Biohazard, Part I
What's this war in the heart of nature? Why must nature vie with itself, the land contend with the sea? Is there an avenging power in nature? Not one power but two? The man sitting on the beach thought this out. It was an isolated area of Costa Rica, Bahia Anasco, not that this man particularly minded, he liked the isolation of Bahia Anasco and the friendliness of its people.
"I remember my mother when she was dying." he said, thinking aloud, "All shrunk up and gray. I asked if she was afraid, she shook her head. I was afraid to touch the death I see in her. I couldn't see anything beautiful or uplifting about her going back to God. I heard people talking about immortality, but I ain't seen it."
I wondered how it'd be when I died; to know that this breath you draw now is going to be the last one you were ever going to draw. I just hope I can meet it the same way she did, with that same calm. `Cause that's where it's hidden, the immortality I ain't ever seen.
It was some weeks later that Taine was hauled aboard a patrol boat and sent back to his old unit. "You haven't changed at all, have you Taine?" said Staff Sergeant Cantro, "You haven't learned a thing. You've been in the Army what, six years, ain't it about time you smartened up, stop acting like such a pup recruit?"
"We can't all be smart." Taine replied, his accent reflective of his Australian heritage.
"I know, that's a pity, look at you." said Cantro, "Normally you'd be court martialled, but I worked a deal for you, you'd best consider yourself lucky. I'm sending you to a disciplinary outfit, Tango Company. You'll be fined one half of a month's pay for three months."
"I can take whatever you dish out." Taine replied, "I am twice the man you are."
"In this world, a man by himself is nothing." said Cantro, "And there ain't no other world but this one."
"You're wrong there, sarge, I've seen another world." Taine replied.
Back in the brig: "I never thought he hated me," Taine said, "Because I never hated him."
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The hovercraft landing craft pitched violently jarring the soldiers occupying the vehicle skimming across the surface of the Atlantic. The United Systems Military facility, the Isla Del Rio military research facility, had experienced a violent assault and the 172nd Infantry Regiment was being dispatched to reinforce the increasingly outnumbered garrison under siege.
PFC Vincent Taine was in the craft that was the tail end of the first wave. The front end was supposed to establish a beachhead and allow for the succeeding waves to send the relief expedition on its way. The craft shook violently was forced to drop its soldiers in neck deep water. The desperate soldiers dropped weapons, field packs, and assorted supplies to get ashore. Taine saw several soldiers around him disappear under water and as he raced madly ashore, dropping his own weapon, he saw before him a veritable charnel house.
A mortally wounded soldier shouted primal fear and pain and as Taine ran by, he grabbed the man's derelict weapon, an electric gun wrapped in plastic wrapping to protect it from submerging in water. Saying a silent prayer for the dying man, Taine ran toward a knot of soldiers running deep into the jungle. Tearing the plastic from the weapon, Taine hoped that someone would have a plan as he entered a clearing
At the clearing the most senior of them, 2nd Lieutenant Perryman, said, "Okay boys, the plan's fubared, as far as we're concerned. Our best hope is to link up with the troops at the facility."
They made for the base at their best speed, and as they marched through a ravine they were unaware of the ambush about to occur. A man came straggling out of the jungle, his clothing ragged; the smell that clung to him was horrible like the stench of death. At first thinking he was wounded, one of the medics ran out to help only to be attacked by the man. The soldiers gunned down the apparition and it was then that more of the zombie like creatures came staggering out of the jungle. The soldiers fought them off but the zombies were being disgorged from the jungle like rats from a sinking ship.
Taine took down a zombie with a blast of electrical energy, shoved past another, and ran, joining several soldiers in full retreat. The soldiers ran to toward the edge of a field with tall elephant grass. Lieutenant Perryman stopped short; he knew danger when he saw it. "Don't go into the long grass!"
The others hadn't heard him and he threw his field pack aside in order to catch up, "Not into the long grass!"
Swiftly and silently they made their way towards the unit, a soldier in the aft of the column pitched backwards. Two more in front of him fell in rapid succession. A third was felled as a high pitched screech sounded and then the survivors were spurred into a massive panic, fleeing in all directions or attempting to fight off their attackers.
Taine followed a group of soldiers fleeing toward an apparent corridor in the ambush when the leader was yanked under the grass. Taine turned around in time to see a dark shape; a humanoid scuttling about on all fours with no eyes and a fang filled mouth, land on top of him….
