Chapter 1
Doom and gloom didn’t even begin to describe the atmosphere that was prevalent among the students of Canterlot High. And for once Sunset Shimmer wasn’t the cause of that. Actually she downright dropped any and all attempts of trying to monitor and control the student body a few weeks ago. Ever since the riots began all across the country everyone were on edge, so much so that even the slightest provocation could spark a violent conflict, and Sunset did her best to keep a low profile.
There were fewer and fewer students attending the school with each passing day. Today almost all her classes were half empty, and those students that were present couldn’t really concentrate on their studies. They mostly spent their time in the small groups, discussing the latest news about the riots or apprehensively watching the livestreams.
Sunset’s eye twitched when she heard the screaming coming from the speakers of someone’s phone. Two months back there was some kind of a new trend that caught on among the meme community. They scared everyone by disguising themselves as zombies and some sort of bloodied, feral looking people, and going nuts on the streets while their accomplices record everything and post the videos on the internet as an actual reports. And they were good. If not for the unedited versions of those videos, that usually were uploaded soon after, people would have been in the full-panic mode by now.
But there was that one video...
In it a young woman violently bashed a child’s head into a pavement all the while screaming the bloody murder. Sunset accidentally saw it about two weeks ago and she still had occasional nightmares. It was way too real...
As she exited the school, Sunset’s eyes fell upon the statue that stood in front of the building. In just a few months the portal back to Equestria will open once again. And for the first time in years Sunset actually considered going back home and begging the Princess for forgiveness.
Sunset stopped and shook her head. The last three months were actually getting to her. Things would eventually get better, they always do. The humans of this world took things to the extremes from time to time. And that was just it - one of those times. As for her, she still had her goals, she wouldn’t admit defeat and let a few bad months break her resolve! With these thoughts Sunset went to the bus stop.
Canterlot City was lucky enough to not be hit by the sudden rush of riots and the spontaneous uprisings, so the local government didn’t declare the state of emergency, like in almost every major city across the country. However there was a noticeable increase in the number of violent crimes and the general feeling of hopelessness and hysteria, so the curfew was practically mandatory to keep the situation in check. The young people were not allowed to traverse the city on their own, so if they didn’t have their own vehicle or a guardian with them, they had to use the public transport system that was now scheduled and monitored by the police.
There were only a few people at the stop. Several high school students stood waiting for the next bus. Sunset's eye fell on the one particular girl. Fluttershy set on a bench and, as always, did her best to look as small as possible. Why did this quite girl, who was seemingly afraid of her own shadow, keep coming to the school despite everything that was going on, was beyond Sunset.
There was a soft buzzing sound that was getting closer. Fluttershy raised her head to look around, but as soon as her eyes met with Sunset's, she flinched and immediately averted her gaze.
Sunset looked in the direction of the sound and saw a small surveillance drone flying over the road. Eyebot - that's how people called these fusion-driven machines, they were a part of the government's new mechanized law enforcement initiative that was introduced at the end of the last year. People didn't like the idea of the battle ready, AI controlled robots patrolling the streets, but the officials assured them, that these machines were only to be used in the active combat zones. However the events of the last few months were a good excuse to deploy them in the cities to support the riot suppression units.
Despite the grim implications, Sunset couldn't help but admire the human ingenuity. These machines were far superior compared to even the most advanced golems back home. It was incredible what humanity managed to achieve despite their lack of any magical abilities. However, she once heard a saying that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. And she was inclined to agree.
The Eyebot was clearly heading towards the bus stop so Sunset instinctively lowered her head and tried to cover her face without looking too suspicious about it. The Eyebots had a good face recognition software and though Sunset was pretty confident in the quality of her forged documents, after all they let her to enroll in CHS no problem, but she didn't want to test her luck.
Usually an Eyebot just flys by, carrying on its patrol routines, only stopping if some kind of illegal actions take place or it notices someone on the wanted list. This Eyebot hovered over the bus stop, scanning the students below. The longer it stayed there the more agitated the students at the bus stop became.
“The fuck is it staring at us like that?” One of the students muttered.
