50.

Last Alarm

Chapter 50

"The Alamo"

Part One

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

_ George Santayana

Time: Evening – Shortly after H.A.N.E.

- Exact Time Unknown

Location: Front Lawn of Takagi Manor

Z-Day Times Four

Time has a funny way of obscuring the all too, important events that have occurred in our past and the lessons that we could have, or should have, learned from them.

And sadly, sometimes whether the event that occurred was an important turning point in human history or perhaps just an insignificant "bump in the road" in someone's life, makes little difference as far as the normal human being's attention span goes.

And because of that, given enough time sometimes the details of even the most important events in our history eventually tend to fade into obscurity, and the hard-earned lessons we could have learned from them that may even now still benefit us, are lost forever.

And all too often it's only when it's already too late do we finally realize just how foolish we were to have ignored our past while we watch in horror as our own little world now begins to fall apart all around us.

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it", is a popular quote that I've always taken to heart, in the hopes that I would always remember the hard earned lessons from the past and never repeat those same mistakes myself.

Of course, there was just no way in hell that I could have foreseen that an event similar to one that had happened nearly two hundred years ago, was about to bite me in the ass….literally.

And it all started as I was still standing outside on the grounds of Takagi Manor staring out over the deathly silent city of Tokonosu after I had sent Saeko and the other teens back into the mansion to face the consequences of their little stunt earlier by tying Shizuka and the guards up and locking them in a closet.

It was a stupid thing for them to do and there was no excuse for it, especially since their only reason for doing it was so that they could all sneak out of the mansion just to satisfy their morbid curiosity as to what was going on outdoors, despite our strict instructions for all of them to remain indoors.

But from the sounds of things, it was a mistake the kids would never, ever, repeat again based upon the way Shizuka was unleashing her wrath upon them as her angry scolding echoed from inside the mansion.

I swear, there are few things in this world that can absolutely scare the hell out of someone than an angry mother out for blood, and even though Shizuka was no blood relation to any of the kids, you really couldn't tell by the way she was ripping into them.

Of course, all things considered a scolding, no matter how severe, was nothing compared to what could have happened to the kids if there had been a danger from radiation poisoning from the nuclear airburst that had occurred earlier from whatever idiot had launched a nuclear "package" against the Nation of Japan.

And even though we had all been assured by Dr. Yamane that we were in no danger from radiation exposure, that still didn't mean that the kids were off the hook for disobeying us and not staying put like we told them to, not to mention the way they had tied up Shizuka and then locked her in a closet all because she and the guards were just trying to keep them from harm.

And when you think about it, all things considered the vicious tongue-lashing the teens were now receiving was an extremely light punishment considering what they had done, although I had to admit, even though the kids had really crossed the line by what they had done to her, I was still a little shocked to see the former school nurse in such a state of rage as she was right now.

The infuriated woman who was now presently screaming her head off inside the mansion was uncharacteristically different from the kind, soft-spoken woman I had known over the past few days and I almost felt a twinge of guilt at having sent the kids inside to face the enraged Furie.

Almost…

After all, I had tried being respectful with the kids earlier, and I had tried to reason with them on how trying to take matters into their own hands without thinking things completely through, could be dangerous.

And I had tried to explain to them as patiently as I could how we all really did respect and care deeply about them and that if they could just try to be cooperative with us and stay out of trouble, then life would just be… oh, so happy… giddy…awesome, and life would be just so folly…jolly…hunky-dory, and we would then finally become one big, silly, happy family with nothing buts hugs and kisses for everyone.

Well obviously that hadn't frickin' worked, and my attempt at being "Mr. Nice Guy" had failed miserably, so maybe a severe tongue-lashing from the extremely pissed-off nurse was just the thing needed to finally get through to them after all, because I sure as hell didn't.

"Those kids don't know how lucky they are this ain't Texas, and Shizuka's not their mother…" I said with a snicker as an old memory of my youth suddenly popped in my head just as Shizuka's yelling suddenly intensified, probably because one of the kids had made the mistake of trying to interrupt her while she was talking…screaming…whatever.

"Of course if that still don't work…" I said sourly under my breath as Shizuka's yelling continued to rise in volume and intensity. "I could always give Shizuka one of my *chanclas."

*(Chancla- Tejano word for slipper or flip-flop which besides using as footwear, is also extremely popular with Tejano mothers to spank their kids with.)

"They'd understand the true meaning of fear then..." I chuckled to myself as I turned my attention back towards the city skyline.

Unlike kids today, when I was growing up in Texas there was no such thing as "time-outs" or any other "alternative discipline" techniques for a parent to use on an unruly child or even a teenager.

That being the case, if you did something wrong and your parents found out about it, you got spanked…period.

And if you did something that you absolutely knew that your butt was about to be warmed up in the worst possible way because of what you did, then for most of us kids of Latino-American heritage the only thing scarier than an angry *Tejano father armed with a belt, was an even angrier Tejano mother armed with a chancla.

And as crazy as it sounds to people today, if you knew that a good old-fashioned *"nalgada" was inevitable, well believe it or not folks, most kids whose father wasn't some drunken asshole, would actually prefer being spanked by their dad versus their mom.

*(Nalgada- Spanish for spanking)

*(Tejano- Spanish for Texan)

And the reason behind that was because we knew that if we howled loud enough while we were being punished, "Papa" would eventually realize after a while that his point had been made, or at the very least he would realize that his arm was getting really tired, and he would eventually stop.

However, if you were stupid enough to piss off your mother, well then heaven help you kid, because for some reason known only to heaven itself, no matter how much you howled, an angry Tejano mother just never seemed to get tired of beating you, nor did she ever seem to realize that you had already seen the error of your ways a long time ago, and are just now trying desperately to remain conscious.

Laugh all you want, but back in those days everyone knew that our fathers would usually aim for the child's butt in order to exact punishment believing that it was a sufficient enough area to suit the purpose without inflicting serious trauma, which was fine by us, in theory.

Unfortunately for us, for some reason or another that logic never seemed to work with Tejano mothers who seemed to think that the very best way of showing the child the error of their ways was not only to smack them on their derriere repeatedly and mercilessly, but also to smack them on our heads or whatever other part of the body the kid wasn't fast enough, or limber enough, to protect with his hands until both the kid and the mother eventually dropped to the ground from sheer exhaustion.

Of course, the way Shizuka was tearing into the kids, I had no doubt that she was doing a great job at getting the point across to the kids that any more shenanigans like the one they had just pulled would not be tolerated, although I knew that when all was said and done, the penalty they would receive for what they had done would not stop there, especially Saya, who still had to answer to her parents for her part in their little escapade.

Still, I couldn't help but snicker at the thought of the kids running for their lives with Shizuka hot on their heels as she angrily chased them throughout the entire mansion, all the while flailing away wildly at them with one of my slippers and yelling in rapid Japanese.

And that's when I felt it…

And immediately the smile on my face disappeared as I suddenly began to experience the very same feeling that I had felt on the morning of the second day of the Outbreak, when I had stepped outside of the condo that belonged to Shizuka's friend shortly before Yuriko Takagi's little "rescue party" arrived to snatch her daughter Saya, nearly killing me in the process.

But since I never believed that I was born with some sort of clairvoyant ability or "sixth sense" that would allow me to know that danger was near, I had ignored the ugly feeling in my gut that was screaming at me that trouble was coming, and went about my business.

It was a mistake that would cost me dearly however, during the unexpected arrival of Yuriko Takagi and her men, whose violent entrance took us completely by surprise.

And when the dust had finally settles afterwards, a man who had only tried to help reunite Yuriko Takagi with her daughter had died needlessly at my hand, while I myself lay unconscious on the floor practically beaten to death.

But now as I stood there on the grounds of Takagi Manor staring intensely upon the skyline of that dead city with every fiber of my being screaming at me that danger was lying out there in wait, I knew that I was not going to make the same mistake again of ignoring that gut feeling of mine.

And so I had immediately begun to make preparations with the Takagi's and their Security Chief for the defense the mansion, including my plan to trek out to the power plant in order to make contact with the JSDF rescue team…alone.

Saya's parents were initially against my plan of course, especially the part about my going alone, but after finally convincing Saya's parents that there really was no other choice, they eventually relented, although I truly believed that it had more to do with my decision not to return to the mansion once my task was done, than anything else.

After all, why argue with a man whose life is really no concern of yours anyway, especially if it meant that now Saeko Busujima could have a shot at a better life with a family richly blessed with wealth and prestige, than life with a lowly, burnt-out fireman turned mercenary, who could offer nothing even remotely equal to what the Takagi's could give her materially.

I couldn't imagine how elated the Takagi's must have felt after I had asked them to take care of Saeko for me knowing that I was leaving and never coming back, and I don't think they could have been more happy than if I had been a "dead-beat dad" who had finally realized that he was trash and had offered to leave his daughter's life in their hands without asking for any money first.

But I was no "dead-beat dad", and there was absolutely nothing the Takagi's had that could ever replace the "daughter" I had just lost.

There was little time for me to grieve about my loss however, because right then my earlier instincts about danger being near were horrifyingly justified, as the dead silence enveloped over the city was finally broken by the sound of an unearthly roar, which caused the voice of every man, woman, and child on the grounds of Takagi Manor to immediately go silent, as they all gazed in horror in the direction that the roar had come from.

But I'm pretty sure that what must have really loosened a lot of sphincters afterwards was when the first animal-like roar was then answered by another roar erupting from a different section of the city, which was even louder, and more guttural, than the first.

And sure enough, the psychological effect that the sound of that roaring had on the crowd of civilians all staring in mute silence in the refugee camp, was exactly what you would think it would have been after hearing something like that.

And no sooner had the echo of the second roar even begun to fade off into the distance then it seemed like every man, woman, and child in the refugee camp immediately dropped whatever it was they were doing, and came hauling ass over to where Saya's parents and I stood with absolute terror in their eyes and began loudly begging for us to protect them.

The refugee's current attitude as they wailed in fear all around us was a far cry from the hate-filled lynch mob I had seen over the past two days who had wanted nothing more than to tear us to pieces, and I almost wanted to laugh at all of them as they pitifully begged for Saya's parents to do something…anything, to save them from whatever unseen horror had just made all that noise.

And I probably would have laughed in their faces too, if I hadn't been so scared shitless myself at the moment.

Ever since the Outbreak began, the most noise I'd ever heard coming from any of the Infected was that creepy, awful moaning that they constantly made all the time, which sounded like nothing at all compared to what I'd just heard.

But based on this new sound, my hunch was that something new was going on with the Infected, and I pretty sure that whatever it was, I wasn't going to like it.

And the fact that the first roar had been responded to by a second roar, told me that whatever it was that was happening to the Infected, was probably affecting them all.

Yeah, I was definitely not liking this, because if my early theory was correct about the Infected becoming more aggressive due to the lack of an adequate food source, then making contact with the JSDF and getting all these civilians evacuated had now become all the more urgent.

However, no matter how urgent the situation was, there was no way I could just grab my gear and hope to make it to the power plant past who knows how many Infected in the dead of night, especially now that the electromagnetic pulse had knocked out all power in the city as well as all electronic devices, including hand-held flashlights, and my night vision gear.

Trekking through the city with only the illumination from the weaponlight on my carbine and the city streetlights to illuminate my path, would have been risky enough as it was before the effects of the EMP, but walking through the city streets now in pitch-black darkness with only the moonlight, a chemical glowstick, and my own *Mark One Mod Zero "peepers" to see me through the city streets was frickin' suicide.

*(Mark One Mod Zero "Peepers"- Term meaning using only the naked eye to see with without the benefit of night vision equipment)

So as urgent as it was for me to make haste and get to the power plant ASAP, there really was no choice but for me to wait until first light tomorrow morning, if I expected to have any chance at all of successfully getting past all of the Infected between the mansion and the power plant, in one piece.

