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Sloan City University, with a Major in Death
(got a better one, put it on)


22.19
November 23rd

Freya observed the city from the top of the hill.
"This is a mess," she muttered to herself in Swedish.
She wondered how her parents were doing back in Europe.
They had been stuck in a refugee settlement near Caen, France, since the start of the fighting.

The daughter of a Swedish soldier and a Palestinian emigré, she had joined the military due to a lack of jobs, her qualifications and her family’s military tradition. Able to speak Swedish, Arabic and English, she was soon selected for Swedish peacekeeping operations in the Middle East.
She showed excellent leadership qualities when her commander died of a heart attack, the replacement was shot in an ambush, and was repeatedly promoted. At the time of the outbreak, she was conducting live fire exercises with her unit in Southern Sweden. The rest is history, as they say.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Tom, are you there?" she said in English into her radio.
"I copy sugar, what’s going on?" I replied.
"Don’t call me sugar," she replied with a slight laugh, "This is an open channel.."
"Yes, it is," chuckled Foster.
"Alright, what’s up?" I asked.

"There seems to be a large group in the university," she said, "Uninfected from what I can see."
"The university is too far off, how do you know?" I asked.
"There are far more lights on now than last night," Freya said.

"That won’t last," Foster said, "I reckon the power station is near its end, fuel wise. The lights will go out some time tonight, and it’ll be pitch black out there."

"What group are they?" I asked.
"We don’t have any reports of certain groups in that area," Foster said, "Which can mean only one thing."
"Uncle Sam," I said.

"It could be that group of vultures that came after we left the supermarket?" O’Leary suggested.
"If they made it to the university, I’d be surprised," I replied, "They were waltzing about with their trousers down, completely oblivious."

"Just because they didn’t see you across the street in the jewellery store building, doesn’t mean they have no survival skills," Foster stated, "Remember, not everyone has been as fortunate as you Paddies, these lads have had to live with this environment for a long enough time now."

"Olli, any intel from home on what’s going on with Uncle Sam?" Freya asked.
"Well, the Americans in Europe are still unaware of our presence," Olli said, "There was a conference in the Vatican to discuss the infection, and US military forces have planned a counteroffensive. We’ll probably need to leave here the day after tomorrow."

"What about special…." I started.

"Hold it a second," Olli interrupted, "I’m receiving new orders."
Chatter in Finnish could be heard faintly in the background.
"We’ve received new orders," Olli said excitedly, "We’ve been instructed to capture survivor groups alive in the university.
There is apparently someone there who knows the location of a lab that could hold the vaccine."

"How the hell do they know that?" I asked.
"They’re not telling," Olli said, "An informant maybe?"

"A vaccine…" Freya said slowly, "An end to all this…"
"Not really," I said, "The infected won’t spread their infection, but they will still attack us."

"Erik is up," Olli said.

Erik was the commander of the Norweigan group.
His troops were assigned to night guard duty, so he slept during the day.
"You’re awake early," Freya said.
"Well, I can’t sleep well with so much activity around me," Erik said, "What is going on?"

Olli explained the situation.
"Well, I guess it’s up to my men," Erik stated, "Your troops have already fought today."
"No, we need you to guard the camp and the civvies," I said quickly, "My troops can do it."
"Tom, I’ll do it, you stay here," Freya declared, "Your troops took casualties today."
Freya and I began to argue over who should go.
After a few minutes of exchanging words, Erik interrupted.

"Both of you go!" Erik said loudly, "We don’t have time to argue, the people we need to secure could be gone!"
"Alright," Freya said after a pause.
"Freya, meet me at the lane with your people," I said, picking up my rifle.
I signalled to O’Leary, who walked over.

"Fill the Piranhas with your best lads," I said, "And tell all of the drivers to go to the lane."
"Alright Tom, what’s going on?" O’Leary said, "You look like you’ve seen a ghost."
"I’m just tired," I said, dismissing him with a wave of the hand, "We’re going to the university, I’ll explain on the way."
I hopped onto my APC and slumped into the gunner’s seat to wait.

Soon enough, the entire column of the Irish armour was driving down the lane.
"We’re right behind you," I said to Freya, as they met up with the Swedes.
"I hope you don’t mind us tagging along," Foster said into his radio, "I think you’ll need us."
"No problem," I replied, "There’s always a good use for a few snipers."
"Alright, I’ll take point," Freya said.

The parked vehicles roared into life, and drove down the lane onto a road, in the direction of the university.
By now, it was dark, and the lamp posts turned the city into a yellow and black monochrome image. The headlights illuminated our way.

I checked my watch.
It was 22.31pm local.
I explained the mission over the radio.

The majority of the troops would be deployed in buildings outside the university, and set up a safety perimeter from both infected and uninfected threats.
The rest of the troops would enter the university.
The column split up at a crossroads, with only five vehicles heading directly into the university.
Two Swedish, two Irish, and the British snipers in their truck.

We drove past the entrance, and behind the science building which was closest.
All of us disembarked from the vehicles quickly.

"Ok, everyone follow us," Freya ordered, "We’ll go to the top of the science building’s tower, and see where the survivors are.
Drivers and gunners stay here to cover our escape route."

She ordered her own troops in Swedish.
Smashing the door open, we entered. Long corridors appeared in front of us.
The stairs were at the end of one.

I picked up a map of the university before following Freya towards them.
She ordered one of her squads to guard the bottom of the staircase, and the rest of us climbed.

We reached the top floor, and I ordered all the troops to guard there while Freya, myself, Foster and O’Leary went up the second set of stairs to the top of the science tower. Climbing to the top, the cold wind hit us.

Luckily, it was worth it, as we could see the entire university, including where the lights were.
Foster got into a firing position and looked through his rifle scope at the building.

"Survivors in there," he stated, "Not too many, we can easily overpower them."
"Military?" Freya asked.
"Some of them are wearing armour, and most of them have military-issue weapons," Foster said, "Armalites."

We all retrieved our binoculars during that conversation, and confirmed what Foster said.
"There is a lot of dead around the place," I stated, turning my attention to the area outside the survivor’s building.
"What building is that?" O’Leary asked.
I handed him the map so he could check.
"Dorms," he said aloud, "I thought so, they’d be the most livable place around here."

"Alright, let’s.." Freya started.
She was interrupted by every light in the place turning off.
"NV on, now," I ordered into my radio, "Stay calm, we were expecting this."
"Looks like we were right about the power plant," Foster said, getting up from his firing position.

"Did you see any NV on the survivors?" Freya asked Foster.
"Only one bloke," Foster replied, "But if they got their weapons from dead Uncles, they could have more."

"What if they are Uncles?" I muttered, putting my binoculars back.
"Then we’ll just have to kill them," Foster said, "It’s that simple."

I sighed.

"Alright, shall we go?" I said, starting back down the stairs again, "They may have seen us already, we need to hurry."
We regrouped with our squads, and issued orders.

O’Leary’s squad, Freya’s squad, Foster’s snipers, and myself would enter the dorm building.
The other squads would return to the vehicles and wait for a signal to come to the doors.
The reports from the perimeter came in, confirming their positions.

We then carried out our orders.

O’Leary’s squad with Prendergast on point lead the way.
Freya and I were together.

"I don’t like the feeling of this," she said quietly, so the troops couldn’t hear, "Something is wrong here."
"I agree," I said, "But we can’t do anything about it."

The green glow of our night vision lit up the dorm building perfectly as we approached it.
The moon was out.

We approached the double doors.
Freya’s squad stacked up on the left, while O’Leary’s stacked on the right.
Foster led his squad to a small wall in front, and covered the entrance as Private Prendergast opened the right door slowly.
We proceeded inside.

We flicked on a few torches to help our NV, now sheltered from the Moon.
The staircase was blocked up with wooden furniture.

"Irish from now on," I ordered, "No English, Freya, that goes for your people too."
"What about us?" Foster said.
"Just keep quite and behind us, we've got this," I state, as Freya explains to her people.

I inspected the barricade.
"Prendergast, clear the way," I order in Irish, "Squads, take over."
The young private started setting up her explosives under torchlight, while I have a peek up the stairs.
I saw movement.

"They're ready," Prendergast said, "Everyone back.
We all did as asked.
"Fire in the hole!" she shouted in Irish.

An impressive explosion rocked the corridor, as the furniture was blown apart.
"Ok, up the stairs!" I ordered loudly in Irish.

The troops obeyed, proceeding swiftly upwards.
Freya walked over to me.

"They know we're here now," she said, slightly annoyed.
"Giving them an example of what we're capable of is more useful at this point," I said, starting up the stairs.
"What happened to the element of surprise?" she shouts after me.

The march upstairs continues.

(Consult IrishHitman before referring to, talking to, attacking or killing any of the above characters)

----------------------------------------------------------------------
---------The Following Part is what I will leave behind for the time being. I may not write for a while, so somebody else may decide what happens to Keith, Elijah, Mike, Leon, Marie, and Ashley.------------------
-Kuthiani

(This Part by KUTHIANI)
Date: Many Years Ago



I was never supposed to get this involved...
...With the people.

I wasn't raised in America. I never had plans to visit until much later in life either. When I was a small child, I was being raised by my grandmother. She died while I was still young, and so I had to mostly raise myself.
I would roam the streets and steal, just like many others in my part of the world.
A day came when I had nothing to eat. This day became two days. Those days became three.
On the third day, I was desperate for food, but I could find none.
As I lay down and cry, a woman found me.
She fed me, and comforted me. The woman lived in a wagon and travelled to market places. Now, she wasn't alone.
It took a long time before I would speak to her, but I finally asked her what her name was.

"Jezabel."

Jezabel was a fortune teller.

She said I was special. She said that someday, I would do something very important. She wanted to read my palm, but I would not let her.
Days passed. Months passed. Soon, half a year passed. I travelled with her everywhere.

Finally, I wanted her to tell me my fortune.

She grabbed my hands and looked deeply into them. The deeper she looked into my hands, the more frightened I became. Soon, her eyes turned white and she began to shake. She began to scream, so I pulled my hands away from her.

She stopped, and looked normal again. But this time, she looked terrified.

"Elijah... Joo' be doomed to suffa ten tousan' deaths..."

I did not understand. Before I could ask anything more, she yelled at me.

"Demon! Demon! Joo' Defile my hous'! leave my hous'!"

I was scared. She pushed me out of the wagon and left me. Again, I had no family.

Eventually, I found my way into America. I grew up from a child, and into a man as I lived in Tennessee. I devoted myself to the study of parasitic organisms, and several years later, I became a professor in that field. I moved back to Jamaica to help in the struggle against disease-carrying parasites.
I lost contact with most of my colleagues.

In Jamaica, an unfortunate event involving a local drug lord caused me to lose all of my research.

Out of anger and desperation, I got my revenge.

After I killed him, I was hunted by his followers. Over time, I honed my skills and became much better at combat. It began to be the only thing I lived for.

But one day, one of my former colleagues contacted me. He said that friends of his found a "space rock" and on it was a spacebourne lifeform.
He said it seemed to be parastitc, and he would like for me to study it. My friend did everything for me to get back into America.

I studied the "alien" lifeform and indeed it was parasitic. We continued our studies in a high-security lab located in Sloan City. However, the state of Tennessee found out about our unauthorized experiments and a series of events occurred.
Although I can't tell anyone every detail, I can reveal the following:

-A third party sabotaged both our experiments on the parasite, and a certain Virus in a seperate facility.
-The parasite, with aid from the virus, became stronger.
-I was one of the few who escaped the facility.

As for the ten thousand deaths, I don't quite understand what the woman meant. Perhaps she meant that I would bee doomed to stay in this wretched place as it is overrun with monstrosities?

But perhaps she meant something else?

As for now, I'm stuck in the high-tech facility once again. I thought it would be wise to bring as many survivors here as possible, but that was a bad idea. Every exit is unsafe. But since I'm here, I do have a chance to continue my research.
Although I captured plenty of infected people to experiment on, but it wasn't enough.
I needed a non-infected subject.

I found one.

I just hope the experiment goes as planned. I need to know how these creatures work...
But I hope this doesn't kill him...
The nephew of my American Colleague.

"I be sorry Mr. Keit." (Section by Crashr)

