Chapter 4: Pods

Previously, the adults conducted a rescue mission and they got help from Lazlo and successfully saved every single survivor in Prickley Pines. Now, the infestation continues...

Camp Kidney. 4:45

The arrival of the USEC SWAT trucks had drawn the camp's attention as the campers provided for the survivors. Gratified, the survivors were taken care of as beans and squirrel scouts supplied their needs. Shortly thereafter, Grayson, Lumpus, Slinkman and Lazlo returned and the survivors cheered for them. They just smiled and headed to the clinic. Once they'e inside, Fyodor was seen working on the vaccine. "Nice job out there." He said as he worked. "So what do we do with the survivors?" Lazlo asked Grayson. "We'll keep them here for now until evacuation has been arranged from the government. I'll watch the news." Grayson turned on the TV and it shows the news.

Cutaway to it...

Tom Tucker: "In other news, infestation is like a wildfire spreading from America to Europe and to Asia. Satellite recon even picked up strange looking green eggs in Florida, California and LA. Intel says that many people who are considered missing are said to be encased in those mutated eggs for bigger, deadlier and worse new species coming right up the menu for the security to exterminate. This is Tom Tucker returning right after commercials..."

End Cutaway...

"Those aren't eggs. They're pods." Grayson exclaimed. "How did you now and how can you tell and be so sure about it?" Lazlo asked him. "The missing aren't missing. Instead, they are kept inside the pods to be mutated into the bigger experimental results the media mentioned. Eggs usually hatch on their own but for pods, they only hatch when disturbed or ordered to perhaps. We have to contain these pods. Who knows? They can be everywhere and if a lone traveller stumbles onto one, he or she wouldn't live to see another day." Grayson explained as he armed himself. "Ready for another mission kid?"

"I sure am! I'll get some of my friends to assist." Within minutes, Lazlo brought William, Brandon and..."You gotta be kidding me! You're sending me to my last moments!"

"No I'm not Edward! It's only a matter of life and death so move it!" Once the team is assembled, "Hmmm...looks perfect. Alright, suit up and go!" Soon enough, a USEC dropship picked them up and then, "Set a course for LA for intel reports that the pods are heavily numerous and this is where we will hatch' em into corpses!"

"Yes sir." The pilot immediately took off.

Los Angelos. 5:45

The dropship arrived and from the view of the aircraft, all could see the infestation, the undead and mostly, the pods. "This is gonna be messy." William exclaimed. "Good for adventure." Brandon commented. Edward was shivering as he clutched his weapon which is a Shredder Disc Thrower. "We're all gonna die! We're all gonna die!" He was murmuring that word as he shivered. "Lazlo. Tell your friend to quiet down! I'm trying to help the pilot find a landing zone for us!" Grayson ordered as the pilot finally securd a landing zone and the dropship dropped the squad outside a supermarket. "Thanks." The squad thanked the pilot as he flew off. Then, "Sniff, sniff. I smell lots of pods over there." Brandon pointed out for there are 3 on their north-east, another 3 further on their direction and 2 on their south-east. "You can smell anything all the way from here?" Grayson asked him. "Of course! This mission will also be an adventure to me. And beside you." He turned to his north east and all of a sudden, the pods burst open revealing several shamblers and stalkers. Edward shrieked, went berserk and opened fired his weapon shredding them down within seconds. "That...was...EPIC!" He exclaimed. "Now you're talking." Grayson commented as another bursting sound can be heard and then, 6 zombies wielding twin boomerangs brisk walked out and threw them towards them! "Ha! Boomerangs? They have no skill in these toys!" Brandon took out his and threw at them. Easily, both of them struck through theirs' and they arced slicing them to limbs. Catching them, "Now we can begin Operation: Pods!" Brandon declared as a wall beside them broke down revealing 2 charging zombies followed by zombies armed with weapons and the basics. Then, runners followed by shielders and the pods in their south-east direction burst opened revealing the midget claw and knife zombies as they jumped around attacking at the same time. "Never mind their numbers. Repel those abominations!" Grayson opened fired his black Proposition while William and Brandon fired their Ronson LBM and Supermarine LMGs. Edward fought with Lazlo as he shredded more zombies while Lazlo fired his Mixmaster. They managed to raze them all down until the entrance of the supermarket was destroyed and zombies armed with claws and wearing steel armour on their arms and legs and 5 zombies armed with large swords advanced towards them. "If Allan is here, he'll love to fight these kinds of species." Lazlo stated as he threw a cryo followed by a M48 grenades and they froze and got blown up. Bloaters appeared too but were easily brought down by Grayson. "Let's move! Go! Go! Go!" The squad moved in but Brandon stopped. "Sniff, sniff. I smell something valuable." He darted off for a moment and appeared again holding 2 Iridium strongboxes. "I bet there's buried treasure in here. I can't wait!"