It was quite some time later before Taine came to; something was scuttling in the grass beside his head. He grabbed his weapon, lying within arms length, and field pack. As he adjusted his helmet, he looked up as he heard the same high-pitched screeching sound and still more screaming, human screams as the people connected to them were being dismembered all around him. Taine charged madly out of the grass, burning down two more of the creatures trying to ambush him when the ground fell out from under him, causing him to tumble down a steep hillside. Biting back a curse and lifting both weapon and field pack, Taine walked forward into the base.
The base seemed abandoned, as evidenced by the eerie stillness lying over it, and the smashed ruin of the guardhouse and sandbag strongpoint, which evidently had been the scene of some heavy fighting as evidenced by the mangled bodies, and derelict weapons lying around it.
He heard before he saw what had come out from behind the sandbags, it sounded like the whine of a chain saw motor and Taine saw what had to have been something that stepped out of a cheesy Saturday night horror flick, a hugely muscled man in a hockey mask advancing on him with the chainsaw in hand. Taine gave it a quick burst of voltage, succeeding only in knocking the creature back a few steps. He fired again and the burst of electrical energy swarmed over the slasher, sending it crashing to the ground.
He took stock of his supplies. In his running fight with the zombies and those screechers in the field he had pretty much burned through most of his 100-unit energy pack, he still had six more, two on his belt and four in his field pack, but he needed more. He also had three hand grenades as well.
It then occurred to him to seek shelter, the incentive becoming more urgent as he heard more low moans echoing and the sound of chainsaw motors. He ducked inside the research lab, the largest building on base. The door closed automatically behind him, shutting out the sounds of the outside, now the only steps Vincent Taine heard were his own footsteps and the beating of his own heart, hammering in his ribcage. He passed through an office space and saw a wounded man lying propped against the floor.
The wounded soldier feebly leveled his rifle at him. "Wait!" Taine shouted, "Don't shoot!"
"Oh God." Taine said, he was no medic, but one look at the man's wound was all it took to tell him that he wasn't going to make it, "What happened?" "Don't know, one day the monsters come bursting out of the fog and into the base. Most of the guys are either dead or holed up in all the buildings, prepared for a last stand. There are still survivors here." the soldier replied, "Most of us are here in the building."
"I can't just leave you here." Taine replied.
"Go." the soldier said forcefully, motioning with his rifle "Go, now."
Taine proceeded deeper into the building, his boot steps the only sounds he could hear, through the illumination of flickering light fixtures he could see that the building was wrecked thoroughly.
It was then, as he opened a sound proofed door that he walked into a cacophony of noise. Rifle shots, screams, pounding footsteps all drifted down the stairwell. Running upstairs, Taine saw a group of soldiers engaging in a fierce firefight with several mutated creatures. The band of soldiers began to run low on ammunition as the creatures fell upon them and Taine could see several in full retreat, badly injured and shooting wildly.
Seeing several zombies swarming into the room, Taine pulled one of his hand grenades and threw it into their midst. The explosion had killed several of them as Taine pelted down a passageway, making good his escape.
A piece of paper Taine saw lying set apart from others lay on a desk and he picked it up. The paper read:
Memorandum: Ammo caches
Due to worries about the weapons being seized by terrorists, 1st Lieutenant Price, security, has relocated them to several arms caches throughout the building. Locating these caches is of prime importance now, as we have no clue as to Price's whereabouts…
The rest of the document appeared to have been burned, possibly as a result of misdirected fire, the results of at least one grenade blast was evident in the immediate vicinity of the desk.
As Taine walked through the corridors of the wrecked building, it was as though he had wandered into the aftermath of a war zone. Bullet holes riveted several surfaces, mingled with carbon scoring from laser and electric weapons, wet arcs of blood, and charred surfaces from grenade blasts. The closer he got to one of the crossover tunnels that joined the buildings on the base, the more evidence of carnage he saw. He had to tread carefully now; there were large gaping holes in the floor and ceiling, presumably from heavier weaponry.
He arrived at Crossover Tunnel Two; the partially closed gastight door had been blown of its track by a powerful explosive, from the tunnel side. Apparently this natural chokepoint was the site of a big firefight as evidenced by the number of corpses lying in and around the crossover tunnel. The decapitated corpse of a machine-gunner lying killed at his machinegun along with several of the riflemen supporting him and several of the attackers bore mute testimony to savage fighting.
As he crossed the tunnel, gingerly stepping around holes blown through the floor an artillery shell exploded into the side of the building. What the hell? Taine thought. Why on earth was the army shelling the facility. Looking through a blown out window, Taine could see why, the artillery was blasting at a mob of creatures swarming into the building from the jungle. Several shells scored near misses with the building's side.
