2

Last Alarm

Chapter Two

Shadows in the Mist

"The Last Alarm Ceremony is a traditional Final Tribute to a Firefighter who has given the ultimate sacrifice in the Line Of Duty. The Ceremony begins by calling the deceased Firefighter's name and is followed by the ringing of the ceremonial fire bell.

The Last Alarm Ceremony represents the Firefighter's Final Call to Duty. And it symbolizes that the Firefighter has returned Home.

Location: "Whiskey Outpost #31" (Formerly known as Midori-Bashi)

Time: Dawn

Spring 2013

Z-Day Plus 21

"Do you see anything, Goto-san?" Colonel Shinobu Nagumo whispered over to her husband, her eyes glued to the large pair of binoculars that she held, as her eyes tried hard but failed to see through the thick fog that covered the entire span of the bridge.

"Not a thing." Her husband replied his eyes also glued to his field glasses as everyone in the small party of JSDF soldiers stationed at the bridge nervously scanned the length of the bridge that they could see through the dense fog, each of them searching for the unspeakable horror that they had all faced constantly for the past three weeks to come lurching out of the mist.

Earlier, both of the JSDF Commanders and their entire staff had all hurriedly followed after Lt. Shinohara and his people who had immediately rushed back to their positions in front of the tanks behind the machine gun emplacements as soon as the terrified corporal had given his report.

And by the time they had arrived, Sgt. Major Sakaki had already ordered everyone to their positions with all weapons at the ready, as the small group of JSDF troopers aimed their weapons toward the far end of the long mist-covered span of the bridge.

But, as had been ordered by Central Command, with the safeties of their weapons still placed on "SAFE."

Having all weapons placed on "SAFE" until the last possible moment was a recently enforced safety rule that had been sent down from Command nearly two weeks ago that was considered one of the more ridiculous orders to "come down the pipes" in the opinion all of the experienced JSDF combat personnel in the field.

But the reasons given for the strict enforcement of the admittedly controversial order by JSDF Command had been due to several incidences of the accidental discharge of weapons by jumpy recruits at moving shadows during the first few days of the Outbreak.

And while most of the officers in the JSDF agreed with their veteran troopers about the absurdity of having such a rule enforced during combat, the rule remained anyway despite everyone's protests.

One of the fears that had led to the safety rule's continued practice even after weeks of constant combat was the fact that most of the ground troops now making up the majority of the JSDF fighting force were actually former "REMF's" who had not fired a weapon in combat until the Outbreak began.

And while everyone had done their best under the circumstances to prove themselves courageous under fire in a role they had not anticipated to partake in during their entire military career, inexperience and combat fatigue had eventually taken their toll after three week of continuous fighting.

And as could be expected from such a mixture of fear, fatigue, and inexperience of troops suffering from battle fatigue, several incidences had eventually resulted in some troopers accidentally opening fire on shadows thought to be one of the Infected which in fact were members of their own platoon who had merely wandered off to relieve themselves.

Fortunately, no deaths had resulted, but as a result, the controversial rule was firmly kept in place and deemed by JSDF Command that its enforcement was absolutely necessary to prevent any more incidences from re-occurring.

So by order of JSDF Command, until the order was given by the *OIC for all personnel to take the safeties of their weapons "OFF" and open fire, all weapons were to be kept pointing harmlessly forward with the safeties in the "SAFE" position until the danger actually presented itself and the order to fire was given.

(*Officer in Charge)

As Nagumo scanned the heavy mist looking for any hint of movement, several minutes had already passed since she and her husband had rushed over from their Humvees to join Shinohara's group.

And ever since then, there had been no visible activity whatsoever on the bridge that anyone could see, although the young lieutenant was taking no chances and had already set things in motion for a possible security breach.

Upon being briefed by Sergeant Major Sakaki of what one of the troopers in his platoon had seen, Lt. Shinohara had then immediately contacted JSDF Command of a possible enemy contact approaching his platoon's position, and had asked Command to stand by until it could be confirmed that there actually was a real security breach or not.

Once the call to JSDF Command had been made, Shinohara's next call had been to Lt. Takeo Kumagami, who commanded "Delta" Platoon. And upon being alerted of the situation, Lt. Kumagami had advised him that she and her platoon would quickly mobilize and be enroute to their position shortly.

In the meantime, all the JSDF soldiers could do now was lie in wait while standing by their weapons, and wait for the order to open fire, each one of them peering nervously into the mist for the tell-tale lurching shuffle of the horror that had plagued them the past three weeks.

While Goto and Nagumo were actually the senior ranking officers at the present time, they had both agreed with each other and Lt. Shinohara earlier not to interfere with their junior officer's command over his men, mostly in part to Goto and Nagumo's trust in the command capabilities of the young lieutenant.

And so unless the young officer found himself in a situation that was way over his head, Goto and Nagumo had made it clear to the young officer that they would merely observe until their assistance was actually needed, not wishing to disrupt the command decisions that Shinohara had already put in motion.

In a possible combat situation such as this one, both Senior-ranking officers knew full well from vast experience just how fatal conflicting orders given in the battlefield could be, and their decision to stay out of the way was a decision more junior officers and their men serving in other Military Organizations around the world would have applauded them for doing.

And as the minutes ticked past all pairs of eyes of the small band of JSDF troopers and their commanders were now completely focused on the center of the bridge, everyone nervously awaiting the first glimpse of the dreaded lurching figure that each one of them had become all too familiar with in the past three weeks to suddenly emerge menacingly from the thick early morning mist.

And while everyone's eyes were completely focused on the bridge, everyone's ears were also strained, listening intently for that bone-chilling awful moaning that they had all heard all too frequently since the Outbreak began, to come from out of the mist as well.

But as of yet, there had been no movement whatsoever on the bridge ever since the young female trooper's first sighting. And the only sound to their ears since then had been the splash of the river against the bridge's concrete supports below them.

"Perhaps it was just a trick of the light?" Nagumo said hopefully, the doubt she had about the trooper's statement starting to be reinforced with each passing minute.

