Chapter 1: Dead End

It was midnight. The broken moon hung in the night air illuminating everything bellow. On this night a shrill was heard on the edge of a forest. The forest was covered in a thick fog and emerging from the fog was a young woman. She had long blond hair and was impractical dressed for a night in the forest, wearing a tank top and shorts.

The young woman had a horrified expression on her face as she ran out of the woods and up a hill. At the top of the hill was empty and derelict house. The woman ran up the front door of the house and swung the front door wide open. The entire house shook and the ancient pictures of the previous owners fell of the walls.

The woman looked behind her to see her pursuer coming up the hill. Her pursuer was her boyfriend, or was. Her boyfriend had been bitten earlier on their date by a crazy old man. Now he skin had turned a pale gray and his eyes a deep red. And all he wanted to do was eat the young woman's brains. In layman's terms, he was a zombie.

The young woman ran up the stairs of the house each step rocking the core of the house. Just when she was about to reach the top her weight was too much for the old house and the stairs under her gave out. The young woman crashed through the steps and became stuck in the wood.

"Help! Someone! Help!" She shouted struggling to escape the stairs.

All her screaming did was attract her ex-lover to her location. The zombie slowly made his ways up the steps, his jaw wide open and a thick green drool coming from its mouth. The woman continued to scream as the zombie got closer and closer. Then when it was inches away from her face the zombie knelt down and-

"Booo! This sucks!" Yang shouted throwing her bag of popcorn at the screen.

"Shh! What are you doing Yang?" Weiss asked shushing her teammate.

"What? I'm just expressing my dissatisfaction with the movie." She said.

The lights to the theater came on as the movie paused. A young man in a red vest and a flashlight came walking down to the seats of team RWBY. "Alright, that enough out of you. Out, all of you!" He said shining the flashlight in all of their faces.

"Come on! I need to see the ending!" Ruby said pleading with the usher.

"No, we've had enough of you. Out!" The usher said pointing to the exit.

Yang stood up and scoffed, "Fine, your movie sucked anyways." She said putting her hands in her pocket and walking towards the exit.

"I didn't make the movie." The user shouted to Yang.

"Still sucks!" Yang shouted back.

The rest of team RWB sighed and followed Yang out of the theater.

After Roman tried to destroy Vale with a invasion of Grimm some of the local business gave free perks to some of the Beacon Academy students for protecting them. A decision they would soon come to regret.

One of the perks was a free movie ticket for any Beacon students. Team RWBY had decided to use the perk to see the new horror movie 'Abandoned to the Dead 3' in the theater.

Unfortunately Yang had caused problems from beginning to end. First she had argued with the concession stand about the price of popcorn. Then she caused a mess when she tried to carry three bags of popcorn and six drinks. Finally during the movie she threw popcorn at the screen for the stupidity of the main heroine.

Now a frustrated team RWBY was walking home through the mall. "Thanks Yang, now I'll never know how it ends." Ruby said glaring at her sister.

"Movie sucked anyways. Besides, you hate scary movies Ruby. Remember that time we saw Toilet Invaders and you wouldn't go inside the bathroom for a week?" Yang said chuckling at the memory.

"Did not!" Ruby said stomping her foot in protest but her embarrassed face betrayed her.

"How about not causing a mess next time we go out?" Blake asked her partner.

"Come on Blake, that girl was so stupid. She should have grabbed the sheriff's gun and shoot the zombie. There, problem solved." Yang said.

"Shooting a loved one is a lot harder than you make it sound." Blake said. "What if the bite was only temporary? Or what if he felt pain?" She asked.

Yang shrugged her shoulders, "Better than them both dying." She said.

"What do we do now?" Weiss asked.

Ruby thought for a moment. They could go back home or try to get some of the other free perks. Than again, it would be hard with Yang causing trouble everywhere they went. Ruby was thinking when her eyes fell on small hut. The hut was tiny, looking only one room big. But the thing that caught Ruby's attention was the sign on the fron. In big neon letters read 'FREE GAMES'.

"Oh, oh. Let's go there." Ruby said hopping up and down out of excitement at the prospect of a free game.

