Prologue
I sat alone, the last person in the briefing room at the CDC center in an undisclosed location in Nevada. The room was now dark, and empty, as my entire squad left to get their gear for the mission. I stared at nothing specific, contemplating whether or not this is really worth it. The distant footsteps of the corporate fucks and my squad leaving the area slowly got more and more quiet.
"You know they're not telling you the whole truth." A voice said behind me, causing me to jump. I turned quickly, seeing a man wearing a suit and tie. Corporate. A business man. An office worker at the CDC, unlike me - an armed and payed (Quite well, I might add) mercenary. I'd learned over the course of my time at the CDC that corporate isn't to be trusted. They seemed to have their own agenda, and they all knew quite a lot more about the current 'disease' outbreak than the general population did, including me.
"What do you mean?" I said, standing tall, as to not be intimidated by the older man.
"The briefing. It wasn't the truth." He said, simply. A smug grin plastered itself across his face. I couldn't fathom why he'd tell me this. I hadn't met this specific corporate agent until that very moment.
"Why are you telling me?" I asked, leaning against the dest behind me. I could barely see his facial expressions in the dark room, but I could tell he was smiling confidently.
"Well, I suppose since it's basically a suicide missio-" He spoke before getting cut off.
"It's just an intel run. We're collecting samples from the nuclear testing area. That's it. How would that be a suicide mission?" I kept my voice down, as discussing classified briefings, as we were currently doing, ended up with people... Missing. Good people.
"The testing facility that they're sending you to... The disease spread there little over 48 hours ago. By now, that whole area will be teeming with infected. Just figured you should know, as you'll probably not make your way back here anyways." He spoke, sitting up, and starting out of the room.
"Who are you?" I asked, watching the man leave the dark room. "How do you know this?"
"I'm Hudson, and I know this because I was there. I'm your overseer for this mission, and since you're the squad leader, I'd figure I'd let you know to keep your gun ready. You're about to lose a lot of men."
Overseer for my mission? Bullshit. Corporate makes these lying, charming, rich men watch our every movement during missions. I had never known why. All I knew is that we were always being watched.
"Why are you telling me?" I asked. Usually overseers were basically corporate puppets. They'd never share classified information with a soldier.
"Because I'm going back there with you, so I need you to be ready to defend your squad; defend ME from those things." He spoke in a chilling, calm voice. "So help me god, if we get into a situation where your incompetence to be a soldier gets us into deep shit, I'll kill you myself."
Hudson was an asshole. I knew that the moment I laid eyes on him, but an overseer asshole? That made him dangerous. Anything he told corporate about what I did could lead to me getting fired, or killed to tie up loose ends. I knew too much about the government's shady dealings to be let loose, as I had preformed some of those shady dealings myself.
"Yessir." I said reluctantly, as he walked out of the room, leaving me to finally be there in peace.
It would only be an hour or two until we left, and for the first time in my short mercenary career, I was nervous about a mission. I hadn't dealt with infected yet, as most outbreaks were contained and stopped mere days after they showed up, and what I heard about the infected was horrible. Rotting people? Glowing eyes? Claws? Sounds like a nightmare.
Little did I know, it wasn't a nightmare. It was hell on Earth.