Knight knew how to deal with groups like these; you hit them hard when they least expect it. As soon as people start to die, they would give up or run, wanting to live more. After finding the place he would have his men set up, and take out all the perimeter guards, then move in and take out any that resisted. They would all act precisely, and the encounter would last no more than a few minutes.
They followed the bodies still, which lead them down the street. The bodies were starting to become denser, indicating that they were very close to the location. Towards the end of the street, the bodies were piled away from the fence of a single warehouse. Hundreds of bodies littered the area, but the only area that stuck out as a place where the criminals would be in was that one. They would know to move the bodies away to help prevent infection and other diseases.
The fence was sturdy looking; it had concrete posts and chain links running between it, as well as thick barbed wire at the top, at least, ten feet tall altogether. Knight had them stop and form up on him again. The soldiers got in close forming a small circle and started to talk.
“That is the place; it has a strong fence, but nothing we can’t cut through. I don’t see anyone walking the perimeter, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t there. I want us to split up, Smith and Carter you are together, Ramirez and Cooper you stick together. I want you to scope out each side of the fence to see if you can find any weak spots. I will stay here and cover the front, if you run into any trouble tap your throat mic once, twice if you find an entry point.”
Knight continued, “I want this done right and fast, we need to get back to base with everyone safe. Meet back here as soon as you find anything. I don’t want anyone to move without my go ahead. Let’s lock and load, Move out!”
Smith and Carter went to the left side of the building while Ramirez and Cooper went to the right. Knight set up behind a car, aiming down his scope at the warehouse’s main door. He figured they had either locked or blocked off the roll-up garage doors, leaving only a couple of smaller doors as access points. He thought it was unusual that there was no perimeter guard set up; at least at the front door.
He moved his gun using the scope to magnify what he could see. Inside the fence was a large parking lot, with two big delivery trucks. The parking lot took up almost a third of space inside the fence while the actual warehouse took up the rest. Knight continued to watch his field of vision, trying to locate any hostiles on the other side of the fence.
Several minutes passed without acknowledgment from the men he had sent to scour the fence for an entrance. He was starting to worry if they didn’t find an easy access point they would have to make one. Knight was about to call over the radio when he heard two clicks over the radio. He whispered, “Alright head back to me and report.”
Another couple of minutes passed, but Ramirez and Cooper showed up, shortly followed by Smith and Carter. Carter spoke, “We found a spot to enter, a small door cut into the fence almost at the other side. We got close to look at it and there is a small lock, but I think we could just cut it. Nice and quick.”
“Yep,” Agreed Smith.
“Any sign of sentries posted?” asked Knight.
All of them shook their heads, “No sign of anyone.”
Knight pointed at Smith, “Lead the way.”
They all followed Smith around the left side of the building, moving alongside the fence. They went almost all its length on this side, reaching the corner. It was at this corner they saw the chain link door. The only problem was that the lock was on the other side of the fence, meaning it would take longer to cut it. Knight cursed their bad luck.
Cooper offered to take the bolt cutters and try to break it open. The others watched the area around them, constantly scanning for hostiles. They were on a small side street, which didn’t offer them much cover, and left them feeling exposed. Cooper struggled to fit the bolt cutters how he needed them and gave up. “This isn’t working.” Explained Cooper.
Knight grabbed the bolt cutters and tried himself, gaining no more luck than Cooper. “Shit!” he said, punching the chain link, which rattled with the blow, “the bolt cutters aren't going to work. It's too far; we are going to have to find something else.”
Carter who was standing next to a car, exclaimed, “Hey guys, I think it’s my lucky day! Look here in this car. There is a crowbar in the front seat!”
He reached down for the handle of the car door, grasping it. Carter gave it a quick tug, finding it was locked. That wasn’t the only thing he found out. No longer than it took him to pull the handle, did the car alarm go off. The blaring alarm cut through the early morning silence like a parade in the street. Things were turning from bad to really fucking bad, and quick.
“What the fuck, Carter?!” screamed Knight.
Carter backed away from the car, with a stupid shocked look on his face. Knight pushed past him and broke the driver side window with the butt of his rifle. He reached in and unlocked the door, which he yanked open. Reaching down under the steering wheel, he searched for the hood release button. He patted down the underneath of the dash, finding several buttons, none of which he could read.
At the same time, Knight had unlocked the car door, a small door at the warehouse on the other side of the fence, where the soldiers were standing, opened. Three people charged out from the door, all bearing weapons. They sprinted over to the chain-link fence door, pointing at the soldiers, and shouted in Japanese. The first man reached the chain-link fence door and produced a key unlocking the fence.
Ramirez and Cooper had their guns trained on the three men and began to shout at them.
“Put your weapons down and show us your hands! Do it, or we will fire!”
Their calls were mainly unheeded, only one of the three men stopped, a teen boy. The other two men opened the gate and called to them, waving them in. The sudden appearance and lack of hostility confused the soldiers that had their guns trained on the men. While the exchange was happening, Knight had popped the hood, and removed the battery cords, finally silencing the car alarm. He turned his focus towards the men at the chain link fence door.