As Taine crossed the tunnel he found an open notebook lying atop a desk. The latest entry in the notebook, apparently the night watchman's diary was odd:
Night Watchman's Diary:
It's been six days since those creatures started attacking us. Two more sectors of the research facility have fallen. Nine days before this, the night watches have been reporting hearing unusual sounds, sighting strange creatures, and even occasional skirmishes emanating from the jungle. Strangely enough, nine days earlier, they started experimenting with some weird stone obelisk found on the ocean bottom. Eight days ago, I was standing my post on the roof when I saw a strange incident. One of the patrolmen went up to what appeared to be a wounded man and went to help him. However, the apparent casualty attacked our man and the patrolman was nearly killed before we killed the creature. We sent the dead creature into the lab and haven't seen it since…
As Taine walked through into another room and nearly wound up shot by his own people. A haggard looking soldier leveled his rifle at him and sounded an alarm. "Wait!" Taine shouted, "Don't shoot!"
He saw a group of about twenty soldiers, some of them survivors from the 172nd Regiment, Staff Sergeant Cantro included, much to his annoyance.
"Taine, what the hell's going on?" said Cantro.
"Apparently, Staff Sergeant, quite a bit." Taine replied, handing him the night watchman's diary.
"Alright," said Cantro, "Man that barricade over there with Fisher."
Taine took the post, "Do you mind filling me in?"
"Taine, we're holed up over here, barely holding out, what more is there to tell you." Cantro said, "I swear it's that smart mouth of yours that's messed your service record over. You've been a corporal three times and a sergeant twice because of that, when is it going to sink in to button up and follow orders without asking."
Jerk. Taine thought, Bloody bringing up that piece of my career time and again, he expects us to follow him blindly.
Taine's latest demotion from corporal to private first class had been directly as a result of what Cantro had wrote up as insubordination because Taine had disagreed with one of Cantro's decisions in the field. He had given a logical reason why he disagreed and he had told it straight up.
The twenty-one soldiers holed up in the auditorium and adjoining side corridor were in a pocket surrounded by the creatures. Taine managed to piece together what was happening at the barricade as he set up a machinegun into the position. The creatures were apparently more intelligent than they realized and exhibiting basic team work characteristics they had cut off various segments of the building, isolating pockets and thus making any organized defense impossible. They were also starting to mop up the pockets as several of the soldiers around him said.
The defenders were running low on ammunition, their machinegun being down to its last belts of ammunition. Cantro joined them at the position, "Anything."
"No." said Fisher from the machinegun.
Cantro loaded a fresh clip into his laser as one of the lookouts shouted, "Here they come!"
Rifle shots began to sound, first a few and then increasing in volume as more creatures arrived. Fisher cocked the machinegun and started firing, Cantro and Taine adding their weapons in.
The first belt ran out quickly and Fisher shoved the last of the 250 round belts into the breach in time to gun down a particularly nasty second wave assault. Cantro fired with precision, taking down many attacking zombies and slashers with burning holes in torsos and stomachs.
A slasher crept behind him, raising a machete, and Cantro turned in time to see his assailant get struck by an electrical blast. Taine was attacked by a zombie and fought a hand-to-hand fight for survival.
The machinegun ran out of ammunition and Fisher took up his rifle and jumped back into the fight.
Cantro knocked a zombie down with his laser rifle only to be stabbed through the back by a machete by an attacking slasher. The slasher wound up getting impaled by a bayonet from another soldier.
With ammunition running low, Taine shouted, "Retreat!"
Several soldiers, hearing Taine, barreled down the side corridor, pursued by the attacking creatures, several of them falling prey to ambushes in the various rooms near the side corridors. Taine expended his last two hand grenades into their pursuit as he shoved the door close behind the seven surviving soldiers with him.
The found themselves in a massive two story room with an ancient stone obelisk in its center. Ancient writings scrawled on the stone mingled with various electrical wirings. Taine looked at the writings more intently, he didn't recognize them immediately, but then he realized that underneath each one were characters in ancient Greek.
"What's it mean?" said one of the soldiers.
"It's some sort of ancient saying: In the Lost City, an ancient evil lurks, an unholy plague about the earth. Should this stone and its companion be found, the ancient evil shall be unbound."
"How do you know that?" said the soldier.
"My parents were both archaeologists for the British Museum." Taine replied, unconsciously rubbing a tiny ankh he had affixed to his dog tags, "I picked up a few things here and there."
"I don't mean to rush things, but shouldn't we be trying to find a way out of here?" said another soldier, a British sergeant named Muldoon from Taine's company in the 172nd.
"Yes sergeant." Taine replied.
"First things first, let's inventory what we have left and thus determine how best to break out of this building. The Sergeant Major always told me to take stock of a situation before rushing head long." Sergeant Muldoon replied.