November 23, 2008

Perspective: David

Calvin reaches for his pistol and takes two shots at something behind Mak. The zombie drops like a rock, and Calvin passes out. Damn, does he ever take a break? Mak says something, but I don’t quite catch it, because at that moment James puts his hand up and crouches to the floor. We all know what that means. Something’s not right. Daniel’s, with his gun raised, walks over to James and squats next to him. “What’s wrong?” He says in a whisper.
James quickly whispers back. “I can hear voices downstairs, though I do not know what they are saying. It sounds like there are a lot of them, whoever they are.”
Daniels pauses, and then turns to address the rest of the group. “Alright, we’re gonna set up a perimeter around our barricade. Michael, I want you and David to go and get some…” he is suddenly cut off by a deafening explosion that comes from the staircase. My ears are ringing, but I can faintly make out some people trying to talk and movement. It looks like James was knocked down along with Daniels and almost everyone else. There is dust and rubble everywhere, making it hard to see. I can’t hear myself ask, “What the fuck just happened!?”
Soon, I faintly hear more yelling coming from outside the room. James, Mak and Heather are the first ones at the door, closing it and piling things in front of it. A few seconds later we all see the door being jarred from the outside. “Holy shit, someone’s trying to break in here!” I say. Daniels is quickly giving out orders again. “James and Mak, keep barricading that door! Michael, Harry, get over here and start setting up some cover for us! Umm… shit… Heather, watch Calvin. Steve, start looking for a way out. Come on, let’s move!” I watch him as he starts helping Michael and Harry.
‘Yo, what should I do?” I ask him. He looks at me like I’ve lost my mind. “Fucking find something! Think for yourself!”
He quickly goes right back to flipping over a couch and piling some things in front of it. I look around the room, my ears ringing, my senses confused, and my mind pissed off. Why the hell do I only get yelled at? I watch as James and Mak stop shoving things in front of the door and step back. We can faintly hear someone pounding on the other side of the door. Mak speaks first, out of breath. “That should hold whoever that is for a while. Unless they decide to blow this up too…”
Just as he finishes saying this, Steve comes running back to our group. “I found a way out! There’s a window in one of the back rooms that we can use. It faces the street and isn’t too bad of a drop. It can only fit one person at a time though.”
Michael is the first to answer this time. “That’s fine. We’ll just have to go in order then. We should split into two groups; first group leaves while the second group stays here and covers when the first group is done, the last person tells us to go.”
Everyone nods, but Heather turns to him, confused. “Who’s us?”
Michael looks grim. “Me, Daniels, Harry, and James will be the second group. Everyone else, get going.”
Heather looks at him, angry. “No! You can’t do this to me! Not again!”
Michael looks around, as if deciding what to do. Making up his mind, he grabs Heather and starts pushing her for the back room. “Everyone I didn’t call, let’s go! You’re the first ones out!”
Heather starts hitting him and shouting, but he keeps moving. Everyone but the second group and me follow him. I’m the first one to speak. “I’ll be the last one out. I’ll take Calvin with me when I go.”
The three left just nod. After awhile, Michael comes back, looking like he had just torn his own heart out. I just look at him and pat his back as he walks past. I feel for him. Then Harry speaks. “The banging and stuff stopped. They’re up to something out there.”
Everyone agrees and sets up behind the barricades they made. I stand in the door-way to the back, waiting for the call that means everyone is out. I don’t have to wait long. “Everyone’s out! It’s your turn!”
I tell everyone and throw Calvin over my back. Holy shit, this guy’s heavy. “Ok, everyone start backing out of the room, but keep your guns leveled at the door. Be ready to get out of each other’s way and shoot. David, you first.”
I actually make it through the door when a second explosion rattles us. This one is not nearly as powerful as the first one, but it still blows the barricade apart. Daniels and Michael start shooting blind at the door, trying to hit something. I drop Calvin, and find myself getting pushed along by Harry. “Get the fuck out of here! We’ll take care of Calvin!”
I hear more gunshots and yells coming from the other room. I reach the window and turn around just in time to watch Harry run back into the fight. I climb out the window and land on some grass below. I look around, trying to find the other survivors. I see a figure in front of me, and start scrambling to raise my shotgun. Then I see it’s just Mr. Anderson. He rushes me into a building nearby where everyone else is holed up. “We were just leaving when we got rushed. The others are still in there. I don’t know what’s going on…”
We still hear gunfire, when suddenly Michael comes flying out of the window, missing pavement by just a few inches. He scrambles back on his feet, yelling at the window, “You son of a bitch! You motherfucker!”
Heather runs out to him and grabs on to him, trying to pull him back. She can’t do it on her own, so Steve helps her bring him inside. He has tears streaming down his cheeks, and won’t stop yelling. Once he get’s inside, he still won’t stop. This is so fucking stupid. I grab my shotgun, walk over to him, and smack him with the butt of the gun. He’s out cold instantly. Heather doesn’t let him fall, and lowers him down. She shoots me an angry look. I shrug. Mr. Anderson sits down looking exhausted. I look around me, and then back at the university, where the shooting has stopped. I sigh.
“I’ll take first watch”

(Yup, here it is. I'm planning on writing this from James' perspective too, so that should be done pretty soon. If there are any problems, just PM me and i'll try to fix them.)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Section by Crashr)

November 23, 2008
Perspective: James

As the second explosion rocks the room, I throw myself down on the floor. Almost immediately Sergeant Daniels and Michael start shooting at the door, though I cannot hear the shots. I watch as Harry shoves David towards the window, yelling something at him. I also notice Calvin lying on the floor, away from the bullets that are now filling the air like angry hornets. I slide myself back behind one of our make-shift barricades and watch as my friends do the same. My hearing is finally starting to return, only to be deafened again by the sound of gunfire. Suddenly the shooting stops, and I look back to the other three. They are all preoccupied reloading their weapons, and it looks like the intruders are too. Then, hearing a cry come up from outside the door, I hear people come charging in.
If they catch us now, we won’t stand a chance. Eve as I think this, I am stepping out from behind my hiding place, machete in hand. I see the one in front look at me in surprise, and then start to raise his weapon. Before he can level it, I am upon him, hitting him with the handle of my blade. He is knocked out, and falls back onto his compatriots. As they catch him in confusion, I rush them. I strike one in the face with my other fist, and then kick another in the stomach, proceeding to knee him in the face. The remaining couple try to back up enough to use their guns, but I move too quickly. I hit one in the face with the flat of my blade, and then spin to knock him out with my other elbow. The last one tries to stab me with his drawn knife, but I parry the blade and then hit him in the back of the head with the grip. I immediately dive back to my original hiding spot, ducking out of the way of any incoming fire. I look over to the others, and they nod to me.
Harry says, slightly annoyed, “Don’t move around so much next time. I couldn’t get in a clear shot.” I am about to answer when more gunfire from the opposition forces all of us to keep our heads down. I hear another shout, and more enemies start running into the room. I start trying to formulate a plan.
“All of you, start retreating! I will try and distract them!” Once again, I jump out from behind my cover, but this time I grab the one in front and take him hostage. The others stop their charge and lower their guns in confusion. The one I am holding shouts something I don’t understand and the others start raising their guns again. I throw my hostage into the group and start falling back to my friends.
I hear Daniels shout, “Go, James and Michael, go! Me and Harry will hold them off!” I acknowledge them and then run to the window room along with Michael. I hear shouting and gunshots in the next room, and start thinking quickly. Michael, however, interrupts my thoughts.
“This is it man. Last stand.” He says. He doesn’t sound scared, just determined. I remember back to just a few minutes ago, when Heather said she couldn’t lose him again. Then I look at the door leading to the next room where the shooting has stopped, and I can feel the enemy massing on the other side. I look at the window, the window to freedom. Once again, I make my decision.
“Not for you.” I say. He starts to turn to ask me what I mean, but I grab him by the back of his vest and swing him around towards the window. I release him just as I bring him around, throwing him outside.
I might have put a little too much force behind that… I think to myself as I turn to face the other room. I hear him shouting something back at me, but I ignore it. I crouch, getting ready to attack whatever might show itself. I don’t have to wait long, but what I see throws me off my guard. It is a man with no mask, no goggles, and only a handgun. The problem is, he has Calvin, who is semi-conscious and muttering to himself. The man speaks clearly in a level tone in an accent I can’t place.
“Drop your weapon, or I’ll put a bullet in this one’s head.” I think I can hear Calvin mutter “Fuck off” but the man just shakes him by his hold on his collar. As I start to consider my options, four others enter the room, guns trained on my head. I sigh to myself. I have no choice. I throw my machete at the man’s feet, and fall to my knees, assuming a neutral position. One of the soldiers quickly come up behind me and smash me in the back of my head. The last thing I remember is looking at Calvin, and seeing him shake his head.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(This part by Nexus_Oblivion)
Perspective of: Heather, 18
November 23th 2008
Time: 10:08PM

"I’ll take First watch"

"Get back in here David, you didn’t have to hit him..."

"He wouldn’t shut up"

"...we need everyone awake you arrogant fuck"

"Whatever"



I rub the small lump on Michael’s head as David walks back over to the door and sits on a nearby chair.
"Heather..." Mr Anderson softly says "...I’ll look after Michael, go and get some rest."
"I don’t think I can rest sir..." I reply "...where’s Giles?"
"I --" he cuts off and stares at the door as a knocking sound comes from outside.
David raises his shotgun towards the door. I take out my handgun and slowly make my way to David.
"Don’t do anything yet" I say coldly

I walk to the door and place my ear on the door. I hear the sound of someone talking but it’s to faint for me to understand properly. I quickly open the door and see Giles holding a duffel bag and his rifle, I pull him in and quickly close the door.
"Where the fuck were you?" David asks
"I was downstairs near the barricades..." Giles pants, trying to regain his breath "...I heard them setting explosives and one of them saw me, so I ran up the stairs but went to the second floor to draw them off but....."
He sees Michael lying on the floor being tended by Mr Anderson
"...what hap--"
"Just tell us where you were" I say, eyeing David coldly, he simply shrugs
"Well..." Giles begins "...as I said, I ran up to the second floor...and then down the opposite stairs back to the first floor. I heard an explosion and then another soon after, so I ran outside into the campus grounds. That’s when I saw you four entering this building, so I followed."
I looked at Michael who appeared to be fast asleep.
"We have to wake him up..." I said "...we can’t carry him and we need everyone to be able to fight when they come back. It’ll only be a matter of time until they find us."

I walked back to Michael, knelt down and began shaking him.
"Michael, wake up! Come on....please!"
Nothing. I started slapping his face
"Michael wake up! wake up!"
Still nothing. I then remembered how he got shot in the abdomen.
"Sorry Michael..."
I pounded my fist into his stomach and he wakes up groaning and rolling slowly around the floor "Gooorrrrr!"
"...I’m sorry Michael, I had wake you up"
"Bi...Bitch" he smiles
"Can you get up?" Mr Anderson asked
"Yeah...give me a sec" he replies
Michael shakily tries to stands up. Mr Anderson assists him.
"Thanks sir, I--" he stops mid sentence and then his facial expression changes from dazed to anger.
"That MOTHERFUCKER" he shouts
"Here we go again" David remarks as he begins walking towards Michael
"Stay" Giles says grabbing David’s shoulder
"Michael what happened?" I ask
He looks at me and calms down a bit
"We were going to make a last stand in that room" he says "...to buy you guys some time to escape but..." he sighs before continuing "...that James guy threw me out the window"
I look puzzled
"Why is he sad he couldn’t be part of the last stand?" I think to myself.

"But that’s not important anymore..." he says waving his hand "...we have to get out of here now. There could be a lot of those guys still around. Thanks sir but I think I can stand on my own now."
Mr Anderson lets him go and he slowly begins taking a few steps around the room.
"So what’s the plan now?" David asks
Michael feels the lump on the back of his head and cringes "Argh, that hurts...well first off where are we?"
Giles answers the question "We’re most likely in the backroom of this building. No windows or anything, but the University is still close by, by about a 100 steps or so."

I look around and notice that there are no other doors besides the one we came through, the only things in this room were sanitary products and old lockers.
"This place was poorly designed..." I say aloud "...no way out but back the way we came."
Michael looks at me and then walks toward the door.
David steps in front of him "Where the fuck do you think your going?"
"Surveying the area outside, dipshit" Michael retorts and pushes past David.
He slowly opens the door and sticks his head outside.

Giles grabs the duffel bag he brought in with him and opens it.
"Take the handguns and ammo, I don’t want to keep carrying this bag" he says
All of us besides Michael grab another gun and several clips. I chose a Beretta to replace the Colt 45 if it ran out of bullets.
"Okay..." Michael says closing the door "...from what I’ve seen, they’ve got some patrols around the university grounds, so it’s going to be very tough to leave this place"
"How can you even see them in the dark?" David asks tucking his newly acquired handgun behind his back.
I see Michael pause before he speaks "Moonlight and the fact that some of them have flashlights on..."
"Ahuh" David replies
"...anyway, we should leave now and get head for another place, this room is a death trap."
He reaches for his leg holster and draws out his handgun.
"You guy’s ready?"

"Everybody wait!..." Mr Anderson interjects, David had to stop walking to the door "...Michael, your acting with a lot of foolhardy bravado. Let’s think this through first."
"There’s nothing to think about..." Michael replies bluntly "...if we wait here any longer they’re bound to find us, we should leave now"
"I’m down with that!" David says happily, pumping his shotgun.
Mr Anderson sighs "Okay, but as the oldest person here let me go outside first"
He opens the door but before he can take a step outside, Michael grabs Mr Anderson by the front and slams him next to the wall, away from the door.
"They know where here" Michael curses as he quickly glances outside

I jump at the impact of Mr Anderson hitting the wall
"Michael what are you talking about?" I say panicked
"Shit, they know we’re here...." He says "...okay, I’ll head em off and you gu--"
A swarm of people dressed in military gear enter the room we’re in.
"Put down the weapons down!" a masked voice yells
We all put down our guns and from the door a female dressed in the same clothing as them enters the room.

"We found the rest of them" she said in a swedish accent
__________________________________________________________________________

November 23rd
23.21pm

The prisoners were lined up in the hall, facing the wall with their hands on their heads.

"One of them so much as moves, kneecap them," I growled in Irish to Prendergast, who nodded.

I signalled to Freya to come into another room where we couldn't be heard.
"What is it?" she asked.
"Will we move base to here?" I asked, "It's a better location."
"Absolutely not," Freya replied, "The forest and motel has worked so far with no casualties and minimal contact with the enemy."
"But..."
"No buts," she interrupted, "This is a joint operation, remember that."

I nodded.
"What's the long term plan then?" I asked.
"I want to see if this vaccine thing is true first," Freya said quietly, "We can make decisions after we find out."
I pondered on it for a minute, then agreed.

"Alright, let's go question them," Freya said cheerily.

We returned to the corridor.

"Who are you?" asked a girl. Or woman. Late teens either way.
"We're the ones asking the questions, madame," I said, "Understand?"
"We need some information before we'll tell you anything," an angry looking man of the same age shouted.
He shifted against the wall.

O'Leary got out a baton and waved it beside his face.

Freya got irritated.
"Fine, we are military, that is all you need to know," she said quickly, "Now, for our questions."

"Firstly, we need the locations of any other survivor groups within the city, including military ones," I stated,
"Secondly, we need to know if any of you have seen any labs in the locality."

"...Labs?" said one of the male prisoners.
"Yes, labs," I repeated, "Biological labs and military labs to be exact."

".....Why do you want to know where labs are?" he asked.
"That's none of your business," Freya shouted.

"Say I have seen some labs, why would we tell you?" the man continued.
"Other than the obvious bodily harm we can use, we'll protect you and give you a certain degree of freedom until we have reached the labs," I explained, "After that, you're free to go."

"And the alternative?" he asked.
"Well, that depends on what my friend here feels like," I said, pointing to Freya who wasn't a happy camper at the time.
One must remember that our faces were almost entirely masked at the time, but let's just say, that didn't stop Freya managing to look pissed.

"Alright, I know where a lab is..." said one.
______________________________________________________-

(This part by Nexus_Oblivion)
Perspective of: Michael, 17
November 23rd 2008
Time: 11:32PM

‘ The Bugle sounds, the charge begins
But on this battlefield no one wins
The smell of acrid smoke and horses’ breath
As I plunge on into certain death. ’


"Mr Anderson I’m sorry..."

