For those of you who have completed all of the Zombies, Run! missions we’ve released so far, we’ve put together a cheat sheet to help remind you of the Zombies, Run! story so far. That way you can jump straight into the Season 3 missions with the story fresh in your mind.
If you’re new to Zombies, Run! we recommend starting from Season One and experiencing the entire story as it was intended. You’ve got over 100 missions to play, with new Season 3 episodes releasing each week, so you’d best get cracking!
Season One
Zombies, Run! begins as your helicopter crashes in the midst of a swarm of zombies. You were on your way to Abel Township to undertake a secret mission: “Project Greenshoot”. Abel’s comms operator Sam Yao and their doctor, Maxine Myers guide you through the hostile territory. On your way, zombies at your heels, you pass through the hospital to pick up an important box from the CDC.
Janine DeLuca, the owner of the farmhouse which has become Abel Township welcomes you grudgingly – and you’re given the designation of Runner 5. It’s
only fitting, as the zombified corpse of the previous Runner 5 was on your tail as you approached the settlement. Some zombies are faster than others – no one knows why.
Evan Deaubl, Runner 7, the Head of Runners, shows you around the township – the place has been held together by the iron will of Major de Santa who’s currently away at a military base in the north. You begin to undertake missions – supply and rescue, distracting zombies and warning nearby settlements of approaching danger. One run – an attempt to rendezvous with some informants from neighbouring settlement New Canton – goes badly wrong. Treacherous New Canton had been trying to trap you, and you have to run home after dark with only Sam Yao’s voice to guide you in.
Sara Smith, Runner 8, knows more than she’s telling about Project Greenshoot. On a run out to the crashed helicopter, she lets you know that she has her suspicions of you – but your credentials check out when she finds them in the chopper.
Meanwhile, Dr Myers has been investigating the CDD box and sends you on a mission to retrieve equipment from the university. You find more than you’d expected: Maxine’s girlfriend Paula, knowing that the zombies would break into the compound and kill her, recorded a last message for with information about the zombie plague’s Patient Zero. Paula suspects that her supervisor, Professor Van Ark, was attempting to cover up his role in the apocalypse.
Zombie behaviour expert Runner 10 sadly succumbs to the zombie virus. His last wish is for a message to be delivered to his daughter, Veronica. Abel mourns its loss, but more danger is just round the corner. You save a New Canton Runner, Lem, who gives you his headset as he’s about to die. You hear New Canton planning an attack on Abel.
New Canton attack just as a huge horde of fast zombies descends on Abel. New Canton retreats. Runners scatter. It’s chaos. You, Runner 4 and Runner 8 make it to the top of a nearby hill, where you witness a group of zombies controlled by musical tones firing a bazooka directly at Abel! The blast knocks you cold.
You wake, disoriented. Runner 8 tells you that she’s been bitten. Abel is burning, so you can’t go back. New Canton wants you dead.
Suddenly, your headphones pick up a broadcast. It’s Major de Santa, leader of Abel. She tells you: you can stop running now.
Race Missions (Abel and New Canton)
The race missions are set just before the finale of Zombies, Run! Season One. Abel sends you on a mission to find out more about the zombie plague’s Patient Zero. Finding Patient Zero’s workplace destroyed, you run to the home of Professor Van Ark, in the hope that he will have kept notes and files there.
Surprisingly, Van Ark himself is at his old home. In an attempt to escape from the zombies, Van Ark is bitten and urges you to leave without him. He tells you that Paula may still be alive and could be at the Jeffro Complex. You go there, with Doctor Myers – but it was a trap, and Van Ark’s zombie bite is healed! You only escape with the unexpected aid of Archie, a New Canton Runner.
New Canton had been organising a pre-emptive strike against the Jeffro Complex. While they set their explosives, they overhear Van Ark and Paula talking: she’s been working on a treatment for the zombie virus. It’s not a cure, but it does keep Van Ark from becoming a zombie… and it’s revealed that Paula herself has been bitten at some point, and needs the treatment too.
Season Two
Season Two opens a few weeks after the massive attack against Abel. Now that they have a common enemy, New Canton and Abel Township have formed a truce and are working together against Van Ark.
Not everyone is happy with this truce, though. Nadia, New Canton’s radio operator, learns that Runner 5’s use of Lem’s headset was what gave her false hope that he might be alive. She sends you on a suicide mission, but Sam comes to the rescue and Nadia is put under house arrest.