"*Tabun." Her husband said in response, although from the tone of his voice, Nagumo could tell her husband wasn't the least bit convinced of that either.

(*Tabun – Japanese for "Maybe")

Nagumo frowned at her husband's response annoyed that he seemed to be enjoying himself while everyone else, including her, were on a razor's edge.

Like Nagumo, every soldier on the bridge was praying that this whole situation would turn out to be just another one of the many false reports that had been coming in daily the past week from some battle weary soldier finally succumbing to stress and fatigue who suddenly began seeing shadows in the mist.

But there was still a chance this could be real, and if it was….

"We have been getting a lot of false sighting lately, neh Shinobu-san?" Goto replied as if reading her thoughts as he continued to scan the bridge with his field glasses.

"It is true that everyone's been on edge since we secured this area. So it wouldn't be too much of a surprise if Izumi-san is just seeing things from the same stress that's been exhausting all of our remaining troops." Colonel Goto added.

"That certainly would make sense, especially since Shinohara and his people have been assigned out here the longest of all the platoons." Nagumo said matter-of-factly, still hoping that fatigue and stress were the real reasons for Izumi's alarm.

Because the possibility that Private Noa Izumi really hadseen something after all, and that there actually was a security breach, was a horror no one, including Nagumo wanted to believe.

"Well, almost no one." Nagumo thought to herself as she glanced over at her husband with an annoyed look and then returned her field glasses to her eyes again.

"Noa, what exactly didyou see?" Shinohara asked the young, short-haired woman crouched behind the long-barreled M2 .50 caliber Browning machine gun that she manned along with her loader/assistant gunner, Private Yusaku Godai, for what seemed like the hundredth time already.

And as Shinohara continued to question the young private sitting behind the big .50 cal, Sakaki sighed in annoyance and shook his head as the young lieutenant continued to casually address his people by their first name, instead of their rank and last name as was proper military protocol, which was an extremely bad habit of his that annoyed the hell out of the veteran Sergeant Major.

Sakaki had discreetly spoken to the young officer recently about the dangers of his laid-back approach to his addressing his troops and the fact that it might result in a discipline problem later but to no avail.

While the men and women of "Echo" platoon were not a bunch of military misfits and there were really only a few minor personality conflicts, mostly coming from Noa Izumi.

Sakaki's real reasons for his concern of Shinohara's laid-back style of leadership was due to the fact that the young lieutenant who he had grown to greatly respect for his courage under fire and his ability to lead his people well in the hell of the last three weeks, was becoming more and more like a certain controversial colonel standing directly behind them.

And even though that particular colonel was a man that Sakaki greatly admired and respected as well, that officer's reputation of butting heads with Command all the time was something the Sergeant Major was hoping to prevent his young lieutenant from following in the same footsteps.

But as time passed and the two Senior Commander's visits to their platoon became more frequent, Sakaki had begun to notice some of Colonel Goto's mannerisms and bad habits starting to rub off on Shinohara, and the Colonel's habit of addressing his troops so casually had been one of them.

"Yup, just like father and son." Sakai grumbled as he looked over at the young officer talking to the young female trooper next to them.

"Heaven help us all." Sakaki thought as he gazed over at the tiny woman sitting behind the big .50 cal.

Private First Class Noa Izumi, normally a sweet, cheerful, friendly, (and undeniably cute,) 20 year old transfer from the Logistics Corps, who now served as one of the two heavy machine gunners assigned to the checkpoint, was angrily grinding her teeth in frustration, her anger with her lieutenant and the whole world starting to boil over as Shinohara continually asked her over and over again, what it was that she had observed earlier.

"Why doesn't anyone believe me, dammit"? Noa grumbled under her breath, wondering why everyone seemed to be picking on her just because she saw a shadow moving in the mist and had done what she felt was the right thing and had reported it.

And then after reporting it, what was adding to Noa's frustration now besides the fact that no one seemed to believe that she had seen anything at all, was the fact that there had also been no movement seen by anyone else either ever since she had first reported seeing the shadow.

And since no one else had actually witnessed seeing anything including her assistant loader Private Yusaku Godai, who had been sitting right next to her, it was beginning to look doubtful that she ever had.

And now as Lt. Shinohara continued to question her over and over again about what she had actually seen, a small cloud of doubt began to form in her mind to the point that Noa was actually becoming afraid that perhaps she hadn'tactually seen anything after all.

And that thought worried Noa even more than an actual security breach by the Infected, because if it really was just the fact that she was just seeing things, then it would mean another one of Sgt. Major Sakaki's infamous ass chewing's would be waiting for her later for putting out a false alert.

"SIR," Noa began again her voice just barely kept under control. "I was looking out towards the center of the bridge, and for a moment there was a small break in the fog."

"And as I was looking, I thought I saw a man's shadow about 100 meters out, walking slowly towards us." Noa said tersely repeating the same story as she had before, the edge on her voice becoming more and more noticeable.

"Then the mist got thick again, and I didn't see him anymore…SIR." Noa finished a definite hard edge noticeable in her tone.

Shinohara sighed and raised the field glasses to his eyes once again, his frustration at having called out an alert for, from all visible appearances, nothing more than the tired and obviously grumpy private just seeing shadows and nothing more.

"Mo!" Noa said angrily under her breath when she had finished speaking, noticing the unconvinced look on Shinohara's face and the frustrated sigh he had made. "How many times do I have to say the same stupid thing?"

Unfortunately however, Noa had not spoken quite as quietly as she had thought she had.

"IZUMI!" Sakaki hissed from behind her as Noa immediately clammed up, knowing it was already too late as Noa then swallowed hard, her anger forgotten, as all she wanted to do now was to climb as far as she could into her helmet and hide from the Sergeant Major's icy stare as Noa could feel the Sergeant Major's eyes boring a hole into the back of the young woman's helmet as he glared angrily at her.

Noa knew that she was going to pay heavily for mouthing off, and she dreaded what was sure to come, already knowing it would be bad since she had been getting in a lot of trouble lately for the same offense.

