Author's notes: so here's number 26, this one should be a pretty long one or it may even be the longest one yet so please enjoy.

Chapter 26 The CEDA camp

The survivors entered the nearest tent, Dave walking along with Gary who tried to ignore the pain in his shoulder as much as he possibly could, inside this tent was various wood tables with metal legs and various drawing boards and boards with writing and pictures on them. They looked around all of them confused by the writing on the A3 paper and boards, "what is all this shit?" Jake said, "knowing CEDA, probably bullshit about what they think is going on with the green flu but in reality is a load of old nonsense" said Gary. Dave then scowled as he noticed a familiar looking poster attached to the wall and pulled it off and showed the others, "this is CEDA's bullshit guidelines on how to handle the green flu" he said and Whitaker and his team looked it other before they began to sigh and chuckle. "According to this poster we've broken pretty much every single one of CEDA's rules" said Rick, "we aren't even supposed to be engaging the infected let alone shooting them" said Sian, "yeah well if CEDA really knew what it was like every survivor would lawfully be given weapons to defend themselves" said Heavy and Whitaker sighed and scrunched the poster up throwing it to the floor.

Having deemed the first tent of having nothing of value they swiftly exited and then entered the tent next door, this one was large and was more organised and had a large board at the end with lots of files attached to it, the survivors soon began checking over everything. "Check this out" said Rick as he picked up a rather large and thick diary and opened the page and was surprised when the pages had information on the different kinds of infected, "its got information about all the kinds of infected that there are" he called attracting the interests of the others. They read the first page which was simply about the common infected which simply labelled them as 'unintelligent, unorganised and in a permanent state of madness and anger', "dunno whether I would agree with them being unorganised" said Dave. "What do you mean?" Sam asked, "well they seem organised enough to attack us in waves which proves that they have a somewhat decent understanding of the term strength in numbers" he said and the others merely shrugged their shoulders. They read on and all made the same "ah" noise when the page stated that the 'common infected wee by far the weakest of the infected', but were also intrigued when it said that this doesn't necessarily mean they are the least dangerous.

The next page went on to weaknesses of the common infected and the survivors all sighed as the page stated exactly what they thought it would say, firepower and melee of any kind, fire and loud noises and grenades, "thanks for telling us what we already know CEDA" said Heavy causing a chuckle from the others. They then turned the page and were surprised when it started talking about their infamous friend the Hunter, the book stated that hunters were 'the most common of all special infected and were known for being opportunists and singling out targets and relentlessly tracking them and were also were crafty'. "Well I cant argue with that" said Rick agreeing with everything that he had read so far, they were then somewhat disheartened by the next sentence, 'in some instances they have also been known to hunt in groups of 2,3 and in very rare situations even 4 making them far more dangerous to even the most well coordinated survivor groups. The weaknesses section made them feel even worse with the next description, 'due to their uncanny speed and heightened senses it is very hard to successfully kill a hunter although it seems a headshot from just about any kind of firearm will kill them in one go'. "Great so the only real way to kill something that moves around really fast and is hard to hit is to hit it on the smallest place on its body" said Dave.

They next few pages went on to talk about the smoker, they read over these pages carefully and sighed realising that once again this was information they already knew, they knew that smokers had long range capabilities and preferred to keep their distance on the scene of battle. The pages stated that the easiest way to kill these infected was to get them in close range or to use long ranged weapons and sniper rifles to go for direct headshots, however Sam also chipped in and stated that should you get lassoed by the dreaded tongue that a knife or sharp melee of some sort could easily break it, this was of course in relation to her experience with the creature in the sewer. Next the book went on to talk about the Boomer and told them all the basic information including a few things they didn't know, for instance the boomer vomit acted as a beacon for the common horde and also that the bile itself didn't last very long and evaporated after around 45 seconds. The page also stated that however while around 95% of the vomit evaporates a small amount lingers on clothing thus prolonged exposure to boomer vomit on the same clothes would there for lead to more and more common infected attacks therefore changes of clothes are recommended.

They then paused and gazed at each other as the next page had the title Witch, they then began to read through all the information about the wraith woman with the talons for fingers, simply put, avoid contact with the infected at all cost as noise, lights, bullets and fire would send her into a savage rage causing her to slice those unfortunate enough to cross her path into bits. They were almost questionably surprised when the book said what the writer thought was the reason that witches cried, 'simply put the only logical reason that witches cry is because they are disgusted and horrified by what they have become and could suggest that some of their humanity may be in tact. However it also seems apparent that whenever the woman is disturbed by un infected that any traces of her humanity are gone and are replaced by the anger and rage that she has received as a result of her mutation.

