"Week 2, day 1. It was a dark day when the epidemic broke out. I was a surviving civilian selected to lead a platoon of soldiers into this mess. Word gets around when you can bike for a mile, slay 53 Zombies, and save 3 families in the process. The government picked us up from my dad's shop. He would have been proud to know his auto shop saved 10 of us.
My dad was a strong man... He just didn't believe me when I told him what I knew. One of them was just laying on the ground over another, and all my dad saw was a woman mourning her husband who had suddenly died. It was already too late when she turned around and he saw all the blood and gore dripping from her jaw. It's a dark day indeed when you're a block away from safety and you have to ease your fathers passing and kill his assailant as well. It took mum all she had just to walk away and keep the group moving. I guess she's stronger then I ever thought she could be.
But the past is gone. It's funny that I have to remind myself of that less and less as this goes on. We officially passed the 2 week marker of the epidemic yesterday... But the government likes to keep things hush hush like that. It's been close to a month and a half since the first day and my dad... The best part about it is that I've got my brothers behind me on this. One of the families I saved that first day was like my second family back when the world was normal. And after I was chosen to lead the platoon, my brothers stood beside me and stared down the General like he was nothing. Take us or leave us, I guess. Heh... Good men. Both of them.
So here we are on week 2 day 1 of the epidemic. I started off on this mission with a company of 20, not including me. And after the two weeks we were down to just me and 12 others. It's been a good run though. Every other platoon that was sent out returned after the first week in need of more supplies and troops. We are the best squad out in the field and we've come to trust each other. It's funny... I never really knew how call signs started within an army. Turns out we gave each other names based on what we saw. I wont bother to go through all... but some are pretty good. My brothers got there names pretty quickly. Phoenix got his handle simply because he's the balls of the team. No matter what mess we got into he'd rush in with his shot gun and battle axe and help us rise from the ashes of a failed attempt to engage the enemy. Eagle got his in pretty much the same way. I swear those brothers of mine have a secret radio to each other I don't know about. Whenever Phoenix goes in for a strike, Eagle takes the high ground and unleashed hell with the sniper rifle he took. We've got Enrique in there too. No matter what the standard issue guides tell you, signing doesn't matter. Zombies will find you whether you're quiet or not. When he takes his watch or we're getting ready to go for the day, he'll bust out with a song that we all know. Lately we've been running through a lot of Disney stuff... Hey... when you're in this situation morale is key. Sphinx never does talk much... But a man like him doesn't really need to. 7'3" tall and nothing but pure muscle. His hands are too big for guns, and he accepts that with grace. He's the only one I've ever seen never get tired after walking a few miles carrying his supplies, his weapons, and doing it all wearing a glorious suit of armour. I'd hate to be those Zombies with him as an enemy. 7 feet and 3 inches of shining plate mail armour, a huge maul hammer, a bardiche, two swords and a shield draped over his back. This man is the very figure of a knight come to save the day.
But what really makes me smile is that the troops gave me my handle from all the video games i used to play. But other then my brothers, none of them knew I was a gamer. I guess it doesn't help with my gear, but still. I found a not-so-standard-issue long black coat. Something like Blade used to wear in the movies. I've cut down hoards of Zombies with dual magnums, I've sundered enemies with a Katana or two, and I have reaped the fields of undead with my battle scythe. My men have named me. My enemies have fallen before me.
I am the Reaper, and this is my realm..."
Excerpt from the battle log of Steven A. Carpenter. Code Named: Reaper.
Getting Into The Flow
"Week 2, day 4. I feel it's important to write today. My platoon is down to half it's original number. We were given new orders over our radios from HQ that we have effectively secured a route inside the city. However the buildings are still an issue. We lost Ice Man and Lil' Jim when we tried to clear our 4th building. The first 3 went off without a hitch. Get in, get 'er done, get out. But this one didn't feel right from the start. We got in and that's when the problems started. Nothing but endless cubicles and desks piled on top of desks. Trees and plants were there too. Which was weird because the undead will eat anything living. Plant life included. Way too many places for Zombies to hide. Ice Man and Lil' Jim volunteered to go first. I guess they were pretty close in all of this because they just took one look at each other and took the first steps. They cleared a good chunk of everything away before it all went to hell. *scoff*
'Damned things can still fly!'
'They're everywhere! Oh my God they're everywhere!'
That's all I heard before I saw hundreds of undead pigeons flying toward us. Ice Man and Lil' Jim were completely covered in almost seconds. We sent an emergency radio dispatch to HQ while we were running away. We managed to get outside and lock the doors behind us. A quick check tells me that we only lost two... The two friends that went in together, and went down together. I'm sad I never got to know them as well as I'd have liked to.
Honestly, this is where I would take a step in my late father's shoes. 'Now son,' he would say to me, ' you know I feel bad about saying it. But there are times in life, where you would lose less by turning a rogue city into a parking lot.' Personally I agree in this instance. It's possible that we eliminate chances of finding survivors in the area, and all the money it would take to rebuild the city... But from what I understand we've already lost 67 troops in this endeavour and we've only found 20-some odd survivors... Numbers like that just don't make sense to me. However the government seldom ever did.'
Excerpt from the battle log of Steven A. Carpenter. Code Named: Reaper.
'Damned things can still fly!'
'They're everywhere! Oh my God they're everywhere!'
That's all I heard before I saw hundreds of undead pigeons flying toward us. Ice Man and Lil' Jim were completely covered in almost seconds. We sent an emergency radio dispatch to HQ while we were running away. We managed to get outside and lock the doors behind us. A quick check tells me that we only lost two... The two friends that went in together, and went down together. I'm sad I never got to know them as well as I'd have liked to.
Honestly, this is where I would take a step in my late father's shoes. 'Now son,' he would say to me, ' you know I feel bad about saying it. But there are times in life, where you would lose less by turning a rogue city into a parking lot.' Personally I agree in this instance. It's possible that we eliminate chances of finding survivors in the area, and all the money it would take to rebuild the city... But from what I understand we've already lost 67 troops in this endeavour and we've only found 20-some odd survivors... Numbers like that just don't make sense to me. However the government seldom ever did.'
Excerpt from the battle log of Steven A. Carpenter. Code Named: Reaper.
Calling In Some Favours
"Week 2, day 5. Seems HQ is willing to pull some favours for it's hard working troops. My platoon is going to get the day off. And seeing how it's been almost 50 days (off the record time included) I'm pretty sure my men deserve it. Enrique and Sphinx are going to go work on some cars today. Their family were claimed by the epidemic within the first two weeks, and since they both enjoy working on cars they've bonded pretty tightly. Hex is going to the bar. Says he hasn't had a drink in two years but this is reason enough to celebrate. Shakespear, Kaden and Scales are going to try and find their families in the baracks. Rex and Mako are going to find some games to play. They've always got a portable chess set somewhere between the two of them. Eagle and Phoenix are going to see their family which is good. They're all pulling through and supporting us all the way. They are truely wonderful people. I would have gone with them but I was called to HQ instead... Someone has to keep their minds on the job at all times. And I'm more then happy to let the others forget the horrors of the present with their family and friends.
It still seems odd to have fully trained army personnel salute to me. It seems like I'm actually respected for what my troops and I have done. It's not a bad feeling to get used to...
'Well aren't you a sight for sore eyes!'
Turns out I was called to HQ for a surprise visit. Captain James S. (code name: Watcher) was called into duty in this region and he's being assigned to my platoon. The general said there was another coming, but the chopper she's on is a little late. And in this world, a little late is never good.
Watcher and I attended the same college before this started. Together we could hack up a storm and leave humour and wasted time in it's wake. I found out that's why he was called on to my team. HQ thinks we'll run into a few banks that have items that are more useful in our hands then just sitting and gathering dust.
Conversation insued as it normally does between friends and I figured out he led a large detachment of his own before he got transfered to me. Watcher had always been a big guy, and it seems that paid off. Most people wouldn't have had an easy time carrying the load he did. At times like this no one went anywhere without their weapons, and Watcher was not one to forgo the ways that kept you alive. A giant double headed axe hung by his side and a rocket launcher with 8 rounds were strapped to his back. And his lap top in a bag, just like I remembered it. Just another guy who wont take any crap from Zombie hoardes.
'Reaper to the landing zone. I repeat, Reaper to the landing zone,' came the call over the speakers. Seems that whoever 'she' is is finally here.
When Watcher and I made it to the landing zone, the helicopter was already refueled and on it's way back from wherever it came. And on the landing platform was who we were waiting for. Wearing a black dress that clung to her torso and flowed to her knees, with knee high boots, and a black ribbon holding back her hair, Viper picked up her AK47 and slung it over her shoulder. I noticed as she was walking towards us that she had throwing knives strapped over her dress as well.
'Reaper... It's been a while,' she said with a wink. And quite a while it had been indeed. Back in the control room I was informed that both Watcher and Viper were to be assigned to my platoon. It wasn't so much a shock that I was getting more troops... It was who I was getting that surprised me.
As we walked back to meet up with the rest of the platoon after their day off, I informed the two new members on what had happened so far. Every detail was given to them. It didn't make sense to hold anything back. We were so deep in the conversation that I almost walked straight into Eagle and the others.
'Yo Reaps! Mum, Dad and Val say hi and wish you the best.'
And with that... It seems like I got my day off too. My platoon turned into my friends, my brothers and I were tighter then we'd ever been, my friends from my past became my allies, and my remaining family was safe. This was among the best days of my life"
Excerpt from the battle log of Steven A. Carpenter. Code Named: Reaper.
It still seems odd to have fully trained army personnel salute to me. It seems like I'm actually respected for what my troops and I have done. It's not a bad feeling to get used to...
'Well aren't you a sight for sore eyes!'
Turns out I was called to HQ for a surprise visit. Captain James S. (code name: Watcher) was called into duty in this region and he's being assigned to my platoon. The general said there was another coming, but the chopper she's on is a little late. And in this world, a little late is never good.
Watcher and I attended the same college before this started. Together we could hack up a storm and leave humour and wasted time in it's wake. I found out that's why he was called on to my team. HQ thinks we'll run into a few banks that have items that are more useful in our hands then just sitting and gathering dust.
Conversation insued as it normally does between friends and I figured out he led a large detachment of his own before he got transfered to me. Watcher had always been a big guy, and it seems that paid off. Most people wouldn't have had an easy time carrying the load he did. At times like this no one went anywhere without their weapons, and Watcher was not one to forgo the ways that kept you alive. A giant double headed axe hung by his side and a rocket launcher with 8 rounds were strapped to his back. And his lap top in a bag, just like I remembered it. Just another guy who wont take any crap from Zombie hoardes.
'Reaper to the landing zone. I repeat, Reaper to the landing zone,' came the call over the speakers. Seems that whoever 'she' is is finally here.
When Watcher and I made it to the landing zone, the helicopter was already refueled and on it's way back from wherever it came. And on the landing platform was who we were waiting for. Wearing a black dress that clung to her torso and flowed to her knees, with knee high boots, and a black ribbon holding back her hair, Viper picked up her AK47 and slung it over her shoulder. I noticed as she was walking towards us that she had throwing knives strapped over her dress as well.
'Reaper... It's been a while,' she said with a wink. And quite a while it had been indeed. Back in the control room I was informed that both Watcher and Viper were to be assigned to my platoon. It wasn't so much a shock that I was getting more troops... It was who I was getting that surprised me.
As we walked back to meet up with the rest of the platoon after their day off, I informed the two new members on what had happened so far. Every detail was given to them. It didn't make sense to hold anything back. We were so deep in the conversation that I almost walked straight into Eagle and the others.
'Yo Reaps! Mum, Dad and Val say hi and wish you the best.'
And with that... It seems like I got my day off too. My platoon turned into my friends, my brothers and I were tighter then we'd ever been, my friends from my past became my allies, and my remaining family was safe. This was among the best days of my life"
Excerpt from the battle log of Steven A. Carpenter. Code Named: Reaper.
Umm... Sir? We've got a problem
"Week 3, Day 1. Yesterday was a bad day. We ran into a few problems, and what's worse is that a couple of them could have been fixed.
First off, let me state that we're still in the process of clearing the buildings. We took care of those nasty pigeons from a few days ago by sending in a squad with basic spam weapons. No matter how good a shot you think you are... undead pigeons are harder to hit then you'd think. So shotguns and heavy machine guns did the trick with minimal loses. After they counted the avian bodies they discovered that there must have been near 400 birds in that one building alone. I put in a request to have Ice Man and Lil' Jim's bodies returned to us for proper burial. The squad had my back saying it would be the right thing to do.
Secondly, we've found problems bigger then pigeons. We came across a small animal hospital that still had it's light on. We could hear it from a mile away with that old generator it was pumping. So Hex, Scales, Phoenix, Watcher and I went in to look. I know you'd probably say that's a bad idea, just like splitting up in horror movies... But in a world like this you realize what a comfort it is to have people watching your escape route. So while we were looking around the building trying to find whoever was keeping the generator running we kept finding random body parts. This fact in itself isn't unusual. Zombies don't care which parts they eat first as long as it's still warm flesh. So sometimes things get too cold for them before they can finish. But these parts looked like they'd been surgically removed and then just tossed on the ground. One room we searched actually had a couple zombies hanging from chains on the wall. Hex actually threw up, but part of me thinks he's snuck in a few bottles of alcohol since our day off. But eventually we found our man. Turns out there was an actual doctor in the back of the clinical area, but he didn't seem... right. You know? And the whole time we were walking towards him a noise that wasn't coming from the generator was getting louder too, and it wasn't a happy noise either. The doctor told us he'd been waiting for someone like us from the government to show up.
He'd been waiting for us... That should have been our first clue that our guts weren't lying. We told him to stop and identify himself, but he just walked into a back room and started fiddling with chains. When he'd almost finished he said that he was it's father and that it would listen to him. And as he unfastened the last chain the large bundle in the back of the room stirred. The doctor looked at the bundle like it was his child, with something of a crazed grin on his face. That should have been our second hint that this wasn't going to be pretty. After the bundle across the room started to really kick around the doctor came at us. Nothing but a simple scalpel in his hand, but Hex was slow on his reaction time and we were focusing on the moving blankets. A three bullet burst was excessive for the take down, but after the crazed doctor was dead we realized Hex had the scalpel sticking out of the back of his hand. I should have told him at this point to head outside and get Shakespeare to help him with the medic kit. But as soon as the sound of the bullets died down, the bundle on the table sat up.
With the blankets falling away from it, we saw that this bundle wasn't just a Zombie... it was quite a few Zombies all laced into one body. This thing had six legs that had it walking like an insect. Four massive arms that were surgically enhanced at the ends by removing the hands and turning the forearm bones into sharp spears. A torso twice the size of any normal person. And three heads with those dead, black eyes and the jaws just opening and closing with that unsatiable hunger. Everyone backed away slowly but this thing has already seen us, and we knew what it wanted. When the abomination started to move everything just slowed down in my mind. It moved so much quicker then the other zombies. It may have been the six legs all working at once. Hex was closest and we knew he was gone when it started moving. Four arm-spears to the chest lifted him off the ground and three heads descended on him. One head on either side of his neck and the third right on his face. It happened so quickly that Hex never got any shots off. In the split second it took for him to die we all ran. It wasn't exactly cowardice on our parts, but that was a huge chunk of it. Something like this you see in the movies and think, 'We can take it!!' But in real life... This thing wasn't natural, and it was made specifically for us.
Running back down the hallway, past the hanging Zombies, and out the front door. This thing was coming for us though. It knew we had more meat then Hex did alone. I think that was the very first time I barked orders to my squad. Half the squad knew what had happened, and the other half didn't. But everyone knew enough to listen when I gave an order. Eagle got back on one of the Humvees and lined up with the door. Sphinx, Phoenix and Watcher stood their ground, Bardiche, Shotgun, and Axe ready in their hands. Viper lined up her AK47. Rex and Mako got on the mounted Gatling guns on the Humvees. Kaden, Scales and I got our battle rifles ready. Shakespeare got behind the line of vehicles and poked over the hood with his magnum. And Enrique got beside him with an assault rifle. A perfect semi-circle of death aimed completely at this door. Things got worse when the abomination decided to make it's own door. Cement bricks and concrete flew everywhere to the right as the abomination came rushing through the wall. Every single weapon and body turned towards the exploding debris. Our front line turned to rush towards it, and battle rifles, the AK47, the sniper rifle, and the two mounted guns rained lead into it's body like it was nobody's business. Shotgun rounds punctuated the noise, and the sound of metal cleaving through skin and bone were repeatedly heard. In a sick sort of way, this was the perfect orchestra from hell.
