Denis panted as he tried to catch his breath while waiting for the others of his team to catch up. He had cut through the parking lot of a small chain mall to escape a group of zeds and was awaiting the rest of the agents to follow behind him. He could hear them coming, so there was no worrying that they might not have known which way he went.
The man inhaled deeply, finally getting his breath back to normal, and started to recall his younger years. He was never that much of a runner. Even though he went to the gym on a regular basis, he never did track much or even jog around town. Why run when you have no intent on retreating from the fight he would always say to himself. But now was the time for an exception.
As an agent, he was expected to never back down from a fight or retreat from a battle, it wasn't the agency's way of handling business and never would be. Ordering a retreat was actually just as frowned upon just as much as calling in sick. Denis should have stayed back and fought with his fellow workers but he didn't have the will power any more. He just wanted to leave the city. Little did he know he team would be delayed because of his actions.
Sanderson backed up slowly as the zed agent approached him, it's hands raised as a zed grunt followed right in behind it. The agent thought this would be a good time to practice his moves against the dead. William crouched down and prepared to execute his move. He inhaled deeply and with lightning speed, just as the zeds were about to grab him, he bounded up into the air, yelling as he did so. "Waahhhh Tah!"
Sanderson gave a fierce kick to the neck of the zed agent, sending the zombie tumbling back into the other and knocking them both to the ground. William planted his feet to the ground and smiled at his successful move. Those genetic enhancement from the ATP really made him into a cqc threat. Reaching into his coat, he produced his Beretta and calmly stepped over to the two zeds he just took down.
The zeds were slow to get up and never managed to fully get to their feet before William killed them. The undead agent moaned as it bent itself and placed one of it's hands on the ground, attempting to push its body up. It was a pitiful sight to the man to see this monster attempt to get at him after falling on it's ass and knocking down it's comrade.
Sanderson pressed the barrel of his weapon to the creature's head as it reached up to grab him. He fired, causing dark red blood to splash all over the suit of the Zed Agent and the ground as well as the Grunt behind it. The green hand shook briefly as the head plopped down on the road followed by its limb.
The agent looked over at the Grunt Zed who also swiped at him. As if it was crippled, it only reached for him weakly. The recruiter just shook his head, positioned the gun over at the creature's head and discharged his load (PAUSE). It immediately dropped making a pool of blood drench the sidewalk. A steaming hot bullet hole now protruded out of it's skull.
Sanderson smirked devilishly at his handy work and turned his head to take in his surroundings. He was standing on the sidewalk in front of a auto shop garage. The door was all dented and damaged from zeds or maybe a car that crashed but was moved. Either one would not surprise Sanderson. There were a stretch of other buildings along the road before it merged with the parking lot on the side of the street. It belonged to the same small chain mall that Denis had ran to. Not like Denis was an important member of the team, but every member counted. The zeds were swarming over the group too. Paul was taking shots with an AK-74U and kept one hand on the handguard as he fired down an alley that had a crowd of eight zeds, at the least. There were two bodies piled in the alleyway, too damaged to become undead, their corpses completely mutilated. A trash can lay knocked over with black plastic garbage bags spilling out of it onto the pavement. The zeds ignored the debris as usual and seemed uninterested in the bodies on the ground, they wanted the fresh meat in front of them.
As Paul took his shots, Stunder was taking single rounds at a couple of zeds out in front of a small shoe store that was across the street from the recruitment officer, Sanderson. The store had a shelf in the window of the building that had a few pairs of expensive boots and shoes that would add up to a few hundreds of dollars. The footwear was dusty from sitting out in the open without being cleaned occasionally, since there were no living staff remaining. The window had a large crack stretching across the glass, due to a stray shot from Stunder's P1445, but it was over all intact. The researched pulled the trigger of his gun, sending a round flying through the air, lodging it into the neck of the closest zed grunt. He was getting used to the recoil and aiming but was at least better than Paul at taking shots.
