…

(Author's Notes at bottom)

*Possible trigger warnings through chapter*

Last Alarm:

Okinawa Offensive

Chapter 1

JS Shimokita,

Ōsumi-Class Landing Ship Tank

Currently sailing towards last known coordinates of merchant supply ship broadcasting S.O.S…

04:23 (4:23 AM)

Looking up from the deck of the Ōsumi-Class ship towards the night sky he smiled as the stars twinkled. It was hard to find the time most days to just take a few minutes to stop, look up and just think about what life must have looked like from all the way out in the depths of space. As a child, Staff Sergeant Andrew Poynton had always wondered if there were others out there. Not necessarily aliens but possibly other humans on another world the same to their own. He wondered what they would be thinking if they saw their world that the survivors of the apocalypse had brought about were trying to survive.

The reasonably part of him knew that if there were others out there, they couldn't have given a toss about their situation. And he wouldn't have blamed them. This world as it was, many days he had wondered if it was worth saving what was left of mankind after all of the sick, twisted and sordid shit he had seen over the last four years. Four years earlier when he had briefly returned to the United Kingdom with Red and Blue Troop aboard a surviving Royal Navy carrier, he had come into contact with a Major Henry West who had been put in charge of the new Civil Defence Forces (Home Guard) for the area around Southampton and a stretch of the southern coastline.

When he had been able to get a chance had sat down with the Major and he was filled in on the situation about the country and its current state. Most of the larger cities save for London, Birmingham, Derby and Liverpool were all death-traps. The outbreak had managed to spread across the water from France on one of many small boats filled with refuges leaving Calais and Dunkirk hoping to seek refuge in England. The Royal Navy and Royal Air Force had made it their mission to stop any and all transports leaving France from entering their waters. Once it had been a few ships stopping refugees going over on boats that had fled from North Africa or the Middle East in hopes of searching for a new life.

It had turned into a fight for their lives when multiple attack aircraft had flown along the coast and destroying anything that looked remotely like a raft that could carry even a few people. One group had been so desperate they had tried to fly across in a small Cessna aircraft but a surface-to-air missile launched from the White Cliff's of Dover had quickly put an end to their plan.

But that hadn't even been the worst part.

During many of his excursions into the 'Dark Zones' as he called them came across some of the most grizzly and disturbing sights he had ever seen. There were large stakes set up in a small village in every garden they found and on each stake were the bodies of the dead and dying that had been living in the village and just trying to survive. From one survivor that had tried to save said that a large group of raiders had been through days before, taken anything of value, took the women and killed or strung up the men and children. When they had tracked down the group, they were horrified to find they had already killed half of their captives and were either raping or torturing the rest when they had come across them.

The Major hadn't left out any of the details. How they had charged into the settlement the raiders were holed up in. How he had thrust the bayonet attached to his old L85A1 through the eye of one man forcing himself upon a girl who couldn't have been any older than twelve years old, cut another one's head off with his Kukri and when they had found the leader, a pathetic weaselly little man who had begged for mercy before trying to offer one of the girls up for them in an attempt to try and escape, well, it hadn't ended well for him.

West had the surviving raiders cuffed up and set down on their knees while his team had rendered medical aid to the survivors before loading them into trucks but had the raiders leader, some weaselly pathetic male in his late 40's in the mud face down in front of his men. He had then ordered his troop to execute the surviving 28 raiders and the civilian volunteers hadn't even hesitated unloading nearly 300 rounds into their bodies from their SA80's before the few of those with pistols walked up to the bodies and put bullets through their heads…, well, in to the ones that hadn't been turned to mush by the high-velocity 5.56mm rounds from their rifles.

For the leader who had been forced to watch his people, along with his two sons, being turned into confetti, West had dragged them weeping man towards one of the raging fires that was still burning away at the bones of their previous victims and held his face just inches from the roaring flames and taunted him, berated him and cursed him with every insult he could think of before he had gotten bored, put two rounds through the back of his knees and threw him into the fire and had stood back and watched and listened as the pathetic male wailed for mercy and tried to escape the inferno.

Stories like that had stuck with Andrew for a long time and he would never forget them. He didn't want to forget them either. Because he knew that he believed that the Major's actions were justified in a lawless land where the dead ruled over the living and small bands of survivors thought that it would be the perfect opportunity to act on their basic instincts and desires to do as they pleased and took what they wanted without thinking of the consequences.

Hell, he had killed more than his fair share of hostile survivors when in the field since Green Troop had been put back onto active status three years ago and he hadn't regretted a single one of them.

"Nice, quiet night tonight, is it not?" Rika's voice came from behind him and he watched as she approached from their transport helicopter where the rest of the team were preparing their equipment for night-time flying. They were on immediate standby for deployment from the JS Shimokita the moment they came into contact with the merchant vessel that had sent out the emergency distress call just a few hours ago. They weren't aware of the situation of the call, whether it was the undead or possibly even pirates since they had been known to work in the waters near Vietnam and Cambodia even before the outbreak.

"Aye," he said, "Nice night. Would love to be back home enjoying this though."

"Once this call's been dealt with, we're heading home. The captains already said that we've been away longer than he would have liked and hauling all of this supply is just painting a target on us if there are other vessel out there that know we're carrying this."

In this new world, it didn't matter if a ship hauling a life-time supply of food, medical supplies and munitions was civilian or military since the thought of getting their hands on so much supplies after so long scraping by and living off scraps meant that anybody desperate enough would attack them.

