Codename Nightmare
Chapter Three

Graham winced, as he watched Jill tie the bandage tightly on Joe's arm. He had been scratched by one of the creatures during their move into the basement of the shop they were hiding in.

"Ok Joe, think that will hold you for now." Jill said with a tired smile, as she moved back and looked around the ceiling of their new hideout.

"Thanks Jill that was a close one… was afraid of becoming one of them." Joe said sitting back down on the chair, and reaching for the small computer he had saved during their run.

Graham rested his shotgun, making sure that the safety was on, in his arms as he paced the length of the small room. "Just four of us now… I can't believe what is going on out there!" He said as he sat down on the stairs of the basement with a groan.

Jill sighed and looked over at the kid they had found, he had not spoke a word since they had rescued him from the creatures out there. They had lost their friends to rescue the kid, only to find that he was unable to speak due to the terror they had to face.

"At least we're safe here for now, they got to get through the shop first, and that is a mess up there… and we've got enough supplies here to last a while." Jill said with a small smile.

"We have, get some sleep… I'll start first watch, need to keep alert to get out of here." Graham said, then heard a gasp from Joe, who worked on his computer. He jumped up and rushed over to Joe, "What is it?" He asked looking over Joe's shoulder.

"We've got a problem." Joe said with a depressed tone, and worked feverously to find more information on the laptop quickly.


The Tracy boys backed away slowly, as the man groaned and rose up onto his feet groggily. He looked up at them and moved slowly towards them.

"Sir, please stay still." Scott said holding his hand out at him with his other spread out, to cover his brothers as they continued to back up. He looked at the young man and realised that he was no younger than himself,

"Scott, I don't think he's well…" John spoke up, trying to ignore the cold shudder running up and down the back of his neck, making the hair on the back of his neck rise up.

"John's right Scott, something's not right about him." Virgil said, as the young man rose his head up slowly, like it was a big strain on his neck, Virgil moved the torch up to shine on the man and flinched, seeing what colour his skin was as he gave the young man a glance over.

The young man wore dark brown trousers with a buttoned up black shirt. There were patches torn like it had been torn apart, exposing the flesh underneath where it was red and swollen, like he had been bitten or scratched. His skin on his face looked dry and stretched along his cheeks and nose; it was blushed with a green or purple tinge depending on the light. The young man's eyes were clouded over, making them purely white, but they still showed emotion as the young man shuffled forward, his arms loose at his side with his back rigid.

"Calm down, we're here to help… please can you tell us what happened here?" Scott asked backing up with his other brothers, moving his hand towards his rucksack.

"Scott." John warned with a growl, stepping forward slightly to be level with Scott, helping to protect Virgil and Gordon, who were both now speechless.

"Get back Johnny, something's not right." Scott said, before swallowing hard, feeling nausea building up inside of him threatening to rise up to his throat.

"That's right… he's not well, let's just back off and …"John said before they leapt back as the young man lunged forward. John to kicked him hard, forcing the young man back down to the ground, landing hard on his back.

Scott took this opportunity to free his handgun from the top of his rescue pack, "What are you doing with that? You know how Dad feels about us using them…" Virgil said his voice shaking slightly, as the young man moaned and started to rise back up onto his feet.

"He just attacked us Virg!" John said watching the young man move back up onto his feet, his hands flexing slightly and he shifted ready to defend his brothers and himself again. Thank goodness I learned this from Kyrano, he thought to himself remembering the hours he had put in with Kyrano to learn the manservant's skills in martial arts.

"H-he's not alive" Gordon gasped as he shakily moved the torch up to the ribcage, seeing the torch light lit up a section of the man's ribcage. It was exposed to show the bones striped off his flesh.

Scott tightened his grip before hearing another moan coming from their right, "He's not alone… fall back to the store." He ordered, his eyes not leaving the man in front of them with his gun trained on him with still hands.

