Last Alarm
Chapter Twenty-Two
"The Man from Hereford-Part Two."
"Rika's Story"
Written by Poynton90
The Japanese Special Assault Team or Tokushu Kyūshū Butai, is a paramilitary counter terrorism unit under the command of the Japanese National Police Agency. The SAT is mandated for counterterrorism missions and incidents involving firearms or criminals which require an armed response beyond the capabilities of local law enforcement in Japan.
On April 1, 1996, the Special Assault Team was established after a one year training period with the German Counterterrorism Unit GSG 9, French CT Unit GIGN, and the British Special Air Service.
Among their many roles as a specialized unit, the SAT sniper stands out as one of the more difficult roles that an officer can achieve. And after the rigorous training involved is completed, those that have managed to achieve that difficult and much coveted assignment have earned a special place among their ranks.
A popular joke amongst those in the world of the Sniper is, "Run, and you'll only die tired."
While humorous, the joke indeed has a grim impact on those who find themselves on the wrong end of a sniper's crosshairs. Trained to move in stealth and capable of killing from long distances, the sniper has long been a valuable asset in each of the world's Militaries, and is one of the most highly skilled warriors in military history.
The sniper is also one of the most feared and most hated of enemies that anyone who has served in the military has ever known. There are few in the world eager to fight a sniper, which is an enemy that cannot be seen, and kills without warning, leaving anyone unlucky enough to be caught in the crosshairs no way of defense once the sniper has acquired his target.
The psychological effect of an unseen sniper on its quarry is without question the most unnerving experience a soldier can experience. Some who have survived being under fire from such a cold, merciless enemy have even claimed they would even prefer the shelling of heavy artillery, or aerial bombardment, over being the hunted quarry of a lone sniper team.
In the police world, the sniper is just as feared and hated by those who find themselves on the wrong side of the law and the crosshairs of the Police sniper. But without question, the police sniper like its military counterpart, have proven invaluable, especially in cases of hostage rescue.
While the urban setting prevents the need for long range precision shots like the military sniper with most shots in the urban setting rarely being over 50 yards, routinely. The high level of precision is still expected and maintained by snipers in all Emergency Tactical Units throughout the world.
While most snipers prefer to remain unseen and unmoving, the Police sniper must be able to move and shoot from any number of locations and positions as the mission demands, sometimes on the run. Adding to the stress is the constant concern of accidentally wounding an unarmed civilian in the midst of a high tension situation.
Location: Tokonosu International Airport "The Floating Airport"
Gate #5 Roof of Passenger Walkway - Sniper Team "Dahlia" On Site
Time: Z day Plus Two
The Contagion had spread unchallenged for several hours before any type of warning had been activated. And once the call had been given to activate all Airport Security and mobilize the Special Assault Team for a possible terrorist attack, it was already far too late.
When the initial assault team had been deployed to the report of possible "terrorist activity" at Hangar #7, they had almost became victims themselves if not for the keen eye of their Team Leader, who had spotted the shuffling Infected as they closed in on the arriving assault team. They had arrived to find the entire area swarming with workers infected by the unknown Contagion, and seeing the seriousness of their situation, had beat a hasty retreat to re-group and plan for the impossible scenario that had developed in their own backyard. A scenario no Military or Police force ever imagined possible.
By the time any sort of direct action could be taken however, the Contagion had proven to be more widespread than previously believed. And it was all the small group of Airport Security officers and the even smaller band of elite SAT Operatives could do to contain the multiple outbreaks that kept recurring throughout the island.
Spreading faster than they could contain it, and without any help from the Mainland, eventually the small Police Force proved unable to deal with the Infection and the mass hysteria that came with it.
Section by section, building by building, all eventually fell to the onslaught of airport workers and traveling civilians who became infected by the Contagion, until at last only the Main Terminal and the Main runways remained free of the Infected, and even that, just barely being held by the steadily decreasing Security Force.