"The captain called down a minute ago, we're about eight miles from the supply ship and we'll be given clearance to launch within the next several minutes." Rika looked over to him as he continued to look towards the night sky with a smile gracing his lips and smiled herself. This Andrew hadn't existed for a long time just a few years ago when he had come back into her life and he was the one responsible for not only saving her life and that of nearly several thousand others that lived and worked together back at the Tokonosu Naval Base just off the coast of the city.

"If we must," he sighed and looked around to face her. One of the biggest changes that Rika noticed about Andrew-San since he had been living in Japan was he was the proud father of two daughters, one of them his own flesh and blood and the other being adopted didn't chance the way he felt about Alice. Being married to Shizuka as well had altered many of his behavioural issues; he'd quit smoking, stopped drinking and his mood swings also stopped thanks to his wife being the 'mistress' in their relationship helped relieve a lot of tension for them both.

But when they made eye contact now, she wasn't looking at one eye and an eyepatch anymore but a set of eyes, one green and one blue. The blue eye was false and he had it implanted nearly two years ago after he had another operation to remove some small shards of shrapnel from a bad grenade throw that had not only killed the undead he had aimed for, but also his own face. He'd been damned lucky he had been wearing his gas mask and ballistic helmet at the time otherwise he would had come out of it a lot worse off.

Walking over towards their UH-60JA helicopter he found the three other operators working to make sure their gear was ready for flight and for combat. The pilots were already checking their instruments and all electrical systems seemed to be in the green. The fuel tanks had been topped off just minutes before and as soon as the words come down the line, they would be ready for immediate launch.

Sergeant Tajima Hirakawa was loading up on magazines for his preferred weapon of choice when they dealt with ship raids such as this. He slotted several loaded magazines into his pouches along with a number of grenades ranging from fragmentation and stun grenades. He handled a '9-Banger' flashbang and smiled before slotting it away and replacing the velcro flap to keep it secured.

Sergeant Mikhail Obromov was in the middle of checking the door-mounted minigun and making sure the feed try was correctly attached and the rounds were loaded correctly so hopefully there wouldn't be any jamming issues.

Finally, there was Staff Sergeant Jimmy C******s. The team's medic was checking that his medical supplies were topped off and that he wasn't missing anything. Andrew couldn't help but notice the tactical hatchet that was attached to his belt and smirked knowing that not only did the former firefighter and mercenary carry it because it had saved his life on more than one occasion but because it also remined him of his time as a firefighter back in San Antonio.

"Are we all set then folks?" he asked as he climbed into the Blackhawk helicopter towards where his gear sat waiting for him and began the process of donning his balaclava.

He received a round of heads nodding and a grunt from the Russian and snorted knowing that was all he was going to get from them. As he made sure the balaclava was fitted, he pulled on his headset and made sure he had clear comms with the rest of the team before finally donning the gasmask and ballistic helmet that his team were well known for. In combat operations around the globe before the outbreak there hadn't been many special forces teams that adorned the full 'black kit' that the Special Air Service had been well known for. But this attire wasn't to look intimidating or frightening to the enemy, every piece of this gear had a purpose and going to a ship that had been out of communication for a couple of hours, there could have been any number of reasons and with the off chance that the crew had been subjected to a dangerous gas leak or substance then he wanted to make sure the rest of his team were protected.

The order was sent down four minutes later. The captain had given the troop official orders to launch after comms with the ship were briefly reconnected but were lost again moments later. What the captain said gave the team cause for concern that they had heard the sounds of groaning and moaning coming back over the radio. Not wanting to take the chance that somehow the crew of the ship had become infected and leaving a ship full of supplies to drift off aimlessly and become lost in the ocean, they needed to take the ship back.

The Blackhawk was in the air in less than four minutes after the call came once the pilots had the propellers spun up and once they gave each other the go signal they were clear of the deck and started heading in a North-Westerly direction towards where the ship was last known to be from their radio transmissions being triangulated by the onboard tech team.

Tajima and Mikhail looked over their Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine guns and checking the magazines were topped off and that the safeties were engaged but would be ready for the moment they boarded the supply vessel. Jim and Rika on the other hand had other roles to play out however. Normally they would have the full team on the deck and getting ready to clear the ship from bow to stern. But considering the circumstances in case the ship had been attacked they would need continuous air support until they had secured the ship and then they would land and join them.

Jim was working on the helicopters mounted machine gun, a .50-caliber Browning M3M flexible heavy machine gun, otherwise known as the GAU-21/A and it was one of the fastest firing .50 cal's that the team had ever used on their operations. The machine gun had been plundered from a CH-53 and mounted in the Blackhawk to replace it's original M2 after the Marine Corps helicopter had suffered a major malfunction and offered them a great advantage in the field when dealing with large hordes of the infected.

Rika was handling another of the troop's .50-caliber weapons. Since her speciality was sniping, she was but in charge of handling their big-boy cannon, a Barrett Model 99 anti-material sniper rifle. It had been adopted when the troop was officially put into full-time active service four years earlier and had been a sensible model to adopt since Rika had been very trigger happy with their older M82A3. At least with this weapon she couldn't keep snatching on the trigger and waste a full magazine before she realised what had happened.

Checking his own weaponry, he removed the SIG-Sauer P226 9mm handgun and gave the weapon the once over before ejecting the weighted magazine and checking the rounds were seated correctly before replacing it and before performing a brass check and holstering once checking the weapon was decocked.