So until then, our only option for the time being was to fort up as best we could behind the walls of the sprawling mansion and pray that whatever the hell it was that made all that noise out there would pass us by and stay the hell away, until help arrived.

Sensing the urgency, Soichiro Takagi immediately ordered every man and woman who was physically able, to begin helping the security staff with securing the grounds of the mansion, while the Security Chief and I began walking the grounds of the mansion in order to evaluate how best to make the mansion secure just in case the Infected did begin to creep our way before help could arrive.

But as I walked alongside Yoshioka-san and tried to help him and his men figure out what exactly we could to strengthen the weak spots along the mansion's walls, the more I was reminded of the futility of what we were doing.

Regardless of what people think, history has shown that "forting up" has always been a bad idea in the long-term, because while locking yourself up in a fortified structure where the enemy can't get to you does keep you safe at least for a little while, the truth is it's really only a false sense of security because strategically speaking, you are now at a serious disadvantage now that you're trapped in your nice little fort and have nowhere else to run.

And while you may feel all safe and snug as a bug in your little fort for the time being, it's only a matter of time before you're enemy finally breaches your defenses and what was once your sanctuary, has now become your tomb.

And the more I looked around me as I walked the grounds of Takagi Manor, the more I was reminded of another situation hauntingly similar to the one we were in that had occurred in my own hometown nearly two hundred years ago.

An event that ultimately ended in disaster for almost everyone standing within the walls of the very structure they had all sought refuge in.

There's not a populated city, town, or village in the entire civilized world that doesn't have some sort of story connected to it that made it stand out from all the others, and for all of us living in the City of San Antonio, ours was the Battle of the Alamo.

There's not a kid anywhere in Texas who hasn't heard about the Battle of the Alamo, especially any kid that was born and raised in the San Antonio area like myself who probably knew all about the infamous battle before we even knew how to read yet.

In fact, by the time I was old enough to read, I had become pretty familiar with the legend of the famous battle where fewer than 200 men, all from different nations, savagely fought off an invading Mexican army numbering into the thousands for almost two weeks before finally being overcome on the dawn of the thirteenth day.

However, like all things that are passed down in history, sometimes the legend is far more glorious than the actual truth of the events that really transpired, and as I grew up I eventually came to learn more about the actual truth behind the legend.

And eventually even I had had to admit to myself that most of the books I had read as a child had basically just over- glorified the battle, and very few of those novelists actually stuck to the actual facts of what really happened.

Still, while historians, Hollywood, and literary contemporaries will argue forever about the battle itself and the men who fought it, for me personally, I myself have never not lost the admiration and respect I had for the courage of those few men who fought against so many.

However, to this day whenever someone in the military refers to a defensive position as "The Alamo", it is usually means that particular position is where a "last stand" is about to take place, which is the last thing any soldier ever wants to hear.

And after doing a complete inspection of the grounds of Takagi Manor, I realized that if the Infected did indeed decide to start heading this way in search of a hot meal, a last stand is exactly what the grounds of the luxurious mansion would become.

Scratch that… it would a friggin' massacre.

And if the JSDF ever did manage to drag their asses over here when it was all over, the only evidence of our existence here at Takagi Manor at all, would be a whole hell of a lot of greasy bones of all different shapes and sizes, scattered everywhere.

And then if they bothered to look around some more they would also find one skeleton with an empty coffee cup in one hand, surrounded by a great big, pile of Infected bodies and a shit-load of empty shell casings lying all around.

Yup, no matter how I looked at it, the horrible truth was that I was smack dab in the middle of my very own "Alamo", although the more I looked around, the more I began to believe that the original Alamo defenders had actually been a hell of a lot better off than we were right now.

And one of the reasons why I felt that way was because of the way Takagi Manor had been constructed, which was painfully obvious that it was never meant to even remotely serve as a fortress, and in all honesty, was a security nightmare even before the Outbreak.

By comparison, while the original Alamo had not been constructed to serve as a fortress either, at least the Franciscan priests had the foresight to build the damn thing with eleven-foot high walls that were over two-feet thick, and there were at least a few soldiers and cannons mounted there to defend against attacks by the raiding Comanche tribes.

Unlike the original Alamo however, the walls surrounding Takagi Manor were nothing more than relatively thin, brick walls about six-feet high surrounding the perimeter of their property, with thick, electronically-controlled steel gates allowing ingress and egress in the front and rear of the mansion.

In all fairness, the walls surrounding Takagi Manor probably worked well at discouraging any potential criminals or nosy neighbors from attempting to enter the grounds of the mansion, but in my opinion, they would not be able to protect us indefinitely from hordes of Infected trying to get in.

And even if the walls of Takagi Manor had been stout enough to hold back a large horde of Infected trying to reach us, we still had almost no offensive capability whatsoever, unlike the Alamo, which by 1836 just happened to be the most heavily armed of any of the missions in Texas with over eighteen cannons of various shapes and sizes mounted along its walls.

Of course, being a luxury mansion on the outskirts of a major city, obviously there was not a cannon to be found anywhere on the grounds of Takagi Manor, or for that matter, probably anywhere on the entire nation of Japan.

And as if we weren't screwed enough by not having a secure compound from which to maintain an adequate defense, much less any heavy weapons to help repel an attack, well, I almost wanted to cry once I had walked through the door of the so-called "armory" at Takagi Manor.

Earlier that day, when I kept hearing the word "armory" spoken over and over again by the Security Chief and his men, I had assumed the "armory" that they were talking about was a large, military-style vault, with huge racks full of all sorts of automatic weapons and cases upon cases of ammo and explosives, just like the armory we had at Laidlaw back in Nevada.

And since I had used up quite a bit of ammo during our dangerous trek through the city, I was extremely eager to replenish my ammo supply and maybe even snag any grenades or explosives, if there were any available.

And so after retrieving my tactical vest, carbine, and pistol from Soichiro Takagi's study, I was then escorted by the Security Chief, Yoshioka, to the "armory" were my hopes and dreams of bumming some ammo were immediately dashed to pieces.

You know what they say about the word "assume" in the Military, how it actually means… making an "ASS out of U and ME?"

Well yessirree folks, that's exactly what I did…I assumed that when everyone kept using the word "armory" to describe the weapons storage vault at Takagi Manor, I had assumed that an actual "armory" is what everyone was talking about.

And me being a real dumb ass by assuming that, I had just succeeded in making a complete ass out of myself by assuming that there was a great big pile of weapons lying in that friggin "armory" like you would see in a real armory.

Hoo-boy, talk about your big let-downs, the so-called "armory" at Takagi Manor was nothing more than a slightly over-sized walk-in closet with one rack mounted on one side of the room for storing the guard's weapons, and a small metal ammo locker mounted against the far wall with maybe a dozen boxes of assorted ammo lying within.

To say it was a far cry from the weapons vault we had back at Laidlaw would be an understatement, hell, even some of my old firefighting buddies had more weapons and ammo in their gun safes back home in Texas, not to mention all my Police and SWAT buddies who probably had more weapons and ammo in their gun safes than the whole friggin' US Marine Corps.

And as I walked over and examined the small number of weapons lying on the racks in the "armory", including the three guns Takashi and Kohta had taken from the gun safe back at the condo, I was painfully reminded of the fact that the weapons in the "armory" had been purchased strictly for the personal security of the Takagi family and not for ground combat purposes, as I shook my head in frustration at the sight of a dozen small-caliber nine-millimeter*SMG's lying in their racks.

*(SMG- Sub Machine Gun)

And since the SMG's the guards normally used were built for close quarters fighting and not for ground combat, the Security Chief and his men had opted to trade in their SMG's for the weapons that Yuriko Takagi's "rescue party" had appropriated from the abandoned JSDF cache, although I did notice a couple of men were armed with double-barrel shotguns normally used for hunting, while the Security Chief was carrying an even older model, M-14 slung over his right shoulder.

And as I examined one of the small SMG's that had been left on the rack, I couldn't help but think to myself that I would have done the exact same thing if I were in their position, as I held the VZ 83 Skorpion SMG in my hands and sighed heavily.

While I admit the Skorpion SMG did have some good points, one of them being its compact size which made it easy to conceal for bodyguard duty, in my opinion, it still did not compare to the reliability and solid reputation of the Heckler and Koch MP5.

Call me a gun snob if you wish, but when it comes to the security of high-profile officials and the families, there really shouldn't be any compromise whatsoever, and the Heckler and Koch MP5 is the absolute Cadillac of all sub-guns.

And seeing as how Soichiro Takagi was absolutely rabid about the safety of his family, I figured that the cost of a dozen H&K MP5's must have been either prohibitively high, or the red tape involved in purchasing them must have been more of a headache than it was worth.

Whatever the reasons were for the purchasing of the Skorpion over the H&K MP5, the fact still remained that there was only a dozen of them in the entire arsenal along with a dozen 1911 pistols to hand out to what few volunteers we had to help defend the mansion, which was another issue we had as well….manpower.

Oh yeah, "When it rains, it pours" as they say.

As if things weren't bad enough, of the over three hundred people hiding within the walls of Takagi Manor, fewer than one hundred men and women were capable of bearing arms, with the majority of the other refugees either too old, too young, or too infirm to fight, which really didn't matter all that much anyway, due to the fact that we didn't have enough weapons to go around in the first place.

Talk about screwed, even if we were to arm every guard and every volunteer with only one firearm apiece, we were still left with only forty-five armed defenders to defend Takagi Manor, which was only nine more people than the thirty-six volunteers from Gonzalez that went to help reinforce the Alamo back in 1836.

Like I said, it seemed to me that the original defenders of the Alamo had been better off than we were because at least they had stout walls, artillery, and four or five rifles or muskets for each man to fight with, plus their bowie knives and tomahawks as a last resort for when things got really nasty.

But in our case, we were the very definition of the old saying, "scraping the bottom of the barrel."

And I couldn't help but think what old Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, William Travis and the rest of the Alamo defenders would say if they could see all of us handing out assorted kitchen knives and meat cleavers to our "volunteers" for them to use to defend the mansion because there just weren't enough guns to go around.

I'm pretty sure it would have been something along the lines of "Holy shit!" at the very least, I'm sure.

Of course, just because some of our "volunteers" had guns didn't exactly improve matters much since every one of our "volunteers" had been born and raised in a country whose gun laws where probably some of the strictest in the world, which meant that not a single one of them had ever held a real gun before, much less shot one in anger.

And that being the case, there was no telling if those "volunteers" would either stand and fight, or run like rabbits if the Infected did start coming over the walls and shit really did start to hit the fan.

I tried to push such depressing thoughts out of my mind as I handed the Skorpion off to one of the guards standing near me and politely told him "thanks but no thanks" upon realizing that I wasn't going to find anything else useful in the "armory", and that my own personal weapons were far superior to anything else on hand.

And as I leaned back against the wall and let out a loud sigh of frustration at the realization that the situation was now even more desperate than I had previously thought, I happened to glance over at the bottom shelf of the ammo locker mounted on the far wall and saw something out of the corner of my eye that I realized might indeed prove useful after all.

"Wonder why they have this here?" I thought to myself as I walked over to the locker and then reached down and picked up the Knight's Armament "Masterkey" attachment I had spotted, lying on the bottom shelf.

And as I examined the compact shotgun attachment, I could see that the "Masterkey" had obviously been attached to an M4 at one time or another, but had been removed and put in storage as I then checked to make sure that it was still functional by racking it a few times.

"Sweet…finally caught a break." I thought to myself once I was satisfied that the "Masterkey" was in perfect working condition as I began to remove the vertical grip mounted underneath the barrel of my carbine in order to make room for the "Masterkey".

