Survivor Tales - Chapter 4-6 (Patreon)

Chapter 4 - Daphne 1

I panted and heaved. The extra protective gear they insisted on us while exercising weighed me down as Cecilia 'Pinky' Chavez floored me again. We were training hand-to-hand to get used to close combat with extra gear such as shins, arm guards, etc, using dummy knives and other sorts of blades.

Being a real tomboy growing up, I was never one to wrinkle my nose at getting my hands dirty, nor did I care for dolling myself up for hours in the morning. But I did love my sleep. That all changed when I joined the army some time ago, at the age of eighteen. I wanted to take an education, but due to recent events, it seemed like the Army would have me for the long haul. Most of my friends back in California enjoyed UCLA, Venice Beach, and all the cool stuff. Me? I spent my mid-twenties getting my ass kicked by a nineteen-year-old girl, who currently mounted me in side control.

“You're dead,” Pinky said, grunting as she rolled off of me. “You're going easy on me, De Jesus.”

That's me. Daphne De Jesus. Twenty-five, from La Jolla, California. Busty, some would say, but in uniform most girls looked the same I thought, except for stature, hair, and eye color.

“Yeah yeah,” I groaned. Truly, I was just tired. I had gotten drunk on base the other day when I was on leave, which was just a slap on the wrist, but Staff Sergeant Vince Miller thought a suitable way to nurse my hangover was for me to wrestle the whole squad. I got a dummy knife, they had to pin me down.

“Here, Daphne,” Sergeant Vince muttered, handing me an energy bar and a cup of coffee.

We had just been woken up to an emergency briefing, and all the officers of the company were summoned to the HQ of the base, all ranks. While I was long adjusted to the schedule in the US Army, I still longed for the days when I wouldn't wake up in the middle of the night. Not that it was a common occurrence, but it was never well-liked as when it did happen, som shit was bound to happen.

I threw back the bar and started sipping, taking a seat on one of the taller crates surrounding a map of the outskirts of a small town in Indiana somewhere. I was the newest one among these folks, just having been fast-tracked to the rank of Corporal. But that didn't mean I knew much of what was going on. All I knew, the army had several 'impact points' with perimeters and that the situation around these impact points had been compromised. What that meant, I had no idea. But I was curious to find out.

“Okay, folks. 'Pologies for dragging you all,” Captain Chung called. “OK. Here's the Operation Order, our mission is to deploy by Chopper to the college town of Courtington and evacuate civilians…”

Captain Chung paused for the appropriate effect. Many in the room had no idea what he was talking about. Rescue civilians? In Indiana? You had to think this was some sort of drill. But then again… there had been those rumors… Not that I knew much about that sorta gossip or whatever.

“What's the deal, sarge?” I mutted to Sergeant Vince Miller.

“Apparently there's an situation with a disease. All those rumors you've heard over the months? I'm figuring some of it was true,” Vince muttered back.

“Thanks,” I said, getting a map with the Chopper escape points. “What do you mean? You know I don't pay attention to any of that shit.”

“Maybe you should. So, basically the CDC had some quarantined areas throughout the midwest. They lost a bit of control, then the army stepped in. And now I guess it's sorta spreading,” Vince explained.

“Spreading? What kind of infection?” I asked, getting a hush from one of the other NCOs. I ignored them, glaring at Vince.

“Cannibalism, or some shit like that. People get all crazy and start biting people or something,” Vince said in a lower voice.

“And we're deploying the fucking army? It's Indiana for fucks sake.”

“Apparently the National Guard already has been sent in, and now they're trapped in the middle of the town,” Vince said. “That's all a rumor though. It's a lot of need-to-know circling around here.”

“Sounds fucking nuts,” I concluded.

“Any questions?” we heard Captain Chung ask the audience.

There was a pause in the audience. This was certainly a bombshell to drop in the middle of the night. I wasn't sure if I could take what he was saying seriously. But then again, they woke up in the middle of the night, and gauging by the amount of ruckus outside I had to guess we were not the only ones getting briefed right now.

“How do we discern who is which, sir?” one of the NCOs asked.

“The infected tend to be ragged, rasping and gargling. The fresher they are, the more human agility they have, but be assured they do not carry human intelligence. That being said, they do not seem to be affected by things such as fatigue. They are also more durable, only breaking the brain stem seems to be stopping them. We have gathered some information from what we have been called the 'quarantine zones' that are spread throughout the Midwest. Those are zones where we had up till a few days ago managed to contain the disease. Unfortunately, the infection spread regardless.”

“Do we use lethal force, sir?” I asked. These were potential civilians.

“Consider any infected hostile, and each to terminated if necessary,” Chung replied.

“If there are no further questions, I would like to add; that the National Guard along with army personnel has established a rallying point inside of the town center. As far as we know, they are blocked of and under siege from the infected. The disease has spread fast, so be careful. From today to tonight, the field may have changed,” Chung concluded. “Dismissed.”

During the morning hours, we were flying in on the small college town. It honestly shocked the bunch of us. It certainly looked like a warzone. While the buildings were all intact, each row of houses, each block, and park seemed to be abandoned. Smoke and wrecks, lines of cars heading out of the town. A small dreadful sensation drew over me as I realized that that traffic jam was, for whoever didn't get away, a cemetery. Coffins and everything.

I quickly shook it off and turned to my squad. I certainly hoped none of them would end up like that. I'd make sure of it. In training, I tended to have good spidey senses, somehow knowing danger before entering a room, surveying a field with an extra attention to detail. Call it what you will, but it was there. I just hoped it would be transferred to the field. Even if the field was domestic…

“Staff Sergeant Miller,” Lieutenant Cornwall yelled into the microphone, directing to Vince. “We're coming down on a park. Take your squad to the closeby stores and clear them. Civilians, send them out. Corporal Cornwall will be behind you, and they will secure the roofs. Report back when that is done. The rest, secure the immediate area so we have a safe place for the chopper. Check everyone for bites.”

I looked at my fellow men and women. 'Pinky' Chavez, Floyd, Norton, Brown, Lem', Jenny Jackson, 'Angel Eye' Anglerio, Stackhouse, Sergeant Vince Miller, and of course me. I know that there were a lot of names to remember, but they were my brothers and sisters. I'd never expect to risk losing anybody, and I wasn't sure if the risk was fully settling on me yet, but I would be damned if anything would happen to them. I suspected our bond would grow tighter if we endured combat together, as often was told by the vets. I didn't know if that was something I looked forward to.

“Cowgirls,” Miller called, as we landed and jogged towards the nearest buildings. That was me and Pinky. We were both Latina girls from thick urban neighborhoods, thus becoming the 'cowgirls' the first time we snubbed our noses at the smell of the countryside. I much preferred the smell of hydraulic oil or washer fluid. “Take the barbershop. Anglerio, stand by the door. Norton, Jackson…”

I didn't hear the rest as me and Pinky slammed up to each side of the barbershop. We could see through the window, but no time for second guesses. Pinky gave me the nod, and I entered, pointing my gun to my furthest corner, slicing the room with the barrel of my M4 to clear it as Pinky was right behind me.

“Clear downstairs, heading up,” I called out.

