Chapter Zero, The Prelude
When the plague of darkness fell onto the world, sanity quickly fled into the complete darkness that the earth was turning into. Lapses of insanity constantly showed in those who tried to hold on to what the past used to be. Those who adapted to this twisted dimension that this earth had become were thriving in the horrors of death and decay, although all their moral values and what makes them human quickly vanished…
"It all started a little more than three years ago." A master sergeant assigned to the 3rd chemical corps division during this time, Ryan Hubari, expressed with a slight movement of his arms. He had a muscular build standing slightly over six feet two inches. His hair was grayed from the stress of many years of constant battle prior to our countries first contact with the infected. His rugged dark body and war worn face is riddled full of scars from each battle he fought in, making him look like the grand canyon with all of the wondrous crevices that are beheld in it.
"My unit was a small part of a joint operation. I was attached and put in charge of a small platoon of sixteen soldiers. There were two other similar platoons, and both were chemical regiments from the armies in Europe and Russia." He said as he pointed to a small desolate area about twenty clicks from Pretoria in South Africa, on the simple map lying on the charred stump in front of him.
"Our mission was to gather information on an obscure outbreak that was spreading in this area. We were given almost no knowledge on the situation, we were told to observe… A reconnaissance mission…" His deep soothing voice slowly drifts away.
Strongly he returns and starts "No one could have guessed the situation down there, maybe if we had we could have stopped all this before it spread so damn fast. When our regiment discovered the exact effects of this outbreak, it was too damn widespread for any number of soldiers to be able to quarantine. The government did nothing to warn the civilians either when they knew what the hell was going on! Maybe they were distracted with the ongoing reccession that has been the topic of most newspapers and informational broadcasts, that is still no excuse for not giving warnings to the civilians!" He exclaimed in a tone full of frustration.
"So many good men of my unit in the first week after landing "died"." At this point in our conversation his fingers outlined the famous air quotes used for sarcasm in speach for those they beleive are to dull to understand it otherwise. "So many men that had families and children… Lives that they would have come back too... Command tried to cover it all up as if we encountered some damn Swahili hostiles and they managed to destroy most of our fucking team! When we were retreating, only a small portion of the force, including me, remained... We then pulled back and requested an evacuation. Little did we know that we were taking part in bringing the infection to our home… Neither did the other regiments who pulled out before the metaphorical dam burst and all of those fuckers flood through." He explained with much resentment, the sun slowly sets behind him setting the sky ablaze in a blood red fury.
Chapter One, The Beginning
07:20, Missouri, chemical corps base.
"You can choose sixteen of the most skilled soldiers you know in the entire division, I have a classified mission for you and those you choose." Brigadier General Zach Howard, Commander of the 361st chemical regiment stated to me. Softly I sigh knowing that, since he is my regimental commander, I can't refuse a mission assigned to me by him.
A slender build, five feet seven inches, his graying hair would allow me to place him, if I had to throw a wild guess, at the age of forty two. A lack of scars on his visage shows one of two things to me. One could be a prowess in battle that well surpasses my own, or the other showing a complete lack of any contact to a hostile force. I would agree with the later. He constantly looks around with bright green eyes, a light reddish color spreading from the pupil to the iris, meticulously at his surroundings trying to decipher something that he and no one else can see.
"Yes sir, what kind of mission do you have in mind so I can choose the men best suited for this task?" I asked while quizzically looking at him and what he constantly shifts his gaze to trying to pierce that invisible shroud that must be covering this strange, mysterious dream world that only he can lay his eyes upon.
"Sergeant Hubari, this is not a complicated procedure, a simple recon on a viral outbreak, located in the rural slums of South Africa. Don't interfere or interact with the local fauna or natives unless pulled directly into this epidemic in some way that I can't even conceive this to even possibly happen. I urge you on this matter, do NOT come into contact with the locals or the infected unless by utmost necessity, we don't want any foreign disease traveling home with your team, do we son?" He says in an attempt to distract me from his slight loss in temperament while trying to tell me the rules of engagement that regulate this mission. "You have done several such missions before, that is why I chose you, is it not?"
"Yes sir, not at all unlike other missions I've been assigned, it will be done." I respond monotone to him showing my overall lack of interest in what he is saying.
"It better be sergeant, you have two days and the plane is scheduled to leave with or without all of your men. You will be briefed on the flight down to the Iotian basin. The viral outbreak is spreading at a slow, but rapidly increasing rate. At the moment it is ten kilometers south of the drop zone."
After a few minutes of in-depth thinking, I write up a quick list of items that should be essential to the task at hand. Requesting General Howard's signature so there is no doubt to the urgency of the time hack I must make. I quickly move to get the equipment muttering under my breath "Stupid fucking officers…" After the last of the equipment is placed near the pick-up zone I return to my quarters and settle down for some R&R before the upcoming mission.
10:25, Somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean…
Day 1
As I start to listen to Lieutenant Colonel Martinez, my battalion commander, I begin to hear her brief over the C-140's engine. I look at her frantically moving arms as she explains it as she attempts to keep her balance in the unusual pattern of flight and air quality. I begin to notice very minute details about her that allot of other people, including the soldiers on the plane would not have enough attention to detail to recognize.
She was about 5'4", a medium build with long dark brown hair curled into a tight bun and lovely colored deep brown eyes with a dark red ring around the pupil that enhances her young facial features. Looking her from top to bottom I notice that she appears very young for a high ranking officer, appearing only about the age of 27. In the wild attempts for her to keep her balance, I notice that she must be clumsy as I have not felt a huge change to the weather yet. My gaze trails to her moving hands as she uses them in obscure hand gestures most likely no one on this plane knows what the hell means I notice on her left hand on the ring finger there is a white band of flesh amidst the rest of the her tan skin meaning that most likely she got a recent divorce or she is a widow.
