AN: Hey there you wonderful readers! I don't know if there's a category for 'Zombies, Run!' I doubt many people have heard of it, but if you have, you're wonderful, and if you've played it, I love you. For those of you who don't know, zombies run is an app for the iphone and ipod touch, and it's basically an exercise game. But it's a good one! As you run, it plays a playlist of your music, and inbetween songs, you hear clips of the story as it goes along! It's really fun! You're Runner 5, and you live in Abel Township, in the middle of the zombie apocalypse! I don't want to give too much away though.

This story is actually kind of a transliteration of the actual game, but I've written it as I had interpreted it, with my own little persona. Fair warning, I'm probably going to be very sporadic with the updates, but whenever I re-listen to the story so I can transcribe it, I feel the need to get up and run away from the zombies, which I can't do since I'm trying to write this... Ah well. I'll update every time I finish a chapter. Hopefully by the time I reach the end of the 26th Mission, the second season of missions will be out, and all us maniacs who seem to enjoy running for our lives from zombies that only exist in our ears can finally escape the mother of all CLIFFHANGERS! That's how epic this game is.

Anyway, I don't own Zombies, Run!, or anything. I don't even really own this story! Pretty much all dialogue that will be in this story will be directly from Zombies, Run!, except for anything Runner 5 says, because she's my little creation.

/ridiculously long AN

Jolly Alpha Five Niner

The story begins...

"Mayday, mayday, we're hit, we're hit, we're going down! I repeat, Jolly-Alpha-Five-Niner is going down!" It's a woman's voice, she's screaming in panic, elbows locked in fear as she struggles to control the helicopter that is spinning out of control. "We're going in hard, brace-brace-brace!" A desperate voice tries to call to them from over the transceiver, but neither pay the static-obscured voice any heed. The ground hurls towards them, and the two passengers flinch from the sight, closing their eyes, not wanting to see their own ends.

"Hello? Hello!?" Static. "This is Abel Township, roger?" More static. "Ah, they're not answering. The comms equipment must be fried." It was a man's voice, crackling with intermittent static. The young woman heard him sigh, sounding sad. She opened her eyes, glancing around and quickly taking stock of her location. Her head was throbbing terribly, and as she swiped a hand across her forehead, she felt a wetness, and her forearm came away covered in blood. The flaming wreckage of a crashed helicopter lay several hundred feet from where she lay partially covered by a parachute that was strapped to her back. 'Was I in that helicopter?' She mused to herself, mind still muddled from waking up. 'Why can't I remember?' She spotted a set of headphones with a receiver pack lying close to her, and she reached out gingerly, slipping the headphones over her ears. The voice of the young man she'd heard earlier spoke through the single earpiece.

"Listen. If there's anyone listening to this, I'm Sam Yow, from Abel Township. Um..." He hesitated, sounding nervous. "Ah, I'm just the radio operator man, I'm not supposed to handle this kind of stuff." There was more static, but Sam had paused in his monologue, so the young woman didn't miss any of his words. "Listen, if you can hear me, you've landed in a nest of hostiles." Hostiles? The young woman pondered what was hostile before her mind quickly jumped in, her basic memory supplying the answer. Zombies. Sam was telling her she'd landed in a nest of zombies. He continued speaking, hesitating every so often. "The sound of the crash has caught their attention; they're coming towards you. There must be thirty... no, forty... no, oh crap. Listen, the only clear way out is if you run towards the tower; you should be able to see it from where you are." A quick glance around the horizon confirmed Sam's words; the tower stood outlined like a beacon against the blue sky on the horizon. "If there's anyone alive, run; it's your only chance. Just, RUN!" The young woman flinched as she heard the soft moans and groans of the undead. They weren't in sight yet, but they were coming. She knew the smell of her own blood would draw them quickly, and so without hesitation she rolled up into a sitting position, unstrapping herself from the parachute and untangling herself from the cords before hooking the receiver on her belt. She then glanced around at the wreckage one more time, wondering just what she'd forgotten before taking off towards the tower, her lithe form gliding through the shadowed trees.