As my foot touched the first step, I knew something was wrong. Firstly, it was a winder stair, meaning there was a corner. Second, there was a heap of clothing on the L of the staircase. Only it wasn't a heap of clothes, it was a dead body slumped over. Shot several times in the stomach, and finally in the face. The look of the dead one gave it away as one who had been infected. Wild and rabid, and glazed crazy eyes.

“Is that one of them?”  Pinky muttered.

“Sure looks like it, I think,” I responded.

“Go first,” Pinky requested, obviously shaking. I didn't mind. I went ahead.

Turning the corner we were met by a door. We called out but no response. Call again, and we heard some shuffling and moans. But the door swung outward, so if the infected fucks lacked the wherewithal to open a door, they'd never get out of there.

“Do we leave them there?” Pinky asked. “I mean, they won't go anywhere.”

“HELP!” someone called from further inside.

“Fuck,” Pinky muttered. “Let's shoot through the door.”

“We don't know what's behind there,” I muttered back.

“Exactly!” Pinky urged.

“I'll open the door. Be ready to shoot. Remember, shoot the head. And don't shoot me,” I said, ignoring her protests.

“De Jesus,” Pinky whispered at me urgently, wanting nothing to do with it.

“Yes?” I said, impatiently.

“We should get back up.”

“It's too tight in here for more than two anyway,” I said, turning back towards the door.

I heard Pinky shuffle her gun, so I knew she was ready. Here it goes. I yanked the door open and was met by a thrashing rabid man. The rotting face, the open wounds on his arms. He stumbled forwards, so I easily evaded him, just before Pinky opened fire. A three burst fire and the man slumped to the floor, joining his comrade in a small heap.

“That was easy,” Pinky snorted. “How did we lose control over these?”

“Come on,” I said, making my way inside the small hallway.

Now it was my time to open fire. I switched single shots, and nailed three in a row with three bullets, my fourth killing two as they somehow lined up perfectly. Every bullet seemed to make their heads explode like watermelons, blood gushing onto the wall and floors. One even had his entrails hanging out of his guts, a sight I wished I had never seen. Nor the smell. I heard Pinky dry heaving.

“You okay?” I asked, walking by her.

“No…” she muttered. "I had that shitty lasagne Michael makes for dinner last night."

I just shook my head and turned to the rest of the short hallway. The second floor looked to work as an apartment, so in essence we stood in the hallway, yes, but the open kitchen and living room left little to the imagination of what had happened to the inhabitants. The broken coffee table, the shattered glass. The glass remnants in one of the infected's heads, then next to it was the one with her guts hanging out. Ordinary people fighting for their lives. An image of the fight started to form in my head, so I quickly turned to one of the two remaining doors. A bedroom, presumably, and perhaps a bathroom. Whoever had called had to be in the bathroom, judging by the direction and the tiled echo from when she called. Yeah, I had good hearing like that.

“Jesus,” Pinky muttered behind me, calling for the Messiah and not me this time. I was guessing she was putting together the same image I had.

In the bedroom, it sounded like someone was scratching the door. Here we go. Again. I opened the door but was faced with nothing. Weird. Then something pushed at my leg and I looked down. Oh. A Jack Russell Terrier, completely untouched. It hurried over to the bathroom door, scratching it and whimpering.

I turned to check the bathroom, but just as I did, I was violently yanked back again, knocking Pinky out of the way, soon followed by a warm breath resting near my neck as the vilest odor emanated from the infected that had grabbed me from behind.

“Fuck!” I screamed, shoving my ass back to create space, trying to find his foot with mine while fighting to keep those teeth from sinking into my skin.

I heard the wet crunching sound of a blade churning inside an eye socket, and my assaulter fell to limp to the ground, like a sack of potatoes.

“FUCK!” I screamed again, shooting up to my feet, shaking my hand and feet as if trying to rid myself of a demon. That was so close. So much for my fucking spidey senses.

“Hey,” Pinky said, hunching down to the dog. “Seems they don't hurt animals. That's something.”

“Ayo! Can you guys help me, or what?” It came from the bathroom. “I've been shot.”

I quickly yanked the door open. Inside, sat on the poor suffering toilet, sat a humongous man. He had to be almost seven feet tall and at least three hundred pounds. His face was coarse, yet sorta boisterous, with round glasses and a mustache. He held out a hand for me to help him up, which I kinda tried to do, though he did most of the job. He was way too heavy for me.

“Plumber Dan, shit-pipe enthusiast,” he groaned, holding his side.

“Enthusiast?” Pinky asked.

“Ayo, let me look at that. Love a lady in a uniform! AYO!” Plumber Dan said, roaring into a burst of laughter quickly stifled by pain.

“How did you get shot?” I asked, slightly dumbfounded. He had the gun after all.

“Dumb broad over there tried to shoot me when these biters came in. I grabbed the gun and hid in my natural habitat,” Plumber Dan said, waving toward the bathroom.

I just shook my head. “Plumber Dan, I'm Corporal Daphne De Jesus, this is Private Chavez. We're evacuating the area, so please follow us out to the landing area.”

“Private first class, thank you,” Pinky corrected.

That's when we heard the shots emanating from the other buildings. We had been so preoccupied by our own situation. As soldiers, we took the lead and headed down the stairs again. We saw Angel-Eyes had stepped inside the shop and closed the door, hunching behind the window and peering outside.

“What the fuck, Angel?” Pinky exclaimed. Angel-Eye snapped towards her, holding a finger to his lips. We hurried over, hunched over. Even Plumber Dan tried to lower himself, which would've been comical if not given the situation.

“The noise, it seems to alert them,” Angel-Eye muttered.

“Then what the fuck you doing in here? We need to get out there,” I said.

“I couldn't just abandon my post, could I? You two would be trapped in here. Excuse me, the three of you,” Angel-Eye said, his glittering eyes looking over at the giant.

“Yeah, well, now we're here,” I said. I peeked out.

The choppers looked  to be secure, but right outside our immediate building at least twenty of these fuckers roamed. It was hard to discern how the others faired, but gauging by the noise I knew they were fighting. I quickly shoved away any thoughts of our own casualties so far, focusing on the mission at hand; getting the civilian to the chopper, then take it from there.

“Dan, take my sidearm,” I said, handing him him my standard-issued handgun, a SIG Sauer M17.

“Plumber Dan,” he corrected. I forced myself not to roll my eyes. He said enthusiast anyway.

“On my count. Pinky, take six, Angel help with the flanks. Single shots to the head, make 'em count. Plumber Fuck, take center between us, we're getting you the fuck outta here,” I commanded.

I grabbed the door but lingered. Waited. The right moment. It was like defusing a bomb, opening a vault. The right tick before bolting the four of us out into deadly combat. It had to be right. I drew a long breath and held it as if to take aim, but I used it for any audible cue.

“One,” I said. There seemed to be a small almost indistinguishable pattern to the gnarls as the infected were passing the window. If it was a coincidence or not, I did not know, but it also didn't matter.

“Two,” I whispered. And, “three.”

“Wa-” Pinky began, but I already opened the door.

We burst out, clicking down the immediate infected, clearing a small window in the flock that we could bolt through. The consideration that these were civilians was shoved away. Contaged civilians turned into horrible monsters. The difference mattered, now more than ever as when we ran, more emerged from between the buildings.

