Highschool of the dead: The British Outbreak
Chapter 17: Beside the dying fire
Chester safezone
North Gate
Z-day +55
22:00
Private O'Donnell yawned for what seemed like the 4th time in 5 minutes while Private Parker took another look around beyond the wall with the night vision scope.
"Well, this is shit," said O'Donnell. He and Parker had been busted by the first class A-hole known as Sergeant Owens for being late for parade. As their punishment, they'd been assigned night duty on the north gate for the next 2 weeks.
"Smoke?" asked Parker, pulling a packet of cigarettes from his fatigues and offering one to O'Donnell. He took the cigarette and was about to light it up when a thought crossed his mind.
"Not worried about that sniper?" He asked Parker who was midway lighting up his own ciggie.
"Nah," He replied, "Only shoots during the day. Beside's nothing out there. I checked NV's and thermal."
"Alright then," Said O'Donnell as he lit up his own cigarette. The warmth from the fag was welcome in the cool darkness of the night.
"So you go see those ladies down on Fillmore street?" asked Parker. O'Donnell smiled.
"Oh yeah," he replied smugly. "Them ladies were bang tidy. Well worth a tin of beans."
"You go for the full package?"
"Catflap and back door mate."
"Fuckin' A lad! Fuckin' A!" The 2 soldiers laughed together until Parker stopped.
"Do you hear that?" he asked. O'Donnell stopped laughing and listened. In the distance, they could hear the rumble of vehicles, as well as something clattering and squeaking with it.
"There aren't any overdue patrols or runs are there?" asked O'Donnell, looking slightly concerned at his friend.
"Not that I know of," said Parker. The 2 soldiers hurriedly extinguished their cigarettes. Parker went for the radio while O'Donnell grabbed the GPMG, cocking the machinegun's slide and training the 7.62 machine gun down the road.
What came thundering down the road both surprised, and terrified him. A large, boxy, dark green vehicle thundered towards them with 3 white vans behind it.
"TANK!" he shouted right before he opened fire with the GPMG. The 7.62 rounds peppered and bounced off its armoured hull and turret. O'Donnell watched in horror, there was nothing he could do to stop what came next.
The tank crashed through the gate like a car would a weakened wooden fence. It slowed to a stop as the 3 vans passed it and drove further into town. The tank's turret began to turn.
"Sound the alarm! Sound the..." shouted O'Donnell as he looked at the tank's gun in horror. The last thing he saw was a flash from its gun, his body was pulverised a moment later by the high explosive shell.
Ops room
Chester Castle
Jason looked up from his map when heard them, 3 quick explosions.
'The fuck was that?' he thought. Then he heard the sirens. Early on in the outbreak, they had installed a world war 2 air raid siren at each of the gates, to be sounded in the event of a breach. The drill was that if the sirens sounded, all civilians locked themselves inside anywhere they could and the military was authorised to expend any and all resources necessary to fill the breach and secure the city. But many people wondered about the military's ability to respond in the event of a breach...
And looking around the ops room, where people stood frozen at their stations, their worst nightmares were coming true.
"STAND TOO!" shouted Marsden as he entered the room. "Initiate contingency plan Alpha! Someone gets me a status report on the breach site."
"YES SIR!" shouted the room. Jason was out the door and raced for his bunk to grab his kit. He had to sidestep soldiers in the hallways who were in varying stages of readiness for combat. Jason knew that only a few soldiers had as much combat experience as he did, and quite a few were still in training. He burst into his room and started gearing up.
As he pulled on his body armour he heard 2 more explosions. Jason tried to work out what the hell was causing it as he finished buckling up the clips on his armour and loading his L85.
'Too slow and loud to be a fifty cal.' He thought, 'maybe a grenade launcher?' If it was or something like it, whoever was firing them off was a real maniac. He quickly double checked his gear to make sure it was all A-ok, before heading out the door and back towards the ops room.
Akio
patrol base Cornwell
"Corporal Long!"
Akio looked up from her dinner and paperwork to see an out of breath and outright panicked looking Private from 3 Section.