But as time passed and their numbers dwindled from the mounting casualties, it was only a matter of time before the small remaining force was overrun.
And they all knew it.
Now on the second day of the Outbreak, the Airport Security Forces and the SAT had paid dearly for the small patch of ground they now defended off the coast of Japan. And despite their best efforts, they were still steadily losing ground and personnel as the numbers of the Infected seemed to continue to grow, as the small group of defenders and their ammunition dwindled.
But still to a man, they fought on.
High atop of one of the many passenger walkways that normally would be used to connect to an awaiting passenger jet, a pair of SAT Special Operations snipers had set up their observation nest.
One of them, an officer named Tajima, who was serving as spotter for the sniper, was sitting up on the roof while peering through a Leupold Spotting scope/Laser Rangefinder busily acquiring targets for Sgt, Rika Minami, the lead sniper and Team Leader, as she lay on belly on the roof next to him.
SAT sniper Sgt. Rika Minami, was lying prone on top of the walkway with her Heckler & Koch PSG-1 A1 7.62-millimetre high-precision sniper rifle in her arms. Lying prone is still very much the favored position of the sniper which helps to reduce fatigue and helps to steady the rifle for improved accuracy. However, after hours in the same position staring through a small tube without letup is a strain that will eventually tire the best efforts of any sniper, Police or Military.
Sgt. Minami had been lying on her stomach for the better part of the last six hours and was more than ready for a break, to be able to stand up and stretch a little.
Being able to take a break is an enormous luxury for a sniper, who can seldom afford to do so without removing their eye from their scope while in the field.
One of the most important skills a sniper must have besides stealth and resolve is patience, because it may be hours or days before an opportunity may present itself for a sniper to make that one all-important shot, and even a quick glance to relieve eye strain can result in a missed opportunity.
However, since the quarry of the SAT Team was the slowly shuffling Infected and not an enemy soldier trying to evade them, a break was exactly what the doctor ordered Rika thought, as she looked away from her scope and looked over at her spotter who was still focused on scanning for targets through his Leupold combination Spotting Scope/Laser Rangefinder.
And even without saying anything aloud for her partner to hear, she knew he was thinking about her breasts that were being squished after lying prone for so long, Rika knew.
"The perv." She thought to herself.
Like her spotter, Rika had been also scanning the tarmac trying to spot targets that posed an imminent threat to either breaching the Main Terminal Building or trying to shuffle out onto the Main runway where aircraft where still arriving and taxiing from.
As huge and powerful as a passenger airliner is, damage from striking a human body during take-off would still be disastrous, and now with the Main runway being the only one still under Police control, it was even more vital that it be protected at all costs.
Although considering the current cargo of passengers being transported all morning, Sgt. Minami wouldn't have minded at all if a plane did crash as horrible as one might have thought that would sound coming from a Police officer.
But all things considered, especially to those trying to flee for their lives, they might have wholeheartedly agreed with the beautiful SAT sniper after watching the type of people that were being flown off to safety while the rest of the populace were pushed back.
Rika wanted to shake her head in disgust as another jetliner roared down the runway and flew into the air leaving with another load of politicians and high-class executive types and their families.
It never ceased to both amaze and disgust Rika on the priorities of the higher ups when a mandatory evacuation order was given.
Those in positions of wealth and power were the first to be whisked to safety, followed by the rest of the hysterical passengers left, if the Airport wasn't completely overrun by then. And then MAYBE they could be airlifted if there was any chance they'd still be alive once the last plane taxied down the runway.
"How come the politicians and the wealthy are the only ones being able to leave the country while the civilians are being left behind?" Rika thought bitterly. "What made the so-called "elite" any more a priority to escape the area than the civilians that remained trapped behind? "
The sight of all those arrogant people in their expensive clothing and high-priced jewelry along with their equally richly dressed families squabbling and complaining about being so inconvenienced as not to be treated to first-class accommodations while regular civilians were pushed back away from the waiting jets made her blood boil.