"Wow." Sam's voice crackled over the headphones once more, almost startling the young woman into tripping. She quickly caught her balance and kept running, easily outpacing the zombies behind her. Sam continued to speak into her ears, sounding as if he were speaking more to someone else on his end than to her. "There's someone alive down there. Running." He paused. "Hey! Can you hear me?" The young woman rolled her eyes. She would have loved to answer him, telling him that yes, she could hear him, but the receiver had been damaged in the crash, and so she contented herself with listening to his voice. "No answer." Sam muttered, and the young woman rolled her eyes again. "Still, look at 'em go. Running for the tower, just like I said." He sounded proud for some reason. "If you can hear me, then, you're doing great. You're going to come out of the forest soon." Thank god for that. "The main pack's behind you, so just keep running towards the tower. There's ah, well, I can't think of a phrase that isn't 'small army of zombies'. Sorry; don't do well under pressure." She rolled her eyes again. "Anyway, there's one of, those, to the east of where you are, just outside of the trees. If you head towards the old sawmill, you should be able to out-pace them. The sawmill's red signs should be visible from where you are now." Glancing to the side, the young woman spotted the red signs and nodded to herself, angling her path to run towards the signs, and away from Sam's observed pack. There was a pause. "Ah, look at that." Sam exclaimed in wonder. "Look at that; they're changing direction! They can hear me- you can hear me!" He sounded delighted, like a child that had just been handed a present on Christmas. The young woman briefly wondered how Sam could see her, but quickly brushed it off as unimportant. Over the receiver, Sam took a calming breath before continuing on. "Okay, it's cool, it's cool, we can bring you in." There was a murmur and Sam paused in his speaking. "No, no we can't ask them that, they might be injured." The young woman frowned, he must have been talking to someone beside him. She couldn't hear what they'd said however, but from Sam's reply, they must have wanted her to do something. A female voice spoke faintly over the transceiver suddenly. The running woman assumed it was the person that Sam had been speaking to.

"All the more reason to ask them then." The other voice said calmly. There was a slight clatter and the woman's voice was suddenly louder; she must have taken the mike from Sam. "My name's Doctor Myers, I'm the medic here at Abel Township." She explained. "Lord knows, I'm sorry to ask you this, but the old hospital is between you and the township; if you could pick up some of the medical supplies from the building, it would be a great help." The young woman glanced ahead, and indeed, she could see the roof of the large white building coming into view. She pondered the doctor's request, before making her decision. Sam spoke again, complaining. "It's too dangerous. You know what happened to Runner 5."

"The zoms have all followed the sound of the crash." Myers retorted.

"But what about whoever fired that rocket launcher?" Sam demanded. The young woman almost tripped at that. Rocket launcher? Who had a rocket launcher in the post-zombie-apocalypse world?

"If anyone wants to kill that runner, taking an unusual route will make it harder, not easier." Myers retorted quickly. The young woman was still stuck on the rocket launcher however. Was that what had caused the crash of the helicopter? Myers continued when Sam couldn't come up with another protest. "I'm sorry to be hard-headed," The doctor said, "but everyone earns their keep here at Abel. You should be coming up on Robinson's Hospital soon. And if you can't find anything, well..." She hesitated before continuing. "We might not be able to let you in."

The young woman's slight form slipped through the shadowed hallways of the decrypt hospital, shivering in the darkness. Her eyes swept across the hallway, searching for any threats. Glancing into a room, she spotted a tattered old backpack. That was perfect. She'd already picked up several bottles of antibiotics and two first-aid kits. Her hands were full, and she doubted that that miserable collection would be enough to satisfy the doctor. There was a whole township out there afterall.

She entered the room, edging the door closed, but leaving it open a gap so she could hear if anything came down the hallway. As she was slipping her findings into the backpack, the transceiver crackled to life again, startling her once more.

"That's awesome." Sam's voice said, and the young woman wondered if he could somehow see her backpack find. Probably not. She stood up, exiting the room and continuing her search while Sam spoke in her ear. "You're making good time." The head of comms commented. He paused before continuing on in a casual voice. "Hey, listen. I think I'm going to call you Runner 5. Just because, well, first I don't know your name." The young woman didn't know her name either, so she decided to accept Sam's offer. "Also, we just lost a runner, in that same hospital you're in now." The newly named Runner 5 frowned at that. She knew people must have been caught in the hospital, sure, but being told that someone had died there was different somehow. Especially since she was now sporting the deceased's name. Well, title, but Runner 5 planned on using the title as a name until she could figure out what her own was. "She was fast, the old Runner 5." Sam continued, his voice taking on a wistful tone. "She was funny, and witty, and..." He sighed sadly. "She was just amazing." Runner 5 caught the faint longing in Sam's voice. The old Runner 5 had been something special to him. The young woman suddenly felt guilty. Now her name would remind the young comms head of someone precious he'd lost. It hurt her heart, so she pushed away the emotions and focused intently on her search of the hospital. All the while, Sam continued to speak. "But hey, you can be our new Runner 5. If you make it back alive." Sam sounded like he struggling to sound cheerful, and Runner 5 decided she'd have to get to Abel just so Sam wouldn't have to loose his Runner 5 again. Even if she wasn't the same person, she knew that if she died like this, it would tear the young comms head apart. Sam was silent for a while, but Runner 5, or Five, as she was beginning to call herself, didn't mind. Finally, the young man spoke again.

