It was in the early hours before dawn when Nathan awoke to the sound of someone crying. Looking around, he saw that Lexie was crying in her sleep, most likely due to stress and the events she witnessed the day prior. Peter was sitting atop the humvee, drinking from his personal water bottle, keeping an eye out even though the doors to the warehouse were all secure.
"Hey, Captain. I'm going up to the Law Enforcement desk. You good until I get back? Shouldn't take me more than ten or fifteen minutes," Nathan said, standing up and stretching.
"What are you going to do when you get to the desk?" Peter asked icily.
Nathan frowned, "I'm going to see if there are any survivors there and see if we have an evacuation plan set up yet. If not, we'll simply take the humvee and head over to Torii Station and see if we can find Lexie's brothers."
"While I may not like you yankees, I'm not opposed to having more guns on our team," Peter said, wiping down his Walther with a cleaning cloth.
Nathan's frown deepened, though he said nothing else as he turned and headed towards the door to the office and unlocked it. After passing through the empty office, he headed down the hall towards the armory door, then took a left down the 'L' shaped hall and headed deeper into the building. The only sounds in the eerily empty halls were that of Nathan's soft footfalls on the carpet which coated the floors of the entire building.
Reaching the primary door to the LE desk, Nathan rank the intercom's bell and waited only for no one to answer him or buzz him in. He doubled back down the hall until he reached the door to the Flight Chief's office which was connected to the desk. This door only required a manual combination, so Nathan punched in the code and opened the door slowly. The Flight Chief's office was empty, though Nathan could see blood spattered on the two-way mirror that divided the office from the LE desk. He opened the interior door and saw two former SF members shuffling around. Even though one was looking straight at him, Nathan could tell that it couldn't see him.
"I hope you guys aren't playing a joke on me, 'cause it isn't funny," Nathan said just loudly enough to catch their attention. When they shuffled towards him, moaning wordlessly, Nathan drew his M9 and fired twice, dropping both of Them instantly. He then went around the wall to the window to the desk and saw more than a few of them shuffling around in the main lobby of the 18th SFS building, heading towards the window and running into the wall repeatedly.
"So they operated off of sound, rather than sight," Nathan muttered as he walked back around the wall and headed over to the alarm monitor's desk and looked up at the various CCTV screens that were connected to various cameras throughout the base. Gate 1 was still secure, though there was no way they were getting through the crowd on the other side unless they had a bulldozer or an APC. They could get a hold of a bulldozer from the Red Horse engineering group, though they would have to travel across the entire base and enter the munitions storage area (which was three times the size of Kadena AB) just to get there.
That'd be a waste of time, Nathan thought, and we don't have APCs on Kadena.
Looking at the other cameras, Nathan could tell that the rest of the base was in shambles and that most, if not all, of the population of Kadena had already joined the ranks of the dead. The monitor recording Gate 3 inbound, however caught Nathan's attention. On the screen were a handful of survivors, most likely from the Camp Shields area since there were a few Marines among them. The Marines were decked out in full battle rattle, so they were definately more capable in responding to the undead threat than the Security Forces of Kadena was, seeing as how a majority of them were dead or turned. Sadly, out of the five survivors on camera, only two of them were Marines. The other three were civilians.
Nathan took that moment to check the outbound camera and saw that there were more than a few of Them, some just in the tree line and others further up the road, close to the 24hr shopette. Nathan left the LE desk at a sprint, barreling through the hall and into the warehouse.
"We leave now," Nathan said, bursting through the office door, startling Peter and jolting Lexie awake when she heard the door slam.
"What do you mean we're leaving now?" Peter asked.
"There is a group of survivors walking through Gate 3, right now, and only two of the five are equipped to deal with the horde that's waiting for them. We'll go support them with this," Nathan said, slapping the side of the humvee as he went over to the shutter door and raised the door after unlatching it.
"We should be looking after ourselves at this point, sergeant," Peter pressed.
Nathan froze, "I'm sorry, Captain, but you are outside of my chain of command, and Kadena is my assigned installation. I am tasked with defending the people of this base, even if there are only a few left, I will do what is neccessary to ensure their survival. If you don't like that, Captain, then you can leave."
Peter narrowed his eyes, but said nothing as he climbed into the turret and loaded a belt of 7.62mm into the M240b. Nathan nodded as he opened the front passanger door for Lexie, then closed it after she got in. Nathan climbed into the driver seat and thumbed the ignition switch, then peeled out, heading for Gate 3.
Cpl Geoffrey Kuribayashi Dees adjusted his grip on his M27 as he, Sgt Julio Martinez, Bethany Saskua, Isabella Kingsley, and Ratio Nakomura walked through Gate 3 onto Kadena AB. While the Okinawan sun was rising into the sky and was already humid, Geoffrey listened to Isabella once again start to panic, worrying about her daughter who was stationed here on Kadena.
The fact that the gate shacks at Chibana and Gate 3 were both unmanned set off warning bells in the back of Geoffrey's mind, though Sgt Martinez had them press on despite the Marine's better judgement. Isabella went ram rod straight when she saw a crowd of Them further up the road.
"Julia!" Isabella screamed at the top of her lungs and ran straight towards Them, and from the sound of the surrounding moaning, attracted a great many more of Them.
"Shit. Dees, get those two civies back to that gate shack back there, I'm gonna try to save that crazy lady," Martinez grimaced even as he said it.
"You know that's suicide, right, Sergeant?" Geoffrey asked.
"Hey, I'll meet you at the bar on the other side," Martinez grinned, giving Geoffrey a thumbs up as he charged after Isabella. The civilian went down quickly, bitten first by what used to be her daughter, then by a thing wearing ACUs. Martinez faired better, emptying his M4 into a growing crowd of them before he was overtaken. Geoffrey shook his head at the stupidity he had witnessed, but said nothing as he walked backwards, taking careful aim and firing into the crowd as he moved, making his shots count.
