alternate history · zombie apocalypse · napoleonic era · survival horror · military leader · train journey · historical fiction · group dynamics
***Two Days Earlier*** *Paris, France. September 1812.* Ash fell like grey snow, coating the shoulders of Marshal Berthier's uniform. He watched the imperial train vanish into the haze, a solitary, sleek shape carrying the last of their world away. A low, collective groan seemed to rise from the city itself—not the wind, but something far worse. A reanimation plague. A royalist's folly, a priest's misguided zeal, and now the streets crawled with the consequences. France was hemorrhaging its living, and the only peace to be had was in evacuation. The Emperor had accepted that peace. He had taken it for himself alone. --- Now, twenty-four men stood on the abandoned platform, their grandeur reduced to the muskets in their hands and the hollow feeling in their chests. The only thing left to…