…
(Author's Notes at bottom)
Last Alarm:
Okinawa Offensive
Prologue
Tokonosu International Airport,
Artificial Island off the coast of Tokonosu,
Tokonosu Prefecture,
Japan
Four months since Z-Day…
The weapon cleared his holstered and holding the sidearm in a two-handed grip, he fired three rounds rapid into the paper target that was stood down range from where he was standing. He fired three more rounds after his first trio of .22's punched holes through the torso target with his follow up shots punching new holes through the head. After lowering the weapon below his line of sight and holstering the AWC Amphibian S Ruger MK. II pistol once he was sure the weapon was cleared and made safe, he hobbled down towards the target as he removed his hearing protection.
Sergeant Andrew Poynton grumbled as he finally stood before the target and counted up the points from where his shots landed. Counting them up he had scored himself only 78-points out of a possible 100 but he was happy with his progress. Three weeks ago, his shots have wavered so far off course he had nearly thrown the gun down in the dirt in frustration thanks to the cast around his elbow. Now though he was landing rounds on target with the support the doctors had given him instead and now he was happy he was finally making progress.
'Yeah. You're making progress, but what about your buddy whose lying up in that hospital bed still?' his subconscious asked and he couldn't help but grit his teeth hearing himself think about that.
Jimmy, his best friend and a fellow contractor during his time with the private security company 'Laidlaw' had been one of the few contractors that got separated from the group that had fought his way through the city of Tokonosu, surviving against the odds and at the same time had been fighting to keep over a dozen survivors alive and to get them outta the city to safety.
Ofcourse though, things never could go quite so smoothly could they. During their extraction and evacuation across a bridge under protection by a small unit of the JSDF before they were due to pull out of the city and return to the island had managed to save them from a group of crazed survivors and an army of the infected that had been transforming from their sluggish 'zombie phase' and turning into creatures that could put professional Olympic runners to shame.
It had been when he was providing covering fire when he had been clipped by a .338 Lapua Magnum round from a lost sniper rifle, his lost sniper rifle, that had delivered the shot that had nearly killed him and put him in a coma. Obviously, he hadn't known that the bullet had come from his rifle until the surgeons aboard the USNS Mercy had operated on him and managed to revive him several times during the operation where they removed the bullet fragments and repaired what damage they could caused by the bullet, but by that time he'd slipped into his coma.
When he was told that the bullet came from the same caliber rifle he'd lost after the rescue helicopter he'd been aboard had been taken down by another rouge element he had lost his cool. Already he had caused enough issues during the time he had seen Jimmy getting shot and nearly die on the bridge thanks to a drone feed from the ships drone that had been providing overwatch and ISR for the ground elements and had made a major freak out when he had been shouting and ranting at somebody, anybody that had been operating the drone and working communications with the ground teams to help him.
The last thing he remembered was being grappled by several officers and feeling a prick in his neck before his world had gone black before he woke up hours later and found himself strapped down to a bed in a dark room and the only light source came from outside a glass panel in the door across from him. He remembered feeling weak, sluggish and wanting to have his hands free but when he tried to call for somebody his voice had been slurred and his vision was blurry. He remembered having just enough slack so he could touch his face and he could feel how numb he was thanks to whatever it was he'd been stuck with during his little freak out.
That had been when the door finally opened and he had to cover his eye with his hands as he forgot how to blink and couldn't do anything to defend himself if he was going to be attacked. It was only when he felt the soft delicate hands of one of the survivors, Shizuka Marikawa, taking them and holding them gently that made him look at her and he sighed with relief when he saw it was her. Two other women had also entered the room, acting Sergeant Rika Minami and Captain Caroline Walshe were both stood away from the couple as they were given a few minutes to themselves to hold and comfort one another.
But like always, there was never enough time for the couple to share when Rika and Caroline had approached and sat on either side of the bed he was in and explained what had happened after he'd been given a sedative.
"The J-S-D-F has officially been pulled out of the city as of oh-five-hundred hours this morning. We've had the drone in the air since and we can't see any sign of there being any other survivors in the city," Caroline began, "Besides, it's impossible to tell survivors apart from those things when they give off heat signatures. We've also grounded all helicopters as well. We've has search and rescue teams flying along the coastline for the last two days since your friend here and her friends were extracted from the city and brought back here and they found nothing."
"But we aren't sure if it's because if there aren't any people left in the city or they're all…gone," Rika added solemnly as she bowed her head while playing with the velcro strap of her right hand kevlar glove.
All the while they were speaking, he became suddenly aware of how close he had been holding Shizuka to him and how the woman seemed to want to try and get closer to him as she lay on the bed beside him and was curled against his side. A glance at the woman and he had to hold back from smiling when he saw he looking up at him with nervous eyes, probably wondering if she's overstepped the mark. Instead, he gently ran his fingers through her blonde hair to let her know that she was okay and he had to hold back another smile as she made a 'choo' noise that seemed so impossibly adorable.
"So, what about the bastards that fired on you and the other survivors?" he asked Rika, "What happened to them?"
"After the attack at the bridge and the J-S-D-F came to our aid we broke contact, and once they began flinging hundreds of rounds down range through the fifties…I don't know," she sighed honestly, "All I heard was gunfire but I never saw them after that. I was too focused on trying to…help…" she began choking up and tears trailed down her cheeks and she had to stop herself before she made a spectacle out of herself.
He knew that her focus had been on Jimmy since the two had a 'moment' back at the Shintoko Third Elementary school and they had both been on the defensive when he had been on the helicopter for the extraction before things went completely tits up. The look they had shared was something he hadn't seen for a long time and he had smiled towards Jimmy before heading inside the Chinook before take-off.
"So, what do we do now?"