Sunset recognized him, his name was Fido and he was a member of the “Diamond Dogs” - one of the school’s “gangs”, although Sunset used that word rathe loosely. He put a hand to his forehead, as if trying to shield his eyes from the sun, to hide his identity from the flying drone, despite the sky being completely overcast.
“Can you act any more suspicious, you idiot?” His friend, Rover, asked. He was pretending to be reading a random pamphlet that was glued to the wall of the bus stop. “You didn’t do anything stupid recently, did you?”
“I might’ve broke a few noses, but that shit is too low profile to make those things so curious all of a sudden.” Fido stopped covering his face and instead became very interested in his boots.
Rover muttered something unintelligible under his breath and switched to the next pamphlet, turning his back to the Eyebot.
Some students, those who apparently had nothing to hide, were looking right at the drone with unmasked curiosity, others simply ignored and just stood waiting for their bus.
Suddenly there were several sharp bangs somewhere far off that caused several people at the bus stop to jump a little. The Eyebot immediately lost all interest in the students below, as it turned in the direction of the sound and quickly flew away.
“W-w-were those... umm... g-gunshots?” Asked Fluttershy in a shacking voice, but she was completely ignored as everyone were looking for the source of the sound.
Thankfully a moment later a bus showed up from behind a street corner and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
‘Oh, thanks Celestia!’ Thought Sunset as she took her favorite seat near the end of the bus. The last few minutes were way too stressful for her likeing. All she wanted right now was to get home as quickly as possible, lock the door and simply forget that the outside world even existed.
As the doors closed and the bus started to move, Sunset reached into her pocket and pulled out her earbuds. She was ready to put them in when a sudden sound of something hitting the window right next to her almost made her jump out of her skin.
“Please, stop the bus!” Sounded a muffled voice from the outside as a delicate looking girl’s hand continued to knock on the window.
Sunset, heart still racing, looked outside and saw one of her classmates, Rarity, running after the departing vehicle and calling out. Sunset smirked at her and returned back to her sit. That was petty, Sunset knew that, but it served her right for scaring her like that.
Unfortunately someone else seemed to notice the girl outside and notified the driver. The bus stopped and opened its doors to let Rarity in.
“Thank you, darling.” She said to the driver, huffing slightly. “I wouldn’t want to be stuck there, waiting for another bus.”
As Rarity made her way through the bus, looking for a place to sit, her eyes met with Sunset for a brief moment and the alabaster girl averted her gaze with a loud “humph” and a look of disdain on her face. That only made Sunset to roll her eyes.
“Drama Queen.” She muttered and proceeded to insert her earbuds in her ears. A moment later the sounds of the bus and its passengers were drown out with a melodic rock music.
The bus continued on its route, making several more stops to let people in or out. Sunset paid them no mind, she simply stared out the window at the dreary overcast sky. She hated rainy days and this April was full of them so far. Although those rain collectors she had installed on the roof really helped her to lower her water bill, not to mention it was much easier to get the rain water ready for drinking, she only needed to boil it, unlike that brownish slosh that was usually coming out of her tap.
Soon the sky was blocked by many highrises that were indicative of Canterlot’s downtown.
‘It usually takes a lot more time to get here.’ Sunset thought as her gaze returned back to the streets. It seemed that the city was really light on the traffic this day, there were practically no cars on the road other than some trucks. Military trucks. And the further they got the more military vehicles she saw. Some were even parked right on the adjacent roads effectively blocking them. There were a lot of soldiers too. They were running around, creating more roadblocks using the sandbags that they were unloading from some of those trucks.
Perplexed by this turn of events Sunset removed her earbuds and listened to the surprised murmurs of the passengers.
“What the hell is going on?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think that there were any announcements.”
“Oh no! That’s not good! Soldiers on the streets are never good!”
“Hey, they are mounting a machine gun!”
“Holy shit! Is that a walker!?” That got everyone’s attention.
People got out of their seat and crowded near the left side windows to get a better view. When Sunset unceremoniously shoved aside one of her schoolmates she could see the city plaza. To say that it was fortified was an understatement. The soldiers have erected a real labyrinth of sandbags and barbed wire, there even was a couple of half constructed towers. The machine guns were mounted on top of many defensive positions and armed men were patrolling the the aforementioned labyrinth. And there, near the center of it all, stood a massive, heavily-armed and armored robot on a pair of reverse-jointed legs.