Then came the one that had been bugging them since they started reading the book, the title of the page merely read the word TANK, "well at least they got a name for this thing" Whitaker muttered, the page simply stated that this creature was far more dangerous then anything encountered so far and was thankfully rare in appearance. This creature was the result of horrific mutation and it was perfectly clear that the creature had long since lost all sense of humanity and was now a walking lump of fury and anger. Its only instinct to kill anything that wasn't infected and would even kill other infected if it meant killing humans, this creature was deemed extremely hard to kill and would require effective and efficient teamwork to bring down quickly. There was also no listed weaknesses the book merely stating that effective and constant firepower was the only thing that would bring this monster down and that melee combat was quite simply out of the question for obvious reasons.

Whitaker sighed and turned away assuming they had read everything that their was, however he sharply turned back around when Dave spoke up, "hey there's information about another infected here" the young man said and the others all looked at each other in confusion. They stared at the title at the top of the page and some of them visibly shuddered, 'The Screamer' was the small yet hugely impacting title that had been written along the top line of the page of the book they were now reading. "Well ain't that an interesting name" said Dave quietly trying to keep everyone feeling as happy as they could, there was a moment of silence before they all began to read all the information about the 'screamer' as he was called, the book began. 'The screamer is by far the rarest of all the infected and his appearance is a almost non existence yet highly devastating one for survivor's he comes across, his appearance is that of infected human bound in a psychiatric style straight jacket which suggests he was either one of the first infected or an asylum nut job prior to the green flu. He is easily identified because of his crazed maniacal cackling when he is has not detected survivors, however once he has detected survivors he will run off and then hide, it is then that will emit horrid screams that will of course attract the common horde, therefore he must be killed the minute that he is spotted'.

The survivors were all speechless, having been through some messed up shit the last 2 days this was the last thing they expected would happen in a zombie apocalypse, "so let me get this straight there's a zombie out there that was once a nut job and screams to alert the horde?" said Rick. "Apparently so, and thus we are gonna have to be more careful with our surroundings or our first encounter with one of these things could be the last thing that we ever do" said Whitaker grimly, "is there anything else?" Sian asked and Dave shrugged and turned the page. They were surprised when there was a picture of what they assumed was supposed to be a group of the common infected, next was a picture of the hunter which Whitaker and his team remembered all too well, then came a picture of the smoker and they were disgusted by the tumors that covered the horrid creatures face and arms. Next came the boomer and they recognised it straight away, then came the witch, seeing the picture of the wraith woman caused a shiver to erupt through Sam's body, the glowing omens for eyes symbolizing the state of rage and anger that so called 'witch' had descended to. Next came the tank and they all looked at the picture with a mix of emotions, Sam and Sian stared at the picture in fright that such a creature could exist, Whitaker, Jake and Rick stared at the picture in anger at the fact such a creature only existed to cause suffering for those who had survived the green flu. Finally Heavy, Dave and Gary stared at the picture in despair at the fact that a human could mutate into such an horrific creature, "do we even wanna know what this screamer guy looks like?" Dave suddenly said, his hand gripping the edge of the page tightly as everyone looked nervously down at the book. He turned the page and they all stared at what was clearly a male zombie with his arms bound in restraints and was wearing clothes similar to that of the hunter, it had large red eyes that chilled them to the bone and horrific snarl on his face that suggested he was anything but friendly.

"Well now that we have had a little history lesson, don't you think its time that we moved on?" Rick said and they all turned away from the book Gary closing it and picking it up, "might as well keep it, might have more useful information in it that we don't know yet" he said and Whitaker nodded. They then swiftly left the tent and now checked the surrounding area around them more cautiously, the prospect of running into a screamer not too high on their priority list and thus caused the need for extra caution from now on. They then entered the next tent and their spirits were lifted, it seemed as though this was the medical ward as there was beds with machines next to them all around the room, "hey this is a good a place as any to look for some sterile tweezers" Sian said as they all began to look around. They searched the entire tent even opening crates previously unopened and finding food and even a couple of med kits, and quite a few bottles of paint pills, finally however came a noise of victory as Jake came back to the others holding a clean pair of tweezers, "found em" he said handing them to Whitaker. He then turned to the younger man clutching at his bullet wounded shoulder, "time to get that thing out" he said and Garry nodded before sitting down on a crate, Whitaker coming to stand next to him, "alright just hold still, this might sting a bit" he said as he gently inserted the tweezers inside the wound. Garry hissed in pain as the tweezers were moved about searching for the foreign object that should not have been in his shoulder, finally Whitaker felt the tweezers grab something hard and gently eased the tweezers around it. He then gently pulled the bullet out and dropped it to the floor placing the tweezers on the crate next to the man, "now we need to clean the wound out and cauterize it" he said, Garry simply nodded, "just make it quick" he muttered as Sam came over and began cleaning the wound out. "What now?" Heavy asked, "Jake crowbar" Whitaker said snapping his fingers, Jake quickly unstrapped the foreign object from his back and handed it over to the older man, "now we need to heat this up till its red hot" he said rather coldly, "are you sure this is the right thing to do?" Rick said, "son a virus is destroying civilisation as we know it, if we don't seal that wound and the virus is airborne..." Whitaker simply stopped it didn't take the others long to understand.

