I do not own the characters of H.O.T.D, they belong to the original creators of the franchise. I also do not own the characters from the Tv series "Ultimate Force" or the names of the characters Joe Gardner, John Bald And Dave Hands, these are the property of the Chris Ryan book series "Extreme".
Tokonosu International Airport aka "The Floating Island",
3 miles off the coast of Tokonosu City, Japan
On the tarmac of the airport dozens of JSDF personnel were helping move equipment back and forth. Most of them had to move resources by hand since the few vehicles they had on the island were used for emergency use only.
Most luckily had managed to find pump-trucks or a horse with a cart on the mainland, any live stock or animals that could be put to good use was worth the fuel the helicopters ate through to get them back to the new base of operations for the military and the survivors they protected.
The island was divided into two sections; the main terminal was where the civilians lived and worked and the second was a military instillation. The military side of the island was where all of the aircraft hangers were, a few had working aircraft inside, a few helicopters and two working fighter jets and a large transporter, a C-130 Hercules.
Ordnance was hard to find for the helicopters, the U.S Military left behind as much as they could for the JSDF to defend the island before they set sail back to the U.S in hopes of helping the military that was left behind to try and take back the United States.
Fuel, even though it was being rationed for emergency operations, was quite plentiful. Large containers with fuel reserves had been extracted from other airports and even from Okinawa where the U.S base there had fallen in the first days of the outbreak. The recovery teams had met harsh resistance from the infected, even lost a few men in the process, but they had recovered more than enough resources to last for a good long time if used correctly.
On the tarmac of the military airfield a single UH-60 Blackhawk was spooling up it's propellers, the gunner operating the door-mounted M-134 checked that the feed tray was correctly attached to the main weapon and that power was being fed to fire the weapon.
The pilots checked the systems onboard, flight systems were in the green and the fuel tanks were full. Hopefully the next couple of days for the four-man Special Forces team would go smoothly and they would return without any complications.
"What is it exactly that they need us to bring back boss?" one of the masked soldiers asked his commanding officer as they walked from the transporter that brought them and the other Special Operations operatives to the landing sight to the waiting Sikorsky Blackhawk helicopter.
"The Takagi's have requested that we try and extract multiple items from a hospital on the northern face of the city. Mostly pharmaceutical ingredients and recipes to make medicines and other such things," the commander replied as he walked towards the helicopter, not looking away from the bird as the propellers spun above his head.
"But it was my understanding that we already had medicines, drugs and what have you?" the same soldier asks.
"We did, but lately we've been running short. But the most important item we need to bring back is antibiotics," the commander said as he climbed inside the passenger compartment of the UH-60 and the rest of the team followed shortly afterwards.
Stowing their rifles in the weapon racks they each pulled on their harnesses over their combat vests, each brimming with dozens of magazines for both their rifles and pistols, including grenades, radios and medical packs.
"What kind of numbers are we expecting to go up against?" the sniper of the unit asks.
"Last report in said that we might encounter anything from a few dozen to possibly a few hundred infected. The northern sector of the city was heavily populated but the commanders have been putting their helicopter scout patrols further and further out each time, draws them away from the city," the commander explained.
"Hopefully just a few dozen then. How are we inserting into the hospital itself?" the sniper asks.
At that moment the aircraft shuddered as it started to gain altitude and slowly began to climb higher and higher as every second passed. Before too long they were a hundred feet off of the helipad before the pilots banked the helicopter around ninety degrees and pointed the nose towards the city.
"Our insertion to the building will be through the roof. No point setting down several blocks away and then trying to infiltrate that way from ground level. No, we go in through the roof and make our way down that way," he said.
The men looked at their commander and nodded in agreement.
The helicopter left the island after just a few seconds of being in the air before it started moving inland, towards the city itself. For the team it felt odd to be travelling back into the city. Since the military leaders said that no missions were to be organised for the next several weeks the Special Forces team had been given orders only a week later that they needed to go inland to recover formula recipes.
The regular military were being used to protect and keep the civilians in order. Before on more than one occasion there had been fighting and arguments amongst the civilian population, on one such occasion the unit had almost drawn their weapons on a mob of survivors that demanded that they be allowed to protect themselves with guns, they then attempted to snatch a soldiers Type 89 away from him but one of the team interrupted the attempt and butted the man in the face with the stock of his M-4.
The commander watched the sea pass them by as they flew high above the city, the best way to avoid the infected from noticing the team insert into the city was for the helicopter to fly high above the city, that way the noise was be minimized enough for them to go undetected.
As the helicopter began to approach the city limits the commander watched as his sniper pulled something from the pack between his feet. It looked like a scabbard for a long knife, it was then he realized it was a Japanese Wakizashi, a shortened samurai sword that was once carried many hundreds of years ago by Samurai warriors and often worn with a Daito, a ordinary sized samurai sword and worn as a pair on the belt of a warrior to show his rank amongst the men, this was known as a Daisho.
The sniper began to run a sharpening stone along the blade at a forty-five degree angle along the blade, he worked the blade several times on each side with the stone before he would run a rag along the blade to clear away any debris from the sharpening.
"You've really taken to that sword haven't you," the commander said as he smiled under his mask.
"Well, once you run out of bullets boss I doubt any bad language is going to keep those infected bastards away," the sniper replied.
"Yeah well you're breath might. When we touch down we really need to find him some tooth paste," the forth member of the unit finally chimed in making the others laugh.
"Ah fuck off David, you're one to talk anyhow," the sniper replied.
