AN: I forgot to say this before, but the 'Marine Revolution' isn't exactly a real thing in the games. However, when disguised as a Marine or civilian, you can walk near them and listen to their conversations. This works best with a Gaming Headset. Marines will often talk about their concern and anger towards the Gentek presence and treatment of people by Blackwatch. Try it out. I can't remember exactly, but I remember it happening especially in the Yellow Zone in the second game.

Chapter 2: A New Reign of Terror

I looked into the eyes of the bear. Then my eyes glanced at the cafeteria. Finally, my glare locked onto the Brawler, who had turned around and started walking away. My blood boiled with rage, my eyes filled to the brim with hate, my arms hungered for the taste of blood, and my soul burned with malice. My arms flexed quickly, tearing away the arms of the many Infected that had held me back. I crouched down, until I felt the tendrils fuse with my muscles. Before I jumped, I placed the bear under my jacket. I leapt several yards into the air, landing on the Brawler's back. It reared back like an enraged bull. My pointer finger dug into one eye, the ring into the other. It immediately got back down, hoping I would stop.

Instead, I ripped out my fingers with full force, it's eyes coming along with my hand. Flicking my hands, the eyes shot out across the campus grounds and splattered on the pavement. It began to run in random directions, arriving in the forested region near the old manhole. It reared back, giving me the chance to grab its arms and twist them at odd angles. The beast fell back forward, incapable of moving from the pain and forced position. "You think it's fun to toy with other's lives? As if the actions you do won't catch you? Like there are no consequences, because how can you pick out one Brawler among potentially hundreds? I can you bastard. And you're not getting away from me."

Still holding its arms back, I jumped about a foot in the air and shifted my weight to one side. My heel smashed into its skull, crushing it as well as severing it. I landed in front of the monster with the headless corpse falling right after me. One step after the other, I ran up the nearest tree. Reaching the top, I could only pray that it would work. I jumped off, pulled a backflip, and landed feet first on the lower abdomen of the Brawler. A lump developed in the Brawler's stomach, and rose to its throat. "Come on!" I screamed as I slammed my fists just below the lump again.

This time, the body of a weakened girl squirted out the throat hole. Her clothes were slightly worn and she had a few burns on her body. Her hand was twitching and I could barely see her breathing. I picked her up out of the excess slime and looked at her weakened form. The poor girl. As if living through whatever hell Delmas forced them through was bad enough. Now, she'd seen both the horrors of Infection first hand and the insides of a Brawler. I carried her out of the woods and onto the campus. Getting out onto campus, I saw quite a few Infected had been shot down, and most had disappeared. I looked up at the roof. Jim sat on top of the roof access structure on top of the building. He held the grenade launcher in his hands.

He'd seen the whole thing.

I waved my arms to get his attention and yelled, "Get somebody down here to get Millie! I'm going to check on Hiroki!" He responded by sticking his arm out with a thumbs up. Then he turned his head and spoke to someone. Soon enough, the door opened and Aelita ran out to me.

"Ulrich! What's with the getup?"

"I'll explain later. Carry Millie upstairs onto the roof and make sure she's still breathing." She nodded and took Millie from my hands. Ever since 11th grade, Aelita had become like a second mother to most of the kids. When she really started to understand life on earth again, people opened up to her. Trusted her. And she only responded with kindness and a sort of motherly love. She started carrying her away as I turned to get Hiroki.

I still remembered how annoying he was years ago. After turning 15, he started to mature pretty well. He got along better with a lot of us. He was like a little brother to me. He looked up to me all the time. It was his way of trying to convince Yumi into a relationship with me. They had always been close. I didn't want anything to happen to him. Now I can only hope that he's not dead, or badly mutilated, or worse, Infected. I sprinted over to the cafeteria, leaving spider web cracks in the ground with every step. I climbed over the wall to see the cafeteria a wreck. Several garbage bins were turned over, empty. Tables were all against the wall with pillows on one end. Chairs sat either in splinters, or at least toppled over. Several dead bodies were scattered around the room, smoke still pouring from their wounds.

Against a wall sat Hiroki. Shadows hid most of his body, but blood was splattered against the wall. His blue shirt was stained with blood. An Infected body laid on the ground in front of him. The FAL was still shaking in his hands. I approached him carefully. "It's just me Hiroki."