I pull my calculating gaze from her as I listen to the brief while I quietly look at the soldiers that are all going to be under my charge in this mission, and triple checking the checklist of equipment for the drop. Catching herself on the seat of one of the enlisted men during a moment of sudden turbulence, she continues embarrassedly in her brief at "The terrain between the red zone and your drop zone is rough and jagged but where you all are being dropped is a place that will have many vital resources to your mission, wildlife in abundance, and a waterfall of clear almost bacteria-free water. We received this Intel from a friendly European platoon that is on the same sort of mission as us. I strongly believe that that should be your base of operations." Lieutenant Colonel Martinez continued directly to me. "We have very little information on this virus, all we know is that anyone infected turns into a savage cannibalistic beast with no control or care to who or what they are harming. We know nothing of how this virus travels through the system, beyond the simple information that it seems to be through contact, and not being air or waterborne; your mission is a simple surveillance and reconnaissance to find the answers to these questions. Now, do any of you fine soldiers have any questions for me?"
In unison all of the soldiers respond with a simple response "No mam!" Except for one, the supposed brainiac of the bunch, the regimental dumbass, Second Lieutenant Solano asks "Mam, are you forgetting any details?"
With half of the NCO's muttering under their breaths "Fucking stupid ass officers..." I quietly respond to his question before the Commander has to respond to it, "Sir, don't question the Colonel, if she didn't cover something than it isn't an important part of our mission."
Silently he lowers his head in defeat as she says looking at me thankfully with those luscious brown eyes "I will leave you and your team to your preparations master sergeant, I expect this mission to be a success and I want an After Action and Disease Classification report when you return." She leaves the room as we enter the airspace over South Africa.
16:00, 11,000 feet above the Iotian basin
"This is a standard H.A.L.O jump procedure; we are going to exit the plane in five minutes. Jumping and opening our chutes about 200 feet above the ground, roughly 17 seconds after the beginning of our descent. When the reach the ground, we will then regroup and traverse the terrain towards the terrain to the designated outpost area decided by the Battalion Commander. We will then set up our base and plan our stage of operations. Any questions?" I asked my small platoon of soldiers.
Corporal Vanderpool, a young man, blonde hair, and distinctive gray eyes, roughly 19, maybe 20 years of age and of a slender build with a young boyish face questioned me of the purpose of the jump. All records of his past missions I pulled up on him before I selected him for this mission stated that he was a very upcoming kid. He has been on two tours to Iraq. his unit going through a market place on a search and destroy mission for a high valued target that was an important leader in Al-Qaeda. Expecting the element of surprise to be on their side, his platoon was relatively not in a "stealth is priority mindset".
A quarter of the way through the mission they were under intense sniper fire. Quickly everyone dropped under cover, but there was a soldier out still in the open screaming in pain from a bullet wound cut clean through his chest. Blood seeping onto the ground, the private was trying to crawl into cover but was having enemy advance that passed him… Removing his weapons, they planned to take him as a captive! As Vanderpool saw this he sprinted into the enemy fire quickly gunning down four of them that were trying to lay cover fire for the two carrying off the soldier. Wounded by four shots into his lower abdomen, he continued his advance.
After he fired a round quickly into one of the Haji's heads, and a few more into the other's chest, they dropped the soldier. Stooping down into a fire mans carry; Corporal Vanderpool then carried the wounded private out of enemy fire and harm. The high value target was later found to be one of the men trying to carry away that wounded soldier. Corporal Vanderpool was awarded the Bronze Star for Valor for his extraordinary bravery in the face of harm and the adherence to the untold rule, Mission, Men, Myself.
"Sergeant, why a H.A.L.O jump procedure, isn't this just a simple reconnaissance mission? Also, haven't these sort of jumps been stopped after a series of events that led to the deaths of several rangers?" Corporal Vanderpool calmly asks.
With a quick, reassuring response I state, "Our mission is a classified one, nothing that happens here will ever be written down or told to ANYONE besides our superiors. This will NOT be spread by any of you soldiers, or by anyone else. Also, like General Howard told me, this mission is better accomplished if no one knew we were here. No more questions, it's time for the jump." I calmly sever the conversation whilst positioning myself for the jump.
As I watch the landscape whizzing quickly by roughly 10 miles from the drop zone, I See dark smoke on the horizon from the direction of the red zone. I nonchalantly comment to my team as I point in the direction of the red zone. "You see that? It looks like they are disposing of the infection themselves."
"Jump zone entering in twenty seconds. Over." The pilot of the C-140 says of the crackly static of the radio head-set.
Readying myself for the jump, I slowly exhaled and inhaled counting to four breaths, and with a quick lunge, I dive out of the plane and into the light blue sky, slowly I begin to free-fall towards the ground. The wind whistles through my ears and flaps my combat uniform against my body. Ten, I counted in my head as the ground rapidly closes up on me. Eight, the waterfall becomes clearer and wildlife begins to enter close enough to be seen by my vision range. Six, the ground rapidly comes closer, and becomes dangerously close to wait deployment of my parachute. I pull the chord and my chute whips quickly behind me as it fills up with the flowing air, catching it and in a quick snapping motion my body is jerked to a slow fall.
Slowly, surveying the surroundings as I drift towards the ground, I see a small clearing to the east, one click rom the waterfall. Gently the ground envelops me and I release my chute and begin to survey my team as they slowly drift towards the ground. I can tell that four released prematurely. "Damn, that will cost us some time we could have used to set up position." I quietly mutter to myself.
Sitting on a fallen tree stump, slightly charred as if it was felled by a great lightning bolt from Thor's mighty hammer Mjolnir itself. I do a quick equipment check of my personal equipment to make sure nothing important was lost during the jump. I form up the team into a tactical formation and march them towards the clearing near the designated outpost I had spotted on the way down to the ground.
Setting up base from roughly 18:00-20:00, I quickly set a watch, requesting for our presence to go as little known as possible. The team agreed to the wisdom of this decision and they settled down for the night, sleeping well for the knowledge of our patrol keeping watch a good quarter mile perimeter.
06:20 Iotian Basin, South Africa
Day 2
Waking up just as the sun rises; I lay in my one man tent for a good five minutes before I roll out of it slowly. Having the fireguard wake up the rest of the team, I begin to fall them in. After giving them an adequate ten minutes, I fall them in, take attendance, and relay to them to check ammunition and their weapons for problems and malfunctions. Looking over at a ridge facing towards the red zone, I fall them out to do maintenance while waiting for further instruction. I tell the platoon sniper, Sergeant Jane Bell, and her spotter, Private First Class Cody Thiry to follow me onto the ridge.