"We're coming up on the ships last known position. E-T-A; two minutes!" a pilot called back over their comms. Giving them a quick thumbs up to let them know they'd been heard he looked to Tajima and Mikhail, who were both now donning all of their equipment and the three operators looked almost identical to each other if not for their name tags on their vests.

Retrieving his own MP5 and bringing the sling up over his shoulder and letting the weapon hang from under his right arm he made sure a magazine was locked firmly into the weapon but the safety was engaged and no round in the chamber. They wouldn't make their weapons 'hot' until just before they would rope down onto the deck. As he finished going over all his gear again, he felt the helicopter bank slightly before the pilot called back to them.

"We have visual contact with the ship!"

With a quick glance out the window, he found himself looking at the ship that sat idly in the water below being illuminated from the spotlight attached to the underbelly of the Blackhawk. She didn't appear to be moving and her lights were out except for emergency lighting coming from the tower and radio transmitter. The light was shone over the hull around the waterline and their appeared to be no signs of damage and the deck itself was clear of any persons, either the crew or anybody for that matter. The light was brought back up over the tower and they could all see into the bridge but seeing no movement he wasn't sure what to think.

"There doesn't appear to be any sign of damage to the ship's exterior and it looks as though the ship was powered down intentionally. Emergency power's still operational so there shouldn't be any reason for anybody not to respond to our hails on the radio."

"Jimmy, man the fifty-cal! Rika, you're on the Barret! Load up with the 'hot' rounds and remain in the air until we call for you!" he gave two of the team their orders, "Guys, keep circling the ship and keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary! That could be either something in the water or potentially another boat!" he called up to the pilots.

The lines fell from the Blackhawk and dangling just inches off the metal surface as moments late, three black-clad operators landed on the deck with their MP5's drawn and they continued to sweep their sectors until each of them were satisfied that they were clear to proceed. Unhooking themselves from the lines they quickly advanced forward towards the stairs leading up to the main gantry that ran around the main tower of the ship. As they continued on towards the bulkhead they continued to sweep for moment.

The Blackhawk was already back in the air after detaching the lines and began circling the ship. Even with the blinding spotlight being shone towards the area covering the bridge they continued with extreme caution. Not knowing what was around the next corner could mean certain death.

Moving up towards the bridge as they climbed the gantry steps, they got ready to position themselves ready to breech and clear and secure it before trying to establish communications and try and find the AWOL crewmembers. Stacking up at the bulkhead, Tajima being behind him and Mikhail standing opposite him, the Russian tried the handle first and felt it slack as he pushed down. Pulling back, he looked to Andrew and gave him the sign that he was ready to breech when he gave the order.

"Taj, flash it!"

Tajima opened a pouch and retrieved one of the several '9-banger' grenades he was carrying and kept pressure on the spoon as he removed the pin and got ready to throw the disruption device at an arc so it would land somewhere in the center of the bridge.

Tajima looked as Andrew as he positioned himself to kick the door open the moment Mikhail pushed down on the handle. A quick nod, the handle was pushed, he slammed his foot into the door and it swung inwards and he quickly moved back to give Tajima room to toss his grenade into the room. The three operators dove out of the way as the initial detonation erupted before several more blinding flashes erupted from the grenade and several loud muffled bangs echoed inside the small chamber.

They didn't give it a moment for the smoke to clear before they rushed into the room. Mikhail took the left as Andrew went straight ahead taking the most direct route while Tajima hung back to observe from the rear. The whole thing was over in less than five seconds. Clearing behind desks, filing cabinets, computer terminals and any other paths leading in and out of the bridge they turned back and moved towards the main terminal that was still functional but the controls were locked down and a quick glance Andrew saw that they would require a key to open the mechanism that had the ships controls locked down and either a code or a master override key card to get the other systems back online.

"Dammit!" Tajima cursed as he set his MP5 down on the terminal and started typing commands into the computer but so far, he was getting 'blocked' responses and that they would require codes from the captain to get the ship moving again, "I can't get this open. We need a code to get the systems unlocked but even then, we won't be able to pilot the ship."

Andrew looked at the device keeping the control locked and it reminded him of a gear-shift locking device he had on several of his old cars when he had been a Royal Marine. It was a simple enough device to stop thieves from stealing his car even if the glass had been smashed or the doors had been opened. Surely it couldn't have been so hard to remove with a bit of manual labour?

Inspecting the device up close however made him discover it was made of forged steel and locked with a key. Even if he somehow removed the bolts, he wouldn't be able to get the ship moving.

"Right, first things first. We need to locate the crew or any signs as to their whereabouts. Do we know if this ship is equipped with a 'citadel'?"

The citadel was a room that the crew of a ship used as a panic room. If the crew were in danger of being boarder by a hostile group with intent to kidnap or kill them then a general order would be given for everybody to head there as quickly as possible. They would be stored with supplies enough to last a crew of 40+ for several days along with a radio and weapons and ammunition to keep any potential threats at bay.

But then if they possibly had access to a radio then why weren't they responding?

"First things first. Locate the citadel and establish comms with the bird and fill them in on the situation. We find the captain and get him to unlock these controls and head back home. Sweet?" he asked.

"Sweet," Tajima said and Mikhail nodded as well.

