Bella walked down the halls a small smile on her face, it was the day of the raid and Bella was really looking forward to it. Nobody really left the complex, not without authorisation. It was too dangerous, if someone were to go out, and get infected and come back in. Within a day, everything Bella had built would come crashing down. So, the only people who left the complex were the ones who went on raids, or the weekly sweep of the town, and that was it. As she continued her way down the hall she was joined by Travis.
"Hey Bella" Travis greeted, a large grin on his face. "Ready for today?"
"Yeah" Bella nodded happily, "Should be fun" She looked up at Travis, who was a whole head taller than she was, and gave him a mischievous look.
"Hey guys" the pair looked down a hall they were passing to see Gwyn and Jason walking towards them. "Heading down to the armoury?" Gwyn asked,
"You know it," Travis answered with a grin. "I'm so gonna get my groove on" He raised his eyebrows playfully, the four continued their way through the halls and down into the basement. Bella pulled off her chain that contained her dog tags and the key to the basement and unlocked the door and all four piled in. Travis headed straight over to the melee weapons and started swinging freshly sharpened machetes about with a grin on his face, while Gwyn and Jason went over to the assault Rifles army issued, naturally.
"Has anyone seen Ryan?" Bella asked "Or the Cullen's?"
"Cullens?" Travis asked, "The newbie's. Right" He said drawing out the last word. "Haven't seen them," He shrugged.
"That's a lot of help to me, thanks so much" Bella rolled her eyes sarcastically.
"Glad to be of service" Travis grinned, mock saluting her. Bell chose to ignore him and pulled her walkie-talkie from her shoulder.
"Bella here, calling out to everyone, if any of you have seen the new arrivals Edward and Emmett Cullen and Jasper Hale please send them down to the basement. Also if you see Ryan tell him to get his butt-"
"Get my butt where?" Ryan asked, jogging down the stairs and playful smirk on his lips.
"Scratch that last bit, over" Bella finished and re-holstered her walkie-talkie. "You're late" Bella smiled,
"Sorry, saying good bye to Vinny" Ryan said, before joining Travis by the melee weapons.
Bella walked over to the explosives, grabbed five hand grenades, and holstered them on the holster running across her chest. She then went over and grabbed an ankle holster and strapped a secondary handgun 45. Pistol to her ankle.
"Hello?" Called a voice from the stairwell,
"You're late!" Bella called back, but it wasn't in the joking tone she used with Ryan. It was serious and it demanded respect. She stood in front of the desk that held the logbook of every weapon in the room and crossed her arms, looking unmoveable.
"Sorry" Emmett said, looking sheepish. "We weren't sure were to go" He shrugged and Bella looked towards Jason and Travis who were suddenly looking very interested in a pump action shot gun. They were meant to tell them were to go in the morning, they obviously didn't. Bella sighed at their childish behaviour and looked back towards the vampire trio.
"Okay" Bella started going into her briefing mode, which became so familiar after years in the army "This is a pretty basic mission. But it does have a higher danger rating as we're going into Seattle, a major city"
"Yeah we are!" Travis boomed, "I'm gonna take out so many zombies" He grinned, and Bella gave him a look and he turned back towards the weapons surrounding him.
"If we can avoid it, we don't make contact with the infected. When going on raids I have a few rules. You must always carry a secondary fire arm" Bella said then showed her ankle holster. "You can have as many fire arms as you want, but I demand you carry a least two" She waited a moment and when they didn't say anything she continued "You must also carry a melee weapon, such as a machete or the more crude, axe." Bella again paused. "Another rule is you always follow the chain of command" Bella directed this at Jasper "Which goes as follows, me then Jason. That's it." It was true, the others Gwyn and Travis had been with them the longest and they did have a say about many things. However, out there, in the field they were soldiers. Bella's soldiers. "Understood?" She asked,
"Yes" Jasper answered and the other two nodded.
"Alright" Bella smiled "Choose your weapon" She then went back to choosing her own. The Cullen boys seemed almost lost in the room. Looking around with uncertainty . They strolled over to some of the basic army issued rifles and handguns. Ones they probably practiced with the day before. They managed to holster a hand gun to each of their belts and check over the weapons of their choice.
