Hey guys! It's been a while since the last update to any of my stories really, but here we are! I want to apologize, i've been run ragged with studying for finals, reviews, etc. etc. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, I ended writing literally the WHOLE THING in the two hours I had after one of my exams lol :D.
Always remember, reviews good, bad, and ugly are welcome!
ANYWAY, my personal life aside, let's get back to: A Broken World
The convoy was quiet as they made their way to the Namikaze estate. Naruto, Sasuke, and their families took lead, with Kiba, Shikamaru, Neji, and finally Choji and his family bringing up the rear. Akari, Yushin, Shinji, and Mei all played meaningless games, trying to pass the time. Naruto and Sasuke had retracted the bed covering, and were watching the forest with mild interest. Whatever anomaly had been following them before seemed to continue following. Every so often, one of them would catch a hint of movement or a flit from the end of a branch snapping. Naruto felt himself go stiff as he saw it again, breaking a tiny branch in the foilage. He wasn't able to time the movements all that well, but he knew they weren't that common. 'The less they move, the better' he figured.
"Hey teme, should we...tell anyone this thing's been following us?" Naruto's voice rumbled quietly. Sasuke looked hard at Naruto, before sighing. He considered their options, and telling everyone would only put their already worried group in an even more stressful state. He shook his head slowly.
"I know whatever that thing is, it definitely isn't good seeing as it's been following us, but we'll just have to deal with it when the time comes. We shouldn't put everyone else so far on edge." he said. Naruto looked at his hands thoughtfully.
"Yeah, you're probably right." he muttered
"When am I not?" Sasuke smirked. Naruto grinned at him. "Hey Hina-hime! How far away are we?" Naruto asked. Just then, he spotted another dark flit in the wood, and felt his unease grow. They needed to get out of here fast.
"Only about 10 more minutes Naruto, why?" she called out. Another movement. Sasuke caught it this time, and looked to the blonde haired soldier, slight panic in his eyes.
"Just wondering babe, don't worry" He returned. He stepped close to Sasuke, and began whispering.
"You saw it didn't you? It's picking up the pace." Sasuke nodded, frowning. "We gotta keep them safe, let's lock down the cab, open the firing ports in the bedcover." He finished, casually strolling over to the cab. "Gah, what the hell stinks?" he groaned loudly.
"Language!" Sakura and Hinata scolded simultaneously. Naruto smiled sheepishly and scratched his head.
"Lemme close the cab so you guys won't smell this crap" He said, locking down the cab. Sasuke began pulling up the bedcover on his side, spotting another movement. He forced himself to remain calm as he quickened his pace. Naruto spotted another movement as he began pulling his side up, and felt a bead of sweat trickle down the side of his rugged, whiskered face. Both men moved to the center and clasped the bedcover walls together over the top. They moved back to their separate sides and opened the firing ports.
Sasuke smirked as he remembered adding this to the bedcover. There was one firing port on each side, about the size of a car windshield. Granted, the defender was somewhat exposed, but the advantage was great nonetheless.
Naruto gripped his M-4 tighter as he saw not one, but two more flits in the trees. Something told him those things were starting to get impatient.
"Dobe, is it just me, or are there more of them?" Sasuke asked, his voice strained. Naruto's heart stopped as he saw...it, stop on a branch and look at him.
It was a young man, maybe 26, around average height, maybe 5'7", with gray, mottled skin, similar to that of the things they encountered on the road earlier. The speed was on obvious factor that separated them from their slow, shambling counterparts. The two things that struck a nerve in the blond soldier, were it's eyes and mouth. The eyes were a bright red with no pupil, devoid of all life whatsoever. Naruto had seen his fair share of thousand yard stares and shell-shocked faces in wartime, but the gaze he saw made him falter for the first time in years. The worst however, was it's mouth. It's cracked, dead lips spread to show three rows of needle-like teeth, razor-sharp and stained with what looked to be blood. It was only an instant that the creature stopped, but that was all it took for that one image to become permanently imbedded in his memory. It disappeared back into the trees just as quickly as it stopped, leaving Naruto frozen.
