Hell On Earth
Any similarities with people in this story and the Real World are probably not coincidental, just lack of creativity. It's not got a copyright but I'll kill ya if you calm it for your own.
Started 1/23/08
Last updated 1/27/08
Prologue: When Shit Hit's the Fan
Day one it didn't seem like much was out of place, that all changed day two… The time 3:33 I loaded the "Rammer" the Truck I had built for this day. I would have stayed in the house that I had build but there was someone whose life was important enough to risk everything including the survival of humanity. She is all I have. The corps threw me out, section 8 soldiers aren't welcome in "peace times" and the only job available was the Gas & Go even to a recipient of the bronze star. I was on the verge of suicide, when she pulled me out, therefore I had to rescue her. I turned the CB to frequency 666 and popped in Steve Vai's Halo Theme Song. The highway would be flooded with them but I mapped an off road route that would make a two hour road trip half an hour. My only thought was her.
CH1: To the Rescue. 45 minutes later
How was I suppose to know that people liked artificial in ground swimming holes so much, almost crashed twice, if the truck hadn't been reinforce the last swing set would have killed me for sure. I turned on the thermal head set. Thank God I thought she was in the attic there was cooler signatures below her. I needed to be quick. I was calculating the load and how much to basement floor could hold. I was forced to react when I hear .357s going off. I opened the passenger side roof hatch drove for the latter plowing over at least 10. Kelly jumped down and closed the hatch. I tore out just a the floor fully gave way.
"Looks like for once you were right, Jack."
"Yeah but I hate being right. Were you bit or scratched?"
"No!"
"Do you have that lady smith I gave you?"
"Yes but its---"
Jack opens the console and pulls out a box of .357
"---um, thanks. Jack what are we going to do?"
"Go north get Brad and Shoon and keep going!"
CB* squeak* "Radio Shack calling Ammo Man! Are you there Ammo Man? Over." *pop*
Kelly picks up the headset "Brad is that you?"
*pop*"Hey Kel are you with Ammo Man, over?"*squeak*
"Yes Jack is here. We are coming to get you."
"Tell him to head to Mad Man's ho- What the fuck?"
Jack looks in the mirror a state trooper is signaling for him to pull over. Jack goes from 77 to 65mph the trooper and tells Kelly to take the wheel. Jack does a NFS(near frequency scan) and sets it to 189. He opens the hatch, grabs an M72A3 from behind the seat, stands up prepares the weapon and calls the trooper.
"This is Gunnery Sergeant Jack O'Connor. You can either follow me or suck it! Over."
"This is trooper Joe Maclane Where are you headed Gunny?"
"Change to frequency 666 and follow us… out."
"Fine I'll just follow, Gunny!"
Jack stowed away the launcher and closed the hatch.
"Drive to Shoon's."
"Alright, but jack, would you have fired?"
"His partner had an UMP-45 aimed at us so yes."
"How did I ever get involved with you."
He didn't even answer from the combat high and adrenalin rush wear down he was sleeping like the dead.
CH 2: Bio-Hazard
Day 2 5:32pm
Brad entered Shoon's house not even the dead would hang around here all the chemicals and toxins that "Dr. Howe" made, the Environmental Protection Agencies worst nightmare
"Shoon!? You in there."
* BOOM* "Damn it! FUCK IT BURNS!"
Brad grabbed the haz-mat case by the door and headed to the lab in the basement. He busted out laughing when Shoon met him at the thick door of the lab. His hair, beard and mustache were cringed to his ears and was still smoking.
"Give me that!"
Shoon snatches the Hazmat case and grabs one of the powered chemicals and covers his face with it, adds water, and wipes it off
"Ah, much better what can I do for you Brad?"-shoon
"Pack your bags were leaving."-brad
"What!?"
"Apoc-possibility 10! Jacks on the way. So get ready."
"Plan 2 I take it."
"Yeah"
"Well I'll finish here and be ready when he gets here. Say, get the Mobile lab prepped and load the yellow barrels in it."
"All right but wha--" brad
"Brad? Are you down there?"
