Chapter 2: Ranger Five Seeks Answers

[Ranger Five]

Hello Rangers! I still need to post the recap to my first challenge, but the new challenge went up faster than I expected, so I decided to put mine up sooner rather than later.

This will be my second challenge with the Rangers. For those of you who didn't follow my first challenge, this challenge will be written a little differently than most. The majority of the posts in this challenge comprise a story, written in-character by Ranger Five. In character posts will be in green. These posts make up the story. I'll be writing about a zombie apocalypse setting, with a lot of inspiration from Zombies, Run! the app, but my own plotline. So don't worry about spoilers outside the first mission. If I've done my job, you won't be able to tell what's from the app and what's not unless you go through the app's story yourself. Most of what I use from Zombies, Run! will be characters and the basic premise, not the story itself.

The story began in Chapter 1: Rebel Five Outruns Zombies, and this is the second chapter. However, the previous challenge has a lot of words in it, so for people who weren't following along with it, I've written the story so far for you.

The Story So Far:
 

Spoiler

Eighteen months after a zombie apocalypse destroyed civilisation as we know it, Luke Matthews is a soldier from Mullins Military Base. He was sent on a supposedly routine expedition to the small settlement of Abel Township, to deliver supplies. However, things went wrong. A rocket launcher destroyed his chopper a few kilometers out from Abel Township. Luke was forced to flee for safety, chased by zoms (zombies) the whole way. Along the way, Janine Myers, the town's doctor, informed him that if he didn't collect some supplies from the nearby hospital, they might not let him in. Galvanised by this threat, Luke braved the hospital, collected an important file on the zombie outbreak, and ran for home.

The residents of Abel named him Ranger Five, and instructed him that he'd have to run through the zombie wasteland to collect supplies for Abel Township, a duty almost all able-bodied members of Abel do. He elected to be a Ranger; a jack of all trades who focuses on multiple things. Ranger Five lifts weights and runs for supplies. For his other duties, he was assigned to work under Emily, Abel's head of IT. They aim to improve the base's RoffleNet, a rudimentary post-apocalyptic Internet. They've made little progress so far due to a lack of supplies.

Ranger Five asked Runner Seven, the head of Runners at Abel Township, about Janine's threat. Seven wasn't happy with Janine, which caused a lot of friction between Janine and Five. Since Janine was the town's doctor and heavily entrenched into Abel's power structure, Five set out to make himself indispensable to Abel, in case Janine attempted to make a play to get rid of him. Five attempted to curry the favor of the leader of Abel Township, Major de Santa. He was largely unsuccessful in this regard.

A routine run to the nearby settlement of Skoobs turned awfully wrong, when Skoobs was found burning and destroyed, most of it's residents turned to zombies. Ranger Five spotted a horrible creature; a zombie with blood red skin, that could run like a human and looked far more intelligent than a regular zombie. Fortunately, Ranger Five avoided it's sight, and returned to Abel.

A week later, Ranger Five received a distress call when he was beginning a supply run. A survivor was fleeing from this red zombie, and was in dire peril. Ranger Five was able to meet the survivor halfway to Abel Township, and shot the creature dead, even though it took five shots to the head to bring it down for good. Ranger Five accepted his role in Abel Township fully, and left his previous life as Luke Matthews behind.

The town began to celebrate, welcoming the new survivor Ranger Eight, and cheering the end of the red zombie threat. That's when Ranger Eight revealed that there were three of them that attacked Skoobs, not one. There were still two of them out there. The Major pointed out there was at least two; one mutation could be a freak accident, but three was not. For all Abel knows, there could be dozens of them. The origin of these creatures remains unknown.

Our story begins here.

Now that we know the narrative, let's look at the goals for this month:
 

Goal 1: Lift weights at the gym up to thrice per week, using the Stronglifts program.
Minimum: 6 workouts. Solid: 8 workouts. Great: 10 workouts. Excellent: 12 workouts.