"Oh yeah? How's that then?" David Hands asked, goading him on.
"When was the last time you used deodorant you smelly bastard?" the sniper asked.
"I ran out, used up the last can of the good stuff a few days ago," David replied.
"Pfft, that's a bollocks excuse if I ever heard one," the sniper said as he stowed away his Wakizashi back into his pack.
"Fuck off John," David replied.
"Alright the pair of you pack it in for fucks sake," the commander said, finally having enough of the continuous going's on, back and forth, they were worse than a pair of bloody children.
Below the UH-60 the team looked out the windows and looked at the devastation below. Two months ago an earthquake had struck the city, thankfully there hadn't been a tsunami like there had been nearly a decade earlier but from the island several lookouts and spotters had seen several buildings topple and fall from the 5.6 magnitude earthquake.
They had been fucking lucky indeed to come out of it unscathed.
The pilot looked back at the men and held up two fingers, two minutes until they reached the drop-off point. The plan was simple, exit down through the roof and eliminate any infected they came across as silently as possible.
The helicopter would remain on station for twenty minutes in case the team need an immediate extraction, once they would depart the co-pilot would take command of the Gatling gun and cover them if they had a hot extraction.
"Alright lads, let's fucking do this," David said and fist bumped John as he picked up his M-4 and locked a magazine into the weapons receiver.
John, being the sniper of the unit, used a rifle that was a little more powerful but nearly the same weight as the M-4's the rest of the team carried.
The Lewis Machine & tool LM308MWS rifle was a masterpiece of modern engineering, of course that was before the outbreak. Before the end of the world the British Army had shown interest in adopting a modern DMR (Designated Marksman Rifle) but the Special Forces community had soon taken an interest in this rifle too and had soon took it to replace their older bolt-action rifles.
The helicopter started to slowly descend over the city and the commander saw the hospital soon coming into view as the helicopter flew amongst the buildings. Below they couldn't see any infected on the streets but that didn't mean that there weren't any there.
One minute out the pilot shouted back to them, it was go time. Everyone check their weapons, making sure that their pouches were done up and magazines were locked in tight. Rounds were loaded into rifle chambers, sidearms checked and ready at a moments notice.
The UH-60 came a to a stop, hovering a few feet just above the rooftop of the hospital at the helipad, the pilot never set the helicopter down in case of having to make a quick get away. Having to lift off with a twenty-tonne beat of a helicopter sometimes wasn't as easy as most people expected it to be.
The first man out was John; he scanned the area quickly before making a 'come on' motion with his free hand before going back to scanning the rooftop.
Moments later the rest of the team were out of the helicopter and on the helipad taking up covering fire positions with their suppressed M-4's. Behind them the helicopter slowly lifted away, the commander looked back and watched as the swivel mount the M-134 was bolted to turn back and forth as the co-pilot manned the weapon.
Soon they helicopter banked away from the hospital and way heading off back in the direction they had come from but instead of lying high in the sky the pilot was taking her down close to the streets below.
Pointing at the only roof access door the team moved towards it, sweeping the barrels of their rifles back and forth as they progressed towards it. As they reached the door the stacked up, John taking the rear and covering them with his DMR. Testing the doorknob and gripping it the commander looked back at the others and nodded.
He opened the door, it creaked slightly on the hinges after not being used for so long, and he aimed his suppressed rifle inside the darkened room. With the slightly depress on his finger on the tail-cap switch the Surefire weapon light attached to his rifle illuminated the room and they found themselves inside a staircase that lead down into the hospital itself.
"Right, you all ready for this?" he asked the others.
"As ready as we'll ever be boss," Joe Gardner said as he too aimed his rifle inside the staircase and looked down into the staircase below as it spiraled down. Below they heard something clattering, sounded like empty cans or something similar as they shone the light down below.
"Could just be rats," Joe said as he looked at the commander.
"Really? That's the best you could come up with?" he replied.
"Fuck off Andrew, I can't help it if there are rats down there," Joe replied with a slight chuckle.
"It's not the rats im worried about," Sergeant Andrew Poynton replied nervously but kept the quake out of his voice. From the look of the place just up here and the dust that had settled on the railings and the large cobwebs hanging from the ceiling, uhh, fucking spiders.
"Okay, take you're time, don't rush. We only have one chance to get this done right," Andrew said and the others nodded in agreement. Slowly the team began to move in formation and down into the building, the stairwell was dark and it seemed to be getting darker as they headed further down.
The team walked down a few levels before they heard clattering again, this time it sounded like more than just 'rats' as Joe had said. There was too much shuffling going on down below on the lower levels, in the darkness below they couldn't make out what it was but that was something down there.
"Joe," Andrew said quietly getting the soldiers attention, "Set up the claymore on a trip-wire. I don't anything coming up our arse from this point onwards," Andrew says and he quickly removes his pack and removes the claymore mine from within and goes to work attaching it to the handrail of the staircase.
It only takes a few moments before the anti-personnel mine is place and set, the wire feeding straight across from the mine to another rail on the opposite side of the stairwell.
Opening the door beside us they quickly take a peek inside, using the weapon lights they see that the floor they are on looks to be a medical wing for serious injuries, at least judging by the equipment that has been dropped all over the ground.
"Close that door. I doubt we need anyone to guard it," Andrew says and the others make their way inside into the wing and spread out, each covering a different sector of the ward. Closing the door David acted as tail end Charlie for the team.