"YOU BROUGHT PEOPLE WITH YOU!!!"-Shoon
"Wait in the RV Rachel."
"But someone's coming!" Rachel
"That's probably Jack."
"Does he have police friends?"
"Damn it you brought the EPA TOO! You bastard! I'll--"
"Shoon shut it, Rachel get it the RV!"
"Now what's in the barrels?" Brad
"Super petrol! It works with--"
Don't know, don't care. But ill pack it anyways"
In about 20 minutes two decontaminations and forcing Shoon from his hole the convoy of four vehicles moves out and heads north toward Canada stating from the Carolinas they have a long trip ahead.
CH 3 What Happens… Shit Happens
Day 5 late evening
Having to zig zag between towns, cities, traffic jams, and resting in storage buildings and occasional attacks makes a 1 day drive take over 3 days. The worst part they just made it to Maryland. The convoy has grown to 5 vehicles. A metro bus caries most of the people.
Jack had brought a handful of guns but enough of ammo to keep a platoon fighting for 2 days so about 5 days worth if they had to hunker down. Shoon's petrol was desgin to keep the power generators running for about 3 days off of one drop. The problem is feeding 13 people 3 meals a day. For this Jack takes the two troopers and the patrol car out to anything that might have food.
"Joe, Pete I think that is enough. Let's go!" Jack
"Hang on Gunny he's getting one last cart full." Joe
As Pete came around to the car… Shit happen. I haven't even told you what they were. They could run about 20 to 35 miles per hour without stopping. The only way to stop them was a bullet to the head. We don't know what caused them (one Shoon's wonder-chemicals?) but we knew them. They were our neighbors, family friends strangers they were people. But they were people so dropping them doesn't affect me aside from the combat high.
"PETE DOWN!" Joe
*BLAM*BLAM* We were surrounded. They must have been waiting.
"Get some! Yeah, you to! Get some!" Jack
Jack opened up with his P90 dropping 9 and killing 3 in the first 10 seconds.
Joe blasted away with his Beretta Pete grabbed his UMP-45 but wasn't fast enough 10 of those bastards got him he didn't even scream. Joe climbed in and took off leaving me with about 600 some and only 4 clips. It was East Africa all over again.
I charged them full auto and headed back inside the store via unbroken window I figured throw a flash-bang and make a run for it. I was back outside via another unbroken window. I found out the full body under armor works well they can't bite through it thank god but flash bangs don't affect them. An intense fight broke out as I fought for every second and every step. I was prepared to go out and take 50 of'em with me. It seemed eternal I'd kill one and 3 more show up. I was only 100 feet away from the fence around the storage building a good rod-iron fence about 12 feet high with barb wire on top I grabbed it, climbed over the wire and hit the ground rolling. walking away physically exhausted. Side note that was worst than East Africa.
Ch 4: Change of Plan
When I woke the most beautiful woman was looking at me. I found out that it had only been fighting those bastards for six minutes and been out of it for 20.
"Hey you. Feeling better." Kelly
"Seeing you, yes." Jack
"It lives." Shoon "So where is Joe, Pete and the car load of food?"
"Pete is dead. And I don't know where Joe is."
"Well those fuckers left after you walked in here." Shoon
"I hope they found him. And rip him from limb to limb."
"What did he do leave you?" Kelly
"Yeah"
"So because he ran we're eating those shitty rations aren't we." Shoon
"Yep. So which town is next?"
"D.C." Brad
"The bridges still up?"
"Yes. But in two days they wont be there. The safe zone is the pentagon refugees are arriving daily. The Pres was evacuated last night. Manhattan is relatively cleared but those bridges were blown three days ago, China nuked 10 of its own cities, the 38th parallel has inverted itself, Israelis nuked every major Muslim population center in the Middle East. Germany has invaded every country around them and is winning. Switzerland has gone on lock down and report no infecteced there, And Canada has closed the boarders so were to now?"
"Switzerland!"
"How?"
"Plane, boat, or car who cares as long as we get there."
"Everyone in that country is as crazy as you! Full auto everything."
"So we would be safe. We can go to Dover, grab a C-17 and land in Switzerland."