"uto...N...to...Naruto?!" Sasuke barked, breaking his comrade out of his thoughts. Naruto shook his head and looked at Sasuke with his piercing blue eyes. He dashed to the window and yanked it open.
"STEP ON IT" He bellowed, just as something landed on top of the bedcover. All of the children immediately began panicking. Mei and Akari began crying, huddling with their brothers and Sakura for comfort. Sakura opened her mouth to protest, but stopped when she saw the look Naruto gave her.
"What the hell was that?" Hinata shrieked, slamming her foot to the gas, causing the anomaly on top to roll backwards on the top of their truck.
"Forget it, just go!" Naruto yelled, shutting the cab window.
"Ace there's something on your roof!" Kiba called in his ear. Naruto gave Kiba's jeep a thumbs up as he clicked the radio in his ear off. He was about to call to Sasuke, but stopped when he saw him staring wide-eyed to the tail end. The creature he had seen not even 2 minutes ago was standing at the back entrance of the truck, not even 6 feet away from them, smiling. The blonde soldier reacted quickly, raising his rifle and firing. 4 rounds struck home in the creature's chest, making it emit a howl that chilled the two ex-G.C to the bone. The creature quickly ran forward and grabbed Naruto, throwing him into the bedcover wall right next to Sasuke. The raven haired soldier shook himself out of his stupor, and fired 3 rounds, hitting it in the hip, knee, and thing, causing it to howl once more, before rushing towards him at a severely slowed pace. Sasuke quickly rolled out of the limping creatures way, bringing his rifle to his shoulder to fire. The creature lunged at him and tackled him to the ground. Sasuke grunted as it landed on top of him, only his rifle wedged between the two. It opened it's mouth and grinned as it pushed against the rifle, attempting to chomp down on the raven haired treat below him. Naruto woozily got to his feet, only to see his squadmate pinned under the thing about to be eaten. Naruto roared as he barreled into the creature, slamming it into the wall. The creature gnashed out at him, attempting to bite down on it's restrainer. Naruto held fast, pinning it's throat to the wall with his massive forearm, while he viciously bashed it's head against the wall. The creature's growls and hisses of anger eventually sputtered out as the life was literally bashed out of it by the monolith blonde.
"Geez dobe, haven't seen you go that hard in a loooong time!" Sasuke chuckled, getting to his feet.
"Yeah, had to do something to save your sorry ass." Naruto panted, dropping the dead creature. He cut his radio back on, hearing the group in a verbal frenzy. All of them assaulted him at once with questions, but he simply told them they'd discuss everything once they were safe in the estate. The four story mansion came into view, drawing their attention, temporarily at least. As the convoy approached the gate, the security systems requested the usual, either an appointment, optical scan, or departure from the premises. Naruto hopped out of the truck and allowed the machine to scan his eye. The large, solid, yet stainless, steel gate slid open, granting them passage, and the convoy rolled through. Naruto gently pushed aside a distraught Hinata, telling her everything would be okay, and drove the group to the side of the estate, showing them where to park.
As he exited the large truck, the group immediately began asking questions, trying to figure out what the thing that attacked the truck was? Were there more of them? Were they safe here? What would they do next? Naruto frowned as his attempts to qualm everyone were subdued by the endless barrage of inquiries. He walked to the only man that seemed to match his height and brawn, Choji.
"Listen Cho, I swear to god i'll answer EVERYTHING once we're safe inside. In the meantime, will you help me shut these guys up?" he rumbled. Choji nodded.
"EVERYONE" Naruto and Choji's voices sounded like the sound barrier had just been broken. Their group was immediately silenced, allowing Naruto to speak.
"Alright, I know everyone has questions that'll probably keep us up all night, but first we need to get everyone inside and safe, got it?" Everyone nodded and began unpacking the vehicles.