Christopher was only observing the battle, since he didn't have a weapon. Unlike Conner who was shooting at a cluster of zeds coming down the middle of the street with his remington 870. His rounds were doing great damage towards the five zeds that enthusiastically marched down the street to the survivor. The road was cracked and stained with blood from the holes that dripped from the zeds that came at him. He pulled down on his rack again and fired at the zed agent that attempted a lunge for him. The zed's head exploded in a mess of darkened red blood before it's body immediately dropped to the ground, lifeless and without even a quiver of an impulse to show.
Meanwhile, Thorn and Rocky took cover behind a sedan that had smashed into a street light, firing their weapons with one hand on the handguard and one on the trigger. The poll had fallen straight down on the car, almost crushing it into two pieces, smashing the windows in the process. The driver must have died on impact since there was a large blood splatter over the hood of the vehicle, along with a corpse lying it's head on the passenger's seat. Thorn had apparently overcome his fear of killing as evidence of him firing full auto at the army of the dead that approached him. There must have been thirty zed grunts with the addition of about nine zed agents mixed in the ranks.
It was all as if it was from some kind of movie where the heroes made their final stand against the enemy. But this was real life.
Sanderson looked around, took in the situation, and found himself running over to Engineers Thorn and Rocky. While he dashed over, the two managed to take down a few zeds as they got closer. Rocky turned his head to look at his boss and heard Sanderson yell over the gunfire:
"Get your ass moving soldier!" Thorn, unfortunately, didn't hear properly and stopped firing himself.
"What, Sir?!" He shouted. That was all the time needed for him to become infected. Out of the crushed car that he was taking cover behind, the person inside, who was infected, woke up and poked it's arms out the shattered window attempting to grab the nearest person. That wouldn't have been a problem but Thorn had positioned himself directly in front of the window, giving the creature a free bite.
The now turned Zed grunt reached through the twisted metal and broken glass, grabbed onto Thorns shirt and pulled him against the car. Thorn took one of his hands off his MP5 and screamed as twisted teeth sunk into the soft flesh in his back. Yellow blood immediately began to squirt it's way out of the wound and onto the ground, the car, and even the Zed's face. Sanderson immediately took hold of the situation as well as Rocky, and they both aimed their weapons inside the car. The two opened fire and let their bullets fly at the creature. When the first round entered the monster's skull, it let go and dropped it's head where the window was. Thorn jolted forward and grabbed at his wound, screaming, while two seconds of shooting followed to ensure the zombie was dead.
When Rocky and Sanderson ceased fire, the Zed's body laid slumped up against the door with it's head partially through the shattered window. Sanderson dropped his current mag and pulled out a replacement from his pocket, shoving it in his gun as Rocky took aim again at the crowd of zeds that neared them.
Thorn was obviously infected. The Zed bit straight through to his spine, almost scraping the bone in the process. The ATP Engineer applied pressure to the wound, whimpering, since the pain was so bad. Thorn was suddenly overcome with a feeling that was totally foreign to him. So foreign that he didn't know what to call it. He took his smg back in both hands and felt the blood drip down his side. The Engineer took one second to snap out of his pain and eject his magazine.
"We're falling back!" Sanderson yelled and stepped back, tapping Rocky's shoulder as he inched away. "Come on!" Rocky did just that and the two ran away from their position. Thorn looked up and watched as the other survivors, one by one, running after the group leader. But not Thorn. Thorn just opened up his satchel and pulled out another mag and while shaking a little, brought the magazine up into the receiver and turned to the crowd of dead.
"Come on!" He yelled raising his gun holding down the trigger. The bullets ripped through the crowd but failed to stop them. He backed up step by step as zeds from all around him seemed to just appear out of thin air. It took only a few feet for Thorn to back up against the front of a building. He still held down the trigger of his gun as they came at him.
Bullets pierced flesh and shattered bones of the monsters but the swarm just kept coming shuffling over the the corpses dead on the ground. Thorn just kept firing. "You want some more!?"