 

Goal 2: Run up to four times per week, according to my schedule.

Minimum: 9 runs. Solid: 11 runs. Great: 13 runs. Excellent: 15 runs.

Goal 3: Keep up with my uni schedule.

Minimum and above: All assignments done on time, all marked assignments passed.
Solid: All work caught up at the end of the challenge.

Great: All work caught up on at the end of each week.

Excellent: All work caught up on at the end of each day. (1 off day per week permitted)

Minimum: 1 point. Solid: 2 points. Great: 3 points. Excellent: 4 points.

 

6 points (Solid average), all minimums met: Minor reward, worth up to $30.
9 points (Great average), all minimums met: Major reward, worth up to $100.

I also have some objectives, in terms of what I want to achieve physically during the challenge. These won't be graded, since I'm grading myself on process rather than results. But they will give me an idea of how well my training's increased my strength at the end of the month.

5x5 Squat goal: 57.5 kg -> 70 kg
5x5 Bench goal: 40 kg -> 50 kg
5x5 Row goal: 37.5 kg -> 45 kg
5x5 OHP goal: 32.5 kg -> 37.5 kg
1x5 Deadlift: 75 kg -> 90 kg

Bodyweight: 63 kg -> 65 kg (+/- 0.5 kg)

I'll be keeping my running goals for the month secret, since those goals will end up defining Ranger Five's mission at the end of the challenge. For those who weren't following along with my first challenge, at the end of each challenge, I assign a mission to Ranger Five. Last challenge, it was to rescue a survivor from the red zom. The catch is that success in this mission is tied to my real-world running performance. I set a goal for myself (26:00 5k last challenge) and Ranger Five only succeeds if I do. If I fail, so does Five, and the story goes in a different direction.

I'd say that just about sums it up! Ranger Five's first story post should go up tomorrow.

[Yasha92]

Running along with you for this challenge too, friend!

[Wild Wolf]

Solid setup Ranger Five-I think I will tag along this time

 

3 hours ago, Ranger Five said:

If I fail, so does Five, and the story goes in a different direction.

 

My kinda challenge! Love when people implement stuff like this.

 

W0lf

[Ranger Five]

3 minutes ago, Wild Wolf said:

Solid setup Ranger Five-I think I will tag along this time

 

 

My kinda challenge! Love when people implement stuff like this.

 

W0lf

Glad to hear My favourite stories are ones where I legitimately don't know what's going to happen. This is my way of giving that experience to my readers. Ranger Five isn't guaranteed a victory, because I'm not guaranteed to succeed in any given race. So there's genuine suspense there. I hope the "Story so far" section allows you to follow along without much difficulty. 

 

2 hours ago, Yasha92 said:

Running along with you for this challenge too, friend!

 
Glad to have you, Yasha!

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Of course I'm following again.

[Ranger Five]

 

13 minutes ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Of course I'm following again.

Glad to hear it  

[Wild Wolf]

1 hour ago, Ranger Five said:

Glad to hear My favourite stories are ones where I legitimately don't know what's going to happen. This is my way of giving that experience to my readers. Ranger Five isn't guaranteed a victory, because I'm not guaranteed to succeed in any given race. So there's genuine suspense there. I hope the "Story so far" section allows you to follow along without much difficulty. 

 

Heck yeah! I did something organic like this back in March and it was my best and most successful challenge yet! You're doing a swell job, Ranger Five. The story so far section is good to go brother and it actually reminds me a little of The Remaining. @WorldSparrow did some story writing based off that series when he first joined the Rangers and it was pretty damn awesome. Looking forward to following the story in real-time this go-round  

 

W0lf

[bker1370]

following for more story

[Ranger Five]

44 minutes ago, Wild Wolf said:

 

Heck yeah! I did something organic like this back in March and it was my best and most successful challenge yet! You're doing a swell job, Ranger Five. The story so far section is good to go brother and it actually reminds me a little of The Remaining. @WorldSparrow did some story writing based off that series when he first joined the Rangers and it was pretty damn awesome. Looking forward to following the story in real-time this go-round  

 

W0lf

I saw that challenge. I never ended up reading The Remaining, so the plot didn't change because of it. But the challenge definitely inspired me to up my own storytelling, and really commit hard to it.
 

