(Authors note: Okay, here's the idea. The first four chapters were the prologue, 5, 6 and 7 were all Chapter 0. Now Chapter 1 will begin. I don't know how long each "Chapter" will be, nor do I know how many Chapters I will make. I'll try to post 1 new chapter every week. It's going to work like any Dead Rising video game, I intend to have the "big revelation" or whatever, plus Overtime and all that. Keep reading to find out what happens!)

PARADISE COUNTY, ARIZONA

MAY 18, 5:00 PM

7 HOURS POST OUTBREAK

Little Willamette, was really, little Willamette. Like, you know, overrun with zombies. The whole county was huge; it took a good hour to get to the mall from the hotel, we went through three cars and more zombies than you could count. It truly had gone full scale. The military had already blockaded the entrances, and announced on the radio that an update would arrive "soon". At least they weren't trying to kill us.

"Damn," Frank said. We gazed at the entrance plaza, the first area in the mall. None of us had ever visited the place before everything went to shit. He approached the wall to the side of the doors, and slowly moved his hands against the bricks. "It really is just like the real thing," he continued. I could see his eyes fill up, not with tears, but with memories. His fantasies were soon interrupted by Annie.

"Look, I know this is a big memory lane thing, Frank," she began. "But my dad is out there and we have to find him." Frank looked up, with a relaxed face. He was pretty old. Only 52, but all those years with Zombrex got to him. His hair was greyed out for the most part, with only some black areas toward the front of his hairline, which was also greatly retracted. He still dressed sharp, as he always did: tan khaki pants, with a button up shirt, dark overcoat, and black loafers.

"Well looks like you won't have much trouble," he said, pointing towards the innards of the mall. It was void of zombies, with only a few stragglers walking around.

"Wow," I said. "Guess they didn't like it in here, huh?"

"No," Frank said. "Someone had closed this place off until a little while ago. Otherwise this place would be filled with corpses, dead or not." He turned to me. "And don't say 'they didn't like it in here'. That's just plain stupid." He continued walking into the mall, towards Paradise Plaza. "I think I know where the 'weak point' is."

Why would Chuck leave us a clue, what was he trying to do? We were nervous, but also confused. Frank approached the door to the security room, but it was welded shut. Frank's expression dropped to a frown.

"They couldn't have known…" he began. Sighing, he removed his hand from the handle.

"Great," Annie said. "Now how the hell are we going to get in there?"

"It's okay," Frank said. "I know another way. But neither of you are going to like it."

"Are you sure about this, Frank?" I asked, poking my head through the air duct.

"If this place was built identical to the real mall, then this leads right to the security room," He said, trying to sound assuring.

We crawled through the ducts, in complete and utter darkness. The only comforting sight was Annie, directly in front of me. Hey, she's my girlfriend, you can't blame me.

Frank suddenly came to a halt. He felt his hand around the duct, trying to find a sign. He hand suddenly stopped, and he clenched his fist, pushing it through the door and opening it to a bright light. We all scrambled out of the duct, landing on the ice cold floor. Annie and I slowly got up, but Frank remained on the ground. We were trying to figure out what was wrong with him, but he pushed us away.

"Just a lot of memories," He said. "It's nothing." He slowly got up onto his feet, brushing the dust off his jacket. "You two check the back," he said. "See if the rooftop entrance is open, then check the other rooms. I'll look around here."

There was nothing on the rooftop. Just a blank, open space.

"We're wasting time," Annie said. "What if he's…?" She turned away from me and crossed her arms, head down. I walked behind her, and placed my hand on her shoulder.

"We're going to find him, and we're going to get out. I swear." She turned to me.

"That's what I'm afraid of," she started. "He led us into this, this puzzle. Right before the trial, he refused to go, was avoiding eye contact, and now he's nowhere to be found." She walked in place. "Hell, he's the one who found the evidence in the first place, from one random "exploration" in Los Perdidos."

"You're not saying—" I began. She looked up at me, tears in her eyes.

"What if it's not just Isabela," she said. "What if he's behind this?" She whimpered, and walked towards me, wrapping her arms around me.

"No," I said. "No, he wouldn't. It wouldn't make sense." But the scary thing was, it did. I couldn't accept that though.

"We're going to find him. We're going—"

"WHAT THE FUCK!?" We heard from downstairs.

"Shit," I said, running down the stairs. We made our way through the security room to see Frank, on his knees. With a zombie in front of him. It was propped up on the wall opposite to the security room door. It was African American, had a yellow button up shirt, black tie. His stomach area was ripped apart. Frank was in front of him, whimpering.

"What the fuck…" He muttered. I walked over to the zombie.

"Did you know him?" I asked. He turned his head up to me.

"No," He said. "But whoever's doing this, they…" He was trying to process. "…Whoever's behind this took a look alike of my friend and put it in his outfit. My friend that died in Willamette, fifteen years ago. He was a DHS agent, he… he didn't deserve what happened to him." He got up. "AND SOMEONE IS PLAYING SOME SICK GAME!" He yelled out into the open. "I only told one reporter about that agent," he said. "And then some close friends, including Chuck." Frank walked over to the body, and pulled a note out of pocket. "The weak point…" he muttered. He unfolded the note, finding another poorly written prophecy.

"'DON'T LOOK BACK NOW, AND DO NOT FEAR. THIS JOURNEY ENDS IN FORTUNE.'"

Frank looked at us, then back at the note.

"Dammit," he said.

CHAPTER 1 COMPLETE