Getting to the server room did not take too much time, even with the SPEC-OPS impeding their path. What made it easier was that they were already having theirs share of skirmishes with the infected. Four Eyes exploited this opportunity with her pheromone gas canisters, agitating them and increasing their ferocity as Spectre picked them off with well-placed headshots from a rifle he took off a dead soldier.
The first thing they saw once they opened the door of the server room were three bodies mangled beyond recognition, covered in bite marks. "So this was the scene of the crime that I saw in the security room," Viper muttered cooly, prodding one of the bodies in the head with his foot. "What the hell does he want to do?" It made no sense to him. Sacrificing them one by one would make more sense, but he let all three of his "live baits" die all at once, effectively shortening his chances of survival.
"Well, he certainly is crazier than us, feeding his men to the infected. I can tell he's done this before several times. Well, I guess you could count them lucky. They died before they turned."
"Cant argue with that, but we are in no position to call him crazy, Spectre. We're a bunch of fucking psychos ourselves, and the expression 'having a few screws loose' would be an understatement of the century."
"Hah! True dat." Viper concurred giggling. Beltway took hold of one of the cabinets holding the servers, poised to send it toppling to the ground, but Spectre stopped him.
"Wait. I know this is our job, but would you mind leaving it like this for a second? I will delete everything personally." Propping his rifle against the wall, and the only sound that filled the room was the rapid sound of fingers hitting the plastic keys as he copied terabytes worth of data onto a separate hard drive. Once that finished, he promptly picked up his rifle and started firing bullets through the servers. "Now, we destroy."
"Alright, let's do this!" Viper gleefully began toppling the servers, and Vector began riddling the fallen motherboard and other circuits with bullet holes the moment they touched the ground. Bertha and Lupo put their machete and tomahawk to good use shattering them even further beyond repair, and Beltway finished them off with several incendiary grenades, the heat melting the shattered pieces of technology beyond repair or salvaging.
"Command, this is Delta Team leader. The servers have been destroyed."
"Good. Now proceed to the records room and finish the job." Command hung up on them yet again. Viper sighed, wondering how long this slipshod treatment was going to persist as he smacked a fresh magazine into his side arm, but felt an ominous chill that he felt before, back when they were retrieving the G-Virus. He spun around as a shot rang out.
Vector had his pistol in hand, the muzzle still smoking. The empty casing pinged as it skipped across the floor and rolled to a stop. "Check six, Bertha."
There was an infected, lying flat on its back, a few feet behind Bertha. The bullet had accurately pierced the nasal cavity, destroyed the brainstem, and had penetrated through the back of the head, spraying bits of grey matter everywhere. "We've got company."
"Alright, everyone get behind me and get down! It is goddamn time for me to mow the FUCKING LAWN!" Beltway shouted as he stepped forward, holding the FN Minimi that he had not been able to use for a while. "WHAT YOU GOT, MOTHERFUCKERS!? WHAT YOU GOOOOOT!?" He spun around, spraying bullets to the horde of infected coming at him from behind him as well, forcing the others to dive down to the floor as bullets whizzed above their heads. Beltway laughed like a madman as his finger held down the trigger, firing until the gun was the time he was surrounded by two hundred rounds worth of spent bullet casings, there was not a single infected being that was alive in their immediate vicinity. The walls and ceiling were redecorated in a thick coat of dark red.
"You trigger happy bomb nut, we could have died! Again!" Vector was absolutely livid as he took quick strides towards Beltway with Bertha's machete and his own knife in hand, ready to pounce on him at any given moment. "We still could have taken them out without the use of the SAW! We could have saved those bullets when we need them! Think before you act, you overgrown excuse of a human being!"
"Vector, enough. Valid points, but we still have a job to do. We can discuss this later." Bertha calmed him down as she held him back giving his arm a squeeze and taking her machete back.