It had been ten minutes since Rika had seen Andrew lead Tajima and Mikhail inside the ship's bridge. She had managed to see them briefly when they had flown close as the lights from their MP5's disappeared before they messaged that the ship's controls were in lock down and that the captain was the only one with the codes and the key to access the ships piloting controls, navigational and other essential systems.

They last informed them that they were intended to head below deck to find the engine room and possible an entrance to the ships 'citadel' before inspecting the cargo the crew were bringing back from their last pick up point before heading back to Tokonosu.

The pilots informed them that they could easily remain in the area for another ninety minutes before they would need to return to refuel but could easily stretch that if the need arose.

As she kept an eye on the open waters around the ship she happened to glance over at her husband and noticed that he wasn't performing his duties of keeping an eye on the ship or the open sea but instead he was looking at her. As their eyes connected, she saw how he was looking at her and she couldn't help but redden around her cheeks at the attention he was giving her.

"Jimu-San, concentrate on the job!" she chastised him before removing her headset and said, "You can do that when we are in private," and smiled as she quickly replaced them.

The man chuckled at his wife and did as she said. Being in a relationship with Rika was one of the best things that he felt had happened to him in a long time. After the outbreak and being stuck in the city of Tokonosu for over two weeks his life had altered so quickly and being able to take the time to adjust to everything had been stolen from him after he had been shot. The complications that had followed had led to him falling into a coma for several months before he eventually awoke to a new world that had been changing and evolving around him ever since.

When he had awoken in the hospital bed aboard the USNS Mercy all those months later, the first person he remembered waking up to was seeing Rika as she had been leaning on his bed and gently snoozing. What had really taken him by surprise though was how their hands had been entwined. Days later when he was beginning to come around and begin to feel more alert all of the memories came back to him in bits and pieces. He began to remember; the attack by the infected on the island, the flight into the city and crashing in the park, meeting up with the kids and their school nurse in their high school before escaping into the city, saving Alice from the creatures after losing her father to another survivor before being held within the Takagi compound for several days as his wounds healed and their escape back into the city.

Little by little it would come back and it was when they had been at the Shintoko Third Elementary school that he ran into one of his tormenters…, teachers he should have said but he always liked to poke fun at Andy whenever he got the chance. They had been forced to fight against a group of bandits and he had watched as his friend fought off two men at once with just his knife, slashing one across the eyes before plunging the tip of his dagger deep into the guts of the other man before twisting it around violently before yanking it free, grabbed the other man by the throat and plunged the knife deep through the other mans eye.

He had seen some pretty disturbing things in his time, but seeing how his friend had been able to kill two men so violently and seemingly without remorse for his actions made his weary of the man for days to follow.

But the days after he'd come out of his coma, he would see the man in a whole new light. He learned a few days after he came around and was more responsive to the questions he was asked by doctors and nurses aboard the Mercy that Andy was going to be a father. He'd been absolutely flabbergasted by the news and hadn't stopped congratulating the pair when they had been visiting him one evening aboard the ship when Shizuka had been getting her first scans of the baby and Andrew had been having some x-rays done as well.

During his time being stuck aboard the ship during his recovery he was also visited by Saeko who had arrived with the Takagi family in tow and he was surprised to see that she hadn't been alone. Oyuki, the baby girl that he had rescued from the city after he'd become separated from group was being held in her arms and she was no longer the small gurgling little bundle he had found either. She was several months older and she looked so much different as well. As with all babies she had put on some weight and when he held her in his arms it was such a surreal feeling.

As he looked briefly at Rika again and remembering the feeling of holding Oyuki, it only hardened his resolve on what he wanted.

He wanted to have children.

"We've just received word from the Shimokita! They've picked up several inbound contacts coming from the north!"

Jim turned towards the pilot as they radioed back to them but quickly brought his attention back to the M3M and racked the large bolt on the side to chamber the machine gun.

"Is that it? Are they coming from the sea or from the nearest land?" Rika radioed back.

"No additional data, Minami-San! Small and fast was all we got from them! They'll be on our location in a few minutes!"

"Never mind a few minutes guys," Jim cut into their conversation as he brought the machine gun around, "They're already in visual range!"

Looking out the door herself towards where her husband was looking, she watched as the moonlight reflecting off the water illuminated several small objects in the water and small lights aboard each of the vessels as they powered towards the supply vessel.

"I'm guessing they aren't here to lend us a hand," she muttered as she reached forward and set up the strand on bungee line from end side of the door before picking up the Barrett rifle and placed the barrel on the cord so it acted as a balance for her as she aimed through the attached digital scope towards one of the closest vessels.

"Dear husband of mine, would you please fire a strafe across their bow's please?" she asked almost too kindly and a glance to her husband she saw the devilish smirk he wore as he brought the weapon around to bear and pressed down on the butterfly trigger. He unleashed a brief hailstorm of .50-caliber rounds into the water, several of them were white-hot tracer rounds, and the second the rounds hit the surface the boats closest to the strafe rapidly turned to avoid being hit but the others were remaining on course for the ship.

"Looks like these guys can't take the fucking hint!" Jim shouted, "What now?"

She removed a single .50-caliber round from the pouch on her side and inserted it into the chamber before locking the bolt firmly closed, "Here!" she shouted as she tossed over the digital range finders and he caught them with both hands, "I need you to range the closest target for me!"

"Pilot! Level off and hold position!"

As Jim moved from behind the machine gun and set himself up beside her with the range finders, he sighted the closest boat and noticed there were several armed individuals on board with a variety of weapons; assault rifles, belt-fed machine guns and a couple of RPGs' as well.