As everyone were looking at the walker, no one noticed when the soldiers blocked the road in front of the bus. The driver, who was also staring at the robot, turned his head in the last moment and had to slow down and stop so quickly that people almost fell. Several soldiers surrounded the bus as soon as it stopped completely. When the doors opened a pair of soldiers walked inside.
“Ladies and gentleman,” one of them began to talk. “I am lieutenant Combined Arms of the Fourth Motorized Infantry Division. This vehicle is now under the military control. There was a biological attack” - almost everyone gasped when they heard that - “and we are starting the evacuation of the city.”
People erupted in questions and exclamations, some, like Fluttershy, just sat there shocked, some started to cry.
“Order!” The lieutenant barked. That had a desired effect as everything got really quiet. “Thank you. Now! I want you to leave this vehicle in orderly fashion and proceed to...” He suddenly trailed off and put a finger to his earpiece. “Control? Please repeat that. Who’s coming?”
There was a shot on the outside. Then another. Then the whole hell broke loose as the soldiers manned the machine guns and started firing at something that was obscured by the buildings from the passengers, who once again looked outside along with the two soldiers. Even the walker started to ready its two guns only to turn around and start firing in the other direction. Some soldiers followed its suit to man the defenses on the other side of the fortified position, but they weren’t quick enough as the attackers rushed them from behind. Those were people. Not some foreign soldiers but the citizens of Canterlot.
Sunset stared in a wide eyed horror as people, armed with anything they could get their hands on, run towards the gunfire, seemingly ignoring the bullets that were ripping through their flesh unless they tore their limbs off or blew out their brains.
There was a scream that came from behind them. Sunset dashed back to her seat, as some people also turned around, and looked outside. There she saw one of the soldiers, who stood near the bus, when it stopped. He was lying on the ground, blood gushing out from a huge wound in his chest. A half naked man with a bloody fire axe stood over him. With an animalistic grin he raised his weapon and chopped down, splitting the poor soldier’s head in half.
Someone screamed, Sunset wasn’t sure who it was, it might’ve been her. The man looked up, his bloodshot eyes focusing on the bus full of people right in front of him. He swung his axe at the window and smashed it in one hit, showering Sunset in a cascade of broken glass.
Other soldiers on the outside finally took notice of what was going on and opened fire on the mad man. But as he fell on the ground many more crazed looking people rounded the corner of the nearby building and rushed towards them.
“Fuck! Hit the gas!” Lieutenant Arms shouted to the terrified driver. “Get us out of this city!”
The driver didn’t need to be told twice. The doors shut and the bus jerked into motion, leaving the soldiers on the outside to fend for themselves.
“Lieutenant! We can’t just leave our boys out there!” The second soldier shouted over the screams of the passengers.
“We have a whole bus of civilians on our hands, private! We can’t take any risks! The evacuation order is still in effect!” The lieutenant shouted back.
The bus drove at the breakneck speed through the streets of the city that was quickly falling into chaos. Gunshots rung from everywhere, people were screaming, several explosions rocked the air as the grenades were used. The driver clung to the steering wheel, knowing too well that his life and the lives of everyone in the bus were dependent on his driving skills.
The road was a complete mess. The road blocks, established by the military, didn’t help much as many cars just rammed into the sandbags and even trucks, as the other people were doing their best to escape the city as well, or lost control because of a stray bullet hitting their wheels or drivers themselves, or because of the crazy people, who jumped and walked in front of the moving cars.
The driver did his best to avoid as much collisions as he could, and thankfully he was able to dodge most of the cars that were in the way of his bus, merely bumping and scraping them. People however... they were simply walking and running on the road, some were clearly heading straight towards the bus, it was next to impossible to avoid all of them. The driver shot a quick glance at the lieutenant, who was clinging to a pole near the driver’s seat and shouting directions over the frightened screams of the passengers.
Lieutenant Arms understood the silent question and nodded. “Go! I gave you the order!”
The driver looked back at the road and pushed the pedal further. The engine roared and the bus continued to speed up. Several moments later there was a loud bump on the hood of the bus quickly followed by several more and a blood splatter on the windshield as the crazed citizens of Canterlot, completely disregarding any and all self preservation instincts, didn’t even attempt to step out of the way of the heavy machine.
