chuckled to himself. "When are you turning twenty-one again?

"It's Doctor Machiavelli Zoldyck. Not Mac." He corrects him. "This better be good for you to be here so early Agent Wilson."

The agent takes a slow sip. "I can't say the situation is good, actually a nerdy brat like you would like all that weird sci-fi shit."

"Sci-fi shit?" Machiavelli's brow rises.

"Show him the file Charlie."

Agent Charles, the young second agent who was distracted by all the awards and strange little machines lining the shelves, snaps out of his trance at his senior's request. He fumbles to open his briefcase spilling its contents onto the floor. "Sorry sir let me get that," he says scrambling to pick it up.

"He must be new," Dr. Zoldyck surmises watching the sad display with a growing annoyance.

"Yeah, still showing em' the ropes." Agent Wilson says shaking his head. "I give him a month."

"That might be a little generous…"

"Hurry up with that." Agent Wilson rushes him.

"Here you are Dr. Zoldyck," Agent Charles says hastily handing the papers to Machiavelli. "I have to say that it's an honor to-"

"Yes, yes, thank you." Machiavelli says dismissively.

As he read through the classified papers, Agent Wilson goes on. "There's some sort of virus going around. They're calling it the wildfire virus. People who get infected go from a fever to losing all reason and violently attacking others, even going as far as trying to eat their victims."

"Oooh that's nasty," Machiavelli says looking at photos of the victim of a gruesome mauling.

Agent Wilson continues. "Strangest part is by the time they turn violent they're already dead, but they're still walking. So far the only sure fire way to deal with them is piercing the brain. Even their heads will keep biting if you take it off. They're trying to keep this contained but more cases keep popping up. We're gathering up promising minds and working towards a vaccine at a location that's been secured in Los Angeles."

"Interesting, I'll do it. One condition, go find my brother Julius and bring him to the facility too. I believe he should be in Georgia right now."

"I don't think that will be possible." Agent Wilson sighs.

"Well then I'll be going elsewhere, thanks for the heads up on the virus. Good luck." Machiavelli says casually.

"No, we're trying to get him. He incapacitated the entire party we sent after him and disappeared without a trace."

Machiavelli face palms. "That sounds like something that psycho would do. I'll have to handle that myself too."

"What are you going to do?" Agent Charles asks.

"Don't worry about it, I'm coming to LA with you. No reason to skip out on my Nobel prize. Now give me some space I need to pack up my work."

"We'll take care of that for you, but we really have to go Dr. Zoldyck." Agent Charles says as he reaches for a box in the corner. As soon as he touches it, he receives a nasty shock.

"Ah there's a tasing system on that box, it'll shock any unregistered fingerprints that touch it. One of my many countermeasures to theft. You do know how valuable my work is right?"

"We'll see you downstairs, try to keep it light Mac." Agent Wilson says as he helps his partner up and out the door.

"Tch…I hate that guy." Machiavelli grumbled closing the window shades. He grabs a lockbox, and the red jewel on the ring he was wearing begins to glow before the box vanishes into thin air. He continues to repeat the process until everything he owns was gone save for a single suitcase. "Now that that's out of the way…" He pulls out his cellphone and hits the first number on speed dial. It goes straight to voicemail.

"Hello, if you're getting this it's because I'm with the Asura raising hell! or I don't know where I placed my phone. PEACE!" *Beeeep* Machiavelli sighs and hangs up the phone. The ring glows again and a satellite phone appears into his hand. He dials one and it rings. This time someone answers, the same voice that was in the voicemail. "Aww what's wrong miss your big brother already?"

"First off we're twins, Julius," Machiavelli sighs.

"I still popped out first Mac," Julius responds. On the other end is a young man who shared similar facial features and that lean build, but Julius was visibly more muscular and carried more of their fathers' western features. Julius and Machiavelli both have deep violet eyes though Julius' have iris with a beastly slit opposed to big round eyes, also Julius has long curly platinum blond hair versus Machiavelli's short straight and black. They were told that even though they were genetically identical twins they appear as fraternal, one favoring their mother who is a descendant of an ancient warrior clan from Japan and their father heir of the Zoldyck a family so old its origins can be found on all continents, but mainly Euro-centric. From the pictures they have seen both seem to uncannily resemble one parent.

"Anyways, I'm heading to L.A. There's some kind of outbreak, and the government is gathering researchers for it. They sent a squad to come get you and bring you there."

"Oh, I met them…they should be out of commission for roughly two days." Julius yawns. "I'm not going with them, my instincts say they'd try to hold me hostage or use me for something weird. I broke my phone so they can't track it."