"Who will fly it?"
"How hard can it be? Besides, we need to get there first. So we'll move out in two hours.
CH5 On the Road… Again
We moved out the same way as usual… drive through the door and the gate and hit the road. My wish was fulfilled on the side of the road just outside of town the patrol car covered in blood and flipped. When we rolled into DC something was wrong… no bodies, the streets were practically empty and it was too quite not even the dead were around.
Then I saw something sticking out of the ground, some sort of bomb? As we drove on I counted 10, 20, 35, and finally 44. They stuck out about three feet, and had a weird purple crusty substance around the rear. Was this how "we" were clearing them out, some sort of bio chemical weapon? When we finally arrived to the bridges that would take us north we had a problem… they were up. With all the geniuses we had it took 3 hours too lower it. In that three hours it was amazing we weren't attacked. When we arrived in Baltimore it was a much different story. It made East Africa look like nothing probably because they didn't have guns that fire 1,200 rounds a minute it appeared that people were fighting for land, each other, the military and the undeadish. On the plus side I coaxed an M1 Abrams into helping us. They were short handed and I "out ranked" him. We picked up a lot more people so the bus was now full and armed, with all the guns lying around in the street it became easier getting weapons.
We let the tank lead the convoy so it could smash through and clear a path on the crowded and jammed highways. The Air Force had been flying CAP over most towns and cities, this was good, it meant that the air bases were still secure. We stopped and rearmed at Edgewood and set up a temporary rest camp. The base had minimum staff, all available units were deployed and causalities had been arriving 100 to 200 a day.
"Sergeant Barron! Why are you worried about being AWOL?"
"Yes Gunny. You see we had orders to support troops in D.C. but got ambushed in Baltimore and bogged down. Why are we headed north anyway?"
"DC is empty, gassed. We didn't even see them undead bastards. And the reason that were headed north is Dover Air Force base we must get to someplace secure. Switzerland is still the only country that has not been infected."
"What leave the country in one of those U-halls with wings are you mad? Besides Germanys been curb stomping Europe for the past 3 days. We'd be committing treason!"
"No! This is not just for the survival of America; this is the survival of the human race. And the Germans are not a big threat their force is too small, but they do have good guns, and they failed to take Lichtenstein. The Swiss have their place secure all we need to--"
"WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU PEOPLE AND WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU ALL DOING ON MY BASE! WHY IS THAT TANK JUST SITTING THERE! AND WHY THE FU---" Base Officer
"SHUT THE FUCK UP MAJOR ASSHOLE! I'll do America a favor and kill another damn officer! I am Gunnery Sergeant Jack O'Connor United States Marine Corps, SO JUST who the fuck are--"
"I'M ASKING THE DAMN QUESTIONS HERE! NOW… WHAT THE--"
The Lieutenant was cut off by the sounds of sirens, they had gotten into the base. The tank crew piled into their tank, as we assembled our convoy Rachel, Brad's girl, was still not back yet from the barracks. She had gone to do use the bathroom facilities which where on the other side of Edgewood. I gave the orders to keep moving north I'd catch up on our ATV, that we had stolen from the National Guard. This is where my old man worked when he retired so I knew the layout well. When I got there the hand full of troops at the barracks where being overrun and as I got closer to the odious shower facility I saw, her one hand clinging to her towel, the other the latter on the water tower over the facilities. As I plowed forward I watched in horror as she started to lose her grip. Hundreds of those Bastards were just waiting for her to fall. I rapidly unpacked the G-36 a weapon of great value and a 100 round drum of ammo in less than 10 seconds the first drum was empty. in about one minute I had unleashed 500 rounds with a firing time of about 40 seconds killing at least 300 of them things. I stowed the "36," pulled out P90 check the clip, and continued forward I was less than 20 feet when she lost grip. I took the biggest risk I think I had ever taken…
I blind fired in her direction. One hollow-point or bite would kill her. Holding the weapon horizontally would allow the recoil to perform the spread, allowing me to not have to fight it. I slung the P90, grabbed her by the arm, and pulled her up in front of me. She was still crying uncontrollably… not that I could blame her.
