3
Last Alarm
Chapter Three
"The Thin Red Line."
"The Thin Red Line of Courage" represents the last ounce of courage firefighters find within themselves to cross that thin, razors edge between life and death, in order to conquer their darkest fears to go above and beyond the Call of Duty, to save and protect life.
Today, it is displayed to show respect for firefighters injured and killed in the line of Duty.
For Tyler Doohan
Honorary Firefighter
Whose Courage Has Touched Us All
Rest in Peace "Little Brother"
Location: "Whiskey Outpost #31" (Formerly known as Midori-Bashi)
Time: Dawn
Spring 2013
Z-Day Plus 21
The small group of JGSDF soldiers were completely dumbfounded at the sight of a fully armed group of people now standing silently on the bridge before them, and for a few moments, even Colonel Goto was somewhat in shock that his theory of there being actual survivors trying to cross over the heavily barricaded bridge had indeed turned out to be completely accurate.
And what further shocked Goto and everyone else for that matter, was that this group of people didn't bear any resemblance to the panicked civilians climbing over each other in a mad dash for safety that they had encountered during the beginning days of the Outbreak.
Instead, this group's approach to their fortified position had been carefully calculated, stealthy, and coordinated in its execution.
And now instead of a security breach caused by numbers of Infected on a rampage that they had prepared for, or even a group of frightened, sick, or starving refugees seeking desperately to reach safety, now the small group of JSDF troopers were facing an altogether unforeseen scenario.
For the past five days, there had been no human contact made with anyone on the other side of the river whatsoever, nor was there any observable sign of human life on the city side of the bridges that lined the area separating the Wharf Section from the city itself.
As a result, the consensus had been amongst the leaders in Command that there were no possible survivors in the city left, and the city of Tokonosu had been officially declared "dead".
But now, right here in front of them were actual living survivors, and the presence of weapons on their person was another dilemma for the small group of JSDF troopers now finding their situation even more tense than before.
Were these people also hostile, or not?
For a few brief moments, there was no action taken by either side, both sides equally unsure of as to how to approach any further apparently.
Feeling slightly overwhelmed with this completely unexpected development, Shinohara stared at Kumagami's face for a moment looking for a hint as to how he should proceed and was dismayed when he saw the same puzzled look on her face as he felt was surely on his.
And since neither one of them had an immediate thought as to how to proceed, the two junior officers then looked back towards Colonel Nagumo who was watching them intently and gesturing for them to do something, as they both then turned their attention to Colonel Goto, who merely met their gaze and shrugged.
"Great. " Shinohara thought his apprehension growing.
"Now, what do I do?" Asuma thought to himself, as he looked through his binoculars at the group of silent figures, still unmoving on the bridge 60 meters away.
"Awfully heavily armed for a group of refugees, where did they get all those weapons anyway? And how the hell did they manage to survive all this time?" Nagumo said aloud as she continued to scan the shadowy figures on the bridge with her binoculars.
"They're surprisingly well disciplined too; do you think they might be a lost patrol from the Mainland, Goto-san?" Nagumo added, not really believing her statement herself.
"I don't believe so, Shinobu-san." Goto stated still calmly staring through his glasses.
"And as bad as things are, I don't believe Command has as of yet, approved the recruitment of school children either. Look closer Shinobu-san." Goto said as Nagumo frowned at his remark and then raised her field glasses to her eyes again.
As Nagumo adjusted the focus knob on her glasses, her eyes widened as the lifting fog revealed more details of the armed group of survivors in front of them, and only then did she began to understand her husband's meaning.
These people were definitely not at all what she had expected to see as the heavy mist began to dissipate and the features of the people standing silently on the bridge now became more distinguishable.
And she gasped as she saw that at least half of the people on the bridge were indeed, children as her husband had pointed out, teenagers in fact.
Besides the point man leading the group, Nagumo also counted two teenage boys, three adult women, three teenage girls, and a small girl of about 10 years of age or so.
But before she could study them any further, there was a sudden bustle of activity in front of her as apparently Shinohara had finally reached a decision on how to handle the situation.
Leaning closer, she then overheard Shinohara quietly ordering Corporal Shiba to get him a bullhorn so that he could make contact with the group on the bridge.
After acknowledging Shinohara's order the man then quickly hurried to one of the tanks behind them and then climbed up its side to the man who was manning the turret mounted machine gun.
And after speaking to the man standing in the open hatch who was manning the .50 cal. Browning mounted on top of the tank, the tank gunner then reached inside the hatch and passed the corporal a large battery-powered bullhorn.
"Here we go." Nagumo thought to herself as she watched Corporal Shiba climb down the tank and run back with it to Shinohara.
As Corporal Shiba returned with the bullhorn and passed it to him, Shinohara then paused for a moment about what he was going to say before he finally raised the bullhorn to his lips.
But just as he was about to squeeze the trigger button on the device and give his verbal commands to the armed group on the bridge on how to proceed, the point man at the front of the group, suddenly raised his hand in a "STOP" motion and waved his hand back and forth, clearly signaling Shinohara not to break silence by speaking through the bullhorn.
The signal from the man waving off Shinohara's attempt to communicate to them through the use of the bullhorn earned a few more murmurs along the line of soldiers, as well as a lot of puzzled looks on their faces.
Confused by the man's signal, Shinohara peered at the man and raised both of his hands with the palms up in a gesture that was easily recognizable.
"Why?" Shinohara signaled to the man as the man nodded his head and then through use of hand signals, explained the reason.
Carefully, so as not to provoke the soldiers whose weapons and itchy trigger fingers were all trained on he and his group, the man pointed two of his fingers in the figure of a "V" towards his eyes, then slowly raised his rifle with both hands almost above his head with the muzzle facing away from the JSDF soldiers.
And then after lowering his rifle, and turning his head slightly, the man then pointed with his left index finger over his right shoulder.
The soldiers of Bravo and Echo Platoons were dumbstruck by what the man had said with his simple hand signals as the magnitude of what the man had just relayed hit them with a jolt.
Whoever, these people were, they had actually not been stealthily approaching their position in an unfriendly attempt to avoid detection by the small group of soldiers in an effort to sneak past, nor had they any hostile intentions towards them at all.
In fact, it wasn't the small band of JGSDF soldiers and their weapons that the survivors were afraid of at all.
These people were stealthily trying to avoid detection by someone or something that was stalking them.
"OH.… F_CK ME!" Shinohara said aloud suddenly very much alarmed, dropping the bullhorn with a loud clatter to the street, and hurriedly drawing his issue pistol from its holster.
"This shit is getting deeper by the minute." Shinohara grumbled, gritting his teeth as Kumagami followed suit and removed her pistol from its holster as well.
"If these people were being followed, then a LOT of valuable time has been wasted already." Shinohara thought to himself. Now getting these people to safety and ensuring the safety of his own people at the same time had gotten a whole lot more complicated.