Naruto grunted as he hefted the last of the weapons into the underground basement. The organizing could wait, as of now, things needed to be explained. He walked up the stairs, only to nearly collide head-on with his team. All of them looked apprehensive at the oncoming discussion, and he could sense it. Shikamaru was the first to speak up.
"I know we've gotta explain the convoy attack, and you have to explain the zombies in the road, why we've moved here, all the good shit, but what about our military status, our past..." He trailed off, not needing an ending. Naruto looked at the group thoughtfully, before speaking.
"We'll tell everyone but the kids." The group nodded, before Neji spoke up once more, finally bringing the issue that had been silently plaguing their minds for the past few hours.
"What about the mission to the rockies?" he asked quietly. Everyone froze. Naruto sighed, before addressing the issue.
"Yeah...we're gonna have to tell them about that too." he said solemnly. All of them nodded silently, and filed into the living room.
All of their wives and children were relaxing and playing in the spacious accomodation of the living room when the ex-soldiers entered, smiles all around.
"Hey guys, why don't you go explore the house some? The grown-ups need to talk alone." Naruto grinned, ruffling Shinji and Yushin's hair as they led the crusade of little ones to the rest of the house. Naruto's face grew serious as soon as the children had cleared the room.
"Alright, I know everyone's got questions, so if we ca-"
"You're damn right we do!" Tenten growled, causing Neji to frown at her. Temari and Ino jumped afterwards.
"Can you please tell us why the fuck we just up and left home?!" Ino nearly screamed. "Seriously, why the hell are we here?!" Temari held Ino's volume. Naruto sighed, but waited for them to finish their incessant torrent of questions.
Naruto sat by his wife, who looked at him, wanting answers just as much as the next woman in the room, but decided to give him a chance to explain. The blonde soldier cleared his throat as the chatter died down.
"As I was saying...I'll list things we know and don't know. We don't know what these things are, just that they clearly don't like people. They can be killed by normal means, but are extremely resistant to any sort of damage to the body, and Sasuke and I found out they go down really easy with a shot to the head. Next, I think there may be...more than one kind of them." the women gasped, as a few of the men raised their eyebrows and leaned in closer. "I know Kiba caught a glimpse of the thing that jumped on Sasuke's truck. Teme and I saw it up close though, and it was...different." He noted mutely, before continuing. "It took way more damage than one of those walkers, and it still kept had the physique of a walker, but it had these red eyes, and a good hundred shark teeth, looked like they could tear through steel. It was extremely fast, and it's stronger than most men i've met, tossed me like I was nothing but a sack of potatoes." He grimaced, rubbing his side. His raven-haired partner picked up where Naruto left off,
"I know I broke it's knee and severely damaged it's leg when I shot it, but the thing slowed by maybe a step. It tackled me to the ground, and it felt like i had gotten hit by a train. Those teeth it had probably would've crushed my skull had the ol' 'blonde barbarian' not come along. Gotta hand it to you dobe, you're one strong bastard." he smirked. Naruto grinned back at him, before turning his attention back to everyone else. With a sigh, he introduced their history.
"See, you guys know we were in the special forces, but there was a reason we were never allowed to speak of it." all the women's eyes widened as they were finally about to hear one of the only secrets between them and their significant others. Naruto, noticing all of the eyes staring at him, and the heads of his comrades hanging, continued.
"We were part of a small, elite force, known as the Guardian Core. They're not exactly a formal branch of anyone's military, they're pretty much a global force that deals with certain things that could threaten the world. All the guys here, including myself, were part of the biohazard team, known as Taskforce Hiraishin, dubbed "The Thunder Gods. Our callsign was Echo-one-Delta, with our password being omicron-sigma." He sighed as the women stared at him with blank expressions.
"Okay, special forces have a callsign. I can be all sorts of different things, elements, animals, buildings, doesn't matter. The pass, short for password, is a word or phrase that lets the unit know they're being contacted or requested by a legitimate friendly unit, not an impostor. That clear things?" He chided with a smirk. All of them scowled in return, but nodded.