The beast had a running start however and managed to get into the middle of us. Our formation was forgotten in the need to stay alive in this dance of bone and bullets. Kaden and Scales were both speared right beside me. I could feel their life blood spraying onto my face. Phoenix got in from behind and scattered the brain matter of two heads all over the street. And Sphinx managed to take off a couple of it's arms. But the whirling path of destruction wasn't easily forced down. The fire from my battle rifle and Viper's AK47 had literally torn the last head into Swiss cheese. The beast fell forward with the smack of dead weight meeting concrete. After our fierce battle was done, we estimated over 200 bullets and two of our crew were expended to take down the abomination. It was a truly awful day.
Watcher, Sphinx and I went back inside to collect Hex's body and kill the hanging Zombies, while the others maintained the perimeter and got the fuel canisters ready. HQ told us if we had men down or any problems to report then we should send up a smoke signal and someone would contact us. Power was running low in the base and even the radios couldn't be charged all the time. So we burnt the creature that the crazed doctor had called 'it', and we prepped Hex, Kaden, and Scales to be carried away in whatever vehicle would come to contact us while the smoke drifted upwards... Our number is down to 10, including me. Enrique, our ballistics expert. Sphinx, our knight in shinning armour. Shakespeare, our medic. Rex and Mako, our engineer and mechanic. Watcher, our hacker/demolitions expert. Viper, our assassin. Eagle, our sniper. Phoenix, our balls. And me... The Reaper."
Excerpt from the battle log of Steven A. Carpenter. Code Named: Reaper.
First off, let me state that we're still in the process of clearing the buildings. We took care of those nasty pigeons from a few days ago by sending in a squad with basic spam weapons. No matter how good a shot you think you are... undead pigeons are harder to hit then you'd think. So shotguns and heavy machine guns did the trick with minimal loses. After they counted the avian bodies they discovered that there must have been near 400 birds in that one building alone. I put in a request to have Ice Man and Lil' Jim's bodies returned to us for proper burial. The squad had my back saying it would be the right thing to do.
Secondly, we've found problems bigger then pigeons. We came across a small animal hospital that still had it's light on. We could hear it from a mile away with that old generator it was pumping. So Hex, Scales, Phoenix, Watcher and I went in to look. I know you'd probably say that's a bad idea, just like splitting up in horror movies... But in a world like this you realize what a comfort it is to have people watching your escape route. So while we were looking around the building trying to find whoever was keeping the generator running we kept finding random body parts. This fact in itself isn't unusual. Zombies don't care which parts they eat first as long as it's still warm flesh. So sometimes things get too cold for them before they can finish. But these parts looked like they'd been surgically removed and then just tossed on the ground. One room we searched actually had a couple zombies hanging from chains on the wall. Hex actually threw up, but part of me thinks he's snuck in a few bottles of alcohol since our day off. But eventually we found our man. Turns out there was an actual doctor in the back of the clinical area, but he didn't seem... right. You know? And the whole time we were walking towards him a noise that wasn't coming from the generator was getting louder too, and it wasn't a happy noise either. The doctor told us he'd been waiting for someone like us from the government to show up.
He'd been waiting for us... That should have been our first clue that our guts weren't lying. We told him to stop and identify himself, but he just walked into a back room and started fiddling with chains. When he'd almost finished he said that he was it's father and that it would listen to him. And as he unfastened the last chain the large bundle in the back of the room stirred. The doctor looked at the bundle like it was his child, with something of a crazed grin on his face. That should have been our second hint that this wasn't going to be pretty. After the bundle across the room started to really kick around the doctor came at us. Nothing but a simple scalpel in his hand, but Hex was slow on his reaction time and we were focusing on the moving blankets. A three bullet burst was excessive for the take down, but after the crazed doctor was dead we realized Hex had the scalpel sticking out of the back of his hand. I should have told him at this point to head outside and get Shakespeare to help him with the medic kit. But as soon as the sound of the bullets died down, the bundle on the table sat up.
With the blankets falling away from it, we saw that this bundle wasn't just a Zombie... it was quite a few Zombies all laced into one body. This thing had six legs that had it walking like an insect. Four massive arms that were surgically enhanced at the ends by removing the hands and turning the forearm bones into sharp spears. A torso twice the size of any normal person. And three heads with those dead, black eyes and the jaws just opening and closing with that unsatiable hunger. Everyone backed away slowly but this thing has already seen us, and we knew what it wanted. When the abomination started to move everything just slowed down in my mind. It moved so much quicker then the other zombies. It may have been the six legs all working at once. Hex was closest and we knew he was gone when it started moving. Four arm-spears to the chest lifted him off the ground and three heads descended on him. One head on either side of his neck and the third right on his face. It happened so quickly that Hex never got any shots off. In the split second it took for him to die we all ran. It wasn't exactly cowardice on our parts, but that was a huge chunk of it. Something like this you see in the movies and think, 'We can take it!!' But in real life... This thing wasn't natural, and it was made specifically for us.
Running back down the hallway, past the hanging Zombies, and out the front door. This thing was coming for us though. It knew we had more meat then Hex did alone. I think that was the very first time I barked orders to my squad. Half the squad knew what had happened, and the other half didn't. But everyone knew enough to listen when I gave an order. Eagle got back on one of the Humvees and lined up with the door. Sphinx, Phoenix and Watcher stood their ground, Bardiche, Shotgun, and Axe ready in their hands. Viper lined up her AK47. Rex and Mako got on the mounted Gatling guns on the Humvees. Kaden, Scales and I got our battle rifles ready. Shakespeare got behind the line of vehicles and poked over the hood with his magnum. And Enrique got beside him with an assault rifle. A perfect semi-circle of death aimed completely at this door. Things got worse when the abomination decided to make it's own door. Cement bricks and concrete flew everywhere to the right as the abomination came rushing through the wall. Every single weapon and body turned towards the exploding debris. Our front line turned to rush towards it, and battle rifles, the AK47, the sniper rifle, and the two mounted guns rained lead into it's body like it was nobody's business. Shotgun rounds punctuated the noise, and the sound of metal cleaving through skin and bone were repeatedly heard. In a sick sort of way, this was the perfect orchestra from hell.
The beast had a running start however and managed to get into the middle of us. Our formation was forgotten in the need to stay alive in this dance of bone and bullets. Kaden and Scales were both speared right beside me. I could feel their life blood spraying onto my face. Phoenix got in from behind and scattered the brain matter of two heads all over the street. And Sphinx managed to take off a couple of it's arms. But the whirling path of destruction wasn't easily forced down. The fire from my battle rifle and Viper's AK47 had literally torn the last head into Swiss cheese. The beast fell forward with the smack of dead weight meeting concrete. After our fierce battle was done, we estimated over 200 bullets and two of our crew were expended to take down the abomination. It was a truly awful day.
Watcher, Sphinx and I went back inside to collect Hex's body and kill the hanging Zombies, while the others maintained the perimeter and got the fuel canisters ready. HQ told us if we had men down or any problems to report then we should send up a smoke signal and someone would contact us. Power was running low in the base and even the radios couldn't be charged all the time. So we burnt the creature that the crazed doctor had called 'it', and we prepped Hex, Kaden, and Scales to be carried away in whatever vehicle would come to contact us while the smoke drifted upwards... Our number is down to 10, including me. Enrique, our ballistics expert. Sphinx, our knight in shinning armour. Shakespeare, our medic. Rex and Mako, our engineer and mechanic. Watcher, our hacker/demolitions expert. Viper, our assassin. Eagle, our sniper. Phoenix, our balls. And me... The Reaper."
Excerpt from the battle log of Steven A. Carpenter. Code Named: Reaper.
Situation Normal, All Fucked Up - Phoenix
"Week 3, Day 2. How did it come to this? Not a day goes by when I don't ask myself that question. I try to think back to before this ordeal began and I try to feel the innocence I felt before, but to no avail. It's funny... Reaper use to tell us, my brother Eagle and I, about what was going to happen. The horrors that would descend upon the world. We would just laugh because we thought he was kidding... Oh how wrong we were. But since the outbreak he never once has said, 'I told you so.' That's not the kind of man he is.
I can still remember the day the world ended. We were sitting in our house watching some movie together calling it 'family time' when we heard the screams. Sure you hear those screams in the movies but when you hear them in real life you can't help but be gripped by a mixture of adrenaline and fear. Then the front door was knocked in and they came. The first time I saw one I was shocked. I never thought a human being could look so... evil, deformed. My sister screamed and the creature stood a minute almost like it was deciding which one of us to devour first. Just before it could leap on to my brother it was pierced through the skull from behind by a Katana. Reaper had saved our lives that day and it was for that reason we accepted our brothers leadership as head of the squad.
I made a vow never to be caught off guard again. I hate the bastards. The mindless onslaught of inhuman beasts who want nothing more then to devour humanity in a rainstorm of blood. I've been keeping a tally on my shotgun. I do it so whoever finds my dead body will know, 'Here lies a man who went balls out and kicked ass!'
The only thing that matters to me now is keeping my family, and the rest of the guys alive, whatever the cost. Enrique, Sphinx, Viper... All of them as well as Reaper and of course...Eagle.
My brother Eagle has become sort of cold and emotionless, like a robot, almost since his fiance was turned. Killing her was the hardest thing he ever had to do and it killed him a little. So much is wrong! So much is just fucked up! Clearing these buildings... Seeing what has become of our world. I remember on Day 5 after I found a black Desert Eagle Magnum with a Red Phoenix etched in the handle, we walked past the sign that used to say 'Welcome to Sarnia' instead it had spray painted over with the words, 'Fuck the Zombies' all I could think at that moment was, 'I intend to, I intend to...' I am the Phoenix and with the support of my brothers, I will rise above the flame."
Excerpt from the battle log of Jeremy M. Clever. Code Named: Phoenix.
I can still remember the day the world ended. We were sitting in our house watching some movie together calling it 'family time' when we heard the screams. Sure you hear those screams in the movies but when you hear them in real life you can't help but be gripped by a mixture of adrenaline and fear. Then the front door was knocked in and they came. The first time I saw one I was shocked. I never thought a human being could look so... evil, deformed. My sister screamed and the creature stood a minute almost like it was deciding which one of us to devour first. Just before it could leap on to my brother it was pierced through the skull from behind by a Katana. Reaper had saved our lives that day and it was for that reason we accepted our brothers leadership as head of the squad.
I made a vow never to be caught off guard again. I hate the bastards. The mindless onslaught of inhuman beasts who want nothing more then to devour humanity in a rainstorm of blood. I've been keeping a tally on my shotgun. I do it so whoever finds my dead body will know, 'Here lies a man who went balls out and kicked ass!'
The only thing that matters to me now is keeping my family, and the rest of the guys alive, whatever the cost. Enrique, Sphinx, Viper... All of them as well as Reaper and of course...Eagle.
My brother Eagle has become sort of cold and emotionless, like a robot, almost since his fiance was turned. Killing her was the hardest thing he ever had to do and it killed him a little. So much is wrong! So much is just fucked up! Clearing these buildings... Seeing what has become of our world. I remember on Day 5 after I found a black Desert Eagle Magnum with a Red Phoenix etched in the handle, we walked past the sign that used to say 'Welcome to Sarnia' instead it had spray painted over with the words, 'Fuck the Zombies' all I could think at that moment was, 'I intend to, I intend to...' I am the Phoenix and with the support of my brothers, I will rise above the flame."
Excerpt from the battle log of Jeremy M. Clever. Code Named: Phoenix.
Cut Off The Head
"Week 3, day 3. We no longer have a working structure of command above my own position. As my platoon and I were making our way towards the 7th day of clearing buildings we got an emergency dispatch from HQ. I'm writing it down in the log verbatim in case it's needed in the future.
'HQ to field. HQ to field. Have suffered massive damage. Hostiles from every corner. Defenses failed. Cannot hold for much longer. Do not attempt to return to ba...'
And the transmission cut out at the ending... I'm assuming that's when the power gave out completely. But we wont know for sure. My team put out a signal to all possible remaining teams out in the area to gather in one spot. Unfortunately no answers came back. Which, in this case, isn't necessarily a bad thing. Our radios are made in such a way to pick up radio transmissions whether they have enough power to respond or not. So it's possible no one was able to respond with such low levels of power. However we left the coordinates for our point of destination and an approximate time for our ETA.
We're on our way now. But the only squads I know of that are possibly out in the city and still alive are led by Johnson and Angel. Both of them are more then capable team leaders, and they kept their teams well trained... But hopefully they'll have more of a team then we do."
Excerpt from the battle log of Steven A. Carpenter. Code Named: Reaper.
'HQ to field. HQ to field. Have suffered massive damage. Hostiles from every corner. Defenses failed. Cannot hold for much longer. Do not attempt to return to ba...'
And the transmission cut out at the ending... I'm assuming that's when the power gave out completely. But we wont know for sure. My team put out a signal to all possible remaining teams out in the area to gather in one spot. Unfortunately no answers came back. Which, in this case, isn't necessarily a bad thing. Our radios are made in such a way to pick up radio transmissions whether they have enough power to respond or not. So it's possible no one was able to respond with such low levels of power. However we left the coordinates for our point of destination and an approximate time for our ETA.
We're on our way now. But the only squads I know of that are possibly out in the city and still alive are led by Johnson and Angel. Both of them are more then capable team leaders, and they kept their teams well trained... But hopefully they'll have more of a team then we do."
Excerpt from the battle log of Steven A. Carpenter. Code Named: Reaper.
Murphy's Law: Anything That Can Happen, Will Happen
"Week 3, Day 4. We received a dispatch from Johnson and Angel today at 0400 hours. Seems they've already banded together and found a place to last out this doomsday. Heh... Looks like we're the only ones being proactive right now. We've received their coordinates and I've told the platoon we're going to give them all the help we can give. The whole team knew it was the right thing to do and they were ready to do it.
We made our way to their location with Phoenix and myself on point, Eagle, Sphinx and Viper covering our backs and everyone else in the middle. About 100 yards off we started hearing the gunfire. I had guessed they'd be in trouble with the fact that they're holding up in a make shift bunker... I'd never guessed it was this much trouble.
When we finally came in view of what was going on, we saw just how much trouble it was. The three figures we could see were leaning out the windows of the second floor and picking very careful head shots on the sea of Zombies beneath them. With a quick estimate of the hoard assailing the team would be easily in the hundreds. They must have been low on ammunition because the shots weren't coming as often as they should have been.
A quick decision had me giving very direct orders. We were here to help. So help we would.
After the plans were laid out, the team broke with a resounding 'Hoorah!' I don't think I'll ever get used to going into battle. Everything just seems to slow down. Maybe that's just the adrenaline pumping in my veins, but it does seem to help in this scenario. In one moment every single pair of eyes shifted to us, living and undead. And then our battle started.
Watcher unslung his rocket launcher fired two missiles directly at the front line of Zombies. As undead flesh and shrapnel flew upwards Shakespeare helped him reload the launcher. Eagle started lining up shots as soon as the dust settled and head shots could be made. Phoenix, Sphinx, Enrique, Viper and I were getting closer to the madness to be more effective. Rex and Mako were firing from the mounted guns on the Humvees. A couple more explosions hit the Zombies from Watcher and then he came running up to help us with his axe. There wasn't much room left between us and the front line of undead. Shakespeare held back to cover the gunners from behind.
Once we hit the front line things started going a whole lot faster in my mind. Somehow Phoenix and I got separated from the others and we were on our own. With the close range of our attackers I'd slung my battle rifle on my back and had a katana in one hand and a magnum in the other. Phoenix had his shotgun and Desert Eagle. Back to back we were ready to hit these Zombies with everything we had and give them no quarter.
Circling back to back, we started picking off head shots with our pistols. Occasionally we'd get lucky and one bullet would make it's way through 2 brains. But unlike Hollywood, Phoenix and I ran out of bullets pretty quickly. With adrenaline pumping through your veins you can do some amazing things. Phoenix released his empty magazine, tossed his Desert Eagle in the air, got a second magazine and slid it in to the gun as it fell down, and just kept shooting. I had my clips ready for reloading on my belt so I just had to release the empty and slide in the new. After the new batch of bullets were loosed into the enemy Phoenix switched to his battle axe and I freed up my hand for a better grip on my sword.
Working in tandem we hacked and slashed our way towards the building. Phoenix slid the muzzle of his shotgun into the mouth of a Zombie and splattered its brains against its fellows, and turned to lop the head off of another with his axe. Reloading his shotgun by tossing it up, catching it by the forestock, cocking the mechanism, smashing a Zombies skull in with the stock, and flipping the gun around to catch it by the handle and shoot another Zombie, Phoenix was a force of humanity not to be trifled with.