Whitaker, Jake, Rick and Heavy all left the tent and began their search for some fire, they didn't have to search for long as about 300 yards further down the road outside a tent was a barrel with a fire burning fiercely inside it, Whitaker then walked up to the barrel and then held the crowbar over it as it began to heat up, Whitaker now holding the crowbar by the end so not to burn himself as the steel heated up and began to change it an angry colour or red. "I'm guessing this is gonna hurt him allot?" Jake said and Heavy and Rick looked at him almost guiltily, he was taken back by the cold hard glare that he received from the man holding the crowbar and sheepishly looked away unable to contend with the angry stare piecing his very being. After a minute or 2 longer Whitaker moved the crowbar away from the fire and the others looked at the object almost scared as the crowbar now glowed a deep orange, they then slowly walked back to the tent and Garry looked up almost scared, "I'm sorry to have to do this, but if you get bile or infected blood inside that wound and your not immune" Whitaker said, "just get it over with" Garry muttered. Whitaker then sighed before he pressed the crowbar against the wound and Garry let out a pain filled hiss his as he ground his teeth together as the others watched mortified as the horrid sound of singing filled their ears, smoke rose up from the skin as the crowbar did its job. Finally after a few more seconds Whitaker pulled away and they looked almost amazed as Garry's wound was now completely covered by a large red scab that was not there a minute before, the crowbar had done its job and had successfully sealed the wound, "at least now you wont bleed anymore than you already have and the risk of getting infected is reduced" Whitaker said and Garry nodded.

Whitaker then took the crowbar outside Jake, Heavy and Rick following him as they stood outside, Dave handed Gary another bottle of pills which he gulped down and sighed as Sian placed dressing over his sealed wound before taping it over, "thanks" he said and she smiled before walking away with Sam as Dave remained behind to stay with his friend, "hey you alright?" Dave asked. Gary simply looked up at the younger man, "apart from just having a wound sealed by a red hot crowbar yes im fine" he said. "Well come on its time to move on, your gonna be fine" Dave said holding his hand out to the older man sitting on the crate, he then nodded before grabbing it and being pulled up, they both then pulled their weapons off their shoulder now holding them in their grasps before moving to join the others. "Well where to next?" Jake asked, "we don't have time to check all of these tents, lets just do a few more and then get the hell out of here" said Whitaker leading them towards what looked to be the largest tent that they had come across so far. However they all paused when they noticed the message on the side of the tent 'DANGER LIVE SPECIMENS' they all looked at each other unsure of what to do next, "do we go in?" Sian said almost afraid, "Well i don't hear anything that could be alive, lets just check it out and be on our way" Whitaker said cautiously entering the dimply lit area the others slowly following him.

The room around them was dark, the power to this tent obviously long since cut out, they couldn't see much even with the sunlight peaking in and thus were forced to turn their flashlights on, the second they didn't they all wished that they hadn't, they almost cried out in fright as their cones of light revealed several cages that had various infected in them and Sam was turned away whimpering in fright as the others stared bewildered. "Holy shit" Rick said quietly staring at the unmoving infected in the cages before them, the first thing that they noticed was that most of the cages simply had common infected inside them, however looking through a few cages the survivors noticed that some special infected had been captured, unsurprisingly their was no sign of a tank. Their sense of fright greatly died down when they realise that the infected in the cages had long since died, and it was obvious that some of them had been killed by gun fire meaning that when CEDA left they killed the specimens.