A small fiery redheaded woman with bright green eyes, and a very slim, but muscular build, Sergeant Bell stands at a little over 5 feet and two inches. Throwing a wild guess I place her at about one hundred and twenty pounds, a majority of that being lean muscle. She was chosen for sniper school from shooting Hawk-eye during her basic training marksmanship qualification with her M-16 and getting high BRM out of her company. Graduating at the top of her class in sniper school, she was the honor graduate of her class. The M-24 slung over her shoulder with a high powered telescopic sight is a high grade rifle with a bolt-action with a rotary cylinder revolver loading mechanism for firing. The high grade silencer attached and her scope being the main signs of her training and her favored classification of weapons and tactics, high caliber and long range.
"Sergeant Bell, This ridge is a good line of vision with a near overview the majority of the way towards the red zone. I want you to watch this opening, in an hour and a half the team will advance on and approach the red zone to try to get a recon of the extent and the effects of the virus. I will stay here so I can contact command and radio connection between each team."
"Why must I watch this area? Is this not an enemy free area? I don't believe we should have contact or problems with the local natives, or from the other chemical corps platoons that are doing the same mission as us." She asks me quizzingly with her light melodic voice fueling a tiny inner fire I feel when she speaks.
"This virus… It turns men… women… even children into mindless cannibalistic savages; we need to have eyes on the red zone at all times. Even if one of them gets into our camp and somehow infects one of this, that is a breach in protocol and the rules of engagement of this area. I don't think this safety precaution is too much to ask for, is it?" I respond with a slight wink causing her to have a grin spread onto her face with those luscious lips making her evergreen eyes shine even brighter.
"Of course sir, I will keep this area clear and if anything happens of any way, you will be the first to know." She replies and begins to set up her post as I walk back to camp with my AA-12, an assault shotgun firing twelve gauge shells in a rotary cylinder with a twenty round drum magazine attached. Pure stopping power is what I like to call it, the fastest firing military issued assault shotgun with 360 rounds per minute.
Doing a quick maintenance check on the weapons and equipment of the soldiers on my team and the radios the team captains were issued, I begin a brief to tell the soldiers what I am trying to accomplish today with their help. "This is only a surveillance mission, no contact with the infected or natives unless you are forced too. In the effect of being attacked by one of the effected or an inhabitant of the area, dispose of them quietly and do not announce your presence to anyone, each team will arrive back at the base at 16:00. Roughly nine hours from this time." I tell my platoon in an assured voice.
"Alpha team, you will flank the red zone on the west, effectively five clicks from this position to the south west. Set up a perimeter, do not interfere with anything. Lay low, stay quiet. I expect a debrief at 17:00 on all occurrences during your patrol." I tell the team of three soldiers assigned to that team.
"Bravo team, you will flank the zone to the east, roughly two clicks from this position. Everything I said for alpha goes for you and Charlie as well, lay low, don't give us away. I expect a debrief at 16:30." I pronounce to the team of these three soldiers.
"Charlie team, you are the most stealth oriented group and the one I assigned for the more under cover task, due to your teams prior experience with stealth operations, You will go completely behind the lines of the red zone to try to collect more data about this virus." I request of the small group of three soldiers.
"Yes master sergeant," The Motivated leader of Charlie team responded. Staff sergeant William Grant, he has a heavy, broad shouldered build that was ideal for his position in college as a linebacker on the Oregon State university college football team. His lustrous raven black hair and bright green eyes set him apart from a majority of the team.
"Delta team, you are tasked with patrol of our current perimeter. A simple task but still vital none the less to our missions success." I stated to the last four on the final team.
"Team leaders, take charge of your teams and accomplish your assigned missions." I ordered the teams as my radio began to go haywire.
"Sergeant Hubari, I have spotted something that you are most likely going to want to see… Do you copy?" A shaken high pitch female voice slowly, nervously, says through the straight black radio. The voice I recognize to be Sergeant Bell.
"I copy; I am on my way sergeant, out." I replied to her as the teams begin to move out to their designated tasks assigned to them.
07:20, Ridge south of Iotian Basin, South Africa.
As I slowly reach the summit of the ridge, I see both the PFC Hiry and Sergeant Bell lying in the prone position looking outwards over the red zone. I crouch down and whisper into Bell's ear as I slowly lay my hand onto her upper back. "What did you call me here for?"
"Master sergeant, you may as well see yourself, since I cannot even begin to describe what it is I am looking at. Roughly two hundred meters away near the clearing on the left side." She shakily replies to me as I feel her body trembling slightly.
Slowly taking the pair of binoculars from her spotter, I begin the acquisition of her target as the binoculars slowly focus. A slow slumping woman walks with a wounded gait toward our direction. Five feet, three inches, short ragged black hair, and dark lifeless bloodshot silver eyes with a fixed location glare at our position. A bite mark from god knows what has dark brown congealed blood surrounding the open wound on her upper right wrist leaving broken bone jaggedly ripping through the skin. A few holes that look precariously like bullet wounds line her body in a few vital areas, mainly the heart and chest region. Blood covers her mouth filled with broken yellow, bloodstained teeth. Her meager garments of tattered clothing has blood stains around her upper chest area as if she was a fairly messy child had been eating with her hands and food dropped precariously from her mouth.
Gently the wind shifts towards us as I smell the strong sickly sweet stench of decay and decomposing flesh, and hear a deep throated moan that begins to reverberate as it passes through the forest. She continues to slowly stumble in our direction and from watching her walk she looks to have a twisted ankle, tending to favor her left foot as her right drags lazily on the ground behind her. Continuing that mindless quest to get to us, and not even removing those lifeless staring eyes from us to survey the terrain that makes her trip over the ground every couple steps.
"What is wrong with her sir?" Sergeant Bell asks me with a quiet, genuinely afraid tone as the rifles barrel starts to quiver slightly giving it a personification of fear, the same that sounds in Sergeant Bell's voice.