I kept my katana flashing against the tide of undead, cutting off heads or stabbing the blade through an eye socket to skewer the brain. Spinning to cut the head of another assailant off, I reached around my back with my free hand to grasp the handle of my battle rifle and fired off a couple quick bursts into the enemy. Yelling for Phoenix to duck down, I cut open the chest of a Zombie, stuck a frag grenade in it's ribcage, and kicked it back into the crowd of undead. After the schrapnel threw Zombie flesh and decayed matter in all directions, Phoenix and I straightened ourselves and rushed towards the doors of the make shift bunker.
After we burst through the doors of the first floor, we noticed that the stairway leading up had been blocked off.
'Of course it would be,' grunted Phoenix with an unpleased tone. As we turned around to get out of the building we realized a moment too soon that we'd trapped ourselves in the building. Zombies were already swarming the door trying to get closer to our flesh. But not a moment later Eagle jumped through one of the broken windows with a war hammer in his hands and took a circling swipe at the Zombies coming towards us. Sending a few undead crumbling to the floor he looked back at us with a wink and said 'Evening gents,' like this was nothing special at all. Together we beat back the tide of undead and got outside of the death trap Phoenix and I had wandered into.
'We're going to need an evac from the bunker, and we're going to need it soon,' I ordered into the radio on my shoulder as more Zombies swarmed our position.
'On our way Reaper,' came the quick reply from Rex. Through the windows we could see Mako hop in the drivers seat of the Humvee Rex was gunning from. Mako drove straight for the building as Rex tried to clear a path with the mounted turret. And as the vehicle got closer, Mako made it drift over to the one side and either ran over or bashed the undead to the side with the back of the Humvee. 'Excellent tactically driving boys,' I thought.
As Phoenix, Eagle and I hopped in to the Humvee we pulled away just as explosions errupted in the midst of the Zombies. I spotted Watcher back with his rocket launcher raining death into the enemy. Sphinx was a shining star in the day's light as he was fighting his way through a mass of Zombies. I signaled Mako to head for him, drop us off and head back to the others.
As my brothers and I hopped off the vehicle I sheathed my sword and unhitched my battle rifle. Phoenix got his shotgun out and Eagle had dual Glocks in his hands. We nodded to each other and rushed into the fray once again. Shots rang out and enemies dropped before us. We were an unstoppable force, and where we went Zombies fell. Once we reached Sphinx there were barely any of the undead left. He had impaled a Zombie with this bardiche. His shield was slung on top of the handle to form a quick battle standard as a sign of defiance and held his position wielding his two broad swords and forming a circle of death around him. The three of us helped Sphinx take out the rest of the undead and within seconds we had completely cleared the area. We had come to save the defending troops, and we'd done it.
I looked around to make sure everyone was still ok. Watcher, Enrique, Rex, Mako, Shakespeare and Viper were back with the Humvees. Sphinx was collecting his bardiche and shield. And Phoenix, Eagle and I were standing together. Our own island in the sea of truly dead Zombies. Pumping our fists in the air, together we sounded a victorious 'Hoorah!' to the heavens, and we were joined in celebration by a chorus of cheers from the Humvees and a solid salute from Sphinx.
As my brothers and I turned around to go towards the make shift bunker, we saw the survivors running towards us. When they got to us they introduced themselves repsectfully. Johnson, Angel, and Medic. They reported that after the communication from HQ, they decided to go into the closest building and bunker down. But after sealing the entrance way, they discovered they weren't the only ones there. In the darkness of night their teams had been caught off guard and all were killed except these three survivors...
All three of them saluted briskly and as one said 'Rescued team, Sir. Reporting for duty!'
Well... veni, vidi, vici I guess. A good days work. We came, we saw, we conquered.'
Excerpt from the battle log of Steven A. Carpenter. Code Named: Reaper.
We made our way to their location with Phoenix and myself on point, Eagle, Sphinx and Viper covering our backs and everyone else in the middle. About 100 yards off we started hearing the gunfire. I had guessed they'd be in trouble with the fact that they're holding up in a make shift bunker... I'd never guessed it was this much trouble.
When we finally came in view of what was going on, we saw just how much trouble it was. The three figures we could see were leaning out the windows of the second floor and picking very careful head shots on the sea of Zombies beneath them. With a quick estimate of the hoard assailing the team would be easily in the hundreds. They must have been low on ammunition because the shots weren't coming as often as they should have been.
A quick decision had me giving very direct orders. We were here to help. So help we would.
After the plans were laid out, the team broke with a resounding 'Hoorah!' I don't think I'll ever get used to going into battle. Everything just seems to slow down. Maybe that's just the adrenaline pumping in my veins, but it does seem to help in this scenario. In one moment every single pair of eyes shifted to us, living and undead. And then our battle started.
Watcher unslung his rocket launcher fired two missiles directly at the front line of Zombies. As undead flesh and shrapnel flew upwards Shakespeare helped him reload the launcher. Eagle started lining up shots as soon as the dust settled and head shots could be made. Phoenix, Sphinx, Enrique, Viper and I were getting closer to the madness to be more effective. Rex and Mako were firing from the mounted guns on the Humvees. A couple more explosions hit the Zombies from Watcher and then he came running up to help us with his axe. There wasn't much room left between us and the front line of undead. Shakespeare held back to cover the gunners from behind.
Once we hit the front line things started going a whole lot faster in my mind. Somehow Phoenix and I got separated from the others and we were on our own. With the close range of our attackers I'd slung my battle rifle on my back and had a katana in one hand and a magnum in the other. Phoenix had his shotgun and Desert Eagle. Back to back we were ready to hit these Zombies with everything we had and give them no quarter.
Circling back to back, we started picking off head shots with our pistols. Occasionally we'd get lucky and one bullet would make it's way through 2 brains. But unlike Hollywood, Phoenix and I ran out of bullets pretty quickly. With adrenaline pumping through your veins you can do some amazing things. Phoenix released his empty magazine, tossed his Desert Eagle in the air, got a second magazine and slid it in to the gun as it fell down, and just kept shooting. I had my clips ready for reloading on my belt so I just had to release the empty and slide in the new. After the new batch of bullets were loosed into the enemy Phoenix switched to his battle axe and I freed up my hand for a better grip on my sword.
Working in tandem we hacked and slashed our way towards the building. Phoenix slid the muzzle of his shotgun into the mouth of a Zombie and splattered its brains against its fellows, and turned to lop the head off of another with his axe. Reloading his shotgun by tossing it up, catching it by the forestock, cocking the mechanism, smashing a Zombies skull in with the stock, and flipping the gun around to catch it by the handle and shoot another Zombie, Phoenix was a force of humanity not to be trifled with.
I kept my katana flashing against the tide of undead, cutting off heads or stabbing the blade through an eye socket to skewer the brain. Spinning to cut the head of another assailant off, I reached around my back with my free hand to grasp the handle of my battle rifle and fired off a couple quick bursts into the enemy. Yelling for Phoenix to duck down, I cut open the chest of a Zombie, stuck a frag grenade in it's ribcage, and kicked it back into the crowd of undead. After the schrapnel threw Zombie flesh and decayed matter in all directions, Phoenix and I straightened ourselves and rushed towards the doors of the make shift bunker.
After we burst through the doors of the first floor, we noticed that the stairway leading up had been blocked off.
'Of course it would be,' grunted Phoenix with an unpleased tone. As we turned around to get out of the building we realized a moment too soon that we'd trapped ourselves in the building. Zombies were already swarming the door trying to get closer to our flesh. But not a moment later Eagle jumped through one of the broken windows with a war hammer in his hands and took a circling swipe at the Zombies coming towards us. Sending a few undead crumbling to the floor he looked back at us with a wink and said 'Evening gents,' like this was nothing special at all. Together we beat back the tide of undead and got outside of the death trap Phoenix and I had wandered into.
'We're going to need an evac from the bunker, and we're going to need it soon,' I ordered into the radio on my shoulder as more Zombies swarmed our position.
'On our way Reaper,' came the quick reply from Rex. Through the windows we could see Mako hop in the drivers seat of the Humvee Rex was gunning from. Mako drove straight for the building as Rex tried to clear a path with the mounted turret. And as the vehicle got closer, Mako made it drift over to the one side and either ran over or bashed the undead to the side with the back of the Humvee. 'Excellent tactically driving boys,' I thought.
As Phoenix, Eagle and I hopped in to the Humvee we pulled away just as explosions errupted in the midst of the Zombies. I spotted Watcher back with his rocket launcher raining death into the enemy. Sphinx was a shining star in the day's light as he was fighting his way through a mass of Zombies. I signaled Mako to head for him, drop us off and head back to the others.
As my brothers and I hopped off the vehicle I sheathed my sword and unhitched my battle rifle. Phoenix got his shotgun out and Eagle had dual Glocks in his hands. We nodded to each other and rushed into the fray once again. Shots rang out and enemies dropped before us. We were an unstoppable force, and where we went Zombies fell. Once we reached Sphinx there were barely any of the undead left. He had impaled a Zombie with this bardiche. His shield was slung on top of the handle to form a quick battle standard as a sign of defiance and held his position wielding his two broad swords and forming a circle of death around him. The three of us helped Sphinx take out the rest of the undead and within seconds we had completely cleared the area. We had come to save the defending troops, and we'd done it.
I looked around to make sure everyone was still ok. Watcher, Enrique, Rex, Mako, Shakespeare and Viper were back with the Humvees. Sphinx was collecting his bardiche and shield. And Phoenix, Eagle and I were standing together. Our own island in the sea of truly dead Zombies. Pumping our fists in the air, together we sounded a victorious 'Hoorah!' to the heavens, and we were joined in celebration by a chorus of cheers from the Humvees and a solid salute from Sphinx.
As my brothers and I turned around to go towards the make shift bunker, we saw the survivors running towards us. When they got to us they introduced themselves repsectfully. Johnson, Angel, and Medic. They reported that after the communication from HQ, they decided to go into the closest building and bunker down. But after sealing the entrance way, they discovered they weren't the only ones there. In the darkness of night their teams had been caught off guard and all were killed except these three survivors...
All three of them saluted briskly and as one said 'Rescued team, Sir. Reporting for duty!'
Well... veni, vidi, vici I guess. A good days work. We came, we saw, we conquered.'
Excerpt from the battle log of Steven A. Carpenter. Code Named: Reaper.
Change Is Supposed To Be A Good Thing... Right?
"Week 3, day 5. We've sent out more radio messages in case there are any other teams in the area. Although Johnson said that he and Angel had done a preliminary sweep of the area and found some Zombies in our army's uniform walking around, but didn't find any teams alive. So at this point in time we're assuming the worst. We may find some survivors, but as of now, our mindset is that we are the last bastion of hope for this area.
Since Johnson and Angel are acting as if I'm the highest in command right now, I've decided to look at some things as a necessity. Since we'd decided to put in for the night in a local forest, I pulled Eagle, Phoenix, Viper and Watcher aside so we could have a little chat in private. We left the clearing we'd chosen and walked away a bit so we couldn't be heard. In case anything should happen to myself during an attack I'm setting the steps for our own chain of command. In this case, I'm acting as head of the troop, followed by Eagle and Phoenix working in tandem. And if they should fall Viper and Watcher will be next in line. Although personally I hope this chain of command never needs to be put into use...
As the five of us walked back to the rest of the group we heard a short crackle over the radios. It was so unexpected that all of us grabbed our weapons and circled up, shoulder to shoulder. Silently peering down the barrels of our guns, searching the area, the radios kept crackling as if someone was trying to open up a line of communication.
Silently signaling the others, we started making our way to the rest of the team at our camp site for the night. We weren't exactly far from the site... Just far enough not to be heard. But as we got closer we could start to see figures standing in the clearing of our camp. Signaling for a stop, the five of us stood our ground and Watcher and Viper covered us from behind. Ever since Enrique started singing Disney songs to cheer us up, we'd come up with a code of sorts to identify ourselves or communicate for different situations. And like I said before, making sound doesn't matter. Eventually Zombies will hear you either way. So softly enough to just carry our voices into the clearing, Eagle Phoenix and I started to sing:
'For a long time we've been marching off to battle,
In our thund'ring herd we feel a lot like cattle.'
And softly the welcoming reply came from Enrique, Mako, and Shakespeare:
'Be our guest,
Be our guest.
Put our service to the test.'
With that the five of us slipped through into the clearing and were greeted by the others. Quick looks told us that everyone had heard the same crackles and that it wasn't just our imaginations. We hadn't heard anything on the radios from an outside sources since HQ fell to the hoards of undead.
While everyone started sitting down to their dinner rations, or trying to get comfy for the night, I told the team what the five of us had been talking about. There were a few odd looks in my direction for bringing it up, and I gave them all a 'just-in-case' shrug in reply. But the odd thing was that Johnson and Angel just nodded and were fine with it... It makes me worry about them. They were thought of as top team leaders back before the undead plague began. And for them to just nod when being given another person to take orders from... It makes me wonder what happened to them psychologically when their teams were destroyed in one awful night.
As Enrique, Shakespeare and Medic took the first watch, the rest of us bundled up and got ready for sleep. And just as I was about to drift off I heard the crackle that the radios had made earlier. I slowly sat up and looked around thinking it may have just been my imagination. But when I saw that we were all trying to hear where the crackle came from, I got a little more worried.
Suddenly the crackle was a bit more agitating then it should have been. The sound came again over the radios but it didn't crackle out like it normally did. Through the radio we heard footsteps crunching on twigs and shuffling through fallen leaves. The worrisome part started when we could actually hear the twigs breaking without the radios. Whatever was making this sound... It was coming straight for us.
Snapping my fingers to get the attention of the troops, I quickly flashed some hand signals and we grabbed our weapons and got into a defensive ring in the clearing. As we formed up and prepared for whatever this was, I engaged the radio and spoke into it clearly. 'Hold your position. Do not proceed in your current direction. We are armed and will shoot. State your name and purpose.'
Slowly the snapping of twigs and rustling of leaves stopped and everything was quite.
'Name... My name?... Private Jake Peters Sir...' Came the slow reply over the radios. Although something about it just didn't sound right. The voice sounded so dry and breathless... Almost as if the Private's throat hadn't felt any moisture in quite some time and he hadn't spoken in just as long.
'Just... So alone... Thought I was all alone...,' Peters said groaningly.
'It's ok Private. We're survivors. Slowly walk on the path you were taking and don't make any sudden moves.' I replied to his audible thoughts. After a moment the crunching of leaves and twigs started up again. Slowly a figure broke through the trees and stumbled into our camp site and we pointed our gun lights towards it. We all had to stop ourselves from shooting it down. The thing that had crept into our clearing had our army's uniform on, had a battle rifle slung over his shoulder, two side arms on his belt, a gloved hand still on the radio on his shoulder and hair matted over his head. What bothered us was that the skin we could see on the Private had a blue hue to it. His eyes seemed blood shot and misty, and it just seemed like they could and couldn't quite see us at the same time. Worst of all his jaw hung open in a way that reminded us of the undead we'd been destroying for so long.
'Please don't shoot,' moaned the Private again sounding like he was out of breath. 'I know... I look bad... But I've... looked worse...'
'What's wrong with you Peters?' asked Phoenix. 'You look... dead.'
Not quite as subtle as I would have liked... But he was just saying what we all thought. Peters stumbled towards us a little bit but stopped when we raised our barrels to aim at his forehead. Looking at our guns for a moment it seemed as if he was deciding how to get around them and closer to us. I quickly signaled Viper and she threw two of her throwing knives into the Private's thighs.
Everyone just looked at the knives sticking out of Peters' legs except the man himself. Almost as if he didn't even feel the blades protruding from his legs. At this point I'd seen enough to be sure. But as an extra test just to prove it, I fired a three bullet burst into his chest with my battle rifle. The Private stumbled back with the force of the impact, but managed to stay standing up. A slow moan croaked out from his throat and his glazed eyes looked at us. And in that moment we knew he was dead... or... undead as it seemed. Eagle put a bullet through each of his eyes and Peters quickly fell down and stayed down.
Looking around to the group, they were a bit shaken. Shakespeare looked down at the body and said, 'It was dead... It was dead and it was talking. How? How is that possible? Zombies can't talk!' Enrique went and sat him down against a tree to calm him. As the others looked at each other or had thoughts running through their minds, I bent down and collected the Privates gear. Even if it was a very odd circumstance, we're not in any position to waste ammunition or other supplies. As I finished gathering what could be salvaged, Phoenix looked around and scoffed. 'This must have just been a freak accident... I mean... We weren't imagining this. The body's right there. It was talking, but it was dead...'