2 minutes ago, bker1370 said:

following for more story

Good to have you

[Raxie]

Thanks for the recap on the story! Looking forward to more

[Ranger Five]

22 minutes ago, Raxie said:

Thanks for the recap on the story! Looking forward to more

Happy to help It's mostly for the new followers, but there was a lot of ground covered over the last month, so a recap can't hurt

[Traxex]

I'm here! Sorry I never had a real chance to acknowledge Ranger 8!! <3 Of course following along to figure out what the red zoms are.

[Ranger Five]

30 minutes ago, Traxex said:

I'm here! Sorry I never had a real chance to acknowledge Ranger 8!! <3 Of course following along to figure out what the red zoms are.

No problem. Glad to have you

[-Key-]

Great goals! Following along with your challenge. Looove me some Zombies!Run. i'm about to redo the C25K.

[Ranger Five]

51 minutes ago, Zirakzigil said:

Great goals! Following along with your challenge. Looove me some Zombies!Run. i'm about to redo the C25K.

ZR really is great. It almost single-handedly revived my interest in running. We have a ZR group here on NF too.

[Ranger Five]

Workout details:

Wednesday:
Progression pace. Ran 6.10 km (3.79 mi) in 34:56. Pace: 5:43 min/km, 9:12 min/mile


Four days have passed since Saturday's fateful run. The survivor, now named Ranger Eight, was successfully rescued. The red zombie that destroyed the settlement of Skoobs was killed. And yet, Abel is no better off than before. Supplies are still low. Mullins is still unable to send supplies to us, as the one who destroyed my chopper was never found. Ranger Eight revealed that there were two more of the creatures that she had seen attacking Skoobs. And we have no idea where they are.

Emily, Abel's head of IT, was assigned to research the creatures on RoffleNet, and report her findings. She then delegated the task to me, her assistant, while she continues to work on RoffleNet's reliability. I've spent the last few days scouring RoffleNet, trying to find any mention of the red zombies. I've tried every permutation of the term I can think of, and nothing has panned out. This told me a great deal, so today I asked that a meeting be held, so I could present my findings. The Major obliged.

I stood in front of Abel's war council, not that it could be formally termed as such. Major de Santa, leader of Abel Township. Janine Myers, Abel's doctor. The heads of Abel's specialties. And of course, Emily and myself.

"I've searched RoffleNet over the last few days." I said. "In that time, I've found no mention of the red zombies whatsoever."

Most of the room didn't react well to this statement. They varied from disappointment, to "Why the hell am I here, then?". Only the Major looked at me and nodded to continue. 

"I've thought about it, and here's what I think that means." I began. "The first thing we know is that there are at least three of these things. Three of them attacked Skoobs, and there could be more. The second thing we know is that nobody's mentioned anything about them on RoffleNet, except us. Naturally, I've written up a description of these things.

The reason I wrote this description is because it's our duty to help other survivors as best we can. Humanity, largely, is united against the zoms. We don't fight each other much any more; we have bigger problems to deal with. So what does it mean that nobody else has said a word?"

I paused for a moment, and looked around at the group. "It means that they've only been spotted here. In this area, in the central coast of Australia. Even if only one in a thousand humans are still alive, that's still seven million people. There's hundreds of thousands of people with access to RoffleNet, and nobody's mentioned a damn thing. And that...is very bad news."