"Fine. But the next time you pull something that jeopardizes the team as a whole, I will cut your other leg off and feed it to you along with the boot," Vector warned in a low threatening voice with the knife still pointed directly at Beltway. He jammed the blade back into its sheath and brushed off the dust small pieces of rubble clinging to his clothes before walking off.
"You did go too far this time," Four Eyes rebuked Beltway with a stern look on her face. "Our job is subterfuge and destruction of evidence, not elimination. We may have gotten rid of that big wave, but what about the next one? And what if the SPEC-OPS personnel heard it?"
Beltway squirmed uncomfortably and averted his gaze as the petite woman glared up at him. "Alright, okay. I'm sorry. I fucked up. It won't happen again."
"Good. Next time you do it, make sure they're intact enough to take samples." She stared forlornly at the torn apart body parts and the putty of rotting flesh splattered all over the place.
"That's what you're actually angry about? Damn, woman." Beltway chuckled as he gave the woman's backside a light slap, and she retaliated with a kick to his shin.
"I'm glad you two are getting all chummy, lovebirds," Viper spoke up after audibly clearing his throat, "but I'm gonna have to ask you to dial down the public displays of affection until after we finish the job."
Beltway picked up a torn up arm and flung it towards Viper, who yelped in surprise and glee as he started running, soon followed by Beltway and Four Eyes.
They ascended to the third floor via the south staircase, but contrary to what they anticipated, there was only one infected, and it was soon shredded with bullets from the SPEC-OPS that had hidden away there.
Vector and Beltway each tossed grenades—stun, smoke, fragmentation—- in their general direction, and Viper charged in immediately after their detonation, pistol and knife in hand, striking hard and fast without pity, without mercy, just like the callsign he was given.
Eliminate, advance.
That was the only path for the Wolfpack. However the only reason they can do so without hesitation was because each of them know the others will cover their blindspots even in the most hellishly dire situations.
Above, below, to the sides and behind them. They all threw quick glances in every direction, in every nook and cranny that a person could hide in. Their hearts were beating painfully in their chests like sharp, rapid jabs from a boxer, but as they focused on their breathing, matching the rhythm, they gradually slowed it down together. That was the source of their strength: unity. Each one have unique strengths that no one equaled, allowing them a wider range of tactics, more observational data, and more opportunities to deal the killing blow to their prey.
The door with the plate reading "Records Room" was slightly ajar. Spectre nodded, giving the go-ahead to enter the room after making sure it was deserted with his snake camera. The room was a forest of shelves, housing books and binders containing a myriad of information. Most of them were torn up and scattered all over the room, most of them drenched or at the very least stained in blood.
"Bertha, Four Eyes, secure the doorway. Everyone else find the evidence and pile it up on this desk." They all split up and started their search from different corners of the room.
"Vector, wait," Viper grabbed his arm before he could take another step. He pointed downwards, indicating a very fine red line of light. "Laser traps. Beltway!"
"Yeah yeah yeah, traps. I know, I saw 'em, and I'm on it with Spectre. I'm a big guy, so my best route is through than around. You let me worry about these, alright? This'll definitely come in handy later"
"Ah, this brings back memories. The land mines during second World War set by Japanese Imperial Army. Distinct smell of TNT. Major pain in the ass to disarm. One guy I saw, lost seventy percent of his head after fucking up…"
While it did take some time sifting through all the material in the room, all the evidence was retrieved successfully. "Let's burn it. Spectre."
Spectre pulled a lighter out from his pocket, spinning the flint wheel several times, but all that appeared were sparks and nothing else. He kept continuing in vain but the sparks only grew smaller after every few attempts. "Sorry, out of lighter fluid. Beltway?"
"Don't look at me man. I left mine back in my room. The flint was out of commission."
"Oh, for God's sake!" Bertha stomped the ground in frustration. "Spectre's lighter not working, I can understand. You need to cut back on smoking anyways, but why is it our resident bomber is without a lighter!? He can't even light a fuse of dynamite! That's like torture without the screams of pain! Scheisse!"