Jake grimaced as he approached a cage that had a dead hunter in it, the infected having a pained snarl on its dead face as it must of realised its fate in its final moments, I don't think he's gonna be stalking us anytime soon" the young criminal remarked the others simply staring at the dead creature with looks of disgust and sadness. "I would to say that these freaks deserve everything that they get, but then I remember that they used to be like us" Dave said and they all made a noise of acknowledgement. Further inspection of the dark cages revealed a dead smoker and Sian choked as its head was cracked open like an egg its brain and blood splattered all over the ground around it, "this is just sick" said Heavy crinkling his noise as a the sour rank odour of death invested his nostril's. It was then that Rick's flashlight revealed a small book on a small table near one of the tanks, he then gently picked it up before flipping it open the others also coming to investigate,

'Day 6 of infection'

We've captured quite a few infected now and even some specials, yeah sure we lost a few guys getting them but you know a wins a win right? Any way we are of course still on square 1,no matter how many samples we take from the specimens (of course we loose guys just getting these samples) we just cant seem to find a cure or even make a breakthrough, their blood just doesn't seem to hold anything of significance, but as the people with all the answer I suppose it is up to us to keep trying no matter how long it takes, I can only hope humanity lasts long enough for someone to find the cure.

CEDA worker Steve Burnside singing off

They stared at the diary entry unsure, however it did confirm what they already thought they knew, these infected were being used in order to allow CEDA to try and find a cure and of course just like they expected it had obviously failed, "well good job CEDA" Rick said disapprovingly, "well what do you expect, did you honestly think finding a cure would be as easy as taking a few blood samples?" Gary said. The survivors continued to around the dark room trying their hardest not to shine their lights in anymore cages, while there was a few more tables scattered about they offered very little in the ways of useful information, one thing was playing on their mind however and finally Rick asked the question everyone wanted answered, I don't get it why did CEDA abandon this site?" he asked everyone looked at him like he had asked the million dollar question. "I don't know and I feel like its better if we didn't know" said Dave, "perhaps the book has some answers?" Garry said quietly and they all looked up like they were morons before rushing over to Rick who held the book before he then flipped it open and began reading pages that were further back. What the read next made some of them shiver with fright.

'Day 8 of infection'

Well its all going to hell now, the most terrible thing has happened, half of the specimens have escaped, while we managed to contain the majority which we were then forced to kill the other half have escaped...including a screamer, I just prey to good that there are no survivors who run out into those infected bastards. Even worse than that is that several workers died during their escape and some even became infected and thus were forcefully terminated...now we have no choice but to kill what specimen that we have left and abandon this site we must travel out of the area and chase after the fleeing specimens before they can cause harm to any unfortunate survivors of this horrid green flu.

CEDA worker Steve Burnside singing off

The others stared at the diary entry in disbelief, not only had they just discovered the existence of a yet un-encountered special infected but now one was loose in the area around them as well god knows what else CEDA was foolish enough to let escape, "well ain't that just peachy keen" said Rick rather sarcastically, "well what do you expect this is CEDA they claim to help people but all's the do is stupid shit like that" said Garry. "Ok so now we know that there is man eating killers out there somewhere just waiting for survivors to chew on" said Sian sighing and breathing heavily before shaking her head in denial, "looks like we are gonna have to be more careful" said Whitaker rather quietly. "I think our journey is about to get a whole lot worse" said Dave, "and why is that?" Rick said shooting a questioning glair at the young mechanic, "because up ahead its a rather thick forest like area, chances are those 'escaped specimens' are hiding there" he said and everyone deadpanned, "wouldn't it be great if someone said some good news for once" said Jake. Dave then raised his hand before clearing his throat, "well actually there is good news, the forest area doesn't last very long on the road and once we get through it, a mile or 2 further down the road there is a dinner, so unless anyone has a better plan I would say we rest in there for the night" the younger man said and everyone else felt their spirits lifted ever so slightly. "Well then what are we waiting for, lets get back to the truck and get the hell out of here" said Whitaker as he began walking back to the exit the rest slowly following behind him, Jake cast one glance more in the dark room before exiting as well...he had failed to notice the crimson glowing orange eyes that were staring in his direction in the darkness...

End Chapter

Well there we go that's this chapter done and dusted.

Point 1. So despite the fact that he was actually cut from the game I've decided to include the screamer, why? because I feel like having more than just the infected in the game will make it more interesting and fear not, later on the survivors are going to meet more than just the infected types from the games.

Point 2. Firstly let me just apologise for the extremely slow and late upload of this chapter, I imagine a lot of you have been waiting ages for this and to be honest with the way my life is going at the moment its just been really hard to find motivation to write, but please don't loose hope because no matter what I intend to keep writing this story till its finished and I will make it as interesting as I can for you guys.

So thanks for reading and I will see you all in the next one.