Becca and Ben both had frustrated looks as we took off out of the hospital in our uniform, jogged to our car, and sped off to the nearest base. When we arrived there soldiers were lined up along the main hallway on our right with a long stretch of tables in front of them. They began rifling for our size of combat gear we got the grey combat uniform with a pale green Kevlar vest, guns and ammo, and seeing as how we had our tan combats on already they skipped to giving us the directions to where we were supposed to go. The resounding thud of our boots synchronizing bounced off of the large hallway walls as we jogged to the locker room. When we got there, well, remember that impending doom I've been feeling all along today? Well it hit me full force. We got changed into our combats and jogged back out guns loaded and at the ready. General Keating was there surprisingly along with a tall gangly looking man with dark brown hair slicked down flat like it was covered in mud. 'And do the creep hah do the creep hah...I'm surprised he doesn't have a pencil moustache....' I joked inwardly to myself fighting a laugh.
This guy was a creep alright, the way he leered at me and Becca, to him this was probably the closest to a female he'd been near let alone pretty ones (not to be cocky or anything). "Captains, we've set your squads up, they're ready to go in another room and they've been briefed...to a point" The general spoke first and when he finished he gave the creepy guy a hard intimidating stare as if to say 'your turn', which I'm sure was unintentional but that's how Keating always looked, mean and tough. "Uh yes right, well, for some time now we've been erm...experimenting, we were-" "Out with it man!" General Keating barked out causing me to let out a little laugh, but I quickly controlled it and stopped it with a clearing of my throat, Keating looked at me and smiled a bit before returning back to his intimidating scowl. "We were experimenting on humans to make the ultimate soldier, nothing dangerous of course but when we travelled to a location that shall remain unknown to you, we found this..."He trailed off fishing a remote out of his pocket and that caused Becca and Ben to both rub my head making Keating giggle, he was very aware of my nickname and how I got it, because he was the one who invented it when he was my Major a few years back. He had only recently become General in place of a psychotic blood hungry warmonger by the name of Ian McKeen or as he referred to himself 'King'.
The scientist clicked a big red button 'Not ominous at all...' and a light switched on to reveal an interrogation room with a man slumped in a corner. "A man half eaten and still walking" He finished and almost as if on cue the man raised his head and his pale blue orbs glanced around the room, only when he lifted his head were we able to see half of his jaw missing and blood oozing from the corner of his mouth. Ben swallowed hard before asking a question we were all thinking. "Sir, permission to ask whose blood that is?" He asked shakily. "His own, now ladies and gentlemen this...creature only-" "Feasts on flesh, I know what that is you freaking homicidal maniac!" I whispered harshly at him and ripped the remote out of his hand and clicked the button unwilling to see that monstrosity again. "Ma'am I suggest you calm down, I am no murdering psychopath I assure you, I never created it, also it cannot hear you, no need to be fearful" He said trying to stand tall and tough by puffing out his chest and attempting to size himself up, he smirked a little when he told me not to be afraid.
I walked closer until I was in his face, and poked his chest causing him to shrink down a bit. "I don't care who made it you fucking retard! YOU brought it here, YOU brought it to a place where it could infect others...YOU led a freaking ZOMBIE onto our home soil!" I growled, my pearly whites bared at him, the General cleared his throat causing me to look up, I backed off putting on a poker face, but my body still showed signs of stress, my chest was rising with every shallow furious breath I took. "I understand your frustration Captain Tacoma, but you more than anyone else in this room should understand that we cannot fall under pressure at times like these" He said simply, but still firm with his gruff voice."Sir, permission to speak freely" I requested and after a moment he nodded. "This is disgusting, we're allowing a possible spread of infection when we don't even know what caused that zombie in there to get that way" I responded throwing my hands around dramatically, when I said 'allowing a possible spread of infection' General Keating's frowned deepened.
"Oh-oh no, please don't tell me it's already happened" I said my heart up in my throat, I felt like I was going to puke at any moment and I turned to the scientist again. "May I ask how IN THE FUCK did this happen?" I barked storming over to the scientist again, this time he fell back into a seat that was beside the computer monitors, I had gotten so close to him. "I-Well that is to say— after we retrieved the specimen we took it to a base not far from this one in a nearby town and a few days ago at feeding time we went to throw it some raw meat through the door slot but...the zombie bit him, he never reported it, and hours later he was taken to infirmary where he turned...his partner later told us how it had happened" He explained nervously as he fidgeted with his fingers. "Exactly how many are infected?" Becca asked her southern drawl dripping with hatred, I looked over at her, noticing that her blue eyes held fear, Ben's brown ones held the same unmistakable look of fear.
