OoOoO

'Every holonews station is reporting thousands of cases of insanity spread throughout the patients of Coruscant's Capital Hospital, located between the Jedi Temple and Senate Building . What was at first only a few reported occurrences has quickly jumped to a planet-wide pandemic as more and more people were brought to hospitals for insanity and erratic bursts of violence.

'Thus far, there is no known explanation for this behavior. Patients began being admitted in the late afternoon by concerned family and friends. Roughly three hours later, hospital staff and security guards were unable to keep these Coruscanti citizens within their rooms as their actions grew more and more violent. Their strength, as reported by head physician Doctor Mura Hrais, had almost tripled by the time the first few patients started escaping. They ripped through straitjackets and broke glass windows with their heads. They killed hospital staff and other patients without conscience or remorse. Eyewitnesses report the scene as being a bloodbath.

'Skylanes are currently shut down and public transportation closed off as crazed hospital patients break out of hospitals all over Coruscant and start attacking the general populace on the streets. Even still, panicked people try to escape their cities in speeders laden down with belongings. Space ports are congested with fleeing groups of people, despite having been told to shut down. Chancellor Palpatine has order the CSF to call a Planetary State of Emergency; all civilians and non-essential personnel are to remain indoors until it is safe to come out again.'

OoOoO

Fires burned buildings, speeders, and people, the night sky illuminated in bright orange and yellow. Broken glass and engine fuel spilled over the duracreet walkways. Screams erupted and abruptly stopped in alley ways, apartments, and the streets of Coruscant, taken over by snarls and growling. Entire masses of people ran in terror from the infected Coruscanti that chased after them. They hissed and spat, but spoke no coherent words, and felt no pain. Their hands snapped necks and crushed faces as their half-broken teeth sank into throats and arms. Screams of pain and terror ripped through the darkness illuminated by flickering neon signs and streetlamps that still glowed.

Blood spilled on the clothing of doctors, nurses, and hospital patients, but none paid mind to it. Dead eyes searched the fleeing hordes of citizens for their next victim. They easily took down stragglers.

At the edges of those crowds, clone troopers tried their best to fend off the claws and bites of the infected. Blue-and-white laser fire plowed into the bodies of the crazed Coruscanti citizens. One such trooper was attacked by two infected, one male Twi'lek and a male Rodian. His screams of terror and pain were lost in the louder screams and shouts of others being eaten alive. Blood flooded and gurgled in his throat. He twitched and writhed on the ground until his cries became chokes, and then silence. Each male took off in different directions, chasing after new targets. Troopers everywhere were overpowered by the brute strength of the insane individuals.

Over-crowded lanes shook with pounding footsteps and bodies that thudded as they fell. Blood pooled, sinking into cracks and gutters that lined the sidewalks. People fell off the hover pads into dark chaos below, the occasional infected following.

Speeders collided in mid air in balls of heat and fire, broken parts and fuel descending upon those on the walkways, outside buildings, anyone who had not taken fire. The gas caught and burned the flammable clothing of those caught in the blast. Sirens screamed as an ambulance ran head-on into another driver, heaps of burning metal spiraling into a vacated storefront. The entire thing burst into flames, consuming crazed hospital patients and citizens alike.

Bodies burned, fell, crashed through windows and into other bodies. They leaped off walkways and bridges and trampled each other to death.

Chaos rang in the night, and no one was prepared for the worst of it.

Pale morning sunlight filtered through the tattered, thin curtains, a gentle breeze lifting the light cloth away from the wall. Grey walls were stained with watermarks and other, unidentifiable things. The floors were wood, splintered in some places and cracked in others. One floorboard by the closet was coming up.

Three beds lay side-by-side in the small room, roughly a meter of space between them—one lacked a proper bed frame. The occupant of the middle bed stirred, knocking the thin blanket off the mattress. He woke with a gasp, sitting up straight in bed. Curling his back, he pulled his knees up, resting his elbows on them.