For many years breaching a door to make dynamic entry into a locked room required that someone in a military unit carry a shotgun with them as well as their primary weapon.

Unfortunately, with all the other gear the soldier was required to carry, humping the extra weapon often proved cumbersome, but with the invention of the "Masterkey", carrying the bulk and the extra weight of a full-size shotgun became a thing of the past.

Essentially a chopped-down version of the Remington 870 twelve-gauge pump-action shotgun mounted underneath the barrel of an M4 carbine, the "Masterkey" was an effective door-breaching tool, and could hold three shotgun rounds in its internal magazine and one in the chamber for a total of four rounds.

Admittedly, even chopped-down it was still somewhat awkward to use, but as a quick way of gaining entry through a locked door it was definitely up to the task, and as a close-quarter weapon, it was downright deadly.

Since all of my electronic gear had been fried by the effects of the EMP, I had already removed the Eotech sight, Dbal laser unit, and weaponlight from my carbine earlier which had lightened the weight of my carbine quite a bit already.

And since I figured that the added firepower of the "Masterkey" would be a welcome friend on my solo recon mission, I figured the weight of the compact shotgun wouldn't be all that noticeable as I then began to attach it to the Picatinny rail system of my M4.

And then after I had made sure that the shotgun attachment was attached securely to my carbine, I then shouldered my M4 to familiarize myself with the weight of the "Masterkey" before I then let my carbine hang by its sling as the Security Chief handed me a box of assorted shotgun shells from the ammo locker.

And as I was busy stuffing as many solid slug and buckshot shells for the "Masterkey" into a couple of the empty pouches on my combat vest, I then turned to ask the Security Chief Yoshioka if he had any ammo for my carbine other than the few boxes sitting on the shelf in the "armory".

Noticing the worried look on my face, Yoshioka-san actually broke into a grin as he then motioned for me to follow him as we entered an adjoining room and I then blew a huge sigh of relief at what I saw, as I heard the Security Chief actually chuckle with amusement at my reaction.

Of all the disappointments I had come across so far, there was at least one bit of good news that tipped the scales in our favor it seemed, and it was all thanks to the woman who had nearly ordered my death just a couple of days earlier.

When Yuriko Takagi and her staff had arrived at the cache where her brother, a General in the JSDF, had directed them, they had not been able to gather much in the way of weapons because most of the weapons that had previously been stored there, had already been removed by the evacuating JSDF troops.

But fortunately for Yuriko Takagi's rescue party, while firearms were in scant supply at the cache, there had still been a rather large amount of ammo left behind at that location that the troops hadn't had the time to load up on their trucks before they had evacuated.

Realizing what a rich find she had discovered, Yuriko had then wisely ordered her men to take as many cases of ammo as each vehicle in her small convoy could hold.

And thanks to Yuriko's foresight, while the "armory" and the lack of firearms had turned out to be a major disappointment, there was at least one ray of sunshine as far as ammo was concerned, as I gazed upon dozens of cases of assorted size ammo stacked waist-high in the room that Yoshioka-san had led me to.

Immediately upon Yoshioka-san's invitation, I then proceeded to reload every rifle and pistol magazine I had before grabbing an extra steel ammo can of 5.56 ammo that I would use to reload the extra carbine magazines that I kept stored on my pack.

Just as I was getting ready to head back to Soichiro Takagi's study to retrieve the rest of my gear, to my further surprise, the Security Chief then pointed out to me that he and his men had also managed to snag a few cases of grenades from the JSDF cache as well, as he then opened up four cases filled with grenades that were stacked nearby.

Elated at this new find, I looked over the contents of each case and then selected two M67 fragmentation grenades, one *"Willy Peter" grenade, and two red, M18 smoke grenades that would be a big help in case I got myself in a jam.

*(Willy-Peter Grenade- White Phosphorus Grenade)

As much as I would have liked to have made myself a walking arsenal like actor Arnold Schwarzenegger did in that silly 80's movie "Commando" and stuff every pocket I had with grenades and ammo, the weight of all that crap would have served no purpose other than to weigh me down unnecessarily, and make my chances of becoming a hot meal for the Infected that much more likely.

That being the case, I took only as much ammo as I needed to fill all my carbine and pistol mags, and just enough grenades to get myself out a tight spot against the Infected, and then the two red "smokers" to signal the JSDF rescue team with.

Once I was done arming myself, I then grabbed the extra ammo can to reload my spare magazines and thanked the Security Chief before parting ways as he went to go join his men and continue on with their daunting task of fortifying the mansion for the night, as well as training the few "volunteers" we had, on how to use their newly acquired weapons.

As busy as I knew Yoshioka-san and men would be and could most definitely use an extra hand, I had my own mission to prepare for and time was running short, as I hurried back towards Soichiro Takagi's study in order to retrieve the rest of my gear.

Once I had retrieved my gear and other personal items from Soichiro's study, I paused a moment as I glanced out over the city skyline from the second story window, and I noticed that the early evening shadows forming all over the city were becoming more defined as the sun continued to set over the horizon.

And while I no longer knew the exact time because I had discarded my now useless wristwatch that had been fried by the EMP along with all of my other electronic devices, I no longer needed it anyway since the darkening shadows only served to remind me that darkness was almost upon us and I needed to hurry.

It wasn't until much later however, that I would find out just how little time we actually had.

Time: 1956 Hours

Location: Junior Officers Wardroom - U.S.S Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6) – WASP-Class Amphibious Assault Ship/Commando Carrier - aka "The Bonnie Dick"

Exact Location: CLASSIFIED

It had now been a little over two hours since the nuke had gone off of our heads based upon the position of the hands of the large analog ship's clock mounted on one end of the wardroom, which was one of the few things aboard the "Bonnie Dick" that hadn't been affected by the EMP that had resulted from the airburst.

Not that it really mattered all that much knowing what time it was anyway, especially now that everything had gone to absolute shit.

When the nuke had detonated in the atmosphere over Japan earlier, I doubt there was a single man or woman aboard the ship who hadn't nearly shat their pants thinking that the end had finally come for us all when the resulting electromagnetic pulse from the nuke had knocked out all power aboard the ship.

But after a few moments had passed and we finally began to realize that we weren't dead after all, we were still left with a very ugly feeling of dread as we felt the "Bonnie Dick" slow down to a crawl as we and every other ship in the entire fleet were left drifting helplessly in the Pacific like a bunch of toy boats in some kid's bathtub.

Not wanting to spend any more time standing helplessly in the dark deep within the bowels of the ship, my first thought was for all of us to leave the Ready Room that we were in, and high-tail it up to the ship's bridge and find out what the hell was going on.

At least, that was the plan, anyway.

F_cking *swabbies, leave it to them to do everything by the f_cking book, even when the whole world around them was going tit's up.

*(Swabbies- Military slang for "sailor")

I swear, there must not be a disaster scenario the American Navy doesn't have some sort of f_cking checklist or some stupid ass protocol on how to deal with it, and once they implement it, then every single thing on it is done, step…by…f_cking…step.

And apparently they also had an f_cking checklist especially designed on how to deal with a nuclear airburst in the middle of the f_cking zombie apocalypse too, which we were quick to find about the moment we tried to leave the Ready Room.

Because no sooner had we all stepped out into the passageway when a couple of Marines holding a chemlight in one hand and an M4 in the other walked up the corridor and ordered us, in as polite a way as a U.S. Marine possibly could, to quietly get our asses back in the Ready Room and wait there until otherwise notified,….sir.

In return, I kindly told the two young Marines in as polite a way as an SAS man could, to kindly go f_ck themselves and get the hell out of our way before I shoved their bloody carbines up their asses, as I then attempted to push my way past them.

Just before things could get ugly however, Colonel Dempsey quickly stepped in before I could carry out my threat as he immediately ordered all of us to do as the young Marines said, and then incredibly, even thanked the two wankers for their concern for our safety, as he then gestured for all of us to return to the Ready Room were we quietly stewed for over an hour as we listened to the ship's crew rushing to restore power to the ship's electrical, propulsion, and weapons systems so that we wouldn't continue to remain a sitting duck..

And as we waited in the dark with the only light available coming from the small chemlights we each held in our hands, It amazed me how quickly it got so unbearably hot inside the ship now that the ventilation system was out of commission.

But since the attack had been from a nuclear strike, the entire ship had been buttoned up like a submarine to prevent any potential biologic or radioactive threats from contaminating the rest of the ship, and so we had no choice but to sit in the stifling heat until the crew finished their repairs.

And as we sat there deep within the bowels of the ship in that unbearable heat, I was once again reminded of my grandfather's stories about his experiences aboard the submarine he served on as he described how he and his mates were sitting in that steel tube in heat worse than what we were experiencing now, as his submarine was being depth-charged for hours.

Fortunately for us, even though it did seem like forever, we didn't have to wait quite that long before the engine crew finally managed to get the ship's electrical systems working again and then after a few more moments of waiting until the Skipper was satisfied that there was no danger from the atmosphere outside, the lights onboard the ship finally began to snap on and the first gust of fresh air finally began to flow out of the ship's ventilation system once more.

And as we all rose up from our seats and stood near the vents and breathed in the cool, refreshing, air blowing through the vents that felt almost ice cold as it blew upon our sweat-drenched bodies, I was once again reminded of how my grandfather had said that later when the *"Jerry tin can" had finally broken off the attack and the sub had finally come to the surface, how cold and sweet that first breath of fresh air felt when the main hatch was finally opened.

*Jerry- Slang for German)

*(Tin can- Submariner slang for a Navy Destroyer)

And after an hour and a half of waiting in the dark sweating in a tin box at temperatures well over one hundred degrees, I have to say that I finally understood how my grandfather must have felt in that sub of his, as we let that cold air fill our lungs.

Once we were underway again, an announcement came over the *1MC that all Senior Officers should report to the Captain's Wardroom, as Col. Dempsey and Caroline were then escorted by one of the Marines to the upper decks.

Once they had left, we were then finally given permission by the other Marine that we could leave the Ready Room if we wished, although we were only allowed to roam around in the immediate area, since the ship was still at General Quarters.

*(1MC- The Ship's Public Address System)

Rika and Tajima had immediately opted to head back to their quarters rather than stay in the Ready Room any longer, and since there was really nothing else for me to do in the meantime, I decided to kill some time and catch up on what had occurred around the outside world over the past few days, as I left the Ready Room and sat in one of the Junior Officer's Wardrooms and looked over some of the information packets Dempsey had given me earlier.

The packets were filled with about as information was available about the current epidemic that was sweeping across the world, although there really wasn't much that the files were telling me that I hadn't figured out already.

To no one's surprise, the Outbreak and the way it had spread so quickly had caught everyone completely off guard, and so as what could be expected by the leaders of a sovereign nation when faced with such a looming threat, was to quickly close their borders in order to prevent the spread of this new, unknown, and undeniably lethal, "Contagion."

Needless to say, that didn't sit too well with the leaders of the nations whose countries were already affected by the "Contagion" who immediately blasted their neighbors for abandoning them in their most desperate hour, as old tensions began nations began to surface and sabers began to start rattling again.

And sure enough, when the U.K shut down its borders as well, there were a lot of people who weren't too pleased about it once the order came down the line to stop the flow of foreign nationals from entering into the country.

And it wasn't long before tempers began to flare and protestors started getting involved in frequent, and often bloody clashes with the Police and the Army on the ground, while the R.A.F had their hands full with people trying to fly all varieties of private aircraft into British Airspace, despite strict orders to turn back.

And then when issuing strong "verbal threats" didn't work, then the shit really hit the fan right after the R.A.F. aircrews were issued an *S.O.S. order towards any planes trying to enter U.K airspace and then Cessna aircraft and *ultralights began falling from the sky in flames.