"Corporal... Radio call... Chester...Attack..."
"Calm down Private," said Akio. "Deep breaths, then tell me." The private took a few deep breaths before trying to relay his message for the second time.
"Command put out a radio call on all channels. Chester is under attack and the north gate has been breached."
"Infected or marauders?" asked Akio as she rose to her feet.
"Both," replied the Private. Akio froze for a moment, Jason and Alex were in Chester along with nearly 2000 civilians, and only about 120 soldiers, mostly recruit and support staff, most of the actual fighters were deployed at the patrol bases. If the gates were also breached, the sounds of fighting would bring more infected to the city. The only way they were going to stop this was if they plugged the breach in the wall, and kill as hostiles within.
"Listen in!" Akio shouted, getting the full attention of the group of soldiers that had overheard the private's report. "I want 1 and 2 sections geared up and ready for deployment! Full battle order! Break out the Minimi's! NCO's report to me, wheels rolling in 10 minutes! LET'S FUCKING MOVE PEOPLE!"
Jason
Chester Safezone
Chester Castle
22:07
Sergeant Rees returned to the organized chaos that was the ops room. The room was filled with uniformed 'brasskissers' who were running around. Some were talking into radios, giving orders and receiving reports from those on the other end. Others were trying to frantically sort other things that Jason was sure were important. In the centre was Marsden.
"Someone get me a status report," ordered Marsden, despite the desperateness of the situation, he was calmed and composed.
"Sir," said one brasskisser, "Fireteam Vector has been engaged near the cross. They've lost their IC and 2IC and are panicking, something about a tank and infected in the city."
"Anything from Sale and Owens?" asked Marsden. Jason noticed that there was a suspicious absence of senior level NCO's. He surmised they were either engaged or organising the defence but if they were missing, they could well be dead.
"They were at a meeting in town hall sir," called someone. "The enemy just stormed it."
If the marauders had just stormed the town hall and all the other senior city council members were unaccounted for, that made Marsden acting leader of the safe zone. However, Marsden was in his mid 60's, and no longer the jerry combat rupert he had been with the RAF regiment in his younger years.
"Sir!" called another Brasskisser. "The police guarding the town hall just got overrun. Marauders are in. Team Vector is still taking heavy fire from that tank. We've also got reports of infected inside the perimeter. "
"At the Northgate?"
"No. Bedward road!"
"Shit. Right," said Marsden, sighting Rees standing by and waiting for orders. "Sergeant! Get out there, take command of Vector and find out what the fuck is going on with that tank. Kill it if you can. Someone get a fireteam down to Bedward and ice those infected."
"Yes, sir!" Jason replied as he raced out the door and into the darkened streets.
Sale
Chester Town hall
Staff Sergeant Sale sat against the wall of one of the offices of the town hall, cramped against between an office worker and a filing cabinet. As others around him whimpered and cowered, he sized up the situation.
There was an armed guard by the door, clutching an MP5 submachine gun and wearing police issue armour set. He assumed the rest of them were searching the place for whatever they were after. They'd taken Sale's sidearm after he'd been forced to surrender, on order of Mayor Reva. He'd then been forced into a store room with the other survivors of the assault, their hands and feet had been bound with duct tape. So far, clandestine attempts to find something sharp to cut through the tape had proven fruitless.
Across from him, Sergeant Owens did nothing, just sitting there dejected. Sale was about to attempt to get some life out of the other man when the door to the office was thrown open. Sale could see that the hall outside was full of figures milling about in the doorway. One figure entered the room, he had scrawny black hair. He wore a shoulder holster with a Glock 17 holstered within. He had a look in his eye that told Sale he was both annoyed, and crazy.
"Who's in charge here?" he asked.
His voice was not dissimilar in tone to Sale's own, except he was letting anger seep into his voice and dominate his actions. No one answered him so he asked again, only louder and more angrily.
"I said! Who's in charge here?!"
"I am," said Sale. If he started laying into one of the civilians, he'd get whatever he wanted pretty quickly. With Sale, he might be able to stall him until reinforcements arrived, or at least buy them a little more time. The man walked up to Sale and looked him over. Then he spread his arms out and laughed.