Running against time now as the sun continued to rise slowly behind them and the mist was beginning to clear even faster, Asuma quickly looked over his shoulder at Goto, who met his eyes and nodded his head in silent agreement, easily reading the look on Shinohara's face that visibly conveyed what Azuma's intent of action was going to be next.
Shinohara then turned back around and glanced at Kumagami, his eyes locking into hers for a brief moment, as she silently nodded in agreement with what he was planning to do, and her willingness to back him up, no matter the outcome.
Giving her a quick smile of silent thanks, Shinohara then turned towards the two platoon sergeants crouched next to them.
"I'm going to try to make contact. Signal everyone else hold fast for now but have everyone ready in case this is a trick. And if it is, don't wait for my command, just unleash hell." Shinohara whispered to Kumagami and the two sergeants.
"Yokai." Everyone acknowledged as the two platoon sergeants turned back around to face everyone and then through the use of hand signals relayed the order for everyone to "stand fast".
Sakaki mentally rolled his eyes as he did so; sincerely wishing that stupid movie "Gladiator" hadn't been made. Now every young officer, his own included, that walked around with visions of glory dancing around in their head, thought he was Russell Crowe.
Turning around to face the group on the bridge once again, Sakaki then released the retaining strap of his holster, removing his pistol from it and then racked the slide, with "Delta" Platoon's non-com, Sergeant Kanuka Clancy also following suit.
Colonel's Goto and Nagumo , by this time, were no longer content to just stand by and observe the drama unfolding in front of them any further, but as each of them looked into the others face, the unspoken words they felt could be read in their eyes as they silently drew their pistols from their holsters and separated from each other.
Silently, both senior officers walked over to take a position behind each of the machine gun crews, in an effort to be better able to help direct the soldiers on each side of the bridge now that the situation was more dangerous than previously realized, each of the two senior member's intent on doing their part to help.
Standing next to Ohta and Shinshi's gun position, Goto signaled to Corporal Shiba to come over, and as he did so, Goto then placed his hand on the younger ma's shoulder and whispered quietly in his ear.
"Shige-san." He said, removing his hand from the younger man's shoulder to pull the slide back on his pistol.
"Advise Command that we have made positive contact with a small group of survivors…." Goto went on. "Possibly being followed by an as of yet, unseen and possibly larger hostile force that may also be moving towards our position behind them, and we may have to engage soon."
"Tell them that the security breach is confirmed, and to send reinforcements now!" Goto said his eyes focused straight ahead on the approaching party as he clapped the corporal on the shoulder to get moving.
Shinohara had seen the two senior officers take their place amongst his men, and was immediately grateful for their support. If things were about to turn sour, he was definitely wanting all the support he could get.
After a last quick look around to make sure that all his people were ready, Shinohara then turned again to face Kumagami , who with a slight smile, nodded her head that she too was ready and for him to be careful.
Taking a deep breath and then expelling it slowly to calm himself, Azuma then raised his hand to signal the point man on the bridge still waiting silently on the bridge, and then motioned for he and his people to come forward.
Immediately upon seeing Asuma's hand signal to proceed forward, the point man then slowly nodded his head at Shinohara's gesture, and then raised his hand above his head and closed his fist again to signal the rest of the people following him, turning his head to make sure that the people behind him could also see his signal.
As he did, the others behind them followed suit making the same hand signal by raising one hand up with their fist closed, as each person also turned his head to make sure that everyone in their group had received the same signal.
Seeing that everyone was standing by, the point man then waved his arm in a forward motion which was repeated by each person in turn until as one, they started moving forward.
And as the mist continued to clear, all of the JSDF troopers could see that just like a trained combat unit, the people were moving in what at first appeared to be a "wedge formation", with each individual spaced 3 meters from each other in all directions.
That is, until Nagumo looked even closer at the group of people silently moving forward and noticed that the formation the group of people were actually walking in was more of a very large modified "diamond formation."
There were more than a few impressed murmurs of surprise amongst the JGSDF soldiers at seeing this as even Nagumo's mouth dropped in surprise at the coordinated move.
"Who are these people?" Nagumo thought to herself.
"And where did they learn how to operate like a combat unit?" Nagumo mumbled under her breath as she raised her glasses to her eyes again as the small group that was now only 60 meters away continued to advance forward.
Distracted earlier from studying the armed civilians approaching their position by Shinohara's attempt at trying to make contact with them, Nagumo now focused her binoculars on the advancing group and began to study each individual one-by-one as they closed in.
"They certainly are a motley crew." Nagumo thought to herself as she studied the group closely. "And to spread themselves out in that type of formation in front of our guns too? What were they thinking?"
As the fog continued to clear, and as the group of people continued to advance out of the mist, Namgumo tried to make out as much detail as she could on each individual as they were facing her, focusing on each one as she scanned each of them in a clock-wise motion.
The point man was a man possibly in his late 30's or early 40's.
And as the fog cleared even further, Nagumo could make out his tired, unshaven face was still slightly smeared with the remains of black camo paint as if he had made an attempt to wipe it off in a hurry.
And as the fog cleared even more, Nagumo was further shocked to see that he was wearing the navy blue uniform and badge of an officer of the Tokonosu City Police Department, and was armed with a semi-automatic pistol in a holster on his right hip, besides the M4 carbine he was carrying with the magazines for the rifle stored in pockets on the combat vest he wore.
"A policeman?!" Nagumo thought shocked at this development. "He can't be the reason they are all trained this well can he?"
"Well, perhaps if he is with the Prefectural Police Tactical Unit or maybe ex-military." Nagumo reasoned. "That would explain a few things."
Directly behind the point man walking at a distance of about 8 meters, a young woman in her late twenties dressed in an all-black jump suit and wearing a heavily-laden combat vest was carefully keeping pace with the man's footsteps.
Like the policeman walking directly in front of her, she too was armed with a large semi-automatic pistol of some sort tucked in a tactical thigh holster on her right hip and in her arms she carried a Colt M4 carbine.
And like the other officer, her face was also slightly smeared with the leftover remains of camo paint that had been hastily wiped off.
However, unlike the other policeman, Nagumo was disturbed by the fact that for some reason, the young woman's face was also very familiar, but because of the fog however, Nagumo was unable to completely recognize the female officer's face.
But someone else had.
"I know her!" Nagumo overheard whisper suddenly.
"You do?!" Shinohara asked dumbstruck. "Who is she?"
"I don't remember her name, but she was one of the instructors during an anti-terror drill we attended last year. She's one of the S.A.T. people!" Takeo said with a hint of enthusiasm in her voice that clearly indicated that Kumagami must have been impressed by her for some reason, Shinohara thought to himself.
Nagumo frowned slightly as she returned her glasses to her eyes and studied the young woman's face closer and thought for a moment about the relevance of what Kumagami had just said.