While most Military organizations around the world have certain standards for the treatment of men and women in their ranks, there was no such thing as differential treatment when it came to a dressing down by Sgt. Major Sakaki.

Because everyone in the entire JSDF knew that if any of the young JSDF troopers ever got out of line bad enough to become the focus of the tough-as-nails Sergeant Major, then a dressing down or a boot in the butt was just as good for a woman as it was for a man as far as the old soldier was concerned.

When it came to discipline, Sgt. Major Sakaki was about as equal rights compliant as they come.

Shinohara smiled despite himself, as he stared through his binoculars listening to the veteran soldier snapping at the smart-mouthed replacement gunner knowing what was in store for the little hot-head later, and was once again grateful for the fact that as an officer he himself had never become the focus of the Sergeant Major's legendary wrath before.

Shinohara however understood Izumi's frustration, and could even sympathize with her spouting off at him considering how bad things were looking for her that her report was possibly just another false alarm.

"I'm sure I'll be getting an earful from Command myself for putting everyone on alert for nothing…again." Shinohara thought with a sigh as he continued his vain attempts to try to see through the heavy fog, dreading the backlash that was sure to come later for his having called in another false sighting.

But despite Noa's understandable frustration, the young woman had been in an administrative atmosphere for far too long before joining his platoon and was constantly and inappropriately shooting off her mouth at the wrong time and with the wrong people.

And as a result, the tiny woman was constantly getting into far more trouble than most of the other men and women in his command.

And while most officers would have had charges brought up on the little hot-head, Shinohara knew that Sakaki was more than qualified to handle the matter without his having to interfere.

Tough, but always fair, Sergeant Major Sakaki never, ever went overboard on keeping the troops in line if the need called for it, which was rare.

Because the last thing anybody wanted was to be on the Sergeant Major's shit list.

Still, Shinohara had to admit as he scanned the mist with his binoculars, his opinion of Private Izumi had drastically changed from the day she had first arrived to his platoon, although she was still a constant source of frustration for him, now and then.

Pixy-sized in stature, with a bright cheerful face and a bubbly personality to match, Shinohara and the others had their doubts about her capabilities in a fight as they watched her walk up along with their replacement medic, a quieter, much more mature-minded woman by the name of Kyoko Otonashi.

Despite Shinohara's doubts, Sergeant Major Sakaki however, seemed to have complete trust in her and had recommended her highly, which was a rare thing for the old soldier to ever do.

And so, trusting in his non-com's recommendation, Shinohara had reluctantly welcomed Noa Izumi and the new medic Kyoko Otonashi into his command despite his nagging doubts.

And in a relatively short time, the tiny woman had quickly impressed the rest of the platoon as well when she had proven time-and-time again, to be extremely courageous and incredibly fierce in combat no matter how grim or terrifying the situation.

In each conflict, the young woman had always done her best to prove herself reliable, brave, and quick thinking under fire, and in all respects, had proven that she was indeed an excellent trooper and a fine addition to the platoon.

Still, the only thing bigger than Noa's heart, was her temper and her mouth, both of which were constantly getting her into trouble just like she was in now.

And the faint smile on Shinohara's face turned into a wide grin when he thought of what was in store for Izumi when Sakaki got her back to Base.

Ask any new recruit in the military of any country, and there were few things on earth that could terrorize a new recruit than being the focus of an NCO's rage.

Hollywood has long demonized the Military Drill Sergeant in many of its motion pictures with images of a towering, screaming man who verbally and physically breaks a recruit's spirit into dust as they push the young trainee to their breaking point and beyond.

And ask anyone in any of the world's military organization's if any of the film world's portrayals of military non-commissioned officers is even remotely true and you will get a definite… "HELL YES!"

And nowhere else was such a portrayal of the stereotypical Platoon Sergeant as accurate as it was in describing the Sergeant Major amongst the men and women of "Echo" platoon, who considered death preferable than to ever become the focus of Sakaki's wrath.

As Noa shivered at the thought of what fate awaited her after the Sergeant Major got his hands on her, Noa's assistant gunner Private Godai sat still at his post and said nothing, hoping not to attract the attention of the Sergeant Major.

As Noa's assistant gunner, Private Godai often times suffered the same consequences along with Noa whenever she mouthed off, although not because he had actually done anything wrong, or was even present when Noa messed up.

But unfortunately for Private Godai, he and Izumi were a team, and traditionally in the Military's point of view, teams triumphed or suffered together as Godai could attest to, having been the unlucky recipient of many of Sakaki's punishment's for something that Noa actually did.

Still, Godai tried hard to look ahead into the fog and hoped to avoid the Sergeant Major's gaze, hoping that this time he wouldn't be forced to share in Noa's predicament.

Positioned adjacent to them on their left flank, the gun crew of the other Browning .50 caliber machine gun made up of Private Isao Ohta and his assistant gunner, Private Mikiyasu Shinshi, sighed heavily and shook their heads as Ohta reached into one of his pockets and pulled a 20 yen note and handed it to Shinshi.

Ota swore as he passed the 20 yen note over to Shinshi, his wager for losing his bet to his assistant gunner that Noa would be able to stay out of trouble at least this one time, since it was "Echo" Platoon's last watch.

It was a scene all too common with the soldiers of "Echo" Platoon and was now starting to become quite troublesome for everyone, because although Noa was well liked by the entire platoon, her temper and her constant mouthing off was starting to get on everyone's already fried nerves, lately.

Shaking his head again, Shinohara glanced at his watch and then frowned at the time indicated on the dial.

The time was now 0510, and normally, the first rays of daylight would be peeking out over the sea.

However, now with the change of season coming in, the skies had been covered in grey overcast lately and dense fog had also been forming at sea level as well, greatly reducing visibility until 0530 or so until the sun was high enough over the sea that it's glow would finally penetrate the thickness of the clouds enough for visibility to improve to finally power down the floodlights on the bridge.