"I've never seen that store before." Weiss said.

"Must be new." Blake responded.

"Who cares? Free games!" Ruby shouted running towards the tiny store leaving her team behind.

Ruby opened the door to the store and was shocked at what she saw. The store did indeed have only one room and it showed. The racks on the walls were covered in junk. Baseballs, old clothes, stuffed animals were just a few of things that littered the store. The junk was so bad that the junk covered the few windows in the room. There was even junk on the just lying on the floor! The only light came from a single lightbulb that swung slightly.

Ruby made her way through the junk to what she thought was the counter of the store. She then saw a tiny bell. Ruby looked around the tiny one room store. No employees of any kind were nearby. Maybe they were outside on a break? Ruby decided to ring the bell to try and get their attention. To her he surprised a figure appeared out a pile of junk behind the counter.

"What? Who is it? You wanna a fight? I'll show you!" The figure said waving a cane around.

"Umm… Hello?" Ruby said.

The figure turned to face Ruby and now Ruby saw who it was. The figure was a old man. The old man had several liver spots on his head and his skin saw so wrinkly Ruby was surprised her could even move. He looked to about a hundred years old. Maybe more. He had a long white beard and his back was hunched over. He had a pair of thick rimmed glasses on his face and he wore a pair of slacks and suspenders.

"Oh, a customer. How can I help you?" The old man asked with a smile to show his yellow teeth.

Ruby stepped back in disgust, "Um… The sign said something about a free game." She said.

The old man stroked his chin, "It did? Don't remember doing that. Well you came in. what do you want?" He asked.

Ruby looked around at the junk, "What do you have?" She asked.

The old man cackled, "Oh, I'll show you." He said disappearing back into the pile of junk.

Ruby stood in silence for a minute before the old man reappeared. With a wooden box in his hands. "How about this?" He said opening the box to reveal a set of wooden soldiers.

"Um… I was thinking about getting a game. Not really interested in dolls." Ruby said.

"Bah!" The old man said throwing the box away and apparently landing on a cat causing it to squeal. "What kind of kids doesn't want toy soldiers." The old man mumbled disappearing back into the pile of junk.

After a few minutes the old man reappeared with a golden orb. It had strange writing on the sides and Ruby swore she heard some sort of whispering in her ear. "Here you are. Try saying no to this." The old man said.

"Um thanks but I was thinking about you know, a board game or a video game." Ruby said.

The old man nodded, "Oh I see…" He said disappearing back into the pile.

Ruby seemed to wait for what seemed like forever before the old man reappeared. In his hands was a small black box. "I have just the thing for you kids these days. Its a old video game console. Got it on sale!" The old man said.

Ruby was concerned that he had gotten it on sale but she was tired of waiting, "Thanks." She said taking the console from the old man.

"Heed this warning though, don't play the game after midnight. If you do you soul will turn into cheese!" The old man rattled while shaking his finger at Ruby.

Ruby gulped. "Or was it before midnight?" The old man mumbled. "Maybe you're not supposed to get it wet?" The old man continued. "Or was that you need a soul of cheese to turn it on? Wait, that doesn't make any sense. Maybe it starts the apocalypse when it hears the word Tomato?"

Ruby decided to leave the old man like this and headed out of the store. To see her team waiting outside.

"Took you long enough." Weiss said tapping her foot.

"You could have come in." Ruby said.

"In there?" Weiss said pointing to the tiny building.

"What'd you get?" Yang asked Ruby.

Ruby showed her teammates the black box. "The old man inside said it was a game console." She said.

Blake took the black box from Ruby, "I've never seen a console like this before." She said.

"What games did it come with?" Yang asked.

Ruby slapped her forehead, "I forgot to get any." She said. "Hold on a moment."

Ruby went back to the store and pulled on the door handle but no matter how hard she pulled the door wouldn't open. "Open up!" Ruby shouted.

Yang sighed and stepped in, "Let me." She said grabbing the door handle and pulled. But to her surprise the door didn't budge. Yang continued to pull even harder, so hard that her hair began to glow and her eyes began to turn red. "Open!" Yang shouted ready to explode.