Luckily the squads securing the choppers had put up sandbags and created an immediate foothold. LMGs cut through the lines of infected in bursts. As easy as can be, the infected stood no chance against the firepower we had arrived with, nor the skill. Dumb, slumbering, slow-wading corpses, dead before they knew it. How had we even gotten to this point if they were so easily dealt with? I mean, the quarantine zones? What the fuck had they been doing to become overrun by a situation they already had control over, while we could jump into a town we didn't know and handle the infected with such ease? Green as we were?

“Corporal!” Vince yelled from the perimeter. “DUCK!”

I grabbed Angel-Eye and threw myself  to the ground, hearing Pinky and Plumber Dan do the same behind me. Immediately after, a high-pitched thundering of the LMGs mowed down the infected behind us. Thudds and thumps, wet squishes, all protruded around us. I rolled over to my side, careful not to rise too high, to look behind us. The green field that was there this morning had heaps and heaps of dead corpses strewn about, iron and red coating the grass and filling the air with a thick sickening musk.

Then it stopped. No gargles. No nearby gunshots. No shoveling steps. Complete silence. I looked up at Sergeant Miller, who still stood by the machine guns pointing in the air as smoke eased out of the barrels. Behind us, I saw rows of what had to be scores of the infected lying around. The LMGs had done the work. Around the small park, I saw the other soldiers emerging from the buildings. Stackhouse emerged from the convenience store, carrying a body, probably one of ours. The blonde hair told me it was Jenny. We had made some losses. That wasn't supposed to happen. This was a rescue.

“Fuck,” I cursed, checking the others.

“Get up here,” Vince called. “Are you clean?”

We returned a nod, signaling we were unhurt. Though it had only been one or two minutes, it felt like hours we had fought out of the building. In the end, the most we had were scratches from broken glass and tossing ourselves to the ground, but nothing harmful. No bites, for sure.

“We got one. He's shot, not bit,” I said, lifting myself up, and helping Angel-Eyes, before nodding to the civilian.

“Hey, is he okay?” Vince asked, referring to Plumber Dan.

“No, he's been shot,” I said again, more clear than last time.

“Okay, well, we've cleared the area,” Vince said. “Go to that tent, that's the infirmary.”

I turned to the park. No more infected. And still no sound. It was off-putting.

“Where'd they go?” I asked Pinky, as the three of us strolled down to help some soldiers create a heap of the dead infected near the corner of the building we just cleared.

“I don't know, but I can't say I care. As long as they're not anywhere close to us,” Pinky said, rubbing her upper arm after the fall. She looked over at Stackhouse, who hoisted Jenny down next to some other soldier I hadn't identified yet. Two losses. I shook my head. Jenny was such a sweet kid.

“They really should make jeans part of the uniform,” Pinky muttered, her eyes fixed on the handsome Stackhouse's clothed cheeks. It was a well-known fact that Stackhouse was the most handsome boy-slut in all of the platoon. Dumb as a back of bricks, but the ladies loved him. I guess I figured him as handsome too, but I wasn't really ogling men like that, especially not in the service.

“Shut up,” I muttered, shaking my head.

“What? Can't I admire some eye candy?” Pinky teased.

“What's the deal with him anyway?” Angel-Eye asked a handsome man in his own right.

“You jealous?” Pinky said, ribbing her fellow soldier.

“Me? Jealous of Stackhouse? Pff, get the fuck outta here,” Angel-Eye said in the most New York way possible.

I held out a hand for them to shut up, which they did. I slowly peered around me. The silence was deafening, yet I felt something thudding in my feet. I looked towards the buildings where Stackhouse stood a couple of yards away from us up the road. As he and Lem' looked towards the corner, a humongous, bulky creature came around the turn. It had to be at least twelve feet tall, and while it looked humanoid, it was surely no longer human. Big and vile.

“What the fuck is that?” Pinky muttered.

As bulky and lumbering it was, it was also surprisingly nimble, closing the distance to Stackhouse in mere moments, closing its giant claw-like fists around him before wrapping its fat lips around Stackhouse's neck with an audible crunch.

Pinky sank to her knees and threw up at the sound. Me and Angel-Eye immediately took point, switched to auto and started blasting the thing with everything we had.

It seemed almost unfazed by the caliber, except it seemed to provoke the ogre-like behemoth. Instead, it waved its hands around while using its thick lips to get more of Stackhouse's lifeless body inside its mouth, chewing and swallowing loudly in the process, the big son of a bitch humming annoyedly while grunting satisfiedly.

Lem' who had stood right next to Stackhouse caught one of the waving hands and he flung like a ragdoll up against a lamppost and slumped over on the ground. If he was dead or unconscious was for others to decide, we had to get moving.

"OH SHIT!" Angel-Eye yelled.

“PINKY! ANGEL! Let's go!” I said, as the rest of our mags were emptied. Not Pinky's though, but she was in no condition to shoot. Angel-Eye and I dragged her along to safety.

It was just then I saw that Sergeant Miller took notice, nudging Lieutenant Cornwall, a short stocky man who had been looking in a whole other direction. They looked past us, taking in the grotesqueness behind us, while we lunged ourselves past the sandbags. Though they offered cover from incoming fire, this behemoth didn't look like it would be fazed. The ground thundered as it slowly started to turn and sprint towards us. Being big and bulky seemed to slow it down a tad, but it had long thick legs so every stride covered enough ground to make its approach less than desirable.

“Get a hold of the other platoon, private,” Cornwall yelled at Pinky. “They're not responding on their intercoms. And Sergeant Miller, kill this fucking thing. Sergeant Roberts will get these civilians on the birds and out of here.”

Cornwall hurried after Sergeant Roberts towards the landing area ten yards back. It wasn't a huge distance, but if we could hold them off, perhaps the mission wouldn't be a complete failure.

“Floyd, Norton, direct your fire at its head. It's infected, so it better die like any other! Brown take the third SAW. Anglerio, De Jesus, on me,” Vince roared, taking a flare in his hand, abandoning his rifle. I looked at Anglerio for a split second.

As fast as we could we ran after him, though a bit slower as we didn't discard our rifles. But it soon was obvious what Vince was trying to do. It was a shot in the dark, but a shot nonetheless. To distract the giant ogre while the SAWs and LMGs fired on it. It was slow enough so it wouldn't be hard to aim either, and if we weren't fucking stupid it wouldn't catch up. But I had my reservations about whether the SAWs and the LMGs could take this fucker down, even when used together, without us dying. Still, the three off us ran hollering to the left, straight and over to the right, trying to have it chase us in circles.

“COME HERE YOU BIG FUCKING BASTARD!” Miller roared with his proper commander voice, drowning out the calls from Angel-Eye's and me. And as we ran, we saw that the big fucker staggered. It wasn't hurt, but certainly didn't like getting fired upon.

“OUT!” we heard from the LMGs. With the losses and the other squad helping running evac, no one was running ammunition. I nodded to Angel.

“Go help them,” I called. Anglerio ran a half circle around to not catch a stray, and disappeared toward whoever was out of ammunition.

The big bastard turned towards Angel, but Miller stopped and started waving his flare, shouting and yelling for all he was worth. The ogre turned back and had its beady eyes fixed on the person with the bright light as the flare was waiving back and forth. Now it was coming after him. Miller had its attention as Anglerio made the sprint.