"Good thing, now anyway, back to what I was saying. Granted, we were special forces, so we did see our fair share of combat, deployments in Iraq, Africa, Turkmenistan, Sudan, etc. etc. Our main job however, was preventing viral outbreaks that could lead to possible apocalyptic events."
There was another sharp intake of air from everyone's wives at this fact. Naruto paused, feeling his wife's hand intertwine with his own, before continuing.
"We disposed of more viral and biological agents than, at least I, can remember. Things from a weaponized strain of tuberculosis that could kill within minutes, to strains of shingles that literally drove people batshit insane." He took a second to let his words sink in, his nervousness growing as he looked at his former teammates. All of them reluctantly nodded for him to continue. He took a deep breath, and spoke.
"Which kinda brings us in to things right now. I know all of Echo-one-Delta remembers, they just didn't wanna mention it to anyone. Anyway, around 4 years ago, we were given a top-secret mission to the rocky mountains. Apparently a couple of brilliant scientists had teamed up together and were experimenting with human beings, attempting to create what they dubbed 'The perfect being'. They'd done everything from stem-cell research to genetic splicing. They ended up essentially creating their own virus, which they named Solanum Subortus, meaning 'nightshade revival' or something along those lines. It had the ability to reanimate the brain of it's carrier after death. It was deemed a crime against humanity, and by the request of the American government, our unit was sent in to shut them down and confiscate all the evidence."
Naruto paused once more as his eyes seemed to glaze with tears, but they faded as soon as they came. Hinata squeezed his hand once more for support, and he continued.
"The experiments were conducted by three main individuals, as well as several off their peers, but the three leaders were: Dr. Orochimaru Yashagoro, Dr. Alfred Furnace, and Orochimaru's assistant, Kabuto Yakushi. Apparently, something had gone wrong with an experiment, and the subject attacked the staff. Uknown to them, it was spread throughout the facility, and the infected proceeded to kill anything living they could find. When we arrived, the entire place was chaos, the infected roamed the premises, dead, half-eaten bodies of assorted people and animals littered the place, and they were, obviously, incredibly hostile." Naruto's hands had begun trembling at this point, his breath shortened. Sasuke proceeded to pick up where his best friend left off.
"Our team consisted of Snake, Fox, known as Ace by his all of us, Shepherd, Shadow, Phantom, Tank, and Sandman. Respectively, Myself, Naruto, Kiba, Shikamaru, Neji, Choji, and...Gaara." Sasuke swallowed hard remembering their fallen comrade.
"Who was Gaara?" Sakura asked gently, pulling her husband's arm. Sasuke choked back his tears, and with a clear of his throat, he continued.
"He was the seventh member of our squad, K.I.A in the mission to the rockies..."
*FLASHBACK*
The mountain scene was silent, snow sitting atop the summits, only disturbed by the helicopter that zipped across the rockies, headed to the coordinates. The chopper slowed down until it hovered over a small platform of snow leading to a black fissure. A red light in the passenger bay blinked as a small siren blared
"Alright you bastards, here we go!" Echo-one-Delta's 6'3" blonde monolith of a captain boomed. Everyone fell into line behind their captain.
"Fall in on me!" Fox called as he repelled from the side of the vertibird. One by one the team fell into their line, Ace in the lead, followed by Snake and Shepherd on his immediate flanks. The back row consisted of the support, with snipers Shadow and Phantom approximately 2 meters behind their captain's immediate flanks, with Tank and Sandman arranged in a two-person row behind the captain.
"Falcon 2-5 we'll give you the signal for extraction." the captain radioed to the hovering VTOL which tilted it's propellers in recognition before flying away.
"Everyone knows the deal. Get in, eliminate the targets, set the charges, and get out." Ace called through their headsets. All of them gave various grunts of approval as they moved into the base.
Upon reaching what was supposed to be the vault-style door sealing the facility's entrance, they found it completely open and unguarded. Ace raised an eyebrow as he noticed the strange spectacle that greeted them.
