Nightmare-Z

by S. A. Lowry

  “Y’all head back to the door now and wait for us to open it. Go on, get!” Trevor loudly whisphers as he appears to be letting his nerves get the best of him The wary soldiers now nod their heads in compliance of Trevor’s order and quickly move back to the front of the facility. A few minutes go by as they wait impatiently. Some of the soldiers begin to grow paranoid while wondering if their Sergeants are okay on the other side. Gilroy nervously begins pacing back and fourth. Ringo instantly tells him to calm down and pull security. Gilroy does not listen.

  Moments later, the door swings open with Trevor and Christopher standing there on the other side. To the rest of the squad’s relief, they immediately enter the facility. Trevor splits them up into two teams. One team led by Christopher and the other by himself. Both teams proceed to clear the facility before taking out what they need from the kitchen and storage rooms. Some time goes by once the two teams link back up by the soft drink section.

  No threats were found. Trevor kicks Ringo to the front door entrance and Christopher to the back door entrance for security while the rest of them go into the back to scoop up whatever boxed foods and water they can find.

  After a few trips back and fourth to the vehicle, the squad’s SUV at this point is loaded up with a few cases of MRE’s(Meals Ready to Eat) and a few cases of bottled gatorades. Also, some assorted chips and pop tarts as well as ottis spunkmeyer muffin cases could also be found in the back piled near the MRE’s. Trevor tells his men they need to do one more load of MRE’s and water before they can leave.

  After hearing this, the squad quickly hurries back into the dining facility to grab the last run of supplies. That is when Gilroy decides to veer off from the group and make his way into a different section of the back kitchen. Still upset from his earlier failure to acquire an ice cream to satisfy his craving, he anxiously searches around for any signs of where ice cream or popsicles may be present. He can hear the other members of his squad in another room tossing cases of MRE’s and water back to eachother so he figures he has some time.

  Along the way, he notices a large metal door which is dead bolted into the wall. He figures this might be the freezer room. If they can store meats and other foods here, ice cream would definately be present. After a second of contemplating in front of the dead bolted freezer door, he decides to act on his craving.

  Gilroy immediately unlocks the bolt keeping the freezer door shut. Instantly, the large metallic door creeps open. He decides to step in while feeling the enormous drop in tempature.

  “Jackpot” he tells himself as he decides to look around for ice cream. That is when he shockingly notices a human corpse laid out in the center of the room. In addition, he bears witness to an overly obese individual in shiney black dress shoes with white pants and a white dress collared T shirt on his knees leaning into the corpse manically feasting on his intestines from where his torso should be.

  The overweight man also appears to have a signature dining facility cap over his head. Gilroy freezes in place still in shock and not able to move at this point as he witnesses this man frantically eating his meal. Gilroy continues to remain immobile for an additional short period of time as he observes the gruesome sight. It wasn’t too long until the cannibal on the ground looks up at Gilroy and notices his presence.

  The fat man places some of the victim’s guts back in the hole of the stomach to which he ripped open earlier and begins gazing at Gilroy while slowly rising up to become erect on two legs. This sends Gilroy into an instant panic. Instead of backing out and locking the freezer door like he should have, he decides to take aim with his weapon. A second or two goes by before the assailant charges Gilroy with a loud and thunderous scream of hunger. That is when Gilroy opens fire on him. A total of six rounds are fired until Gilroy can drop the attacker for good. The sixth round finally entering the man’s cranium.

  Gilroy places his weapon back to it’s original position slung across his chest proud of himself for achieving his “first kill”. He figured the members of his squad would now respect him a bit more. Once Gilroy killed the attacker, he continues about his business looking for the ice cream he so desperately craved. While he was in the process of continueing his search inside the freezer, Trevor along with Reagal and Price come running up to the entrance of the freezer room to see if Gilroy was okay. Gilroy explains the situation with a sense of pride and excitement at achieving his first kill.

  Trevor stares at him for a second in disbelief. Reagal, standing beside Trevor, calls Gilroy an idiot.