Meanwhile, Maxine is working on a sedation formula to slow down zombies. A mysterious message summons you by the name ‘Runner 5’ to a shipwreck on the coast. There, you’re surprised to meet Runner 8, alive and well!
Later, while scouting a possible Van Ark base, Archie is captured by tone-controlled fast zombies. With Archie’s boyfriend Jamie, you race to find out where she’s been taken, while listening in to her being interrogated by Van Ark. The Professor wants to know what the Major’s planning, but Archie won’t say. Archie does let slip in Paula’s hearing that Maxine is still alive and is working at Abel. You and Jamie attempt to rescue Archie but are too late; Van Ark kills her.
Runner 8 and Janine finally tell you about Project Greenshoot – there’s a secret lab underneath Abel that houses everything required to reboot society and recover from the apocalypse. We also discover that there’s a traitor in Abel, feeding information back to Van Ark.
An army of Van Ark’s fast zombies attacks Abel. Maxine’s zombie formula makes short work of them and the threat is neutralised. You head off to find some fuel for planes that will be used to spread the formula around the country, but it’s not easy. At one point, you’re attacked by bandits and rescued by militarised Girl Guides. And in the chaos of a sneak attack on Abel Township, those same bandits manage to steal the formula-related lab notes from Maxine’s medical tent.
Maxine receives what she’s sure is a secret message from Paula, and takes you on a mission to investigate. You do find Paula, but she tells you it wasn’t her who sent the message. Van Ark springs his trap: he sent the message! In the skirmish he’s mortally wounded, but recovers instantly. He’s now functionally immortal – but a man on whom Van Ark’s blood splattered becomes a zombie.
Paula rescues you from Van Ark’s clutches, and sends you back to Abel with information and supplies for Maxine’s research.
The number of potential traitors within Abel is narrowed down. It can only be you or Runners 3, 7 or 8. When Runner 7 leaves Abel, stealing a plane to fly to his Caribbean hideout, it’s clear he isn’t the traitor. But whoever the traitor is, they’ve been giving intel to the bandits, whose headquarters are in a nearby prison.
You end up trapped in the prison; it’s only with the help of Louise, an ex-girlfriend of Maxine’s, that you manage to escape. In a fight with a dangerous serial killer who also escaped from the prison, Runner 8 is injured – her blood spatters over Esteban, a New Canton functionary whom she was rescuing. Suspicion falls on Runner 8 when Esteban turns grey – could Runner 8 be the traitor, receiving the same treatments as Van Ark?
Runner 8 is held and interrogated by Janine and the Major. She breaks Janine’s arm, kills the Major and escapes, taking you with as a hostage. Van Ark tortures you, and reveals that there is a second traitor within Abel. In a sudden about-face, Runner 8 attacks Van Ark, handcuffs him, and frees you. She wasn’t the traitor after all! That means it must be Runner 3.
Van Ark frees himself by cutting off his own hand and destroys the treatment machine to prevent Runner 8 from getting the treatment she desperately needs to fend off the zombie virus. She heads to New Canton to try and get treated there.
Meanwhile, Runner 3 knows he’s been unmasked, so he kidnaps one of Jamie’s foster children. Runner 8 gives up her motorbike ride to New Canton so that you and Jamie can rescue the child – but this means Runner 8 doesn’t get her treatment in time, and dies in Paula’s arms.
You chase after Van Ark with a serum which, it’s hoped, will prevent him from regenerating. He escapes from you, but you shoot down his plane with a rocket launcher – a taste of his own medicine! He perishes in the crash.
Abel celebrates — the battle is won! Abel is safe from Van Ark and his army of mind controlled zombies and Paula and Maxine are finally together.
Suddenly, a strange tone sounds and several people from Abel mindlessly walk out of the gates in unison — including Dr. Maxine Myers. There’s nothing anyone can do to stop them and no way of knowing where they’re going… or why.
New Canton Runner Five
During these special side missions you play New Canton Runner 5, who has run to London to work with Londoners Robbie and Diana, who are investigating megacorporation Comansys Technologies. They’ve heard there’s something vital inside the Comansys building.
The three of you drill your way into a Comansys vault from the London Underground and locate a device which repels zombies. Diana reveals herself to be a Comansys agent and kills Robbie. You escape the building before it self destructs, but Diana pursues you through the Underground tunnels.
A new friend, Tony, helps you escape London with the devices, but Diana finds you on the surface. Surrounded by zombies, she shoots you. Does New Canton 5’s story end here?
Zombies, Run! 