John nodded at Scott, and watched Virgil and Gordon run into the store while he kept his pace down so that he wouldn't leave Scott alone with the zombiefied victims of the town. "Let's go Scott, got to lock the door behind us!" He said getting into the store himself, seeing that Virgil was ready to slam the door closed and push the fridge across to barricade the door.

Scott jumped back from the new attack from the young man and shot him in the shoulder to daze him before rushing into the shop. In a flash the door was locked and barricaded. A few minutes later they heard moans and groans coming from the other side of the door.

"Damn that was close…" He muttered and checked on his brothers to see John supporting Virgil, while a little farther away Gordon was throwing his own stomach contents up He walked over to Gordon and rubbed his back slowly.

"W-what was that that… h-he smelt like death…" Virgil croaked as John helped him move over to one of the larger shelves, sliding down onto the floor with his legs shaking. John got one of the bottles of water from the shelf nearby, checking the label before opening it and handing it to his brother.

"I don't know Virgil. Did you kill it Scott?" John asked, as Gordon crawled over to join Virgil and was handed a bottle of water too. John took off his rucksack and dug out his laptop, wanting to check something.

"No, I shot him in the shoulder… should have knocked him down but he took it like a punching bag took a punch!" Scott said, switching the handgun safety on before storing it in his pocket.

"H-how?" Gordon croaked leaning against Virgil slightly. Virgil did the same with Gordon, offering them both someone to lean against until they had recovered from their bout of sickness.

"It has to do with something about the fire… some reason the factory on the other side of the lake had caused all of this trouble. Too bad that we didn't think of bringing Thunderbird Four with us" John spoke up, his fingers a blur on the keyboard of the laptop that rested on the counter nearby.

Scott frowned, "What have you found out John?" He asked, as he moved over to his brother to look over his shoulder, his hand resting on the edge of his pocket.

"You tell me your secret and I tell you my information." John said, without looking up from the screen.


Joe moaned and resisted the urge to scratch the bandage on his arm; it was irritating him signalling that the wound must be infected under the bandage.

"Joe, are you ok?" Graham asked, as he finished reloading his handgun before putting it back into the holder on his leg.

"I'm fine Graham…just it itches that's all… I'll be fine." Joe said, crossing his arms tightly before trying to get more sleep. Graham got his knife out and started to sharpen it, making sure that it was ready to be used to defend himself and his friends from the monsters outside.

Jill opened her eyes a little and looked from Joe to Graham who shook his head before going back to his chore. She sighed and turned over slightly to go back to sleep, with the little boy curled up close to her.


"So that's it? We've got to cross the lake to find the survivors there, if there are any there, and search the town, before returning to the 'birds?" Scott asked John, who stopped to take a sip from his own water bottle.

"That's it… sounds easily enough but not sure what we will find once we get there. Something must be in that factory that caused this. It started there when one of their employees was sent away from the town." John explained again, hopefully more clearer so his brothers would understand.

"Sounds simple, but with those things out there… might be harder than we thought." Virgil said. He used the shelf as support for getting back up onto his feet, and started walking the shaking out of his legs, ready for them to go again.

Gordon sighed, "If we get out of this alive…" He said with a groan, hiding his head in his legs holding them close to him with his arms.

"What do you mean Gordo? We'll get out of this!" John said as he closed his laptop down and returned it to his bag, swatting a fly away that had been bothering him the past few minutes.

"I've seen more horror movies than you guys have, and they're zombies… undead! We can't kill them!" Gordon told his brothers, looking up at them his eyes shining with unshed tears.

"We will find a way to kill them Gordon… I think we better check over this store again and see if we can find something to defend ourselves with before we step out there." Scott said looking around the aisles from where he stood.

"You're right Scott, our tranquiliser guns won't work on those things out there… and one hand gun between the four of us? It's not going to work." Virgil added, taking a deep breath to calm his stomach down.

"Let's get to work then guys… the sooner we're ready to go the sooner we can get back out there and search for the survivors." Scott said pushing away his fear down to the pits of his stomach.

"F-A-B Scott." His brothers echoed before Gordon was given a hand up and their raid of the grocery store began.


To be continued!