Time to Panic

Getting there was the easy part, of course. It was dealing with the surroundings that the team had trouble coping with. Once the VTOL aircraft landed and dropped off the seven soldiers wearing their green uniforms, they were on their own, armed with nothing but knives, handguns, and their M5A2 Carbines. Of course, given Lars's weight, he felt more suited to handle a Wraith and a Rossmore Shotgun as his sidearm, unlike the rest of his team members. Donny instructed the team to head north towards a logging mill that wasn't far from their position—apparently, a small squad of soldiers had been holding out there and was in need of desperate help.

"So, it's a rescue mission now, Captain?" asked Lee.

"That's right, Private. Do you have any quarrel with that?"

"Nah. The more, the merrier. 'Sides, I'm getting tired of those gorillas only shooting at me when we get into a firefight. It'll be nice to know I have cannon fodder with me."

Donny sighed and ignored the man. The seven soldiers began to walk through the forested region of San Fernando Valley, making sure that they stayed away from the main road in case a platoon of Hybrids was patrolling on it. As Donny looked around the place, he noticed that the woods were very calm and peaceful. The man even heard a few birds singing in the trees and saw a few natural insects buzzing around the giant oak trees. The water and plants all looked natural and healthy, seemingly untouched by the Chimeran virus. At least, that was until he saw the Spinners scurrying along the grass. The captain frowned. For a moment there, he actually thought this was the one place in America that hadn't been infected by the Chimeran plague. Something in his mind told him that this area would be perfectly safe. Boy was he naïve. Donny looked in the sky and saw the Chimeran ships quickly zooming through the clouds as well. They were still there, implying that something was looming very, very soon. Maybe that asshole's right, thought Donny. Maybe I should be fighting the Chimera and taking back this country. After all, there's no point in raising a child, or even living in this world if those beasts inhabit it. The soldier kept walking forward very slowly, kicking away any Spinners that got close to him and swatting any bushes or giant leaves out of the way. The squadron jumped over some debris and couple of felled trees before they finally arrived onto one of the main roads.

Lucky for them, both sides of the road were blocked by debris or crashed vehicles, so there was no chance that the Chimera would come at them from the sides. Up ahead was a large, brown house that looked like it hadn't been touched by the enemy, but Donny knew that would all change once he went inside. The captain hurriedly walked over to the back door and peeked through the window, checking to make sure no Grims or sleeping Hybrids were inside. It was clear. The captain kicked the door, expecting it to open, but he only managed to get it open by an inch before something on the other side blocked it.

"What—?"

The captain kicked the door again. Still nothing. He inhaled sharply and planted his boot against the door three more times, and then it finally burst open with a disgusting splattering sound. Donny backed up and aimed his rifle at the ground when he saw chunks falling onto the ground, followed by a skinny, pale figure. He sighed with relief.

"It was just a cocoon. Let's keep going."

Everyone nodded and followed the captain inside the house. They were on alert more than ever now, aware that the house was full of cocoons that could burst open at any moment. Myles and Polick looked around the kitchen and cautiously stepped past two large, bloated cocoons that were still moving periodically, as though the human being trapped inside was dying to get out. As they walked into the living room, Olivia grimaced when she saw four large and small cocoons—presumably a whole family—just churn as it moved, accompanied with a small, gurgled moan. She shook her head and ignored it. They were already dead or Grims; nothing they could do about it now. Donny arrived at the stairs and gestured for Lars and Lee to go check out the second floor. They nodded and crept up the creaky stairwell, arriving to the rooms upstairs. Like they assumed, no one alive was up there—there were more cocoons, and it looked like someone hung himself, preferring to die by his own hands than letting the Chimera convert him. Lee sighed.

"We're all clear up here. No signs of—"

Just then, the cocoon Lee was standing next to moaned loudly and moved. Lee glanced at it and could've sworn he saw the Grim inside moving, using its claws to break through the squishy chamber. He shouted and slashed it with his knife, before bashing it open with the butt of his rifle. Nothing came out of the cocoon but more ooze and blood and an unconscious (or dead) Grim. The captain and Polick aimed their rifles up the staircase and turned on their lights.

"Lee!" shouted Donny.

He sighed. "False alarm. Nothin' up here but cocoons. …God, I hate these damn things."

