Chapter 6
"Let's move out!" Major Noah Horne bellowed to his rescue force of 200 soldiers. He got back into the passenger seat of the lead truck, giving the driver the order to go. Their first stop was the college at the top of the hill behind the base, to see if they could pick up any students or professors. After that, the plan was to split into 4 equal groups and search the surrounding homes and local businesses and try to pick up as many civilians as possible.
"Alright sir, where should we go first?" the driver asked Noah.
"Pull up to that first building, and we'll start from there. " He replied.
"Yes sir!" the young man replied as he lead the large convoy of vehicles and soldiers to the first large class building. Jumping out Noah signaled to his second in command for this mission, sergeant-major Matney to come forward.
"I want you to go through this building quickly, but throughly, pick up any uninjured civilians and put them on the trucks. If anyone has been bitten, take them outside if at all possible and dispose of them as quickly as possible with a shot to the head. Use any force you deem necessary to get the job done, and don't hesitate to use lethal force if you encounter any resistance. Is that understood?" Noah asked him with a hurried but calm urgency.
Larry only confirmed that he did with a grim nod of his head. " I know it's a tough situation, but these are tough times, we've got to do what we have to just to survive." Noah told the man trying to ease the discomfort clearly showing in his eyes.
"I know sir, you can count on me to get the job done, im just worried about my wife and little girl." Larry told his superior with a haunted look on his face.
"I know Larry, I'm sure there fine, they're visiting your mother-in-law in oklahoma aren't they?" Noah asked while putting a hand on the mans shoulder. Getting another nod for a response Noah continued. "I'm sure they're fine Larry, that's till a ways away from any of the really bad hit areas, and I'm sure they went to a local base and stayed there. They'll be fine Larry, you've got to focus on this mission, any kind of distraction will get you killed." Noah told him.
"Yes sir, don't worry about me, I'll be fine, we'll see how many people we can get out of this place safely." Larry told Noah in a slightly more serene voice. With that they entered the building through the front entrance, Larry lead a team down the right corridor while smaller groups went in from various side entrances and the main rear entrance.
Noah led a squad of six, including his aid Corporal Johnson, down an eerily quiet hallway checking the doors and rooms, calling if anyone was there. After 6 locked doors, they finally came to a room where a loud voice could be heard trying to describe the main differences between the north and south before the civil war. Glancing at Johnson, Noah pulled out his favorite side arm, a vintage Colt M1911. It only held a seven round magazine, but he had extra clips for it and also a backup, his Beretta Model 92SB with a thirteen round magazine, both handguns packed a respective punch. With his sidearm out, Noah knocked on the door several hard times. "Open up! This is the national Guard and we're here to evacuate you!. Within seconds and middle aged man with premature grey hair and a small trimmed beard opened the door.
"Evacuate? To where and why?" asked the bewildered professor.
"We're here to evacuate you to the national guard base, for the reason why, that's not for you to know." Noah told the man while motioning for the man to go out the door.
"I don't see why were being evacuated, there hasn't been any kind of trouble around here, its all out east, although someone did try to mug Corey." The professor told the man as he was lead outside. Noah looked at the man with a scrutinizing glare, then turned back to the classroom and took in the small group of students currently sitting with bewildered looks on their faces.
"Hello, my name is Noah Horne and if you would please quickly and orderly follow me outside we will begin to evacuate you to the compound." He told the group of 11 students in a calm but reassuring voice. "Have any of you been bitten or attacked by anyone?" he asked. Two people raised their hands, including the young man named Corey, and a rather tall redheaded woman.
"If you two don't mind, go check with PFC Stiltner when you get out the door so she can check you over and treat your injuries, if that's it, we don't have much time, so if you would please follow me." He finished as he stepped out of the door with the young students beginning to follow. Noah went up to PFC Stiltner, a short woman of about 30 who worked part time as a travel agent, and put his hand on her shoulder. "Take them outside, make sure there bites first, and make it quick, one shot to the head and lets get out of here, catch up with us at the end of the hall." he said in a low voice as the students were coming out the door, she gave a quick salute as she motioned for the two students to follow her. "Alright, lets get you on a truck and get you out of here. We don't have all day to waste." Noah said while leading the group down the hall. Less then a half minute later 2 rapid gunshots could be heard.
As soon as they got outside the scene greeting them is what a few people would call a "Chinese fire drill." With soldiers leading civilians towards the trucks as fast as possible, with the occasional loud percussion of various firearms being discharged filling the air. Jogging towards the man he wanted to talked to, Noah came upon Larry while he was having a heated discussion with someone on the radio.
"What's going on Sergeant Major?" Noah asked.
"Lieutenant Robertson has reported that Captain Goodell has returned with enough vehicles and various materials to begin fortifying the base, he has also reported light casualties, with 13 soldiers being killed outright, and having to put down another half dozen from bites. There hasn't been much resistance and apart from a few moderate encounters with these creatures, the mission was completed with relative ease, it appears that this area hasn't felt the full effects of the epidemic yet sir." Larry told Noah in a rushed voice.
"Tell Lieutenant Robertson that we will hopefully return in 6 hours, and sooner if we run into heavy resistance. He can use any means he deems necessary to fortify the main compound well, I don't want any breaches of the compound. This will just be the basic defense, well add more later." Noah told the man while watching a relatively small amount of civilians were boarded onto the empty trucks.
Larry nodded and began to relay those instructions to the Lieutenant back at base.
In very little time the small campus was searched, leaving the college in an ill quiet. With everyone safely aboard the trucks, Noah went up to the group of soldiers that had lead the various evacuation squads hoping to get a count of civilians aboard the convoy. "How did we do?" Noah asked the small group of 9 people. Larry matney spoke up for the group.