"Pilot! Hold position!" Rika called and within seconds felt the helicopter steady and hovered just a few hundred yards away from the ship, putting themselves between the smaller boats and their guys who were still on the ship.

"Give me data!" she called to Jim.

"Target is moving, no wind data!"

"Doesn't matter! Distance!" she shouted.

"Three-Twenty! Three-Hundred! Two-Eight! Two-Sixty-"

The moment he shouted that the target was 260 yards away Rika fired the Barrett and let fly the explosive tipped round as it sailed through the air and hit the pilot's cabin of the lead boat. She watched with satisfaction as the round made contact with her intended target and the explosive tipped round hit the boats pilot in the chest and the anti-material round shredded skin, muscle and most of his internal organs and sprayed them behind him inside the cabin.

Ejecting the used round, she quickly inserted a second and fired again and hit the controls, forfeiting the other crewmembers from piloting the small boat as it continued speeding towards the ship.

"Get back on the gun!" she ordered, but Jim was already moving back behind the big gun and set his sights on the boat and opened fire. The stream of lead broke large chunks off the boat and he must have hit the engine as smoke began billowing up from somewhere below deck and the crew members that he hadn't turned into jelly jumped overboard.

He swept across to a second boat and continued firing before the crews of the other boats began firing back at them. Small arms fire whizzed all around them with a couple of smaller caliber rounds hitting the helicopter and prompted the pilots to move position.

"Persistent bastards!" Rika growled as she noticed how a few were still heading towards the ship but a few had turned tail and were heading off back in the direction they had come from.

"Where's the Shimokita?! We need her here now!" Jim shouted towards the pilots.

"They're three minutes out! We've got gunships incoming for added support!"

Tajima surged ahead of the others as he slapped a fresh magazine into his MP5 and slapped the bolt down hard. Behind him Mikhail was bolting it towards him as quickly as he could while Andrew kept back and maintained covering fire until his weapon ran dry.

"SET!" Tajima roared so Andrew could hear him.

"BOUNDING!" the team leader shouted and quickly turned and bolted towards his position as Mikhail reloaded and waited until Andrew was past them before they opened fire simultaneously. The rounds from his MP5 hit their intended targets…their targets being the undead crew members they had found trapped below deck both in the engine room and sleeping quarters as well as the main storage compartments where all of the supplies were still wrapped up on pallets and in containers.

When they had gone below deck after checking out the bridge and discovering they needed to find the ships captain for the access code and key card to get the ships systems online again and the key needed to unlock the controls they began searching the crew cabins first and the first one they found had been a blood bath inside. Whatever had happened must have happened quickly. The scene would be repeated in the next few cabins they searched before finding a body, of which there wasn't much left of.

But what was more unsettling was that it hadn't been a member of the crew.

The body was laying on face down with a blood covered bullpup assault rifle still gripped tightly in their hand and dozens of empty 5.8x42mm DBP10 shell casings all over the floor. The body had been torn apart and large chunks of flesh, muscle and one of the arms and a leg were also missing. The face was barely recognizable and most of the skull was exposed as well leaving very little for them to make an I.D on the corpse.

So far there weren't any survivors, just the undead they had discovered when entering the bowls of the ship and they had been running ever since.

"MOVE IT TAJ!" Andrew roared as he opened fire, muzzle at head height and unleashed a continuous stream of 9mm rounds into the creatures pursuing them and took down several, creating a small barricade that temporarily slowed them down but as always, a small obstacle wouldn't stop them from wanting to achieve their goal of hunting down warm human flesh.

"Fuck it!" he hissed, "Guess these supplies aren't getting back home." He reached into a pouch on his vest and produced an M67 Fragmentation grenade. Yanking out the pin he tossed it underarm into between the legs of the creatures before he turned and bolted after the others whilst screaming "GRENADE!"

In the movies, a grenade's detonation was something akin to a small missile strike and the explosion was always enormous and in real life was something nowhere near as close. But when you use a grenade in a confined area with limited paths for the explosion to erupt and there being pipes overhead, funnelling only god knew what, he threw himself down onto the ground after flying through another bulkhead just behind Mikhail just as the grenade detonated.

Surprising really how much can happen in just a few seconds eh?

"Okay, that one's on me," Andrew said holding up his hand as Tajima stepped in front of him and covered the bulkhead and the corridor they had made a mad dash through. The corridor was alight and he could see the corpses that had been pursuing them were no longer standing but smouldering mounds of pulp.

"We can't go back this way. We'll need an alternate route for exfil."

"Lisus Khristos…" Mikhail muttered from behind them and they both turned to see what had the Russian operative so spooked. Turning around they found the operator aiming his MP5 towards the shadows but the moment the light from Tajima submachine gun joined his they quickly illuminated the corpses that littered the ground and several of them being stacked atop of each other.

"What in gods name?" Tajima muttered as he looked over the bodies and saw how they were all in different stages of early decomposition but different amounts of damage. Some of them had been bitten and fed upon but others were riddled with bullets and some suffered what looked like chemical burns.

"What the hell?" Andrew muttered as he approached, SIG in hand as he moved towards the bodies and nudged at one with his boot. Whatever, or whoever, had done this to the bodies looked as though somebody had been trying to dispose of evidence. Looking at the bodies up close he could see that whatever had been poured over them was acid and it was already eating through the clothes and skin.

"What sick-twisted bastard would do thi-"

"Help…."