I took a deep breath. Nobody was going to like what I said next. "If this was a natural phenomenon that was only spotted here, we would have to expect it to be extremely rare. And yet, we know of three of them in the same area. That would mean three extremely rare mutations occurred here, when they're so unlikely that nobody else in the world has reported one. There's no way that's true. It's possible that one of these creatures arose by chance somehow, and then infected others. But if that was the case, we'd expect all of Skoobs to have been infected. And they're not. Nobody near Abel has spotted any more of these red zoms, except the one pursuing Ranger Eight.

And that leaves only one possibility. Somebody made these zombies. Somebody nearby. Somebody with the facilities to somehow improve on the zombie virus. It is the only rational explanation I can think of, and I beg anyone to come up with another possibility, because I really, really don't want this to be true." I said.

I looked around the room. Nobody spoke up.

"And so that means Skoobs wasn't an accident." I said. "According to Ranger Eight, the zoms attacked from the south, and co-ordinated to stop people fleeing that way. That's because Abel Township is south of Skoobs, and it's by far the closest place they could go. Whoever made these zombies probably attacked Skoobs as some sort of...weapons test."

All around me, I saw horrified and angry faces. Even the Major looked shaken.

"And the test clearly succeeded." Major de Santa said. "Whatever this mysterious party wants, something tells me that if they were willing to slaughter two dozen students in order to test their creation, they're not just going to sit back with them."

The rest of the meeting simply raised more questions. Would they want to attack Abel next? Brunswick? Who could do such a thing? Who would do such a thing? Was Ranger Eight specifically hunted down, or was it just coincidence that she was spotted when nobody from Abel found anything? Unfortunately, we have very little information. We need information. In war, information is power. And make no mistake, Abel Township is at war. We don't know who with yet, but we're not about to let the destruction of Skoobs go unpunished.

Now we just need to find a way to get some answers.

Ranger Five, signing out.

[Jarric]

16 hours ago, Ranger Five said:

there was a lot of ground covered over the last month

 

Pun intended?

 

Following along again for more story and to watch you smash some new PRs.

[Ranger Five]

1 minute ago, Jarric said:

 

Pun intended?

 

Following along again for more story and to watch you smash some new PRs.

Pun not intended, but gladly received

[Raxie]

18 hours ago, Ranger Five said:

Happy to help It's mostly for the new followers, but there was a lot of ground covered over the last month, so a recap can't hurt

 

For those of us that are forgetful (aka me) it was perfect

[Ranger Five]

19 minutes ago, Raxie said:

 

For those of us that are forgetful (aka me) it was perfect

I'm very forgetful too; I usually have my own thread up in another tab as a reference when I write

[Wild Wolf]

Great entry to the story brother!

 

W0lf

[Ranger Five]

After my previous form check, I've lowered the weight and been working on improving a few things. Specifically, I wanted to work on:

1) Not letting the heels lift off the ground.
2) Keeping my chest up; "show the writing on your shirt" as Traxex says.
3) To help with 1 and 2, only go down to parallel, no further until I learn to squat to the minimum depth properly.

Here's the new video, at 45 kg. It's still not perfect, but I think it's a lot better.
 

@Traxex, I'd definitely appreciate your input, since it's your tips I've been working on. Though I haven't tried to fix the elbow thing yet; I figured the other points were more important.

[Yasha92]

I know nothing about squatting, so I'll offer no input there other than it looks controlled which is a good thing - I want to ask though how to make the @ thing work, I've tried it twice and I can't make it a link/tag *noob*

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Ranger Five]

2 minutes ago, Yasha92 said:

I know nothing about squatting, so I'll offer no input there other than it looks controlled which is a good thing - I want to ask though how to make the @ thing work, I've tried it twice and I can't make it a link/tag *noob*

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It tends to be somewhat temperamental for me. What I do to make it work is to type the first letter only and then wait a few seconds. If I type @Yasha92 quickly, it often doesn't work, or gets stuck loading forever, like it's doing for me right now. But if I type the @Y, then wait a few seconds, it'll load up a list of names. Then I put in the rest of the username.

[jonfirestar]

love it!