Shinohara went back to scanning the bridge again for a few minutes more and then looked away from his field glasses again to rub his overly-strained eyes.

And then after looking up at the sky and his watch once more, he then looked over his shoulder towards Sakaki, and quietly ordered the Sergeant Major to have the floodlights dimmed by half power.

"Shige." Sakaki said leaning over to the young corporal standing by his side. "Tell the "kids" the lieutenant wants the lights dimmed by 50 percent."

"Hai, Sergeant Major". The young man replied as he turned around and scampered off to link up with the "kids" as everyone referred to the group of young maintenance technicians that were in charge of all the electrical equipment and the vehicles at their checkpoint.

After a few brief moments, everyone watched as the glow of the powerful floodlights dimmed, and as everyone continued to look out into the mist, there were still no visible signs of movement or any activity on the bridge whatsoever.

"What are they doing?" Nagumo's aide asked his voice slightly elevated obviously alarmed that the lights had been dimmed as he stared nervously over the sights of his rifle.

"Fog has a tendency to reflect bright light and reduce visibility; much like the high beams of a vehicle would on a foggy road." Goto replied casually in answer, not lowering his binoculars. "By reducing the power to the floodlights, the lieutenant hopes to accomplish two things at once."

"Two things?" Nagumo asked slightly puzzled.

"Mmm." Goto grunted in reply.

"By reducing the glare he hopes to improve visibility now that the morning light is coming in and…." Goto said pausing dramatically for a moment.

"He also hopes to coax any "visitors" that might be out there to come out into the open and into the Kill Zone." Goto finished with that trademark Cheshire cat grin of his that always seemed to appear whenever he knew something the others didn't, much to his wife's annoyance.

"Coax any visitors?'' Nagumo asked out loud even more puzzled by Goto's statement than her aide. "The Infected have never reacted to light before."

"They….. don't." Goto replied in that mysterious, almost condescending tone of his that irritated her as well. "But I do not believe that what we're dealing with here, are any of the Infected."

"Are you saying that you believe that what's really out there might be survivors, sir?" Nagumo's aide asked in obvious disbelief.

"Perhaps." Goto said with a smirk, still peering through his binoculars.

"Goto-san, are you going to actually stand there and tell us that you seriously believe there may still be survivors out there, and coming here?" Nagumo said in disbelief, lowering her binoculars to stare at her husband. "Now, after all this time, with no contact of any kind coming from the city at all in the past week?!"

"What in the world could possibly make you think there could be survivors out there?!" Nagumo asked shaking her head at how ridiculous her husband could be for even believing, much less saying such a thing.

But before Goto even opened his mouth to answer her, Nagumo had already guessed what her husband's response would be to her question even before he uttered it as she rolled her eyes and cursed herself for even bothering to ask.

"I don't know." Goto replied anti-climactically as everyone standing within earshot of Goto and Nagumo's verbal exchange, and who had been hanging on to his every word and waiting for the climatic answer that was sure to follow, dropped their heads in disappointment, each of them once again the unfortunate victims of the JSDF Colonel's dramatic theories only to have the rug pulled out from under them as Goto admitted he had no basis on which to support them.

At least, that's what Goto always wanted his subordinates to think as Nagumo glared at her husband, his sense of humor and his love of screwing with people's minds bordering on the sadistic.

Nagumo was about to chastise her husband severely for getting everyone so amped up in the already very tense situation, but was interrupted by the stealthy arrival of Lt. Takeo Kumagami and her platoon, who had quickly arrived to support "Echo" Platoon as Goto and Nagumo quickly waved the soldiers of "Delta" Platoon through.

And as the soldiers of "Delta" Platoon were hurriedly waved past by the two senior officers, and her platoon sergeant quickly dispersed the members of the platoon amongst Shinohara's troops, with the exception of the M60 gunner, who chose his own firing position in between the two .50 caliber machine gun nests behind a pile of heavy sand bags.

At six foot seven inches in height, and tipping the scales at 300lbs of solid muscle, the man was a giant, his intimidating size belying the fact that the man was in actuality, a rather gentle person, the son of a fisherman, and a farmer at heart.

Affectionately and almost comically known as "Hiromi-chan", by all of the soldiers in "Delta" and "Echo" Platoons, he was also one of the more reliable, and stable minded of the troopers which was one of the many reasons he was the favorite of his superiors as well as his fellow troopers in both platoons.

Because of his large physique, Hiromi-chan would have been the perfect choice for being assigned as "Delta" Platoon's heavy machine gunner, a slot that had eventually been filled by Private Ohta.

However, while the large man was certainly able to handle the big weapon, the man's large size mad his ability to sight the weapon accurately from anything more than an almost supine position extremely difficult.

Fortunately, where Hiromi-chan's shooting skills really excelled was his prowess with the lighter caliber M60-E3.

And after comparing Ohta and Hiromi-chan's skill with both weapons, Lt. Kumagami had made her final choice of Ohta being assigned to the big "Ma Deuce" while Hiromi-chan was allowed to carry the M60-E3 into combat, a choice that had caused a small uproar with her colleagues.

But as time would tell, Kumagami's rather unorthodox choice had actually turned out to be a very wise one tactically as everyone else would find out later just how very effective having another machine gunner in the platoon could be.

Especially one who was better able to maneuver around much more quickly with the lighter machine gun than the crew of the big .50 caliber gun could with their heavy weapon, that had to be fixed to a tripod and difficult to maneuver.

After making sure that everyone in her platoon was in position amongst Shinohara's people, Kumagami and her platoon sergeant, keeping low, silently moved up to Shinohara's position next to Noa's machine gun.

Since "Echo" Platoon was still on duty during this incident and had not been formally relieved by Kumagami and her platoon as of yet, Shinohara was still in command until he turned command of the situation over to her.

So until then, the handling of this situation was still technically his show, as Kumagami quietly crouched next to him to announce her platoon's arrival and await his orders.

"Delta" Platoon on site and standing by." The young officer whispered as she hunched down next to him. "I have my people in place and awaiting your orders."