The soldiers were still shouting at the men to lower their weapons while the men on the other side of the fence looked quizzically at the soldiers. Their leader put down his weapon, understanding what the soldiers wanted. He spoke, “OK, we don’t want any trouble. You need to get in here. They will be here soon. The noise will bring them here.”
Knight moved forward, “What the fuck are you talking about?”
The man replied, “No time; you need to get in here quickly.”
“We got your message, where are our men? What did you do with them?”
The man replied again, “It's not safe out here. We must go inside.”
“No! Give me some goddamned answers, right fucking now!” Shouted Knight.
His answer was not in the form of words, but a scream. The scream came from one of the soldiers. Knight turned towards the scream and saw it was Smith, who had a woman taking a bite out of his shoulder. Smith pushed her away and shot her. The woman was still standing and had only paused before lunging again at Smith.
The other soldiers started to look around, and even Knight could see through his night vision goggles, several people making their way towards them.
“Contact Left!” yelled Ramirez.
All the soldiers started to fire at the infected people they could see coming towards them. Most of their shots connected with their targets but they kept moving towards them. The leader of the three men grabbed up his weapon and ran out to the soldiers.
“STOP! STOP! STOP!”, he screamed.
He waved his arms, attempting to get the soldiers to stop shooting. So far, the soldiers had only succeeded in wasting their ammo. A few of them stopped firing, while Knight and Smith kept firing. Smith was in a blind rage, firing at anything that looked like an infected person. Knight finally realized he wasn’t doing much good and stopped firing his rifle.
He a
pproached Smith who was still taking angry, wild shots at the infected, who were closing in on the group. Knight put a hand on Smiths rifle and pushed it down, giving him a concerned look. Smith let his rage die down and immediately felt sick. The other soldiers had run inside the fence, where the leader of the trio stood beckoning them into safety.
Knight let his rifle drop to his side, and put an arm around Smith, helping him stand. Together they walked back to the fence and entered through the chain link fence’s gate. The man slammed the gate close and shoved the lock back into place. He beckoned them once more, leading them towards the warehouse. Knight handed Smith over to Ramirez and started towards the man.
He grabbed the man and pulled him back towards him. Knight wanted answers, where the pilots were, and what the hell was going on.
“Are you the people that have our pilots?”
The man answered feebly, “Yes, we have the pilots inside; we saved them from the Yokai. They are inside, safe. I’ll show you to them. Follow me.”
“What the hell is going on here, what is with all the infected people attacking?”
The man shook his head, “No time to explain, we need to get inside. It’s safe inside.”
Knight let out a small frustrated yell but let go of the man. He punched the wall behind the man, before taking a deep breath. Once his nerves were calmed down, he motioned for the soldiers to follow him. The soldiers looked hesitantly at Knight but put their trust in him as they had done before. Following their leader in silence, contemplating what had just unfolded.
Chapter 26
An end of a friend
They all moved towards the warehouse; Knight took up the position in the back making sure none of the infected had gotten in, and wanting a quick moment alone. He stopped outside the door into the warehouse and looked at the infected that gathered at the fence. In the glow of his night vision goggles, they looked like normal people, minus the eyes and skin. He wondered where they had come from so quickly; they hadn’t seen any infected before the car alarm had gone off.
He gave up the mental marathon of what and how deciding to go inside the warehouse and check in with his friends. Knight walked in the door, which opened into a long hallway. At the end of the hallway, there was a door with light coming through; giving a good indication that was where he should go. He pushed his night vision goggles up, and out of the way, making the hallway eerily dark.
Knight moved quickly down the hall, suddenly wanting to be as far away as possible from the door leading outside. For some reason, his fear kicked in, once he realized that it was extremely dark. His primal fear told him to move towards the light as quickly as possible; the light was where it was safe. The light would show him what was making him afraid, expose it for what it was.
Knight reached to door, pulling it open he half expecting the rest of the squad not to be there. However, they were there, grouped up around Smith and the other two pilots. He could see several other people, looking scared and confused. His only concern was to make sure Smith was ok. Judging by the fact that he could see their grim faces he knew the answer.
Ramirez was standing behind Smith, who had removed his shirt, exposing the bite wound on the back part of his shoulder. The bare wound was deep and had gouged out a sizable portion of the muscle, leaving mostly just bone.
Ramirez reached inside of his pack, pulling out gauze and antiseptic. He examined the wound closely before doing anything to it, checking to see if there was anything he could do to help. Ramirez didn’t have the tools available to work with it, nor the supplies. He took the cap off the bottle of antiseptic.
The man who led them inside approached the group, weapon in hand, “He is bitten, there is nothing you can do. He is already infected, he will turn shortly.”
Ramirez stopped, looking at the man, “What are you talking about? Are you saying that once someone infects you, you can’t stop the infection?”
The man shook his head, “No. There is no cure. It’s too late; the infection is already inside him.”