But being the professional that she was, Rika pushed the emotions back down, knowing that as hypocritical as the whole situation was, the time for such thoughts no matter how justified had no place right now and would only serve to distract her.
And so as she continued her duty of keeping the runways clear of all obstacles, the crosshairs of her scope fell on a target that she could at least now somewhat vent her frustrations on.
"Yuck, what a scumbag." She muttered as she spotted an Infected in expensive clothing who seemed to be smiling as it fiddled with a pair of broken glasses that had somehow not fallen off of his face.
While all the Infected had become mindless killing machines with no higher brain function than to kill and eat, this one seemed to have had so much of an ego in life, that even now despite being without conscious thought, this particular Infected person still seemed extremely focused on its appearance.
"He was an actor from Seoul that came along with the rest of a film crew all the way from South Korea to do some filming." Tajima replied, as he also spotted the same target Rika had noticed, not taking his eyes from the spotting scope. He then pressed the button for the laser on the scope which gave him the exact range to the target that he would relay to Rika.
"Range: two hundred and twenty-five meters, no wind change, cleared to engage when ready." He told his partner.
Rika slightly licked her lips slightly as she delicately placed her finger on the sniper rifle's hair-trigger and slowly squeezed.
Instantly, the 7.62x51mm round shot straight through the air and slammed into the former actor's forehead.
Correction, it hit right between his eyes, blowing out the back of his head in a spray of blood and brain matter, the impact of the hand-loaded round knocking him to the ground in a heap.
The full metal jacketed, boat-tailed .308 round snapped the frames of the glasses the Infected celebrity had been wearing in half, with both lenses hitting the ground at the same time, just seconds before the body crumpled next to them in a heap.
Almost as quickly but no less accurately, four more shots were fired from Rika's sniper rifle now that the range had proven correct and the Infected, which once posed a risk to the large winged aircraft attempting to lift off, ceased to be a risk anymore.
Once again the SAT snipers had seen to the security of the terminal, with deadly results.
"All targets eliminated, clear to proceed." Tajima spoke into his throat mike and listened to the reply in his earpiece from the radio that transmitted straight to the temporary Central Command Center that was now currently housed in the Main Terminal building, the only secure building left.
After a short while, the two SAT officers watched as three shuttle buses transporting dozens of airport workers, filed out of the Main Terminal building with an armed escort of SAT personnel , all of them dressed in the aircraft "Crash" gear of the Airport Fire Services and breathing from *SCBA's as they moved the bodies away from the runway to be disposed of afterwards.
*SCBA- Self Contained Breathing Apparatus
Tajima sighed as the small convoy approached. Like Rika, he was in bad need of a break himself.
Just as he was about to stand up and stretch his legs Tajima heard his partner Rika stand up next to him and gazed at her as she slowly stretched her arms as the sun's rays shone down upon her, seeming to blanket her with a glowing aura.
"You okay?" Tajima asked her casually, slightly mesmerized by the sight of the extremely attractive sniper, but then suddenly choked as his eyes went wide when she unfastened her body armor and started massaging her breasts.
"Uhh, what are you doin'?" Tajima asked with a large grin on his face and certain thoughts entering his mind as he watched her seemingly to be fondling herself.
"The "little ones" were going numb, since I've been lying on them all morning" Rika replied as she stretched once again and continued to massage her boobs.
"Oh. Well ya know, I could massage them for ya.'" He said with a cheeky grin spread across his face.
To most people, the comment would have had many screaming "sexual harassment" and demanding immediate justice.
However, among the two team members this was only playful banter, one of many times the two friends had engaged in such playfulness in the years they'd worked together as a team.
The two shooters had been partners for the better part of the last three years now and had gotten to know each other extremely well. So Rika knew there was no malice in Tajima's offer to massage her boobs.
In fact, Rika gave as well as she got, most of the time.