"What's your situation Asuma-chan?" Lt. Takeo Kumagami whispered into Shinohara's ear as she intentionally leaned up against him, causing his heart to start beating faster at her touch as Shinohara cracked a smile.

Normally, in the field, when two separate platoons would link up with each other, the two commanding officers would exchange information on the situation and then disperse their troops accordingly.

However, Takeo Kumagami had an interesting knack for anticipating Shinohara's moves and would often be one step ahead of him, a rare trait that Shinohara often found both a blessing and an annoyance sometimes.

But in combat, and especially at this particular moment, he was extremely grateful for her arrival and her ability to think ahead.

And for other reasons as well.

"At 0450 Private Izumi reported seeing a shadow in the shape of a man about 100 meters ahead, moving slowly headed directly towards our position." Shinohara replied, lowering his glasses and rubbing his eyes.

"So far… there's been nothing." Asuma said as he thought he had heard something that sounded like an angry grunt came from the direction of Noa's machine gun nest.

Kumagami had heard the sound as well and quickly glanced over at the two silent machine gunner's standing watch behind the huge .50 caliber machine gun and then shrugged and blew it off as nothing, not really sure what it was that she had heard anyway.

Unlike his fellow officer, Shinohara knew exactly what it was that he and Kumagami had heard but said nothing, knowing full well that Noa was in enough trouble as it was, and decided to let it slide for now as he continued his report.

"Command was contacted and advised of our situation." Asuma continued. "They're on alert and waiting for confirmation from us before they send out any reinforcements. So for now, it's just us."

"I also had the power to the lights lowered to get rid of the glare…" Shinohara added. "But we still can't see zip."

"I wanted to wait until you got here and there was enough light to see before I shut them down completely. And now that you and your people are here finally…." Shinohara said, his voice trailing off.

"Right." Kumagami nodded and turned towards her platoon sergeant. "Kanuka-san, we're going to turn off the lights momentarily. Have everyone stand by and wait for Lt. Shinohara's order to take safeties off and prepare to open fire on his order."

The female sergeant kneeling next to Kumagami silently nodded in acknowledgement and then quietly moved away to pass the order along to the rest of the people in her platoon.

As she lifted a pair of binoculars to her eyes and scanned the misty road ahead of them Kumagami continued to kneel in what would have been considered "extremely close proximity" to the handsome young lieutenant by her side.

And despite the nervous tension in the air, and ignoring the frown on Colonel Nagumo's face as the Colonel watched her out of the corner of her eye, Takeo Kumagami could not resist an opportunity to tease Shinohara.

"So….. Asuma-chan." Kumagami said flirtatiously. "Were you really that concerned about a "possible security breach" or were you just missing my company that badly that you actually called out an alert just to have me come running up to see you again?"

"My, Asuma-chan you're getting so bold." She purred. "After all, it's only been twelve hours since the last time I saw you."

Shinohara chuckled as he continued to scan the bridge, grateful despite himself for the sweet distraction Kumagami provided even at a time like this.

Twenty-four year old Lt. Takeo Kumagami was an exceptionally bright, cool-headed professional and a dedicated soldier most of the time, Shinohara had always thought, and he considered himself very lucky to have had Kumagami and her people around, especially when things got rough.

And the fact that she was also very attractive didn't hurt either.

Of course, three weeks of constant combat readiness and actual combat had left little time for socializing despite the obvious attraction the young couple had for each other, so whenever Takeo's platoon had a chance to link up with Asuma's platoon, the beautiful young officer never missed a chance to flirt with the handsome young officer, even during combat.

Not that he really minded all that much actually, as Shinohara recently decided to one day call her out on her flirtatious advances and ask her out once all of this craziness settled down.

"Well you know what they say?" Shinohara said flirting back. "A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do."

"I have to admit it certainly makes the shift go a lot nicer, Takeo-chan." Shinohara added as he looked over at Kumagami and winked at her.

"And the view is certainly a huge improvement." Shinohara said with a grin as Kumagami blushed at his sudden boldness as Shinohara turned his attention back to the task at hand, lifting the glasses to scan the bridge again.

Kumagami gasped slightly and then quickly tried to compose herself as she could feel her face blushing, both from his obvious amorous remark and also from the realization that in all the times she and Asuma had been flirting back and forth together, that this was the first time she had ever been left speechless.

"Strange, there's that weird noise again." Kumagami said under her breath as she thought she heard another low angry grunt that seemed to be coming from somewhere to her right again near Noa Izumi's machine gun position.

Time: 0520

The early morning dawn had finally turned the inky black of the night into dark grey skies overhead that had visibly increased illumination just enough to make the even dimmed floodlights glow unnecessary, as Shinohara began the next phase of his plan.

"Showtime." Shinohara said, lowering his field glasses and turning towards Sakaki.

"Have "the kids" kill the lights, Sergeant Major." Shinohara whispered as Sakaki nodded in acknowledgement and made a cut-throat motion to Corporal Shige to kill the lights as the young corporal then signaled the group of young engineer's to throw the switches and power off the floodlights.

As the lights finally winked off and the artificial light was replaced by the early morning luminescence, the dim light gave the mist an even more ominous feel, as the small band of soldiers nervously awaited the all too familiar sign of the moaning, lurching figures to come stumbling out of the fog.

Nervous fingers strained near the trigger and safety levers of their rifles, everyone waiting for the expected order to flip the selector levers over to "FIRE" and go "weapons hot", allowing their now silent weapons to roar into action.

And as the minutes began to tick by with still no signs of any visible movement on the bridge even though the mist was starting to finally clear, the tension amongst the small party of men and women was unbelievable.

And after a few more agonizing minutes of waiting had passed with still no movement or sound, the situation was quickly beginning to grow almost unbearable.

Unable to acquire their targets visually, the small group of JSDF troopers strained their ears to listen for the dreaded low moan and the shuffling approach of the Infected now that the noise from the generators had been stopped after they had been shut down.