"You have start calling me Steve, we’re not in high school anymore"

"...then Steve, I’m really sorry"

"Don’t worry I’m fine. We have bigger problems right now"



Since we weren’t granted the luxury of sleeping in the dorms, they shoved us into a classroom with two unlucky soldiers sent to watch us. They’ve taken all our weapons, promising to return them tomorrow morning but at least they let us keep the clothes we have on. I’ve grown rather fond of my...as of our capture, empty load bearing vest. We’re all huddled in a circle and we remain quiet for some time until I decide to break the silence.
"You don’t really know where the labs they’re looking for, are, do you?" I whisper
I continue staring at Giles, hoping that he did know where a lab was.
"In all honesty, I don’t..." he said regrettably "...I thought I might as well say something before they started hurting one of us"

We all turn our heads toward the soldiers guarding us, when they saw us watching, they immediately stood up straight and stared back.
"Well let’s keep pretending we still know where a lab is..." Harry says quietly, turning his head away from them, "...but we don’t reveal where the compound is. As far as they know, we don’t know anyone else."
They all nodded in agreement. I didn’t know what they were referring too but I nodded just the same.
Heather spoke next, "Well, we do have to take them somewhere tomorrow."
"In those movies, hospitals are always the ones with secret labs..." David remarks "...hell why not check the subway?"

"He’s right you know..." I say smiling, until I remember he struck me over the head with his shotgun, "...about the hospital I mean. It’s our best bet"
"Our only bet" Heather adds
I think about the only hospital I’ve been to in Sloan, before I speak
"Well, the only hospital I know of is St Augustine’s Hospital, it’s one of the biggest hospitals in this city and it’s on the the same road as this university."
"Are we really going to leave it all up to chance?" Steve asked with concern in his voice "...I mean, what if there’s nothing there?"

I glance at Giles who seems to be lost in his own world
"Giles??"
He looked at me, "I don’t even know where that hospital is..." he said fearfully "...what if I--"
"Giles..." I interrupted, placing my hand on his shoulder in hopes that it would reassure him, "...you know where we parked that chevy right?"
He nodded
"From that car, head left and keep going straight...about an hour of going straight, it’ll be standing right there, you wont miss it."
Unfortunately it didn’t do anything to help calm him down, then again, I am 17 and he’s 26...I’m sure he felt humiliated that someone younger then him was offering help and courage.
"Alright..." he said, after several seconds of silence, "...I just don’t want to lead them somewhere else and get us all killed"
"Look on the bright side..." David declared, putting his own hand on Giles’ other shoulder, "...even if you screw up, we get a few days of torture, BEFORE they kill us!"
We laughed a bit but had to stop when the two guards stared eyeing us again.
"We should rest" James unexpectedly announced.
We were all about to go in separate directions to find a spot to lie down, but I managed to pull James aside.

"Hey James..." I whispered "...about the throwing me out the window..."
I expected that he would say something to stop me but he continued to stare at me with interest, so I continued.
"...well I just want to thank you, I was reckless."
He simply nodded. I turned away to find Heather but he said something.
"What was that?" I asked
"Do you remember the time when we ambushed you in the university hall?" he repeated
I did remember and I already figured out where this was going. Looking behind James, I noticed that, only us and the two guards where standing, everyone else must’ve found a spot to lay down and sleep.
"Yeah what about it?" I ask quietly, pretending to look puzzled by his question
He kept staring, not in a menacing way but it still unnerved me. I’m not into that mystical mumbo-jumbo crap but I swear I could feel him reading my mind, and out of sheer fear, I tried hard not to not think of It.
"I just wanted to know how you saw my machete in such a dark place" he asks, keeping his eyes locked onto mine.
"Don’t know...I guess maybe instinct?...then again Heather’s torch and the moonlight kinda helped spotting something metallic...oh and Vitamin C helped too."
I was blabbing, so I decided to end the conversation then and there, "Well if that’s all then I guess I’ll head off to sleep."

As I walk away to find Heather, It spoke to me.
‘So, how was the little interrogation?’ It asks
‘$5 says he suspects something, $10 if he knows...’ I think to It ‘...I swear, when we get to the hospital, I better find a doctor or some medication’
‘Highly doubt he knows anything’ It says to me reassuringly.
Somehow, that seems to relax me a little. I find Heather sleeping next to a table and using her own load bearing vest as a pillow.
As I lay down next to Heather, I think of something else to say to It.
‘So, your origins would be?’
‘Depends...’ It said to me happily ‘...the file says childhood imagination gone awry, you think it was a way of coping with stressful events or, and this my personal favorite, you lost it completely...and I’m just a voice in your head that you can’t get rid of.’
I wanted to say something but It’s voice flooded my mind.
‘But I’ll leave you with something to think about...’ It says dramatically ‘...you may not have noticed but the big guard on the right when you were talking to James, was falling asleep. Had his eyes closed for at least a minute. How could I know that and you not?’
‘You pay more attention to my surroundings?’ I think to It bluntly
‘Well, think of it as our surroundings...but anyway get some rest’ It said before It went back to wherever It goes when It doesn’t speak to me.

As for me I closed my eyes and caught some Zs.


November 24th 2008
Time: 08:00AM


I was in the middle of a weird dream, involving zombies in bondage gear, when I was woken up by the sound of a man yelling inhumanly loud. I tiredly got up and realized that it was coming from the speakers. The man from the speaker was calling us to wake up and to meet some group or something in the hall in 30 minutes.
I got up and noticed the guards we had the night before were switched with tougher, more serious looking soldiers. Even through the masks, I knew they were angry with guard duty.
"What did he say?" Heather asked, tiredly rising up.
I caught the whiff of her breath and it was not pleasant. She normally doesn’t have bad breath but damn...today was an exception.
"We gotta get up and meet some guys or whatever in the hall in 30 minutes" I summarized, while breathing through my mouth.
I stood up and began stretching.
"Fuck, Steve....your breath smells like shit!"
It was David, I couldn’t help but laugh.
Steve retorted back, "Yes David....but you do realize while you slept I kept my ass in your face."’
"Ha! He got you there" Harry laughed, adding the Ha for extra humour.
I laughed even harder, I never expected Steve to rebut in a childish manner. I saw that the guards too, seemed a little bit more relaxed.

By the time the little comedy show ended, we were all up and awake, and wether it was out of generosity or they somehow heard my thoughts, we could brush our teeth with the toiletries they gave us....I just hoped they didn’t do anything bad to them before they handed it to us.
When we finished, we were escorted by our two guards to the the hall. Along the way, we met up with Calvin, Mak and Captain Daniels, who were escorted by their own guards. I completely forgot they were part of the group, I was unaware that they were captured or even alive. Apparently, they kept them separated from the rest of us in case we tried anything stupid, Calvin at least looked a little better now. Regardless, we welcomed them back and we all arrived at the hall. Immediately when I entered the hall, I saw what was left of our barricade to the dormitory entrance, nothing.
I then noticed three groups of soldiers gathered in the middle of the hall, all in a line facing us.
‘Sixteen soldiers in each group...’ It commented ‘...oh and good morning’
‘Thanks...’ I replied in my head ‘...but let’s get back to business’
‘Of course’

The guards stopped us from moving while three people approached us. One of whom, I recognised as the woman who captured us in that stupid one door room.
I looked around our group and noticed that most of us were all tensed and slightly nervous but James and Giles were the only ones showing no emotion.
"When do we get our fucking guns back?" David asks, under his breath.
"Speak a little louder David, I don’t think they heard you." Heather whispers


"Shut up"


_____
November 24th
0832 local

The prisoners looked scared out of their wits. Two of them were hiding it well, but their breathing was too heavy.
They didn't seem to realise that torture wasn't on our agenda, our men had reported some of what they heard quietly during a shift change.
Torture takes too long, and as the remaining few US authorities were unaware of our presence, we wanted to keep it that way.

As we approached, they started whispering something about weapons.
I sighed, and looked to my left. Thankfully, Freya hadn't heard it.

"Alright, we've been handed some new intelligence," I started.
I pointed at one of the men
"For a start, I know for a fact that you do not know where a lab is," I stated,
"You are not mentioned on our intelligence reports, meaning that unless one of these people told you, you do not have what we want."

The prisoners faces became considerably more frightened.
Understandably, given their opinion of our methods.

"However, you will not be harmed as long as the people who do know where a lab is, tells us," I said, nodding to Freya.
Freya spoke into her radio, and a Swedish private brought her a set of files.
She opened them.

"Firstly, I would appreciate if the military personnel in your group revealed the location of the nearest rally point," she said aggressively,
"We would like to avoid a confrontation with the US military."

The prisoners looked at each other.
One stepped forward, and the guards raised their weapons quickly.
He stopped abruptly.

"The rallypoint has probably moved by now," he said, "We haven't been in contact with them for days."
Freya stared him out of it, then shrugged, accepting the answer as satisfactory.

"Secondly, would Michael please raise his hand," she said as forcefully as the first question.
One of them raised his hand.

"You are the Michael with schizophrenic psychological disorders?" she asked.
Michael just stared and turned more white.
"I'll take that as a yes..." she continued, "You are familiar with one 'Captain Williams', are you not?"

The prisoner who was willing to lead us to a fake lab started shouting.
Freya's men restrained him.

"Interesting..." I muttered, as Freya changed files.
"Captain Williams, Strategic Technology Office, Experimental Weapons Division, DARPA," she said,
"Currently in training with regular forces and assigned to a lab somewhere in the area of this town."

Michael just stood shocked.
"This information was given to us by the Americans in Europe," Freya continued, "We know it is accurate."
"I think you're beginning to get the jist of what we want from you," I said,
"Where is the facility that Captain Williams was assigned to?"

"......Why?" he asked, after a long pause.

Freya and I looked at each other.
"One second," she said, signalling to me to come back for a minute.

"Should we tell them about the vaccine?" Freya asked me.
"It's up to you, perhaps they'll help us willingly if we tell them," I replied.
She nodded, and we returned.

"The facility may hold a vaccine to the infection," Freya said, "It won't help the infected at present, but it stop the spread."

Michael cursed.
"I can't believe we were so close!" he shouted.

"We? What do you mean by we?" I asked.
"She took us there, Williams did," Michael explained, "Myself and Giles over there."
He pointed to the "informant" prisoner.

"He didn't see the place itself, though," he added.

"Excellent," Freya said, "Can you take us there?"
"No," he said.

"Why not!" I asked.
"There's a problem," he said.
________

November 24th 2008
Time: 08:40AM


And it’s a pretty big problem. Something struck me as odd when the Swedish woman said that Captain Williams was "assigned to a lab somewhere in the area of this town". I sure as hell didn’t know what she was talking about. Then all I heard was It chuckle.
‘Michael...’ It said happily, if It had a face, I swear it would be smiling like a Cheshire cat, ‘...if these people think you know where the lab is, tell them. Remember the cabin in Falls Creek?’
‘That wasn’t even a lab...’ I think to It, ‘...not to mention that’s 3 days from here, not exactly nearby.’
‘Just say what I tell you’ It told me.
"Well what’s the problem?" the Swedish woman said angrily.

"I honestly believe your Intel is wrong..." I say, intentionally adding a pause to make it seem like I was remembering something, "...because the only place I know that she would be in, is Falls Creek, and that’s a three day trip from here."
She stared at me fiercely, then I repeated what It told me to say, "But, that was about four days ago, Me and Giles just made it to Sloan City last night. So she might of left that place and came here."
I look at her and she turned to the two other men. I looked at my own group, realizing I was their spokesman. I wondered if they were thinking about the psychological disorder comment the woman said earlier, but none of them looked at me.
"This vaccine could stop the spread of the virus..." she finally said, after she finished whispering to the others, "...we need to find the cure."


I once again let It tell me what to say.
"I know, but that’s all the information I have..." I say sounding regretful, "...I don’t know what that intelligence report says, but I’d stake my life that the either Ashley or the vaccine is back in Falls Creek."
I saw them weighing what I said amongst themselves.
‘I sure fucking hope this works’ I say to It.
‘If it doesn’t then, what else is there? You already told them, that Williams took you to the lab.’
The Swedish woman walked straight up to me, "Du har stora bruna bollar, och jag kommer att isolera dem om du ljuger."
I’m sure she said something threatening. I paused for a second, but all I could say was, "Yeah...blame the voices."


"When do we get our guns back?" David managed to finally yell out.
The woman was about to say something but the man with the Irish accent spoke first, "You wont get all your weapons back..." he said, looking at David "...just the handguns."
The woman walked back and started whispering again. I realized, the Irish guy was the leader of this whole thing, she and the other man were probably just captains or something.
Suddenly a soldier came running from behind the door we came through and handed a file to the woman. She showed it to the Irish guy and the other man, who all looked at me and then the rest of the group. Another whispered conversation until the woman stepped forward.
"It seems, your information is no longer useful..." she said calmly and without any suppressed anger, "...we’ve just confirmed that Captain Williams was sent to a the Stem cell research facility in the northern area of Sloan. Her, along with a Major, Derek Washington."


I froze...surprised by two things.
Washington, that was my surname before mum changed it when dad supposedly vanished in Iraq, now he and Ashley were in the place these people wanted to go to. The next surprise was the fact that she said "Major" Derek Washington, I know for a fact, he was no mere Major.
"I’m guessing we’re coming along with you guys" I say to the three people.
"That’s right..." the Irish guy replied "...none of you are free just yet."
"When are we leaving then?" I asked




"Soon" he answered
__________________________________

(This part by Nexus_Oblivion)
Perspective of: Derek, 47
November 24rd 2008
Time: 08:50AM

"The thing is...the porch outside offers no protection and these smoke grenades go off in 3 or 4 seconds. How in the world did you manage to not be shot...and wait for the grenades to go off?"

"Son what were doing is-"

"Semper Fi huh dad?"