As I watch the disturbing and creepy sight that I am witnessing, the woman still tries to make her slow progress to us, I respond with a simple response "That, my dear, I believe is our first contact with the infected."
"Wha-what do you think I should do sir?" She questioned hesitantly of me, looking directly in my eyes with those light green eyes that I find so unique.
I quietly think to myself that this is completely out of the ordinary; the Sergeant Bell that I know never takes her eyes off of a potential danger, NEVER. She must be afraid of this thing, whatever it is… "Fire a warning shot at her. That should be an obvious sign for it that it's not welcome here." I replied quietly to her and watched as she smoothly adjusts her sights to 180 meter. I reacquire the target through the binoculars as I watch the targets slow gambling gait. I give the signal to fire and watch as the round passes directly over her left shoulder. Her movement neither slows, nor does she even read that anything just happened, let alone a round passing directly next to her head. Slowly that shambling gait continues unrelenting, as if a woman possessed.
"Fire a shot into her lower leg…" I ordered Sergeant Bell, thinking that a minor injury might send this thing into a retreat, or at least slow its progress. I continue to watch the scene unfold calculatingly thinking of everything I can possible take note of. I ready the signal to fire again and the near silent bottle cap noise of the silencer muffles the noise of the rifle being fired. As the round passes its route, it penetrates her previously non-injured left leg cleanly as she still continues that increasingly frustrated gait. A slight stumble is the only reaction from the bullet entering her leg, no semblance of pain, or fear shows on her face. Inspecting the would itself shows no bleeding, almost as if the dark, thick congealed blood lay dormant within her veins themselves.
"What the fuck is that thing…" I heard the beautiful, normally strong willed sniper shakily and quietly mutter as the stench of death comes closer. Watching her, I see the muzzle of the rifle slightly shake; a small expression of fear and disgust is on her face and shows me that this sight has shaken this woman of steels nerves. Slowly rubbing her upper back to calm her I whisper in her ear, "Aim for its heart, take that abomination of human nature out of the world." I quietly order her. Steadied by the calming sensation from my hand, she quietly reacquires the target and fires. The round hits and remains in her chest cavity. No blood flows from this wound, even though it was a direct arterial wound to the heart. When the round hits she staggers from the force of the bullet but does not react in any other way.
"What the fuck!" Sergeant Bell frustratingly shrieks as she begins to push herself up in a surrendering gesture. "God damn it! What the fuck is going on; is this some cruel sick joke? Nothing human, I don't care what fucking virus they have, NO human can be alive after a hit like that, let alone fucking shambling in our damned direction!" She franticly tells me, nervously wringing her sleight wrists.
"Whether or not, that putrid monstrosity needs to be put down in some way… She has spotted our position and by the looks of it, she isn't going to stop her slow advance any time soon. We have to find out how to stop it or it will completely make our mission out of the set regulations that was given to us by our regiment commander, along with endangering the mission itself." I reason with her, looking in the infected direction, I take note that it has only traveled fifty meters in the whole two minutes that this event has so far taken. The deep throated moaning still unceasingly sounds as the infected woman advances closer on our position.
"What do you want me to do sir?" She hesitatingly asks me of her, trusting my judgment fully in this matter.
"Aim for what they taught you in sniper school, the "Vital T". When I give you the signal to fire, aim for the head." I calmly request of Sergeant Bell, with a slightly wavering voice.
"Yes sir..." She replies hesitantly and slowly. As she carefully adjusts her sights, I realize that the previously thriving sounds from the myriad of wildlife has completely ceased. As if they knew of the danger of this bestial monstrosity and fled from harm.
I slowly look back into the lenses of the binoculars, and set my vision on the putrid ghoul still trying to advance on our position. I sound the signal to fire quietly. The round penetrates into the center of her forehead, jerking her head backwards and carrying the rest of her body, dropping her like a rock. The moaning then ceased, and the corpse did not stir.
"Excellent shot sergeant, keep watch on the ridge, aim for the head, and if any more infected come, shoot to kill." I calmly request of her as I pat her back softly before I leave to radio Command to tell them of the information we have to classify this disease.
10:00, South of the red zone, Staff Sergeant William Grant
"We are in position team, start the blockade of the road. If anyone interferes, we have permission from Master Sergeant Hubari to put them down." I calmly tell Charlie team.
Corporal Byrne, five feet and three inches, lean, dark blonde hair and deep blue eyes was the sharp shooter of the team. Watching for contact as me and Private Donlin begin to set up a perimeter, he begins to set his position, watching our six. As we slowly close the gap between us and the red zone, we start to see the cause of the dark thickening smoke that hazes the air quality. Instead of burning pyres of corpses as we expected, it was buildings that had been in turn, set alight. Beginning to set the blockade up with trees that we felled, we build a loose wall spreading the width of the road, about half a foot in thickness, and four feet up.
"Team, we are going to now continue the next part of the mission Master Sergeant Hubari has given us. A bit more than a simple reconnaissance from this distance, we are going to travel into the red zone. I want to see what the hell is going on in there." I order my team over the hushed silence.
"Cover my right flank and six Byrne, and Donlin, cover my left flank. Be as quiet as possible; do not announce our presence for any cause. Any confrontations deal with it swiftly and we will retreat from there." I request this of my team as we slowly advance onto the charred landscape that begins to form the red zone. Entering the blackened burnt ground, I realize there is absolutely no noise besides the hissing crackle of the flames. The farther we traverse into the area, the more visible struggles we can see have happened. Blackened, charred bones with bits of crisp flesh lay upon the ground in countless numbers.
Few buildings were not burnt to their foundations, or even set ablaze. Those few that were not inconveniently set afire were boarded up in a hasty manner, as if the inhabitants had almost no warning or notice prior, and quickly barricaded their homes in fear of invasion and a slaughter like the ones we witnesses with bones wildly broken and thrown about. Two of the homes that were barricaded in that simple manner had the wood over the windows torn out and stripped. Broken planks laying shattered into toothpicks and sawdust lay on the ground besides the window causes it to leave a gaping hole into the relative blackness. That hole going into the darkness calls to me, beckoning for some unknown resolve to be discovered.
