by Gary Hickman
“Shin, Shin…” Priest was talking to him, “Shin, you okay?”
“Yes-yes I am well.” Shin looked at Priest and tried to show a calm appearance.
“You sure?”
“Yes, I am fine.”
CHAPTER 28
The lab didn’t look used much and definitely not used recently. A door on the far side of the lab was in poor condition. An exit sign dangled from the ceiling in front of the door.
“There must be another stairwell somewhere. This lab is definitely not the only one they have been conducting their research in,” Webb pointed out.
“Agreed,” Priest said as they moved forward toward the door.
Shaw penetrated the door. “It’s another stairwell going down,” Shaw observed. They started down the stairwell and heard a scream, but they couldn’t determine whether it was the same scream they heard earlier.
The rest of the Team trotted down to the next landing as Shaw looked through the small window. “Short hallway with three doors, Two on the right, one at the end of the hallway. No sign of infected. The door at the end has some significant damage to it. Looks like the infected were trying to gain access to it.”
“Maybe the scientists are holed up there?” Priest said. They entered the hallway and Priest and Shaw checked the first door. Supply closet. They moved to the second door on the left and it turned out to be a compact locker room for the scientists.
The door at the end was a sturdy steel door that had severe damage from what looks like an axe. Shaw knocks on the door. “US Army, is there anyone in there?” They waited a couple minutes. Shaw knocked again, this time a little harder. “US Army. Are there any survivors in there?” After a couple minutes they could hear a muffled voice.
“Who is it?”
“US Army, Ma’am.”
“I need to know who,” the voice replied.
Shaw turned to Priest, he nodded. ”It’s Shaw, Priest, and Webb.”
The team heard running toward the door and moving of items. The lock unlatched, the door slowly opened, and a disheveled Dr. Costa’s face peered out. She looked around at the team until she locked on Captain Webb. She rushed out the door and into Webb’s arms and broke down, weeping uncontrollably.
Neville and Doc performed security while Shaw, Priest, Lia and Shin continued into the room. Webb and Dr. Costa entered the room, and he spoke to the two scientists. “Dr. Caulfield, Dr. Choi, it’s good to see you again.” They both greeted him.
Priest called all three scientists and Webb over to him. “Ok, I don’t know how much they compromise this compound, but it’s pretty obvious this place is toast. How much of your samples and data are still viable? Remember, we have the samples of the original strain.”
Dr. Caulfield’s face lit up, “You have the originals?”
“Yes, and a prisoner. One of the ISIS members. Where do we go? Are there other facilities like this? Maybe one that is not compromised?”
Dr. Caulfield nodded his head. “Absolutely. I have access to two other facilities like this one.”
“Ok, which one is the closest?”
The doctor tapped his finger on his chin, “Hmm, I would say that would have to be our facility in Boone, North Carolina, located up on Snake Mountain. The other one is out west, in Colorado Springs, Colorado.”
“Ok, gather anything you absolutely need and let’s get the hell out of here. Like I said, I do not know how many more infected are in this compound and I don’t want to find out. You must tell me what the hell happened here.”
Dr. Choi began talking about what had happened and Webb cut her off.
“Sorry, Doc, maybe later. We need to go.” She nodded and then went to gather her items.
Abruptly, the team heard distant gunfire, followed by static on their comms. Webb and Priest exchanged looks. “The chopper might be engaged and the comms won’t work down here.”
Priest motioned to Shaw, “You, Neville and Lia on me. Shin, Webb and Doc, you guys get these scientists gathered up and follow some distance behind. We will let you know when it is clear. Ok, let’s move!” They were down the hallway and up the stairwell in a shot. They appeared in the outside doorway and stopped to assess the situation.
Five infected were clawing and biting, trying to get in the chopper. Two bodies were lying on the ground, apparently taken out by Allison on the M24. Doug looked over and caught Priest’s gaze. He motioned for Doug to lift off. Doug saluted, said something to Allison through his helmet and lifted off. Two of the infected were hanging onto the landing gear as the helicopter rose. The Team opened up on the ones still on the ground.
Priest sighted on one of the infected, but his head would put Priest’s round trajectory right into the fuselage. He lowered his aim and put a round right in the spine of the infected, which caused it to lose its grip and plummet to the pavement. The fall finished it as its head hit and exploded like a ripe tomato. The sound of the crunch and then the sick wet splat was enough to make you cringe. Maybe he was preoccupied with clearing the facility, or just didn’t notice before, but all the infected they had fought here had been soldiers. None of them were the surviving scientists. All were dead or infected. He wasn’t sure if this was note or just the way things panned out. Priest made a note to talk to Webb about it later.
A call from Allison snapped him to. “Father, we have a problem.”
“Go ahead.”
“We have a herd of infected coming this way up the access road.”
“Estimate and ETA?”