Blake put a hand on Yang's shoulder, "Calm down Yang." She said.

"Yeah, maybe it comes with a game." Ruby said.

Yang let go of the door and snorted, "It better." She said.

"Alright, where is the power switch?" Ruby said turning the box around looking for a switch of some kind.

After getting into Beacon Academy Ruby asked Glynda if she could use her new console in one of the classrooms. Glynda told them they had better things to do than play video games but because Ruby didn't hear a no, she 'borrowed' a classroom to set up her console. Of course the rest of her team joined her despite Weiss's argument that playing video games was childish.

"Maybe it's a voice command console." Yang said.

"Oh yeah, okay. On!" Ruby shouted at the black box.

The black box didn't respond.

"Did you really think that would work?" Weiss asked.

Ruby shrugged, "At least we know that now." She said.

"Let me see." Weiss said looking at the black box. After a few seconds Weiss snapped her fingers. "I get it." She said.

"Get what?" Blake asked.

"The entire console is a touch screen. All we need to do is put your finger right… here." Weiss said putting her finger on the side of the console.

"How did you figure that out?" Yang asked.

Weiss smiled, "We had the same kind of technology back at my house." She said.

"So you know what this is?" Ruby asked.

"No, not really. I've never seen anything quite like this. It's new but old at the same time." She said as the console began to light up.

In an instant the console began to glow a dark red. Then the console began projecting a screen in front of the team RWBY.

The projection was blank. "Umm… start?" Ruby said hoping it would work this time.

To her surprise the console seemed to respond and the screen now displayed the words 'Enter Username' in white text. "Oh okay, where is the controller?" Ruby asked.

"I think its voice operated." Blake said.

"Oh, me first! I'm Flaming Dragon!" Yang said to the console. The console responded by putting her words on the screen in bright yellow text.

"Nice, alright who's next?" Yang asked.

Ruby thought for a moment but then decided on a username. "You can call me, Red Death!" Ruby said striking a pose.

Yang gave her sister a thumbs up while Weiss sighed and shook her head. "Really, are you all going to be this childish?" She asked.

"Oh I got one for you Weiss, how about Snow Knight." Ruby said.

"That's ridiculous." Weiss said as the words Snow Knight were displayed on the screen.

"Dang it." Weiss mumbled under her breath.

"Alright Blake you up." Yang asked.

"I'm okay. I'll watch." Blake said.

"Come on Blake, it won't be fun without you!" Ruby said grabbing Blake's shoulders and rocking her back and forth.

Blake laughed, "Alright, what should my username be?" She asked.

Yang put her hand up, "Oh, how about Love Ninja." She said.

Blake's face went red but despite her protests the screen displayed the name.

"Okay, how do we start the game?" Ruby asked.

The console seemed to hear her as the console spoke in a robotic voice. "Please pick a scenario." The console said as the screen showed a list of names.

The only problem was that there was only name on the list. "Nacht Der Untoten?" Ruby asked in confusion.

"Scenario chosen. Have fun." The console said as a beam of light engulfed the entire room.

Ruby tired to open her eyes but all she could do was gasp for air. She felt like she wasn't even in her own body. Finally the darkness gave way to light. She couldn't see much but she was able to make out a few things. She saw what looked like a crashed plane and underneath her was a pale white sand. Then she saw several shadowy figures outlined in the moon's light.

Ruby's vision went back again as she heard a child's scream. When her vision returned she saw one of the black figures charging at her. But the figure wasn't running like a person. It seemed to have little disregard for its limbs as they swayed in the breeze. The figure continued to charge until it was right in front of Ruby. Ruby tried to get up or run away but she couldn't move. Finally just as the figure was on top of her, everything went black. Ruby could hear the sound of blood being spilled as suddenly words appeared before her, drenched in red. 'Nazi Zombies' the words read and then as quickly as they appeared they disappeared.