That was the last thing my son said before I jumped from the hummer. He has my intelligence, that boy does. Then again, he’s not a boy anymore.
"Sir?" a female voice says behind me.
I turn around and see Captain Williams holding a file, she salutes and awaits my reply.
"Captain Williams..." I say, returning her salute, "...progress report?"
"Sir, the European Forces in Sloan were spotted in the university and we’ve located the main bulk of their force in the woods."
She hands me the file and then resumes talking.
"With what we’ve gathered from one of our informants, it appears that they’ve already found out about this facility."
"Good, everything’s falling into place. How did they find out about this facility?" I ask.
"Through me. They found out where I was assigned" she replied.
I smile and had the file back, after skimming through it, "Excellent, initiate the next phase and cease research on 63H."
She salutes one final time before exiting my office.

The Stem-cell research facility was a flower above the serpent. We weren’t producing a vaccine, that problem was given to Arkansas. We were developing another bio-weapon, Toxoplasma Gondii mixed with Viral strain 57H. The US government wanted more controllable hyper-sapiens or reani necrolis, whichever scientific name you prefer.
All I know is, this is the only facility, researching and testing the virus parasite and I’ll be damned if I let the Euro trash take it. We were careful and meticulous to not arouse too much suspicion. Only a few dozen guards patrolling the perimeter of the facility while the rest were either inside the building itself or underground, where the real work was being done.

We planned it all, the US government entrusted me with this and I’ll make America proud. I, along with six of my most trusted advisors created false reports for overseas forces, intentionally leaked false information for other governments to seize, we did anything and everything to make sure no one found out the true purpose of what the American government and its "assets" where doing.

The Europeans would be on this facility in a matter of hours or assuming that they were smart enough, would plan ahead before coming here, wherein lied the next phase of the plan.

The Stem-cell facility was in the Northern area of Sloan City. It was roughly the size of an average mall but the building itself wasn’t important. What lied beneath was, however. We only had 800 troops but that was more then enough to obliterate the opposition....and to test the new bio-weapon.
I look at the photo on my desk, of Michael and my wife, standing happily next to me. I miss them. I’m sure they were devastated, when two soldiers knocked on the door to tell them I had died, during the first battle of Fallujah. When I found out my wife changed her and Michael’s surname, I realized how much pain they felt, to be reminded of me. It was all apart of the plan though, the military needed me for another government project. My family would have been put at risk and I would never have seen them anyway, so all in all, it was for the best. Then I saw Michael again, in Falls Creek. A happy reunion until he figured out the deception. I really am proud of him.

A tear slides down my cheek, I brush it away, right as Captain Ashley enters my office again.
"Sir," she salutes.
I return the greeting, "Ashley, no ones here, you can call me Derek."
She nods, "Derek, the electric fence is active, the cameras are working at peak efficiency, mines have been laid in position, snipers, hidden and on the lookout, and the troops have set up according to your plan."
"Good..." I say smiling once again, "...tell Commander Shepherd to get into contact with Lt. Lesie Smith."
"But Sir..." Ashley said worriedly, "...Lieutenant Lesie Smith deserted the army, he and his group have gone rogue!"
"Regardless..." I retort "... get Shepherd to contact them and give them refuge here in the facility, any help with the upcoming attack will give us an extra advantage against the Europeans."
"But even if Lt. Smith decides to assist us, he and his group won't even make it in time."
"No matter, just get Shepherd to contact him. I've thought of how they could help."
"Very well Derek..." she replies, still sounding doubtful, "...we’ve also confirmed with our informants that, Michael’s been spotted in the university too."

My eyes widen, "Damn..."



(Well if there’s anything wrong or you need to know something, PM me)

Perspective of Tom
November 24th
1334 Local Time

I woke up after three hours sleep, my head hurting like hell.
We had abandoned the university and driven back to the camp.
The prisoners from the university were kept separate from the others, and most of my men settled in for a sleep.

Freya was curled up on the other side of the bed.
Erik entered the room quickly, then hesitated when he saw us.
I nodded to him, and his hesitation lifted.

“You two better see this,” he said, “Olli and his people have been on the computers all day.”
“Alright, give us twenty minutes,” I said, after which Erik saluted and left.
He closed the door shut, and I lied down for a few minutes.

I sighed, and poked Freya in the side.
She groaned and hit me sleepily, muttering something in Swedish.
“We need to go, Olli has something on the computers for us to see…” I said.
She swore, and got up.

We got changed, armed, and ate something before finally leaving the room.
We walked down the long balcony corridor that allowed access to the second floor of the motel rooms. Leaving the motel, we proceeded around the back past the Swedish guards who were on guard, and towards Olli’s tents.

“Here they are,” Erik exclaimed as we approached.
“Good, you’re going to need to see this,” Olli said as we came up behind him.
Three of his intelligence officers were working furiously on computers.

“We have a problem,” Olli stated in a serious tone, “Firstly take a look at this.”
A document in Russian appeared on the central screen in front of Olli.

“That’s great Olli, but I don’t speak Russian,” I said, yawning.
“What is it?” Freya asked.
“It’s a list of targets, issued by the Russian military,” he said, “To their strategic nuclear forces.”
“The Russians are severely weakened,” Freya asked, “How is it relevent?”

“The facility with the vaccine is listed as a target for ground penetrating nuclear strike in a MAD scenario,” he said dramatically, “They were doing more than stem cell research in there.”

“…What else have you got?” I asked, becoming very concerned with the developments.
He nodded to a lieutenant, who pressed a button.
A thermal satellite photo appeared.
“This is the facility itself and the surrounding area, from an ESA satellite I had rerouted a few hours ago,” Olli continued, “Notice anything?”

Both myself and Freya inspected the image.
“Holy…” I muttered, noticing what he was talking about.
On screen, was a large facility about the size of a reasonably large shopping centre.
There were a large amount of light vehicles in the car park with heat signatures.
However, that was not the most distressing part.

In the surrounding forests, there were quite a few groups of small signatures, with single signatures occasionally seen.

“Those are people, right?” I asked, “Infected?”
“I doubt it,” Olli replied, bringing up a second image, “This one was taken a few minutes later from another satellite, the targets did not move in that time. As you know, the infected are always on the move.”

“Uncles,” muttered Freya, “What now?”
“This is only the good part,” Olli said, bringing up two more images.
It showed a wider area.
Firstly, the number of human groups seemed to triple. The place was well defended.
Secondly, a massive group of contacts was approaching from the north.

“If that is the US military, they currently have their hands full,” Olli said,
“That infected group is the largest we’ve seen since New Jersey.”
“How well armed are they?” Freya asked.
“Considering the importance of the site, I’d say they have plenty of small arms,” Olli said,
“If their commander is competent, they should be able to defend themselves.”

“Who is their commander?” I asked.
“The highest ranking officer we know is there is our old friend, Major Derek Washington,” Olli said, “His presence would indicate a far larger number of troops than what we can see.”
“How many?” I asked.
“Upwards of two thousand if this were before the infection,” Olli said,
“I doubt he has that many, the US military is currently very short on manpower.”

“Shit,” I mumbled, walking off a little, wondering how we’d beat that.
“Anything else,” Freya asked, signalling to me to come back.
“I’m working on getting an exact time for the American invasion from Europe, they’re keeping it from us for some reason,” Olli explained, “I do know that they’ve put it off a week, despite good weather conditions for this time of year.”

“They’re up to something,” Freya declared.
“That’s not necessarily true,” I said, “They may just be defending the vaccine.”
“I disagree, the Americans are too smart for their own good when it comes to this sort of thing,” Freya said loudly, “Without air support, I don’t feel comfortable with this at all.”
“We’ll just use the armour and artillery for once,” I said, “It will be fine if we use all our forces.”
“They aren’t stupid Tom,” Freya shouted, “They may even know we’re coming! Remember what that Michael told us, he blew a MI5 intelligence report away in a minute…”

Erik and Olli stood and watched as we argued out the point.
It took a while.

“Ok, we’ll shell the surrounding area first, then proceed in with Hazmat,” I said, “Is that ok?”
“As long as we get out of there as soon as anything unexpected happens,” Freya said,
“That is a biological facility, they could have anything in there.”

“Fine, even though I could order you otherwise, that is a good policy,” I said,
“We need to plan the attack.”
The other two finally looked relieved.

“Do we have a map of the area?” Freya asked.
Olli put a physical map of the area with major roads on the screen, and a full road map on another.

We planned our attack. (It will be outlined later).
Afterwards, Freya went to unload the four tanks from their transport lorries, and I went to see if our prisoners had any information that they weren’t telling us.

I went to fetch O’Leary, who had lost the draws for motel rooms, in his tent.
I entered, and found him in an awkward position with Prendergast in a sleeping bag.
I frowned as the two looked shocked to see me.

“I’ll come back,” I said, “You have three minutes.”
I went to exit the tent, but turned around briefly.
“Three minutes to get up and ready,” I added.

In four minutes, the two exited the tent, stood to attention and apologised for being disorderly.
“At ease,” I said, “I realise that we can go a bit stir crazy on this operation at times.”
The two looked relieved.

“That doesn’t mean that you can neglect duty, I’d appreciate if you kept that behaviour to when you aren’t on standby,” I said quickly, to insure they were more careful in future.
Their faces dropped again.
I grinned.

“Now let’s go see what our friends from the university have to say about the latest news,” I said.
As we walked, I filled O’Leary in about what happened, and ordered Prendergast to say nothing to the other troops until after they had been briefed.

We arrived at the holding area for the university survivors.
The men who were guarding looked surprised to see me, and straightened themselves.
I nodded at them, and they relaxed a little.

Prendergast stayed outside as we entered the area of the tents.
Michael and Heather (we had finally got their names out of them previously) were talking outside the further tent in the circle.

“Afternoon,” I said, greeting them, “Get the others out please, we need to talk.”
They looked at each other, then did as they were told.
The others got out, carrying various different looks on their faces.

“Alright, we need to talk,” I said, “The facility we’ve located that has the vaccine is heavily guarded. We need more information about US troop movements and anything else you can give us.”

“Why should we help you?” Heather said, “What happened to giving our pistols back?”
“I can’t have you armed at the moment, we’re…” I started.
“That’s too bad,” Mr.Anderson interrupted,
“We’re not telling you anything until we are treated properly.”
“Is that so?” I said, getting a little pissed off.
“Yes, it is,” Captain Daneils replied.

“Alright,” I said, getting annoyed.
It appeared that coercion wasn’t going to get them talking, and it irritated me like hell to admit that we had to try appeasement.
“Wait a minute,” I ordered, “O’Leary, talk to them.”
He nodded, and tried to get more information out of them as I walked off.

“Freya, can you hear me?” I asked into my radio.
“Yes, what is it?” she asked, “The tanks are off the trucks and are being fueled up, if that’s what you want to know?”

“No, I want to ask if you agree with giving the university prisoners their weapons back,” I said, “And maybe setting them free.”

“Why?” she asked.
“We aren’t getting anything out of them at the moment,” I said,
“I think they know more than they’re telling.”
She paused for a minute.

“Fine,” she said finally.
“Really?” I asked, surprised at the lack of argument.
“We need all the information we can get,” she said, “If we can convince them to help us get the vaccine, that gives us an advantage of local knowledge as well.”
I thanked her, and returned to the argument that had erupted around O’Leary, who was holding better than one would think.

I interrupted and calmed them down.
When they were finally silent, I spoke.
“OK, we have a new proposal for you,” I said, “Are you willing to hear it?”
“What is it?” Mr Anderson asked.
The others mimicked the question.

“We’ll give you back your armour, weapons, and let you go,” I said,
“But we’ll need something from you.”

“Information, right?” Heather said.
“Exactly,” I said, “We need information about the area and anything else you have.”

They thought about it.
“We need to discuss it among ourselves,” Captain Daneils announced.

“Alright, I’ll be back in a few, I’d like an answer by then,” I said.
We returned to Prendergast, and I took out a small flask.
Pouring some tea into a cup, I ordered O’Leary to get his squad ready for combat.
As Prendergast was ready anyway, she stayed.

“So, yourself and the sergeant,” I muttered as she was about to wander off, “Since when?”
“Two days ago, sir,” she replied after a pause.
“Please, don’t call me sir when we’re talking about these things,” I said, “It makes me feel older than I am.”

“Yes, sir,” she replied.
I rolled my eyes, sipping the tea.

“And?” I asked, “Tell me about it.”
Prendergast probably thought I was being nosy, but I was interested as I hadn’t seen it coming.

“Well, I always thought he was a funny guy, dependable, and I just made a move,” she said, awkwardly.
“You made the first move?” I chuckled, almost choking on some tea.
“Yes,” she said, grinning slightly herself.
“You’d think the sergeant would have, given his personality,” I laughed,
“He’s a really up-front sort of fella…”
“Yes, you would,” she replied, “But he’s actually quite shy with that sort of thing.”
I laughed even harder. I would be able to poke a little fun at O’Leary later.

“Thank you, I haven’t laughed like that in a while,” I said when I was finished, “Sarah, wasn’t it?”
She nodded.
“Alright, I wish you all the best then,” I said, screwing the top back on my flask,
“Back to business.”

I ordered her to rejoin her squad and I then walked back to the survivors.
I wondered about Sarah’s accent, I still hadn’t placed it. It sounded something like middle-class Dublin, but it was different.

“Well?” I asked the survivors, “Have you made a decision?”

“Yes,” Daneils announced, “But before we tell you anything, we want our weapons.”
I pondered on it a second.

“Alright,” I said, “But you’ll get your ammunition afterwards, deal?”
It appeared that they expected such an offer, and agreed immediately.
“Good,” I said.

I ordered O’Leary to bring their weapons, emptied of bullets, to the tents.
He arrived a few minutes later, squad ready.

I winked at Sarah as she walked past, she blushed and I grinned.

“Here you go,” I said as the group took their weapons back, “Now, for a few questions.”
“Shoot,” Daneils said.

“What unit is commanded by Major Derek Washington?” I asked.
One of the survivors stirred, and distracted me for a second.

“Are you sure he’s a Major?” Mak asked.
“…Yes, why?” I asked, confused.
“I don’t know a Major Washington,” he explained, “The only officer named Washington I know is a colonel.”
“Different guy, probably,” I said, remembering the satellite image, “Alright then.”

We exchanged questions and answers.
I learnt that the facility itself was on a road that Mr Anderson knew well enough, and got much information about the surrounding area from him. I learnt about the latest movements of the US military from the soldiers. I, in return, informed them of who we were.

Everyone gave a little information, except one.
Calvin, who was deep in thought, said nothing.