I turned back to the scientist expecting an answer, and I got one, he was shaking like a leaf and probably close to peeing himself. "We don't know, all we know is that the base is completely shut down, we've lost all contact with them" He answered shakily; I spun hotly on my heel and went to the door. "Unlock that door, I'll take the first step in eradicating the threat" I ordered with my hand on the handle before stepping out of our room and standing in front of the interrogation room that held the zombie. I took my pistol out of its holster and turned the safety off before clicking the button on my radio, and saying check. Becca heard me loud and clear and relayed to me that the door had been unlocked and I saw the light turn on inside the room, I heard her swallow hard and her scared shallow breaths over my comm. I looked through the peep hole and saw that the zombie was still in its corner staring angrily at the mirror, so when I saw that it was clear to go in...I stepped inside and aimed at the zombies head. "May you finally rest in peace and be with your God" I said before pulling the trigger and letting the bullet pin him in the head right between the eyes. I backed out of the room and ordered the scientist over the comm. to lock it and I heard the soft click and jiggled the knob just to be safe before walking back into the room with the General, my two friends, and the scientist. "Now that, that has been finally taken care of, where are the rest of them?" I grumbled putting the safety back on my pistol and re-holstering it.
"I'll have you know that specimen was very usef-" "That human being doc is useless...it has been since the day it was infected so I suggest you pry your face away from the microscope kid, man the fuck up, and help out" I growled, General Keating, I guess was just as frustrated as I was so he let me vent out on the stupid guy who got everyone in this whole mess. "Captain Blackwood, you are to take your squad out and help evacuate the civilians around the base, kill anyone you deem to be undead, if there is a dead body, put a bullet in its head, you will meet your squad in the Wing C gymnasium" General Keating began and he handed us out a list of our squad members and directions to the gymnasium. "Captain Bayheart, you take your squad out and get medical provisions and food rations for the poor souls we're saving and the same rules apply with the dead and undead that I gave to Mr. Blackwood and your squad is in Wing B at that gymnasium" He continued, and they both sounded off a quick 'yes sir' before bounding off to their destination. "And you Captain Tacoma, are in charge of defence and infiltrating that base to see what the hell is going on, same zombie rule applies, and your team is in the Wing A gymnasium, and kiddo...be safe, all of you" He ordered and I sounded off a quick 'yes sir' before bolting out of the door and heading to the gymnasium.
When I strode cockily over to my squad, I took one look at them and saw all males and one boy no older than 20 staring back at me with a determined look. "I don't know what they haven't told you guys yet, but our objective is to pick up survivors and, our squad, gentlemen, is the frontlines" I bellowed out, a few of the males who had checked me out looked taken aback by my booming voice. "We are facing a threat I can TELL you is far more scarier than you have ever faced before, I will brief you fully now, as I want you all to be as prepared as possible and not to question me when we face the enemy!" I began, still keeping my tone loud and firm. "The enemy looks just like you and me, only, it isn't alive like you and me, it's undead, I know this all sounds so silly and ludicrous but it's true, so aim for the head and nowhere else, if there is a body, put a bullet in its skull, I am not kidding around" I ordered and all the while I was talking I was examining the squad.
The tall buff red headed guy who reminded me of carrot top by the name of George Wilkes looked at me in pure disbelief, the short but buff Japanese man with a faux-hawk and hair tattoo's named Akio Katsuo wore a 'whatever as if I believe you' look with a smirk, the average height but jacked black man Ajamu Chikezie spoke first. "So where do we start?" He said with a confident smirk grabbing his rifle and keeping it at the ready. "Hold on, you really expect us to believe that some sci-fi fantasy zombie bullshit is really happening here? I mean I knew something fishy was up, but this? Nah" He said turning to look at Ajamu like he was stupid. The young new soldier with the perfect crew cut by the name of Dallas James spoke up next. "Guys, she's not kidding, and what you're pulling Akio is insubordination" He defended me and I held up a hand and walked until I was close to the squad. "I am your Captain you will follow my orders like it or not, this threat is real, you don't believe me then I guess you'll have to follow me to our next destination and find out for yourselves...or take it up with Keating" I barked before turning sharply on my heel and walking off with my rifle in my hands.