Hiroki kept staring at the dead body. "I killed him Ulrich. He was my friend, and I shot him dead." I glanced down at the body he was staring at. The kid had long, brown hair. He wore a red sleeved baseball T-shirt. A distinctive nose that was rather large and big, brown eyes gave away his identity. Hiroki just had to shoot Johnny. Johnny was dropped by a bullet from his friend, his probable only friend.

"Listen Hiroki, we have to go. I'm sorry about what happened, but we need to go."

"Why? I've lost everything and everyone." Hiroki said this as he looked up into my eyes.

"Is that what your sis would want? No. She'd slap you across the face and throw you back into the fray. And that's what I'm gonna do." I reached for his other arm. But didn't touch anything. "Come on. You gotta work with me. Show me your hand."

Hiroki looked off to his right and pointed with his gun. "I think it landed somewhere over there." My eyes widened as I turned my flashlight on. His arm was in fact not attached to his body. Looking to my left, I saw it had landed on the serving counter.

I slowly turned back to him with a straight face. As soon as my eyes looked at the stump that went about 1/3 of the way down his arm, I frantically screamed, "What the fuck happened?"

Hiroki used his FAL as a prop and stood up. "When that thing threw me, I hit the metal post between windows. It took my arm off so fast, I almost didn't feel it. Then Infected started to run in after me, including Johnny." He said this with tears welling up in his face.

I ran over and grabbed his arm off the table.

"What are you going to do with that?" He asked walking towards the door.

"Well, if this works like I think it does, Or at least how it does with organs, we can get it in a cooler, ice it down, and keep it fresh for reattaching."

Hiroki walked over to me. "As much as I would like to help," he raised his gun up. "I think I'll just cover you while you take care of it." I ran over into the kitchen and grabbed a cooler from the back. Then getting to the freezer, I started scooping ice into the cooler.

While doing that, I spoke to Hiroki. "You aren't reacting the way I'd expect you to after losing your arm."

"After the hell I've experienced over the last couple weeks, this is just another nail in the coffin."

"Jeez, what kind of things did he do?" I asked as I placed his arm in the cooler and buried it under more ice.

A small smirk crawled across his face. "I'd rather not talk about it." I grabbed some paper towel and wrapped his stump up. "Is that all you're going to do?"

"That's all I can do for now." We ran outside and made our way into the science building. Still running, I carried his arm up the stairs and out onto the roof.

The entire surviving crew turned to face me. Millie lied down on the roof, her breathing stabilizing. Jeremy had grabbed some boards and tape to set Odd's ankle. Emily ran over and grabbed Hiroki, who exclaimed to be getting lightheaded. My wrap wasn't very good, but it would hold. "Where's the radio?" Jeremy pointed over to the tower. He had built some device to let him send a signal with a police radio mic plugged into it.

I ran over and grabbed it. "Hello? Is anybody there? I repeat, do you respond?"

"This is Yellow Zone Rescue Dispatch. Where are you?" The voice was surprisingly female.

"We're at Kadic Academy." I looked around and counted heads. "I've got 9 confirmed. Send a chopper immediately."

"We sent a chopper a while ago. Please hold while we contact it."

"That won't help. I'm PFC Stern. I was part of that rescue. A Brawler brought the chopper onto the ground. I was the only survivor."

"Why didn't you respond?"

"The chopper's control panel was ablaze and it exploded minutes later. I managed to reach the school, and we need a chopper without soldiers, but a few doctors. We've got injured."

"Infected injured?"

"No, one with a possibly broken ankle from running, a teenage male with a severed arm from being thrown, and a girl with burns on her body."

"Copy that. Sending a chopper, ETA 10 minutes." The line died then. Turning to the rest, I asked, "How about you guys explain things while we wait."

Jeremy and Aelita looked at each other with concerned faces. Emily looked back down at Hiroki. Millie simply cringed on the ground, mentally scarred. Jim got down and walked over towards the rest. Tamiya looked at the camcorder, twiddling her thumbs. Odd scooted forward, then looked into my eyes. "I'll tell you." He propped himself with a shotgun and a yardstick he'd found. "It started right after the front gates closed. I was setting a barricade at the dorms with a couple people when Jim came by."

Jim spoke up. "I told him that Principal Delmas wanted to see them in the cafeteria. I didn't know what he planned."

Jeremy pushed his glasses up to his face. "When we got in there, he slammed the doors shut and locked us in. He yelled out, 'We're staying here until the military comes to us.'"

Hiroki rubbed his hand on the cooler. "He set up beds with the tables and chairs. We laughed in his face, as if we'd stay in there."