I handed Viper back her knives after cleaning them as best I could. I knew she'd clean them herself later when she got the chance, but it was a nice sentiment. 'It was dead alright,' I said. 'The virus might be adapting. We just have to be more careful. Remember... Speech requires a higher brain function. When the body dies and no oxygen gets to the brain, the brain slowly dies as well. Maybe the virus got this one changed differently somehow... We might not be able to find out how it happened, but we no longer trust anyone that looks like that. If it looks dead, talking or not, shoot it.'
Everyone nodded and agreed. Whatever this was... I hope it was a fluke..."
Excerpt from the battle log of Steven A. Carpenter. Code Named: Reaper.
Since Johnson and Angel are acting as if I'm the highest in command right now, I've decided to look at some things as a necessity. Since we'd decided to put in for the night in a local forest, I pulled Eagle, Phoenix, Viper and Watcher aside so we could have a little chat in private. We left the clearing we'd chosen and walked away a bit so we couldn't be heard. In case anything should happen to myself during an attack I'm setting the steps for our own chain of command. In this case, I'm acting as head of the troop, followed by Eagle and Phoenix working in tandem. And if they should fall Viper and Watcher will be next in line. Although personally I hope this chain of command never needs to be put into use...
As the five of us walked back to the rest of the group we heard a short crackle over the radios. It was so unexpected that all of us grabbed our weapons and circled up, shoulder to shoulder. Silently peering down the barrels of our guns, searching the area, the radios kept crackling as if someone was trying to open up a line of communication.
Silently signaling the others, we started making our way to the rest of the team at our camp site for the night. We weren't exactly far from the site... Just far enough not to be heard. But as we got closer we could start to see figures standing in the clearing of our camp. Signaling for a stop, the five of us stood our ground and Watcher and Viper covered us from behind. Ever since Enrique started singing Disney songs to cheer us up, we'd come up with a code of sorts to identify ourselves or communicate for different situations. And like I said before, making sound doesn't matter. Eventually Zombies will hear you either way. So softly enough to just carry our voices into the clearing, Eagle Phoenix and I started to sing:
'For a long time we've been marching off to battle,
In our thund'ring herd we feel a lot like cattle.'
And softly the welcoming reply came from Enrique, Mako, and Shakespeare:
'Be our guest,
Be our guest.
Put our service to the test.'
With that the five of us slipped through into the clearing and were greeted by the others. Quick looks told us that everyone had heard the same crackles and that it wasn't just our imaginations. We hadn't heard anything on the radios from an outside sources since HQ fell to the hoards of undead.
While everyone started sitting down to their dinner rations, or trying to get comfy for the night, I told the team what the five of us had been talking about. There were a few odd looks in my direction for bringing it up, and I gave them all a 'just-in-case' shrug in reply. But the odd thing was that Johnson and Angel just nodded and were fine with it... It makes me worry about them. They were thought of as top team leaders back before the undead plague began. And for them to just nod when being given another person to take orders from... It makes me wonder what happened to them psychologically when their teams were destroyed in one awful night.
As Enrique, Shakespeare and Medic took the first watch, the rest of us bundled up and got ready for sleep. And just as I was about to drift off I heard the crackle that the radios had made earlier. I slowly sat up and looked around thinking it may have just been my imagination. But when I saw that we were all trying to hear where the crackle came from, I got a little more worried.
Suddenly the crackle was a bit more agitating then it should have been. The sound came again over the radios but it didn't crackle out like it normally did. Through the radio we heard footsteps crunching on twigs and shuffling through fallen leaves. The worrisome part started when we could actually hear the twigs breaking without the radios. Whatever was making this sound... It was coming straight for us.
Snapping my fingers to get the attention of the troops, I quickly flashed some hand signals and we grabbed our weapons and got into a defensive ring in the clearing. As we formed up and prepared for whatever this was, I engaged the radio and spoke into it clearly. 'Hold your position. Do not proceed in your current direction. We are armed and will shoot. State your name and purpose.'
Slowly the snapping of twigs and rustling of leaves stopped and everything was quite.
'Name... My name?... Private Jake Peters Sir...' Came the slow reply over the radios. Although something about it just didn't sound right. The voice sounded so dry and breathless... Almost as if the Private's throat hadn't felt any moisture in quite some time and he hadn't spoken in just as long.
'Just... So alone... Thought I was all alone...,' Peters said groaningly.
'It's ok Private. We're survivors. Slowly walk on the path you were taking and don't make any sudden moves.' I replied to his audible thoughts. After a moment the crunching of leaves and twigs started up again. Slowly a figure broke through the trees and stumbled into our camp site and we pointed our gun lights towards it. We all had to stop ourselves from shooting it down. The thing that had crept into our clearing had our army's uniform on, had a battle rifle slung over his shoulder, two side arms on his belt, a gloved hand still on the radio on his shoulder and hair matted over his head. What bothered us was that the skin we could see on the Private had a blue hue to it. His eyes seemed blood shot and misty, and it just seemed like they could and couldn't quite see us at the same time. Worst of all his jaw hung open in a way that reminded us of the undead we'd been destroying for so long.
'Please don't shoot,' moaned the Private again sounding like he was out of breath. 'I know... I look bad... But I've... looked worse...'
'What's wrong with you Peters?' asked Phoenix. 'You look... dead.'
Not quite as subtle as I would have liked... But he was just saying what we all thought. Peters stumbled towards us a little bit but stopped when we raised our barrels to aim at his forehead. Looking at our guns for a moment it seemed as if he was deciding how to get around them and closer to us. I quickly signaled Viper and she threw two of her throwing knives into the Private's thighs.
Everyone just looked at the knives sticking out of Peters' legs except the man himself. Almost as if he didn't even feel the blades protruding from his legs. At this point I'd seen enough to be sure. But as an extra test just to prove it, I fired a three bullet burst into his chest with my battle rifle. The Private stumbled back with the force of the impact, but managed to stay standing up. A slow moan croaked out from his throat and his glazed eyes looked at us. And in that moment we knew he was dead... or... undead as it seemed. Eagle put a bullet through each of his eyes and Peters quickly fell down and stayed down.
Looking around to the group, they were a bit shaken. Shakespeare looked down at the body and said, 'It was dead... It was dead and it was talking. How? How is that possible? Zombies can't talk!' Enrique went and sat him down against a tree to calm him. As the others looked at each other or had thoughts running through their minds, I bent down and collected the Privates gear. Even if it was a very odd circumstance, we're not in any position to waste ammunition or other supplies. As I finished gathering what could be salvaged, Phoenix looked around and scoffed. 'This must have just been a freak accident... I mean... We weren't imagining this. The body's right there. It was talking, but it was dead...'
I handed Viper back her knives after cleaning them as best I could. I knew she'd clean them herself later when she got the chance, but it was a nice sentiment. 'It was dead alright,' I said. 'The virus might be adapting. We just have to be more careful. Remember... Speech requires a higher brain function. When the body dies and no oxygen gets to the brain, the brain slowly dies as well. Maybe the virus got this one changed differently somehow... We might not be able to find out how it happened, but we no longer trust anyone that looks like that. If it looks dead, talking or not, shoot it.'
Everyone nodded and agreed. Whatever this was... I hope it was a fluke..."
Excerpt from the battle log of Steven A. Carpenter. Code Named: Reaper.
An Off Day
"Week 3, day 6. I was thinking about the past month or so with everything that's happened to my team and I. With me writing so often lately, I'm starting to realize things are getting worse. I laughed at that statement because of course things are getting worse. We're in a world where Zombies dictate your life span, and every moment may be your last. But in relation to when the plague first spread across this world... things are getting worse.
First it was just a plague that needed to be vaccinated. Then it was the dead reanimating and feasting on the living. But even then we had a working, if somewhat lessened, body of government. Then the government crashed and all that was left were military plans and objectives. Then the military base was overtaken and all that was left was the team and I.
That was probably the most shocking part of all of this. In the world we lived in, the government either hid or controlled everything. And then when that went south, the military stepped up and controlled things as best they could. Now it's just us. The team has been so brave during all of this. They've seen their friends and families claimed by the plague. They've shot down or seen the corpses of people they knew. I am proud of them like I never have been of anything else. Eagle, Phoenix, Viper, and Watcher I already thought of as family when this started. But Enrique, Sphinx, Rex, Mako, and Shakespeare... They all seem like family now. I can't imagine going through this without them.
They bring unique and effective skills to the team. I honestly don't know what my role in all of this has been. I mean... yes, I'm good with computers. But Watcher has every single program needed for getting into or through anything electronic. I'm good with a gun... But Phoenix and Eagle are the best shots on the team. Even though my father was a mechanic and I spent time helping him out, Rex and Mako far exceed my limited knowledge in that field. Viper is our huntress hands down. I don't know how she does it, but she can track anything we need with ease. Whether it's Zombies to kill, or food for the day, she'll point the way. Enrique is our comedic relief. Shakespeare is an experienced doctor, so there's no competition there. But I haven't brought our team down in any way. So that's good enough for now. I don't know what made me think of this... I guess everyone just wants to know they're place in the world and the reasoning for it.
Anyways... Today's just been an off day. Since our run in with the talking Zombie, Shakespeare and Medic have been examining it as best as they can with the limited equipment to try and figure out what made it different. The only logical thing they can think of is that somehow the brain was still being delivered oxygen during death. That thesis bothers me though. It shows premeditation. Almost like this was an experiment. I hope it's not someone like the doctor from the animal hospital again. I don't think we would fare too well with another beast like that.
When everyone was getting ready to go to sleep, Viper came over and sat beside me. She had elected to have the first watch of the night, and I'd agreed to stay up with her. But as we sat in the middle of our camp, leaning against each other's backs, her hand slowly trailed over, and she twined her fingers with mine. Maybe she was just looking for comfort, or trying to comfort me. Maybe she was just looking for living human contact. Maybe she was just quitely saying hi to an old friend... But it gave me an idea.
I'd been with the team from the beginning. If it hadn't been for me Watcher and Viper would still be leading their own platoons, Eagle and Phoenix and I would probably be in hiding somewhere with our families, and the rest of the team would be with another leader or dead by now. But I've brought us together, I've helped us feel close and comfortable with each other, I've given us direction when everything else fell apart, and I've led us out of some pretty rough messes. I'm not the best shot, the best hacker, the best tracker, mechanic, engineer, or medic. But I'm the survivor. And I entend to survive with my family beside me."
Excerpt from the battle log of Steven A. Carpenter. Code Named: Reaper.
First it was just a plague that needed to be vaccinated. Then it was the dead reanimating and feasting on the living. But even then we had a working, if somewhat lessened, body of government. Then the government crashed and all that was left were military plans and objectives. Then the military base was overtaken and all that was left was the team and I.
That was probably the most shocking part of all of this. In the world we lived in, the government either hid or controlled everything. And then when that went south, the military stepped up and controlled things as best they could. Now it's just us. The team has been so brave during all of this. They've seen their friends and families claimed by the plague. They've shot down or seen the corpses of people they knew. I am proud of them like I never have been of anything else. Eagle, Phoenix, Viper, and Watcher I already thought of as family when this started. But Enrique, Sphinx, Rex, Mako, and Shakespeare... They all seem like family now. I can't imagine going through this without them.
They bring unique and effective skills to the team. I honestly don't know what my role in all of this has been. I mean... yes, I'm good with computers. But Watcher has every single program needed for getting into or through anything electronic. I'm good with a gun... But Phoenix and Eagle are the best shots on the team. Even though my father was a mechanic and I spent time helping him out, Rex and Mako far exceed my limited knowledge in that field. Viper is our huntress hands down. I don't know how she does it, but she can track anything we need with ease. Whether it's Zombies to kill, or food for the day, she'll point the way. Enrique is our comedic relief. Shakespeare is an experienced doctor, so there's no competition there. But I haven't brought our team down in any way. So that's good enough for now. I don't know what made me think of this... I guess everyone just wants to know they're place in the world and the reasoning for it.
Anyways... Today's just been an off day. Since our run in with the talking Zombie, Shakespeare and Medic have been examining it as best as they can with the limited equipment to try and figure out what made it different. The only logical thing they can think of is that somehow the brain was still being delivered oxygen during death. That thesis bothers me though. It shows premeditation. Almost like this was an experiment. I hope it's not someone like the doctor from the animal hospital again. I don't think we would fare too well with another beast like that.
When everyone was getting ready to go to sleep, Viper came over and sat beside me. She had elected to have the first watch of the night, and I'd agreed to stay up with her. But as we sat in the middle of our camp, leaning against each other's backs, her hand slowly trailed over, and she twined her fingers with mine. Maybe she was just looking for comfort, or trying to comfort me. Maybe she was just looking for living human contact. Maybe she was just quitely saying hi to an old friend... But it gave me an idea.
I'd been with the team from the beginning. If it hadn't been for me Watcher and Viper would still be leading their own platoons, Eagle and Phoenix and I would probably be in hiding somewhere with our families, and the rest of the team would be with another leader or dead by now. But I've brought us together, I've helped us feel close and comfortable with each other, I've given us direction when everything else fell apart, and I've led us out of some pretty rough messes. I'm not the best shot, the best hacker, the best tracker, mechanic, engineer, or medic. But I'm the survivor. And I entend to survive with my family beside me."
Excerpt from the battle log of Steven A. Carpenter. Code Named: Reaper.
The Final Release - Watcher
“Week 13, Day 6. Winter in the Arizona Desert is not much of a show, unless you count Zombies as entertainment. We've been having to deal with the undead problem for quite some time now. We've been able to suppress the Zombies for now. But I have a bad feeling that this epidemic of death is going to break through our line. I hate these things that turn our fathers and sons against us; they have no respect for our species.
Last week I was walking through our encampment towards the mess hall and I found a grunt crying outside the door, he wanted someone to see him, just wanted comfort. After talking to him for a bit I realized that he was from this area and saw his wife while he was on patrol, but it wasn’t his wife, not anymore. I can sympathize with that, I saw similar things in my time, my family to be exact. When you’re faced with a situation like that, you just need to think of it as a release. You release them; the parasites are the real killers.
Speaking of which, we released around two hundred and fifty yesterday down by Mesa, where there is flesh, you find Zombies. Usually you don’t see them congregate like that, but afterwards we found that there was a large community of twelve hundred or so survivors hidden under the city, in the sewers. We pulled them out of there and treated the wounded and fed them all, they called us Saviours.
Those people are with us now, they outnumber the troops, but they’ve lost the will to keep running, all they do is fear. It’s a sad commentary on what’s happening in this world right now, their hearts turn to stone but their bodies move on, not unlike our enemy. This place is empty, and I’m stuck in the middle of it, all these men, women and children, not one of them carries my spirit. I find myself thinking back to the old days, the Green Berets alongside my friends. We had no fear, only Spirit, the Spirit of men with an objective.
Tomorrow we’ll be heading back to Mesa to look for more survivors, medical supplies, etc... I hope all goes well.
‘I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.’
-Litany against Fear, Frank Herbert.”
Excerpt from the battle log of Captain James S. Codenamed: Watcher, from the source of the outbreak of the Zombie epidemic.
Last week I was walking through our encampment towards the mess hall and I found a grunt crying outside the door, he wanted someone to see him, just wanted comfort. After talking to him for a bit I realized that he was from this area and saw his wife while he was on patrol, but it wasn’t his wife, not anymore. I can sympathize with that, I saw similar things in my time, my family to be exact. When you’re faced with a situation like that, you just need to think of it as a release. You release them; the parasites are the real killers.
Speaking of which, we released around two hundred and fifty yesterday down by Mesa, where there is flesh, you find Zombies. Usually you don’t see them congregate like that, but afterwards we found that there was a large community of twelve hundred or so survivors hidden under the city, in the sewers. We pulled them out of there and treated the wounded and fed them all, they called us Saviours.
Those people are with us now, they outnumber the troops, but they’ve lost the will to keep running, all they do is fear. It’s a sad commentary on what’s happening in this world right now, their hearts turn to stone but their bodies move on, not unlike our enemy. This place is empty, and I’m stuck in the middle of it, all these men, women and children, not one of them carries my spirit. I find myself thinking back to the old days, the Green Berets alongside my friends. We had no fear, only Spirit, the Spirit of men with an objective.
Tomorrow we’ll be heading back to Mesa to look for more survivors, medical supplies, etc... I hope all goes well.