Lee and Lars returned downstairs, where they witnessed Mickey kick open the front door. The seven soldiers quickly ran outside, only to stop when they noticed the front yard was infested with dozens and dozens of cocoons, as well as more oversized Spinners that wouldn't stop scurrying across the yard. Donny sighed and tightened his jaw, keeping his anger bottled up inside of him. Everyone did the same, except for Lee, who believed that sooner or later, the cocoons would hatch and a mob of Grims would attack him and tear his innards out. The squadron breathed heavily as they maneuvered through the field of nasty cocoons, still grimacing a bit when they saw some of them jiggle. But all the Grims were dormant, and they managed to reach the residence's driveway without encountering any of the zombie-like Chimera. They arrived onto another road overlooking a hill and several more houses. The team had a clear view of the entire area from the road; they could see all the hills and houses and woods in a distance. There weren't near Lake Balboa or any other large source of water, so they didn't have to worry about Furies attacking. The roads seemed clear of the Chimera, but the team was discouraged when they saw that nearly half-a-dozen vehicles had been destroyed.

"Got a couple transport trucks here, Captain. You think the missing soldiers are nearby?" asked Mickey.

Donny shook his head. "Doubtful. We would've heard gunfire by now."

As if on cue, the soldiers heard a beast roar in the distance. Everyone checked their surroundings quickly and looked beyond the horizon, fearful that a Leviathan could be in the area. But the Leviathan was a giant—they would've seen it by now if it was within ten miles of them.

"Sarge, are there any Marauders in San Fernando Valley?"

"Couldn't be…all of them were spotted in Louisiana."

"Howlers maybe?" suggested Olivia.

"That was a roar, Livy, not a howl. There's a difference."

"I know that, Lee," said the female soldier, with irritation in her voice.

"Let's get off the road anyway," said Donny.

Donny headed over to the edge of the freeway and slid down the hill, the six soldiers trailing behind him. Once they started walking through the bushes, they heard something beep a couple of times. Donny didn't even have to look up in the sky. He knew what was coming.

"Damnit—DRONES!"

Polick and Mickey crouched behind a bush, Donny, Lars, and Myles hid behind three thick trees, and Lee and Olivia threw themselves into a deep ditch, panting as they aimed their guns up into the air. Donny peeked behind the corner of the tree and saw a couple of Patrol Drones. There were only a few of them in the area, floating around quietly, beeping and shining their lights on the ground, looking for intruders.

"They don't know we're here. Just stay out of sight and keep quiet."

The soldiers waited by as the Patrol Drones slowly fluttered in-between trees, vehemently making sure that the only presence in the area was Chimeran. Donny tightened his grip on the Carbine when a Drone stopped only a few feet away from him. He expected the machine to turn around, shine its light on him, and start firing. But the Drone just beeped again and continued fluttering forward. Polick and Mickey had no issue being camouflaged by the bushes, but Lars was almost spotted by one. Due to his large girth, one of the Drones spotted part of Lars's bulky arm from behind the tree. He quickly shifted himself over when he heard the Drone beep louder than usual and heard it float his way. He knew that the machine was going to spot him, so he had to go on the offensive. Lars holstered the Wraith behind his back and grabbed the shotgun instead. When the Drone was mere inches away from his head, the soldier grunted and smashed the Drone to pieces with his weapon. He sighed and looked beyond the corners of the tree again. All the Drones were gone, but Donny and his team weren't in the clear just yet.