Aelita stood up. She pulled he sleeve up, revealing a poorly made gauze and cotton setup on her arm. "Then, without thought, he pulled the trigger. He shot me in the arm. Then he said, 'next person gets it in the head.'"

"That shut us all up quick." Jim said. "Then I realized I was the only teacher other than Delmas inside. The others were out who knows where."

"He told us that we weren't to leave." Tamiya said, holding Millie's hand. "It's like he was a whole different person."

Odd looked across the roof. "I thought I was going." The others just shrugged their shoulders. "That's what I thought. Anyway, Delmas only got weirder. Every night when he forced us to go to sleep, he was awake. When we awoke, he was already awake. I once woke up from a nightmare, and Delmas was still up, sitting in his chair, gun pointed straight at me. He also didn't ration our food supply. We ran out in about a week. We got so hungry, we actually ate from the trash."

"That was disgusting." Aelita said. "But we didn't have a choice. He was constantly on the watch, threatening to kill us all when we stepped out of line."

"Even his own daughter." Emily said this, placing a sweat doused rag on Hiroki's head to keep his head cool. "He straight up put his pistol against her head and said, "I'll do it. Get back in line, or I'll do it. Daughter or not, I rule this place, and you aren't getting any exceptions."

"Just this morning, we convinced Jim to help us escape." Jeremy said. "He distracted Delmas by giving some guy a fork, which he immediately stabbed into the girl next to him. He was so hungry, he actually started to dig out a chunk of the girl's thigh and ate it."

Jim then walked up to Odd. "I smashed open the door and ran. A bunch of kids followed me onto the grounds. Then we heard metal clinking. The barbed wire was torn down by some big, meaty monster. It charged straight towards us. I helped Jeremy and Aelita towards the science building."

Odd leaned on Jim's shoulder. "Delmas started back towards the cafeteria. He pushed kids to the ground, which that thing gladly tore into. He even pushed his own daughter down. She screamed, 'Daddy!' but his only response was to run. We watched Delmas ultimately kill his own daughter. We all heard her blood curdling screams. Enough was enough. Somebody tackled him to the ground. Grabbing his gun away, he shot Delmas in the knee caps and ran. That monster trailed blood after us as we ran into the science building."

Hiroki then continued, "We got into the building, when Odd stepped wrong and twisted his ankle. Taking refuge in a room, we laid on the ground and played dead. That thing came in and sniffed us, then started to walk away."

Emily looked into my eyes. "I accidentally put my hand on Odd's tender ankle, and he yelped. That gave our position away, and that's where you came in."

Just then, the chopper blew in over the roof. Jim started to carry Odd while Tamiya and Hiroki comforted Millie as she stood and started walking forward. I picked up the cooler with his arm and waved the chopper down. It lowered just above the ground, doors sliding open. Two Gentek field scientists in hazmat suits came out, grabbing Millie and Hiroki. I helped Odd onto the chopper while the rest piled on.

As we started to lift off, two hands grasped tightly to the under railing. They led to a brown jacket with an old man hanging on. Blood dripped off his legs. "What's that?" The copilot yelled looking back.

I wanted to say it was Delmas, but when I looked at the others, they looked at Delmas with eyes full of malice. "It's just some Infected. I'll take care of it."

Delmas looked at me with narrow eyes. "You wouldn't dare." He said so that only I could hear him.

I looked straight back at him. "I've wanted to do this for almost 8 years." I lifted my boot into the air, then kicked him in the face. He fell easily ten stories. His screams echoed through the air. His bruised face slammed into a parked taxi below. The canopy buckled in as his neck snapped. His carcass flopped down and rolled off the car onto the pavement. I then slid the door shut and turned back to face satisfied looks.

"Oh no. This is no good." One of the Gentek scientists said. He had Hiroki's arm in his hands. "I'm sorry boy, but this arm is no good."

"What do you mean?" Hiroki said, waving his stump through the air.

"Look at this." He pointed at the crook of the elbow. There were three teeth marks. "It's been bit, and is no good to reattach. But it will work good in the testing facilities. We will make sure to compensate you for this 'donation'."

Hiroki laid back on his cot. "I might as well just die." The scientist walked over to Aelita. Peering under the bandages, he nodded his head. "This should heal up pretty well." He then walked over to Odd.

The other scientist was looking at her burns. "She should be fine in about a week." Millie only smiled lightly in response.