As the bus continued to weave and ram its way through the road, the passengers did all that they could to not be ragdolled across its interior. Among all these commotions and the panicked screams, Sunset clung to her seat for her dear life. ‘Oh sweet, merciful Celestia! What’s going on!?’ She thought. As the bus shook once again, her head swung to the side and for the first time since they started to move again Sunset accidentally looked outside.
It was an absolute carnage.
She saw a group of people on the ground sinking their teeth into a screaming man.
A crowbar wielding maniac smashed a window of a parked car, trying to get to the terrified family inside.
A surrounded cop, desperately unloading his gun into a group of bloodied shambling people that were converging onto him.
She watched in horror as a window was smashed on the upper floor of a highrise as a woman in a wedding dress fell to her doom, followed by a real stream of people, who were throwing themselves after her.
Suddenly a radio that was hanging on the private’s uniform hissed to life and a panicked voice began to shout, “To all units, central plaza is completely overrun! We need to pull back everybody! Pullback from central NOW!”
“Do not! You are to hold position!” Sounded a stern commanding voice from the radio a moment later.
“They’re killing everyone! It’s all over!” When the first voice returned it was muffled by the sounds of heavy gunfire. “We’ve lost central! I repeat, we have lost central!”
Tears were streaming down Sunset’s face, blurring her vision. She shut her eyes and started to mumble. “It’s a nightmare. It’s just a nightmare. Wake up Sunset. You need to wake up! Oh Celestia, let it be a nightmare!” She whimpered. At that moment she was ready to give up everything just to open her eyes and see the loving and concerned face of her mentor. The Princess would hug and comfort the frightened little filly, tell her that she was safe and that the bad dreams can’t hurt her. “Please, Celestia, help me.”
“A-A-A-A-ARGH!” A sudden shriek of pain tore through the cacophony of the bus. And it sounded like it was close.
Sunset’s head shot up as she looked around. There, just a few seats ahead, one of her schoolmates, Cloud Kicker, bit into the neck of a guy sitting next to her, all the while landing a blow after blow to his torso.
Sunset was about to scream for help, but as she looked towards the two soldiers, she saw that it wasn’t the only fight that broke out in the bus. Several students were swinging their fists at each other as others did their best to hold them or just to get as far away as possible. Someone jumped onto the private’s back, as the solder tried to break one of the fights, and was trying to claw through his army helmet.
“What’s happening!?” Sunset screamed, unable to handle everything, that was going on around her, any longer. It was madness! Pure madness! In just one moment her whole world became insane!
That was when she heard a guttural growl to her left. She slowly turned her head and saw Fido. He was sitting in a sit across from her, clutching his head. His whole body shook in a series of violent spasms, before becoming limp. A moment later his head snapped to the side and his blood-red eyes stared right at Sunset. The time seemed to slow down. As Sunset looked into his rage filled eyes, she could see how something black was swirling around his scleras.
A second later Fido bared his teeth and lunged at Sunset with such speed, that the girl barely had any time to react. She shifted on her sit and threw her leg forward, hitting Fido in the chest. That broke his momentum but didn't stop him completely, he continued to move forward raising his fist for a strike. Sunset desperately tried to shove him back, but the member of the Diamond Dogs was much bigger and stronger than her, he continued to push against her leg until it buckled.
Sunset’s life in the human world never was peaceful, especially during her first year, she had to quite literally fight for her survival, so she was no stranger to brawls. When Sunset understood that she was not able to push Fido away, she used whatever little time that she had to brace herself for the upcoming punches. She pulled her head closer to her chest and raised her forearms to shield her upper torso and face and when Fido’s fists came crashing down on her, she was ready to roll with the punches. However she wasn’t prepared for the utter savagery of his attack. Each blow felt like a brick crashing into her arms and she was uncertain how long she’d be able to hold her block. She was so focused on defending herself that she couldn’t find any openings for a counterattack, not even for a quick jab.