Bella watched them from the corner of the room; she was ready and already was heavily armed. She smirked as the three brothers muttered amongst themselves. Talking about the weapons most likely and they looked very confused, slightly worried but excited all the same. It was humbling for Bella, to see these people who have been around for about 100 years following her orders doing everything she says and most of all that they were scared. Most people wouldn't see it, but Bella could. After a year or so of special ops, she learned to see the things people try to hide. And she could see they were afraid, the infected were stronger than they were. They relied on man made weapons and they were just as vulnerable as everyone else was. Bella smiled "You lot ready yet?" she called out to them.
"Uh yeah" Emmett nodded "I think so"
"Brilliant" Bella said "Come on everyone, we better get a move on" Everyone finished what they were doing and quickly followed Bella up the stairs. They all walked in a group towards the ambulance dock and the Cullen boys stopped and looked in awe at the vehicle in front of them. Essentially it was a standard land rover 4X4 but someone had made some major modifications. Steel meshing was covering all the windows and the bull bar was threaded with barbed wire. A long time ago it was probably a shiny white, but now it was stained with what looked like blood.
"Admiring my handy work?" Travis asked, nodded towards the land rover.
"It's very . . . impressive" Edward eventually said, Travis grinned at him before turning to look at Bella who was beginning to speak.
"Okay, Jason, Gwyn you two are in the front with me. Travis, Ryan and Edward are in the middle and Jasper and Emmett you two get to sit in the back" Bella said, "Let's go" She then went around to the driver's side and started up the car. The rest of them hurried into the car and Bella pulled out and quickly started the drive to Seattle.
Once they arrived, Bella drove swiftly through the streets before pulling over and getting out. "Okay, here's what's gonna happen" Bella said, while Gwyn, Jason, Travis and Ryan looked on with trained eyes and the Cullen boys listened nervously. "Gwyn, Travis, Jason and Ryan you four go that way" Bella pointed "Search what is known as Area 34. If you find anything radio in" The four nodded and quickly went on their way.
"You three will be sticking with me" Bella said, "The last thing I need is you messing up and someone finding out you're not human" Bella sighed, "Come on, and be silent." Bella then went down an ally, turning a corner here and there and the entire time she was completely silent. She placed her feet perfectly so they wouldn't crush the broken glass scattered around the street. The small group came to the end of an ally, "We wanna get over to that building," Bella whispered, pointing to the top of a factory building that was barely visible behind the other buildings.
"Well, let's go" Emmett said
"sh" Bella whispered, and pointed to two unmentionables drifting about the street. Emmett started to lift his rifle and Bella gave him a stern look which made him lower it again, "We don't interact with the infected. Just follow my lead, and be quiet" She whispered harshly.
Bella looked at the two zombies, a small breeze carried the stench of blood and rotting flesh towards them making Bella's nose twitch. She was so used to the awful stench that it barely bothered her anymore. Bella kept low to the ground as she flew across the asphalt, jumping over cardboard boxes on her way and landing soundlessly and gracefully on the ground. Edward stared after her, and wondered to himself what happened to the shy clumsy girl he met at high school.
Bella had obviously changed so much, to such a degree she was almost a different person. Edward was pulled out of his memories as Bella motioned them to come over, her gaze solely focused on the two unmentionables up the street. The three Cullen boys quickly ran across the street with the grace of a vampire. Bella watched them, and felt something similar to pride. A small smile formed on her lips. When the trio joined her on the other side of the street she whispered "Good job" to them before slinking her way up the side street.
They reached the industrial building, it was a factory with three stories and a large chain link fence surrounding it. Bella paused and looked at the fence, wondering how they were going to get in.
"I know" Emmett grinned, taking a few steps back. Bella looked at him with confusion, then realised what he meant.
"Emmett no!" Bella said, but it was too late. Emmett was already flying through the air, up and over the fence. He landed on a car, making the roof indent slightly. Then something happened that the three Cullen boys' didn't expect, the car alarm started to go off. "Emmett" Bella yelled over the alarm, "Let me in" Emmett looked around nervously, still on the roof of the car "Damn it Emmett. Let me in now!" She screamed at him, he jumped off the roof and at vampire speed went over to the fence and ripped it open. Bella ducked through and rushed over to the car. She grabbed her rifle and used the butt of it to smash the driver's door window. She then unlocked it and ducked under the dash, in a few moments' time it was silent once more.
"I'm sorry I didn't" Emmett started
"Sh" Bella cut him off, her hand in the air.
"Bella really"
"I said shut it" Bella glared, staring off into space.