"Corporal Byrne, you're with me, we are going to search this building. Private Donlin, stand watch, and make sure nothing takes us from behind." I quickly assign the team members positions.
I steadily and carefully climb through the window into the building. When I reach the ground on the other side, I quickly turn the flashlight attached to my M-16A2 on. My heart beats fast as I survey the room. Simple wooden walls built of the same material as the blockade. A thick door on the right leading outside was hastily blocked and barricaded with furniture. On the left connects a door-less hallway.
I silently signal to Corporal Byrne to get into a kneeling position with sights down the hall. He quietly obeys and a look of revulsion passes over as he looks down the hall. Quickly I look down the hall with the light I see a humanoid corpse sprawled on the ground in an uncomfortable position. Bite marks littering the skin that must have been flawless before. Flesh torn off in sporadic patterns covers its extremities and neck. I motion to the corporal to keep his sights down the hall as I inspect the body closer. He gladly agrees to this proposition, I can tell that he is uncomfortable near the dead.
I slowly move progressively through the hall, the sickening rotting sickly sweet stench of decomposition slowly begins to fill my nostrils. Looking at the walls around the corpse shows a deathly struggle that was finished by a blood loss from several wounds where the flesh was ripped to the bone. The body's blood still flowing from the wounds coats the floor with a slippery red film. As I got closer to the corpse, I could tell that it was a young African girl, around the age of six. As I slowly edge my way closer to her limp body I notice the shadow of a tall human slowly limping towards me issuing a loud moan that I could feel emanating from the depths of hell itself. So piercing was the incessant moaning I quickly turn the light onto the noise.
An older black man, white hair, and very obese, probably close to three hundred and fifty pounds glares at me with those lifeless blackened eyes staring into the depths of my soul. Judging me with every past grievance I have committed, I can see my life flowing in his eyes in the endless river that is time itself. His distended stomach is torn to shreds with entrails hanging out like the overcooked noodles in my mother's homemade pasta. A deep bite mark on his right shoulder cuts through his tribal garb as it lay in tatters over his torso. His face is covered in red and white war paint as blood slowly drips from his mouth. His arm broken with the radio ulna jaggedly ripping out of his forearm causes his arm to hang limply at his side.
Slowly the freak of nature staggers his way through the blood soaked hallway. The stench of decay becomes stronger and stronger with each jerking step. I begin to gag and quickly stumble backwards, away from this infected human, out of the hallway.
"Contact, Contact!" Corporal Byrne shouts and starts to fire into the hallway at the infected with an extremely loud noise of un-silenced gunfire piercing the previously quiet atmosphere. Every round hits its target and penetrates him. As the infected begins to slowly jerk, walking into the lead storm of the rounds, he still continues on his unrelenting path with that bloodcurdling moan causing the hair on the back of my neck to stand on end. The spent 5.56 mm brass from the M-16 lies in a tight cluster on the ground around the corporal's feet. With the singular functioning arm raised, he slowly shambles closer to Byrne, those lifeless eyes locked into a thousand yard stare completely focused on the corporal.
Standing in complete shock and frozen in fear as his weapon finishes firing a complete thirty round magazine into this monstrosity. The weapon did absolutely nothing! I stand in awe as the infected man that seems to be immortal slowly closes the gap with the new addition of thirty bullet wounds. As the thing grabs the corporals semi-loose combat uniform, I hear from outside a bunch of loud collective moans, as if from a dozen of these monstrosities at minimum begin to sound outside in a gruesome chorus.
I hear Donlin issue out a loud yell, sounding fully distraught from outside, "Contact! OH MY GOD, WHAT ARE THESE THINGS!" The few rapports of rifle fire sounding from outside is quickly silenced by a blood curdling scream as if from a man being tormented in absolute pain, being flayed alive.
Slowly, but with a continuous vigor, the infected pulls the corporal closer as he opens the blood soaked mouth bringing it down to Byrne's neck. At this time the noise outside ceases, no gun fire, nor screaming. Biting down onto Byrne's neck, he begins to frantically flail and scream in fear. The infected human, for what I bear witness too cannot allow me to any longer call him a man. It quickly tears a deep wound into the corporal's jugular. A slow, sickening, slushing sound, as if an overripe grapefruit was bitten straight into ensues as blood begins to drip from the monsters mouth. A disgusting, stomach wrenching slurping noise follows as the spitter spatter noise of the now deceased corporals arterial blood sprays over the hallways walls. A loud, thunderous cracking noise ensues as if a bone was being broken into hundreds of shards signifies a bone outside was bitten and torn through outside. I begin to cower in the corner watching in awe as the screaming slowly dies down and is replaced by a disgusting sound as the monstrosities continue to feed on the corpse. Through the window slowly begins to climb more of them uncoordinatedly. The collective moaning of these monstrosities begins to sound when they discover my position. Beginning to lose hope, I make my final prayer.
"There is no way for me to escape from this, is there God? I know I have never been a faithful Christian, but please… Please forgive me for this and all prior transgressions…" I quietly pray to myself and whoever may be listening as I fearfully look at the ghouls, for that is all I can name them now, climbing through the window, like a metaphorical passage as if they were coming from the gates of hell itself. Slowly they continue to shamble towards me as the room continues to have an increasing number entering. Their dark red lifeless eyes glare at me… "WHY MUST YOU TORMENT ME?" I place the muzzle of my M-16 under my chin, pointing up; I pull the trigger as I feel cold, lifeless, and clammy hands against my body. As the round enters I feel a sharp bit of pain, then I feel no more, and see no more as the blackness ensues…
16:20, The base, Master Sergeant Ryan Hubari
"Where the hell is Charlie team!" I say with distress. "They should have been back here twenty minutes ago and I know Sergeant Grant, he is never late. Alpha team will set a perimeter around the base. Delta and Bravo teams, you are going to be sent on a joint operation for reconnaissance to find out what is taking Charlie team so damn long and to drag them back here by their dog tags if you have too so I can get my damn brief! Be back here by 19:00 sharp, not a damn moment later or it's your ass SFC Carter!" I brief these two teams putting the senior NCO of the teams in charge.