"Cody? You're awake. Good." The occupant of the bed on his left spoke up suddenly, his deep and gruff voice startling. His back was against the wall, an arm laid across the top of his knee. He was barefoot, but white plastoid boots were on the floor by the foot of his bed.

Cody pressed a hand to his forehead, feeling gauze under his fingers. He scowled as a headache started to form. Cody examined the room around him; the blue, thin blanket on the floor and stained bed sheet he'd been sleeping on top of. Closing his eyes and massaging his temples, Cody asked the first thing on his mind. "What happened…?"

"We found you in a rundown building—a warehouse, actually." That didn't explain what Cody wanted to know, but he felt it would be all he'd get for a while. "You hit your head pretty bad; you were in and out of consciousness for a few days." He shifted until he was sitting up, legs hanging over the side of the bed. "Do you remember anything that happened before then?"

Cody gave the man a confused look, then one of shock; it was a moment before he realized it was Rex who was talking, and that they were both wearing dirty, worn, civilians clothing. "Rex? What happened to you?" His brother had changed since the outbreak; lines crossed his tan face, making him look older than he really was. Skin crinkled around his eyes, but they weren't from laughing. Stubble poked out of his chin, desperately in need of shaving. Besides all that, there was a permanent half-scowl etched into his face that brought his eyebrows together at a low point. "No, I don't remember— what do you mean by 'we'?"

"Bliz is here too," Rex said, bending to pull on his boots. His grey shirt was covered with stains other than mud and grime. "Can you walk?"

"Bliz is here?" Cody asked. He raked a hand through his overgrown black hair, breathing out a sigh. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't relieved. "Anyone else?"

"No." Voice gruff and almost tired sounding, Rex answered curtly. With an edge of impatience, he repeated his question. "Can you walk?"

Cody stood, the floorboards under his feet cold and hard. Dizziness swam in his head for a few seconds. "I think I can manage." His hand gripped the headboard of his bed.

"Good." Rex's unusual curtness confused Cody. "Come on, we're going out for supplies."

Another face appeared at the door way, this one also covered in stubble. His hair was slightly longer than normal, styled differently so it could be easily managed, but Cody instantly recognized the face. "Bliz?"

"Cody! You're finally awake." Bliz smiled. "I found some cereal in another apartment," he said to Rex as he held a bowl out to Cody. "I left the rest of it in the kitchen, if you want any." Steam curled gently from the purple bowl. A metal spoon glinted in the sunlight. "You should eat something, Cody. It's been a while since you did." Bliz stepped into the bedroom, holding the bowl out.

Rubbing his head again, Cody accepted the breakfast. Colorful, sugary children's cereal floated in the warm milk. "Why'd you heat it?" The entire thing was mushy.

"Tastes better that way," Bliz replied, eating his own cereal out of a plastoid bowl. He went back to the doorway to lean against the wall. The look on Rex's face said that was Bliz's personal opinion. "They said it's also safer to eat it that way."

Cody's mouth twisted in confusion. "Who's 'they'? Is there anyone else here?" he asked. His memory was spotty; he couldn't remember much of what happened before the day the infection broke out, or how he'd ended up in the warehouse with a bump the size of Coruscant on his forehead.

Neither man answered. Rex chose to start packing a flimsy backpack he'd found, putting things like a flashlight and blaster charges in it. Bliz only munched silently on his heated cereal.

"They also said we'd have better luck searching for food and supplies today down south, instead of north. Maybe we'll find some candy like we did a few months ago…" he said with a slight bit of perkiness.

Bliz's suddenly easy-going attitude was a puzzle Cody decided he would figure out later. He never remembered the normally sour Commander as being one to smile or take on a lighthearted tone this often. Something about him just seemed…simpler, almost childlike. He acted as if the traumatizing night everyone was infected never happened.

