Fic rated for some blood, gore, and violent language.

Paris, France

Invasion time plus eleven days

"Jericho, get the lock"

"Aye sir"

Jericho crouched and began picking at the heavy lock. The squad was deployed so as to warmly greet anything that might come through the door, so he didn't risk much. In a matter of seconds, a few clicks indicated that the door was open, and Jake busted it down with a kick. Nothing but gloom and dust seemed to come out of the place.

"Kurt, take point. Nightvision on. Move in squad!"

The team slowly moved in, turning on their nightvision goggles, with Kurt in the lead, holding his rifle steadily in front of him. They had been sent to Paris to gather any survivors and bring them back to HQ, which had lately turned into a quite populated place. The special ops squad had been beefed up by several hundred volunteers, who were sent on rescue missions throughout the country. This allowed the original members to engage on much more far-fetched missions, such as this little trip to France and back. Their headquarters were in London, and was where all operations were directed from. The six men crept into the museum's main hall, inspecting every corner for any sign of movement. They had received a distress call from coordinates that turned out to be inside the museum about four hours ago. There was a blur of motion and three rifles erupted with fire, shredding several wooden bookshelves that lined the walls.

"Switching to thermal" muttered the ape.

He was nicknamed that way because he would go totally ape-shit every time something got him on his nerves, and had an annoying tendency to blast things or people that did. He took a couple of steps towards the right, but was stopped by the leader.

"Ape, keep position, don't break formation or we're all meat."

Looking quite frustrated, ape regained his position between Jake and Jericho. The coordinates appeared to be inside a room about fifty meters ahead of them. The only problem was that they now stood in front of a solid wall.

"Dimitri, see if you can download the map of the place."

Dimitri was a Russian computer specialist that had joined the squad five years before. He was the newest and also the youngest member of the group, being only twenty-five. He slinged his rifle and began tipping away on a small arm-mounted computer. A minute later he whispered.

"Bingo, got it. Take a right folks, and down a couple of flights of staircases. The call seems to have come from an underground level."

The squad moved on, keeping on guard, for about fifteen meters, until they reached a narrow and clanky service staircase leading downwards. Kurt led the way, two levels down, and the team assembled at the bottom of the stairs.

"Target is forty meters away" Said Jake.

The underground level was a mess. Chairs, boxes, books and all sorts of things littered the floor, shelves were lying on their face, desks were upturned, and a horrible smell of decay was in the air. They moved on, until they finally reached their target. They passed a smashed barricade where a dozen corpses lay rotting, and entered their room through a large steel door, torn open by what looked like claws. They stepped inside, and immediately made a cross on finding any survivors. About fifty dead bodies were strewn across the ground, some with their innards splashed over the floor, some torn to shreds…it was a very grisly sight. Jericho, looking quite green, leaned against a wall, holding his stomach.

"Bogey at our nine" Muttered Kurt.

The squad swiveled and saw four stupid zombies stumbling around amongst the corpses, slowly making their way towards them. A few rapid-fire bursts and the undead toppled over, little chunks of flesh and bone flying wildly in the air.

"That wasn't what I meant." Kurt whispered. "I mean real bogeys. We got about thirty radar signals incoming fast. They're on the ceiling and the walls. They're coming through the walls."

"What's the Extraction plan?" Asked ape nervously.

"We make for the exit by the most direct route. Dimitri, is their any way to avoid the stairs?"

They all knew that staircases were about the best place you could come up with if you wanted to get ambushed.

"There's an elevator down the corridor, about thirty meters to our right…"

"All right. Back to back work, squad! Let's move! We're not leaving anyone down here!"

They ran out and took a right down the hallway. Screeches were coming from everywhere, and sounds of scampering feet and claws were following them. They were only ten meters from the elevator. Suddenly, with a roar, ape about-faced and let rip with his rifle. Dimitri and Jake turned to cover him, while the leader barked about not stopping and keeping moving. Meanwhile, Jericho and Kurt found the way barred by at least a dozen hideous human-like creatures. Their rock-hard skin was brownish gray, pockmarked like the surface of the moon. Their head was covered with little angry red eyes that stared at them unblinkingly. They opened fire, tearing several of the things apart with lead. Leader kneeled beside Jericho and let rip with his rifle. They were caught in a pinch. A horrible yell came from behind, and Kurt swiveled around to see ape on his back, one of those bitches on top of him, both of them locked in a death struggle. They were way to close together to get in a clear shot. Ape sent out his fist, which locked with the creature's jaw, snapping its head sideways and blowing blood out of its mouth, but the blow seemed to hurt him just as much. The thing turned its gaze back on ape, who unsheathed his combat knife and was about to hack at its arm to break free of its grasp. Before he could lift his arm, however, the creature plunged its claw-like fingers deep into ape's abdomen, grabbing his intestines like an iron clamp. It savagely tore out his innards, ape struggling in vain, waving his knife in the air, loosing his strength rapidly. With another slash it tore through his throat, and ape was left on the ground gargling, grasping his throat as he drowned in his own blood.