"Well, why the fuck didn't you say so?"
His voice was strangely melodic, but still very much off, slightly unhinged. Sale could smell the remnants of alcohol on the man, and see grime and blood in the man's 5 O'clock shadow. He, in turn, looked sale over, taking note of his camouflage fatigues and the rank slides they bore.
"So what's your name?" he asked.
"Staff Sergeant Sale. First Chester Militia Company . Serial number 25346201." The man regarded Sale for a moment before glancing at the guard and laughing.
"First Chester militia company," he joked, "I didn't fuckin believe the doc when he told us but... fuckin 'ell! Can you believe this shit?"
"Fuckin' bonkers boss," replied the guard.
"Well then Sarge," Boss said with a grandiose voice. "You're going to give me what I want."
"Go fuck yourself."
Boss lost his grin then punched Sale in the face, knocking his head back into the wall behind him. Sale tasted blood in his mouth and spat out the remnants of a broken tooth.
"You see Sarge," said Boss, "You guys been takin' what don't rightfully belong to ya. So we're here for..." he considered his words. "Compensation."
"Dunno what you're on about mate," said Sale. He wasn't bluffing or stalling. He genuinely had no idea what this guy was on about. They hadn't taken anything from any group.
"Really? The food warehouse in Waverton? The TA base at Elsmere port? The car garage at Cheshire Oaks? The Broughton Safezone? You've been taking supplies that don't rightfully belong to you."
"And I'm guessing you think you're the rightful owner?" insinuated Sale. This guy was more deluded than he thought.
"Now you're getting it," Replied Boss, he knelt down so he was eye to eye with Sale. "So now here's what you're going to do. You're going to call off your troops, then going to tell me where all your weapons, ammo, medical supplies and food are. Then were going to take whoever and whatever else we want?"
"I'm not telling you shit," replied Sale. Boss looked at him for a moment, before standing and sighing.
"You know," he said as he drew his Glock and levelled it at Sale's head. "I believe you."
The last thing Sale saw was the muzzle flash of Boss' Glock. The slumped back against the wall, redecorated in his brain matter.
Boss looked at Sale's body once more, before turning to the second camouflaged figure sitting in the room corner silently.
"So who's next then?"
Jason
Jason sprinted down the rows with a fucking purpose.
He'd been listening to the battle through his radio set and it was not going well. The vast majority of their fireteams were busy trying to get civvies secure in safe areas, lock down storehouses or were occupied defending the hospital and military HQ. There had been no word from the police who were supposed to be securing the civvies and supplies so that the military could focus on plugging the breach and defending the city. As a result of their inactivity, the more experienced soldiers were stuck on defence duties, leaving the trainees to fight...
... and dying like flies.
3 more explosions went off around the corner, accompanied by the rumble of a large engine. That was the source of their problems, the attackers brought a tank and vans loaded with infected, sewing panic and terror.
'It's firing too fast to be a Challenger, but it's too slow to be a .50 cal. Maybe a Scimitar..." pondered Jason as he rounded the corner, then he caught a glimpse of it. It was a large, boxy, Dark green vehicle on tracks with a squat turret and short, thin Autocannon.
'Warrior.' Though Jason. The warrior was the standard infantry fighting vehicle of the British armour and had distinguished itself over its 30 years of service with the army. It's 30mm RADEN auto cannon was capable of chewing up light skin vehicles and infantry alike. This one, in particular, was busying itself with firing bursts of cannon fire into buildings and into anyone who fired on it. Following closely were a group of armed people on foot, like small fish following a shark.
Jason saw 2 figures dressed in MTP fatigues, crouching in the doorway of a store back from the row's viewing gallery and thus out of the warrior's sight. One of them saw Jason spiriting towards them and spun his rifle to him.
"Stop!" he snarled quietly. He looked Jason over. "Who are you?"
"Sergeant Jason Rees. Said Jason as he dropped to a knee by the private. "You guys Fireteam Vector?"
"Yeah, that's us," replied the other private. "Or what's left of us..."