(Re 3 reference count: 01)
Thorn's mind raced as he fired from one side to the other. The zeds only kept getting closer, not even seeming to be affected by the bullets any more. It was only a matter of time before they were in grabbing range. Then it happened. One reached his a took a bite out of the side of his head. He screamed and turned all his attention to the zed and fired his remaining bullets at it. This allowed another zed from behind to tear off a piece of flesh from his neck area. Yellow blood spilled on to the ground and Thorn dropped his gun. He brought his hands up and grasped the wound. He let one final weakling scream go before the crowd of zeds began to rip and pluck and bight his succulent flesh. His blood seemed to send them into a frenzy.
"Are you guys missing someone?" Denis questioned the other agents as they reloaded their weapons and calculated how many rounds they had left. Sanderson looked around and the thought hit him like a bulldozer.
"Oh dammit we forgot Torn!" Sanderson stated in frustration. Stunder looked over as the Agent and decided to add to the conversation.
"Why the hell'd he do that?"
"He got bit remember?" The man of science shook his fist and pointed his finger at his leader.
"Well he shouldn't have stood so close to that car." Stunder countered "It's his own damn fault!"
(Pwanchi Re ref. count: 01)
"Right..." Sanderson reached in his coat and pulled out his phone. "I'll make the call to the boss and tell them to pick us up." Sanderson stepped away from the group of to the other side of the lot and entered in a phone number then head the device to his head. It rang a few times before someone picked up.
"Hello?" It was SI the engineer. He was apparently taking up the job of guiding Sanderson. Maybe it was because he was his personal guard.
"SI," Sanderson said in a stern voice "We're losing people down here and we need pick up immediately."
"Were you able to find the doctor?"
"Yes, he's dead. We found his body while looking for a cure. He committed suicide trying to protect it." There was a pause. SI taking in said information. He didn't really join to ask questions but curiosity grasped him in his fist.
"There's a cure?" There was a little hope in his voice. Maybe the city could be saved. But that was short lived hope as Sanderson's next words made sure to destroy it.
"We already used it." Sanderson informed him before he got any ideas. "Rodney became infected and he was vital to our mission."
"And where is this Rodney?" Sanderson thought for a minute about his location, remember that he didn't pull up with the group. He hesitated and considered withholding the information for his own good but command had eyes everywhere. They would see through any lie he dished out.
"He was left behind." He responded then quickly added: "It was my fault alone. We were in the lower levels of the building when we were separated. We didn't bother looking for him as he wasn't an asset."
"Okay," SI began. "I'm going to hold back on any further questions and let you deal with command. We will be dispatching a helicopter to the downtown area of the city. Be there when it arrives. The Auditor plans to use the drives and blast pure energy into the heart of the city tomorrow morning."
"Why tomorrow?" Yes why? Sanderson had more then enough time to get to the area and leave with still more than a day to escape the city. So why tomorrow.
"He wants to make sure that you have enough time while at the same time allow any survivors to escape the city."
"We came here because those damn survivors couldn't leave in the first place!" Sanderson yelled. SI had a quick answer.
"They heard a radio transmission and- hold on." There was a brief silence. Sanderson took the phone down and addressed his men.
"Hey guys?" He said. The others attention was quickly drawn to him. "Everyone start walking to the downtown area, I'll meet you there. A chopper will be inbound in that area." He turned away from the team again and picked the phone back up. There was still silence.
The rest of the team, starting with Denis, turned down the street and started their march to the evacuation area. The doctor had worry on his brain when they got onto the road while the agents followed in behind him.
"Hello?" SI said finally into the phone. "I'm only allowed to tell you to go down town. All other information has been sealed to our eyes." Sanderson clenched the phone tightly in his hand, looked back over his shoulder at the team moving down the street, then turned back around. He raised his arm back then through the phone as far as he could.
"Excellent! I can't even access my own Intel!"