He had asked that question nearly four months ago and he had yet to receive an actual answer from anybody in command. While he was still the team commander of 'Green Troop', a small four-man Special Forces unit, they had been on continuous stand down orders until he was ready to be put back into action but while he was still hobbling about and his arm still buggered from the helicopter crash, he figured it would be a long while before they would be of use again.
Rika and Tajima had both been assisting Sakura with the day-to-day operations with the islands 'police force' and kept the islands populace in check and in order while their fourth team member, former Russian Spetsnaz operator Mikhail Obromov, had been assisting the JSDF with providing them information on Russian instillations that may still be manned on the islands just north of Japan. Even after the HANE detonation and all the electronic devices and equipment necessary to keep the power running on the island were destroyed they had managed to restore basic power, water and heating and that included the radar systems operated in the airport control tower.
One day, just a week after it had been repaired and restored to working order, they had picked up a blip on the radar. They first figured they were seeing a phantom dot and the result of faulty repairs until minutes later a Russian Mig-29 had shot across the island and forced the United States Marines to deploy their F-35B's in response until they saw how the plane continued straight towards the south and never looked back. For days he remembered how the island had been on high alert for a possible invasion by Russian forces with anti-air missile batteries set up around the island, troops being deployed with FIM-92 and Type 91 portable anti-aircraft missile launchers and the three Type 87 Self-Propelled anti-aircraft guns set up ready to fight off any invaders.
But nothing came.
And while they were still on alert for possible attacks from both surviving military remnants from foreign country's and the infected things had steadily gone back to normal. Those on the islands with valuable skills were put to work straight away. Anybody with agricultural skills and talents were put in charge of the gardens to start growing food. Those with engineering and maintenance degrees were put in charge of repairing the water pumps for the tunnels that ran beneath the island to pump out the sea water and get the drinking water running again and anybody that was a doctor or a nurse went to work in the main terminals make-shift clinic until a real medical unit was set up.
And all the while all these changes and developments were occurring around him, he felt absolutely useless. He still walked with a hobble and his arm was still suffering from the fractures he'd suffered from the crash. He'd been lucky to walk away with just a few aches and pains and not a concussion at the same time. But despite all that he wasn't able to do anything. He couldn't contribute to the cause of getting life back on track for some three thousand survivors on the island and keeping them safe fell to the remaining elements of the JSDF and the US Marines.
The only reason for the Seventh Fleet to remain behind in Japanese waters, despite numerous recalls from the United States, was all because of the fleet commander, Vice Admiral Phillip Sawyer. When the outbreak began months earlier his original intentions were to gather what resources they could and then set sail back for the Californian coast and make port in San Diego. Before they could do however, they started receiving reports of multiple nuclear explosions across the United States in several of their major cities and when intel suggested that the west coast had been hit several times, he belayed the order and for nearly four months the ships remained anchored in Tokonosu bay alongside several ships of the JMSDF with nowhere to go.
While many were upset about the news of possible nuclear detonations killing millions, even with the outbreak now being responsible for more deaths than the Black Plague, the AK-47 and the Maxim machinegun all combined, people were asking why would people think it was even an idea to use nuclear weapons. Many theorised it was to try and kill as many of those things as they thought possible before whatever ground forces remained could deliver the killing blow or they were the result of a foreign power that was using the chaos to strike at the United States for a possible invasion.
For now, he would spend his days getting better, allowing himself time to heal and to adapt to this new world. Since the outbreak few people had been given the chance to sit down and just try to understand everything that had happened. Since the first 'zombie' had appeared at the airport the night the Laidlaw Antonov had landed due to engine issues, he and his fellow former contractors had been sat around and trying to help where ever they could but at the same time try and understand the world as it was now.
They had been making raids on the mainland, bringing back supplies from food warehouses and medical supplies for doctors' surgeries and even the hospital in the center of the city. When they had returned from that escapade, he remembered their faces. He could only imagine how bad it was in those places when the first outbreak victims began to flood the hospital looking for help only to pass away and come back as one of those things before the hospital staff knew too late what was going on to do anything about it.
He figured it had to have been a blood bath for them to come back looking so distraught. It was Chris Adkins, a former Delta Force operator and his former Blue team leader, who had taken him aside when they had returned from the mainland and had explained about how bad the city was now. There was no chance of finding survivors, not with the amount of 'runners' they had encountered when rushing back to the hospitals helipad to extract from the city when they had come into contact with one of them and had been shot with an unsuppressed firearm when it came after them.
Before then they had searched the building where they could for supplies and he had mistakenly wandered into the maternity ward. Chris said that he would never forget the horrible things he saw in that room and when he left, he said he was going to find Mikhail for some of his home-made vodka, drink himself into a stupor until he forgot the whole horrible ordeal.
As he stood at the target and swapped them out for new ones, he couldn't help but wonder why he felt so desperate to get back out there. Hearing about Chris' experience in the hospital, being chased by the infected and then barely making it back alive people would think that'd be enough reasoning to not want to go back out there. But the real reasoning was simple.
He wanted revenge.
Most people would think he was mad thinking that. But as a soldier his instincts were telling him to get back out there and find the bastard responsible for putting a bullet in his friend. He knew who they were and where'd they'd likely whole up to see out the foreseeable future until the creatures left the city in search of fresh victims to infect. All he had to do was bide his time, get well again and somehow slip off of the island and do the dirty before disappearing for good.
Most people would say that revenge was pointless, that it'd only get you killed because you were so focused on wanting to kill somebody that you would lose focus on the world around you. But his reasoning he felt they were justified. The bastard responsible for shooting his friend didn't just shoot him; they got survivors killed, they were responsible for the infected horde attacking the Takagi mansion and then took people he began to have feelings for, taken them away from him after the helicopter crash and then threatened their lives when they were confronted by the rescue team that had gone to save them.