Odd looked at the scientist. "Is it gonna heal up?"

"Yes. It's just a sprain. You should be fine in a couple days."

"If there's one thing I want to do, it's join the Marines with my friend Ulrich here." He pointed straight at me.

"I'm sure they would accept you after you heal up. You are 18, right? You look kind of scrawny."

Odd gritted his teeth before saying, "I'm not scrawny, I'm svelte." The two scientists looked at each other. One shrugged his shoulders while the other snickered lightly.

Emily stood up. "I'm joining too." Jeremy and Aelita looked at each other. They didn't appear interested. It makes sense. Neither one would really last long as a soldier.

Jim leaned back. "I guess I could join back up."

I looked right at Jim. "You were a Marine before?"

"Yeah, but I'd rather not talk about it." Jim said as he waved his hand in disapproval.

"Of course." Odd said. The group gave off a light chuckle. The chopper landed at a base along the southern border of the Yellow Zone. As we piled out, I motioned the three towards a Marine.

"Sir?" I asked politely.

The Marine turned towards me. "Yes?" He asked.

"I have new recruits." I said this, motioning my hands to the three behind me.

"Let's go get them signed up then." He led us into the structure and to the lobby desk.

The secretary looked up at us. "Yes?" She asked.

"New recruits from this Marine here." He answered, pointing at me.

"I'll have you recommended for promotion. You three, come with me." Odd started to limp over. "You'll all be put on patrol duty for now. You won't have to move much, just sit in a truck." She said as the three followed behind her. A few minutes later, they came out in Marine gear. Their urban camo was just like mine, grey and steel blue. I walked over to them. "Let's get on a truck and head out." Emily and I helped Odd outside and onto a truck with two guys already sitting in it. It rolled forward, then turned left onto the road.

"What's life like here?" Emily asked. Odd and Jim looked at me, hoping for a positive answer.

"Well, to be frank, life sucks." I answered. Their faces drooped as I continued. "I've seen men shot for nothing, women taken into alleyways by Blackwatch men, and even innocent children sent to testing facilities so the family can live another month."

"Just sounds terrible." Jim said as he looked into the crowds behind me. I had done the same thing on the first patrol. I looked into their faces, and only got looks of hatred and malice in return. He leaned back and looked at Odd and I.

"It doesn't end there. Our lives are easier. Jeremy, Aelita, and the others will have to live in shacks built by the military. They don't even get electricity and the rent is outrageous. Unless they can get a job within the first couple days, they'll be on the street in a month. If you want electricity, Blackwatch has control of the power grids, meaning it costs outrageously to pay for even light and refrigeration.

The truck passed under a microphone, which belted out the message, "Gentek wants to remind you that your safety is our top concern. You can get a Gentek approved face mask for the low price of 199…99 at the nearest refugee camp."

Odd looked at me funny. "That's outrageous! Who could afford that?"

The Marine sitting next to me leaned forward. "Anyone who wants an open invitation to get mugged."

The truck stopped at the checkpoint. A Blackwatch soldier stood at the vehicle check. He walked up and lifted a photograph to the face of the driver. I couldn't see the picture very well, but the driver nodded and pointed at me. Then the surprisingly female voice of Blackwatch soldier screamed out, "PFC Stern. You are due for Gentek testing."

My eyes grew wide. "What? Why?"

"That information is classified. Come with us quietly, or face the consequences." I looked around. The Blackwatch had me surrounded. I slowly stood up, looking straight into the female's eyes. All at once, I shifted my weight and ran towards the front. "Stop him!" She screamed. I leapt over the other Marines, slid across the roof of the cab, and hit the ground running. Then a gunshot rang out. The bullet struck my calf.

I yelped in pain before dropping to the ground. I started to crawl, but felt my body forcefully rolled over. The Blackwatch soldier standing over me pulled out his rifle, and rammed the butt into the side of my head. I went out cold.

With my vision in all black, a memory started to play in my head. An image of a helicopter with silhouetted soldiers appeared before me. A voice rang out, "The Idaho Runner?"

Another voice said, "No."

"Get Blackwatch on the line. I want two battalions in from Ft. Detrick in 20 hours." The voice paused, and the image changed to a bird's eye view of New York City. "It's starting again." What's starting again? I thought to myself. Then, my eyes opened suddenly. I was in a large room with a one way mirror above and in front of me. The room was very white, with several closed gates around me.