"Fall in soldiers" I ordered coldly and I heard the sound of their synchronized foot falls echo off of the walls as they ran to catch up to me. We left the gymnasium and I took point checking the hallways before walking softly down the main hallway that took me to the main office where Keating and the scientist no longer stood in. I checked the room just in case and popped back out heading back down the empty corridors where the long table of supplies was abandoned. That feeling shook every bone in my body and I felt the kid Dallas rub my head real quick from behind which caused me to giggle a bit but I continued on nonetheless. I saw the front door was open a crack and pulled it open with the tip of my boot and pushed forward and saw choppers everywhere evacuating people. "Alright gentlemen, let's move out and get this job done" I said jogging, my men in tow, over to a soldier who waved us over. He handed my squad members pairs of Kevlar gloves and led us to our tan HMMWV (Hummer) and handed me the keys. After we all hopped in, my navigator Akio stared at the map for a moment before telling me the direction to head in to reach the infected base. When we got there the town was deserted, papers and other objects scattered on the ground. Wilkes my communications specialist got on the horn with Keating to let him know we were in 'The Red Zone'. We all took careful steps to the base and when we got to the massive concrete slabs that were walls. Akio walked over to the buzzer at the main wrought iron gates but a sudden flash of movement caught my eyes and I grabbed his hand and cupped a hand over his mouth before he could say anything and silently nodded over my left shoulder causing him to look over and see a soldier slowly wandering around. He looked back over to me wide-eyed and nodded before sending me an apologetic look, not for nearly pressing the button and alerting the possibly infected soldier, but for doubting me earlier about the zombie threat. I let him go and we all stood silently holding our breaths as two more soldiers popped up near the first, it appeared that they were all very much alive and uninfected. The second and third soldier handed the first one a rifle which he gladly took, and they all looked around before their eyes landed on us and they smiled before bounding happily towards us. "You guys are the squad Keating sent us right? Tacoma?" He asked hopefully, leaving the gate locked. "Yes in fact, we are and I am" I answered with a reassuring smile as I checked him and his friends for bite marks or scratches and he unlocked the gate and let us in.
After we walked through the gates he locked them back up behind us and joined up with me, the other two soldiers stayed with my squad behind us. "So exactly how many inside are infected?" I asked in a whisper and he looked up at me scared stiff. "We're pretty sure the whole building is infected" He said slowly gaining confidence back. "Then unlock the doors because 'pretty sure' aren't exactly two words that will keep me from checking for survivors in there, orders are orders and my morals are my morals, NO soldier...alive... gets left behind right?" I ordered firmly standing my ground and he nodded his head taking us to the base. "And if they're all infected?" He asked in a whisper. "We burn this mother fucking monstrosity down" I answered harshly and he nodded more confidently this time and when we got to the door he unlocked it. We walked in and an uncomfortable silence settled in, my squad had been smart and put silencers on their pistols when we were outside the gate and shouldered their rifles. I slipped my silencer on and put my finger-tip-less gloves in my left pant pocket and retrieved my Kevlar gloves from my right pants pocket. "I'm Alex Parker by the way, and my squad mates are Michael Dicenzo and Jared Thompson" He spoke up and shook my hand jabbing a thumb in the air towards his team mates as he introduced them and I shook his hand back and smiled awkwardly.
After my gloves were on we continued to search the place, so far nothing, not even dead bodies. Just blood smears on the walls, signs of a struggle. The lights flickered on and off quite a bit like some bad horror movie as we advanced slowly down the hallway checking each room for signs of life, undead, or even dead bodies, anything really. We finally came up to the infirmary and saw bodies covered in white blankets and some bodies half eaten lying across the floor. "Remember quietly take them out, we don't want to alert any others of our presence, if we find survivors we do so quietly" I whispered and began putting bullets in the heads of the ones on the floor, it took only half a second before my squad helped out. We finished and took a look around the room, and that's when the feeling took its toll, because no sooner than we finished the dead ones, had a large undead male come out from behind a pale green curtain attached to an iv drip stand behind Dallas. The zombie's right hand outstretched toward him so I put my gun up facing Dallas making Dallas' eyes go wide with fear, and snatched his vest pulling him forward and behind me so I could put a round between the zombie's eyes. The large son of a bitch dropped dead...pardon the pun and I turned to Dallas to check on him.
The boy was scared shitless so I rubbed his back gingerly. "C'mon kiddo, show me those brass balls I know you have" I joked while giving him a huge pat on his shoulders, making Dallas relax a little and nod. We walked out of that room after a second sweep and closed the door. It seemed the more and more we got closer to the interrogation rooms the more undead we found, the only thing was that these so called zombies were slightly smarter than you tend to read about.