"Better get inside Sergeant," said the first one, "Not safe out here."
The private turned to the door and knocked 3 times in a coded fashion, then the door opened and the 3 were ushered inside by another private.
The building had once been a bookstore, but as well as books now housed several civilians as well as a handful of soldiers. They all looked terrified, broken and defeated. Jason looked amongst the soldiers.
"Who's in command here?" he asked. The rookies of fireteam vector looked up at him with weary eyes.
"The boss is dead," said One darkly, "The 2IC is dead. No one's in command."
"Guess that means I'm it," said Jason. He stopped to think about the situation. Aim: Seal the gate and eliminate/ capture hostiles within the perimeter. Can't do that with the Warrior still in play. Solvable, blow the Warrior to fuckington come.
"Right, check weapons and ammo. I need 2 volunteers."
"You're not sending us back out there?!" exclaimed one of them. "They have a fucking tank!"
"It's an armoured personnel carrier actually," said Jason as he checked his L85 again.
"What fucking difference does that make?" exclaimed the Private. Jason shot him a whirly look.
"It means we can kill it Private," he said. The section gathered in around him. He looked around them as they looked at him expectantly. He pointed at one of them, his name tag read Gordons."Right. You run back to the armoury and get your hands on as many LAW's as you can and as many soldiers as you can. The rest of you with me, we're going to distract and engage the dismounted hostiles and the Warrior."
"Are you nuts?!" called a voice from behind. Jason looked over and saw an elderly woman in hysterics. "You can't order them to go and Fight! They could be killed! Stay here where it's safe!"
"Ma'am," said Jason turning his attention to her. "I would not ask them to do anything I would not do myself. But consider this, every moment we spend here soldiers are dying like flies holding back the infected that are getting in. By the time, this is over we may well require more graves than there will be people left to dig them. You are right, though; we could stay here and hide, but make no mistake, either the infected will find us and kill us, or those marauders will." He looked back to the soldiers.
"I will not sit idly by while others fight our battles for us. That said if anyone wants to stay here, do so with my blessing. Everyone else, let's go."
Jason simply stood up and walked towards and out the door. After a moment of looking among themselves, the remains of fireteam Vector got up and followed him.
They found him lying prone on the viewing gallery of the rows, just back from the edge and looking down into the street. The Warrior was on the street below. It had turned around, no doubt because after the crew had found that it wouldn't fit through the narrow back streets of the city. The thugs had stopped to loot a supply warehouse they'd gotten into while the Warrior turned round. Jason formulated a plan.
"Alright, tactical spacing, 10 meters apart, we lay down fire into that building when they start to come out. Fire off a few rounds then move like you've got a fucking purpose. That cannon will tear us to shreds. Let's move."
Vector spread out along the rows, taking up positions where they could shoot into the warehouse. Below them the Warrior finished turning and continued down the road, its headlights lighting up the otherwise darkened street. Jason leant in behind his rifle, settled on its grip pod, he kept one hand on the trigger while he clicked his radio with the other.
"All fireteam Vector Call signs, fire on my fire. Juliet Romeo Out."
Jason clicked the radio off, watched and waited, switching his L85 to semi-automatic and staring down its rail mounted Elcan lightweight Day sight (LDS). Despite being designed for daytime combat, the red chevron glowed as clear as day, hovering over the busted in warehouse door. The Warrior continued back up the road... then stopped in front of the warehouse.
Jason figured what was coming, he flipped off the safety. A man appeared out of the darkness of the warehouse, a large bag or rice over his shoulder. Jason settled the sight on the man's chest, breathed out and fired. The man went down, his buddies started to appear and panic as the rest of Vector started putting rounds into the doorway. As they did, the Warrior's turret started to turn towards them.
"FUCKING MOVE!" shouted Jason as he sprang up and grabbed his rifle. He just made it out of the way as a shop he'd been in front of exploded. He picked himself up and moved behind a pillar, going prone around it so he could fire at the dismounted men while in cover from their now sporadic return fire.
