Chapter One
Three men were walking down the old, shabby road shadowed by a huge ancient tree beside them. Compared to each other, they all seemed significantly different in terms of physical appearance. While one was strong and buff, another was scrawny and weak-looking. A most peculiar team formation. They wielded the same gun (F2000 assault rifle) and wore the same gray shirts labeled "Hail" with black spray paint.
A British man with a rough, authoritative voice crackled from out of nowhere. "Hail, what's your status? Over."
Embry pulled out his fancy military-styled walkie-talkie and spoke into it. "Team Hail is approaching mission point in approximately 15 minutes. Over."
The authoritative voice responded. "Roger that, Hail. You have permission to open fire at will. Good luck. Over."
Embry straddled the radio device back onto his waist and began to sigh. There, staring directly in their faces was a hellish scene. They were at the peak of the hilly road overlooking the horizon. Beneath them were thousands of small figures wandering aimlessly about a third of a mile away.
"Bloody hell." The scrawny man, mumbled.
Siegfried made his way beside John, towering over him. "Yes, this is serious FML."
John looked up. "What does 'FML' stand for anyways? You're always saying it."
"Fuck. My. Life."
Embry scoffed; seemingly annoyed. "Surely this is not something we cannot handle? I bet we will beat the other teams."
"Perhaps. With a large dose of shit coming our way, however." Siegfried said with a hint of doubt.
"You weren't chosen for nothing… But if you aren't ready then you shouldn't have stayed on the team." They were climbing lower and lower down the hill; the figures of the undead progressively growing.
"I didn't say I was going to give up. All I'm saying is that someone's going to die today. For sure."
"We've all got to make sacrifices in order to achieve our main goal. This is only one step towards it."
"I s'pose." Siegfried was trying to avoid prolonging the conversation.
"Careful, it seems that some of the cattle have been wandering out of their horde." John warned.
Scanning the area around them, there were indeed undead dangerously close to them. Embry quieted down. "Right. We'll have to move swiftly and consistently. Keep your eyes peeled and voices low. They're stupid as a rock; all we have to do is blend in." John and Siegfried nodded.
"On my mark…" His words were was as inaudible as a ghost. "Now!"
The three Hail members gradually shot off to a quick but quiet pace. And it seemed to be working. The undead didn't notice a thing, continuing their mindless moaning.
As they moved their way deeper behind enemy lines, the amount of biters began to increase. Until finally the biters started to notice. One of them turned to the group and began moaning feverously. Suddenly, one hungry moan turned to two, then four, eight, sixteen. To the point where Hail was in some serious danger.
John looked behind them. "Shit!" He yelled, realizing there was no point in keeping their voices low anymore. "It doesn't look easy to get back out." John was for the most part right. Biters behind Hail were slowly accumulating together, alerting the mother horde of a potential meal with their terrifying screeches.
"No worries. Let's keep going, we'll break through on the way back." Embry reassured.
Siegfried harshly slammed the butt of this gun into a biter in their way, making its skull crack horribly. Hail was out of there before it was falling pathetically to a second death. 5 minutes of running flew by like 5 seconds. The three had breached the horde with ease, reaching their prime destination within.
They all unlocked the safety on their F2000s to begin raining bullets on the front, sides, and back of any sighted biter whilst swiftly making their way back. The moment was intensifying. Everything seemed to be going by fast; the ravenous beings were like a blur. The three couldn't hear anything but the sound of their breath, multiple gunshots, and the coinciding screeches of the thousands of biters behind them which sounded like an ominous white noise.
"Okay, we're in the safe zone of the horde. Let us begin the objective!" Embry yelled over the thousands of moans and screeches. He pulled out his walkie-talkie and spoke into once again. "Code word: rambunctious."
Seconds later, the signal-controlled dynamite sticks all around their side of the horde went off. Several undead were thrown and tossed into the air, limbs and guts flying all over the place like a Mardi Gras parade. The three started pulling out grenades and throwing them all around them. More biters blown apart.
Hail wasn't the only one getting help. More explosions followed at other parts of the horde as other teams had also given the code word to home base.
"Right, we're off back to bridge! Begin the lure!" Embry commanded.
Soon enough they were stepping on tender, rotten flesh rather than gravel. Death was lingering near them trying to pull them into its firm grasp. Jumping from body to body, one would shoot and another would reload. "Come on! We're almost through!" Embry pleaded.
John was the first to run out of ammo. He stylishly swung the weight of his gun, knocking down several biters which gave him enough time to pull out his pistol. Not something you would expect from such a small man.
They were so close to getting out. So close from freeing themselves of those deadly fingers. But one fatal mistake was inevitable. Siegfried, in his careless haste, tripped on a bony corpse and fell hard onto another, his finger still pulling the trigger. Subsequently, Embry and John had been hit.