"Alright ladies, keep it tight." he muttered into his radio. Everyone seemed to tense slightly at the command, but moved on fluidly. As they moved through the hallway and into the entrance plaza, they gasped at the grisly sight that greeted them. Arbitrary bodyparts were strewn and stuck to various parts of the room, accompanied by the stench of unadulterated death that radiated from the deceased, half-eaten bodies that were laid around the room. Ace swallowed hard, trying to suppress the urge to vomit. Even in his years of being with the military, he'd seen the bad and the ugly, but never anything that measured up to this.
"Phantom where are we?" he asked shakily in the mic. His squadmate checked his wrist-mounted GPS and found there position, relaying it to the captain.
"T-the entrance plaza" he responded uneasily.
"Eagle-eye this is Captain Naruto Uzumaki of Echo-one-Delta, requesting assistance at coordinates 46-98-42, approximately 13 deceased scientists found at entrance, possible hostiles in the vicinity." Ace spoke in. the radio crackled, but spoke.
"Echo-one-Delta this is Eagle-eye, request denied, you and your team are the only ones qualified to take this mission. Orders still stand, find and capture the HVT's along with any significant evidence and information, evacuate and destroy the complex. Eagle-eye out." the radio died away, leaving the team alone.
Ace swore as he turned to his team.
"Our orders still stand, so let's get this over with. Weapons free, proceed with extreme caution." he warned. All of them gave a nod and fell back into position. The group continued through the plaza, occasionally slowing to observe the carnage left behind by the still unknown assailants. They proceeded into one of the main workstations, only to be stopped as they heard a moan emit from the room in front of them.
"What the fuck was that?" Shepherd asked worriedly, only to be silenced by the raised fist of their second in command, Snake. Ace proceeded slowly, thankful for the lights of the facility still being active. He raised his weapon as the full of the room came into view, a lone figure staggering in what seemed to be an aimless path. It suddenly stopped, then whirled it's head to the side, staring at Naruto with two grayed, dead eyes. It emitted it's horrid moan once more, before it began a shuffling-jog towards the group.
Ace raised his ACR and fired 4 quick shots, causing it to fall. He gave a hand signal for his team to stop as he slowly walked forward to check the body. He gave them the clear to move up as he found no vital signs, only to be quickly proved wrong as it dragged it's arms under it, and slowly pushed up. Ace quickly stepped back and waited for it to stand again. He heard his entire team gasp over the radio as it go to it's feet and staggered towards them with a moan, ignoring the 4 gaping bullet wounds in it's abdomen. Ace fired again, hitting it once in the heart, 2 in it's thigh, and another in it's throat. The creature fell backwards and hit the ground with a thud, gurgling as the fluids flowed from a severed artery in it's neck. It once again, although even more slowly, got to it's feet and shambled towards the members of Echo-one-Delta. Naruto switched to fully automatic before emptying the rest of his magazine into the creature. It was literally shredded by the heavy rifle fire, losing an arm at the elbow before falling with it's head hanging to it's abdomen by half it's neck. It seemed to convulse slightly, before laying still. Everyone stood there silently as they waited for their captain to speak.
"Let's hurry up and get our targets and get the hell out of here. Shepherd, Phantom, on me. Snake, you take the others. We'll split up, radio in if anything happens or the targets are found, got it?" The team nodded curtly as they split off and began the search.
-Ace's team-
"Phantom, give me some scans here, I don't want us walking around blind." Ace grunted. Phantom kept pace with his two teammates as he ran various structural, biological, and heat-signature scans. He abruptly stopped, earning quizical glances from his teammates. He continued to stare hard at the scan results, before finally raising his head to inform the two soldiers.
"There's no sign of human life in this branch whatsoever." he spoke in disbelief. Shepherd immediately tried to reprimand him while Ace contacted Snake's team.
"What do you mean no human life?! Are you saying something besides humans did what we saw back in the entrance plaza?" he barked.
"I'm not saying something besides people did what we saw back there, i'm just saying my scans aren't returning any lifesigns, what else do you-" he was interrupted from his rebuttal as a moan came from the end of the hallway.
