CHAPTER FOUR: Mad Dragon

At a little before six in the evening, The Road Warrior entered a condominium that had long since been vacated by its previous occupants. Omega Squad had appropriated it as one of their command posts after clearing the place floor-by-floor of any Umbrella creations. They'd lost four of their own during that fight and so they came to call it Command Post "Mad Dragon"—the nickname being an acronym for their four fallen comrades-in-arms: Jimmy Maderazo, Erika Drilon, Mina Agustin, and Fred Onse.

Once they'd "sanitized" the building, Command Post Mad Dragon turned out to be a fairly ideal ops base. Aside from the abundance of rooms, it also had a business center complete with computers, faxes, and phones, as well as a twenty-four-hour grocery store. Of course, Omega Squad had to make the place defensible so all the windows had been covered by armored blinds and the entry and exit points were all secured with heavy-duty electronic gates. Cameras kept an eye on the streets and the interior of the building.

The Road Warrior came to a halt at the topmost parking level just beneath the residence floors. Tricia looked out the windshield as Daniel killed the AMUV's engine. "Where are we?" she asked.

"Command Post Mad Dragon," Daniel said proudly. "This was one of the first bases Omega Squad established in Manila." He got up from the driver's seat. "Come on. I'll show you around a bit." He led her out of The Road Warrior and inside Mad Dragon. Tricia noted the security cameras watching the access door and the electronic lock that kept it sealed until Daniel entered the proper code. Apparently, Daniel and his friends weren't about to let this place fall into the wrong hands.

"Why is it called Mad Dragon?" Tricia asked as Daniel took her on a short tour of the place.

"It's taken from the family names of four members of our squad. They were killed in action while we were ridding this place of zombies and mutants." Daniel told her. He saw that they were on the floor that the Omegas had designated as their barracks. Daniel took her inside an unoccupied room. He offered her a drink from the fridge but she declined politely. Daniel waved her to a sofa while he took a chair. Then he proceeded to recount the story of Mad Dragon's liberation. Daniel thought back to the desperate battles that had taken place in the command post, remembering the sound of gunfire, explosions, and screams. He remembered the smell of blood, vomit, and decomposing flesh. He remembered the sight of zombies, mutants, and other inhuman creatures coming at them and the bodies of the dead Omegas that had fought them.

Fred Onse had been the first of their four comrades-in-arms to fall when he attacked one of those quadrupedal, long-tongued, eyeless mutants that were crawling towards them from the ceiling in the fifth-floor hallway. The mutant had been getting ready to snack on one of the Omegas—if he remembered correctly, it had been Herman Torrijos, their communications man—when Fred had tackled it and then fought it singlehandedly. He emptied his guns into the thing and, when it still didn't want to die, he used his knife and anti-personnel baton. Herman Torrijos had recovered by that time and had blasted the mutant into a red smear with his assault rifle. By that time, the creature was already dying—along with Fred, who died with that trademark crazy grin plastered on his face and his remaining hand curled into a permanent thumbs-up sign.

The next to die was Erika Drilon, one of their medics. She had been tailed by something that looked like a spider but wasn't a spider while she was dragging a wounded Omega out of harm's way on the eighth floor. Once it came within striking distance, it pounced upon her and began to sting and eat her at the same time. With every ounce of her strength, she had wounded it with her sidearm before detonating a grenade that had destroyed the spider-thing, along with two others like it that had joined the festivities. That had been a hard one for Daniel to take; he and Erika had been dating and he had been working up the courage to ask her to go steady with him. He still kept Erika's dog tags around his neck as a reminder of her sacrifice so that, when the time came, he would have the courage to do the same thing for his friends.

Jimmy Maderazo, Erika's cousin, had been outraged by her death. He went berserk and charged an entire line of zombies with all the rage and pain he carried after watching Erika get carried out in a body bag. Daniel had run after him, shooting at everything that wasn't wearing a uniform. Together, he and Jimmy cleared almost four upper floors by themselves, picking up weapons where they found them. For a while, it looked as if nothing would stop Jimmy's suicide charge and the other Omegas had drawn inspiration from him, charging behind him. Jimmy finally met his end at the tenth floor. Surrounded by zombies and cut off from Daniel, he took the same way out as Erika: a well-timed grenade explosion that had cleared half of the remaining zombies in the tenth floor. Daniel had taken care of the rest, using what remained of Jimmy's weaponry.

Mina Agustin, their lieutenant commander, had the hardest death, Daniel reflected. She had remained unscathed all throughout the battle despite being in the thick of it most of the time. She led them well and with care. Lt. Agustin pushed Omega Squad forward when they had the advantage and called a retreat when they were outnumbered. She didn't consider it courage to commit suicide when they needed every man and woman in the squad to accomplish their mission. She had even tried to stop Jimmy Maderazo from going kamikaze but, deep down, she understood him and even considered recommending Jimmy for a posthumous citation upon returning to Omega Base. Unfortunately, she had been unable to do so. When Omega Squad had reached the roof of the condominium, a zombie had ambushed Lt. Agustin and taken a sizable bite out of her exposed forearm. Knowing all too well what the result of her one and only battle wound would be, she opted for a quicker way out. Daniel sometimes felt that he could still hear the gunshot from her sidearm as she pointed it at her head and pulled the trigger.

Tricia was silent as Daniel wrapped up his story. Four people had lost their lives in the battle for this piece of Manila. Undoubtedly, more would be lost as Omega Squad went about their job, trying to reclaim the country back from Umbrella's plague, city by city, street by street. She looked at Daniel as he sat in his chair, eyes staring at the floor of the room, plainly thinking of his friends, both alive and dead. She got up off the sofa and went to him. Wordlessly, she kissed him on the cheek from behind and hugged him.

"What's that for?" Daniel asked as she stepped back.

"Just to say thanks…for deciding to rescue those people I told you about. And for rescuing me," Tricia told him.

"Well…you're welcome. Don't mention it. It's my duty, after all." He got up from his chair and gestured at the vacant bed. "Get some rest, okay? We're going to have a busy night, I think."

"Okay. Thanks." Tricia sat down on the edge of the bed and began to undo her shoelaces. Daniel gave her one last look and then exited the room. He had some preparations to make for tonight. He could use some rest himself but that could wait until after he was done.