“Look out!” Miller screamed at me. I turned and saw yet another of these huge fucks come from the far end of the park.

Angel-Eye reacted immediately. He dumped the ammo, torched a flare and ran straight between the two behemoths. The first one looked confused as there were now two flares and a lot of shouting and shooting going on. So instead of focusing on anything in particular, it stood waving its hands around more or less fixed in its place. Sergeant Vince Miller was struck, as he had taken his eyes off the target just at the wrong moment. He flew back and landed with an 'mmph'. When he didn't get back up, I knew it was my turn.

“HEY!” I yelled. I took my M4 and pointed it at its knees and fired at it from behind. To my surprise, the behemoth buckled. So I let it rip even more, soon it was clawing its way towards Miller's lifeless body with nothing but its hands. I better tell Angel-Eye about the knee thing though.

I turned, only to see Angel to his waist in the fresh behemoth's mouth. Pain and horror filled his face as more and more of his body was chewed up and devoured by the big monster. Wiping away the tears I hadn't realized were there, I sprinted over. Anglerio's pained groans were so loud I could hear it through the behemoths wet slurps as it munched on my brother in arms. I dove past its diving arm, got on a knee behind it and unloaded the rest of my mag into the back of its feet, soft thuds drumming from its leather-like skin. I heard it cry out in pain as it began to stagger. As quickly I had gotten in, I dove out.

I looked at Anglerio. The rest of him. He no doubt passed out from the trauma. But as the behemoth wasn't quite dead yet, its thick lips still pulled more of the dying soldier into its mouth. With no time to mourn, I ran up to the remnants of the squad, beckoning them to follow. We had made quite a ruckus, and while there were no infected now, I had no reason to think they wouldn't after all this.

“WE GOT A PROBLEM HERE!” the Lieutenant yelled through our earpieces. Ahead I could see they had a horde of infected crawling from under houses. They hadn't made it that far through the neighborhood, and most of the civilians had been escorted out.

I heard the other squad start battling the oncoming horde, trying to man the chopper to leave. I led the few men left of my squad over to them, not wanting to be left behind. The infected, and the two behemoths behind us made this place a true hell. The way they had killed Stackhouse, Lem', Miller, and lastly Anglerio... And Jenny before that, and that other soldier from Roberts' crew. But where the fuck was the other platoon? Pinky had gone for them, and the last thing I wanted was to leave her behind.

“LIEUTENANT!” I yelled through the gunfire as we came running. “HAVE YOU SEEN PINKY, SIR!?”

“WHAT?!” Cornwall yelled back, holding his hat in place as the two choppers were getting more than ready to depart.

“PRIVATE CHAVEZ! LIEUTENANT JACKSON! THE OTHER PLATOON!” I yelled, giving him the keywords to what I tried to ask him. He didn't respond. That's when I noticed some of the clothing on the horde. Some of them had uniforms. I recognized some of those faces too, and some I could even put a name on.

“We need to get the fuck out of here,” Cornwall said more calmly, as he looked at his former comrades with a solemn look.

“Pinky!” I called out in desperation more than anything.

“GET ON THE CHOPPERS!” the Lieutenant yelled, and the men started to disengage.

One part of me wanted to stay behind for Pinky, even if the rational part of me screamed for me to get out the hell of dodge. I took a step toward the oncoming horde, to see if I could at least confirm my best friend out there. But a dark hand wrapped around my waist before I could take a second step, and Floyd hoisted me along, dragging me onto our now sparsely populated chopper.

We flew out, leaving behind the bodies of Jenny, Stackhouse, Lem', Miller, Anglerio, and probably Pinky too. Along with a whole other platoon. Over forty lost on a single mission. As I stared out the windows, I had to wonder how the others were faring. If it weren't for those fucking behemoths… I wondered if they would starve to death now that they were more or less immobilized. As I looked out, I saw the horde and the two behemoths swarm the park where we had just been.

Chapter 5 - Oliver 4

We had a clear view of Courtington Park. Not a clear view, as in we could see any detail, but we could see the military land, spread out, and fly what I guessed was regular citizens out. Then the big fuckers came. Two of them, but enough to disperse and send the army retreating. We sat there watching the army getting railed by the infected and those two colossal motherfuckers. From hope to horror in the span of an hour. And when they flew away, the choppers paid us no mind at all. Though, I swore they took note of us. They had to. I mean, the other rooftops had people two, as we soon had learned.

That was hours ago. Silence filled the rooftop after a while, as the horror show that took place in the town center and in the park lingered over us. There wasn't much to say about it, as the situation around town spoke magnitude to the situation we were surrounded with. And with the fairly large bunch down by the foot of the building, we weren't getting nowhere. Abe had gone down to look, but they were still roaming around.

“Personally, I think they taste good, but you can't really call them pizza,” Dr. Mallow said. We were discussing Chicago pizza. Being a foreigner, she of course preferred stuff the European way.

“It's just another style of pizza though,” I said, but was interrupted as Raul approached.

“I'm heading down for food, y'all want something?” he asked, his face as stern as ever. For being big, he sure was quiet though.

“To the supermarket?” I joked.

“Nah, I'll just rip some door off and take a peek,” Raul said nonchalantly.

“What, you gonna break into people's homes and steal their shit?” I said, realizing where Raul was going with this. “We sinking this low?”

“It's a matter of survival. We're thinking perhaps holding up in a few apartments too,” Raul said. Like, it made sense logically, as we didn't know how long we'd be staying here, but still… These apartments were people's homes.

“If you could look for marshmallows, that would be great,” Dr. Mallow said, before she saw my somewhat judging look. “What? I love marshmallows! Marshmallow dipped in nutella? Don't say you never tried!”

I had to give that one a smile. A girl and her candy, some things never change.

“Nutella and whatever marshmallows I find,” Raul said, not caring at all.

“Erh, whatever. Something,” I said, resigning myself as co-conspirator in this robbery. I had had a hell of a morning and was starving. As much as I didn't like it, I had to eat eventually.

“Gimme your Glock,” Raul said, holding out his hand.

“First off, rude. Second, I can't really remember what happened to it,” I said in all honesty. I knew I got one from Abe, then I think Peter had it after that, but I wasn't sure. Raul got visibly annoyed by being told no.

“You guys shouldn't use guns anyway,” Dr. Mallow said. Raul looked at her with a frown. It was hard to tell, sunglasses and all, but Mallow was unfazed. “They make too much noise. They'll never leave if we're going to shoot all over this building. Besides, you got a machete.”

Raul took a step towards the seated, one-legged woman.

“I don't take orders from you,” Raul muttered in a deep angry tone.

“That may be, but please do not use anything that makes a lot of noise. Sugar on top, if that helps,” Dr. Mallow said, holding her ground, despite her seated position.

“Back off, woman,” Raul said through gritted teeth. It was obvious he was rarely ever facing any sort of opposition.

“If you end up in a medical situation and want me to sow you up, you might want to reconsider your tone, mister! You better not take any guns with you!”

Raul took yet another step, fuming with anger. This time it was my turn to step up. Nobody fucks with my patient. Especially if it's a freshly handicapped woman versus a six foot eight man.