Suddenly she found herself somewhere new, somewhere she had never been. She inside a concrete building but something was wrong. The building had holes all over it and blood on the walls and doors. Although Ruby had never been a real battle she saw images from the great war. Those images reminded her a lot of this building. It was like this building was part of war of some kind.

Ruby looked around her, trying to find some hint of her friends or family. Out of the corner of her eye she saw long yellow hair. Ruby let out a cheer as she sprinted down the hallway of the room and to the yellow hair.

"Yang!" Ruby shouted happy to see her sister.

The yellow haired turned around to reveal that it was indeed Yang but not the way she remembered her. Instead of her normal outfit Yang was wearing a green shirt and baggy green pants. She also had several bags strapped to her chest and several grenades strapped to the bags. Her normal boots were replaced with big rubber boots that went up to her thighs.

Ruby looked behind Yang to find Weiss and Blake dressed up exactly the same. Ruby then looked down at herself to find that she too was dressed in the same odd fashion.

Yang ran up to her sister and hugged her tight, "Ruby!" She shouted.

"Can't… breath…" Ruby said gasping for air.

"Oops, sorry." Yang said letting go of her sister.

Weiss coughed getting everyone's attention, "I hate to interrupt but does anyone know where we are?" Weiss asked.

Blake made her way to one of the windows and looked outside. "No idea, I don't recognize this place at all." She said.

"You think the console teleported us somewhere?" Ruby asked.

Weiss scoffed, "Don't be ridiculous, teleportation is far beyond the capabilities of a little black box." She said.

"What if it was magic or something?" Ruby said.

Weiss rolled her eyes, "Come one Ruby, let's be serious here." She said.

"Well then, how did we get here then?" Ruby asked Weiss.

"Um…. I'll get back to you on that one." Weiss responded.

Yang cracked her knuckles and made her way to one of the walls. "I don't care how we got here or why but I'm not staying." She said pulling her fist back and then with all her might punching the wall.

The wall however had different plans and Yang pulled her red fist back in pain. "What the heck!" Yang shouted holding her fist.

Blake knocked the concrete with her knuckles, "That's odd I've seen you break through thicker walls." She said.

Yang began stretching in the middle of the room, "There is no way some dumb wall-" She said as she began charging at the wall, "-IS GOING TO BEAT ME!" She shouted running face first into the wall and promptly slamming into it.

The rest of team RWB stood in silence was Yang was plastered on the wall. "You want some help sis?" Ruby asked.

"No." Yang meekly responded before pulling herself off the wall.

Blake looked at the boarded up window again. "Let's see if we can get out this way." She said trying to pull the wooden planks off the window. But no matter how hard she pulled the planks remained in place.

Ruby kicked up some dirt, "If only we had our weapons, we be out of here in no time." She said.

Weiss closed her eyes and tried to summon a glyph of some kind but nothing appeared. "I don't know what's going on but I can't even summon my glyphs. It's like our semblance and aura have been taken away." She said.

Yang sat down and let out a frustrated groan, "Well this sucks. Were trapped in the middle of who knows where, we don't know how we got here, we don't have our weapons, and for some reason we can't even use our semblance. Could this get any-" Yang was saying before Ruby put her hand over Yang's mouth.

"Don't jinx us Yang!" Ruby whispered making sure the universe couldn't hear.

Yang pull Ruby's hand away, "Don't be so superstitious Ruby, were fine. Everyone will know were missing in a few hours and then people will come looking for us. All we have to is sit back and wait for help." Yang said put her hands on her head.

Suddenly a loud groan caused team RWBY to look towards the window. "I hope that's the rescue." Ruby said under her breath.

Suddenly they could her more moans and groans coming from all around them. Blake tried to find the source of the moans and groans but the fog outside the window was to thick. Then a figure shambled out of the fog and towards one of the windows on the far side of the hallway. No one on team RWBY noticed the figure until it was right in front of the window tearing off the wooden planks.

Team RWBY ran towards the sound of wooden planks being torn off happy to have an escape route. But when they arrived they saw who was tearing off the wooden planks and they couldn't believe their eyes.

A zombie. A real life zombie. Not a guy in a custom or special effects. A zombie was climbing inside the room with them. Its arms reached out slowly as it legs began to shamble closer to them. And it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what it wanted.

