by Gary Hickman
Abarra and Myles were directly opposite in the circle. They had two infected coming in their direction. One was a runner, and the other was missing part of its right leg from the ankle, and its right foot was missing. The runner was 50 yards away when Abarra sent three rounds vertically, starting at his sternum and ending at his forehead. That dropped the infected, which slid on the asphalt for a few feet.
Myles launched a 40mm grenade from his M203. Foomp! The grenade hit a couple of yards behind the infected, which shredded its torso, and the concussion took it off its feet. It did not get back up. “WHOO, suck on that!” Myles yelled.
“Our nuts will dangle in the stewpot unless we get some help over here,” Neville shouted.
“We do not put our testicles in our pots, or our bowls for that matter. Does everyone in the US do that?” Shin inquired.
“It means we will be in a world a shit if we don’t get help.” A horde of about fifteen was running toward Neville and Shin’s position.
“Rotate over and collapse the gaps,” Webb barked. Webb, Doc, and Abarra moved closer to Neville’s position, squeezing the gap in the circle to help with preventing the position from being overrun. All others spanned out to cover more of the circle’s circumference.
“Jesus, Mother Mary, and Joseph. We’ve got a shitload of these things over here,” Doc remarked.
“Shut up and take these things out,” Abarra snapped. They all kept sending rounds downrange.
“Reloading,” yelled Webb. He backed off the line to reload. A scream from his right startled him, and he looked up just in time to see a teenage girl missing half her left shoulder jumping at him. Webb didn’t have time before she launched herself on top of him. He hit the ground with her on top of him, knocking all the air out of his lungs. “Shit!” he howled. “Get this bitch off me!”
Her left arm was virtually useless, but she was incredibly strong and renewed her effort to rip and bite his face off. She kept fighting, but Webb could hold her off with one hand while grabbing her left wrist and the other around her throat. As she struggled against his defenses, Webb dropped his hand off her wrist and reached to his thigh to pull his Glock. Just as he reached the butt of his pistol, the screaming and struggling stopped. She slumped over and rolled off to the left. Webb looked over at her and watched as Shin pulled his combat knife out of her temple.
“You ok, sir?”
“Yeah, thanks, Shin. That was a wild ride.” Shin reached his hand out and helped Webb up to his feet. “How many more infected are….” Webb trailed off. All the rest of the horde were lying across the tarmac, dead.
Webb snapped out of his reverie, “Ok, we are completely exposed out here. We need to find Dr. Costa, if she was still alive. Thoughts?”
“We need to split the team in half and conduct two searches for her. Comms are out, but our squad comms are still operational,” Priest spoke.
“Sounds good. Doc, Abarra, Miles, and I will search in the terminal. Priest, you take Shaw, Neville, and Shin. You guys search the flight line and maintenance buildings. Once we locate her, we rally back here, and we will call in our exfil. We still have comms to the bird,” Webb added.
“How long do we look for her?” Shaw asked.
“As long as it takes. She is our only mission right now. Unless this whole airport becomes completely overrun, we stay until we locate her,” Webb answered.
“Copy, Sir.”
Webb looked at all of his Team, “Ok, move out.”
CHAPTER 7
Team Priest–Tarmac and Maintenance Buildings
The team moved behind one of the maintenance buildings for cover.
Priest turned to Shin, “Give me the landscape.”
Shin pulled out his range scope and moved to the edge of the building to get a lay of the land. “There are three mid-size hangers to the right. One contains a plane. The other two are empty. I see no movement in any of the three. To the left, there are two small maintenance sheds, which seem to be closed. About 50 yards from these are four utility garages for the support vehicles. There seems to be no movement…. wait a minute. There is movement near one building. I see 1, 2, 3… 5 men and 1 woman. They look to be click clicks. The woman is not one of them.”
“Shit, this can’t be good,” Priest said under his breath. “Are they raping her?”
“Yes, they just ripped her clothes off and now,” Shin stopped. His mouth slightly open and closed. Priest noticed his jaw tightening. “They did not rape her.”
“Whew, that’s a relief,” Shaw said.
“No, it’s worse. They tore her belly apart, and she is still alive.”
“Fuck!” Neville whispered. It would have been a yell.
“They removed her intestines and draped them over themselves, dancing with them. They are pulling other organs out and tossing them in the air like catching a ball. They are covered in her blood.” Shin dropped his scope and faced Priest, “She is still alive. Neville needs to kill her. Put her out of her misery.” Neville moved forward but Priest stopped him.
“We can’t.”
“Why not?” Neville’s eyes were full of rage.
“You pop one off at this distance and they will hear it and come after us. It will give away our position. Plus, we don’t know how many more of those things are out there we just can’t see or haven’t seen yet.”
“But she is being tortured!” Neville whispered with more rage and venom than before.
“Son of a bitch, Neville. You think I like this any more than you do? Fuck no, but we got to be smart about this. We’re not playing with the normal scumbags.”
