CHAPTER VII: BACKUP

Fear enveloped the camp for days afterward, causing paranoia and insomnia. The men were tired, scared, and just done with it. Misery was a familiar feeling for the men of the Raze program by this time. Al was on patrol with me one day, and he said, "So, how about them robots?" "Aw, it sucks, man," I said, "We don't know where they are, we don't know what they're doing, it's all a big mess." Al nodded. We walked for a while in silence, until I said, "Hey, Al?" "Yeah?" he said. "Do you ever get the feeling that we…won't win?" I said reluctantly. Al looked at me, eyes widened, and said, "Hey, I know the last few weeks have been pretty depressing, but why are you thinking like that? It's all good, we'll win." "Somehow, that doesn't reassure me," I said. Al laughed, and we continued through the camp.

After our patrol shifts, we were resting when Max walked back into our area. Max looked serious. He began speaking, "All right! We've just received word that Sergeant Johnson, who is positioned in Austin, found something. A ship crashed not far from his base a few days ago. He and his squad have valuable info from this. Something took out his entire squad. That was his last transmission. As every other facility near him is destroyed, we need as many guys from here as possible to help him out. Any volunteers?" I raised my hand, along with Al and Hishi. About twenty more guys volunteered, and we were brought back to the main base.

Kyle and Johann were back there, with at least three hundred other soldiers. I ran up to Kyle and said, "How've you been doing?" "Okay, considering," said Al. Johann raised his hand and said, "I'm okay, too, just in case you're wondering." We all laughed, and looked to the front of the room just as Max walked up. "Now, this is going to be risky," said Max. "When isn't it?" shouted Al. Everyone, including Max, laughed. "True, true," he said, "But here, we're going to have to be especially careful in this instance. We have no idea what took out his squad, so try to be prepared for anything. Whatever happens, hang tough. We have to get the info he has. Let's head out!"

We headed to the transport planes, and my friends and I happened to get onto the same plane as Max. About twenty minutes before we reached Austin, Max said, "Alright, if any of you are afraid of heights…well, it's too late now. We're going to jump to Sergeant Johnson, so get your parachutes ready." Al piped up, "This ought to be fun." Max smiled slyly and said, "I suppose we'll see."

We reached Austin, and the doors to the plane opened, allowing us to go forward with the jump. When I jumped off, my adrenaline skyrocketed and I couldn't resist yelling, "WOO-HOO!" I brought my arms and legs close together to fall faster, and I smiled as my speed increased. As we approached the ground, I spread out and opened the drag flaps on my suit. When I was sufficiently slowed down, I opened my parachute, and made a smooth descent all the way to the ground. When I touched down, I immediately disconnected my parachute and took out my rifle, waiting for a few of the others to join me on the ground. Soon, everybody was on solid ground, and the real operation began.

We cautiously proceeded inward to the area that Sergeant Johnson was reported to be in. As I scanned the ground ahead of me, I noticed something was amiss. "Hey, Max?" I said, "Sergeant Johnson and his men, were they good fighters?" Max nodded and said, "Yeah, some of the best." "Then why aren't there any dead aliens?" I said. Max stopped in his tracks. "I can certainly tell you what is dead," he said grimly. I turned my flashlight toward Max's feet. There was a dead soldier. Max squatted and said, "Hey, come look at this." I walked over and said, "What?" "Look at the wounds," said Max. I looked closely at the soldier's decimated back. "These are bite marks," I said. "They most certainly are," said Max.

"I don't know of any alien unit that does something like that to a person," I said. "Well, who knows?" said Max, shrugging, "Maybe the aliens have some kind of new soldier." "Yeah, maybe," I said. We kept going through the ruins of the facility. There were dead humans, but no dead aliens. If this was a new kind of alien soldier, it was stronger than anything we'd ever seen. Max looked at the guys behind us and shouted, "Like I said earlier, be very careful." We went down a corridor, still observing the gruesome carnage presented to us.

