The Great Plague
Chapter 1
The fire cast an eerie glow on the three men sitting around the burning rubble. one of the men had a scarf covering the lower half of his face, his matted down hair seemed to cover up the rest of his face. His shirt was incredibly stained with a reddish substance, his camouflage pants were covered in mud and dust. His right pant leg had been ripped off from the knee down and his whole leg was bandaged with bloody rags.
The man on his right had black hair that was longer in the front than in the back, he had a large scorch mark covering most of his left cheek. His shirt had small rips that occasionally led to a deep cut. His belt was barely visible with the number of grenades attached to it. His pants were mostly intact except for a cut that went down his right side, a poorly done stitch job kept that side from falling apart.
The last mans head was completely shave and their was a large scar that traveled from the center of the forehead all the way to the top of his head. He was wearing a black tank top and was prodding the fire with the barrel of a shotgun. His black pants were covered in dust with spots of melted tar on his knees. His skin was burnt except for markings around his eyes that looked as if he wore sunglasses a lot.
The men finally looked up from the fire and looked around them, they were sitting in a clearing in between two building that looked as if they were heavily bombarded. The clearing was cut into two halves by a trail that led through the wall around the clearing. The trail wound into the streets in the rest of the city, the trail was currently being crossed by five tanks. all the tanks had painted flags on the side which showed red squares with singe marks around the whole square, this was the sign of the Black Plague.
The Black Plague was once a mercenary group that worked for Russia, but soon after the third great war Russia disowned these elite mercenaries. The Black Plague soon gained enough numbers to wage war on their previous owners and now, with the support of China, are locked in a brutal conflict which has covered most of Asia and some of Europe.
The three men jumped on top of the last tank and rode into the street, once on the other side of the wall they came across an even worse scene. Many of the towering buildings had collapsed and their rubble covered the street making much of the area impassible by most vehicles and infantry. This required a special division of infantry meant for carving through very tough situations, these men were called carriers. In the horizon you could see where the battle hadn't yet stopped. Russian AA guns were firing rapidly into the air and small explosions in the sky meant the guns hit their mark.
It didn't even seem like night from the burning building but the men felt its curse, if you even shut your eyes it was a workout to raise them again. The small rations they got kept them going, but it still wasn't enough to keep them fully awake. The captain of the tank squadron walked up to the three men, he took one look at them and laughed.
"Patterson, Notting, and Fersting, I thought you three would be sleeping," he was clearly addressing the three men because they all looked down.
"Peterson, you get on the front take with the RPG squadron," the man with the scarf around his face ran forward and opened up the weapons case and grabbed an RPG.
"Notting, stay with the third tank until we reach the frontal outpost and provide sniper support with Team Zulu," the man with the scar on top of his head jumped on top of the third tank and strapped in.
"Fersting, get into the chopper and prepare for war because your going to be stationed at the MG nest at Checkpoint Alpha," the man with the scorch mark walked towards a small makeshift hangar where helicopters were landing to pick up reinforcements.
Notting was sitting on the tank when it gave a sudden start, and rocked him to his side. He was watching Peterson's tank as it turned a corner and he saw something he hadn't seen in three years, black helicopters with a red tail and blades. This was the sign of the carriers, the most elite of the mercenaries. Notting was so mesmerized by the sight he barely noticed anything until a rocket hit the building beside him and he turned to see the frontal outpost being assaulted. The tank came to a stop and the rest of the squadron jumped off.
Notting jumped off and ran to the edge of the street, he could've been mistaken but the attacking forces seemed like European forces. Notting loaded his sniper rifle and quickly looked down the scope, he saw the bulk of the forces were following a single tactic. This usually meant that the field commander was nearby, he kept looking around and he saw a man hunched over a radio. He noticed a golden badge on his chest and Notting smirked a little, he held his breath and prepared for the perfect moment; and there it was, the commander stood up real quick and took a quick peek at the battlefield. BOOM!
The bullet shot straight through the badge and knocked the commander on his back, the sudden shock of the soldiers around him told Notting he did his job right. Notting jumped up and ran down the street, he ducked behind a wall as another blast sent the tank he rode in on across the street. His kill was definitely effective though because the European forces were scattering in confusion and the mercenaries were quickly able to overtake them. The snipers had apparently called in air support shortly before he arrived because two choppers quickly showed up and chased the European forces down the street.
Notting got out from behind the building and crossed the street to the frontal outpost, he quickly noticed that the outpost was once a large bank. The double doors had been knocked out and inside you were met by two fifty caliber machine guns pointed straight at the door. On the other side of the machine guns the counter had been destroyed by a past conflict and now it was a bunker filled with cots. The vaults had been cleaned out and now held ammo and guns. A single ladder led to the roof which had sandbags piled up making a four foot high wall around the edge of the roof. Not only was the roof a sniper position but there were many wounded men being helped by three battlefield surgeons.
Notting sat down beside four other snipers and looked down the street where the European forces had come from. He now noticed why they seemed so strong, the Russians had retaken the bridge across the Great Russian Trench and were now sending men down the street. He looked over and saw that one of the snipers was calling in GPS directions into the radio. After a ten minute long wait Notting saw that some jeeps were carving through the alleys and were unleashing machine gun fire onto the MG Nests guarding the bridge.
One of the snipers was asleep and quickly jumped up from the sound of the rockets being shot at the jeeps. Notting looked into the scope and steadied on the closest nest. The man running the machine gun was hiding behind the sand bags so he was an impossible shot, further into the nest a sniper was sitting down and loading his gun. Notting realized he could easily take out every sniper up here so he swiftly steadied his aim and sent a shot right through his skull.
The machine gunner jumped up, which was just the erratic movement the sniper beside him was waiting for because a second later the man fell down onto the floor. Notting turned his attention to the other nest and saw a bigger threat, three RPG's and a sniper were held up in their besides the machine gunner. The machine gunner was taken down by the jeeps constant assault fire, but the three rockets were jumping around so much they were impossible to hit. The sniper just came into view and quickly sent a bullet through the driver of a jeep. The RPG's quickly took notice and that jeep was soon bombarded by rockets.
One of the snipers fell to the ground and Notting quickly looked at him, there was a bullet hole right through his eye. The sniper in the nest was better than Notting thought. Notting looked back in his scope and saw the rest of the rockets dead. The sniper was running down the bridge and lighting flares. A European jeep pulled up beside the sniper but before he could get in, Notting put a bullet through his head and quickly reloaded and put another bullet through the drivers heart. Notting got off the sand bags and laid down, he quickly fell into a deep sleep.