‘I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.’
-Litany against Fear, Frank Herbert.”
Excerpt from the battle log of Captain James S. Codenamed: Watcher, from the source of the outbreak of the Zombie epidemic.
Alright People... We're Going In
"Week 3, day 7. Viper and I got to talking last night. In the midst of the conversation we just didn't feel like sleeping when it came time to switch the night watch. We spoke of what life was like before the plague. Her with her school in Victoria, B.C., and her passion for free lance modeling and writing. She had a couple projects on the go that she hadn't completed yet. It's a shame really. She could write such in-depth poems that could make you cry or smile with her words. We talked about her family. She was pretty much forced into this mess the same way I was. Her family was caught off guard trying to help some people who were bleeding profusely. Those hurt people ended up dying on the way to the hospital and infecting her parents and her brother. He was a real fighter though, the brother. He fought until his last breath. Found a way to keep himself and Viper alive until they got to a safe house, and then the bites finally killed him.
We were still keeping a watch for Zombies that might come and find us easy prey. But as midnight came and went, Viper leaned her head back and rested it on my shoulder to just gaze up at the stars for a moment. I could tell she was reliving something in her mind that was still tender. The only thing I could do was squeeze her hand lightly to let her know she wasn't alone. A light squeeze back was the only acknowledgment she gave, but I could feel her relax against my back.
As the sun rose and the surviving wildlife woke up with it, it brought back memories of my own of how the simple pleasures in life before the plague were so unrecognized or unappreciated. And while I checked the book of battle logs I realized that today was August the 29th...
'Well Reaper... Happy birthday,' I muttered to myself.
Viper turned around to face me. 'Did you say something Reaper?'
Looking at her with a little smile on my face, I just shook my head and said it was about time to start the day. With that the two of us slowly got up, stretched out the cramps and aches in our muscles and went around to wake the others. When I bent down to wake Eagle, he just looked at me while rubbing the sleep from his eyes. 'You were supposed to wake me for my shift, jerk face,' he said with a grin.
'I thought you could use the rest, old timer,' I joked back. Reaching down to offer him a hand up, we both rose to the new morning.
After we had all eaten our rations for the morning and gotten our gear all packed up and ready, Watcher spoke up and asked, 'So what's the plan, Cap'n?' I had spoken of the basic plan to Viper as well that night, and she just looked up at me and smiled her encouragement. It would be one of most dangerous things we'd done as a team yet.
'Well Ladies and Gents... We know what's out here. Zombies, Zombies, and more Zombies.' There was a slight chuckle at that. 'What we don't know is what's back home. It's been four days since HQ went down, and I think it's about time we figured out what happened. Remember... There were precaution bunkers at the facility. Hopefully some people managed to get into those. Last time we were there, I'd overheard that there's enough supplies and weaponry in the bunkers to last 100 people at least 2 weeks without rationing. If the worst has happened and there's no one alive... We can still resupply and secure the area for a fall back fortress of our own if it's not completely infected.'
And as I finished, some eyes looked troubled. Eagle and Phoenix especially. We had family at that base... I understood what was going through their mind. Either we'd find their corpses, we'd find them in the bunker... or they would come find us. 'Listen now troops,' I spoke gently but in a definitive tone. 'If there's a chance that there are survivors, it's our duty as humans to help them out.' With that Sphinx stood up, leaned on his war hammer and gave a nod of assent.
'He's right... If there's something we can do...' Eagle started.
Phoenix finished the statement for him, 'Then we should do it!' Reaching over, they clasped each others hands and said to each other, 'Hoorah!'And with a triumphant atmosphere the rest of us joined in the cheer and pumped our fists to the heavens.
So with our gear on our backs, and smiles on our faces, we made our way back to base. Ignoring the last words of the commander to not return, we marched forward. As we made our way through the forest and back on to the main roads of the city, I sent a broadcast out from our radios, trying to reach any survivors at Head Quarters and let them know that we were coming. We didn't get any responses back... But we weren't really expecting any either.
Letting Viper and Sphinx lead the way, the rest of us took general positions covering our backs and the buildings to the side to make sure we weren't walking into a trap. It wasn't a pleasant site. Once tall, clean, and proud, the buildings we passed had been sorely mistreated in the past two months. Windows broken, doorways boarded up, bullet holes and blood splatters... These buildings seemed to take on the attributes of the ghastly undead that had taken over our world.
Eventually we started sloping upwards and the tombstone-like buildings were left behind us. As we came along a sign that read: 'Army Property. No Trespassing,' I signaled to the team to stop, and Eagle took point with Viper. He raised his sniper rifle and peered through the scope. Signaling that all was clear, we sat down for a rest.
Eating our midday rations, checking our gear and making sure our weapons were armed and loaded. We prepped for the deadliest mission we'd undertaken yet."
Excerpt from the battle log of Steven A. Carpenter. Code Named: Reaper.
We were still keeping a watch for Zombies that might come and find us easy prey. But as midnight came and went, Viper leaned her head back and rested it on my shoulder to just gaze up at the stars for a moment. I could tell she was reliving something in her mind that was still tender. The only thing I could do was squeeze her hand lightly to let her know she wasn't alone. A light squeeze back was the only acknowledgment she gave, but I could feel her relax against my back.
As the sun rose and the surviving wildlife woke up with it, it brought back memories of my own of how the simple pleasures in life before the plague were so unrecognized or unappreciated. And while I checked the book of battle logs I realized that today was August the 29th...
'Well Reaper... Happy birthday,' I muttered to myself.
Viper turned around to face me. 'Did you say something Reaper?'
Looking at her with a little smile on my face, I just shook my head and said it was about time to start the day. With that the two of us slowly got up, stretched out the cramps and aches in our muscles and went around to wake the others. When I bent down to wake Eagle, he just looked at me while rubbing the sleep from his eyes. 'You were supposed to wake me for my shift, jerk face,' he said with a grin.
'I thought you could use the rest, old timer,' I joked back. Reaching down to offer him a hand up, we both rose to the new morning.
After we had all eaten our rations for the morning and gotten our gear all packed up and ready, Watcher spoke up and asked, 'So what's the plan, Cap'n?' I had spoken of the basic plan to Viper as well that night, and she just looked up at me and smiled her encouragement. It would be one of most dangerous things we'd done as a team yet.
'Well Ladies and Gents... We know what's out here. Zombies, Zombies, and more Zombies.' There was a slight chuckle at that. 'What we don't know is what's back home. It's been four days since HQ went down, and I think it's about time we figured out what happened. Remember... There were precaution bunkers at the facility. Hopefully some people managed to get into those. Last time we were there, I'd overheard that there's enough supplies and weaponry in the bunkers to last 100 people at least 2 weeks without rationing. If the worst has happened and there's no one alive... We can still resupply and secure the area for a fall back fortress of our own if it's not completely infected.'
And as I finished, some eyes looked troubled. Eagle and Phoenix especially. We had family at that base... I understood what was going through their mind. Either we'd find their corpses, we'd find them in the bunker... or they would come find us. 'Listen now troops,' I spoke gently but in a definitive tone. 'If there's a chance that there are survivors, it's our duty as humans to help them out.' With that Sphinx stood up, leaned on his war hammer and gave a nod of assent.
'He's right... If there's something we can do...' Eagle started.
Phoenix finished the statement for him, 'Then we should do it!' Reaching over, they clasped each others hands and said to each other, 'Hoorah!'And with a triumphant atmosphere the rest of us joined in the cheer and pumped our fists to the heavens.
So with our gear on our backs, and smiles on our faces, we made our way back to base. Ignoring the last words of the commander to not return, we marched forward. As we made our way through the forest and back on to the main roads of the city, I sent a broadcast out from our radios, trying to reach any survivors at Head Quarters and let them know that we were coming. We didn't get any responses back... But we weren't really expecting any either.
Letting Viper and Sphinx lead the way, the rest of us took general positions covering our backs and the buildings to the side to make sure we weren't walking into a trap. It wasn't a pleasant site. Once tall, clean, and proud, the buildings we passed had been sorely mistreated in the past two months. Windows broken, doorways boarded up, bullet holes and blood splatters... These buildings seemed to take on the attributes of the ghastly undead that had taken over our world.
Eventually we started sloping upwards and the tombstone-like buildings were left behind us. As we came along a sign that read: 'Army Property. No Trespassing,' I signaled to the team to stop, and Eagle took point with Viper. He raised his sniper rifle and peered through the scope. Signaling that all was clear, we sat down for a rest.
Eating our midday rations, checking our gear and making sure our weapons were armed and loaded. We prepped for the deadliest mission we'd undertaken yet."
Excerpt from the battle log of Steven A. Carpenter. Code Named: Reaper.
So... Do You Want To Ring The Bell? Or Should I?
"Week 3, day 7 - continued. After we'd eaten our lunch and got our packs and gear back in place, I walked over to stand beside Eagle and Phoenix.
'Look guys...' I looked at them slowly and laid my hands on their shoulders. 'When we go in... If things went wrong and our families didn't make it to the bunkers...' I couldn't finish the statement. How was I supposed to tell my brothers that if they found their parents coming after them, with the intentions of eating their flesh, that they should just pull the trigger and not think about it?
They weren't dull by any standard. Eagle and Phoenix knew exactly what I was thinking. The former said, 'We know bud. We know... Then they're already dead.'
'And we just need to release them. Let them go to Heaven like they're supposed to,' finished Phoenix.
Slowly we leaned our foreheads together just to spend one more moment together. There was a chance that they were safe. Everyone on the base knew of the bunkers. It was common knowledge that every person staying there knew where they were, and how to get to them. But there was a large chance that they didn't make it. Viper cleared her throat delicately, but with a purpose. The three of us straightened and looked into each other's eyes. We would be ready when the time came. There was nothing else we could do.
Turning to the rest of the group, I took my battle rifle into my hands and nodded to Viper and Sphinx. With them and Eagle taking the lead, Phoenix, Watcher, Shakespeare, Medic and I took middle positions, and Enrique, Rex, Mako, Johnson and Angel took the back. Our battle to retake central command had started.
Walking down the path towards the base at a steady pace, we kept a solid lookout for any Zombies that would be coming towards us. Surprisingly we didn't find many. That's not to say that we didn't stop every so often for Eagle to steady himself and take a few head shots as we got closer. But we certainly didn't see as many of the undead as we'd expected. It was quite a long road to the base, and we'd had to leave the Humvees behind because they'd run out of gas. Really the only things we could take from them were the turrets. Rex and Mako detached the turrets from their mounts and we'd taken the ammunition for them as well. The base was kept so far away from town so that it wasn't as grim a sight to the civilians. Now that notion just seemed like an inconvenience. The longer you took to get somewhere, the more time people had to die.
As we peaked a ridge we had a clear view of the main base and the bunkers and we understood why we hadn't seen many of the undead on our way here. Oceans of Zombies were standing around the bunkers. Pounding on the walls of solid concrete, slamming against the metal doors, climbing over each other and falling down trying to get onto the roof.
'Oh my Lord...' whispered Enrique. 'There's just so many of them. How are we going to get anywhere near that bunker?'
'Easy,' said Johnson, using both hands to heft one of the turrets. 'We fight our way through!'
'No Johnson. What are you saying? That's madness!' cried Shakespeare.
'Shakespeare's right,' I said. 'We need more firepower to get rid of them. We'll probably be able to find more weapons in the main base. We should head there first and find some mortars or something. We just don't have a way of getting rid of all of those Zombies with what we have.'
Johnson just shook his head and lowered his eyes. And with that I looked at Watcher. 'Can you pull up a map of the base? We need to know the best route to the armoury.'
'I'm on it,' he responded and whipped out his laptop. Within a couple minutes he looked up at me. 'It's not good Reaps. The armoury is close to the center of the base. And if we assume that there are Zombies in the building..,' Watcher started counting silently. 'Then we have almost 5 intercepting corridors to pass and roughly 26 doors down the hall we'll be going. That's a lot of room for things to go wrong. The only good news is that our path to the armoury is very simple. Once we get through those doors there,' he pointed at the doors in front of us, 'we just head straight and then we stop at the big shiny sign that says 'Armoury'.'
'Hmm... Well... We don't really have a choice. We can't exactly just walk past the Zombies and get to the bunker. And since they haven't been responding to our radio messages, we can assume they either haven't been getting them, or can't respond. Let's get going.'
Sphinx hefted the other turret with ease and made sure the belt of ammunition going from the container on his back to the gun itself was loose and easily moved, silently telling us he was ready. I don't know how he felt about finally using a gun... But it was certainly big enough for him. Each of us checked our weapons again out of habit and we started down the hill. Jogging at a quick pace to get past the Zombies around the bunker, we made it to the front doors quickly and without incident.
Phoenix and Sphinx leaned with their backs to the sides of the doors and flicked on their gun lights, ready to lead the way. Watcher and I both opened the doors to either side and they walked through the entrance. Seeing nothing Phoenix gave the all-clear and we filed in after them. All of our gun lights turning on at once flooded the hallway with light.
Reeling back in my mind, I had to force myself not to vomit. Blood sprays and smears were displayed on the walls as if they were hellish pieces of art. Bodies slumped against the walls and splayed along the floor along with random limbs. I turned my head to get easier access to fresh air, and saw that Angel was wiping her mouth. Apparently she hadn't been able to stop the bile climbing up her throat. Others on the team looked like they'd like nothing more then to leave this house of horrors, but remembering what was waiting for them outside, just wanted out of this hallway.
Swallowing a hard lump in my throat I signaled to the others. We had to find those weapons as quickly as possible. Keeping as close to the middle of the hallway as we could, we advanced through this nightmare. Checking each body to make sure it was truly dead took us a bit longer then I would have liked. But it saved us from any surprise fatalities. Whenever we'd come to a doorway or a crossing hallway, we would stop, inspect it as best we could, and move on. The doorways weren't that bad. Most were closed, so we left them that way. The wonderful thing about the dead is that they can't turn doorknobs. The hallways were different however. Carefully looking around each corner took time that I felt we were running out of. It was too quiet. Our footsteps echoed down the halls, and our breathing was heavy in our ears.
We finally saw a sign hanging from the roof that read 'Armoury'. I looked at Watcher and he nodded with a smile. We were close...
Just as the thought passed through my mind a sound like a metal bucket toppling over and rolling reached our ears. Panic instantly snapped my head up and my eyes flung wide open. Something was moving and it wasn't us. Buckets don't just knock themselves over... 'Move, fast!' I ordered. Phoenix, Sphinx, Watcher and I bolted for the armoury and everyone kept up with our pace. As the sounds of our feet slapping against the granite flooring echoed down the halls we reached the big double doors of the very room we were looking for. Watcher jacked his laptop into the control panel to the side of the doors and started typing furiously. The control panel turned on and lights started flashing. While he was hacking the doors to open, we heard a soft moaning down the halls. Steadily getting louder, we knew that this wasn't just one or two of the undead. They must have heard us walking down the halls and started moving towards us. If we didn't get into this armoury now, we would have serious problems with those Zombies homing in on us.
'Crap crap crap crap crap,' cursed Phoenix.
'I know, I know! I just need a couple more seconds,' replied Watcher.
The soft moaning had turned into a thunderous roar in our ears. Flashing our lights down the hallways we could see glints of light being reflected off of their dead eyes. We needed to get into this room, at least so we could bottle neck them.
With the hissing of released air, the metal doors of the armoury popped open. 'Get in, now!' I yelled. Flinging the doors open and all of us rushing in, I slammed the doors shut once we had all made it. 'OK... just gimme a second to find the lights,' said Watcher.
And after a moment, an electric hum filled the room and the lights slowly flickered on. Racks of weapons gleamed back at us and I knew we'd made the right choice. Two mortars, grenade launchers, canisters of oil, and more ammunition for our main weapons. That's what we gathered and planned on using. The mortars and grenade launchers would be good for the Zombies around the bunkers. And hopefully we could use the oil here to slow down the undead while we escaped. They can't walk well to begin with... Let's see how well they move without sure footing.
After we'd stored all our brand new equipment I looked back at Watcher.
'When you looked at the map of the base, did you see a way out of here without using the doors we just came through?'
'Actually..,' he said while drumming his fingers on a wooden crate in the back of the room, 'I did.' And with that he put his shoulder to the crate and shoved it aside. Under it was a ladder leading down into darkness. Cracking a large glow stick he tossed it down the ladder chute and it landed with a thud about ten feet down. 'This passage will lead us to the main office about 50 paces back the way we came. I thought this might be useful in case we were surrounded,' he finished with a smile.