The voice was weak but he heard it clearly enough when it came from his immediate left. Looking around he couldn't see anything at first as he brought his sidearm around and flipped the switched on the weaponlight and the bright light illuminated a single female figure leaning against the wall; heavily bleeding, burnt hair and the molten skin on her face made it look like she was one of the undead. But the look of agony on her face and the arm that was reaching out towards him, that he noticed had no hand, and the tears running from her eyes begged for help.

"Please…"

The JS Shimokita had arrived on the scene just minutes after the pirates had arrived. From the deck multiple JGSDF troopers had taken up firing positions with their belt-fed machine guns and hadn't stopped firing into the water until the few small vessels that remained on the water had stopped their engines and the men onboard held up their hands in surrender. A few had tried their luck with ramming the larger vessel but they were immediately taken out by the JMSDF escort ship, the JS Sendai, a Destroyer Escort ship.

The Blackhawk remained in the air circling the supply vessel that the rest of Green Troop were aboard and no were in the middle of kitting up as smoke could now be seen billowing up from several vents on the side of the ship. Their troop were in trouble and even if their team leader had ordered them to stay aboard the heli, they couldn't just leave them if they were in trouble.

Jim had his medical pack on his back and Rika was loading up a belt of 5.56mm rounds into her MK.46 when she happened to peer down towards the deck and saw a door being blown open, smoke blooming and whipping up into the air before three figures emerged and were running away from the open bulkhead before more figures began to emerge and she felt her heart drop when she saw how they were shambling after them.

"INFECTED ABOARD THE SHIP! TAKE US DOWN NOW!" Jim roared at the pilots, both deciding to immediately comply with the order as the man slapped a 20-round drum magazine into his Military Police Systems AA-12 automatic shotgun in full view of them and didn't want to risk being on the Texan's bad side.

It took the pilots seconds the bring the helicopter down towards the deck and set the wheels down just as the team were reaching them. The two masked operators looked back to see the third lagging behind and the moment Rika and Jim looked they noticed why. Andrew was grunting heavily as he carried somebody in his arms towards the helicopter. His mask was gone and he was coughing heavily as he approached and the moment his eyes laid on Jim the Texan could see the worry in his eyes.

"GET THE MEDICAL KIT OUT NOW! HELP HER! PLEASE!" he shouted over the helicopters propellers. Gunfire erupted behind them and Mikhail was unloading the magazine from his submachine gun into the approaching undead that were spilling out onto the deck. The weapon ran dry and as he went for another from his vest, they saw him pull out his sidearm and let the MP5 hang by his side after running out of magazines. He brought up the semiautomatic pistol, a P226, and fired the 9mm pistol towards the nearest creature and Andrew was surprised he managed to control the bucking pistol single-handedly to score a direct hit. Might not had been a kill shot striking the chest but a good shot nonetheless.

"Vy ublyudki YA otrezhu tvoi dolbannyye golovy i otkhlebnu tebe gorlo!" he ranted and raged as he repeatedly fired the large weapon until the slide was locked to the rear. Beside the Russian Jim stood firmly with the shotgun and unleashed a continuous volley of 12-gauge fury into the approaching creatures.

"MIKHAIL! MOVE IT YOU WANKER!" Andrew ordered. The team thought that the Russian would ignore the order as Jim's shotgun ran dry and he turned and climbed back inside the helicopter, but Mikhail quickly fell in line and moved and climbed aboard the Blackhawk as Rika helped move their mystery survivor into the helicopter as Jim already set to work washing her body with all the water he and Rika had before he could begin tending to her wounds.

"What the hell happened to her?!" The former mercenary had seen some really nasty shit in all his born years but whatever had happened to this pour woman was something straight out of a horror movie. She looked as though she'd been bathing in some corrosive.

"It's acid. There were dozens of bodies below deck, all covered in fucking acid," they heard Tajima growl as he ripped off his mask. The pair looked shock, horrified and appalled by what they heard and it sounded as though these pirates were going to answer for what they had done.

"Get us in the air!"

The moment they had touched down on the deck of the Shimokita several medics were already approaching the helicopter with a stretcher and when the door opened some of them paused for a brief moment when they saw the wounded and heavily disfigured woman laying on the floor of the Blackhawk helicopter. They quickly helped move her from the helicopter onto the stretcher with Jim following them close behind as he listed off everything that he had done during the short flight from the supply ship and disappeared inside the ship with Rika following close behind.

The others remained aboard the Blackhawk for several minutes, even though the pilots had begun the process of powering down the helicopter and departing as they took the time to catch their breath and collect themselves after the ordeal that had transpired hour.

"Jesus…, the hell would do something that fucking evil? Huh?!" Tajima panted as his hands shook from an adrenaline rush as Mikhail moved to sit beside the Japanese trooper and put an arm around his shoulders to try and help calm him, "I mean, fuckin' acid!"

"There were some sick, twisted evil bastards in the world before it changed buddy. And now, no matter how much has changed, people will always be evil and carry on doing evil shit like that," Andrew said a moment later as he took a shuddering breath as he looked towards the water where several RHIB's were in the water and the JSDF were in the process of taking the pirates prisoner.

"What will become of them?" Mikhail asked as he continued to hold Tajima.

Andrew snorted and spat onto the deck as he looked back to the Russian with a familiar look in his eye, "I don't know."