'Or, is the real reason because they were lost while they were in your care and you feel a need to prove yourself again?'
He sighed heavily and as he had gone to move back to the marked line to continue his target practice, he decided that he'd had enough for today. Shooting .22's was fun and to train himself and rebuild his muscles and regain muscle memory, but that stupid little voice in the back of his mind had just called him out and it was right.
He had let people down. He had gotten people killed and hadn't reacted quick enough when the girls had been kidnapped and having his rifle taken at the same time had been all too insulting.
But he was going to rectify those mistakes when the time was right. And the solution lay in a steel box that was sitting beneath his bed in the room that he shared with the other members of his team.
He wasn't sure when. But one day he was going to do what needed to be done.
Rika Minami stood in the main terminal building, arms cross over her chest, as she looked out towards runway of the airfield outside the window. She wore her Multi-Terrain Pattern fatigues, minus all of the other implements of war that she was normal adorned in when wearing them, as she watched her friend practising off in the distance with a handgun on the range area separated from the rest of the airfield so nobody caught a stray bullet.
Andrew had been out there for hours now, practising as he had called it before he had left with the pistol in the box he had been carrying along with several targets for practise and a brick of .22-caliber ammunition. But what he called training, Rika would call brooding. He had looked calm and collected, but there had been a brief moment she had seen the smile fall from his face when they had been speaking before the scowl that he normally wore returned when he had hobbled away.
His injuries were still causing him a lot of pain to deal with and it was also frustrating for him to deal with. She knew from experience when she had broken her leg after coming off her motorcycle years earlier and had wrecked her pride and joy in the process. But what the operator was feeling didn't seem just to be because of his arm and leg injuries, it was something more. Something troubling.
She knew before that if she thought he would be a risk to the other survivors on the island then she would have reported it straight away to those in charge of the day-to-day military operations taking place on the island and in the city. But she knew her friend. Right now, he was likely going a little stir-crazy, not being able to leave the island for nearly four months in a facility that wasn't really meant to be lived in would begin taking its toll on any person's mind. She had felt the same way to begin with when the city was officially deemed unsafe to enter and for a whole month, they left the city to itself and allowed the infected within to run wild.
Now she was worried for her friend and wanted to help.
"Penny for your thoughts," came a familiar soothing voice from behind her and she sighed as she felt a pair of hands loops around her waist from behind as Shizuka leaned on her shoulder. Her eyes followed her friends' and they landed on the single figure that stood off in the distance before she gently tightened her hold on Rika.
"Have you talked to him yet?" the former school nurse asked gently as she tried to make her friend feel at ease. If the two were in private they would have been somewhere dressed much more comfortably and holding each other closer than what was appropriate in public.
"Not yet," Rika sighed as he looked from her friend and back towards the runway, "He hasn't been making it very easy."
Shizuka looked away from Rika towards the man on the field as he began hobbling away from the firing range and towards the nearby hanger that had been refitted for special forces to operate from and live out of. While Andrew-San lived in one of the few bedrooms under the airport in the sound-proofed accommodations that resided beneath the terminal building he would often stay in the hanger some nights to assist with repairing their gear and other equipment.
"Maybe it's time to go on the…what do you call it?" Shizuka had to ask herself for a brief moment before she remembered, "The offensive. Go on the offensive with him. Try and get him to talk to you instead of waiting for him to come to you."
Rika smiled as she rolled her head back so she was closer to her friend, "I really wish things were that simple Shizzy," she sighed, "Like most men, he's strong headed and doesn't budge on things so easily."
"Then, maybe we talk to him together."
"What's upsetting you?" Mikhail asked as he stood over the open engine block of a Humvee that had been left behind by the Americans and was currently in the middle of gutting the machine while trying to find the 'gremlin' that was making the vehicle break down. The former Spetsnaz operator was a whizz when it came to most vehicles, Russian mainly, but he was always willing to get elbow deep inside a vehicle that he hadn't driven before.
Andrew replaced the unloaded Ruger pistol and the remaining ammunition inside the locker he used along with the targets he had used before closing it and made his way over towards the Humvee and lean against it as Mikhail continued to work.
"I've been thinking," he said as he watched Mikhail work, "Thinking about everything that's happened over the last couple of months and…things," he said and wasn't surprised to see the Russian stop fiddling with the engine to look up at him.
"Things? Well that's vague," he chuckled "Care to elaborate?"
If there was one thing that Andrew knew he wasn't good with was talking. When it came to fighting, he was in his element. But talking to somebody about what he was feeling, especially with a fellow soldier was just something that blokes didn't do.
"Ever get that feeling where…," he paused for a brief moment before saying, "Where you just feel…useless."
"I hope you aren't talking about me, comrade," Mikhail chuckled.
"No, not you. I meant…I mean me."
Now that did give the Russian a reason to pause, "Why would you think that?"
"Because you guys have been going out there every week, getting in amongst the action and doing your jobs while I've been sat around here, doing sod all I might add, feeling like a fifth wheel."
Mikhail pulled himself away from the Humvee and wiped his hands on a rag before he walked over towards where his locker was, opened it up and retrieved a half-full bottle of vodka from within and walked back over and set it down in front of him, "Drink," he ordered. Andrew snorted but never disobeyed an order to take a drink when it was offered. Especially by a Russian.
"Now, tell me," Mikhail began as he dragged a stool over and sat across from the British soldier after he took a swig from the bottle and handed it over, "Why do you feel this way?"
"Are you sure we're allowed to be here?" Shizuka asked her friend as Rika pulled the truck to a stop outside of the hanger where they had spotted Andrew enter earlier on when they were still in the terminal. The blonde bombshell wiggled her way out of her seat before she managed to get to her feet as Rika came around and stood beside her and helped her straighten her clothes out.