“Dude, you really gonna eyeball a woman with one leg?” I asked. “Isn't that kinda pathetic, you think?”

Raul turned his gaze towards me. Even with the sunglasses you could see the cogs turn in his head. 'In fact, it is pathetic,' I imagined he thought.

“You gonna side with this bitch? You some kinda beta?” Raul asked in a chuckle without humor.

“Yeah, whatever dude,” I said. Dr. Mallow and I were the only medical personnel here, so I was pretty confident Raul had enough brain cells to keep us alive, if not from the infected, then from himself. He let out a huge snort.

“Fine. No guns. Private,” he called, turning towards Abe, seemingly the only guy he trusted to go with him, despite the fact he didn't think much of the red headed soldier.

I turned back to Dr. Mallow, giving her fresh bandages a nice bow. Considering everything, she was surviving her newfound lobotomization with as much grace as she could. Maybe it was her way of coping. She was dependent on others now, yet she wasn't afraid to reprimand the de facto leader of the group. How had he ended up taking this role? I guess he was the most capable, and he had gotten us here so far.

“We should teach more people to do these things,” Dr. Mallow said. “We don't know how long all of this might last… this apocalypse, I mean. Not only should people know the bandaging, but also guns, and gather what we all know about the infected. Shared knowledge is key, I think.”

I nodded along. I wasn't so squeamish as the others had been, see who reacted how during Dr. Mallow's leg needed cleaning. Raul was certainly now wimp either. Abe was a soldier so had some training right? But the others… I wasn't so sure. Lauren had acted in the moment as one should, despite how I had felt about it, but Peter, and Ana I wasn't sure.

But lo and behold, Lauren came over and slumped down next to me. Her red dress had seen better days. It had to be solidly made, as not a single tear had appeared, but it was sooted and dirtied up pretty well. Her dark nylon stockings had ripped a few places, though. At least it was the late summer. Though she clutched her black leather jacket around her, I guess it was fair to think it was not due to freezing.

“You okay?” I asked, concerned for my aunt.

“Yeah yeah, this whole situation is just so fucked,” Lauren muttered, resting her head on my shoulder. “It's been a long day, Oliver.”

I wasn't sure how to react to that. I had tried to call my parents earlier, but it never got through. Either they were preoccupied, or perhaps there were too many others clogging the line while calling for their loved ones.

“Could you tell me about Steve?” Lauren asked. I looked at her quizzically. She wanted to know the person she had shot? I wasn't sure what to say. “I feel awful for him and… I don’t know, maybe if I knew a bit about him.

“He was a weird guy,” I began. “Most people only saw him as a drunk, chain smoking and violent.”

Lauren looked at me funny, so I clarified. “He was a boxer, and quite brutal, with an unreal killer instinct. But outside of the ring? He was kind. He had this girl, Samantha, but they were off and on. I'm sure she's out there somewhere. If she could survive Steve's shit, she'd survive anything. And he had this stupid comic he was working on.”

“Really? He was an artist?” Lauren asked with obvious fascination. The few hours she knew him, she likely got the impression everyone else did.

“Yeah. He was quite good. At drawing. Not so much the plot,” I chuckled, thinking back. “I mean, it was about this DJ who had these massive concerts, only instead of using turntables, he'd use a heavy machine gun he'd shoot out into the audience.”

Lauren smiled a pained smile. “That is quite a premise,” she said with a small laugh. “Steve sounds like he was a great guy. I wish I got to know him.”

“Listen, Lauren. Steve was a great guy, but that was not the person you shot… I think it's not sustainable… I mean, I don't think we will outlast this thing–”

“Apocalypse,” Dr. Mallow corrected.

“– thanks, but I don't think we will last a whole lot if we think of  these infected as the people they once were. Until there's a cure, if ever, we need to do what we can to survive.”

“Including scavenging other people's homes?” Lauren challenged. I gulped. “Yeah I heard that. I think we can't play devil's advocate for murdering the infected while we object to robbery.”

“Touché,” I said, seeing the hypocrisy. “I will relent to that, if you promise to forgive yourself.”

Lauren held back a small smile. “Fine. Deal.”

“You two are adorable. You sure are related,” Dr. Mallow said with a smile.

The door to the roof slammed open and Raul came marching through it. He threw aside a heavy gym bag of what I assumed to be supplies of different sorts, it thumping heavy next to Peter. Raul marched sternly over to Dr. Mallow, Lauren, and I, pointing at the doctor with an angry finger.

“YOU!” he wheezed through gritted teeth. I immediately stood to put myself between them. It was obvious he was angry at the helpless woman. “We should have put you in fucking QUARANTINE!”

“Calm down, Raul!” I said, shoving at his chest. Luckily, he backed off, still fuming. He'd walk through me if he wanted to. “What the fuck happened?”

“One of the people we found got bit and he TURNED!” he roared.

“You didn't know?” I asked. I guess I didn't really know if it had worked chopping her leg off either. Dr. Mallow not turning yet had sort of been the proof I needed.

“We kinda assumed–” Lauren started.

“Shut up, bitch,” Raul spat.

“Hey!” I shouted.

“No, it's okay,” Lauren said. “Raul had no idea. So yes. If the infected bite you, it seems that you turn. We saw it this morning. Sorry we didn't tell you, we assumed wrongly. Now, please tell us what happened?”

“Would've been nice to know before I started walking all over an apartment building! We found a guy and his son and daughter on the 7th floor. The guy had been bitten, but we brought them along thinking you guys would fix him up.”

I quickly spun my head around to find the three of them. That's when I noticed a young girl, perhaps nine or ten, clutching Raul's leg. A freckled little mousy haired kid in a dirty yellow sundress. What a contrast to the world we had somehow found ourselves in.

“What happened to them?” I asked.

“By the third floor, the fucker turned and killed his son!” Raul more or less wheezed. His rage was all of a sudden very understandable. To witness that… I could only imagine the horror. “I had to chop him up right there!”

“Abe didn't tell you?” Dr. Mallow asked.

“Nah, that fucking idiot… He's sitting in the stairways now, contemplating what a fucking moron he is. He also assumed,” Raul said. “I had to force this girl off her daddy and carry her up here. I can't even imagine what that must be like. Her dad's killer taking her away…” Raul broke off and stormed off, leaving the kid in his wake.

“Jesus,” Lauren muttered, taking over the little girl. “What's your name, darling?”

“Debbie,” the kid muttered.

“I'll talk to Raul a bit,” I said, deciding this wasn't over. When Lauren was about to object, I quickly added, “I'm not gonna do anything. We have assumed enough. I'll tell him everything I know about these things. Like Dr. Mallow said.”

Day became evening and evening turned to night. Luckily, we were in an apartment building, most of which had daily upkeep with maids so most were thus in decent shape. So all we had to do was to pick an apartment. All on the 8th floor, though. To watch over each other, we decided no one slept alone. I'd bunk with Lauren, as we were family. But as Dr. Mallow needed constant assistance, she also ended up in 'my' apartment. And so did Ana and Debbie, as Ana didn't want to sleep with a bunch of men, and Debbie was a kid so yeah. Me and a bunch of women and a girl. I couldn't really complain, even if that left me on the couch.