We all sighed with relief except for Johnson. He almost looked as if he would have liked to go out the doors with guns blazing. I don't know exactly how many of the Zombies are out there, but it sounded like quite a large number of them. Sphinx climbed down the ladder and we passed down our equipment carefully and climbed down afterwards. Once we were all in the tunnel we turned towards the main office. We quickly came upon the ladder leading into the office and climbed up. At the top of the ladder, Sphinx pushed up and the hatch eased back smoothly. Climbing up the last few rungs and looking around the office, he signaled down to us to come up quickly and silently. We were closer to the Zombies then he would have liked.
After we'd all emerged into the office Eagle and I each grabbed a canister of oil. Viper slowly opened the door from the room and everyone crept out silently. As Eagle and I left, we carefully uncapped the canisters and spilled the oil all over the hallway. I hoped this would give us enough time to get out safely. Watcher and Enrique carried the mortars, Rex and Mako carried the grenade launchers and the rest of us circled around them. Slowly, we turned towards the exit and made our way out. Hopefully we wont need to battle these undead in this hall of horror.
'Reaper,' Johnson whispered to me. I quickly turned around and signaled him to keep quiet. This was not the time or the place to be making noise. 'Come on man. We can take them.'
'No Johnson,' was my only reply.
'That's crazy!' Viper whispered back in agreement.
'Well then maybe we need someone stronger to lead this team.' He was talking normally at this point, not caring about what was behind us.
'You can argue that point later. Right now we need to get out of this building,' I whispered back at him.
'No! We settle this now!' And with that he grabbed on to my shoulder and spun me around to face him. 'We take these bastards out like we should have when we first saw them!' He was yelling and his face was flushed. But eyes couldn't seem to keep focus and their movement was erratic.
Once he'd stopped talking I'd noticed that there were quiet sounds of feet slipping on oil. 'Shit...' I murmured.
'See? Now they know we're here anyways.' And with that Johnson turned and aimed the turret back down the hallway.
Before he could turn back around to see if anyone was backing him up, I struck the back of his head with the stock of my battle rifle, quickly knocking him out. 'Run, now!' I called to the rest of the troops. And as they did so, I grabbed Johnson and hauled him over my shoulder and Sphinx grabbed the other turret. Johnson may have a death wish, but I wasn't willing to let him die right now. Running down the hallway as quickly as we could, we soon emerged from the main building and headed for the hill we'd come down from. Whatever was inside the bunkers it was keeping the other Zombies busy, so they didn't notice us as we left.
Most of the team was halfway up the hill by this point. I might have been beside them if Johnson we're such a heavy man. Viper looked back and noticed I was lagging behind, so she ran back to me and we each got a shoulder under the unconscious man. Both of us carrying him up the hill went much quicker and we were all safely away before the undead chasing us shambled out of the doors we'd gone through. Tossing Johnson to the ground, I turned to the group and signaled to have weapons ready. If the Zombies kept following our direction, we would have to make a stand. I wasn't going to leave the people in the bunkers now that we were this close.
Looking back down the hill some of the shambling corpses were still moving towards us, but many had turned towards the bunkers with their fellows. Heaving a sigh of relief that so many had turned away, I told Eagle to attach the silencer to his sniper rifle and eliminate the bogeys heading in our direction. As he eased himself on the hill and started making his shots, I had Medic take care of Johnson. I'll talk to him later about his little moment... But for now, we have to prepare for our attempt of securing the bunkers."
Excerpt from the battle log of Steven A. Carpenter. Code Named: Reaper.
'Look guys...' I looked at them slowly and laid my hands on their shoulders. 'When we go in... If things went wrong and our families didn't make it to the bunkers...' I couldn't finish the statement. How was I supposed to tell my brothers that if they found their parents coming after them, with the intentions of eating their flesh, that they should just pull the trigger and not think about it?
They weren't dull by any standard. Eagle and Phoenix knew exactly what I was thinking. The former said, 'We know bud. We know... Then they're already dead.'
'And we just need to release them. Let them go to Heaven like they're supposed to,' finished Phoenix.
Slowly we leaned our foreheads together just to spend one more moment together. There was a chance that they were safe. Everyone on the base knew of the bunkers. It was common knowledge that every person staying there knew where they were, and how to get to them. But there was a large chance that they didn't make it. Viper cleared her throat delicately, but with a purpose. The three of us straightened and looked into each other's eyes. We would be ready when the time came. There was nothing else we could do.
Turning to the rest of the group, I took my battle rifle into my hands and nodded to Viper and Sphinx. With them and Eagle taking the lead, Phoenix, Watcher, Shakespeare, Medic and I took middle positions, and Enrique, Rex, Mako, Johnson and Angel took the back. Our battle to retake central command had started.
Walking down the path towards the base at a steady pace, we kept a solid lookout for any Zombies that would be coming towards us. Surprisingly we didn't find many. That's not to say that we didn't stop every so often for Eagle to steady himself and take a few head shots as we got closer. But we certainly didn't see as many of the undead as we'd expected. It was quite a long road to the base, and we'd had to leave the Humvees behind because they'd run out of gas. Really the only things we could take from them were the turrets. Rex and Mako detached the turrets from their mounts and we'd taken the ammunition for them as well. The base was kept so far away from town so that it wasn't as grim a sight to the civilians. Now that notion just seemed like an inconvenience. The longer you took to get somewhere, the more time people had to die.
As we peaked a ridge we had a clear view of the main base and the bunkers and we understood why we hadn't seen many of the undead on our way here. Oceans of Zombies were standing around the bunkers. Pounding on the walls of solid concrete, slamming against the metal doors, climbing over each other and falling down trying to get onto the roof.
'Oh my Lord...' whispered Enrique. 'There's just so many of them. How are we going to get anywhere near that bunker?'
'Easy,' said Johnson, using both hands to heft one of the turrets. 'We fight our way through!'
'No Johnson. What are you saying? That's madness!' cried Shakespeare.
'Shakespeare's right,' I said. 'We need more firepower to get rid of them. We'll probably be able to find more weapons in the main base. We should head there first and find some mortars or something. We just don't have a way of getting rid of all of those Zombies with what we have.'
Johnson just shook his head and lowered his eyes. And with that I looked at Watcher. 'Can you pull up a map of the base? We need to know the best route to the armoury.'
'I'm on it,' he responded and whipped out his laptop. Within a couple minutes he looked up at me. 'It's not good Reaps. The armoury is close to the center of the base. And if we assume that there are Zombies in the building..,' Watcher started counting silently. 'Then we have almost 5 intercepting corridors to pass and roughly 26 doors down the hall we'll be going. That's a lot of room for things to go wrong. The only good news is that our path to the armoury is very simple. Once we get through those doors there,' he pointed at the doors in front of us, 'we just head straight and then we stop at the big shiny sign that says 'Armoury'.'
'Hmm... Well... We don't really have a choice. We can't exactly just walk past the Zombies and get to the bunker. And since they haven't been responding to our radio messages, we can assume they either haven't been getting them, or can't respond. Let's get going.'
Sphinx hefted the other turret with ease and made sure the belt of ammunition going from the container on his back to the gun itself was loose and easily moved, silently telling us he was ready. I don't know how he felt about finally using a gun... But it was certainly big enough for him. Each of us checked our weapons again out of habit and we started down the hill. Jogging at a quick pace to get past the Zombies around the bunker, we made it to the front doors quickly and without incident.
Phoenix and Sphinx leaned with their backs to the sides of the doors and flicked on their gun lights, ready to lead the way. Watcher and I both opened the doors to either side and they walked through the entrance. Seeing nothing Phoenix gave the all-clear and we filed in after them. All of our gun lights turning on at once flooded the hallway with light.
Reeling back in my mind, I had to force myself not to vomit. Blood sprays and smears were displayed on the walls as if they were hellish pieces of art. Bodies slumped against the walls and splayed along the floor along with random limbs. I turned my head to get easier access to fresh air, and saw that Angel was wiping her mouth. Apparently she hadn't been able to stop the bile climbing up her throat. Others on the team looked like they'd like nothing more then to leave this house of horrors, but remembering what was waiting for them outside, just wanted out of this hallway.
Swallowing a hard lump in my throat I signaled to the others. We had to find those weapons as quickly as possible. Keeping as close to the middle of the hallway as we could, we advanced through this nightmare. Checking each body to make sure it was truly dead took us a bit longer then I would have liked. But it saved us from any surprise fatalities. Whenever we'd come to a doorway or a crossing hallway, we would stop, inspect it as best we could, and move on. The doorways weren't that bad. Most were closed, so we left them that way. The wonderful thing about the dead is that they can't turn doorknobs. The hallways were different however. Carefully looking around each corner took time that I felt we were running out of. It was too quiet. Our footsteps echoed down the halls, and our breathing was heavy in our ears.
We finally saw a sign hanging from the roof that read 'Armoury'. I looked at Watcher and he nodded with a smile. We were close...
Just as the thought passed through my mind a sound like a metal bucket toppling over and rolling reached our ears. Panic instantly snapped my head up and my eyes flung wide open. Something was moving and it wasn't us. Buckets don't just knock themselves over... 'Move, fast!' I ordered. Phoenix, Sphinx, Watcher and I bolted for the armoury and everyone kept up with our pace. As the sounds of our feet slapping against the granite flooring echoed down the halls we reached the big double doors of the very room we were looking for. Watcher jacked his laptop into the control panel to the side of the doors and started typing furiously. The control panel turned on and lights started flashing. While he was hacking the doors to open, we heard a soft moaning down the halls. Steadily getting louder, we knew that this wasn't just one or two of the undead. They must have heard us walking down the halls and started moving towards us. If we didn't get into this armoury now, we would have serious problems with those Zombies homing in on us.
'Crap crap crap crap crap,' cursed Phoenix.
'I know, I know! I just need a couple more seconds,' replied Watcher.
The soft moaning had turned into a thunderous roar in our ears. Flashing our lights down the hallways we could see glints of light being reflected off of their dead eyes. We needed to get into this room, at least so we could bottle neck them.
With the hissing of released air, the metal doors of the armoury popped open. 'Get in, now!' I yelled. Flinging the doors open and all of us rushing in, I slammed the doors shut once we had all made it. 'OK... just gimme a second to find the lights,' said Watcher.
And after a moment, an electric hum filled the room and the lights slowly flickered on. Racks of weapons gleamed back at us and I knew we'd made the right choice. Two mortars, grenade launchers, canisters of oil, and more ammunition for our main weapons. That's what we gathered and planned on using. The mortars and grenade launchers would be good for the Zombies around the bunkers. And hopefully we could use the oil here to slow down the undead while we escaped. They can't walk well to begin with... Let's see how well they move without sure footing.
After we'd stored all our brand new equipment I looked back at Watcher.
'When you looked at the map of the base, did you see a way out of here without using the doors we just came through?'
'Actually..,' he said while drumming his fingers on a wooden crate in the back of the room, 'I did.' And with that he put his shoulder to the crate and shoved it aside. Under it was a ladder leading down into darkness. Cracking a large glow stick he tossed it down the ladder chute and it landed with a thud about ten feet down. 'This passage will lead us to the main office about 50 paces back the way we came. I thought this might be useful in case we were surrounded,' he finished with a smile.
We all sighed with relief except for Johnson. He almost looked as if he would have liked to go out the doors with guns blazing. I don't know exactly how many of the Zombies are out there, but it sounded like quite a large number of them. Sphinx climbed down the ladder and we passed down our equipment carefully and climbed down afterwards. Once we were all in the tunnel we turned towards the main office. We quickly came upon the ladder leading into the office and climbed up. At the top of the ladder, Sphinx pushed up and the hatch eased back smoothly. Climbing up the last few rungs and looking around the office, he signaled down to us to come up quickly and silently. We were closer to the Zombies then he would have liked.
After we'd all emerged into the office Eagle and I each grabbed a canister of oil. Viper slowly opened the door from the room and everyone crept out silently. As Eagle and I left, we carefully uncapped the canisters and spilled the oil all over the hallway. I hoped this would give us enough time to get out safely. Watcher and Enrique carried the mortars, Rex and Mako carried the grenade launchers and the rest of us circled around them. Slowly, we turned towards the exit and made our way out. Hopefully we wont need to battle these undead in this hall of horror.
'Reaper,' Johnson whispered to me. I quickly turned around and signaled him to keep quiet. This was not the time or the place to be making noise. 'Come on man. We can take them.'
'No Johnson,' was my only reply.
'That's crazy!' Viper whispered back in agreement.
'Well then maybe we need someone stronger to lead this team.' He was talking normally at this point, not caring about what was behind us.
'You can argue that point later. Right now we need to get out of this building,' I whispered back at him.
'No! We settle this now!' And with that he grabbed on to my shoulder and spun me around to face him. 'We take these bastards out like we should have when we first saw them!' He was yelling and his face was flushed. But eyes couldn't seem to keep focus and their movement was erratic.
Once he'd stopped talking I'd noticed that there were quiet sounds of feet slipping on oil. 'Shit...' I murmured.
'See? Now they know we're here anyways.' And with that Johnson turned and aimed the turret back down the hallway.
Before he could turn back around to see if anyone was backing him up, I struck the back of his head with the stock of my battle rifle, quickly knocking him out. 'Run, now!' I called to the rest of the troops. And as they did so, I grabbed Johnson and hauled him over my shoulder and Sphinx grabbed the other turret. Johnson may have a death wish, but I wasn't willing to let him die right now. Running down the hallway as quickly as we could, we soon emerged from the main building and headed for the hill we'd come down from. Whatever was inside the bunkers it was keeping the other Zombies busy, so they didn't notice us as we left.
Most of the team was halfway up the hill by this point. I might have been beside them if Johnson we're such a heavy man. Viper looked back and noticed I was lagging behind, so she ran back to me and we each got a shoulder under the unconscious man. Both of us carrying him up the hill went much quicker and we were all safely away before the undead chasing us shambled out of the doors we'd gone through. Tossing Johnson to the ground, I turned to the group and signaled to have weapons ready. If the Zombies kept following our direction, we would have to make a stand. I wasn't going to leave the people in the bunkers now that we were this close.
Looking back down the hill some of the shambling corpses were still moving towards us, but many had turned towards the bunkers with their fellows. Heaving a sigh of relief that so many had turned away, I told Eagle to attach the silencer to his sniper rifle and eliminate the bogeys heading in our direction. As he eased himself on the hill and started making his shots, I had Medic take care of Johnson. I'll talk to him later about his little moment... But for now, we have to prepare for our attempt of securing the bunkers."
Excerpt from the battle log of Steven A. Carpenter. Code Named: Reaper.
Let's Get This Started
"Week 3, day 7 - continued. We managed to escape the Zombies in the main complex of Head Quarters... Seems odd that we were running from them before, and now we're forced to run towards them with no intentions of turning back.
Eagle stood up and walked towards me, nodding that all the undead approaching us were dealt with. I looked around and saw that everyone was looking back at me. Standing up and moving to overlook the valley below us, it was a difficult call to make. I knew what we had to do... But I also knew that it was suicidal at best. Well... at least let them know what's going through my head at least.
'Alrighty then,' I said, turning around to look at the troops. 'It's gunna be a tough one. But with the weapons we got from HQ it should make it plenty easier. We'll keep the high ground as a fall back to give us an advantage if we need it. It should give us time to retreat if we have to while they stumble up this hill.
We only managed to get six rounds for the mortars, and 10 shots a piece with the grenade launchers. I figure we'll do the most damage by using those first while the bastards are clustered around the bunkers. Enrique... I'd like you to make sure the mortars get fired in such a way that they hit the most Zombies they can, while not hitting the bunkers. We don't know how strong they'll be and I don't want our mistakes to cost lives. Understood?'
'Sir, yes sir!' he said while saluting theatrically. A few chuckles ran through the team. Good man. Always knew how to crack a smile.
'Good. Watcher and you will man off the mortars, while Rex and Mako take the grenade launchers. Once you guys get all your shots off, come down with us and be ready for them. Eagle, I know it's not your usual style, but I don't think sniping is a viable option this time. There's just too many of them.'
'That's OK. I was kinda thinkin the same thing,' he stated as he hefted his war hammer and a slanted smile spread on his face. 'That's what I have this for.'
'OK. So basically with the exception of Watcher, Enrique, Rex, Mako, and Medic, we'll all be heading down the hill.'
'Wait, what do you mean-' started Medic.
'I mean,' I stopped him short, 'that I'd like you to stay with Johnson. If any Zombie comes along and he's still out cold, we might as well have left him in the base earlier. And I chose you to look after him since you're the doc. Hopefully nothing goes wrong, but if it does, you'll be the best one to be with him.' And as Medic nodded and went to sit down beside the unconscious body, I looked at everyone else.