"I'm a member of Green Troop so yeah, we can. If anybody asks about why you're here, you're here to replace Andrew-San's bandages," Rika explained as she pocketed the keys to the truck and the pair walked towards the hanger.
"What bandages?" Shizuka asks as they near the entrance.
"The ones you're going to take him someplace private for and wrap around his chest," she wiggled her eyebrows at the other woman and sniggered when she watched her friend blush a deep red. Rika wasn't stupid. She known for a while now that she and Andrew-San had been together and during their time in the school before the evacuation they had gotten 'really close' as well.
"Rika-San," Shizuka giggled as she clasped her hands together.
Following after Rika, the pair were about to walk into the hanger when they heard a pair of familiar voices talking.
"Why do you feel this way?" she heard Mikhail-San asking somebody and for a moment held a hand up to stop Shizuka and hold a finger to her lips to keep her from talking. She dared take a risk and peeked around the corner quickly and saw that the Russian was sitting down beside a Humvee that was in the middle of undergoing maintenance with Andrew-San sitting across from him, nursing a bottle of vodka.
Andrew-San seemed hesitant to speak for a moment before taking another swig from the bottle and passed it over, "Well, for a start, I'm frustrated."
"Okay, what about?" Mikhail pressed.
"I'm stuck here, all day and every bloody day to follow while you guys risk your arses doing supply runs and a few times brought survivors back as well. Me on the other hand, am sat here and seem to be doing nothing more than sitting on my backside and being a burden and being useless."
Rika's eyes softened as she listened to her friend speak and she heard a sniffle from below her and peek down to see Shizuka was crouched beneath her and watching the conversation as well.
"Comrade," the Russian leaned forward and placed a hand on Andrew-San's shoulder, "I would punch you if you weren't wounded as you are right now. Don't you ever dare think or say that you are useless," he growled and Rika was surprised at the force that he spoke with.
"When things started going to hell, you were always there fighting to keep the people safe and I fought right alongside you. I knew from the moment we touched down in Tokonosu you were a man with a mission. You had a friend to look for and I knew that you would move heaven, hell and the earth in between to find them. And I must say, we both racked up quite the body count to find them," he added with a chuckle and Rika saw a hint of a smirk adorn her friends face.
"And don't think of these wounds as a hinderance," he said and slapped his hand down on Andrew's thigh which caused him to yelp at the sudden jolt of pain rippling through his leg, "They're proof that you fought against your enemies and came up the victor."
"Could have said that without belting my leg, wanker," Andrew-San groused and Rika had to stop herself from snorting.
"Look, the point is, is that you don't have to prove anything to anybody. While you may not be included as one of the 'Tokonosu Ten' you were instrumental with helping to save all of these people. You even helped rescue that little girl Megumi if I remember correctly when the airport was being overrun by those freaks."
Rika looked down at Shizuka as she looked up at her and both were smiling. They both knew who the little girl was and they saw her around the airport most days with her mother and father and they would always speak with them to see how they were doing. They would often hear from them about how thankful they were to the brave officers and the 'soldier' who came to them in their time of need when they had been separated from their daughter when the infected broke into the terminal and had anted to thank him face to face but they had never seen him since that day.
"These wounds, they're proof that you did your job and carried on keeping survivors safe after the crash," Mikhail then smiled as he leaned back on the stool and smiled, "I heard you even got a little trigger happy with my RPK after I had been knocked out."
"My H-K ran out of rounds and I couldn't use my grenades or the machine gun that was still mounted on the ramp was buggered. So, yeah, I used up all your tungsten ammunition," Andrew chuckled.
"Those were top-quality armour-piercing rounds," Mikhail replied in a deadpan voice even though Rika saw him smiling.
"Hmm, did a good job penetrating their heads too," he said before blowing a raspberry to simulate a headshot.
Rika then stepped away from the corner and Shizuka stood and brushed off her knees as she stood and looked at her friend, "I think we should talk with him now. He seems a little more open and relaxed now than usual," Shizuka smiled.
"Take him in the back someplace quiet and talk with him," Rika said as she put a hand on her friends' shoulder and gave it a comforting squeeze.
"But, what about you? Didn't you need to talk with him too?"
"I think I've heard what I needed to hear," she said but then said, "Or rather, what I needed to hear somebody tell him."
Shizuka smiled, happy that her childhood friend heard everything she needed. As she looked back towards the hanger entrance and feeling nervousness run through her again, she absentmindedly ran a hand over her flat stomach and prayed that everything would go smoothly.
"So no more of this self-doubting, okay?" Mikhail asked his friend as he handed him back the bottle that now only held a third of the original contents, "If you need to talk to somebody, come and see me. Or that lady friend of yours, the blonde," he suggested and saw how Andrew's face suddenly altered from smiling to looking contented. That was a look that the Russian hadn't seen on a soldier's face in a very long time other than when they were drunk.
"Thanks for the talk man, I think I needed to hear that," Andrew said offering him the remainder of the bottle back to him after taking another swig.
"You keep it comrade. I think you'll be needing it," Mikhail murmured and looking up to the Russian he saw how he was looking towards the hanger doors and the to figures that were walking inside. Quickly putting the bottle to his lips and he drank another gulp and coughed as he set the bottle down, "Oh brownies," and Mikhail chuckled as his friends' sudden nervous antics.
"Rika, it's good to see you today," Mikhail said giving his friend a moment to collect himself.