Things were beginning to make sense, now.
After all, having a policeman and an anti-terror instructor as the leaders of this group would explain why these people were acting like a trained combat unit instead of a bunch of half-cocked gun nuts.
And then Nagumo suddenly remembered why the young woman's face was so familiar.
Sergeant Rika Minami, age 26, assigned to the Japanese Prefectural Police S.A.T. and also one of the top five best snipers in all of Japan, with whom she had become casually acquainted with two years ago, during a demonstration of the S.A.T. Division's anti-terror capabilities.
During one particularly complicated hostage scenario, Nagumo and Goto had seen first-hand Sgt. Minami's prowess with her sniper rifle, and the young woman had made a lasting impression on Nagumo and the rest of the brass that had winessed that demonstration of her skill.
"What the hell is she doing here with this bunch, though?" Nagumo wondered, her brow furrowing as she scanned her eyes over the next person in formation.
Still going clockwise, at what was the 7 O'clock position from Nagumo's field of view, and to Sergeant Minami's right, walked a young girl in her late teens or early twenties, dressed completely in black, with her long black hair tied in a ponytail behind her head.
Despite the remains of smudged camo paint on her face, it was easy to see that she was a lovely young woman and despite the tense situation, she had a strikingly calm demeanor about her.
But the look on her eyes was a different story however, Nagumo thought as she studied her face.
The young girl's eyes were not at all as those of a scared teenager. But rather, they were the cold, emotionless, steely eyes of a killer.
And as if to prove that she was indeed ready to defend herself she was armed with a large pistol sitting in a thigh holster strapped to her right thigh, and also carrying a suppressed H&K MP5 in her hands, as well as a rather long and ornate katana that was strapped to her back.
"Kunoichi." Nagumo heard someone snicker as she then scanned over to the next person in formation.
"Can't argue with him there." Nagumo said under her breath. "She does resemble a modern day kunoichi with that katana hanging off of her."
Turning her attention to the next person in formation, Nagumo focused her gaze on the person walking behind the young swordswoman, and off to her right, a young teenage boy of about 17 years of age walking at the formation's 9 O'clock position.
Nagumo watched in fascination at the young boy dressed in weather beaten *BDU's and carrying an enormous AA-12 semi-automatic shotgun loaded with a large drum magazine in its magwell with a spare magazine for it stored inside a pouch hanging on a tactical belt he wore.
(*BDU-Battle Dress Uniform)
As fearsome as the boy looked carrying the weapon that was too large for a boy his size to wield, not even the smeared camo paint on his face or the weapon he carried could cover the look of his very youthful appearance, especially with his hair combed in that unkempt style that had become quite popular among Japan's youth.
And despite herself, Nagumo couldn't help but notice that the boy was also very handsome as well as she quickly looked away and chided herself for staring, lest her husband notice and give her hell for staring.
Not that her husband was the angry or jealous sort, but he did seem to take sadistic joy in exposing the kinks in here armor, so to speak as Nagumo turned her attention away from the boy and quickly focused on the other young boy at the 11 O'clock position walking behind the first.
Like the other boy, this one was also a teenager and wearing the same rumpled, dark battle dress uniform.
But there the resemblance ended.
Where the first boy was tall and handsome, the other boy was short, chubby, and somewhat dumpy looking. Still, while his physical appearance was not very striking, his demeanor most certainly was Nagumo thought to herself.
He way he carried himself was not like some whiny, wimpy, fat kid struggling to keep up with the group. His spectacled face with smudges of camo paint here and there was like that of an experienced combat veteran, his eyes hard, sharp, and constantly scanning around, keeping alert for danger.
Hardly the look of the typical junk food gorging, X-Box playing, computer nerd looking kid you see all the time, Nagumo thought to herself.
But if he was, he had definitely been playing quite a bit of "Call of Duty", judging by how heavily armed he was, with what looked like an Knight's Armament SR-25 sniper rifle in his hands and a combat vest bulging with magazines for the rifle and a cross-draw holster in which it appeared that the butt of an old Luger sat.
As Nagumo continued to scan each individual in the group, Goto had been doing likewise up until his eyes had then become focused on the clear open space behind the two people at the center of the formation behind the SAT woman.
"Strange." Thought Goto to himself. "There's no rear security watching their back."
"If there is, either he must be still in the fog somewhere, hanging back." Goto thought as he peered more intensely at the gap in the formation. "If not, they have seriously compromised themselves in the worst possible way by not having someone posted to guard their rear if they're so worried about something following them."
Despite what appeared to be a serious tactical flaw in their security, based on what he had seen so far from them, Goto didn't believe for one second that this group could have had that serious a lapse in judgment though as he trained his glasses on the young girl at the One o'clock position of the formation.
The teenage girl that Goto was studying next was a girl who appeared to be around 16 years of age, wearing a dark green cravat over her head in an obvious effort to cover over her hair that had been dyed a bright shocking pink, that still managed to peek out at certain spots.
Despite the smudges of camo paint, the girl was obviously very young and very pretty, although her youthful face seemed to be set in a permanent scowl behind her spectacles for some reason.
She was dressed in dark blue jeans, cut off at the knee and a black blouse over which the nylon strap attached to her suppressed H&K MP5K hung over her shoulder.
Scanning the next person in formation, Goto then began to study the teenage girl at the 3 o'clock position who was about age 17 with long reddish brown hair also covered up with a dark green cravat, wearing a dark jumpsuit and carrying a suppressed MP5 in her hands with no visible spare magazines or other weapons.
Nagumo adjusted the focus knob on her field glasses as she noticed that there was a striking resemblance between the young teenage girl with the reddish-brown hair, and the short-haired woman at the 5 o'clock position.
The woman with the short hair was an older woman in her early to mid-thirties, dressed in the dark blue uniform of a motorcycle cop complete with high leather boots and riding pants. She also carried a suppressed H&K MP5 in her hands and a small compact 1911 style pistol in a cross draw holster on her combat vest.
"They almost appear to be mother and daughter". Nagumo thought to herself as she kept looking between the young girl and the female officer studying both of their faces.
After a moment, Nagumo next turned her attention to the only two people that were unarmed in the group, a young woman wearing a dark scarf covering over her blond hair, dark coveralls and carrying a large knapsack on her back, who was walking next to a small girl who held the older woman's left hand in both of hers as they walked and from the obvious look on her face was also obviously very frightened.
The little girl that was hanging on to her with both hands was about 10 years of age and like the rest of the group, wore dark clothes and a small school knapsack hanging off her shoulders, visibly frightened despite the attempts by the older woman to console her.
Nagumo however, wasn't the only one who had noticed the blond as a deep scrowl formed on her face.
In fact, every male soldier was way ahead of her in noticing the young blond woman who had stepped out of the fog, who was strikingly beautiful despite the smudged camo paint on her face.