Suddenly a pair of hands grabbed Fido by his shoulders and yanked him backwards. “Dude, what are you doing!? Chill the fuck down!” Shouted Rover as he tried to pull his friend away from his victim, but he didn’t listen. Rover wrapped his forearm around Fido’s neck, trying to put him in a chokehold, but the enraged Diamond Dog swung his head backwards and crushed the back of his head into Rover’s nose. The gray teen howled in pain and fell back to his sit, clutching his broken nose.
The whole thing took only a few seconds, but that was enough time for Sunset to get up from her seat and ready her own attack. As Fido lunged forward once more, Sunset caught him with a left swing to his opened jaw. There was a sickening crunch as Fido’s jaw was dislocated. Hits like that usually knock out the opponent, but Fido remained standing, however he did look disoriented, so Sunset decided that it was a good opportunity to move into the space between the rows of seats to allow herself some better mobility. Just as she managed to squeeze past her attacker, he swung his fist blindly and, catching Sunset by surprise, hit her in the chest, knocking the wind out of her. She stumbled backwards, desperately trying to breathe in. The second punch hit her on the right side of her face right next to her temple. Sunset’s vision darkened and she fell to the floor. Fido stepped over her and fell to his knees, pinning her down. Sunset’s eyes widened as she saw Fido raising both of his hands above his head, about to deliver a crushing blow. She knew that she wouldn’t be able to block this one, even if she could move.
Several loud bangs rung through the bus and Fido’s face exploded, showering Sunset in his blood. A moment later his lifeless body fell down on her. Sunset wiggled herself free and crawled backwards away from the body. She tore her gaze from the corpse and looked around.
There were more bodies. One lay on the floor, just like Fido, others were slumped over the seats. Sunset saw the guy that Cloud Kicker bit. He was still in his seat, leaning to the side, blood slowly dripping from his lifelessly hanging arm. Kicker was right next to him, half of her head missing.
As she looked up she saw the lieutenant holding a big gun in his hand, its silvery barrel still smoking.
“L-lieutenant? What...?” Started the second soldier.
“Shut up, Strike! Just shut up.” Said Combined Arms, scanning the remaining passengers with his eyes. “Keep your eyes peeled. If anyone else goes feral, shoot them.” Strike opened his mouth to say something, but the lieutenant cut him off, “That’s an order, private First Strike!” He then turned back to the driver and said, “As soon as we’ll reach the highway, pull over. We’ll dump the bodies. Then we’ll drive to the FEMA camp, I’ll show the way.”
Sunset didn’t realize that she was still crawling backwards until her back hit the wall. She sat against it, pulled her knees to her chest, wrapped her arms around her legs, curled up in a ball and started to sob quietly.
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Oh you uploaded this. Nice.
Well now. This has some promise, especially as I'm a fan of the game this is based upon. Thus far it seems like it's setting up Sunset to be a loner... I'm assuming this is Sunset pre-Equestria Girls since she wasn't friendly to Rarity or Fluttershy. In a way that's almost a shame because I think it would've been more interesting if a few of them were trying to survive together.
But I'm still looking forward to seeing what you do here. This crossover has a lot of promise. Let's see if you can live up to it.
Well done!
I like this a lot!
Not a crossover I was expecting, I'm gonna be honest. Is this just going to be the vanilla game, or will we see some mod content as well?
10963521
I'm going to assume Magiclysm at a minimum. Maybe Arcana, as it fits better, but it's 3rd party mod. Sort of.
I'll keep an eye on this one since I am a fan of CDDA, but I must say the pacing for this first chapter is fast enough to give the Flash whiplash. Going from a partially depopulated, but still running school to complete chaos on the streets within the span of an afternoon is a bit much. It feels like the author wanted to just get this part over with to focus on the more interesting aftermath bits, but all of this could have been handled within the story description alone if that was all the author wanted to do and start chapter one along the same vain as a CDDA character does, isolated in a town or in the woods having just escaped the chaos.
If the author wanted to depict the decent into chaos, starting at the depopulated but running school is fine, but don't let the city's collapse happen in an afternoon. Remember, on day one the most we're dealing with are fast zombies, not armies of hulks with trashcans for arms that can break a military point faster than they can be shot.
TL DR slow down.
dang it you beat me to it!
Firstly, I want to say a lot of words of gratitude to the author for the fact that he was able to find the time to write a plot for this story. Secondly, I want to wish the author to continue to promote his story further.
