Chronicles of the Apocalypse (2011)

2029

Twenty years later, in an laboratory, 8 stacks of tanks filled with water and people, one of them opens containing an elderly and bearded Dante, who wakes up frightened as the alarm goes off. An automatic voice repeats: "warning test subject loose. Subject Identified. Test Number 19." Dante looks around the environment.

Dante: Ryan?! Ryan?! Hello?!

Dante wonders around the facility and comes to a door, where she finds a corpse.

Dante: Oh, my god.....

He stumbles upon a set of barricaded doors, where a monstrous hand creaks through, and growls are heard from the other side. Dante manages to get outside, where he crawls to the top of a hill and finds the city of California in ruins. Bodies of both men and women lie on the ground. Dante walks several miles on the open road barefooted. Dante eventually enters the forest, where he steps on a shard of glass, causing him to grunt in pain.

Dante: Agh! Damn it!

Dante sits on top of a overturned log and pulls the shard out of the bottom of his foot. Dante then tosses away the shard, before managing to spot a farm a couple miles away. Dante, tired, stops and sits on the step of a small house next to the farm. Dante walks into the barn and notices a horse. Dante calmly approaches the horse and pets it when suddenly the horse starts to neigh as Dante attempts to calm the horse down. He then spots an incoming thin man with blistering skin. The blistering man is suddenly shot as Dante is startled and turns his head to notice an man standing behind her with a shotgun.

Bo: Who the hell are you and what are you doing sneaking around here? Why are you near my horse? 

Bo cocks his shotgun.

Bo: I asked you a question, damn it!

Dante: (stands up with his hands in the air) Please! Don't shoot me, man!...I...I didn't mean to trespass...I was just passing through....please don't kill me! I-I hurt my foot.

Bo: You said you're hurt?

Dante: yes...please..I just need-.

Bo: Step back, friend! I don't want to shoot you, but you best tell me what you doing around here and why are you near my horse?

Dante: This is your horse? Well...he's a nice horse....

Bo: "She", friend.

Dante: She....she's nice.....but I don't mean any trouble....I swear.

Bo: Yeah, that's what they all say and trouble ends up coming in.

An infected figure suddenly appears and bites into the horses neck, causing it to jump up in panic.

Bo: No!

Bo shoots at the infected man. The horse falls mortally wounded as Bo tends to his fallen steed, comforting and petting it.

Bo: Damn it....easy, girl....it's okay....it's okay....

The horse dies as Dante watches in sadness.

Dante: I'm sorry....

The horse finally dies, before Bo stands up and turns to Dante.

Bo: This is your fucking fault!

Dante: Look, buddy...I'm sorry about your horse...really...whatever that guy did, I'm really sorry...

Bo: That thing...was not a guy....It was a Skinner...Come on...I got a camp near here....and it's getting late....better get you someplace safe...get your dressed...

Bo walks by as Dante looks around at the carnage.

Bo: Hey, old man! You comin?

Dante blinks for a moment, before following Bo. Later on, Bo and Dante arrive in an abandoned apartment building.

Bo: Welcome to my basecamp.

Dante: You live here?

Bo: Yeah....well, at least, I stay here for runs.....

Dante: Well, thanks for saving me....Mr?

Bo: Cage....Bo Cage....and you?

Dante: Dante?

Bo: Well, Dante...I outta shoot you for killing quick way back to my basecamp, but, you're injured and wearing nothing, but sweatpants.....so, best thing to do is to patch you up....or at least, it's the good lords way of doing things.

Bo treats Dante's wounds.

Dante: You pretty good at patching up wounds....you a medic?

Bo: My wife was.....she always patched up wounds like this.

Dante: "was"?

Bo looks up at Dante.

Bo: Yeah...she was....

Dante: I'm sorry.....Holy shit! My son! I had a son!

Dante stands up as Bo steadies him.

Bo: Whoa! Whoa, easy, friend! You need to rest up, now!

Dante: You don't understand! I got a little boy out there! He's out there and-my brother. I don't remember-shit....we went to the base...I was...treated for my injury and....(sighs)...I gotta find a hospital....or do you happen to have a cell phone? 

Bo: Cell phone? Hospital?

Dante: Yeah...

Bo raises his eyebrow, looking at Dante as if he was a confused animal.

Dante: What?

Bo: Hey, fella....what year do you think this is?

Dante: It's....it's 2009....right?

Bo: Jesus Christ.....you just waking up?

Dante: Yeah.....what day is this? What's the year?

Bo: Today is December 17th, 2029. It's been twenty years since the world went to shit.

Dante is in shock of hearing this news.

Dante: Twenty years?! I've been sleeping for twenty years?! That's not-

Bo: Whoa, hey....you'd better sit down.

Dante sits down on the sofa, putting his head in his hands.

Dante: Jesus Christ....fuck.....

Bo: What's the last thing you remember?

Dante looks at his now twenty-year old claw mark and immediately gets flashbacks of the infected, clawing his arm, Amanda being bitten and touching his face, Ryan and Harry outside of his cryo-stasis tank.

Dante: My brother...he was a scientist....he was trying to cure something...I...I need to rest....I just...

Bo: Sure.....I gotta contact my running partner anyway.....you'd best rest up....also, when you're ready, I've got some spare clothes for you to change in.

Dante changes into some spare clothes, before rests his head back on the couch and then falls asleep.

Bo: You going to rest up in those clothes?

Dante: Yep....trust me....it's not the first time.....

Bo: Hey....can I ask you something?

Dante: Shoot.

Bo: Before the world went to shit, what'd you do?

Dante: I was military....retired....then I did construction.....

Dante looks at his wedding ring.

Bo: You mentioned you had a son?

Dante: Yeah....he was seven years old the last time I saw him.....

Bo: Hmm....and your wife?

Dante nods his head.

Bo: I'm sorry to hear that....if I might ask, what happened to her?

Dante: She was bitten by one of those....what do you call those things?

Bo: Skinners....the infected....that's what we call em....but it's not the infected and Skinners you gotta worry about also....there's also other horrors out there.....monsters....the infection didn't just affect humans...it affected animals....rodents...even some flying ones...turned them into mutated creatures....some are easy to kill....others well, let's just say a pistol won't do it. It's also not infected and the creatures you gotta worry about; there's bandits, gangs...and soldiers.

Dante: Soldiers? The military's still around?

Bo: No....military's gone.....they were ultimately wiped out...now, Zeus Corps runs the entire world....but they're dangerous. They're locked in a war with the gangs around here.

Dante: Jesus...what happened to the world?

Bo: Infection spread....goddamn Kronos scientist named Fenix. It's his fucking fault.....he created a serum that ended destroying half the goddamned population. Since then, it's been dog eat dog for twenty years. Welcome to the Apocalypse. Anyway, you'd best rest up. Once my running partner gets here, we're heading out.

Dante finally rests his head back and falls asleep on the sofa.