'Another thing. If we get separated from each other for some reason, I want us to stay in groups. Viper. You, Sphinx, Angel and Shakespeare will be one group. Watch each other's backs and stick together. Our artillery boys. You four might as well stay together for this. Just keep close and don't let the wave of undead pull you under.' They all nodded and walked to stand beside the others in their group. Eagle and Phoenix walked towards me without me saying a word.
'That's right boys. You're with me on this one. Unless that's a problem?' I said with a smile and a wink. Lightly chuckling we clasped each other's hands and moved to the top of the hill. 'Alright... Let's start heading down. Artillery, you guys are starting this all off. When we make it down the hill I'll signal you, and you rain hell on these undead piles of crap.'
As the four of them acknowledged the order, the rest of us started down the hill. It didn't take us long to get in position. Viper lead her team farthest from the hill, towards the main base, and my brothers and I were at the bottom of the hill. Watcher and his team would hopefully come running in from the side for a kind of flanking maneuver if it's possible. But they'll come down whichever way is safer at that time.
Looking up at the hill, I signaled Watcher and Enrique to begin.
Standing beside my brothers, I looked over to Viper and silently wished her luck. And as the first shells flew into the air, I gripped my battle rifle tight... I had a bad feeling about this one."
Excerpt from the battle log of Steven A. Carpenter. Code Named: Reaper.
Eagle stood up and walked towards me, nodding that all the undead approaching us were dealt with. I looked around and saw that everyone was looking back at me. Standing up and moving to overlook the valley below us, it was a difficult call to make. I knew what we had to do... But I also knew that it was suicidal at best. Well... at least let them know what's going through my head at least.
'Alrighty then,' I said, turning around to look at the troops. 'It's gunna be a tough one. But with the weapons we got from HQ it should make it plenty easier. We'll keep the high ground as a fall back to give us an advantage if we need it. It should give us time to retreat if we have to while they stumble up this hill.
We only managed to get six rounds for the mortars, and 10 shots a piece with the grenade launchers. I figure we'll do the most damage by using those first while the bastards are clustered around the bunkers. Enrique... I'd like you to make sure the mortars get fired in such a way that they hit the most Zombies they can, while not hitting the bunkers. We don't know how strong they'll be and I don't want our mistakes to cost lives. Understood?'
'Sir, yes sir!' he said while saluting theatrically. A few chuckles ran through the team. Good man. Always knew how to crack a smile.
'Good. Watcher and you will man off the mortars, while Rex and Mako take the grenade launchers. Once you guys get all your shots off, come down with us and be ready for them. Eagle, I know it's not your usual style, but I don't think sniping is a viable option this time. There's just too many of them.'
'That's OK. I was kinda thinkin the same thing,' he stated as he hefted his war hammer and a slanted smile spread on his face. 'That's what I have this for.'
'OK. So basically with the exception of Watcher, Enrique, Rex, Mako, and Medic, we'll all be heading down the hill.'
'Wait, what do you mean-' started Medic.
'I mean,' I stopped him short, 'that I'd like you to stay with Johnson. If any Zombie comes along and he's still out cold, we might as well have left him in the base earlier. And I chose you to look after him since you're the doc. Hopefully nothing goes wrong, but if it does, you'll be the best one to be with him.' And as Medic nodded and went to sit down beside the unconscious body, I looked at everyone else.
'Another thing. If we get separated from each other for some reason, I want us to stay in groups. Viper. You, Sphinx, Angel and Shakespeare will be one group. Watch each other's backs and stick together. Our artillery boys. You four might as well stay together for this. Just keep close and don't let the wave of undead pull you under.' They all nodded and walked to stand beside the others in their group. Eagle and Phoenix walked towards me without me saying a word.
'That's right boys. You're with me on this one. Unless that's a problem?' I said with a smile and a wink. Lightly chuckling we clasped each other's hands and moved to the top of the hill. 'Alright... Let's start heading down. Artillery, you guys are starting this all off. When we make it down the hill I'll signal you, and you rain hell on these undead piles of crap.'
As the four of them acknowledged the order, the rest of us started down the hill. It didn't take us long to get in position. Viper lead her team farthest from the hill, towards the main base, and my brothers and I were at the bottom of the hill. Watcher and his team would hopefully come running in from the side for a kind of flanking maneuver if it's possible. But they'll come down whichever way is safer at that time.
Looking up at the hill, I signaled Watcher and Enrique to begin.
Standing beside my brothers, I looked over to Viper and silently wished her luck. And as the first shells flew into the air, I gripped my battle rifle tight... I had a bad feeling about this one."
Excerpt from the battle log of Steven A. Carpenter. Code Named: Reaper.
Ever Get That Feeling That A Lot Of Shit Just Hit A Really Big Fan?
"Week 3, day 7 - final. Please note: the battle is already done, and I write this log with a shaky hand... It was a bloody mess. After we were finished, I asked everyone to describe what it was like from their points of view. This battle log is being written by me, with parts from everyone on the team. I'll make sure to separate each time I go to perspectives of different people.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Myself:
As the first two mortar shells flew into the air, I hoped that the people in the bunker wouldn't panic and open their doors to find out what happened. The shells landed at different ends of the sea of undead and even from this distance I could tell the mortars would have more then just their primary use. Decayed flesh and severed limbs flew in every direction, chased by clumps of earth. A ripple effect followed soon after that had Zombies knocking themselves and others over, as well as some falling into the newly made crater. Hopefully those craters are deep enough to take them a while to climb out.
As the undead ghouls turned in our direction and started shambling towards us, I raised the scope of my battle rifle to my eye and squeezed the trigger. Short three bullet bursts exploded forward and buried themselves in the enemy. A chorus of discharges accompanied mine from Phoenix, Eagle, and Viper's team. With small explosions ripping through the advancing army, I knew the grenades were being released as well, just as they should be. Our enemies dropped before us, but they were still advancing. I knew with how many Zombies there were that we'd never be able to finish this without the distance between us being lost. But I didn't think it would happen this quickly. Every undead we killed seemed to be replaced by 4 others. The explosions from the mortars and grenades were slowing some of them down, but what they lack for in intelligence they make up for in persistence.
'Everyone! Grenades now!' I called to the others down the hill. And in close synchronization we all pulled the pins of our grenades and threw them into the front line of the Zombies. They were thrown in such a way that it was almost a straight line of erupting flesh, bone and dirt. The small craters that were left served as a speed bump of sorts to slow down the advancing undead as they tripped and fell over with the sudden dip in footing.
I didn't know how so many of the ghouls had found their way to the bunkers. But it seemed like a never ending amount. We could make head shots without the scopes of our guns by now. They were coming at us too quickly for my liking. Eagle holstered his glocks and slung his war hammer free of it's hold.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Eagle:
They were getting too close for comfort and I was running out of ammo. This war hammer still feels heavy in my hands... But it feels right. It's a tool of destruction, of cleansing.
Calling out to Phoenix and Reaper, I started walking forwards. A sort of demonic pace that doesn't drain your energy, but gets you where you need to go quicker then your enemy realizes. At some times I wish these bastards still had their emotions. I would make it my personal job to intimidate and scare the crap out of every single one of them.
Reaper came up on my left and Phoenix on my right. Reaper had his battle scythe in his hands. Basically a long spear with a curved blade on the tip. And there goes my brother, being the balls and just going all in with his shotgun. Reapers jacket flapping with our pace, Phoenix with fire in his eyes, and the light glinting off the metal of my hammer... These scum would be right to be scared.
As we started getting closer to their front lines they must have seen the cold hardness in my eyes. The occasional stumble in our direction was the only weakness I'd need from them. The uneven moan coming from their ruined throats just seemed like an eternal taunt. I think it's time to bring our own noise. Planting my feet and bringing forth all my rage, I yelled at the undead. All the hatred I'd been storing was released. Almost taking my family from me, stealing my fiance before we could start our life together, and now coming for me... By the time all the air had left my lungs I realized that my brothers beside me had screamed just as I had. Deep rumbles and explosions from their own throats. All their own emotions and thoughts... Heh... Zombie bastards better be ready.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Viper:
Firing as accurately as I could into this crowd of the Plagued was taking a little longer then I'd like. But limited ammunition does that when you think about it. Every bullet that misses the brain of an infected is a bullet wasted. But then I look over at Sphinx and I wonder how he can do it. With that guy Johnson out of the picture, he's hefted both of the turrets in those massive arms of his and he's just raining hell into the walking dead.
Screams of rage filled the air and I turned towards Reaper and his brothers thinking the worst had happened. I was shocked to see that they just stood in front of the advancing line of afflicted with their close range weapons in hand. I didn't know what they were up to, but I meant to give them help.
'Shakespeare! Angel! Keep at it. Sphinx, with me!' As we rushed towards the middle Shakespeare reminded me that we should stay together, but I wasn't going to let my friends die. Not today.
Releasing our bullets from their casings as we hurried towards Reaper's team, I saw Eagle give his war hammer a vertical swing and crush a Plagued One almost as if it was a can of Coke. I don't know what's going on in his head... I'm just glad he's on our side. He's really nice, but when we go into battle he just seems to seal himself away. Imagining those cold dark eyes just makes my skin crawl.
As the two turrets hit the ground I noticed that they were completely out of ammo. 'Ya big guy,' I thought with a smile. 'That happens when you don't let go of the trigger.' And as Sphinx drew his two broad swords he looked at me with a smile. I don't know why I get this feeling... But it's like he's doing everything he can to protect me. I wonder why he's doing that.
Looking back towards Reaper, I noticed I couldn't see him any more. The sounds of the three men were coming from inside a throbbing mob of infected. I knew we had to reach them... Can't let him die on me now.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Watcher:
From up on the hill Enrique and I knew this was worse then Reaper thought it was. Even with all the mortars gone and a few grenades left, there were still so many of them. These soul stealers just seemed to be never ending. That's the problem with big cities. I never liked places with a high population count... Now I know why.
Craters from the explosives were filled with Zombies trying to get up, or climb over each other. My only hope was that they would step on and crush the heads of their fellows as they came towards us. Make them do our work for us.
With the last of the grenades sent flying into the crowd the four of us got ready to rush down. I figured it would be easier to come from the side near the front and cut a swath through the undead and join up with the others in between the two teams. Reaper, Eagle and Phoenix had already engaged the enemy at close range, and for some reason Viper and Sphinx were splitting from Angel and Shakespeare and heading towards the first team. If only I could tell her that the boys would do fine, maybe she'd go back to the rest of her team.
Hefting my rocket launcher as we ran down the hill, I sent two missiles flying into the wall of undead that we were about to meet up with. Might as well make a door for our rush. After the two rockets were released I dropped the launcher and eased my battle axe out of it's holder. I'll remember to pick that up before we leave.
With the explosions from my rockets casting a wide net of destruction in the ranks of the Zombies, Enrique, Rex, Mako, and I dove into the sea of the lost and started carving our path. The good thing about having a big axe is that it's own weight generally carries it through the necks or skulls of the decayed. All I really had to do was aim my strikes well and good things would happen.
Part of me feels bad destroying these bodies. The ripped and dirtied clothes, the vague memories of hair styles or tattoos... These are truly the last memories that says they were once human like us. But the hunger in their eyes is the true reminder of what they are now. Just a deceased populace that needs a cure. Entrance from stage left, my axe!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Phoenix:
Killing these freaks has almost become like an art. Reaper and I were on fire at the battle of the make shift bunker, and it just got more intricate with my brother Eagle in the mix. After we decided to make the fight more personal things started off slow but gruesome. When they really started getting close I would shove the muzzle of my shotgun in the mouth of a Zombie, spatter it's brains over the others behind it. Grabbing the fore stock in a baseball grip and swing at another head, both reloading the gun and bashing in a skull, then tossing the gun in the air and catch the handle to make another shot. Sliding my shotgun back into it's sheath, I grabbed the handle of my axe and make a wide swing, chopping off a couple heads in one go.
Reaper did the good ol' hack and slash thing. I never bothered to ask how he found the scythe. And he hasn't used it much lately. But it was cutting down anything that got within his range. Piercing a skull with the tip, or slicing through the spinal column with deadly accuracy, nothing could seem to get close to him. Occasionally he would reach into his jacket and pull out one of his magnums for a shot, but I could see he was trying to save his ammunition.
And I've never seen Eagle in hand to hand combat before. I mean... He did rush in to help us in the make shift bunker, but I've never actually seen him wield the hammer with this much focus. The first kill he made when we rushed in completely snapped the spine of the Zombie. Crushing it like a can. He managed to remove a head just by hitting it like a baseball off of a tee. I would have liked to watch it fly away with a smile. But no time right now.
All of a sudden I heard Rex yell ,'To me! Rally to me!' My brothers and I figured something must be going wrong. Reaper sheathed his scythe and switched to his two magnums. This is where our adrenaline must have been really kicking in.
Eagle started ahead to start clearing our path towards Rex and the others. He brought his war hammer down on one of the soulless, used it as a pole vault to jump over the undead behind it, and swung his hammer in a circle after sticking the landing, clearing an area and sending enemies spinning to the ground. Reaper and I jumped over the Zombies as they fell and continued cutting our path. Reaps made a clean sweep with his magnums and cut down many of the undead. After his magnums ran out of bullets in the magazines, he released them and managed to kick the falling mags into the head of a Zombie. It wasn't a kill, but it stunned it long enough for him to reload, holster one of the magnums and draw one of his katanas.
I signaled to him and he bent over quickly, making a table of his back. I ran towards him and rolled over him and dispatched another Zombie back to hell with a swing of my axe. Seeing more Zombies move in on our position I choked up on my axe and withdrew my desert eagle. Sending one of my bullets into the brain of an undead, I spun on my heel and split the skull of another with the head of my axe. I looked behind me and saw that Eagle had left his war hammer to balance on it's head on the ground, and he had his dual glocks in his hands again. It looked like he was in a total sense of self awareness and knew exactly where he could find his targets with this sort of innate equilibrium.
I don't quite know how we do it... But we rock at our jobs.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Myself:
I'm starting to wonder if this is what we were meant for. For cleansing the world of this filth. My brothers and I seem to be an unstoppable force of God. We had reached Watcher, Enrique, Rex, and Mako within minutes of them calling for the rally. Nothing stood in our way. What came before us, fell down and stayed down. With all seven of us making a large circle of death, I couldn't help but wonder where Viper and her team were.
A mind piercing scream answered my thought. Turning towards the main building of the base I saw Viper one moment, and then I couldn't see her the next. She wasn't far from us, but there was a wall of Zombies in the way. I looked at my brothers as they looked at me.
'Up and over Reaps!' called Eagle as he and Phoenix holstered their guns and made a stirrup with their hands. With my magnums freshly loaded and ready in my hands, I ran towards them, put a foot on their make shift stirrup, and they threw me up as I jumped towards Viper. Everything seemed to slow down as I flew through the air. There was Viper. She had fallen or tripped and there were Zombies closing in on her. Picking my shots in this intense slow motion flight wasn't hard. Sight, fire. Sight, fire. Sight, fire. By the time I hit the ground and rolled over my shoulder, we had a small area cleared. I bent down to see if Viper was OK, and before I could see it an undead fell on my arm and lowered his mouth. As quickly as I could I snatched my arm away and got behind it, put my knee on it's back, and with it's head in my hands I twisted until the spine snapped.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw a gleaming suit of armour tackling his way through the undead. Using the small spikes on his shoulder plates, and keeping his shield in front of him, Sphinx steamrolled over the soulless with ease. When he got to us, he slung his shield on his back and drew his twin broad swords.
'To the hill! To the hill!' I called to the troops. Holstering my magnums and swooping down to pick up Viper, I followed Sphinx back the way he had come. We met up with Angel and Shakespeare and made our way to the hill. Eagle, Phoenix, Watcher, and the others had already made their way to the base of the hill and were covering our retreat. Watcher had his rocket launcher in his hands and was using it to his full advantage. Eagle had his sniper rifle in his hands and was expertly picking off quick head shots. Rex and Mako threw a couple grenades behind us to keep our backs clear as well.
Behind Sphinx we finally made it to the hill and rushed up to the top. Shock completely stunned me as Viper and I peaked the hill. Medic was lying face down on the ground and Johnson was gone. Carefully putting Viper down on the ground I went back to join the others and unleashed death with my battle rifle.
The greatest relief I have ever experienced was when I saw that there were only a handful of the undead left. Picking them off was done quickly. And after that... we were the only ones standing. We had won. We survived the sea of undead!