"And you too, Mikhail-San," Rika gave the man a nod before focusing on Andrew, "Andrew-San, Shizuka is here to replace you support bandages," she said and looked back to where they all looked to see the blonde beauty stood back a few feet behind Rika and nervously clutching her medical bag. Rika was wearing her everyday MTP's and kevlar boots with her SIG-Sauer on her hip but looking to Shizuka he noticed she was wearing a large black hoodie and jeans and a pair of Ugg boots. Sure, it was starting to get a little chilly given the time of year but not enough to wear hoodies yet.
"Umm, could you please follow me, Andrew-San?" she asked quietly as she gripped her bag tightly in both hands and he saw how her skin was turning bright red as his had done not many minutes before.
"Very well then, gentlemen, ladies, I believe that we have concluded the meeting for today. Unless there is anything would wish to add right now, I thank you for your time," Souichiro Takagi thanked the men and women of the military and civilian parliament that made up the new 'Tokonosu Regional Government'. From around the large table once used by the airport employees for meetings those that had been sat around the oval shaped table stood and bid the minister farewell for the day as they all began filing out of the office and into the terminal and go their separate ways. Some would stay behind to talk to their counterparts about the meeting but none of them ever stuck around for long. Like everybody else on the island, while their job was to keep tabs on the everyday going's on, they also had their own tasks and assignments to be carried out before they had a chance to relax.
Of everybody from the meeting several remained behind, they were both Souichiro and his wife, Yuriko, along with her brother, General Isoroku Ihara, who was the regional commander of all JSDF assets that were still active in the southern Japanese regions, of which there were many.
Across from them also sat Colonel Aidan Dempsey of the British Special Air Service along with Captain Caroline Walshe, an officer of the British Army seconded to the SAS as an intelligence officer and formally a liaison between the military and the British government. The only reason for their continued presence in Japan was they had yet to receive any word from back home about transport back to England. Details about the outbreak in the country were scarce and vague at best but details about the death of the Royal Family had been confirmed by sources of the search and rescue teams that had scoured the countryside looking for the downed helicopter. Their country was currently in the middle of two battles; the first being retaking the country from the undead menace that walked the streets of their cities and the second against each other in a civil war between groups who thought they knew best for keeping the country safe against further threats.
The final person sat at the table was Cmdr. Tom Chandler of the United States Navy, the Captain of the USS Bonhomme Richard and currently the second in command for all American forces in Japan. The only reason for his presence at the meeting had been because the fleet commander had been called away on urgent business when there had been possible sighting of infected in the water near the fleet anchored out in the bay and had returned to command his forces on dealing with the threat.
"Politics, they are quite tiresome," the Don commented as he rubbed his forehead in a vain attempt to relive some of the stress he was feeling and felt a comforting hand on his arm and smiled as he looked to his wife who smiled back at him. His wife of twenty years had always been there for him through thick and thin, through all the hardships that his family faced she stuck by his side. Even the apocalypse couldn't separate or drive them apart.
Not even their little pink-haired terror.
"The reason why I never took a job working for the British parliament Mister Takagi," the Colonel commented as he gathered his papers together tidally and leaned back in his chair, "After being a military man for most of my life, sitting down in a room with a few hundred simple-minded people arguing over some pathetic bill they wanted that would fatten their own bank accounts to be passed instead of working to better the country never appealed to me."
"I never liked politicians in general," Caroline added, "Every time we needed authorization for a mission aboard or to sort out a hostage situation we always had to wait on some higher-up toffee-nosed wanker who thought their dinner appointment was so much more important," she said but then realised who she had just said that in front of and added, "But not you ofcourse, sir," she said sheepishly.
"None taken my dear," Souichiro chuckled. He knew where she was coming from. It wasn't an uncommon occurrence several months ago when he was dealing with party members of the Nationalist group of the government and he would spend hours waiting for the other members of his own party for rally meets because they had been otherwise 'engaged' with other activities.
Chandler chuckled at the small talk between them as he gathered his own papers whilst preparing to leave. Outside in the corridor on the other side of the glass wall that separated them from the office space were many people were currently working on the few working computers were monitoring communications and searching for any radio signals coming from outside the Tokonosu regions. His escort team were waiting for him and he could see SCPO Wolf Taylor, a former Royal Australian Navy operator, waiting for him but noticed how the man was about to start pacing and the other Navy escorts looked a little uncomfortable in the larger males' presence.
"General Isoroku," he addressed the man beside him, "I'll have those figures worked out for you by the end of the week and ready for when the Vice Admiral returns from the fleet. Hopefully it's not as bad we currently think."
One of the key points of their meetings were about their supplies. While the fleet's entire cache of MRE's and food stores were all taken into account and everything they had brought back from the mainland raids including the fruits and vegetables they had begun to grow in small batches included, it gave them cause for concern with winter approaching in a few months.
"If you need to contact me my line is always open to you. If the figures are as we suspect then we can begin plans for a raid on a naval storage facility up the coast," Ihara replied, "Something's telling me it's going to be a harsh few months when the end of the year comes around."
"We'll need to discuss about sheltering the people properly in the next meeting as well," Yuriko spoke from across the table, causing both men to look at her. "As nice as it is for my husband, myself and our daughter and her partner to live in a lovely apartment beneath the airport there isn't enough room for all of them. Many right now are sleeping in the halls of the terminal building with the clothes they were rescued in and blankets and sleeping bags. We need to house them properly."
Souichiro looked to everyone around the table and nodded and quickly, each of them began opening their folders and shuffling though their papers once again and began writing down details for this to be the main topic of the next meeting beside the food supply issue as well.
"I'll make sure that the Vice Admiral receives these notes for the next meeting," Chandler said as he stood from his chair and started towards the door to leave the office before he paused and looked to the others once again, "Is there any news of Green Troop's status and readiness?"