"Yes sir!" Sergeant First Class Randolph Carter responds to my direct empowering him of putting him in charge of both teams. About six feet and four inches, I would place him about the age of the early thirties. His dark brown hair cut close to the scalp cause his brown eyes to give off a sort of lack luster appearance. After completing a biology degree, he enlisted into the army as a Bio-nuclear engineer, as a specialist. The first couple years in the military progressed slowly but after his superiors realized what potential he had, he skyrocketed through the ranks going from specialist, to squad leader, to a platoon leader in about seven years total. Being the platoon leader in the past two tours to Iraq taught him the ability to think fast and make quick, decisive movements and decisions saving his whole platoon multiple times. Being an E-7 Promotable, he likely will become a first sergeant at his return from this operational mission.
Quickly forming up his team, he begins to advance to the south side of the red zone to attempt to track down where Charlie team is…
Chapter Two, Contact!
17:00, Delta team, Southern blockades, Corporal Vanderpool
"Alright team, it seems as if Charlie blockaded the road going into the red zone, so at most they should be within a click and a half away from this position. Establish a perimeter, Bravo team, you are with me. Sergeant Uclary, you will take your group and venture father into the red zone, travel and do not get separated. I don't have a good feeling about this…" SFC Randolph Carter quickly sets up the search party to try to find the missing team.
Me, being a member of Delta team, I brandish my M-16A2 that is slung casually over my right shoulder as I quietly prepare myself for the task ahead. Quickly I take a swig from my canteen as I continue to listen to Sergeant Uclary's brief on how he wants this mission accomplished.
"Specialist Salvias, I want you to remain at the barricade and help Bravo maintain their position until we return. If anyone besides a member of our operation tries to interfere, obliterate them, it is getting too hot to hesitate." He says to specialist Salvias, five foot seven inches of pure womanly ferocity. Dark brown hair, dirty brown-green eyes and one hell of a spit fire attitude with a slender build of 148 pounds. She unslings her U.S. rifle, 7.62 mm. Known in Russia as the mossin-nagant Sergeant Makhev always tells whoever listens about this pointless little fact of information, a bolt action rifle with a holographic sighting system. Slyly she gives Sergeant Uclary a little teasing wink before she settles down and doing a maintenance check on her rifle as she waits for contact of some sort.
Slightly, barely noticeably Sergeant Uclary shudders as he gets back to his brief. "The rest of Delta team, you are with me, we are going to advance in a file into the red zone, a search and clear mission. We need to find out what happened to Charlie team, and fast." He quietly tells the team.
Slowly the team of four including the team leader begins to move further into the red zone. The blackened ground and bones crunching and cracking softly underfoot softly makes grotesque noises. The flames that previously lapped at the buildings are nigh snuffed leaving only charred blackened foundations held up only by the ground that it is built on. A few hundred meters into the red zone I notice dark red coagulating liquid blood still dripping down the outside wall of a building, a damp, sticky portion of the ground just outside of a broken window covered in blood. The inhabitants of the household must have been the most recent numbers added to the infected's ranks of slaughter we reasoned.
"We should go in and see if there is anyone left alive, or see if Charlie team had the same chivalrous thoughts that they could help whoever is in trouble somehow." I suggested to Sergeant Lewis.
"That is a actually a half decent idea corporal." Sergeant Lewis states as though he was surprised that someone as lowly as a junior NCO could possible think for themselves. "We will enter the building; everyone will take tactical positions after we breach it. Since this is your wonderful idea, how about you take the lead corporal?"
Nodding quietly I begin to climb up through the window. A wave of that disgusting smell of bile with a deep stench of death hits me as my head breaches through the window. As I gag, I begin to look around the room with blood coating near everything. My eyes stop roughly on a man with all of the flesh torn jaggedly from his body. A bullet entered from under his chin spraying a dark gray substance that could only be his brain matter all over the ceiling and the wall behind him. His tattered combat uniform and the sewn on combat patch attached to it states that he is… or was a member of our platoon. Moving closer I faintly read the nameplate, Grant. I stagger back while muttering "Ummm Sergeant… You are going to want to see this…"
Sergeant Lewis enters cautiously through the window. As his eyes rest on Staff Sgt. William Grant's body, he slowly reaches for the radio clipped to his belt and brings it silently up to his mouth. Pressing the button to page other radios, a bright light flashes on both his and the radio clipped to the broken corpses belt. He lays his finger on the outcast button as he shakily states "Master Sergeant Hubari, do you copy?"
A deep soothing voice responds "Yes, I copy, what do you have to report Sergeant Lewis?" A look of hesitance shows on Sergeant Lewis' scarred face quickly as it fades away with the response. "Sir, we found the team leader of Charlie team…"
Quickly interrupting him, Master Sergeant Hubari angrily answers, "Well get his damn ass on the line already!"
Quietly Sergeant Lewis mutters in a small belittled voice "Sir, I do not believe he is in any situation to speak…"
"Why?... What happened?" The deep voice on the other end loses its soothing quality and slowly, resentfully asks the younger soldier.
Responding weakly, Sergeant Lewis says "Sir, It looks to be from where the bullets enter his skull…" His voice slowly fades away then returns again. "It was a suicide from the angle of the arterial spray, and then his body was flayed alive after he was dead… There also appears to be a struggle from the spent rounds on the ground and the blood everywhere, including the empty magazine in one of the M-16's."
Sharply he was cut off by a loud yell down the hallway where Second Lieutenant Solano was searching. "What the FUCK!" Quickly I rush down the hall towards him as I see him stooped over the corpse of a young girl. "She's just a child… What kind of heartless bastard could do this to a little girl?"