"Maybe I would allow you… if; you were a better sniper than me." Rika replied, putting emphasis on the "IF" with a toothy grin as she unzipped her BDU's, exposing her white sports bra and allowing the "little ones" to breathe.
"Who are you kidding, what do I rank at anyway, twentieth place, and what are you, second?" He asked aloud whilst sighing as he stood up beside her.
"Then don't bother asking," she replied again with a smile, as she enjoyed the cool breeze wafting over them.
Suddenly, their conversation was interrupted as the sound of gunfire echoed across the airfield, causing both of them to lose interest in joking any further.
Both SAT officers immediately resumed their shooting positions as before, carefully scanning the open tarmac for the source of the shot from either another sniper team, or a possible threat from an unseen shooter.
Rika shuddered slightly as she peered through her scope reacting to the fact that her chest was now exposed to the cold metal beneath her breasts as she flipped off the safety of her sniper rifle.
"You hear anybody call in that they were under attack or shooting for any reason at all?" Rika asked Tajima as she listened closely to her earpiece as reports from the other teams sounded over the airwaves from their checking in but nothing about the gunshots they had heard.
"Not a thing." Tajima replied. "Want me to check in?"
"Not yet, maybe just one of the Airport cops busting caps or something like that, perhaps." Rika said aloud. "Let's wait till we see something, I hate to report something without confirming what it is."
"I hear ya." Tajima replied as he scanned the tarmac.
Rika carefully scanned over the airfield with her PSG-1 A1 whilst Tajima searched intently as well, using his Leupold spotting scope, attempting to find the source of the gun shots.
"I don't see anything," Tajima reported as he continuously scanned for the source of the gunfire beginning to grow frustrated at finding nothing.
"Keep searching, those shots definitely weren't from the other team out on the other side of the airfield. Take a look." Rika replied pointing towards the cleanup crew who had immediately ducked behind the buses after the first shot.
Tajima grunted and kept searching through his scope and found the cleanup crew along with their protective detail of security personnel hurriedly jumping back into the bus and beating a hasty retreat back to the Main terminal.
"My heroes." Tajima thought with amusement.
"Those shots obviously weren't from a police thirty-eight caliber service revolver; they sounded more like a nine-millimeter semi-automatic." Rika stated out loud to her partner.
"Are you sure? Those shots sounded pretty muffled to me." Tajima replied as he continued to scan the area.
"Although it didn't really sound like suppressed gunfire either. It sounded almost as if…" Tajima trailed off as he looked down towards the auxiliary runway that ran next to the Main runway itself.
"As if it came from underground." Rika finished, frowning as she pondered her last comment.
"The utility tunnels." Rika and Tajima said together as they both looked towards the grate cover nearby that led down an access way to the utility tunnels beneath the runways.
"But SAT and the other police units are forbidden to be down there right now with the amount of Infected infesting them. And both access points from here and the Mainland have been closed off, so why would there be…" Tajima began, until Rika immediately cut him off as she suddenly raised her hand, stopping him in mid-sentence.
"There it goes again." Rika said as they could both hear the sound of muffled gunfire coming from underneath the tarmac.
"Something's telling me that the gunfire doesn't belong to any of our people..…" Rika stated as she trailed off herself and then looked Tajima square in the eye.
"Remember last night when there was that "ALERT" for that report of "terrorist activity", out at Hangar#7, which was the whole reason we came out here in the first place?" Rika asked Tajima, leaving the question hanging in the air.
He gave her a funny look before it finally clicked.
"You think it could be one of the…" He began to say before he trailed off again.
Honestly, Rika thought, he was getting worse with trailing off from the conversation, leaving questions hanging in the air. It was beginning to be as annoying as watching one of those really bad TV cop shows where everyone is so overly-dramatic in the way they talked.
"Yes." she calmly replied as she pushed the *PTT button on her radio to contact Command.
*(PTT- Push-To-Talk)
"Sakura, this is Dahlia. Come in."
"Dahlia, this is Sakura. Go ahead." Came the immediate reply from the Command Center.