"I'm pretty sure you'll find a way to stand out all on your own. Like that time you wore a kimono and carried a samurai sword around with you. Damn you looked stupid."

"Shut up, you don't know anything about style. I'm the definition of cool," Julius defends himself.

"You're wearing one right now, aren't you Jules?" Machiavelli says with a disappointed look on his face.

"Jackass." Julius is indeed wearing an all-black kimono. "But speaking of outbreaks, I went to a pie eating contest and this sick guy passed out mid contest and when he woke up he took a bite out of the closest person. I broke a few of his bones, and he still kept coming."

"You don't say…" Machiavelli says. "Go on."

"He kept coming, almost like a rabid animal so I put him down. Took his head clean off. They were going to attempt to take me to jail, but the guy's head was still moving! Like what in the world is that!?" Julius exclaims.

"That's the very virus I'm going to research…It's more widespread than I thought. Destroying the brain will stop them permanently. Apparently, the dead are rising and attacking the living. Be careful a bite means death and you become one of them." Machiavelli warns going towards the door. "Lay low and avoid crowded places, I'll get in touch when I know more."

"Ehhh no promises but I won't die, watch your back over there too. Oh, and you better not have cheated and used the inventory. Our bet still stands even if the world is ending." Julius adds.

"Of course I haven't (Of course I used it, stupid fuck. Why would I purposely not use something that useful?) You didn't use the bunker either did you?"

"No, I plan to win this bet. (I bet he used his inventory already, that conniving fuck would definitely lie about it.)" Julius starts to press the issue when he hears screaming in the distance. Soon a stampede of people comes rushing down the street in a panic trying to escape the walking dead. "Hey, I'm going to call you back. Something is happening." Click. The call was over. Julius walks down a suburban street lined with houses he thought were cut from the same mold. He watches his surroundings as frenzied people go wild burglarizing houses, robbing each other, and killing one another at random. Of course, the dead only stay dead for a moment before they are up walking again adding to the total amount of dead.

Julius eventually makes his way to the outskirts of Atlanta by following the wooded area alongside Interstate eighty-five. Looking for a place to stay for the night, he chooses a house at random. Bang Bang! He knocked on the door with little caution for drawing attention. "Anybody home?" Julius asks from outside only to hear a scratching sound from the other side of the house, probably upstairs. "Hmm that's not creepy at all…" he murmurs to himself. "I'm coming in. Just need to catch my bearings and I'll be on my way," he raises his voice again before he opens the locked door with his knife. With a giant travel bag on his shoulder, he goes in and checks around as he makes his way into the kitchen. He looks out the glass backdoor only for one of those dead ones to rush him from behind. He already knows where it is upon entry. The slow-moving creature didn't worry him at all. He lets the bag drop and swing the short sword hidden in the sleeve of his all-black kimono, easily decapitating the creature. He kicked the head into the yard before it could even touch the ground destroying the brain in the kick. He causally stepped to the side avoiding the spurt of blood. "Way too much blood for a dead person how do these things' even function?" He muses to himself thinking along the lines that she may have been a more recent death, as her body still pumps blood or retained most of it. In other words, she should not have been long turned. Julius squats to check the women for a bite or to see if she died like the guy at the pie contest.

While he was checking her, he feels himself being watched and looks out the window to see a little girl staring back while trying to remain hidden up in a treehouse. She looks African American he couldn't be sure from there, and the woman he just re-killed was white… Not likely her mother but who knows these days? When Julius notices her peeking again, he responds with a smile and a wave to the child in the treehouse in the backyard. She was peeking out from behind a small door that opens upward. The little girl notices him looking and ducks into the wooden door really fast with a terrorized look. However, as a child her curiosity wins over her fear in a few moments as she cracks the wooden door open, and looks out again. She didn't see anyone this time. The little one got frantic as it has only been a few moments since she looked out. She didn't want to be alone anymore, she wanted her parents. The nagging feeling that she'd be by herself forever pushes the little girl to open the side door of her treehouse once more, only for blonde hair to dangle in front of her face. She shut the door to the treehouse immediately and darts to the other side scared.

"I can now see how me coming up here could have been rude, but I wanted to talk to you, and I don't think it's safe to yell." Julius starts, "In hindsight I probably shouldn't have knocked so loudly on your house door… Anyways little girl, I won't hurt you. What's your name? I'm Julius." Says Julius from outside the door he feels very guilty even if the woman was dead, she could have been very important to this child. So, he opts to approach this situation carefully. He waits and nothing, silence permeates the entire area. With a deep sigh he turns to leap down.

Maybe it was because of the sigh, but the little girl gets anxious and comes back to the door. From behind him, Julius hears a small voice say shyly, "My name is Clementine please don't leave me alone."