Abe, Raul and Peter took the apartment nearest the stairwell and elevator, as they rotated guards. We had locked the building pretty well, and we didn't really have many escape routes, but it was better to have a fighting chance if anything should occur. We'd prefer they were perhaps a floor or two down, but without any proper way of communicating, as the signal was abysmal, so the phones were out of the question, and thus we had no way of knowing if we were being overrun before it would be too late. So this, everyone within arms reach, was the compromise.

One of the other flats we used for storage, having scavenged most of the building for stuff that could be useful. We even found those marshmallows for Dr. Mallow. Which she, much to the amusement of the group, ate in a very sultry and flattering manner, giving the bunch a laugh.

Sitting in the living room, I looked out on the small town. It was so dark. A few lights left on here and there, but all I could see was dead buildings and the occasional smoke simmering from a fire somewhere. And of course the glow from the town center where the Army and National Guard was taking a stance. We thought we were in a siege, but I could only imagine what kind of hell was there. I squinted toward some of the other roof tops. I knew some of them were occupied, but it was hard to tell in the darkness.

“You can't sleep?” Lauren said behind me. She came to join me by the window.

“Found something other than that dress?” I chuckled, nodding to her big baggy t-shirt and silky PJs.

“Not my size, but I'll manage. At least I'm rid of that dress. Normally I sleep in my underwear, but strangers abound, I figured some jammies would be better,” Lauren said. “Is that too much information about your aunt?”

I guess I had let out an uncomfortable sound or something. “No, I just, erh–”

“It's okay,” Lauren said. “I'm just glad we're safe. Though, I can't seem to find sleep anyhow.”

She turned to the view, standing side by side with me as she folded her arm around my waist and rested her head on my shoulder. It was a bit weird, as my aunt hadn't been around a whole lot while we grew up. But it certainly was comforting to have a gentle being hug me like that. She was very much like my mother in that, with physical contact. I guess it made sense, they were sisters after all. So I put my arm around her shoulders, as I guess I needed it too.

“You think they out there?” Lauren asked.

“I've tried to not think about it too much,” I muttered.

Mom and Dad had been on some date out of state. From what I could tell from the little social media and the different news outlets that got through, huge chunks of the country were affected, especially the Midwest and California. Why those two? I'm not sure. No one was, it seemed. It had escalated from these quarantine zones everyone had been talking about, and that was all that was certain, really.

Something that I did notice however, which in normal times would be a present from God, was how the traffic on social media slowed down as the hours ticked. I followed quite a few on Twitter. Celebrities, politicians, newspapers, friends, and so on. Either the country was in a state of mourning, panic even, or the country was in a state of which they were no longer able to use said social media. It was the weirdest thing to witness, and it filled my stomach with this weird void and dread. Even the TVs were cut off.

“But at least I got you,” I said, looking at my aunt. “I'd still be sleeping on my couch at home if you hadn't come running.”

“Much obliged,” Lauren chuckled, finally sounding sleepy.

“You can take the couch if you want. I've already made it,” I said.

Lauren nodded and slinked off towards what was supposed to be my bed. There was luckily more than one couch in here. But I honestly hoped to draw some fresh air, so I went out into the open hallway, feeling the breeze of the late summer against my face. For being a fancy apartment building, it still had an external corridor, but tonight it was just as well. The apartment was warm and humid, especially with four girls sleeping in there. Or three women and one girl, as Lauren, Ana, and Dr. Mallow were all older than me.

“How's the slumber party?” Peter called from the other end of the corridor.

“Fantastic. They're having a pillow fight as we speak,” I joked, making my way over to him. “How's the night?”

“Boring,” Peter yawned.

“Feels weird not knowing what's going on downstairs,” I said, still a but uneasy about leaving our entryway unwatched. I then nodded to the notepad he was writing in. “What you writing there?”

“First I tried making a sudoku, but that was too much work. So I tried to make a list of everything we got,” Peter said. “So far we've got a bunch of over the desk painkillers, ketamine, a little bit of morphine, all the bandages we could use, IVs. All that medical stuff. For food, I think we could realistically live here for a week. Some ammunition for your aunt. Some for other guns. Other stuff too, like flashlights, different type of knives and that sorta stuff.”

“That's good to know,” I said. Keeping stock the last thing I was good at, as all of my organization skills were that of chaos and lunacy.

“And, erh, we found… A cane,” Peter said. “Would you ask if Roxy wants it?”

“Why don't you give it to her?” I asked, a bit perplexed.

“To be honest, she scares me a bit,” Peter said, smiling a bit unsurely. I knew what he meant. She could bark, for certain.

“Well, I'll be the errand boy. Dr. Mallow–”

“Why do you call her that? Everyone else calls her Roxy. Except Raul, he calls her… y'know… bitch.”

“She corrected me when we met, and I don't know, I guess it sorta stuck,” I said, not really having thought about it. We exchanged nods, and I headed for the stairs up to the roof.

I wasn't sure what I was looking for, or what I hoped to achieve by going up here. Just a sign of something. Or of nothing. I glanced towards the city center where it ever glowed orange from the lights, faint shooting echoing throughout the buildings. No point in trying to get in there. But it sure served as a distraction, as morbid as that was. If only we could get out, we'd be able to escape without having all those thousands of infected at our heels. Especially with those huge behemoths lumbering around. They looked slower, but I wasn't sure if I'd outrun them if I had to carry Dr. Mallow. The infected weren't fast in their approach, but they were tireless.

I guess I must've dozed off, slouched against the half wall. When I woke, Raul and Abe sat in front of me, eating their breakfast while chatting about the good ole army days. Raul didn't like Abe one bit, it seemed, but he was also the only other person who he had anything to talk about. I guess I didn't really know Abe all that well, despite him being the first guy I went scavenging with. But Raul stopped mid-sentence as Debbie and Lauren came up. Somehow the roof had become the designated hang out place, I guess.

“Hey there, baby girl,” Raul exclaimed, standing up in his full galore. Lauren looked a bit unsure by his friendly approach, but Raul kneeled down to greet the newest member of the group.

Debbie looked a bit startled however, hiding behind my aunt. She still saw the killer of her dad, I assumed. Raul seemed to notice too, backing off. Lauren guided the girl away, Raul slumping down next to Abe and me again.

“Wakey wakey,” he said, looking over at me, finally noticing I'd woken up.

“What got you so cheerful?” I asked, groaning as my back was acting up on me. Yesterday combined with the brutal night up here on the roof had really done me in.

“It's a beautiful morning,” he chuckled.

I took a glance in the direction of the town center. It was like this big ugly thing looming in our background. Still we could hear the fighting. How could the morning be beautiful?

“Raul used to be a kindergarten teacher,” Abe explained. “Up until yesterday, that is.”

That was probably the last thing I expected of that brute.

“Seeing one alive, amidst all of this,” Raul said, gesturing towards the town around us. “Just makes it worth it. I've always hated people, except children. Innocent to the world, natural born trouble-makers.” Raul could barely contain his smile now, before his grin turned into a frown. “Which is why I was so pissed off yesterday… That boy… Well, I'll apologize to your girl for calling her a bitch.”

“My girl?” I asked.

“Erh, aunt. I barely know any of you, I forget how it goes,” Raul explained. “I just hope one day Deb can understand why I had to hack her daddy to pieces.”