But the only sound to reach their ears was the sound of the river rushing below their feet and the unmistakable sound of Izumi grinding her teeth in frustration.

Shinohara sighed in resignation to himself and shook his head dreading the aftermath that was sure to follow after this little screw-up, not just for him, but for Noa Izumi as well.

Because if this entire incident did turn out to be another false alarm, and it certainly seemed to be the case so far, Shinohara knew that Noa would never be able to live this one down.

The ribbing from her mates would be bad enough, but the rest of the soldiers and sailors stationed at the new naval base would be relentless, not to mention the ration of crap his superiors in Command would be giving him a for calling in a false alert because his people were seeing "shadows".

And Asuma was especially not looking forward to what the High Commander, his father, would have to say either, who was probably just waiting to rub this latest fiasco in his face as well.

Shinohara sighed again in frustration and then reluctantly raised his binoculars to his eyes once more, already trying to mentally prepare himself for the royal ass-chewing from his superiors that was sure to come later.

THERE.

It was only a brief glimpse through a small break in the fog, but Shinohara had most definitely seen the distinct figure of a man shrouded in mist moving slowly towards them.

"Contact!" Shinohara said sharply, accidentally startling Kumagami who had been rubbing her strained eyes as everyone within earshot immediately brought their binoculars up to their eyes and scanned the mist-covered bridge.

"Twelve O'clock, single figure, moving slow, about seventy meters." Shinohara added making a forward motion with his right hand as all eyes immediately turned towards the direction Shinohara indicated, and the specter that had been eluding their eyes for the past forty minutes finally came into everyone's view.

And as she brought the lenses of her field glasses into focus, Takeo Kumagami felt a cold chill run up her spine as the shadowy figure of a man deeply enshrouded in mist, slowly approached them.

And as she watched the man, Takeo could actually feel her heartbeat beating faster from anxiety as the fog eerily seemed to cause the man to briefly disappear and then reappear at intervals like some ghostly apparition.

While not normally so easily given in to fear, the reason for Takeo's anxiety now was due to the fact that the one thing that Takeo Kumagami was afraid of since childhood, was ghosts.

And this apparition's resemblance to a ghost that was slowly walking towards them and seemingly disappearing and reappearing in the fog was just too much, even for her

Standing behind her, Goto and Nagumo also both sucked in their breaths as the specter slowly moved forward, neither one of the JSDF Commanders immune to the spookiness of it all either, as Shinohara looked away from his glasses and turned towards Sakaki.

"Safeties off." Shinohara hissed. "Everyone hold fire until I give the command."

"Yokai." Sakaki replied as he turned around to face everyone crouched at their firing positions and then silently used hand signals to relay Shinohara's order as the air all around the small group of terrified soldier's was immediately filled with the distinct sound of the safety levers of every rifle being switched from "SAFE" to "FIRE".

And as the gunners standing on top of the two tank-mounted machine guns, as well as Ohta in the left gun nest charged the big handles on their weapons, little Noa Izumi, thrilled to have been finally redeemed from the doubt that had been plaguing her for the past forty minutes, happily and enthusiastically pulled the big charging lever of her .50 cal. machine gun back, loading a round into the chamber of her weapon.

Noa's joy was short-lived however, as the air was suddenly filled with the sound of more than a few audible gasps coming from some of Lt. Kumagami's people, with even a very audible "eep" escaping Col. Nagumo's lips at Noa cycling a round into the giant .50 cal. Browning machine gun "Alphonse."

Upon hearing the frightened sounds of everyone around her as she charged her weapon, Noa's mood quickly soured again and her eyes narrowed in anger as she silently stewed behind the big gun, as she then began to wonder exactly how much trouble she would be in if she just stood up in front of everyone and finally told them all to f_ck off.

Sakaki laughed to himself inwardly as he watched the knuckles of Noa's hands turning white as she angrily gripped the handles of "Alphonse", knowing all too well the exact reason for everyone's alarm.

It had been some time since the legendary incident, but despite that, what was still very fresh on everyone's mind (and probably seared into their brains forever) was the story spread throughout the ranks of the JSDF about the first time Private Noa Izumi had used a weapon to qualify with during Basic Training, a little over a year prior to the Outbreak.

As her instructors and fellow soldiers would testify later, Private Noa Izumi was actually an outstanding recruit, but despite all of her outstanding qualities and relatively minor personality flaws, the consensus was that Private Noa Izumi was undeniably, hands down, the absolute worst shot in the entire JSDF.

In truth, her small frame and light weight did cause her to experience some drawbacks, and one of them was her ability to handle and operate the standard issue "Type 89" or "Buddy" rifle, which with her small size had proven very difficult for her to hold to her shoulder and control effectively at first.

However, always eager to prove herself and always up for a challenge, Noa faced the problem head on.

And so when the instructor ordered everyone on the firing line to fire a single round from a kneeling position at a man-size target set 50 meters away, Noa steadied the sights of her rifle on the target, slowed her breathing to steady her aim just like she was trained, and then carefully squeezed the trigger on her rifle.

That she had accidentally flipped the selector switch to on "FULL AUTO".

Startled by the sudden recoil of her rifle on auto fire slamming against her shoulder, Noa screamed as she lost her balance and fell backwards onto her back.

Shocked by what was happening and not thinking to loosen her grip on the trigger of her rifle as she fell, 20 rounds of 5.56 ammo from her 30 round magazine was shot into the air while recruits and instructors dove for cover until Noa remembered to remove her finger from the trigger.

When the noise of the rifle blast ceased after Noa finally released her grip on the trigger, the even louder roar of her drill instructor (which as luck would have it was Sgt. Major Sakaki at the time) could be heard clear across the entire shooting range chewing her out royally afterwards.

That one incident had quickly become the stuff of legend among the recruits and instructors at Boot Camp afterwards, and unfortunately for Private Noa Izumi, would also always be the first thing everyone would ever recall whenever Noa's name was ever mentioned, much to her constant embarrassment.