"Sakura, Dahlia is reporting possible shots fired around the vicinity of the West Wing near Hangars #11 thru Hangar #22." Rika transmitted.
"Affirmative, Dahlia." The voice on the other end acknowledged. "Do you have a visual?"
"Negative, Sakura." Rika replied. "Still searching, but no visible shooters yet."
"Roger that, Dahlia." The officer on the other end replied. "Do you want us to send you some back-up?"
"Negative, Sakura." Rika replied, looking directly at Tajima who just shrugged. "Will advise if we make contact and back-up is needed."
"Roger Dahlia." The voice replied. "Keep us advised. Sakura out."
As Rika was calling in the incident, she and Tajima continued to scan the airfield with their scopes.
And just as she had finished transmitting to Command, Tajima spotted someone moving near the hangars at the far end of the airfield directly across from their position.
"Hey, I think I got something." He told Rika, immediately gaining her attention.
"Where?" she asked as she peered through the rifle's scope.
"Eleven O'clock. Right next to hangar #19 on the "D" side. There's a grate opening between Hangar #18 and Hanger #19." He replied as he pressed the "Range" button on the combination spotting scope/laser rangefinder.
"Got him." Rika confirmed as she turned the focus knob on her scope attempting to sharpen the image.
"Call it in." Rika ordered as Tajima transmitted to Command each detail of the obvious foreigner trying to make his way across the hangars and also trying to avoid detection from the Infected on the far end of the airfield.
Peering through the eyepiece of the Schmidt & Bender 3-12x50 Police Marksman II Scope Rika studied her target. From what she could see, the figure emerging from the grate and setting it back in place was that of a male, early to mid-thirties, tanned skinned, with a muscular build, standing at possibly six foot five inches tall, with dark brown hair, cut short, and wearing sunglasses that were covering his eyes.
And after a moment, she then spotted what appeared to be a white string running from under the left lenses of the glasses along with the jagged red scar running from the left eye.
He was wearing clothing that seemed to be a mixture of civilian and military attire that included a dark green tee shirt that fit snugly to his large frame, a pair of light grey cargo pants with the bottoms tucked into a pair of desert tan combat boots. Over the shirt that he wore he had a large black flak jacket that covered his upper body and a tan combat vest over that.
Most of the vest was covered in all different types of equipment tucked into individual pouches. And over his chest was a holstered semi-automatic pistol with a large combat knife sheathed right beside it. On the lower section of his vest were dozens of large pouches for rifle magazines for an assault rifle, but as she looked closely at the man, she saw no rifle or carbine of any type on his person.
"Command advises to standby and keep reporting his movements." Tajima replied, even though Rika had already heard the reply from Command over her own earpiece. "They're sending a team over to our position to link up with us so we can try to capture him."
"Roger that." Rika replied as she kept close watch on the man through her scope.
Tajima scanned the stranger through his spotting scope which was much more powerful than the rifle scope on Rika's weapon and thus, he was able to make out better details of their quarry. As he watched the man skulking behind the aircraft hangars, he noticed some details of interest on the man as he stealthily moved around the empty buildings.
"Aside from the single semi-automatic he's carrying I don't see any other firearms on his person, except for that large combat knife attached to his vest." Tajima said aloud as he watched the stranger slowly beginning to jog along the buildings while still keeping low towards the hangars down the runway.
"I can see he's carrying spare munitions for a rifle of some sort but as you said, he's not carrying anything else." Rika stated without taking her eyes off the man. "Maybe he stashed the rest of his gear, perhaps?"
"More than likely." Tajima replied. "Either that or he lost it somewhere."
Rika nodded in agreement as she continued to watch the foreigner. The distance and the man's movements made it hard for Rika to make out any other details about the man when suddenly, something clicked in the back of her head.
For some reason, something about the man was extremely familiar.
