I don't believe I've ever ran so fast, so far, for so long in my entire life. Trees, wildlife, structures, all faded to a blur as I charged ahead. Fear griped me, the thought of turning back was suicide. I've seen a lot. I've fought against the hardest soldiers Russia could have ever thrown at me. I've seen people turned upon by their own government, I've seen cruelty, abuse, torment and loss, but never have I seen what I was surrounded by now. Months ago, this day would have seemed completely fictional. Months ago, I was still in boot camp. How did this lead to that, did one decision become another, to a point where I would find myself in the elite? I don't know why now I am thinking about this. My lungs feel as if they were on fire. My heart is beating faster than ever. Blackness enters from the corners of my eyes. It's all of a sudden dark.

My name is Deniski Vasilev. I was born in Russia, back when the U.S.S.R. was prominent and neighboring countries could do nothing but bow to the plans that the Motherland conspired. My parents immigrated to the Ukraine once it gained its independence. Our family was lower middle class, at best. I had no choice but to enlist. It's what brought food to the table. It's what got my family through the years since my father's death. I never considered Special Operations, but they sure considered me. Weeks and weeks of training, jumping out of airplanes, creating explosives, surviving in the worst of Ukraine's winters. All for an extra 300 bucks a month. I was the newest member when the order was given. A Biological disaster was reported in Chechnya; a Southern province of Russia. Russian authorities were calling upon aid from all regions to assist, which I guess is why Ukraine bothered to help. At 0200 hours on September 23rd, we made the jump at 12,000 feet.

I awake in a cold sweat, I can't tell but I'm hysterical. A voice abruptly penetrates the silence of my environment, the voice of a woman. I look around panic-like. She crouches next to me. "Be still, the I.V. might slip out," she says. I look down to my arm, to notice the tubing sticking out. "What do you have flowing into me?" I question hastily. "Saline, with the rest of what little morphine we had," she answers coolly. "Where the hell am I?" "Where is the rest of my unit?" I ask. The woman glances up at something in the distance, and back down at me.

"My name is Anouska," she says.

"That's great," I snap, "now if you will, please tell me where I can find my unit because I'm useless without them."

"Your unit is gone, all dead," comes a voice from the other side of the darkened room. I squint in the direction of the voice. A man, with a very dark complexion walks over.

"You are lucky just to be lucid right now," he explains. "Without Anouska knowing a thing or two about vascular resuscitation, you would most likely have been dead n' turned."

"Turned?" I ask. "What the hell are you talking about?" Then, it all hits me.

The airdrop is going well, or at least so we think. It's much too dark to tell where we'll land, but I haven't heard the Captain make any pissed-off remarks yet, so odds are something has bound to have gone right. I land in a marshy open field. My other unit members fall to the left and right of me, detach themselves from their parachutes, and head over to me.

"Alright Greenhorn," says Dimitri, a fellow private who I befriended in Special Operations school. "We're apparently a click away from where we're supposed to be… and—FUCK."

I look over. Out of the forest to the north, hundreds of humanoid figures charge toward us. "FALL BACK, FORM A LINE," yells the Captain. We do as instructed, and immediately begin open firing at the horde of enemies who mindlessly ambush us. The stopping power of the bullets isn't enough to stop the group. The people-animals fall upon the unit. In the midst of the chaos, I focus on Dimitri, who was pounced upon by one of the "things." The creature tears into his flesh, biting and clawing at his chest and neck. I sprint up to it, and tackle it off of him. Dimitri screams, and gets himself up. I fire my sidearm into the monster's head. It seems dead, so I hurriedly tend to my friend. "Dimitri! We have to get out of here! There is no use staying to be slaughtered! I yell" "EVERYONE, TO THE TOWN!" calls the Captain. I help Dimitri to his feet, and our battered unit retreats to the road leading into the darkened town to our south.

"Anouska, thank you," I say, "but I need to leave, I need to find a radio and report this."

"You won't do anything of the sort, I'm afraid," the man says.

"Oh yea? And who are you to tell me I can't?" I retort.

"Sergeant First Class Ellis, United States Special Operation Force team-leader," he exclaims.

"An American? Why are you here?" I ask bewildered.

"Sit down, and I'll explain it to you," Ellis says.

"This area was globally designated as quarantined 18 hours ago, he explains. "We're now in the middle of the most critical biological disaster in human history. What we do now, will impact history forever."