Well, at this time I will still continue to be your first reader.
from my understanding, once the panic dies down a bit like give it a week at most you can then start making plans to look for weapons and other things to get out alive.
also now there huge surplus of stuff now, like now there so much surplus of goods that anyone can make a high tech village off the grind system of 100 people if you like and more.
Might be a coincidence, but are those quotes from the game called road of the dead by any chance? I believe they are saying the same thing there :)
This may be the single nichest crossover fic on this site. Congratulations.
Thanks for all your comments, guys!
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I appreciate your support! Thanks!
10963421
You’re right, this is set pre EG, but let’s just say the girls are there for a reason.
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There are going to some elements of Magiclysm and maybe some things I come up with. Sadly I never played with Arcana and Magic Items mod.
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I am roughly adhering to the canonical timeline, it’s somewhere around April 15, so it’s mostly hordes of ferals with some zombies mixed in. But don’t worry, I do plan to slow down.
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Oh, are you going to make a CDDA crossover as well?
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Nailed it!
Yeah, I liked that game, so I decided to make this little Easier Egg. Plus I think it fits.
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*Achievement unlocked*
Thanks!
10963421
You are really right. When I read this story at the stage of its planning, then even then I realized that this has prospects.
In addition, there are not so many stories from Russian authors on this site.
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ya i was
two type is one of people of the mlp world going to that world and the other a gang showing up inthe mlp world
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also right now she is in the panic stage of facing this.
where people are panicking and more and not thinking srt8 the whole time, the fact is zombies used to be the only problem and not people but over time as the world got more and more high tech and more knowledge come zombies just look dumb now.
that's why CDDA world is the next stage of zombie media and more where two big love craft horror style monsters coming out where the blob and the mushroom are fighting it out now on earth and with an adding of everything else on top of that.
but also there is so much stuff to rebuild a powerful basecamp and more that the truth is that if the humans don't kill each other 1st and get their heads out of their ass for a tiny bit this world will do fine in this new life they found themself in, like no joke the local dollar tree down my street have solar panels all over its roof and more homes as well.
it's just going to be a pain in the ass the whole time getting there is all.
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Cool!
Hit me up when you will publish it.
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will do then.
also i hope twilight is alive in this would given she would still be alive that is (my money is that she is) she would have a drone army at her side
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in fact in the game lore that is what really happens.
people thought it was the flu or something, but then all hell broke less because the water was filled with the blob and in just one day all things went to hell.
like it was not slow at all it was hell on earth in those few hours, in fact, if you start from day one in the game the best hope for you to get out alive is to get the flying fuck out of the city fast and pray to god you find a good weapon fast and find a FEMA campsite with lots of shitty soylent food.
in fact sunset is lucky as fuck to even make it out of the city alive if anything.
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If things really fall apart that quickly, then how would the military have known to set up check points? The police maybe, but the national guard would need more time.
Granted this could be the game taking liberties with deployment times to justify having military checkpoints at all I guess.
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easy the people who let the blob in known the truth from day one and sent out a high alert, remember they were playing with the tech they were not ready to use at all.
plus look at our world for a tiny bit, if anything it's more on the nose if anything, 40 years ago cops having army-like gear was unheard of at the time and if anything the only group would have that is swat. But now look at us almost every cop has old army surplus gear now and everything.
remember the lab that made this happen to begin with was breaking ground in the tech world of every type, from the basic AI robots to energy weapons, to cyberware and more.
also, mind you military checkpoints could just be cops making the checkpoints by making a public news report of them doing it as a "training activities to keep our cops ready and also keeping the protest from becoming violent"
remember the game is based in the USA (maybe in this world its different but hard to say without hearing from the artist) so ya cops would be almost like the military, they be wearing the color black and blue but they be cops in military gear.
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btw i see you did Road Of The Dead easter egg, in that game school buses are a bloody mess and dead bodies, look like sunset is the lucky one.
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You will get an explanation later because I've already read the next chapters. This implies a moment when all this chaos had already begun, but its scale was slow. However, according to intelligence and with the introduction of an appropriate security protocol, DEFKON 3 (combat readiness with the use of military force, for proactive security measures) was introduced.