"Currently, three of the four operators that make up the troop are operationally ready. However, Doctor Marikawa has stressed to me that Sergeant Poynton won't be able to return to duty for at least another three months. While his injuries will be healed within the next couple of weeks he'll need to work on regaining muscle growth and possibly another surgery if the bone in his leg hasn't set correctly," Caroline didn't like the fact that one of their best troopers was out of the fight, even though she wouldn't tell it to their face directly, but considering how Andrew was the Regiment's 'Wild Card' and being a former member of the Increment he would be vital in the coming months. She had heard the stories about him during the first day after the infection, how he'd beaten on of those creatures' heads' in with his bare fists and then chewing through them with assault weapons fire when they breached the terminal.
And then in the city, well…he did somehow manage to level half of main street in the business district with a tank.
"And, C******s-San, what about him?" Yuriko asked, never being one to forget the man who saved her daughter's life several times over, she would never be able to repay the dept the Takagi family owed him.
"Still no change at this time. The doctors have discovered something however, a possible blood clot in one of his lungs but they are keeping a close eye on him and monitoring his health on an hourly basis."
"A blood clot? How the hell…?"
"Either general health is to blame or because of him being shot," Caroline said and sighed before saying, "However, even if the man woke up today, he would have to undergo another operation to have the clot removed. And right now, he's lucky that Saint Michael isn't calling for him."
"Andrew would say he's one lucky bastard all right. Guess those yanks really are as tough as they are portrayed on television," Dempsey sighed.
"Well Colonel, you do have to remember, most Americans try to be like John Wayne after all, but those damned Texans truly believe that they are," Ihara smiled.
After a few moments of awkward silence and a few smirks, the commander stood and sighed as he bid his farewells and left the meeting room with his security team in tow. In the minutes that followed Blue Troop operators arrived and escorted the Colonel and Captain Walshe before a small contingent of JSDF arrived to escort the General.
Souichiro leaned back in his chair and sighed heavily as Yuriko allowed herself to lean against her husband and snuggle closely to her husband and gave him a gentle peck on the cheek, "We should be heading off soon. Saya-Chan is staying with Hirano-San tonight with Komuro-Kun and Rei-Chan, so we'll have some time to relax and be by ourselves tonight."
The man smiled lovingly at Yuriko, no words needed to be said as he took a moment before he silently stood up from his chair, gathered his papers together before looking down at her and held out his hand to her, "Then, let us make haste and enjoy ourselves tonight, for I fear we might not have this chance much again in the future my dear."
"Now, I want you to lift your arms up as high as you can make them go before it starts to hurt," Shizuka said as she watched Andrew slowly raise his arms above his head before he started to wince and grit his teeth. She noticed this and quickly stepped in to stop him from exerting himself, "I said before it started hurting. Not let it start and keep going, Andrew-San," she muttered and he had to slowly lowered them again before he felt the pain ease away before he released a laboured sigh as she gently massaged the injured arm and shoulder.
"Sorry," he murmured as she started massaging his arm very gently before moving up towards his shoulder. Her soft and delicate hands felt like smooth silk as she gently helped relieve the pain and looked close at his arm whilst doing so.
"Well, your arm is definitely in the final stages of healing now. Should only be a couple more weeks before the pain in your muscles and nerves should heal too. However, as your doctor I'm going to recommend light-duty for the next month or so."
That was disheartening for him to hear. Light duty fair enough, he was expecting that anyway. But the worst was yet to come…
"However, I think it could be at least another two, maybe three months before the leg is fully healed. I'm going to have to recommend that you won't be operationally ready for about six months," she said calmly as she moved from his side to stand in front of him as he continued to lean against the desk before he sighed heavily.
Talk about a good kick in the bollocks.
"I can't go six months love," he said as he looked up at her, "Six months being stuck here on this island doing nothing will kill me."
Shizuka tilted his head up to look at her in the eyes and staring back down at him she grumbled, "So, you're telling me that you don't want to be here with me. You are that eager to just pack up and get back out there and get yourself hurt again?" she pressed, "Want about me? What if you go out there and get hurt again?" and now placed her hands on his cheeks and turned his head towards her so she had his undivided attention.
"Being a soldier, there's always a risk of getting hurt or being killed. Obviously don't want to get hurt or killed, that's just a risk we take unfortunately. Rika's was an officer in the S-A-T for several years before I even met you and you knew before all this went down just how much her job was full of risks. Mine was just the same, risks and luck of the draw."
"Luck of the draw?" she asked.
"Yeah, your ticket. Think of it like a lottery, there's risks and chances involved all the time. Only in this lottery if your number gets called up it'll get punched."
"Then if that's the case," she paused to collect herself, "I don't want you being a part in this lottery."
He now gently put his hands on her hips and pulled her towards him so their bodies were flush against one another, "Well, looks as though I'm not going to be for a while anyway. If you're going to submit your report," he said with a little smirk, "But you have to understand Shizuka. I'm a soldier and it's my duty to make sure that you and everybody else on this island are protected. Even if it's at the cost of my own life," but saying this made her eyes water, "But that doesn't mean I'm going to, okay. I'm not going to go out there into the world looking for a fight. Fighting against those things right now, it's a lost cause. Rika's taking teams out all the time and they are going out hauling back supplies and the occasional survivor but going out there to fight them, it can't be done."
"So, does that mean…?" she left the question hanging as he looked deep into her eyes with just his one, feeling a mixture of emotions as he leaned forward, putting his lips to hers and held her for several long minutes as they kissed. As he pulled away and looked at her again, their emotions were clear to each other as tears streamed from their eyes.
"I'm not going to leave you sweetheart. I'm not leaving you or the little one," and instantly he noticed how she went rigid. Sensing this he looked at her now with concern as they still held each other, "What's wrong sweetie?"