The way he moved was not as someone just trying to avoid the Infected. This man's movements were precise, purposeful, swift and silent. He was purposefully avoiding the Infected as if they could see him.
"But of course he has no reason to hide." Rika thought to herself.
The Infected were blind, and while she wasn't any physician or any other type of medical expert, she still had several theories as to why the Infected couldn't see anyone and only reacted to sound, which would explain why she had seen several of them attack each other earlier.
Her best hypothesis was that something about the body's electrical impulses may have been affected by the Contagion, so that when the body died from the infection, the Infected were reanimated physically, although perhaps not "everything" in the brain was switched back on, once the body was revived.
So they were still "alive" basically. But now just deaf, dumb, and dangerous as hell.
Rika continued to watch the lone foreigner as he made his way along the hangars until he came to a stop near the final hangar, and paused to look about as if searching for something, as she could plainly see him scanning around the grass next to the large building he was standing beside.
She then watched, as a small grin spread across his face as he slowly walked forward and picked something up from the grass and she could see that it was a large black backpack, carrying what appeared to be a compact pump-action shotgun attached to the side of the pack in a black sleeve.
"Subject now has a weapon." Rika replied aloud as Tajima grunted in response and pressed the PTT button attached to his combat vest.
"Sakura, this Dahlia." Tajima transmitted over his throat mike. "Confirming that subject is now heavily armed. We can visibly see a shotgun on the subject's field pack as well as a handgun."
"Dahlia, this Sakura." The two shooters heard over their earpieces. "Confirming subject is now heavily armed with shotgun and sidearm."
"Are you requesting back-up at this time?" Came the transmission over their radios.
"What do you think?" Tajima asked as she felt his eyes on her. With the man now confirmed to be armed, he definitely now posed a visible threat to everyone.
"Our orders at or briefing were to call in any suspicious movement and fire on any Infected threatening the runway." Rika replied keeping the man firmly in the crosshairs of her PSG-1 A1 sniper rifle. "And we were also advised to look out for this man and call in once we spotted him."
"He's not threatening us or the runway for now." Rika replied. "But if he makes any move towards anyone, I'll open fire."
Tajima nodded grimly. "Opening fire" in Rika's case meant that the man was as good as dead already.
Something then caught Rika's attention as she closely watched the lone gunman.
"Sakura, this is Dahlia, standby." Rika said looking closer at the man who appeared to be acting strangely.
"Roger that, Dahlia. Standing by." Command replied.
Rika stared closely at the man still stealthily walking near the hangars, as if searching for something.
The man was not just walking haphazardly around the airfield, trying to avoid contact with Airport Security or any of the Infected lurking about.
He was obviously looking around for something, maybe another pack or weapon, perhaps.
From her vantage point Rika couldn't be sure, but it certainly seemed that way from the way he kept moving his head side to side.
After a moment, she then noticed a displeased look on his face as once again, he turned away from her before she could get a good look at him.
Rika kept trying to get a solid look of his face but the sun glasses he wore and his long hair kept her from getting a decent look at his facial features, frustrating her. There was indeed something familiar about the man, but Rika was unable to get a good enough look at the man's face to make a positive I.D.
As the man's efforts to try to find whatever it was he was looking for increased, Rika then followed the direction the man was looking towards and spotted a small horde of Infected wandering around on the tarmac near the runway.
Finally, after looking a little past the area near the small group of Infected workers, she spotted one of the Infected shuffling away from the rest, dragging what appeared to be a shortened rifle by its shoulder strap that somehow had gotten caught around the Infected worker's ankle.
"I believe I've found the subject's primary weapon but one of the Infected's dragging the weapon away from his position." Rika said out loud for her partner to hear as she then directed him where to look.
"Looks like a Mk18 battle carbine with some serious modifications." Tajima replied admiring the weapon on the ground.
She looked at Tajima for a second before he noticed she was looking at him.
"What?" He asked, puzzled at her staring at him.
"This could be bad," she finally told him, as she looked back through her scope.