He fired twice, another went down, and Jason ducked back into cover. The voice of his urban combat instructor at Blackwater echoed in his head 'Shoot and Scoot. Don't let them figure out where the shot came from by firing from the same spot. That's how you stay alive.'
'It won't be worth a damn if we can't kill that Warrior, though.' Thought Jason. The 2 soldiers he'd sent to get LAW's and reinforcements weren't back yet, and they needed this thing dropped yesterday. Jason then had an idea.
'Dropped! That's it!'He turned his radio into the correct channel. "Hello Mortar Team Frost, this is Juliet Romeo. Request fire support, AP, 10 metres north of my position. Half way down Eastgate street. Mortar team Frost Acknowledge."
"This is Frost. Negative Juliet Romeo. Danger of collateral damage. Standing orders state no fire missions within the walls. Out."
"Useless fucking wankers!" swore Jason as he put his radio back onto Vector's channel. "Guess we're gonna have to wait for the LAWs."
Akio
Approaching Chester Safezone Northgate
22:17
Akio held as her Land Rover swerved around another infected and accelerated on. Driving with her were 1 and 2 sections, fully armoured and armed to the teeth. From what she'd picked up, The Northgate had been destroyed and the police and military were too tied down engaging the enemy and securing civilians to seal the gate. So Akio intended to roll up with her 2 Land Rovers and use them to block the gate until they could get something more solid in place.
"30 seconds out," said the driver. Akio nodded and relayed the instruction back to the troops in the back and the following land rover. Magazines were inserted, actions cycled and final battle rituals conducted. The top hatch of each Snatch opened and a gunner carrying a Minimi appeared. While it was a ferocious waste of ammo when used against infected, the L110 FN Minimi light machine gun was spectacular when it came to suppressive fire for use against thinking opponents, that and the gunners loved their affectionately dubbed 'confetti makers'.
The Snatches turned the final corner and came onto the road that led to the North gate, there were dozen's of infected in their path and the road was too narrow to dodge.
"Brace!" called Akio as the driver hit the throttle. The troops tightened their hold on the retaining straps that kept them in their crash seats as the Snatches shuddered as the knocked them aside and bounced as they ran them over. Akio watched as the gate grew larger through the bloodied windscreen.
"Make ready!" she called. The 2 Snatches screeched to a halt as they passed under the gate. The troops unbuckled themselves and made ready to exit. "Standby... GO!" The doors flung open and Banshee platoon entered the fray.
Johnny came out first, striking an infected out of the way with the pommel of his bastard sword as he drew it, before finishing it off with a brutal slash. In his wake 1 section followed,L85's raised and targeting, each rifleman fanning out into a semi-circle around the vehicles as they fired into the infected to the rear. Meanwhile Akio and Corporal Note, who had been riding in the passenger seat of 2 section's Land Rover, set about the infected to the front with assistance from the Minimi gunners on top cover.
Within minutes, the area was littered with infected corpses, laying in varying stages of devastation, dismemberment and decapitation. But as ever, more infected were coming.
"Get those Land Rovers in place," ordered Akio, her shotgun's muzzle still smoking from repeated use. "One section, get on the wall and cover the far side. Aber and Forty get up there in sniper positions. 2 Section, put out a radio call to say we've got the gate secured and cover the interior from the ground. ROE, if it's dead, kill it. If it's living and poses a threat, fire at will."
"YES, CORPORAL!" resounded the 2 sections as they scurried to their tasks and positions. As they did, a single shot rang out from the darkness, everyone ducked and jumped into cover.
"Did anyone see where that came from?" called Akio.
"Yeah," called down one of the gunners, he fired off a quick burst of fire from his Minimi. "Think I got him, can't be sure, though."
"Good work private," said Akio, "Right, everyone heads down, eyes on and give 'em hell!"
Owens
Sergeant Owens sat quietly in the van where he'd been placed by 'boss'. After watching Sale executed for resisting, when Boss had turned to Owens, he offered no resistance and told them what they wanted to know, the locations of all the closest storehouses, and nearest citizen shelters.