  Price also adds an additional comment in anger.

  “What the hell did Sergeant Wilcott tell you!” angrily yells Price.

  Gilroy goes to explain when Trevor, out of anger and frustration, punches him across the face with a right hook.

  Gilroy instantly falls to the ground. “Are you trying to get us killed you dumb bastard! All you had to do was close this damned door! Now we’re going to have all those things on us! I told y’all to not attract no damned attention!” Trevor yells as he stands over Gilroy who is dazed and confused as he lies on the ground.

  Hunter quickly turns his head back to stare at the dining facility behind him as he sits up on top of his SUV. Multiple shots ring out as his eyes grow wide to the pending result of the loud noise. Without even thinking, he quickly rolls off the top of the vehicle and into the cab.

  He attempts to start up the vehicle, however, failing miserably. It just donged on Hunter that he wasn’t supposed to turn off the engine because of what happened before with it being unreliable at certain times. As he continues to try, he notices mobs of soldiers and some civilians running out of the various different AAFES shops in the general area in the direction of the dining facility. They are obviously one of those things Hunter concludes as the mobs begin screaming and moaning.

  There seems to be dozens of them coming out of the shops in all direction and out of some of the bunkers used for indirect fire. This puts Hunter into an instant state of panic as he gives up on trying to start the vehicle and hops out. He runs through the crack of the T-Walls to his Squad’s location. Upon approaching the entrance, he runs into Ringo who is guarding the front door.

  “We need to get the hell out of here man! They are coming right now! Dozens if them! Let everyone know!” Hunter yells with terror in his eyes.

  Ringo quickly rises up from his kneeling position and runs to the back rooms to inform Trevor and the rest of the squad. Hunter assumes security of the doorway. A few seconds later, Trevor along with the rest of the squad emerge from the back room panically trying to run out with the supplies in their hands. Hunter yells back as they approach and tells them to drop it because the vehicle will not start.

  “You got to be kidding me!” Trevor yells as he tosses a box of MRE’s down in anger. Other members of the squad begin yelling and swearing at Gilroy. Hunter asks what happened as they run up to him. Reagal tells Hunter as he runs by him that Gilroy shot one of those things while trying to grab an ice cream in the freezer instead of just closing the door and locking it on him.

  Hunter’s jaw drops as he picks up to follow the rest of his squad. Once the group of soldiers are outside sprinting back to the vehicle, they notice close to twenty assailants now surrounding their black SUV. Trevor and his men stop dead in their tracks as they are only a few feet outside of the front entrance to the dining facility.

  Everyone in the squad with the exception of Trevor places their weapons up in the direction of the mob. Right before they attempt to open fire, Trevor orders them to hold it.

  “Screw that. Save your ammo. We’re high tailing it back to the road, lets go!” Yells Trevor as he takes off on foot in the other direction of the mob.

  Right when he does this, the mob notices the men standing in front of them.

  “Nice going dumb ass!” Hunter panically screams to Gilroy as he follows Trevor. Everyone else picks up behind Trevor as the screaming frenzied mob takes off after them. As the mob picks up it’s pace, more as
sailants begin coming out of the woodwork joining their ranks. A seven man group is now being chased by dozens. The squad breaks through the DFAC perimeter T-walls into the open spread out moondust. Trevor decides to cross the road with a quickness and cut through the tent area. Everyone continues to follow him.

  “Damn we left everything back there. Ammo, food, water and our gear!” a winded Reagal cries as he struggles to keep up the pace.

  “That’s the least of our worries right now. Keep moving!”, Christopher shouts back. The mob behind them appeared to have emerged through the cracks of the T-walls Trevor and his men just came out of. They are pursueing the group in a quick running pace as their moans and screams grow louder. Once the squad has entered an area surrounded by tents used as living quarters, they continue to push through in order to find a hard ball road to run on all the way back to the gate.