“Couple dozen and I would say about 10 minutes.” Priest turned to Neville and had him get the scientists out now.
“We will set up a defensive perimeter toward the access road. Shaw, get me a couple claymores with a trip wire about 100 yards down the access road.”
Neville appeared in the compound doorway. “Sarge, they said 5 mics.”
“Shit, tell them we lift off in 5, so they better be here. We’ve got company.”
“Copy that.” Neville ran back into the facility. Doug brought the chopper back to land, but kept the rotors spinning.
A few minutes later, Shaw regroups with Priest. “I heard them coming when I was setting the claymores. Ten minutes was more like seven.”
Neville joined them. “They are on their way up.”
“Copy. Let’s set up a perimeter here in case we need to give them more time.” They just saw the head of the pack cresting a hill on the access road. Priest keyed, “You people gotta fuckin move. We got company and we should be in the air by now!”
“Copy,” Webb responded. They were exiting the facility and loading them and their equipment. That is when the infected locked eyes with Priest.
“Ah shit.” The infected man dressed in ACU’s let out a shriek and started running for them. The rest, coming behind him, did the same and quickened their pace. Priest, Shaw, and Neville stared to unload on the approaching horde. “Just take out the sprinters. Leave the rest to hit those claymores as a mass.” The other two acknowledged.
Allison’s voice came over the comms, “We’re good. All are on board and Webb is on the fitty.” Allison had learned from the guys you don’t call it a fifty caliber or even a fifty. They called it a fitty. She was getting the hang of it, which made Priest smile. Shaw smiled too, but for a completely different reason.
As they turned to load up, the horde hit the claymore trip wire. The sounds of all those ball bearings ripping through flesh, bone, trees and brush proceeded a deafening boom. The concussion of the blast knocked a few of the infected off their feet.
The devastation of the ball bearings ripping through the mass was jaw dropping. Various
appendages were shredded while it eradicated faces and heads. It lay torsos to waste and rendered them incapable of holding any organs or intestines within the body. Although there wasn’t much body left on any of the infected, they still tripped on their entrails and fell face first like a little kid’s hockey team out on the ice.
The guys laughed as they got on board and gave Allison the thumbs up. She motioned to Doug to take off and within seconds; they were airborne and surveying the damage the claymores just delivered.
Doug’s voice came over the comms, “We will need to set down to refuel soon. I’d say in another 50 miles.”
“Copy that,” Webb responded. He and Priest brought out a map to scout out some regional air parks to refuel. It was much safer than the major airports or anywhere close to a city. After consulting, they made a plan to refuel at Frederick Municipal Airport in Frederick, Maryland. That would get them close enough to Boone, North Carolina. They would probably stop one more time, because they didn’t enjoy flying around with little to no fuel.
CHAPTER 29
Major Harwell barked out orders as soldiers scurried around the Command Center.
“Get some ammunition over to the east wall. The infected are amassing there and are trying to breach the wall!” Harwell commanded.
The sergeant in front of him saluted and ran off to execute the order he was just given.
Harwell walked up behind a corporal who was manning a bank of monitors.
“How we looking on the west wall?”
“Not much better, Sir. I don’t know where the new mass of infected came from, but a large group is assaulting the west wall.” The corporal responded.
“Well, with the gunfire, explosions and the massive smoke signals we are sending from the various fires burning, I’m surprised we don’t have infected from half the damn country at our doorstep.” Harwell said absently.
Captain Simmons ran up to Harwell, breaking him from his funk.
“Sir, we are getting low on ammunition and the soldiers on the wall are reporting vehicle headlights coming this way from the west.” She said.
“Corporal, rotate that camera to get me a wider view of the west side.” Harwell ordered.
“Copy, Sir.” The corporal said as he rotated the camera to get a better view.
The three watched as headlights came into view and were approaching quickly. As they continued to watch, they could make out the infected hanging off the side of a 5-Ton truck.
“Tell the west wall to take the fucking truck out! Now! They are going to ram the wall!” Harwell yelled.
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Tug continued to fire at the turned up infected faces. He had been on the west wall for a couple hours now and things were not looking better. He felt this was where he was needed most and where he could do the most good.
A scream broke his gaze from the scene in front of him. He looked to his left to see a soldier being pulled off the wall by the infected. As he landed into the waiting mob, they started tearing off arms and shredding his torso to grab at his insides. Tug took aim and put one in the young man’s temple to end his suffering…and his screams.
Another infected used the young soldier’s body as a bloody ladder and scrambled up to the wall before the body was pulled completely into the churning mass.
Tug leveled his rifle and fired, taking off the right side of its skull. The impact snapped the rest of its head back and sent it falling back into the horde.
“Sum bitch. This whole thing is getting ready to go tits up.” Tug mumbled to himself.
That’s when he looked up and noticed the truck barreling toward his section of the wall.