The response wasn't what Mikhail had expected from the team leader. Knowing just what he was capable of he figured that he would have the pirates executed for what they had done, and likely would anyway, but hearing 'I don't know' made him wonder what the man was thinking.

Two full days would pass before a report was handed down to the special forces group after they had submitted their own reports about the events that had taken place the night they had been dispatched to board the missing supply ship and find out what had happened to the crew and its cargo. After the captains of the JS Shimokita and JS Sendai sat down with Green Troop, they explained what they had discovered themselves. A surviving pirate they had taken prisoner had been reluctant to talk to them at first when he was amongst the others but after being taken away from the group, he sang like a canary.

The man said that they had been patrolling the waters around their usual stretch of water just off the coast of Cambodia when they had seen the ship off in the distance. The pirate's captain at first had been said to have been tempted to go after the ship but had decided against it when they had seen another smaller and faster vessel approaching the ship.

This caught their attention as they had seen another boat when they had boarded the ship but allowed the captains to continue.

An hour afterwards the pirate explained how they had been contacted over the radio by somebody using their dialect claiming that the ship was found to be drifting with no survivors aboard and that it was heavily ladened with supplies to last a long time and that they should come straight away. Obviously, being a greedy bunch of pirates, they had jumped at the opportunity and the captain had called for all of their boats to converge on the ship and it hadn't been long afterwards they had been attacked by the helicopter.

When asked if they had ever seen the ship before or boarded the ship on an earlier date, they said that the pirates had seen the ship on several occasions but it had always been under the escort of a battle cruiser and wouldn't dare go near them.

When asked about what weapons they had been armed with a list had been presented to them. It was the standard loadout for pirates operating in south-east Asia. Chinese Norinco AK's, American Colt M16's, Soviet-era RPG's and several different types of belt-fed machine guns from around the globe. The captain of the Sendai asked why they wanted this information and it had been then that Rika had brought the black bag into view and removed the rifle that was inside and had laid it on the table for all to see.

"The Norinco Q-B-Z Ninety-Five assault rifle. This particular model shoots a five-point-eight millimeter round and is used exclusively by the Chinese P-L-A, People's Liberation Army."

When the captain said about how the pirates could have been lying about their story and that the rifle could have easily been picked up over time and that China exported hundreds of thousands of rifles aboard every year to several nations across the globe Andrew had admitted that this was true, the 97-series that was chambered in 5.56x45mm NATO ammunition and not the rifle they had found of the 95-series. China never exported rifles using exclusive calibers they only produced themselves and that the likelihood of a pirate having one of these rifles and enough ammunition to continuously use it made him think that the pirates weren't lying.

This made everybody around the table sit in silence as they thought about the possibility of the supply ship being targeted and sabotaged by an unknown group and how the crew had become infected as well.

"How's she doing?" Mikhail asked the doctor tending to the survivor they had brought back. Since she had been brought about the JS Sendai she had been placed into a medically induced coma. The Russian had seen enough people in his life that were the victims of chemical warfare in both the middle east and Eastern Europe to know what pain the poor woman would suffer is she woke up now.

"She's sleeping and her vitals are stable. We're keeping her on a steady stream of painkillers and fluids so she can rest comfortably."

Looking back down at the heavily bandaged woman, Mikhail couldn't help but wonder how people could still do something so sickingly twisted to another person. But he knew he wasn't one to talk. During his time with Spetsnaz he had taken part with unleashing bio-chemical weapons all across the globe; the United States, United Kingdom and even in his own country so the people would back the government with invading an innocent country accused of producing and distributing the same weapons to their enemy's.

"Has she been able to say anything about what happened?"

"Not much I'm afraid. All she kept saying was 'they wore black' and nothing much else," the doctor sat down at his desk as he looking over his notes, "We were able to get her name though and it was one amongst the supply ship's manifest."

"What is it?"

"Boupha," the doctor replied.

Looking at the girl briefly once more he gave his thanks to the doctor before leaving and headed back towards the bunkroom where Green Troop were situated.

"One day, I'll make sure she becomes a beautiful flower once again."

It would be another three days before they finally arrived back in Japanese waters and another day before they reached Tokonosu. Arriving back in familiar waters and surrounded by a familiar coastline of Tokonosu city as the JS Sendai and JS Shimokita anchored just off the coast of their final destination, the old Tokonosu International Airport and now Navy base for the remaining vessels of the JMSDF and what remained of the United States Seventh Fleet.

The supplies that were stored aboard the Shimokita would be taken ashore after being loaded up into boats while most of the JSDF troops would get ashore by helicopter. Green Troop were taken ashore by their Blackhawk and they would fly directly over the island before touching down on the large raised helipad that was situation behind the hanger designated for Special Forces personnel; Hanger 18.

The second the Blackhawk set down on the troop were greeted by a face they hadn't expected; General Isoroku Ihara. Rika and Tajima being traditional, bowed to the General while Andrew, Mikhail and Jim remained upright until the former SAT officers stood upright.

"General," Andrew greeted the man professionally.

"Staff Sergeant," Ihara replied with a slight nod.

"Any news on the survivor?"

"As per your request Poynton-San, Boupha has been taken aboard the Mercy and will be treated with the best care the medical professionals aboard can provide. However, the rest of the council are concerned about bringing an outsider into our midst," he expressed his concern.