Inside the supermarket, "What's that?" William pointed out for in front of them are 5 small pods clustered together. Grayson scanned it with his PDA. "It called a Purge Nest. And that would mean..." Then, the nest began to move about and shamblers, stalkers, runners and spitters emerged from the nest. "Oh crap! It's spawning an army against us! Quickly eradicate it!" Grayson ordered as he opened fired his Black Proposition. The rest joined in as bodies fell swiftly. "Now concentrate all fire on the nest!" Grayson ordered and they did bursting it down. "Stay sharp boys. There are more perils lying ahead of us." Grayson reminded them as they proceed with caution. They spent the next hour shooting zombies and 3 more Purge Nests. They even blasted 5 bloaters and their worms to get a medical kit. After that, "We're low on ammo." Edward reported. "Lazlo, go and check that room to see if there's any supplies in there." Lazlo obeyed and prepared to check the room when a hatching sound can be heard from inside and the doors broke open revealing 3 zombies with electric batons and another 3 wearing Kevlar armour(they also look like as if they're part of the SWAT)"Are those freaks armed with..." That's when they shot lightning bolts! "Take cover!" Grayson and co avoided the lightning bolts as they engaged to shock them. Grayson fired at the armour zombies realizing that..."Crap! The armour is bulletproof! I can't raze them down!" Grayson noticed so he used a grenade and it took a few rounds to finish them while the electric baton zombies laughed and ran around shooting lightning bolts and electric rays at the squad. All quickly ran for cover until Grayson took care of them with headshots. "Thanks Grayson." Lazlo thanked him. "No problem dude. And behind you." A giant sword zombie was behind preparing to strike when Lazlo punched his head off. It rolled in front of more zombies armed with boomerangs, giant swords, knives, claws, chainsaws, buzz saws and hammers. "Now that's one huge undead army to blast!" Edward exclaimed as he drew a Lone Star. However, "FWOOSH!" a rocket zipped past him and it blew all of them into limbs and ashes. "Aw come on! I had them!"

"And I finished them!" All turned to see William armed with T-101 Feldhaubitz. "All boys, stock up your supplies, lock and load and make haste." Grayson ordered as they entered the room to resupply.

After that, they left the place to enter into another car park and there, "Oh snap." William exclaimed as all over the place are many pods including 4 big ones and a huge one. "Those pods look different." Lazlo noticed. "They're not pods. They're eggs." Grayson stated. All stared at him. "If my assumptions are correct from the PDA, the ones bigger than the pods are eggs because they can house something that we..." Then, a hatching sound can be heard and the pods burst open revealing more zombies except that, "Uh oh. They look different based on their new appearance." Brandon sniffed for some of them are burning, poisoned, electrically shocked, shadowy and..."It looks like the quantum vapour in the virus sure did the work enhancing their abilities and durability. Moreover, making tem immune to certain attacks. Follow my lead, watch and learn." The squad did as told as they followed Grayson's lead. They managed to go around in circles around the area eliminating the horde type by type and based on their newly enhanced forms. Within minutes, they managed to carefully and accurately pinpoint and critically finish the job. "Now we learnt something new today. Right?" Grayson smiled agreeing with Lazlo when Edward pointed out something. "Hey guys. Is it just me or are the eggs shaking violently?" That surprised them all as they turned to se the eggs burst open real hard revealing 2 regurgitators and 2 wickers. Then, "As for the big one...

"Yeah mate. Smells like big trouble in the perimeter." And then, the huge one burst open revealing a..."WHAT THE HECK?! A military walker!" Edward exclaimed in shock. "More like a zombie mech!" Lazlo added. "True fact. It is a zombie mech! TAKE COVER!" Grayson shouted as the mech went rampant firing it's machine guns, rocket launchers and flamethrower while his monstrous cohorts charged to attack. "Who would have guessed that something technological like that zombie mech can be infected?" Lazlo asked Grayson. "Don't ask me dude. We'll get our answers after the mission. Now, who brought rocket launchers?" Edward and William took them out. "You 2 try to damage the military mech while the rest of us blast the rest of his grotesque cohorts." They nodded as they prepared to fire. "I'll also provide you boys support. Take these." Grayson gave each of them 2 yellow cubes. "That's it?" Both of them exclaimed. "You'll see more of it's body once you threw them." He assured. Both stared at each other as the next thing they knew it, "Go go go!" The squad charged as Brandon drew an M16 and fired the first regurgitator down with it's puke worms while the second one was slashed to death by Lazlo as he used CQC by drawing out his dagger. Grayson threw a barrage of cryo grenades cooling off the wickers as they threw their firepower at him but his armour is thermal resistant even when the wickers exploded into their fiery mode. As for the mech, it will take a lot of firepower as all focused their attack on it. "Wanna bring in the surprise package?" Edward asked William as he reloaded and fired. He nodded and the duo threw the yellow cubes onto the ground and they deployed into Teknoboom Flugkorpers! "Neat!" The duo called out as they fired rockets at the walker. "Great job boys! It's almost down! Let's do this!" Grayson ordered as the whole SAS squad fired their weapons at it together and soon enough, thanks to their combined efforts and teamwork, "IOOM! KABOOM! BOOM!" what remains of the zombie mech are pieces of scrap metal and..."More treasure! Yipee!" Brandon went over to pick the box for he found 7 strongboxes throughout the mission. "That was so much fun! I wanna go for another!" Edward was happily dancing around while William can be seen beating up the remaining zombie hoard and as for Lazlo and Grayson, "That was fun."

"You bet. I've just called the dropship and he's bringing in the cleaning crew to clear this mess."

"Yeah, so now what?"

"Maybe while waiting, you and your friends can salvage the supermarket for supplies and resources. I'll stay here and wait for the dropship to come and then, we'll head home." Lazlo gave Grayson a thumbs-up as he went to follow his order. Grayson smiled at the lad as he smoked on a cigar and played Candy Crush Saga on his iPhone.

Pods eradicated. Chapter 5 coming soon...