"Bertha, I know you like your job and I'm proud that you're good at it, but dial it down a bit, please?" Four Eyes pleaded in fear, noticing the slight glint of madness in Bertha's eyes that she gets when she is getting angry or excited
"I have one, " Viper piped up as he pulled out a zippo lighter. "Right here."
"What the— pinche cabron, that's mine!" Beltway gasped.
"It was on the workbench disassembled so I took the liberty of fixing it. It's fully loaded too." With a strike of the flint and a small whooshing sound, an orange flame emerged from the wick. "And you're welcome."
"This is why we keep you around." Spectre chuckled, patting Viper's head.
As they watched all the evidence stacked on the table turn to ash, they reported the completion of another part of the operation.
"Time to leave. Let's move."
"No need to tell us twice."
"Jesus Christ, fuckin' finally!"
All of them sped down the stairs, eager to leave this hellhole of a city.
Once they had descended to the first floor, slivers of the flooring exploded as bullets tore through it, making them stop in their tracks.
"Nicholai….!" Lupo growled in anger as she stared up at the man. "What is wrong with you? Why did you kill your whole damn team!?"
He only laughed in response. "They served their purpose most excellently. As you will now!" Nicholai continued to laugh, which echoed as he disappeared.
"I told you we shoulda killed him then and there. Vector was coming as close as I was too. Next time, I don't care if I have to ignore an order from you Lupo, but that fucker is going to die."
"Do what you want," Lupo muttered, still seemingly disgusted by the fact alone that she was in his presence. "I give less than a shit what happens to that scum-sucking pig."
"That's good and all, but we should start thinking of how to get rid of those things on the ceiling." Four Eyes whispered as she pointed her G36 upwards.
On the opposite end of the gun were monsters that only exist in nightmares and horror movies. Its basic physical structure was no different from the average adult human being, but its appearance was anything but human. Its brain, spine, shoulder blades, and the muscles around that area had grown to abnormal proportions, and because of the muscle development, there was absolutely no skin tissue surrounding the body at all. The hands and feet were webbed like an amphibians, and had four claws on each appendage that was fifteen inches long. On top of that, its tongue was moving as if it were another organism entirely.
"BOWs…!" Bertha breathed, scrunching up her face under the gas mask in disgust as she stared up at the beasts on the ceiling. These BOWs, dubbed "Lickers", mutated from the reanimated corpses into something more agile, silent and deadly.
"Mierda, just when I thought I can go back home." Beltway grunted as he loaded a grenade round into the launcher of the G36 and took hold of the Minimi in the other.
"One, two, three…..seven. One apiece?"
"Viper, you honestly think you can take one out on your own?" Vector looked down at him.
"It's a rough estimate," Viper retorted. He knew that Vector was wearing a mocking smirk or at least an expression equivalent to that underneath that mask. "You and Beltway should be done in a minute. Besides, it's humiliating that I can't do what you guys can. I'm the good luck charm of the team, remember?"
"Everyone switch to full auto. If they can cling to walls and ceilings they can attack from any angle at any time. They're fast too, so don't let them or their tongues take you by surprise. Judging by their lack of any eyes, I'm certain these things hunt by sound." Four Eyes spoke quickly.
"So we can use their acute hearing to our advantage. Get stun grenades ready. Watch out for the lag before detonation and make sure they're close enough to take hits. Make all shots count." Lupo gave a sharp glance towards Beltway as she uttered the last sentence.
"Alright, alright, add salt to my wounded pride, why don'tcha? Four Eyes, cover my six."
"Always." She stood back to back with him as she fed a fresh clip into her rifle and engaged the first round.
"Viper, Bertha. Stay alive."
"You too. Don't expect painkillers when you get hurt."
"My place to die isn't here. There is no goddamn way I'm croaking in this shit hole."
Eliminate, advance.
That is all. Nothing will change; not now, not ever.