Rex saw the look Cody was giving Bliz. "Tell you about it later," he muttered to Cody as he walked out of the room, carrying the pack in one hand.

Bliz, still standing in the doorway, glanced at Cody, and then Rex. "Tell him what? What are you muttering about?"

"Nothing," Rex answered, slipping on the heavy pack. The items inside clacked against the armor hidden under his clothing. "Finish eating and get your stuff."

Bliz frowned but said nothing. Finishing his cereal, he threw the bowl in the sink in the kitchen connected to the bedroom. "I'll get something for you to carry supplies in, Cody. We should have another back pack around here somewhere…"

The search for the pack took about five minutes, during which Cody learned that they were on the second floor of a four-floor apartment building, with twenty rooms on each floor—this was the only one that had been unlocked. It was made of brick and duracrete, and hot water was on and off. There was one window in the only bedroom where he'd woken up; a kitchen lay directly across from where Cody slept (this with two windows), and a closet was on the right of Bliz's bed, farthest from the window in the bedroom, which was by Rex's bed. The kitchen and living room were connected, no wall to separate them. The door to the apartment led straight to the living room. Once one entered the living room, the refresher would be on the immediate left. The door was scratched and rough.

He learned that most of Coruscant's police force had been wiped out on that first night, and that within three days the population dropped by millions—the infected were not considered citizens. When he asked where they all went, Rex told him that they had fallen into the vertical tunnels that led to the lower levels, most likely toward the center of the planet. He said he didn't know anything about those that lived in the lower levels.

Cody learned that those who'd survived the pandemic resided in "safe houses" spread across the planet; the Jedi Temple, the Senate building, and the Republic Army base were the main ones, each housing five hundred to thousands of people.

He learned that Coruscant was completely cut off from the rest of the galaxy. No one knew whether the virus had spread to other planets in the system or not.

Within another five minutes, they were outside, and Cody was caught up on Bliz and Rex's situation; Bliz was looking for General Jorani and the rest of Crusade Squad, and Rex was trying to find a way to get to one of the three main safe houses, to see what had happened to his men.

Cody kept a steady pace behind Rex. "So we're more or less alone out here." It was more of a statement than a question.

"As far as we can tell, yes. There's the occasional gang, but we stay away from each other." Rex maneuvered around heaps of metal and other obstacles.

Bliz pulled up next to Cody. "I think they want to try and avoid confrontation. They said there was a clone in one of those gangs—"

"There aren't any clones in those gangs," Rex snapped. His tone suggested that he and Bliz had had this conversation more than once. "They're either dead or in one of the safe houses." Jaw set, Rex marched forward.

Bliz scowled, dropping the conversation. They walked on in silence, their boots crunching on broken glass and fragments of gravel.

Silence stretched through the soldiers to the far reaches of the neighborhoods they passed through. Cody questioned why it was so quiet until he realized that there was a severe lack of people. No speeders hummed as they broke the speed limit. There were no shouts or casual conversation as people milled about on sidewalks. Nothing moved, walked, or so much as twitched in the mid-morning sunlight.

Deathly silence permeated the air. Every little noise stood out to him and made the hairs on his neck stand on end. Wind blew between buildings, whistling through broken windows and kicking trash down walkways.

"You get used to the silence after a while," Bliz said, breaking the steady emptiness in the air. "They said it might take a bit, but that in the end you barely even notice it." He aimed his blaster at nothing, eyeing the scope. "Took me a few weeks…"s

Cody decided not to try and question who "they" were. They continued for another ten minutes in one of the large shopping centers of Coruscant. "Why aren't we going into those stores?" Empty restaurants passed them by left and right, and had been doing that for a while now. Cody imagined species from around the galaxy dining at the dark tables under the warm sun, food traveling regularly in and out of the wide kitchen doors.

"Gangs have already claimed those ones." Rex stopped long enough to point at the wall of one store. A large white X marred the otherwise even surface of grey stone. "We so much as go in, and they'll hunt us down."