Looking down at the body I notice a small black girl with lifeless eyes glassily staring up at me. The flesh ripped off of every inch of her exposed body, causes a lifeless decaying smell corrupt the air around her. The room past her I shine my light into and walk aimlessly into it. Entering into a dark room I accidentally kick over a small stool and stumble slightly as I catch myself. Looking at the room as a whole I notice very crude butterflies and lions etched into the wall. As my light encompasses and fills the entire room, I notice, in a way, the only possible words I can use to describe it as a whole is that it is, or was a little girl's room. Looking at the bed I notice there is a crudely made and sewn stuffed tiger laying on it. I feel a slight tug on my heart as I look up at the walls and notice a picture with a proud father holding a little girl. In the picture, the famous setting sun over the Iotian Basin is behind them, the little girl being the six year old laying on the floor outside of the room and the father being a very large loveable lug. I would estimate that he would have to be in the three hundreds for his weight. His hair is a light whitish color from age. Lacking an older female in the picture, I can only assume that the wife met either an unfortunate end, or she ended up leaving the family for some reason. I quietly, in a sense of mourning for the girl, take the photo down and out of the frame folding it and placing it into my pocket vowing that the place where this picture was taken will be the place it will lay there as its final resting place.
I hear through the thin walls Sergeant Lewis responding with an answer "Yes sir, it will be done." Hearing his footsteps into the room with Sergeant Uclary and Second Lieutenant Solano he tells us "Team, we are going to find the rest of our missing men. Spread out and search the surrounding areas. Teams of two; do not be alone. Solano, you are with Vanderpool, Uclary, you are with me. Any contact with hostile infected, or civilians, shoot to kill. This is getting too hot to take any risks."
The team slowly begins to split into groups of two. At the last minutes before the team split, Sergeant Lewis leans down and removes the dog tags from Sergeant Grant's neck. "If you find any deceased members of our platoon, remove their tags for a confirmation and identification. Let's make this fast, I really do not wish to be here after the sun goes down. Alpha Group, the team I am on, will go east and search the other dwellings. Bravo Group will search the grounds. Move out."
Second Lieutenant Solano and I begin to traverse west to cover the grounds, the blackened earth crunches loudly underfoot. About twenty meters of slow advancement over the rough ground and charred, singed stumps we notice an inconstancy of the burnt ground, as if the flames were an attempt to make a controlled cleansing but ultimately grew out of control. I begin to hear an airless moan as a charred, singed monstrosity begins to crawl towards us. The lower half of the creature's body is completely missing as the ripped intestines drag roughly behind it. In fear, the second Lieutenant draws his M-9 handgun and starts to fire into this things upper torso. "What the fuck is this thing!" He begins to panic when the rounds have no effect and his whole magazine is emptied into the crawling human. In as if from some divine inspiration, I place my iron sights on the moaning ghoul's forehead. I lightly finger my trigger, and hear the quick rapport of gunfire.
The rounds enter the beast's skull as the shells hit the ground. The moaning quickly ceases and the monstrosity crawls no more towards to me. "Aim for the head dumbass, it's obviously the only way to put them down for good." I tell the officer as I pick his pistol up and shove it back into his hands. The stench of burning flesh fills my nostrils; I begin to gag as the scent fully hits me when the adrenaline wears off.
I begin to hear a collective moaning, from all directions around me, humans with sunken, lifeless eyes, mottled dark gray skin, all with bite marks coating their body and flesh missing. Obviously they were attracted to our location by all of the blasted gunfire that was just unloaded into this creature! I grab the second lieutenant by the shoulder as he drops his M-9 in shock. I pull him to the nearest building, the roof being about eight feet off the ground.
"Help me up here and I'll pull you up, quickly now!" I begin to negotiate with him. He visually panics and begins to grab my legs to help me up. As my hands grip the edge, I pull myself up shakily. As I breach the top I can hear him shrieking to hurry and that they are getting closer. I stand up and give him my hand and start to pull him up while looking behind him. I notice the infected slowly inching their way towards him, almost within arm's reach. As he crests the edge, a man, about six feet and an inch, twenty-three years old, grabs at his boot and roughly bites into it. A scream of pain from the second lieutenant causes me to quickly pull him up before his has the leg gnawed on any further. Pulling him farther out of reach of those mottle skinned humanoids, I notice as they make futile attempts to slowly climb to the top, but eventually slide back down to the bottom, making a loud moaning noise the whole time. With arms outstretched, they begin to incessantly pound at the wall in failed attempts to get up to us.
Quickly inspecting the wound tells that it did in fact break through the skin about three inches deep, ripping through Second Lieutenant Solano's ankle. The bone being completely shattered shows pearly white sticking through the boot. The blood slowly flowing from the open wound causes the boot to turn into a sticky mess being completely sopped up with the fluid. Cutting off the leather remnants with my combat knife, I quickly begin to remove his jacket and turn it into strips to procure a stint. I ready him to re-set the broken bone. "This may hurt a tiny bit," I smirk at him as I imagine causing him the pain that is about to ensue. I bend his leg and pop the bone into place as he screams in pain.
Loudly he continues the blood curdling screaming through his pain as his eyes slowly roll into the back of his head, the whites showing as he passes out shaking in epileptic shock as I finish procuring the stint. I begin to think of a plan, and as a side thought I pull him closer to the center of the roof, father out of the reach of those things.
I quickly reach to my belt pulling out a few of the issued M-67 fragmentation grenades. I go through the proper procedures for a fragmentation grenade in my head before I attempt to drop them into the mosh pit of those little beasties down there. Proper grip, thumb the clip, twist pull pin, sneak a peek and frag out! Proper grip… I hold the round grenade around the blue "spoon" as the heavy grenade feels like it is weighing my hand down to the depths of hell as my heart races and sweat beads up on my forehead and hands. Thumb the clip… I use my other hand to pop the clip holding the spoon down off. Twist pull pin… I grip the pin at the second knuckle of my index finger as I twist it to the ninety degree angle required to remove the final safety device from it. Sneak a peek… Pulling it out roughly I peek over the edge and see a concentration of about six in a tight cluster I take a deep breath as I roll it off the edge into their midst. A loud sickening thud sounds as I can tell it hit one of them in the head and most likely left a dent in it.
