Chapter 1: Under Siege

"Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced." ~ John Keats

~Piers

It had been three days since those mutant things had come into the city. Slowly but surely they started to kill, maim, and torture every person that they found. The city used to be a thriving and peaceful city. Now, the human population that used to flourish within the borders was now decimated. What used to be over fifty thousand people would now be lucky to even have barely a thousand un-mutated souls left alive within the borders.

This is how he had been living for the past three days and then some. Now, the people that were able to hide had to scrounge for every bit of food possible or face starvation and malnutrition on the streets. You had to be very careful, these things were very strong and it seemed that even if you could harm it, the creature would only come back stronger than ever before, being harmed with weapons did almost nothing, causing it to mutate and grow new body parts and organs to respond to anything, turning them into deadly creations.

But, unfortunately, this is how he found himself being chased by one of those monsters. He had not eating any food in almost two days and the small craps he had just seen seemed too good to be true. He went out to grab it, not remembering the last time bread seemed like it would be so delicious. He realized his mistake too late however, and he soon found himself face to face with a creature holding a gun, slime pouring out of cracks in his reddened face that contained four beady little eyes, starting at him with a dark malice lurking within their charcoal black depths.

The creature staring at him now had four eyes, situated in a diamond shape around its head, although almost every single one of those creatures had the same look, save for the ones that had other mutations than just looking like some bug-eyed freak. It's jaws were slavering and tinted green, along with his teeth, almost as if they contained a deadly poison ready to sink into the flesh of anyone or anything so that the predator could watch its prey's life slip away into the icy embrace of that cold mistress called death. It's face was just as terrible, red and cracked and sometimes bleeding, while green slime oozed out of every part of its face, seeming for all intents and purposes that it seemed to drool out of its face rather than its mouth.

"Ssstayyy…." It hissed out, as if it could barely speak the human language that should have once been so easy to grasp and speak for this creature, but not it was accustomed to the gibberish and unintelligible mutterings that these creatures had as a language barrier between each other than the humans that still roamed the earth. Its eyes were twitching in all directions, only the two eyes that were in a normal human's position stayed focused on him, and it continued just as horribly as it had done just a moment earlier, "Ifffff you don't want to diiiieeee…."

Suddenly, Piers could hear yelling and gunfire from down the street. The creature, still having a hungry gleam in its eyes like Piers could be its next meal, backed him into an alley and then it hid itself in a doorway. Several if the creatures ran past the alley, shouting and shooting gunfire back down the street at whatever it was that was chasing them.

"Alpha Leader to H.Q., engaging a dozen or more hostiles. Repeat, engaging a dozen or more hostiles, the streets are hot in the city, the fireworks are starting. We are in pursuit down Baker Street trying to route them out of this end of the city."

"Copy that Alpha Leader, other teams are currently engaged with other hostiles throughout the city. Remain on mission course, route these creatures towards the rendezvous point so that we can converge on their position as one force and take them out. Orders still stand to find and care for any civilians that are still left alive in this hell hole."

Piers sat in the alley, still controlled by shock and fear, not understanding the firefight going on in front of him even though it seemed that other people were coming to throw these creatures back out of the city. Slowly, the creatures started to be pushed back. Some of them collapsed to the ground writing in pain from gunshot wounds before their bodies would start to mutate into horrible monstrosities yet again. The ones that did not mutate simply laid there yelling in pain while their faces reformed, the unlucky mutants however, had their faces smashed in by men that came from the direction that the creatures were fleeing from. They were all dressed in full combat gear, wielding assault rifles, shotguns, pistols, and a wide assortment of what seemed like personal weaponry. They fanned out on all sides of the street, flanking the mutants as best as they could while pushing them back deeper into the city's streets.

"H.Q. to Alpha team do you copy?"

"We copy H.Q."

"Good, continue pursuit of hostile forces deeper into the city. When at all possible search the city for any survivors of this mess so we can get them out of there and somewhere safe."

"Copy that H.Q. Alpha Team out."

Piers watched as the group of soldiers slowly went by, still in a fire fight against the opposing hostile forces. Piers heard a few loud shots as if they were from a sniper rifle and everything went as quiet as a midnight on the open sea.

"This is Eagle to Alpha Leader, the way is clear. Move on and I will pick off any stragglers we might have missed."

"Copy that Eagle, we'll rendezvous up ahead, be careful."

"Copy that, Captain. Eagle out."