"Stay back!" Weiss shouted.

"It's a zombie Weiss, it's not going to listen." Ruby said.

"How do we stop it?" Weiss asked.

Blake felt something heavy appear in her hands and to her surprise it was a gun. Wasting no time she aim down her sights and fired two bullets in the zombies head. The zombies head exploded causing the rest of its body to collapse in front of team RWBY.

Ruby was about to thank Blake but another one of the windows was being attacked by a zombie. The rest of team RWBY looked down at their hands to find the same gun as Blake's.

"None of this is making any sense!" Weiss shouted.

Yang cocked her gun looked down the sights, "Kill zombies now, questions later." She said.

After what seemed like forever team RWBY killed the last of the invading zombies.

Ruby wiped the sweat off her brow, "That was…"

"Insane?" Weiss answered.

"Violent?" Blake answered.

"Thrilling?" Yang answered.

"Kinda fun." Ruby said.

Weiss couldn't believe her teammate, "Fun? We were fighting for our lives and you thought that was fun?" Weiss asked.

"I mean shooting the heads off zombies is kinda fun to watch." Ruby said. "You can't deny that."

Yang nodded, "It was crazy but that was a good workout. Not sure I do this again though. I got some blood in my hair." She said.

Blake began making her way to one of the open windows, "We can talk more about this latter, lets just get out of here first." She said as she tried to get through the open window but was stopped in front of it.

"What's wrong Blake?" Ruby asked.

"I can't get through, it's like there's a wall here." Blake said.

Ruby ran up to the window and tried to get through as well but for some reason she couldn't even put her hand up to stick it out the window. When she tried to put her face out of the window it was like a wall was blocking her.

"What is going on?" Ruby shouted.

Ruby got her answer when all of team RWBY shouted out in pain as a long red cut appeared in their hands. Before they could ask another cut appeared right in front of the first one.

Ruby looked at her hand, "Two?" She said.

Before she could ask her teammates opinion more zombies began to shamble out of the fog. "There are more of them?" Weiss asked.

"How many bullets you got left?" Ruby asked her team.

"Four." Yang said.

"Ten." Blake said.

"Six." Weiss said.

Ruby quickly counted her own bullets, "I got eight. I'm not sure how many there are so try to conserve ammo." She said.

Yang began to look in her pockets for any more ammo when she found a combat knife. "Hey, check your pockets." Yang shouted.

The rest of team RWBY checked their pockets to find knives as well. "This could help us conserve ammo." Blake said.

"Alright, shoot them and then stab them. Sounds like an easy plan." Yang said.

"Stay close to each other and watch the corners. Let's do this!" Ruby shouted as the first zombie came inside.

Yang moved first slamming her knife into the back of the zombies head. She then quickly retrieved her knife and then kicked the zombies feet from under it. Yang followed up by stabbing the zombies head again this time killing it for good.

Weiss noticed a zombie coming from behind and fired two rounds into its body. The shambled on regardless this time now missing an arm. Weiss quickly ran up to the zombie and swiped at it with her combat knife ending its undead life.

Blake saw a zombie slowly shamble towards Weiss and fired three of her bullets in the zombies heads, blowing it clean off. Weiss turned around to thank her teammate and then returned the favor by alerting Blake to a zombie behind her. Blake quickly side stepped the zombie and kicked it's back, causing it to fall over. Weiss followed up and stabbed the zombies head.

Ruby watched as her teammates went to work killing the zombies. Ruby quickly ran to her sister and helped her kill on the undead by throwing it into one of the walls. Ruby then looked outside one of the windows to see eights zombies all shambling towards her teammates. Ruby knew they didn't have enough bullets for all of them and looked around for a solution.

Then her solution came when she noticed a read barrel next to the zombies. Amming down her sights she fired two bullets into the barrel. One to start a small fire and then another causing it to explode and killing the shambling zombies.

Ruby smiled at the carnage but then quickly turned around and helped her teammates finish off the rest of the zombies.