  As the mob approaches closer, the noise draws more attackers out of the tents around them who remained dorment just minutes prior. Many more flood out of the tents to converge on Trevor and his squad. Ringo begins opening fire with his M249 SAW at the most immediate threats as they approach. Trevor and Price also engage multiple attackers who charge them out of corners and door ways as they tiredly continue to move. As a result, the combination of gunfire and mob screams and rants, draw even more attackers from far ends of the base who begin running towards the source of the noise only to run into the frenzied mob to join them. The group has a very big problem on their hands now.

  As they struggle to push across the Kuwaiti moondust, they finally reach the end of the living pad and hop onto a hard ball road. After narrowly escaping for the time being, They slow down their pace a bit to catch their breathes. An eager Price reluctantly looks back to see how many attackers are now following. For the time being however, the assailants seem to be far enough behind for them to take a quick breather. That is when Hunter notices off into the distance in the direction of where the front gate is supposed to be, even more individuals heading in their direction. They are only minutes apart. Hunter quickly points this out to the rest of the group.

  Shortly after coming to this realization, Trevor orders them to pick up again.

  “We have to beat those bastards to the front gate before they cut us off!” a frantic Trevor orders. Everyone now begins running with a sense of urgency as if their lives depended on it. At this point, everyone in the group is moving in a dead sprint while some attempt to reshuffle their equipment attached their chests and reposition their weapons so their muzzles do not jab into their legs. A few of the soldiers even unslung their rifles and proceeded to sprint with it in one hand so the pace could be kept. That is when Gilroy begins to fall behind.

  He is already apparently winded and uncomfortably attempting to move around his rack system so he can keep up. Failing miserably in the process. Christopher and Hunter notice this as they holler back to him encouraging him to catch up with them.

  The frenzied mob behind them now appears to be on the same road with them after shortly reacquiring their meal. They begin gaining some ground. In addition, the other blood thirsty mob of soldiers and security forces across the way from them on perimeter road, are fast approaching the gate Trevor and his men need clear in order to escape. Trevor yells back to his soldiers with an ever growing sense of urgency to beat the mob to the punch.

  Once the group is only around twenty-five meters off the exit of the gate, they are greeted by a few of the gate guards emerging from their watch towers, guard shacks and porto-johns. Trevor, whom is in the lead followed by Christopher and Ringo, begin opening fire on them to clear a path. The attackers are quickly dropped due to the precision accuracy of the professional soldiers. Trevor takes a moment to look back when he notices Gilroy even further back than he had anticipated. As a result, Trevor takes quick action to ensure all of his soldiers make it.

  He urgently grabs Ringo by the back of his MOLLE vest and shrugs him over to a sand bag dug out position overwatching the intersection the approaching mobs are converging on. He orders Ringo to lay down suppressive fire on the mob approaching their flank. Once a sweaty Hunter come storming up to their position with Reagal and Price, Trevor orders Hunter to stay with Ringo and start engaging the mob which is high tailing a slow approaching Gilroy from the rear.

  The soldiers quickly get into their positions without question. Trevor takes the rest of his men and clear the way up ahead for any more attackers. He quickly yells back to Hunter as he takes off with his men in a wedge formation that once they link up with Gilroy, join back up with the rest of the squad on the main road outside the gate. The pair acknowledge as they commence engaging within their sectors of fire. The pair begins to make their guns talk, to ensure none of them go “black” on ammo at the same time. Hunter quickly unloads a magazine of thirty rounds into the crowd behind Gilroy without hitting him. He drops around twelve assailants with ease. Gilroy can be seen twitching and placing his head down as Hunter’s rounds weeze by him.

  On Ringo’s side of the fighting position, he appears to be laying down effective fire on the fast approaching mob from the flank. He maintains a rapid firing rate with an occasional sustained firing pace to inflict more accurate headshots. The entire time he avoids going cyclic and wasting rounds. Shortly later, Gilroy comes charging up. His demeanor is sloppy as he appears tired and disoriented from the heat and the running. Once he passes Hunter he begins walking on foot.

  “You almost shot me you bastard!” Gilroy yells back to Hunter.