"L-little one?" she asked nervously.
"Alice. I was talking about Alice," he said calmly, hoping that she wouldn't freak out at the thought of them looking after the little girl permanently. He had taken a shine to the little girl a lot of the last few months since meeting her on the streets of Tokonosu with the group of local high school students, foreign exchange police cadets and a former police officer who was also once a leader of a women's street gang and ofcourse this beautiful school nurse after saving them from a large group of the infected with Rika, Tajima and Mikhail backing him up.
The fight back to the school had been tough. Having to deal with a city full of the infected to deal with that were turning into runners and keeping a bunch of kids in check at the same time when having such a large group and limited trained and armed professionals to keep them corralled together at the same time.
"Hey, you okay?" he asked when he noticed that she seemed shaken by his comment about adopting Alice for themselves to be her legal guardians but there was something else. She was distracted in the moment and when he mentioned about not leaving her and the little one, he…
Oh…
No…, no way, that wasn't possible…was it?
"I-im fine, Andrew-San, please! There's no need for you to-" she stammered lightly before he stopped her and then looked her in the eye.
"Shizuka," he began as he saw the look of fear appear in her eyes, "Are you…?" he was so scared himself that in the moment he couldn't even ask her. But the look of hesitation and fear that he got from her made him realise that right now that she was probably a hell of a lot more worried than he was in the moment and knew he had to suck it up.
Taking a deep calming breath, he stood upright as best he could on his feet as best he could and held her close in an embrace so she was flush against him. With one hand on the small of her back and the other moving between them he gently laid a hand over the top of her belly beneath the hoodie and her shirt and gently stroked the skin with his thumb.
"Are you pregnant?" he asked calmly.
The moment stretched out for several long minutes as Shizuka began to shake against him before sobs began to escape her and for as long as she needed, he held her close, gently rocking her back and forth and the pain in his leg was pushed aside as they remained that way for several more minutes until she finally answered not with words.
But with a slow and steady nod before more sobs followed and she was now clutching to him as though life depended on it.
"Pl-please don't ha-hate m-me," she sobbed against him as he felt his own tears streaming down his cheeks.
Why? Why on earth would he hate her?
"Shizuka, look at me," he asked her as she kept crying into his chest. He didn't force her, but he held on to her for as long as possible before he had to bring her up so she would look at him.
For the longest time after she was stood upright Shizuka continued to look at the floor as more tears streamed down her cheeks, she knew there was no escaping this. With that single nod she had likely confirmed his worst fears. Who the hell would want a baby with her?
This man before her was a soldier and she knew that when he was going to be well and healthy again, he was going to want to run right back out there into the fight. But that was what worried and hurt her the most, knowing that he would leave her here alone even though he had said about staying with her and taking in Alice.
She knew that after a few more minutes that she should just look at him now and face the music before she would have to go to the doctors aboard the American navy hospital ship and get the treatment for-
Suddenly, her head was gently titled upright so she was looking at him and she froze.
What she had been dreading the most were the looks she had seen on his face before. Anger, disdain, hatred; all of these before and never had she seen him really smile at all during the last few months they'd been together and now she wasn't seeing any of those.
Tears were streaming down his cheeks and she couldn't tell what emotion was ruling over him in the moment. Happiness however seemed to be the ruler as he couldn't stop smiling at her.
Relief, just seeing this flooded her with relief as all of her previous negative thoughts was drained away as she was flushed against him once more and smashed her lips to his as their hands were wrapped around each other in a loving embrace.
Sitting on the floor of the officer, hand in hand, as Andrew lay with his head in Shizuka's lap as he lay facing towards her as he gently placed his other hand against her belly again and this time, he was whispering to the small baby that was growing inside of her.
"Hey little one, I'm your daddy," he would whisper or "Please be kind to your mother while she carries you."
Shizuka smiled as she heard this and she brought they clasped hands up to her lips and kissed the back of his hand, which made him look up at her and smile happily.
"Are you okay?" he would ask her, again and again, even though she had already told him that while she was still nervous about being an expecting mother that she wasn't as worried and terrified as she had been before. She had had to sit down and talk with many young girls during her time as a nurse at the high school where she had worked for several years about pregnancies after they had come to her for tests and examinations after they had confessed about having 'some fun' with their boyfriends over the weekend and would have to refer them to off-site doctors and nurses.
But now, finding out that she had a little one inside of her after knowing herself for the last week since taking the test and finally being able to share the news with the man she loved and the father of the baby she was going to be carrying she couldn't have been happier.
"I'm fine, Andrew-San, really," she smiled had to let go of his hand for a moment to wipe away another stray tear.
"You, me and ofcourse our little blip are gonna be fine," he said as they held hands while looking into each other's eyes. However, Shizuka suddenly started giggling and he gave her a smug smile until she finally stopped when she remembered to breath.
"Blip? Really? We're going to call our child blip?" she giggled.
"Well," he began with a small shrug, "Until you're far enough along so we can get a scan we don't know if they'll be a girl or a boy."
She smiled as she looked down at her stomach again and rubbed her palm over it before looking back to him, "What do you think they'll be when they are born?" she asked wondering if he had a preference.
But like any man, he knew better than to say a specific sex he wanted the child to be. Besides, he was much more sensible than that anyway.
"As long as both you and the baby are well, healthy and happy enough then I don't mind at all."
Shizuka gave him a smug smile of her own that said 'good answer' before she looked away for a few moments before looking at him again and asked, "What about names?"
"Names? Already?!" he laughed, "I've only just found out that I'm…going to be a father again," he said slowly. To just hear so suddenly from his own mouth that he was going to be a father again a wave of emotions smashed into him. Tears were brimming in his eye again and as tears fell, he could feel a sting of pain coming from his left eye socket beneath the eyepatch and had to grit his teeth while looking away from Shizuka.