"What happened?" they heard a voice yell out, Jason, Travis Gwyn and Ryan came running up and ducked through the hole in the mesh. Emmett was about to explain but Bella beat him to it,
"I jumped over fence and landed on that car, it was alarmed and I didn't know." Bella said, Emmett looked at her in shock. However, it was nothing compared to how Bella's team looked. They looked at her in complete disbelief, in the entire time they had known Bella they had never seen her make such a big mistake. Bella rolled her eyes "So I messed up, get over it" She looked among them as if waiting for them to say something before she continued "But we have to go, now. The infected must have heard that and-" She stopped talking abruptly, looking out towards the distance. "To late" She whispered.
"What is it?" Jason asked, coming up, Bella just pointed. Everyone looked to where she was pointing and saw it. A horde of unmentionables was running towards them, from three different directions. "We'll take shelter in the factory!" Jason yelled out.
"Agreed" Bella murmured, lifted her rifle to her shoulder and started to fire at the zombies. Everyone else took this as their cue and started firing too. Bella and Jason started slowly walking backwards towards the door to the factory and the others followed suit.
"Screw this" Bella muttered, once the zombie broke down the chain link fence. She slung her rifle onto her back, took out her machete, and ran into the horde.
"Bella!" Edward yelled,
"She can look after herself" Jason yelled, and continued to fire.
Bella reached the horde and started swinging, taking off heads left right and centre. She swiped and dodged, "Hey" Bella looked over her shoulder to see Ryan grinning, joining her in the horde.
"What are you doing?" Bella demanded, although a small smile was on her face too.
"What does it look like?" Ryan asked while chopping off a zombie's head.
"What out!" Bella said, jumping in front of him. Bella screamed as a zombie's teeth bit into her shoulder. She swiftly cut off its head. "Dammit!" Bella cussed, then things got even worse, Ryan let out a strangled scream. "Ryan!" Bella yelled, cutting off the zombie's head that was munching on Ryan's calf. Bella grabbed Ryan's shirt and dragged him out of the thick of things as Ryan used his handgun to shoot the zombies following them.
"Bella" Ryan said,
"Hang in there!" Bella said.
"Bella stop!" Ryan said,
"What!" Bella asked, firing off a bunch of bullets with her rifle.
"I can't walk." He said, "I'll just hold you back" He paused to shoot a few zombies.
"If you think I'm going to just leave you here then-" Bella started but Ryan cut her off
"That's exactly what I think" He said, "You're gonna have your work cut out for you as it is getting out of this one" He grinned, "You don't need to be worrying about the cripple too"
"Ryan" Bella stared at him,
"Come on Bella" Ryan looked up at her, "I can wait here, put up a fight." He smiled "Give you a bit of a head start" He chuckled humourlessly. "Just" He paused and pulled an envelope out of his pocket "Give this to Vinny?" He asked,
"I'll make sure she gets it" Bella nodded, taking it from him and putting it in her pocket. "You'll be missed" Bella said,
"Wait" Ryan said, Bella looked back down, "Grenade" He said pointing towards Bella's hand grenades. She nodded and gave one to him. "Good luck" He said
"You too" Bella nodded and started to run towards the rest of them who were holding their own. "In side the factory! Now!" She yelled running towards the door. "Now!" She yelled again holding open the door. The all ran in and Bella slammed it shut and braced herself against it. "Get something to barricade this door!" She ordered. It was then they heard the explosion.
"Where's Ryan?" Jason asked. Bella looked down.
"Where is he?" Gwyn asked.
"Don't look at me like that" Bella answered, "You know" she paused for a moment "We need something for this door"
"Here" Travis said, pushing a 44 gallon drum and braced it against the door and then returned to the room and get some more.
"Bella, you're bleeding" Gwyn said, pulling off her backpack and pulled out a medical kit. She produced a pressure bandage and pulled back the torn shoulder of Bella's shirt.
"You're bitten" Jasper said.
"Thank you caption obvious" Bella rolled her eyes and Gwyn looked over the wound.
"It's not too deep," She said and applied the pressure bandage. "That should hold until we get back" She said.
"Get back?" Jasper asked, "She's bitten" He said, "Infected!"
"I'm fine, Jasper" Bella said, "Don't worry about me"
"I'm not worrying about you. You are the danger!" Jasper said, and Bella smiled at him like he was a small child having a tantrum. "We should deal with her now" He said, looking at the others, then raised his rifle towards Bella.