And of course, the loose-fitting dark coveralls did absolutely nothing to hide the fact that she was rather amply proportioned in the chest area, of which none of the male soldiers failed to notice judging by the loud murmurs coming from all the men.
The backpack the blond woman was wearing over her shoulders only served to stretch the material of her jumpsuit in a way that greatly enhanced her figure, much to their delight as well.
Col. Nagumo lowered her glasses with a scowl, and shot an angry look over at her husband as he tried to clear his throat in a useless attempt to cover over his own slip of the tongue over the woman's proportions.
"Four adults, five teenagers, and one child." Goto mused." Three of them possibly police, the rest civilian."
"They look like schoolchildren." Nagumo agreed. "Perhaps the blond is their teacher, or just a mother and her daughter the group took into their fold."
"I don't think she's the girl's mother." Goto said in that calm voice that annoyed Nagumo. "I didn't notice any facial resemblance that would suggest she's the girl's mother."
"YES…. I'm sure that's the first thing, you noticed about her!" Nagumo said acidly.
Goto, sweating a little, and knowing full well he was in the doghouse for saying "Ara, Ara." (My,My) a little too loudly when the blond woman first appeared, had no reply as he raised his glasses to his eyes and pretended to be focused on something else.
Nagumo raised the glasses back to her eyes with a huff, just as the last missing man providing rear security behind the main group emerged from the mist.
"Who the hell is that?!" Nagumo said sucking in her breath as soon as she saw the man.
Unlike the rest of his party who was made up of teenagers and average –size men and women, this man was big.
And while he was definitely taller and more muscular then the others in his group and towered over them, he was not nearly as big as Hiromi-chan, but the man was definitely above average size.
Nagumo guessed he was about six feet in height and possibly weighed over 250 pounds with big shoulders and the chest and arms of a man accustomed to hard labor.
Unlike the others, the man had not made any visible effort to remove the dark green and black camo paint on his face although it was easy for Nagumo to distinguish that the man was definitely a foreigner.
And from what little Nagumo could see, the man appeared to be possibly American, either of Latin or Middle-Eastern descent judging from the brown skin color of his face and arms and his black wavy hair with flecks of grey at the temples.
The man was wearing a dark blue boonie hat pushed low on his head with some brand of clear shooting glasses covering his eyes, and was dressed in a dark BDU shirt with a small Velcro unit patch on his right shoulder over which he wore a desert tan colored combat vest full of magazines for the carbine, faded blue jeans, and tan combat boots on his feet.
He was also the most heavily armed of the group, carrying a tan-colored, highly modified M4 carbine with an over-sized magazine loaded into its magwell and a Knight's Armament Company "Masterkey" shotgun assembly mounted underneath the barrel.
And on his right hip, he wore a semi-automatic pistol in a tactical thigh holster strapped to his right leg with a large knife strapped divers-style, on his right calf.
And inside a very large backpack that he carried over his shoulders, the stock of some sort of sniper rifle was clearly visible.
As big as he was, the man moved as silently as the rest, occasionally turning around, with the rifle to his shoulder, constantly checking the rear of the formation.
As Shinohara watched the man closely he thought to himself just how glad he was that this man had not been the first to come out of the mist, not at all sure just exactly how well his people would have reacted at seeing this big man coming out of the fog first.
Sakaki was also closely examining the big man, who to his eye, seemed to resemble one of the former American and British serviceman working as "Private Security Contractors" that he and his people had come across three weeks ago.
In the past few years, there had been many of these "private security personnel" (which was the politically correct way of saying "mercenary") roaming around Japan, usually on their way to a "contract" or coming back from one.
Most were very professional Sakaki had noted over the years, but as a career soldier himself, he didn't much care for the concept of "soldiers for hire".
Of all the other people in the group Goto noticed as he studied the large man closely, this man purposefully kept his carbine against his shoulder, at the ready.
Goto also noticed that the man was also being very careful to keep the muzzle of his weapon pointed downwards whenever facing the JGSDF soldiers so as not to appear as a threat, unlike the rest who were careful to keep their rifles at waist level in an obvious attempt to appear non-threatening,
But each time the man made a security check of the group's rear, the man would turn around raising the muzzle directly into the mist as he did so, and make an entire sweep of their rear, ready to engage whatever danger presented itself, while the rest were trying to appear as non-threatening as possible..
"You think he might be American military?" Kumagami whispered over to Asuma. "Maybe British SAS?"
"I noticed a patch on his right shoulder, but no other insignia or anything else identifying who he's with that I can see." Shinohara replied. "That would fit the profile somewhat."
"He also moves like he knows what he's doing." Shinohara added.
"But there's something….off about him." Shinohara thought to himself.
In a world filled with wannabe military buffs and fake heroes, the men and women of the military, especially the Special Operations people, have had a lot of practice weeding out the fakes from the real operators.
There are many ways to tell whether a man is what he says he is, and who is most definitely not what he claims to be, and not just by catching the fake soldier in a lie. Those in combat can spot even the best practicing fake from a mile away just by looking at him.
Ask them how they can spot a fake, and some will explain that there's just a way a soldier walks, talks, breathes, jokes, curses, etc. that another soldier can tell whether he's the genuine article or not.
Shinohara wasn't quite sure of what to make of this fellow though.
Looking over at Kumagami's platoon sergeant that who was still crouched next to them, Shinohara half-jokingly asked her. "Friend of yours?"
Twenty-five year old Staff Sergeant Kanuka Clancy, a Japanese- American born in Hawaii on loan from the United States Military on a military exchange program, shook her head.
"I've never seen him before." Kanuka replied watching him closely. "A man that size isn't hard to forget. And even though there are a lot of guys his size serving in our military, I don't recognize him from any of the bases around here."
"Lieutenant." Sakaki whispered over to Shinohara. "You remember that bunch of "mercs" we ran into on the third day of the Outbreak?"
"How can I forget?" Shinohara said with a grimace, remembering the day in which both "Echo" and "Delta" Platoons had both almost been lost if not for the timely arrival of a team of foreign "Private Military Contractors" who had saved their lives just as they found themselves completely surrounded by Infected and almost completely out of ammo.
"Remember how their Team Leader said he was missing two men?" Sakaki asked as Shinohara nodded his head in response.
"Yeah, I remember he mentioned that, why?" Shinohara asked as he, Kumagami and Kanuka looked at Sakaki with puzzled looks.
"Well, I talked to a Navy friend of mine down at the base about week after our little encounter with those guys." Sakaki continued. "And the *"scuttlebutt" from some of the *swabbies down at the base say that one of those missing mercs was found a few days ago , and he was former SAS."
(*Scuttlebutt- Navy slang for "gossip")
(*Swabbie-Slang for Sailor)
Shinohara glanced over at Sakaki, his eyes growing wide. "You think that this guy might be the other one that was missing?''