Neville knew he was right. Hell, they all knew he was right, but it didn’t stop their guts from wrenching. Didn’t stop the hopeless and sinking feeling of guilt. This is part of what they do, they save people. Unfortunately, not this time and it felt like shit.
Priest was just glad they couldn’t hear her screams from the distance, or this might have been a different conversation.
Shin spoke, “Finally she has died. Not before they pulled her eyes out and ate them. I have seen nothing like this before.”
“Hell, none of us has,” Priest lamented.
“Three have returned into the garage. The other two remained outside. Buddha bless us,” Shin said in Korean.
“What now?” Shaw asked.
“Uh-uh, one of them is rolling around in her blood. The other…. The other one is playing with the body or what’s left of it.”
“Jesus Christ,” Neville breathed.
“Yeah, we are not dealing with our run-of-the-mill warlords, terrorists or dictators. These fucking things have no remorse, no fear, no instinct for self-preservation. Just killing… in fucked up ways. We can’t scare them, reason with them, and they outnumber us. They don’t care about any of that. We have to avoid them or kill them until we can regroup back at HQ and figure out how to eliminate these things off the damn planet.” Priest finished. “Shin sit rep.”
“The other two have gone back in the building, and I don’t see any other movement outside.”
“Ok, we need to access that building and eliminate all hostile, so we can continue our search for the doctor. Neville, Shin, can you make your way to the left, behind one of those hangars? Cover our ass while we take that building.”
“Can do.” Neville nodded.
“Let me know when you’re in place.”
“Copy, give us five.”
Priest and Shaw waited for confirmation that Neville and Shin were in place. Five minutes went by. Six, Seven, Eight. Priest wanted to contact them, but if they were in a compromising position, he would give their loca
tion away. About ten seconds later, Priest heard from Shin.
“Father, this is Gandhi. We’re in position. Sorry about the extra time, but we found a maintenance ladder, and we are now on top of the hangar. Much better vantage point.”
“Ok, sounds good. Just don’t scare me like that.”
“Copy that. So, we can see into the building, and the five infected are still there. They are all congregating around a table in the far west corner. Completely opposite of your present location.”
“Copy that. Do you see any other entry points into the maintenance building?”
“Hold one…. yes, at the back of the building in the east corner. If you enter there, you will have approximately 20-30 yards of space between that entry point and the infected at the table. We can provide support from here, but if they all charge as one, it will be difficult to take them all out before they reach you. Be advised.”
“Understood.” Priest looked over at Shaw, “What do you think? Pop the door, roll a grenade and see how many are left?”
“Sounds good, but we better be ready to boogie if noise brings any more runnin.”
“Concur. Overlord, we are going to make our way to the back of the building, toss a grenade and then mop up what’s left. If you have a shot take it, then direct your support outward and keep any infected off our back from elsewhere on the grounds,” Priest instructed.
“Good copy. Be careful.”
Priest and Shaw made their way to the back of the maintenance shed that they were using for cover. With Priest on point and Shaw covering their six, they slowly made their way to the back of the maintenance garage. “Ok, Overlord. Getting ready to deliver our present.”
“Copy, Father. We’re ready.”
Priest and Shaw both pulled a frag grenade and pulled the pins. They held on to the spoons. Priest counted down. “Three, Two, One.” Priest kicked open the door and he and Shaw threw their grenades toward the group of infected. Priest quickly shut it among the screams and screeches of the infected. BOOM! BOOM! Two explosions, one right behind the other.
“Father, I see two down, and Voodoo just took out a third. You have two left, but not in the best shape. They are crawling toward you now. Switching support field of view. You are blind.”
“Copy Overlord.” Priest and Shaw entered back through the door and pulled their knives. They easily dispatched the two-remaining infected. “No sense in wasting ammo,” Shaw said.
“Amen.” Priest barely got amen out of his mouth when they started hearing shots. Priest and Shaw ran out. “Overlord, sit rep.”
“There were a few latecomers to the party. We punched their dance card.”
“Holy shit, Shin. Was that a joke?”
“Not mine, Neville’s. I just repeated it.”
Priest giggled, “Thought we finally got him to loosen up.”
“No dice,” Shaw answered.
“Father, it looks like there is a black SUV about 300 yards due west from your location on the flight line. It is surrounded by infected, so I assume that there may be regular civilians inside. Advise.”
“Copy that. Keep eyes on them, and we will play the boogie man and assault them from behind. If you see any others running to join the party, take them out.”
“Copy that.”
Priest and Shaw took off toward the direction of the SUV; Shin spotted. Bang! The reports of Neville’s sniper rifle. Bang! Another. Then another shot as Priest came in view of the SUV. It was still about 150 yards, but he could make out the SUV and the infected surrounding it.
“Father, I made a test shot on the quarter panel and the SUV is bulletproof.”
“You heard him, Shaw. Make them dance.”