"Lower you're weapon!" Jason demanded, standing in front of Bella.
"She's a danger to all of us," Jasper said.
"I said lower your weapon" Jason glared, raising his handgun. "If you want to kill Bella you'll have to go through me first."
"Well I'll kill you too," Jasper said,
"Will you, boy?" Jason glared, stepping forward.
Bella sighed, shaking her head "Calm it down, would ya?" She asked, stepping in between the two. "Nobody is shooting anybody" She looked at Jason "Got it?"
Jason nodded "Understood"
"Jasper?" Bella looked up at him.
"You're infected" Jasper murmured to her
"I'm fine," Bella said, "Now lower you're weapon. Before I throw you out to the infected" She smirked, trying to lighten the mood. Jasper slowly lowered his rifle and Jason visibly relaxed. "Okay, now you two are done with your pissing contest, let's get our stuff sorted" Bella said, "There's three floors." Bella started "Travis, you take the first floor, Gwyn and Jason you take the second. Radio in if you find something." Everyone nodded and started off.
"We don't need a baby sitter" Jasper said, once the others had left.
"Says the guy who just tried to shoot me" Bella rolled her eyes.
"You're infected" Jasper glared "I'm just thinking of-" He started, but Bella cut him off.
"And it's not your job to think of anyone but yourself. You need to learn to follow my orders" Bella gave him a look "And when I say I'm fine, you bloody well better listen" She looked at the others "Be alert, there may be infected in the building. Also look out for anything that may be of use" Without waiting for an answer Bella started walking around, seemingly relaxed. However Bella was hyper-aware, her instincts wouldn't allow her to let her guard down when her back was turned to a man who just pointed a loaded gun at her. It was hardwired into her every cell.
"Bella" Edwards voice floated through the air
"Something wrong?" She asked,
"No" Edward answered
"Then what?" Bella asked, after a moment's silence "It's not the blood is it? You're all under control?" She asked
"Yes, we're all fine. It's not us I'm worried about. How's you're shoulder?" He asked
Bella laughed "You don't need to worry about me, that's not your job"
"That doesn't stop me from doing it" Edward responded, staring into her eyes. The silence was broken with a chuckle from Bella's walkie-talkie.
"Bells, you wouldn't believe what I found" Travis's voice came through the walkie-talkie and you could hear the grin in his voice.
Bella took off her walkie-talkie from her shoulder "What is it?" Bella asked,
"Explosives" Travis chuckled.
"Explosives" Another voice came in; Gwyn's.
"Hey Gwyn, Yeah explosives. Dynamite and fuses" Travis said.
"Okay . . . Take it up to the roof" Bella said.
"Okay" Travis answered, "Over"
"Jason, Gwyn finish you're sweep of the second floor and join Travis on the roof, Over"
"Copy that," Jason said "Over"
"Okay guys" Bella said, putting her walkie-talkie back in its holster "Lets finish this up" They finished their sweep of the ground floor, checking for doors or windows the infected could come in through. Then quickly went to the roof. Bella went over and joined Travis, Gwyn and Jason over by a crate of explosives.
"What's the plan, boss?" Travis asked,
Bella just sighed, staring at the explosives then casually strolled over to the side of the roof, looking over the railing. "Is there any infected on any other walls?" Bella asked
"A few on the other three, but a majority of them are here. They're trying to follow us" Jason said. The infected are very simple minded, they didn't have any problem solving skills. They saw the group go in that door so they were trying to follow.
"Sadly that's our only exit point" Bella mused then turned around "Travis, since you know a lot about explosives do you think you could bundle up some, not enough to kill us all but enough to clear out some of them" Bella said, gesturing towards the unmentionables.
"Sure" Travis grinned, Bella turned back towards the infected and Travis pumped his fist triumphantly then bent down and started to hook up the sticks of dynamite.
Bella looked down towards the unmentionables, they were banging on the door and she knew the barrels weren't going to hold for much longer. "How much longer Travis?" Bella asked, turning around.
"Just a moment" He muttered, "Done!" He announced proudly. Travis stood up carrying three bundles of dynamite, two sticks per bundle. "Anyone got a light?" He asked, looking around. Bella pulled out a cigarette lighter.
"You smoke?" Edward asked,
"No, that's a terrible habit. I just carry one, you never know when it'll come in handy . . . like now" She winked.