“Why are you silent?” I asked him.
He looked towards me, and his eye twitched a little.

“Are you alright?” I asked, as he continued twitching.
He said nothing.

I approached him and called for medic in Irish.
As I got close, he pushed me away violently, and then collapsed.

“What the fuck?” I exclaimed loudly.
He began to shake wildly.

“Where’s that bloody medic!” I shouted as the rest of O’Leary’s squad covered me due to the survivors rushing to help.

“He’s doing it again,” said Heather, kneeling down beside him and panicking.
“Make sure he doesn’t bite his tongue!” shouted Steven.
“We know, we know,” said Anderson.

He stopped convulsing the second the medic came into view.
The medic examined him, and couldn’t determine what was wrong with him; He had regained consciousness a few seconds after he stopped shaking.

He could not remember anything after I came back to ask them their decision.

“I was going to ask you one more thing,” I said as Calvin stood up again, “But with this, I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“What were you going to ask?” Calvin said, breathing heavily.
“The facility with the vaccine is heavily guarded by troops,” I explained, “As they have been under heavy attack from the infected, they are most likely shooting on sight. We were going to ask you to join an attack to get the vaccine, but with you unfit for combat… It’s not a good idea.”

“What do you mean unfit for combat?!” said Calvin angrily.
Heather told him to calm down.
“He’s fine,” she explained.
“…Alright then, but we aren’t saving him if that happens in combat, understand?” I stated, unscrewing the flask again.

“Why should we help you against our own people?” Captain Daneils asked.
“Perhaps you should give a thought as to why the vaccine wasn’t issued to the public,” I said in a low tone, “They’re keeping it to themselves, do you think that is right? Do you not want to save the remainder of Americans from infection?”

“That’s….” he started, but didn’t finish.

“I don’t know about you, but I really don’t want to be fighting these things for the next decade,” I said loudly, “Are you with us, or do you want to leave?”
_____________________________________________

(This part by Nexus_Oblivion)
Perspective of: Heather, 18
November 24th 2008
Time: 02:12PM

"Heather, your not going..."

"Michael, if it’s because you think I’m going to be in some sorta dan--"

"...you will be in danger! Damn it Heth"

"Don’t worry about me, worry about yourself."


I pull the slide and holster my Colt .45.
"What now?" I ask him.
He looks at me with genuine concern. His eyes are sulky, and his hair’s a mess.
"You really gotta fix yourself up," I add, brushing his hair into something a bit more stylish, "there we go, got that Joe Flanigan look again."
He chuckles, "Thanks for that, but really...a handgun against people who are using assault rifles, especially for someone who just learned to use a gun...not the best thing."
He pauses and leaves the tent. While I wait for him, I face the small mirror beside my bed and stare into it. My hair’s a mess too, it’s a mix between curly and wavy hair and it doesn’t seem to suit me.
‘Tsk tsk tsk....you have to cut that, it’s getting ridiculous’ I tell myself. I grab the knife on my left shoulder, from it’s sheath and slowly cut my hair. I notice Harry giving me a weird look.
I smile, "Don’t worry, this isn’t a Britney thing."
He looks at me for another second, before exiting the tent, now I’m all alone.


By the time Michael got back, I was sporting a new look and judging by his reaction, it was a good one.
"Okay...since when did looks become so important all of a sudden?" he asks with a big smile on his face, "here, I brought you something."
He shows me the same gun he had with him back at the university, I think the name of the rifle was the M4 or something.
"Take it," he says, handing the rifle to me, "but let me give you a few pointers first."
He shows me how to change the magazine, turn off the safety, and change the firing modes. As a reward, he hands me five mags for the M4.
"Good, you’ve just graduated from my academy" He says happily.
I add the mags to my load bearing vest and sling the rifle across my right shoulder.
He looks at me with slightly less concern, but now, I’m the one becoming more concerned.
"Michael, what are you going to use?"
He looks at me and smiles. I’m kinda getting fed up with people smiling all of a sudden.
"I’ve got this," he says pulling out a handgun I don’t recognize, "the five-seven, uses a different type of bullet but looks pretty badass. Plus It’s got a flashlight attachment too..."
He turns on the flashlight and comically poses with the gun like some sort of action hero.
"...and if this gun doesn’t work, I’ve got this as backup." He turns around and points to the handgun he has behind his lower back, which I recognize as a Beretta 92.
"Good, good..." I say, as he holsters the five-seven, "...but what happened to using a handgun against assault rifles?"
Another smile and he leaves the tent, but this time I decide to follow.
"Wait up Michael!"

We don’t walk very far, we stop at a another tent where two guards are discussing grenades or something.
"Ah, back again?" one British sounding guard says to Michael, "two of your friends are in there now, lovely chaps."
Michael nods and motions me inside the tent and the guards resume their talk. As I enter the tent, I notice Calvin loading a shotgun and Captain Daniels putting bullets in a rifle mag.
"Can you believe this is our little armory?" Calvin smiles, cocking the shotgun before picking up another shotgun and loading that one.
I take a look around and notice several long tables lined up, each one with a large crate on top which I assumed had bullets inside and several assortment of various guns lying on the tables. A large number of throwing knives on one table caught my attention.

I walk up to Calvin, while Michael goes to Daniels to probably get a rifle for himself.
"You gonna be alright?" I whisper to Calvin, as he continues loading a shotgun.
"Aye, I will" he smiles, but the steri strips on his cheeks however, say otherwise.
"Your cheeks feeling better?" I ask, taking a seat next to him.
"Yeah, they don’t hurt as much anymore but don’t worry, I’ll be fine," he replies, cocking the shotgun, "but what about you? Think you can handle what’s about to happen?"
"Yeah I’ll be fine too," I say to him, passing him shells for the new shotgun his loading, "just a little worried about Michael."
"You have nothing to worry about," he says looking at Michael, Calvin waves at him before resuming loading the shotgun, "he doesn’t look crazy, and he hasn’t lost it so far. So nothing to worry about."
He gives me another smile, "Nice haircut by the way."
I thank him and take it as a sign to leave.

I walk out the tent and Michael quickly follows, with his new assault rifle slung across his chest.
"What gun would that be?" I ask him, although I’m not really interested.
"Don’t know," he replies, "Daniels said it was a SIG something or other."
"Know when we’re leaving for the place?" I ask him.
He looks at his watch, "In about thirty minutes or so. They’re doing some last minute tweaks to the plan."
"Tweaks?" I ask.
"Well apparently this Derek Washington guy is some kind of brilliant military strategist" he says, with a hard expression on his face, "something tells me, even with the tweaks, that something’s bound to go wrong."
I felt like he was holding something back but I decided not to ask about it. So I asked another question, "What’s the plan?"
"They wont tell us too much," he says, now looking slightly more calm, "just that our group is getting spit up in two. One’s assault and the other is infiltration. It won’t just be our group, we’re mixing ours with theirs."
"Good," I laugh, "I almost thought our group had to go alone."
We reach our tent, greet the two new guards standing by and wait inside until we’re called. Everyone arrives back into the tent shortly after us and with the exception of James who still refused to carry a gun or wear anything else beside that Asian robe, everyone else was armed to the teeth. It wasn’t long after we were all together again, when one of the guards came in and told us that Tom was standing outside our tent.
We all walk outside and see Tom with two groups of soldiers, one group with Freya and the other with O’Leary.

"I see you’re all happy with what we’ve provided" Tom says, smiling at each one of us, "but James, I think it’s probably best that you carry a gun, after all, my people will be apart of your team and I want everyone to have eachother’s back."
James says nothing but I’m sure he acknowledged what Tom said.
"Now then..." Tom continues, "...you’ve all been split into two groups. Assault and Infiltration."
He points to me, David, Giles, Mak and Mr Anderson, "you’re all apart of Assault Team 2. You’re responsible for engaging any enemies outside the building and provide cover fire for the infiltration teams. O’Leary is your Leader."
He then points to Daniels, Michael, James, Calvin and Harry, "You guys are apart of Infiltration team 1. You get inside the facility and the leader of your squad, Freya has a designated location to head to inside."
"I’m assuming the location is where the vaccine is, right?" Harry remarks.
"That assumption would be correct but there could be many other locations it could be in, that’s why we’re sending more then one infiltration team" Tom replies.
"How many teams all together?" Captain Daniels asks.
"All together 30 teams of seven to twelve people," Tom answers, "as well as additional support from tanks, several artillery and other forces. Don’t worry, we’ve delayed everything for now, so you lot can be introduced to your team."
He motions his hand behind him, to the two groups of soldiers led by Freya and O’Leary.
"Alright, get into your teams now." he says.
We all move to our respective groups but I notice James heading to the tent where the weapons were or at least I assume he is.
I was in the team led by O’Leary who seemed to be out-spoken and really up front. I half listened to what he was saying as I looked towards Michael who was also looking at me. He winked and then turned to listen to Freya.
"So just hope you live eh? haha" I managed to catch O’Leary say.

‘God I hope so’ I thought.

_____________________________

(This part by Nexus_Oblivion)
Perspective of: Michael, 17
November 24th 2008
Time: 02:58PM

‘ The horse he sweats with fear we break to run
The mighty roar of the Russian guns
And as we race towards the human wall
The screams of pain as my comrades fall. ’


‘I wonder why they put Heather in the assault team...’

‘Perhaps Infiltration is too dangerous.’

‘...maybe, but still...’

‘Don’t worry about her, she says she can handle herself’



I look at Heather for a few more seconds, and then wink at her, before I go back to listening to Freya.
"I expect each and everyone of you to be 110% ready for what’s about to happen," she says, addressing the whole Infiltration team, "we’re team 1, meaning we better not fuck up."
She looks at both Calvin and I, "You two...are you both going to be alright? I don’t want you having seizures," she says to Calvin, "or you, losing it and killing your team mates" she says to me.
"Don’t worry about a thing," I smile, "I’m not crazy just yet."
"Or me," Calvin adds, "no way I’ll fuck this up."
She firmly nods, before addressing everyone once again, "Now, our team’s objective is to head for one of the science labs on the second floor. There’s no doubt that we’ll encounter hostiles in the facility."

She went on discussing Team 1’s plan, talking about the vaccine, the fate of humanity and how, if anyone fucked up the mission, she would personally shoot us. Then she mentioned we had to beware of the zombie horde that was moving towards the facililty, I was surprised by that. The soldiers were already briefed about the mission but she none the less repeated what they discussed for our sake. She continued on to say that the artillery would shell the entire surrounding woods and try and take out the zombies before we entered the facility.
"Where’s James?" Freya asks, after finishing "he should be here."
"Where did he go?" Harry adds.

We stand all still in relative silence as we wait for James. We could faintly hear what O’Leary was saying to his group.
‘Umm, know where he went?’ I ask It.
‘He was walking towards the tent to get some weapons, presumably’ It replies sheepishly.
‘What, are you tired?’ I ask
‘No just bored.’ It says bluntly.
I laugh out loud and soon regret it, I broke the silence by laughing at nothing. Everyone’s looking at me and Freya’s stare penetrates through me.
"Hehe, I just thought of monkeys and spatulas" I say with the most phoney smile I could muster.
Unfortunately no one laughed and I stood there like an idiot.
James came back but it didn’t seem like he brought anything with him.
"What? No gun?" I ask, trying to redeem myself from the embarrassment.
"I don’t use guns," he says looking at me, "however these will be more then enough."
He parted his robe and revealed a column of knives, running down on an angle from the sides of his hip to his knees. There were twelve, five inch throwing knives strapped to each of his legs by a belt harness.

"That’s bad ass." Calvin commented, I silently concurred.
‘I think there’s more behind him.’ It said to me, now intrigued, ‘I can just see the handle of a knife.’
I focused my eyes on James’ side and I could see what It was referring to, on James’ left side was a handle to knife.
"Got some more knives behind you huh?" I remark.
"Yes I do," James replies, "I have four more knives and the machete attached to my back."
"That’s seriously bad ass" I say happily.
Freya on the other hand seemed less then impressed, "James, you better hope that no one here dies because you won’t use a gun to save them"
James looks at her for a moment, "I can assure you that it will not happen."
She continues to stare at him until she finally turns to the rest of us.
"Alright, then we’re moving now!"
We marched to where a group of vehicles were parked. I saw four actual tanks, six tank looking things, three armored police trucks and an ordinary school bus. I prayed we weren’t going on the bus.
"Alright, Infiltration Team 1, get into the APC." Freya orders, pointing to one of the tank looking vehicles. We all hurriedly rush inside. A bit cramped but all 12 of us managed to fit inside.


‘You’re going to help me right?’ I ask It.
‘Of course I will,’ It responds.


And for some reason, I felt better.

______________________

Perspective of Tom
1514 Local Time

Ode to Joyplayed as the 105mm Lights opened fire from the edge of a suburb nearby the facility.
I observed the explosions from the HE rounds two kilometres away.
The small forested areas around the facility were being obliterated.

The tanks and troop carriers had stopped their advance, and were being issued with biological defence equipment.
The three pronged assault would begin in a few minutes.

Freya came from her APC with Michael and Heather.
"We're ready to move in," she said, "How's is the bombardment going?"

"It's going well," I stated, returning my gaze to my binoculars, "Everything is going according to plan so far."
"This part is the easy part," Freya said sternly, "I am still uncomfortable with this."
A pause.

"Are we going to receive HAZMAT suits or something?" Michael asked.
"If we have enough," I replied, "Sorry, but my priority is to protect my own troops."
"We have extras," Freya said, "You'll be fine."

Michael didn't look so sure.
"Why do we need them anyway?" Heather asked.
"The facility is for researching biological weapons, presumably," Freya explained as another barrage started, "They could have anything in there."

Freya ordered the Americans away.
"So you're going in first," I muttered as she was about to follow.
"I thought we already discussed this," she said.
"...I still don't like it, let O'Leary go in first," I said quietly, "I don't want to lose you..."
"You won't, if we both do our jobs," she said, "When we get the vaccine, we'll return to Europe, live happily ever after, but now we have a job to do."
"Sixteen kids?" I asked, mockingly.
Freya blushed and punched me.

"Alright, let's go," I said after sighing, "Don't get yourself killed."