"Andrew-San, are you…" she stopped when she saw him shaking and it took only a brief second to know he was crying. The last hour had been an emotional train wreck for them both and she knew that this would be the start of a new life, one that she would pray and hope that he would be able to enjoy. She realised that for her love, this was his second chance, a second chance where he would have somebody to love and provide him with not only love but hopefully her soul as well.
"I…umm…," he began as he took a deep breath in hopes to calm himself as he thought about what she asked and then looked back to her, "I think, if we have a boy, I think the name Daniel would be good."
"And…if it's a girl?" she asked.
He thought about it long and hard. He knew that he couldn't have two English names on the table, not for both a boy and a girl. That would be selfish. This child both of their doing and he needed to show a bit of consideration.
"How about…how about-"
"Akane-Chan!" a shout came from the far side of the hanger's vehicle depot. The little girl who was walking alongside her mother saw the person who called her name and instantly a brilliant smile flashed across her face before her mother laughed as she let go of her hand and allowed the strikingly beautiful little girl run towards her father.
Running through the hanger, Akane dodged between the other men and women that were working on various pieces of equipment and weaponry and at one point had to jump to the side to avoid one man before looking back over her shoulder and called "Sorry Oji-San!" she called to Sergeant Mikhail Obromov as the Russian called something back to her in his native language before turning to address her mother and older sister as he removed his large pack off his shoulder.
"She has her father's spirit," he chuckled.
"That she has, Mikhail-San," Shizuka Marikawa chuckled as she looked down to her other daughter, Alice, as she noticed she was still watching her younger sister race through the hanger towards a group of men and women all wearing black military fatigues. When she saw Alice smiling, she looked up and saw just in time as one man that stood out from the rest removed the respirator, ballistic helmet, communications headset and balaclava all at once and put his pack and submachine gun down on the ground quickly before opening his arms to the little girl that ran into his arms before wrapping them around her.
"Daddy!" she screeched as he stood and twirled around with her in his arms on the spot several times before he finally put her down and smiled down at her.
"Well hello sweetie! How've you been?" Staff Sergeant Andrew Poynton chuckled as he knelt down in front of her only for the little girl to wrap her arms around her father's neck again.
"I've missed you!"
"I've missed you too baby girl," he whispered to her and wrapped her up tightly in a hug. As he held his little girl, he peered up and watched as his wife and daughter came towards them from the entrance of the hanger with Mikhail walking up close behind them.
It had been four years now, four long brutal years of fighting to survive the new world order as the survivors that lived and worked together on the Tokonosu Naval Base strived to make it just a little better. Despite everything; the zombie apocalypse, several nuclear weapon detonations across the globe and surviving through disease and starvation, they triumphed over all.
"Hey," he greeted his wife as he stood and allowed her to come close enough to give him a welcoming kiss after being away from the island for what seemed to be far too long.
"Hey yourself. Miss me?" she purred quietly so the kids couldn't hear.
"Ofcourse, all of you," he smiled and kissed her again.
"Look at that kids. Your folks are doing kissy faces," a familiar voice came from beside them and they broke the kiss and looked over to see Jimmy smiling at them both, seeming rather proud of himself as the children sniggered.
The Texan had been added to Green Troop's roster two years previously when the team needed to bulk up its numbers and having an experienced medic on the team sure helped. On occasion he would assist the Navy Seals with their operations in the field and had been a valuable asset when helping to retake Diego Garcia, a small island in the Pacific that was once used by the United States Navy as a resupply station but had been nothing more than a massive graveyard teeming with the undead.
They had even fought side-by-side in Hawaii as well with remnants of the Hawaii National Guard they fought to secure the island and the few hundred survivors that had been living on the island in a few of the hotels they had managed to secure safe. That was before they all had to be evacuated when a horde of several thousand of the undead had threatened to overrun the hotels when a Marine Corps V-22 Osprey had gone down in the city streets of Honolulu, resulting in the Tokonosu Navy coming to their aid and a rescue team consisting of Green Troop, Seal Team's Two and Three and remnants of the National Guard to extract the pilots from a sea of the undead.
He snorted as he playfully punched the Texan in the shoulder whilst smiling, "Idiot," he chuckled as he turned back to his wife and children and picked up his daughters in both arms before they headed for home.
Author's Notes:
Well then folks, been a while eh? Yeah i know, a third rewrite of the original story but i feel as though this was needed so that the story would be a decent follow-up to the events of the original 'Last Alarm' written by FiremanJim even though the story is still in production. I managed to get this chapter finished just in time to celebrated the release of the Resident Evil 2 remake that many of us fans of the original series for the last couple of years since those words "We Do It!" were announced. I've spent the last six hours playing the game already and just managed to beat Claire's A-Scenario without dying once!
Anyway folks, i hope that this chapter didn't confuse you too much towards the end with the time-skip but we're now officially in the 'future' now and i hope to have the next chapter finished and out within the next week.
Also, if there are any readers here from my Zootopia stories i wanted to give y'all a heads up that i will be continuing with the 'Days Gone Bye' story but the 'Vietpaw Connection' story will be deleted. The reasoning being that because of that story i have (Like before during its original upload) been receiving a large amount of hate messages from people within the community that didn't like the story because apparently it was promoting war and hate towards people, or in the case of the story species of animals, and been called out as a racist...
Basically folks, that's the type of shit i don't need in my life. I write for fun and given time i'll get over none of my stories have EVER promoted such things. Here's my words of wisdom to you though people; don't like the story then you can go read something else...simple enough, isn't it?
Anyway, 'til next time y'all take care and stay safe and peace out!
Additional: Happy now Jimmy!? LOL