Piers watched as a soldier walked by eying his surroundings. He had a sniper rifle slung across his back and was wielding a pistol and combat knife. Piers let loose a sign of relief after the soldier walked by the entrance to the alley but froze when heard the footsteps stop and backtrack to where the entrance to the alley was. The soldier looked into the alley and caught sight of Piers cowering behind some boxes at the very end of the alley way.

"Hey, it's alright. We're here to get you people out." The soldier said this softly as he approached Piers holding his palm out to show he was no threat. The man said nothing as he continued to cower behind the boxes in the back of the alley, no hint at all that he believed the soldier standing on front of him.

All of a sudden, the soldier noticed the man's eyes go even wider with fear and they seemed to be looking not at him but something behind him. Straining his hearing, the soldier heard a door creak open almost as silently as a mouse and the slavering sound of the jaws that confirmed one of the creatures had been hiding. He looked into the eyes of the man cowering before him and winked at him. In no time flat the creature shot several rounds into his back and he forcibly planted himself to the ground. He listened and watched as the creature slowly stepped over him to the still cowering person.

"Miiinneeee…" it hoarsely croaked out, eyeing the man as if it was to be his next meal.

He waited until the creature took a good distance in front of him but it was only a couple feet from the cowering man before he silently pushed himself off the ground, getting up on his feet and sneaking up silently behind the creature as it stalked increasingly nearer to his prey.

"You might want to check to see if your target is dead before you move on to the next one, bug."

The mutant turned around hissing wildly at the soldier. It pulled out a jagged knife, stained black and covered in dried blood with the shape of a broken ram's horn to its features. The soldier also pulled his combat knife and the two started a deadly dance of knives. The creature lunged at him, aiming to plunge his cruel blade through the soldier's heart. It did not succeed however, and while it was recovering from its wild and desperate strike the soldier kneed into his chest, throwing him backwards out of the alley and into the street. The soldier ran out after him, using his pistol to lodge several shots into the creature's torso, slowing it down. He then grabbed the creature's head with both of his hands, bringing the iron kneepad on his right leg into contact with its head as quickly and as hard as he could. Doing this shattered the creature's head, sending blood, brain matter, and skull fragments all over the street. He let the body drop to the ground, staining the ground a dark and crimson red while its body slowly crumbled into ashes to be blown away by any slight breeze that came through here.

The soldier turned and headed back down the alley he had just come from only moments earlier. "It's ok; I'm not going to hurt you. Are you ok? Do you need any medical attention?"

Piers just sat there in silence. He had seen hundreds of people over the last three days tortured and killed, including his own friends and loved ones. Without saying a single word to the soldier, not even in thanks for the protection he had just received, he threw a box into the soldier's face and sprinted out of the alley into the street to get away from him. He ran for all he was worth and he could hear the soldier cursing behind him because he ran.

"Eagle to Alpha Leader, I have a fleeing civilian, permission to follow?"

"This is Alpha Leader. Permission granted Eagle, find that civilian and get them whatever help they need and get them to the rendezvous point."

"Copy that Alpha Leader, in pursuit of the civilian now. I'll get them into better shape and meet you at the rendezvous point."

The soldier took off, following after the civilian's trail. He had to give the man some credit, he was a quick person and very adept at hiding his tracks. The soldier found it at some times to be extremely difficult to find where he went, and other times it was fairly easy, but most likely due to the recent trauma inflicted onto the people of this city.

After a couple minutes of following the trail the soldier heard noises ahead of him that sounded like shouting. He ran a little bit faster trying to stay as silent as possible. The man from before was in even worse shape now, he was being pummeled into submission by two of the B.O.W. creatures infesting the city. He had a bruised and bloody cut on his head and what looked like a stab wound in his shoulder. They were dragging him into a building but it was a chance the soldier would not let them have.

"Eagle to Alpha Leader, I've found the civilian being taken by two of the J'avo. Engaging hostiles now."

He unslung his sniper rifle and took aim. It took him no more than two seconds to line up his scope with one of the creature's heads and let his fly loose, taking the head clean off the shoulders of the first as it started to dissolve into ashes in the wind and the other one just let his captive fall to the ground and curl up in a ball from the pain and shock.

The second creature shouted something the soldier couldn't understand, but it took out its gun and sent a spray of bullets over in his direction. The soldier returned fire with his pistol, sending several shots into the mutants head. Luck was not on the soldier's side however, and the creature slowly began to mutate once again. This one began to grow spider's legs and other appendages and began to shoot webs in the soldier's direction. These things didn't seem to be very smart however, the soldier ducked behind a wall and the mutant started following after him wildly.