"The council," Andrew spat, "Have nothing to worry about. The woman we recovered is gravely wounded and was knocking on deaths door when we found her. If any of them have any concerns about how a woman with one arm and one leg and failing internal organs can be considered a threat to the safety and security of the people of this island," he growled, "Then they can come and speak to me directly. Otherwise, tell them to keep their noses out of special forces business until it's wanted."

Surprised by the soldiers attitude the general knew better right now than to get on Andrew-San's bad side. He had seen the reports that had been sent from the captain of the Shimokita and knew just how bad the situation had been.

Without even waiting for the general to utter a response, Andrew marched off towards the entrance of the hanger where several other special forces personnel were stood watching. Many of them were from the JSDF Special Forces Group with several others being from the American Navy Seals and German KSK.

Nodding to the operators they made their way through into the hanger and all breathed a sigh of relief as they were welcomed back by several other operators and technicians working on maintaining their equipment and vehicles. As Jim removed his pack and took his wife's off of her and placed them on a prep table along with their weapons, the Texan looked around and his eyes landed on a familiar group of girls and women that were approaching from the main entrance.

"Hey, Andy," he caught his friends' attention and pointed towards the group and saw how he turned and the scowl he wore vanished and was instantly replaced with a smile.

"Akane-Chan!" he called to the little girl with brown hair that raced towards the man as he diched his helmet and MP5 on the ground as the little girl dipped and dodged between the operators walking around and past Mikhail as he stood next to Shizuka and Alice who was holding Zeke in her arms as the little dog barked.

"Daddy!" the little girl shouted happily as Jim watched Andrew pick her up under the arms and twirl around with her several times as she giggled happily, "I've missed you!" she said when he stopped spinning and she hugged her father fiercely.

"I've missed you too baby girl," he whispered and held her tightly in a loving embrace before gently letting her go after Shizuka and Alice approached as she let the dog down and the little Jack Russel ran to Andrew's feet and tried to jump up him before he chuckled and bent down to give the pup some fuss before standing back upright before turning his attention to his wife.

"Hey," Andrew said quietly as they both leaned in close to each other and ignored everybody around them as they kissed each other tenderly. The kiss ofcourse caught a few people's attention but with some of them having loved ones and knowing the pain of not seeing them for a long-time during deployments they knew that moments like this were precious and shouldn't be looked upon with prying eyes.

"Hey yourself. Miss me?" Shizuka purred as she pulled away and smiled at her husband.

"Ofcourse, all of you."

Seeing an opportunity to play with his friend, he approached the girls and crouched down beside them and pointed towards them, "Look at that kids. Your folks are doing kissy faces," he chuckled and the girls giggled between themselves as the pup ran around the adult's feet and barking.

"Idiot," Andrew grumbled towards the man before he reached forward and picked up the girls in both his arms, causing them both to squeal loudly.

"Just for that lad, you get to clean up the kit," he smirked. To Jim it was worth it and shrugged as the Texan and his wife watched him leave towards the main entrance of the hanger while talking to his girls and wife all at the same time whilst being bombarded with questions.

Just as Rika laid her Barrett on the table and he set down his shotgun he still heard the girls speaking animatedly with their mother and father until they started getting louder. This caused both of them to turn and wonder what was causing them both to cause such a ruckus when they saw the source.

Saeko Busujima stood beside Shizuka and the two were talking to each other as the girls were now on the ground out of their father's arms and jumping around excitedly and playing with a third girl who was smiling and laughing as Andrew stood off to the side holding Zeke and rubbing the dog's ears. Oyuki Busujima, a beautiful sweet little girl happily played with the girls before she stopped and looked to the man who held the pup in his arms and like her adoptive mother, bowed to him before the soldier put the dog on the ground and returned the bow.

He could see them talking to each other but it would be cut short when Zeke started trying to climb up the little four year old and she would crouch down to pat Zeke gently on the head before she would stand back up and say her goodbyes as Saeko had made eye contact with them and no wanting to stop her any longer, Andrew and his wife and children left the hanger as Saeko and Oyuki walked through the hanger before coming to a stop before them.

Saeko smiled happily towards her own adoptive parents and as the 22-year-old mother bowed before them he noticed a tear in her eye. As she stood back upright, she wiped the stray tear away, "Mother, father," she greeted them, "It's so good to see you both again."

As Oyuki came forward and bowed to her grandparents she watched on as her mother was pulled into an endearing embrace by her parents before her grandfather looked down to her and pulled her into the four-way hug and held each other close.

"We missed you too."

Author's Notes:

Well, here you are guys. A first look into the grim new world that has come four years since the apocalypse and as you can see, no punches are being pulled with this new story. For a while i though heavily about whether or not to include the section describing about Major Henry West's horrible and morbid discoveries while taking charge of the new 'Home Guard' forces in his assigned county. I've read many stories set in the post-apocalypse and many of them have never touched upon what man is really capable of after the apocalypse and it wouldn't be hard to see why they would resort to doing such things instead of trying to help make the world a better place.

To my Zootopia readers, i'll be starting a new chapter for 'Days Gone Bye' next week and hope to have it ready sometime mid-February!

I hope that you all enjoyed reading this new chapter and rest assured a new chapter will be coming soon enough. If you enjoyed it please favorite, follow and review! Until then folks, take care and stay safe and see you all next time!

*Fun chapter fact: During my visit to San Antonio, Texas last September i got a chance to fire the anti-material rifle that Rika uses, the Barrett Model 99 and let me tell you folks that have never fired one, it was AWESOME! Right up until me and Jim got kicked outta the range, LOL!