"Motherfuckers !" Shrieked Jake.

Kurt had never seen him move so fast. In the blink of an eye, he was on top of the creature, smashing its skull apart with his rifle butt, screaming every curse he could come up with as he did so. Dimitri, meanwhile, was being overwhelmed, being the only one firing on their front. Kurt turned and pointed his rifle at a creature that had just jumped right over Jake and the dying monster, and was lifting a hand to strike at Dimitri. The burst caught the bitch in the throat, flipping its head clean off its shoulders. Dimitri gave him an appreciative nod, and turned back to face the onslaught. Jake was just getting back on his feet as he was knocked down by a leaping creature. His rifle toppled out of his hands, and he groped for any kind of weapon. His hand came across one of ape's hand grenades, and a bonfire lit itself in his eyes. Grenades in close quarters? Totally crazy! All the better. Almost gleefully, he grabbed the explosive, even as the creature dug its claws into his chest, tearing as his vital organs. He armed it, and with his last strength, shoved it into the things mouth. The creature instinctively tried to swallow the grenade and began chocking on it, and Jake, getting on his knees, grabbed it around the waist and ran with his last shred of strength into the thick of the enemy lines. A second later, the detonation rocked the entire building, shredding everything in a five meter radius, blowing Dimitri cleanly off his feet and sending him flying towards his friends, where he lay motionless. Kurt, Jericho, and leader turned to see the coast clear behind them, though bits of flesh pasted the floor, walls and ceiling.

"Go go go !" Yelled leader.

He and Jericho grabbed the unconscious Dimitri, while Kurt covered their back, blasting any creature that came too close. They ran as fast as they could, until they reached the dratted stairs again, and began clambering upwards. A loud roar came from above, like nothing they had heard up till now. Kurt's heart sank. He had only ever heard a sound like that once before, and that had been in London, when a Hell Knight had destroyed one of their outposts, killing almost everyone on place. They continued upwards, and reached the ground floor, a dozen creatures screeching as they pursued them upwards. Kurt fired until his rifle went dry. With a panicked squeak, he began reloading, which seemed to take an age. He watched as if in slow motion as one of the creatures broke out from the lot and made a tremendous leap for the ceiling, "landing" right above the three men he was covering. The thing let itself drop right in front of them, letting out a blood-chilling shriek, and lifting up its claws. However, before it could indulge in the pleasant activity of eating them alive, a giant fist caught it in the ribs, smashing its torso and sending it flying across the room, where it crashed into a wall and landed in a bloody heap. From behind a wall, out stomped the Hell Knight, who let out another roar. Dimitri was barely opening his eyes.

"Run !" Yelled Jericho, seemingly going insane.

He dropped Dimitri's arm, who managed to catch himself from falling, and ran like hell towards the exit. The goddamn door was in sight. He could see the goddamn light of day. He suddenly realized his feet weren't running anymore, but kicking into air. The Hell Knight held him around the waist in an impenetrable grasp, and let out a roar. Dimitri grabbed his rifle and leveled it at the thing's chest and fired a sustained burst. The bullets dug into its flesh but didn't seem to do any major damage to the beast. Leader and Kurt grabbed him by the arm and ran for the exit, even as the Hell Knight brought Jericho's flailing body to his mouth and took a large bit out of his flank. Jericho afterwards lay limply in its grasp, his innards dangling from the hole in his side. As they ran, Kurt noticed more movement out of the corner of his eye. No, not now, please….they were so close, the exit was only twenty meters away! Suddenly, Dimitri stumbled in his tracks and didn't get up again. Something jagged was sticking out from between his shoulder blades. The two surviving men ran like hell but knew they wouldn't make it. Two dozen creatures barred the way and were closing in on them. Leader turned to look at Kurt, giving him one of the heaviest looks he had ever seen on his face. Kurt then noticed that he was holding the pins of all four of his grenades in his hands.

"Run kid. Get out of here."

With those words, he ran straight into the fray of creatures, and a split-second later the quadruple explosion blew them all to shreds, leaving a clear path of exit for Kurt. He ran as fast as he had ever ran, leaping out of the door and straight down the street, not looking back. He ran until his legs failed him. He then crawled into a back alley and lay himself down between two piles of garbage bags, and fell into a deep slumber at once. The next day, as he wandered the streets in search of survivors (hell, it was his mission after all), he actually met someone, a young French woman by the name of Jamie.

To be continued