Just when Donny was about to tell his team to move forward, he heard something growling in the distance and huffed. Two Hybrids had been sent into the area, probably scouts by the looks of them. They knew by now that Drones don't always get the job done, so the Ravagers and Steelheads would occasionally send a few foot soldiers out on patrol. Donny swore softly to himself and studied the Hybrids closely, trying to anticipate their movements. One of them was slowly trekking through the wet soil barefooted, and the other was growling to himself, his finger resting on the trigger of the Bullseye. That Hybrid was heading towards Lars and the barefooted one was heading his way. Lars flicked his eyes over at Donny, who saw him jerk his head over towards the trigger-happy Hybrid. Lars nodded, and holstered his weapon. Meanwhile, the barefooted Hybrid was getting close to Donny and growled loudly before sniffing the air a couple of times. The captain grabbed his knife from its holster and held his breath, waiting for the creature to turn around so he could attack. Donny peeked around the tree just far enough to see the Chimera's eyes, and then stopped. He felt like he just blew it, that the Hybrid just saw him and was about to shout some guttural command that would alert fifteen Steelheads. But to his amazement, the Hybrid turned around and growled again, either unaware or ignoring him. That's when Donny struck him in the back of the neck with the knife. The Hybrid screamed, but his voice was gurgled; his mouth was quickly filling up with blood. Donny grunted and inserted the knife even deeper into the monster's flesh, watching as it spasmed and twitched. The trigger-happy Hybrid heard his partner groaning and shouted out something before spotting Donny. Before he could fire off a shot, Lars grabbed his head and jerked it around at an angle it physically should not be at, making it pop. The trigger-happy Hybrid went limp and dropped his gun around the same time the barefooted one died. Both soldiers shoved the cadavers down and exhaled.

"Clear. Let's go!" said the captain.

As everyone removed themselves from their hiding spots, the sergeant scratched his head in confusion. "Wait a minute, wait a minute, stop," said Polick.

Everyone stopped and turned around to face Polick. "What, Sarge?" said Myles.

He sighed. "This doesn't feel right. This whole area should be swarming with Chimera. Why are we only running into Drones and a couple of Hybrids?"

"Did you forget about the Marauder we heard roaring five minutes ago?" asked Mickey.

"So the Chimera deploys Drones, two Scouts, and an armless dinosaur that is nowhere near us to look for intruders? Something stinks here guys."

"You are standing next to two dead Hybrids."

Polick looked down at the corpses. "Not literally, Lee. It's just…nothing about this situation seems right at all."

"You think the general set us up?" asked Myles.

"Maybe, maybe the Chimera."

"Sergeant, even if the Chimera or the general is setting us up, we can't go anywhere now. We're already here and if we called in a VTOL, it'd just get shot down. For all we know there are Stalkers in the area or, God forbid, Angels."

"Captain, if there is even the slightest possibility that—"

"Sergeant, are you even certain that the Chimera are in the area, or is this just another gut feeling or yours?"

Polick started to say, "Yeah, it's just a gut feeling," but quickly stopped himself because he knew that Donny wouldn't give a shit about his gut feelings. Some days he was right. Other days, his assumptions were completely off, and there were even times where that "feeling" was nothing more than gas. Polick chuckled.

"C'mon, Captain, you know how those gorillas are. Remember back in Missouri, when those bastards got the drop on us even though the whole area was dead silent for two hours?"

"This isn't Missouri, Sarge. Sounds like the captain's cowardice is rubbin' off on you."

"It's not—" Polick huffed. "I'm just suggesting that we go back and travel on the main road."

"Despite my current feelings about this war and where I stand in it, I'm still your captain on the battlefield, Sergeant, which means you'll do what I say whether you like it or not."

"Sir—"

"You're welcome to venture on your own if you'd like."

Polick sighed again and shut his eyes. "No, sir, I'll stay with you," he mumbled.

"Wise decision."

The others followed their captain through the woods without questioning his leadership again, even though Polick was still considering turning around and traveling on the road. He only stayed because he'd prefer facing a fleet of Chimera with six soldiers backing him up, instead of doing the mission solo. As the soldiers continued to trek through the forest, Polick observed his surroundings more keenly, checking all directions and making sure nothing was waiting to attack them in the bushes. But he found nothing. And that was exactly the problem. The wind stopped blowing. The bugs stopped buzzing. The birds stopped singing. The only thing Polick could hear were his comrades breathing and the watery ground squishing underneath their feet. He couldn't even hear Patrol Drones whirring or beeping. It was like the entire forest just froze in time. About ten minutes of walking in eerie silence later, the squad arrived at a cabin sitting adjacent to a dried-out creek and more cabins. There was a hill across the creek that led to even more cabins—Donny figured that this must've been where the ambushed soldiers took refuge…temporarily. Donny gestured for the team to wait, before sending Olivia and Myles forward to go scope out the cabin. They checked all the windows but found nothing inside except worn-out furniture or cobwebs in the corners of the building. There wasn't a cocoon in sight. Olivia still wanted to be sure, so she kicked open the door and ran inside the house, panting as she inspected the entire floor. Still, there was nothing hostile on the first floor.