The soldier ducked behind the first alley he came to and silently, with practiced ease and speed took out his shotgun, readying it to be fired in the creature's face as soon as it got close enough to take the full brunt of the shots. The J'avo never acted as smart as they seemed to be compared to the other infected, but this one obviously thought it had one chasing the soldier into an alley way. He heard the thundering footsteps of the mutant coming ever closer, and he steeled himself to take aim as quickly as possible to kill the thing before it even had a chance to move. The creature rounded the corner and the only welcoming party it received was not that of a cowering soldier waiting to die, but three quick blasts from his shotgun into its face and body. It fell over in an instant, no blood coming out of it but just the body melting into ashes from all the holes peppering its body, almost looking akin to burning paper.

He quickly made his way over to the man who was still in a crumpled heap on the ground. "Eagle to Alpha Leader, the civilian is safe but he needs medical attention, I'm going to have to find some place to take care of him before I can continue on to the rendezvous point."

"Copy that Eagle; just be careful out there, there is no telling how many more of them are still roaming around the streets."

"Copy that, Eagle out."

The soldier picked the man up as carefully as he could, draping the mans uninjured shoulder over his arm so he could support most of his weight. "C'mon, we've got to get you out of here and get you fixed up."

"Ughh…." The man made his first sound but it was only nothing more than a pained groan in response to the soldier's actions.

He took the man, staggering and gasping for breath into a one story run down building that had no windows and only a front door. It may not have been the best of places to try and hole up in, but it was better than nothing and would be easily defended it something tried to break in. Quickly, the soldier took out some First-Aid Spray and started applying it to the wounds on the man's arms, head, and shoulders, cleaning them out before bandaging them up to prevent infection.

"Eagle to Alpha Leader, what is the status of the mission? I have the civilian with me and I am treating his wounds, although he seems to have passed out from the pain for the moment."

"Eagle, we are still fighting our way to the rendezvous point, the deeper in we go the more of them there are and the better positioned they are for defense. It seems that the creatures on the outskirts of the city were the idiotic and cocky ones and that's why they fell so easily. We need you back here as quickly as you can move but don't do anything to put that civilian in danger."

"Copy that Alpha Leader. I will treat his wounds as quickly as I can and head out with him. Just make sure if you see someone dragging someone along not to shoot them before checking out who it is."

"Copy that, just try not to come running in being chased by a mob of J'avo."

"Copy that Captain, Eagle out, see you guys soon."

The soldier was applying first aid to the wounded man before him as quickly as he could but he was still fading in and out of consciousness. He took out a couple herbs and mixed them into some pills and slipped them into the man's mouth to see if it would help him regain some energy. It worked a little bit but the man's pulse was still dangerously slow.

"Damn it all, c'mon don't die on me now! I can't believe I'm about to do this…"

The soldier put his hand on the man's arm and focused himself. He poured as much of his own self as he could into his hand and he could slowly feel the man's pulse returning and quickening. The soldier breathed a sigh of relief while he had sweat starting to form on his head from the amount of energy he had to use to bring his man back from Death's front doorstep.

"H-how are you feeling?" it was quite obvious listening to the soldier that he was extremely exhausted.

"Better… w-what happened?"

"You were… getting your butt handed to you by some creatures… after you ran from me… f-followed you, made sure you didn't die."

"Um, thanks. What are you doing here, exactly?"

"We got here just today. We had reports of J'avo forces moving in and taking the city over, decimating its population. There have been strikes all over Europe and the European branch doesn't have enough personnel to handle everything so some of the American Branch came in to help retake some of the cities."

"Branches of what… exactly?"

"The B.S.A.A. we fight back mutants and creatures like what you saw earlier and the two that were about to drag you away and kill you. Anyway, we need to get going soon so we can get out of here, mind if I ask you your name?"

"My name… is Piers Nivans, these creatures killed the rest of my family so I have nowhere left to go anymore…"

"Hey, hey, don't worry now. We are going to get you out of here and make sure you have somewhere to go, who knows, maybe you might even find a place among the B.S.A.A. someday, and I'm V by the way."

"V huh? I thought I heard them calling you Eagle over the radio."

"Heh, Eagle is my name when we are out on missions, it's a long story on that but if one thing is for sure, it is a story I wouldn't mind telling you seeing as how I found you was one of the reasons I got the name. You ready to head on out now, Piers?"

"Yeah, I-I think I should be good now, I might need some help though, I'm still not feeling too good."

"Alright, just put your arm over my shoulder Piers and I'll get you out of this hell hole."