"This is just nasty," said a soldier near the back. We reached the center of the facility and Sergeant Johnson. He was dead, neck snapped. "Great," said Max, "I suppose we can check out that ship while we're here." All of us exited the facility, heading toward the ship. Max shouted, "Everybody, activate your gas masks." We took the detachable gas masks and put them on our helmets. We gingerly walked into the ship, Max assigning which sections each of us should go to.

Al, Johann, and I were taking our part of the ship, and we took notice of the dead aliens strewn about the hall. "Hey, where are the ship controls?" I asked. "Probably on the other side of the place," said Al. "Okay, so they're crashing, they would've noticed," I said, "But instead of heading for the controls and trying to make a safe landing, they stay in harm's way. Whatever they were carrying must've been more important than their lives." I walked around the hall, trying to see if I could find anything. Eventually I stepped on a floor panel that came loose, and I fell about twenty feet onto another grate.

I heard Al shout, "Turner? Are you all right?" "I'm fine," I said, "I think I found something!" I kicked the grate down onto the floor below, and dropped into the room. I found another alien, clutching a table as if its life depended on it. It was already dead, with blood still pouring from its smashed-in face. I looked around the table, finding that all objects appeared to be for some kind of scientific purpose.

Al and Johann dropped down, and Al immediately said, "So, this must've been part of the R&D department." "That's probably right," I said. I saw what looked like a Petri dish on the table. It had a speck of a strange green substance on it. I looked over each piece of equipment until I found one like a microscope. I looked at the substance, seeing tiny squirming organisms. "Hey," I said, "These things are still alive." "Really?" said Al, "Let me see." Al took a long look at it. Al was always the kid who had perfect scores in biology, and eventually he said, "Hm. It looks like a virus of some kind."

"That's strange," I said. We walked over to the opposite side of the room and Al said, "So, what do you think, chemical warfare, or what?" "I don't…" I started to say. "Uh, guys," Johann interrupted. We heard a low, guttural groaning coming from the alien's direction. Its face was practically split in two. I took out my T-2 and began firing. Once, twice, three times, four times. The alien didn't slow. Eventually, I aimed at its head, and fired twice, blowing its head off. "I think I know what Johnson found," I said.

The dead aliens in the hall above us were dropping through, coming towards us. Johann wasted two of them, but he ran out of ammo. He took out his knife and shoved it into the brain of another alien. It gurgled and writhed for a few seconds and eventually stilled. He took his knife out and backed away quickly. I took out a pressure grenade and threw it at the remaining undead. Their bodies crumpled, blood splattering on the walls. It didn't help that they were still twitching and groaning afterwards. "Let's get out of here now!" Al said.

We clambered back up into the hall, running frantically towards any other group we could find. Max's group was the first one we met with. I started saying, "Max, Johnson found a…" "Zombie virus, I know," said Max. He looked to one side. Following his gaze, I saw blood and guts all over the walls and floor, thankfully all from the aliens. "How're the other groups doing?" I asked. "As far as we know, there haven't been any casualties, but I contacted one of our scientists back in L.A. He thinks this was some kind of kamikaze mission." "He thinks they crashed it on purpose?" said Johann. "Well, I'm fairly sure that's what a kamikaze does," said Max condescendingly.

Max continued, "I also received word that another ship has crashed in NYC. This is starting to turn into a bigger problem." Max, his group, and my group headed to find everybody else. Fortunately, no one was killed, and we were able to take out all the zombies on the ship. We went back to the facility, towards the center. When we reached the center, Johnson's body was gone. "Oh, no," said Max in a low voice.

From the shadows, an undead Johnson lunged towards a soldier. The soldier yelled and unloaded his assault rifle into the zombie. It fell hard, ripped apart. Max and some of the other went to bury him. Before they left to do so, Max said, "We'll use this place as a base, for now. Make sure to fortify it and take out any zombies that approach." We all got to work, barricading the doors and making the place up with beds we found lying around.

Al turned to me when we finished and said, "What happens now? We have aliens, robots, and now zombies to deal with. I'm starting to understand why you doubted our chances of winning." I looked upwards, blew out a long puff of air, and said, "I don't know."

END OF PART 1

COMING SOON: RAZE, PART 2: EARTHFALL!