*(S.O.S. Order- Shoot On Sight)

*(Ultralight- Small lightweight, 1 or 2 seat fixed-wing aircraft)

And…surprise, surprise,…it wasn't too much longer after that, that the old tensions between the U.K. and Russia had resurfaced again, right after an incident that occurred when a Russian Mig pilot violated U.K. airspace.

While the Russkies had been pissing off our aircrews for years by flying too close to our airspace, the pilot of the Mig-29 that violated our airspace was just simply trying to get as far away from Mother Russia as he could, now that everybody he knew seemed to want to eat him now.

Couldn't exactly say I felt sorry for the bastard, because even before the "Outbreak", the "Russkies" were warned time and time again to stay the hell out of our airspace, but as usual, the f_cking Russians never seemed to listen.

And so when the Mig Pilot was warned off several times to leave our airspace without responding, he had no one else to blame but himself for what happened next, as a pair of R.A.F Eurofighter Typhoons were immediately scrambled and promptly shot the Russian Mikoyan Mig-29 fighter jet out of the sky before the guy could even say "Nyet!".

In this case however, the pilot survived being shot down although I still can't say he was lucky because as soon as his feet hit the ice cold waters of the Atlantic, he was immediately scooped up by a suspected Russian trawler whose crew probably clapped him in irons the moment he was fished out of the sea.

Unfortunately, in the end it hadn't really mattered what anyone did to try to prevent the spread of the "Contagion" because whatever this new epidemic was, it was spreading much too fast for anyone to try to contain with any amount of success.

And it wasn't long after the Mig incident that the "Contagion" had eventually spread into the U.K and Russia, with the last reports confirming that much of Stalingrad and London itself, were burning.

And while things were definitely shit on the other side of the *"pond", it seemed that the Americans didn't seem to be fairing too badly compared to most of the world, although most of its major cities including New York, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Philadelphia had been affected to a certain degree by the "Outbreak".

*(Pond –Slang for the Atlantic Ocean)

The files didn't go into detail as to what the U.S. Government had already done or had intended to do about those cities in order to stem the spread of the "Contagion", but I had a pretty good hunch as to what would happen if the U.S. Military couldn't reclaim their cities from the Infected.

Hell, anyone with half a brain could tell what was bound to happen next once the authorities determined that a city was lost, although given the current state of things, I doubted highly that nuking those cities would do much to combat the spread of the "Contagion" as it would make the world situation resemble the apocalyptic scenario described in any one of J.L Bourne's books.

But the more I examined the classified files before me, the more I realized just how quickly the situation around the world had degraded, and based on what had happened just a couple of hours earlier, evidently things had degraded enough to the point that someone, somewhere, had actually thought that launching a nuclear "package" at the Nation of Japan was a good idea.

But the million pound question that was on the mind of everyone including my own, was exactly who had launched at us, and why?

And an even better question than that, would they try it again?

Even though the Cold War had been declared over for years, everyone knew that even though the Yanks and the Russkies had deactivated a lot of their old nuclear arsenal, both nations still had plenty of nukes lying silently in a sub or silo somewhere, with someone sitting with their finger near the button at all times.

Of course there was also the Chinese, North Korea and a few other countries who denied having their own nukes, even though we all knew they had them stashed away somewhere.

But again, the question was not who had the weapons, rather, the question was, who was the asshole who had fired at us?

My first thought had been that it could have been the Yanks that had probably fired at somebody first which would have then set off a chain reaction of all other nations launching their nukes at everyone until someone had finally fired their missiles at Japan.

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that scenario made no sense, and not just because I knew that the current President in Office wouldn't have the stones to do that, not unless he got permission from his wife first, that is.*

*(This is a shot at one of the old Presidential Administrations and not the current one- See if you can guess which one I'm referring too. _author)

Of course, if something had happened to *POTUS, then the order would have come from the next person in the current Administration, or perhaps even a top-ranking General if the situation had really deteriorated that badly.

*(POTUS-President of the United States)

But the main reason I dismissed that scenario was because if the Yanks were going to launch a strike, it would be in reaction to a launch directed at them, or worse, to "cleanse" one of their own cities, which would have given absolutely no reason for anyone to launch their missiles at Japan.

And even if there was a good reason for someone to launch a nuclear "package" at Japan, there was no way we would have not received some sort of alert that a nuclear threat was imminent, which would have resulted in the entire American fleet and its allies being placed at battle stations, long before any missiles could have gone airborne.

But there had been no call to "General Quarters" by the Captain of the "Bonnie Dick", which was something he would have done if the Yanks had decided to launch an attack on someone.

In fact, there had been no warning at all that a nuclear strike was imminent until the "bird" was already in the air and screaming towards us, which left either Russia, North Korea, or f_cking hell, even China as likely suspects to have been the ones who launched at us.

Given the current state of affairs though, it would probably take months to figure out who was responsible for this epic cluster f_ck, and so I gave up thinking about it anymore and began to focus on the current situation before me now.

It had now been more than three hours since the airburst, and already most of the key systems on the "Bonnie Dick" were back online, as we continued to steam towards Tokonosu Airport at flank speed, in order to retrieve everyone marooned over there, including the lads from RED Troop.

This time however, we were definitely not going to be caught with our pants down again.

The ship's weapon systems had been one of the first things restored once power and propulsion were back online, and every radar and sonar system on each ship in the task force was being closely watched for even a hint of any type of incoming threat, so we were definitely ready to kick ass if anyone wanted to launch another attack at us again.

And as a precaution since the attack had been nuclear, a group of sailors had come by handing out dosimeter badges throughout the ship as well as potassium iodide pills in small foil packets for us to consume if needed, but all readings inside and outside the ship had been negative for radiation thus far, which was the good news.

The bad news however, was that thanks to the EMP, basically most of our electronic assets and remaining aircraft had now been rendered temporarily useless, although the ship's technicians and mechanics were pretty confident they could repair everything within a few hours.

However, since the EMP had without a doubt taken out all air and electronic assets at the airport, any communication with the members of the strike force who were still marooned at the airport was impossible.

Of course, things could have been much worse if most of the air crews still in the air had not been ordered to immediately land their aircraft at the airport or on the "Bonnie Dick's" flight deck before the nuke had gone off over our heads.

Fortunately, more than a few aircraft had made it back before the airburst, but since all communication with the airport had been lost, there was no telling how many of the other aircrews had managed to land their aircraft at the airport, or whether or not they had been forced to ditch at sea.

Still, until the remaining aircraft on board the "Bonnie Dick" could be repaired and placed back in service, any and all, further rescue missions had been placed on hold, including my first mission as the team leader of GREEN Troop to extract Soichiro Takagi and his family, that is, if it wasn't "scrubbed" altogether.

Of course, me being me, I was never the type of guy to look at a glass as "half full", to be honest.

"All that prep for nothing…!" I grumbled as I angrily tossed the OP plan that I had spent so much time preparing for on our mission to extract Soichiro Takagi and his family across the table, which was probably now going to end up as nothing more than so much finely-detailed "Top Secret" rubbish.

Of course, the official word hadn't come down the pipeline that the mission had been scrubbed yet, but considering that we had just survived a nuclear airburst going off over our heads, it was a no-brainer that the task force was definitely not going to stick around for someone to take another shot at us once we finished evacuating our people from off the island.

And that being the case, I had little doubt of what would happen once Col. Dempsey and Caroline came back from their briefing, as I leaned back in my chair and stared blankly at the clock waiting for them to return with the bad news.

It had been quite some time now since Col. Dempsey and Caroline had been called away along with all the other senior officers for an emergency briefing concerning everything that had happened, and as each minute slowly ticked by, I was beginning to grow more and more anxious with each passing moment as I began to wonder why the briefing was taking so long, and what exactly would our next plan of action be once Dempsey and Caroline returned.

To be honest, I was actually surprised to find out that we were still headed to the island in the first place, because I had figured that immediately after the airburst, the Captain of the "Bonnie Dick" would have immediately ordered the entire task force out to sea in order to preserve what assets he had left.

And as much as hated the idea of leaving everyone marooned at the airport, I had to admit, it would have been a wise decision given the circumstances.

To my surprise though, evidently the "Bonnie Dick's" skipper had a bigger pair than I thought, because no sooner had we gotten underway again, than the *"Old Man" ordered the entire task force to continue on their previous heading and steam back towards the airport at flank speed.

*(Old Man- Military-speak for the Captain of the Ship)

I have to admit, a part of me was extremely impressed by the fact that the "Old Man" had the guts to sail back towards the island, even though he knew full well that he would definitely be court-martialed for risking an entire task force by what he was doing.

And while I was extremely grateful for what the "Old Man" was doing by going back to the island to get everyone off the island including my mates, the atmosphere was still extremely tense aboard each and every vessel in the task force, since we all knew we were all risking certain death by going back.

To say the mood aboard ship was tense would have been an understatement, however, as much as the rest of us were all on a razor's edge right now, there was one person among us who seemed completely unaffected by everything that was going on.

Damn her.

"Andrew-san..!" Rika's excited voice rang in my ear like the annoying sound of someone scraping their finger nails down a blackboard.

"Bloody hell….right on f_cking time." I grumbled, my already foul mood growing even worse at the sight of the excited look on Rika's face.

As foul a mood as I was in right now, my irritation really wasn't directed towards Rika at all, in fact, seeing Rika in action the past few days only reinforced my prior opinion of her being the consummate professional I always knew her to be.

Even after everything we had faced back at the airport, Rika had proven cool under fire even when most people would have cut and run, and the only time I had ever seen fear in her eyes had been when the nuke was streaking towards us and we were all solid in the belief that the end had finally come.

It had been the only time I'd ever seen Rika looking so vulnerable, and for once I saw the real person beneath the warrior, a person who was just as frightened as the rest of us, and I felt so bad for her, especially after all we had been through already.

And as I gazed into those frightened eyes, I could not help but want to ease her fear as I wrapped my arms around her in a gesture that would let her know that she was amongst friends who cared, and that in the end, she was not alone…period, as the lights winked out around us.

And then a few moments later as soon as we realized that we were not dead, Rika showed me just how much she appreciated my gesture by roughly shoving me away from her and then swearing a blue streak in Japanese, vowing vengeance on whoever it was that dared launch a nuke at her country, as Tajima tried desperately to calm her down.

I swear, her outburst and the ranting that followed got so bad that even Col. Dempsey had gotten pissed as he then loudly ordered Rika and Tajima to shut the hell up and vent their frustrations at another time.

But I knew that the reasons for Rika's jovial mood now wasn't due to her cooling off in her quarters for an hour, in fact, I knew there was only one thing in this world that could possibly put Rika in such a joyful mood.

"It's about that time don't you think?…" Rika said still grinning from ear to ear. "Are you ready?"

"Ready for what?" I growled cocking an eyebrow as I leaned forward in my chair as Rika entered the wardroom. "What's got you so amped up?"

"Don't you remember?" Rika said her eyes sparkling. "We were supposed to go down to the ship's armory and pick out our weapons for the mission."

"Oh, bloody hell…!" I said sourly as my suspicions as to the reason for Rika's good mood were confirmed. "I f_cking knew it!"

"What's wrong?" Rika said looking slightly hurt as I gazed at her and blew a loud sigh of frustration.

"Hate to burst your bubble, lass…" I said in a calmer tone knowing that what I was about to say about my hunch about the mission being scrubbed would devastate her, although not for the same reasons as it would affect the rest of us.

"But I'm pretty sure the mission is going to be scrubbed." I said as Rika's eyes widened. "So there's really no need for us to go down to the armory to get weapons we won't even need."

"WHAT..?!" Rika said practically shouting as a couple of sailors walking in the corridor suddenly froze and then ducked their heads into the room to see what all the commotion was about.