CH 6 Proven in Combat, Tested on Zombies!
It was late around 7:50. I had stopped to get gas for the ATV and gave Rachel my field jacket, which was all she had other than her undies, she had lost the towel during her fall and fortunately she had only scarped he knee and sprained her ankle. I'd have had to kill myself if I'd been forced to put her down. The convoy was across the bridges in northeastern Maryland now. I had a lot of catch up to do. But there was one small problem; those mother fuckers in the Air Force had blown the bridges and the damn. I needed air transport to get across. I turn around and headed for the Proving Grounds. I was unfortunate when I had gotten there, the ATV's engine quit. I walked nearly 3 miles carrying her, my 36, the P90, a jerry can and 2 grenades, some say I'm soft on women but I couldn't bear making her walk that far with no shoes and that busted ankle! I guess it means that Kelly is right I do still have a heart, despite East Africa. Once again our goal was on the other side of the base fortunately the ordinance museum had something to my fancy! Guns, ammo, and the "Rabbit!" The rabbit or Ketten Krad (chain Bike) was a half track motorbike for German paratroops in ww2 they used'em to haul light cannons and later they were used as runway tractors by the German Air Force. It was better than the ATV except in mpg. I also found the best damn machine gun ever built in my opinion the Machine Gewher 42 my kind of gun it could pump out 1200-1500 rounds a minute. As I finished loading the Rabbit Rachel asked me the question that I hated to answer…
Ch7 East Africa…
"Jack if I had been bitten would you have… you know… um… killed… me?"
"Yes. Please let's drop it. I don't like to---
"You're as much of an asshole as Brad said you were. You're just a damn murder. You can burn in ---"
"LOOK SWEETHEART! I don't know what Brad tolled you but the caring half of me is still back in Africa if you wanted a shining knight, too bad you got me. And the if you think I get a thrill out of blowing people's heads off then you're wrong. I have seen things that no man should ever see. I joined to defend my country and kill for it. They sent us into the most F'd up shit in East Africa."
I started to choke up when I talked about it.
"What did they do to you?"
We were on one of those civi patrols throwing soccer balls and candy to the kids. We had a reporter with us who was covering this story. There must have been a hundred children out there still when the lead humvee was hit. Then the rear one was hit, the rebels were using modern Russian anti tank launchers. We evacuated the humvee and seeked shelter in a nearby house, there were five of us and about 2000 rebels. We were told evac would arrive but it never did. We burned though all our ammo in 5 hours. They threw a flash bang and cleared us. We were taken prisoner there was only three of us left including the reporter. They wanted us to tell the US people to leave their country and if they complied they would release us. I was the first in front of the camera on live TV. I simply said "Hello America, I'll be home after I'm done killing these guys."
It was the balliest thing they say I could have done, but it got my best friend from the corps killed on live TV. There was nothing they could do to break us even in death Hues told them to "SUCK HIS DICK!" We were on our third day when I fully snapped they had dragged his body in the street and torched Ol' Glory. They were going to stand me up to a firing squad on the way out I got loose from the rust rotted cuffs and shoved my escorts nose into his brain I returned to the cell killed the guard and freed the reporter armed only with a Makarova and an AKSM we fought our way out the reporter took two in the chest and I had one in my lung and two in my chest. I dragged him until a patrol picked us up he didn't make it though out of the whole squad only I survived. They cut me loose 4 years later. I think you're the first person I've ever told this to. Even Kelly doesn't know what happen. But there are some things worth living for…"
"I… I… had no idea…" Rachel said shaken.
Ch8 Do You Know How to Turn This On?
We made our way to the helicopter field. There was a UH-1 Huey out on the field I loaded the rabbit in and ran thought start up I had observed enough from helicopter insertions to have a basic idea, but truthfully I hadn't the faintest idea. We were off the ground and headed toward Dover. I couldn't raise the group. I was a little worried.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Damn it I'm just saying he should be here by now!"