"We made that mistake once before, but they let us off with a warning. I think it's because we're clones and—"

Rex glared."Bliz."

"—they pity us," Bliz ground out, teeth gritted. Annoyance shadowed his face before he shook his head, aiming his sight at something else. "Anyway, we don't go in those places. But we did find a small strip mall that—as of late—wasn't tampered with."

They rounded another corner, talking a short flight of steps down through an alleyway. Shrouded in darkness, the trio wove their way through broken duracrete and heaping piles of rotting garbage. Nausea crept up the back of Cody's throat, and he pressed a hand over his nose to try to block out the worst of the stench. Soka flies buzzed incessantly around the piles of trash and waste, maggots most likely squirming and hatching beneath layers and layers of refuse. The mere thought made Cody want to gag, so he shifted his hand to cover his mouth and struggled to hold his balance against the ebbing and flowing waves of dizziness.

"You okay back there?" Bliz asked, pausing to pass a look over his shoulder. Either he didn't smell rotting garbage, or he was better at ignoring it.

"I'm fine—" Cody's foot caught on a large lump. He lurched forward with a small yelp, slamming his arms into the ground before his face could meet with the filthy duracrete. "What the—" He turned on his side, glaring at whatever it was that had tripped him.

The lump lay on the ground, shoulders curled inward as if caught in the middle of a shiver and legs cut off at the knees. A body.

The shoulders twitched, head turning with a sickening crack and pop. One cold, dead, yellow eyes bore into Cody. It hissed.

Not a body. An infected person.

Fungus sprouted from what was once and eye socket. Grey skin peeled from its cheeks and a tooth fell from its rotten gums to the slimy ground beneath it. Long, dirty fingernails lunged for his ankle before he was fully standing, dragging him back down. Its hiss morphed into a hideously low growl, saliva dripping over its half-smashed face.

"Cody!" A rough hand gripped his shoulder in a painful hold, yanking him backward.

The infected person lunged forward again, growls quickly changed to loud snarling and biting. Both hands reached out to claw at the solid plastoid. The man behind Cody tripped, and Cody was brought roughly to the concrete again. His elbow connected with solid brick and flared in pain. He cried out just as its teeth clamp onto his foot.

One laser shot cracked through the air, the resounding sound echoing into the farthest reaches of the empty city.

The infected person froze, squeaked at the burning laser whole in its forehead. It twitched and dropped to the ground with a heavy thud.

"We need to hurry up and get out of here," Rex said, holstering his blaster. He pulled Bliz up by his hand, who in turn helped Cody to stand. "Are you hurt?"

Cody rubbed his sore elbow. "I don't think I'll be able to move this for a while."

Rex's lips twisted to form a swear word, but stopped before any sound was made. "Come on. We'll patch you up later. Bliz, mark this alley down."

Bliz nodded solemnly, guiding Cody in front of him. "We'll have to find another way to get into this area that doesn't require a speeder." Cody wasn't sure if Bliz was explaining the situation or talking to himself.

They exited the alley, bright sunlight momentarily blinding them.

"This is it," Bliz spoke, voice raised. He stepped out to the center plaza, sweeping both arms out at his sides. It was as if the previous incident with the infected person had never happened. "The regular entrance by speeder—" He pointed to the entryway, blocked by the crushed bridge that once curved above it. "—is, as you can see, impossible to use. Doesn't matter because no one has speeders anymore."

"This is where you get everything?" Cody looked around at the undamaged shops and stores, small but still supplied, judging by what he could see through the dark windows.

"Currently, we're the only ones who know about this," Rex said, making his way to one of the shops.

Bliz stood, frozen to the spot. His eyes narrowed, one hand moving to the blaster holstered at his side. Cody stopped as well; every nerve in him stood on end, an eerie feeling gripping his spine and crawling down his back. "What's wrong?"