"Has the Colonel even made it official yet?!" Rika said horrified as I waved my hand at her for her to lower her voice and also to shoo away the sailors at the same time.

"Not yet, he and Caroline are still at the briefing…" I replied with a shake of my head knowing that it wasn't the shock of the mission being scrubbed that was causing Rika to freak out, so much as it was the fact she upset because she wouldn't be able to get her hands on any of the SEAL weaponry we had been promised for the mission.

"But I'm pretty sure that when he comes back…" I continued looking Rika squarely in the eye. "The word will be that once we evacuate everyone off the island, the entire fleet will be heading back out to sea."

"That still doesn't mean the mission is a no-go…!" Rika said her voice once again rising in volume. "If this Takagi-san is such a high-profile asset, they still might let us go extract him while the evac is underway!"

"With what, Rika?!" I snapped irritably having finally grown tired of arguing with the stubborn woman whose only real concern was her missing out on a chance to snag some cool weaponry.

"We've got no air assets, no sea assets, no ground support, no "comms", no nothing!" I said throwing my hands up in the air. "How the hell are we supposed to execute an "extract" with absolutely no transport or back up whatsoever?"

"The Americans are still trying to repair their aircraft…" Rika replied stubbornly. "Maybe they'll be able to get enough aircraft working."

"Keep dreaming kid…" I said sourly as I shoved the rest of the files across the table and leaned back in my chair with a tired sigh as Rika suddenly took a step towards me and looked as if she wanted to kick the chair right out from under me.

"Why are you being like this?!" Rika said hotly as I gazed up into her angry face. "Why are you giving up so easily?"

"You're a hell of a cop, Rika…" I said my voice softening realizing that perhaps the mission had meant more to Rika than just getting a chance to play with some new "toys". "And you're also one of the best "shooters" I've ever seen."

"But you got a lot to learn about how the Military works, lass…" I said with tired sigh. "And one of those things is that, in a situation like this, the "Old Man's" first concern is for the safety of his ship and crew."

"And since the Skipper of this boat also happens to be in charge of this entire Task Force…" I added leaning in my chair and lowering my voice. "He's also got to think of the safety of every man and woman on each ship in the fleet."

"But as you've no doubt already noticed…" I said keeping my voice low. "We're not exactly heading out to sea, are we?"

"Well, don't you see?" Rika said gesturing with her hands. "That means he intends to continue with the evac, and since we're already there…"

"Geez, Rika are you really that naïve..?" I growled finally losing patience. "Or are you really that dumb?"

"What do you mean by that…?!" Rika shot back hotly.

"You really don't get it, do you, love?" I said finally realizing that Rika honestly didn't understand the whole situation after all.

"The thing is lass…" I began with a tired sigh. ''In a situation like this when it's been confirmed that you're under threat of a nuclear attack, the "Book" say that the first thing the Skipper should have done was immediately put out to sea in order to protect the ship and crew."

"But by going back to the island so that we can evacuate everyone on the island and retrieve all our own people…" I continued. "The Skipper of this boat is taking a big gamble with the lives of every sailor in his entire fleet, if whomever shot that missile at us decides to launch another "strike package" against us again."

"And even if he does manage to evacuate everyone safely and head out to sea without incident…" I continued. "Once the brass finds out what he's done, he's sure to be relieved of duty and court-martialed."

"That being said…" I said folding my hands behind my head as I gazed at Rika's disappointed face. "With all these lives hanging in the balance, do you honestly think he gives a damn about anything else except getting his own people back and high-tailing it out of there as fast as he can?"

"No,…I guess not…" Rika said crestfallen as a twinge of guilt tugged at me.

As much as what I was saying was true about the possibility of the mission being scrubbed, I knew I had acted like an asshole towards Rika for no other reason than I was upset at the fact that my first mission back with the Regiment was probably about to be scrubbed.

By comparison, Rika had been through hell the past few days fighting an enemy no one had ever seen before, and watching her friends and comrades die in the most horrible way at the hands of an enemy that just wouldn't stop coming, and then on top of it all, she had just been dealt a major blow by having a nuclear strike on her own country fired by an as of yet, unknown enemy.

And the one thing that had managed to lift her spirits up after all that, I had now pissed all over.

"It's not about you, it's about them…" I said sourly under my breath as I gazed into Rika's sad face.

"Aw hell…" I said shaking my head as Rika looked up at me quizzically.

"I guess it wouldn't hurt to go see what new "toys" the Yanks's got…" I said grumpily as I saw Rika's eyes beginning to twinkle again.

"Just in case…you know?" I added with a smirk as Rika looked like she was about to hug me.

"Aw,..don't start getting all mushy on me now…." I said in mock annoyance as I shooed her away before she could actually try to hug me as I grabbed all of my files off the table before we then headed down towards my stateroom so I could secure the classified files in my locker.

Once the files were secured, we then stopped by Tajima's stateroom to pick him up as the three of us then began our descent to the armory located two decks below us.

And once we finally reached the bottom deck, we then turned left in the corridor from the "Bonnie Dick's" actual armory and headed down the opposite corridor towards the SEAL armory where our weapons would be waiting for us.

You remember when I said that the *"swabbies" have a checklist for everything? Well, when it comes to weaponry, there's no one in the world more anal about their inventory of their weaponry than the American Navy.

I kid you not, those wankers are so strict about keeping an accurate count of what they have, that I wouldn't be surprised to see a checklist with matching serial numbers labeled on each and every round of ammo they had in their inventory.

Truth be told, I may be exaggerating slightly, but f_ck me, the regulations concerning the arming of a sailor or Marine to be able to take a weapon out of the ship's armory are pretty strict, and I don't see how the hell anyone can hope to repel boarders or prepare for a strike mission when the clerks are still fumbling around with trying to get the proper paperwork done.

And if our mission did indeed get a "green light", it would take a bloody week to fill out all the paperwork need for the amount of weapons and ammo we would need if we were to borrow anything from the "Bonnie Dick's" arsenal.

Fortunately for us, Col. Dempsey had already received prior authorization from the Commander of SEAL Team Two to take whatever weapons and ammo we would need from the SEAL's inventory, thereby eliminating the hassle and headache of trying to borrow any weapons and ammo from the "Bonnie Dick's" armory, as Rika and I headed to where the lads from SEAL Two were quartered.

The last time I was aboard the "Bonnie Dick" with the SEALs from Team Two, the man in charge of the SEALs inventory was a Master Chief by the name of James "Mac" Masters, whom I had become great friends with, mostly because of his fondness for a certain brand of whiskey that was not readily available in the States, but was extremely easy for me to acquire from one of the local shops in Hereford.

And so whenever RED Troop was assigned to do any type of OP with the SEALs from Team Two, I always made sure to bring a case with me in exchange for a "souvenir" that "old Mac" always seemed to have on hand.

And I have to say, being as how the Yanks have a checklist for everything and probably even had a serial number for each and every round of ammo they had, however way "Mac" was able to acquire the "souvenir's" he was able to get for me without being court-martialed, I'll never know.

But as luck would have it, "Mac" was nowhere to be found when the three of us arrived at the armory, instead, there were two U.S Marines standing guard near at the door, both of them wielding Colt 9mm Submachine guns instead of the usual M4-A1 carbine, and neither one of them looked old enough to drink beer, much less the hooch I always brought for "Mac".

"You, Poynton?" One of the peach-fuzzed guards asked me abruptly before I could even open my mouth.

"Yes, Private….I'm Sergeant Poynton from 22nd "Reg" SAS..." I said gruffly as I noticed the kid's eyes drift over towards my tan SAS beret which was tucked under the shoulder tab of my blouse.

"S-Sorry sir…uh, I mean Sergeant…" The kid suddenly stammered as he and the other guard standing next to him both suddenly straightened upon realizing that I was an SAS man and not just another flat foot sailor on exchange from the Royal Navy.

"Forget it lad…" I said with a growl as I heard Rika titter next to me. "Where is Master Chief Masters, by the way?"

"He went to the "*head" Sergeant…" The guard said opening the steel door. "He said to let you and the other members of your team in so you could grab your "kit", and that he would be back in a minute."

*(Head-Navy slang for "toilet")

"I see, thank you lads…" I said nodding my head slightly as the three of us walked past them and entered the SEAL armory.

And let me tell you, no sooner had we walked into the SEAL's armory than I heard a gasp escape from Rika and Tajima behind me as they gazed upon all the hardware lying neatly within their racks in the armory.

And as I glanced back behind me, I almost wanted to laugh at the expression on Rika's face, who looked like she was about to freak at the sight of all the high-tech toys that "Uncle Sam" had bought for all his little frogmen kiddies to play with.

Unlike other units in the American Military, American Special Operations units had their choice of whatever weaponry they wanted, and so it was no surprise to me to that there was literally almost every type of weapon imaginable in the SEAL armory, including some of the newer stuff that we hadn't been able to acquire yet, at Hereford.

There were dozens of American M4 carbines sitting in their racks, some fitted with an M203 grenade launcher mounted underneath the barrel, as well as Hk MP5's including the ones with the integral suppressor, Ak-47's, M60-E4's, M249's fitted with paratrooper stocks, a few FN SCAR battle rifles, some Hk 416 rifles, a couple of Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifles, and several Mk 12 sniper rifles as well, not to mention all the various pistols and miscellaneous weaponry that almost covered an entire wall by themselves, as well as several varieties of explosive devices that the SEALs were known to carry.

I had to admit it was pretty impressive, especially considering this was only a small part of SEAL Team Two's actual inventory and not their entire arsenal, and it was definitely more than anything you could even remotely hope to find in any Police arsenal.

And from the way Rika was acting, she must have felt like she had died and gone to heaven as I watched her walking around the armory like she was in a trance before something finally caught her eye, and she then walked towards the far wall and lifted an M60-E4 machine gun off the rack and begin to cradle it like it was a newborn infant.

"Oh hell…here we go…" I said shaking my head as I watched Rika began to stroke her fingers over the feed cover of the chopped-down M60 lovingly as I half expected to see her start singing and cooing to the damn thing too.

"Yeah, you're never going to be able to take that thing away from her now…" Tajima said dryly as we both gazed at Rika as she shifted the shortened M60 in her arms so that the barrel lay against her left shoulder as she began to gently pat the feed cover of the compact machine gun.

"Dude…is she actually trying to "burp" that thing?" A familiar voice said behind me as Tajima and I whirled around to find "Mac" standing behind us as he was staring quizzically at Rika.

"I wouldn't be surprised if she was, "Mac"…" I said with a snicker as I held my hand out and shook hands with the twenty-nine year old veteran SEAL who was dressed in one of those SEAL-issue "frog" shirts, a pair of tan BDU trousers, and tan hiking boots.

"I've had a lot of civilian's finger-f_ck our guns during demonstrations before, but that's the first time I've ever seen something like that…" Mac said shaking his head as Rika continued to cradle the mini-M60 in her arms.

"When it comes to guns, Minami-san can be a little…embarrassing." Tajima said with a grimace.

"At least she's treating it like a baby, and not like something else…" I said with disgust.

"Just make sure she doesn't take it back to her room, just to be safe…" Tajima said with a grimace as I heard "Mac" snicker.

"Well, I was gonna ask you guys if she was available…" "Mac" said regaining his composure. "But I think it's pretty clear, that I'm not her type."

"Oh, I wouldn't say that…" Tajima said with an ear-splitting grin on his face. "If you let her keep it, I'm sure she'll consider it an acceptable alternative to an engagement ring."

"Seriously..?" "Mac said as we all watched in astonishment as Rika suddenly turned her head and whispered something softly to the M60-E4 in her hands before she then kissed the barrel of the compact machine gun.