We saw one go as far as to turn a light switch on and off in curiousity, it's eyes wide in astonishment, it was dressed in a hospital night gown and boxers, I suppressed a laugh and put a round through the side of its head. 'Hardly looked undead to me, more like someone with severe developmental disabilities...' I thought to myself causing me to frown deeply. We continued down the long, and seemingly never ending hallway checking every room, and in every room there were zombies most of the time there were two at a time, sometimes there were four plus. Either way it scared the shit out of me. Suddenly I heard a cry out for help and I jogged towards the sound killing whatever infected lay in my way, reloading every five seconds it seemed.
We finally got to the debriefing room where a man was hiding behind a Plexiglas wall that reminded me of a penalty box at a hockey game. 8 zombies descended upon the glass like vultures, scratching, gnawing and groaning in hunger trying to get at their prey. I used my tongue and put it to my upper teeth and whistled like a master calling his dog and they all turned to us with sombre yet vacant expressions. "Sup bitches!" I bellowed out before we all unleashed a fury of properly placed and synchronized shots into each of the undead's brains. Akio chuckled and put a gloved hand on my shoulder from behind me. "Gotta hand it to you Cap, you sure know how to lighten the mood, also nice Gears of War reference" He spoke up shaking his head and I grinned back at him and walked over to the shaken up man cowering behind the glass. "I liked it too" I said looking back at Akio once and winked playfully.
The man had buried his head in his lap and rocked back and forth with his hands over his ear muff covered ears. I hoisted the dead bodies and tossed them across the room and my team followed suit and tossed the others aside to make a clearing. When we finished I knocked in a musical pattern which caused the man to look up and my eyes were wide as saucers. "Dad?" I asked bewildered as I looked down at a dishevelled old man with tears streaming down his face. "Dad let me in! It's me, Peyton!"I pleaded banging on the glass, an over excited smile popped onto his face as he recognised two things 1) I wasn't a zombie and 2) I was his daughter. I looked quickly over my shoulder: "Wilkes, Chikezie, go secure the door and make sure no other surprises decide to show up" I ordered and they saluted quickly with a 'Ma'am' before doing as they were told and I turned back to my dad placing a gloved hand on the glass. "Sweetheart, what are you doing here?" He asked in between hiccups from the crying. "I had a mission, the General had lost contact with this base so he sent us here to help" I half explained as he opened the Plexiglas door and stepped out hugging me tightly.
This once rough and tumble kind of man with the stature of a soldier mixed with the height of an NBA player was wrapped around my 5'2 frame sobbing into my left shoulder reduced to nothing but an emotional mess, I guess he figured he was all alone and left to rot or be eaten with no hope of being rescued. To see my dad in such a state broke my heart into a million tiny pieces but I held strong and wrapped my left arm around his side as his whole body shook. "Shh dad, I'm here...You're not alone and you ARE getting out of here, it'll all be ok" I assured him and patted his back as he stood and when he looked down at me like a little kid wiping away his tears I smiled up at him with confidence and I held my pinkie out for him and he linked his large one around mine and smiled back. "Alright let's go home pops" I said to him before turning to my squad mates. "Wilkes take point, Chikezie follow Wilkes, Katsuo follow Chikezie, Parker follow Katsuo, Thompson follow Parker, Dicenzo follow Thompson, and James follow Katsuo, our next mission is to get out and report to Keating with the news" I began and everyone got in a line. I handed my dad a spare gun with a silencer and he nodded his head as I nudged him in front of me.
"Move out!"I finished and Wilkes led us out, the occasional zombie appeared from the other rooms on the rest of the first floor, so far, no other survivors. We got to the second floor which had more infected personnel, and after we dispatched them I silently thanked God that there were only two levels. We searched the last few rooms and found no survivors so we headed back downstairs and out. Wilkes stood up straight, relaxed as he took point and I was about to scold him for being so careless when suddenly a zombie popped up out of nowhere it seemed and latched itself onto Wilkes, he tried firing his weapon but the force of the zombies tackle knocked Wilkes to the ground, I immediately moved everyone out of my way and made short work of the zombie before kicking it off of Wilkes, thankfully he wasn't bitten or scratched and I pulled him up onto his feet. After dusting himself off he picked up his gun and dusted his thighs off. "Woo! Thanks Cap that was close" He let out and I smacked him upside the head. "Do that again and I'll hurt you if you don't end up being zombie chow" I growled before taking point.