"Roger that." Tajima replied as he pressed the PTT button of his radio.
"Sakura, come in Sakura, this is Dahlia over," Tajima hailed in his earpiece radio.
"This is Sakura, go ahead Dahlia." Came the response from Command.
"Sakura, this is Dahlia, we have made a possible I.D. of the suspected terrorist that was reported at the shooting incident yesterday at Hangar #7. Subject is currently positioned beside hangar # 12 at the far east of the runway, and has evidently reacquired all his weapons." Tajima replied, as Rika listened over her own comm unit while keeping the now heavily armed man in her crosshairs.
"Roger that Dahlia, wait one." Came the quick response.
Both of the SAT operatives waited for several moments before a response finally transmitted over their earpieces.
"Dahlia, this is Sakura. Come in." Rika heard over her earpiece.
"Sakura, this is Dahlia. Go ahead." Tajima transmitted.
"Orders from Command are, link up with the ground team headed your way and bring subject in for questioning, Dahlia team." Came the reply from Command.
"If unable to detain, you have permission to use deadly force. Ground team is enroute to your location and already been briefed and has already been issued the same orders." Command replied.
"Shit," Rika hissed as she momentarily lost sight of the man who had slipped behind one of the hangars. After a few minutes of nerve-racking suspense she relocated the man who was now sitting beside Hangar #12.
He had managed to reacquire the carbine somehow, and now that he had retrieved his main battle weapon in hand she knew that made him even more of a threat now.
If there was a way to convince the man to surrender his arms peacefully once the other team arrived, then Rika would have been more than happy to try. However, even with the ground team to back them up, the chances of them apprehending the heavily-armed foreigner quietly without getting involved in a prolonged firefight was going to be tricky if the man refused to surrender peacefully.
And with the tarmac infested with Infected everywhere, it just didn't seem like it was going to be worth the risk trying to apprehend the man quietly.
If it came down to it though,if the situation turned hostile, then it was either his life or theirs, Rika surmised, and being the team leader, she knew what decision she would make if she or anyone of her teammates lives were at risk if the stranger wished to fight.
Frowning, she aimed the crosshairs of her scope over the stranger's chest, when suddenly; the man looked up and stared directly at her.
"What the…" Rika said in surprise, but was cut off as the report of a rifle reached their ears, obviously from one of the other sniper teams that had fired at the foreigner prematurely. She then looked back through her scope, but saw that the man was now gone.
Not seeing any blood or a body lying near the hangar where he had been, Rika then surmised that the shot had more than likely missed its target, which meant the man was now on the run and also knew that he was being pursued.
Rika cursed, knowing that now the element of surprise was now gone, and that the hunters might very well be the hunted now, thanks to the poorly aimed shot from the other team.
Rika and Tajima continued to scan near the spot where the man had disappeared, and for a few agonizing minutes nothing happened until she saw a flash of movement between the hangars.
"Crap, he's leap frogging." Rika thought.
She knew the other teams would be keeping an eye out for the man's location but she doubted they could see where he was, and there was no way to get them to abandon their posts to come help them either.
The situation was now a very deadly game of cat and mouse.
For more than half an hour there was no movement whatsoever from either the sniper teams or the man down on the tarmac.
It was now all about patience, in a game where the first one to make a mistake was going to end up dead.
While everyone was laying low and trying to outwit each other, the assault team that Command had sent out finally arrived. The game had now greatly increased in danger, now that all its players were forced to seek each other out at ground level amongst a growing crowd of shuffling monsters.
Rika slung her sniper rifle over her shoulder in favor of her secondary combat weapon, a heavily modified five-five-six millimeter HOWA 'M4' Carbine. Tajima was also armed, carrying a HOWA Type 89-F assault rifle with an attached laser sight.
Once everyone was ready, the assault team's size consisted of ten people, six men and four women, all of them SAT operatives. They were taking no chances with this possible hostile.