"Either that, or, he's just the best trained tourist I've ever seen." Sakaki added in a rare display of humor.
Shinohara pondered this as the group was now almost 40 meters away and closing.
The moment of truth had arrived and Shinohara needed to act, as he turned to Kumagami and Sgt. Clancy and gave them instructions on what was going to happen next.
"I'm going to call a halt about 20 meters away in front of the dividers, and the Sgt. Major and I are going to parley with the point man and tell him what to do if he and his party want to cross over here." Shinohara began.
"Takeo, take charge and if anyone tries anything funny, don't hesitate, blow them away." Asuma said as Kumagami looked at Shinohara, her eyes widening at this order, but nodding her head anyway.
"If they're just refugees running for safety, I'll have them disarm where they stand and we can pat them down single file and secure them till we get them shipped off to base to debrief." Asuma added.
"Oh and by the way, everyone gets cuffed till we sort out this mess, agreed?" Both of the two women slowly nodded their heads in agreement.
"Here we go." Shinohara whispered to Sakaki as both men stood up and walked toward the rows of concrete barriers.
As the silently moving formation came within 20 meters of the first row of concrete dividers, Shinohara suddenly raised up his hand and signaled for the group to halt as the point man raised his closed fist in the air, and ordered a halt as each of the others in his group also came to a stop while the rear guard turned completely around facing the opposite direction and kept the muzzle of his carbine pointed directly into the mist.
Shinohara then motioned for the policeman to step forward with his rifle slung, in order to parley and give instructions to the man as to how he and his group could safely approach the checkpoint.
Comprehending what Shinohara was attempting, the man raised his hand for all in his party to see and signaled for them to hold their position and get down as everyone slowly dropped down to one knee.
After making sure everyone had settled down the point man then slung his rifle over his shoulder and tapped a large PTT button clipped to his combat vest and whispered a command to the rear sentry, who immediately dropped to one knee, his carbine still sweeping back and forth.
It was only then, that some of the JGSDF soldiers finally saw the tiny earpieces and throat mikes that the three police officers and the rear guard wore. None of the others were so equipped, which meant, Goto concluded, that these four were the real pros here and the main security force of the group.
Goto watched as he became even further impressed by the group of civilians as they all knelt on one knee with the three women in the front of the formation and the two unarmed civilians facing forward towards the JGSDF position.
Everyone else however, followed the rear guard's example and faced rearward, their weapons raised to their shoulder and the muzzles sweeping back and forth, confirming to Goto and all of the JSDF trooper's that the danger the group of people feared was indeed from the rear, and not the small group of soldiers guarding the bridge.
Shinohara realized then that he really needed to hurry if these people were that worried about a threat nearby.
"Damn, I can't wait to hear the story behind these people." Shinohara said to Sakaki.
"You and me both." Replied the Sergeant Major.
"Looks to be one hell of a tale. I just hope whatever's scaring them is not bigger than we can handle." Sakaki added.
"Let's get moving then." Shinhara said the apprehension growing in his voice, as Shinohara and Sakaki stood up and proceeded to walk with pistols drawn, towards the police officer who was approaching the barrier.
It was eerily quiet, with no sound save for the rushing water beneath the bridge and the sound of Shinohara's heart beating against his chest.
And just as Shinohara was just about to walk through the concrete dividers, he looked directly into the man's tired face who met his eye and then gave a tired smile and a nod of his head, in an obvious attempt to show that he was indeed , not a threat.
"Or maybe he really is just happy to see us." Shinohara thought. "I can't imagine the hell he and his people have gone through, stuck on that side of the river for the past three weeks."
Just as Shinohara returned the smile he thought he saw a small flash come from the fog, somewhere behind the man's head from across the bridge as the man's smile instantly vanished, and his face twisted in shock and surprise as a loud grunt escaped from his mouth and the cop suddenly pitched forward on to his face as the report of a high powered rifle echoed from across the river.
There was a moment of stunned silence as the soldiers looked on in horror as the man fell to the ground.
And didn't move.
"HOLD YOUR FIRE! HOLD YOUR FIRE!" Shinohara roared as he and Sakaki instinctively ducked behind the concrete barrier, yelling as the rest of the soldiers were nearly on the verge of opening up on the group kneeling on the bridge in response to the shot from the hidden sniper, believing for an instant that Shinohara had actually been the intended target.
But there was now no doubt in Shinohara's mind exactly who the real targets were of the hidden sniper, and the question of whether the survivors were evading the Infected or evading human pursuers had been dramatically answered with deadly results.
And Asuma cursed himself for not having moved faster to secure the group of people on the bridge faster as he gritted his teeth as he listened to the sound of two of the women on the other side of the concrete barrier's screaming over the fallen man.
"TADASHI !" Shinohara heard the older woman scream, as a young girl who was apparently the fallen man's daughter was in hysterics screaming again and again.
"PAPA!" ….. "PAPAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" … "MAMA!"… "LET ME GO!"
As Shinohara and Sakaki slowly raised their heads to peer over the concrete wall, they were both horrified to see the woman and the teenage girl that had been at the right corners of the formation were violently struggling with one another as the man who had been shot lay completely still on the road.
The older woman, who was barely keeping her own emotions in check, was desperately trying to keep the girl from running towards the fallen man by holding her down with her body as the girl was hysterically screaming and trying to push the woman away.
"F_ck me." Shinohara groaned in despair. "They're a family. And now they just watched him get shot right in front of them."
"F_CK!" Asuma roared in frustration now in the worst possible situation he could possibly be, at the mercy of an unseen sniper with he and his men also in the line of fire along with a group of civilians who were completely exposed and no way to help them.
And again, Shinohara was unsure of what to do next.
The reaction amongst the kneeling group however, was nothing less than remarkable.
There was no panic at the unseen sniper at all.
Instead, after the shot was heard and the man had fallen, all of the teenagers had been ordered by the adults to hit the ground, while the rear guard, and the S.A.T. woman remained kneeling, their weapons pointed in the direction of the shot.
Goto could also see the two communicating through their throat mikes, and after a brief exchange of words, the blond woman and the little girl in the center were then motioned by the S.A.T. officer to move forward, and get behind her.
And as the woman did so with the scared and crying young girl beside her, they stopped to kneel next to the man as the woman reached over to check the man's neck for a pulse.
Obviously being the medic of the group, she wasted no time in assessing his injuries.
"He's breathing!" Shinohara heard the woman shout. "It didn't go through!"
Azuma breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing the woman speak, but the danger was far from over.
"So he was wearing body armor after all." Goto concluded.
"Still." Goto thought. "He's hurt, and he's way too heavy for the woman and child to remove from the danger zone by themselves."
"Shinohara!" Goto barked. The time for stealth was now over. The enemy knew they were here, but the fog was probably obscuring his visibility as well, since there had been no other shots fired.
But that might not be the case much longer, Goto realized.