"Okay, this is really getting kinda weird now…" "Mac" said with raised eyebrows as Tajima and I face-palmed ourselves.

"RIKA…!" I growled finally having lost patience with Rika's behavior. "For f_ck's sake woman, knock it off will ya, it's not a f_cking newborn!"

"WHAAAAT..?!" Rika snapped back at me as she turned red in the face upon finally noticing that we were staring at her. "I've never had a chance to use one of these before!"

"And you aren't going to either…!" I said shaking my head as Rika suddenly glared at me like a mother wolf protecting her cub from a grizzly bear.

"What do you mean, I'm not…?!" Rika said her voice almost like the hiss of an angry snake. "You said we could choose whatever weapon we wanted for this mission!"

"This is a quick "extract" mission within the grounds of a mansion Rika, not a flippin' *"Lurp"…!" I said growing exasperated. "This will be a precision "quick in and out" job, so we won't be needing to hose down the f_cking place!"

*(Lurp- Slang for L.R.R.P. which stands for - Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol)

"You never know…!" Rika said sounding almost hysterical. "There's no telling how bad things might be by the time we get there!"

"That's why we have air support, lass…or at least, we should have anyway…" I said biting my lip to keep from blowing up as I could hear "Mac" snickering behind me at the way Rika was acting, much to my embarrassment.

Despite the way Rika was acting like a panic-stricken mother afraid of being separated from her "baby", Rika was no dummy, and she knew that what was needed most on this mission was a cool head and a steady hand, not some wannabe Rambette shooting the whole place up.

And even though Rika was an absolute artist with a sniper rifle in her hands, an M60 was just not a precision instrument no matter how skilled you were with it.

The problem was, Rika was a gun nut to the thousandth degree, and this little tantrum she was throwing was just that, a tantrum, all because I wouldn't let her have the "toy" she really wanted to play with.

"But they'll be orbiting over us at one hundred feet…!" Rika added stubbornly. "They won't be able to hit anything nearly as accurately as we can on the ground."

"Which is why I need you to grab something that you can take precise shots with…" I said gritting my teeth as I pointed to the Mk 12's standing in their rack nearby. "And since those are perfect for ground use as well as for precision shooting from the air, so I'd prefer that you take one of those."

"Demo…" Rika said still whining as I finally lost my cool.

"Dammit Rika…!" I said about to blow a gasket with the stubborn woman when I felt "Mac" put his hand on my shoulder in an effort to calm me.

"She does have a point there, lad…" "Mac" said intentionally mimicking my accent. "Things might be a little hairy when you get there, and it doesn't hurt to have a little "extra" along."

"Andy's right though, Ms. …. Rika, was it?" "Mac said warmly as he walked over to a rack and pulled out one of the three M-249's lying there.

"From what Andy tells me, you're pretty surgical with a sniper rifle…" "Mac" said trying to sound neutral as he walked towards Rika as she clutched her M60 even tighter in her arms as he approached. "And I have to agree with him that based on your rep, the "Mk 12" would be absolutely perfect for you on this mission."

"But I understand your concern about being overrun by multiple attackers, so if you really want something belt-fed so that you can lay down a good amount of suppressive fire if you guys get in a tight spot…" Mac said holding out the lighter squad weapon to Rika. "This "Two Forty-Nine" is a lot easier to control than that "Echo-Four."

"Of course, this one doesn't have the same punch as that "pig" you're holding, but it works well for a quick mission like the one you're going out on..." "Mac added as Rika gave him a look that left little doubt she was still not convinced about giving up her new "baby".

"Annnd…since it shoots the lighter 5.56 rounds instead of 7.62, you can carry more ammoooo..." "Mac" said in a voice similar to a father trying to coax his kid into eating her dinner before allowing her to have dessert as I saw Rika's eyes beginning to brighten.

"So that being the case…" "Mac" said realizing he had finally made a breakthrough. "I would highly recommend that you take this instead."

"Besides…" "Mac" added as I noticed him wink at Rika as she finally placed the M60 on one of the large stainless steel tables in the middle of the room. "…I know the real reason why Andy didn't want you to take that "pig".

"Oh,…and why's that?" Rika asked as "Mac" handed her the M-249.

"Andy won't admit it…" "Mac" said grinning mischievously. "But he absolutely hates it when someone has a bigger gun than he does."

"F_ck you, "Mac"..." I said with a growl as the three of them suddenly broke out into laughter.

"You noticed that too?" Tajima said as I flipped all of them off. "I thought we were the only ones who noticed that."

"Oh no…" "Mac" said flipping me off in return as he grinned evilly at me. "We always had to be on our toes and keep a close eye on our "kit" whenever "old Andy" was around."

"Matter of fact, every time we ever did an Op with his group, we always had to watch our inventory of heavy weapons because we knew the moment Andy showed up, something was gonna disa…..HEY!" "Mac" shouted as he quickly ducked the oily cleaning rag I threw at him.

"Piss off wanker…" I growled as everyone began laughing again at my irritation. "Some friend you are."

"One of the best to have put up with you for so long, mate…" "Mac" said as he walked up and clapped me on the shoulder and then held his hand up in the air.

"Can say the same thing for you, asshole…" I growled again in mock annoyance as I slapped my hand against his and we then leaned close and clapped each other on the back.

"Glad to see you back, brother…" "Mac" said in a low voice so that only I could hear. "Been a long time."

"Yeah…" I replied. "Too damn long."

"So now you got your own team, huh?" "Mac" asked as we separated from each other and he glanced over at Rika and Tajima. "You on a Joint Op with the JSDF, or something?"

"Actually, we're with the Prefectural Police…" Tajima said almost apologetically. "We were only temporarily assigned to the SAS for this mission that we're supposed to be preparing for now."

"Just the three of you?" "Mac" said incredulously as he glanced over at me.

"Besides the three of us, there's two guys from my old team still stuck at the airport…" I said in reply. "But unless something major happens, I doubt the Skipper of this boat will want to hang around the harbor long enough to allow anyone to execute any rescue missions."

"Yeah, that's for sure…" "Mac" said nodding his head in reply. "He's taking a hell of chance as it is."

"No shit…" I said nodding my head in agreement.

"So basically you're just going through the motions, then…" "Mac" asked as we both noticed Rika and Tajima suddenly look downcast.

"Oops,…sorry." "Mac" said quickly realizing he had struck a nerve.

"Nice going asshole…" I hissed under my breath as I slapped him on the shoulder in irritation.

"F_ck you Andy, I didn't mean nothing…!" "Mac" shot back as he flipped me off.

"You're still an asshole…oof!" I grunted as "Mac" hit me with a quick jab in the stomach and then dodged as I swung my left foot at him in a roundhouse kick that just barely missed him.

"Getting slow, old man…" "Mac" said laughing as he took a couple of quick steps away from me so that he was out of range.

"Your mother hasn't complained yet…" I retorted with a laugh as "Mac" said something low and dirty as he flipped me off again.

"If you guys are about through playing grab-ass…" Rika interrupted as she set the M-249 down on one of the stainless steel tables. "I really think we need hurry up and get our "kit" together just in case this mission is a "go" after all, wouldn't you agree, Andrew-san?"

"Well,…look who's gotten all professional all of a sudden…" I said sarcastically as Rika flashed me an angry look and then turned around and walked back to the far wall to inspect the row of sniper rifles mounted on a nearby rack.

"The lady has a point, mate…" "Mac" said with a snicker as I gave him the stink-eye.

"Don't encourage her, bub…" I said with a growl as I noticed Rika about to grab one of the Mk 12 sniper rifles sitting on a rack, but then stopped and grabbed a different model sitting in a nearby rack and raised it to her shoulder.

"Hey Andrew-san, have a look at this…" Rika said as she walked to where "Mac" and I were standing and then held the rifle out to me.

"Hmm, that's interesting…" I said as I accepted the rifle from her and was immediately impressed by the lightness of the weapon.

"Wow, that is light..." I said impressed as I hefted the rifle and then raised it to my shoulder to test the weight.

"This something new "Mac"…"?" as I checked the action and was impressed even more by its smoothness.

"I don't remember ever seeing this in your inventory before..." I said as I glanced at the markings on the rifle and saw that the rifle had the model number "FD338" on the receiver and was manufactured by a company called "F&D Defense".

"We just got a few of them in our inventory before we left Coronado…" "Mac" said with a grin. "This training mission was our first time taking them out."

"Pretty nice…" I said admiring the weapon that had already been fitted with a Schmidt & Bender scope, Harris bipod, and a large suppressor mounted to the end of the barrel.

"You like?" "Mac" said with a grin as he watched me familiarizing myself with my own new "toy".

"Oh, yeah…me like…" I replied as I raised the rifle to my shoulder again and peered through the scope.

"Impressive isn't it…?" Rika said practically swooning over the rifle. "And look, not only is it semiautomatic, but it also shoots in .338 Lapua Magnum".

"So what'cha thinking, buddy?" "Mac" asked me with a snicker upon realizing that I had been smitten with the rifle the same as Rika had been with the M60.

"I'm thinking Rika still has the worst gun fetish I've ever seen before…" I said with a shit-eating grin as Rika made a face and then flipped me off.

"That being said…" I continued, flipping her off in return.

"There's no way I'm letting her put her grubby little mitts back on this one..." I said as Rika and I spent the next few moments in a semi-heated exchange of words on who would be carrying the "FD338".

In the end, I pulled rank and reminded Rika that I was the team leader of "GREEN Troop" after all, and gun fetish or not, she would have to be satisfied with one of the Mk 12's and the M-249, or she could sit on her ass aboard the "Bonnie Dick" by herself if she didn't like it, as she then immediately clammed up.

Satisfied that the point had finally been made, we then settled down to gather our remaining weapons and check them thoroughly before we could begin work on gathering the rest of our "kit" together.

When it comes to the care and maintenance of their personal weapons, everyone in Spec Ops is absolutely meticulous about keeping their weapons clean before and after every use, and SEALs are absolute fanatics about it, so it was no surprise to me to find each weapon I chose from the SEAL armory to be in perfect working order after I had field-stripped them and inspected them closely.

Even though we had our pick of whatever was in the SEAL armory, Tajima had chosen one of the SEAL M4 carbines as his primary weapon, which I noticed had been recently fitted with an Trijicon ACOG sight, probably because all of the EOTech holosights that would have normally been mounted on them, had all apparently been fried by the effects of the EMP.

Rika on the other hand, had chosen the Mk 12 as her primary weapon, along with the M-249 Squad Weapon as her back-up which was all bass-ackwards in my opinion, but since she was finally happy, I let it go.

Even though there were plenty of M4's lying about in the armory, I chose not to pick one on this particular mission, because while the M4 has had widespread use around the world is an excellent weapon overall, I have had issues with them in the past in which they had an ugly tendency to jam on me when I least expected them to in the field.

So for this mission instead of choosing an M4 carbine like Tajima had, I had opted to carry one of the German-made Heckler & Koch HK416's lying in one of the racks nearby, which was almost the same platform as the M4, but in my opinion, was a higher quality product than the American-made M4, and also had an even better reputation for reliability in the field.

And like Tajima's M4, it had already been fitted with a Trijicon ACOG sight to replace the EMP-fried EOTech holosight, and as an added bonus, an M-203 grenade launcher had also been mounted underneath the barrel.

Of course, as soon as Rika and Tajima saw the grenade launcher, immediately they wanted to mount one on their own weapons as well until I told them that since I was the only one in the group with any real military training, and since I had used the M-203 extensively on countless missions overseas, then I would be the only one to carry a grenade launcher for this mission, much to their disappointment.

And then after that argument was over with, I then mentioned to both of them that since we would be making our approach to Takagi Manor by heli, I wanted everyone to make sure that suppressors be mounted on their primary weapons just the same, even though the sound of the rotors overhead were sure to drown out any noise we made, if the Infected were indeed nearby.