“Fucking A.” Shaw let loose with his M48. It was amazing how accurate he was with it while running. The big son of a bitch had a firm hold on his M48, and it probably didn’t buck much in his massive grip.
The infected hanging off the SUV finally realized there were uninfected easier to get to and started for the team. “Here comes company,” Shaw roared.
“And without an invitation, must be the in-laws,” Priest added.
The nearest infected, a man in a tattered business suit, was about 150 yards as Priest aimed through his reflect sight. As his finger squeezed on the trigger, businessman’s head exploded like a watermelon. His headless body fell, and the momentum slid his body a couple feet. “Thank you, Neville,” Priest thought to himself.
Neville and Shin were sighting in the horde, making its way toward the rest of the team. “Ah, business man down. He slid same like in baseball,” Shin quipped.
“Safe,” Neville chided in.
“Ok, 25 yards behind, target large woman in big dress.”
“Just say fat bitch in the moo moo.”
“What does cow sound have to do with this woman?”
“Never mind.”
The rifle report, “Cow down. Ok, nine to go. Make that eight. Ah, 7.”
Shin called the next target, “Target from the stewardess back. We will work from the rear.”
“She’s called a flight attendant, Shin. You’re so sexist.”
“I don’t think of myself as sexy. Do you think woman do?”
“Dude, never mind. I can’t even bust on you because you don’t understand most of the references.”
“I am very intelligent. I graduated at the top of…”
“No life stories, just sight for me.”
Shaw was mopping up the last two infected while Priest made his way to the SUV. He peered inside to see a frightened woman and two men in business suits with Glocks in their hands. She looked up at Priest with a total shell-shocked look. “Dr. Costa?” Priest asked.
The woman just looked at him for a long moment. She looked as if she was waiting for her mind to re-engage with reality. She finally nodded yes slowly. “Ma’am, we need to get you out of here and to the CDC lab in Dearborn. Could you please unlock the door?” She looked at him with sheer terror and violently shook her head no.
“Doctor, I know things are a little crazy right now, but I’m going to need to you to trust me. We have men here to protect you, but we need to get you out of here and in the air to Dearborn quickly.” She still shook her head, but much slower this time. One of the men in the suits hit the unlock button and climbed out. He nodded to Priest.
“David Kennedy, Agent with the Secret Service, this is my partner Thomas Bolin and yes, Dr. Isabelle Costa. They assigned us to the doctor and tasked with making sure she met up with your team and with providing security for her as she traveled to the CDC in Dearborn. We had two others with us who entered the terminal to get coffee. They never returned. And before you ask, yes, one of them had the keys or we would have driven off. Those crazy people swarmed us so quickly, jumping in and locking the door was all we had time to do.”
Priest was going to ask how his team got there, but they needed to get the doctor out of there. “Doctor, are you ok?”
“Yes… Yes, I am fine. I have never seen such aggression. I have seen what this virus does. I have treated people with similar symptoms but never seen a level of aggression such as this.”
“Do you believe that the original virus was tampered with or changed in some way?” Priest added.
“It had to have been. This behavior is nothing like I have seen in early test cases.”
Priest cocked his head, “I’m confused. I thought an alliance with rogue players from terrorist countries created this. We just stormed their lab facility about a week ago. No one has seen any of the test results. ISIS snatched the research and fled to Dearborn.”
“I
f ISIS stole the virus and transported it to Dearborn, I am unaware of that, however, you were wrong about where the virus originated from.”
Priest and the team exchanged looks with each other. Priest’s demeanor changed slightly, which Dr. Costa noticed. He didn’t enjoy being on the outside of the bubble when it came to intel. So far, this entire mission had been a lesson in shitty intel, and Priest was not happy about it. “Ok, we need to move back to the hangar we just cleared of infected. Tell us the rest on the way.”
Dr. Costa continued, “The virus originated as a joint effort between German and Dutch scientists. They coordinated together to develop a medicine to combat ALS and Alzheimer’s. They created the original formula to reach people whom scientists thought could still be reachable. They created the medicine to open communication pathways with patients, who, up to this point, couldn’t be communicated with. It was realized later that it could be modified to condition the mind or serve as a proxy to allow suggestion or commands. All the moons had aligned for this to happen.”
“How so?”
“Well, the patient’s mind must be intact, they may be low on the proteins which help build the body’s immunity which could otherwise fight against the virus along with some other factors.”
“So, I assume that the crackpots in Turkey, changed the original recipe to artificially bridge that gap and bring about the factors needed, which now allows the infected person to respond to suggestion,” Priest inquired.
“Yes, that is correct. From what I just witnessed; whatever changes they made to the formula have somehow affected the regulation of basic human emotion. It seemed to significantly ramp up violence, anger and confrontational consciousness, while subduing compassion, empathy and kindness. It also seemed to have removed other core human traits like self-preservation and their ability to feel pain. It also has affected their body’s ability to continue to function after receiving considerable damage.”
“Yeah, you don’t have to tell us about it. Only head shots will take these things down,” Shaw expressed.