"GET THOSE PEOPLE OUT OF THERE!" Goto roared.
Shinohara nodded, and yelled at two of his men to follow him as he and Sakaki jumped up and they ran across the barriers to reach the fallen man.
"Get every one of these people to cover behind the tanks as soon as Azuma gets over here, and be sure to search all the survivors as they come through!" Nagumo shouted over at Kumagami and Sgt. Clancy. "We'll be sending the rest of them to you shortly, NOW, GO!"
As the pair ran off to set a safe staging area for the wounded man and the rest of the soon to be incoming survivors, Nagumo crouched near the machine gun nest manned by Noa and Godai.
"Wait for my signal. " Nagumo commanded. "When it hits the fan, things are going to be happening very fast and orders are going to be coming very quick, so be ready."
Noa and Yusaku looked up at Nagumo with wide eyes and nodded their heads nervously as they focused their attention to the far end of the bridge realizing that Colonel Nagumo wasn't just stating the obvious for no apparent reason.
Up to this point, the soldiers of "Echo" and "Delta" Platoons had only been shooting at the Infected. This was their very first engagement at an enemy that could actually shoot back.
Nagumo looked up and was relieved to see Shinohara and two of his men were carrying the wounded man while Sakaki escorted the blond woman and little girl through the barriers without drawing any more fire from the still unseen sniper, who had apparently been unable to gain a visual any more targets because of the heavy mist.
The teenager who had hysterically tried to run to her fallen father, upon seeing that he was only stunned, had miraculously regained her composure, and upon urgings from her mother, who was still visibly shaken as well, grabbed her MP5 and resumed her position back in formation.
"Holy shit!" Sakaki thought to himself impressed by the mother's resolve for her and her daughter to keep ranks despite her husband getting shot.
As the girl got back into formation, Goto suddenly heard the S.A.T. officer giving orders and immediately all the teenagers picked themselves up from the ground, and now in a kneeling position, were obviously preparing to withdraw.
"Damn, I want to be present when they de-brief this bunch." Goto and Nagumo thought.
A sudden volley of shots sounded from across the river had all the JGSDF soldiers ducking their heads, as the scream of bullets flying overhead and the whine of bullets ricocheting off the bridge's framework suddenly pounded their position.
While the JSDF soldiers had plenty of cover behind sandbags, the tanks and the concrete dividers, the survivors still on the bridge were still caught out in the open and were horribly exposed. They were dead if the soldiers didn't do something to help them right away.
Goto was about to yell at them to hit the dirt and order his gun crews to open fire and suppress the threat, but he was too late.
The survivors had already prepared in advance for this scenario.
If the JGSDF soldiers had been impressed with the survivors since they had first made their appearance,
Then the next few seconds were about to blow their minds.
"CONTAAAAAACT!" The big man in the rear of the formation roared, as he opened up with his M4 carbine on full automatic, the shorter barrel of his carbine magnifying the blast and roar, as he fired into the general direction of where the shots had come from.
Immediately, the two teenagers on either side of him, also immediately opened up with their weapon's on full auto as the rest of the formation held their fire.
"ARE YOU F_CKING SHITTING ME?!" Shinohara said aghast as he turned to face the drama unfolding in front of him, and recognized the maneuver the people on the bridge were now executing.
"They're actually PEELING?!" Shinohara said in complete shock as he was stunned to see that the group of civilians were indeed, performing the highly aggressive tactic often executed by Special Operations Teams of withdrawing from a possibly superior force, known as the "Center Peel".
Usually traveling in a force no larger than eight men and carrying a limited amount of ammo, most Special Operations Teams will withdraw from contact with a larger force by the point man at the head of the column immediately opening up with suppressive fire with his weapon and then after expending his magazine, will immediately turn around and fall back to a pre-determined "rally point" as he reloads his weapon while the next man in the column behind him covers his withdrawal by opening fire with his weapon until each team member in line has done the same until everyone has gotten out of the danger area.
It is a bold, aggressive and highly dangerous maneuver that Special Forces and Tactical Teams drill constantly in order to do it right, and watching it being executed by a group of schoolchildren and civilians stunned every one of the JSDF troopers who could not believe at all what it was they were seeing.
Yet no sooner had the magazines of their guns ran dry than the two teenagers jumped to their feet and then turned around and ran full speed towards the back of the formation, headed straight towards the JGSDF soldier's position as their companions behind them at the outermost ends of the "diamond", opened up with their weapons on semi-auto fire, covering their friends as they ran.
Nagumo could now see why the formation had been set up the way it had been and why everyone had been spread out so much in order to give the teens a clear field of fire in front of them and avoid accidentally shooting each other in case of their being forced to peel away from an enemy.
"Someone over there really planned ahead." Nagumo said impressed as the first two teens passed their friends.
By the time the first two teens had passed their friends behind them the bolt on the large man's carbine slammed onto an empty chamber as Nagumo watched the man jump up and release the over-sized mag letting it drop to the ground as he dashed to the rear.
And after seeing the man get up a few seconds after the other two had already left, Nagumo then realized why the man had loaded his carbine with the much larger magazine that she had noticed earlier which had enabled him to sustain fire longer, ensuring that the two teens would be well on their way to safety after emptying their 30-round magazines before he ran dry.
"Well done, soldier." Nagumo said impressed by the man's courage in putting himself at risk to cover the children.
And as the man stood up and turned to run, he pressed the magazine release button at the same time, allowing the empty magazine to fall to the ground as he quickly pulled a double magazine set-up from one of the pockets in his combat vest and shoved it into the magwell of his carbine as he ran past the SAT woman who was shooting in single shot mode who then switched to auto fire as he passed.
Sakaki watched the man as he passed the woman and as he slapped the bolt catch on the side of his carbine and then suddenly turned around and knelt several feet behind the woman instead of running all the way to the dividers and safety.
Sakaki frowned.
The reason the man did that was obvious.
With the policeman down, these two adults were one man short to cover them as they peeled.
So in order to ensure everyone made it to safety, the man had made the decision to stay and hold his ground so the rest could escape.
It was a brave act, and suicidal as well.
"Damn fool." Sakaki said, gritting his teeth.
"COME ON!" Sakai roared at the pink haired girl and the fat kid as they weaved through the dividers.
"MOVE YOUR SORRY ASSES! MOVE IT! MOVE IT!" "MOVE IT!" He yelled, as rounds continued to scream overhead.
With the roar of the weapons fire, there was no way the survivors could hear anyone tell them to get down so the soldiers guns could provide cover fire to protect them.
After the first shot, the civilians were committed to their peel maneuver until they could get clear of the soldiers guns. Until then, the JGSDF soldiers could only watch helplessly as the survivors fought for their lives.
As the SAT woman and the two teens on either side of her emptied their guns and turned to run, Sergeant Minami dropped her magazine and reached for another from her vest as she turned around to join them in their dash for safety.