"Back to the entrance plaza! Just get there!" Ace screamed though his earpiece as the undead clambered down the hallway towards them.
"OI QUIT FUCKIN AROUND AND START FIRING!" Naruto roared as he raised his rifle and began pumping lead into the oncoming horde. His two comrades quickly fell in with him and began firing into the onslaught.
"Headshots! Remember to go for headshots!" Neji yelled, slamming another magazine into his M-14.
-Snake's team-
"Get me some scans A.S.A.P Shadow." he said as he led his team down other branch of the facility, eyeing their surroundings carefully.
"Uh, sSnake, all scans are...inconclusive..." he said shakily
"What do you me- Ace? What is it? No life signs? We didn't get any either. I know, i'm not su- huh? What?! Why?! Alright on our way!" Snake spoke seriously, turning to his team.
"They ran into more of those things, we're meeting them back at the entrance plaza!" he commanded as he sprinted towards the entrance. Tank, Sandman, and Shadow all hurried after him, missing the moans that came after them from the other end of their hallway...
-"Eagle-Eye"-
"Somebody, for the love of god, tell me HOW in the hell we can't reach them?! It's been over 3 hours since their last report, and i'm not sure about all of you, but I don't exactly like losing one of the best assets we have!" The commander yelled to the staff in front of him, all working vigorously at their computers.
"Sir, we trying all we can to tunnel a radio connection to them!" a corporal called. It only seemed to agitate their superior further.
"Trying doesn't really seem to be making the cut soldier, I need some damn results!"
"Y-yes sir!"
"Sir! Here! It's Captain Uzumaki!" A private waved down the commander, holding out his headset. The commander briskly walked to him and grabbed the mic.
"Echo-one-Delta this is Eagle-Eye, do you copy?"
"This is Captain Naruto Uzumaki of Echo-one-Delta! *gunshots, followed by a few barked commands* Requesting an immediate evac from extraction point! We have one critically injured and we are low on ammunition! Additional request, call in Charlie's Angels, I repeat, call in Charlie's Angels! We were unable to eradicate the facility, and we are under attack by *more gunshots, followed by a scream, then more gunshots* infected personel! HVT's unaccounted for, unknown if deceased or M.I.A, data collected, but we need an evac if we're gonna get this information out!" the taskforce captain screamed though his headset.
"Roger that, Falcon 2-5 is enroute, loaded for bear so support will be available! 405th airborne "Charlie's Angels" will be dispatched after your extraction, extraction e.t.a 10 minutes, Eagle-Eye out!" The commander barked.
"GET THEM OUTTA THERE!" the commander roared, but the room was already deploying the extraction team before he was even done talking.
-Facility-
"They're on their way, 10 more minutes!" Ace boomed over the gunfire and moaning. He grimly surveyed his fatigued team that were holding the makeshift barricade against the unending horde. 'Ain't no rest for the wicked' he thought, slamming another magazine into his ACR.
-*FLASHBACK WITHIN A FLASHBACK (:D)*-
After both teams had gone back to the entrance plaza, the undead had come from another branch, and we're waiting with bloody hands and open maws for the soldiers that stormed in. Both teams had tried to route their attackers down the branch that Snake's team had gone down, only to come face to face with another, albeit smaller, group of undead. They quickly dispatched the ones in their way and ran down the branch, ducking into the very first room that came into view. Fortunately, luck was on Echo-one-Delta's side this time. Not only was it devoid of undead, it just so happened that it was the main office of Orochimaru and Furnace. They quickly silenced their radios and shut the blinds to the office, holding their breaths as the undead walked ahead in search of their prey. As soon as the undead were a safe distance away, the team went to work scavenging all of the information from the various files and computers they could. It was only a mere 20 minutes and they had secured various information on experiments, patient files, viral statistics, and plenty more.
Shadow and Phantom have Ace the thumbs up, and he quietly peered through the blinds.
"Three of them, 2 meters left. We'll break out, eliminate them, then sprint for the entrance plaza, hoo-rah?"