"Spread out, check each section as we go, I don't want one of those things coming up on our arse because we got sloppy," Andrew tells the team.
The go cubical by cubical, checking each section for bodies as they go. A medical station is where they do find a body, from the state of decay the body had been slumped in the seat where it died for the better part of at least two years now. Hard to believe sometimes it's been that long since the outbreak began.
"You think it's dead?" David asked but before anyone could say anything John walked over with his Wakizashi in hand and swiped the blade of the short sword length ways, the head fell from the neck and almost bounced as it hit the floor.
"Sorted," he said as he wiped the blade and replaced it in the sheath on his backpack.
Andrew had watched the act but didn't have anything to say on the matter. It was a quick and possible clean kill if it was alive. The creatures had a habit of going into hibernation after going for extended periods of time without stimuli, they had been seen going into a state of drowsiness before they just stopped still and that would happen for the longest time until something caught they're attention.
"Hey, over here," Joe called the rest of the team. Walking over the team found him crouched behind a counter in the far corner of the ward, he was ferreting around inside a cabinet and on the counter in front of them were several bottles filled with white tablets, all still foil packaged.
"So we have antibiotics. Where would we expect to find these formulas then?" Joe asks as he drops another sealed pallet of bottles beside the others.
"Documentation storage room, it was in the report by two doctors that once worked in this hospital before the outbreak. It's how we knew we'd find the pills here," Andrew replied as he looked around for anything worth taking back with them.
"Okay, so where is that?" Joe asks.
"Two levels below, level six," Andrew tells him.
Joe then suddenly looks drained but really he's more than likely think what the rest of us are thinking, "Ain't no fucking way im going down there" and I don't blame them either.
"The main item on the list that is imperative that we retrieve is for penicillin, other than that we're good," Andrew tells them.
"What are the chances we can find some here without having to go searching down stairs for the files?" David asks nervously.
"Maybe in another area. This one is mostly filled with bandages, antibiotics, heavy-duty painkillers and other such stuff. We might have a good chance of finding some," Joe tells him and already David's demeanor alters.
"Well we had better find a lot then because they're going to be pissed that we won't be bringing back the documents they are asking for," Andrew says and the team turns to him.
"Hey im not going down there with just these for our only source of light," he tells them tapping the weapon light attached to his carbine.
"Okay-dockey then, let's get searching," John replies as he flicks on his own light and starts searching with the others around the ward looking for the medicine.
Eventually they come up lucky, on the far side of the ward they find what they are looking for, multiple cases of penicillin tablets, all still packaged up in plastic wrap.
"Okay, take the lot. Don't leave any of it behind because we're not coming here again," Andrew tells the team as they start packing several boxes of pills into their packs around the other items they have already acquired.
"The doctors back at the airport might be able to whip up a cocktail of this stuff without a formula if they get these anyway, at least I hope so," Joe said as he zipped up his pack after cramming everything he could inside just so that the zipper would close.
Andrew's pack was almost full but they had taken all of the medication inside the cabinets into the four backpacks, they still had room for other medicines if they came across anything now.
Looking around the ward, the weapon light illuminating the way, he came across what appeared to be a waiting area. The area was a mess, a large dried red stain on the ground indicated that there once had been a struggle here, it didn't appear to have ended well for the living.
Looking around he found a magazine and book rack off to the side for the people who would have waited here. He also saw an old coffee machine sitting off to the side gathering dust and the glass coffee jug had an old brown stain on the inside.
Shining the light on the books he looked at the small pile of magazines, manga and comic books. Andrew let the carbine settle by his side on the sling and using the flashlight mounted on the side of his helmet to shine on the spines of the books. Andrew's Japanese was rusty as shit but looking inside they looked like the appropriate type of manga to be found in a place such as a hospital.
One book was titled "Ah! Megamisama" and another was in English labelled "Patlabor" and upon inspection it had pictures that looked like mecha.
Without the others seeing him he stuffed the books on the inside of his pack along with the medicine and walked over to the coffee machine. The machine was useless, blown its fuse after the EMP almost two years ago.
However upon inspection inside the cabinet below he found that there were several packets of powdered coffee granules that were still sealed. Looking at the date of expiration it seemed that the coffee had expired maybe a month or two ago but with it being dried sealed it might still have been good.
"Hope this stuff is alright for him," Andrew mumbled to himself as he stuffed the coffee packets inside the pack too and when he was done his pack was filled up too.
As he started back towards his team he felt it before he heard it. A loud and powerful explosion went off more or less directly behind him. With the blast being on the other side of the wall none of the steel ball bearings penetrated the wall.
Subconsciously he pushed himself forward, away from the blast of the claymore in the stairwell. Beneath the cover of his helmet and mask his ears were ringing, screeching like nails against a chalkboard.
"Fuck me!" he barked furiously.
The door separating the stairwell from the medical area was blown out, a small fire had set the frame of the door alight, the door looked as though it had been hit by a powerful bomb, which it had of course but the force of the blast had taken the door off the steel reinforced hinges altogether.
"Lads! Where are you?" he shouted into the ward and almost instantly they came rushing in towards the source of the explosion to find they're team leader on the floor.
"We need to get out of here, now!" he shouted as the ringing in his ear continued. Joe and Dave helped pick him up and set him on his feet as John covered the door with his DMR.
"Must be walkers, we need to get out of here right fucking now," he called back to the team just as Andrew stood upright, dusting off his kit and picking up his M-4.