Pretty much about the only gun we didn't fight over in the entire SEAL arsenal was the preference of our sidearm, which in this case happened to be the SIG-Sauer P226-Navy 9mm semi-automatic pistol which we would all carry as our primary sidearm.

The Sig P226-Navy that we would be carrying was basically a modern manufactured variant of the same P226 I carried back in my early days in the SAS, although the Navy version was made out of stainless steel and treated to be more resistant to corrosion from saltwater, as well as having a picatinny rail for a weaponlight built in, that most older model Sig's did not have.

Even though we would be packing state of the art firepower, no operator ever goes out in the field without equipping himself a good knife for emergencies, and since the custom knives I had been carrying back at the airport had been confiscated by the Marines along with the rest of my weapons and equipment earlier and were being decontaminated to prevent the spread of any "Infection", I was hoping "Mac" could hook us all up with some new cutlery.

And since I've always believed in carrying more than one knife in the field for emergencies, I then asked "Mac" what he had available as he walked over to a cabinet and brought back a box full of SEAL-issue combat knives for the three of us to outfit ourselves with, as I grabbed one of the large SOG SEAL 2000 knives with a seven-inch blade to attach to my belt later, and then chose one of the smaller SOG SEAL "Pup" knives as well so that I could attach it to my combat vest, for quick access.

Since the mission would be a quick extract were speed was essential, we would need to be traveling light in order to extract the Takagi family as quickly as we could with a minimum amount of time spent on the ground, and so for the load-bearing vests that we would carry for the mission, we chose the light CQB rigs the SEALs often used for "snatch-and-grab" missions that would allow us to carry just enough rifle and pistol mags for the mission in case things got hairy, but not so much that it would burden us down unnecessarily.

And since we really weren't all that concerned about being shot at, we were able to lighten our rigs even more by removing the ceramic armor plates that each vest was fitted with, allowing us to carry eight, 30-round rifle magazines, plus four, 15-round pistol magazines giving us a total of nearly 300 rounds of ammunition each, as well as whatever grenades and other survival gear we could stuff in each vest.

"Not that we'll actually be using any of it…" I mumbled under my breath as I busied myself loading my rifle and pistol mags, still not convinced that we would actually be getting the green light to extract the Takagi family.

"How's it going, guys?" "Mac" asked as he walked up to the tables where we were loading our magazines and dropped off a case of M-67 fragmentation grenades.

"Good to go so far, "Mac"…" I replied as I started shoving loaded magazines into the ammo pouches of my vest. "Should be wrapped up in about another "ten" or "fifteen minutes."

"Cool,…once you get the rest of your "kit" together, just come back here and drop them off with your weapons and I'll hold them for you until you deploy…" "Mac" said as Rika's head popped up suddenly and a look of alarm came over her face.

"What do you mean, "you're going to hold our weapons"…?!" Rika said in an anxious voice. "You mean we're not going to be able to keep our weapons with us?"

"Uh,…no…why?" "Mac" said glancing over at me with a look of concern as I merely rolled my eyes in disgust.

"Geez Rika,…you really are psycho, you know that?" I said shaking my head as Rika looked like she was about to blow a gasket.

"But this is a Special Operations ship isn't it…?!" Rika said practically shouting. "I thought we were supposed to carry our weapons with us at all times?"

"This boat may be referred to as a "commando carrier" miss,…" "Mac" said trying not to laugh at the anguished look on Rika's face. "But that doesn't mean that the Skipper of this boat allows us to go walking around this tub of his, with our weapons hanging off of us."

"Besides…" "Mac" added. "Humping all that gear through all these narrow corridors would be a real pain in the ass, don't you think?"

"I don't mind..!" Rika said looking stricken again as I finally blew a gasket.

"Bloody hell, Rika…!" I snapped. "Trust me, if we get the "go ahead" to extract the Takagi's, you'll get your chance to finally satisfy that gun fetish of yours, okay?!"

"But how are we supposed to make sure our weapons are zeroed correctly and will work properly if we're supposed to leave them here?!" Rika practically shouted in protest as I noticed "Mac" stiffen.

"Each weapon here has already been zeroed correctly…miss." "Mac" said a little testily. "And as far as making sure they'll work properly, Andy will make sure all of you will have a chance to test fire your weapons before you board your chopper."

"But…" Rika began but stopped when she noticed the warning look I gave her.

"Mac" was one of the nicest guys I've ever known and he was almost as patient with people as Jim was, but as the man in charge of the SEAL armory, Rika's questioning the condition of the weaponry in his care was an insult, and I knew I had better step in quick before things got ugly.

"My bad, "Mac"…" I said apologetically as I flashed another angry look at Rika. "I hadn't had the time to explain the "Regs" to them about not carrying weapons aboard this ship…sorry."

"Ah… well in that case, no worries, mate." "Mac" said in a calmer tone as I gestured for Rika to shut the hell up and get back to work loading magazines.

"Taj…?" I said glancing over at Tajima who had chosen to wisely stay out of the conversation by keeping busy with loading up magazines.

"Hai?" Tajima replied as I took a sheet of paper from off the table and began jotting down a list of items we would need for the mission.

"Once we're done here checking our weapons…" I began as I continued writing down my list of items. "We'll need to make sure we grab these items as well, for the mission."

"We have those personal med-paks and other survival gear you got there on your list in the locker over there, Andy…" Mac said pointing at a large metal cabinet mounted on the far side of the wall.

"But as far as "comms" and anything else electronic goes, buddy…" Mac said shaking his head. "You're shit out of luck, mate."

"Everything fried…?" I said with dismay as Mac shrugged his shoulders.

"Like tonight's menu in the galley…" Mac said as I let out a loud sigh of frustration.

"No recent intel, no air assets, no ground support, only half my team aboard ship, and no "comms" either…" I said with disgust. "No way in hell is this mission getting a green light in the shape we're in."

"F_CK!" I said angrily as Rika and Tajima flinched at my outburst.

"Hey, hey…take it easy buddy." Mac said placing a calming hand on my shoulder.

"Sorry mate…" I said apologetically as I tried to calm myself, the disappointment at the way everything seemed to be going against us finally overwhelming me as a familiar voice suddenly piped up behind us.

"Everything alright, Andy?" Caroline asked as I turned around and saw her standing in the doorway with a troubled frown on her face.

"Everything's shit, Caroline…" I said with a tired sigh, bracing myself for the words I knew Caroline was about to utter.

"Ah…" Caroline said with that thin smile of hers. "Well, when all of you are done here, the Colonel sent me to fetch all of you so that he could update you on your mission."

"You mean the one that it's about to be scrubbed…?" I said with a heavy amount of sarcasm. "Thanks Caroline, but I kind of figured that one out already, love."

"Wrong again as always, Andy…" Caroline said with a heavy sigh filled with sarcasm. "So much for my hopes that your rather long sabbatical would have improved your outlook on life."

"Come again?" I said snapping my head up as Caroline rolled her eyes at me.

"Your mission hasn't been scrubbed, you twit…." Caroline said crisply even though I could see there was no malice behind it based upon the amused look on her face. "Do you honestly believe I would come all the way down here just to tell you that?"

"But everything's shit, Caroline!" I said in disbelief. "All the electronics on board this ship are fried, and all of our air assets are down for who knows how long!"

"It's true that there are still not enough air assets available to evacuate everyone off the island, Andy…" Caroline began in a voice that sounded almost bored which I knew she was doing on purpose just to irritate me.

"So what the Americans have planned to do is have their ships close in within range of their hovercraft and other landing craft and evacuate everyone by sea." Caroline added as a large smirk formed on her face.

"However…" Caroline continued. "The Americans do believe they'll be able to get some of their air assets available by the time we anchor off the island."

"And that being the case, there will be a small window of opportunity for you and your team to "evac" your "package" from off the Mainland while the evacuation is underway…" Caroline added as she then turned and waved for us to follow her.

"As the Americans say, Andy…" Caroline said as she began walking towards the door. "Get your shit together, and be quick about it" because you and your team are all set to go "wheels up" by morning."

"And by the way…" Caroline said looking over her left shoulder as she suddenly broke into a wide smile, probably from the look of astonishment on my face.

"Your welcome…love." Caroline said as she quietly walked through the doorway, leaving all of us standing there completely stunned by her words.

Time: Just before Sunset – Exact Time Unknown

Location: Takagi Manor – Jim's Room

Z-Day Times Four

The sun had already disappeared behind the city skyscrapers several minutes earlier, and I knew it wouldn't be much longer before we were all enveloped in darkness as I hurried to prepare myself for my trek to the power plant the following morning.

For the most part, my gear would be pretty *KISS simple since this would be a trek through a modern city and not a battle zone where the combatants were not active shooters, but rather, the Infected.

*(KISS- Military Acronym for –Keep It Simple Stupid)

And since one of the main concerns I had was to keep from getting bitten by any of the Infected, the first thing I had started off with was changing my clothing to something I felt would offer me better protection in the field, instead of the casual clothes that I was presently wearing.

From my long experience as a paramedic, I knew beforehand that a bite from a human being can be pretty nasty as well as painful, and most certainly a bite from one of the Infected was a death sentence.

But even as powerful as a bite from one of the Infected was I knew that it still would not penetrate through thick clothing, which was fortunate since the only body armor available was what the guards were wearing and none of them were in my size anyway.

That being the case, I then proceeded to change from the casual polo shirt I had been wearing earlier at dinner in favor of a desert tan, long–sleeve BDU blouse that I knew would offer better bite protection for my arms than the polo shirt, as well as a pair of Oakley tactical gloves with the fingertips cut off to protect my hands.

The denim jeans I had been wearing at dinner earlier, plus the thick socks and hiking boots I had on were more than sufficient enough to protect my legs and feet from any bites which left only my head and face to worry about.

I was able to remedy that by taking a black nomex balaclava that I carried and folded up the edges into a skullcap before placing it over my head just above my ears as I then took a look into the large standing mirror next to my bed.

And as I looked at myself in the full-length mirror, I couldn't help but notice that while the purpose of wearing the balaclava was for bite protection, it also did a great job of covering over the unsightly bandage that was covering the wound on the left side of my head.

And since I was sick and tired of people staring at the left side of my head all the time anyway, I decided to keep the balaclava on my head from that point on, that way all I had to do when I left in the morning was to pull the thing the rest of the way down over my head in order to protect my head, neck, ears, and face, while my Oakley "M" frame safety glasses would do the job of protecting my eyes.

Now that my body was protected as best as could be, I then went about getting the rest of my gear ready for the trip, as I noticed the remaining light in my room beginning to dim even more.

On this mission of mine to (hopefully) make contact with the JSDF rescue team and advise them of our situation here at Takagi Manor, I knew that since I would have to wait until first light tomorrow morning, it was imperative that I travel fast and light in order to make the rendezvous by mid-afternoon tomorrow.

However, since this would be a solo mission without the benefit of any back-up if I got into trouble, just because I was racing against time didn't mean I was gonna risk losing my life by doing things half-ass either as I got to work on one of the first things any good soldier does before he goes out into the field and got to work cleaning and oiling all of my guns to ensure that they were in perfect working condition and would go "bang!" whenever I squeezed the trigger.

Once I was done and was absolutely sure that my weapons were in perfect working order, I then got to work reloading each of the six spare magazines that I kept stored in a pouch on the top of my pack before I then began to take stock of my remaining gear and supplies in order to make my choice as to what gear I would carry with me.

For this mission, I would be using my trusty M4 carbine with the new "Masterkey" attachment mounted underneath the barrel as my primary weapon, along with my Sig Sauer P226-NSW pistol sitting in the thigh holster on my right leg as my primary sidearm, and my HK P7 pistol sitting in a nylon belt holster on my right hip as my back-up.

