“What do you think happened here?” Asked one of the males. His name was Morris. He wasn’t very tall, and he had a high pitched squeaky voice. He made people think of a cartoon chipmunk. He was even trying to grow a mustache, but it made him look goofier.

“Must have been a plague of some sorts, my guess is this place met it’s end of the world some years back.” Billy suggested. He was just a hair taller then Morris. He looked like a walking beanpole. His shaved head only made his extremely thin body look more awkward. He had in his hand a little remote looking device. The device was a timer, and the group were sliders.

“I just hope it’s gone, what ever it was.” Amber said quietly. The third and final male of the group was a short chubby Mexican guy named Ricardo. The best way to describe him was to compare him to the little guy on Fantasy Island. Just slight differences: Ricardo was maybe an inch taller. It was Ricardo who made the first discovery of this diseased world. It was a corpse laying in an alley. The body was face down on the pavement. Slowly he approached it.

“Hey I found something, it’s like a body, man.”

“No you moron, it is a body!” Morris corrected him.

“That’s what I said, jackass!” Ricardo replied back. “Hey look, his wallet’s hanging out of his back pocket, take it Billy.” Billy looked at the body with great disgust, no way he was going near it. Morris on the other hand was a little bit braver, or maybe it was just he had a much stronger stomach, or he didn’t even care. Slowly he pulled it out of the back pocket. The other two watched on quietly. Amber wanted no part of this; she didn’t even like her travel friends. It was just a cruel twist of fate she ended up with them in the first place. Morris opened the wallet; there was a large amount of cash left in the wallet. He wasted no time putting the money in his pocket.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Billy shouted angrily.

“What?”

“What about us, don’t we get some?!”

“Maybe next time you won’t be such a little bitch about it and you’ll take it yourself.” He laughed. Amber turned her head away in disgust. This was just like them to do something that low, and then fight about who gets to keep the money. They were all selfish in their own little ways. She hated them for it. Further back in the alley Morris spotted another corpse, this one was lying up against the side of a building. The other two quickly spotted it. Suddenly they all dashed to see who would get to it first, most importantly: to see who will get the cash bonus.

“Oh man, there’s like ten more bodies back here.” Morris shouted excitedly. It was just like Christmas time. The greed was sickening. Amber had to get away from them; it was too much for her to take. Pickings were good in the alley. Each body had at least 50 bucks on it. Amber walked further up the street, traveling past her feet in a breeze was an old new paper. The paper was blown flat against the front of a small shop, the headline standing out larger than life. Quickly Amber ran to retrieve the paper. She began to read on in horror.

“What the hell is that?” Ricardo shouted out. The other two quickly to notice to what he was talking about. Far back in the very end of the alley was a body like none of them had ever seen before in their lives. It didn’t look human it almost looked ape like. And yet there was a strange human quality to it. “I wonder if it has a wallet... Morris, why don’t you check?” Ricardo recommended. Morris looked to both men watching him. It was a dare he didn’t want to wimp out of. He felt his ego in question. He must defend it; there was no other choice. Slowly he reached towards the body. The body almost looked alive. He reached towards it anyway.

The newspaper was dropped from Amber’s hands as she turned to run back to the alley. As it slowly drifted to the ground the headline was face up. It read “The Dead Walk!” As quick as she could she ran back to warn the others, but most importantly, get to the timer. Without that she would be stranded on this world forever. But she was to late; a loud girlish scream came from inside the alley. It was Morris: the nightmare had just begun. Amber was too late to stop it. She stopped dead in her tracks and just listened.

In the alley Morris clutched his hand, which was now three fingers short. The other two were on their way out of the alley. But there was no use in running. All the corpses they had robbed were now sitting up.

“Oh God oh God oh God...” Ricardo was now in a blind panic as the zombies enclosed around him.

Amber then heard the second scream: Ricardo had just been overcome by the zombies. He was now dying a death too horrible to explain. Amber started to cry, maybe Billy got, and he could have gotten out she thought to herself. Back in the alley the fainted Billy’s body lay helpless on the ground. Amber waited as long as she could, but suddenly it was as if the zombies were coming from everywhere. Out of every door of every shop, out of every other alleyway, and then out of the alley the guys were in. She screamed in terror as she took off running. But where could she run to, where could she hide. Death was lurking behind every corner, and every door. She knew the screaming wasn’t going to help her any, it was a dead world. A world were evil was the ruler and good was a thing of the past, something wiped out a long time ago.