Looking down, my Marine outfit had been removed. Instead, I was back in my street clothes. My green jacket was gone, leaving only my lighter green shirt with brownish red pants. For some reason, my shoes had also been stolen, leaving my grey socks.

A voice over the intercom crackled. "Hello PFC Stern. We know what you are."

I looked directly into the mirror. "How?" I screamed.

"Now, now Stern. No reason to get cranky. That won't change things. Also, we've stripped you of everything that could be considered a weapon. That's what we've done with every test subject." The voice paused for a moment before continuing. "We received an anonymous tip from someone who had hacked into the street cameras. They saw you get bit, turn into Gentek property, and tear up a Brawler. We want to see this power for ourselves." With that, a gate behind me opened up. An Infected covered in thick, black callouses covering most of his body stepped in.

"What is that thing?" I asked.

"This is a new variant that has started appearing ever since we created it. We're not sure of its properties, but that's where you come in. Consume it like you did that Brawler." Flames spit up from the ground and down from above, then stopped. "Otherwise, we'll simply roast the both of you." The beast had walked through the flames, and come out without a single burn. "You'll probably die first."

"Fine." I said as I turned to it. Activating my power, the tendrils again coated my arms, Spines shot back and away from my arms on the outside side of each one. Spines also now shot back and up from the back of my calves. I punched it with a normal amount of momentum. The creature's head lashed back, then returned to the front.

"Amazing." One of the doctors said. "It doesn't even seemed phased."

Another voice inside corrected him, saying, "It was phased, but not hurt. Still amazing, yes." I grabbed it and threw it over me. The monster landed on the equipment in the middle of the room. It got up and charged towards me. I sidestepped and grabbed its arm as it ran by. It fell on its back, but still didn't show any signs of injury.

How do I kill this thing? Then I noticed something. The armored patches were fluctuating in size. They would grow and retract like a beating heart. If I timed it right, I could catch a bare spot. It ran up close and started to claw at me. Lifting my arms to block, I watched the spots grow, then start to pull back. I reared back my right arm and cranked it into the gut. Hitting armor, I actually felt some pain in my hand as I pulled it back. This is apparently going to be harder than I thought.

Punch after punch struck armor as I started stepping back. It kept swiping at me, occasionally catching a scratch on my arms or torso. Just as it tore its claws across my abdomen, ruining my shirt, I ducked down and then jumped with my fist lifted up. My fist struck the bottom of its body so hard, the temporarily unprotected neck simply tore loose. Then black tendrils ripped out of my spine. I doubled over, yelling in pain. The tendrils grabbed the body. Tearing it into chunks, the tendrils retreated into my body with their prize. I reared back and stomped on the ground. Rubble was tossed into the air.

"Take it out!" The intercom screeched. Green smoke poured in from several vents. My vision quickly grew blurry before reducing to zero. As I again blacked out, another memory began to play in my head. An image of a small town park gathering appeared. The clothes of the people looked like the 1960's.

Two people were speaking, as if it were an old recording of an interview. "And what did you tell them?" A voice said.

A voice that sounded like it came from some nerdy scientist spoke out. "We told them we'd insert limited fallout conditions into their water supply. Harmless stuff."

"That was the cover story?" The first voice asked.

The image changed to a bunch of people lining up to a table with men in white lab coats sitting at it. "One of many. People didn't ask questions. They were all happy to help." Then the interview cut to black.

My eyes slowing opened to sound of a jail door slamming. The first thing I saw was a Blackwatch soldier looking down at me. Another one came in from the right. The first turned around and walked towards the other. "So who's next on the list?" The first asked.

"We've got two that need to go." The second one answered they disappeared off to the left. They stopped at a cell a few slots to the left and across the hall. The click of the lock echoed through the empty hall. As the door was jerked open by second, the first one stepped in. I heard screams of denial.

"Just make it easier on yourself." The first one answered.

"But I have a family at home to support." A distinctly male voice said. "Please let me go. What about my children?" The Blackwatch soldier didn't answer. He grabbed him by his shoulders and yanked him off his feet. Then the second one closed the door as they headed off to another room. Probably to another test. After the door slammed behind them, chatter amongst the 'volunteers' started up. A familiar hand carrying a palm sized chunk of mirror stuck out of the cage on my right. After it angled in the person's hand to show each other's faces, my jaw dropped with surprise.

"Ulrich?" the voice asked weakly.

"Yeah, it's me Yumi." I said both with elation and depression dripping off those few words.