"We'll give him 20 more minutes." Brad
"We need to move now; we've sat here too long. They'll be swarming us soon!" Barron
"FROM THE WEST!" Roland
As they opened fire, they packed up shop. It wasn't the gunfire I saw it was the 120mm on the Abrams blasting away with High Explosive shells I headed right for them.
Landing the copter could have been smoother but I only broke the tail off and smashed the skids. The group was on the move again. I unsecured the rabbit and tore outta there as fast as it would go. With my small hand radio, now in range, I raised the RV and yelled mission accomplished. There was a sound of cheer. The tank took the rear blasting to highway to bits and our "sniper/game warden/zoo keeper" Roland was on top of the bus blowing the head off of anything that got to close to us. Then tell call came from up front.
"Army Blockade!" Shoon
"STOP YOUR VEHICLES!" Blockade Commander
The bus broad sided and we formed up in the wagon circle prepared to fight off both the zombies and if necessary the Army, after all "we" had the tank! The Abrams had the 120mm, a 12.7mm coxal, and 2 M2HB 12.7mm machine guns on the turret and all but the gunners side MG was firing the bus had about 20 or 30 people armed with an assortment of rifles and pistols, Shoon was chucking willy pete(white phosphorous the shit that burns you nice and slowly), frags and HE grenades like the mad man that we knew he was Brad was trying to get the army to let us though, and my girl was using the Mark 19 I had mounted on the truck, she was having too much fun with that grenade launcher. I got Rachel to the RV, grabbed some "36" clips and added to the defense. Those things were closing the gap to less than 10 meters at this range even a blind man could get a head shot Brad finally convinced them to let us pass but it was almost to late. I gave the order…
"Go, I'll hold them off!"
"I'm not leaving you to die, Jack!"
(men never do this no matter how much they whine…)
*WAAP* I pistol whipped Kelly put her in the RV.
As the convoy moved though the blockade I set up the Forty-Two I had seven boxes of 250 rounds and three 50 round drums and one spare barrel. I cocked the weapon, finger steady on the trigger and waited…
CH9 Straight up Lead Spewing Divine Intervention!
BRAAP (20) BBRAAAP(25) BRAP (15) first drum empty. Reload with two 250 round belts linked Clack-Clack. BRAAAAAAP (50) BBBBRAAAAP (4?) BRAAAAAP (3?) I was losing count of the cycling rate. They were having to almost climb over the bodies of their comrades they weren't just swarming they where coming for ME, I stood up and started hip shooting. The barrel was melting cycling rate was dropping I open the catch and let the barrel drop, swapped out barrels in under 4 seconds. I opened fire again ripping thought their ranks like locust in a field. Reloaded again, unleashing hell on the bastards. When the belt ran dry I tossed the 42 in the rabbit and took off for the blockade and left a good four hundred or so dead. I hit the 72kmph mark as fast as the rabbit could go. When I was clear the Army opened up with all they had. I rejoined the convoy… there was a major bitch slap waiting for me.
CH10 Honey I Can Explain… *Wack*
Damn, Even them bastards in East Africa didn't hit that hard. She then gave me a good smack and the "Hanky" it was something she had made after our first date it had what was on my fortune cookie slip: You Should be of more tenderness and less aggressiveness. Lucky numbers 3,7,18,19,41,43. On the back: Learn Chinese - Banquet Yan-hui. This meant I was on thin ice with her… as we moved forward we had one last trail to beat, after that we would be home free.
"Jack, why--" Kelly
"Because I can't let anything happen to you. If I lost you I wouldn't be able to go on and I jus--" Jack
"What if I lost you? You didn't call or tell me what was happening you just took off! And when you do show back up you wack me upside the head!" Kelly
"If you two "lovebirds" are done arguing we have a problem up here" Brad
"I repeat this is United States Air Command you have entered a restricted zone please turn back or you will be fired upon."
"What kind is it?"
"F-22? I don't know!"
"F-35 then. You got a stinger in this RV?"
"No!"
"Have you tried raising them? We can't turn around."
"Working on it."
"Well work… DOWN!"