Freya returned to her squads, and I returned to O'Leary beside the command APC.
I nodded to one of the corporals, he fiddled with his iPod, and "Afternoon Delight" started playing on the radio.
The entire squad broke down into laughing, Prendergast went bright red, and O'Leary ordered the music off.

"The secret was out by the time I found out," I explained to O'Leary, "The boys were more than willing."
"I'll crucify you if you try that again," he shouted at his amused squad.

"Alright, enough comedy," I announced, "We have a tough job ahead of us as you all know. Let's go."
"You heard the man, move your arses!" O'Leary ordered.

The troops climbed into the APC.
"Where are those Americans?" I asked.
"David, Giles, Mak and Mr Anderson and that girl..." O'Leary muttered.
"Heather?" I asked.
"Yeah, that's the one," O'Leary replied.

"Here they come now," I said, as they approached.
"Took you long enough," O'Leary said loudly when they arrived.

"We were talking to Freya," Mak explained.
"Alright, just get on," I replied.

I got into the command position.
"Artillery, cease fire, pack up and head to the rally point.
All units, begin advance."

The engines of the trucks, APCs and tanks starting up eliminated the brief silence from the artillery.
"Foster, what is your status?"

"We're in position on the hill," Foster replied, out of breath, "The artillery barrage seems to have been effective."

The APC lurched into movement, and the column began to advance, tanks at the front.
We made good progress.

"This is Foster, we have a problem..."
"What's that?" I asked.
"We have an enemy column of armoured vehicles, approaching from the east at a kilometre," came the reply.
"How many?" I asked.

"One MGS, three personnel characters, one mortar carrier," Foster stated.
"No tanks, is that correct?" I asked.
"That's right."

I ordered the tanks to go on ahead, while slowing the convoy's advance.
They turned a corner.

"Our tanks are fighting them now," Freya reported.

We came around the corner, and down the long road we spotted our tanks in a field firing at an enemy position.
Wrecked vehicles could been seen in the distance. The convoy ignored it and we drove towards the facility.
One tank exploded.

"Stop now! What happened!" I ordered.
"Mines," Erik stated over the radio.
"Get the tanks out of that field now!" I ordered.

The enemy had been defeated, but at too high a cost.
"Stay on the road from now on," I continued, "Keep moving."

We reached the area of the facility. The artillery had done a good job.
The surrounded sections of field and forest were in bits. Bits of dead infected were everywhere.
The remaining tanks rejoined us.

"Start psychological operations, prepare to unload teams," I ordered.
Martial music played as we entered the compound.
Immediately, we came under fire.

An anti-tank rocket screamed from the roof of the facility, barely missed our APC, and hit the tracks of the tank behind us.
The man was soon dead, sniped from the opposite hills by the British. Small arms fire could be heard bouncing off the armour.

"I get the sneaking suspicion that the Americans know we're on their turf," I said to Freya over the radio.
"Too late to stop now," Freya stated.
"I'm doubling the infiltration numbers," I said, "O'Leary's squad will join you."
"....Fine," Freya said.

Suddenly, the firing stopped.
"Foster, are we clear?" I asked.
"From what we can see, yes," he replied, "We killed a good few of them on the roof, the rest went running."

"Assault and infiltration teams, disembark," I ordered.

We approached the building, rifles raised.
The squads reported in.

Freya and her people ran up to us.
"Are you ready?" she asked.
"Almost, we just need the defence perimeter to be set up," I replied.

I looked at Freya's squad, and spotted James.
"Wait a second, what is that clown up to?" I asked loudly.
"Who?" she asked.

"You, what are you doing?!" I asked, pointing at James, "Where is your firearm?"
"I didn't take one," he replied.

I swore.
"Are you a ninja?" I asked.
"...No," he replied.
"Then don't fuck about," I shouted, throwing him a pistol, "Take it."
He picked it up, and reluctantly holstered it.

"Why didn't you order him to take a sidearm at least?" I asked Freya, returning to my squad.
"I don't expect him to cover my back, so I didn't care," she replied.
"Shit, I hope all those knives do the job for your sake," I said, shaking my head.

"Perimeter is set up," Olli reported.
"Alright, you're in command out here," I said, "I've decided to go in myself."

"Sarah, blow the doors," O'Leary said quietly.
The squad had grins all around as Sarah set the charge, retreated, and blew the doors apart with RDX.

We entered the building.
______________________________

(This part by Nexus_Oblivion)
Perspective of: Michael, 17
November 24th 2008
Time: 03:25PM

‘ We hurdle bodies that lay on the ground
And the Russians fire another round
We get so near yet so far away
We won’t live to fight another day. ‘


‘This isn’t going to end so well...’

‘How so?’

‘...Dad, doesn’t make things so easy’

‘I highly doubt what just happened was easy’




Entering the building, we were greeted by nothing. A reception desk stood more then 40 feet away, looking insignificant compared to the colossal size of the hall. Giant white pillars reaching all the way to the top facility, placed all in rows, near the sides of the the hall. I looked above and saw the railings where the second floor was and two catwalks looming above us. The only doors were past the reception desk.
"Where they fuck are they?" Harry asked
"Keep your guard up," Freya replies, taking cover behind one of the massive pillars on the left, "IT1, get over here!"

I followed behind her and crouched as the rest of Infiltration Team 1 took refuge behind the other pillars. I watched, as O’Leary’s team make their way to the opposite pillars, I caught Heather’s gaze before she hid behind O’Leary. Tom appeared from the blown entrance and rushed to Freya.
"Status?" he asks, while watching the the above floors.
"No uncles here" Freya commented.
Tom glanced around once more before speaking into his radio, "AT2, your team will scout ahead past the doors, give us the signal if it’s clear and we’ll send the rest of the other teams inside."
O’Leary gave a thumbs up across the hall and ordered his troops, they made their way to one of the doors.
Tom turned to Freya, "You still remember where to go right?"
"Tom," Freya says slowly, "I know the objective, don’t worry about me...we’ve done things like this before."

I think I saw the chemistry between them. I poked my head away from the pillar to see where my friends were. Calvin was crouching beside the pillar behind me with three soldiers and he gave me a thumbs up, Harry and James were in front with four soldiers.
I heard Tom’s radio go off, "It’s clear, but I think you should see this..."
Tom stood up.
Freya looks at him, "Should we send the rest of the Infiltration teams in here?"
"No, let’s see what O’Leary’s found first."
Freya made a gesture with one of her hands and the soldiers behind us including Calvin started advancing to the doors, we followed behind them. Harry, James and the other soldiers took the rear.
There were three sets of double doors, the closest one was directly in front us, the second door was behind the reception desk and the last door, where O’Leary’s team entered was the furthest away.
"We’ll enter the same way O’Leary did" Tom says, quickly scanning each door.

It wasn’t long before we entered the next room. It was almost identical to the hall we were in just before, except there was two spiral staircases instead of a reception desk 40 feet away. Then I noticed something behind them, something huge but the metal stairs were blocking most of it. All I know is, it wasn’t apart of the decor.
‘What is that?’ I wondered to myself
‘It’s a giant capsule by the looks of it’ It says informatively.
"O’Leary, what is that?" Tom loudly whispers, cautiously making his way to him.
I wanted to follow but Freya tapped my shoulder and motioned me to the opposite side of the room. I hid behind one of the pillars, opposite O’Leary’s team and noticed Calvin making his way here too.
"What do think it is?" Calvin asks me, crouching down and pointing his rifle at the big object.
"Some kind of containment device from the looks of it," I answer, "we should get closer, whadda you say?"
He grinned through his steri stripped cheeks and nodded. We slowly made our way to the capsule, Freya was loudly whispering for us to get back but we ignored her.

Calvin and I were halfway there when James decided to tag along. Together we arrived at the foot of the stairs, the giant capsule only a foot away behind it.
I took a step forward but I felt something grasp my right shoulder and swung me around, it was Tom.
He didn’t need to say anything because his eyes conveyed his fury. While I stared back, I heard gunfire and several explosions happening outside.....and then something banged against metal behind me. I turned around and raised my assault rifle.
With adrenaline coursing through me, I walked around the staircase and saw the capsule window coming into view. The window wasn’t very big, only about 8x9 inches, the capsule itself was about 7 feet long. I crept closer and from the corner of my eye, I saw Calvin, James and Tom following near me.

I was close enough to press my face against the the capsule window, I looked inside and saw something with pale blue skin and then it shifted.
"Shit..." I whispered, taking a few steps back, "there’s something in there!"
I could feel my heart beating out of my chest...
Tom crept up this time, but didn’t manage to get close enough, as another bang resonated from the capsule.
"Get back with everyone else!" he ordered to the three of us. He stepped back with his gun still raised while Calvin, James and I ran back to Freya.
"What’s in there?" Freya demands, raising her own rifle.
"Something blue," I say lamely.
"Blue? What d--"
She was cut off by another bang, but this time from the floor above.
"Infiltration teams, get inside the facility ASAP!" Tom bellowed into his radio, "everyone else get ready."
The bangs from the second floor were getting louder, and it was coming from different areas now, it wasn’t long before the capsule on our floor begun banging too. Then an alarm rang...
I could hear a female voice echoing around the facility, above the alarm, "Containment breach on the second floor, sealing all exists."

A mechanized noise erupted behind me, I look back where we came from and see huge steel barriers quickly lowering on the doors.
"No!" Tom yelled, running.
It was too late, we were all a fair distance away from the doors, the barriers came down.
He stopped running.
I huge explosive type clamor came from behind the stairs.
My heart started pounding it’s way out of my body. I had to clutch my chest from the pain, it was beating too hard.
"Michael?" Calvin asked worriedly.
I didn’t have time to answer because O’Leary swore loudly.
I looked at what he was gasping at and saw it....
From the looks of it, it was still human, a male human about two meters tall. It was completely naked and had pale blue skin. The Thing had no hair anywhere and it had terribly intimidating muscles on its arms, far to big for a human.
"What the hell have they been doing here?" Freya asks.
The Thing somehow inhaled and roared, unlike a Shrieker...unlike anything from this world.
It was the last thing I heard before I collapsed.



I woke up to Calvin, violently shaking me, "GET THE FUCK UP!!!!"
I look at him, "Wha...whas.."
There were people yelling and loud banging noises coming from the left of me. The memory of what happened came flooding back to me.
I stood up and looked around. We were no longer in the hall anymore, but some sort of lab. Freya, O’Leary, Tom, David, Harry, Steve and several soldiers where all pushing against a giant double door, something was slamming the door on the other side and it didn’t look like they would hold it for long.
"Calvin what’s happening?" I ask panicking.
He shook me again, "Snap out of it. Forget that and help us!"
He grabbed a rifle, which I realized belonged to me and he handed it back, I slung it behind me.
I took several sluggish steps until I reached the giant doors where everyone was trying their best to stop whatever it was outside from getting in.
"What do you want me to do?" I yelled over the banging.
"Switch with Prendergast, she has to set the explosive" Tom said, straining to hold the door.
A woman looks at me and I realized it was the same woman who blew the entrance before.
"Alright, move!" I said to her.

We quickly switched places, moments before something slammed against the door. Even with more then 10 people barring the door, the force of the slam was still enough to send some us of back.
"What’s happening?" I ask one of the soldiers near me, recognising him as a member of O’Leary’s team.
"We were attacked by the blue things," he says in a Scottish accent, "we killed the one on our floor," another slam, "fuck! but more of them jumped from the second to attack us," another slam sent him tumbling back but he returned again, "damn! so we run up the stairs but we were cut off from the others by another blue thing, now here we are! Three of those things chasing us last I checked."
"Prendergast, how is it coming along?" Freya shouted, as the door violently shook.
"Give me a few more......done!" Prendergast excitedly exclaimed, "when your ready move away and hide!"
"Alright!" Tom strained once more, "after the next hit, move to the back of the lab and get behind something!"
Another slam and we all bolted past the explosive device.
I ducked behind a bench that looked pretty solid. I poked my head out and saw the door burst open.
Three of those blue things charged inside but they didn’t get far, the explosion rocked the lab and I assumed it blew them to pieces.
We waited for the dust to settle but the smell and smoke was already filling the air. I coughed repeatedly.
"Everybody okay?" O’Leary said from somewhere in the lab.
Murmurs from others saying they were fine, but then an unworldly roar came through the smoke.
"Aim for the door!" I heard Harry say, followed by gunfire.
I aimed my rifle and fired where I assumed the thing was. I emptied my whole magazine and luckily, I felt a thud on the floor.
"Hang on I’ll check it out!" I shout, trying to redeem myself, "Stay here guys"
The dust settled, I changed my assault rifle mag and slowly walked towards the body. I gave it a good kick to make sure it was dead.


"Yeah it’s clear" I shout, still looking at the blue monstrosity.
Tom looked at me furiously, "Good, your finally useful. Mind thanking Freya and Calvin for dragging your unconscious ass all the way here?"
"Look I’m sorry I--"
"Forget about it!" Freya says, despite obviously being pissed at me too, "Let’s go back to the mission, and get into contact with the others."
They continued to look at me until Tom spoke on his radio, "Anyone still alive over there?"
"Yeah, we’re alive, we’re in lab 2L" the male voice on the radio said.
"Any causalities Aster?" Tom asks.
"Yeah...Horatio’s dead, and one of the other group’s friend is too..."
I heard a female voice in the background say something to Aster.
"His name is Giles" Aster said.
I felt dead. I’ve lost another friend again...
‘Hey, it’ll be alright’ It says reassuringly, I felt slightly better.
I felt a hand on my shoulder, it was O’Leary, "Cheer up, there’s time to grieve later Michael."
I sighed and checked my rifle.
"Hey look at this," David says, pointing to one of the vials behind a glass cabinet which was miraculously unharmed in the explosion, "is this what your looking for?"
Freya doubtfully walked to what David was pointing to and scoffed.
"That’s not it," she remarks.
He laughed.