Along with my firearms, I would also be carrying my SOG UDT knife strapped diver-style, to my right calf, as well as one of my remaining CRKT M-21 folding knives sitting in a nylon sheath on my belt next to the Gerber Multi-plier tool that I always carried.

One of the two remaining knives I had which was the Gerber Silver trident knife was attached by *MOLLE straps to the right side of my pack for use in an emergency, while the SEAL titanium MPK knife would remain behind for personal reasons.

While every book, movie, and video game made featuring a so-called "zombie apocalypse" has the hero and his crew wielding all sorts of survival knives and other crude "melee" weapons as they go against a "zombie" horde and take them on in a beautiful and exiting display of hand-to-hand combat where hacked limbs go flying through the air and gouts of fake blood go splashing everywhere as the "survivors" hack and slash their way to freedom.

In real life, hand-to-hand combat is a situation that every good soldier tries desperately to avoid, because once you've lost the advantage of your firearms and are forced to fight hand-to-hand, your chances of survival decreases dramatically, especially against multiple antagonists determined to kill your ass.

And while I admit I always did enjoy watching Daryl, Rick, Michonne, and the rest of the cast from "The Walking Dead" as they charged into a horde of Infected with all sorts of wicked-looking knives, baseball bats, chainsaws and other assorted makeshift weapons and sliced and diced their way out of a hairy situation every Sunday on AMC.

The reality was that my trying to take on any of the Infected hand-to-hand would be a guaranteed death sentence no matter how skillful I was with my knives, as the greater numbers of the Infected would eventually overwhelm me and take me down, kicking and screaming, as they tore me to pieces.

And that being the case, if for any reason I was forced to go toe-to-toe with the Infected it was because I had really f_cked up, and the only realistic way to survive against the Infected at all, was to avoid any direct contact with them in the first place…duh.

Be that as it may, while I would still be doing my very best to avoid any contact with the Infected as much as possible on this solo op of mine, I was still leaving nothing to chance as I began to check to make sure that each and every magazine pouch in my vest and my pack was filled with loaded magazines for my carbine, in case I did have to engage the Infected at some point.

And at first glance, with as many magazines as I was carrying you'd have thought I was humping enough ammo to fight a small war, although the truth was, if I had been preparing for actual combat against an enemy who could shoot back, I'd have easily burned through all the ammo I was carrying in a relatively short amount of time.

As it was, the amount of ammo I was carrying was still pretty substantial, with five of the six ammo pouches on my tactical vest stuffed with two magazines each, with each mag holding thirty rounds apiece.

The sixth pouch on my vest however, was reserved for the Surefire 60-round magazine that I liked to use whenever the situation dictated that it was necessary that I lay down a high volume of suppressing fire, as in the case of an "Australian Peel."

In short, all total with the custom, double magazine set-up that sat in the magwell of my carbine which held seventy rounds of ammo, plus the six other 30-round mags lying in the ammo pouch mounted on top of my pack, I was carrying what most would consider an impressive 610 rounds just for my carbine alone.

On top of that, I also had four magazines for my Sig P226-NSW pistol that held eighteen rounds of 9mm ammo each, and my back-up Hk P7 pistol with its eight-round magazine, plus an extra box of 9mm ammo that held fifty rounds for a total of 130 rounds of 9mm ammo for my sidearms.

So all told I would be carrying over 740 rounds of ammo on my person which was a good amount of weight to carry around on a mission were speed was of the essence.

However, the nuclear attack on Japan had changed everything, and with all of our communications systems out there was just no way of telling if the JSDF would even show up at the rendezvous point, and if that were the case, I would have to assume that the JSDF had called off the rescue mission and we were now on our own.

And if that were the case, my only option left was to either look for help elsewhere, or return back to the mansion, but with the Infected closing in and so many lives depending upon me to find help, returning to the mansion was just not an option.

And so while it seemed that I was loaded for bear, the truth was I was packing the bare minimum of weapons and ammo I would need if I was forced to go alone into the heart of the city to look for help as I then went about the task of removing any non-essential items in my pack that would only serve to weigh me down.

Since all of my electronic equipment had been fried by the effects of the EMP including the optics and laser on my carbine which I had already discarded, I was able to lighten the load in my pack by quite a bit by discarding what was essentially now thousands of dollars' worth of useless junk as I tossed aside my now useless night vision goggles and other non-working electronic gear from my pack.

And since I would be operating in essentially an urban environment, I also began to discard some of my extra clothing and personal gear and make room for the essentials, namely food, water, some survival gear, and my auxiliary med-pack.

After I had finished packing what items I thought I would need, I then placed my pack upon my shoulders to check the weight, and once I had done that I then concluded that it would probably be best for me to remove my M24 sniper rifle from my pack as well, since I truly had no need for such a long-range weapon on this particular mission, and carrying the M24 and the ammo for it would only serve as added weight to slow me down as I removed the heavy rifle from my pack, as well as the four remaining boxes of ammo for it.

Once I had finished doing that, I then did one last check over all of my gear before I was finally satisfied that everything was in order as I then sat down in a chair next to the bed and went over the details of my plan in my head.

Even without my M24 the amount of weapons and gear I was carrying would have been considered impressive to the untrained eye, although my "kit" was nothing like the two hundred pounds of gear that the infamous SAS Team "Bravo Two Zero" carried on their mission back in 91' during the Gulf War.

In fact, by commando standards the amount of "kit" that I would use on my mission was actually pretty light as compared to all the comms gear, explosives (including breaching charges and claymore mines), intelligence gathering equipment, and extra ammo and perhaps even a shoulder fired *LAW rocket that a real spec-ops operator would have actually carried out in the field.

*(LAW- Light Anti-Tank Weapon- which is a shoulder-fired rocket housed in a disposable plastic tube)

Shoot, the heavy bunker gear I wore plus the forty pound *SCBA strapped to my back and a hundred pounds of equipment hanging off of me when I was still a fireman, was still heavier than the gear I was carrying with me now, although that still didn't mean that humping what gear I had with me all the way to the power plant would be easy, even though I was in pretty decent shape for a man of my age with a big-ass hole in his head.

*(SCBA- Self Contained Breathing Apparatus- Essentially, the air pack a fireman carries on his back and breathes from, much like a scuba diver)

The good news however, depending on how you looked at it, was that I wouldn't have to hump it all the way to the power plant on foot after all, because after one frustrating failure after another, the guards had finally managed to get one of the dozens of vehicles running again, which just happened to be the Humvee that had belonged to Shizuka's friend.

Fortunately, the Humvee had been one of the older, military models that had been shielded against the effects of an EMP, which was extremely lucky for us due to the fact that warfare had changed over the years and most manufacturers were now focused on building the current model of Humvees to withstand *IED attacks, and not nuclear threats.

*(IED - Improvised Explosive Device)

So now instead of having to hump it all the way to the power plant on foot all by myself like I originally thought I would have to, I was now going to be driven in the Humvee by the Security Chief and a couple of his men in the direction of the power plant until we came to a section of the neighborhood that was now abandoned, where I would then be dropped off.

And then once the guards had dropped me off, I would then hump it the rest of the way to the power plant hopefully avoiding any contact with the Infected along the way and hopefully meet up with the JSDF and make arrangements with them to evacuate everyone at Takagi Manor.

Easy-Peasey…Nice and Easy.

Well, not really, because if the JSDF didn't show up then that meant that shit really had hit the fan, and I would then have to wait until night had fallen so that I could fire a red flare into the sky from the flare gun that the Security Chief had given me earlier.

And once the spotters on the roof of Takagi Manor saw that flare, they would then fire a red flare in response, signaling me that they understood that the mission to rendezvous with the JSDF had been a failure and that I would now try to seek help elsewhere.

And if that were indeed to happen, we all understood that the chances of my finding help or even surviving on my own were now greatly reduced if the JSDF or any of the local authorities like the Police and Fire Departments had completely ceased all rescue operations and had pulled out of the city altogether.

Still, I had to try, and as risky as it was to try to find help all by myself in the city, it was still not quite the suicide mission that Yuriko Takagi and her husband had thought it would be.

Admittedly, while I was only a back-up medic and not a Tier-One operator, I had still been trained by some of the best former operators in the Spec-Ops world, and while I had no illusions that I could just walk through the valley of death willy-nilly without so much as a scratch, I was confident enough in the training I had received and in the weapons that I carried that I felt that I could succeed in my mission to find help, so long as I remained cautious and didn't do anything stupid.

And with so many lives depending on me to get the job done including the one person whose life was now so very dear to me, there was no way in hell I was gonna do anything stupid, so no worries there.

I was committed to the task at hand, and I was determined to succeed no matter what happened.

I was prepared mentally, physically, and logistically for the mission I was about to undertake, and I had been trained in unconventional warfare by some of the best former operators in the Spec Ops world and I was carrying state-of-the-art weaponry and a shitload of ammo.

In short, I felt that I was ready to handle anything that came my way and blow any obstacle in my path to f_cking kingdom come, if I had to.

That being said, there was only one problem that remained that threatened to jeopardize the entire mission as well as the lives of over three hundred frightened men, women, and children.

And it didn't matter how prepared I was, or how well-armed I was, or that so many lives were depending on me than had ever depended on me before.

Once I stepped outside the walls of Takagi Manor tomorrow morning, I knew that I would never…ever, see my "daughter" again.

And for once in my life, "It's not about you, it's about them" no longer meant anything to me anymore.

And as much as I knew that that the lives of over three hundred men, women, and children were literally depending on me to succeed in my mission tomorrow, there was just no denying the ugly truth…

I didn't want to go…

However, in just a few short hours, I would come to find out that it really wouldn't matter anyway…

Because little did I know that at that very moment…

It was already too late.

Author Notes:

Work and mandatory Haz-Mat classes have really set me back the past couple of months which was why it took so long for to update.

Unfortunately, because of some more mandatory classes coming up, it's gonna take me longer than I thought to finish Book One, but there's not too much left to go anyway, so please bear with me.

Not a lot of excitement in this chapter, mostly Jim and Andrew and his team inadvertently preparing for the fight of their lives.

Problem is, Jim doesn't realize yet that he's not packing enough ammo for what's about to happen next to him and the teens, and personally, I would have packed more grenades myself.

And Andrew and his team are going to be in for the shock of their lives once they arrive at Takagi Manor and realize that they are grossly under-armed and under-manned for their so-called "quick extract" mission.

Maybe Andrew should have let Rika keep her "baby" after all, huh?

Well anyway, thanks again everyone for your support, hope you like this chapter and I really hope that "Last Alarm" has been a good read for you altogether.

And I really hope you enjoy the next chapter when Jim tells Saeko the three little words she's been dying to hear.

And no, it's not…"I love you".

Teaser From:

Last Alarm-Book One

Chapter Fifty-One

The Alamo-Part Three

"Uncle…what's wrong!" Saeko said as she clung to the man's shoulders as the American hesitated for a long moment before finally turning to face her, as he then placed his hands on both of her shoulders and drew her close to him.

And as she gazed upon the man's face under the soft, red glow of the chemical light he had hung around her neck, there was no mistaking what she saw in the man's eyes as Saeko suddenly felt her heart beginning to pound against her chest.

Fear.

But it was what the man said next, that chilled Saeko to her very core.

"Saeko…they're here." The American said as he then pulled her close in a crushing embrace.

Author's Notes:

Just a little teaser to whet your appetite.

It's still very rough, so I'll be tweaking it a bit more, but I wanted to leave you with an idea of what's coming up next chapter.

Hopefully I can get Chapter 51 done by the first week of December.

Until then, take care, and thanks again for your support! Jim