The whole incident had merely been due to a bad case of nerves that had plagued Noa that day, and the royal ass chewing and countless push-ups and running around the squad with her rifle over her head not to mention the sore spot on her butt from making contact with the Sergeant Major's size 11 boot when she fell behind, did much to steady them after that either.

Sakaki though, never let that incident cloud over the potential he saw in Noa Izumi that everyone else seemed to overlook, and despite everyone's wary opinion of her, the tough old soldier admired the young girl's spirit and was determined to do his best to properly train her to handle a weapon even if it killed her.

And by the end of that particular cycle of Basic Training (and hundreds of push-ups later,) Private Noa Izumi was just as proficient as any of the rest of the recruits with her primary battle weapon.

Not to mention having vastly improved her upper body strength with all those push-ups as well.

Of all the recruits however, the weapon that the young pixie had excelled at most Sakaki had noticed, was the big American-made, M2 Browning .50 cal. machine gun.

While to everyone else it seemed almost comical to see the small woman sitting so comfortably behind the big gun that dwarfed over her small size, Sakaki had been impressed by her handling of the heavy machine gun, as if the thing had been made just for her.

At the time of Noa's graduation from Basic Training however, the greater need of the JSDF forced her to accept an assignment far less glamorous than what Noa had envisioned, her head previously filled with dreams of eventually becoming a heavy weapons expert.

Instead, her glorious reward after the long months of exhausting combat training, mindless classroom hours, and enough calisthenics to cripple an Olympic athlete, was a humiliating assignment to the Logistics Corps.

As an assistant supply clerk.

And since operating the big "Ma Deuce", or any other heavy weapon was not part of an assistant supply clerk's daily routine, gifted or not, Izumi's dreams of being a heavy weapons expert were crushed.

Fortunately for Noa, the Outbreak had been her ticket to freedom from her prison of paper files, cardboard boxes, and plastic wrap as the JSDF was reeling heavily from the huge losses of personnel during the first three days of the Outbreak and was desperately trying to replace its ravaged ranks.

And so those who would have never even been considered for frontline combat training were extremely shocked (or in Noa's case, extremely thrilled) to be receiving orders from their superiors that most of the JSDF personnel that had previously been assigned to rear support roles would soon be having their names posted for immediate transfer to active combat units as replacements.

And one name that came up on the personnel roster that caught Sakaki's eye, was Private Noa Izumi's.

Remembering her name was no stretch for the old veteran who, to the surprise of everyone, actually requested her transfer to his platoon, despite the hesitation of his young lieutenant to have her transferred permanently to his Command based on what he had heard about "The Incident", as Noa's little accident at the rifle range was referred to by the rest of the troops.

Arranging her transfer had been no problem whatsoever at this point, the current shortage of manpower in the field forcing the Heads of the JSDF to change their priorities in personnel quickly due to the desperate need for those who could handle a rifle versus those who could operate a keyboard.

And in truth, because of everyone in the entire JSDF already having previous knowledge of "The Incident" involving Noa, there were also absolutely no protests from anyone about the young woman's transfer request at all either, all of them "more than happy" to accommodate Shinohara's "request" for her transfer to his platoon.

Thus began Noa Izumi's new life as one of the two heavy machine gunners of Echo Platoon, of which she had become an invaluable and very well-liked member.

Unfortunately, despite her accomplishments, Noa was still unable to shake the embarrassing incident from her past that still continued to haunt her since the incident at the rifle range.

In truth, the whole incident had been grossly exaggerated by some the of the recruits during Basic Training, mostly from those who actually envied the tiny woman's accomplishments in Boot that had actually surpassed their own.

But as the story was passed down the line from soldier to soldier, the legend grew along with it, and soon there was nowhere Noa could go without everyone reacting in fear every time her thumbs came near the butterfly trigger of "Alphonse", although Sakaki himself paid no attention whatsoever to the negative opinions and snide remarks made by those who criticized Noa Izumi's placement into a front line unit.

Unlike his colleagues, Sakaki knew his people extremely well, and Sakaki trusted his instincts over other people's opinions, and eventually, everyone else in "Echo" Platoon also came to appreciate Noa's talent with the big gun when the shit hit the fan.

There was one catch though.

In the heat of battle, with the roar of the big .50 and the enormous muzzle flash lighting up the sky as Noa's adrenaline raced with the fury of combat, little Noa Izumi didn't just get caught up in the excitement of battle as she blazed away with the big gun.

Her blood lust would go through the roof.

In one particularly nasty fight on the afternoon of the third day of the Outbreak for example, "Echo" and "Delta" Platoon had both been in danger of being overrun as they were trying to evacuate the civilian populace and had been forced to pull back from the swarms of Infected about to overrun their position.

But instead of abandoning her position and withdrawing with the rest of the JSDF troopers like she had been ordered to, Noa had instead waited until she had expended the rest of her ammo belt and then removed the big .50 cal from its tripod.

And then to everyone's shock, the little pixie actually tried to run with the 39 kilo weapon cradled in her arms like an infant, absolutely refusing to drop her precious "Alphonse" despite the angry roars of her superiors to drop the weapon and run for her life.

After running with the heavy weapon for a couple of city blocks and an alley in an effort to run from the Infected, the pint-sized trooper had come dangerously close to being killed until she was rescued by Hiromi-chan who literally grabbed her from the clutches of the Infected, and physically carried Noa, kicking and screaming over his shoulder as Noa cursed epithets and threw spent and still smoking .50 cal casings at the throngs of Infected chasing them.

And then after being rescued, Noa had come completely unglued emotionally and had then started crying like a little girl as she was forced to watch her precious "Alphonse" being dragged and kicked around by the shuffling feet of the Infected.

Despite that embarrassing incident and (much to Shinohara's chagrin) many more that were to follow, everyone in "Echo" Platoon was extremely fond of the little hothead.

And right now with a possible security breach, and who knows how many Infected headed their way, everyone in "Echo" Platoon was more than happy to have her and "Alphonse" (which had been retrieved later after they had been rescued) with them, so unlike everyone else, there were no rude sounds or snide remarks heard from any of the other members of Noa's platoon.