"Hoo-rah." they all whispered in agreement. The captain took a stance by the door and made a silent countdown with his free hand. 3. 2. 1. The door flung open, and the group quickly cut down the three unknowing zombies. A series of moans came from the direction of the inner facility, and no sooner had the moans reached them, the undead were shambling after them, maws open and waiting for their prey.
"4 IN THE BACK, 3 IN THE FRONT, ALTERNATING ROW, SUPPRESING FIRE!" Ace yelled as he began leading the group at a sprint back towards the entrance. The group moved quickly, slowly cutting the ranks of their pursuers one cranium at a time.
"They're thinning out!" Sandman grunted as he let another burst from his M-16 smash the skull of a zombie.
"Don't let up!" Choji boomed beside him, shredding the horde with his modified M-249 S.A.W. The group soon reached the entrance plaza, only to nearly be surrounded by the horde Ace, Shepherd, and Phantom had run into earlier.
"BACK TO THE ENTRANCE!" Shepherd barked, blowing away a trio of undead with his PANCOR Jackhammer. The team continued to retreat from the undead horde who was hot on their heels, closing the all the sets of doors as they reached the entrance plaza once more.
"I don't care if we're using these other goddamn dead bodies, let's get some fortifications going!" Ace barked as he grabbed a bench and pressed it into the broken doorway. The undead we're still stuck one doorway behind Echo-one-Delta, but the time it granted them was little if any. The entire team began grabbing chairs, tables, light fixtures, anything they could get there hands, jamming the doorway to hold of the encroaching horde. As Sandman went to grab another chair, one of the supposed dead bodies suddenly yanked his leg out from under them, sending him to the ground with a thud and a grunt. He had no time to react as the zombie quickly flopped on top of him and tore his vest off, then began ripping his gut open.
Snake quickly turned at the screams of his red-haired comrade, and unloaded 3 bullets into the zombie, hitting it's shoulder, chest, then head. He quickly rushed over to see his friend gasping for breath as his guts were strewn out of his distended stomach.
-*BACK TO THE PRESENT (OF THE FLASHBACK)*-
"Phantom! Help me out here!" Snake screamed as he yanked a gauze roll from a compartment on his combat vest. He tried stemming the blood that was steadily forming a pool under the dying Sandman. Phantom quickly rushed over, holding down his lunch as he yanked out a gauze roll of his own, trying to help Snake save their friend.
"Oh...guh...god...it hurts guys...it hurts..." Sandman gargled, blood beginning to flow from his mouth.
"I know pal, I know, it's gonna be all right, we're gonna get you out!" Snake yelled as he pressed a morphine stick into Sandman's leg.
"Take all the padding and press down, I'm gonna try and wrap it." Phantom instructed harshly.
"Hold the line!" Ace yelled as he ran over to see the situation with the incapacitated Sandman. He let his rifle fall to his side as he knelt down to observe the carnage that had been wrecked on his red-haired teammate. Phantom and Snake were desperately trying to close his guts, but even a novice medic like Ace knew Sandman was not long for this world. Ace quickly radioed in the information they had so far
"C-Cap...I'm s-s-s-sorrryyyyy I coulddddn't d-d-d-d-ooo muh-muh-morrreeee." Sandman gurgled through the blood, tears streaming from his aqua eyes set above the tan, handmade mask that obscured his face. He weakly raised a hand to his captain and friend, who took it and gripped it tightly.
"It's alright buddy, you did fine, you did just fine. It's alright, take it easy. Shhh, it's alright, everything's fine, the evac'll be here soon." Naruto choked back his tears as Sandman cried, exhibited by a harsh gurgle. His cries slowly faded, and his body shuddered one last time, and he lay still.
"No no no no NO NO NO! GOD FUCKING DAMNIT NO!" Phantom screamed.
"DAMNIT!" Snake cursed, standing up and pulling his hair in agony. Ace shut his deceased comrade's eyes, taking a moment to mourn him.