"Anyway, why don't you head down to the ground floor now? And keep an eye out, there's a small swarm gathering in the south parking lot that I don't like the looks of. Keep your wits about you, yeah?" He paused again. "You can pick up anything that looks interesting. We actually..." He paused briefly. "We actually sent the old Runner 5 to find some documents the doc wanted, so if you see anything official looking, just snag it if you can." Five nodded again, simply out of habit. Sure Sam couldn't see her response, at least she didn't think he could, but she did it anyway. If the old Runner had died trying to get those documents, Five was determined to find them and make sure the deceased Runner's death was not in vain.

When Five had set out to find the important documents, she'd expected to find them in some filing cabinet, or behind a desk, or something. Not on the floor, next to a splattering of blood, in a box marked CDC. Center of Disease Control. This had to be what the old Runner 5 had been sent to find. Pausing to glance around as she reached down to grab the box, Five felt her insides churn. The old runner must have found the box, but been caught by a zom before she could get it out. Five winced inwardly and carefully wiped some of the spattered blood off the box, hoping Sam couldn't see what she was seeing, and that if he was, he wouldn't make the connection. The blood she wiped off the box was dry, but it smeared as she rubbed the worst of it off. Runner 5 must not have died all that long ago. A day or two ago, perhaps. Maybe three. Sighing, Five tried to shove the box into her bag, but the bulky object wouldn't fit, so she resorted to tucking it under her arm, taking off down the hall as she did so. She'd spent enough time wandering the hospital; it was time to get out.

"There you are!" Sam greeted happily as Five exited the hospital. "Great to see you. Even if you are a bit blurry." Five laughed at Sam's words. He seemed to hesitate before speaking again, sounding as if he were concentrating. "What's that you're carrying?" He must have been trying to identify the box tucked under her arm.

"Is that the Center for Disease Control file?" Doctor Myer's voice asked. There was a pause as they confirmed what was tucked under Five's arm. "Listen." Myers said after the pause. "I don't say this lightly, but that box could be worth your life. Whatever you do, don't drop it." Five frowned at that. If the old Runner 5 had died for the box, she certainly didn't plan on dropping it.

"So what is it?" Sam asked curiously.

"Oh, it might be nothing, it might be everything." Doctor Myers replied, her voice strained.

"So, that's a pretty narrow window of definition." Sam said jokingly. He made a small noise, and both stopped talking. "What's that shadow?" Sam muttered under his breath, and Five assumed he was looking for something that had appeared near her own location. Her eyes roamed around the area, but she saw nothing, so she continued jogging. "Oh no." Sam gasped. "Oh no. When we sent her out, this is what happened. They're following you." His voice took on a frantic edge, and Five didn't have to guess to know who she was. The old Runner must have been injured in the hospital, and so dropped the box before she changed, and ran to get the zombies away, to give someone else the chance to recover the vital files. She'd never met the old runner, but Five felt a sense of pride for her predecessor. Sam, unaware of her inner thoughts, had continued to speak, his voice speeding up as he became more and more frantic. "Runner 5, the swarm from the 'copter, they're following you! Run!" Five didn't need telling twice, and she put on a burst of speed, fleeing the mass of undead that shambled along behind her.

She noticed it five minutes after Sam had warned her about the swarm. She had been jogging brusquely, but when that had failed to shake the swarm, she'd switched to flat-out running. But they were still behind her. Five risked a few glances over her shoulder to see that some of the zombies were beginning to jolt out of their broken shambles. They were actively lifting their feet, and running. The shambling dead... were running. It wasn't long before Sam noticed this as well.

"I don't get it." He muttered in confusion. "At your pace, you should have shaken them. They're so fast. Why are they so fast?" He paused. "Runner 5, Runner 5, the zombies are keeping pace with you, you have to push yourself faster!" Five rolled her eyes, but she pushed herself even harder, stretching her legs that little bit further. Her throbbing headache she's woken with was back in full force, and a web of black flashed across her vision in time with her pounding heart. Her mouth was swollen and sticky, she knew she wouldn't be able to hold this up for much longer. She was going to collapse, but she refused to give in just yet. She couldn't let Myers down; the doctor needed the box tucked under her arm. She couldn't let the people of Abel down either; they needed all the supplies she'd swiped from the hospital. She especially couldn't let Sam down; he needed Runner 5 to survive. Even if it was a different person.