“What the fuck is this guy talking about Ramirez? What does he mean I am infected, and there is no cure? I mean I know we talked about civilians had been infected, but no cure, there has to be one!” Smith shouted maniacally.
Ramirez looked back and forth between the man and Smith, not sure what to say. He didn’t want to give Smith false hope, only to let him down. On the other hand, he didn’t want to give him no hope at all.
“I got you, buddy, I will make sure to take care of this for you.”
Knight approached the man, “Look we may not fully understand what is happening, but we aren’t going to give up on him because he is wounded. We never leave another soldier on the battlefield, as these men’s commander, I made an oath to make sure they made it through this mission alive. He is fine he just needs some medical attention.”
The man shook his head again and took a few steps towards Smith, “Once bitten you are infected; he hasn’t much time. We need to be ready to kill him or throw him outside the fence. He could endanger the rest of us!”
Knight’s demeanor changed, “Back away from him!”
Knight raised his rifle at the man, who was unfazed by the gun pointed at him. The rest of the soldiers formed a protective circle around Ramirez and Smith. The soldiers realized that there were almost a dozen people in the room beside themselves. If things were to go south, it wouldn’t end up well, for either group. The soldiers felt stupid for leaving themselves open like they had, forgetting their training because of Smith’s injury.
Knight looked around the room, meeting some of the people’s eyes while others were staring down at the ground. He looked at each of the people that were in the room, they were civilians. Knight didn’t care; he just wanted someone to help his fellow soldier and friend. It was ludicrous for these people, which he didn’t even know, to tell him that they needed to murder someone because they were injured. He could feel the anger building up inside of him, tired and sick of everything that had happened, he blew up.
“This is going to go my way, or things will start to get nasty in here! No one besides my men is allowed near Smith, and I do mean no one. If I even see so much as one of you go near him without my say so, I will put you down. Do I make myself clear?!”
The man backed away from Smith, fully aware that Knight meant what he said. The other civilians also took several steps back, trying to avoid the soldier’s wrath.
The man spoke up again, “We don’t mean any harm. He is infected and will turn soon; he will become like the rest of them outside, the Yokai. He will attack us; attack you, unless we do something.”
A loud thud echoed through the warehouse, and the eyes of the civilians turned towards the source. The soldiers turned to look as well, finding Smith on the ground. Ramirez was standing over him, holding his fingers to Smith’s throat, checking for a pulse. Smith didn’t move, and a silence fell over them all.
Ramirez stood up, “No pulse…His body went to shock from the infection.”
Ramirez looked down at Smith, whose eyes were open, staring into nothingness. They had turned red, the blood vessels in his eyes had burst, filling them with blood. It was a disturbing sight, abnormal, and made Smith, no longer look like Smith. It made him appear subhuman, evil, and something to be feared.
Perhaps that was what the civilians were so afraid of, the look of the infected. It gave them qualities that presented them as demonic or otherworldly. The civilians all stood together, and backed away from the body, attempting to get as far away as possible. Only the man, their leader, stayed nearby.
Ramirez reached down and closed Smith’s eyes, ending his pain upon this earth. He sighed deeply; this wasn’t the first time he had lost a fellow brother in arms. It always hit each man differently, some it would rain down upon instantly, while others would continue to carry on until the burden oppressed them too much. Every soldier in the room was feeling the same way, distraught and tired.
Only Knight felt n
othing at the moment, but anger. He had failed them all as their leader, allowing in a moment their group to suffer a causality. He had lost a friend, someone whom with, he had served several years. How could he have let this happen? Why didn’t he see infected approaching, why did he let his guard down? He knew better; he was trained to know better.
It wasn’t his fault; there had to be something that he missed. Something that he couldn’t control, something that had caused the infected to show up, something that would prove he hadn’t let his men down. Then it hit him; it was Carter’s fault. Carter was the one who drew the attention to them, by trying to break into the car. He was the one who caused the scene.
Carter was the one who alerted the infected to their presence and broke the sound restrictions. His brash decision had fucked up everything. He had, in an instant, broken every rule in the book starting a chain reaction, leading to Smith’s death. Knight looked over at Carter, looking for some grief on his face.
He saw none, only a look of shock and uncertainty. His lack of grief infuriated Knight, even more, the fire inside him roaring to life. His mind had but one focus now, to make Carter pay. He rushed forward and grabbed Carter, shoving him against some wooden crates.
“This is all your fault, you son of a bitch. If you hadn’t tried so hard to impress us. Trying to show us you could be part of this team. If you had taken the time to fully take in the area and situation, the options and consequences…None of this would have fucking happened! This is isn’t the first time you put one of us in danger either!” Knight screamed at Carter.
Carter tried to defend himself, “It was an accident-”
Knight punched Carter in the face, loving the way the impact felt. It was a small justice, inflicting pain upon his friend’s killer. Carter didn’t try to fight back still in shock of what was happening. Knight reached back to throw another blow but stopped short.
Ramirez called out in shock, “What the hell! Look, Smith is getting up!”
What Remains: The Outbreak Page 16