"Rex! Get down!" Bliz was across the plaza in seconds, tackling him to the ground just slugshot rounds pounded into the ground where he'd been standing.

Cody's gut instinct took over. His blaster immediately aimed for the area where the slugshots had come from. "Who are you?" Cody yelled, blaster pointed at a building.

The sunlight silhouetted the form of a person kneeling on the roof of a bakery. A male's voice called out to them. "So you thought you could just blow off our meeting, Rex? Figured you could just stop shipping supplies and we wouldn't notice?"

"Rex? What is he talking about?" Bliz's hand was on Rex's bicep. He roughly hauled Rex to his feet. "What the hell is going on, Rex?"

Rex didn't answer, instead pulling his arm out of Bliz's grip. He faced the stranger on he roof. "You know why I couldn't talk to you—"

"Ah, yes, but there were so many days after you found him!" The man swung his legs over the edge, leaping off the roof and landing on the ground, in the shade.

Bliz and Cody immediately trained their blasters on him. "Don't move!" Bliz yelled. "Rex, what is going on?"

The man took a step forward, both hands held in the air. "Now, I don't mean you any harm…" He trained his eyes on Rex. "But I expect my crate of supplies."

"Rex…" Bliz slowly crept toward the man. A vicious snarl was slowly forming on his face, creating new lines in his skin. "Who is he?"

"Bliz, lower your blaster," Rex said, keeping his voice calm and even. He held his hands up, fingers splayed and gently edging toward Bliz. "This is someone we can trust—"

"Someone we can trust?" Bliz almost spat. Anger split his face, and his grip tightened on the weapon. "Rex, have you been giving gangs our supplies? Is this why you always insisted on scouting out alone? You're helping the very people you swore you'd never associate with!"

Cody's own thoughts were beginning to swirl in his head. Rex was a brother he'd known and trusted, but supplies—things like food and medicine—were being traded and sold to gangs who traded people and ran underground cage fights for sport.

The man, who had been silent up until then, suddenly spoke up. He lowered his hands by his sides, making the flaps of his dark jacket bounce. "He said that? I'm hurt, Rex, I really am—"

"Vin, I need you to stay out of this," Rex snapped, raising his voice. "Bliz, if you would let me explain—"

"You have nothing to explain to me!" His thumb hovered over the switch on the blaster. One flick, and it was set to kill. "You've been giving away materials we needed to survive," Bliz whispered, the sudden drop in his voice startling everyone. "You expect me let you explain when you've betrayed us? More and more people are gathering on these roofs waiting to gun us down!"

Shadows stretched across the grey stone of the small plaza, each in the form of a head and shoulders. Long, shiny black sniper rifle barrels trained themselves on the trio.

Vin finally stepped out of the shadows, the sun glinting off the shiny black leather of his heavy trench coat. His boots, coated in things other than mud, were just as heavy and dark as the rest of his clothing. Weapons bulked through his black shirt and pants pockets, and there were doubtless others that were hidden from sight. The easy smirk he'd been speaking with shone just as bright as the sun on his face and burned just as hot as the wicked look in his dark green eyes. Even his bright blond hair had an edge of depravity.

Cody got the sense Vin knew things and he was just toying with them. His whole demeanor reeked of childish giddiness and an insatiable thirst for chaos and power. Just then, Vin's dark green eyes locked onto Cody's and held them for a second too long. His smirk deepened.

"Did you fail to alert your friend here, ah…what was your name?" Vin aimed his burning eyes on Bliz. Bliz only returned his look with a cold glare. "Hm. Never mind then." His hands flew into the air with a flourish. "We'll just have our little meeting with Rex here and be on our way—"

The nose of Bliz's blaster found Vin's heart with a click. "Step. Back."

The sound of dozens of blasters whirring and training on Bliz echoed through the empty strip mall.