Everyone looked at each other then at me. Looking up at the sky and pumping my fist in the air. Cheers and cries broke out from the team and I. Many a 'hoorah!' was yelled. Hands were clasped and hugs were had. With all of us walking back up the hill, I sat down beside Viper and wrapped my arms around her shoulders.
Shakespeare looked up at me with mixed emotions. 'She's just sprained her ankle sir. She'll be back up and walking within the hour. But Medic...' He looked around at the body of our comrade laying now face up on the ground. 'Bullets to the face Reaper... And with Johnson gone I'm assuming it was him. He may have gone a little bit crazy or something. But he's gone and Medic's dead.'
'Damn it... Well... bring Medic with us. When we get into the bunker we'll see about giving him a proper burial. I shouldn't have asked him to stay up here. He would have been safer out there with us...'
'Can't change the past sir. Just have to work through it,' finished Shakespeare as he stood up, brushed himself off and walked towards the others.
'It's not your fault hun,' soothed Viper. 'You couldn't have known...'
I looked up at her as she paused and I saw she was looking at my arm. She slowly reached over and pulled something white and red off of my arm. As she did I felt a slight sting, and pulled up the sleeve of my coat. When I rolled it past my elbow I saw a small puncture in my arm. I hadn't felt that before. It might have been the rush of the moment. But as I looked at what Viper was holding in her hand I saw it was a tooth...
My memory reeled back to the Zombie that had it's head over my arm after I reached Viper. I thought I had been quick enough. I thought it hadn't quite gotten to my arm. But as we both looked at the tooth with my blood on it, we knew what had happened. We knew what my fate had suddenly become... I looked up and into her eyes, pleading for her to keep this quiet. 'It was a small tooth and I didn't feel any pain. It might not do anything...' I explained. But even as I said it, we both knew I was wrong.
Viper closed her hand around the tooth, and unrolled my sleeve to cover my arm. With her eyes never leaving mine, she spoke very softly. 'The second you feel like it's a losing battle... I'll help relieve your pain.' And as she looked over her shoulder at the others she slowly shook her head. With tears in her eyes she reached forward and wrapped her arms around me tightly. 'I don't want to lose you. Not after all this...'
Not like this... Never like this...
Getting to my feet, and picking up Viper. I walked over to the others and masked my imminent doom with a smile. 'Let's go say hi to the neighbours, shall we?'
And with that, we brushed ourselves off and headed down the hill. We had won today... But was it worth the cost?"
Excerpt from the battle log of Steven A. Carpenter. Code Named: Reaper.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Myself:
As the first two mortar shells flew into the air, I hoped that the people in the bunker wouldn't panic and open their doors to find out what happened. The shells landed at different ends of the sea of undead and even from this distance I could tell the mortars would have more then just their primary use. Decayed flesh and severed limbs flew in every direction, chased by clumps of earth. A ripple effect followed soon after that had Zombies knocking themselves and others over, as well as some falling into the newly made crater. Hopefully those craters are deep enough to take them a while to climb out.
As the undead ghouls turned in our direction and started shambling towards us, I raised the scope of my battle rifle to my eye and squeezed the trigger. Short three bullet bursts exploded forward and buried themselves in the enemy. A chorus of discharges accompanied mine from Phoenix, Eagle, and Viper's team. With small explosions ripping through the advancing army, I knew the grenades were being released as well, just as they should be. Our enemies dropped before us, but they were still advancing. I knew with how many Zombies there were that we'd never be able to finish this without the distance between us being lost. But I didn't think it would happen this quickly. Every undead we killed seemed to be replaced by 4 others. The explosions from the mortars and grenades were slowing some of them down, but what they lack for in intelligence they make up for in persistence.
'Everyone! Grenades now!' I called to the others down the hill. And in close synchronization we all pulled the pins of our grenades and threw them into the front line of the Zombies. They were thrown in such a way that it was almost a straight line of erupting flesh, bone and dirt. The small craters that were left served as a speed bump of sorts to slow down the advancing undead as they tripped and fell over with the sudden dip in footing.
I didn't know how so many of the ghouls had found their way to the bunkers. But it seemed like a never ending amount. We could make head shots without the scopes of our guns by now. They were coming at us too quickly for my liking. Eagle holstered his glocks and slung his war hammer free of it's hold.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Eagle:
They were getting too close for comfort and I was running out of ammo. This war hammer still feels heavy in my hands... But it feels right. It's a tool of destruction, of cleansing.
Calling out to Phoenix and Reaper, I started walking forwards. A sort of demonic pace that doesn't drain your energy, but gets you where you need to go quicker then your enemy realizes. At some times I wish these bastards still had their emotions. I would make it my personal job to intimidate and scare the crap out of every single one of them.
Reaper came up on my left and Phoenix on my right. Reaper had his battle scythe in his hands. Basically a long spear with a curved blade on the tip. And there goes my brother, being the balls and just going all in with his shotgun. Reapers jacket flapping with our pace, Phoenix with fire in his eyes, and the light glinting off the metal of my hammer... These scum would be right to be scared.
As we started getting closer to their front lines they must have seen the cold hardness in my eyes. The occasional stumble in our direction was the only weakness I'd need from them. The uneven moan coming from their ruined throats just seemed like an eternal taunt. I think it's time to bring our own noise. Planting my feet and bringing forth all my rage, I yelled at the undead. All the hatred I'd been storing was released. Almost taking my family from me, stealing my fiance before we could start our life together, and now coming for me... By the time all the air had left my lungs I realized that my brothers beside me had screamed just as I had. Deep rumbles and explosions from their own throats. All their own emotions and thoughts... Heh... Zombie bastards better be ready.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Viper:
Firing as accurately as I could into this crowd of the Plagued was taking a little longer then I'd like. But limited ammunition does that when you think about it. Every bullet that misses the brain of an infected is a bullet wasted. But then I look over at Sphinx and I wonder how he can do it. With that guy Johnson out of the picture, he's hefted both of the turrets in those massive arms of his and he's just raining hell into the walking dead.
Screams of rage filled the air and I turned towards Reaper and his brothers thinking the worst had happened. I was shocked to see that they just stood in front of the advancing line of afflicted with their close range weapons in hand. I didn't know what they were up to, but I meant to give them help.
'Shakespeare! Angel! Keep at it. Sphinx, with me!' As we rushed towards the middle Shakespeare reminded me that we should stay together, but I wasn't going to let my friends die. Not today.
Releasing our bullets from their casings as we hurried towards Reaper's team, I saw Eagle give his war hammer a vertical swing and crush a Plagued One almost as if it was a can of Coke. I don't know what's going on in his head... I'm just glad he's on our side. He's really nice, but when we go into battle he just seems to seal himself away. Imagining those cold dark eyes just makes my skin crawl.
As the two turrets hit the ground I noticed that they were completely out of ammo. 'Ya big guy,' I thought with a smile. 'That happens when you don't let go of the trigger.' And as Sphinx drew his two broad swords he looked at me with a smile. I don't know why I get this feeling... But it's like he's doing everything he can to protect me. I wonder why he's doing that.
Looking back towards Reaper, I noticed I couldn't see him any more. The sounds of the three men were coming from inside a throbbing mob of infected. I knew we had to reach them... Can't let him die on me now.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Watcher:
From up on the hill Enrique and I knew this was worse then Reaper thought it was. Even with all the mortars gone and a few grenades left, there were still so many of them. These soul stealers just seemed to be never ending. That's the problem with big cities. I never liked places with a high population count... Now I know why.
Craters from the explosives were filled with Zombies trying to get up, or climb over each other. My only hope was that they would step on and crush the heads of their fellows as they came towards us. Make them do our work for us.
With the last of the grenades sent flying into the crowd the four of us got ready to rush down. I figured it would be easier to come from the side near the front and cut a swath through the undead and join up with the others in between the two teams. Reaper, Eagle and Phoenix had already engaged the enemy at close range, and for some reason Viper and Sphinx were splitting from Angel and Shakespeare and heading towards the first team. If only I could tell her that the boys would do fine, maybe she'd go back to the rest of her team.
Hefting my rocket launcher as we ran down the hill, I sent two missiles flying into the wall of undead that we were about to meet up with. Might as well make a door for our rush. After the two rockets were released I dropped the launcher and eased my battle axe out of it's holder. I'll remember to pick that up before we leave.
With the explosions from my rockets casting a wide net of destruction in the ranks of the Zombies, Enrique, Rex, Mako, and I dove into the sea of the lost and started carving our path. The good thing about having a big axe is that it's own weight generally carries it through the necks or skulls of the decayed. All I really had to do was aim my strikes well and good things would happen.
Part of me feels bad destroying these bodies. The ripped and dirtied clothes, the vague memories of hair styles or tattoos... These are truly the last memories that says they were once human like us. But the hunger in their eyes is the true reminder of what they are now. Just a deceased populace that needs a cure. Entrance from stage left, my axe!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Phoenix:
Killing these freaks has almost become like an art. Reaper and I were on fire at the battle of the make shift bunker, and it just got more intricate with my brother Eagle in the mix. After we decided to make the fight more personal things started off slow but gruesome. When they really started getting close I would shove the muzzle of my shotgun in the mouth of a Zombie, spatter it's brains over the others behind it. Grabbing the fore stock in a baseball grip and swing at another head, both reloading the gun and bashing in a skull, then tossing the gun in the air and catch the handle to make another shot. Sliding my shotgun back into it's sheath, I grabbed the handle of my axe and make a wide swing, chopping off a couple heads in one go.
Reaper did the good ol' hack and slash thing. I never bothered to ask how he found the scythe. And he hasn't used it much lately. But it was cutting down anything that got within his range. Piercing a skull with the tip, or slicing through the spinal column with deadly accuracy, nothing could seem to get close to him. Occasionally he would reach into his jacket and pull out one of his magnums for a shot, but I could see he was trying to save his ammunition.
And I've never seen Eagle in hand to hand combat before. I mean... He did rush in to help us in the make shift bunker, but I've never actually seen him wield the hammer with this much focus. The first kill he made when we rushed in completely snapped the spine of the Zombie. Crushing it like a can. He managed to remove a head just by hitting it like a baseball off of a tee. I would have liked to watch it fly away with a smile. But no time right now.
All of a sudden I heard Rex yell ,'To me! Rally to me!' My brothers and I figured something must be going wrong. Reaper sheathed his scythe and switched to his two magnums. This is where our adrenaline must have been really kicking in.
Eagle started ahead to start clearing our path towards Rex and the others. He brought his war hammer down on one of the soulless, used it as a pole vault to jump over the undead behind it, and swung his hammer in a circle after sticking the landing, clearing an area and sending enemies spinning to the ground. Reaper and I jumped over the Zombies as they fell and continued cutting our path. Reaps made a clean sweep with his magnums and cut down many of the undead. After his magnums ran out of bullets in the magazines, he released them and managed to kick the falling mags into the head of a Zombie. It wasn't a kill, but it stunned it long enough for him to reload, holster one of the magnums and draw one of his katanas.
I signaled to him and he bent over quickly, making a table of his back. I ran towards him and rolled over him and dispatched another Zombie back to hell with a swing of my axe. Seeing more Zombies move in on our position I choked up on my axe and withdrew my desert eagle. Sending one of my bullets into the brain of an undead, I spun on my heel and split the skull of another with the head of my axe. I looked behind me and saw that Eagle had left his war hammer to balance on it's head on the ground, and he had his dual glocks in his hands again. It looked like he was in a total sense of self awareness and knew exactly where he could find his targets with this sort of innate equilibrium.
I don't quite know how we do it... But we rock at our jobs.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Myself:
I'm starting to wonder if this is what we were meant for. For cleansing the world of this filth. My brothers and I seem to be an unstoppable force of God. We had reached Watcher, Enrique, Rex, and Mako within minutes of them calling for the rally. Nothing stood in our way. What came before us, fell down and stayed down. With all seven of us making a large circle of death, I couldn't help but wonder where Viper and her team were.
A mind piercing scream answered my thought. Turning towards the main building of the base I saw Viper one moment, and then I couldn't see her the next. She wasn't far from us, but there was a wall of Zombies in the way. I looked at my brothers as they looked at me.
'Up and over Reaps!' called Eagle as he and Phoenix holstered their guns and made a stirrup with their hands. With my magnums freshly loaded and ready in my hands, I ran towards them, put a foot on their make shift stirrup, and they threw me up as I jumped towards Viper. Everything seemed to slow down as I flew through the air. There was Viper. She had fallen or tripped and there were Zombies closing in on her. Picking my shots in this intense slow motion flight wasn't hard. Sight, fire. Sight, fire. Sight, fire. By the time I hit the ground and rolled over my shoulder, we had a small area cleared. I bent down to see if Viper was OK, and before I could see it an undead fell on my arm and lowered his mouth. As quickly as I could I snatched my arm away and got behind it, put my knee on it's back, and with it's head in my hands I twisted until the spine snapped.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw a gleaming suit of armour tackling his way through the undead. Using the small spikes on his shoulder plates, and keeping his shield in front of him, Sphinx steamrolled over the soulless with ease. When he got to us, he slung his shield on his back and drew his twin broad swords.
'To the hill! To the hill!' I called to the troops. Holstering my magnums and swooping down to pick up Viper, I followed Sphinx back the way he had come. We met up with Angel and Shakespeare and made our way to the hill. Eagle, Phoenix, Watcher, and the others had already made their way to the base of the hill and were covering our retreat. Watcher had his rocket launcher in his hands and was using it to his full advantage. Eagle had his sniper rifle in his hands and was expertly picking off quick head shots. Rex and Mako threw a couple grenades behind us to keep our backs clear as well.
Behind Sphinx we finally made it to the hill and rushed up to the top. Shock completely stunned me as Viper and I peaked the hill. Medic was lying face down on the ground and Johnson was gone. Carefully putting Viper down on the ground I went back to join the others and unleashed death with my battle rifle.
The greatest relief I have ever experienced was when I saw that there were only a handful of the undead left. Picking them off was done quickly. And after that... we were the only ones standing. We had won. We survived the sea of undead!
Everyone looked at each other then at me. Looking up at the sky and pumping my fist in the air. Cheers and cries broke out from the team and I. Many a 'hoorah!' was yelled. Hands were clasped and hugs were had. With all of us walking back up the hill, I sat down beside Viper and wrapped my arms around her shoulders.
Shakespeare looked up at me with mixed emotions. 'She's just sprained her ankle sir. She'll be back up and walking within the hour. But Medic...' He looked around at the body of our comrade laying now face up on the ground. 'Bullets to the face Reaper... And with Johnson gone I'm assuming it was him. He may have gone a little bit crazy or something. But he's gone and Medic's dead.'
'Damn it... Well... bring Medic with us. When we get into the bunker we'll see about giving him a proper burial. I shouldn't have asked him to stay up here. He would have been safer out there with us...'
'Can't change the past sir. Just have to work through it,' finished Shakespeare as he stood up, brushed himself off and walked towards the others.
'It's not your fault hun,' soothed Viper. 'You couldn't have known...'
I looked up at her as she paused and I saw she was looking at my arm. She slowly reached over and pulled something white and red off of my arm. As she did I felt a slight sting, and pulled up the sleeve of my coat. When I rolled it past my elbow I saw a small puncture in my arm. I hadn't felt that before. It might have been the rush of the moment. But as I looked at what Viper was holding in her hand I saw it was a tooth...
My memory reeled back to the Zombie that had it's head over my arm after I reached Viper. I thought I had been quick enough. I thought it hadn't quite gotten to my arm. But as we both looked at the tooth with my blood on it, we knew what had happened. We knew what my fate had suddenly become... I looked up and into her eyes, pleading for her to keep this quiet. 'It was a small tooth and I didn't feel any pain. It might not do anything...' I explained. But even as I said it, we both knew I was wrong.
Viper closed her hand around the tooth, and unrolled my sleeve to cover my arm. With her eyes never leaving mine, she spoke very softly. 'The second you feel like it's a losing battle... I'll help relieve your pain.' And as she looked over her shoulder at the others she slowly shook her head. With tears in her eyes she reached forward and wrapped her arms around me tightly. 'I don't want to lose you. Not after all this...'
Not like this... Never like this...
Getting to my feet, and picking up Viper. I walked over to the others and masked my imminent doom with a smile. 'Let's go say hi to the neighbours, shall we?'
And with that, we brushed ourselves off and headed down the hill. We had won today... But was it worth the cost?"
Excerpt from the battle log of Steven A. Carpenter. Code Named: Reaper.
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