"Awesome" Travis grinned, "Light em up, we'll have a moment to get inside and down stairs, we'll wanna go out as soon as they go off" He said. Bella nodded and lit each fuse and Travis threw them over the side of the building, being very careful as to where they landed. "Go go go!" Travis yelled and they all ran towards the stair well and raced down stairs. They managed to be half way down the stairs leading to the first floor when they heard the explosion.
"Let's move it!" Bella yelled running towards the door. "Someone move these barrels" She ordered and Travis and Emmett quickly got rid of them, Bella raised her rifle and kicked the door open. The dynamite had done the job and a majority of the zombies were now in pieces but they were still out numbered. "Get back to the land rover!" Bella ordered, and started firing rapidly. Bella ran out with and with practiced accuracy was killing zombies without hesitation. She took a moment to look at her team, to check if they were okay. "Shit" She mutter "Jasper watch yourself!" She yelled out, moving towards him.
"What?" Jasper asked,
"To your left!" Bella said, but decided it was too late and pulled him out of the way, resulting in a savage bite to her forearm. "God dammit" She growled before sending a bullet through the zombie's brain. "We gotta get outta here! Run!" She yelled out her order and started sprinting towards the land rover. The others followed suit, the zombies stumbling after them. When she reached the land rover, she jumped into the driver's seat and started the car. The rest of them weren't far behind. As soon as the last person was in the car she put her foot on the gas, hightailed it out of there, and didn't slow down until she reached the highway.
"So much for a standard mission" Jason murmured as everyone calmed down and the results of the day sunk in. They had lost one of their own and it stung. But it stung no one more than Bella, she failed as a leader. Her job was to get the mission done and keep her team safe while doing so and she failed. They gained absolutely nothing from the day's efforts other than a dead solider, a dead friend.
"Bella, I should take a look at your arm," Gwyn said from her seat in between Jason and Bella. Bella looked at Gwyn from the corner of her eye, and then sighed. Gwyn took this as her cue, dug around in her bag for another pressure bandage, and wrapped it around Bella's forearm as she drove. The car was silent all the way back to Forks.
When they arrived, no one spoke. It was dark and everyone would be having dinner in the cafeteria. So that's where they went. Bella walked up to Ryan's little sister, flanked by Jason and Gwyn. Vinny was smiling and chatting with her friends, waiting for her brother to return.
"Vinny" Bella murmured,
"Hey Bella" Vinny smiled "Where's Ryan" She asked, peering around her.
"I'm sorry, Vinny" Bella said softly, producing the envelope from her pocket, Vinny looked up at Bella blankly and numbly took the envelope. Vinny slowly opened it, not sure if she wanted to know what lied within. As she read over it she started to silently cry, shaking her head.
"No" She sobbed looking up at Bella "No" Bella knelt down and brought her into a hug. Vinny ignored the blood that covered Bella and clutched onto her as if she were her lifeline.
"I'm so sorry."Bella whispered, she wasn't going to tell her that it'd be okay. Because Bella knew, it wouldn't. Vinny had just lost the last of her family, lost the big brother she had looked up to since she was a little kid. Gwyn crouched down next to them and took Vinny into a hug as Bella stood up. She took a deep breath and then grabbed a spare chair. She stood up on it and called out "Can I have your attention please" immediately the room hushed and Bella looked at the crowd, surveying each face.
"Look," She sighed "I'm not going to beat around the bush today" She looked down at Vinny who was crying into Gwyn's shoulder "Today we left here, thinking it'd be an average mission. Just another day, this was just a foolish illusion. This nation is no longer average. And every time we go out there, there are risks. Obviously we didn't respect these risks enough." She took a deep steadying breath "Today we say farewell to a friend. Ryan Abrams was killed in the field today." She waited a moment as whispers started up, as some people started to cry, "He died bravely, with courage. Ryan will always be in our hearts, in our memories. He was a friend, a person we could talk to and most of all." She looked down to Vinny "A loving brother. But his death was not in vain!" She said "He died so we could live on, so we could rebuild this country. So now, let's have a moment of silence for a soldier who died before his time." Bella then stepped off the chair, bowed her head, and closed her eyes. Everyone else in the room followed suit and Bella was reminded that it was her job to keep everyone in this room safe. When she opened her eyes, she saw Edward staring at her. She quickly looked away and went to comfort Vinny, after all everyone here had lost a friend today, but she had lost a brother.
Longest chapter yet . . . I really hope you all review this! It took me ages!
Peace
StopTheMadness