Just as he was sure that the horde would take him out, he heard the familiar sound of an approaching humvee, as well as the distinct rattling of an M240b. An olive drab humvee, with a guy in black fatigues in the turret manning the machinegun, cut a bloody path through the crowd until it pulled alongside the gate shack where Geoffrey and the two civilians took cover.
The gunner shifted fire as the driver pulled down the window, "Get your asses in here, Marine! We're getting you people out of here!" Geoffrey recognized the uniform as Air Force, and that the four stripes on the guy's arm meant that he was an NCO.
"Roger that. Bethany, Ratio, get in while we cover you," Geoffrey said loudly, slinging open the back back left passanger seat, seeing as how the humvee had pulled up alongside the gate shack on the wrong side of the road. Geoffrey posted up on the back corner, only firing when one of Them got within twenty feet, and once the two survivors were piled in, Geoffrey slapped the side of the humvee as he climbed into the seat and slammed the door closed.
The Air Force guy stomped on the gas and the humvee roared off the installation and straight back towards Camp Shields.
"Hey, Sarge, we just came from there, Camp Shields is a no go!" Geoffrey shouted.
"I guessed that, we're heading to Chibana housing," The NCO yelled over his shoulder. It only took about two minutes to reach the off base housing area and once the humvee was just inside the open gate, the driver hopped out and closed the gate behind them. He ducked inside the gate shack for a moment and came out with a padlock and a key ring, then used the padlock to secure the gate.
"We don't know how many of Them are in here, Sergeant," The guy in black fatigues frowned as he took a sip from a bottle of water that he procured from inside his trenchcoat. Geoffrey could tell from his accent alone, without looking for any unit patches, that the guy was British military. From the color of his fatigues, Geoffrey guessed he was SAS.
"This is just temporary, Captain," The NCO said, "y'all can get out of the humvee now and take a breather. I'm SSgt Nathaniel Hawke. The turret gunner is Captain Peter Michael Whyte with the British SAS. The lady in the front seat is Journalist Lexington Harper."
"Corporal Geoffrey Kuribayashi Dees. This is Bethany Saskua and Ratio Nakomura, they're both university students from Ryudai," Geoffrey said tiredly.
"You did good getting them as far as Kadena, but the Air Base is a no go as well. We were going to try our luck with Torii Station and see if Lexie's brothers are doin' alright," Nathan said. He looked over the tired survivors, then popped open the back hatch and tossed the trio each a bottle of water.
"We've got MREs as well, but with three additional survivors, we'll have to ration them out sparingly. How are you on ammo, Corporal?" Nathan asked.
"Yellow. I've got three mags left from my rifle, two spares for my M9," Geoffrey reported.
Nathan immediately tossed him another M9 magazine before turning to Bethany and Ratio, "What about the two of you?" Then he saw that Ratio was carrying a kitchen knife and that Bethany was packing a baseball bat.
"Nevermind. You guys are free to go wherever you want, but you're free to stick with us as well. I'm sure Lexie wouldn't mind some female companionship. A little estrogen to balance out all the testosterone and all," Nathan grinned.
"I'm sure Ratio," Bethany said, shooting the knife wielder a dirty look, "has more testosterone than you three soldiers combined. The guy's a manwhore."
Ratio grinned, "You're just jealous of my good looks, Sunshine."
"This should be interesting," Lexie rolled her eyes.
Ratio gave the blonde a warm smile, "So your name is Lexington. Do you mind if I call you Lexie like SSgt Hawke does?"
This, for some inexplicable reason, irked Nathan, "Hey, Mr. Nakomura. Might I have a word with you for a moment?"
Ratio winked at Lexie before he followed Nathan to the otherside of the gate shack, near the water tower, "What's up, Sergeant?"
"Lexie's been through a lot already, so don't lay it on her so hard, Mr. Playboy. Anyways, do you know how to use a gun?" Nathan asked.
"Oh? Do you have your eye on Ms. Lexie, Sergeant?" Ratio grinned.
Nathan shot the younger man a withering stare, "Now is certainly not the time to be thinking about that sort of thing. Can you shoot or not?"
"Alright, Sergeant," Ratio continued grinning as if he were privvy to a secret that no one else knew, "my father's friend took me shooting once a long time ago."
"So that's a no," Nathan muttered, then unclipped his holster and handed it to Ratio, "take this. When we run into more of Them, I'll show you how to use it properly. Until then, make sure you memorize what I tell you."
Nathan then went on to show Ratio how to use the M9, how to reload, and where to look when aiming.
"Wouldn't it be easier to focus on the target behind the front sight post?" Ratio asked.
"No, you want to focus on the front sight to the point that everything else is slightly blurry. This makes you more accurate when firing," Nathan said as he and Ratio rejoined the others, "Corporal, how long have you guys been moving?"
"Since late yesterday afternoon and through the night, Sergeant," Geoffrey said.
"I see. Well, we'll stay here and let y'all rest. I'll take first watch, so you everyone get some shut eye while you can. Tomorrow, we'll head out towards Torii Station," Nathan said.
A/N: I know that this chapter was shorter than the other one, and that it took a little longer to get out there, but I've been a little busy since I started outprocessing for my new assignment in Texas. I should be able to get one or two more chapters out there before I PCS, but it may take about a month to publish anything after that while I relocate and have all my stuff shipped from Okinawa back to the States. Still accepting OCs, and you know how to send them in, so don't hesitate to generate new characters even if you've already submitted one. Check y'all later.