“So what should we do?” I asked. I wasn't sure if I asked Raul, Abe, or just lifted my thoughts to the world, but I felt like sitting here on this roof would mean a slow, but certain death. “Once the town center falls,” I continued, “All those thousands will go search elsewhere for food. And while maybe we can hold up here for a week or so with the food, we sure as shit don't have enough manpower nor ammunition to kill that many.”

“I think waiting for a helicopter is the best approach,” Abe finally said. “While you were asleep, we saw them pick up another roof.”

“Really?” I asked. That was a game changer. “And here I was about to suggest we'd fight our way out. “How long ago?”

“Half an hour ago,” Raul said, looking out into the sky. “There are four or so that come at a time, it seems.”

“Only four?”

Raul shrugged. We didn't really have much more to go on. But that sure was something that would indeed make this morning a tiny bit more beautiful.

That's when we heard Peter yelling and shouting in the staircase. Abe stood up and hurried down, Raul and I soon after.

As we stepped down into the corridor, we saw Peter sprint towards us, behind him a bunch of the infected running after him. Now they seemed way more nimble and agile, for some reason. I wasn’t sure how. Raul lifted his machete and lopped the head off two with ease, as the corridor was not that wide. But they were too many, and he was a bit too slow in swinging, so a bunch of them got past him, Peter, and Abe.

“GO!” Raul yelled, slamming open a door to one of the apartments.

The three disappeared inside, but before I was overtaken by the infected, or could make a move to help, either or, I felt an arm around my chest and I was pulled away.

“No!” I exclaimed. But it was aunt Lauren, yanking me out of danger once again, leaving Raul, Peter and Abe to themselves. I saw the infected pour into the apartment, heard the screams and grunts from within..

Chapter 6 - Daphne 2

How we had lost control of the slow regular infected was a question we all had been asking ourselves as we had started our evacuation operation. But the behemoths changed everything. Bullets seemed to pry off of them, only stagger them. We heard from the others that they had managed to down with several 50 cal shots, but it had been an effort. By most accounts, and it sure explained a lot, the infected were as weary of the behemoths as we were, and they only came in after the behemoths were more or less taken out of action. The other companies had severe losses too, it seemed, as most had attracted the wrath of those big bastards. There had been some rumors of different sorts too, but it was hard to tell as most witnesses were either losing their minds at what they had seen or dead.

All I could focus on was the satisfied humming sounds the behemoth had made as it munched happily on Stackhouse and Angel-Eye. Probably the others too. I'd thrown up several times on the helicopter, and now laying in the infirmary, there was nothing I could do to get those fat lips sucking down on the torso of my fellow soldiers out of my mind. Their bones crunch like cereal, their pained expressions as certain death approached them one bite at a time, inevitably getting devoured into one of those fucking thing's stomachs.

“Don't beat yourself up,” Cornwall had said to me. “It's not your fault.”

It wasn't, yet I had seen it. Survived it. And this nagging feeling of my own people suffering so, while I got off easy. Even Pinky had disappeared into the masses. It was a small mercy that I hadn't seen her devoured too, or ripped apart by the infected.

Tears welled in my eyes. Why? Why did any of this happen? I kicked hard down on the mattress and stood up. I had been asked to stay in for psychological evaluation, but I couldn't just sit here. I was still capable. God knows the manpower on the base had been reduced after several whole companies had been sent in. Besides, they needed people in there who knew what they were doing, who'd been around these freaks before.

Which is how I yet again landed on one of these helicopters, designated to run said evac in the small college town again. This time we weren't landing. As a lot had noticed, loads of civilians had taken to the roof, so one of our missions had become to run evac on them. Me and my squad were reassigned to a whole new squad though still under Lieutenant Cornwall. The squads were spread over more choppers, as the space was reserved for those civilians.

I sat with Floyd, Norton and some new guy. They were never the two I hung out most out with in the squad, but lately I had grown more fond of them. It was like we were family sewn together by the loss of our brothers and sisters. Floyd, a big black guy a few years younger than me, was always boisterous, and he still was, but I could tell there was less of a glint in his eyes. Norton was a pollack from Philly, and he was the most Dennis the Menace-kid you'd ever see. If anyone was the least unfazed at what we saw, it was probably Norton. He sat reading a magazine as the chopper made its way towards the small town.

“What you lookin' at?” Norton asked, then he saw that I was staring at his magazine. He turned it around to show me the fool glory of some quite busty, naked woman. “I'm just getting my daily readin' in.”

“That all you think about?” Floyd chuckled.

“After yesterday?” Norton said, looking up at Floyd next to him. “You best know I wanna see something pretty.”

“You'd get along with that one guy we rescued yesterday,” I chuckled. When I was fresh in the army as a naive little recruit, born and raised in the progressive side of LA, I was a bit shocked by some of the different personalities in the army. But it was all good now, I knew it was just how it is. People in all shapes and colors.

“Yeah? The big fat guy?” Norton said. “They actually recruited him. Or he volunteered. I just think they clogged up some toilets and saw his potential, is all I'm thinkin'.”

It was frankly hard to believe someone with the, erh, physicalities of Plumber Dan fitting into the army. More or less literally too. How would they ever find a uniform?

“At least we know what his MOS is gonna be,” Floyd chuckled, leaning his head back against the metal wall.

“You from Buffalo, right?” Norton said, turning to Floyd. “You know this broad?”

Floyd gave a peek down at the magazine and shook his head. Norton shook his head disappointed.

“Approaching the first building,” Stemson, the pilot, said in our earpieces. “I won't be able to land, so I'll have to hover. Hold tight.”

I looked at the others and we gave each other affirmative nods. Moments later, the opening ramp lowered and we saw the rooftop of one of the apartment buildings. They even had a fancy pool. Only three people sat by it though, a mousy heard kid and a blonde woman who looked like she was missing a leg. Jesus, they must've been through the trenches.

That's when I heard shooting from within the building. Shooting and hollering, even through the noise of the helicopter blades. We had to move fast, and luckily Stemson did. But as we approached my spidey senses tickled. I scanned down the building. Up the steep walls, from balcony to balcony, I saw several infected scaling the building!

“Norton!” I called as he was the sniper in our team. “You think you can take those?”

“Jesus, what the fuck is that?” Norton asked. “Good call, Daph.”

He holstered his rifle and started picking them off. I turned to the two others as we were feet away from jumping off the roof.

“New guy, help the ladies and the kid, then join me and Floyd. Floyd, we're going down to see if there is anyone to be saved. Norton, clear those walls and keep them clear.”

The four of us jumped down, and the kid immediately bolted towards us. New Guy quickly hoisted her up on the platform. The lady with one leg was in the process of getting up, getting help from a puffy lipped hispanic chick, struggling due to her predicament. I hurried over as New Guy was buckling the kid up.

“You need to go down and help. We are eight in total. Five downstairs, but the damn things are breaking in,” the maimed lady said in a slight foreign accent. I nodded, handing her to New Guy.

“On me,” I yelled, rushing to the door.

Down the small corridor, we saw a brown-haired boy in his late teens and an lady in her thirties, also a brunette. The two of them held a stairwell door, fighting to hold it shut. The boy turned as he heard us, and I saw his glittering blue eyes go from desperation to a sheen of hope. I was that hope that gave this late-teen such a turn of perseverance.

