Prologue Part One: "The Harran Incident"

Kyle Crane is many things. He is a runner, a fighter, a soldier… and a survivor. But if there is one thing that he is not, it is a liar. So when he and the group of survivors he had managed to lead out of the city of Harran were "retrieved" by the GRE and told that everything they had been through would be covered up so as not to cause worldwide panic… Well, to put it frankly, he was pretty pissed. Two years, two hellish years of fighting, starving, and suffering would be swept under the goddamn rug, just so that everyone at the GRE and the government officials affiliated with them could keep their jobs? Not on his watch. Or, that's what he thought at least, before he was pulled aside by the company's CEO himself and told, in great detail, of what had happened after Crane went AWOL.

After the final (and most satisfying in Crane's opinion) interaction between them, the organization immediately started making plans to send a strike team into the city of Harran. This team would have had two primary objectives: To retrieve the file that Crane had refused to deliver, and to hunt down and silence the former operative by any means necessary. And the plan would have been put into action as well if it weren't for a sudden, and unexpected change in the GRE's leadership. As it turned out, Kyle Crane wasn't the only one giving the company trouble at the time. After word had gotten out that he had refused to continue his mission, a group of very influential and wealthy individuals with half a conscience carried out what could only be described as a company-wide coup d'état. After gaining the support of both the less influential work force and a suprising number of the GRE's sponsors, the current CEO and a number of his associates took advantage of the company's moment of disarray and seized it with relative ease. The GRE had been so focused on trying to hide their mistakes that they hadn't realized there were some people who wanted to fix them instead. At first, Crane didn't believe a word that came out of the old man's mouth, and for good reason too. Over the course of his employment, Crane had come to realize that the only things the GRE cared about were their reputation and monetary gains, throwing the wellbeing of the people that they were supposed to be "relieving" to the wayside. In other words, they were professional bullshit artists, and Crane didn't want to believe them even for a second. However, his distrust of the company's words began to waver when the CEO placed the briefcase he had been carrying onto the table that separated them and opened it, revealing its contents to the wary runner.

Crane was nothing short of shocked to find personality files on every single member of the GRE that had been replaced, which included even the woman who had relayed his orders to him during his time in the field. Crane took his sweet time reading through every single one of them, wanting to make sure of two things: That the files on the people he did know of were correct, and that the GRE wasn't trying to trick him again. And as he read on and on, the runner couldn't help but take note of how detailed each file was, some of them revealing new information on people Crane had thought he knew everything about. But amongst the wealth of information that each file offered, there was one piece of personal information that brought a grin to Kyle's face each time he read it: The current prison sentences each former employee was facing, which varied from person to person. And he knew for a fact that these sentences were not only real, but would also be upheld after he had been given the opportunity to cross-reference them with the databases of various supermax prisons around the world. When he took into account how secretive the GRE had been even with him, who was their only operative in the field at the time, Crane had to admit: The figurative truckload of information he was presented with was both a little overwhelming…and highly convincing. But despite the piece of seemingly rock solid evidence in front of him, he still couldn't bring himself to trust them, even going as far as to state that they would need further evidence to prove their goodwill. And not only did they give it to him immediately, but also in a way that he never could have anticipated. After Crane had made his demand for more evidence, the CEO simply turned to one of the armed guards that had been watching over them and nodded to him, which the heavily armed man responded to by leaving the room. After about five minutes of awkward silence, the same guard entered the room once again, the fingerless combat gloves he was previously wearing replaced with ones made of rubber. In his right hand he held a syringe filled with a clear fluid, and in his left he held an empty, labeled vial that he then proceeded to place on the table, in clear view for all to see.

When he had first seen the syringe, alarm bells had started ringing in Crane's head as he visibly tensed up, preparing for a fight. But when no one had made an attempt to restrain him, Crane simply looked at the CEO in confusion, who only gestured towards the empty vial in response. Still keeping careful watch of the guards in case they made any sudden movements, Crane took the vial in his hands… and nearly dropped the damn thing when he read the word "vaccine" plastered on its side. The old man simply chuckled as Crane tried to keep his jaw from hitting the floor, the former agent for hire staring at the glass in his hand like it was the Holy Grail. But it wasn't… no, it was much more valuable than that. Crane slowly cast his gaze upwards, his eyes as wide as saucers. But before the runner could even open his mouth, the man sitting across from him answered every question he was about to ask. Yes, it was thoroughly tested, yes, it was completely safe, and yes, it was able to be mass produced with ease. At this revelation, Crane felt like jumping out his chair with joy. No longer would he, nor any of the other survivors have to search for the suppressant known as Antizen like a needle in an increasingly lethal haystack. No longer would the survivors who weren't infected have to worry about the very real possibility that they would have to put down a friend or a family member like some kind of rabid dog. And no longer would Crane feel like he himself was only postponing an inevitable, yet untimely and horrible fate.

At that very moment, Crane felt like lunging out of his chair and wrapping the business- suit wearing man in his arms, but didn't, as the guards would most likely misread his intentions and gun him down on the spot. He would have to settle for a teary-eyed, firm handshake instead, which the CEO of the GRE returned with gusto. The former runner still had some questions, though now he asked them out of curiosity rather than distrust. Crane first asked why the man had chosen to take over the GRE instead of start a company of his own. The CEO stated that even though he did indeed have the resources to do so, the GRE had been crushing any and all signs of competition ever since its founding in 2002, using methods ranging from company buyouts to straight up corporate espionage. And the fact that he would've been a former employee would only encourage them to crush the competition he could potentially put up faster. Finding this answer satisfactory, Crane moved on to the second question he wanted to ask: How much would the vaccine cost to obtain? In response to this, the CEO merely smiled, and stated that all infected survivors that the GRE had and will come across will be administered the recently perfected vaccine completely free of charge. Crane let out a sigh of relief at this answer, who, after a minute or two of deep contemplation, thought of a third, and final question to ask.

Now, this third and final question, despite that fact that Crane had only thought of it after getting the answers to his first and second ones, weighed on his mind the most heavily. After a short period of hesitation, the former gun-for-hire turned zombie killing traceur asked a simple, yet incredibly important question: "What happens now?"

The old man sitting across from him chuckled.

"Now…" The old man slid both a check and a badge across the table.

"Now you retire, my friend."