I chuckled too but I heard something that almost made me collapse.
"So....most of you survived that little encounter with the amplious reani necrolis," the familiar voice said through one of the speakers in the room, "now, see how you fair against other humans."
There was a large mechanical sound coming from somewhere within the facility.
"What’s going on?" Aster asked over Tom’s radio.
"It sounds like it’s coming from under the ground" Freya commented.
"There wouldn’t be too many of them left," Tom says, sounding confident.
‘I hope so...’ I thought to myself, ‘but knowing Dad, he’s got a plan.’
Tom got on his radio, "Aster, we’ll meet you where you are and then continue the mission."
"If it’s all right with you, I’ll investigate the sound," Aster remarked, "it sounded like that noise was coming from the hall where we encountered the capsule."
Tom sighed, "Alright, be quick, I want you in Lab 2J in 10 minutes. "

He looked at all of us, "Let’s go."
______________________________________________________

Perspective of Tom
1541 Local Time

"I keep this for...." started O'Leary, pulling out a shotgun.
"Don't, I've seen that film," I said, shaking my head, "Just blow the fucking door off its hinges please."
"Yes sir," O'Leary replied, and pulled the trigger.

The wood around the office door lock shattered, and was kicked in.
We ran into the large room, walls painted bright white, with cubicles lined up neatly.
"Administration level," I muttered.

"How many levels below ground do you reckon they have in here?" Mak asked.
"Impossible to tell," Freya said, ordering her people to check some doors.
"They can see us," I said, pointing to cameras that I only noticed now.

Freya pulled out a pistol and shot them.
"We need to get out of here," she said, "Right now."
"I'm beginning to agree with you," I said, "The vaccine will be useless if we're dead."
"So what do we do?" Heather asked.
"Shell the facility," I said sternly, "Whatever they've been doing down here, we can't allow it to get out."

"Irish only," I ordered in Irish to my troops.
"They probably have audio as well," I muttered, moving to the next door.
"What's the plan?" Michael asked.

"Meet up with the others and get the hell out," Freya said, moving to me.
"This Washington guy is clearly some sort of fucking psychopath," I said loudly, trying to open the door, "Why would someone create that monster?"
I turned around to order O'Leary to shoot the door, and I saw Michael looking very angry.

"What the hell is your problem?" I asked him slowly.
He said nothing.
"Is he alright?" I asked Heather.

She rushed over to him and elbowed him.
"I'm fine," he said quickly.

I sighed.
"Mind him," I ordered Heather.
"...Yes," she said after a while.

O'Leary then shot the door open as ordered.
We entered another large lab room, this one with no windows and sounds could be heard at the other end of the long room.
"Shoot the lights, prepare NV," I ordered quickly.

The lights were quickly off, and it was nearly pitch black.
We hoped to high hell that it wasn't another group of those things as we advanced into view of the rest of the room.
Luckily, it was a couple groups of confused looking US Army regulars.

Smiling somewhat like a lioness who had caught her prey, Freya ordered her troops to open fire.
Half of the enemy were down before they knew which way to shoot.

"Those guys aren't qualified for this, what the hell are they doing here?" Mak asked, as he took cover beside O'Leary and Sarah.
"Late recruits probably," I said, as the returning fire finally found our direction.

"Orders?" O'Leary asked in Irish.
"Grenades," I stated, and the word went around.

Grenade launchers were loaded, and subsequently fired.
Explosions rocked the room as the grenades detonated.
The remaining enemies retreated.

We ran up to the corpses.
"Take their ammo," Freya ordered, and her troops complied.

The Americans with us didn't look happy.
"Why didn't you give them a warning?" James asked angrily.
"They wouldn't have heeded one," Freya said roughly.

"Shut up for second," Sarah said, "What's that noise?"

The sound of a large metal doors opening started getting louder.
"To the back of the room, now, all weapons aimed towards these double doors," I ordered.
The entire group complied.

Soon enough, the sound stopped.
"Maybe I was wrong...." I muttered, relaxing a little.
The doors were knocked off their hinges by a big blue fucker, putting me firmly in my place.

"FIRE!" shouted Freya, and her section opened up.
The rest soon followed.

The bastard dropped almost as fast as a regular infected, as they now longer had the element of surprise.
It was still meat and bones after all. It just took more bullets to do.

We went through the doorway, and saw a large ramp heading downwards to our right.
"Holy..." muttered Mak and James simultaneously.
Directly ahead of us, was the sealed door to Lab 2J.

"Prendergast, blow this door," I ordered in Irish.
"Lads, are you in 2J yet?" I asked.
"Yeah, we just got here," came the reply.

"Get away from the metal doors, we're blowing them open," I stated.
"Got it," said Aster.

Soon, Sarah was ready.
We took cover, and she blew the explosives.
After a series of impressive explosions, the door fell down, and our comrades came through the smoke.

"Everyone ok?" I asked.
"Other than Horatio and that Giles bloke, yeah," Aster replied, "Horatio got tagged by one of those blue pricks, and Giles caught a bullet."

The other squad noticed the ramp.
"What the hell is that?" Aster asked.
"Does it look like I work here?" I replied.

My radio crackled loudly, and eventually, Olli's voice came through.
"Tom, if you can hear this, we're going to punch a hole to get into you," he said.
"I hear you loud and clear now," I replied, "We have a few casualties and the place is swarming with enemy troops."
"Orders?" he asked.

I looked at Freya.

"Set up the artillery, blow that hole you were talking about, and get us some reinforcements," Freya said, "We've found a ramp downwards."
"A ramp?" Olli asked.

"That's not all," I muttered, "Just do what she says, we'll explain when we get back."
"How many do you need?" he asked.
"Three sections ought to do it," Freya said, "Can you maintain the perimeter without them?"
"Yes, it should be ok," he replied.


"Great," she replied.

We settled down in the hall with the ramp.
The system to raise it and block our entrance to the underground section had been blown, thanks to us, and we set up a watch on it.
From what we could see, a series of tunnels lay at the bottom of it.

I sat down against the far wall.
Freya sat down beside me.

"I thought we were going to leave?" I asked.
"We're in too far now," Freya said, "Besides, artillery won't blow up the underground areas, we need to sweep them."
"Fine," I said.

The Americans sat down near us, talking among themselves.
That Michael guy still didn't look happy, relatively speaking.

Why?

Freya poked me, and I turned to her.
She kissed me.

"Just in case," she said, getting up.


_________________________________________________
(This part by Phoenix_Lord)
Brendon James, 21
November 25th 2008
01:30pm

Brendon James walked across one of the deserted highways of Sloan, heading nowhere in particular. It is early in the afternoon. He has just strapped the katana he found behind him, like a modern day ninja. The pistol he stole from his father is holstered firmly on his right leg, a Kimber Custom Stainless TLE/RL II. He inherited his father’s great physique which helped him survive throughout this ordeal. Even though he is not an entirely muscular man, Brendon’s strength was enough to lift a 200kg piece of concrete when it fell on top of his companion, trapping his friend underneath it.
The brown leather motorcycle jacket he removed from a dead biker fits perfectly on him. There’s an insignia on the jacket, a black tribal dragon with Latin phrases both above and under the dragon, the words Salvator Mundi on top and scuto amoris divini on the bottom.
Brendon calmly walks past the various cars strewn about the highway. He catches a glimpse of himself in a dirty side view mirror, the crew cut he gave himself suits his oval shaped face, then again any hairstyle suits him. He stares into his hazel eyes and notices a black dot on the white part of his left eye.

Along side Brendon is his only companion and friend. A loving yet ferocious German shepherd named Shadow. Strapped to the tan and black dog is a vest that holds 2 handguns and 4 magazines for each. He happily pants behind Brendon, almost as if he is blissfully unaware of what has been happening for so long and simply believes his Master is taking him out for a walk. He stops and eagerly stares at his Master who’s looking into a mirror. Shadow wonders why he has stopped. Perhaps Master will give Shadow a treat? No. His Master resumes walking and Shadow happily follows. They continue walking, navigating their way around the cars until Shadow smells something in the air. A familiar and fowl stench that Shadow hates the most. He lets out a growl emanating from his chest and his Master stops.

"What is it Shad?" Brendon asks "are there any zombies around?" The dog woofs and points ahead of them with his front paw. Brendon looks ahead and spots the thing several meters away inside one of the many vehicles scattered around. He pulls out his father’s gun and whispers to Shadow. "Is it only 1? or are there more?" The dog sniffs the air several times again and does a human-like shake of its head. "Okay, good boy. Stay here." The dog lets out a whimper but obeys.

Brendon cautiously steps forward with his father’s gun raised in front of him. He gets closer and closer to the zombie in the car. With each step, a bead of sweat slides down his face, even though he has killed before he wants to retain some of his humanity or at least.....what’s left of it.
"SHRIEEEEKK!!!!" The zombie bursts through the window and collapses on the pavement. Brendon doesn’t waste a second and shoots a hole in its head before it could run at him. The gunshot echoes around the highway. Brendon waits a while, knowing that loud noises seem to attract these things. He remains silently idle for about a minute until he whistles for Shadow. The dog ecstatically runs and wags his tail when he reaches his Master. Brendon and his dog resume walking, heading for nowhere in particular.
It turns out however, that nowhere in particular, was a gas station. After 2 hours of walking on the highway. The sight of the gas station was a welcome relief for both of them, unfortunately, the smell wasn’t. Shadow sneezed and Brendon had to breath through his mouth. "Stay out here Shad," Brendon said as he nearly gagged "hopefully there’s some food in here." Shadow whimpered again.

He never liked being away from Master, especially with such a awful stench overwhelming the other smells in the air. Not as bad as ‘that smell’ but still bad none the less. He sat beside the sliding door while Master entered the station. He looked around for any signs of the fowl ones, normally he would sniff the air but all Shadow could smell now was the awful stench coming from the gas station. As Shadow looked around, he wondered where the others of his kind were. No dogs.....such a shame. He heard noises coming from the inside of gas station. He started salivating when he heard the familiar sound of a tin can opening but there was something else, something coming from the road that distracted him. He perked his ears up in the direction of the sound. He could feel the ground rumbling slightly and the noise was getting closer. He started snarling and barking. Shadow’s Master emerged from the gas station. "Get in here." He heard his Master call. Shadow obeyed. As he trotted inside, the smell got to him. He sneezed several times, causing his Master to smile. Was Master happy? He turned away and noticed a bowl on the floor with some food. A reward? Shadow looked at his Master who nodded.

As Shadow ate, Brendon looked outside. "Something’s wrong." Brendon thought to himself "Shadow’s heard something". He hid behind a wall and continued to stare out unto the road. Minutes later Brendon could here the sound of vehicles getting closer, it was mechanical and heavy. Seconds later a tank rolled into view. "Fuck....me." Brendon whispered. Shadow stuck his head out of the now empty bowl and stared at the tank, the dog’s body shifted slightly. "Hey!" Brendon whispered "Get over here". The dog walked to Brendon and laid down beside him. Brendon smiled again and went back to looking outside. More tanks rolled by and several APCs followed. "I wonder where they’re going?" Brendon asked himself. He stared at the decomposing and rotten bodies on the far side of the station’s interior and then stared at Shadow. "Want to follow them?" Shadow gave Brendon a creepily cute dog smile and woofed. "Alright then.....let’s go!"






(so heres my story. i didt reveal to much backstory yet but i will soon. You can include my charcters into the story since I was going to do it anyway. just dont kill them. thanks to nexus oblivion for the edits too.)


--------------------------------------------------------------
This part by Kuthiani


"...Why...?..."

