Chapter 2: Hell- Get off at next exit
"What could have done this?" Was one of the thousands of questions that racked Private Sean's mind. He sighed, "Whatever it was is either lurking inside of the forest around us, or is inside the city." The Private looked up, the city was only a few miles away from their position, but help was going to have to wait a little bit longer. Without Ravens or vehicular help, they would have to march. It would take them a few hours hopefully they would get there without….delay. The city looked bleak and smoke was rising from some of the buildings. Sean hoped it wasn't overrun.
A barking order snapped him from his thoughts, it was from his platoons sergeant. "All right you girls, lets get in position. On the double!"
The private got in line with his squad mates and stood at the ready. He looked to his left, Craig was next to him. He gave Sean a wink and said "A little fresh air and exercise never hurt anybody now did it?"
"Yeah, especially when that exercise ends with you being eaten alive by locust." Sean thought
And so the 4 platoons that made up the 435 infantry division, each with about 10 people, started down the tracks. They kept close the tracks to prevent them from getting lost. They often found deep gouges in the earth and trees ripped up from the thing that crawled out of the hole. It was confirmed that a reaper was most likely the culprit, but how many, they couldn't tell, but it was for sure that it was at least more than 2. This unsettled the private. He had never heard of so many reapers in one place before. If they were still lurking in the forest, would they have a chance? Sean swept this question from his mind with confidence. Of coarse they would, there were at least forty marines here, some had the scars to tell that they had fought the beasts. He was safe where he was.
This confidence was shattered almost immediately, as a hail of bullets streaked out of the forest accompanied by roars that chilled the very bones of the private. Yet his instincts kicked in and quickly the marines ducked and ran to find cover. Sean ran to a boulder that outcropped near the tracks. He barely managed to squeeze in as it was being used by three other COGs. He was still vulnerable though from fire on the other side of the forest, but he tried to keep as low as possible, already the bullets had taken many victims.
Sean grabbed a grenade and spun it around until it gained momentum. He chose a spot in the forest where there was a good concentration of fire coming out and loosed it. The grenade exploded and to his luck, the explosion had claimed some victims. He fired rounds into the black forest, he was keeping a steady rate of fire, but then stopped as one of the COGs next to him fell down to the ground. The Private rolled him over, it was not a pretty sight, the private had taken two rounds to the head. He checked his pulse…nothing. Cursing, he took off his COG tags and stashed them in his sack. He was about to turn when he heard a gut wrenching scream and trees crash to the ground.
"Oh No" Muttered Calso as he knew what had came before he even turned his head.
When he looked up, he still couldn't believe this as true, but two reapers just entered the camp.