I slowly count the seconds in my head as I cover myself waiting for the explosion. Three… Four… Fi… In the middle of my counting five out aloud I hear a loud deafening blast as the building begins to shake on its very foundation. That incessant moaning still continues somehow though! After a couple of seconds I peer over the edge to see the damage that these explosives did to these… things…
A few of the infected humans are missing large bits of flesh everywhere over their bodies, only one is down, but she still has a snapping head. Literally doing near to no damage to the tangos, I quickly unsling my M-16 and start to target them. Aiming at the center of their heads, I flip the switch onto semi-automatic and lightly pull the trigger at one. As the round penetrates the older males head, it jerks him backwards and knocks another over. I again look through the sights at another infected I pull the trigger unleashing a single round penetrating the side of her skull.
One by one with the cruel mechanical capacity of a machine built to kill, I silence the members of this grotesque chorus, slowly in a rhythmic fashion remove these scourges of human nature one by one. After three minute of rapid gunfire, and making every bullet count, I lay my sights on the final tango. Recoiling in shock I continue looking through the sights, because the one I lay my eyes on is wearing the uniform of our own. It's one of our missing men! That's the only thought I had running through my head until I actually listened… and the only noise I could hear is a moaning coming from him. My heart slowly drops as I realize he must be infected as I see his throat ripped out and blood covering the front of his combat uniform. Solemnly he looks up at me with hate filled, lack-luster eyes, with his arms outstretched, as if calling for me. Every inch of his visible body has had the skin shredded and pulled off revealing the pearly white bones through the minute amounts of remaining red muscle and flesh that still remains. The once tan/dark green digital mix of his camouflage uniform is covered with dried and congealed dark brown blood. A quick scan over the infected's uniform shows that he is a corporal. Adrenaline pumps through my veins as it seems like a lifetime passes as my eyes adjust slowly at the distance so I can read the nametag.
"No…" I mutter as my voice drifts off with my mind as memories and recollections of our old experiences and adventures since the first day we met in high school and JROTC until the time now. I quickly snap my head back into the mindset of the current situation and danger, if he poses a threat to me, or the team, I have to put him down…
"Are you in there Byrne?" I ask quizzically as he moaned, slowly staggering closer and closer to the wall. "BYRNE!" I shouted, hoping with no avail to beget some reaction from my old friend.
He reaches slowly up towards me as if he is calling and motioning for my help. Slowly, hesitantly, thoughts racing at a mile a minute, I move the iron sites of my M-16 onto the center of his forehead.
I take a deep breath and gently close my eyes, quietly whispering. "Goodbye my friend, the past five years have been great, but as they say, Mission, Men, Myself…" My voice slowly fades away. Taking a couple deep breaths, to make sure I don't miss, reacquiring the target I then pull the trigger, not wanting to wait a moment longer to put him out of the obvious torment he must be enduring every moment he continues that obviously pitiful life. The single explosive noise of the gun powder being lit in a shot sounds… I avert my eyes after the noise sounds, looking resentfully back at my friend, he slowly drops to the ground, stirring no more.
Looking at my surroundings slowly, I notice no movement or noise within earshot, or eyesight. Jumping slightly as a quiet beeping noise sounds; I look towards Solano, completely forgetting about him until barely, the noise sounded. Walking to his barely breathing body I unclip the radio from his belt, and the radio begins to sound with a familiar voice.
"Delta team, Alpha group, do you copy?" I hear Sergeant Lewis asked me. "Not so well, we were swarmed by about thirty-five of those… infected… humans… but not…" My voice quietly fades away but returns stronger. "I reacted quickly, climbing onto a eight foot tall building I then pulled Solano up."
"One grabbed his ankle and bit, yes I repeat, he was bitten strait through the boot, shattering it and cutting through Solano's ankle. I procured a stint and stemmed the blood as much as I could. I then put down all of the infected, including Corporal Byrne."
At these words, Sergeant Lewis quickly interrupts me asking "What happened to him? Why and in what way was it necessary to put him down?"
"Sergeant, I do not know, he was torn nigh to shreds, there was no flesh left on his bones, just like the rest of the infected… He had his throat ripped open, there was no way he should have been alive…" My voice slightly fades cutting out at alive.
"And what is the condition of Second Lieutenant Solano?" Sergeant Lewis quickly asks.
"Sergeant, I am a little shaken up right now… let me check…" I continue giving him a report of the Lieutenant as I check his pulse and blood pulse. "Sergeant, he's not doing that well, He is unconscious and his heart rate has increased from seventy beats per minute up to one hundred twelve. On the other hand, he is showing signs of advanced infection, the wound is brown and purple, and the blood for some reason… The blood for some reason is already clotting. He has a fever of a hundred and two, and he has a degree of slight dementia, he keeps mumbling something in his sleep and is covered in cold sweat."
Second Lieutenant Solano stirs slightly and continues to mutter to himself as his uniform becomes damp from the sweat. "Sergeant, he needs immediate medical attention, my knowledge of Combat Life Saving can do nothing more for him."
"What is your location? We have more than enough information for what Master Sergeant Hubari asked us to learn and classify about the disease so far, as well as having the knowledge of what happened to Charlie team. When we meet up with Bravo team near the barricade we will retreat back to base." Sergeant Lewis solemnly stated.
"About a quarter of a click west of the first building, where we found Grant" I begin and I am cut off at that point.
"Enough chatter, E.T.A. ten minutes, make sure Solano doesn't die on you, alright?" Sergeant Lewis tells me to stay put and tend to the Lieutenant.
"Yes sergeant." I quickly respond as I climb down off the edge of the roof, watching my step to ensure I don't step on any of the corpses laying in the swath of destruction I left as I look for Byrne's shattered body. When I find it I pull on one of my work gloves then I reach down with the protected hand I remove the remains of his tattered combat jacket and I grab the chain of his dog tags and pull them slowly off, removing a clump of blood soaked hair from the back of his head. Looking at the blood soaked dog tags I remove that thick clump of hair intertwined with the chain. Quietly pocketing them, I say a silent prayer over the corporal's soul as I climb back onto the top of the building to drown out the Lieutenants incomprehensible, incessant mumbling…