It took them several minutes for them to arrive near the line of hangars opposite from their former position after passing through the terminal, and wading through dozens of scared survivors, families, individuals and other civilians.
They then made their way through one of the loading bays meant for luggage tugs that would load the passenger's luggage onto aircraft for flights traveling either outbound.
Once there, they met up with an Airport Security officer wearing a kevlar vest over his uniform shirt and held his revolver in a Weaver Stance, pointed out at the hangars as he waited for the operatives to arrive, and evidently not all that happy with his current assignment.
"As soon as I open this gate you move it, because once you're out there I'm locking this damned gate, got it!?" He told them obviously not wanting to be outside longer than necessary.
There had always been a somewhat tense rivalry between the Airport Police and the SAT, and now with this officer showing just how frightened he was, and how little he cared about anyone else's welfare, Rika couldn't hide the smirk that broke out across her face at the officer's remark.
"A shining example to the Force you are." Rika said sarcastically under her breath.
As the gate opened it rattled and groaned loudly, causing everyone to wince at the loud racket of the poorly maintained gate. And as if on cue, a group of Infected shuffling nearby all turned in the direction of the noise and attracted by the sound, started heading towards them.
Left with little choice but to defend themselves, the assault team opened up with suppressed gunfire and cut them down, dropping them to the ground like sacks of potatoes.
Now clear, the team of ten SAT Operatives then quickly moved out onto the airfield and towards the lone gunman's location, hoping to still detain him if possible.
It was only when they arrived at his last known position that Rika had reported, that the team came across an alarming sight. There were literally more than a dozen bodies on the ground, all of them of the Infected.
"How did one man do all of this on his own?" One of the other SAT operatives, a man named Tema asked aloud.
"Because I dunna mess about when it comes to killing the Infected." A voice speaking in English with an unmistakable British accent boomed from behind them.
The SAT team quickly spun around and instantly raised their weapons, aiming them at the man standing behind them.
"Relax kiddies." The man said calmly as he kept his hands away from his weapons. "I'm not the bad guy here, okay?"
"Who are you?!" Rika yelled, as the man turned towards her.
"If you promise not to shoot me love, I'll show you. Fair enough?"
"Go ahead, but SLOW." Rika replied, wondering what the man meant by "showing" them and preparing herself to open fire the second the man made a false move.
Rika kept her aim directly at the man's face as he motioned if he could remove the glasses. She nodded her head in approval, and he slipped them off and tucked them away.
"Oh, SHIT…" Rika and Tajima whispered in unison as the face of an old friend finally came to recognition.
"Andrew." Rika said in a shocked voice.
Author's Notes:
This is Part 2 of Poynton90's contribution to my story. There will be one more chapter to "Andrew's Story with a sneak peek at what happens at Rika's condo as we return to the group on the Mainland.
As soon as I can, I'll be re-arranging the chapters so that "Andrew's Story" appears just before "Crossroads" so that the timeline coincides with each other the way it does in the anime and the manga.
I was too far along into "Crossroads" and "Alice's Rescue" before I could insert "Andrew's Story" so that's my bad.
I know everyone's anxious to see what happens at Rika's condo, but bear with me, "Andrew" plays a big part in the story and while I'm trying to work on the next chapter, poynton90's contribution is really helping me out with a part of the story I wasn't even going to include originally, but was requested by some of my readers.
So ya'll be sure to give him some love for all his efforts okay?
It's not too late for any of you to let me know what you think should happen to "Jim" and the teens.
Lemmee know what you think before it's too late!
By the way, I have a gallery at deviantart and I have taken photos of all the equipment that Jim uses in the story.
My username there is, of course, FiremanJim.
These are items I actually own and I posted them for everyone in case anyone wanted to know what Jim's weapons and equipment looked like. I still have a LOT more items to take photos of, so check in every now and then. I plan to take some better pics of everything in an outdoor setting as well.
Thanks again for all of ya'll's support and your kind reviews.
Cya soon!