And as she slapped her last magazine home Rika Minami almost dropped her carbine when she spotted the big man kneeling behind her firing his carbine to cover her retreat.
Nagumo then saw the look of shock on her face as Sgt. Minami saw the big man kneeling there, shooting his rifle and covering her, instead of having run through the barriers to safety like he was supposed to.
And then Nagumo suddenly heard Rika Minami screaming a lot of angry words at the man as she slapped him on the shoulder as she ran past and then ran a few more feet before turning around and kneeling on the ground to cover him when he peeled.
As the second set of teens ran weaving through the concrete dividers, with Sakaki and the other soldiers yelling and waving them past, the man, unlike before, did not switch to full auto when the SAT sergeant passed by.
Instead, he began double-tapping through the fog, aiming where he saw small flashes from the enemies' rifles, intentionally buying more time for the others by slowing his rate of fire as the SAT officer stared at him mouth open in disbelief, and then started yelling at the last two women to hurry up.
As the motorcycle cop and the pony-tailed girl emptied their magazines and began their mad dash to safety, the man fired his last round from his magazine.
But once again, instead of turning around and running, he deliberately switched from his empty magazine and switched to the other, slapping the bolt catch and resumed firing the carbine on full auto.
"F_CK YOU!" The man roared over the blast of his carbine to the unseen enemy across the bridge.
Nagumo gritted her teeth, realizing what the man was trying to do by his act of defiance.
The man wasn't trying to put on a front of reckless bravado, nor was he just caught up in the fury of the firefight.
He was actually buying time for everyone to get clear.
And despite his own fear, he was deliberately sacrificing his life to do so.
His courage and self-sacrifice seemed to matter little to the SAT woman however, who was obviously royally pissed off at the man Nagumo surmised, by the way Sergeant Minami was screaming angrily at him as his carbine burned through his last 30-round magazine.
And as the bolt on his carbine once again slammed onto an empty chamber, the man then quickly transitioned from his carbine and removed his pistol from its holster, squeezing off all eighteen rounds from his pistol magazine as soon as he leveled his weapon in front of him, buying a few more precious seconds for the last two women who had now almost reached the concrete dividers.
And as the slide of his pistol locked back after firing his last round, the man quickly looked behind and noticing that the other two women were almost in the clear, then finally jumped up and ran towards the SAT woman as she immediately fired her M4 to cover his escape, still cursing him over the roar of her carbine.
Just as it appeared that the big man and the SAT woman were almost in the clear, the big man suddenly seemed to have slipped on the wet pavement and accidentally slammed into the SAT woman, covering her body with his as they both crashed to the ground in a heap.
And as Sakaki saw the man and woman fall, in that same moment he also saw the opportunity that they had all been waiting for.
"GET DOWN!" Sakaki shouted to the two other women as they were about to run through the dividers.
And as the two women hurled themselves to the ground, the rest of the JSDF troopers whose nerves had been on a razors edge for days, and who had just barely been able to keep from opening fire during the last few moments when the shooting began, finally heard the order that they had all been eagerly awaiting.
"OPEN FIRE!" Goto roared, as more than twenty assorted rifles and small arms as well as Hiromi-chan's M60 and the four big .50 caliber guns opened up, bathing the bridge in brilliant flashes of light and the roar of automatic weapons fire, sending tracers screaming and ricocheting across the bridge.
Earlier at the JSDF Naval Base, after the request for reinforcements had been made, men had been madly scrambling to their transport vehicles to help reinforce the soldiers at the bridge, and now as the trucks drove hurriedly through the misty roads towards the sounds of battle, the relief troops had been watching the bright flashes on the bridge from the smaller guns of the survivors in stunned silence at the battle being waged on the bridge.
But as the heavier machine guns of the small band of JGSDF soldiers along with all the other small arms were now unleashed, the noise and the muzzle flashes of all the guns bathed the bridge in a bright flashing silhouette that was visible from afar, the sight earning more than a few startled gasps among the relief troops in awe at all the firepower being unleashed.
"STEP ON IT!" The officer in charge of the column yelled to his driver. "They must be in serious trouble to be using that much firepower!"
Back at the bridge, the reason for such an awesome display had been due to the fact that there were no single-fire shots, or controlled bursts of weapons fire as was standard procedure in a firefight because in this particular case, the situation at hand did not call for accuracy or ammo conservation.
The soldiers of "Echo" and "Delta" Platoons had been ordered to unleash hell.
And they did.
All selector switches on all weapons had been switched to AUTO fire and all triggers were then held down as a torrent of suppressive fire was sent across the river without letup as fast as the JSDF soldiers could reload and fire their rifles.
And yet even in the roar of all the heavy weapons fire, Noa Izumi's shrill voice could be heard screaming in defiance as "Alphonse" spit lead downrange until finally, the M60 and .50 cal. guns went silent, and only then did Goto and Nagumo finally order a cease fire.
As the firing abruptly stopped and the sound of battle ceased, there was no return fire or noise of any kind at all heard from the other side of the river as the only sound audible was the sound of the river below them splashing against the bridge columns.
The smell of burnt gunpowder was extremely thick in the misty air as the haze from the smoke mixed with the fog, making visibility even harder, adding to the eeriness of the scene.
Suddenly off in the distance, the screams of the wounded on the other side of the bridge could be heard through the mist causing some of the soldiers to involuntarily shiver from listening to the sounds of those in pain echoing across the water.
And after waiting a few more moments with still no return fire from the other side, Sakaki barked at the two women in front of the barriers to get moving and then yelled over the dividers for the other man and woman still lying on the ground to get clear as well.
Glancing over towards where the couple still lay, Goto could see the man and woman from where he was standing, and no sooner had the man lifted himself up off the woman lying underneath him, than the woman sat up and violently punched the man hard in the chest, and then once again began shouting angrily at him.
"Chivalry in a man is not necessarily a trait appreciated or desired by the fairer sex sometimes." Goto thought to himself with amusement knowing how well Shinobu also vehemently despised that old- fashioned style of chivalry as well, which had led to many interesting battles between them.
And as if to confirm that the man and woman were indeed a couple in the middle of a domestic dispute, the man's response to the angry woman's scolding's was to finally yell in a voice that was definitely that of an American.
"Awww, SHUT UP, WOMAN!" The man said in a distinct Western accent as he then raised his hand up in the air and gave the woman a resounding slap across her shapely rear as she was attempting to get up.
The woman gave a sharp yelp at the slap to her rump, and then turned around and gave the man a very nasty look before rising to her feet and walking away from him.
With one hand rubbing her butt as she weaved through the dividers, the woman continued to yell harshly at the man, her face a mask of fury as the American shook his head and eventually rose to his feet and slowly walked through the dividers, far behind the much smaller woman.
Goto suppressed a laugh as he watched the pair…..barely.