"Okay, call the Blackhawk back. We need to leave right now," Andrew panted as he shouldered the carbine and aimed at the now burning doorway.
Andrew stumbled forward but Joe kept him steady as they went so he wouldn't fall. John took the lead with David backing him up with his M-4, before they reached the door a worse for wear walker stumbled into view on the other side of the door.
Looking at the creature it seemed that the thing had taken a good brunt of the blast but it hadn't killed it. With a well-placed shot John put a .308 round through its skull.
"We've gotta go now!" John barked.
David aimed at the next walker that stumbled into view, this one not looking at bad as the first. He fired a short burst from the carbine; the 5.56mm rounds splattered its rotten brains across the wall behind it, making the body tumble arse-over-tit down the stairs.
He removed a grenade from a pouch on his vest, removed the pin and he allowed the spoon to flip off with an audible ping and waited nearly all of the countdown before he tossed the grenade into the stairwell before the grenade detonated.
"Fuck," John hissed angrily as David pushed him aside as he ducked for cover from the explosion.
"Do that again you fucking twat I'll twat you one you great bollock!" Joe shouted at him.
David said nothing except flip him the bird and leveled his rifle at the door.
"Let's go," Andrew said and the men stood from where they lay as they recovered from two separate explosions in as many minutes before ducking into the stairwell and started heading back towards the roof.
David, being rear guard for the group, kept his carbine aimed at the slow infected that trundled after them but occasional they would catch their feet on a metal rung and would fall, causing the ones behind them to trip over as well.
When they reached the rooftop they slammed the door shut but not until John unloaded a magazine from his rifle into the undead that followed, building a small barricade of dead bodies to impede the infected's progress.
Up on the helipad the team formed a 360-degree perimeter, twelve o'clock, three o'clock, six o'clock and nine o'clock. Everyone reloaded their rifles so that they all had a full magazine each.
Radioing the helicopter they informed them that they would be five minutes before they reached the pick up point. This made the team make sure they had easy access to their extra mags, grenades and sidearms.
Because the amount of supplies the team knew that they were going to have to carry out of the hospital Joe was pissed by the fact that he was only able to carry the one Claymore mine. The others were capable of carrying them but this mission was supposed to be a simple in and out but of course that didn't happen.
The door that was next to the hospital's emergency elevator for transporting patients from the helicopter into the hospital began to buckle outwards but the door held it's own.
Andrew quickly looked at his digital wristwatch, two minutes till extraction; already he could hear the helicopter on approach in the distance, even though he couldn't see it he knew it would be here soon.
Suddenly the door burst open and several infected fell out onto the rooftop face first. The ones behind them tried to straggle over the fallen but the amount of them trying to get through was blocking them and they had to feed through one at a time.
"Contact!" David shouted and fired his M-4. The other three men of the unit turned on their knees and aimed their rifles at the incoming targets and opened fire. They fired short-controlled bursts into the undead as they came, some of them were still incredible fast and they took priority.
The men, all trained marksmen managed to take them out after a few shots. Some of the slower infected tripped on the fallen thus making it easier for the men to take them out with well placed head shots through their red dot sights.
"Grenade out!" John shouted and he lobbed the grenade out towards the groups of infected that were a good twenty-five meters away from the men. When the grenade landed amongst the infected the men dropped to the ground on the elevated helipad.
When the blast signified that they were clear to stand back up they found that the blast seemed to have done very little against the continuous stream of undead.
"Fucking hell, everyone chuck a frag!" Andrew barked. All of the men pulled grenades from their pouches, pulled pins and threw them at the crowd of infected and dropped down again. A much louder explosion followed after what seemed like an eternity when waiting for the detonation.
Getting back up they brought the carbines up and aimed at a mist of smoldering body parts and wiggling torsos.
"Yeah, fuck you!" David whooped.
Above them a loud whipping sound appeared out of nowhere, looking up they saw the Blackhawk coming in to land, the door gunner swiveling the M-134 around on the mount and aimed the six-barreled cannon at the infected that were going after the men.
The Gatling opened up, a stream of 7.62mm armour-piercing rounds ripped through the undead in seconds. Most were ripped apart while others became blood pudding.
Setting down on the helipad the pad itself creaked under the weight of the UH-60 and the lack of maintenance. Grabbing their packs and jumping in through the open door the men each clipped themselves into their seats as the gunner continued to spray lead back and forth across the small horde of infected that were now making their way onto the rooftop.
Seconds later the helicopter was lifting up and was then up in the air fifty feet above the undead as they swarmed the helipad.
"Like fuckin ants," John groaned as he sat back in his seat.
"Yeah, too bad we can't drop some heavy ordnance on that building and deal with them," David spoke up after a moment.
Andrew listened to the men talk back and forth as the helicopter flew over the city and back towards the coastline. It took them a good ten minutes to reach the coast before the helicopter was zipping over the ocean and back towards the island.
He thought about the infected they had seen in the hospital, he hadn't expected to see many runners as they had. Since the outbreak the sightings for 'runners' had decreased at it was assumed that they were either dying off or had started slowing down.
However now it didn't appear to be the case. What he had seen he doubt the others had seen, they seemed to have a dark red in their eyes and dark trails of blood running down their cheeks and through their noses too.
He didn't like the idea that they might have been exposed to another dangerous biohazard, good thing they decided to wear the MOPP suits then really. However they hadn't come into any direct contact with the infected and the items they brought back were clean of both blood and hadn't been exposed to any possible pathogens.