It was pitch black, and I felt more confused than I have ever been in my entire life.
My stomach was churning and there was a burning sensation in my head.
"...Hello?"
Suddenly I was aware that something was covering my eyes. It felt like something was tied to my head.
This... this is a blindfold...
I could tell that it was made of cloth due to it's texture on my face and it's size. I attempted to raise my hands as to remove it, but found that they were also tied down.
"...What?... Help!"
Instantly I began to panic. I tried to kick my feet but they were shackled as well. Beneath me, I could feel a hard surface. "Hey! Somebody help!"
Nothing happened. I calmed down and tried to make logic of the situation.
What's happening to me? Why am I tied down? Did somebody put me here?
suddenly, a different question was prevelant in my mind.
...Who am I?
I couldn't remember anything. The feeling was strange. I knew that I had a history, but not a single memory could make it's way into my thoughts.
All of a sudden, footsteps could be heard nearby.
"H...Hello? Who's there?"
After a brief pause in movement, I could hear a gasp just before the footsteps rapidly got closer to me. I then heard a voice. "Hey! Hey! Are you alright?"
The voice was that of a very young male.
"Please... get me off this table..."
"Yeah, yeah... Hold on..."
Before I knew it, my feet were free, followed by my hands.
I sat up and sincerely said, "Thank you."
Raising my hands to my head, I began to remove the cloth that was blocking my site.
This isn't a blindfold... this is a bandage...
I unravelled the cloth and dropped it to the floor. Slowly, I began to open my eyes.
The young voice returned. "Woah..."
Everything was extremely blurry, and of the few things I could see, nothing was in color.
"I... I can hardly see... It's all grey..."
In front of me, I could see the shape of the person who liberated me from the restraints. As he murmered, "Dude..." I saw a small flash of red.
Suddenly I was both surprised and speechless. Did that just happen...?
"You... you're eyes..."
With every word he said, I could see a flash of red at his mouth.
"...What?" I asked.
"You're eyes...they're white..." He said.
My site wasn't as blurry by now, but I could only see things about ten feet in front of me. Everything was still colorless.
Carefully, I lowered myself from the surface on which I was sitting. With both feet now on the ground, I could see the person in front of me. He was short and kind of fat, with blond hair. Through his glasses, his eyes seemed to express fright.
"White?"
"Yeah... you're eyes are like... the zombies..." Again, his mouth emmited a small red flash with every word.
Suddenly a flash of color filled my mind as I saw a man in orange pants running in my direction. The memory only lasted for half of a second.
He continued to talk. "We need to get out of here."
"But... I..." There were many questions in my mind, but none of them were processing clearly.
"Do I know you?" I asked.
Almost as soon as I asked this question, an extremely loud explosion could be heard, and for a few moments, I could see extremely well.
"We have to go! I'll tell you the rest later! Come on!" The kid said as he began to head towards the door.
I felt like it was the wisest thing to do, so I followed.
I noticed that with every step the kid took, as red flash emitted from beneath his feet.
Before long, only a few feet seperated the two of us. Since I was following, it was necessary to stay slightly behind. He seemed to know where he was going. He also seemed to be fast for a kid of his size.
"This way!" he yelled as he quickly turned a corner.
I slipped and rolled across the floor, but quickly pulled myself back up. In that instant, I could no longer see the kid.
"Wait!" I yelled loudly. With that hollar, I could suddenly see extremely far ahead of me. Along with that, I could see the red flashes from the kid's feet.
A sudden thought hit me. Am I...
Another explosion confirmed that this was no time to think about it. I began to run after the red flashes once more.
My distant vision was disipating again. "No!" I yelled, frustrated with my fickle vision.
At that outburst, however, I could see further once more.
I was beginning to understand how my sight was working, but I still failed to understand why.
Soon enough, I caught up to the kid again. We continued to run until we reached a large metal door. He fumbled through his pocket and found an object that seemed to be a card. After inserting it into a slot next to the door, a light beep could be heard.
Another memory flashed through my mind. I saw a girl holding a camera before I returned to reality.
The door slowly began to slide open before the two of us entered a large room.
The kid began to talk quickly again. "Ok... Ok... Box... He said it would be a box..." He looked around until he saw something. Another explosion went off as he said "There! Come on!"
I followed until we were both standing in a room that resembeled a large elevator. There were seats lining the walls.
The kid looked at the wall and inserted the card into yet another slot. Suddenly, a robotic female voice came through a speaker saying, "Please take a seat and buckle the chest-strap."
Without asking any questions, the two of us did what we were told.
"How did you know about this?" I asked the kid. he was sitting in the seat next to me.
As he buckled his chest-strap, he replied. "Elijah told me what to do."
"Who is Elijah?" I asked.
"I'll tell y..." I could hear the kid say just before the room suddenly began to shift. It was like an elevator, but extremely fast, and moving sideways rather than upward. A shrill noise filled my ears as a red flash filled my eyes.
What is going on? What is this?
Confusion doesn't even begin to explain how I felt. It was uncomfortable, and I could barely hear myself think. The burning pain in my head was increasing as well.
I closed my eyes and the red flash dissipated. However, the noise was still ringing in my ears.
This went on for nearly five minutes before suddenly, the noise died down and the speed of the moving room decreased.
Finally, it came to a stop.
After a brief moment of deep breath, I opened my eyes and the robotic voice returned. "It is now safe to exit the tram."
The two of us unbuckled the straps across our chests as the door opened. We both stepped out of the room.
"Wh- Where are we?"
The kid replied to my question: "Elijah said that this is the home of a friend of his."
Although I couldn't see very far in front of me, I could make out the image of a pool table. Upon further inspection, several antlers lining the wall.
"This is a trophy room?" I asked.
"Yeah... and that is Elijah."
The kid was looking across the room, far enough that I couldn't see who he was talking about. For that reason, I slowly began to walk that direction.
Gradually I stepped until finally, I was close enough to see a black man sitting in a chair.
"I be extremely 'appy to see joo' now!" He said excitedly. His voice suggested that he was sincere about it. Again, flashes of red appeared in my vision with every word spoken.
"Your name is Elijah?"
Suddenly a smile turned into a frown. "What be joor' name?" he asked me.
"My... I don't know."
"Joo' remembah anyting?"
"Uh... not really. I just woke up in... that room... what's happening here?"
It was becoming more apparent that every time I spoke, I could see a little further for a few seconds.
"Sit down, please. Dis may take a li'tl time to es'plain everahting."
He motioned to a seat near me, and I obeyed.
"I be startin' from da beginnin' den." He said as he leaned forward in his chair. I now noticed a long braided gotee hanging from his chin.
"Joor' a survivah of a plague..."
A plague? Does that explain why my vision is like this?
"Joor' name be Keith. Dis be joor' uncle's home."

It then occured to me, that he would be revealing more questions than answers.

----------------------------------------------------------------
This part by Kuthiani

November 20, 2008
(Seven days ago)



In seven days, it's going to be Thanksgiving.
My brother promised me that he'd be here.

My name is Craig Leatherman. My brother Frank and his daughter live in Bowman.
I haven't been able to get a hold of him on the phone. I've been calling at least three times every day since the 14th.
You can bet that I'm worried.

I heard something about a chemical spill in Bowman, but Frank claimed that nothing like that happened. Something is wrong with the whole picture. One morning, I got into a conversation with my neighbor as I was leaving for work.

"Good morning! How are you?" I remember asking.
"Oh, I'm alright I guess. Kind of worried actually."
"Worried?"
"Yeah." He said. "I've got family over in Bowman, but I can't reach them by phone."
In that moment, I knew something was wrong.
"I've got family there too." I replied. "I can't reach them either..."

I skipped work that day. The two of us decided to carpool on a trip to Bowman. I needed to find my Brother, and my neighbor (Chad) needed to find his cousin.

Day 1 (November 20)
We took my car and got to the southern edge of the county where Bowman is centered, but we weren't allowed to pass through. Military blockades were everywhere. They said that they weren't allowed to tell us what was going on, and that we weren't allowed to enter. No amount of arguing fixed that.

We were just about to leave when we saw it. A couple of people ran out from the wooded area which they were protecting. The two people were screaming, but it wasn't a normal sound. It sounded like the screams of banshees. Chad and I were stunned but the soldiers began to fire at the things. Finally, the two shrieking people stoped moving.

One of the soldiers raised his weapon towards us and yelled. "They saw it! We gotta kill 'em."
I tensed up, speechless. Chad was the same.
"Wait!" I heard another soldier say. "Let them through."
"What?" The soldier who was aiming towards us called out. "That's a violation of orders!"
The other one was much more calm in speech. "Instead of us killing them, we can let the shriekers do it."
The first guy was angrily disapointed as he lowered his weapon. "Fine. Go on through."
We didn't argue. They let us pass.
As we walked by, we briefly examined the people that were just killed. Their eyes were completely white.
We weren't comforted by the sight at all.

Day 2 (November 21)
We walked a long way until we reached a house in the woods. Chad knocked on the door and even rang the doorbell. Finally, we heard a voice from the other side.
"Do you have any weapons?" The voice said.
"...Of course not." Chad said.
"Then why should I let you in?"
We were confused beyond belief. "Sir, we've gone a day without food or rest. We just need some hospitality."
There was a moment of silence.
When the two of us came to the conclusion that the man wouldn't help us, we began to walk away.
Click. The door unlocked.
We turned around and a large man with a mustache appeared. He was holding a double-barrelled shotgun in his hands. He then said, "If you help us, we'll let you in."
"Sure. Anything you need."

The man's name was Jeff. Four other people were in the house with him.
Lena, Andrew, Spencer, and Josh.

While we ate from a stockpile of food which was on a table, we learned about how each of these people came to the house. Lena and Andrew were married and they ventured to the abandoned house first. Jeff and Josh were working at a news station when it was overrun by those creatures. They used one of the station's trucks to escape. They found Spencer as he was starving on top of Bowman's water tower.

They also explained to us about the zombies.

It was all incredibly hard to believe everything they were telling us, but we witnessed the two creatures at the barricade. We had no choice but to trust these people. After eating, we got some rest.

Day 3 (November 22)

"You ready to hear about the help we need?" Asked Jeff.
Apparantly, they wanted to find some of Spencer's friends.

Spencer said that the friends he needed to find were names Jerry, Matt, Simon and Jessica.
They also wanted to find more weapons, food and other useful things.

It was decided that we would drive to Bowman High School first. Spencer told us that Simon and Matt went there to find someone before he was seperated from their group.

We drove until we reached the outskirts of town. Since these zombies were supposedly attracted to noise, it wouldn't be wise to drive a vehicle through town. From there, we started walking.
Everything was going smooth as we avoided the zombies. After a long and careful walk, we reached the school.
Of course the first thing we all saw was the zombies.
Josh pointed out the second thing.
"Look!" He whispered. "What's in front of those doors?"
"Is that a car?" asked Lena.
"I think so." Came a quick reply from Chad.
It was obviously burned up. Several scraps of metal were spread across the parking lot as well. All the evidence suggested that the vehicle exploded.
"How are we gonna get in there?" I asked.
"It looks like we to distract those things somehow." said Jeff.

At about that time we all noticed something. On one of the rooftops, we saw the figure of a person. He was walking much faster than the shambling zobmies below.
"What's he have in his hand?" Chad asked.
Spencer raised the hunting rifle which he was carrying, as to look through the scope.
"He's got a pistol in one hand... and... a baseball bat in the other." said Spencer.
"May I see?" I asked Spencer. He nodded and handed me the rifle.
I took a look through the scope. The man walked to the edge of the roof. In his face, the only expression was that of sorrow. I watched as he sat down, and let his legs hang.
Slowly, the man raised the pistol to his head and closed his eyes.
"Oh man... he's gonna kill himself." I said quietly.
I wasn't about to let that happen. Someone in my family had killed themselves before, and somehow I just couldn't allow him to take the shot.
I lowered the rifle and shot one of the zombies. POWWW. Jeff said that only headshots kill them, so I made sure to make the shot count.
Instantly, the others began to ran towards us, shrieking.
"What are you doing?" Asked Spencer angrily as he violently took the rifle back.
"Run!" Jeff said, but not too loudly.
As we ran, we became seperated. I don't know where everyone else went, but Josh was running alongside me.
We ran without looking back. In about two minutes, we began to slow down from fatigue. Each of us were unarmed, which wasn't a comfort at all.
"There! There! Look!" He said. He was pointing at a dumpster near some apartment buildings.
I was so tired at that moment, so anything worked for me. Josh jumped inside while I grabbed the cover. I pulled it forward enough to jump in and close the dumpster.
We waited there, fatigued and frightened for our lives.

Day 4 (November 23)

Everything we said was in whispers.
"...So I told her that I wouldn't go back home until she gets a divorce." Josh was saying.
We both sat in the darkness, with the stench of garbage filling our nostrils.
He continued. "I mean... He's a cop. I just find it ironic that he's abusive like that."
I had been listening and giving short comments every once in a while.
"What about you?" He asked me.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean... You said you came from out of town. Why did you come here?"
I let out a sigh. "I'm looking for family. My brother and his daughter."
For a moment, it was silent. I decided to break that.
"Well... I'll help you find your family if you help me find mine." I said.
He waited for a few moments before speaking again. "Deal. I'd shake your hand if I could see it."
We both laughed quietly.

Day 5 (November 24)

We were both hungry. Our hunger overwhelmed our fear of being unarmed, therefore we quietly made our way to the nearby apartment building. Luckily for us, one of the doors was unlocked when we turned the handle.
We walked inside to one of the dirtiest rooms I've ever seen.

Josh locked the door for security then headed straight to the cabinets to search for food.
I opened the refrigerator. Not very much was in it, but it was enough to make a few small meals out of.
Josh put three boxes of cereal on the counter. "Well, I'm having Cocoa Puffs." He said.

He ate his cereal, and I had a sandwich. I decided to walk through the apartment and see if I could find anything useful. Upon looking through a nightstand drawer, I found a photograph. In the picture, there was a young man and young woman. They both seemed to be college students. They were obviously an item since they were holding onto one another, and smiling at the camera.

"I hope these two make it through this." I said as I put the photograph on the bed. As I continued to look through the house for anything useful, Josh took a moment to examine the photograph.

I was in the bathroom and was relieved to find a package of shaving razors along with some shaving cream. I was about to apply the cream to my face when I heard Josh talking. "I know whose apartment this is, Craig."
"Oh really? Whose is it?" I asked.
"Keith Sanders. He used to be my best friend."
"What happened?" I asked as I spread the shaving cream across my chin.
"This happened." I briefly took a moment to see what he was talking about. He was still lookig directly at the photograph in his hand.

Day 6 (November 25)

I woke up that morning and Josh was gone. I found a note on the counter.

Craig,
I have to find someone.
Sorry, but I had to leave immediately.
Good Luck on finding your brother.

I turned the note over. It was the photograph I found yesterday.
After thinking for a moment, I ate some of the cereal that was left over.
The rest of the day I spent looking out of the window and thinking hard to myself. Those creatures were scattered everywhere. Nearly an entire day passed before I lost it.

In grief, I held my hands to my head and realized what I got myself into. I left my wife at home, and now it was hard to even imagine the possibility of finding Frank. Tears were flowing down my face as my frustration overwhelmed me.

After a while, this episode of despair departed from me. I plopped onto the bed and tried to get some sleep, for tommorow I would be leaving the apartment. Just as I lay down, voices could be heard from outside.

I listened carefully.

"You try that door, I'll try this one."

I got up as quickly as I could and rushed towards the apartment door. I opened it and instantly came face to face with someone on the other side. It was a man of about my height, with scratches and bruises covering him. He was pointing a pistol at my temple.
He lowered the weapon. "I'm sorry. I thought you were infected."
"No worries." I said quickly. "Come inside." I could now see more people behind him. One was a young man and one was a woman. The young one carried a shotgun, and the woman had about the same amount of bruises on her as the man had.
They both entered behind him before I closed the door.

"What happened to you all?" I asked as I locked the entrance. "It looks like you've had it rough."
"Her car exploded. That's what happened." The man said as he took a seat on the floor and pointed at the woman.
Suddenly a thought hit me. "At the high school?"

The man looked up at me. "Yeah..."
"What are your names?" I asked.
"Her name is Carol. His name is Matt. I'm Simon." Said the man as he leaned against the wall. "Who are you?"
I let out an amused laugh. "My name is Craig. My group was looking for you."

Day 7 (November 26)

We all talked for hours and I think we got everything straightened out. There were many conclusions by now, but the ones that were most prevelant in my mind were:
-Simon, Matt and Spencer were seperated from Jessica and Jerry.
-Spencer was seperated from Matt and Simon.
-Matt and Simon were trying to find Roxanne (who died) at the school, but found Carol.
-Carol was Josh's mother.

All of the things tied into some kind of crazy social web.

I told them about what I was trying to accomplish. I told them about how I was trying to find Frank and Shelly.
"Frank Leatherman... Frank is the police officer who helped me get to the school." Carol said. "He's your brother?"
"Yeah... He's my brother." I replied.
"It looks like we're all looking for someone then."

That was the most true statement I had heard in a long time.
Simon, Matt, and Carol agreed to help me if I help them.

We decided that the first place we would search was Frank's house.

As we stepped out into the daylight, I had a single thought in my mind.

Frank... I'm coming for you. I WILL find you.

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