However, the real reason for everyone's silence was not because anyone was actually concerned with maintaining unit integrity.

They just knew better than to piss Noa off right now.

When everyone had switched the selector switches on their rifles from "SAFE" to "FIRE", there was the usual small "click" that resulted that was audible to everyone's ears within a few feet of each other.

And of course, the sound of more than twenty of them being clicked over all at once was loud enough to be heard quite well within a relatively short distance away.

The sound of the charging handle on a Browning M-2 cycling a round into the firing chamber of a .50 caliber machine gun on the other hand was unmistakably loud, and for anyone within earshot, there was no mistake of what that sound could possibly be.

So as Noa pulled back the large charging handle on "Alphonse" and then let it slam forward, the sudden reaction by the figure on the bridge still slowly approaching their position was completely unexpected and caused every one of the small band of JSDF troopers on the bridge to react in shock at what happened next.

The man on the bridge, who had been slowly approaching their position, instantly froze.

Everyone on the bridge was stunned by the man's reaction to the noise made by Noa's machine gun, each of them having never seen such a reaction from any of the Infected before.

The Infected had always reacted to sound, and no one had ever known them not to, but this reaction was completely different than what had ever previously been seen before.

Normally, the Infected would halt for a moment at a loud sound and then slowly change direction towards the source and then lurch forward towards whatever sound had attracted them.

But this time, the man's reaction was something completely different.

Never did the Infected just stop moving altogether as if they were capable of sensing that they were in danger.

And as if that weren't shocking enough, the next reaction amongst the group of soldiers was one of pure disbelief at what the man did next as a few audible gasps of surprise escaped the lips of a few of the JSDF troopers who could not believe what they were seeing.

In plain view of everyone, the man slowly raised his left hand above his head and then closed his fist.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" Nagumo said aloud as her jaw dropped in shock.

The fact that the man was obviously not one of the Infected had been surprising enough, but the hand gesture the man had made was an even bigger shock because of what the gesture also signified that made the already tense situation, all the more alarming.

The gesture the man had made of raising his hand in the air and closing his fist was a tactical hand signal traditionally used in the Military for a point man to silently call for a halt.

And since the man's hand signal obviously wasn't directed towards the group of JSDF troopers who were standing fast at their firing positions, then the only logical reason for the man to be giving that hand signal could only mean one thing.

He wasn't alone.

"HOLY CRAP!" Shinohara and Kumagami both said aloud as the mist began to slowly dissipate as gasps of surprise sounded all around from the rest of the JSDF troopers at what they saw next.

Slowly, like spirits materializing out of the mist, several other ghostly figures not seen previously emerged from the dense fog that was now slowly clearing from around them, and as it did, the clearing mist revealed an even more shocking discovery to the now speechless soldiers on the bridge.

All of the shadowy figures standing in the mist were also very heavily armed.

"Ohhhh…. SHIT." Noa Izumi said under her breath as she and all of the other members of the JSDF stared in shock at the numerous weapons in the hands of the ghostly figures materializing out of the mist.

UPDATED: 1-15-2014

I had said I was going to post this chapter on Friday, but I finished early, so here you are. I hope you enjoy the improvements I made.

Originally, when I wrote the first 30 chapters of "Last Alarm", everything I posted was in actuality, a "rough draft".

As a result of the positive response I've been getting to my story, I decided to update these older chapters and add some things as well, and also correct some issues with capitalizing key words I wanted to use to provide emphasis, not realizing due to my inexperience that capitalizing words was actually sending the wrong message to the reader.

So after a little more work, Chapter Two has had some new dialogue inserted and I've also corrected some of the mistakes I had made.

The original chapter was under 5700 words long.

Chapter Two is now over 10,400 words long, so there was quite a bit of work done and numerous changes made grammatically.

Each chapter will be updated gradually with Chapter 3 being the next one to be updated soon with some significant changes to follow, so when I update an old chapter and post it, I'll be announcing it with each new chapter that I post.

Please bear with me.

Thanks again for your patience and your support! Jim

Author's Note: Originally Posted February 2013

First, I want to thank all of you that have been following my story thus far, and a special thanks to all of you who took the time to give a review and put my story on your "favorites".

Being my first fanfic, and the first story I've written since high school, it's a great encouragement for me to receive such positive feedback from you folks.

Thanks again guys. I really appreciate it, and I'll try to keep the stories coming. And make them worth reading.

I also want to apologize as well. I kinda rushed through posting Chapter Two before I was really 100% happy with it, and as a result, I went back and edited it several times before I felt a little better about it.

The last revision was Sunday, so if you notice a few changes to the story since I first posted it last week, that's why. I also want to apologize, because I had promised to introduce all the characters of the HOTD series in this chapter, and instead, I just have several "ghostly figures" mentioned instead.

The problem is that this story is bigger than I expected, and I admit, I had a little too much fun poking fun at poor Noa Izumi. I liked Noa a lot in Patlabor, but it would annoy me that in the series she would often times be too timid with a criminal, and thus get her butt kicked for a couple episodes before she finally would beat the guy and I would be like "Just kick his ass already!".

I thought it would be fun to make her a lot more like Ohta, who was the real hothead of SVD 2.

Anyway, this chapter went a lot smoother than the last one, and I had a lot more fun writing it. The next chapter, should be the last of the the bridge scene, if I can keep from droning on too much about the characters, and after that chapter, we will finally get to the main story, which is the events of the first day of the Outbreak, leading up to the anime, and then to the events of the manga, and then a few more original stories leading up to the climax of the story at the bridge.

By the way, SPOILER ALERT, there are TWO endings for this fanfic, and you'll see why I did that in the next chapter. Wanna hint? Can you say "Firefight?"

Like I said, the pace will be picking up, and since I've got more than 40 chapters lined up (thus far) for this fanfic, I'm gonna be pretty busy for a while.

I'm hoping I can keep it interesting for you.

Until then, thanks again for your support.