"This is Whiskey-One-Two, trying to contact Tokonosu control are you receiving me over?" the pilot hailed over the radio.
"This is Tokonosu Control we read you Whiskey-Two-One, status report over," the control tower requested.
Andrew removed his comms piece from his ear so he didn't have to listen to them talk back and forth. He has suddenly felt tired after such a short contact with the infected.
He hadn't been out in the field for a few weeks though since he now had other responsibilities back home. He felt as though he had gotten lazy with going back and forth between the people that now depended on him and working on training the men instead of actually being out in the field.
"Hey Andrew, look alive lad. Dempsey's on the field," John nudged him making him suddenly bolt upright in his seat. It was a good thing he had his safety harness on otherwise he would have shot up out of the seat and into the roof of the helicopters cabin.
On the ground was a squad of soldiers, undoubtedly United States Marines and a couple of SAS soldiers, along with a crew of mechanics waiting beside a fuel truck.
As the UH-60 set down on the tarmac of the helipad then men started removing their harnesses and slid across the cabin and out of the door onto the tarmac itself.
The men carried their packs individually as they approached the men that stood with Dempsey. As the team of four stood in front of the Colonel, the Marines and the other SAS troops it was clear that the soldiers didn't have an overall fondness of the 'men in black'.
And it came with good reason. Andrew's unit in the last two years had become a 'hunter-killer' unit, since the event two years ago on the bridge where Andrew had seen his best friend gunned down via a UAV he had free reign on what he and his unit did during operations.
He wouldn't just run around shooting up the streets, he wasn't that stupid. He was however wary of newcomers and when they did come across a hostile group of individuals or an infected they dealt with them swiftly and silently.
During an operation several months ago not long after the unit was reformed into the current four-man unit Dempsey and Souichirou Takagi had requested a video of the city from their perspective.
Filmed entirely with a Contour camera mounted on their helmets they had watched a supply run where Andrew and his team had come across an infected horde and dealt with them with extreme force.
However in Dempsey's eyes it made them more efficient at their jobs because now there were no boundaries from the politicians on what they could and couldn't do.
"How did it go then boys?" the colonel asked them as they started walking in the direction of multiple transports waiting for them.
"We couldn't get to the formula plans but we managed to retrieve a large amount of the medicine itself. Plenty of antibiotics and penicillin," John spoke up as the men started removing their masks and helmets.
Climbing into the trucks Dempsey pulled Andrew aside to speak with him privately.
"How did you do? Manage to find anything?" Dempsey asked him.
"Aye, a few odds and ends. I hope that they'll do for the time being," Andrew said.
Taking the items from Andrew's pack Dempsey held onto them for him as he returned to pack to the truck where the others were waiting on him.
He knew that Dempsey would keep them in his quarters until later on and hen that evening would bring them to his room where Andrew would keep them safe until the right time.
An hour later the men were sat in the medical examination ward being looked over by the doctors and their trainees, more doctors and nurses in training.
Andrew however was given access to a private booth where the students were not allowed to have access to. He just wanted a simple and quick check over before he could return back to the people he had missed the most over the last several hours.
As he sat on the medical examination table with his shirt off and wearing just his boots and combat pants he waited for the doctor to come take his blood sample. As he sat on the table idly staring into space he found himself looking in at the mirror directly across from him.
The scaring on his face had faded in recent months but that was mostly due to an excess amount of tanning out in the training fields. Plus a certain little girl in his life had applied a lot of make-up during playtime in the afternoon when he returned from the training fields.
The curtain beside him briefly opened and then closed as a figure walked into the medical wearing a clean white doctors jacket over top of a white t-shirt and blue jeans. He noted the black fabric holster on the woman's hip holding a Minebea P9 service pistol.
His attention now came off of the mirror and onto the nurse as she looked over the folder she held. His eye traced her movements around the small private medical examination booth until he knew she had stopped directly behind him because the hairs on the back of his neck were prickling.
"So then," the nurse began.
"How are we feeling today Sergeant Poynton?" she asked.
"Alright I guess, a wee bit of a stiff neck but aside from that im good," he replied honestly as he followed her movements around the room.
"Any aches or pains in the chest, arms or legs?" she asked him as she scribbled down notes.
"Nope, just a stiff neck," he said again.
"Any fevers, chills or head aches?" she asked.
"Nope. Feeling great and my breathing is good too," he replied and took in a lung full of air before exhaling.
"I see. Now then Sergeant im going to need to take a blood sample from you," she said as she set the board down on the table next to him with a selection of gloves and syringes and needles.
"Fuck me," he muttered quietly as the nurse went about fixing the needle to the plunger and emptied the plunger of air before she took a cotton bud, which she dabbed with a clear liquid and cleaned a spot on his hand where a vein was clear and slowly inserted the needle.
He felt a surge of adrenaline run through him and he looked away from the needle as the nurse withdrew the blood sample, he felt his shoulders shaking. He fucking hated needles with a passion and it clearly showed it.
The nurse lay a gentle hand on his shoulder once she extracted what she needed, "It's alright now Sergeant, it's all over," she said im a calming voice.
"Can we please just get this done with?" he asked quietly once she took the sample and capped the needle before it was sent off to be tested by another doctor.
"Now then Sergeant, is there anything you need before I leave?" the nurse asked him quietly.
"Yeah, I would really like to hold my wife in my arms right now," he replied honestly as he looked up at the nurse.