Team RWBY each looked out a window waiting for another zombie to appear from the fog, but luckily none came. They had a moment to breath.

"We are getting good at this." Yang said.

"It is kinda odd how quickly we adapted to this." Blake said.

"We kill giant creatures and hoards like this for a living. I think our skills transfer pretty well." Yang respond.

"Hey, what happening to their bodies?" Ruby asked pointing to one of the zombie corpses.

The corpse began to sink into the floor until it had disappeared from sight. The rest of the corpses followed suit until team RWBY was alone again.

"None of this is making any sense, what is going on?" Weiss shouted stomping her foot.

Before anyone could answer her another long red mark appeared on team RWBY's hands. Each one of them winced in pain but none let out a cry. "That didn't that too bad." Ruby said.

Blake looked at her hand and then at her gun. She then looked around her. Suddenly it all made sense. "This is the game." Blake said.

"What was that Blake?" Ruby asked.

"All of this, it's just a game. None of it is real." Blake said.

"This blood in my hair said otherwise." Yang argued.

"I don't know how but this is some, artificial world. None of it is real, this is just a video game." Blake said.

"What makes you say that?" Ruby asked.

"Look at our hands, our outfits, where we are and how we got here. None of this can real!" Blake shouted.

The rest of team RWBY stood in silence. What Blake said my be true but they had fought for what had felt like their lives. The fear was most certainly real for them. For Ruby there was only one to prove this theory. It was drastic but it had to be done.

Ruby raised her gun and pointed it at Wiess. "What are you doing!" Weiss shouted.

"If this is a video game the this shouldn't hurt you." Ruby said.

"Thats a big if though!" Weiss responded.

"Ruby's right, if this is a game then we shouldn't be able to hurt each other. Just the enemy." Yang said.

Weiss looked to Blake for some sort of counter argument but it seemed that Weiss was alone on this. If Ruby was wrong, she would take a literal bullet for the team. Weiss looked to Ruby.

"Trust me Weiss." Ruby said.

Weiss looked in her partners eyes and then sighed. Ruby was the team leader and she knew she would only test this theory if was absolutely necessary. Weiss threw out all logic and nodded. "Just get it over with." Weiss said closing her eyes and biting her lip.

Ruby aimed her sights and Weiss and then pulled the trigger of her pistol. But when she fired nothing happened to Weiss. She was fine. Weiss looked down at her body and patted herself down. "I'm okay." She said happy to not be bleeding.

Now it was proven to all of them. Wherever they were wasn't real. So that left only one question. "So, if this really is a game. How do we get out?" Yang asked.

Ruby thought for a moment but then came up with the easiest answer. "Pause!" She shouted at the top of her lungs.

Suddenly the world around Ruby began to slow until it was at a stop. None of team RWBY could move a single inch. But in front of all their eyes were two words. 'Quit Game' and 'Continue'. Ruby couldn't speak so in her mind she said the words, 'Quit Game'.

At those words the world around team RWBY fall away as they felt themselves being transported somewhere new. They found themselves in dark hallway and at the end of the hallway was a single door with light coming from the underneath. Slowly all of team RWBY made their ways towards the door.

Printed on the doors were the words 'Project: Trinity' in big bold letters. Ruby grabbed the handle to the door and swung it open. When she opened the door she was treated to what looked like basement of some kind. It was dark and the only light came from a single light bulb in the middle of the room. There were massive black box that had lights in the side all over the room. The room was covered in pipes that had turned brown from rust and age. In the middle of the room was a massive screen and several chairs. In one of these chairs was a man. He was face down on the keyboard and snoring loudly. It was clear he didn't hear team RWBY enter.

Ruby looked at her teammates for some sort of suggestion on what to do. Her teammates only shrugged leaving Ruby with only one option. Ruby slowly walked up to the sleeping man and tapped him on the shoulder. "Um… Excuse me?" Ruby said, trying to get the man's attention.

The man jumped out of his chair in shock and hit his head on the floor. He groaned as he picked himself back up but then he smiled when he saw Ruby. Then he smiled, "Hey Summer, haven't seen you in awhile" He said.