“Hey! Could you guys–” the door blew open as the boy and the woman lost their battle.

Floyd and I gunned down the first ten immediate infected, creating a blockade in the door. Enough for the two to come run over

“Where's the rest?” Floyd asked, as I felt myself almost speechless. Floyd shot a few more trying to fight their way through the heap of rotting corpses.

“Downstairs. You guys got a helicopter? Could we sweep down and see if we can find them? I think they got out on the balconies.”

“Sure,” I stammered. “I-I'm Daphne, Corporal Daphne De Jesus, and this if PFC Floyd Young. We're here to–”

“Can we get going?” the boy asked. “Sorry to cut you off, but my friends, it's a matter of time I think. Two of them are soldiers too.”

“Absolutely,” I said, motioning them to take the lead back upstairs.

“Thanks,” the more mature lady said, with almost bluer eyes than her friend piercing right through me as she went past me. “Lauren, and this is Bran, my nephew.”

“Got it,” I quickly replied, turned and shot down three new infected and headed after them

As soon as we were back on the chopper Stemson took us down to the side of the building. We didn't have much hope for finding the remaining civilians, as these climbing bastards seemed to scale the walls with relative ease.

“They look like ants,” Floyd yelled.

“Or goblins,” Norton muttered, reloading his rifle yet again.

“There!” I yelled through the radio, as if Stemson could see where I was pointing. “6th floor southside!”

And there we saw two figures hacking and swinging. Most prominent was the tallest of the group. Straight out of a 70s or 80s action movie, with his big mustache, ponytail. Tall and handsome, though not my type. Not that that mattered. The other was a scrawnier kid, kinda nerdy. He had frameless glasses that were mucked with blood. He looked like the kid who had never seen violence, yet he was swinging for his dear life. Even if the big fella did most of the work.

But as Stemson lowered us towards them, one of the goblin ants reached the big guy, yanked his neck back and bared its teeth. Even from here we could see the gnarly crooked teeth of the ragged monster, and just as it was about to sink its teeth into the big man, Norton managed to give it a shot to the head.

“Here!” I called, reaching a hand. We were as close as possible, but the two people still needed to leap.

“DUCK!” Floyd yelled, and the two survivors did. Floyd proceeded to pepper the entire balcony with the mounted chopper gun.

The big guy grabbed hold of the scrawny nerd, his giant paws in the kids armpits, and with a loud grunt hoisted him up so I, with the assistance of the other kid we had rescued, could drag him onto the ship.

“ABE!” the nerd called. “He's in there!”

Lo and behold, we could hear someone calling from in there, as the big dude stepped on the railing, ready to jump, “Wait! Two seconds!” Oddly enough, the person called Abe didn't seem in a hurry, yet he called us to wait.

“They're coming up!” Norton yelled, pointing to the goblins on their way to scale up the building. And as Floyd surely had cleared the apartment, I saw that more poured in through the door.

“We can't wait!” I called back.

“Raul!” the nerd pleaded to the big man. But the big man looked over his shoulder, shook his head, before wrapping his big fingers around my hand, hoisting himself onto the helicopter. Whoever Abe was, he was too late, as the infected swarmed into the balcony, overtaking the apartment, thus rendering any rescue impossible. We had saved who we could, and we had to leave. And just in time too, as we saw the goblins try to leap toward the chopper.

“Heh, fucking idiots,” Norton snorted, seeing the goblin-ant-infected types fall to their demise.

After some brief introductions, I got to know some of the names. All of them, to be honest, as I was a bastard when it came to remembering names. Raul was the tall one. Peter was the nerd. Dr. Roxane Mallow the one-legged lady. Oliver was the handsome kid with the beautiful dreamy eyes. Apparently he had amputated Mallow's leg, but I hadn't had time to ask more of that. The other lady, also with blue eyes, was Lauren. The last two, Ana and Debbie, were fairly quiet, though I figured Debbie was none of these people's kid.

The reason why the introductions were brief, and that I didn't have more time to ask about that amputation, was because we had 'landed' an hour and a half south of the college town. Stemson had been short with his words, but basically I figured it had something to do with fuel. I knew we had wasted a lot by hovering the side like that, but surely not that much?

What was helpful was that the folks we rescued were armed. While I normally wouldn't rely on civilians out in the field, we were sitting ducks. Also, Raul was a former Marine, so the leap wasn't too far. And when I say armed, they had one Glock and one snubnose revolver, and some blades.

“Norton, New Guy, civilians, stay here. Floyd and I will check out that gas station over there. Don't want any fuckers run up on us,” I called out. “And Norton, Stemson, try to contact the base.”

“You got any idea where we're at?” Floyd muttered. “Stemson landed us pretty much in the middle of nowhere.”

“The mountains or hills to the east there… not that we can see them… Erh, and then fields…” I tried to scan the map I had been given, but it wasn't of the entire southern Indiana, and it mostly being fields and planes made it hard to navigate. “Elnora is south of here I think. But I'm guessing all its residents are either in Courtington, evacuated, or on their way here. So I suggest we clear this gas station and see if we can't get a pick-up or something.”

“There's a farmhouse and a barn back there too,” Floyd muttered.

“Maybe we should ask the others to help,” I suggested. Just the thought made me cringe, but honestly, we were a bit understaffed.

“We can't possibly–” he tried, but I shot in.

“That Raul guy is a vet. And that Oliver-guy–” This time Floyd interrupted me.

“Don't you 'that Oliver-guy' me. I saw the way you looked at him. Like a dog and juicy, meaty bone. Gawking at it, even with these biters right at our face.”

I wasn't one to blush, but now I did. My face turned beet red. “Shut the fuck up, private. Noise attracts those things.”

“Be glad I'm not Norton,” Floyd said, before indeed shutting up. A head had popped up from behind the counter. A former girl. And it jumped over the counter and sprinted out towards us, only the glass door blocked its path.

“They're not very smart, huh?” Floyd mused, drawing his knife.

Between all the three buildings, a doublewide trailer, and a few sheds we found a total of five infected. No behemoths, not fucking goblins. Just regular, plain old infected. We couldn't find those who might've been the owners. Except the clerk, perhaps. I mused if it had been the child of the farmers. Maybe they had fled, or become infected and wandered off.  Floyd wisely advised not to linger on it. Nothing good would come from contemplating the dead, especially if the recent times were any indicator of the oncoming currents.

Heading back to the helicopter, I quickly saw Oliver and Lauren helping the doctor change her bandages, Norton squinting out into nowhere. The others hovered around. You wouldn't think an apocalypse were upon us if you ignored the chopper. Stemson met us as we approached.

“Everything good, ma'am?” he asked.

“Yup. A few up there, but we took them out silently but it mostly looks abandoned,” I said.

“A truck and a few other vehicles are parked around back, I doubt if they're alive they'd get far without those?” Floyd said. “How's our ride coming along?”

“Good. We might have to hole up here for the night. The base is kinda maxed out at the moment with all the evacs and civilians. We're relatively safe where we are, so they won't send anyone until tomorrow for us.”

“Did you find out why we ran out of diesel so fast?” I asked.