The nurse smiled at him as she stood in front of him, "Consider it done, Andrew-San," she said quietly in his ear and walked into his arms and she felt his arms wrap around her waist.
"I've missed you," he said quietly into her chest and she continued to stroke his hair.
"And I you my love," Shizuka Marikawa replied with a small tear in her eye.
They both stayed this way for a good ten minutes before Andrew finally calmed down enough to pull away from his wife's chest to look her in the eyes.
He chuckled slightly, "Uhh, sorry. Grief, it's only been about half a day and I nearly went mad without being with you," he said with a small smile looking her in the eyes.
"I know, I felt the same way. As did little Alice but I think Akane is none the wiser just yet," Shizuka said as she stood back as Andrew got off the table and stood upright and stretched.
"Yeah I guess she wouldn't be just yet. By the way before I forget how do the meds look that we brought back, are they alright?" he asked her as he picked up a clean black t-shirt and pulled it on over his shoulders before she could reply.
"On first examination the medicines all look to be in good condition. Though I think the others will want to know why you weren't able to retrieve the formula process of making them," she said as he walked over and put his arms around her waist.
"That's good news then. Anyway, if they start giving me shit about it I'll tell them they're welcome to go and get the documents next time," Andrew said quietly as he nuzzled Shizuka and she giggled slightly as he did this.
"Andrew-San not here, there are other people on the other side of the curtain," she whispered quietly in his ear.
"Well we'll just have to be quite then won't we," he whispered back to her as he kissed her gently at first before they both started to become friskier than before.
"Nurse Marikawa, are you about done in there?" a voice came from the other side of the curtain and I quickly step away from my wife but not until I give her another quick kiss on the cheek.
"Yes doctor, is everything okay?" she replied and a moment late the curtain was pulled open and a middle aged doctor wearing green scrubs walked in with his own chart.
"The blood samples from each of the men came back negative. You are all in the clear," the doctor said to Andrew directly with a smile as he removed his glasses.
"That's a relief anyway. I need to go get cleaned up and hand in my report to the colonel. See you later," Andrew said that last part to Shizuka as he give her a quick kiss on the cheek and a wink before leaving the cubical, leaving a very red faced Shizuka standing next to a smirking doctor.
Reports were finished and handed over to Colonel Dempsey that evening, the men didn't go into fine detail as to what occurred but they all collaborated that the stairwell was already teeming with the infected before they entered the medical wing for the medicines.
"Good job there lads, at least this covers you're arses. Now I've got to cover my own," the colonel said to the four man squad as he piled the reports together and set them aside on his desk in front of the men.
"Now then, is there anything to report on the infected?" the colonel asked.
"Most of them continue to show signs of highly aggressive movements towards the living. A few seemed to have either reverted back to being slow or no longer possess the ability to run. Aside from that they are dying, they just seem to be taking their fucking time doing so," John said from the back of the group.
"There was something I noticed though," Andrew said.
"Some of the infected, the runners, had blood trails coming from their eyes and nose. Don't know if it's another sign of the infection of maybe another disease but we never came into direct contact with them and we always wore our MOPP suits for safety," he explained.
"I'll inform the men in the science department about this news. Maybe they'll be able to draw up some conclusion as to what it might be," Dempsey replied.
"I bet a can of coke it was the infection mutating again," Joe spoke up.
"I bet a can of coke it might be a different disease altogether," David said a moment later.
"Right then, you're on," Joe said shaking hands with the other trooper.
When the time came for the men to leave Andrew noted that it was getting pretty late and he still had several stops to make before the night was over. But first thing was first; he wanted to see his kids tonight.
Walking through the facility he passed numerous troopers on stag, most were JSDF and replacements from civilian volunteers and a few were American. He nodded to them as he passed and greeted a few of them as he made his way out onto the tarmac where there are several M1025 Humvee's sitting, all lined up.
Past them are two black jeeps, taking the keys out his pocket for the one at the end of the line of trucks he sped across the island and was back on the civilian side of the island in just a few minutes.
On this side of the island he parked the vehicle next to another line of Humvee's and trucks. He was greeted by a pair of JSDF troopers doing their evening patrols when he arrived. He exchanged pleasantries with them before he left them to continue their duties.
When the survivors of Tokonosu were first evacuated there had been a long and difficult discussion about where they could be relocated. They couldn't be taken and plonked on just any island in the area because there wasn't except for the airport itself.
At first it was seen as a short-term solution while the military tried to clear up islands such as Okinawa and even the military base itself too. However it turned out to be an almost impossible task because it would require a large strike force and many hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition that they couldn't afford to waste anymore.
Luckily the airport had housing and accommodation for more that two thousand people between flights where they could rest or sleep until their next plane was due to depart.
Walking into the terminal building he found that even at such a later hour there were many people still wandering the building, keeping busy and just gathering together and talking with one another.
He showed his military I.D to the SAT guards on the door and they allowed him through. Another thing he liked about the separation of the military and civilian buildings was that this area was controlled by the police instead than the military.
"Hey! Andrew-San!" someone shouted to him. Looking around he saw Tajima Hirakawa jogging over towards him with a few stragglers behind him, the stragglers being Takashi Komuro and Kohta Hirano.
"Tajima, lads," he greeted them as they stopped in front of him.
"How've you been man? Haven't seen you in days," Tajima said shaking his hand.
"Busy all over the place mate. Working either in the motor pool or helping out where ever they send me too," he said as he watched Takashi and Kohta drink from water bottles they had on their persons.