She did the only thing she could do, run, and scream in utter terror. She ran herself right into an alleyway, one that she wasn’t sure if it even had an exit. Her fears were correct, she was now cornered. The was no place to hide, and she couldn’t run anymore. She was now at the end of the alley. Desperately she looked around for that one door she over looked, or a basement window, anything, anything at all to get out of this horrible mess. The only thing she did find was a three-foot long lead pipe. If she was going to die, she be dammed if she was going to die like the other three, Amber was full prepared to go down fighting. She went charging towards the first of the zombies. She let out her own little war cry and she swung the lead-pipe at her full power. The impact of the blow caused the creature to go head first in to the side of the wall. More quickly followed behind it. She taken out four of the living dead, but she was all ready getting tired, and there were hundreds more out there. She was forced to retreat back to the end of the alley. As more begin to filter into the alleyway. She watched on in terror, as they got closer. She noticed something odd about some of them. They almost looked ape like, and they were in some strange clothing. Like something from an old cheesy sci-fi movie. But their origin was the least of her problems.

“ Go away!” She screamed. “Somebody HELP ME!” It was the last desperate attempt in hopes someone would hear her cries for help. The zombies were getting closer. The smell of death was everywhere, making her feel sick. The very sight of them was so much worse. Who were they, she thought. Once they had lives, once they were people. They had jobs, husbands, wives, and even children. Only god knows what happened her. No one else had any story to tell. And what she feared most was becoming one of them, a walking lifeless motor, endlessly walking without feeling, without emotion. Was this really the end; was this how she was supposed to die? No she thought, there was a window just a few feet out of her reach. She jumped and grabbed but it wasn’t enough. She continued to reach at it. Her efforts weren’t enough. With no strength left she fell to her knees. If this was the end she prayed it would be quick.

On the roof of the small building covering one side of the alley and dark figure stood looking over. Neither Amber nor the zombies noticed it. The dark figure crotched down to get a closer look. Clenched in his hand appeared to be an old broadsword, no doubt something taken from a museum. You could see the outline of a long beard, and even longer hair. His cloths were old and tattered. There was something familiar in his eyes. It was none other then the Sith Lord Darth Caine who was exiled here over two years ago by the sliders. He looked down at Amber she was beautiful, and it had been a long time since he had seen a woman. He felt his male instincts kick in. He wanted her very badly. Sword in hand he leaped down from the building top above. Landing perfectly on his feet he twirled his broadsword in to a defensive stance. Almost immediately three of the ghouls were right in his face. One swing of the sword sent their heads smacking against the ground like smashing pumpkins. More were approaching him. He merely held up his right hand. The force came blasting from his fingertips. Even thought you could not se the force it’s self, you could see the effect of it as the bodies went falling back into the approaching crowd.

Amber watched as the great warrior now leaped into the mob sword swinging. You could see the look of satisfaction in his eyes. He was definitely enjoying himself, maybe even a little too much. Limbs were flying everywhere. A arm here, a leg there, he was a skilled surgeon at work. There were more and more zombies coming, it was an unlimited army. There was no way the Sith could defeat them all.

When enough of them were cleared he went to Amber. She backed away nervously as he approached her. He had gotten right up close to her, inches from her face. He took in a deep sniff of the air. “ God you smell good.” He told her. She wasn’t sure how to take the comment. He then turned and looked down the alley at the approaching zombies, then back to her. He held out his hand. “Stay here or come with me, your call.” With no other choice, she took his hand. He directed her to his back and added, “Hang on.” He leaped up to the window she was grabbing for. “Oh man.” He grunted. “You’re heavier then I thought.” He said. She shot him a quick dirty look. She was offended by his comment. But she would never voice it to him. After all this was her savior. He jumped through the window, splinters of glass and wood covered them both as they went crashing through. It wasn’t too long after they made up to the roof. Amber sat down on the ledge as she watched the stranger block off the door by putting thick boards in slots.