Before Siegfried could do a thing, he was ripped to pieces. A fountain of blood was spraying all over, his body mutilated in seconds, organs being pulled out and eaten as easily as like a child tearing apart an insect. He did not even have time to yelp in pain.
John had been shot twice on the back, fatally wounding him. He stumbled to his knees but Embry came to assist him back up immediately. The brave leader mustered up all the strength he could and strove forward despite the excruciating pain in his right arm. He growled it off trying not to think about it.
There were less biters prodding as Embry and John were nearly out of the horde. But it was no good. John had died around Embry's arm, adding to the pile of bodies. Embry had to let go. It took immense will power to accept their sudden deaths… But there was no other choice. For the sake of the mission, he had to live on.
One of the biters had managed to get a hold of Embry, preparing to puncture his skin with its blood coated teeth. However, John raised his pistol and shot the biter's head to bits. Pieces of brain matter splattered all over Embry.
"Go!" John barely managed. The scrawny man used to last of his energy to take out a grenade and pull the pin. Having no time to thank John, Embry sped to the outskirts of the horde trying to avoid getting killed. It went off seconds later, taking down everything within a 20 feet radius.
Embry was sent flying forward, pain shooting through his ears. He crashed to the rough and poorly made road, unable to feel anything but the blood trickling out his ears because he was numb all around.
For a moment, everything seemed serene. There was an eerie silence. All motion was slowed down in Embry's eyes. "No…" he was thinking. "No, I can't give up now. I've come too far." Time went on forever before he was finally able to stand. Everything came back to him in real-time like a sudden smack to the face. Hail's only member left struggled to pick up his own weapon. He felt like he was a million pounds, swaying around extremely dizzily. The only thing that motivated him to keep going was hearing the sounds of the screeches behind him.
Embry got his weapon and jogged forward, slowly regaining his balance. But something was pursuing him at fast speeds. A runner. Those were rare and only found in recently infected victims. When they were fresh, their muscles could function at running speeds. These types of biters were common during the early years of epidemic when the undead weren't so decayed.
Embry broke into a sprint, almost falling down a couple of times. He pointed his gun behind him and shot to where he heard the rapid screeches. "Almost… there." He told himself.
For minutes he was literally running for his life. Any random penetration of bullets to the runner only slowed it down for a split second, barely hindering its pursuit.
Embry was huffing uncontrollably, trying to fight back tears. He thought the mission was going to go so smoothly… He was far from correct. He'd never expected to lose the two comrades he trusted so much. It was the reality of life on this bloodstained planet. Something he'd only learned to accept that particular hour.
Behind him was the horde of thousands and the runner following him, all yearning his flesh. Ahead of him was the bridge from cliff to cliff. Across that bridge stood an army of hundreds all waiting for him to cross that bridge. "Almost there!' He said once again, trying to push himself.
The annoying runner was getting closer by the inch. In fact, close enough that it nearly snatched Embry's gray shirt off. One loud bang later, a bullet whizzed past Embry and sunk into the skull before him, abruptly stopping the demonic screeching. The force of the sniper's bullet was so strong that the whole body of the runner slammed backward onto the ground at an insane speed.
"Fuck me!" Embry cried. The shot had scared him.
After the sniper, hundreds of bullets from machine guns followed. Whistling through the air and into the horde behind.
Embry finally made it to the bridge, persistently running and repeatedly slamming his boots onto the wooden bridge. Whistling bullets and tapping boots. The only thing going through his mind. Halfway through the bridge, he could hear the shouts of encouragement from his comrades. It motivated him to try and put any more last efforts into his speed.
And so he finally crossed the bridge, collapsing onto the helping hands of his comrades. They carried him to the medical station and returned to their positions. The biters started to make their way onto the bridge.
"Fire in the hole! Fire in the hole!" Embry vaguely heard repeatedly from the men. Several of them retreated from the mouth of the bridge. In an instant, he watched as the explosives attached to the bridge destroyed it.
Focusing on the bridge, he was being completely oblivious to the people medically tending to him. Focused on the biters falling on and on into the abyss. Even with the bridge gone, they continued to try and reach their goal. Only they couldn't.
The men stopped shooting and started to cheer, throwing their fists in the air. The mission was a success. It was the biter's stupidity that led them to their unstoppable end.
The doctor injected anesthetic into his arm and instantly started to make him drowsy.
Embry was relieved. He finally closed his eyes and let himself rest. It was over. But it couldn't have been done without John and Siegfried's help. Their sacrifice was not in vain. The same type of sacrifice he had only mentioned 30 minutes before. His words had never been truer.
"FML…" Embry mumbled to himself and closed his eyes, allowing himself to be taken away by the anesthetic.