"Bliz," Rex hissed, risking a step toward his comrade. "Let me handle this. Vin has things that we need—" The slightest hint of desperation crept into the edges of his tone. Rex's eyes sought out Bliz.

"Only because you've been giving them to him!" he yelled, disgust twisting his face. "I always thought you were above this kind of thing—"

"They might know where the rest of Crusade Squad is." Rex unknowingly held his breath, eyeing Bliz for his reaction. "In order to get more information on their whereabouts, I had to trade."

Bliz recoiled as if he'd been kicked in the gut. "They…" He swung his gaze to Vin. "You know?" The anger drained out of his face, leaving only caution and something akin to tired relief.

"Surprise!" Vin exclaimed, doing another hand flourish. He strolled to Bliz in the center of the plaza, his stride long and casual, as if there weren't blasters pointed at him and the men of interest. "This was all going to be one giant sort of…gift for you. Unfortunately, that didn't go as planned." He shot an almost accusatory glance at Rex. "But I like Rex, and I know that he tolerates you to some extent, so I am willing to tell you what I know."

Bliz continued to stare at Vin. "You'll tell me?" Bliz asked, still disbelieving. His eyes narrowed, the barrel of the gun immediately aimed between Vin's eyes. "How am I supposed to believe you?"

Vin looked hurt and offended. "I am a reliable person! I must say, though, that that General of yours—what was her name? Jorani, I believe—is quite the fighter. And mover. Constantly jumping from place to place with her little piercing friend in tow—"

"You saw General Jorani and Ridge?" Bliz's hope broke through. "Where are they?"

Vin waggled his finger. "Not just yet. I would like to have a private word with Rex first." Vin moved to the left, towards the fallen bridge, beckoning Rex to follow him.

Rex gave Bliz a look before following Vin. Holstering his gun, his bent his head low towards him.

Cody struggled to keep up with what was going on. His head hurt from all the events trying to fill the holes in his mind. Pressing a palm to his face, he rubbed the bandage that wrapped around his head.

"Do you think he's telling the truth?" Bliz asked softly, eyeing the pair a few meters away. Their voices were too soft to be heard from where he was.

"I have no way to tell," Cody answered, moving to stand beside him.

Vin suddenly jerked upright, clapping his hands together once. His voice filled the entire plaza. "Great! Glad we've struck a deal, Rex." Spinning on his heel, he strode toward Bliz. "Now, about your buddies…" He smiled, his grin bright and unnerving. "Last I saw them, they were a few klicks south of here, near the city of Trens. My, uh, scouts got a hologram recording of them." Vin dug a hand around in his long trench coat pocket, shifting it around until he pulled out a small disk. Tapping a button on its edge, a blue, grainy image hovered in the air. In it, a woman in dark clothing walked quickly, another person just behind her and out of range of the camera. They both froze as the woman pulled out her lightsaber, eyeing her surroundings. The recording ended.

"That's them…" Bliz said, his voice barely audible.

"I could take you to them—ah, don't get excited now." Vin smiled, pocketing the disk. "But they've been pretty shifty, am I right?" he called to the snipers along the roofs. It took them a moment to realize that he was addressing them, but they eventually nodded their agreement.

"Bliz." Rex was by his side in a split second. "Bliz, we need to think this through before—"

"I'm not taking advice from someone who's been lying to me for the past seven months," Bliz growled, shoving Rex aside. "What do you want in trade?"

Vin's silence made Cody's nerves spike. "Nothing I'm sure you clone Commanders can't handle," he said, shoving his hands deep into his pockets. "You know the Veris district, right? Well, that was taken from me by a rival gang—and by infected people."

The same look of dread that landed in Rex's gut showed on Bliz's face.

"I want it back."

The first chapter of Stranded and it's already pretty heavy. This story won't be light hearted, so this is a general warning for future chapters. I currently don't have a schedule for this, but I'll try to make one.

Reviews, comments, and critiques are always appreciated!

~AAx