"We evacuated, lets see, 59 students, 11 professors and 6 cafeteria workers. 76 in total sir. We had to shoot 13 due to bites, but we didn't have any casualties as a result. Sir, it seems to just be sporadic attacks at the moment, the creatures haven't made an appearance as of yet, but we know there near due to the bitten civilians." Larry replied to his commanding officer.
"That's not a bad little number of civilians." Noah half muttered to himself, then looked at Larry. "Yes, were rather lucky at the moment that we haven't encountered any of the creatures yet, but rest assured that in probably a very short we will be wading balls deep in those things and we have to try to get everything set up and ready to be defended before we face a full assault from them." Noah responded to Larry and small group.
"Now that we've evacuated this facility, we will split into four groups and go east, west, north and south. Larry, you take your squad east, sergeant major Bradley, take yours north, sergeant major Houston takes yours south, also swing by the Wal mart and try to very quickly pick up some food and supplies. I'll lead my squad west into the residential areas. Lets see if what we can find. If anyone runs into any major trouble report in and pull back towards the base. If you run into single or small groups of the creatures, take them out, shots to the head only now, no need to waste ammo. You all know what needs to be done to people who have been bitten, regardless of who they are, we don't need and major shit to happen because someone got sentimental and had a major lapse in judgement. These are some hard times, and I know you may have some doubts and personal opinions about what's going on, but remember your training and push those aside to accomplish the mission, there will be time for that later my friends. Now anyone have any questions before we move out?" Noah asked while looking the group gathered there in the faces.
They took a few furtive glances around, but only Larry spoke up. "No sir, we know what to do to get the job done. Well see how many people we can save today sir." Larry responded with a salute and a fierce look in his eyes. The rest of the soldiers instantly saluted in return to the statement Larry had said.
"Very well people, I believe its time to get moving, we've wasted enough time sitting here yapping." Noah told them. "Good luck and happy hunting, be careful and exercise extreme caution, don't engage them unless absolutely necessary. I want to see all of you again in a few hours. Dismissed." With that the group departed, and Noah climbed aboard the lead truck to take his squad into the suburbs of hell.
Rapid gunfire could be heard throughout the neighborhood, making sounds not unlike what one would hear on the fourth of July as children played with their thousands of firecrackers. Screams of the undead and living could be heard mingling in the warm spring air. People of every religion and race and gender could be seen running about trying to escape the ensuing chaos. To any un-effected observer, the scene could only be described as a page taken directly from hell itself.
"Pull back goddamn it, there's too fucking many of these assholes!" Major Noah Horn screamed to what was left of his squad while he fired his sidearm into the forehead of a overly obese man dressed in a torn business suit and with only one arm. The man went down in a heap, falling nicely into a pile of about a dozen fallen undead. Turning around he began to run towards the convoy of trucks, his soldiers falling in behind him. His driver was waiting for him just ahead standing outside the lead truck, looking scared nearly to death. Noah was within fifteen feet of the soldier, whom he could not remember his name, when a woman who was draggin her entire digestive tract around her feet jumped around the front and bite deeply into the young boy's thickly muscled neck. Blood sprayed in a crimson jet across the door as the young man began to scream, trying to beat off the woman, in turn making her tear out half of his neck in the process. Noah cursed, and drew his pistol, neatly put a bullet into the back of the woman's head, making it splatter like a rotten watermelon. Running up to the boy he could see that he was still alive, but only barely. "Sorry about this son, but im going to have to do it." Noah said as he positioned the weapon into place and put a bullet through the dying mans head, ending his misery.
Climbing in, he slid over to the drivers seat, and put the truck in gear, just as corporal Johnson, his aid, jumped into the passenger seat, breathing like he had just ran a marathon, and locked the door. "Go sir, we need to get out of here, go, go, go!" He said in a hysterical voice.
"Calm down Johnson, were getting out of here son." Noah told the boy while putting the truck in gear and starting down the road. He picked up the radio to check out the condition of his force. "First sergeant taylor, are you there?" He asked loudly.
"Yes sir, im here, but just by the skin of my teeth sir." First sergeant Brad Taylor responded. "What do you need sir, im three vehicles behind you."
"What's the status report? How many civies did we pick up and how many casualties did we receive?" Noah asked in a quiet voice.
"As of right now we've got just over a hundred people on board. We kept losing more than we could save, and we took heavy causul..Run over it goddamn it!!...stupid thing ran in front of the truck. We took heavy casualties, losing 31 men sir, and 4 trucks. We've only got 19 men left sir, we're in trouble if we run into anything like that again." Brad told him with a heavy voice.
"I know Brad, but were close to the base now, I just hope for the love of god that Robertson and Goodell have that base secured and ready to receive us. Were only 5 minutes away now son, just hang in there and well be fine." Noah told him. The other groups hade reported in, Bradley's squad had been hit the worst, with only 9 soldiers left alive and 27 survivors. The other two had been relatively unharmed, picking up nearly 190 civilians. Noah hoped that he had done the right thing and not wasted his men's lives, and that staying at the base was the right decision.
"Sir, look at that, how did they get here?!" corporal Johnson asked in an incredulous tone.
Looking ahead at the base, Noah saw what had Johnson's panties in a wad. The base was well fortified alright, but there was no earthly way he was getting in there. At the front gate stood what had to be nearly 300 undead.
"No fucking way...damn this is going to be a long day." Noah said as he pulled to a stop a long distance away and tried to come up with a plan to gain entry to safety before the small horde in front of him noticed the meals on wheels.
A/N sorry bout the late update, ive been having some health problems, gal-bladder and pancreas, but im better now and maybe i can get back into the swing of things, hope you enjoyed the story.