"Wilkes middle of the line, dad get behind me...I'm taking point again" I barked and everyone fell into place and followed me out as we left the building the three soldiers sighed with relief, a little too soon. "Where is the gasoline kept?" I asked Parker and he pointed to a separate building beside the main base we just left, I nodded as he told me to look in the shed portion of the building which looked like an auto body shop and jogged away leaving my squad and Parker's behind. After fighting my way through zombie mechanics I grabbed 6 full canisters of gasoline poured 3 in each of the rooms that made up the shed/shop/mess hall and set it on fire with my lighter and bolted out of there quicker than a...well bunny. Then I rejoined my group and they went to help me set the other building on fire when Dallas tapped my shoulder and handed me two large C4 packs and kept the other two in his hand. "I was thinking...one for each wall" He asked more than stated and I nodded before he, myself, Akio, and Ajamu placed the C4's and ran out of the base, we got passed the wrought iron gates before hitting the detonator and tumbling forward onto the ground from the explosion.
When each of us hooted and hollered in triumph only a moment later when I looked up did I see a fighter plane. Over my comm. I heard the pilot give the order to drop the bomb on the town and I hopped to my feet before screaming at my squad to get up and run, my men caught up to me in no time and we headed to the HMMWV and sped off at top speed out of that town and just in time as a loud whistle sounded a few miles behind us and a large mushroom cloud appeared and the force of it blew our HMMWV forward, but thankfully no crash came and we were able to make it back to King's County safely. I had a white knuckled grip on the steering wheel and my jaw was clenched tightly, Keating was getting an earful. When we made it to the base I followed the soldier who directed us in, and saw that Keating had returned with the scientist.
When we got out I stormed over to the scientist and the three soldiers we picked up at the base tore after the scientist. "Whoa whoa whoa guys!" I yelled as myself, Ajamu, and Wilkes grabbed the three soldiers before they could beat the living daylights out of the guy. We held them back and General Keating didn't look impressed. "General please don't punish them, they've been through enough of that to last a life time and then some" I pleaded as they all calmed down after being held for awhile. "Sorry for our irrational behaviour sir, it's just—we had to shoot our own friends, brothers in arms...our families" Thompson spoke just about at his breaking point. Keating's expression softened and nodded. "Very well" He replied simply before pulling me aside and the doctor followed suit. "Peyton, we have a problem, in the few short hours you were over at the other base, half of our town has gotten the infection, as to how, we have no idea, but we need you, and Captain Blackwood to scour the east side of the city that has been affected and repeat what you did back at the other base and also patrol it until I get word from higher up" Keating said firmly but his eyes watered and his voice cracked a bit before handing me a photo. "If you see this woman, and she is alive, please bring her back to me, if she is...you know...then you know what you have to do" He ordered and when I looked at the photo my heart broke once more, it was his wife Evelyn or 'Evie' as he affectionately knew her as. "I'll bring her home General, you keep yourself safe for her" I ordered back and he nodded in understanding, he knew that I was trying to reassure him that his wife was alive.
By now you're probably wondering how I know Keating and why a General allows such personal behaviour for me. Well General Gabriel Keating was my Major as you know, but one mission he was captured by Iraqi terrorists, HQ basically told me to leave him behind, or I'd lose my job.I ran into the terrorist caves where they smuggled females from other countries into their lands to be sold at the highest price to be nothing more than a sex slave and found Keating beaten, bloody, and bruised tied to a chair. I freed him and together we rescued over twenty women and had them brought back to their own countries. Not only was I awarded a medal but I was promoted to Captain by a woman on the counsel who managed to convince her colleagues that what I had done was the right thing, Keating was bumped up to Lieutenant Colonel... that was years ago. Keating became family and I guess he must feel he still owes me so he allows the odd slip of emotion and personal frustration every now and again.
I was about to leave when he dismissed me when a thought suddenly occurred to me and I turned back around. "Sir, may I ask why just my squad and Captain Blackwood's? What about Captain Bayheart?" I asked warily. He frowned and sighed heavily before guiding me gently with his hand on the small of my back to a row of bodies laid out under white sheets. "She was one of the infected we had to kill, I'm so sorry Rabbit" He spoke up again rubbing my back up and down as a gesture of comfort. I stared long and hard at her personal white sheet, seeing strands of her red hair peek out from under the sheet. I nodded sharply before asking to be dismissed for the mission, I had to carry on no matter how much I wanted to bang my fists against the wall, break down, bawl my eyes out, punch something, scream, anything to vent out my frustration. I had to kill men and women who helped me serve the country, old squad mates, and now Becca was dead, one of my best friends. I noticed the other sheets had tags on them, almost like makeshift toe tags and when I squatted down I saw that beside her, was her family.