"Clear."

"Check upstairs and see if any survivors or cocoons are hiding up there. The rest of us will check—"

Before the captain could finish, Polick heard odd cooing up in the trees and gasped. The sergeant saw Donny walking forward towards the creek and held out a hand.

"FREEZE! STOP RIGHT THERE!" he shouted as quickly as possible.

Donny kept his right foot in mid-air and checked his surroundings. "What is it, Sarge?"

Polick took a few steps toward the cabin, still letting out labored breaths before he heard the eerie cooing again. He pointed up at the sky.

"You guys hear that?"

"It's a miracle: the Chimera haven't killed off all the birds yet," muttered Lee.

"That's not a bird, Lee," said Mickey, as he backed up to the cabin.

"Everyone get in the cabin, now."

"Calm down, Myles! Even if there was a Chameleon in the area, we would've heard it by now."

"We just did, Captain!"

Donny shook his head and said, "Do you guys feel any vibrations in the ground? Do you guys hear any thunderous footsteps?"

Everyone shook their heads. "Exactly. For all we know, it's just a couple of Hybrids trying to make us paranoid with fear—"

"Well, it's working…" muttered Mickey.

"All right, that's enough! I want you, Myles, and Livy to check all the cabins on this side of the creek; the rest of us will cross that bridge and inspect the ones over there. If we don't find anything, we keep walking until we either find the survivors or find the horde of Chimera guarding that tower! Are we clear?"

"Yes, sir!" said everyone, except Mickey and Polick.

"…Captain—"

For the first time ever, the captain broke his usual drill sergeant demeanor he presented out in combat, and grinned at Polick instead of shouting "ARE WE CLEAR?" at him.

"What could possibly go wrong?"

And that's when blood erupted all over Myles and Polick's faces. Everyone's eyes grew wide, but Donny noticed that all of the soldiers were staring at him, and not Myles or Polick. The captain inspected the two soldiers more closely and realized that they weren't the ones bleeding, and that it wasn't their blood. And then he felt a searing pain in his chest. Donny opened his mouth and flicked his eyes down to see that several blades were protruding from his chest cavity, all of which were drenched in his blood. Donny screamed horribly as the Chameleon hoisted him up into the air and let his body slide down the blades, making copious amounts of blood drip out onto the ground. Donny squeezed the trigger on his Carbine, but it didn't do any good—he just fired at the ground several times. The captain was wondering why his soldiers hadn't done anything yet—he thought minutes had gone by between him being stabbed and then lifted into the air. In reality, it only took the Chameleon two or three seconds. By the time his soldiers did lift their guns up and attempted to take out the Chameleon, the beast ripped Donny in half, spraying even more blood on the soldiers. The Chameleon promptly jumped away and ran off, camouflaged by its cloaking device. All the soldiers returned fire too little too late; the captain was dead, and his two halves were lying on the ground, oozing out bountiful amounts of blood.

"Captain! Cap—FUCK! Those goddamn—"

"AMBUSH!" screamed Myles.

Everyone looked up at the hills across the creek and saw several Hybrids rushing towards them. They had been hiding there the whole time, waiting for the right moment to strike. Now that their captain was dead and their morale shattered, they figured the squadron would be disoriented. But the squad was quick to react, and started shooting at the Hybrids while simultaneously dodging the Bullseye bullets.

"THEY'RE COMING ACROSS THE BRIDGE!"

Polick glanced to his right and saw three Hybrids snarling and storming over the creek, shooting at them. Fighting the Chimera out in the open was impossible, especially with that Chameleon out there. They had to find cover.

"GET BACK IN THE CABIN! NOW!" he ordered.

Nobody had to think twice. They quickly ran backwards into the house as the Hybrids continued to head towards them, firing a hailstorm of bullets from their Carbines. They didn't have any time to show remorse towards the captain's death. Everyone got into the cabin as fast as possible, with Polick being the last soldier to enter. The sergeant shot a Hybrid multiple times in the chest and watched as it groaned and collapsed to the ground. Then he shouted and slammed the door shut just seconds before he was cut down by more Bullseye bullets.