"You're wearing the stripes, mate." Taine replied.
"You look like you should be wearing them. Taine, isn't it?" said Muldoon. Taine nodded.
"Ah yes, I remember you, you've been a corporal three times and a sergeant twice." Sergeant Muldoon replied, "The Sergeant Major always told me to know as much as I can about the men I serve with, it could come in handy at some point."
"Who is this sergeant major you keep talking about?" Taine asked.
"My father." Muldoon said proudly. He had that same imperious yet quietly confident manner inherent to an officer.
"I've heard of you too, sarge." Taine replied, "You were an officer cadet, but you aren't in the academy anymore, why?"
"Some bloke chose to dishonor the Sergeant Major, and I gave him a taste of his own medicine." Muldoon replied, "They drummed me out as a yearling cadet, I could see the downcast look in the Sergeant Major's eyes when they did that too. Some of those classmates of mine had become my closest friends. Bloody odd how they expect us to uphold our honor, but yet when I defended my family honor, I was dismissed from Sandhurst. I understand that's what you've gotten into some scraps over. That's why they demoted you the first four times, fighting other soldiers who insulted the honor of your dead family."
"Right." Taine growled as he produced his last full energy pack plus the forty charge units in his weapon.
"Two pistol clips, and two rifle clips." Muldoon replied. All together, the soldiers had twelve rifle clips, and one assault weapon clip.
The assault weapon was a cross between a pulse rifle and a machinegun, having the light machinegun's fully automatic capabilities and the rifle's portability, chambering 120 10mm pulse rifle rounds in one magazine. PFC Ted Hendrick, a wisecracking Canadian of twenty-one from the 172nd, carried it.
"Looks like going out with guns blazing isn't the answer." Muldoon said, "We'll do this, we shed all non-essential equipment, place mags and clips where we can reach them, I also want extra grenades for the point man and rear guard. Hendrick, I want you covering our asses for this run, from here all the way to the motor pool. Our best bet is to go through the kitchen, through the galley, and down the center stairwell. Taine, I want you on point, I'll be behind you, the rest of you, fill in the rest of the column, Hendrick, you're on rearguard with that assault weapon."
"Sarge, this is jacked." Hendrick said, "We got no ammo, we're surrounded by monsters, and we don't have a damned chance."
"It's the best plan we've got." Taine replied.
Hendrick kicked the obelisk, the nearest object, out of sheer frustration. "Hey, don't do that." Taine replied, "That isn't going to solve anything."
"Just `cause your mama was a freaking archaeologist, is that why you care. If it weren't for her and her kind they wouldn't have discovered these freaking disks."
"Don't turn this on me you damned Canadian!" Taine replied angrily, Hendrick had just crossed a line and insulted his mother.
"Like I care you illiterate Aussie son of a…." that was about as far as Hendrick got as a blow from Taine's fist landed and in less than a second Taine dived on top of him, holding Hendrick by the throat.
"You say one more thing about my mother that's degrading and I will cut your throat so fast your head will spin." Taine said in a low and menacing tone.
Muldoon yanked Taine off him, "The Sergeant Major always told me an angry soldier is an ineffective soldier. Put a lid on it, both of you."
After redistributing the five remaining grenades, Muldoon moved the team out; the kitchen and galley strangely quiet, the central staircase having surprisingly little opposition. However, when they got into the motor pool, they saw a veritable congregation of creatures roving about, some feeding on corpses of victims, others stalking about for prey.
"Alright, see that truck over there, on my command, run straight for it." Muldoon said, "Go, now!"
Running and shooting the eight survivors fired off most of their ammunition in their running fight into the truck. Muldoon got behind the wheel, threw it into gear and crashed out of the partially opened doors.
As the truck bounced through the jungle and onto the beach where a general retreat was forming, a large scorpion, as big as the truck, came out of the jungle. Its hard carapace was not harmed by the direct impact of the truck. The soldiers scrambled clear of the wreckage as the giant scorpion came towards them, impaling one of the soldiers through the torso.
Taine was disoriented by the crash and by the time he regained his bearings, the scorpion was almost on top of him, it's pincers ready to grapple and rend him in half when it's head suddenly exploded in a gush of arachnid guts. Standing beside the wreckage was Muldoon, an anti-tank rifle cradled in his arms.
"The Sergeant Major always told me to watch my back, and watch the backs of my men." Muldoon said as he dragged Taine from the dead hulk of the scorpion.
As the evacuation finished off and the exhausted soldiers of the 172nd, which had sustained forty percent casualties, every soldier knew that the fighting had just begun, it was just a matter of where and when the fighting would start…
To be Continued…
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