Five closed her eyes and gritted her teeth, pushing her self again as she heard Doctor Myers's voice over the transceiver.

"Runner 5, you're doing good; you're almost to the gates." Oh thank god for that. "If you can hold out for just a little bit longer, we'll open the gates for you and send out some people with guns to cover you. Right now there's only one zombie that's close to you, if you can put on a burst of speed, just run." Five would have rolled her eyes at the doctor's command if she wasn't too focused on running. Her whole body strained, begging her to stop, to let her sore muscles rest and her pounding head to lay, but she didn't slow. There was a gasp from the transceiver, and Sam's voice spoke, laced with sorrow, pain, and disbelief.

"Oh god, it's her." Five's blood ran cold at Sam's words. Just as in the parking lot of the hospital, she didn't have to guess who her referred to. "I can see her; it's Alice." He sucked in a breath. "Oh god, it's her; it's the old Runner 5; she's the one chasing you." Sam's voice petered out; Five assumed from his tone that his throat had become too tight to speak. There was a brief blitz of static before a new voice came over the line, not that of Sam nor Doctor Myers.

"Runner 5?" The deep male voice asked. "This is Runner 7; the head of runners. The doctor told us you found something important in the hospital; we're sending a couple of people out to bring you in. Don't look back, she's right behind you. Just run." And Five ran, head pounding so painfully that she could barely focus on the voice in her ear. A shudder wracked her body, but she pushed it aside. Her vision was obscured by the blood that dripped from her forehead, but she determinedly wiped it away, slowing only briefly as her sight was lost. She kept running.

"This way!" Five recognized the voice as belonging to Runner 7, and she spotted a sturdily built man with dark skin was waving to her, beckoning her forward. Five gave him a glance as he turned and ran beside her, towards the small group of people who were firing into the swarm. Behind them lay the cement walls of Abel Township, and the thick gates, calling to her for her painful dash to finally end. He escorted her behind the firing line before finally she could slow. As soon as she slowed to a walk, her body was wracked by tremors. Her vision began to glaze, but she forced herself to watch the swarm of zombies, and one in particular.

"They're going to shoot her." Sam mumbled quietly, more to himself than to Five or anyone else listening. "I-I can't watch." He stammered. "I don't want to."

"You know it's what she would have wanted Sam." Doctor Myers soothed him. "You know she wouldn't want to hurt anyone. She's want to be stopped before she could hurt anyone. She wouldn't have wanted to live like this, you know that." Five watched as one by one the zombies dropped, until finally, the old Runner 5 was hit, and went down. Once all the zombies were down and the shooting had stopped, Sam spoke in a detached and muted voice.

"Raise the gates." He muttered. When nothing happened, he spoke again; louder, more insistent. "Raise the gates." A siren began wailing, and slowly the sheets of metal that resembled a garage door began to lift, and Runner 7 led Five into the township. Almost immediately, she was surrounded by people.

"Welcome. The major will want to see you when she gets back."

"Good to see a new face."

"Hey, good to see you in the flesh!" Sam's familiar voice called. Five glanced over to see a smiling young man approaching her, probably in his mid-twenties, grinning like an idiot. He had slightly Asian features, but his skin held a slight tan. He cocked his head, eyeing the wound on Five's forehead, which had slowed in bleeding as the blood finally began to clot. "Hopefully the whole, non-zombie-bitten, flesh?" he laughed slightly, still eyeing her warily, but seeming too happy to be really nervous. As more people pressed in to see the newcomer, their voices began to blue together as once more Five's vision began to waver. Seeming to notice the glazed look on Five's face, Sam began shooing people away.

"Come on now, don't crowd, give Runner 5 some space. She can't take in so many new faces so quickly." Five thought she heard someone mutter 'Project Greenshoot', and the name rang a bell in the back of her mind, but Five was too exhausted to care. She stumbled forward slightly, tapping Sam on the shoulder to get his attention. When he turned to look at her, she tucked the CDC box into his arms before allowing the backpack to slide off her back.

"For the doctor." She croaked, throat sore from the crash and not speaking, nodding towards the box in his arms. "And other supplies." She nodded to the bag on the ground before finally allowing herself to collapse on the ground; finally allowed to drift off into unconsciousness.