Boss had congratulated him on his intelligence for complying, before hauling him to his feet and taking out with him to a waiting van. After telling him everything he wanted to know, Boss had put him in the passenger seat of a waiting white van, guarded by a chain-smoking guard. A braver man may well have tried to relieve the guard of his weapon and try to fight back, but despite his big, booming attitude that he'd cultivated to intimidate dewy-eyed recruits, he was, deep down, a coward.
He was just trying to survive. And survival, sometimes, meant bowing down to someone else.
The van rocked as someone slammed the back door shut. A man dressed in a pair of jeans and a leather jacket appeared at the window, with an L85 rifle slung over his shoulder.
"That's the last of 'em," said the man, "Boss said to get out of here. Let the dead meat deal with the rest."
"You got it," said Owens's guard. He threw the butt of his current cigarette out the window and started the van. "What about the tank?"
"They're gonna chew 'em up a bit more and follow," the marauder laughed. "Let's go." The guard chuckled a bit before releasing the hand break and starting the van forward. The city streets were filled with infected, making Owens happy that the doors were locked . In the background, the sounds of battle raged on, gunfire, explosions, and the ever present moan of the infected. The guard remained silent as he drove the van onwards through the back streets, until they turned onto the street leading to the north gate, and he slammed on the breaks, causing Owens's to lurch forward in his seat.
"The fuck?" swore the driver. A moment later a single round shattered the windscreen and shattered his chest, spraying blood over the van's cockpit and over Owens. A moment later, a firefight started around him. Owens balled forward in fear, his head between his legs, whimpering and crying as bullets and shotgun rounds went off around him. After a moment, the firing stopped, slowly he lifted his head up.
Before he could react, his passenger door was thrown open and he was thrown face first to the ground by a figure clad in black. He could taste blood and gravel in his mouth and groaned as he rolled over and found himself looking at the business end of a sword held by a man in a black trench coat, accompanied by 2 soldiers in MTP with L85's trained on him.
"Akio, what about this one?" asked the man in black. Owens was relieved when he saw Corporal Long appear from behind the sword wielder. He ignored her disdainful look and started issuing orders as he got to his feet.
"Excellent. Corporal Long, I order you and your men to escort me back to..."
"Cuff him and thrown him in Snatch 2," ordered Akio. "If he tries to run, shoot him."
Owens spluttered as the 2 MTP clad soldiers grabbed him, one forcing him to his knees while the other bound his hands behind his back with a roll of duck tape.
"What?! Unhand me! Corporal Long! I am your commanding officer!"
"You are a traitor!" replied Long spitefully. "You were found riding willingly in an enemy vehicle loaded with our supplies which they stole. Be happy I don't give Forty the order to shoot you on the spot, like he did the driver."
"I was their prisoner!" snarled Owens as he was roughly pulled to his feet and taken towards Snatch 2. "I will see you shot for this! All of you!"
"Gag him," ordered Akio as she turned away from Owens to deal with more pressing matters. "He's a waste breath anyway."
Akio raised her shotgun on another approaching group of infected. She and a few others opened fire on them, but as she did, she couldn't help but worry about Alex and Jason.
"Jay's a hard bastard," said Johnny, as if he knew what she was thinking. "He'll be fine. And Alex is probably buttoned up inside the hospital."
"Probably," replied Akio as she blasted off the head off another infected before switching to her machete. Suddenly a quick series of loud explosion went off down the road, the infected halted their advance towards the gate's defenders and turned around, ambling back to investigate the new source of noise. There was no doubt that Jason was somehow responsible.
'He's probably having a field day huh?' though Akio as she brought down her machete on another infected.
Jason
Jason ducked back into cover as another shop exploded from the Warrior's cannon fire. He landed behind a pillar with a Private Green.
"This isn't going well," said Green. Jason was inclined to agree. He'd heard 2 Section's radio call earlier saying that they had blocked the gate, but the warrior was still chewing up the streets, along with his men.
"Well, we just need to hang on till those LAW's get here," he encouraged, swapping his rifle's empty mag for a fresh one, only to find it was his last one.
"Shit. Last mag," he said. He turned to Green. "How about you?"