As I throw myself on top of Kelly and everyone in the RV ducked, the F35 did a strafing run putting out around a thousand rounds in less than four seconds. The F35's 25mm ripped through the convoy like Swiss cheese. The RV flip to its side the whole front end of the truck was shredded those in the bus never knew what hit them… when those 25mike mike rounds hit a person it creates what the grunts call pink mist… where all your body explodes… we received more injures from the shrapnel than anything else… BAMF, BAMF, BAMF… Roland must have rolled off the bus and was opening up with the M82 I climbed out the emergency hatch and ran for the truck…
I barely jumped clear when all the ammo started cooking off including the 2 stingers. I looked around and realized the Abrams and Roland were gone (though I could still hear him firing .50 cal rounds at the F-35… no time to worry about that there were those whom could still be saved. As I helped Rachel, Brad, Mitch (our driver at the time) and Kelly out of the RV I told them to make a run for the woods on the side of the road.
I got to Shoon's van to see it was relatively ok aside from running into the back of the bus, but that had killed him I looked at the Rabbit in the back of the van did a quick load of some MREs , filled the gas tank and brought it out the back. Roland jump down on top of me just as a burst tore through the van. The fighter was hovering right in front of us the GAU was spinning… it would be the end. Roland set his rifle down and lipped back. I stood there in defiance. I started to remove weapons on me. When I got to the willy peter I got an idea throw that in the VTOL engine the whole thing might go up on flames I removed the pin and chucked the grenade, then I heard a crackling sound followed by a distinctive BLAM as the F-35 exploded. I took cover behind what was left of the van to escape the blast.
CH12 Burning Horizon
The Abrams finished pulling out from the woods. Barrel still smoking… The hatch opened. I walked over as Barron jumped down
"Sorry we couldn't get him sooner, but nice hit don't you think?"
"What took you?"
"Look we can't elevate the gun that high and if we'd used lock on he'd have dispatched us. Besides then we'd lock up cause the IFF is buggy! How many made it?"
"Five of us… the truck, RV, bus, and van are toast. Rabbit still runs I think."
"Well get them aboard before those zombie things catch up."
We gathered up as much as we could which was basically what we had on us. Roland, Kelly and myself took the rabbit, everyone else climbed aboard the Abrams. We continued toward Dover, we couldn't stop, we had almost no ammo or weapons, aside from what was on the rabbit.
Roland had the M82 with about 3 clips left and a Desert Eagle with 2 clips, I kept the 36 with 4 of those 100 round drums and 2 standard clips and P90 with 5 clips and my service 45 with half a clip. (the MG42's barrel was two melted to be useful), Kelly had a Mauser 98k rifle with all the ammo leftover from the 42(about 3000 rounds). her "Lady Smith" with about 15 shells, Mitch operated the sideM2HB on the Abrams Brad was using the UZI the tankers gave him with 3 clips, and Rachel had a 9mm from Brad with 3 clips. With nothing but burning vehicles and lost friends behind us… we pushed on.
CH13 Dover… Finally
"So when is this thing going to blow over man?" Guard 1
"Why are you asking me for?" Guard 2
"I don't know I just want to get back and finish where I left off with my girl friend."
"Is she hot?"
"Hell yeah!"
"That's good, so how much did you pay her?"
"Fuck you man. If you make one more… whats that?"
"Wha-- oh shit!"
They saw the Abrams in full charge doing 70mph, in a 10mph zone, with the Rabbit not far behind. The guards scattered because not far behind us was over a million of those things. We smashed through the gate and headed for the nearest C-17. With it secure I set out for a pilot, I got lucky there was one just outside the hanger. As we boarded, they began pouring though the main gate (the one we had smashed.)
"Barron get aboard!" Jack
"Go now, we will hold them off!" Barron
"Barron get your ass on this crate now!"
"No you'll never make it if we don't hold the off! Besides we have a tank we can't lose."
Thanks for your help! Stay alive!
"You to. Now GO!"
As we started down the runway I couldn't help but wonder how things would turn out. If Barron and his crew would survive, would we as Americans no as human beings be able to survive. But then I thought, I saved "Her" so I must live on. It would be a nice 18 hour flight.
To Be Continued… in Switzerland when I feel like it.