"Hey, you haven't forgotten what day it is tomorrow have you?" Tajima asked him quietly away from the others.
"The hell I have buddy, got what I needed all safe and sound," Andrew replied.
"Good. Listen, we've got to get going but I just wanted to catch up with you quickly before we went on duty," Tajima said as he got the two lads attention and they started over towards him.
"Okay bud no worries. Tell the lads to keep frosty and morning will come before they know it," Andrew said with a smile and he looked at the boys and he could tell they weren't ready for an eight hour long stag.
"Hey don't be like that otherwise you'll be on it for another eight hours. I used to be on stag for a good twenty-four hours at a time before I got a piss break, consider yourselves lucky," he told them and laughed as they groaned.
The thing that the kids won't realise that until they go out on an actual operation is that you do get do have a piss break, you just have to lay still where ever you are posted and piss yourself there and then. That's what Andrew used to have to do in places like Afghanistan, Iraq and Sierra Leone.
Walking through the terminal he passed a couple of civvies as they went about they're evening business; he nodded to them as he made his way towards the housing apartments.
His family had two rooms, both of which were directly across from each other for safety reasons and his friends had the rooms on either side of those rooms also.
He noticed that the door to his friend's room was open and inside he could hear metal clinking. Walking across the pass between his room and the open door looking inside he could see Rika Minami fiddling with a pistol at her small work bench with a lamp on over head.
"Hey," he called quietly to her and she looked up from the gun to the door and smiled when she saw him.
"Hey Andrew-San, how are you doing?" she asked as she stood up from the bench and walked over to hug him.
"Got a bit fuckin' hairy but we got what we needed. Even a few bits for tomorrow," he said to her and she smiled, relieved.
"Thank god for that, I was worried that you wouldn't be able to find him anything," Rika replied as she walked back into the room and looking back and forth Andrew followed her inside.
"Yeah, me too," Andrew said as he walked inside and sat down on the large king sized bed.
"Are you alright Andrew-San?" she asked sincerely.
"Aye just tired. Going to spend some time with the kids tonight and then I'll bring the things over in the morning," he told her.
"Right then," he started "I better go get those things wrapped up ready for the morning, I'll be around in the morning," he said as he stood up. The pair quickly shared another hug before he left and walked across the void to his own room. Stopping outside the door he put his ear to it and could hear a couple of voices inside.
He smiled to himself for a moment before he knocked on the door and waited for an answer.
"Hello? Who is it?" came a small voice from inside.
"Alice-Chan, it's daddy," he said quietly and suddenly he heard running footsteps and a giggle from an adult.
The door swung open and Alice Maresato, now Poynton/Marikawa, stood wearing her yellow Pickachu onesie. Inside he could see Akane sitting with Shizuka in her own little white onesie and smiling as he picked up Alice and hugged her close.
"What you little monkey's been up to today then eh?" Andrew asked Alice as she giggles.
"Not much daddy, just coloring books and movies," Alice said as he looked over at Shizuka and she smirked a little and by her she averted her eyes he knew what she was thinking about.
"Really? Movies huh, which ones have you been watching tonight then eh?" he asked her as he set her down next to Akane and he got down on his knee's in front of her and smiled at her and she giggled.
"Um, well, mommy let us watch Jurassic Park," Alice said and Andrew nearly laughed out loud.
"Oh good grief. Nightmares tonight then for the little one," Andrew sighed as he peeked up at Akane with Shizuka as the little girl giggled to herself.
"I don't think so actually, she enjoyed it very much so. She even, well I think she cheered when the man on the toilet got eaten by the T-Rex," Shizuka said to him.
"Give over, really?" he asked with surprise.
"Yeah, then we watched the Lego movie," Alice spoke up and I nearly fell over. I peer at Shizuka and she knowingly smirks at me but acts like there nothing to it.
"I'm surprised you haven't burnt that DVD yet," he said as he stood up and walked around the bed towards his desk where Dempsey had kept his work and delivered the items in question to his room.
"The colonel brought those over earlier. He even brought some wrapping paper for you too," Shizuka said to him as he sat down and stared wrapping the books and the coffee up.
Coffee was one of the few items on the island that had to be rationed because there was so little of it to go around and lately Andrew had noticed his friend had been a bit under the weather, hell hadn't everyone really with a caffeine withdrawal, and knew straight away that if he found any he would be bringing it directly to his buddy.
"How's Jim doing today?" he asked Shizuka as the two children watched some anime on the plasma screen television on the wall.
"Well, when he found out that you had gone out to the city of course he became concerned about you. But I told him not to worry because no matter what happens you'll always come back to us," she replied as she stood behind him as he tried his best to wrap the presents.
"You need any help at all?" Shizuka whispered in his ear closely and she knew it had an effect because he stopped moving his hands and she felt a shiver run through him.
"I'm alright thank you," he replied quietly and he peeked around to look at her and smiled.
It was well after midnight by the time Andrew was finished wrapping the presents. Both of the children had gone to bed a few hours before, he had seen the girls Saeko, Rei and Saya as they too were heading to bed but they spent a bit of time with Alice and Akane before they retired for the evening.
Andrew hadn't seen Jim at all tonight and he felt bad. Tomorrow was an important day for the man and Andrew didn't want to mess it up for him, he just hoped he had done good by his friend for once.
Climbing into bed Andrew knew he had to be up early in hopes of catching Jim. Even after so many years Jim had been waking up in the middle of the night, still on the old internal clock for when he worked EMS and later as a fire fighter.