He yelled, “They’re going to breach the wall, everyone down!”
He turned and started down the ladder when a thought crossed his mind…the girls. He climbed down as fast as he could and hauled ass for the HQ building. His breathing became labored as he reached the stairs.
“Should have laid off of all that beer, you old fuck.” He said to himself.
His legs felt like Jello as he ascended the stairs, but he didn’t stop. He had to reach the girls. He felt like they were his responsibility. It was his job to protect them.
Tug was wheezing by the time he reached the front door, and he stopped for a couple seconds to keep from passing out. He heard a loud crash followed by a massive explosion. He turned to see the west wall was on fire and the spot where he was previously standing was no longer there. Instead, the mangled husk of a large truck engulfed in flames now stood in its place.
He shook his head, sucked in another deep breath and ran into the building. The Command center was complete chaos. No one was manning the monitors, and soldiers were running in every direction. As Tug passed the monitors, he stole a quick glance. He could see the infected scrambling over the destroyed wall and a pile of bloody ammo cans sitting on the ground unopened.
Tug continued his mission; he has to get to the girls. He focused on reaching them even though his old body was screaming at him.
He finally reached the third floor and ran down the hall. His body was ready to give out, and he had lost feeling in his extremities. His lungs were burning. He tried to suck in another breath, but it was like his chest was filled with concrete. It was heavy and vibrating as his heart pounded away.
A minute later, Tug was at the girl’s door knocking excitedly. Dana opened the door and looked out.
“Tug, are you okay? You look terrible. Come on in.” She said.
Dana opened the door wider to reveal Kim and Mia, who were inspecting Tug with wide eyes. They rushed over to Tug and led him to a chair to sit down. Kim ran over and brought him a bottle of water.
Mia looked at Tug with concern, “What’s going on, what’s happening?”
Tug took a large gulp of water before speaking, “The infected have breached the west wall and are flooding into the compound.”
Dana looked at Tug with fear in her eyes, “The military will take care of them, won’t they?”
Mia and Kim leaned in to hear the answer. Tug dropped his head and shook it.
“They don’t have the ammo or the soldiers. The horde has grown again. There are as many now as there was before.” Tug went silent for a moment.
The girls went silent, but continued to stare at Tug intently, hopefully waiting for him to finish with a “but we will be okay”.
Tug felt the stares on him. He looked up and forced a smile.
“Hey, I believe if we hide and let this mob run through, we should be okay. We will just wait them out.”
The three girls exchanged glances, and then Kim broke the silence.
“We don’t have any other options.” She said to the other two.
Dana and Mia slowly nodded, but did not look too convinced.
Tug stood up. “Come in girls; it will be alright,” he said with a reassuring smile.
All four of them stood up and gathered food and some water. They entered a decent size storage closet and settled down with Tug at the very back.
“We might want to shut this light off in here,” Tug suggested.
Dana reached up and switched it off. The four of them sat in the dark, straining to hear what was going on around them. They could hear distant weapon fire along with yells and shrieks. The girls stifled their sobs as they held on to each other. Tug’s breathing was rapid, and he tried to be as quiet as possible.
The weapons fire died down, but the screams and screeches continued.
The noises became louder and louder the longer the four of them sat in the dark. Running footfalls came closer and the girls inc
hed closer together.
A brief silence fell on the group huddled in the closet. Quiet sniffles and whimpers came from the three girls as the silence made them nervous. They waited for any sound to clue them in to what was going on.
Suddenly a screech split the silence and a pounding against the wall in the hallway startled the group. One girl involuntarily let out a slight scream. More footsteps found their way toward the group’s location. Another scream, followed by two more, came from the hallway, closer to where Tug and the girls were hiding.
With the screeching getting louder as the infected keyed on their location, the girls were panicked and cried loudly.
The infected knew where the group was now, and they came pounding on the door. The girls were screaming and sobbing, trying to hold on to each other.
Tug whispered, “I love you girls, just as if you were my own.” BANG! BANG! BANG!
Tug fired three shots from the Glock he already had pointed at the back of the girl’s heads.
“I told you I wouldn’t let them these fuckers take you. You girls will be just fine now. No more fear, no more sorrow, no more of this fucking hell!” Tug was yelling now.
A tear rolled down Tug’s face as he closed his eyes and the door finally gave way. The pistol was already in his mouth, and he only needed to provide a few pounds of pressure on the trigger.
Tug’s eyes shot open and in a last act of defiance, he swung the pistol out in front of him and shot the two closest infected right in the forehead. He smiled and quickly turned the gun on himself and pulled the trigger before the rest of the infected reached him.
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“I need a fucking sit rep! Captain Simmons, give me a mother fucking sit rep!” Major Harwell spat out.
Captain Simmons stared at the monitors as she tried to raise any of their squad leads on the radio.