“Who are you?” She asked. The stranger turned too face her. Slowly he walked towards her, his eyes locked dead onto her. It had been a long time since he had seen a female, two years to long. You could tell she was feeling a bit nervous, slowly she backed up. He realized he was startling her so he backed off.

“Well get to that later.” He said as he approached her. “Take off your cloths.” He insisted.

“Excuse me?” She shouted. He stopped as if he were surprised by her words.

“Hey, I just saved your life, how about a little nookie, it be the best way I can think of for you to share a little graditude for saving you.” He snickered as he went to remove his shirt. Quickly she backed away.

“Who the hell do you think you are?” The outraged Amber asked.

“I'm the pissed off guy who’s about to feed you to a mob of hungry zombies, that’s who the hell I am!” He said, he then stopped and thought to himself. He sighed to himself. “My name is Caine, Xander Caine. I’ve gone about two years without even seeing another woman... well, a living one, anyway.”

“Two years? How did you get here?” She asked. Darth Caine rolled his eyes.

“It’s a long story, did you happen to notice the weird looking space monkey zombie down there?” He asked.

“Yes, what was that?”

“That was a Kromagg.”

“A what?” She asked.

“A Kromagg is a race of these space monkeys that conquer world after world. I made a deal with them so they wouldn’t destroy me home, I failed so they left me here.” He told her.

“What was the deal?” She asked.

“Kill some people, look I have a question for you. How did you get here?”

“Oh my god! Billy’s got the timer! We can get out of here!” She said. Darth Caine jumped up.

“Where? Tell me, tell me now!”

“The alley, three blocks up, he’s really thin...” But before she could finish he was already on his way. Leaping from rooftop to rooftop until he got to the alley. It would be easy to find Billy. He’s either a fresh kill still being eaten, or he’s a fresh zombie. And there were none of those anymore so finding him would be easy. When he got to where he thought was close enough leaped down to the street. The streets were still full of the dead. But they didn’t react to him; it was if they couldn’t see him. He walked up to the alley that looked like it had the most activity.

Sure enough he found who he was looking for. With his broadsword in his hand he hacked away at the zombies. When enough were away from the body he leaned down to claim his prize. His passport out of hell. But what was this? There was nothing there, no sign of any type of device. He looked up angrily. “She lied!” He said. Behind him the lid of a dumpster swung open. Quickly Caine jumped to his feet and spun around. It was Morris, he was still alive, but very badly hurt.

“Help me!” He cried as he came spilling out of the dumpster and onto the ground. “ Help me please, I’ll give you what ever you want.”

“Where is the timer?” He asked. Morris looked at him surprised.

“How do you know about that?”

“Do you have it?”

“Yes.”

“Then give it to me.”

“Will you help me?”

“No.” He said coldly. Morris looked at him angrily. “Just give it to me.”

“No, and you can’t use it.”

“Oh really, and why is that?”

“Because it’s run by a code only myself and my friends know.” He said happily, as if he had the upper hand. Darth Caine grinned evilly. He walked up to the wounded Morris. Morris, head still down to the ground, fought just to look at him. As Morris looked into the cold eyes of the Sith Lord the cold steel of his blade went piercing into his throat. A shocked look came over his face as he realized that he was about to die.

“You know I was going to make sure you weren’t going to come back, but now I think I’ll just let you. I’m going to take the timer from you now, your girlfriend is going to help me with your little code. After I’m done with her, I’ll be sure to send her along to meet you. But don’t be surprised if she beats you there. You see these zombies can probably last about 10 years before they are too rotted to function, have a nice life.” Slowly the blade was pulled from his throat. Morris died choking on his own blood.

After returning to the top of the building Darth Caine handed the device to Amber. She looked at him as she took it. He smiled as he thought of his escape from exile, as he planned his revenge against the Jedi and the rest of the sliders. Amber punched in the code. There was a gust of wind, Darth Caine’s eyes lighting up as he saw the sliding vortex open. Both leapt into the twirling pool of light, and a few seconds later the vortex closed.