He remembered one night a few months back and many times before after the island became their new home he would get up in the might himself after becoming restless and would find Jim wandering the halls and the terminal at night. At times he was worried about his friend because at times he walked as though he was in a daze at didn't know what he was doing.
"Hey, you okay?" Shizuka asked him as he lay staring at the ceiling.
"Hmm? Oh yeah, just thinking," he replied as she slid into bed next to him and he pulled her close and she lay a hand across his chest.
"Penny for you're thoughts," Shizuka said and Andrew smiled at the comment.
"You know me enough by now sweetie, just thinking about Jim," he told her honestly.
"Because of what day it is tomorrow?" she asked after a minute.
"That amongst other things but there's nothing really to be worried about," he told her as honestly as possible.
'At least nothing at the moment' he thought to himself sadly.
They lay together for a little while, happy to be in each others company.
"Oh I forgot to tell you, I saw Jimu-San a little while ago," Shizuka suddenly said.
"Yeah? How was he?" he asked her suddenly perking up.
"He was good. He's spent the day with Tajima-San on the range. The said they had been trying out those, uhh im not sure what you call them. They're like paintballs," she said waving her hand in the air.
"Simunition, yeah. Well even though we're not even close to being short where we can't plink off a few bullets it's probably best they use them up first if it was just plinking targets," Andrew said.
"Hmm, he said that he wanted to do it again tomorrow," she told him.
He chuckled as he thought about Jim the first time they went on the range using M-4's with Simunition. It had been both painful and educational. But at the same time Andrew had been the biggest prick in the world to the man that in the end helped Andrew when he was ill and he had taken him for granted.
"I'll go speak to Rika about it tomorrow, get the things we need sorted from the stores," he said to Shizuka before he snuggled further into bed.
"Ahh, too tired to have any fun with me tonight?" Shizuka teased him as she got close to him as she whispered.
"Last time we had some 'fun' together we had a daughter, remember?" Andrew teases her and smiles.
"So, you don't have any…?" she leaves the question hanging and twirls her hand around.
"Nope," he says dead palm and her smiles fades.
"Just went to the hospital and you didn't think on stocking up?" she asks.
He knew right away that he would be spending the night on the couch unless he came up with an alternative right away. He knew that Shizuka had had a day of it herself like himself and they both needed to relieve some of the tension.
"Well, there are alternatives," he said and her interest suddenly perked up.
The next morning he showered thoroughly and took hot mouthfuls of water before spitting it out and repeating the process several more times before he decided he was as clean as he was going to get.
'Never again' he thought to himself.
'Oh come now, you can't say that you didn't enjoy it the least bit?' another voice creeped upon him making him stop brushing his teeth.
"Nope," he said quietly to himself as he carried on brushing.
'Ha! You're a pretty good liar you know. I wonder what would happen if the others all found out you're little secret' the voice came back.
He froze as his imagination was running amok.
'Sooner or later they're going to find out. It'll just be a matter of if you tell them or they have to find out for yourself' it said before he felt the weight being lifted and he knew that he was alone.
This split personality or consciousness must have been from the injuries he sustained in 2007 because he never had this issue before.
"Im just imagining that thing. I'm alright, there is nothing wrong with me," he said to himself quietly as he finished brushing his teeth and left the bathroom.
In the bedroom Andrew found Shizuka still asleep in bed, all tired and from the smile on her face she had defiantly had her fill of fun the previous night.
Looking up at the clock on the wall he knew he had to hurry now. It was getting on and he couldn't wait around. Jim was always awake at six o'clock in the morning and from that point remained up for the rest of the day.
It was five fifty-five when he was dressed and ready with the presents for his friend. Today was his birthday and he still hated himself for forgetting it last year, this year he made sure that he had something for the man.
In the hallway beside every door to each room was a mailbox where if the occupants were either military or were civilians and given work permits they would be placed in these boxes along with other letters of importance.
As quietly as possible he opened the lid of the box and slid the books and coffee packets inside along with a hand written note he wrote the night before.
Shizuka had later told him once the books had been dropped off at the room some of them were from a popular manga series called 'Oh My Goodness!' and from what she had heard from Kohta they were categorized for Romance, Fantasy and Fantasy and revolved around Celtic and Norse mythology.
Did that mean Thor from the Avengers was in the books or something?
Closing the lid he heard movement from inside the room. Not wanting to be caught he quickly slipped back inside his room and held down the door handle so as he pulled it too nobody would hear it close.
He waited by the door, keeping it shut too as much as possible, as he heard either Jim or Rika come out of the room and open the lid of the mailbox.
"What the?" he heard Jim mutter from outside as he heard the rustling of the wrapped up packages being removed. He heard what sounded like paper being opened and a moment later he heard Jim chuckle.
"Why that son of a gun," he heard Jim say quietly after a minute before he heard the man go back inside his room, closing the door behind himself.
"Happy Birthday buddy," Andrew said quietly before returning to the bed to be beside Shizuka.
Author's Note: Whilst working with FiremanJim on the original series "Last Alarm" i knew that my friends birthday was coming up so i decided to do this story but as a secret for him. Though his birthday was last month i already gave him this story via a PM several weeks ago. Hope you all enjoyed this story and please be kind with comments as this is my first attempt at fan-fiction and i have never done anything like this before.
These characters will return in 2016/2017 in my own story "Last Alarm Damnation", even now as i work with Mr. F.M.J on the original series i will be taking time to work on my own projects.