Even in the midst of all this carnage, and the danger of more sniper fire or a counter-attack from whoever had fired upon them, these two were more concerned with being engaged in their ridiculously hilarious domestic dispute in front of everyone, after only moments before being involved in a life or death struggle from which they and their companions had just barely survived.
"Her temper certainly matches Shinobu's." Goto thought to himself as he watched the angry woman weaving her way through the dividers still cursing angrily and rubbing her sore rump. "Wonder how long those two have been together?"
"Ooooo, she… is… pissed." Shinohara quipped as Noa actually laughed/snorted at his comment towards the couple as they watched them trying to negotiate themselves between the barriers.
"Yeah, he's probably gonna wish he'd been shot, later." Noa giggled despite herself.
"He's definitely going to be in the doghouse with her for quite a while, that's for sure." Nagumo said out loud, also trying to keep from laughing out loud as she watched the furious look on Rika Minami's face and remembered the battles that she and her own husband had during the first few months of their relationship.
Sakaki, hands on his hips, merely looked at the couple and shook his head as he watched their antics and said nothing.
He had personally wanted to chew out the American for being so reckless, but the young woman was doing just fine taking him down a notch without his help.
And being a married man himself, Sakaki knew exactly what was in store for the American later and realized that would be punishment enough and decided not to interfere after all as he watched the couple coming towards him.
"Damn Americans." Sakaki thought looking at the slowly walking figure trying to negotiate through the dividers. "Every one of them thinks he's John Wayne."
Noa in the meantime, was yelling at Godai to hurry up with the reload on "Alphonse"as the American who was still trying to weave through the dividers, suddenly tripped and fell against the concrete block and seemed to just hang there in front of the smoking M2 machine gun, as Noa closed the steel cover on her gun and pulled the large charging handle on "Alphonse".
"Hey!" Noa screamed. "Get clear of my gun, you idiot!"
As if he were attempting to comply, the man slowly got up and moved himself out of Noa's line of fire, but succeeded only in taking a few steps more before falling against the divider once more.
And it was then that Goto then began to suspect that the real reason why the man had been moving so slowly was not at all because he was trying to avoid the wrath of the female SAT officer as Goto watched the man suddenly cough up a rather large amount of foamy red blood that splashed onto the divider and all over the front of his combat vest.
Goto's suspicions had now been confirmed, the man had indeed been wounded.
And worse, all signs pointed to the fact that he had been shot in the lung, a potentially, fatal injury if the man wasn't treated quickly.
"HIROMI-CHAN!" Goto yelled at the big M60 gunner who was also in the process of reloading as he looked up at Goto who pointed toward the wounded man.
"GRAB, HIM!" Goto yelled as Hiromi then nodded and quickly slung his M60 behind him and ran towards the man.
Noa was struck speechless at seeing the wounded man go down in front of her, and instantly felt bad for having yelled at him as she watched several others rushing over to help as Hiromi reached down and then put the man's arm around his neck and easily lifted him from the ground pack and all, and helped him around the dividers.
Unaware that something was wrong until she heard the shouts of the soldiers yelling behind her, the still fuming SAT officer turned around, expecting to see her companion walking directly behind her.
Instead to her horror, she saw her friend with his face and combat vest completely covered in blood while he was being carried limply at the shoulder by the biggest man she had ever seen.
"Jimu?" Rika Minami said stunned at first by the man's injuries and the amount of blood on his face and clothes and unable to comprehend what had just happened at first until the seriousness of his injuries finally hit her.
"JIMU!" She shouted more shrilly this time.
"Sorry Rika-chan, I really messed up this time." The man managed to say between gasps, coughing up frothy blood in the process.
"GET THE MEDIC!" Goto shouted as Hiromi continued to half carry the man toward the staging area behind the tanks.
The SAT woman, still in shock over the injuries to her friend, had apparently not heard the order Goto had given calling for the JGSDF medic as she began to scream loudly for the blond haired woman who had apparently been the medical specialist for the group of refugees.
"Shizuka!" Sergeant Minami shouted calling for the blond medic, as the American's respirations became more labored and his face began to turn ashen in color.
Failing to get a response, Rika Minami's voice became even more desperate in her attempt to locate the medic as the American's condition continued to decline rapidly.
"SHIZUKA?!" Rika Minami shouted again looking for the blond woman and still not seeing her anywhere.
"SHIZUKAAAAAA! She finally screamed now in a complete panic, tears starting to fall from her face as the highly intelligent, highly skilled professional SAT sniper was now in an unfamiliar state of panic as she quickly became hysterical and had to be escorted by some of the other troopers along with the American towards the rear of the tanks.
Goto , Nagumo, and Shinohara watched as the wounded American and the female SAT officer were quickly escorted away towards the staging area behind the tanks where Kumagami and Sgt. Clancy had detained the others, all of them knowing that the American's chances of surviving his wound were now extremely low.
They turned their heads away however, upon hearing the cries of the other survivors reacting to the sight of their wounded comrade, realizing the situation was very grim and that there was nothing more they could do.
Unfortunately, Lt. Kumagami would have to be the one to deal with maintaining order amongst the survivors to allow the medics to do their job for now, because there was no more that the senior officers could do for them, as they now had to deal with the possibility of a counter-attack, or worse, a real breach caused by the damage from all the weapons fire.
Either way, the danger was still not over and they had to prepare to meet any new threat and do it quickly until reinforcements finally arrived.
The American's fate was out of their hands.
Their brief respite was quickly ended however, as the sound of gunshots began anew across the river and everyone immediately scrambled for cover and manned their weapons, preparing to engage the enemy once again.
This time however, there was no whine of bullets overhead or ricochets against the steel girders on their sides as before which was probably why Sergeant Major Sakaki was the only one still standing up in plain view, apparently not the least bit concerned about becoming a target as he quietly gazed across the bridge as flashes coming from the muzzles of sporadic gunfire could be seen through the mist.
"Whats happening?" Noa asked the old sergeant.
"Mmm." Sakaki mumbled in reply.
"The noise from all the gunfire attracted "Them". Sakaki replied his voice sounded more tired as he continued. "Now those idiots are the ones under attack."
Noa suddenly jumped as did several other who were all startled by the sounds of sudden screaming echoed across the bridge and were then abruptly cut off.
The small party of soldiers stared vacantly across the bridge as the mist suddenly thickened once again, obscuring the view of the middle of the bridge and the city beyond.
The only sound to their ears was the rush of the river below them.
Hell had claimed its victims for now.
And it's gate was now closed once again.
Updated: 1-2014
When Chapter Three was originally posted in March of 2013, it was actually a "rough draft".
This year, I've been updating all of my older chapters, and with this one I polished up any errors I had made and added some new dialogue and plot points.
I hope you enjoy.
I will be updating the rest of the chapters very soon.
Thanks for your support!