Green had a quick dig through his magazine pouches before producing a full PMAG. "I've got one and a half left." He proffered the full one to Jason. "You can use it better than I can."
Jason reached out to take the mag when the shop close to Green exploded outwards. Jason was thrown by the blast and landed on his face a few meters away. He groaned as he picked himself up.
"Green? You ok?" he called. There was no answer. Jason looked back. Green lay against the pillar he'd been behind, a foot long piece of wood impaled through his head. Jason shook his head, he'd lost another one. Jason picked through Green's pouches, looting anything that he could use. He hated looting his dead comrade's body, but to refuse Green's gift of extra ammo would be to dishonour his fallen comrade.
In the street below, the Warrior turned its weapons on the infected that had started to arrive, chewing them up with its coax.
"Sergeant Rees!" called a voice. Jason looked down the Row's and saw the 2 Privates he'd sent to get LAWs, accompanied by a section of infantry, between them they carried half a dozen LAWs.
"We came as fast as we could," said Gordons as the infantry took cover where ever they could. "Got 6 LAWs. Should be enough."
"That all the reinforcements you could get?" asked Jason, exasperated at their only being 8 of them. Gordons shook his head.
"Fireteam Gecko. Everyone else is tied down defending HQ, the Armoury and the Hospital, especially the Armoury. Civvies are panicked and are demanding we shelter them and give them weapons. A few have even tried to leave the city."
"Can't say I blame 'em," said Jason, in the same situation he'd try to get his hands on a weapon as well, but still... "How many troops are tied down?"
"Probably about 80 or so plus a few police," replied Gordons. "And they're stretched thin."
This made Jason's blood boil. The reason that this whole thing wasn't over was that too many soldiers were being pinned down with babysitting duties that the police should be doing. Jason growled and let it go.
"Right, let's kill this thing," He said. "Fireteam Gecko. Fan out and ready the LAW's. Aim for just below the turret, that's where the ammo is."
Gecko fanned out down the rows taking up position. Jason accepted a LAW from Gordons and hefted the launcher to his shoulder, setting the sights on the Warrior's turret. He checked that his back flash was clear before settling his aim.
'Goodbye, you son of a bitch' He thought as he squeezed the trigger. The 94mm rocket shot out of the tube on a rod of fire, darting towards the APC. Along the line, 4 other rockets fired, their burn of their rockets roaring loudly as they went towards their target. The Warrior shook as it took 4 hits, with one rocket missing its mark and exploding in a nearby building. The Warrior started to burn, its engine exploded and the smoke started pouring from its vents. The commander's hatch opened, fire erupted from the open hatch as a burning figure started to climb out.
The soldiers watched as the burning man fell out of the warrior screaming. He fell off the turret, landing on the top of the troop compartment before rolling off and landing on the floor. He was still burning and screaming his head off. Jason dropped the launcher and raised his L85. He held the man in his sights for a moment, debating whether to put him out of his misery, let him burn to death, or let the infected get him. After a moment, he fired once, and the man stopped screaming. No one deserved to die like that. He clicked his radio to open channel.
"Alpha Charlie, Alpha Charlie, this is Juliet Romeo. Hostile armoured personnel carrier and accompanying foot mobiles have been neutralized. Over."
After a moment of static, Marsden came back over the radio.
"Juliet Romeo this is Zero. Good Work Sergeant. Extract your men back to HQ for rearming and retasking. Out."
"Alright, you heard the boss," said Jason. "Let's get out of here."
"Sergeant!" called a voice from below. Jason looked down to see one of the guys from Vector carrying a body over his shoulder. He came up the stairs to the rows and set the body down. "I pulled him from the Warrior's troop compartment, he's still breathing."
"Alright someone get me a med kit," said Jason as he set his kit down. "We do what we can now, then we..." He looked at the body and recognized the face. He'd last seen it sprinting away in terror into a heard of infected.
"Son of a bitch."
Well here we are, the penultimate chapter
Let me know what you think, there is one last chapter to come. No idea when it is going to be done so I will see you then.
As ever, please Review/Favourite/ Follow.
Jango