  Hunter commences to swearing back at him and orders him to “move his ass”.

  Gilroy ignores Hunter’s instructions and continues to walk as he lets the exhaustion get the best of him. Once Ringo looks back and realizes they just made the link up, he quickly picks up as he drops an empty two hundred round drum on the ground and quickly reaches for another one from his tactical vest. Hunter picks up as well and begins moving back to the main road like instructed. As they do this, they can hear a volley of gunfire come from the main road indicating their squad is still alive and clearing ahead for them.

  “I said move your ass shitbag!” Hunter yells into Gilroy’s ear as he passes from behind him and smacks him in the back of the head.

  Hunter does not look back to see Gilroy’s reaction. He just notices Gilroy out of his periphal vision begin to pick up his pace reluctantly like a child at gym class. The sheer anger and frustration with Gilroy seems to overwhelm Hunter at this point.

  As the three of them desperately try to push through the serpentine and hop T barriers along the way through the gate, they notice the build up of new bodies just recently shot along the way. Ringo decided to follow the trail of bodies back to the squad. Once the three of them turn a corner of high twelve foot tall concrete T-wall emplacements, the rest of their squad becomes visible in plain sight about a hundred meters down the road from them in open desert. They are seen looking back into the base waiting for the rest of the group to see if they made it out alive.

  Trevor and Christopher can be seen waving their arms back to Ringo, whom is in the lead of Hunter and Gilroy. Ringo and the rest sprint down the lonley strip of desert road leading from the gate to the highway of death. As they approach, Trevor and Reagal can be seen greeting them with wide smiles.

  “Man we thought you assholes were done for. Good to see you all!” an excited but relieved Reagal states.

  The three of them come to a dead halt once linking back up with the rest of the squad and place their heads down as if they were attempting to catch their breathes. Ringo does not respond and begins shaking his head in disgust. Hunter on the other hand, feels the need to comment on Gilroy’s lack of team play.

  “Not only is Gilroy a stupid bastard. He is also lazy and out of shape. He almost got us killed back there,” Hunter states with emmence anger in his voice.

  Gilroy just gives a stupid stare and turns his head to avoid eye contact with Hunter. “No time for that! Staggered formation on me through this graveyar
d. Spread the hell out and stay away from the doors if you don’t know whats in it. We got to keep moving, those bastards are just coming out of the gate. We need to find us a vehicle ASAP!” Yells Trevor as he begins jogging to the left shoulder of the road.

  The rest of the squad follows in behind him and staggers off-set to one another on both sides of the road. Trevor is the first to push past the first burnt down vehicle. Once he does this, the grim sight of military vehicles as far as the eye can see is in plain view. Some are burnt down as some are left fully intact. A few of the vehicles have weapon systems still attached in the turrets with dead gunners leaning over them. A combination of military vehicles are scattered everywhere through the road. There is no end in sight. Big rig trucks to LMTV’s. M1126 Hummers to abandoned Bradley Fighting Vehicles all left for the taking.

  As the squad pushes down the lone dreary strip of road, evidence of what occured on this strip of death is ever present. The cautious soldiers move down the road with impunity as they warily look into windows of the cabs for evidence of a working vehicle. Some even hop into empty cabs which show no evidence of bodies or blood and attempt to start up one of the vehicles desperately only to fail in the end to a struggling engine or nothing at all.

  Bullet casing can be found scattered everywhere to include shattered glass and random equipment torn apart and spread across the road. Ruck sacks and duffle bags which have been strapped to the sides of the vehicles for the crews of that vehicle are also noticed ripped apart to the ground and bloodied with the remnents of the owner’s flesh.

  “Smells like burnt hair in here,” a disgusted Price yells back to Reagal as he attempts to start up a humvee.

  Price hops out of the drivers seat and slams the armored door shut in dissapointment. Reagal looks back into the distance and notices the crowd of whom was chasing them earlier starting to get wind of their escape route. A few straddlers begin stumbling in between the vehicles looking and sniffing around for food.