"We could use some help over here!" Shadow called out as he resorted to firing into the mob with his Glock 17. Ace ripped off Sandman's tags in anguish, then stood up. Tears escaping his cold, blue eyes, he emptied his last rifle magazine, and promptly switched to his custom, chrome fitted M-1911. He fired with no remorse, feeling nothing as he put bullet after bullet in between gray, dead eyes. It was only the screams of Snake that brought him back to reality.
"EVAC IS HERE, MOVE YOUR ASS!" Ace retreated, emptying his last magazines into the crowd as the barricade crumbled under the weight of the encroaching horde. He took one last look at the disemboweled body of his red-haired comrade before sprinting out of the hallway and hopping on the VTOL with the rest of his as it took off and flew away from the carnage. Even as the undead streamed out onto the mountainside, only to be plastered by a combination of heavy machine gun fire from their vertibird, then napalm as the 405th rolled in. Even as the entire facility was blown to pieces, and the mountaintop crumbled to the bottom, Ace still felt nothing but remorse and grief at the first, and what would be the only, member K.I.A, Gaara Subaku of Taskforce Hiraishin...
-*END FLASHBACK*-
Several of the women were in silent tears, along with their husbands, at the gruesome story they had just been told. Naruto snapped them back to the present with a few solemn, yet still inspiring words.
"Gaara was a guy who didn't talk a whole lot, but he always wanted people to be happy. Even if he didn't know our wives, he'd still give us that frown and 'Hn' if he saw we were sitting her mulling over how he died. Bury that hatchet for now?" Naruto said with a small smile, wiping away his tears. His team nodded, sad smiles across their faces.
"I'm so sorry" Hinata murmured in his ear as she clutched his arm. He looked at her lovingly, and pressed his forehead against hers, closing his eyes.
"Hey dad! our crusade is hungry! We got any ramen?" Shinji yelped as he and his sister led the group into the living room. The adults jumped for the distraction and all led the kids to the kitchen.
"I think we can find something." Naruto chuckled heartily.
After a late lunch, a check of supplies, along with bedroom arrangements, it crept around to be 9:00, and everyone was ready to drop where they stood. Naruto checked the estate cameras and alarms once more before heading off to the bedroom, accompanied by a weary Shinji and Akari. He climbed into the large, king sized bed that was in the corner of his father's room, and helped his family become situated. Akari clung to her mother while Shinji snuggled against his father, both parents smiling down at their children.
"Naruto?" Hinata asked gently.
"What is it babe?"
"Are...are you sure we can keep them safe?" she asked worriedly, gazing from the sleeping her son to her daughter.
"I swear on my life nothing will happen to you, or our kids. Besides, they're strong, they do have your genes after all" he managed to grin before yawning, his wife following in suite.
"I trust you. Goodnight my love" Hinata whispered gently, kissing her beloved before closing her eyes.
"Love you too hime."
Naruto lay awake for a few minutes longer, truly contemplating if he could save his family from the fate that had befallen his comrade those years ago.
PHEW, that was a pretty good chapter if you ask me :D. I really dedicated this chapter to go ahead and shed some light on Echo-one-Delta's history, and their involvement in the infection in the present world.
I based the 405th "Charlie's Angels" off of the 405th "Green Dragons", who were an aerial tactical missile squadron primarily active in WW2. I'll admit, I didn't put a whole lot of research into the whole callsign pass thing from the military, but I think the system I used is original and works well for the story.
Orochimaru's last name comes from "The Tale of the Gallant Jiraiya", from which one of Jiraiya's student's name was Yashagoro, until he was corrupted by snake magic and took the name Orochimaru. Dr. Alfred Furnace comes from the creator of Furnace Penitentiary, Alfred Furnace. All that belongs to Alexander Gordon Smith by the way, check his books out!
Anyway, tell me what you thought of everything, give me any ideas you may have, tell me what you like and didn't like, go crazy!
As always, all feedback, good, bad, and ugly is appreciated, so get those reviews in!
Until next time-urnextnoob